So, this is a thing. That my neighbors do. That is in our backyard, sometimes. In my perfect world, I would always be able to walk into the yard and buy a fresh fish taco. However, this being reality, I will settle for being able to do that only some of the time.
It also makes me think, “Dear Child-self- Being a grown up rules.”
My fetching silhouette and one of my (many) heirloom water glasses makes an appearance around 2:27.
One thing that I really love seeing at my day job is how many customers send us photos of themselves in their newest I’m Your Present acquisition. We try to post up as many as we can and I think that it is a really fun way to encourage interaction with our, ahem, “client base”. When I am sewing something up, I generally only find myself thinking about it in the immediate sense. It’s so great to see a later photo of it, styled into an outfit and filled with life and it is even better to celebrate how our clothing fits and looks on all sorts of different ladies (and sometimes dudes!)
photo from jesseanneo.blogspot.com
Sadly, I don’t get as many of these kick backs for With Care, but I have gotten some.
First off, check out Miss Jesse and her sweet clip-on bow tie:
On her blog, she adds a corduroy jacket to the outfit- making her look like a babe-ly modern teddy girl. This little tie sat in the shop for long that I had almost forsaken it! But Jesse is really making me reconsider it’s viability. Dang, girl!
Secondly, last December, right before the beginning of my trunk show, my friend Ashley swooped into the store and nearly bought the place out in a moment of inspired Christmas shopping madness! That crazy lady didn’t even wait for the little foil freshness tab to be pulled from the boxed wine!!!
She sent me this spiffy photo of her brother in his new be-anchored bow tie. That light salmon and wild forest green color combo is a bold move, but he is totally pulling it off! And as she commented, “Big smiles. Small dog.” You know I love ‘em.
So, if you are feeling both spring-y and bow-y check out these new offering from our Department of Springtime Clip-on Foppery:
Seasonal allergies are no excuse for sartorial laziness!
Some people are so turned off by discomfort. As long as it isn’t watery eyes or heat with high humidity, I’d like to think that I have a great ally in that which keeps me from getting too comfy and complacent.
This in no way relates to the “Face Corset” series of works by artist Patrick Hartley.
I love seeing something weird and extreme done really well so that it avoids being schlock-y, niche-y or ham fisted. It’s like the difference between David Bowie as Aladdin Sane and some kid walking around the mall in poorly done corpse paint. Yes, it’s “weird” and “extreme” but those factors are second to just how well realized and produced these physical objects actually are. They came from their own reality where they made perfect sense.
Also, if you ever want to shower me with a big ticket item, a Patrick Hartley dissection set would be right up my alley:
You may enjoy Mr. Hartley’s work at
http://www.paddyhartley.com
http://www.patrickianhartley.com
All images are from www.paddyhartley.com.
Last night, our most precious little dog, Mr. Martin Denny- The Father of Exotica Music, became really lethargic and was acting as if he was in a lot of pain. In the morning, he was still in quite a state. Maybe you are unfamiliar, but I am totally ruled by my dog and can no longer pass judgment on folks who treat their pets like children (untrue. passing judgment is my favorite past time!)
So, after freaking, worrying, and an emergency trip to the vet (which served just as much to make us feel better as it did for the dog), it turned out that Martin has what appears to be a slipped disc in his tiny spine. It should get better over time and, frankly, he’s already disregarding his doctor’s orders of taking it easy for the next month. And I had better not catch him selling his pain meds to the other dogs in the neighborhood.
So, as kind of a super secret sale but also a way to take the edge off of his medical bills, I’m making up a WITH CARE coupon code that will take 9% off of you purchase; a dollar for every little dog pound! Just type in GETBETTERMARTIN when prompted during your check out and Etsy will take care of the rest.
Remember my passing mention of having been to Pittsburgh, PA, USA for a week? Well, I was! And what a fine time it was.
Part of the success of vacationing in a dying industrial hot-spot is to have like-minded travel mates who also want to spend a goodly amount of time riding bicycles up hills as well as be surrounded by abandon buildings, lots of brickwork, the oxidized colors of industrial decay, and loud, sometimes sudden clanging noises. Luckily my buds Meg and Jean are exactly those type of people. And we were doubly lucky to be housed by our New England ex-pat friends Miriam and Jeffery.
Rooflines
Boris, our feline host.
MoGlo Coffee Housing it
Days were spent exploring the area, alone or in groups, and in the evenings we made some real delish meals, played cards, caught lightening bugs, and listened to John Tesh’s AM radio show. A real adult summer camp.
View across the Allegheny River from the front of the house
Serious public stairways everywhere.
Forgive me. I have fallen for painted brick.
We also took a nice bike trip out of the city and down to Braddock, PA. I have every intention of keeping this post to mostly pretty pictures, so I’ll just briefly note that the experience really gave me a good deal to think about regarding historic preservation, city planning, the good/bad influence of accepting corporate hand outs and “what would jane jacobs do”?
Image stolen big time from Tricia Royal/bitsandbobbins.com
I’m also bummed that my camera battery was ready to kick the bucket, so I was only able to take a few photos while I was there. But! searching the vast world of the internet will provide you with tons of other pictures that are probably way nicer than mine. Like this one:
And here, the first Google image search is free.
I stole this from Jean. I do love this shot.
Note that this is the only building in the whole field. Surreal!
More of those great industrial colors.
And just to make it extra long, a few other images of industry from around the area where we stayed.
Turning big pieces of metal into little pieces of metal.
Sign pile
It was such a good trip, I wish that I had allotted more than 6 days. I’ve been there before many, many times, but this was the first time that I was there with the intention of just hanging around and going with the flow. I didn’t even make it downtown. Now that I am map-packing PGH bike and bus wizard, I can’t wait to have more rust belt adventures!
Two weeks ago, I was very suddenly invited to a birthday get together for my wonderful pal, Randy. Suddenly meaning, like, less than 12 hours. Randy’s sense of style is pretty impeccable and brother knows how to wear a bow tie like no one else in town. Considering that I had 4 hours between getting out of work and party time, what better time than to develop a new pattern that I had been mulling through my brain in a Nikola Tesla-type fashion; I had drafted and redrafted clip-on bow tie patterns until I knew I had a winner yet no physical proof of it existed. Luckily, I am a genius and I churned out 4 prototype bow ties and still had enough time to pin my hair up.
Also, I’ve been working on a thing that resembles a personal portfolio-type site:
http://enovak.otherpeoplespixels.com/home.html
I’d consider it a “soft opening” except I’m kinda grossed out by that phrase.
Yuk.
