1. Thank you for all the subscribe requests. But, I goofed. To make it readable, you would need to have a WordPress ID / Login. I know most of you are on blogger so may not have one. I felt a little foolish so I didn’t want to repost asking you to do that. So, I am still not sure what to do with my blog. Some have opined to me that I might be overreacting a bit. But, I kind of feel like I want to present myself to a potential employer and not let them draw conclusions from here. But, I’ll think about it more and figure out what to do. The last thing I want is to go offline completely.
2. I do have a dress finished that I’m going to post later!
3. Arielle. Many of you know her as Larkibane on PatternReview.com. If you need a ‘real’ person to put on the face of this earthquake, here’s one. Arielle lives in Haiti. Her roof caved into her house after the quake. She and her mother are sleeping outside with friends and neighbors. I’ve known her online for about a year now and there isn’t a more cheerful and enthusiastic sewist I’ve come across. I heard from her today and she tells me:
Rene, the smell alone…I dont’ have any neighbors with house standing. The main street near my house, miles of rubble. Schools! The chapel where I had my 1st communion is gone, the church where my parents married gone. My mother got up, the wall of the bookstore came down. I lost my 88 yo great-cousin/neighbor. Both our houses look like hollywood film sets, pretty facades, nothing behind.
I am saying this because I truly consider her to be a friend and exchanged emails with many of you who were worried about her. I am still worried about her.
Please, please consider donating. Personally, I give to ADRA, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. I went to Fla. with them in high school for a hurricane clean up and it was the most organized organization. That, and several of my classmates continue to work for them so I can speak first hand on thier expertise. And, in case you are thinking of telling me that the US is sending a gabillion dollars in aid already and those are your tax dollars anyway I would reconsider leaving that comment.
Yes, I did think of immediately packing up fabric and a sewing machine for her. But, I realize she doesn’t even have a wall with an outlet to plug into right now.
You can also check out what the Selfish Seamstress is doing. I have a new travel mug coming to ride to work with Nigel and I in the mornings.
Miss Celie's Pants 
I am so SO happy to hear that Arielle is ok. I have been so worried about her. If you are in contact with her can you let us know if there is anything specific we can do to help? And to everyone else: yes, please donate something!
I’m a little unclear about if she’s staying in Haiti or perhaps leaving the country. Her brother is in Canada and I think she has family in Florida.
Ok, keep us posted. I’m so glad to have some news.
[…] Miss Celie’s Pants has a letter from Arielle describing what things look like in Port-au-Prince. Elaine is selling Selfish Seamstress Swag and donating the proceeds to the Red Cross relief fund. […]
Glad that you and Arielle did connect. Agree w/ your suggestion about Selfish Seamstress. I bought a t-shirt w/ her SS haiku.
Personal donation – done.
Thanks for posting on her status.
My daughter was having her hair cut yesterday and also had a manicure and pedicure scheduled. She came home and I asked to see her nails. She said Mom, I couldn’t have my nails done, I felt so bad about the people in Haiti I sent that money plus a hundred more to Doctors without Borders instead. That’s the moment that I knew I hadn’t done too bad as a mom. I sent some money to them and also to Catholic Relief. Any charity you trust is good. The need is so great – I don’t think we’ll be getting manicures here for a while
Regarding your job search and this blog…have you tried googling your name (as it will appear on your resume) first? I tried both my married and maiden names and realized anyone looking for me would have to wade through so many Julie’s that aren’t me. Yes, Julie is more common than other names but my maiden and married names are not common. It is nice to see that I could pass as a professor of chemistry or well-published engineer. Hmmm, who do I want to be today? Back to my point, an employer would have to google Celie to find you and even then you don’t come up at the top of the list (sorry, Color Purple’s Celie ranks higher). If you’ve never posted anything that would be offensive, indicative that you are intolerant of others, or otherwise spend your personal time doing things that would be concerning for an employer, I wouldn’t worry. I think employers want to know more about people on personal levels, particularly now that there are so many applicants for fewer jobs. So you love sewing and keep in touch with many other ladies who sew? So what? Anyway, that’s just my two cents, coming from someone who has been recently interviewing candidates for an open position. People do plenty during the actual interview to concern you. No need to look on the internet. They bring their dirty laundry to the interview! Good luck in your job search.
My resume (and some of my writing) is under my first and middle name (Cidell). This blog came right to the top. That’s why I’ve now gone to Miss Celie for posting on here and PatternReview. And, I’ve taken my middle name off of my resume.
And, I appreciate you giving me that insight 🙂
Hi Celine. I enjoy your blog and your honesty about the subscriber situation. I wish I had known more about wordpress before I went to blogger. I started another blog on wordpress in December and it definately has more free features and as you alluded to, one can easily turn their blog into a domain name via wordpress easier than you can with blogger. There are some features on blogger that I like that wordpress doesn’t have. I do know of a a couple of sewing blogs that “made the switch” like you did and they say they really enjoy wordpress.
I am just trying to figure out how to do it because I am considering making the switch as well.
CLOSING DOWN YOUR BLOG IS NOT AN OPTION! I’d better not hear talk of that again (you know I’m “kinda” kidding). Remember, I’m close enough to you to find you if I ever hear of those words again!! 🙂 Keep up the good work. I hope to get as good as you someday.
I donated days ago. The entire island will need rebuilding and funds are the only thing that can help that! But when someone gets around to asking for fabric and notions donations, let me know…I will be happy to send some of my abundance to help start someone else over!!!
I was *just* thinking it might be nice to start collecting now so she might know what’s waiting for her when things settle down.
You know, there are a bazillion older Singers and other machine brands that are still on treadles.There are also hand cranks. Alot of these machines go really cheap if they are not in pristine condition. There are alot of sewing machine collectors out there. Older machines go cheap. Too bad they are so big with the treadle and hard to ship. I know there is a lady that has a charity that collects up sewing machines and ships them to areas of need. I think it is http://www.sewingmachineproject.org
Sending Arielle lots of love and support. Thanks for telling us about our PR sister in Haïti.
Miss Celie, do what’s right for you, never mind if others (readers) agree or disagree. It’s your life, your job hunt, your blog. Your domain entirely. I respect whatever decision you make about any of them. Personally, I think you’re wise to be mindful of how you present yourself during a lean job hunt period. I find it curious that you’ve been approached by readers who ask you to make yourself uncomfortable in order to accomodate their blog-reading habits rather than respect your rights to give, and to give until your limits. What is so hard, anyway, about setting up a free WP account anyway? Yet I’m not criticizing anyone. Everyone is entitled to their views and has different comfort levels with public exposure–and has different forces that are affecting their lives which underpin their views. Just sending you support that you do what is right for you. Respecting yourself, your rights, your limits–you go, girl.
Lots of sewist bloggers have to balance their real lives and privacy. Personally I can’t model a single bathing suit or lingerie item because I’m a university teacher–horrors if my students stumbled across it. If I weren’t a teacher, perhaps I’d feel just fine about showing exactly where the rise of a pair of knickers hits. Voilà, different forces in action in our lives.
Fortunately I have a WP account too 🙂 Keep up the good work. Kisses from Brussels
Don’t know about WordPress, but on Blogger you can close your blog to all but selected readers – which would mean you have to enter particular email addresses, but it might solve your problem.
Oh my goodness. I just now conected the dots – this is the same Arielle who bought a copy of Mrs. Stylebook from me on PR last month (she asked you to handle the PayPal transaction). I didn’t know she was in Haiti, though she mentioned in her initial email not being able to use PayPal in her country. Please post any updates you get from her; even though we only exchanged a handful of emails, I could tell she was such a sweet, lovely person.
Hi Cidell First let me say I enjoy your blog You have a lot of useful information . Thanks for sharing. And you are right about giving I think most people are doing the right thing.It is all about caring for others in time of need. But what i want to say is do what is best for you in terms of your blog . You are right to be concerned. In these times employers look for any little thing to NOT toc onsider you for a position, If people want to follow you we can open an account on World Press. So good luck and remember you have to put yourself first. Good luck with the search.
I don’t think there would be a thing wrong with a potential employer finding this blog – many times you show resourcefulness, demonstrate problem solving skills and perserverence that any employer should find to be a useful attribute.
Thanks for the comments about supporting our neighbors in Haiti – we need to give all we can to organizations with lots less bureaucratic hoops than the Feds.
All best,
Lora