Proud to be stylish and feminist!!

Dusk is an absolute force of nature, and one of the most positive, fearless and creative women I have had the pleasure to meet in blogland. I am floored she has chosen me to be a recipient of the Stylish Blogger Award!! I am very happy to accept this accolade and pass the torch forward to the following bloggers who all bring it with style in their own special way: Nikki of Little Bits of Nikk Nak, Kara of Porkchop Does Rule, Nicole of Flaming Hag Folkwear, Joanna of Mrs. Bossa Does the Do, Rebecca of Smashingbird, Shy Biker, Dhee-Ghee of Dear Girl, confessions of a wallflower, Annalise and Jennifer of Hummingbird Girls, Dolly the bird of The Knack and How to get it, and Dash of The French Sampler!!
And per the guidelines for award recipients, I would like to share some things about me I have not yet divulged on this blog! As a member of the Feminist Fashion Blogger group, we are blogging in concert today on the topic: finance, feminism and the fashion blogger. This relates well to the introduction of my background as a construction worker. For many years I was very proud of the fact that I worked as hard as any of my (almost all) male peers for equal pay. I am a journey-level electrician, heavy equipment operator, and a gradesetter. I spent eight years working for union companies building soul less subdivision McMansion tract housing neighborhoods that I loathe! I then was self employed for almost three years as a General Contractor, specializing in remodeling homes built prior to 1950. After the economy started to tank in 2007 I got an entry level office worker job for the State of California. I was sick of dealing with deadbeat clients too, I won’t lie. It was a pay cut and a morale bruiser but my paychecks don’t bounce! I would cringe when people asked me what I do for a living when before I was proud to exceed their expectations of what women are capable of. But I’m small boned and I have since been diagnosed with early onset osteoarthritis in my spine, a result of having worked like a dog building everything I could get paid well to for almost 15 years. So now I’m grateful I’m not beating my body up just to prove that I can do what men can do, only better! And I was also fortunate to have purchased my house by myself when I was just 24 years old, having saved up some of the good pay I used to shovel in!! My little bungalow was built in 1920 and is located in an urban area near downtown Sacramento with huge trees and a killer park. So I don’t want for much, and I don’t need to abuse myself to make a decent living anymore! In contrast, fashion blogging has been purely a pleasure. I am new at this, having only seriously started blogging a few months ago, and if I never make any money doing it that would be fine! But as I have been collecting vintage clothing for over 20 years I’d love to be able to sell some of that to other vintage lovers out there too! You can’t put a price on the value of the connections and camaraderie I experience by sharing what I love most: building, restoring and celebrating life through my vintage style filter!  
  
70s Midi Dress, Joseph Magnin, $4 Sacramento Antique fair last week
Contemporary fake fur capelet, $15 Citizen Rosebud a few weeks ago
70s plastic cameo choker, $8 Sacramento Antique fair fair last week
Fake pearl and ab rings, $1 each Sacramento Antique fair fair last week
Bakelite dome ring, $20 ebay a few years ago
70s pull on boots, $4 thrift town, last seen here