Ten Things: Volume 04

Weddings, Barbie, Anna Wintour, and is HGTV making us sad?

This is a monthly feature with some of the random things on my mind lately. 

1 // Crocheted animals

My mom taught herself to crochet dolls and animals - she’s made a few for her grandkids (Levi has like three different cows and he loves them!). My mom has been a stay at home mom for thirty years (she ran a daycare from our home when we first moved to the U.S. and did some house cleaning on and off when we needed extra income), so we’d love to give her an opportunity to bring in some income doing what she loves.

If you’d like to order a crocheted doll or stuffed animal, you can learn more here!

2 // Wedding bells

One of my younger sisters got married (#9 out of 11 siblings!), so we traveled to Missouri for the wedding, which was absolutely beautiful.

We also celebrated the 4th of July with family - my entire family, other than one sister and her family, were able to finally gather at my brother’s house and spend the afternoon together, and I can’t hardly believe how large our immediate family has become as we all got married and started having kids over the last few years! 

Sadly, all three of us got sick towards the end of the week - we came back from the wedding to a night of no sleep and fevers, and then had to drive eight hours back home the next day. It definitely took us over a week to fully recover, but we’re all glad to be feeling better. 

3 // Anna Wintour 

I was fashion obsessed in high school and devoured / collected magazines (I probably had over two hundred magazines that I bought with my own money as soon as I was able to work + past issues I thrifted from flea markets).

So, when I recently came across a biography of Anna Wintour at our local library and skimmed a few pages, I was hooked and had to read it. Although I have read Vogue on and off over the years and knew who Anna was, I’ve never actually delved into how she became the influencing figure she is now, so this book was an interesting read. 

Since I’m so passionate about women in the workplace, there was a tidbit that stood out to me that I wanted to note. The author pointed out that a major reason why Anna got the job as Editor in Chief of Vogue (and why she kept it for so long), was because she had a good relationship with the Conde Nest executive leaders. She gained their respect and it opened doors for her, something that the previous Vogue Editor in Chief did not have (and likely why she was replaced with Anna). 

I talk about this in my career course, but having executive sponsorship is so vital if you want to get ahead in your career and to have your name put up for promotions and leadership roles, I just didn’t realize that applied in a creative industry life fashion too! 

4 // We bought a car! 

We have been saving for over two years for a family car, since the car I brought into our marriage does not work for car seats and kids (it’s small, with no leg room or storage, and no A/C in the back, and since I usually sit in the back with Levi on long road trips, driving down to Missouri for 8-9 hours in the summer heat is rough!). 

My husband’s been watching the car market for over a year and we’ve test drove a few cars the last few months, but this last trip to Missouri really did us in and we decided it was time to make the purchase, no matter how painful that price tag is. We ended up going with a 2022 Toyota Highlander and we love it so much. Hopefully it will make road trips a bit easier in the future! 

5 // Is HGTV making our homes boring and us sad?

This article was an interesting read about how HGTV has changed how we think about designing our homes: (1) we see everything as needing a potential makeover and (2) we follow trends in order to appeal to potential buyers.

As a result, we are often left discontent with what we have because it doesn’t look like what we see on TV and social media or we end up spending a lot of money fixing up a house to look like what’s “in” so that we resell our homes for maximum value (the house flipping phenomenon). 

I’ll be honest. I’m guilty of that. In both houses I’ve owned and lived in, we remodeled with the intention of renting or re-selling it, mostly because we knew we wouldn’t stay in the houses permanently. So, our walls are mostly painted white, and the designs are overall classic but modern. We still did details to favor what we like, but it was still always within the confines of: how will this impact resale value? 

And I’m okay with that - our home still feels like us and has our own personal touches, but this article definitely made me stop and think! 

6 // Women in the workforce

It feels like social media (at least the accounts I follow!) portrays that more and more women are quitting their jobs to be stay at home moms and to live the homesteading, homeschooling life, but the numbers tell a different story: 

Today, 77.8% of women between the ages of 25 and 54 are in the labor force, surpassing the previous peak in 2000.

That’s nearly 80 percent of child bearing / child raising aged women in the workforce! 

As this article highlights, the rise of remote work is likely a main driver of that with 41% of women working from home — compared with only 28% of men.

But, I also assume that living off one income nowadays is difficult for many families, given that a Bankrate study found that Americans feel like they need approximately $233,000 a year on average to be secure or comfortable with their finances (for context, full-time average pay in the U.S. in 2021 was $75,203!). 

So, that’s some food for thought in our ongoing discussion on navigating home life and the workplace!

7 // Barbie, beauty standards, and manhood

You’ve likely seen all press and social media posts about the Barbie movie. Although I don’t plan to see the movie, I have been intrigued, given how many women are going to see this movie. 

Obviously, without seeing the movie, it’s hard to develop a viewpoint, but I’ve been following along with varying perspectives on the movie that are making me think.

For example, one of the actresses in the movie, America Ferrera (which you’ve followed her work, would make you intrigued about why she would do a movie like this), did an interview about beauty standards and why this movie doesn’t contradict her work. Given the unrealistic beauty standards Barbie portrays (granted, she’s a doll, even in the movie), this is a conversation worth having. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Candace Owens says she won’t see the movie because it’s “anti-man,” because (based on a review by Sarah Vine): “Every male character is either an idiot, a bigot or a sad, rather pathetic loser…. If that’s what [the director] is trying to convey, that men are either idiots or bigots, or sad and when they demonstrate any form of masculinity they must be put back into their boxes by women.” 

My husband and I talk often about how defying manhood has shifted negatively today, both in the world and in the church, and I wonder if movies like this just make it all worse on how we perceive men today. Manhood is something rarely taught, or honestly even modeled, well today, leaving a generation of boys staying boys even when they should have become men, especially as they get married and start families. 

Anyhow, I haven’t seen the movie nor do I plan to, but I’ve been following all the media and reviews on the movie and it’s been on my mind!

Until next time,

YPS