It's the Last Day of Dressember!

It's the final day of Dressember! I've been wearing dresses for 31 days straight, and here are some photos to prove it. I've been really touched by the input and support of so many people during this month, and I've learned more about human trafficking myself through participating this year.

I'm SO close to reaching my fundraising goal. There are so many worthy causes to give to at this time of year, but if you're currently searching for one, giving money to IJM through my campaign goes directly to fund missions to rescue women (and men) who are victims of human trafficking. Please join me this holiday season in supporting this important cause.

https://support.dressemberfoundation.org/fundraise?fcid=382290

8-10

No Picture for #7! I forgot!

Human trafficking isn't just an international problem. Here's a really interesting article from my fellow participant Emily, clearing up misconceptions about human trafficking, especially as it exists in my home state of California.

Profits from human trafficking- including forced labor and prostitution, number more than $150 billion per year. While the majority of trafficking takes place in Asia, California is identified as the #1 destination for trafficking in America. One third of California victims are minors.

As of today, I'm more than halfway to my fundraising goal! Any little bit helps. In a season where Americans are spending SO much on gifts that may never be used, $10 can go toward changing someone's life. Please join me in this important cause!

https://support.dressemberfoundation.org/fundraise?fcid=382290

4, 5, 6

"It's not just about wearing dresses, it's about embracing the inherent freedom and femininity of all women." -@DressemberORG on twitter 

I'm a donor to IJM. $.85 of every dollar you donate goes directly to fund missions to rescue women (and men) who are victims of human trafficking. Please join me this holiday season in supporting this important cause.

https://support.dressemberfoundation.org/fundraise?fcid=382290

It's Dressember Once Again....

https://support.dressemberfoundation.org/fundraise?fcid=382290

Two Days to Go!

I am clearly missing photos for 10 days right now, but that situation will be fixed by (probably) tomorrow!

Two days to go! Time to jump for joy, and since you can do ANYTHING in a dress:

I wanna re-iterate: Dressember is NOT about what I'm wearing, it's about raising funds and awareness for victims of international sex trafficking. So far $115,000 has been raised! Visit www.dressember.net to donate, and support International Justice Mission!

5 - 13

Fact: You CAN wear dresses in a snow storm.
And under sweatshirts when it gets too icy and you have to work from home….

As of yesterday, $56K has been raised on the US campaign, $11K on the Canada campaign! Take part and donate to IJM! #dressemberhttp://t.co/CAO7HhDBNX

1, 2, 3, 4

I've never yet taken a photo where I knew what to do with my hands. Hashtag Dressember2013

P.S. - The overall fundraising goal of $25,000 has already been exceeded as of YESTERDAY. Ridiculous.

"Frivolous Femininity"

I did "Dressember" last year and had a ball.

Check out the official website!

It's a fashion challenge started by a friend-of-a-friend in Southern California, (where going bare-legged during the winter solstice is no biggie...) the goal being to wear dresses every day for a month.

Since I'm a bit of a dress fiend during a regular month, it seemed like a natural choice to jump on the bandwagon with my friends, posting pictures occasionally and getting to see what the other girls were coming up with on a daily basis.

Honestly though? At times I worried that the whole thing came across as shallow. When we can? We try to avoid shallow.
  
When I found out that this year, Dressember was partnering with International Justice Mission, (a human rights agency working to fight slavery & sex trafficking) I was super excited, then scared, then excited again.

My feelings have flip flopped throughout. Dressember's founder- (Blythe Hill) addressed my hangups a little bit the other day- that some people are finding the connection between girls in dresses & international social justice issues a hard sell.

But here's why it's not:

• Beauty is valuable. We're wired to think that if you can't define it, put it in your bank account, or hang it on the wall in a walnut frame, it's somehow of lesser value. But a life void of sunsets, Christmas lights, and trips to the Grand Canyon would be a bleak one indeed. Beauty is a good thing. One that motivates us, inspires us to create, and sometimes to be better people.

• Authentic femininity is a concept totally at odds with the slick, sexualized, pre-packaged womanhood that gets sold to American consumers year round.  We're lost for words on what it means to be a woman. The idea that femininity has to do with sexual value is very close to a given in our culture. A priest in my college once said that women are forced to choose "Seduction" or "Production" as their M.O. for identity. There's very little room to define yourself outside those two options.  

• There are clear and discernible links between pornography, prostitution and sex trafficking. You can look it up for yourself, but some info to get you started can be found in this article, and this video.  People justify porn's harmlessness by arguing for the freedom of a consenting well-paid women to do what she wants with her body. But the reality is that your casual viewer knows nothing about the situation of the woman (or man) they find themselves observing, and how they came to be in front of that camera. 

Is putting more girls in dresses going to stop porn addiction, international slavery and sex trafficking? Definitely not.

But I really think that men and women making choices that deliberately celebrate beauty, femininity and creativity can only create positive and healthy change in our culture, and in the climate worldwide.  Putting yourself forward as a an example of beauty: highly flawed, un-airbrushed, and fully clothed, is scary. Very scary. But it's a push-back against the idea that femininity is frivolous, or somehow for sale. 

All that to say: Dressember 2013 starts today! It's not too late to participate, or if dresses just aren't your thing, follow on social media, donate to ISJ and support the (literally) hundreds of women participating.

Here's a video of founder Blythe Hill talking about the partnership with ISJ:

DRESSEMBER from Two Spoons Productions on Vimeo.

Check out  my Dressember campaign on the ISJ website and think about joining in, or donating to support the cause!

My Dressember Campaign

Happy Dressing!

Freelance Dissected- St. Joseph's Catholic Church Pt. I

I'm freelancing long distance this month for my old parish in Vancouver, WA: St. Joseph's. I'll be doing a few projects for them, but the first was to design a new header for their redesigned website- the old one was stretched and pixelated and didn't fit the space.

Here's some evolution of the graphic:

The winner!

The "Before" and "After" look.

My New Portfolio

I've been hard at work in the past month re-designing and updating my Multimedia Portfolio- used to showcase my professional Graphic Design, Social Media, and Video Production skillzz. Check it out, but
watch your head- (as I anticipate a veritable DELUGE of job offers to come pouring my direction....)

haha.

2012 was an Adventure.

This post has been in the works for a while. And we're ALMOST to the point where I wasn't gonna publish it... but I need to put the wrap on 2012. Cause it was important!

My life motto last year was: "2012 is an Adventure".  For some reason, I put a lot of pressure on 2012 to be this fabulous, life-changing year...and it actually was.

JANUARY 2012

I made a solo move to a part of the country I had never visited, where I had no friends or family.

FEBRUARY 2012

It was terrifying. It was lonely. I sat crying in my car at LEAST once because I was so overwhelmed and dying for something / anything that felt familiar or comfortable to me.

MARCH 2012

It was fun. It was exhilirating. It was freeing. It allowed me to be completely myself, with nobody's expectations or pre-conceived notions to box me in. It allowed me to be truly stripped of all my baggage in a way I haven't been in years.

APRIL 2012

MAY 2012

I started completely over.  I allowed people to surprise me. I learned how to be alone, and how not to be scared of being alone. I explored. I planned adventures for myself. I took risks. I let people in. I had nothing to lose. I don't know if I fell in love, but I think I came close once or twice.

JUNE 2012

I learned how to like myself again.

JULY 2012

I really did. I caught myself thinking more than once- "Emma Olwell, you are not so bad. Maybe I've been wrong about you."

AUGUST 2012

Looking back it was so undeniably good. And ordained. And meant to be. The truth is, I look back at the girl I was LAST Christmas and I almost don't recognize her. And I feel good about what I've left behind and what I've replaced.

SEPTEMBER 2012

Looking ahead, I guess that's the attitude I want to bring into 2013. My life is my own and I get to make of it what I want.  I never need to feel trapped by anything: change is as simple as choosing who I want to be and doing things differently.

OCTOBER 2012

I want to continue doing things that scare me, going places I haven't been, making choices that reflect the fact that I value myself; that I am good, holy & worthwhile. I'm not gonna fear crashing and burning in any area of my life.

NOVEMBER 2012

DECEMBER 2012

I'm gonna search out the things I truly want rather than feeling like I need to accept whatever comes along. I'm gonna choose to see beauty and goodness in the people I meet.  I'm going to be content with and grateful for the things I have, and the blessings I've been given.

"2013 is Authentic". Or FIERCELY authentic, depending on how badass you may be feeling at the moment. In four short weeks this has already proved to be mightily true.

The Last of the Dresses.

My mom finally mailed me the memory card I left behind in Arkansas over Christmas. So here it is- PROOF that I finished dressember!!

dress- Target. Oh, Goodwill FROM Target. Of course.

dress- H&M via Goodwill.

dress- my one & only Anthropologie dress, (aka my pride and joy...)

dress- Target!

Christmas dress! Banana Republic, via Goodwill. 

dress- Target!
BOOTS- Vintage from my mother in the '80's!  I wore holes in them in college, and my parents had them repaired for me for Christmas. Needless to say, I haven't taken them off since.

I can't believe I'm even posting this picture. No Shame. Target dress, red socks not included.

(My sister's bridal shower, dress from- you guessed it- TARGET.)

dress- Old Navy. (New Year's eve!)

I didn't cheat, but I AM missing a couple photos. So really....this is just proof that it was way harder to get out of sweatpants while being home for Christmas than I anticipated....and that a dress worn OVER sweatpants is just about as photogenic as you might imagine.

Can't wait for next year!!

Sandy Hook & Social Media

As a human being, I have no words for what happened on friday. Words have proved amazingly inadequate in the past four days.

All I can say is that the shooting in Connecticut left me with a sense of horror and loss I haven't felt since 9/11. I have no answers and I won't try.

What's been unavoidable and intriguing to me is noting the obvious differences in our society between 2001 and now.

I found out about Sandy Hook on facebook. After asking around, I know a number of people who did too. My job has grown to include social media promotion in the past three months and its created in me a deeper awareness of the machine. Even in my personal browsing and sharing I can't help but analyze what gets a reaction, what makes people tick, what "motive" exists behind each photo, comment or link.

For a brief moment on friday morning, there was a raw, poignant pause in which shock and devastation overwhelmed my newsfeed.

There was unity spanning a network of about 600 totally un-related people whose only common denominator is me.

It didn't last long. Not half an hour later, I watched "told-ya-so" gun control comments emerge from my so-termed "left-leaning" friends, and self-righteous abortion comparisons pop up from the right.

My question is this. Are we, in 2012, so de-sensitized to violence, death and tragedy that we can only fully enter into it and experience it for a brief moment before the shock subsides and we reconcile it with what we already know to be true?

Or: Is our focus turned so irrevocably inward that we filter every happening through the lens of ourselves, and how it supports or harms our personal agendas.  Can we truly experience anything for what it is anymore? Or has the need to feed our personal brand overwhelmed authentic reactions like  joy or grief.

Its a question that's been gnawing at me for a while. I made it through the entire bloodbath that was the 2012 election season without uttering so much as a syllable. But I couldn't let this pass without commenting.

And now. Excuse me, while I post this link to facebook....

Dressember Week 2

I've been so busy! Confession time- No dress on Saturday. I got specific instructions to wear grubby jeans and sweatshirt as a part of Christmas tree chopping and hauling with my friend Katie.  There, blame passed off. 

I'm realizing that my wardrobe is basically the product of a serious thrift store problem combined with latent hoarder tendencies. I get rid of nothing. I have dresses hanging in my closet that I claimed from my freshman year roommate's "giveaway" pile. I may actually wear one of them tomorrow....

I promise there IS a dress under all of these...buried SOMEWHERE among the layers!

Day 11

dress- Target (again!!)  | sweater- Banana Republic via Goodwill | scarf- GAP | mocs- moccasin stand in Arkansas

Day 12- Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe! I dressed like a Mexican flag to celebrate.

dress- Urban Outfitters via Goodwill  | shirt- Goodwill | boots- some shoe store in Arkansas | earrings- Charlotte Russe

Day 13

dress- Forever 21 | shirt- Fred Meyer | belt- handed down from my freshman roommate Molly!  | scarf- TJ MAXX | tights- Forever 21 shoes- TJ MAXX

Day 14

dress- TJMAXX | shirt- also TJ! | shoes you can't see- probably thrifted. probably. 

Fashion show at LUNCH!

Me at work every single day:

BIG thank you to my coworkers Jen & Karissa for aiding and abetting my dressember hijinks.

Catching up! Ten days, no repeats! BUT trust me, repeats are coming soon. 

If you're curious, here's some of my friends' Dressember adventures:

http://instagram.com/clairealamode

http://instagram.com/leahcote/

http://instagram.com/p/SykwC_jwEN/

http://blythehill.blogspot.com/2012/12/dressember-week-1.html

(Aside #1: Blythe, the founder of Dressember, is taking the same black dress and restyling it every single day for a month. Gulp.)

(Aside #2: I don't know the ins and outs of instagram, so if you can't see those pictures?? Well....sorry.)

It got colder! We seem to be entering the phase I knew we would ultimately reach; the "I-swear-there's a-dress-somewhere-amongst-all-those-layers" phase.

Day 6

dress- Roxy, via TJMaxx | sweater- Target via Goodwill | leggings- Charlotte Russe | keds- Gap

Day 7

dress- Target | shirt- H&M | leggings- Charlotte Russe | boots- Rack Room Shoes | headband- Forever 21

All Target all the time! I have a weakness for clearance rack Target dresses, as evidenced by days 8-10. I selected today's look around a pair of hand-me-off yellow shoes my friend Danielle gave to me yesterday!

Day 8

dress- Target | shirt- Gap | leggings- Charlotte Russe | shoes- Gabes in Steubenville! | headband- handmade by Nate!

Day 9

dress- Target | cardigan- thrifted | shoes- thrifted | necklace- modcloth 

Day 10

dress- Target | peter pan blouse- Charlotte Russe | cardigan- Forever 21 |  leggings- Charlotte Russe | shoes- gifted to me from Danielle!

Dressember Days 3- 5

Dressember 3rd- 5th!

Thanks everybody for the dressember love so far, I appreciate all the kudos! And the looks of disbelief.  I'm appreciating those too, haha. 

Five days in, and I'm not gonna go so far as to say wearing dresses every day is making me a better person, buuuut...... it IS having a strangely positive affect on my attitude.

Maybe its just the contrast of being so intentional about SOMETHING when I first wake up, rather then rolling out of bed and right into the closest sweatshirt. "Intentionality" is something I've been trying to increase in my life for a couple months now- coming into work with a take-no-prisoners attitude rather than rolling in sloppy and half asleep like its some happy accident I showed up. Enough psychologizing and on to the clothes!

Day 3! sweater dress: BCBG via TJMAXX scarf: Land's End tights: (two pairs!) Forever 21 shoes: thrifted

Day 4! blouse: Details (I think?) dress- Target skirt- H&M nylons- fred meyer shoes- thrifted 
elephant necklace- Forever 21

Day 5! dress- Forever 21 tights- Target shoes- thrifted earrings- Forever 21

I think the REAL psychological issue here is why I refuse to buy shoes that cost more then 7 dollars... Mull THAT one over for me.