Fance!

Definatalie is one of my favourite bloggers – she writes posts full of insight, and most importantly, advocates for Fance and Fat Acceptance. I love her illustration and her monthly desktops (which have been gracing my desktop for the past few months) and I look forward to reading her posts, seeing what she has to say. Recently when I’ve been feeling low and uninspired, I just have to hop over to Natalie’s blog and maybe read her latest post or have a look through the archives.

I admit that I started reading her blog when I started up my Fatshion blog (Polka Dots and Rainbows), but where some blogs are too heavy on one or the other (too many images, not enough text or vice versa – although I wouldn’t want to say that this is bad, just sometimes its good to have a balance), Definatalie strikes a balance between fatshion, fat acceptance, illustration and inspiration. This is the kind of blog/website I aspire to. I’m not an illustrator (although I do try to draw occasionally), but as a writer, inspiration is so important.

Natalie wrote a post yesterday that I just completely agreed with, because she took the words right out of my mouth.

To fancy is to desire is to be human. To fancy is to teeter on the edge of having and not having, and the not having can be sad, even painful – very much the counterbalancing human experience.

This describes things perfectly – when we long for something or feel that it is beautiful but will never/can never have it. For me, reading a book is very much like this – I enter the world of the book, but inevitably it ends and sometimes, if the book is good, I feel a sense of loss. Again, writing is a kind of immersion, then it results in a loss, a sadness when your journey with a particular piece of writing, book, dissertation is over. Natalie makes the point that Fancy is not just about ‘fancy’ objects or images, but it is about imagination and flights of fancy.

I take the word ‘fancy’ not to mean some sort of impossible ideal, but something that you feel is beautiful and makes your world a bit brighter. I love to scour the internet for beautiful images, objects, art and materials, to browse Flickr and We Heart It for images that I think are interesting and exciting. Nobody but you can measure what your particular brand of ‘Fancy’ is – and like Natalie says, my fancy or your fancy might not appeal to everyone. Isn’t that the point though – that everyone is different? This is what sparks creativity and begins a new dream or idea.

Some of my ‘Fancy’: