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!

Grab a Cup-o-Jo

We've got some cathcing up to do!

Since the 22nd I have been in Minnesota with family and friends. Thus far I went to my friend Cate's baby shower, visited with Eleise, Amy, Alyssa, and Andrea. I have spent quality family time with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and my favorite aunts. Christmas was enjoyed at my Aunt Lisa's home, which was full of Christmas treats and mushroomy-Minnesota hot dishes!

Later in the week, I made Mom and Dad Verne's garlicky-pasta dish; I went thrifting with Grandma where I picked up some cute earrings, jeans, and sassy tops; I obtained additional bargains at Mom's store, including a pair of kickin' black boots! I sunk my teeth into the best Pumkin bread ever made by my cute 90-year-old Grandma.


Time has also been spent making two pairs of earrings, reading a juicy novel, and enjoying breakfast at the Bad Waitress on Nicollet, Nina's on Selby, and my fav... Mom's kitchen for the most delicious biscuits and gravy! Other eating hot spots I have frequented here in Minnie include the Uptown Bar & Grill for a Rueben with Alyssa; Tortellini soup with Amy at Damico & Sons; and some yum Chinese at Relax on Eat Street with Foxy E. I also got a chance to see the Frida Khalo exhibit at the Walker and boogied to Dave Pirner and The Volunteers at The Cabooze on the West Bank.

Can you tell I am enjoying my vacation time away from giftware?

Oh, and of course, I have snapped many photos and look forward to sharing them on this blog in the months to come....

Until then...

Can I take your blog order?

Frozen

I'm too cold to blog! I'm freezing in Minnesota! It's been snowing here on and off for days...
Yeah, sure it's pretty...but I'm a girl that prefers lush greenery to deceiving sparkly snowflakes.

Poetry addiction and my new BF

And yes, another poem...(sorry the winter makes me emotional)....

Do we give to get in return? Or do we give to feel good and don’t worry about getting burned?
Do we love to get love? Or love, love, love, and don’t worry about love in return?
I give and give and give. It feels good and love myself for the return.
Sometimes though it would be good to not always rely on one that is I for the return.

And onto the boyfriend portion of this post,
Val Emmich is incredibly talented and seriously, so nauseating cute! He makes me weak in the knees. Check his music out and his adorable stint as coffee boy on 30 Rock.

Style Icon

So I have been reading the lists of worst and best of 2007 and I have come upon someone saying that Cameron Diaz' 2007 Golden Globes dress is a worst. I remember at the time of the event others just bashing the dress as well and I kept thinking are you people blind?


This dress is amazing and completely represents the personality of which I think Cameron D. is: a quirky, confident, beautiful woman. She looks amazing and she takes risks; those two qualities alone equal a style icon!

This dress is so couture and glam and different. I love love love! In my book, I think Cameron D. has some of the best fashion sense in Hollywood..

Thanks for the inspiration Cam...and um, sorry that I'm the next to date the Timberlake.

Hope for Spring

Thanks to Darling E, I have discovered this lovely little poem. Enjoy!

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

“We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

- Oliver Herford (1863-1935)

So Darling!

This is my grandma. She is 90.
She lives by herself and keeps a beautiful home. She has so many visitors. She cooks for herself! She's nearly blind and has some aches and pains, but does she complain? Nope not at all. She's headstrong, smart, and quite funny. Oh, and she's SO SO CUTE! I love her. She is my thrift store diva partner. My cute Grandma.

December 7, 8 & 9

Highlights for the weekend of Dec 7, 8, & 9...

Visited Mingo in her cube one last time on her last day at the office.
Ate a cheeseburger, and enjoyed many cocktails as I said goodbye to Mingo at Redfish
Got to see Ms. Camri, and of course Miss. manicured Jen!
Laughed my arse off at Elm St. Liquors for dancing.
Woke the next morning a little groggy, but rested.
Picked up a bagel and coffee and heard kind words from my SUPER cute coffee crush.
Enjoyed my coffee while blogging about my new grinch name: Frownyfrown Wickedham.

Made delish truffles, sprinkled with hot pink cookie glitter—all for the cookie exchange!

Attended the party at Leigh and Ryan's beautiful home!
Laughed even more with Mandy, Leigh, Ryan, Kris, cute boys, and new friends.

Snapped shots of cute Mandy and Kris.

Learned how to play a Hanukkah holiday game and enjoyed eating the game pieces.
Awoke the next morning to a very annoying cat that loves to hollow and destroy any paper, fabric, and shoes in her line of fire.

After being awoken a third time, instead of feeding the annoying creature, I locked her in the kitchen with my cool kitchen door!
Got googly again while smiling at coffee crush.

Just now noticed a funky pink restaurant I must have walked past 100 times before.
Surprised Amy and Marshall with truffles. Wished her luck in her new adventure.
Stopped by Jen and Andy's to see their pretty Christmas tree.
Picked up MORE cat food for what seems to be starving animal.
Made salad, crab-stuffed flounder, and mac and cheese for dinner.
Watched a silly movie while snuggling with the cat between her food breaks.

And, of course, continued to keep my grinch chin up.

FrownyFrown Wickedham

So I am a holiday grinch. Frownyfrown Wickedham, I found out through a very important website, is my official grinch name. In the past week I have thought about changing my attitude toward Christmas and embracing the season. I thought I need to turn my holiday frown upside down! Be happy, dress Honey up like an elf, bake some holiday cookies, sing some holiday songs! But now that I have one of the COOLEST grinch names ever I am afraid, for the sake of being able to call myself Frownyfrown Wickedham, I'm just going to have go on about being a bitchy old bitter Christmas grinch!

But darn it all I do have to make some holiday cookies for my cookie exchange party tonight.... hmmmm sugar treats, that is kind of a fun thing about the holidays! I'll be making my special truffles, a holiday recipe from Mingo of course!

GREAT RECIPES!

While I have no real holiday photos on hand to make everyone smile, I do have this great pic of one of my fav dinners from last week...this special ancient recipe was found centuries ago written in the sand on the beach in a small Indonesian town....it is called catpowconraw. A dash of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon and viola, a feast for a Queen. Delish!

Yes I am a freak and it's so good to be here.

Already Missing Mingo

Today is Mingo's last day. I'm VERY happy for her; sad for me. I will miss her TONS. Mingo is my girl! We're very different but have become good friends and can always connect through two major things: cats and the color pink! And not only is Mingo a great friend, but an amazing designer; I have come to rely on her here at work! Her designs always and completely correspond to the visions in my head!

When I do the Gazette in the magazine Mingo is always the BEST designer. For the April 07 Gazette she made it soooo girly sweet... here's a look at the cover, first page, and a favorite photo page!


What will I do without Mingo here in the world of Giftware? Who knows...? But I do know we will remain to be good friends! She's a good girl, and way beyond making an article of mine look good, she has given me so much more... help in designing my new apartment (and pushing me to make the change!), great food recipes, advice on life, love, and clothing... the constant lending of her digital camera, great picnic lunches, silly pictures with large poster heads and, most important, lots of laughs!!! Congrats Miss. Mingo on your new adventure! I know you're only going to be two blocks away, but I am going to miss you so much!! xoxo

Love Love!

I will admit this out loud: I am a Jennifer Love Hewitt fan. If I have no plans on a Friday, I will get home by 7:00 for the Ghost Whisperer. I will tell co-workers I love Love. I have made peace with Love portraying the un-portrayable Audrey Hepburn in the made for television movie, The Audrey Hepburn Story.

Her entrance as Amanda Beckett in the movie Can't Hardly Wait—cue slow-mo special-affect with the Sneaker Pimps' 6 Underground bellowing in the back—was classic.

Her movie, Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber was cheesy-bad! I own it and have seen it more than once. I forgive her for making me cringe in the past (and, I'm sure will in the future) when she is making a giddy fool of herself on late night talk shows. She's nervous, immature, giggly, vomity perky, and, a little embarrassing—I think it's adorable because it's absolutely real! She's not playing a part, she is not censoring herself, or making it seem she is something she is not, she's just being herself. And once again Love has proved again how real she is...

If you're an Internet junky as I, you no doubt have seen the latest Hewitt headlines... they go something like this "Hewitt Fights back after Bikini Insults." Or my favorite headline, from a London online journal, 'I love my body': Jennifer Love Hewitt attacks Hollywood's Size Zero obsession.

The thing is Love is, by Hollywood's standards, considered fleshier than she should be....But, in my book, I think she's still super skinny! And looks amazing! Women should have curves for goodness sakes.

So, as a Jennifer Love Hewitt fan and a big believer in the curvier woman, it seemed quite appropriate to sit down with a box of chocolate macaroons and write a little blog dedicated to Love and her curves. As she's noted in her backlash at the photogs that snapped the intrusive pics, if anything comes of this, hopefully it's that young women that may not be too happy with their bodies can see it's normal to be a bit curvy, normal and beautiful.

Without sounding too "you go girl"... well, um, you go girl.

Negative Nelly

So I don't like Christmas—at all. It's a boring, cold, and miserable holiday. Do I sound like Scrooge? Yes I do and Jimmy-Crack-Corn I don't care. I am just being honest. Christmas is phony to me... you pretend you're happy...you pretend you're best friends with your family, even though you barely speak the rest of the year (my cute parents excluded), you pretend you don't notice the commercialism, you pretend you don't notice the war, poverty, abuse of everything....you pretend you don't notice how absolutely freezing cold it is outside and you pretend you don't notice all the winter weight you're gaining...

I am a Negative Nelly and I feel quite positive about that.. I guess just because that term is so cute to me! Okay so I will turn this Christmas frown upside down... what do I like about this time of year? Because there has to be something, right!!?? Well I do LOVE getting presents and I love giving presents just the same...I wish I had more people in my life to give to...and children. Kids are fun this time of year and I know not a one.

I like the Christmas songs "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch" and "Christmas-Christmas" by the renowned Alvin and the Chipmunks.... I like the movie the Christmas Story and I really love Han's Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl....and the girl even dies at the end of the story! Now that is a Christmas play for this Negative Nelly—forget It's a Wonderful Life, Han's Christian knows how to rock it! I mean just look at the original Little Mermaid story...it's beautifully tragic.

Illustration by Odessa11
So I remember, during one holiday season when I was about 10-years-old, going to the Children's Theater on a class trip for the play The Little Match Girl. I was mesmerized. Here's this little girl, so poor and poorly dressed—she has bare feet in December! She is forced to sell matches on the street and scared to go home because her father beats her and to stay warm she must strike her matches. This is when the magic begins... Upon the first match she has a small vision—a light flickering. Soon, with each strike, she begins to see a life she longs for, complete with a cooked goose, a decorated Christmas tree, candles, and, finally a vision of her smiling grandmother—the only person who has ever loved the Little Match Girl. And with that last match, the Little Match Girl huddles in an alley, in the city, all the while Christmas shoppers past her by, and she dies! It's SO sad, but so telling.

I guess with my own Negative Nelly attitude and recollection of a favorite Christmas story, I suppose what I am saying is Christmas to me would be a lot nicer if we all would remember things like dying Little Match Girls.

MEOW!

Looks like Halloween isn't over in Jolene's World.... Here's a look at my THIRD costume this past Halloween.

Looks like I wasn't the only kitty. The other kitty is Monica, Frank's sister. And yes, Frank is the Super Chicken Hawk.

Good Stock

This is my family.

Who knew they cleaned up so well!?

This photo was taken for my Grandma's 90th Birthday last October. Can you tell which one is my cute Grandma? The rest of the people are her eight children. EIGHT! Yikes I have gray hair from one cat.

Can you tell which one is my Mom? Um yes she is the cutest one! That's her in the blue, sitting next to my Grandma. My Grandma likes her the BEST because she is the best! And because she also created her favorite grandchild. Um, yes that'd be me!

Color Me Proud

One of my dearest friends is Miss. Eleise.

Eleise is one of those people that after speaking to via the telephone, or seeing in person, even just for a minute, you feel like a million bucks. She's classy, beautiful, super intelligent, cultured, funny, but most extraordinary, she is truly so compassionate, accepting, and, oh how do I describe it? She just this great gal! She's the type of woman that you can call 12 times in tears and she isn’t even phased by it, instead after a few moments of her compassionate words you find yourself laughing and realizing how silly you're being because E has this way of making you see yourself in this positive light. Not once has she judged me, or anyone for that matter. She has this way with words and simply just viewing life. Now don’t even get me started on her emails. Truly elegant prose, seriously! Well she is a writer by nature; she could be writing about the most mundane thing (which E rarely would do, but she could be) and you’d be reading this with edge-of-your-seat interest, because her writing is so fluid and elegant.

It's things like this that make me think, "Why do we live so far apart?" I met Eleise in Minnesota about seven years ago. The first time I saw her she was understudying a role in Rosetown’s production of Hello Dolly starring my other amazing friend Cate as Dolly.
I was in awe of these women’s talent. The following fall Cate, Eleise and myself were cast in Rosetown’s Dracula. I thought Eleise was a high school senior because she looked so young and the theater often cast high school students. Turns out E is three years younger than me. Well we hit it off right away and became friends.

So now in 2007 I am in Chicago and E is in Boston. Prior to her living in Boston she lived in London for three years getting her Masters in Chinese studies!—I told you she’s smart. Through it all E and I have remained close and I am thankful for that.

Okay so why am I going on and on about Miss. E? Well for one, why wouldn't I? I mean being friends with E just goes to show everyone how cool I am, right? Truth is I am proud to call her my friend! Now secondly I spoke to E yesterday and she was quite down and this breaks my heart, while she is all the attributes I listed above, smart, funny, amazing, etc. etc. she’s not perfect. E has had more than her share of hardships, and it’s about time this woman got a break. So when she is blue I just wish I could make her feel better, like she has helped me in the past.

So I guess you could say this post is a Casey Kasem Long Distance Dedication to Miss. E!

Now the third thing is to announce yet another reason why I am in awe of E.

This fall Eleise performed in Manhattan! Okay I can already hear her say, “Um I performed off-off Broadway.”
But Hello! How spectacular! When Eleise arrived in Boston for a new job almost a year ago she made some friends fast that were involved in this dance production: The Big Moves Dance Company. This company celebrated the larger lady and were putting on a show where they need a few ‘skinnies.’ With a background in dance, E auditioned and was cast as one of the ‘skinnies’ for the production titled Lard: Like Grease but Thicker!

I spoke to E and she said the shows went really well! So congrats to E, my friend who performed in Manhattan.