Fat Princesses

So I have been meaning to post this for a long long time now. These pictures aren’t the best but they are all I have of this!

 

Seriously, painting these was like the bane of my existence! It all started in Fall of 2011… I was in my Painting II class and had no idea what I wanted to do for my project (as a second level you basically can choose what you want to paint and do not have to follow the class)… I took me almost a whole month to decide what I wanted to do. I had been going back and forth, but I had really wanted to do something with body image but just didn’t know what. So I thought about it and wanted to paint fat disney princesses, and I knew from the start one of my points was that they would be happy and just like the normally are- only fat too! Because during my research I found other art that had fat disney princesses, but I just hated how they looked miserable… I wanted them to be happy in their bodies! Although I wish I had made one or two of the princesses a bit fatter/different shaped- I did give most of them a more ‘small boobs bigger everything else’ because I personally have larger thighs than boobs and I like to see that represented more often. But now I wish I had been a bit more reflective of the reality of different shapes and different kinds of fatness for different women. I was also adamant with my professor that this was not meant to be a statement about how our country is getting fat- NOT THE POINT OF THESE PAINTING!…  I wish I still had my artist statement or something, scratch that! I found it!

So yeah… That was my statement, which was basically taking ‘Being fat is okay even though the media makes us think otherwise!’ and making it sound prettier and more intellectual. So yeah, here are some more pictures of the paintings I did.

Jasmine was the first princess I painted. The way the process worked was that I found coloring book images of the princess and used a lightbox to trace them (Originally I was just drawing them in my own style, but my professor and I talked and he said that they would be more effective using known images that are instantly recognizable, and I saw this point) and then I altered them to make them fat. So I had to do that for all 6 princesses first. Next I gessoed all 6 of my giant pieces of paper. Then I had to scan all of my drawing into the computer, and I went to another room that had a projector screen and used that to enlarge my sketches and project them onto a white board where I had taped my gessoed paper too (as you can tell from the pictures with me standing next to them- they are sized up quite a lot from a tiny coloring book image!)

So there was a ton of work just getting to the stage that I could even start painting! After I had gotten my sketches onto to paper, I then started mixing my paint (which was also a time consuming event in and of itself! Getting the right colors took a lot of time and a lot of paint!) and painting! I first painted in the princesses with the known colors of their clothes and hair. With their skin tone I tried to be a bit more accurate with the non-white characters… They get white washed so often it’s ridiculous! And then I had to paint the background space… Which was also a pain! I wanted to use complimentary colors that just went together, and not use the same background color twice. And it sucked if I ran out of that color because if i mixed it myself it was almost impossible to get it again (as is what happened with Snow White and that green background… took me FOREVER to get it right, and then I ran out!). And then the final step I used black India ink to do the outlines (I tried using black paint, and that just did not work, so I had used India ink in my Principles class, and thought I could just try that, and it worked soooo much better and easier!).

Belle…. I felt kinda ‘meh’ about her.

Snow White. This picture does not really do her justice… I think she may have been one of my favorites in the end- I just loved her coloring and her pose and just the look of this one. It was very pop-art-y and I like that.

Cinderella… I hated this one. So much so that after the class I tore it up and threw it away… She also just didn’t fit well, and also was out because she was the only princess not holding an object… After picking my images I noticed that all of the princesses were holding something- flower or an animal… So it seemed to represent femininity in a way, although I did not explore that as much as I could have, but in the way that being female is so much tied up in how we are judged on our looks maybe?

Mulan. She was probably the most difficult one to draw! Damn crickie! But I loved her background color- the salmony orange- I really liked it and I think her coloring went together really well.

Aurora… She was ‘meh’… Didn’t have too many feelings about her. I liked painting her gold crown and necklace, although you can’t really tell from this picture!

Ariel was probably my second favorite- the beautiful colors got me for her! And she just came out so nice!

So yeah…. Hell of a long ass process and a lot (A LOT) of work went into making these. I spent hours in the studio just trying to get everything done in time… Hence the pictures in the beginning of me shaking my fist at the paintings!

So I completed these by December ’11 and I did get an ‘A’ for that class and my professor really was proud of my work and what I was doing with my art, and that I could take it a step further… Although sometimes I don’t think he understood my fat acceptance mindset… It was a very happy moment being told that though, I really think of that talk fondly… I wish I was still working like this…

But yeah… I just wanted to share with everyone! I wish I had clearer pictures but not much to do about it now… I am honestly not even sure where I put the originals (besides throwing away Cinderella!). I think I had them rolled up and rubber banded somewhere at home, but I am really not sure… Maybe I’ll find them one day, flatten them out, and take better pictures… Who knows! But now I release these images to the world, although I may regret it one day because people are idiots… But oh well! Hopefully they affect someone positively and spread the message I intend for them to spread.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

**Update 12/9/14** Two years later and still making these cookies on my own ❤ Made another batch today! I am, however, staying away from the artificial dyes nowadays- even though they look pretty… I am also planning on only using ‘Sugar in the Raw’ sugar to sprinkle on the cookies now that I have used up the rest of my colored sugar. They still taste as good as ever and really remind me of home.

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Well, not really… But it is the most wonderful time for making cookies! Yesterday since I was off work and had been feeling kind of bummy, the beau and I decided to bake cookies! In my family every year during Christmas we bake a bunch of delicious Butter Cookies! We have always done this ever since I can remember. I love making these cookies and they taste delicious!

So here is our family’s recipe!

Butter Cookies

Mix 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp. Baking Powder, and 1/2 tsp. of Salt, set aside. In another bowl blend 1 cup of Butter, 3/4 cup of Sugar, Stir in 1 Egg, 2 Tbsp. Milk and 1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
Blend in dry ingredients.
Chill dough for 1 hour. Roll on floured surface. Use cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar. Heat oven to 400 degrees and bake 5-8 minutes!

Getting our supplies!

These cookies really aren’t that difficult to make, they just leave a bit of a mess for cleanup… But personally I think they are worth it. All the pictures I took were of the second part of the process, not the making the dough part. My biggest issue with making these is that when I make the dough I don’t always let the butter get soft before attempting to blend everything, sooooo sometimes it gets a bit chunkier than I like, but that’s my own fault! Let the butter sit out a bit to soften before making the dough!

I knead the dough out first just with my hands and only use the roller to make it smooth- using the roller is a bit more trouble than it’s worth if you use it to do all the work.

They look so pretty!

Awww ❤

We kind of made Easter colored cookies since these were the only colors we had (I didn’t think to look for more to buy!)… But it was okay. They all end up looking the same in your tummy anyway! I put the sugar sprinkles into little bowls so I can use a spoon to sprinkle them over the cookies.

Like so!

Annabelle was watching us.

❤

Another fun twist to do with these cookies is to just put a few drops of food coloring in the dough to make different colored cookies! It takes a bit more effort since you have to constantly keep squishing the dough to mix the coloring thoroughly, but it does look neat in the end! It seems like you just have a Tye-dye look forever, but eventually it does become all one color… Although, it would also be a lot of fun to make Tye-dye cookies! Watch out- it does dye your hands a bit too!

I usually like to make green, yellow, and purple! Green makes great Christmas trees, while yellow is nice for moons and stars (or Pac Man, if you are my boyfriend!) and I just like purple… And using the red food coloring only really makes Pink, rather than a Christmas darker red. Obviously to make the purple just take some red and blue (I used a bit more red)… And for all of these it only takes like two or three drops to get the color. Just gotta keep kneading the dough and working the color through to get it all one color.

Boyfriend making PacMans!

I really like the little birdie cutter we found!

I started taking bits of purple dough and making little ornaments on the green trees- I wish I had thought of it sooner! And my mom would always put little bits of yellow sugar on the top of the trees to be like the star (although it made more sense with her cutters because the trees had a star shape at the top, unlike these!)

Woohoo! Final outcome! We also made some of those Pillsbury cookies with the trees on them just because I really like them lol. We have some lighter cookies and some crisper ones- I personally like my cookies soft and not crunchy at all- and they also tend to err on the thick side, while my boyfriend is the opposite. So we each made them they way we liked!

Oh! One more thing- don’t forget to put a piece of bread in the container you store them in! Keeps them fresh for a lot longer! I remember being a kid and being confused by finding bread in the cookie tin- but it definitely helps!

They came out so pretty and are very colorful! I hope his family likes them when we take them to Holiday get togethers!

All in all we basically spent the whole after noon making all these cookies. We made a double batch of dough though, so I guess it is a lot of cookies! But it was really nice and I had a great time… It definitely made me feel better.

And if anyone tries these out let me know what you think! Personally I love these cookies- probably because I grew up with them, but no other Christmas cookies ever tasted as good to me!

Also- if I do not post anything before the holidays, Happy Holidays 🙂 Although I personally am not religious, I do really love participating in the traditions of the season (minus rampant consumerism of course)… Although my first year sending out Holiday Cards hasn’t gone so well- my friends are all probably going to get theirs a bit late! 🙂

Lunapads

Well it’s that time of the month again, and I decided I really wanted to make a blog post where I blather on about how great Lunapads are- Seriously, they are amazing. I love my reusable pads- I’m sure a few years ago I would’ve been grossed out by the thought, but now I am never going back to disposable products.

It boggles my mind when I think about how much waste disposable products put in landfills (not to mention how much money is wasted buying them!).. As well as being ab it scary to think about what chemicals are in those ‘sanitary’ pads. So my boyfriend bought me my first Lunapad for my birthday last year (how awesome is he? He also got me a plushie uterus! Hard to top that!) and I haven’t turned back since. If you need any more reasons to switch to reusable menstrual products, check out the Lunapad’s website.

But I just want to talk about how I deal with my period. Although, honestly, once I started using these pads it really stopped being such a horrible few days. I mean, cramps still suck pretty bad, but otherwise it definitely feels like a much more positive experience.

My pad storage box! As you can see from the pictures above I have 6 pads total (3 Long & 3 Overnight) in a whole array of cute fabrics- yet another reason these pads are so much better than disposables- as well as a bunch of liners. So, once mother nature comes a callin’, I just pull out my storage box from my closet and I’m all set! No more running to the drugstore to buy pads. It is amazing how much money they cost when you add it up year round!

Here are all the liners. So each day after I take my shower I put on a fresh pad on my undies, and then put a liner on it (there are little bands that hold the liner in). And then I usually change the liner about 3 times a day, and just repeat every day of my period! When I change them I just take the old liner and rinse it out in the sink quick, then throw it in my little mesh laundry bag that I have specially for my pads/liners. Then I’ll just throw them all in the wash- that’s all there is to it!

I also have a Moonpad Bag (the super cute owl bag!) which has two zippered compartments- so when I am at school or away for some time I can put clean pads in one compartment, and then put my used ones in the other. It’s super discreet too- like before using these I would be freaked out that someone could hear me opening a pad- they make so much freaking noise!- although that was rather silly of me to be worried about. And I also have two other bags to use if I have a longer trip. When I was in New York City for half a week for a school trip I just used my bags and everything was fine- washed all ’em up when I got home! And even if you’re worried about someone seeing you wash them or something- they honestly just look like socks if you aren’t looking close enough.

The only real downside to these is that they are a bit on the pricey side. But to me it is worth it because they are not harming the environment at all, they make you feel better about your period, the are super easy and have cute patterns- not to mention they are incredibly comfortable. Cannot stress that enough! They make me feel more independent- I don’t have to rely on anything other than a washing machine. And honestly, over your life you spend so much buying disposables, might as well spend that much- or less, depending on how long the pads last you!- and feel more comfortable and do good for the earth. My pads are still going strong over the past year plus! So I would definitely recommend using reusable pads- and there are many other kinds out there other than Lunapads- it really made a big difference in my life.

(and if anyone has any questions- let me know!)