For our At Issue discussion this week, we are looking at the pleasures and perils of doing it yourself. We will be discussing the debate of whether DIY culture is enriching and helps people to be independent from the marketplace or whether it creates (yet another) sphere in which we are measured against impossible ideals or whether new domesticity amounts to nothing more than a regression to the domestic sphere.
Are you more drawn to Pinterest Fails than Pinterest-worthy pics? Are you a master or a menace with a power drill? Do you aspire to be magazine-worthy with your projects and décor, or are you content to either farm out the work or not do it at all?
Join us this week as we discuss our own takes on whether DIY is Doing You In.
We are thrilled to welcome as our guest this month Jennifer Flores. You may know Jennifer already from her amazing design blog, Rambling Renovators. The blog chronicles Jennifer’s and her husband’s adventures in renovating their 1950s Toronto home. She keeps it real, and keeps it gorgeous! Take a tour of her house, and you will see what I mean. We got to meet Jen in person through a blogging conference that she organizes, Blog Podium. We have attended for two consecutive years, and we always learn so much from the presenters and other conference-goers.
In the mean time, for a great discussion of the many facets of this debate, check out this review of Emily Matchar’s Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity. Ann Friedman summarizes wonderfully the push and pull of feminism, the workplace and the new cult of domesticity.
4 Mothers 