Weekends Were Made for Femulating

Self-Cobbling

I knew I had the perfect pair of high heels to go with the dress I plan to wear to my high school class reunion. Since I had not worn that pair of heels in years, I thought I should check their condition in case they needed to be dusted off or cleaned.

When I inspected them, I noticed that the plastic tip on one high heel was gone exposing the metal dowel that held the tip in place.

I have no recollection of how I lost the tip, but I knew that I had to get it fixed before I could wear the shoe. There is a shoe repair shop about 10 minutes from my home, but I thought I might be able to repair it myself, so I looked online and found iFixit's guide for high heel tip repair.

After reading the guide, the fix seemed easy enough, so I moseyed on over to Amazon to find what I needed for the repair. I ordered a kit for $11.78 that included 30 pairs of replacement tips in five different sizes and a pair of pliers for removing the tip.

The kit arrived yesterday and it took me about 10 minutes to replace the tip. And I now have a lifetime supply of high heel tips!

Which Blog?

In addition to Femulate, I also have a low-traffic blog where I write about my radio adventures.

It is "low-traffic" because I publish a post once or twice a week and it gets about 450 hits per day (as compared to this blog where I post 5 or 6 times per week and average 5,000 hits per day).

And so every year while I am staffing our booth at Hamvention, at least one stranger will approach me and say, "I read your blog."

I always ask, "Which one?" even though I am pretty sure they are referring to Femulate and not my low-traffic radio blog.

When their response is "Huh?"or something similar, I know that they are not a civilian, but rather are one of us.

Wearing Oscar De La Renta (Source: Moda Operandi)

Huntz Hall femulating in the 1943 film 📺 Clancy Street Boys.

Battery Day

Lately, the batteries in my iPhone and MacBook Pro have been discharging rapidly. The iPhone is over five years old and the MacBook is over six years old, so I figured it was time to replace their original batteries.

Amazon sells replacement battery kits for $15 and $50 respectively. Both kits include all the tools required for the task.

I viewed how-to videos on YouTube. The only difficult part of the tasks seemed to be removing the old batteries, which were attached to the iPhone and MacBook cases with a two-sided tape-like adhesive. In the past, I've handled worse do-it-yourself computer tasks successfully, so I ordered the batteries from Amazon.

Saturday was Battery Day.

The iPhone battery replacement was not too bad. Working with the tiny screws with my 68-year-old eyes was the most difficult part of the task.

Removing the two-sided tape was a little tricky. You are supposed to grab the tape at one end of the battery and pull it out from under the battery, but the tape kept ripping in my fingers tips. I finally used a needle nose plier to get a good grip on the tape and pulled it out.

The job took about 30 minutes from start to finish and was a success. The iPhone is now like new with regard to its battery discharge rate.

The MacBook Pro battery replacement was easier than I expected because the glue holding the battery to the computer case had dried out over the past six years and it did not take much prying with a small chisel to free the battery. It took about 45 minutes to do the job and like the iPhone, the MacBook Pro's battery discharge rate is like new now.

I would have completed the MacBook battery replacement more quickly except that I had a big surprise when I opened the case: dust all over the interior of the computer including large dustballs, as you can see in the photo above. It took an extra 10 to 15 minutes to remove all the dust before I screwed the cover back on to the MacBook case.

I was very pleased with the results. Besides saving money, I also saved time by avoiding a visit to the Apple store.

Being read in a good way! (Source: Cellfina)

The Bigwood Twins, early 20th Century professional femulators

DIY Breast Forms

Hello Stana,

Thanks for all your time and effort producing your blog. If I may, I would like to make a critical observation on something you wrote recently that I think will benefit readers and offer all your readers some advice that could be very useful.

Recently, you mentioned making a set of boobs with the assistance of birdseed! Honestly, this approach was acceptable many, many years ago when there was no realistic alternative – but nowadays, there are so many realistic breast forms available, it is a minefield knowing which gorgeous accessory to choose and where to spend our money.

Equally, some breast forms are so expensive that for some of us, they are out of our budget or the expenditure cannot be justified. Therefore, anyone would be forgiven for taking your advice and exploring the birdseed option.

I would like to suggest an alternative that will consign the birdseed option to history (where it belongs – please do not feel offended!) and be a viable choice for many transgirls - balloons.

I am sure many of us have tried party balloons before, but their downside is that they puncture easily and are mostly on the small size.

There is available a large balloon that is used to send meteorological equipment into the stratosphere. These meteorological balloons are by nature of the task for which they are designed, manufactured to exacting standards from materials that are tough, resistant and durable. They can be inflated with air to enormous size – a property that doesn’t interest us as we intend to fill them with water – but it demonstrates how capable they are. They come in various uninflated sizes and what you need to decide is which one to choose, rather like which size of cup do you need.

What you are trying to achieve is as follows:

• Fill the balloon with water so that it stays floppy and does not start to become round in shape.
• Tie a simple loose knot and DO NOT cut the end off. A knot is safer than string, which may cut the balloon.
• Slip into your bra and check the required shape and fullness.
• If you need more/less ‘bust’ remove, undo the knot and add/remove water.
• Repeat this process until you are happy with the result.
• Do the same for your other boob, but in order to create a matching pair, weigh your first one and then accurately measure out an equal amount of water for the second one. This is best done in a jug, but remember to allow for the weight of the jug. Use a funnel to make pouring easier.
• When you are finally happy with the cup size, make sure you expel all air (to avoid watery sounds when you move) before tying the final knot which needs to be secure. Still do not cut the end off the balloon. You may wish to make alterations later. Also, it is possible to devise various methods to secure the balloon end and anchor the "balloobs" in your bra to stop them falling out.
• I would suggest going for the natural color that is almost like a skin tone, otherwise white would do.
• Before wearing, I suggest warming balloobs in the washbasin, but if you don’t they soon reach body temperature.
• A search on the Internet for meteorological balloons will bring up many sites. Prices can be way over $150 (£100), but you should be able to find a suitable balloon for $15-$20 (£10-£15). The only considerations really are color and more importantly, uninflated size.
• They may contain latex and if you have an allergy. then consider making a pocket in your bra to keep them away from your skin.
• The balloons are manufactured to be highly durable and tough so you should be able to lie on them without fear of bursting, but do watch out for any protruding under wires from your bra.
• I am still on my first pair of balloobs that I made almost 20 years ago. They can lose a bit of water in time and it is a good idea to wash them after wearing in warm soapy water to keep the hygiene level up.
• Finally, I can add that if you have only experienced birdseed or socks for a breast shape, your balloobs will feel quite amazing and worth the time and effort.

Regards and Best Wishes,

Catherine

(If you are interested in birdseed breast forms, the recipe appears at the end of this post. – Stana)

Wearing BCBGMAXAZRIA.

Drag Ball in the UK, circa 1970.