amen, sista...

facebook fatigue

I quit the facebook yesterday...

I'll probably be back. but for now, it feels so good to not be forced to look at babies and engagements of my pseudo friends...

Whatever you want to do

Is alright with me. 

Be still my heart.  El presidente at the Apollo, no less.

Actively Living Artistically

I subscribe to The Daily Rumpus (a writer, Stephen Elliott, sends me an email every now and then with his thoughts-- I guess its like a feed thingy? I'm not sure the internet definition of this type of thing). The email today had such a fantastic perspective-shifter. And, it was great timing because I have been super depressed about my etsy holiday sales-- I had high hopes to sell a lot of jewelry, and I haven't. I sold more than my monthly average, but not by a lot. I believe the problem is two-fold, and I didn't realize the second problem until reading this email today. Anyway, before I ramble on any further, here is the passage from Stephen Elliott:

"...you can move around with your work through different mediums. You can choose to live as an artist, as Steve Jobs did. And being an artist doesn't mean you're a good person, it just means your focused on making something great, that the task at hand, the quality of the thing you're making, is more important to you than the money or other rewards. It's simple, really, deciding to live as artist. It's as simple as rewriting a sentence, instead of moving on."

Problem 1: SEO
      I was telling T-Bear about my etsy dissapointment and his response was "Gotta pump up the SEO, yo." I had no idea what he was taking about because I'm not a marketing nerd. Apparently it stands for Search Engine Optimization. I am still not exactly sure how to fix this problem yet, but I think it revolves around rewriting my sentence. I'm definitely going to make some changes, but I am not sure exactly what those changes are, yet. I think it is going to center around legitimizing my shop-- putting out a real website and taking really good pictures and using higher end materials, but the specifics are not totally worked out. So, my SEO is TBD.  


Problem 2: Uninspired Creation
       I think my focus was on production, not on "making something great." I wanted to make a lot of little things that I could easily reproduce, in the event it sold like hotcakes. I like the jewels- they are cute and fun-- but there are 1.5 million other items just like them out on the etsy universe. I've been super busy between working and moving, and I felt pressure to put out a lot of items out in time for the holiday season, but I didn't have the time to work on anything especially time consuming.


And, I really love the perspective that Stephen Elliott shares in that writing. Its a good reminder to take a take a breath, take a moment, take a step back and make improvements, in every aspect of life. Some people naturally do this. My friend Lindsay (graphic designer) is an example. She adds flourish without thought. I, on the other hand, have to force myself to take the time to make something a little bit more awesome. It's always worth the extra time.

Yo! YoYo Ma!

Driven to Craft

I have been a crafting machine lately. Pinterest compels me to do every awesome craft I see. Yesterday I renewed my love affair with my hot glue gun. I made a wreath out of broken, borderline tacky thrift store broaches that weren't good enough quality to turn into jewelry but that I hadn't had the heart to throw out. (I'll take pics and post them soon, promise.) I also had taped Julie and Julia so I thought it would be fitting to watch it whilst crafting. There was a moment where I stepped outside of my body and realized that I was watching a movie about two women who felt a void in their lives and decided to fill that void with a creative-style hobby while I myself was doing the same. It was a weird realization. Do all women feel compelled to craft or is it limited to a specific type of woman? 

I had another similiar/funny experience when I was in Austin volunterring with the USTA. I was talking with my brother and this was how the conversation went:

him: I like that bag you are carrying. Did you make it?

me: No.... why? 

him: I don't know... I just randomly ask if you make everything. Usually you do, and then you go into a rant about how you made it and get all excited and its funny to watch it happen. 

me: really?!?!

him: yeah, remember yesterday when I asked you if you made that ring and you went on for a few minutes about the type of silver you used and how you hammer it and stuff? I do that all the time. you just never noticed because the answer is always "yes."

me: oh.... ha.

Anyway, I miss doing crafts with you. Come back to Texas so that we can play together. TBear agrees-- We talked the other day about how you need to come visit soon. Are you coming to Austin over the holidays? Maybe I/we can drive to ATX to see you. And I still owe you a trip to NY.

"Le Parc" - Angelin Preljocaj

For the Modern Day Princess

It's time.

The Best American Comedy Piece Written By A Woman

When my friend Katherine and I get together, we drink wine and talk about our feelings. Sometimes, if the mood strikes her, she will undergo a reading-- This means that she will read me something that she recently thought was crazy awesome (I accept the fact that this may sound super nerdy of us... I don't care. I think it is really really fun and one of the bazillion reasons why I love Katherine. She is like my own personal CliffNotes.). Last time, I saw her, she read me a selection from Erica Jong's Fear of Flying. I also requested that she re-read my all-time favorite reading, which is an essay printed in 2010's The Best American Nonrequired Reading. (It was originally submitted to a fantastic website called The Rumpus.)

The Best American Comedy Piece Written By A Woman

by Wendy Molyneux

The other day while sounding out the words on a Web site called The Rumpus, I saw this article asking for women to submit more comedy pieces. So I put down my giant chocolate bar, stopped crying, and thought, yes, that is what I will do. I will write a comedy piece. But just as I sat down in my bay window (filled with pillows that I knitted myself while waiting by the phone for potential husbands to call) and opened my pink Mac laptop, I happened to see a lady walking down the street with a baby of her very own.

So then I started crying again because I don’t have a baby. I cried big rolling tears that fell down onto my “Mrs. Stamos” T-shirt that I purchased off of eBay and photographed myself in for my eHarmony profile. I always say, “Dress for the job you want,” and the job I want is being Mrs. John Stamos! So, once my shirt was soaked, I had to go change it. I walked into my closet, which is gigantic because women love to wear lots of expensive clothes and shoes all the time, and I thought, “I know what will make me feel better! I will feel better if I try on all my clothes and shoes to the tune of an upbeat Motown song such as ‘My Girl.’”
And so I did that. I tried on all my clothes, and I felt better until I tried on one pair of pants that didn’t fit me anymore. And then I totally started to cry again, because I am so fat.  I cried for a little while on the floor while my cats crawled all over me, purring and being symbols of how lonely I am. My cats love to be symbols of my loneliness. Sometimes, I have to be like, “Stop signifying so loudly guys, I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy!”

At this point I still had not written my comedy piece written by a woman. So I went back to the window, opened my pink computer again and looked at pictures of cute baby ducks for awhile until I felt like writing. But then I remembered that I hadn’t made anything for dinner! Every night, I like to make an elaborate dinner. Then, I set it on the table and open all the windows. My fondest hope is that the wafting smells of a home-cooked meal will lure men who are passing by to come inside and eat dinner. And then after they eat dinner, I hope they’ll eat something else. If you know what I mean. Get it? Eat something. I mean dessert. I want them to eat dessert. Because the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Also, they are always leaving the toilet seat up! Am I right?

Anyway, twelve hours later after I had cooked, baked, cried, sewn a blanket for my hope chest, called a telephone psychic, had all my favorite Cathy comic strips laminated, and then stayed up all night trying on all my clothes and shoes again, I finally felt ready to write my comedy piece. I decided to start by asking myself, “What’s funny?” That is a tough one for me because I have no sense of humor. I mean, I assume that I have no sense of humor because all of the funny things that are made especially for women like me, such as Sex and the City, 27 Dresses, and yogurt commercials don’t even make me laugh. But I guess my humor deficiency is one of those womanly crosses I have to bear, along with P.M.S., making seventy cents on the dollar, and paying for my own rape kit. You know what they say though, you can’t make the willing pay for their own rape kits! I think they say that. Probably somebody said that. God knows I didn’t say it myself! I only say things like: “What are numbers?”

Oh, there I go again on one of my tangents. I guess it’s time for me to get serious about writing this comedy piece. Emoticon. I mean, I probably shouldn’t even try to write a comedy piece since Christopher Hitchens wrote an article in Vanity Fair saying that women just aren’t funny. He’s probably right. And even if he isn’t, I think it’s great that we live in a country where you can say anything you want, like that women aren’t funny or that Christopher Hitchens is a huge douche who runs a successful child pornography business and has an inability to get an erection unless he’s reading Nazi literature.

Well, would you look at that? I’ve totally run out of time, and now instead of writing a comedy piece, I have to go report to my regular day job knitting tampon cozies and being best friends with everybody.

Oh well, I probably would have been terrible at it anyway.

Thrift Times Five

Twas a thrift Storgesborg Saturday today! Found two new shops and went to 3 locations of major chain thrift stores. I plan on writing later about why I love thrift stores and stores that have nonprofit missions, but I wanted to get this down while it's still fresh in my mind!

1. City Opera Thrift Shop: An artistic 2-story building in Gramercy with everything from opera stage costumes to gently used designer fashions. Prices are higher than goodwill or salvation army, but the atmosphere and music make up for that. Billie Holiday was overhead singing "What a little moonlight could do" and it was as if I wasn't thrifting, but just in a fancy woman's closet!

2. Cauz for Pauz Thrift: I'm so glad I stumbled on this shop! Not only do I love the cause, or "cauz" rather, I must've tried on at least a dozen blouses and dresses and was so impressed by their inventory. Prices are on par with Goodwill, about $7.99 for a blouse, but you don't have to go hunting and searching for nice things like you have to do in those stores. Friendly staff too! (Animal people are the best). This is definitely going to become a staple in my thrifting diet.

3. Goodwill Thrift Store: Not my best decision to hit up this one AFTER I had the boutique experience. I wish I would've gone to Goodwill first so that my shopping stamina would've been higher, but oh well. Found the usual discarded H&M tops and REALLY worn Steve Madden shoes, but nothing worth taking home.

4. Salvation Army: Less fun than Goodwill. Couldn't find ANYTHING worth taking a second look at. In fact, the drab atmosphere and floral 80s blouses made me turn on my heels and get the heck out of there.

5. Housing Works: Just when I thought my thrifting Saturday was done, I stumbled on the Gramercy Housing Works. About two months ago, I capitalized on Housing Work's "Best of Fall" sale and found an amazing Miu Miu purse, but I didn't have the same luck today. I felt like I was swimming in sea of boxy, 3/4-length jackets and let me tell you, it made me sea sick.

Nice People Make Things

Jokes.com
Dov Davidoff - Finding a Nice Girl
comedians.comedycentral.com
Jokes Joke of the Day Funny Jokes

No explanation needed. Nice people Make Things

It's tricky to rock a rhyme...

Mary Poppins: Our first game is called 'Well Begun is Half Done'.

Michael: I don't like the sound of that.

Mary Poppins: Otherwise titled, 'Let's tidy up the nursey'.

Michael: I told you she was tricky.

All Aboard the Handsome Express

I've been trying to coin the nickname "the Handsome Express" for Rick Perry, but so far it hasn't really caught on. But, in fairness, the only people I really talk to are my boyfriend and my mom, so the moniker hasn't gotten the exposure it deserves.


Think of all the great headlines this nickname could create:

• The Handsome Express derails
• The Handsome Express is a trainwreck
• The Handsome Express: final stop is the White House
• Oprah and Clooney ride the Handsome Express 

Let's face it: Rick Perry is ruggedly, Texas-y handsome. We can Ponzi Scheme together, any time he wants.

If you like it, then...

Add this to places where I get to do this dance!

Jet-Lagging Behind

I am still so tired from my Italy trip... and the work is piling up... I definately have a case of the Mondays...

Marilyn Monroe has thought bubbly too

The Girl (The Seven Year Itch):

"Hey, did you ever try dunking a potato chip in champagne? It's real crazy!"

Never before seen photos-1953 -Huffington Post

TGIF? No. FML.

I didn't have a care in the world strolling into work at 9am today...

Except when I realized I was supposed to be there at 8am.


Must remember to look into dog training classes specializing in personal assistantship and owner scheduling.

Good Advice

The Rumpus: Dear Sugar

Does "pterodactyl" really need the "p"?

The isle of Capri, Italy.

It was amazing.

It looked like an Italian Jurassic Park.

Happy Birthday Blog!

Happy Birthday Blog!

Now we have a place for all the thought bubbly that spills from our bottles...and heads.