The Biden Photo That Applies to Everything

I've been having a very phone-based-stress-filled  week.  It started when my phone decided to have a hardware malfunction that is irreparable, then slightly improved when I got a good deal on a replacement phone that has double the storage size.  Today, however, it took a nose dive when my phone company cut my service because I hadn't paid 200 dollars worth of charges I was promised I wouldn't have to pay until the end of my billing cycle, which is May 28th. After paying 110 of that to reconnect my service so I could call and ask why I'd been shut off, I got absolutely no answers as to why I was charged this at this time, and just basically had what I asked repeated back to me. I called again, asking when I was expected to pay the remaining 100 dollars, so I don't have my service unexpectedly cut again. This time I was told the remainder of the charge wouldn't be due until May 28th, the date I was originally told. Hopefully, this will hold true because all bills are due on Friday, and I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel.

ANYWAY, in other non-whiney news, I finished a custom order of state stuffies for my roommate!

Diabetic Owls

Aside from working in an environment where there isn't a pre-designated cry area in the back room, one of the main benefits of my current job is being able to rent books.  I used to have at least 15 books checked out at a time when I worked at the big store, but when  I transferred to a specialty location, I had planned on trying to keep that number to a minimum. Or, at least not renting books from the main store and just sticking to my store and the 'general interest' store on the same side of town (three doors down actually). But, alas, the main store is where all the literature and history books are, and the smaller location has a selection that matches it's size. So, I still shlep all these books back and forth on the bus. 

I was downtown last week returning some of my rentals when I remembered it was the release date for David Sedaris' newest book Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls. I was introduced to David Sedaris' work when I was in middle school by my grandpa. I'd been an avid writer by then  for several years, and his style came along at the right moment.  It was a time when I was being told by teachers the only acceptable thing for young people (girls) to want to write was melodramatic teen-centric fiction. I wrote differently, and was tired of being told to rewrite because it wasn't serious enough, or wasn't poetry, the other acceptable thing for girls to write.  Reading Me Talk Pretty One Day showed me that other people wrote satire successfully, and more over, there was an audience for it. Ha! Imagine that!

New Tags!

I made new product tags for my stuffies! I've made a couple different business card type things in the past, and I like these the best!  I need to get more black ink for my printer (if it's not one thing, it's another), then I'll be able to print some up in business card size.

Estate Sale-ing

Sunday,  I went with some work buddies to a flea market and an estate sale! I'd never been to an estate sale before, and it was definitely strange. Easily 95% of the house was full of pigs- pigs in the kitchen, pigs in the garden, not to mention one if the most terrifying pig/doll hybrids I've ever seen.


The flea market was much more successful. I'm not in any position to spend money, but I did get a banjo brooch and a Trees of Mystery pennant for well under my ten dollar budget!  There were several booths that had great political buttons, but the one I really wanted (CARTER on top of a peanut!) Was just out of my range.  I was also surprised by the number of Nixon memorabilia. In Humboldt County, I usually found an abundance of Reagan and Bush I stuff, but it was Nixon out the ass here. Weird!


 

                             

Sam the cat getting in the way of my trying to take a picture of it on my wall.

Friendly Oregons

 

It's looking like I'm getting at least one opportunity to start selling my Friendly Oregon stuffies in a physical store!

I'm heading to the craft store tomorrow to stock up on more felt and am going to get cracking on cranking out some backstock!  I've been looking for something to try and sell in some local stores, but my dolls are just too time consuming for me to be able to make enough stock to sell places other than my etsy.   I made a few of these guys a while ago, but never really did anything with them.  

I may be still coming up empty on the second job front, but this is some exciting news that I really needed!

Keep Cool My Babies (Midweek Favorites)

Yesterday was Conan O'Brien's 50th birthday, and I'm dedicating this week's midweek favorites to my favorite Conan bits from over the years.

I started watching Conan when Comedy Central started airing syndicated episodes in 2002 and quickly became my favorite late night host, and all-around comedian. Most of my favorite bits are hard to find online, so here's a selection of the ones I could find!



Conan helps out with the Transit Strike

 
Conan rides horses with Martha Stewart

 
 Conan takes Jordan Schlansky to dinner



 
My absolute favorite of all time, 1864 Baseball

Honorable mentions that I love but can't find online:
Cactus Chef Playing We Didn't Start the Fire on the Flute
Conan and Slash answer Craigslist ads
Conan interviews the Devil
Conan learns Speed Skating

EDIT:
WAIT I FORGOT PALE MALE!!

Costuming Bugs

While doing some research for a few stuffies I have in the works, I accidentally  fell ass-backwards into the world of costuming blogs!  I used to do some very, very basic historical costuming (like three things total over four years ). Due to limited resources and time, my favorite part was doing the research  and collecting images of the costumes I wanted to recreate, over the actual making bits. When you live in a one-Joanns-town, and work in the photo department of a pharmacy, it’s hard to get your hands on materials, money, and time to actually get down and make something out of the folders upon folders of saved images I had hoarded over the years.  I’ve always really admired those who were talented and dedicated enough to get shit done and make something! Also, super jealous of those who had somewhere to wear what they’ve made. It’s one of the reasons I love making my stuffies so much- I can make a range of costumes for limited money and time, and if I’m lucky, someone will buy them, so no storage!

Anyway, I feel like compared to a few years back when I was really into it, there are a ton more resources and blogging formats around now, which is a real double edge sword to someone like me.  Yay, more access to information! Boo, more time for me to waste! Either way, I’ve been suckered back into spending way too much time gleaning over costumes I wish I could make.

One of my main issues is that I don't have a "specialty" era, or even a favorite time period. In the past, I've been specifically interested in 18th century, dabbling in Civil War and Victorian, but right now I'm really feeling 19teens and '20s! Argh, who am I kidding, I love it all.

Here is a tiny tiny sampling of some outfits I've been storing away in the back of my mind.

Twill tailored suit with satin collar & corded bands. (1918)

I've lost the information on this one, but I believe it was either a tennis or sporting dress. Stripes!!!

High Styled Black Wool Bodice, c. 1900

1885-88 American tennis, yachting or seaside dress

Military Uniform | Metropolitan Museum | c. 1916-1918

 Middy Blouse, Sears Roebuck, 1921

Happiness is... (midweek favorites)

finding a buried  combo box of Day/Nyquill with an expiration date of 07/2014 when you're suddenly sick and too broke to go and buy airborne to fend it off.

Every time Bill Cosby shows up to Late Night, you know it's going to get ridiculous.

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Everything in her shop is amazing, but this Tobias pin reminded me that there's only 44 days left until the Arrested Development premiere ahhhh


Proof that Jack Donaghy really does look like the Arrow shirt man

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Old Gregg stuffies! She also made Hitchers and the Spirit of Jazz. According to her flickr, she has an etsy, but it's empty right now! Super sad.

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Blue Whale necklace, for Alan Davies. It's NEVER the blue whale!!

After making the rounds at the mall applying for jobs I don't want but desperately need, I went down to my favorite local cememtery, Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery.  Despite living in Portland for a while, I've only been to three or four of the cemeteries here and I need to branch out. Lone Fir houses a number of Oregon pioneers, has a ton of interesting gravestones, and has gone under a lot of recent renovations to refurbish the graves that have suffered neglect. Not to mention, they had the original "Grave Matters" tour that my home cemetery... borrowed and put on the past three years.  I was hoping to go to the Portland tour this past Halloween, but they cancelled it for 2012. I really really hope they do it this year! I have infiltrating to do!

Anyway,  I had originally wanted to take pictures today, but it was so dark and grey that only a handful came out. I've mixed them in with some I took at the end of last year.

time wasting request

I wish Pinterest had a "bulk edit" option, because sometimes 200 pins in, I decide the board would be better broken up into sub-categories and spend the next two hours hand moving pins around.


A day in the life.

Hell's Bells Trudy! (Midweek Favorites)

Welp, clearly, "midweek favorites" has decided to move to "end of week favorites" land on Friday for the past two weeks. But more importantly, Mad Men is coming back on Sunday! I don't have to work, I have AMC, and I'm planning a mean chip'n'dip appetizer for the occasion. Life is happening!

In observance, I'm sharing my favorite midcentury finds from my favorite addiction, Pinterest. The hours I have whiled away on that site are, frankly, embarrassing, but whatever. I really have nothing more going on.

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I can't find a source on this, if anyone knows, I'll add it.

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Yeah, there are two TVs on this list, deal with it.

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This isn't period, but I still want it.

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Philco Predicta TVs are by and large the best TVs that exist, and anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong. This is fact.

In other news, I had another job interview that I'm waiting to hear back on!