September 28, 2010 · 1:36 pm

15 years: a recap

Hitting the road, 1995

A Twitter-friend wrote a post today about his 10 years in Boulder, and it occurred to me that this month marks my 15th year in Colorado.

In September of 1995, I packed up my belongings into a Ryder truck shared with two other wanderers (whom I “met” online, call me an early adopter) and headed west for what I thought would be a 2–3 year adventure before I either returned to NYC or continued on to San Francisco. But I never left. I called Boulder home until 2003, when I tired of renting and bought my own place in a suburb nestled just north of Denver.

In Ef’s post, he outlines some highlights and lowlights of his decade in the self-contained universe that is Boulder. My own memories are difficult to package so neatly. I’ve had five different mailing addresses. Every member of my immediate family has moved at least twice. I’ve flown in jet planes, turbo-props, and most memorably a Cessna. I’ve lost family and friends to age, disease, and tragedy. I’ve gained family and friends by birth, marriage, and sheer luck. I’ve had delicious meals, and regrettable ones. I’ve survived with only a scar what, by witness accounts, should have been a devastating car accident. I’ve been in love, and I’ve been heartbroken. I’ve visited other countries and other states. I nearly continued my original emigration to NorCal, albeit a decade late, but it wasn’t meant to be. Colorado will continue to be my home for the foreseeable future.

And I still can’t find my way around.

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Filed under family, friends, nostalgia, romance, relationships

September 20, 2010 · 4:49 pm

Girls with Glasses

Carrie over at This Mama Makes Stuff has a bit of a problem. Well, her daughter does. Okay, her daughter THINKS she does. And that’s almost as bad as ACTUALLY having a problem. You see, this little girl is about to get her first pair of glasses, and the excitement of being able to SEE doesn’t outweigh the dread of being the ONLY GIRL in her class who has to wear hideous, horrible, face-deforming GLASSES. Carrie has put out a request for photos of Girls in their Glasses so that her daughter can see that she is in the company of some pretty cool ladies. Me? I’m actually pretty much a dork. But sometimes I can look kinda cool. So here goes: Four phone-taken self portraits, though various years, various bang-lengths, and various states of makeup or lack thereof, always the same smirk:

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Filed under citizens, fashion, vintage

September 3, 2010 · 8:31 am

Go To the Light

This post is not about any of the following:

  1. Sputnik, the miniature puppy I’m currently fostering for Rocky Mountain Puppy Rescue
  2. The multi-month design contract that I am days away from finishing
  3. Any of the Halloween costume ideas I’ve not yet decided on

Instead, it’s about the lighting fixtures in my basement.

My place was built in 1974, and while most of the house appeared to have been updated in the mid-to-late ’80s, the basement remained untouched. I personally dismantled the chintzy “chair rail” (repurposed as a bit of molding for the stair landing) as well as removed the floral striped wallpaper and mirror tiles from the main area, which sports a pair of nifty flying-saucer-esque ceiling fixtures. But the bedroom down there is still styled in a look I call Strip Mall Bordello. Acoustic tile ceiling, beige walls accented with more gold-marbled mirror tile, aquamarine blue shag carpeting, and antiqued brass wall sconces with rose pink globes. Gag me with a spoon.

It’s easy enough to find replacement wall lights that aren’t so aesthetically offensive, but “inoffensive” isn’t the same as “oooh, that’s cool.” And really, I don’t spend a lot of time in the basement bedroom. For years, it held an ungodly amount of my mother’s crap as she used the room for storage space while I was too lazy to drag all of her junk upstairs and throw it away. I was thrilled when she finally buckled down and (mostly) emptied it out, but then I started using the room as a cat-free inventory storage area for my shop, and so it still doesn’t get much of my long-term attention. I have vague plans to make it into a guest room. There’s even a mattress set down there. It just happens to be leaning up against a (mirror-tiled) wall. And my god, those faux-Victorian light fixtures! Those really need to be replaced. With, in a perfect world, the Spektr lights from Rejuvenation:

But I’m seriously lacking the $129 (each) I would need for them. And I need three, so my hunt continues. Moon Shine does faboo custom work, but I’m trying to keep these under $40 a piece. Way under if possible. Now it just so happens that I have replaced my exterior lights over the last few years, which means that I have some gen-yoo-wine 1974 light fixtures scuffling around. Three of them. Free! I already have them! They would need scrubbing, a fresh coat of paint, and definitely a replacement of some sort for the amber glass shade which gives them the look of bug lights (and is why I replaced them in the first place).

Ah, therein lies the rub. How to replace the custom-fit glass on a 40-year-old light fixture? That can’t be cheap. If I had figured out a reasonable solution to that problem in the last 6 years, I would have left these lights up outside. So I keep looking. Today, I found two definite possibilities. Both are closeouts, so I’ll have to act fast.

The brushed aluminum fixture by Lukas Sebastian ($21 each) reminds me of some sci-fi adventure involving space, robots, and curiously, what appears to be an erect nipple beaming 40 watts of light into the room:

While the Possini sconce (left, $40 each) seems to take its more understated cue from George Nelson’s 1947 “Saucer” lamp (right):


What do you think, Dear Readers? Opinions on these two? Suggestions for others? Report back, my minions!

2 Comments

Filed under shopping, vintage

August 17, 2010 · 10:21 am

Blah Blah Blah

Tupperlights by Boots N Gus

I still can’t seem to get myself back into the hang of Tweeting (should that be initial capped or not?) so I thought perhaps I’d, you know, write another blog post. Raise your hand if you remember when I used to do it five days a week!

So let’s see…

Okay, since I was working on The Catalog at 10:30 last night and again by 7:30 this morning, I’m taking a deserved, if guilty, break to write this. Which I mention only because the guilt, I feel it. But thbppppt. Also, I paused to make coffee. Cawwwwffeeeee. Slurp slurp slurp.

MAKE COFFEE* should be the permanent first item on the whiteboard I finally hung above my desk yesterday. Hey, how’s that for an accomplishment? I finally hung the whiteboard! And was able to erase HANG WHITEBOARD from it. Ta-da!

Aaaaaand I completed another project yesterday that had been in limbo for an even longer time: my very own vintage-plastic-storage-container pendant lamp! And let me tell you, it was a bigger pain than you would imagine. This tip is coming from someone with mad craft skillz, yo. If you love the concept, and you should because it’s nifty, buy one pre-made from the originators of the Tupperlight, Boots N Gus. That’s their spiffy work shown at the top of this here post. They have a better assortment of Tupperware and Tupperware-like products than I could find at my local thrift, and they have done the work for you. For a very reasonable price.

I would love to see if Gogobigred is available to hang today, but I’m stuck at home until FedEx arrives with my new stereo receiver. My trusty Aiwa bookshelf system died after 15 years of faithful service, and I had three requirements for a replacement: I have to be able to afford it, I need to plug in my AirPort and my turntable, and I require enough room to set my turntable on top. HOWEVAH, it seems that the fancy, newfangled bookshelf stereo systems these days are mostly vertically oriented. And they have unnecessary bells and whistles like iPod docks and, well, that’s actually the only new feature that my old system didn’t have. But I still don’t need it. With the AirPort plugged in (thankyouverymuchoverandover @Chartier and @PensAndPaws), I can access my entire iTunes library wirelessly. And a CD player? Ha! Again, no need. After discussing with my dad the current quality of various manufacturers, I came to the conclusion that anyone still manufacturing components is most likely going to take it seriously. They’ll have lower-end models, but a cheapo consumer-oriented company like the now-defunct Soundesign isn’t going to bother with components. And so I ordered one I could (in a normal world) afford and have had a very quiet house for a few days while I wait. Today is the day that music will once again sound throughout my home, and I perk up at the rumble of every truck that drives by. The power company is working outside today, however, so I’m frequently disappointed. But that just means the anticipation lasts longer!

Now my coffee is ready and so until next time, be well.

______________________

*My handwriting is all caps, with limited exceptions.

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Filed under friends, music, shopping, vintage

August 15, 2010 · 3:48 pm

Welcome. Now leave.

Messy Stuff: My life is a bit upside-down right now. That’s all you need to know, but it’s why I’ve been generally absent from all of my usual online activities. And from a bunch of in-person stuff too. Now go away.

Oh, wait. I invited you here by writing this. Okay. Well, then. Umm…

One Thing: The catalog project that a friend and I have been contracted for is finally reaching the point where enough copy is written and photography is completed that the thing is starting to look darn good, if I may say so. Many-many-many thanks to my partner-slash-boss, who is so very skilled at Tetris-ing seemingly impossible demands into visually stimulating layouts. Also, we did three straight days of studio photography with about 300 babies/toddlers (okay, more like 19) and I didn’t break out in hives. Also, I learned that I am damn good at putting together flat-pack furniture. I suppose it comes from years of decorating my living spaces on a college student’s budget, which was all I had to work with even many years out of college. Perhaps my next tattoo should be of a set of Allen wrenches (hex keys to some of you).

Another Thing: I’m still toying with the idea of selling off my shop‘s inventory to any interested vintage vendors. Or of hoarding what I have, buying (with what money?) as much as I can get my hands on, and opening a brick-and-mortar location (also, with what money?). Which is 13 shades of crazy, but finding meaningful full-time employment working for someone else has been, let’s be generous and say: difficult. What I would love is to work at a vintage store, if it would pay enough to cover my living expenses. Which are pretty low, if I don’t maintain a savings account or 401k or, you know, eat.*

Also: I promise that I have more fun stuff to list in the shop as soon as I am no longer Trapped Under Something Heavy. Thank you for your patience, and let me know if you’re looking for anything specific. I may have it in my unlisted inventory, you never know. Well, you know when you ask.

And Then: I never intended to leave Twitter for so long, but I was surprised by how much I don’t miss it. I still plan to come back, but with a greatly thinned Follow list. As soon as I figure out how to do that, because I only follow accounts that I actually care about in the first place. Some of you need to shut the hell up a bit, though. A good copy writer once told me, “pretend every word costs a dime.” Which is a bit of advice that, if you read my blog posts (and you do, obviously, because you’re reading this) you know that I myself often ignore.

For Drewseph: Hi! Halloween is coming. Which means that Halloween Costuming Blog Posts are coming. Plotting is afoot, and a couple of preliminary purchases have been made, but that particular plan may be out the window already. Time will tell.

When All Of A Sudden: It is entirely likely that a certain red (mostly) headed friend will come over today to help me re-dye my horrifically ignored hair, which has been neither cut nor colored since my beloved Lacey worked her magic on me for Viva. Which, if you don’t recall, was the first weekend in April. Do the math. It’s not pretty.

Th-th-th-that’s all Folks. See you soon. Maybe.

____________

*Cheese, I love cheese, rahhlly I do. And I love cheese that costs $24.99/lb. although I don’t BUY cheese that costs $24.99/lb. Not while I’m so precariously underemployed, I don’t.

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Filed under food, friends, Halloween, tattoo