There's more to life than hair

I like Aussie hair products. They're a bit more expensive that I would normally stretch to but they smell amazing and work really well so if they were on offer or just as a treat I'd often splash out. I also liked their tag-line: “There's more to life than hair but it's a good place to start”. Unlike other products they were admitting that shampoo wasn't the most important thing in the world. To use some wanky marketing speak Aussie was a brand I related to; their target audience seemed to be women like me- women who like to look nice but have more important things in their lives than just their appearance.

On the tube on Friday night though I noticed this advert and suddenly I no longer wanted to be the kind of woman who bought Aussie hair products. And it seemed obvious I wasn't the kind of person Aussie wanted buying their shampoo either. Beacause it seems Aussie don't credit their customers with much intelligence.

(Click the image to make it big enough to read)

Aussie don't expect much of the women who buy their products. These women don't care about history (BORING), they care about astrology- although the concept of how astrology is supposed to work is a bit beyond them (Capricorn, Pisces whatever, lets get DRUNK). It seems there is indeed more to life than hair- there is also being thin and wearing shoes you can't walk in- great, thanks Aussie (woo-hoo!)

I don't know about you but I can think of loads of other things a woman could use as an excuse to celebrate that isn't just she's starved herself to be socially acceptable.
How about:
A promotion at work
Being accepted onto the course you wanted to study
Clearing your inbox
A successful meeting
The return of your favourite TV Show (even if going out means you're going to have to record it anyway)

And those are just the generic ones. For me personally I'm much more likely to celebrate finishing a difficult crochet project, completing my 50 book challenge, walking the whole of the capital ring or making a really good tortilla. But as I said, I don't think I'm the kind of woman Aussie wants to appeal to.

Which is good because I don't think I'll be buying their products any more.

More blankets

The inside squares of this blanket are some of the first things I ever crocheted. The wool and hook were a gift my colleagues gave me for my birthday last year. Then when I went back to the shop I found out they'd run out of wool. First valuable crochet lesson learned: always keep the ball band. BuI found a way to use them anyway and although if you look hard you can see the mistakes I think it looks ok.



I connected the squares using a new technique to me (details here, via Maddy at Stitch Balham) I'm not sure it works, especially with the bigger squares but I was far too lazy to unpick and it's growing on me. Next time though back to the single crochet unless anyone has any other good suggestions.



Not sure what to do with the blanket now though- I was using it as a table cloth but my flat is starting to look a little too "crazy crochet lady". I guess the next person to have a baby gets it.

A Poem For Other Lizzie, My Sometime Sister

We reflect each other
Crafted by the same matriach,
Sharing the same touchstones:
Norwich spires and waterfront
Two sides of the same triangle.

But in each other we see more than a reflection,
See in each other our deficiencies made ample:
The confidence
The figure
The order
We each lack.

And even though the mirror's cracked,
It's hard to reach through.
I can't make you whole-
You can't make me shine

But together we can be strong.

Apples

Maddy at Stitch Balham sent me the link to this video. I love it and fell in love with the little apple in its jacket.



I saw they were being sold on etsy so assumed a pattern wouldn't be available and made one myself. Then I discovered that the pattern could be found on the Molly Makes website and made a proper one. I need to buy more buttons and sizing isn't quite perfect yet but here are my apples in there jackets. I appreciate this is somewhat ridiculous but still so darn cute!

Dinosaurs and evolution and religion and cake

Yesterday Emerson and I went to see the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace. As is often the way I ranted at him about a lot of things and he listened and made excellent and constructive comments and agreed with me, humoured me and challenged me. I had been all a bit grumpy that morning and it was exactly what I needed. Coincidentally that morning I had been looking at various things about evolution. Firstly this via Ben Goldacre about Miss America.



The fact this is even asked as a question bothers me. Now I don't understand science. I don't understand how things work, and I have yet to meet a person who can explain to be how we know a lightbulb gives out light rather than sucks in dark. But I love that there are people out there who do understand science. Things I don't remotely understand have put people on the moon, allowed a magnetic strip to pay for my shopping and mean that anyone with an internet connection can read my ramblings. Although it's still important to try understand and also continue to be inquisitive and questioning I remain very ignorant. But I know that the world I live in today is only possible because the scientific establishment has made it so. And if I trust science enough to fly in a plane without it falling from the sky I'm going to have to say yes to Evolution. Next year maybe they can ask Miss USA if germ theory should be taught or it should be replaced by the idea that disease is a punishment from God?

And talking of germ theory, have you been to see Dirt at the Wellcome Collection? No? Then you should. And afterwards I can bore you at length about it's implication on religion :-)

Continuing along the science and evolution theme I read this yesterday. A scientist's response to a little girl who has been brainwashed into creationism. It's beautiful and I love the part about good and bad questions.

"You already knew the answer to the "Were you there?" question, but you don't know the answer to the "How do you know that?" question. That means the person answering it will tell you something you don't know, and you will learn something new. And that is the coolest thing ever"

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That's something I want to do more of- ask questions where I genuinely don't know the answer.

After the dinosaurs we wandered around Crystal Palace and saw amazing veiws and bought second hand books and ate Brazilian cake and ranted about religion. I found myself, again, going on and on about how amazing the podcast of A History of the World in 100 Objects from the British Museum is. I'm only half way through and I'm a better person for it. And a global, millenia-long history of human society and belief has been very helpful for my poor little religion addled head. And simlarly to the science thing- I am so glad and so grateful to live in a world where intelligent people have learnt so much and recorded and shared so much.

And while I'm banging on about sharing and humanity and how glad I am to be alive, I went to see this last week. It was epic and beautiful. Go see it if you can.

With added cake

Secret Birthday Project

There haven't been any posts here lately for two reasons:

1. I've moved house and getting my internet connected was a ridiculously convoluted process involving having to register my address with Royal Mail
2. I haven't had much crochet to show as I spent a full month working on a top secret birthday project for my sister. Results are below