You know what, since I'm thinking about it anyways, let's talk formalwear accessories. Most of these are traditionally menswear but a bit of gender fuckery is good for the soul, and frankly most of these are about making your mass-produced clothing fit and lay properly without having to go to the tailor.
Shirt stays: these go around your thighs to hold your shirt down, so that it stays smooth and tucked in. They're usually elastic, with 1-3 clips, and if you wear skirts frequently this is a GREAT way to make sure your top doesn't ride up. The clips will be visible if you're wearing something tight, so loose pants or skirts are where these do best. There's also an insane version that clips to your socks, but that is for lunatics. If you wanted, you could also use one of these clips to hold up thigh-highs.
These do a great job of smoothing and narrowing the waist area by keeping your shirt from bunching there.
Sleeve garters: usually metal, leather, elastic, or silk. These are usually worn with button-down shirts to adjust where your cuff falls on the wrist or hand. They're properly worn on the upper arm, and you pull the fabric of the sleeve above the garter until you cuff is where you want it. Because this creates a puff of sleeve at the bicep, it also broadens the appearance of the shoulders. It's great if you're working with your hands or if your sleeves are often too long for your preference.
Waistband clip or belt adjustment clip/buttons
Three different ways of tightening the waistband of a pair of pants or a skirt. You're not going to get more than an inch or so tighter without weird bunching, and for most of these you'd want them to be hidden under a shirt or jacket, but they do the job if that's something you're having issues with.
Collar pins: There are so many fun ones out there, both with and without chains. They're not terribly practical, though the slight weight may help keep your collar where you want it. Also consider collar tips, which pin (surprise) to the very tips of your collar points.
Sweater clips/guards: meant to hold your sweater or cardigan mostly closed. Great if your cardigan doesn't button, or if you don't like it to be buttoned all the way.
There's tons of other stuff out there like this--etsy is a great place to find this stuff. A lot of these are old solutions to the very modern problem of mass-maufactured clothes not being as one-size-fits-all as advertised, but they're also a fun way to put a bit of personality into businesswear.
Fun ADHD hack is that you're allowed to just go to the library and reserve a study room for a couple of hours and make all your phone calls or whatever adult shit you need to do but can't because your house is for House Stuff and for some reason your brain has designated "phone calls for doctors and other such things" as School Adjacent and therefore refuses to do it in an insufficently academic environment. Like it's free. You can just do that.
Song, Allen Ginsberg
I found a guide for a no tape, easy to unwrap wrapping tutorial to make Christmas a little more accessible, wish I just found it sooner
“Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And it is true that in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, ‘What do I care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now.’ Yes, evil often seems to surpass good. But then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes at last an end to the bitter frosts. One morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. And so I must still have hope.”
— Vincent Van Gogh
i think it’s really important for everyone to have high standards in love. then, it’s important for people to start treating themselves the way they expect from a loved one.
learn to write long reassuring passages for your own self when you feel low. likewise, make a make a cup of herbal tea and make a playlist for your own self. take pictures of you smiling under the sunshine and post that appreciation post for your own self. watch the movies that you would make your loved ones watch and cook your favourite meal for the movie. tuck yourself in bed with a cozy blanket and turn those fairly lights on for your own self. buy flowers and buy tiny little gifts. take yourself out to a cozy places and write poetries about you being in love with yourself despite the struggles. tell yourself that you still love yourself when you’re breaking down and your mascara has spread beneath your eyes because of the tears. tell yourself you’re in love with the mess because you’ve also always loved the best.
learn to be in love with yourself the way you romanticise someone else doing it for you because at the end, it’s you who will complete you.
-nishtha.
I'm not ready for a relationship. I need this time alone.
But I long for letters. For discussions about books. Museum visits and afternoons spent in bookshops
For cups of tea and hot chocolate while curled up watching the rain.
For silence, and stillness and holding in front of a fire. The fire wood that we chopped.
Learning and building together.
I want someone capable. Someone calm and strong. Someone caring and kind.
I long for someone that can quiet my mind.
Someone that can keep up with me. That challenges me. That can hold space for me.
I long for someone that will love me for all the wildness of my soul.
Someone not scared by all I have to give.
With him I won't need to be small and tame
All the torso animated studies.
The word garbage sounds like it should mean clothing
I wish it was easier to talk about mobile phone addiction without sounding like a boomer
I went for a walk in a privately owned forest today and realized that forests and groves in Scandinavia are symbolic of how our society works.
When I try to explain to foreigners that our society is part capitalist and part socialist they don’t get it because in their eyes the two shall never meet but I don’t think it’s that hard to understand.
Thanks to capitalism you can amass wealth and own fancy cars and a mansion with a forest but you can’t get as wealthy as in other countries like China or the US because the richer you get the more taxes you have to pay so thanks to socialism Scandinavians can’t be as poor as people in those other countries either.
I grew up poor by Danish standards but that just meant I couldn’t have fancy clothes or go on vacations and I have many memories of sitting with my little fingers on the radiator during winter because I was cold and my parents couldn’t afford to turn up the heat but I never went hungry or with holes in my shoes. I didn’t even understand that I grew up poor until I was an adult and compared childhood memories with my friends. The only people I’ve met who were poorer than me were those who had a serious drug or alcohol addiction.
And that’s why forest and groves are symbolic of that. You can be rich and own a forest but thanks to Scandinavian Right to Roam laws you have to share your forest with the public because land is wealth and you can’t hoard it like an old dragon.