Live Free or IKEA Hard (and some other boring shit about my life).

Wow, it’s super sad that the last time I updated this blog was a year ago when the last IKEA bus was ready to fly… I was writing for mainetoday.com for a while, and then my life just kind of rolled out of my hands like a rogue ball of yarn and I spent the last year doing “other things.” I painted a house, I wrote some short plays, I painted some terrible self portraits, and I made a lot of pies. Oh, and I watched every single episode of House M.D. Two times. In my bed.  It was a weird year.

And, here I am. I want to start writing again. But, I also want to start jogging again, and obviously that’s gone really well [so fat].

I made a new blog header, and found some less lousy social media icons… I don’t know if I like them, but whatever. Point being, I’m considering a comeback. If one can consider going from single digit to double digit page views a comeback. Or if anyone even notices when a marginally successful blogger rises from the grave…

But, enough of my ellipses and the narcissistic pontifications.

What can I do for you?

I may not have been writing, or doing other blog stuff, but I am still rockin’ the IKEA Bus if you’re interested. Shit is going down on May 31st, and you can buy tickets right here. You can even get out of town delivery if you’re so inclined (and are willing to pay a small fee). You should come. There will be snacks.

Also, if you don’t need any particle board furniture, maybe you want new summer clothes? SwapMaine is up to its old tricks again with our spring swap coming right at your face on May 17th. Come fill up yo sack with all the skinny pants that I have to discard because they’re making me feel bad.

 

 

i want to steal all your clothes.

i’ve been busy.

you know it. but this time i’m not writing to apologize for not posting enough (remember that time i was trying to post every day- what happened to that shit?). this time, i’m writing to let y’all know one of the super secret plots i’ve been hatching all these long months. (ok, and maybe to apologize a little bit for not posting)

anyway, me and a stunning assortment of lady fashion blogger friends have been meeting almost weekly (did you know that the armory has a free cheez plate? you really need to go there) to put together our own CITY WIDE CLOTHING SWAP.

if you’ve never been to a swap before (you should be sad for your loss), it’s basically just a big party where you bring all your awesome clothes that don’t fit you or that you’ve become tired of, and swap them with other people who have better fitting clothes that fill you with excitement.  except that this time, instead of haggling over sensible rayon skirts over 7-layer dip at your lame coworker’s house, you get to paw through the cast offs of all the most fashiony people in portland.

well, at least that’s what we hope.

basically, a swap is only as good as the people who show up with their shit. so please, if your dance card is empty for saturday, the 21st of may, please consider penciling us in. if the people who organized the event are any indication of the quality of the swappables that will be there, this shit is gonna be amazing (do people still say “off the chain”?).

ok, i can’t exactly speak for the quality of my own stuff (i am easily always the worst dressed one at our meetings) but the rest of the ladies all have incredible style, and i know you want what they’re swappin. i know do.

and if the promise of recycling your best hipster finery isn’t enough to get you in the door, let me throw down 2 last points:

thawing out: get ready for springtime craftiness!

this morning, my sun worshiping boss came into the office and said:“i don’t know why ANYBODY likes spring”.

and i was all like: “why you be hatin’ on spring bitch?”

or more accurately, i said: “i like spring.”

and it’s true, i do like spring. it happens to be my favorite season. i like the way it smells, i like to see borders of grass poking out beneath the rapidly receding snow, i love those little rivers that form along the sides of the road when everything starts to melt. to me, spring is hopeful and exciting. as if practically anything could shoot out of the ground with the crocuses.

spring is possibilities.

well, this year  something quite exciting an new is busting through the soil. genius craftstress audrey hotchkiss (of little eye designs) has spent her winter digging up the best in local artsy-craftiness so that next weekend (april 16^th from 10 am to 4 pm), we can all don our light coats and go spend our tax return money supporting amazing local artists.

it’s called THE BIG THAW, and it’s a well tailored collection of mostly etsy-based maine artists with a bit more of an edge than the average family craft fair (sorry grandma joan, we’re gonna pass on the crocheted toilet paper cozies this year). you can get the full vendor list right here, but here’s a little list of my  current top 5 biggest BIG THAW craft crushes:

1. my kingdom for this a new heirloom silk scarf!

2. stunning silk screened potholders from doonyaya. (almost too pretty to get covered in kitchen gunk!)

3. the very best maine t-shirt ever made. (way to go flat out tees!)

4. gulf of maine memory tiles by merchant’s row!

5. perfect dainty bird on wire pendants by high wire handmade.

and i’m a jerk because i didn’t even touch on photos and vintage and handmade beauty products…

you’ll really have to go and see the loveliness for yourself.

so just to reiterate, you should definitely get yo ass over to the mayo street arts center on saturday the 16th of april (that’s THIS SATURDAY)  from 10 am-4 pm to peruse the goods. and if the very sexy arts crafts aren’t enough to entice you, you can come visit me. i’ll be there helping audrey fetch and carry. so please, drop by!

a little round table discussion.

so after my little fashion meltdown yesterday, the very lovely julie hooked me up with a totally amazing online shopping website that i’d never heard of before (i thought i’d heard of everything!). it’s called ruche, and it has an anthropologie-ish feel, while being remarkably cheaper. anyway, it set me to wondering what other awesome shopping websites are there out there that i don’t know about.  that’s where you come in. i thought it would be cool to make list to put up in my list factory section of all the best places we can think of to get nice looking clothes for not too much money. the rules are as follows:

1. no skankwear!

2. sitewide prices should on average be no higher than $100 for a dress or coat.

3. lesser known websites please! (everybody already knows about target)

just to get you started, here are a few of my favorites:

b.b.dakota

fred flare

lulus

modcloth

ruche

now GO! GO! GO!