While chronic illness and complex medical conditions have been indisputably good practice for coping with uncertainty and restrictions during a pandemic, they have also had a significant downside, and that is: with medical offices and services shut down to restrict the spread of covid, our own medical conditions have become harder to manage. My diabetesContinue reading “reparative reading, Funny Weather and a very hard year”
Author Archives: Andrea McDowell
love
Would you believe that this is the first thing I’ve embroidered for myself, for my own room, ever? I started it last January or February, and got about 1/3-1/2 of the way done in a year, and then the pandemic hit. Every night I would stitch for an hour, and count little colourful squares toContinue reading “love”
#SolidarityChic, plus #SewcialDistancing
Dear Readers, here is the Prime Minister of Canada during a recent physically distanced question period: Please take note, if you will, of our fearless leader’s very noticeable lack of a recent haircut. You’ve already noticed the lack of recent haircut. Maybe you read an article on his lack of recent haircut. Maybe you sawContinue reading “#SolidarityChic, plus #SewcialDistancing”
Welcome to the Anti-Racism Movement (reblog)
Entire libraries are filled with scholarship and wisdom about anti-black racism. Consulting companies exist to educate white people about anti-black racism. Free online anti-racism training is widely available and easily searchable. Poets, novelists, dancers, composers, film-makers, singers, bands, have devoted their careers to creating art that explores anti-black racism. I have nothing new to add.Continue reading “Welcome to the Anti-Racism Movement (reblog)”
So. Uh. Have any of you found yourselves sewing through your fabric stash a bit faster than you’d anticipated when making your New Year’s Resolutions? Oh, not asking for any particular reason–just–you know. Around the time I published that last post, I stopped looking at my closet full of fabric as an Embarrassing Monument toContinue reading
Covid Comfort
Last Update: April 1 There’s almost 70 stories here now of people acting from their best selves, and my sense is most people have found the thing they’re going to do, whether it’s organizing virtual dinner parties or finding ways to express care during isolation and quarantine or thanking front-line workers or supporting their communityContinue reading “Covid Comfort”
Never argue with a conspiracy theorist
You can’t work in the climate field without regularly talking to people who think organizing 99% of the world’s climatologists into a mass conspiracy of fake-consensus is no big deal. I can only assume that none of them have ever managed a project, or even tried to get a group of 12 people to agreeContinue reading “Never argue with a conspiracy theorist”
Why does it feel like 2020 is half over already?
Would you believe me if I said I’ve written two posts over the last few weeks, both of which were eaten by dying laptop batteries? (More to the point, I suppose: would you care?) I don’t know about you, but what with wildfires, earthquakes, volcanoes, impeachment trials, and something about the british monarchy, 2020 alreadyContinue reading “Why does it feel like 2020 is half over already?”
#SlowFashion2020: Create Your Own Sustainable Challenge — Frivolous At Last
Now here’s a sewing challenge I can get behind completely. But as someone who already almost never buys clothes, it was challenging to think of a pledge to make! Here’s what I’ll be working with: 1. I’m going to work on appreciating beautiful fabrics with my eyes instead of my wallet: just because it’s gorgeousContinue reading “#SlowFashion2020: Create Your Own Sustainable Challenge — Frivolous At Last”
the dance party at the end of the universe
I have a hunch: a lot of people don’t join in collective climate actions (or other kinds) because it looks like work. And it’s advertised like work. You read things, you go somewhere to get more things to read like pamphlets and reports, you listen to very smart people talk about stuff that uses aContinue reading “the dance party at the end of the universe”
