spooks

Thanks, Meesh/Jumi/Dan for hosting Halloween and aren't Poseybooth pictures good?

#phillyphotoday13

Guess what day it is?  Philly Photo Day.

That means (same as last year, and the year before....) take a picture anywhere in Philadelphia, any time today, and send it in.  Philadelphia Photo Arts Center will print it, and it will be in an exhibit up at Crane Arts (I think in November).

(this isn't a picture I'm sending in, but it's an outtake from other blog, standing in for The Picture. I'll take the right picture soon, the day is young.)

This project started a few years ago, and every time I've been to the exhibit, there are a million more pictures than the time before, which is cool.  It's a little like IRL Instagram (so: cats, selfies, skylines, etc) but also a little better.
Get yours in this year.  Then we can go to the show and drink wine and look for our pictures on the wall and dodge people we don't want to see.

(Oh, and bonus big deal: PPAC had a successful Kickstarter for this project, and will be posting 40 Photo Day photos on billboards this year.  That's cool.)

the Diaphone-in

Last week, our pals the Diaphone played upstairs at KFN, with some of our other friends and some strangers.

Aside from an embarrassing trip-up with the door boy, it was all really nice. You can listen to their music here.

kitschy-kitchy

I'm at home today, waiting on Urban Outfitters worst business move (a delivery company called "LASERSHIP").  With time on my hands and leftover spaghetti in my belly, I'm sorting through recent pictures, organizing them in the best way I know how*, by room.



Things that are going on in my kitchen lately.  (Not cooking.)

Getting cats out of cabinets, Halloween props, and out-takes from my other blogging gig.

*jk, sort of.

eShakti (a plug, but a real one)

If you've seen me lately, I've probably raved on eShakti to you.  I got into it through someone else's blog, what seems like a billion years ago*, and have been totally stoked on it since.

Here's the first dress I got from them. Seersucker.  Good, yeah?

They make these great, vintage-y dresses, and here's my favorite parts:

• great quality, fully lined(!) dresses
• full skirts (think Betty Draper, early years)
• there is always a sale, and usually a good one
• $25 off your first order ($30 now!)
• custom sizing, as in made-for-you, what-are-your-measurements
• customization (you want cap sleeves? a longer skirt?)
• pockets on everything so far
• details like fabric buttons, and great embroidery

I've gotten three so far that I like a lot.  (Disclosure. I also got one I didn't like. No big.  Sent it back, and got a credit for the full amount plus 20%).  They're like the dresses you just dream of finding at a thrift store or Anthropologie's basement, but if you do find it, it doesn't fit great, or has a gross stain or something.

Anyway: as part of their referral program, you can use my link and get $30 off (instead of $25) and I get a credit with them.  Do it. Try one out.

I have only two non-raves about them. First is that shipping is a little pricey, (because of overseas? I don't know) but they sometimes do free shipping promotions, so maybe that will happen again soon.  You could fill your cart, and wait for it.  Second non-rave, the website is a little crazy to navigate (a lot of sorting the good from the bad) but you'll figure it out.

Try a dress.  If you end up needing a code (but I don't think you will?) try "liedke32cy".

This buffalo plaid one is my favorite one.

*probably more like 3 months ago

haunts

Perhaps fueled by the season, or by a recent Apartment Therapy post, or by my recent (re)foray into the world of Scully and Mulder*, I went on a (very short) journey to find out who used to live in my house.

In case you haven't been to my South Philly house, it's this big old victorian on Broad Street - now cut up into four apartments. It's cool to think about when it was a single family home, and who lived here, and what was life on Broad Street like.  (I also like thinking about how all people who have lived here in the past hundred(+) years have probably had New Year's Day parties because of the prime location for the Mummer's parade.)

Anyway, thanks to the recent(?) digitalization of the 1940 census, it's fairly easy to get a little info on who lived here (or anywhere) that year. In this case, Mary and Christine Hehl, single ladies, college grads (!) who apparently never married (or had jobs).  WHAT DID THE TWO OF THEM DO IN THIS GIANT HOUSE!  As a single, underemployed girl myself, I feel pretty connected to them.  Did they too spend afternoons getting coffee on Passyunk?

Did a little backtracking, and these girls always lived in this house, so far as I can tell.  At this (1940) point, they're in their late sixties.  So the next question is, what happened to Mom (also "Mary Christine") and German transplant Dad?  Died.  In the house!  Spooky!

This is what I do now.  (The hardest part is always reading the cursive.)

*I'm not totally sure how Scully and Mulder fit in, but I think they do.  I watch it and am inspired to research things and come to goofier conclusions than normal.

lucky day

In between jobs today I found this big ole crystal (?) in the free box at the Aids Thrift.  Gonna find a good spot for it so it will shoot some good lasers my way.

Then, I found this cool lion mug, which lord knows isn't the best mug in my life, but is still pretty cool.

Smoke 'Em

Here's a little video recap of a recent event at Yards, where you can spot yours truly* slo-mo pouring beer and walking around in a professional manner.

*and probably like seven other people you know.

polka-dot fridge

Sometimes I order stuff on the internet, then I forget about it, and THEN it's at my door when I get home.  Best*!

Today I got some matte gold vinyl.  

In case you don't know, or in case you can't tell in these pictures, I have the ugliest fridge in the world. I wish I had some before-before-before pictures (it was white, and covered in rust).  Then I tried patterned blue contact paper (hated it), considered a lot of different paint colors, and (on the suggestions of several dinner attendees) landed on matte black paint (which has also gotten very rusty).  

Here's my plain-but-rusty fridge.

This is the vinyl I got in the mail, and my favorite craft-tool, a 2 1/4" circle punch.

Here's the circles I cut - as many as I could get from a 12x24" sheet of vinyl.  It cost $2.99 on Amazon. This is the second time I've used vinyl film, and it's way cooler than contact paper: like a hundred times thinner, and just as easy to re-position or remove.  Definite recommend.

A little measuring, and 20 minutes later, and I sucessfully made my kitchen even busier than it was. Phew.

*usually.

chores and quotation marks

Feeling grown-up.  I am so excited that it is trash day.

Last Tuesday was trash day, and I was traipsing around Rochester thrift stores so the trash didn't get out.  Now it's so gross.

This is what I blog about.  Gross, yeah?

In other news, I got "interviewed" about the government shutdown today.  I said the dumbest thing, and it's going to be there in the neighborhood paper, with my picture.  COOL.  (It all happened so fast, and will be delivered to your doorstep next week.)  Whoops.