So today I started researching fashion schools. It happened like this: I was reading my Vogue trying to have a nice relaxing day of being sick on the couch, and all I could think about was being one of the designers that I was seeing on the pages. I really wanted all those beautiful women to be wearing my clothes. Maybe every young girl had that dream at some point...but I guess it never left me. Partly because I still alter a LOT of my own clothes before wearing them or make nice things out of the horrible dresses that my mother likes to hand down to me, and partly because I've always been an artist in my soul. And that artist is screaming to be let out again.
The problem of course, with going to art school for fashion design, I've discovered, is that they don't have any sort of job placement service for after you graduate. You just go out and get a fashion job! lol. Well, if it were that easy, perhaps I'd already have done that? So instead of jumping straight into fashion design, maybe I'll finish the other degree I had already started...maybe even add some business classes to it. Me in business has a nice boring ring to it...haha! The other problem with art school is the looks I'd get from my overly judgmental family for getting a "worthless" art degree. But I can see their point...what does a girl who lives in the middle of nowhere in Nevada need a fashion degree for?
But there's always that little voice that says: maybe you could start a fashion scene around here once you start making designs that sell. But how does one become a Marc Jacobs or Ralph Lauren? The idea is you make clothes and then you sell them...but how do you get people to buy them? That's where I always hit a wall when it comes to thinking about starting my own business...where do I get patrons from? Does anybody know how this works?
At any rate tonight's wisdom for the modern woman is: though we may think we can do literally everything at once, all day long, maybe today is the day to rule out one more thing that we don't want to do...with our lives, or even just on our to-do list--even if we could do it.
10 November 2011
09 November 2011
Day 1
Welcome to my new blog. This will be a somewhat informative page about what it's like being a modern woman. I will be discussing all of the things I'm passionate about: life, wine, food, pastry, men, fashion and growing things. Welcome aboard...it may be a strange ride.
To me, a modern woman is a hard thing to describe because people expect us to be everything at once. In the 50's it was easy for a woman to know her role, but now the lines have become muddled. Now we're expected to have a full time career to help pay the bills, have great credit so we can buy a house or a car in our own name without anybody else's help, not need anybody else's help ever (except when we're "acting like a girl"--and then they can't believe we didn't ask for help), and maybe, just maybe, we're expected to not want a significant other in our lives. Because after all, if we don't need them, why should we want them?
However, we're also expected to come home from a hard day's work and (if we do have a male or kids in our life, or I guess it could just be a dependent female, but especially if there's children involved) clean the house, cook the dinner, wash the clothes, fold the clothes, put everybody else's clothes away--unless we want them on the floor next to the bed where they inevitably get washed again the next week because we don't know if they're clean or dirty a week later--and make everybody's lunches for the next day. Am I the only one in this house who knows how to make a sandwich and put a yogurt into a bag? Or cut a watermelon into small bite size chunks? Well, he can't have them in slices...his hands are dirty at work and he doesn't want to get junk on his fruit....gasp!
At any rate, the posts that follow will be about the struggles to maintain the balance of a modern woman's life...when we don't know what the rules (or roles) are anymore. In a world where we're expected to do the gardening, decorating, cooking, cleaning...but also the fixing of broken dishwashers and replacing garbage disposals, and hanging blinds, patching holes, and various other manual tasks that used to be reserved for the male role of the household. Sidenote: I'm going to say male role to include female and male domestic partners as well as straight men--because every relationship has different roles, and I don't intend on excluding any population.
Summation: This is a blog for working women (or people in a working woman's role) about working women; it's about bringing home the bacon, and then being expected to cook it too.
First day:
Tonight I would love to mention the wine I'm drinking right now: Opolo Vineyards, Mountain Zinfandel from Paso Robles, 2009. It is very delicious with hints of chocolate and spice, but very fruit forward. I wish I had made a chocolate creme brulee for dinner...but alas, life as a modern woman does not afford one the opportunity to always make a delicious dessert to go along with a dinner. It was hard enough to go to work this morning, a doctor's appointment this afternoon that lasted way longer than expected and still get home in time to make homemade beef stroganoff and artichokes with garlic aioli sauce before my guy arrived home. In truth, I made the garlic aioli very simply using store bought mayo, because I didn't have time to make it from scratch too, but I wanted something delicious to dip my artichoke leaves into that my boyfriend would eat. Being with me for over a year, and me being a chef, his tastes have gotten very picky lately and he won't eat plain mayo on his artichokes.
A Recipe for Garlic Aioli:
1 Cup Mayo (if you choose to make fresh mayo, I recommend Julia Child's recipe--so good!)
3 small garlic cloves
2 TB lemon juice
TT kosher salt and pepper (TT means to taste)
and then I also like to add
1 fresh cayenne (or 2 small thai) chili peppers with seeds--from my garden
a dash of dried or fresh basil (if fresh, 1-2 small leaves)
And then put it all into the food processor until the garlic cloves are chopped. Season to taste.
This recipe can be used for many things...drizzling it over steamed asparagus, dipping sauce for artichokes, spread for sandwiches...the possibilities are endless. Let me know how you like it...that is, if anybody ever reads this thing...haha!
What else to say on my first impression?
Ok, how about this. I read an article in a Vogue magazine recently--I have a subscription because I'm addicted to fashion in addition to my many other passions--that had a story about a girl who was struggling to figure out who she was, and I guess that's me too. At any rate, she got some advice from somebody along her journey that she was supposed to be a writer, and she realized that it took figuring out what she wasn't that ended up helping her figure out what/who she was. Because of that article I started figuring out who and what I was NOT...but I kept coming back to things that I might be: a writer, a chef, a sommelier, a vineyard owner. So I've been trying to explore those might be-s, and I realized something revolutionary: Nobody Has To Pay Me To Write For Me To BE A Writer. All I have to do is write. So there we go.
Now I AM a writer.
To me, a modern woman is a hard thing to describe because people expect us to be everything at once. In the 50's it was easy for a woman to know her role, but now the lines have become muddled. Now we're expected to have a full time career to help pay the bills, have great credit so we can buy a house or a car in our own name without anybody else's help, not need anybody else's help ever (except when we're "acting like a girl"--and then they can't believe we didn't ask for help), and maybe, just maybe, we're expected to not want a significant other in our lives. Because after all, if we don't need them, why should we want them?
However, we're also expected to come home from a hard day's work and (if we do have a male or kids in our life, or I guess it could just be a dependent female, but especially if there's children involved) clean the house, cook the dinner, wash the clothes, fold the clothes, put everybody else's clothes away--unless we want them on the floor next to the bed where they inevitably get washed again the next week because we don't know if they're clean or dirty a week later--and make everybody's lunches for the next day. Am I the only one in this house who knows how to make a sandwich and put a yogurt into a bag? Or cut a watermelon into small bite size chunks? Well, he can't have them in slices...his hands are dirty at work and he doesn't want to get junk on his fruit....gasp!
At any rate, the posts that follow will be about the struggles to maintain the balance of a modern woman's life...when we don't know what the rules (or roles) are anymore. In a world where we're expected to do the gardening, decorating, cooking, cleaning...but also the fixing of broken dishwashers and replacing garbage disposals, and hanging blinds, patching holes, and various other manual tasks that used to be reserved for the male role of the household. Sidenote: I'm going to say male role to include female and male domestic partners as well as straight men--because every relationship has different roles, and I don't intend on excluding any population.
Summation: This is a blog for working women (or people in a working woman's role) about working women; it's about bringing home the bacon, and then being expected to cook it too.
First day:
Tonight I would love to mention the wine I'm drinking right now: Opolo Vineyards, Mountain Zinfandel from Paso Robles, 2009. It is very delicious with hints of chocolate and spice, but very fruit forward. I wish I had made a chocolate creme brulee for dinner...but alas, life as a modern woman does not afford one the opportunity to always make a delicious dessert to go along with a dinner. It was hard enough to go to work this morning, a doctor's appointment this afternoon that lasted way longer than expected and still get home in time to make homemade beef stroganoff and artichokes with garlic aioli sauce before my guy arrived home. In truth, I made the garlic aioli very simply using store bought mayo, because I didn't have time to make it from scratch too, but I wanted something delicious to dip my artichoke leaves into that my boyfriend would eat. Being with me for over a year, and me being a chef, his tastes have gotten very picky lately and he won't eat plain mayo on his artichokes.
A Recipe for Garlic Aioli:
1 Cup Mayo (if you choose to make fresh mayo, I recommend Julia Child's recipe--so good!)
3 small garlic cloves
2 TB lemon juice
TT kosher salt and pepper (TT means to taste)
and then I also like to add
1 fresh cayenne (or 2 small thai) chili peppers with seeds--from my garden
a dash of dried or fresh basil (if fresh, 1-2 small leaves)
And then put it all into the food processor until the garlic cloves are chopped. Season to taste.
This recipe can be used for many things...drizzling it over steamed asparagus, dipping sauce for artichokes, spread for sandwiches...the possibilities are endless. Let me know how you like it...that is, if anybody ever reads this thing...haha!
What else to say on my first impression?
Ok, how about this. I read an article in a Vogue magazine recently--I have a subscription because I'm addicted to fashion in addition to my many other passions--that had a story about a girl who was struggling to figure out who she was, and I guess that's me too. At any rate, she got some advice from somebody along her journey that she was supposed to be a writer, and she realized that it took figuring out what she wasn't that ended up helping her figure out what/who she was. Because of that article I started figuring out who and what I was NOT...but I kept coming back to things that I might be: a writer, a chef, a sommelier, a vineyard owner. So I've been trying to explore those might be-s, and I realized something revolutionary: Nobody Has To Pay Me To Write For Me To BE A Writer. All I have to do is write. So there we go.
Now I AM a writer.
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