Little J; Big J

Okay so I was a cute kid. Come on...I was! Look at those baby blues and that adorable little pink gingham outfit!

Okay so while in Atlanta for work I visited the Adora showroom at AmericasMart and I spied this doll and I squealed that's me!



I remembered an easier time in life; a time before bills; before rent; before figuring out all the adult things in life.

A time that I didn’t need to entirely worry about creativey as a means to making a living, but then, after the show I was surprised with a special treat while at work.

That Adora doll, found her way into my cubicle, addressed to me! A doll that says I can name her and adopt her as my own and of course I named her "Little Jolene!"

And I share with you this photo: Little J and Big J. Wow it's kind of like Little Edie and Big Edie, now all we need is a dilapidated house in the Hamptons and a long distant rich relative.

Get Lost!

My Boyfriend Sawyer is back on the beach tonight in the first of eight new episodes! YUM!

Springy and Thrifty

Oh Mother Nature you've been kicking my butt! The winter here has been brutal. But today it was beautiful, it was like a spring day! Probably because it was my dad's birthday!

My dad is the BEST! He's darned cute, funny, and inspiring. He's had a hard time of it as of late and yet through it all he works toward a better future and has lacked any complaining.

I feel bad though as he didn't get my birthday card yet. Oh I think he'll like it: a homemade card telling him how wonderful he is, accompanied with a special sugary treat!

(Dad, if you've read this before getting your package, still pretend to be happily surprised.)

So yesterday Frankie baby and I had quite the day. We tooled around his neighborhood hitting up the dollar store and Family Thrift. And this, even though Mother Nature has been kicking my butt, his how I do good for her.

I love thrifting, the hunt, scoring the cutest stuff for so cheap, and wow wow, the Family Thrift was having a 50 percent off sale; Frank and I were in Heaven! We found such treasures as a blown glass basket perfect for jewels (see upper right), a great men's leather jacket for $3, a 1970's denim coat, a new ladies billfold, uber cute earrings, DKNY jeans that are quite kind to my booty, and so much more. The total bill, after tax, $43, and I'm telling you we walked with like 50 nice items that will be used!

We also got a bunch of cute tees for $1 to $2. These tees were then taken back to Frank's and adorned accordingly.

On the right, you can see this animal print tee I picked up for $2; it was plain when I got it. Thanks to Frank's help, I found this funky iron-on in his collection and he pressed it on the tee for me with his high-tech press!

I also picked up a new nightgown for my collection of vintage gowns, and seriously I should have been born in the 1950s because every gown I pick up seems to fit me perfectly.

There's room for the hips, thighs, and the lacy cups that make my small bosom appear, well, sort of attractive. I love lounging around in these gowns, watching TV, eating chocolate, salsa and chips, and...basically pretending I am Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Eco-friendly and living green are all the range. In learning of people's efforts toward bettering the environment I rarely hear about people purchasing thrift store goods as a recycling effort; most the time these certain people come off a little too snobby, they would never wear an item of clothing that has been worn before!

Green-lifestyle aside, I also just rarely hear of people perusing their local thrift shop for some fun, cheap finds.

For Mother Nature, I say, it's these fun finds that will not only save you money, but contribute to the new green-living lifestyle! I highly recommend it, but um, please steer clear of my fav shops, I'd hate to go there and have those great finds be scooped up already!

Happy shopping!

Forget Juno

So this "indy" film Juno as been receiving a ton of buzz. It even got an Oscar nod, Yay!

This sweet tale was written by a brass, funny "uber cool" chic that even credits my home town of Minneapolis as her living quarters for a few years where she stripped for money and created her quirky tale of a pregnant teen: Diablo Cody. I enjoyed the movie with my mom at the Historic Heights Theatre in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, hometown of my cute mamma! The movie was fun, and yet sometimes awkward, but Michael Cera made up for it all.

That said, the whole actual point of this post is that I don't believe Juno is the indy film that warrants such attention. Okay do the Oscar peeps think they must follow the buzz, find one Indy film that is 'good' and promote it at an Oscar-worthy love fest? Last year it was Little Miss Sunshine, which was pretty damn adorable, but really let me just say...

If you are looking for a wonderful, genius, funny, artsy flick that will have you feeling giddy, laughing inwardly and just thinking A: This is good! and B: This is creative as all get-out, then I highly recommend the New Zealand film Eagle Vs. Shark written and directed by Taika Waititi.

As the plot outline from IMDB states "Eagle vs Shark is the tale of two socially awkward misfits and the strange ways they try to find love; through revenge on high-school bullies, burgers, and video games."

Okay seriously it's too cute for school and as I said before, so inwardly funny! Imagine a party where you dress as your favorite animal; a horse head kicking ass at video ultimate fighting; an absolutely harmless girl nicknaming herself "dangerous person"; a cute, but bizarre, grown man making prank phone calls to a childhood nemesis; awesome use of sleeping bags; and on top of the humor, the quirky story, the likability of the characters, you have some great still photography film work reminiscent of Julian Schnabel's Basquiat—and you will be in awe.

Rent this movie, or, if not, then just consider dressing up as your favorite animal for fun, maybe an eagle, maybe a shark, but keep in mind what Jarrod the Eagle tells Lilly the Shark:

"I almost came as a shark actually, but then I realized an eagle's slightly better."

Yes, I know, I'm wearing the wrong shoes

This was the site from my el stop today as I left for work; can you see my apartment building? It's just two buildings back from the huge hole in the street. A pipe burst at 12:30 am Tuesday. I wear my boots to work everyday; but not today! Argh. Numerous adorable firemen at the scene told me my shoes were all wrong for the day's crazy track to the el. One darling fireman said he'd be happy to find me a cute, young firman to carry me to the station. I'm still at Starbuck's waiting for that fireman. Um It's been like 12 hours...um okay, I guess I 'll take a raincheck.

Make It Work

While working a gift show, it's not surprising—and always delightful—to receive a special gift from a manufacturer. While in the Pet temporaries section of the Atlanta Gift Show earlier this month, pet bed manufacturer, ToPet, gave me a cute kitty pet bed for Miss. Honey. I squealed and was so grateful as I know Miss. H and know she was going to be happy for the enclosed snuggle space.

Since I couldn't pack the bed to take on the plane, I had it shipped along with my media kits and, when I got home, I told Miss. H all about it. She was SO excited!

On Tuesday it arrived at work and I couldn't wait to get it home, but as it turns out I had somewhere to be after work. Mingo and I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, and then for Pizza and wine at Pizzanos in the Goldcoast. Yummy, so the bed would have to hang out at work for the night.

I came home that night and told Honey she'd have to wait just one more day to get snugly in her very own cat bed.

Wednesday came and I knew that was the day Miss. H would get her bed, but alas I received a not-to-resist last minute invite to a yummy crab press event to kick off Dungeness crab season at McCormick & Schmidt's. How could I say no?

I had to leave the bed at work again. But I had the pleasure of devouring crab cakes, crab sushi, crab tamales, crab-achinos, stone crab, blue crab, and all sorts of nummy crab!

Thursday came and I knew today wasn't the day for the bed as Princess Jen and I were off to Quartino's for prosecco and pizza. So I promised Miss H, and myself, that Friday would be the day she would get her bed!

And today I kept my promise.

I brought the bed in and set it up next to the radiator, as you can see above, and I showed it to Miss. H who hurriedly ran over and checked out the new digs. And got herself quite comfortable.

Yes she is suppose to be in the bed, but the poor girl tried so hard to nuzzle and squeeze in and just plain couldn't fit; so she backed out of the bed and made the bed work for her—she's so smart!

Luckily the bed has a zipper to open a side and I used an opposable thumb to open this for Honey and now she is happily inside getting cooked next to the radiator.

Hmmmmm tomorrow I will have kitty souffle, feel free to join me!

Ice Cream Headache

It is COLD! Today I walked home from the train, a very quick two block walk and I ended up with the equivalent of an ice-cream headache. I have been too cold, too busy, too ornery to blog. Last week I was in "Hot Lanta" It wasn't hot. It was tolerable. I went to the Gift show for work. I walked three blocks through Centennial Park to AmericasMart for four days in a row; I had fun. The gift show is like a giant gift store in the space of three giant buildings. It was overwhelming, crazy, fun, cool. It's times like that I am happy all day. I am a social butterfly. I do well at the shows...maybe I should be a sales girl...however, sans the title "editor" I suspect I would not be as well received. Ah well.

I promise to blog more in the future!

M.I.A.

So my Foxy Princess lady, Ms. J, is M.I.A. Anyone seen her? I best just go nap again and maybe she'll turn up. Meow!