Category

To Read Over Coffee

29
Aug
2015

“But either way, I’m still brain-broken and sock-less.” – To Read Over Coffee #11

A collection of links from the past few weeks that I think are interesting/amusing/educational/insightful enough to read/watch/listen & think about over a cup of coffee.

to read over coffee and knitting

Making, Mending, Art & Clothing:

An interesting article on fixing modern electronics which, like fast fashion clothing, that aren’t built to last or be easy to fix.

30 Fair Trade Clothing Brands that are Betting Against Fast Fashion

A love letter to a body, and some awesome handmade lingerie:

“So I’m posting these pictures as a love letter to my body, in its current state, to remind myself that this body deserves something special. And I think yours does too, no matter what it looks like on the outside.”

Amanda Palmer on art, money, and motherhood.

General Humanity:

“…how important it is for us to know about things we don’t know about, and how much it hurts to know these things, and the desire to help and the desire to find the right ways, and the desire to always hold the full truth of knowing that places and people are complicated, and what we hear of them from afar is only one thread in a tapestry.”

This! In the weekly Chicken (check-in) from Havi at The Fluent Self.

From Time Money – What ended up happening to the money from the ALS ice bucket challenge.

And from Jezebel “What ‘The Hustle’ Looks Like on Etsy in 2015”

If you like Sci-Fi and Fantasy:

10 things you may not know about ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ – The Doctor being Doctor Who, of course

Wired had a good piece on who won the Hugo Awards this year, and why it all mattered. And the comments to “I WON 5 HUGO AWARDS. And we all lost.” on The Bloggess, could fill years worth of reading time.

In the realm of real books:

Josef Albert is still breaking my brain. And “Trigger Warning” from Neil Gaiman is scaring my socks off (or maybe just making them disappear into the night.) But either way, I’m still brain-broken and sock-less.

So, what did I miss?
Have you read anything interesting, amusing, educational, insightful, or generally worth sharing, recently?

22
Aug
2015

success, younger selves, fabric and clothing, oh my! – To Read Over Coffee #9

A collection of links from the past few weeks that I think are interesting/amusing/educational/insightful enough to read/watch/listen & think about over a cup of coffee.

to read over coffee

10 Slow and Difficult Steps to Moderate Success.
I love Alexandra’s writing, and especially love when she turns the ever “XYZ in 3 easy steps” listicle on it’s head.

How We Become Who We Are: Meghan Daum on Nostalgia, Aging, and Why We Romanticize Our Imperfect Younger Selves
Maria’s articles always manage to be timely and timeless at the same time – I stumbled over this post while reading something else on brain pickings, and particularly love Daum’s conversation between her Younger and Older Selves.

Amy over at Antemortem Arts wrote a really interesting piece about all the ways you can support her, and other independent artists working online.
There are the obvious ways to support – like buying & sharing art or prints – and then there are the less conventional ways like Patreon and Spoonflower.
Yep, Spoonflower. Gothy, black and white, abstract fabric prints? Yes, please! I never actually ordered from Spoonflower before, despite many almost purchases, and this might finally tempt me. They’ve certainly expanded their fabric offerings since the last time I looked.

Finally this isn’t so much something to read as something to wear, but it’s reading related (and awesome) so I figured it counts. Out Of Print Clothing sells T-shirts and accessories with prints of old book covers. They’re often out of print and always fascinating.

And in the realm of “real books”…
I finished Amy Pohler’s Yes Please (still funny), and The Color of Nature by Pat Murphy and Paul Doherty (still stunningly beautiful). And I started Josef Albers’ Interaction of Color, which is mind bending.

15
Aug
2015

and in the realm of ‘real books’ – To Read Over Coffee #8

A collection of links from the past few weeks that I think are interesting/amusing/educational/insightful enough to read/watch/listen & think about over a cup of coffee.

sweater knitting with coffee

“Making it work as a designer: Releasing Free Patterns”
The topic of free patterns & content is pretty damn divisive among knitwear designers (and “content creators” in general). Kat Goldin at Slugs on the Refrigerator (awesome blog name) wrote an excellent piece about how free content (when done well) can provide tremendous amounts of value to readers and (when used smartly) can in fact be beneficial for creators. Yay smart win-wins!!

“Reading for pleasure builds empathy and improves wellbeing, research from The Reading Agency finds”
More excuses to read? Yes please.

“Why the end of trends is great for ethical fashion and terrible for fast fashion”
Not the best written article, but yay for ethical fashion.

On Mashable “Black Armor: some black American men are dressing up to deflect negative attention, as a conscious means of survival.”

“‘The way you dress has never completely protected African Americans,’ echoes Warren. ‘But that doesn’t mean that black men still don’t effectively use fashion in a strategic manner. I personally have realized that your fashion could determine your life chances.'”

 

And in the realm of “real books”…
I listened to Tina Fey’s Bossypants, Felicia Day’s You’re Never Weird On The Internet (Almost), and got halfway through Amy Pohler’s Yes Please – all of which are wonderful. (I ran away to Maine for a couple days, which meant there was a lot of travel time, perfect for funny books by smart women).

I’m also partway through The Color of Nature by Pat Murphy and Paul Doherty, which is a beautiful book about the physics behind color in nature.