i read all the time about the art in itself of making crafts made from cheap or free supplies. recommendations always include a thrift store, a flea market, dumpsters, or just pieces of Shit You Don't Want Anymore. thrift stores, i think, are the most inspirational so they serve as the greatest starting point of any project since half the creativity is done for you. i don't know of too many flea markets that vend items that i can destroy in the name of craft (although i do know a very respectable flea...boutique). i haven't reached dumpster desperation, and i hope that i never do, but i am willing to accept the circumstances should they arise; especially if i make friends with some freegans over the dumpsters near NYU during finals.
but lately i've been looking at all the Shit I Don't Want Anymore and thinking of ways to employ that second R in the trio of this eco-friendly time. i picked up way too many paint samples paper strips from home depot as jason and i had a fear of commitment (once again?) while perusing supplies. I had enough blues and greens to chop them up and paste them onto an Ikea frame (3 for ...cheap? $2?) and voila!
so i'm going to venture out and buy more basic supplies (glue, needle and thread, yarn, stuff) to see what other regular items i can terrorize in the name of creaboredom.
Kimi's dress was classy to the max. Bunched on the side, a-line, and fit her perfectly. The train was super regal and bridesy but was challenging in the swamp area near the altar. And Mark wore his formal Army dress uniform which was actually a dark blue. Kinda like a tux with 100+ pieces of flair.
What? Yeah, they have necklaces with tiny babies and clothespins tied on. Why is that weird?
It's kind of a twist on a Polish Wedding Tradition called the oczepiny. The tradition starts at the beginning of the wedding reception, where the godmother unveils the bride, signifying that she's ready to get down for marriage and all, and she pins a formal napkin kind of thing to her head. The groom gets a redonkulously embarrassing hat to lighten things up. All attendees circle up, slow polka plays, and bride and groom have the first dance with the implication of the necessity for humor and hundreds of babies in their marriage. At this wedding, though, I tossed the necklaces on them at the very end of the reception, forced their hats on, made the DJ throw on the "Beer Barrel Polka", and stumbled through a Polish pronunciation of "good luck and have babies". I want nieces and nephews, seriously. Kids bring families together and make people happy, dammit! And during holidays, I'll get to play with them instead of having to watch a non-Ravens football game or wash the dishes with the Female Clan. Anyway, timing was good with a ripely buzzed crowd and we polka'd the best we could.
It was a tremendously beautiful wedding on the Eastern Shore. Kimi is a Maryland girl through and through: grew up boating with her family in Shady Side, played soccer for her high school, went to the most excellent college in Maryland (UMBC). No complaints on my side--I wish she could have been my sister sooner. I wish them the best of luck as Mark is stationed in Arizona and North Carolina in the upcoming months. I'll bring them a Tofurkey wherever they end up on Thanksgiving.
facebook's wall was always a pseudo-comment thread off the posting that is your profile...so why not post directly from this social network that college kids spend more than 3 hours a day with?
i feel so good, i'm gonna make this face in ecstasy!
poor Rocky IV has got a bug. he was fixed on thursday, and by saturday he was a-hurting and excreted at both ends in weird colors to prove it. at one point i had to hold his ears back and push his cone down so he wouldn't puke back into his face.
a depressing and smelly weekend, indeed. but my maternal instinct has boosted my patience for cleaning up liquid mysteries and trying to console a hunched over shivering puppy the best that i can. i made some plans for this weekend, but i can't leave this little guy alone. i even cooked him chicken and rice for dinner. the last time i remember actively buying chicken to cook was in massachusetts for quesadillas.
i hope the vet picks up soon; their line has been busy for 20 minutes.
Old picture from when he was a puppy on his first day outside. this weekend is also the first bit of nice spring weather in new york, so add to the disappointment on missing out on that.
i hope Rocky IV will shake this off in case we can't go to the vet tomorrow. either way, he has to decrease his level of suffering so i can have the heart to put his cone back on.
- this awful song's music video was filmed on the floor below us while i was at work. yeah, sounds way cool, with cameras and a fake party and fake fans dancing all day? ugh but that song was dreadful through the cracks of the floor at top volume in 30 second clips. and did you notice that The Girl in the video can't sleep because the guys upstairs are making too much noice? ironic...that would be Apperceptive keeping you up at night, sweetie.
- GO UMBC RETRIEVERS! OMG!!!!!!@#!$%$@#^!#$!
- The lease of our humble Crown Heights abode expires at the end of May and we're trying to decide if we should renew it. But, good GOD have you seen the listings on craigslist for Brooklyn lately? I may be afraid to leave my apartment at night but i'm even more scurred to pay more elsewhere.
- Buyer's Remorse has been attributed as a reason for Barack Obama's success among democrats. Howard Dean brought the hope in 2004 but Dems banked on the "electable" Kerry instead. Dean's pioneering of a new kind of candidate made it possible for both Hillary and Barack to become front runners, although their platforms are not nearly as exciting.
Howard Dean and Al Gore are TOTALLY those guys who always liked the popular girl in high school but were actually WAY too good for that girl in the first place!! Winning a Nobel Prize has certainly upped Al Gore's playing field, and that whole Saving the Earth thing will totally get karma his in his back pocket. Maybe Howard Dean's crucial role at the DNC this year will finally make his voice resound deeper than a celebratory YEAAARRRGH!!
i live on a corner of a block. i know which buildings are to the left and right, but i have no idea what's behind our building. getting an eyeful at a condemned building next to a posh loft building is one of my favorite waiting-while-microwaving-corn activities. i've lived here long enough to want to understand geography more than intersections and Good Cookie Place landmarks. in brooklyn, i'm always looking for a closer park for Rocky IV to run around in.
I googled my neighborhood....guess what I saw:
Streets, sidewalks, buildings...and green! It's like there's a creme filling of trees and greenery in the middle of every block! I could walk 20 feet from my building, squeeze my way through an alley or scale a fence or brick wall, and be in the middle of something...alive, or open, or...even more littered.
These green spaces are actually grids of fences and yards belonging individual brownstones. What if they came together and decided to take down their chain linked fences and treat the space as that block's park? My neighbors are friendly enough to one another, and the biggest church around always seems to need more space. Yes, this is Utopian, and unrealistic to ask people to give up a chunk of their property for public use, and they'd probably fill the green space with parking space before making it a park for all ages, but I think the neighborhood would be a more pleasant place to live! At least for Rocky IV and me. I could finally go barefoot again.
is it the marathons of past Project Runways? or the loudmouth screen print t's i see on teenagers in brooklyn? or that i can't afford any clothes that i actually want to buy? i've put the Guitar Hero III down and picked my needle, thread, and strange cactus pattern up.
sheesh, i easily spent an hour in a fabric store today....staring, touching, picking up then putting back then picking up more buttons and putting others back. buttons!! who thought they'd be so exciting? ..or hard to find.
i wish it was dress weather. making a flannel jacket for black boots until then.
ps - i found a wildly random american western store on broadway just south of canal st with a few hundred pairs of new cowboy boots. didn't feel like i'd find that in nyc, but i guess that's the kind of thing out-of-country tourists expect to see, just like i want to see frenchmen in berets one day.
i've got a blog now.
after living in new york city and working on blog-publishing software for half a year, i guess i can speak publicly about my day-to-day ruminations, although i guarantee no:
- wit
- entries tagged with "awwww"
- embers to ignite a flame war
- absence of programming jokes and/or shameless plugs for women in technology
that being said, welcome to nataliepo.vox.com! yey!
