Fall Readz

Can't wait to get my hands on these!

Banner Time!

I've said it once, I'll say it again: I love fourfour and Rich Juzwiak. We here at JOP talk a lot about our banners and we try to keep them fresh (thanks mostly to Susan and Joe...I mean Paddles), and Rich's banners are just so inspirational. He recently posted all his banners ever, blowing my mind, and so here are some of my favorites.

By the way, Rich's posts are all over the place: super good movie reviews and mixes (follow the link above), ANTM recaps, and Pot Psychology, which I also love. Pot Psychology is not actually on fourfour but it's more than worth your time. Get ready to learn!

Gel from Heaven

Do you guys know what this stuff is? Seth Fisher generously brought me back 2 tubes from his trip to France earlier this year, and it's re-fueled an old addiction...an addiction that left me crying, by the side of the road, and 50 pounds heavier, once upon a time.

Just kidding, but it is hard to stop with this stuff once you get started. Picture this: vanilla, chestnuts, sugar, water. In a paste, but there's nothing to it so it looks like a gel. Stir it into your yogurt. Fill a crepe with it! Slather some on a cookie. Eat it from a spoon! Things get out of hand really easily!

I know it's a little early, but if anyone's wondering what to get me for Christmas, they're selling it on Amazon. Shipping is $5.00, so you might as well get 3 or 4 while you're at it. Just saying!

Halter Romper

Last weekend I found myself at American Apparel. Normally I think "how many different styles of t-shirts do I need" and get bored, when I saw this. It's kind of like the opposite of wholesomewear clothes! And it's new and reasonably priced! Something about this just seems comfortable and appealing. I could just lounge around in it! But would I honestly wear it out?? Maybe with leggings in the wintertime? It's so versatile.

Wholesome Wear!

If you're like me, you wonder where fundamentalists get their swimwear...I mean wholesome wear! The intro to this site, www.wholesomewear.com ("modest clothing for wearever"), says that their bathing suits "highlight the face, rather than the body"...which I seem to remember Jim Bob Duggar saying to explain his kids' bathing suits at a family picnic. I also seem to remember the Taliban.

Prices start at $71.00, which is competitive, I guess, if you were trying to decide between wholesomewear.com and J. Crew. Have you seen people wearing these?

My grandfather gave me a book several Christmases ago about modesty and how there's a new modesty movement going on (as of 1998). You can see it in the Duggar family and in that compound they raided in Texas last year, but where else? Can't you just be modest without making a big deal about it or looking dowdy? Not everything has to be sexualized; there's no shame in wearing a one-piece bathing suit. This stuff is just so very interesting to me--like Quiverfull-interesting--yet the Duggar show is pretty boring, sorry to say.