Fashionable and PINK hot air!

In the last few days too much hot air about too many things has been floating around the news and the Internet. In the name of all that is full of hot air and FUN, I bring you this:
Party balloons filled with love.

Bubble gum bubbles too big to believe!

A PINK bubble filled with a fashionable Witch!

Pink bubbles that create a fantasy world in a Paris store window..

Children gently set free lovely soapy spheres.

Bubbles glide down the runway...

And fly through the air.

It's good to know that hot air, used corretly, can still make us smile!


For more Fashionable Friday fun, visit Fifi!


For Saturday PINK fun, visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound!

Craigslist's Shame

Why should craigslist take down the erotic personals section of their site? I have been asking myself this question for several days. I know instinctively it is the right thing for them to do but why? What makes what craigslist is doing any different than the free magazines on the street or the personals in the newspapers that advertise sex for sale? Or even the girls on the streets offering it in person? Probably nothing at first glance. At second glance, a lot of things.

craigslist - erotic services in new york city

Crimes connected to users of craigslist is not a new phenomenon. Since 2007, when crime blogger Trench Reynolds at Crime News began chronically all the different types of crimes connected to activity on Craigslist, he has posted over 500 times on that topic. If you have been following murder of Julissa Brisman you will have seen him being interviewed on 48 Hours and CNN. Everything from scams to rapes to murder-for-hire have been connected to craigslist and Trench is the one who knows all about it.

Unless you are follow the crime blogs, you have most likely never read about most of those crimes. Much of the media has glossed over them, mentioning them only in passing. Until now. Our worst collective nightmare has come to life again. The young, "good looking, fair haired, comes from a good family, studying to be a doctor, is engaged to a beautiful fair haired girl" guy is suspected of hunting women on craigslist, robbing them and killing one. Yes, now we are listening, now we are reading, now we all know what can happen at craigslist. We ask for craigslist to respond to our questions about their part in all of it. And they deny their part. They try to dumb us down by telling us what we know to be true isn't.

SF bay area erotic services classifieds - craigslist

Craigslist's CEO, Jim Buckmaster says that no part of the website is sex related. How can he possibly say that? Does he really think we are not on top of this now or has all the money he's making clouded his definition of what is sex related? Oh, but wait... They have come up with a way, they say, to control that section of their site, to make sure only "legitimate" escort services and massage parlors can run ads. In November 2008, craigslist started charging $5.00 to place an erotic ad and says that the cost has already brought down the number of posts the site has received for those types of services. Is that really their only solution? These girls claim to be making be a lot of money through their ads so what's the big deal about having to spend $5.00? Supposedly the big deal is that the girls will not want to provide the necessary information needed to post their ads. I checked out my local craigslist site today and it seems the ads are still going strong, with or without the fee and additional user info. And who is in charge of researching whether or not these businesses are legit? Well, no one it would seem. According to craigslist, their site is self policed. I strongly doubt the predators lurking about the site are policing anything any more than the girls trying to make a living are. And now that craigslist has a new stream of income directly from those ads, you can be sure they aren't coming down any time soon.

sacramento erotic services classifieds - craigslist

Any other business conducting themselves this way would have been shut down a long time ago. Even the City of Chicago has had enough and has brought suit against craigslist for their unwillingness to do anything to stop this source of prostitution and have even gone so far as to say it it the largest source of prostitution in our country.

Craigslist offers a free service to the public and we all know we like free. Except, in reality it isn't free at all. The crimes committed that are connected to this website costs us all in tax payer dollars through police involvement but more importantly, they hurt our psyche. In the name of free do we sit by and allow craigslist to continue to do business as normal? It seems thus far, we have. The time has come for that to stop, for us send the message that their business practices are no longer acceptable. Craigslist ads may be free but they are making money on all those free ads. Do not forget for one minute that we control their purse strings. Without a public willing to post on their site, they have no business at all.

The call to boycott Craigslist is not about trying to stop prostitution. It is not about telling adults what they can or cannot do. It is about stopping the “largest single source of prostitution in our nation”. It is about calling Craigslist out on their lies. It is about telling a business they no longer have the support of the public in their willingness to provide a free platform for illegal enterprises. It is about draining the pond predators can easily and freely fish in. It is about cleaning up a public cesspool.

Jennifer Willams has started a national campain to force craigslist to shut down their eroctic sites. At her ThePoint.com site she says this about it:

"Mission:
To strongly encourage Craigslist to close down sections of their site that are known to frequently feature ads for illegal activities, particularly the Erotic Services section, through the non-violent mechanism of boycotting.

We, as a collective voice and through the use of our “dollar-vote” are choosing to support other similar communities who take more effort to foster an environment where crime is discouraged, rather than condoned through feigned ignorance and turning a blind eye."

To read more and to join her national effort to get 500,000 people to boycott craigslist, please visit her site here at The Point or simply click on the button at the top of my sidebar.



If you are looking for an alternative to Craigslist, geebo.com offers an on line classified ad site that does police and does not support illegal activities..

Fashionable Candy Friday!

Back in the day there was penny candy...oh, fabulous, lovely, bags of penny candy! Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm old but I would not want to know what life was like when 25 cents couldn't fill up a little bag with joy!

So, what was Fashionable back then?

Let's put on our stylie Keds....

and jump on our fab Schwinn banana seat bike....

and fly to the candy store!
Our pockets are full of pennies....
and there is so much to look at...

and so much to choose from!
The lady behind the counter grabs a small brown paper bag and

we begin to fill up that little bag!
Candy necklaces are fashionable....

so are candy rings and

the candy wrapper bracelets that were almost as

much fun to make as the candy was to eat!

It is a heavenly sight...

it's so hard to decide!

But I know my favorites...

Atomic Hotballs and...Bonomo Taffy!

The experience is exhausting.

Did I choose correctly?

Will I be disappointed later when I get home and I am wishing for something else?

Maybe, but a few more pennies will fill my bag again!

Who ever thought penny candy would be a quarter and

that pennies would not be fashionable?

I sure didn't but the memories remain and they are fashionably fabulous!

For more Fashionable Friday Fun visit Fifi!

Don't hate me because I am beautiful.

Women and cats do as they dammed well please, and

men and dogs had best learn to live with it.

Everything I know I learned from my cat:

When you're hungry, eat.

When you're tired, nap in a sunbeam.

When you go to the vet's, pee on your owner.

The naming of cats is a difficult matter.

It isn't just one of your holiday games.

You may think at first I'm mad as a hatter.

When I tell you a cat must have three different names...

-- T.S. Eliot

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." Albert Einstein, when asked to describe the radio.

I wonder how he would explain twitter?

Always give generously. A small bird or rodent left on the bed tells them, I care.

Climb your way to the top. That's why the drapes are there.
Curiosity never killed anything except maybe a few hours.
Find your place in the sun. Especially if it happens to be on that nice pile of warm, clean laundry.
If you're not receiving enough attention, try knocking over several expensive antique lamps.

Life is hard, then you nap.
Make your mark in the world. Or at least spray in each corner.
Never sleep alone when you can sleep on someone's face.
Variety is the spice of life. One day ignore people, the next day annoy them.
When eating out, think nothing of sending back your meal twenty or thirty times.
When in doubt, cop an attitude.

Amen.

Iris, PeePee, The Big Girl

(Yes, I have three names. Of course I do. I am the CAT.)

Fifi's Blogging Birthday and Pink Saturday!!

Oh, bon jour! Petunia here, again!

Oh my, this is a huge event! Fifi has been blogging her lovely, creative heart out for an entire year! Imagine that...all that work, all that painting...to bring the loveliness and beauty that is Fifi to all of us! She is my BFF and has been for many past lives according to a psychic I recently saw. In a past life Fifi and I were even sisters! Is that not FAB? But of course it makes perfect sense.

When awaking this morning and realizing I was alone again, but happily so, I decided to take a little trip across France to my favorite museum, the Musée Matisse in Le Cateau-Cambresis. I knew doing this would make me feel close to Fifi who is in another part of France at the moment. When I see Henri Matisse, I always feel the spirit of Fifi swirling around near me.

In this lifetime, among many other things, Fifi has brought to life the beauty and style that Henri Matisse blessed this lovely world with BUT, she has made that style her own. Shall we take a look to compare and contrast? First a look at Henri....

Matisse's Tablecloth

Pink Statuette and Jug on a Red Chest of Drawers

Matisse's pink table clothThe Dreamer... The ballerina in pink tights!
Hello!

Oh yes, hello!

And now on to Fifi's fabulous works that you can find and buy here and HERE!

Henri loves this painting! A nude girl, a pink fan? How could he not?

And Henri does love an tablescape! Fifi has again made him proud.

Oh yes...the channeling of the ballerina in pink!

And another table done while dreaming of Henri...what a lucky man...
even if he is dead!

Henri has a rose named after him BUT we have le Fifi Flowers who is a lovely rose and is thankfully, more alive than Henri so...she wins!

Mmmm...Fifi has found a pink cupcake to enjoy at her party!

Thank you for joining me on wishing Fifi a very Happy Blogging Birthday!

For more Fifi Blogging Birthday madness go here!

And for more PINK Saturday please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound!

Have a FAB weekend!

Fashionable Friday!

Welcome to another of Fifi's Fashionable Fridays!

I do love a fabulous hat maybe even more than I love black and white photograph or maybe just as much. When they come together, it is the best. And when they come together on the pages of Vogue magazine in 1950, it is all over the moon!

Shall we choose our hat?
There are so many to look at....

So many styles and shapes and colors...

Why bother choosing one when you can carry all your favorites on a hat stand!

It is hard to decide on just one.
But, now that we have, let's show off!

Hats with veils are lovely.....

and hats with veils and long gloves...ooo la la!

Black and white snapped in black and white...my favorite!

Shall I pose like this or....

or like this?

But the best hat of all.....

is always a crown!

Vogue, as always, you have done it all so perfectly well.

All the photos shown here were taken by Gordon Parks.

For more Fashionable Friday fun, please visit Fifi!