I’ve Been Busy
Some very few readers (Jessica) have probably noticed that I haven’t been posting as regulary as I used too, or as I would like. My job has recently gotten more demeaning demanding, so I don’t have as much time for fun things, like sleeping and breathing. I am still your wonderful, amazing, beautiful, intelligent, modest Clever Chick, and I will continue to post as often as possible.
My Sis, Beans
I know I am constantly telling you all how amazing and hilarious my sister is. We didn’t always get along when we were young, but now she’s one of my best friends. We are constantly stalking each other through the internet, and now I have one more option: she has finally started a blog!
It’s called My Wildhood, and it is awesome. Not only is she hilarious, she’s full of all kind of useful information. She focuses more on nature and the outdoors, while I focus on crafting and sitting down. Enjoy stalking Beans as much as I do.
New Look
You may have noticed that the look of the blog has changed. I’ve been on word press, blogging regularly for a year now, and I decided I was not feeling the dark maroon. I wanted something bright, happy, and fun, so now we have the “Fresh Bananas” theme. I hope you all like it, and can find all the little buttons and other important things. Leave a comment, if you can find where to click.
Blogs I love: Sugar Lily
My friend, Liane, has been making gorgeous, delicious cakes forever, and apparently enough of us continually harassed her for her to actually turn it into a business! She has a blog showing all her amazing treats. I LOVE the Van Gogh Starry Night cupcake cake! Check it out:
Swap is my new favorite word
Thank God for Facebook, because my friends hear about the coolest things. Kathy Phan of kathyphantastic posted a link for a style bloggers conference. Believe me, I am aware I don’t fit into that category. But, they were having a clothing swap as part of their event, and I definitely fit into the “Cheap as all get out” category.
My friend Jessica and I showed up at the place, somewhere down on 2nd. Jessica was driving, and I was looking for parking spots, so I didn’t pay much attention to where we were. It was one of those gorgeous, Austin-y nights that we cherish around here. You stand outside, feel the clean, fresh air on your skin, and everyone in the city seems to be in a good mood (but don’t move here, it’s terrible).
We dropped off our clothes to be sorted, and paid our $5 cover charge. That may seem odd, but there were actual employees, or volunteers of some kind organizing everything, and the amount of loot I got far outweighed the $5, which is what I was counting on with a bunch of fashion people donating clothes. Here’s what I made off with:
Super comfy, casual, and very flattering on me:
Jessica initially grabbed this, and apparently I made too many “jokes” about stealing it, so she generously gave it to me!
This is a close up on the pattern:
This one is super hot on me! And it’s a nice long shirt, but it doesn’t look like maternity wear! Double win!
Yes, this one is electric orange. If anything, the camera dulled the color. But it was free and fits me really well. We’ll see how often I wear it, but I figured, no harm in going outside my usual color pallette.
I know those of you who know me are saying, “What? A dress? Surely, you can’t be serious!” I am serious, and it looks cute on me! And it’s comfortable! And don’t call me Shirley! (Hey-yo!)
I’m not completely sure about this one, but something about it just said “awesome”.
This one is backless, and the brand is “Rocker Stalker”. That cracked me up, plus it’s super soft. I definitely gravitated toward cotton that has been washed a lot.
It’s hard to tell on the hanger, but this is a super cute 1950′s style halter top! SCORE!!
This one, I’m not going to lie, is a mumu. I liked the fabric, and in the frenzy I just grabbed it. Jessica has tried to convince me that by wearing it with a belt, it will look fine, but I’m still not sure. This may reappear in another post, such as “How to turn a mumu into something a real person would wear”.
This dress, even though it says size 6, fits me PERFECTLY! It’s very 1950′s, which is my favorite era for clothing. Double SCORE!
This is one of those ambiguous “is it a shirt, is it a dress” type things. This is the back. It fits me really well down to my hips, then everything gets horrific. I’m planning on this becoming just a long T-shirt, so hopefully that will be a future post as well.
You didn’t think I forgot accessories, did you? Cute quilty hippy purse made me think a small project like this would be a great way to learn how to quilt. Hmmm… third post?
Look at the cute!!
This was my favorite find of the day, and all by itself was totally worth the $5 admission. An orange pea coat!!! And it fits me like a glove. I know it may not be everyone’s taste, but when I saw this across the room, I would have punched people to get it. Fontunately, there were no cat fights.
So I got rid of clothes I didn’t want, got a bunch of new to me clothes, and the leftovers were given to charity. Plus all the t-shirts have already been washed to super-softness. Win, win, win, win!! It’s gotten me thinking about having my own swap at the house, instead of a garage sale. Or maybe a virtual swap, where I take pictures and post everything on Facebook for my buddies to check out. Anyone interested?
What I Learned from Tyra
Now that Tyra Banks’ talk show is no longer on the air, I’m not sure how to feel about it. She definitely tried to throw substance into the show, and cover issues that mattered, even if her handling of situations was not the best (her in a fat suit on blind dates accusing men of disliking her because she was fat was really uncomfortable, and seemed staged). I’m working during the day, so I never watched much of her show personally. I mostly just saw clips from The Soup, which were HIGH-larious! I did, however, glean a couple useful bits of information from her.
Bras: Bras are hard to choose. You can’t just grab the cutest and be done with it, despite what Victoria’s Secret would have us believe (SIDERANT: No more jokes about “Well, I guess Victoria’s Secret is out!” That’s not clever. It is obvious and boring, so please stop. Everyone has now been officially notified, so anyone making jokes similar to this in the future may be pummeled with oranges until they repent. END SIDERANT).
First, you have to know your cup size, which I think you get by trial-and-error (I may have missed the start of the episode). The around your body part, the 34, or 38, etc, is tricky also. It is supposed to be below your shoulder blades. If yours is riding up constantly, you need a SMALLER size, not a larger one. This is also what can cause the top of the bra cups to flop forward. When you are picking out your bra, you also need to make sure this part fits you firmly on the LOOSEST setting (the Courtney Love setting? ooh! Burn!) Bras tend to stretch over time, so you can use the tighter clasps as time goes on.
Another hint I learned from a friend working at a lingerie shop, is never put them through the dryer, and try to hand wash them as much as possible. That keeps the cups from doing that thing where they get all bizarre and lumpy, seemingly with nothing inside to make lumps from. Is it the work of an evil sorcerer? I don’t know, but I do know that reshaping, and then allowing bras to air dry seems to foil his dark spells.
Lips: I get chapped lips like nobody’s business, for no apparent reason. I have tried all kinds of chap-sticks and lip salves, and glosses, but not much helped. Tyra showed that using your tooth brush to brush your lips gently helped remove all that horrible dead skin, and make your lips nice and soft. I took this a step further. When I go to bed at night, I put on a thick coating of chap-stick. This soaks in overnight, and makes the dead skin soft, and easier to remove in the morning when I brush my teeth and lips. Huzzah! It works better than anything I’ve ever tried.
I hope all of this helps some of you. I apologize for the lack of Christmas craft posts. There is a lot of crafting going on around here but a) much of it is gifts I don’t want people to see online before they get them, and b) my computer is still dead, and I have no idea if my camera is compatible with this Mac, or how to make that happen. On another side note, I keep getting questions about how to comment. There’s a little button at the bottom of each post that says Leave a Comment, right down there mixed in with all the tags, and the published date. It’s hard to see, but it’s there, and I do read, and generally respond to all comments, so keep them coming. Maybe you yahoos can give me some ideas instead of making ME do all the work. I’m a lazy person, or haven’t you figured that out yet??
Blogs I Love: Hyperbole and a Half
As you all should know by know, my computer, Carl, is out of commission. The poor little guy struggled against the virus as hard as he could, but he’s been put into a medical coma until a cure can be found. As a result, all my crafting pictures are completely unreachable for the forseeable future. I am also currently swamped with work and Christmas related madness, so today I’m foisting you off onto someone elses blog. Yes, it’s lame. We will be back to our regular programming shortly (hopefully?).
Anyway, hyperbole and a half is completely hysterical, so much so that I almost don’t want to send you all there. Please, don’t forget me!
Pixel Pop Fest
Back in July, my dear friend and fellow blogger Kathyphantastic told me about this event at Mohawk called the Pixel Pop Party. I had no idea what was going to happen, but Kathy always finds cool stuff, so I was totally on board.
This was totally my kind of event! They had arts and crafts for sale, and make your own buttons, and t-shirts! I made an Indiana Jones button, and my awesome wrist band is recycled t-shirt, and iron-on fabric. Not to brag, but I cut that all out by hand.
They also had awesome photo booths set up for FREE. You know free is my best friend, so we jumped right in. The whole night was Super Hero themed, hence my “POW” bracelet above, and the gloves and capes below:
Epic
That’s me and Hubby looking totally wicked on the right. Thanks to Trevor Ray for making me look so badass. Annie Ray, the other photographer did an amazing job as well. Both of these people had booths set up in crowded areas, but Annie’s was right by the bar, and look at the results:
Super hot, right?? I mean damn! I want to hire her to follow me around all the time! That looks so good I forgot what else I was going to blog about. Oh right, FOOD.
After the party, Hubby and I followed Kathyphantastic and her man, Fire Hair several blocks to eat out of a trailer. In case you hadn’t heard, trailer food is all the rage here. Austin freakin’ loves a taco truck. This one was totally worth the hike.
You read that right: Korean Mexican fusion. Oh yes. I had the tofu taco. It was stunning. I didn’t take a picture because I INHALED it. It was a bit spicy, but it burns so good…
We also saw random creepy guys in body suits while driving around. Austin has its share of weirdos (“You’re kidding!” “Nope, totally serious”). And here are two of them:
You can barely see him, but there’s a guy in an orange body suit next to the green guy. The evening wouldn’t be complete without some freaks. Someday, when I think you’re ready, I’ll show you Leslie. He’s a local treasure! And yes, he has his own wikipedia page. This place is wild!
FINALLY!
A new post! What have I been up to lately? Well, let me give you the rundown of my adventures in blogging. Maybe not adventures, more like giant crap balloons of frustration.
First of all, Hubby and I ripped out the carpet and redid the floors back in July. It took several weeks for the whole process to be completed, and to then get the furniture back where it goes. My computer, Carl, was out of commission for quite a while.
Once I plugged Carl back in, nothing happened. Would not start. It made that “Rrr, Rrr” noise cars make when they are trying to start, but to no avail. Roomie Matt, the computer expert was MIA for a week or so, leaving Carl in the lurch. I mean, what was he doing, WORKING? How dare he? Doesn’t he know fixing my computer should be his top priority? (Anytime I hear the phrase “how dare he?”, it always sounds just like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when Indy and Elsa are trying to sneak into that castle, and Indy is pretending to be a Scottish Lord. Hahahah! …*crickets*… What, just me?)
So we finally got the new power source installed, and Carl was up and running. Huzzah! I managed to upload the entire gig of photos I’d been hauling around on my camera, and I even added a couple to the blog.
What happened next to destroy my equilibrium? Blog.com decided it hated me. Every single thing I clicked on led to a “Bad Gateway” error. Someone is probably going to read this and have a simple fix for that problem, but by then, it was too late (plus I don’t like knowing I did a bunch of work for no reason, so keep your magic solutions to yourself, smarty pants). I had witnessed the greatness that is wordpress (knock on wood!) and I could not go back to the awfulness and lack of features that is blog.com.
Even then, nothing was simple. I started my new blog here, but wordpress does not own blog.com, so I could not transfer everything over with the click of a mouse. Nope, I copied and pasted every single entry you see here over from blog.com. That meant hitting refresh a minimum of THREE TIMES on each entry before it would load, and on the home page, and through the archives. It has taken me about a week. I still don’t have everything how I want it yet, but it is definitely an improvement.
My only regret is that I lost all my comments. As far as I know, there is no way to transfer them over. I apologize to you 4 loyal readers who have followed me through the series of tubes we call the internet. I think it will be worth it though. That gig of photos is destined to be uploaded here, which will create massive entertainment for all of my minions. I hope to not have any more giant periods of absence. Thanks to anyone that reads this, and keep reading because I am highly entertaining.
Spammer-Rama
When I started this blog, I never expected a high amount of traffic. This is mostly for my own fun, and ego. I have gotten way more hits than I ever expected, but, of course, they are spammers. Karma wouldn’t want me to get a big head, now would it? I honestly don’t mind, because most of the spam comments are so ridiculous I end up laughing my self retarded, then I snort, which is embarassing.
All of these are posted randomly, and I have not edited anything in them. They are truly (truly!) that ridiculous.
“Give you free coffee gifts”
“Good journey and experience!”
“One again, your idea is very good.thank you!very much.”
“Such delicious food!Let me have large appetite!It is pity that I can’t cook such good food. Obviously I don’t have such high technology.”
“Good blog! I actually love how it’s uncomplicated on my eyes and the facts is well written. I am wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which must do the trick! Have a nice day!”
“how can I check if the battery can handle it?” (I have no idea what this is supposed to be referring too, and I don’t know if I should be disturbed)
“Book marked your internet site. Appreciate giving. Definitely value the time from our reports.”
“Just wished to mention I seriously appreciate your work on this blogging site and the high quality posts you make. These type of post are generally what keeps me personally going through the day. I uncovered this post right after a excellent good friend of my very own suggested it to me. I perform a little blogging myself personally and I am always grateful to see others giving good quality information towards the community. I most certainly will definitely be following and now have added your web site to my facebook account for others to check out.” (A friend of your very own?? I’m jealous)
“I usually don’t post in Blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful …” (COMMENT ON MY BLOG!! COMMENT!!!)
“Vertaa pikalainaaan päätös lainojen saada paras käsitellä – Kun verrataan lainat varmista voit tarkastella huolellisesti todellinen vuosikorko sekä tarkistamalla lisämaksuja. (This one is apparently in Finnish, according to google translator, and yes, it’s spam).”
“My English is not good, but to see the article you write a good feel of your (I didn’t miss any of this with copy & paste. That’s really how it ends)”
“It is so tasty just when smelling!Unfortunately I can’t take it immediately.It is OK if there is such a food plaza.”
And my favorite, most random spam:
Blogs I Love: EPBOT
From the creator of cake wrecks, comes a new, nerd-tastic blog, Epbot. It has the same hilarity, but allows her to focus more on geekdom not in cake form. Enjoy while I’m still in the transition period of replacing our floors! My computer will be up and running soon, I swear!
