Image Credit: Grandfather Clock by Ozzy Delaney (Flickr)
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. ~ Thomas A. Edison
At just over a week I feel like I'm eyeball deep in my Journalistic Masterpiece Kickstarter. The time has both flown & crawled by leaving me feeling a bit frantic. I'm feeling a good deal of pressure to perform, to make sure that I do everything I can to make it a success...
Barrier Breaking
Mars enters Sagittarius (1/26, 7:56 am EST). The Martian energy rides well in the fire sign Sagittarius! Here Mars is active & adventurous, ready to take on new things and break through barriers. No walls can hold Mars in this sign! It's important to take the time to stabilize this energy into something more than theory however.
Tirelessly Working
I've come to accept that this Kickstarter is going to demand a lot of attention. So I guess I might as well take advantage of my insomnia and do as much work as I can each day...
Wrapping Up
As I've been running the Kickstarter I have been focusing on finishing off any projects that I meant to get to earlier. This past week I finished Princess Jasmine and I have to say she might be my favorite one so far!
I've since started working on Pocahontas whom I have mixed feelings about. For one there is no such thing as an "Indian princess". So the fact that she was included in a "princess kit" is more than a bit annoying. That being said, I do at least appreciate another non-white heroine being represented (even though it could have be done better.)
As I've put in the time to set up most of the marketing I'll be doing for the Kickstarter my next step is to continue to make mock ups & prototypes that I can share them as project updates. I've got a 3 color & 4 color mock up each partially done, and I will move on to working on finishing the 5 color mock up this week.
Lastly, before I get into the thick of making the journals after getting funded I thought I would take up sock knitting finally with a friend. I bought My First Toe Up Socks by Susan B. Anderson on Craftsy in May 2017, but hadn't yet made an effort to take on trying socks again. (My first attempt was cuff down on aluminum needles and was less than pleasant to be creating given the fiddly-ness.) After I finish the class I'll be doing a formal review on the blog.
Matters of Color
As I've been coming along on these Disney princess dolls a final point I want to make about this project is the fact that the representation of non-white womxn* (*meaning woman, femme, female-identifying, AFAB, etc) is poorly demonstrated. Of the 12, only 4 are non-white. Tiana, Pocahontas, Jasmine, & Mulan; each one feeling like a rather token representation. It makes one think about what that is saying to our girls as they are raised to become womxn. That womxn of power exist in white spaces rather than everywhere, and that to be non-white and come forward as a womxn of importance has strings attached. You must be overworked & underappreciated (Tiana), follow the lead & be an accessory of a white man (Pocahontas**), have no will of your own, second to a man even below your station (Jasmine), & masquerade as something else in order to achieve greatness, only to be denied (Mulan**). **Mind you Mulan & Pocahontas are actually based upon real life womxn and their stories have more to them than was represented by Disney. Here I reference the Disney representation & the message it's sending.
Ending & Beginning
Given what I've been working on & talking about, it's no big surprise what this week's most popular post was this lovely!
Woo! I've made it one quarter of the way through my Journalistic Kickstarter Masterpiece! It seems like the time has flown by and I don't know what to do about that! Not that there is anything to do...c'est la vie! And hey, if you haven't gotten a chance to make sure you drop by the the campaign page, PLEDGE & SHARE! <3
In the comments below, share with me...
- What would you like to explore creatively?
- What are you making progress on this week?
- Do you consider representation in your daily interactions?
Thanks for tuning in to this week's "What's Up Wednesday?". Make sure you come back next week to see what's going on in my world! And if you haven't yet be sure to join my newsletter and connect with me on your favorite social media!
