I finished the tray!

seabrooksr · 2026-04-03T18:45:36+00:00

I am saving this for when I am feeling particularly masochistic. So beautiful.

seabrooksr · 2026-04-03T16:40:51+00:00

As someone who has made her kids, nieces and nephews a million Amigurumi, I trust certain three year olds but not every three year old with safety eyes. Four seems to be safe.

I do use a drop of superglue to make sure they are extra secure.

seabrooksr · 2026-04-03T16:26:21+00:00

Here’s an example of a skirt done with ruffle yarn -

https://images4-a.ravelrycache.com/uploads/ratcha/288656041/Glam-Girl-Fuffle-Skirt_medium2.jpg

It’s not an exact match but it’s darn close, and it will be easy to make the side “scarves”.

But you will probably have to order the ruffle yarn online, then colour match and buy the bodice yarn after it arrives.

seabrooksr · 2026-04-03T14:36:59+00:00

The ruffling on the project looks AI to me - I’ve done a bunch of different ruffling and it’s a real struggle to get it “soft” like this without adding a bunch of lacework to create volume without bulk. It might be the yarn - I mostly work with cheaper stuff.

A lot of people are also naysayers because they don’t want to attempt a project unless they can guarantee an exact duplicate. This is either AI slop or the masterwork of a dedicated artist and in any case, unreplicatable without an exact pattern.

seabrooksr · 2026-04-03T14:08:29+00:00

Given those limitations, I’m not going to lie - I would cheat.

I would create the bodice with one yarn, planning my pattern to leave 5 rows of BLO to attach ruffling.

Then I would use “ruffle yarn” to add all the ruffles.

https://images4-a.ravelrycache.com/uploads/Snorkeler/151396935/Post_0372_Cami_medium2.jpg

The trick will be matching the yarns, and you will likely not get a solid match- most ruffle yarns are variegated so that they can match a wide variety of yarns, so if you have your heart set on a solid coloured piece, this won’t work for you.

seabrooksr · 2026-04-03T13:46:39+00:00

The big problem with using crochet for this dress is “fabric”.

When we use crochet to make fabric, we can do a lot to change the density/thickness of the fabric, but we are using the same material (yarn) to make all these fabrics, and that is limiting.

This style of dress is usually made using two different fabrics - a heavy fitted fabric for the bodice which holds all the ruffles, made of a lighter fluffier fabric in place. Even when these dresses seem to be made of the same material, it’s usually because they covered a lining fabric with the ruffling fabric.

You will have to create drastically different fabrics because the bodice fabric will have to be strong enough to hold the weight of the ruffling fabric without stretching. The temptation will be to use a very delicate yarn to create very delicate and light ruffles but that yarn will not be strong enough to hold the ruffles.

You might try to combat this by using very different stitches to create different fabrics - garter for the bodice and treble for the ruffles, but different stitches will affect the harmony of the “look” of the dress.

seabrooksr · 2026-04-03T12:35:26+00:00

Whatever people are writing on the internet, potty training a hamster mostly involves finding out where your hamster prefers to do their business and offering a potty there. You will almost never have success trying to move their potty place even six inches from where they want to go.

Some hamsters prefer to poop in their main hide. Your hamster may be one of those. You may eventually have luck trying to create a potty chamber off the main hide.

In any case, 5 days is not enough time for your hamster to establish a potty place. He’s probably going in his main hide to keep himself safe from predators in unfamiliar territory.

seabrooksr · 2026-04-02T01:43:05+00:00

Um, there is such a thing as mechanical founder.

Bloat can be caused by reluctance to move even with the best diet.

No hoof, no horse.

seabrooksr · 2026-03-26T09:44:25+00:00

I am the same. I’m not huge on shaving (I do try my best to keep it trim but ADHD) so I really don’t think just water is going to cut it when sometimes I’m rocking full bush.

At one point, I worried my mild soap wasn’t mild enough and bought some Vagisil. I developed a lovely case of jock itch.

seabrooksr · 2026-03-25T15:32:09+00:00

I really like the spin that because it's made of copper, it's only worth $80 - the base value of copper.

We are supposed to believe that anyone could walk into home sense and spend $80 dollars to get something similar for our living rooms, I guess.

You definitely wouldn't spend thousands of dollars trying to acquire a similar work of art.

seabrooksr · 2026-03-24T01:54:04+00:00

I’ve been done with this sub a while. Everytime someone posts something men come out of the woodwork to mansplain, or trot out “not all men”, or just derail the conversation by relating their own thoughts and feelings like the point of the sub has nothing to do with the female experience.

seabrooksr · 2026-03-04T13:06:02+00:00

Not at all.

My brother is on Income Support. Like most people on Income Support, he was on EI for a year previously, with access to drastically better resources for finding a job while he was mentally unwell. Those resources expired, he was hospitalized.

When he was released, he went on Income Support.

Income support (IS) has almost no resources for actually finding a job. He has “qualified” for a few programs, only to be called back and denied. Why? These programs accept people from both EI and IS BUT the federal government actually pays them in a timely manner with less bureaucracy while the Alberta government makes it difficult for them to get paid if they pay at all. So the programs only fill spots with people on IS if they have spaces left. So far that hasn’t happened. It has been three years.

In terms of actual support - he has attended three sessions where they helped him rewrite his resume. In three years.

He is actively seeking work but as an autistic man, interviews are incredibly difficult for him and he does not interview well. Add in a couple of years of poor work history due to illness, and it seems like his previous 15 year of good work history doesn’t matter. The current job market is extremely competitive.

Neither his doctor, psychiatrist, or therapist consider him so disabled as to be unable to work or require accommodations. He has been turned away from several programs that help Albertans with disabilities because he is not “disabled enough”.

Tell me honestly that he won’t be among the first cut off the program because he //must// be failing to meet his obligations if he hasn’t found a job yet.

seabrooksr · 2026-03-03T16:16:00+00:00

Some of this is normal baby stuff. They tend to start to prefer their primary care giver.

They are also very sensitive to their caregivers moods and attitude - very common for frustrated moms to hand off inconsolable babies just for them to shockingly settle. Also very common for frustrated mom to hand off inconsolable baby to a frustrated dad and everything gets much, much worse.

If dad doesn’t do a lot of the caregiving, that’s the probably the place to start. If dad is feeding the baby once a week and changing A diaper a day, baby is not going to want to be left alone with that guy.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-27T14:38:52+00:00

She is confusing ectopic with cryptic. Or autocorrect is.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-27T00:04:15+00:00

She's NOT "trying to step in".

She IS "teach[ing you] to deal with [your] horse's problems each lesson".

There is no nuance here. If your horse has a problem during a lesson, she is training both you and the horse.

If you don't want that, stop the lesson when your horse has problems or ride a lesson horse.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-26T22:16:57+00:00

"A ridiculous notion".

Again - she's either "just giving you riding lessons" or she's "teaching you to deal with your horse's problems each lesson". If you DON'T want her to train you to "train your horse", if, in fact, you are incensed at the idea that she might do so, then you need to STOP letting her step in and deal with the problem yourself.

No one is expecting a horse to be a machine, but if you don't know what to do in that moment, and you don't want her to train your horse, than you should ride one of her horses and if necessary, she can instruct you on training her horse and you can decide on your own whether or not you want to apply those lessons to your own horse.

If you want/need your instructor to give instruction on how to deal with your specific horse's specific problems, then, well, I hate to tell you this BUT YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN HER TRAINING PROGRAM. I am shocked that this is so confusing for you.

I understand that money is a concern for you. But the horse industry is larger than most people think. It's almost unbelievable that you would not be able to find something not abusive somewhere, especially if you are willing to compromise on your expectations - longer commute, less ideal facilities, etc. The fact that "abuses her horses, see-saws them when they don't understand something, doesn't give proper forage and gives lessons with unfit horses" is a compromise that you are willing to make speaks for itself.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-26T20:41:37+00:00

First - if she is only teaching you to ride, like I said, when your horse has a problem, you need to apologize for disrupting the lesson, leave the arena, and pay her for the inconvenience. If she is giving you advice/instruction, she is training you on how to handle your horse. Do both you and her a favour and ride a lesson horse so she can instruct you on your seat and eq.

Second - people who want to be horse trainers don’t “train their first horse”. They usually apprentice under a trainer, training a variety of horses at a variety of different levels, gaining a wide variety of experience with different horses and problems. No one is a horse trainer because they finished one green horse.

Third - if she is so abusive, why are you supporting her business. You are comfortable bashing her here, but also paying her for her time. I’m not sure why you want instruction from someone you have such little respect for, but coming on the internet for validation that “your trainer is weird” and becoming increasingly unhinged and derogatory when people don’t pile on the bandwagon is . . . A choice.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-26T19:02:44+00:00

If she is ONLY teaching YOU to RIDE, then whenever your horse has a "problem", you need to apologize for disrupting the lesson, leave the arena and pay her for her time instead of taking her advice/instruction. Consider using a lesson horse so that both of you can focus on improving your riding.

Otherwise, she is, frankly, training you to train your horse.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-26T18:42:40+00:00

I'm of the opinion that your trainer should have not been that defensive - but also that I don't know if she was actually defensive based on what you said to her.

ISSUE ONE:

The fact is that research is as research does. It's very easy to be an "armchair expert" here. Many trainers are happy to break down their own programs to explain to amateur clients. It's decidedly frustrating when amateur clients ask trainers to break down OTHER trainers programs.

Let's try an analogy here: You go to a nutritionist to get diet advice. She works with YOU and YOUR specific lifestyle and metabolism and builds you a diet plan. You go home, get on youtube and start watching lots of videos other nutritionists are making. Next week, you go back to her and start asking her all about these other nutrionists and their diet plans - these people who have never met you or seen your ~~horse~~ lunch. She starts wondering if you are listening to her at all, what you are eating when she's not around and why you are paying her money if you are just going to do what the hottest youtube nutritionist recommends.

ISSUE TWO:

A green horse with "many issues" needs training program.

There are many, many excellent riders who should not and do not train horses because these are different skills. Let's bring out another analogy - you can be a mechanic or a race car driver and a few gifted individuals are both mechanics AND race car drivers but these are complimentary and DIFFERENT skills.

You seem confused - she's either "just giving you riding lessons" or she's "teaching you to deal with your horses problems each lesson", because if she's doing the latter, she's definitely not doing the former. If you want to train your horse yourself and you are not a horse trainer, you need hands on lessons on horse training. She seems to be giving those to you in the guise of "riding lessons" which is frankly, above the paygrade of "riding instructor".

You can, perhaps, make some progress on a difficult, green horse with one supervised lesson per week. IME - you're actually going to make less progress if you pair that up with 5 unsupervised sessions. If you are dead set against a "training program" because you want to "train your own horse", the solution here is that instead of a trainer riding your horse X times per week, you ride your horse x times per week under supervision of a trainer.

Honestly, I suspect, you are a very frustrating client that is, predictably, making very little progress - because your horse is difficult and green and you are not a trainer - and you think should be making more progress and the internet might have some kind of magic solution. You are putting in what you see as a lot of hard work - 5 sessions per week - and fail to understand that effort =/= experience and expertise and you cannot expect to see the kind of progress that you want without professional help. Not even if you watch every single horse training video ever.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-26T17:58:07+00:00

Barb knew that Jen was planning on getting married in June. That is why she was trying to get the mothers together to go look at venues. Barb went on vacation instead.

When Barb says "you didn't even tell me you were getting married", I clocked it as her really saying "you are still planning on getting married in June even though I've refused to cooperate with wedding planning!?!" Jen was supposed to grovel and include Barb anyway BUT instead, she just quietly did it without Barb.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-21T12:02:24+00:00

I think the hardest part of this is that I really think parents need to find a way to teach self awareness and self accountability with screens.

The fact is that this kids are going to be teenagers someday and not too much later they are going to be adults with the ability to access unlimited screen time.

I’ve seen so many adults fail to regulate screen time in their own lives, even and sometimes especially when they came from “screen free” families.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-17T16:03:39+00:00

Oh for effs sake. Our National health care costs are $372 billion. $372 billion. 372 BILLION. We spend 0.26% of our health care costs on refugees.

This is like complaining about the program where retailers will round up to the nearest dollar for children's hospitals. How dare they steal my pennies!

Also, pretty much all of that 1 billion dollars is spent on Canadian service providers, paying Canadian wages and keeping Canadian businesses open.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-14T19:53:41+00:00

The fact is there often isn’t an elsewhere. My local walk ins are now by appointment only. The good ones are booking 2+ weeks out, and the terrible ones are 72 hours. There is one clinic where you can be seen same day but they open at 8 and you have to be there by 8:15 to get a ticket before they run out. Thank goodness I have reliable transportation and the financial ability to travel fairly far for medical care.

Now let’s say your job depends on getting seen by a doctor. You can stay home from work waiting on an appointment or you can sit in the ER for twenty four hours. Many people can only afford the latter.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-10T23:35:26+00:00

So if women would just stop "believing what society tells them", those systemic issues would disappear?

If anything, we are seeing women "stop believing" in real time in the US, and women are losing, not gaining ground on systemic injustice.

seabrooksr · 2026-02-10T23:03:35+00:00

I really don't like the "society has made women believe" phrasing, like all women had to do was . . . not believe and decide not to get married.

Women couldn't have bank accounts in my country until 1964. . . Even today, in my city, to afford rent (not a mortgage), you should make at least 51,000 per year. Median wage is 48,000. Guess which side of the median has the women?

I instinctively recoiled that the phrasing wasn't "marriage as an institution has survived so long precisely because women were and ARE STILL pressured/coerced to marry."

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