DIY: "Beauty & The Beast" Stained Glass Rose

'Sup, fam?

I napped most of my weekend, which was aces, but I also had what we're gonna call an "ouchie" (technical term) in a sensitive spot. One might even say the MOST sensitive spot. So when I wasn't napping I was hobbling around the house clutching a heating pad to my nethers or lowering myself verrrrrry slowly into a recliner while glaring at John so he wouldn't laugh.

I bet you're thinking John was too sweet to laugh, aren't you?

WELL.

Saturday night he found me spread eagle on the couch wearing a hot pack like a diaper and there were straight-up GUFFAWS.

And now I will think for a moment on how to transition this intro into a craft tutorial for faux stained glass.

::thinks::

::thinks harder::

A-HA. 

 I've got it.

Ahem hem hem.

Hey, kids, you know what ELSE is a pain?

[...]

GLASS PANES.




 

So today we're going to turn a dollar store frame and some nail polish into this beauty:

::hums "Tale As Old As Time"::

Check out the sparkle:

OoooOOoooh.

I bet you've forgotten all about that mental image of me in a hot pack diaper now, haven't you?

Excellent.

SO... this is a perfect Craft Night project for small groups, though it will take you 2 nights, so you can let things dry.

First find a stained glass pattern you like, and print it to fit your fame. I'm using a 5X7 frame here:

I Swear This Is The Behavior Of A Rational Adult

My panic monster woke up from a long nap this week and decided to make up for lost time, so I've been doing a lot of pacing, breathing exercises, wiping my sweaty palms, and juggling. Like, actual juggling. With balls and everything. Although I drop them so much it'd be more accurate to call what I do "throwing balls at myself and missing." 

 Still, it helps.

You know what also helps?

NEW RAINBOW SHOES...

THAT LIGHT UP

Being short can be annoying sometimes, but having the small feet that go with it ROCKS.

Then I made them better with pink rainbow laces:

The tale would have ended there, except 10 days later the lights on one of my shoes went out. UNACCEPTABLE. I can't be flashy on only one side, it'll throw off my groove. So John exchanged the shoes. Except the new pair he brought home had dark mystery stains on them. I stared at them like this:

... and John sighed and went back to exchange the exchange.

At this point things get a little ridiculous.

Grown-Up Jewelry That Will Thrill Your Inner 4-Year-Old

Remember Toddler Grandma Style?

I don't hear it called that much anymore, but it's still an accurate descriptor of my fashion sense: basically a mashup of a rainbow-loving 4-year-old and a vintage-loving grandma. (Though lately I've skewed more towards the 4-year-old, ha.)

Lucky for us, Lenora Dame Studios lets us live our best Toddler Grandma life with her jewelry designs:

Dino-MIGHT

Obviously I'm all about the oranges, but that lower right is calling to me, too. Vintage beads & sparkly costume jewelry are my jam.

More dinos, because I love the fun color combos.

There is so much more where those came from, go browse her Etsy shop here.

*****

Lately I've been super smitten with acrylic jewelry - the brighter and bolder the better - and Rock The Panda Jewellery makes some of the best designs I've seen:

WANT

Isn't this incredible? I love how parts of the acrylic have a pearly finish.

Rock the Panda does limited releases, and their latest collection is all big cats:

"More Than A Body": The Book I'd Like Every Body To Read

Back in 2019 I published "No Pictures, Please: The Thing About My Face," and started a long overdue conversation here about self-hate. It was... eye-opening. No, it was more than that. It was a revelation. It turns out I wasn't alone, or even in the minority; it turns out most of us don't like the way we look, and our struggles range from nagging to life-destroying.

Since then I've been plugging away at my "Self-Hate Battle Plan", a 7-pronged approach I came up with to combat self-hate. My progress has ebbed and flowed, but slowly and surely, I'm both recognizing and knocking the teeth out of the lies I used to live by.

One of the best parts of my plan was following Beauty Redefined on Instagram, a non-profit run by two PhD-holders advocating "body image resilience." Unlike Body Positivity, which wants everyone to know their bodies are beautiful, Body Image Resilience wants everyone to know they are more than their bodies. It's a seemingly subtle shift that makes an enormous difference, and I've found this approach so much more meaningful than #BoPo alone.

Beauty Redefined is run by twin sisters Lindsay & Lexie Kite, and they recently published a book. This book:

More Than A Body: Your Body Is An Instrument, Not An Ornament

I've just finished reading it, and I have 5 pages of notes and THINGS TO SAY. :D

First, this book is not a page-turner. It won't make you laugh. It's not even very comforting at first. In fact if this is your first introduction to a Body Image Resilience approach then I'm willing to bet this book will make you mad, or at least want to argue. I know I did, back when I first started following Lindsay & Lexie on IG. They have controversial stances on everything from the "wellness" industry to dress codes to sharing before-and-after weight loss pics.

So why should you read a book that's probably going to tick you off?

Because this book offers hope. Not the short-term, quick-fix kind of hope promised by the latest miracle fad, but a lasting hope that shows us how to get off the merry-go-round of shame and self-hate.

Body Image Resilience breaks with just about everything we've ever learned about beauty and self-image, so I'm not about to cram it all into one blog post. That would be too much too fast. I've had two years to sit with my discomfort, to research, to wrestle and ruminate over what I believe and what I want to believe - and I'd like you to have the same option of a slower pace. So instead of cramming everything in, let me just share 2 of my favorite snippets: