Fashioned By Jaye -- a little update

It's been about 4 months since I ended my occupation of 212 S Campbell, and while in some ways Fashioned By Jaye had a good run it's left me somewhat burned out (thus the lack of activity in 4 months). However, it's occurred to me (as I'm sitting here working on my tax return) that there are a lot of loose ends left to deal with and I haven't even posted an update on what's happening with the company.

In short, not a hell of a lot.

I'm not sure where I want to go with my little endeavor at this point, although I am sure I don't want to let it die. The absolute honest truth, though, is that FBJ turned into something that I didn't enjoy by the end of it. I made a lot of compromises to keep things running, and before long the person who ran the company and the person who created stuff under the FBJ label might have shared the same body but were two different people. The Jaye that many people met at the shop was a sanitized, artificial version of the real me, and it's not good when you don't feel able to be yourself in your own store.

It's not a huge leap from Business Owner Jaye to the regular version (sounds like I should be made into collectible dolls), it's just little things. Business Owner Jaye was so worried about paying bills that she was afraid to offend anyone. She didn't play the music that really inspires her in the shop because it wasn't radio friendly. She nodded and smiled when customers talked about controversial opinions with which she didn't agree because she didn't want them to feel uncomfortable about buying something from her. She referred to her girlfriend of almost six years as her roommate. She kept her personal life segregated from the business.

Bleh. Enough of that.

I started FBJ because I wanted to make a living making and selling my art. That's not what it became. At this point I'm not even all that concerned about the money part. I have a job I like, and my art doesn't need to be anything but a hobby. So if I'm going to keep FBJ alive as a means of creating and getting my creations the hell out of my studio where they're just going to collect dust, it needs to be an honest, enjoyable endeavor.

So...

What does that mean for FBJ? It will live on, but it won't necessarily be as warm and fuzzy. No promises about update frequency, amount of work produced, or content thereof. I will probably merge fashionedbyjaye.com, the long-neglected bits-of-paper.com, and my blog into one site. I might do more vlogs. I might do a lot of things. I'm just going to see what happens.

If you want to see what happens, too, stick around. Subscribe. I might send out newsletters. I might not.

I will be lending my magazine weaving abilities to the Black Owl Bread Company, which is the brainchild (ovenchild?) of a good friend of mine. She makes awesome bread, and you should order some. Seriously. It's fucking good.

Weight Loss Update -- One Week on SparkPeople.com

When I started trying to lose weight a few weeks ago, my only real intent was to lose as much as I could for the sorority convention, but I want more than that. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to NOT repeat my past dieting habits because they've ultimately led me to over 250 pounds. If I can lose ten pounds or twenty pounds, there's no reason I can't lose all of my excess weight, daunting a number as that may be.

So about a week ago I finally took the advice of a good friend who has lost over a hundred pounds. She should know how to do this, right? So I joined SparkPeople.com. I was slightly skeptical, and certainly not convinced I needed to get addicted to a new website, but it was a good way to get a NIN fan weight loss team going, and the more I poked around the better it looked.

My diet strategy immediately changed. It's amazing what a little food-tracking can do for your diet outlook. I've sort of tracked my intake before, but this is better. Counting points or carbs or whatnot is easy, but it also makes it easy to work around the system. You can't argue with straight up calorie and nutrient counts, and the only way to make it look better than it is in reality is to flat out lie.

I've learned quickly that it's pretty easy to blow through the allowance for the day, and that my instincts on what's going to be a good balance often aren't so great. Like last Friday, when I went WAY over on fat and under on carbs, even though I thought I'd done really good with my lunch salad and egg-and-toast dinner. But I totally blew my fat and calories by putting too much butter on the toast and the dinner roll that came with the salad, and by drinking full-fat chocolate milk at breakfast instead of skim. Three little changes, and I'd have been able to have a healthy, carb-rich snack after dinner and been in the right range on everything. Oops.

And I've learned not to let myself consume calories while distracted. Wednesday morning I mixed up a bottle full (3 cups) of cranberry juice from concentrate, but before I could pour out just one serving into a cup the phone rang, and while I was caught up in conversation with a friend I hadn't talked to in FOREVER I ended up sipping twice that much straight out of the bottle. My carb allowance was gone far too fast, and my snacks at the convenience store that night had to consist of 2 oz of beef jerky, 2 boiled eggs, and a protein drink just to bring everything else up into balance. 2 oz of beef jerky is a hell of a lot of beef jerky. Gah.

I've also realized that this myth I've believed about myself -- that the reason I don't lose weight is partly because I don't eat enough -- isn't true. At all. I've been consuming far too many calories for far too long. It's amazing how many calories are in most of the things I'm in the habit of eating.

Anyway, I guess the best part of SparkPeople.com is that if you actually use the resources there, it forces some honesty about exactly what you're doing to your body. And I'd say for most of us the honest truth isn't pretty.

Another blog that caught my fancy:

LIFE VEST
http://jeeinshin.blogspot.com/
Cool images, no excessive verbage (obviously not a standard I hold myself to, lolz), just nice and clean with fun, interesting stuff to look at.

I really do spend too much time on the internet

And yes, I almost typed "ninternet" out of habit.

I was just linked to an interesting little Twitter-related site by one of my Twitter buddies. Tweeps? Twitter bitches?

Whatever.

It's TweetStats. Here's mine: http://tweetstats.com/graphs/jayetheartist#tstats

Honestly, I'm not bothered at all by the number of monthly tweets, or the fact that I twitter most during the middle of the night. The thing that sticks out to me is on my Tweet Cloud, where you find out what word I use most often in my tweets.

lolz

*sigh* I've been brainwashed.

*facepalm*

You know, I really like the idea of Plinky, 'cause lord knows any blogs I've had in the past have suffered from lack of stuff to talk about. But some of these questions are seriously lame.

Like today's: "Engineers are getting closer to the dream of the flying car. How would you sell one of these if you were an auto dealer?"

Really?

Extremely wealthy guy walks into a dealership looking for a cool car to impress his friends with. There's fifty different models of your conventional "rolls on four wheels" car, and one that flies. And you think you're going to have to twist arms and threaten to break kneecaps to get him to spring for the flying model? Seriously?

*facepalm*

In other non-Plinky-inspired news, I've been looking around blogger for nifty blogs to subscribe to, partially for inspiration and entertainment of various varieties, and partially as a networking pursuit to drum up some interest in my own little blog.

I WANNA FEEL LOVED, PEOPLE! FOLLOW ME!!!!

/attention-whoring

My criteria are basically that it catches my fancy, looks like a blog that might survive through at least a month or two of updates before its owner loses interest and moves on, and uses Google Friend Connect so it's simple to become a follower. So far, I've found and followed the following blogs:

THE ARTIST BABES
http://artistbabes.blogspot.com/
It looks to be a nice little gathering of women who do artsy things, which is, of course, right down my alley. Plus, the pic in the newest entry (the nice detail shot of some gorgeous piece of fabric) is just awesome. They've got a good idea, too, with having several people contribute to the blog so it's less likely to get neglected when pesky real-life crap interrupts somebody's blogging groove.

TEA FOR JOY
http://teaforjoy.blogspot.com/
Slightly girlier than I usually get, but a nice mix of how-to, shopping finds, and cool links, none of which make me roll my eyes and want to barf. I believe I found this one through the "blogs of note" feature on Blogger, so she's already got over 400 followers, and my goal is partially to find blogs that aren't super popular yet. But still, there's a lot of cute stuff there.

SKRONKED
http://skronked.blogspot.com/
I'm not an avid fan of comics, but this, I believe, was one of the "blogs of note" at some point recently and I dig the drawings.

ROTTEN BANANAS
http://rottenbananasblog.blogspot.com/
Okay, anyone who knows me knows I'm really not the sort that has the free time for things like hosting dinner parties or worrying about bald spots in my lawn. In fact, if I didn't have somebody else around to take care of the lawn, I'd just cover the whole thing in gravel or pavement and be done with it. But something about this blog struck me as interesting, so I'm keepin' it on my list. I dig resourcefulness, and there's some cute ideas in there that I could actually take away -- like the drawstring laundry bags a few posts back. I just have a feeling that among all the tips and ideas that aren't useful for lives like mine, there will be some really nifty inspirational ones that I can actually use.

PHOEBE'S DAILY FEET
http://mydailyfeet.blogspot.com/
What's not to like about a blog consisting of nothing but artsy pictures of feet?

M E L . W O Y . P H O T O G R A P H Y
http://melwoyphoto.blogspot.com/
I'm an unapologetic omnivore and food mooch who rarely cooks, so the vegan cooking bits really aren't my thing, but there's just something about the blog that makes me think that this chick is pretty cool.

LEARNING TO LIVE LARGE AND SMALL
http://learningtolivelargeandsmall.blogspot.com/
A quaint little blog filled with crafting and travel and music and random musings from someone who I think is a lot like me if I were, you know, more toned down, feminine, and conventional (all of which are qualities I admire in others, so I'm not saying they're bad things).

THE PERFECT PRESCRIPTION
http://licardi.blogspot.com/
The dude that runs this must not be a man of many words, but the images that are there caught my attention, and sometimes that's all that matters.

I'd be more than happy for anyone who is actually reading this blog to send me links to blogs that might interest me, as long as there's an understanding that I just might not be interested, and there should be no resulting butthurt if I don't follow and link what you send me.

Also, I know I'm following the blogs of a few of my nin.com peeps, but haven't listed them here because I don't know how "public" they intend for those blogs to be. Let me know, guys, if you want me to help you spread the word (as if I've got a ton of readers to spread the word to. lolz).

Now, since the bottle of root beer I just opened decided to spew its contents all over my jeans despite the fact that the bottle hasn't been moved or jostled in any way for at least two hours, I'm going to wrap up this post and move on to other things. See, this is what I get for giving in and buying soda made with high-fructose corn syrup....

Introducing My Bimbos!

Kourtnie got me totally hooked on raising virtual Bimbos online. It sounds completely stupid, but there are two sites where you sign up for a "bimbo" that you then have to turn into a, well, really accomplished bimbo. She has to get a job and a boyfriend and an apartment, and then buy clothes, win challenges, regulate her weight, get plastic surgery, etc, etc, to level up.

The original site is all in French, but it's pretty easy to figure out, even if you have to rely on an online translator. (Hey, at least I'm using my French minor for something, right?) It's at www.ma-bimbo.com, and I think it's way better than its newer English knockoff. Less glitches, better clothes, better games, etc.

This is my French bimbo, CrazySheila. She's on Level 20. I just leveled her up today. It'll take me another month or more to reach Level 21 -- she needs to get about 50,000 more Bimbo Attitude points, and she only gets 1,320 of them a day from her boyfriend and apartment. But that's fine -- I need time to get money together for the dress she'll need to reach one of the next few levels, and it costs 20,000 Bimbo dollars.

I've had my French bimbo way longer than my English bimbo. Honestly, I like the look of the French ones better, anyway. When I first signed up on the English site, it was basically a mirror of the French one, but I guess copyright and such got in the way and they had to completely revamp it. So the English bimbos got a complete overhaul, and they're far more cartoony now. Cute in their own way, but not as sophisticated looking. The English site is at www.missbimbo.com.

This is my English bimbo, conveniently also named CrazySheila. (They're named after a song by Neurosonic, by the way. If you haven't heard of Neurosonic, I strongly suggest checking them out.)

She's only on Level 18, which she'll be on for a very long time. She's training to become a journalist, which will take 16 more days of training. She also needs about 50,000 more Bimbo Attitude points, but she only gets 990 points a day, so it'll probably be another two months before she levels up. But that's okay, since it'll give me time to get the money to buy the 17,000 Bimbo dollars' worth of items she needs to put together a really dumb looking outfit for the next level.

Yeah, I know all of this sounds too dumb to be fun, but it's surprisingly entertaining, and surprisingly not time-consuming. In fact, you can't really spend more than ten minutes or so a day on it before you run out of things to do with your bimbo.

If you're already playing on either site, feel free to add me as a friend.

I'm just a WHAT, bitch?

Kourtnie tells me today that at our family's weekly Saturday Chinese food thing, while talking about my great-niece-in-law's upcoming controversial nuptuals, that my oldest sister referred to said great-niece-in-law as "their Jeanette." Meaning, by inferrence, that I'm flighty, irresponsible, self-centered, and don't apologize for anything. Now, this all was said before I arrived, and evidently everyone at the table took offense in my place. Which, you know, I appreciate. Sure, I've made my share of mistakes in the past decade or so, but I've certainly apologized where apologies were due. And, okay, I'm the first to admit that I exhibit a little tendency towards narcisism, but the flighty thing is really offensive. Me, flighty? Um, I'm the least flighty person I know. Seriously. Okay, maybe not the LEAST flighty. Mom and Amy probably top that list. I'm just more decisive than they are, and I stand behind my decisions. Flighty? Not at all.

This, may I say, comes from a woman who, despite having two jobs that I'm sure each pay more than I made as an architectural project coordinator in Chicago, and yet is still in bankruptcy, has had her car reposessed, and lives in a farmhouse that's falling down on a farm that doesn't produce a damn thing. She had her paycheck siezed by the feds for back taxes last year, borrowed a nice chunk of change from Mom and Dad, and had yet to pay them back. Plus, she raised Mindy. It's not like she can't take just a little blame for how she turned out. And to compare me to a girl who dumped her fiance over the phone, dropped out of high school, and ran away with a 21-year-old deadbeat before she was even legal... Yeah, I'm offended. And that's not even the whole story. My sister and brother-in-law took her in when she was in elementary school because her mother wasn't able to take care of her. They gave her everything she didn't have before, even when they couldn't afford it. And what did she do? Made them pay for a whole shitload of clothes, an expensive set of senior pictures, a cell phone and the plan to go with it, and then a few weeks later just disappeared with the clothes and the phone and the truck she'd been allowed to drive and still expected them to pay for that stuff while she ran around with this loser she's going to marry. He, notably, didn't graduate from high school and can't hold down a decent job and has gotten her to give him money to support whatever habits he's got. And now she calls my parents saying she's going to marry this guy and asking Dad to perform the ceremony, as if there couldn't possibly be any objections to this wedding. Paula, of course, is mostly just mad because Mom told her in no uncertain terms that there was a good possibility Dad wouldn't want to do the wedding and that Mindy was certainly going to expect her foot the bill for the ceremony. Frankly, Kourtnie and I are far more deserving of my father presiding over our ceremony than Mindy and what's-his-face will ever be, and it's not something I'm even willing to ask him to do.

You know, maybe I really should have gotten my sister a Suze Orman book for Christmas like I half-joked about.