salt

cc--sketches-deactivated2019020

cc--sketches

Commissions Announcement

So its been really fun doing what i can from up north, but the time has come for me to put my big girl panties on hunker down in the wild wild west of L.A., the western hub of the animation industry. I’ve never lived on my own before and I know that moving to L.A. will have lots of great stories that comes with it. However, with my hours at work being cut, I have to find a new way of supplementing income.

And I don’t want to just ask for money, so if there’s any commissions that people would be interested in, I’d be happy to do them.

I have only one exception:

Nothing sexual or NSFW

Other than that, lets have fun with it!

Contacts:

tumblr

Twitter

Instagram

Email: charlottesketches@gmail.com

Thank you!

aphobehatingcharacteroftheday-d

pantheris:
“ kateoplis:
“ “Boys need to be taught that it doesn’t matter if the girl next to them is in a bikini or a burqa, it’s their job to learn algebra regardless, and how she’s dressed has nothing to do with them.” “Last Monday morning was a...

aphobehatingcharacteroftheday-d

Autism and NT concepts in children’s literature

hyena-frog

I work in a public library and there are times a book comes through circulation that is so awesome I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before.

Last week I came across this lovely children’s picture book called Why Johnny Doesn’t Flap: NT is OK! by Clay Morton, Gail Morton, and illustrated by Alex Merry. (Pardon the library barcode covering part of the title here.)

[Pictures of the front and back covers of the picture book. The back cover summary says: “My friend Johnny is different from me. We have fun together, but sometimes he acts pretty strangely. He is never exactly on time, he can;t seem to strict to a routine, he stares right into your eyes, and he often says puzzling things. Johnny is neurotypical. I like Johnny and I think being NT is OK.”]

The fact that I was seeing the term “NT” on the cover of a children’s book was enough to pique my interest. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the book is really quite lovely!

[Two page spread reads: “We have a lot of fun together, but sometimes he acts pretty strangely. Mom says it is because he is NT, or neurotypical. He doesn’t have autism, so his brain works differently from mine, but that’s OK.”]

It flips the typical “little Timmy has a special friend” narrative on its head. Instead, the narrator is an autistic boy who has an NT friend who he sometimes struggles to understand.

[Two page spread reads: It can be pretty interesting being friends with a kid who is NT. He has a lot of quirks that can be very frustrating until you get used to them. Mom says that everyone’s brain is different and different isn’t always wrong.”]

The book uses simple terms to describe a perspective not usually seen in any literature, let alone lit intended for children.

[Two page spread reads: “When something exciting happens, Johnny doesn’t respond like you would expect. He doesn’t flap his arms or jump up and down. He just moves the sides of his mouth up and slightly widens his eyes. Maybe he doesn’t know much about how to express emotions.”]

I think ultimately this flipping of the narrative is more effective in getting the message across that kids with autism are just like everyone else but with unique needs.

[Two page spread reads: “Johnny never has a meltdown when disasters happen, like a fire drill or art class being canceled. He is afraid of what people might think. It seems like he is bottling his feelings up, but he just has his own way of dealing with things, and that’s OK.”]

And this book is something autistic kids don’t usually have– it’s a book from their perspective! And it’s a non-offensive, matter-of-fact perspective, which is all the rarer.

[Two pages spread reads: “When he talks to you, Johnny looks directly into your eyes, which can make you pretty uncomfortable. He doesn’t mean any harm, though. That’s just the way he is, and that’s OK.”]

It talks about things that autistic people experience and can relate to.

[Page reads: “I like Johnny. I think that being NT is OK.”]

How awesome is that?

autistic-knight-errant

A book like this would have been so beneficial to me as a kid to help me not feel alien. If you want autistic people to relate to others in fiction, we need stories from our point of view too.

autistic-harry-hotspur

I NEED THIS BOOK

I love that it flips the narrative, that’s so clever.

My hot take on this ridiculous ass trend I’ve been seeing recently bc how others label themselves isn’t your business, even if they’re “technically the same thing.”
(Note: I only have it worded like this because all I’m seeing from this new bullshit... — My hot take on this ridiculous ass trend I’ve been seeing recently bc how others label themselves isn’t your business, even if they’re “technically the same thing.”
(Note: I only have it worded like this because all I’m seeing from this new bullshit discourse is “bi people are better.” Neither label is better than the other, and this whole thing is ridiculous.)

bi vs pan everyone go home this kind of bullshit is absurd and idk why yall are participating in it

vanwizard

slushiesandsawyer:
“Has this been done yet
”

one thing you can't replace lesbian

vanwizard

acepalindrome

warriortrans:
“ transrp:
“ Happy Trans Day of Visibility! “And a happy and blessed Passover to all trans and non-binary Jewish people! I hope you all have a wonderful day and keep shining bright.
”
Submit positivity for trans writers and/or...

low-budget-witches

grossrabbit

fucked up how cooking and baking from scratch is viewed as a luxury…..like baking a loaf of bread or whatever is seen as something that only people with money/time can do. I’m not sure why capitalism decided to sell us the idea that we can’t make our own damn food bc it’s a special expensive thing that’s exclusive to wealthy retirees but it’s stupid as hell and it makes me angry

grossrabbit

bread takes like max 4 ingredients counting water and sure it takes a couple hours but 80% of that is just waiting around while it does the thing and you can do other things while it’s rising/baking plus im not gonna say baking cured my depression bc it didn’t but man is it hard to feel down when you’re eating slices of fresh bread you just made yourself. feels like everything’s gonna be a little more ok than you thought. it’s good.

crows-cats-and-cackles

bread is amazing and it’s also been sold to us as something really hard to make? Every time I tell someone I made a loaf of bread I get reactions like “you made it yourself???” and “do you have a bread machine then?”
I haven’t touched a bread machine in probably 10 years.
You CAN make your own bread, folks, and it’s actually pretty cheap to do so. I believe the most expensive thing I needed for it was the jar of yeast. It was about $6 at the grocery store and lasted me MONTHS (just keep it in the fridge.) The packets are even cheaper.
destroy capitalism. bake your own bread.

boonbucks-city-beach

You can also make your own yeast by making a sourdough starter, so that cuts cost even more.

But you have to feed the starter daily/weekly and that means it grows quickly, but there are tons of recipes online for what to do with your excess starter. Cookies, pretzels, crackers, pancakes, waffles, you name it!!

unbossed

Here’s a link to The Home Baking Association’s site. It has recipes and tips.

petermorwood

Make it even easier - “No-Knead Bread”. All YOU do is mix the ingredients together and wait until it’s time to heat the oven. The yeast does all the rest.

Here’s @dduane’s first take on it and the finished product. We’ve made even more photogenic batches since.

Kneading is easy as well; either let your machine do it, or if you don’t want to or don’t have one, get hands-on. It’s like mixing two colours of Plasticine to make a third. Flatten, stretch, fold, half-turn, repeat - it takes about 10 minutes - until the gloopy conglomeration of flour, yeast, salt and water that clings to your hands at the beginning, becomes a compact ball that doesn’t stick to things and feels silky-smooth.

Here’s what before and after look like.

My Mum used to say that if you were feeling out of sorts with someone, it was good to make bread because you could transfer your annoyance into kneading the dough REALLY WELL, and both you and the bread would be better for it.

Then you put it into a bowl, cover it with cling-film and let it rise until it doubles in size, turn it out and “knock it back” (more kneading, until it’s getting back to the size it started, this means there won’t be huge “is something living in here?” holes in the bread), put it into your loaf-tin or whatever - we’ve used a regular oblong tin, a rectangular Pullman tin with a lid, a small glass casserole, an earthenware chicken roaster…

You can even use a clean terracotta flowerpot.

Let the dough rise again until it’s high enough to look like an unbaked but otherwise real loaf, then pop it in the preheated oven. On average we give ours 180°C / 355°F for 45-50 minutes. YM (and oven) MV.

Here’s some of our bread…

Here’s our default bread recipe - it takes about 3-4 hours from flour jar to cutting board depending on climate (warmer is faster) most of which is rise time and baking; hands-on mixing, kneading and knocking-back is about 20 minutes, tops, and less if using a mixer.

Here ( or indeed any of the other pics) is the finished product. This one was given an egg-wash to make it look glossy and keep the poppy-seeds in place; mostly we don’t bother with that or the slash down the middle, but all the extras were intentional as a “ready for my close-up” glamour shot.

I think any shop would be happy to have something this good-looking on their shelf. We’re happy to have it on our table.

Even if your first attempts don’t work out quite as well as you hope, you can always make something like this…

rae-napier

can we have more posts like this in future please? this is really useful and could help those who are struggling

low-budget-witches

swagintherain

true

kerryrenaissance

Libraries are free, mostly. Pretty much everything millennials are “killing” costs money.

arctic-hands

Plus, unlike half the stuff we’re killing, libraries actually have a practical use

itsyaboybee

we out here

alittlemomentum

Not to be *that* millennial, but as a librarian I’d just like to say that the greatest thing you can do to support your local library is to understand how they are funded and to support their funding with your vote.

Libraries can do a lot all on their own but quite often they cannot legally “toot their own horn” so-to-speak when it comes to advocating for sustaining or increasing funding, getting levies or bond issues passed, etc. Libraries need you to love them not just with your checkouts and attendance at programs.

cheahandonions883

We can do that too.

prairie-witchling

build libraries on dead golf courses.

breelandwalker

We Are Dewey’s Army X3

fuckingrecipes

Friendly reminder that many Libraries double function as free schools and other free resources, sometimes including otherwise inaccessible technology, like 3D printers.

The libraries in my city host ‘English as a Secondary Language’ classes, cooking classes, classes on how to use that 3D printer, local history classes, responsible naturalistic gardening classes, beekeeping classes, and all sorts of other fun topics. Plus the plethora of clubs that use the library conference rooms as their meeting place.

All for free.

Support and visit your local library. Ask about their services and classes. VOTE TO KEEP THEM FUNDED

tikkunolamorgtfo

I’m a librarian and I can’t stress this enough!

stupidjewishwhiteboy

Also a librarian, if my library wasn’t here I’m not actually sure what half the population of the town would do with themselves.

nobodytoldthehorse

Also sign up for library cards, even if you don’t go to your local library’s physical location you can usually get ebooks/audiobooks sent to your laptop or kindle and they’ll just disappear on their due date, you don’t have to do anything other than check them out

Sometimes local library websites will also have a space where you can donate or a book wishlist and I recommend checking that out as well

low-budget-witches

nativenews

If you can spare a dollar, please consider supporting our pooled fund to send one of our mods, Mod L, to a language revitalization workshop.

Language is so important to many of our cultures, but many times as Indigenous people don’t have access to it.

The deadline is approaching, and we are so far from our goal, but even 1/10th of our followers giving even a dollar would put her at her goal.

This is so important to her nation: if you thought about buying us a coffee for our work and curation on here before, now is the time.

Through the rest of the month, we will be providing language learning resources free to Black and Native folks interested in their ancestral or heritage languages: just send us a message.

Donate here.

nativenews

Mod L has been contacted by a sponsor who is willing to match every single donation, including retroactively.

Pease reblog to help her go!