Dog 'stache!
One of the nurses my mom works with made a custom order! I got to paint a horse for the first time and I'm actually pretty proud of the way it turned out. Especially considering that the space I had to work with is pretty small and the brush I had to use was NOT the one I would have preferred. I'll snap some pictures before I send it out tomorrow! It's going to be a Christmas present for a 6 year old. I hope she'll love it.
I've got a gallon resin coming in the mail on Thursday! That's pretty freaking sweet. Also my mother is sending me a whole box of yarn, my ski boots, and some cash to do my Christmas shopping with. I'm so grateful I have a family that helps and cares. This might seem a little weird but I really appreciate that my mother is perfectly OK with giving me money to buy her a Christmas present. I do hope that this is the last year I'll have to spend someone else's money for Christmas. It means a lot that she understand how tight money is, but that I still want to give presents. I just wish I had enough yarn to make everyone in my family hats or something. I need to buy something for my friend who's coming to visit right after Christmas! I want to get her something that really reminds me of her. I'll do some looking as soon as I have a little $$.
Jon has asked me not to bake anything for a bit. He doesn't like having tempting yummies around the house all the time and I understand why. He lost 100lbs in a year and he doesn't want the temptation of cupcakes and brownies all the time. So I'm gonna cool it with the sweets. I should make some bread or something instead! I'll go back to baking sweets when my friend is here and we can pig out on cupcakes!
A pretty serious bitchfest follows so I want to keep that a little more optional...
I want to talk a little about disappointment. It's come to my attention that a certain indie mineral makeup company is repackaging wholesale mineral eyeshadow and marking up the price by about $160 per oz. Now this isn't exactly a new practice. Lots and lots of products are just repackaged wholesale with a fancy label and a luxury brand name. Markups are also normal. What I'm upset about is the lies. I'm so disappointed to see that someone I looked up to is such a fake. She's a greedy girl with a bad attitude and a lust for attention that I can hardly believe. I knew she had a number of failed projects (clothing line, albums) but I didn't know part of the reason those projects failed was her attitude. She seems to feel very entitled to fame and fortune. People who feel entitled to certain things usually don't deserve them at all. That never sits well with me but that's probably because I'm kinda poor XD. She seems to feel (and this is purely speculation based on other people's experiences) like the world owes her fame, like she was destined to be the best thing since sliced bread. I don't care if you're "famous". I get annoyed if you let it go to your head. There were things about this girl that bothered me a bit, like how all her advertising uses her own face, but I let them slide because everyone has faults. But...
When you start lying to the people who put money in your pocket, especially when you claim to be a revolutionary, DIY, indie startup company, you get on my nerves. We all sort of expect to be let down by big companies. We know that they want our money and are willing to get it through all kinds of questionable actions and policies. But when you buy indie there's this idea that you're helping out the community. You feel like you've given your money to a person who is working hard to make it on their own. You expect high quality and I don't think I'm the only one who expects most of that money to be put back in the company. When you find out that your money (and luckily I never gave this girl a penny, just a lot of admiration and respect) is going to a con artist you feel like crap. I feel like I've been swindled and I never bought anything from this woman.
And here lies the biggest caveat of the internet. No one is who they say they are. Some of us are but even then, we're all guilty of a bit of reinvention on the internet. We can idealize ourselves here because WE decided what parts of us the world can see. I'm certainly guilty of photoshopping out zits and other small imperfections. I reread all my blog posts before I publish them to make sure I'm not doing myself a disservice by saying something stupid or ugly. That's nothing new and I don't feel bad about it. There are things that cross the line. If I were to buy my pendants from someone else, not alter them in ANY WAY and resell them for 4000% more that would be copyright infringement and fraud. It would be despicable. Greedy.
I don't care if you repackage shit, I just don't want to hear about how you invented the whole thing yourself in your freaking kitchen. That's not cool. My intelligence is insulted. I've waisted my time on someone who doesn't deserve it and I feel cold and used.
The other thing that gets to me is the censorship this woman is indulging in. I'm an artist so censorship has always been a peeve of mine. Censorship is a heavy topic in the art world. It's never OK. Not ever. I might not like all the opinions out there but I believe everyone has a right to feel however they feel. It might disgust me, I might think you're a horrible person for your opinion but that doesn't change the fact that I have no right to take it away from you. You CANNOT tell someone to remove an opinion (especially from the internet. It's been proven time and again that you can't police the internet, at least not for very long) just because you don't like it. Don't get me wrong, if someone commented on my blog saying that I was an ugly bitch I would remove it. That's because this is MY blog and I'm allowed to remove offensive and hurtful comments. However, if a website I have no affiliation with and no control over wants to tell anyone who will listen that I'm an ugly bitch than WTF can I do but laugh about it and move on? Nothing. Especially if I AM an ugly bitch! (I'm not calling this girl ugly or a bitch.) Slander is a whole different thing, that's a legal issue... But people are not SLANDERING this girl. They're posting opinions about her makeup and saying they don't enjoy it. She is then threatening to SUE them. Really? Seriously? That's how you deal with dissatisfied customers? Your makeup line is likely to crash just like your other endeavors if that's how you handle customer service.
I guess what I'm getting at is I feel like an ass for believing in and admiring an ass. I think I'm more upset with myself for being taken in by the image than I am over the image being false. Even if none of the accusations about repackaging are true there's still the issues of greed, serious fame and attention seeking, and a willingness to do anything for said attention and money. Oh internet, you do tend to bring out the worst in people.
I REALLY needed to get that out. I think my boyfriend is tired of my ranting on this subject. Hopefully that'll get the bad stuff out and I can focus on doing this whole indie business thing the honest way. :D If anyone makes it all the way down here, BRAVO TO YOU! You are very tolerant of bitchiness and I commend you for that. Wanna be friends?
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