polygnome

just kidding, i'm back.

2011-11-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

All right. For a few months I was posting new blogs at http://sarahtrentreznor.blogspot.com/ but I'm coming back to blog here because this is where I have followers and frankly, I kind of miss that.

Awhile ago I made a post which sought to answer the question: What is the best remix of Calvin Harris' "Feel So Close." You can read it here.

I've got a few blogs planned for the very near future, just wanted to say hey y'all to anyone who's still got me in their feed readers. Feel free to say hi, tell me what you've been up to, share, live, laugh, etc.

<3
Sarah

move along, nothin' to see here.

2011-06-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

Howdy everybody.

I've been absent for a long time, but have started a new blog here.

http://sarahtrentreznor.blogspot.com/

I haven't been as crafty lately, but perhaps a bit more arty. The new blog is a bit more personal (sometimes I accidentally make posts when I take Ambien, forget to fall asleep and give myself a haircut instead!) so perhaps not so interesting for those of you who don't know me. I also post videos I find that I think are cool and stuff like that. Blah blah blah.

Anyway, follow if you'd like.

<3
Sarah

Rustle these leaves. Ruffle these feathers.

2010-08-31T00:31:00.000-07:00

Wow. Fall fashion is grinding my gears as of late. I haven't/probably won't buy the Sept. issue of Vogue. I flipped through it at the grocery store the other day and was unimpressed.

Today I went to Nordstrom Rack with cute boy tryna to find shoes. That was disappointing. Not even cute-but-out-of-my-price-range shoes. Pathetic. I came home and started some online shopping.

Things I'm specifically looking for:

a great, comfortable and durable pair of boots for fall. Versatile. Maybe gray. For sure over the calf, and quite interested in over the knee. Relatively minimal.

I really like these Dolce Vita "Bronson" boots. Michael was "meh" on them, but he was going to get elastic cuffed jeans, so who's he to talk?? (:

Tomorrow I am going to a Mariners game with my dad. It's "gluten free" night! Cray-cray. Apparently there will be vendors in a certain section of the stadium offering gluten free hot dogs/beer/whatever. That's kind of cool.

I ran out of Ambien so I'm slummin' it with Bendadryl.

RIP Michael Jackson

2010-06-25T14:50:00.001-07:00

I loved you before I could moonwalk.

This is what I'll be listening to today:

today's to do

2010-05-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

vacuum
make dr. appt.'s
clean kitchen
clean bathroom
take a shower ):
situps & pushups
get the rest of out of my car
sew?

want!

2010-04-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

I moved into a new apartment! My blog posting slowed to nothing recently, but I'd like to think part of it is due to my new, kinda big change. I moved in with best friend Michael, about a block away from where I used to live. Michael describes it well:

It's a recluse's dream!

It's built into the hill so it's basement level but has its own entry. It's dark (which Michael and I like) and it's old and full of weird, little nooks. Decorating my room in mostly grays. Hopefully pictures to post soon.

Anyway, onto the subject of this post which is want! Michael and I have been spending money on stuff for the new place which is fun, but kind of boring when it's things like paper towels, dish racks, and light bulbs. I've been doing altogether too much online droolshopping for things I don't need at all but WANT so bad.

Haven't worn heels for a looong time. These appeal to me:

Marni platform pumps in brown/grey.

Dolce Vita "Lana" platforms in grey.

Dolce Vita "Lidia" platform sandals in magenta.

And I've been wanting a giant summer tote. I'm not in love with this, but a little bit in want.

I'm boring.

2010-03-03T17:47:00.001-08:00

Jeremy and Mandi complained that I had not posted anything juicy lately. I haven't posted anything lately and I regret to say I have nothing juicy to post today.

I've had no motivation lately which hopefully will change soon. Thinking about moving into a different apartment which is exciting, scary and stressful. What else--had my birthday. It was Abraham Lincoln themed (because we share the same bday, Feb 12) and it was crazy fun [see fig. I]. And Archie the cat has fleas which we're trying to get rid of.

fig. I

Romantic Ramblings ...

2010-01-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

Things I like about the opposite sex:

1. Guys smell great. Not all guys, but the ones who do smell nice, oh how it weakens my knees. (Fun fact: Kenneth Cole Black and Acqua di Gio are probably my favorite man fragrances. I like to steal Kenneth Cole Reaction and use it myself because it has a really lovely light scent, despite being marketed for men)

2. I like when I go out to eat with a guy and he orders for me. Not without prior conference. I mean, I like to know what I want (unless it's a new place and I have no idea what I want) but I am old fashioned and I like it when the man orders.

3. I like being the damsel in distress, you might say. That sounds terrible, but it's how it is. Once I drank too much, ended up at a friends house and passed out after vomiting in the bathroom. The next day I was told that the guy I was seeing at the time was offering to hold my hair back and was really concerned about me and then when I was told to "go to bed" aka lay on the couch downstairs, I couldn't move. And some nice man picked me up and carried me there. Men being strong=turn on.

4. I like men who can fix things themselves. Remodeling houses, fixing cars, fixing even little things like leaky faucets and squeaky doors and sticky locks. All of those things I find quite respectable. I know my way around drills, fixing leaky shower heads, unclogging drains, but I know nothing of cars, and prefer to keep it that way.

5. Computer savviness. As if it were possible to make this post seem any more sexist than it already is, I love that men usually know more about computers than I do. I am a PC gal, and I'd say I have an average to slightly above average knowledge about my computer, but fluency in programming languages? Drool.

[disclaimer: I'm drinking Peroni (best beer ever) and so this may be complete rubbish]. I'm about to watch Overboard. So take this post with a grain of salt (:

i'm alive!

2010-01-11T14:30:00.001-08:00

i've taken a long hiatus from blogging ... my excuses include: mental breakdowns, holidays and general lack of motivation, but there are a few things i'd like to share, which bring me back from my blogging vacay:

1. oliveandolivia is a fantastic new blog that must add to add to your feed reader. Olive & Olivia find amazing design finds including stuff for your home, accessories and anything super hip. One of my favorites is the polaroid flower vase they featured.

They even did a feature on my etsy store!

2. I'm starting a new etsy store. Hopefully it will get off the ground and running soon because I plan to capitalize on Valentine's Day cards. It's going to be http://kindofgay.etsy.com/ and will be cards and other paper products with a "kind of gay" theme. The following pictures are cards with hand traced designs on them. I found the designs in a vintage architecture book changing them slightly to reappropriate them for my cards.

3. i had a bone marrow biopsy, which sucked. but oxycodone does not suck. This video looks brutal, ignore the chit-chat going on during the procedure:

More on bone marrow stuff soon.

What do you think about the cards?

Giveaway #4 Winners!

2009-12-26T15:13:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not posting this sooner, but with Christmas and all of that I got kind of distracted.

Instead of doing a video documenting the drawings for the winners of the giveaway, I took the lazy, hi-tech route of using random.org.

Please see the results below:

If you are one of the winners, please email me at sass[dot]trent[at]gmail[dot]com with an address of where to send you your prize! Congrats to the winners and stay tuned for more giveaways.

Giveaway!

2009-12-16T00:06:00.000-08:00

Come on people! Enter my giveaway (:

I am opening entries to include facebook posts about my blog giveaway. I'll edit the previous post to include this.

Good luck to all! Just a couple days left before the contest closes and the drawing takes place.

Giveaway #4! 200th Post Edition. *EDITED

2009-12-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

Congratulations me! This is my 200th blog post since I started it in February.

To celebrate, I'm doing a huge giveaway. Watch the video for the deets and then read the rules below.

200th Blog post Vlog from Polygnome on Vimeo.

1st prize: I DIDN'T KNOW WHEN TO STOP CLUTCH

2nd prize: TWEED MAGIC WALLET

3rd prize: VINTAGE ART DECO EARRINGS

This is how you can enter:

I. Simply comment on this post (if you are entering multiple times, please note that in your comment[s]).

II. Follow me @polygnome and tweet about this giveaway with a link to this post.

III. Post on your own blog about the giveaway! Make sure to link to this post and feel free to use pictures/vlog I've posted to embed in your blog.

*[EDITED TO INCLUDE THE 4TH WAY TO ENTER] IV. Post on facebook about it! Add me as a friend on facebook too (:

Each contestant may enter a maximum of [edit: 4] times. Friday the 18th at midnight PST the contest will close for entries. I will draw the winners and announce them probably around the 19th or 20th. The first name I draw wins the clutch, the second name I draw wins the magic wallet and the third name I draw will win the earrings!

Good luck!

Let me know if you have any questions or if I left out any pertinent details (:

photo shoot vanity (NSFW probably)

2009-12-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

With Christmas nearing so quickly, one of my ideas (Michael's idea really) was to make calendars as gifts for my friends and family. Naturally, the pictures for the calendar would be pictures of me.

Last night Michael and I did a quick photoshoot and here are some of the looks we got:

Undetermined month. Cristal Connors look.

Summer fun. June.

January?

Also, I've been trying to become a lookbook.nu celebrity and so I've been posting some of my outfits there. Here's the latest one. The lighting in the stairwell where I live is beautiful. Click here to hype it or other looks I've posted.

PS Here are the stockings I made:

From L to R: Archie's (he's a cat, so he gets a mouse on his), mine which is just plain ridiculous looking, Peter's (with a paintbrush), Garrett's (with a camera).

PPS This is my 199th post. I don't know what I'm going to do for my 200th, but get ready.

Rodarte for Target?

2009-12-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

no no no!

image via joonbug

Etsy Art

2009-12-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

Just went through all my favorites and picked some pieces I thought you might like to see. Of particular interest to me was restlessthings. Her shop is filled with all kinds of weird cool pieces. Sigh and Groan (see: owl with three boobs)is also one of my favorite artists on etsy and it was very hard to pick just one piece from her collection for this feature.

1.
a) "Yellow Ten Speed Road Bike" - Limited Edition Art Print by HillarieTasche. From Series 14 Bicycles.
b) "The Lion and the Lamb Driving a Motorcycle" Art Print by lulunjay
c) Would you like a shower of red color today, Miss? Art Print by vantiani

2.
a)I'm Okay God doesn't make junk II by pinkbeatrice
b)scarf bunnies gocco print by argylewhale
c) Chewbacca Calavera Limited Edition Gocco Serigraph by MisNopalesArt

3.
a) Human Nude by LivaRutmane
b) Sitting Pretty by SighandGroan
c) you can't always be friendly, there just isn't the time... by restlessthings

Who are you favorite artists?

How do you pronounce "hanger?"

2009-12-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

hanger
n
1. a. any support, such as a hook, strap, peg, or loop, on or by which something may be hung
b. See coat hanger
2. a. a person who hangs something
b. (in combination) paperhanger
3. (Engineering / Automotive Engineering) a bracket designed to attach one part of a mechanical structure to another, such as the one that attaches the spring shackle of a motor car to the chassis
4. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Forestry) a wood on a steep hillside, characteristically beech growing on chalk in southern England
5. (Military / Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms))
a. a loop or strap on a sword belt from which a short sword or dagger was hung
b. the weapon itself

Do you pronounce this word with a soft "ng" sound? Or do you pronounce it with a hard g?

Does "singer" rhyme with "finger?" It's an important question that has been plaguing this household. Please vote on the poll which uses the example does"hanger" rhyme perfectly with "anger?" to help settle this conflict.

Drooollll ... Rodarte

2009-12-07T12:32:00.001-08:00

I subscribe to a lot of those "invite only" / "exclusive membership" type stores that sell designer clothing at discounted prices. My favorite is gilt.com. It's the best quality, I think and is pretty classy for a discount store. Granted, it's discounted designerwear so think: Original price $2760 vs. the Gilt price of a mere $798. Practically Gilt-free! Ugh. Anyway, I can't afford any of this, but they are having a Rodarte sale right now. Which is uhhhmaazing. I love Rodarte. A lot is sold out, but here are some of my faves:

treated linen contrast linen panel jacket

leather zipper detail biker bomber jacket

tulle lace overlay blouse

If you've got a spare couple thou lying around, go ahead and click on over to gilt.com (: The Rodarte sale ends tomorrow at 9pm PST

Greed. The perfume that doesn't exist.

2009-12-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

I saw this today and thought it was so great. Do you remember the trailer to the fake Caligula remake? That was Francesco Vezzoli. He's 38 years old, Italian--obviously, and his project, GREED, A New Fragrance by Francesco Vezzoli was shown at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome earlier this year. I can't believe I didn't hear about this sooner.

Marcel Duchamp's Belle Haleine eau de voilette
In an artinfo.com interview he was asked: How concerned were you with the example of Duchamp as you conceived of Greed?

It was very important. His perfume bottle is such a genius piece. And then it ends up in the hands of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge — you can’t imagine a more appropriate metaphor for the past century, you know, Eau de Voilette by Duchamp ends up in the hands of the two most sophisticated, gay, creative brains in France since the War; it’s such a great story. The Duchamp perfume for me is unlike some of his objects — I know that this is dangerous to say, and people will think Vezzoli is taking some weird drugs — but compared to the urinal or other famous pieces, this has a kind of dandyish touch, a play with the vocabulary of fashion with Man Ray shooting him dressed like Rrose Selavy. I love that. There’s no real intellectual agenda. Just to say how much I loved that part of his work.

Francesco Vezzoli's Greed, 2009
Crystal, paper and ribbon, 15 11/16 x 10 5/8 x 5 1/8 inches (40 x 27 x 13 cm)
Francesco, how did the idea for Greed come about?

I’ve done a trailer for a movie that didn’t exist, an election campaign for candidates who were completely fictitious, and a premiere for a play that was never going to run. A project about the launch of a perfume that didn’t exist seemed like a natural next step.

I presume you started this project before the current economic crisis.

Yes, otherwise nobody would have green-lighted it.

One of many posters Vezzoli designed for Greed.
The Greed Commercial

Click here for a much better quality version of the video.

Of course I was super excited also to find out that Vezzoli is friends with Lady Gaga:

The New Yorker had an article about Lady Gaga and Vezzoli and Frank Gehry which I found quite entertaining:

a large silver leather headdress brooded like an alien hen: Gehry had designed it, at Vezzoli’s behest, and Prada had fabricated it, for the avant-garde, hat-friendly pop star Lady Gaga to wear during a performance with dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet ... Gehry said that he had done the initial drawing on his iPhone, which an assistant then produced: a violet scribble with a black-and-blue iris at the center. “Since I’ve never designed a hat before, I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to walk,” he said. “I did have an idea that involved people with sticks holding it up, walking behind her. I didn’t know how far I could go with this thing."

Yeah, and Damien Hirst customized that pink butterfly piano she's playing in the performance. (?!?!)

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, here is the Caligula remake trailer with tons of moviestar cameos and Gore Vidal himself! And btw, it's definitely NSFW.

Amazing.

2009-12-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is the sponsor reel for the Minneapolis screening of the AICP/Art & Technique of the American Commercial Show.

AICP Show: Minnesota Sponsor Reel from motion504 on Vimeo.

via ifitshipitshere

http://www.aicpshow.com/

Preview of new HH products

2009-12-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Michael and I did a photoshoot and took over 1,000 photos. Needless to say, I have a lot of TON of work to do. I've spent the day thus far photoshopping and I listed a couple of items.

Check out http://hallandhautes.com/ to see what I've listed so far and stay tuned for the coming listings.

Etsy Shop Feature #1: SparkleRocks

2009-12-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

I've decided to do a series of interview posts featuring some awesome online stores that some of my friends run. The first one is SparkleRocks owned and operated by my dear friend Amy who makes the most amazing colorful and kawaii accessories.

I sent her a few Q's and here are her A's:

How did you come up with the name for your shop?

I was in Texas at the time I thunk it up, but I remember it sort of spawning off of my YouTube username which is SparkleRock7. I have always really loved the word "Sparkle" and music is the blood that flows through my creative veins, so Sparkle Rock is naturally fitting. I'm definitely a rock n' roll girl, just a little more colorful than what you're probably used to. To apply it to my jewelry would be appropriate since jewels are sparkly and I'm obsessed with all things encrusted in jewels or sparkles, so, SparkleRocks. :) I also really enjoy Pop Rocks the candy, so a few of my other usernames, like Twitter is SparklePopRocks. It all sort of has the same thread of sparkles, rocks, and poppy, fun, bright things :)

The Gift of Sweetness - A Miniature Box of Birthday Cookies Ring. Yes, this is a ring Amy made! I love it.

Where do you find such cute little cabs and charms to make your jewelry?

Well actually, my favorite seller on Etsy EVER is PinkHelloKitty who runs Gingerbread Jewelry. I have always idolized her and her work, and eventually I became friends with her, and now we send each other huge care packages full of supplies and goodies as trades. So, I get a lot of my nifty, kawaii pieces from her, but if I chose to buy them, I'd buy from MimiLoLo on Etsy.

Where do you take your inspiration from for your creations?

Music. Completely music. I am actually working on completely revamping my store and style right now, for years it's been kawaii and cute girly things, but I'm leaning now more towards grown up sparkles that are eye popping and statement pieces. I can't wait to see how it turns out. My inspiration comes from my love of music like The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Santogold, MIA, Lady Gaga and from some of my favorite visual artists like Natalia Fabia and Jessica Louise. It will be an interesting mix of grown up, colorful goth. :D

Tell me about an item you loved too much to put in your store and kept:

Oh goodness, where do I start? My most recent example of this would be this absolutely fascinating (pun completely intended) Cameo/feather fascinator hair pin I just made. It's absolutely lovely, it's on a silver bobbypin blank, and has a sprawl of rainbow feathers with a vintage black and white cameo as it's center. I'm tempted to add some AB Crystals on the feathers, we shall see. :)

New Love Galaxy - Collage Necklace

Who do you think your target demographic is?

With the items currently in my shop, I'd say colorful, explorative and funky teenage girls who want to step outside the box a little bit and show off their love for kawaii. My new items I think will be aimed more toward and independent, intelligent and glamorous young 20's through late 30's woman. Hopefully. :)

What's your favorite item in your store right now, and why?

I'd have to say the Hello Kitty Sunset Party Charm Bracelet. It's absolutely stunning in person and absolutely fun to wear. The pink chain really sets it apart from my other bracelets. The charm bracelets have seemed to do me really well, I might open up a little shop on the side to sell some chunky kawaii charm bracelets...Gotta get rid of all my supply somehow!

Check out Amy's store at http://sparklerocks.etsy.com/ and maybe you'll find a Christmas gift for someone you know, or for yourself.

Recipe Post - Bacon Wrapped Dates

2009-11-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

This is one of the hors d'oeuvres I made for Fakesgiving. I found the recipe in November's Good Housekeeping and mostly followed it. I thought these were so tasty I made some more this morning with the leftover dates (I made a special morning grocery run to get more bacon) and wanted to share the recipe with you guys. The recipe is simple and I'm not including amounts because really it's one to one to one for everything.

Ingredients:

Pitted Medjool Dates
Pecan halves (cut in half, so really, pecan quarters)
Thick cut bacon (uncooked) slices cut in half so you have short slices
Fresh Rosemary
Toothpicks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stuff each date with a quarter of a pecan. If you're using pitted dates it's easy to just pack it into the hole.
2. Wrap each stuffed date with one of the half slices of bacon and secure with a toothpick.
3. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with foil for easy cleanup (it will get very greasy!) for 25 minutes or until crisp. Turn once during baking.
4. Take the bacon wrapped dates out and let them cool on paper towels. Remove the toothpicks and shove little sprigs of rosemary into one hole where the toothpick was. Serve immediately.

These little bundles of tastiness are soo yummy and they make your kitchen smell wonderful too.

Fakesgiving Picture Journal

2009-11-27T00:46:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are some more photos of the Fakesgiving I had yesterday with my friends.

I unfortunately didn't get any good pics of David as Janeane Garofolo or Michael as Donatella Versace. He did turn into a topless mermaid later in the night though.

I'm sick and feel icky--congested, coughy and tired. Last night after everyone left from Fakesgiving I got a fever of 102.7 and became deliriously ill, made Peter go to the store to buy me medicine, and eventually passed out after I took a lukewarm shower to break my fever.

Today I felt a little better because I didn't have much of a fever and joined Michael and his family at Claim Jumper for Realsgiving. I had prime rib and it was delicious and I love Michael's mom because the way she talks, she makes everything sound like it's a really juicy secret.

After dinner, Michael and I went to see New Moon which was great.

Between all of this, I worked on the website and am proud to offer you some great deals. 20% off your entire purchase for Black Friday! Plus special markdowns on black items. See some of the sale items below and check it all out here: http://hallandhautes.com/

A Room with a View

2009-11-25T08:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a better picture of the pie (I took it with the morning light just now)

and another picture I took yesterday when I was at the gynecologist. This has always baffled me, as my lady doctor clinic is on the 14th floor of a building in a fairly densely populated area of seattle.

If my view from the exam room is this building. Then what are all the views from THAT ENTIRE side of the building?? I mean, I assume it is mostly people who do not have telescopes or binoculars in their offices ... but it seems kind of off to me.

Moving on--today I'll be doing lots of cooking and eating. I'll try to post some pics up tomorrow of the drag/fakesgiving. Hope everyone has a happy TG too!

Fakesgiving

2009-11-25T03:08:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow (today, I guess since it's 3am) I'm having "Fakesgiving" with Peter, Garrett, Michael and David. It's a themed get together and the theme is cross-dressing.

I decided I would dress up as Karl Lagerfeld. I tested out some options and came up with a plan for an outfit:

Also, I just finished baking this pie. YEAH, I know. It is amazing.

lookbook.nu

2009-11-23T00:15:00.000-08:00

I just started to really get into lookbook.nu recently.

Today, Michael and I did a few quick photoshoots for it, and here are some examples of the results. We were trying to go for ultra hipster bordering on douchebagginess hipsterness. I think we succeeded.

You can "hype" my looks by logging in via twitter or facebook or whatever, or just sign up as a member. The site is invitation only to join, but if you want an invite to lookbook.nu, just let me know. (:

Internet, don't fail me now!

2009-11-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

Lorisshoes.com is having a "secret sale" (is it really that much of a secret? The coupon code is: secretsale

It's 20% off! AAHHHH. Why must shoes cost money?

Anyway, despite sketchy internet connection (there's a windstorm tonight), I have been ogling some amazing shoes I have no business looking at. The discount applies even to sale items! The prices I've listed are without the 20% off. Here are some of my faves:

Jeffrey Campbell ZIP-004 - Black/Grey. $306 ):

Max Studio United - Black. Originally $290.00 reduced to $204.90

Jeffrey Campbell Miley - Black. AH! Amazing mesh platform sandals! Originally $104 now $74.90

Pajar Bomba - Off White. Oh I have been loving these all-weather boots for at least a year now. Loves them. $154

Dolce Vita Wesley - Black. $124. I love me some Dolce Vita.

Oh, and this bag was "recommended to me" as I was looking at those Dolce Vita shoes:

Pietro Alessandro 2084. I love the foldover style. $198.

What's actually in my price range? Well, nothing. But the closest thing is probably these socks:

Hue Delicate Pointelle Sock - Blush. 2 bucks.

Recent happenings photolog.

2009-11-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

Last night Peatar and I took a walk because it was windy and dark and rainy. We bundled up and brought our cameras. Here are a few pictures of it:

Looking down on I-5 & downtown

The RiteAid on Broadway

The lightshow or whatever it is on the hill

We took a trip to the grocery store on our way back. When we got home I decided to make molasses crinkles ("The best cooky from 1930-1935!") and chocolate chip cookies with Heath bar crumbles in them. They were delicious. At probably 11pm or so, Peter, Garrett and I decided to bring some cookies to welcome our new neighbors. One neighbor, Maria, was surprised but friendly. The other new neighbors' lights were off, so we just knocked on the door of the next apartment which lights were on. Daryl, was gruff and slightly socially scary, but I think he was appreciative. All in all it was exceedingly awkward and fun and we got to know some of the people that live in our building.

This morning I got up it was way too f-ing bright. Blindingly bright. So I took some pictures to contrast with last night's dark walk pictures:

Christmas Music

2009-11-13T00:53:00.000-08:00

What I love about Christmas:
Decorating
Baking
Yummy smells of cookies and pies
Christmas Music
Cold weather
JINGLE CATS!!!

A productive way to spend an evening ...

2009-11-11T23:14:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorite games are: bejeweled blitz
desktop tower defense 1.5
filler
poppit.
scrabble.
boggle.
warbears
castle wars

and probably forgetting a lot of other great time wasters. any games you readers recommend?

Follow Me ...

2009-11-10T14:36:00.000-08:00

Just another plug for hallandhautes. Follow us @hallandhautes on twitter to receive updates, coupons and other very important and exciting tweets.

Also we've got a hall&hautes blog so definitely add it to your feed! http://blog.hallandhautes.com/

I drank 3 cups of coffee this morning and accidentally dumped about 1/4 cup of sugar into my first cup. So I've been working very dilligently. Today I'm taking pictures and listing things. It's cold and wet and Seattle-y looking outside so I turned the heat up and am listening to Dr. Dick's Dub Shack. Yessss.

I finally found it!!

2009-11-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

omg. I have been searching for this video for weeks, maybe a month, and I've finally found it. I first saw it while my dad was watching a football game and I happened to be in the same room. Football commercials are oftentimes pretty great. Here it is:

Am I the only one that thinks this is hilarious?

Oh and I just remembered this awesome commercial for Juicy Fruit. It's so scary and I love it!

And Peter just made me watch this Nutrigrain commercial:

Wow, commercials are great.

201 Modern Menorahs

2009-11-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

I don't really affiliate myself with any particular religion, but if I did, it would be Judaism. I'm interested in a lot of Jewish traditions and Hannukah is so great. Ifitshipitshere just posted about 201 Modern Menorahs. It's really quite great.

I love this one!

This one is just ridiculous, but I kind of like it.

Click here for all 201 modern menorahs.

20% off Hall and Hautes

2009-11-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

For my blog readers: 20% off coupon for hallandhautes.com good thru Nov 7.

Use code: HHBLOGGER

The website is starting to look really great. Despite it taking longer than I thought to get everything together, I'm pretty excited about it! Check it out. (:

hallandhautes.com

Tom from Mypsace's Facebook Page

2009-10-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

haha.

picture via twentyfourcarat.net

A bit more about Hall & Hautes

2009-10-28T01:15:00.001-07:00

Haven't been posting much lately. As you may have read in one of my previous posts, I am dismantling my two etsy shops and then putting them back together as hallandhautes.com.

Michael has been helping me with photographs, concepts and web development and it's been pretty fun. Stressful though, because my OFFICIAL LAUNCH DATE is supposed to be Thursday (tomorrow). Yikes. There's a lot up already on the site, but the layout isn't how I want it yet.

I'm making this switch because etsy causing me so much frustration over the fact it's ugly and you can't customize your page to be not ugly. Its benefits include a lot of built in traffic from etsy searches though so I'm hoping I won't miss out on too much of that. Spread the word people! Hallandhautes.com! The future is now.

Here are some pics of a photoshoot we did (We ARE in a COMPLETELY professional studio ...... *shifty eyes*).

RIP Geocities. 1994-2009.

2009-10-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

Today Geocities will be put down. I started my first Geocities page when I was 11 (1997) and it was in SoHo and it was amazing.

Here are a few links of interest regarding Geocities' sad departure from this world:

A collection of Under Construction animated gifs archived from Geocities' pages. This is where I found the great gifs that I put in this post.

XKCD's page today is decorated in memory of Geocities' sweet style.

Information about the Archive Team's Geocities Project. An attempt to save as much Geocities data as possible. There are also some really great press mentions here.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum
And then they charged all the people twenty-five bucks just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT now
Give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees, please
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Late last night I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi carried off my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Goodbye Geocities! We loved you.

these are some of the men in my life ...

2009-10-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

Peter, Garrett and Michael making weird pictures.

Archie is unfortunately not pictured above but did hop into one or two shots.

grey

2009-10-16T19:46:00.001-07:00

today was my favorite color:

2009-10-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm taking a much needed break from my Bejeweled Blitz marathon playing (I got 338,400!) to post some of my favorite videos as of lately:

VICTOR BORGE. Amazing, amazing comedian/pianist. I used to watch a VHS of some of his performances when I was a little kid and I just remember lying on the floor of the living room laughing my head off at this stuff. The first video is some of his piano jokes and the second one is him improvising a song that he'd never played before, but had heard once. He's so good! And his facial expressions are so great.

Also have been watching a lot of fashion shows and I love love Gareth Pugh. His S/S10 show was pretty amazing for me because one of my very favorite colors is gray and his palette for the season is pretty much all gray, I think.

And Run Lola Run:

To update y'all on what I've been doing, I'm planning on setting up my two etsy sites, http://sarahahaha.etsy.com/ and http://polygnome.etsy.com/ on a hot date and then naming their lovechild hallandhautes.com. The official site is not up yet, but for a sneak peek, check out http://hallandhautes.bigcartel.com/

It will be an awesome mix of all the things I sell, plus more. It's a new site with two times the rainbows, 67% more childrens' laughter and a 21% reduction of chirping birds. It's going to be amazing so bookmark http://hallandhautes.com/ and prepare to be blown away (:

PPP! (Pube Poll Post)

2009-09-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the results of the "What do you do with your pubic hair?" Poll:

au naturel: 7 (28%)
trim it evenly all over: 6 (24%)
trim and shape it: 8 (32%)
landing strip: 1 (4%)
completely bald: 2 (8%)
other (please explain): 1 (4%)

I have to say, this post made me self-conscious. I'm going to be open and tell you I picked "landing strip" which I thought was completely common, but it turns out, I'm the only one. I'd like to think this poll is somewhat skewed because both men and women were voting and I think the chances of dudes sporting the landing strip is even rarer.

I was comforted with this comment from the one voter who picked "other"

In regards to my grooming...I chose other. My grooming depends on various factors. Questions I ask myself when deciding the immediate future of my hair are:

1. How much time do I have to do this?
2. Am I getting laid in the near future?
3. Do I really want to look pre-pubescent?
4. Am I ready to deal with the itchy growing back stage?

That being said, I mostly go with trimmed and a natural shape, or completely bald with occasional visits to the other categories.

[Image courtesy of roissycoffeeshop.]

Is the landing strip really so two-thousand-and-late?? I don't care. I'm not changing my style.

***Would you like to win a handmade clutch, magic wallet or vintage earrings? Enter my giveaway! Click here!

Family

2009-09-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

My family is my family so I don't usually think anything of it, but when I see other adoptee's family photos I am always like WAAAH! What's going on here???

That is, if they're Asian or you know, a vastly different ethnicity than the rest of the family.

A few weeks ago we had a family reunion of sorts with picnicking at the park and photo shoots. Hope you enjoy!

You're probably gonna have to click and look at these larger to really see everyone.

We do this every 3 years. I'll try to scan some of the old pictures so you can see my grow up and the fam expanding and stuff.

BTW I totally propose that anyone who reads this posts some pictures up of their family portraits! Haha, and FYI ... today's awkward family photo is pretty great!

Pubic hair goes Public (NSFW)

2009-09-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a friend the other day about pubic hair. I think it was in reference to our various experiences with nude models for life drawing classes. Anyway, I'm really curious to know what other people do with theirs. I think mostly women are the ones who shave and and wax and all that, but in this modern age, guys too are manscaping. I created a poll and I'd love it if you guys would participate.

Also, I found some great links to different pubic hair styles:

-my-pubic-hair.blogspot.com/

-http://www.pubicstyles.com/ - Answers some of the world's toughest questions about pubic hair such as "So why do my pubes look like they need ironing?"

-and a ridiculous article Cosmo did titled "What His Down-There Grooming Says"

Video of a pubic hair fashion show by Stefane Monzon. I highly recommend watching it. It will open up your eyes to the options you have available as to expressing yourself with your pubic hair.

***Would you like to win a handmade clutch, magic wallet or vintage earrings? Enter my giveaway! Click here!

zeej

2009-09-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

My puppy wuppy. The quality's pretty awful, I took it with my phone.

ZJ burning off some energy! from Polygnome on Vimeo.

the 'Phonat' album pre-release listening post

2009-09-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

by Phonat

VMAs

2009-09-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite performances that I've seen of Michael Jackson was the 1995 VMAs. The tribute show to him I thought was kinda tacky, and then when Janet came out and performed Scream "solo" I just about started to cry. It was that incredibly touching. Also, I'm a big Lady Gaga fan so seeing her performance was awesome. I'm planning on either being Lady Gaga for Halloween or convincing Michael to go as Michael Jackson and I'll be Janet Jackson from Scream. We'll see...

MTV Shows

Lady Gaga - New Music - More Music Videos

I also liked Beyonce's performance. As terrible as it is, I really kinda like "Single Ladies."

Beyoncé - New Music - More Music Videos

Breakdown of VMA winners:
Video Of The Year – Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)
Best Female Video – Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
Best Male Video – T.I. feat. Rihanna – Live Your Life’
Best New Artist – Lady Gaga – Poker Face yessss
Best Hip-Hop Video – Eminem – We Made You
Best Pop Video – Britney Spears – Womanizer
Best Rock Video – Green Day - 21 Guns
Breakthrough Video – Matt and Kim – Lessons Learned YAY! I love Matt + Kim and was so happy to hear they won.
Best Video (That Should Have Won A Moonman) - Beastie Boys – ‘Sabotage
Best Art Direction – Lady Gaga - Paparazzi
Best Choreography – Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)
Best Cinematography – Green Day - 21 Guns
Best Direction – Green Day - 21 Guns
Best Editing - Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)
Best Special Effects – Lady Gaga - Paparazzi

aaaand just because everybody's talking about it, Kanye poops on Taylor Swift:

MTV Shows

aaaaaaaaaaand (not finished yet!) Viacom (MTV) poops on Youtube because everyone was looking for the video of Kanye being a DB.

how to explain my parents

2009-09-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

The video below is an artist trying to explain to his art to his father. It's really good, I highly recommend watching it! There's a whole series of them, but this is the only one I've watched.

How to explain my parents from lernert Engelberts on Vimeo.

to do list:
(currently) spybot + destroying my computer
defrag
laundry
go through my books and get rid of more
re-organize my greeting card drawer
re-organize my fabric shelves

another new moon trailer

2009-09-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

If the above video doesn't work, click here to see the exclusive New Moon trailer from the VMA's. AMAZING!!!

Cabbage Rorschach

2009-09-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes everyday things just really catch your eye. Tonight I was making a salad, cutting up this giant head of cabbage and I was completely mesmerized by it. I took some photos and began seeing different things in it, like when you stare at clouds and see different shapes.

Do you see anything going on in these cabbage pictures? If you click on the picture, it'll take you to my flickr page where I say what I see in it, but I don't want to write it here and sway your vision (;

Not enough cabbage for you? Check out my flickr for more.

And just for good measure, I'll include this picture I took earlier in the summer while tanning in the backyard. (:

Better photos of my boots + new etsy listing

2009-09-07T14:16:00.001-07:00

Today I went outside to take some pictures in natural light. Here are those boots I talked about a few posts ago. Hot, huh?

And I just put some new crazy cool vintage pumps in my etsy shop.

thrift store reads

2009-09-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of some sweet books I've gotten recently at thrift stores/parking lot sales/etc. They combine my three fave H's: Heinous, horrible and hilarious. Actually some are just kinda cute (:

I've picked just a select sampling of images to share with you here on my blog. Check out my flickr for more.

1.) From Joe Kaufman's About the Big Sky About the High Hills About the Rich Earth ... And the Deep Sea

2.) Otto Otter for Safe Water coloring book

3.) AIDS Comic Book

4.) NBC Television's Concentration Puzzles from 1971. Can you solve the puzzle?

That AIDS one is especially ridiculous: Oh, that's just something white gay guys get. Isn't it?

And

I use condoms with my boyfriend as well as my tricks.

Uhhh... hmmm...

You can click on any images to see them bigger, btw. Hope you enjoyed!

my nails did

2009-09-05T23:34:00.001-07:00

I just did my nails. Style secret? I use bandaids as guides to do french tips. This is Zoya's Laurie (one of my three free nail polishes from them!) and China Glaze White on White with some kind of new top coat I got. The print is super tiny on the bottle but it might be called Sherani? It also says Tufcoat Plus. So far, I like it.

You can see the palm of my hand is red in the second picture because I've been hitting my cell phone due to it stopping working for no apparent reason. GRRR.

woooh front page goodness

2009-09-05T23:14:00.001-07:00

I was checking my google analytics and thought to myself "wtf? how did i get over 400 views yesterday?" Sadly, my average views range from the 30-50 range.

For my fellow etsians, I hope you are familiar with craftcult.com, a great resource for finding out stats about your etsy shop. You can search the vault by entering in your username and see if you've been featured on the front page.

Also, check out Etsy Front Pagers on Flickr which is a community who archives screenshots of all the etsy front pages. Here's the one I was featured in! The Kelly Green Pumps are mine:

some cool things

2009-09-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

I re-did the banner on my blog, what do you think?

Also, here are some cool things I found while trying to conquer my google reader which had 1000+ posts for me to catch up on. I gave up at around 400.

Hello Kitty Penis

USB Cassette MP3 Player

Yarn Skeleton & Viscera

Bacon Chicken Narwhal Recipe

Dexter Dining Room + other Dexter Commodities

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Vanilla Yoghurt Tasting

2009-09-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Peter and I did a yogurt taste testing of six varieties of vanilla yogurts. I now have a new favorite vanilla yogurt!

We rated each yogurt: Yami, Yoplait, Tillamook Vanilla Bean, Tillamook French Vanilla Bean, Darigold and Brown Cow on Texture, Taste, Style and Sustainability. Texture and taste are pretty obvious, but style referred to both the appearance of the yogurt as well as the packaging. Sustainability, for the purposes of our test, refers to how good the yogurt would be on a long term basis. In other words, is it a yogurt that is good for one bite? Or could you eat it day after day?

The number values on the chart below are a little arbitrary since I was not originally rating the yogurts on a numerical scale. Also, I had to kind of average Peter and my individual values, but it gives you a visual of our ratings I think. It was at least fun to make.

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Chart made at Kids' Zone. lol.

Yami has a pleasantly rich custard-like texture. Despite its richness, it has only 3 grams of fat and has a subtle sweet vanilla flavor that does not overpower the yogurt flavor. Its color is natural looking and the packaging is cute. This was both of Peter and my favorite of the yogurts.

Yoplait was a fail. I have tried Yoplait's fruit flavored yogurts and thought they were okay, but the vanilla was just terrible. The consistency was gloopy and syrupy. Its flavor was "barely identifiable as yogurt." Too sweet and artificial tasting. I'm not a fan of Yoplait's "confusing" choice of shape for their containers. It is eco-unfriendly as animals can get their heads stuck inside the containers and starve/thirst to death. Additionally, "wide spoons don't fit."

Tillamook Vanilla Bean, originally my favorite vanilla flavored yogurt had a thick and smooth texture though not custardy. The flavor was very sweet and almost too good as in I imagine kids would love this yogurt. Its appearance was a nice white color with specks of vanilla beans. The classic Tillamook packaging made this yogurt approachable. "Oddly more sustainable than Yoplait, but more cloying."

Tillamook French Vanilla Bean. What is the difference between regular and French vanilla? After trying this yogurt I'm still not sure. The flavor was similar, but with a hint of alcohol like rum. It's a bit thicker than the regular TVB and has a nice finish. The crunch of the vanilla bean specks is noticeable in this yogurt. The appearance was darker and somehow more artificial looking.

Darigold was weird. My notes on its texture were gelatinous? watery? There was not a lot of vanilla flavor in this yogurt, so the yogurtiness really came through. To me it tasted too plain and had a bitter finish. The weird consistency lent itself to a cum-like appearance and there's a really ugly picture of a vanilla flower on the container.

Brown Cow (pictured above) rated surprisingly high considering its texture. In Peter's words, "Something is wrong here. It makes no sense, slightly lumpy, cum-like maybe." I described it as being like watered down spackle or glue. Despite it's ridiculously high viscosity, it had a pleasantly mild taste. "Tastes roughly like you'd imagine cooled, watered and ground gypsum would taste." (That's what Peter said, I don't even know what gypsum is.) Anyway, due to the "nasty" tastelessness of this yogurt, we both decided it was a yogurt we could eat frequently and therefore rated it high in the category of sustainability.

Overall, I'd rank the yogurts from best to worst:
1. Yami
2. Tillamook French Vanilla Bean
3. Brown Cow
4. Tillamook Vanilla Bean
5. Darigold
6. Yoplait

Peter's overall rankings were:
1. Yami
2. Darigold
3. Tillamook French Vanilla Bean
4. Brown Cow
5. Tillamook Vanilla Bean
6. Yoplait

*quoted phrases are Peter's words.

and the winner is ....

2009-09-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

So... the vlog thing didn't work out this time. Hopefully I can post a fun blog soon though to make up for it. However , using randomizer.org I determined the winner of the hello kitty giveaway is Mesha! Check out her awesome blog.

Congratulations to Mesha! DM me your mailing address on twitter or something so I can get your goodies sent to you!

I have lots of things to talk about since I haven't blogged in awhile. First of all I am planning a review/guide site with Michael. We'll be reviewing restaurants, stores, other points of interest and let me just say our website is going to be GOOD.

I did a review of six kinds of vanilla yogurt and will be posting that up soon with pictures, of course.

And I found some amazing boots at this crazy little mall in Tacoma called B&I. If you're not familiar, don't worry, it will be one of the establishments Michael and I review and we'll tell you all about it. Not sure what I'll wear 'em with but check out the pictures:

The lighting was dark, but they're a really pretty white manmade leather with antiqued gold/brass hardware. Amazing details. PEEP TOE. buckles. Straps. Zipper embellishments, cool stitching detail, inner zipper for easy on/off and a wonderful mix of textures including patent leather, regular leather and gold metallic. Maybe I'll do an outfit post once I figure out what I can wear with them.

loose lips sink ships

2009-09-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

AAhhhh, I promise the winner of the hello kitty giveaway WILL be announced asap. Couldn't figure out how to edit my video.

Moving on...

My friends and I like to play "category" games a lot where you pick a category and then take turns coming up with things that would fit into the category. Some categories are as plain as "makes of cars" or "neighborhoods of Seattle." Sometimes they get a little more silly. Such as: cliche phrases that when inappropriately used to refer to pooping are hilarious. Have been playing this with my friends with wonderfully hilarious results.

Examples include: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

and my favorite which I am proud to say I came up with: Loose lips sink ships.

Do you have any more ideas? They have to cliches that do not normally refer to pooping. It's a fun game.

Uhh ... technical difficulties.

2009-08-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today I've been trying to record the vlog to announce the winner of the hello kitty giveaway. It's not going well. I don't know what's up with my software or whatnot, but if I can't figure it out tonight I'll just announce the winner tomorrow in a normal blog.

In the meantime, please enjoy this cute kitten video:

Happy Thursday!

3 things

2009-08-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

1.) Have you entered my Hello Kitty Giveaway yet? If not, go here! I'm giving away HK for MAC nail polish, a cute little HK notebook and a cute HK ruler!

2.) Here are a couple sweet Michael Jackson remixes I stumbled on today:

a. dj zeus

b. Never Can Say Goodbye rmx by the Neptunes.

3. Here are some recent additions to my etsy shop

Vintage 80s Hollywood Barbie Lunchbox

Pink Geometric Magic Wallet

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Another Hello Kitty Giveaway!

2009-08-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

I have one more bottle of Hello Kitty for MAC nail polish I'm willing to give away. It's Vestral White and comes in the super cute bottle and packaging of the HK for MAC line. I'm also throwing in a little notebook and a ruler. It's back to school season and even though I'm not in school, school supplies are one of my favorite things.

To enter this giveaway you can do up to three of the following:

1.) Simply comment on this post.
2.) Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post.
3.) Tweet about the giveaway (my twitter: click here).

[edit: please let me know in your comments how many times and what ways you entered! Thanks.]

I'll draw the winner on Tuesday the 25th and then do a vlog about it.

Let me know if you have any questions and good luck!

Polygnome Featured on Fantabulously Frugal

2009-08-18T09:37:00.001-07:00

Yay! So one of my favorite blogs, Fantabulously Frugal has featured my etsy shop for Etsy Monday. It's my first interview-style feature.

Lisa of FF posts all kinds of awesome sales and great deals on her blog, so you should definitely check her out if you like to save money.

Giveaway soon + my free Zoya!

2009-08-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

I'm coming up on my 150th post and I'll be doing a giveaway to celebrate! I have one more Hello Kitty for MAC nail polish I'm willing to give away and some other fun HK stuff.

For now though I have some pictures to share with you. Do you know of Zoya nail polish? It's formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate & camphor free. Recently they had a very cool promotion where they gave away three nail polishes free to celebrate reaching their goal of 5000 twitter followers. These are the colors I picked:

Loredana, Casey and Laurie.

I love gray nail polish so I decided to do Loredana with french tips using my Hello Kitty for MAC On the Prowl (the lighter gray).

Just Loredana ...

Loredana with On the Prowl tips

Close up.

Loredana is a really amazing matte velvet finish. The pictures don't really capture how matte it really is. And the lighter gray polish has a normal amount of shine to it. I really like the contrast in texture.

I initially heard of Zoya through All Lacquered Up's blog (which btw is an amazing and addictive blog). Zoya only sells their products online and to professional salons so that's prob why, but far I'm loving their polish and had a good experience with them.

Now we'll just see how long I can keep this manicure looking good ... I am not nice to my nails.

cute video + noriko's dinner table

2009-08-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

a cute little short film/love story i happened upon today.

And going in a totally different direction ...

Last night I watched Noriko's Dinner Table. It's sort of a sequel sort of a prequel to Suicide Club/Circle. I liked Suicide Club, but it was maybe a little too fucked up for my taste. Despite the gore being over the top almost funny and really unrealistic, it grossed me out and was hard to watch a lot of the parts.

However, Noriko's Dinner Table was a lot less gory and a lot more touching. I liked it a lot. I think it more obviously illustrates the theme of being connected to yourself and to other people (specifically in an age where technological communication ironically disconnects people), but I think they're both about that. And both about alienated youth bla bla bla. Suicide Club left me feeling mostly confused. The trailer isn't very good, but it gives you a little preview of it. Has anyone else seen either Suicide Club or Noriko's Dinner Table.

And the trailer for Suicide Club if you haven't seen the movie yet:

ohhhhmyyygoddd.

2009-08-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I hadn't seen this yet. AMAZING. I am way too excited for this movie to come out.

Animal Articles!

2009-08-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

I just subscribed to King5's rss feed. These articles caught my eye, and they're all about animals.

-Owls attack joggers. Require stitches. WTF?

-Horse drawn carriages banned in Portland? The mayor tweets, asking for input. This is controversial, but I think PETA is stupid. They blame the recent heatwave for killing a 27 year old carriage horse. Well duh! 100+ temperatures can do that, especially to animals not accustomed to extreme heat, and although horses can live years longer than 27, that still seems like a fairly ripe age for a horse right? PETA also says that horses have died in nearly every city that have horse-drawn carriage operations. Also stupid. You know what? People have died in every city that PETA operates. That's all I'll say about PETA right now. If horse drawn carriages really are cruel, I apologize, I don't know a lot about horses, but it seems like the sort of thing they are bred to do...

-Dogs trained to sniff out cell phones in prisons. Dog named Razor after Motorola phone (: How cute is that?

Not to scare you, but there's a bee on your penis.

2009-08-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

Michael and Adam semi unexpectedly dropped by on Wednesday. It was a good day filled with Mexican food, going to the park and pantsless river wading, pictures, ridiculously strong drinks at a gay bar in Olympia, the Oyster House and general Centralia sightseeing.

Quote of the day was "Not to scare you, but there's a bee on your penis."

Me and Adam. The blood was rushing to Adam's head.

Here are some videos. The best fight scene ever. lol

Absolutely ridiculous Major Lazer video for "Pon de Floor" (NSFW)

A cute and silly video about a cat and its owner.

trick wallets. poll results

2009-08-03T23:38:00.000-07:00

In my previous blog I said I'd talk about the results of the poll about employment. Here's the breakdown:

Hate it so much, I'm constantly looking for something else or an excuse to quit.
0 (0%)

It's not fun, but I don't have any plans to leave.
2 (14%)

It's not bad, I shouldn't complain but I do.
1 (7%)

It's good.
0 (0%)

I love my job!
3 (21%)

Unemployed/Self Employed/Other
8 (57%)

What gets me though, is that the highest section of the poll is the unemployed/self employed/other category. which is obviously a bit vague. This is where I fit. But I never feel like I fit in. Are there really others of you like me? WHERE ARE YOU?! I need to know.

I don't want to attempt to make much sense right now, i just took my ambien and only have a few more minutes til total passing out. but! i wanted to show you some new crafty things I've been doing (:

Trick Wallet

Trick Wallet from Polygnome on Vimeo

Selling Prints, Psychiatry & Bad Ideas.

2009-08-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

In my previous post I mentioned seeing a psychiatrist. I'd seen a psychiatrist once or twice when I went to college and I didn't really like or dislike him. He annoyed me a little because once because I think he implied he thought I had an alcohol problem. Anyway, this guy I saw last Thursday was pretty cool. He did not accuse me of having an alcohol problem, though he did ask if I thought the TV was trying to send me secret messages.

Anyway, I've been taking Wellbutrin because my previous insurance wouldn't cover Cymbalta which is my anti-depressant of choice. Now that the state is paying for all my medical stuff, I'm back on Cymbalta (adjusting is hard) and also got a rx for Ambien and Xanax (for insomnia and panic attacks respectively). Well last night, due to my change of anti depressants, I was feeling reeeally panicky and it was late so I thought "Oh I'll just take this Ambien and it'll put me to sleep." but it didn't make me sleepy. And I was still panicking. So I thought "Oh I'll take a Xanax and THAT'll put me to sleep."

And it did. But not before I did all kinds of ridiculous things I have only vague memories of.

I woke up and thought "huh. I smell like smoke." Shit! I ruined my 2 week streak of no smoking. Apparently last night I thought cigarettes would be a good idea so I drove to the gas station and bought a pack (I also bought some sweet berry Stride gum as evidenced by a glance into my purse this morning). I recall running into a curb and I still haven't gotten the nerve to go outside and make sure I didn't do anything bad to my car. I don't think I "drunk" dialed anybody, but I checked one of my chat boxes this morning and apparently I'd told someone "oh man. xanax + ambien = like 4 shots of vodka on an empty stomach!"

Today all I can do is shake my head in disappointment. The worst part was this morning I woke up with an equally bad, if not worse panic attack but I'm afraid of taking anything lest I go crazy being pretend drunk! I'm going to assume my downfall was the combi of ambien and xanax together because I've had them both before separately with no crazy effects.

Well. Anyway, I listed my monster drawings as prints you can buy from my etsy shop. I hadn't updated my paper store for awhile and though it was due time.

sarahahaha.etsy.com

Next post I'm going to address the results of the poll I took. I have a few things to say about that. (:

amazed

2009-07-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

I keep watching this over and over again.

Today is only supposed to be 84 degrees. Hooray! I thought about celebrating with a cup of hot cocoa or something. I saw a psychiatrist today (the second time I've seen a psychiatrist [or possibly third?]). More about that later.

I think I may go wash my car now.

Aaahh! Real Monsters

2009-07-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

i'm in no financial position to be shopping, but i got an email that Lorisshoes.com was having a sale! Up to 70% off so I checked it out and it's pretty good! Click here to go directly to the sale.

These two pairs of sandals caught my eye:

Since it's been so hot I've been turning my computer off during the day and lying around downstairs trying not to die (laugh all you want, Stephanie). Anyway, it's been good as I've made a few drawings that I like. I've been drawing monsters!

I am really nauseous for some reason today. I had a dentist appointment which I cancelled. And now I'm going to go lie down in the fetal position in misery. Ciao!

[edited to add these other monsters!]

ugh

2009-07-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's too fucking hot. all the blinds and shades in my house are drawn in an attempt to block out the heat. By the time I woke up it was already 81 degrees inside (and that's just the temp downstairs, my room is upstairs). Anyway, I went outside to take some pictures of my new scrunchies I made. It's way too hot outside, but the natural light was a good thing.

I'm proud of my computer for withstanding this heat. But I need to go bathe in ice cubes or something now. Ciao!

mostly just pictures and links

2009-07-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.thefuckingweather.com/ just told me it's 91 degrees. This is unacceptable. So I'm just doing a pictures and links blog post today. Things I've seen lately, things I've had bookmarked for awhile.

Here is a very abridged list of things I like/look interesting to me:

friendswithyou prints

books

green tea panda bread

illustration that reminds me of cigarette vending machines in japan

to don't list

color scheme designer

when did your heart go missing

2009-07-26T00:55:00.000-07:00

I listened to Season 1 and 2 of Gossip Girl's soundtracks. These are a few of my faves:

Love don't come so easily
This doesn't have to end in tragedy
I have you and you have me
We're one in a million
Why can't you see?

I'm waiting, waiting for nothing
You're leaving, leaving me hanging
When did your heart go missing?
When did your heart go missing?
I treat you like a princess
But your life is just one big mess
When did your heart go missing?
When did your heart go missing, yeah?

I meant every word I said
I never was lying when we talked in bed
I'm retracing every step in my head
What did I miss back then?
I was so, so misled

I'm waiting, waiting for nothing
You're leaving, leaving me hanging
When did your heart go missing?
When did your heart go missing?
I treat you like a princess
But your life is just one big mess
When did your heart go missing?
When did your heart go missing?

I don't understand
How could you forget what we had,
It's so wrong

I'm waiting, waiting for nothing
You're leaving, leaving me hanging
When did your heart go missing?
When did your heart go missing?
I treat you like a princess
But your life is just one big mess
When did your heart go missing?
When did your heart go missing?

Things were so good
We had a little dream
A little dream together
Buy a house, settle down, do our thing
But you disappeared on me
And your heart, your heart went missin'
I don't know how to find it
I don't know where it is
I don't know where your heart went
It was here just the other day
Now it's gone
I'm gonna call the police
Call the investigator, the heart investigator

blueberry shoes

2009-07-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

The winner I picked [if you didn't see the vlog I posted yesterday] is blueberry shoes! Congrats to her and if you haven't checked out her blog or her etsy, I highly recommend it! She has very cool vintage and handmade things and makes some sweet illustrations.

What should the next giveaway be? Did you vote on the poll over there? --->

Michael says the giveaway should be that I write a song about the winner. I think this is a terrible idea. (:

VLOG: The Winner of my Giveaway Clutch!

2009-07-20T17:58:00.000-07:00

But first! How to tie a full Windsor knot. Easy step-by-step tutorial on how to tie a tie and then I draw the winner's name from a fishbowl.

Tomorrow I'll announce the winner in text in case some of you can't watch videos/don't want to watch my awesome video.

Windsor Knot Tutorial and Second Blog Giveaway from Polygnome on Vimeo.

Giveaway Reminder

2009-07-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hello! Today is the last day to enter my giveaway for this clutch:

I will be accepting entries until midnight tonight PST and tomorrow (hopefully) I'll announce the winner. If I don't get around to doing it tomorrow, I promise I'll do it by Tuesday!

Go enter here if you haven't already!

archive from 2005 + nsfw picture

2009-07-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me in my first apartment:

I was heavier then, but looking back, I like how "womanly" I look. Please excuse the fact that I'm in underwear and 4" patent leather peeptoe heels. (:

reading some of my old entries from my previous blogs. i found this one:

testing the limits of something i've never trusted
it's not worth what you're getting for it
why bother?

i'm growing up, and it's fucking exciting.

I had just moved into my first apartment in Seattle, it was summer and the weather was so pretty and I would walk to my one painting class I had at SCCC or to the grocery store or to work. I spent a lot of time hanging out with 3 friends and we could never plan things to do that sounded fun but we always ended up doing something random and silly and enjoying ourselves. But the journal entry was about more than that. I thought at the time that I was about to find out who I was and feel comfortable with who I was because I had Asian friends for the first time and I lived by myself and could pretty much do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to. I threw up the first day I lived there (either because the city tap water was so nasty, or out of nervous excitement).

I had lots of hopes, like becoming comfortable with driving in the city (I miss that car). I still hate driving and it makes me completely panicky to drive in Seattle. I was completely uninterested in finding a boyfriend, but I liked feeling free to date or sleep with whoever I wanted. And I liked the feeling of people wanting to date me. There were a) just generally a higher number of guys b) a higher chance of finding a guy without a bad case of yellow fever. Despite the dating atmosphere being better than my tiny hometown, I still went on plenty of terrible dates, but I always thought it was kind of fun. I think a bad date is much more fun than an "okay" date because it makes a good story and I like to see ridiculous people in real life situations.

Anyway, that summer was the last time I felt any significant momentum in my life. It slowed once real school (SU) started in the fall and then eventually stopped during my senior year there. And my bf at the time pushed me to finish my winter quarter. He wrote a paper or maybe two for me and did all kinds of stuff or me even though he was going to school himself 100 miles away. That was the reason I passed my classes that quarter. By spring quarter, my last quarter, he was gone to Japan and with no one there to spoon feed me my homework, I gave up and dropped out six weeks before the quarter was over and I would've graduated.

By that time my coping skills were definitely no match for the elements in my life. I had pretty bad agoraphobia, and usually only left the house to get food or to go to counseling/health clinic appointments at school even though i had entirely stopped going to classes. I rarely answered my phone and mostly only talked to people via texts because it's less confrontational.

I'm realizing the coping skills I've developed are no match for reality. I need them though, desperately. Because without them, I think I might explode or implode, or walk out in the street naked and crazy or drive my car into the house.

Blah. I'm done for now.

new items!

2009-07-18T02:13:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten around to photographing and listing a few new items in my etsy shop. Also, relisted my favorite clutch, the "I didn't know when to stop" clutch!

Blue and Chartreuse Ruffled Clutch

Vintage Men's Lambswool Tie

Vintage Men's Red Silk Tie with Tiny Owls

I Didn't Know When to Stop Clutch

Also, don't forget that my giveaway [for the clutch below] ends this Sunday! Go here to enter. I totally appreciate those of you who've entered already and have been spreading the word! Thanks!

polyvore!

2009-07-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

One of my fave color combinations!

gray and yellow by polygnome featuring Christian Louboutin shoes

If I was a dude, I'd dress like such a douchebag.

Monochromatic by polygnome featuring All Saints

Polyvore is so much fun! It's like playing dress up without having body images issues because you're not actually trying things on. But you get to make outfits and shop by color or brand or category of items. So it's not quite as fun as real shopping, but it's pretty cool as far as internet window shopping goes.

So in an effort to try to climb out of this sinkhole they call "major depressive disorder" and I call "life" I started taking my anti-depressants again (last night). So I didn't fall asleep until about 9 this morning and then slept til 3:45 this afternoon. But I'm also going to start having a goal for every day. A tiny, completely reasonably accomplishable goal. Today's goal is to do laundry. So I'm going to go start that.

Or maybe put it off for a bit longer ... Ha!

awesome videos and giveaway reminder!

2009-07-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

I found it over at galadarling which is a blog I'm new to reading, but so far it's pretty great!

Also, the video below is pretty cute too (found on lelelove):

And a reminder, my clutch giveaway contest ends July 19th, so get your entries in!

Anna Sui for Target & Gossip Girl

2009-07-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

Target has collaborated with many designers. Alexander McQueen, Isaac Mizrahi, Philippe Starck, and Thakoon are some designers I can think of off the top of my head. I just read that Anna Sui is collaborating with Target with a line of clothes set to debut September 13.

I've got to say I like Target. I recently bought a set of Sonia Kashuk coral-handled makeup brushes there and I love them! I am not a big fan of Anna Sui, but apparently, her line for Target was inspired from GOSSIP GIRL--which I'm totes a fan of! Was the result any good? Eh ... in my opinion, it's not particularly amazing. "Blair's" outfits are my favorites, which is true for the show as well. The Cut mentions "Serena's clothes aren't nearly slutty enough!" Too true.

Also vaguely related, I was checking out hautelook.com today and the model for the BCBG sale looks eerily like Blair and Serena's lovechild.

Who's your favorite Gossip Girl character?

Finally made this ...

2009-07-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

So I have had this in my mind for months now, and finally got down to actually making it. It's a case to hold your tampons. And it's shaped like a tampon. Simple idea, and I made it have a cute face so it's extra cute and creepy. Look at that expression! The flushed cheeks! Would work for as a pencil case or for makeup brushes too. The zipper pull is the string. Hahaha, gross.

Anyway, will list this soon, but etsy is down at the moment so you're getting a preview:

(Click to view larger)

Also have some more ideas for bloodier versions of this. I thought I'd start off on the safe side though! (:

oh PS, I googled "tampon" just to see what would come up, and I found this crazy tampon craft website. There is a tampon toupee tutorial. Seriously!

I got bored and it's 80 degrees ...

2009-07-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

... so it makes sense that I played dress up in my fall/winter clothes right?

It started out by me trying on some of my vintage things to decide whether I should keep them or part with them via etsy. Then it morphed into a "I think I'll put on a wool coat and rhinestone covered sunglasses and do a photoshoot in the spare bedroom.

A little peek into my wardrobe; I'm wearing some of my favorite clothes, which I'm a little frustrated I can't wear because it's summer. And hot. And uncomfortable. Can't wait for fall!

Me embarrassing myself with silly pictures:

My Lady Gaga outfit. When in Japan I discovered the art of putting rhinestones on everything! These stunnershades were the result. Six sheets of rhinestones for cell phones! Thrifted white shirt. Belt I got from one of my friend's moms. Shiny black leggings from Express. Shoes: Dolce Vita.

You can't really tell from this photo, but this wool coat is amazing! It's reversible (the other side is light gray with black plaid stripes) and super warm and belted so it pretty much feels like you're wearing a cozy bathrobe.

I've never actually worn this outfit before! It's a good mix of things though, I think. The shirt I got on sale at Macy's (vaguely embarrassing to admit?), the scarf is thrifted, the jeans are Z Co. and have 2% spandex so they are super comfortable and they were pretty cheap (under $50) and they're GRAY--one of my fave colors. Okay and I'm also wearing a J. Crew tuxedo vest which I bought when I used to work there. We called it the slutty vest but it was really only slutty in comparison to the rest of their pieces which were super matronly [also only slutty when you wear it with no shirt underneath]. And my fave part of the outfit: white patent leather Casadei boots. I bought these I think three years ago off Bluefly. They were $300 fucking dollars and I had no business buying them, but I don't regret it! They're super comfortable for having stiletto heels and I think they're hot.

I bought this dress at BCBG in February when they were having a 70% off sale. I was going to wear it to Valentine's day dinner with the guy I was dating at the time, but I ended up wearing a different outfit instead because our dinner reservations were for 4:30pm. Okay, I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to wear it. Click here to read my blog from Valentine's Day.

Well that's all for now. If I were to post outfit pictures of what I wear on a day to day basis you would see me wearing possibly no pants/maybe boxers, wife beaters and hoodies if it's colder. I don't know why I love fashion so much but hate getting dressed!

*PS* If you haven't done so yet, enter my blog giveaway to win a free clutch! Here's how.

Finally! Blog Giveaway #2!!

2009-07-10T23:45:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's finally here! Sorry the prize is still pretty much geared toward my female readers but I won't discriminate against anyone who wants to enter the contest! (:

Click pictures to view larger.

I have made an awesome clutch to give away this time. It's a big one, but perfect for tucking under your arm in the evening. The dimensions of the clutch are about 11" wide by 4.5" tall.

It's made of a dark canvas with a brocade style print. Then there are lots of individually hand cut leaves of gray, yellow and metallic gold. They are made of felt and leather and sewn layer upon layer to create what I think is a pretty interesting textural pattern.

It wasn't "zazzy" enough yet so I added black faceted gems!

The inside features two large compartments for cash or whatever other "large" things you want to put in it. There are also six credit card slots that I made out of the same metallic gold leather that some of the leaves are made of (I scored it at a thrift store). A little leaf detail inside. Snap closure.

Want to know anything else? Just ask.

Okay, so you may have just asked "How do I enter this giveaway?" Well here are the deets!

You can enter in multiple ways for a total of 3 entries:

1) Simply comment on this post!

2) Go to either of my etsy shops:
http://polygnome.etsy.com/
or
http://sarahahaha.etsy.com/
and leave a comment on this post with what your favorite item(s) are.

3) Blog about my contest with A LINK TO MY BLOG + MY ETSY PAGE please: http://polygnome.etsy.com/

You have until the end of Sunday, July 19 to get your entries in! I'll announce the winner on the 20th (hopefully in a vlog again!). If you're the winner, I'll contact you for your address and ship it off to you totes free!

Let me know if I have somehow left out any important details, otherwise good luck!

Old people + Things that don't matter = Annoying

2009-07-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

I think it's a thing that old people do, though maybe it's not defined by age. It also seems to be a thing that old WOMEN do. But maybe it's not defined by gender.

When people ask stupid questions that don't matter, I find it so annoying! Especially when it's regarding completely unimportant things.

For instance, what prompted this post/rant, was overhearing my mom from downstairs say "What's this milk doing here?"

I know the answer to that question. I made some chocolate chip cookies and poured myself a glass of milk to enjoy with them. I was eating up here in my room and then realized "Huh. I think I have more milk than I want to drink." So when I went downstairs to have a cigarette outside, I brought the glass downstairs and put it on the kitchen counter before I went outside. I forgot to pour the milk in the sink and put the glass in the dishwasher and came back upstairs to my room.

There's the answer. But it's such a stupid question! What else would it be doing there? Why would she care?

I just heard her asking my dad, "Steve? Do you know why there is a glass of milk here??"

"No, I don't."

"Well, I don't know how it got here."

"Maybe it's Sarah's."

"I know I didn't put it there. And you don't know anything about it. So I don't know what it's doing there."

?!?!?! Yes, you do Mom! Dad just gave you the answer which was pretty obvious in the first place.

Hhhhhhhhh....

Or when people hear noises and freak out about what might be causing them.

For example one day I was at my grandma's, sitting in her living room with her and having a relaxed conversation. All of a sudden she tilts her head to the side like she heard something and says, "What's that sound?!"

"I think it's your washing machine, Grandma."

"Oh."

WTF?! Does this anyone anyone else as much as it annoys me?

Josh Beech

2009-07-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

I rarely get obsessions with male models, but I kinda like this guy Josh Beech. He has lots of tattoos and I like his hair. But he seems to pronounce "th" like "fr." I think he said he's twenty-free years old. Errr... [click here to watch an interview w/him done by some guy with an even worse accent than josh's]

But anyway, I like his image. It's sort of this I'm-tough-but-still-willing-to-havee-a-kinda-gay-job-like-be-a-model-and-wear-a-mauve-blazer-with-my-gauged-ears-and-frolic-around-with-my-male-model-friends-trendy-and-young thing. Oh and he's in a band. It's called Snish. So far I'm not really digging it.

Oh and he had a Vogue Hommes cover:

More pictures

So yeah. There's a kinda foxy looking guy. I'm all for creative pursuits, but since his band, Snish, is kinda terrible, I kinda hope he just takes this opportunity to conveniently transition over into fashion.

*Well I guess he's now in another band called Hildamay. I like it only slightly more than the other Snish band, but they're at least a much more ATTRACTIVE band.

SS10 Givenchy backstage

2009-07-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

uhh YES!

The second picture is cut off because of my blog layout--and it's cutting out my favorite piece! So either click the link below or click on the photo to see the whole picture. The sakura-ish criss-cross dress is 2die4.

Photos from models.com Fashion Week Backstage.
http://models.com/fashionweek/view_album.php?set_albumName=SS10Givenchy&page=1

FW09

2009-07-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

I'm aware it's July but I'm already anxious for it to be fall. When I was little I think the highlight of my summers was back to school shopping. My parents never had a lot of money so I usually had a pretty tight budget, but the planning was even fun for me. My mom would make me do an inventory of all the clothes I had to determine what new clothes I'd need. I think I enjoyed shopping for school supplies (i.e. pencils, paper, binders, eraser, etc. even more than clothes actually). I'm smarter than that now. But shopping in general is one of my most favorite activities ever.

Well this fall I have no school to go back to, and no money to spend anyway, but just looking at new clothes kinda gives me a metaphorical boner. Also, I was thinking about the fact that I have a decent amount of clothes and since I stopped growing a long time ago my clothes from last fall still fit me. So what would I need? I thought about what I have already as far as boots go: two pairs of black leather knee high boots (one pair of laceups, one pair zip-up-the-backs) one pair of mid calf black patent boots, a pair of mid calf white patent leather boots, a pair of purple suede ankle boots and a pair of brown faux suede knee high boots. Oh and a pair of light gray leather cowboy boots. Soo ... I think the obvious answer is gray suede thigh high boots. Right?

Anyway, here are some things I've seen while online window shopping that made me cream my jeans [most pictures are clickable]:

Okay, this is embarrassing. And it doesn't even really make me cream my jeans--it's actually kinda frumpy. But I'm sorry, I reeeally like. It's a jacket inspired by the jacket Bella wears in Twilight. But it looks like such a perfect fall jacket! No wonder she wore it in Forks, it's perfect for drizzly Washington weather.

All right, a Thriller jacket. So cute! And I don't have a leather jacket right now, so it would fill a definite wardrobe NEED.

These Max Studio Xena open toed open heeled stiletto booties are hot! I love them.

This racoon fur stole looks so cuzzly! It makes me a little sad because raccoons are really cute, but since it's vintage, no new raccoons would be dying for me. Shopnastygal.com is one of my favorite online clothing stores. There are always tons of cute things there, both new and vintage.

Strappy booties in my favorite shade of suede!

Ugh. These heinous dominatrix bling Mary Janes are doing it for me. They also kind disgust me. That's how you really know whether or not something's good!

I know this shirt is stupid and I don't even wear crew neck shirts, but I love Gossip Girl! What can I say? And although in my heart I think I would like Serena better, I would like to be Blair more.

A fun umbrella (comes in 5 other colors)!

All right. Time to do stuff. I may be making clothes for an online store tentatively planned to debut for fall. We'll see!

Introduction to Home Economics

2009-07-07T22:10:00.001-07:00

Today I went to a thrift store and picked up a book called "Clothing Construction and Wardrobe Planning" by Dora S. Lewis, Mabel Goode Bowers and Marietta Kettunen. It was published by the Macmillan Company in 1960 and it appeared to be a textbook on basic clothing construction.

I bought it because I like to sew and wanted to learn more about clothing construction. What I'm finding is that it's educating me on all sorts of things I hadn't even expected!

An excerpt from the preface reads: Every girl wants to be attractive. In this book we have capitalized on this motivation to help girls develop skills of lasting value to themselves and to their families ... A girl should understand the clothing needs of the entire family--not only now while she is a member of a family group but later, when she must plan for a family of her own.

Uhh ... Amazingly terrible!

It continues: Because the attention span of high-school girls is short, every unnecessary step is omitted; yet because their skills is limited, every possible aid is provided.

"Good posture is a habit which is free."

The first chapter explains "that a good posture is the key to charm and beauty" and describes how you should stand, how to walk and how to sit. The book goes on to talk about the importance of a good night's rest! It pretty much tells you if you stay up late reading a good book, you'll wake up ugly.

I've only begun chapter two, but already I'm learning about deodorants. "Most people have to use some type of underarm deodorant. You cannot be sure that you are completely dainty and inoffensive unless you do."

This book is so good. Will keep you updated as I read on!

stole this ...

2009-06-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

... from stephanie! thanks lady! check out her blog http://breathinguptheoxygen.blogspot.com/ today for a great handshake tutorial. lol

8X8

The Rules:
Mentioned who tagged you: Stephanie
Complete the list of 8’s
Tag 8 people

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Reaching my goal weight
Fitting into my pants again
Being tan
My head feeling clear and being able to think straight again
Having nice dreams at night
Making something cool
Being able to sew whatever my mind thinks up
Having kids someday

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
Slept
Ate
Did my nails
Made a couple fail rings. They are not going to be sold.
Internetted
Scrabble
Metroid Prime Pinball
Hulu

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO
Function in ways that humans should.
Eat like a normal person
Think like a normal person
Play piano well
Sing
Play cello
Back walkover
One handed pushups

8 SHOWS I WATCH
Burn Notice
Fringe
Flight of the Conchords
Alias
Campus Ladies
uhh
some other shows I'm sure.

8 FAVORITE FRUITS
PEACHES
red grapes
blueberries
apples
pears
pineapple
banana
blackberries

8 PLACES I’D LIKE TO TRAVEL
korea
canada
mexico
germany
mitchell, south dakota
new york
japan (if only to shop for kawaii fabric to sew something amazing with) oh and ice cream crepes
montana

8 PLACES I’VE LIVED
korea
montana
oregon
centralia, wa
seattle, wa

8 FOLKS I’M TAGGING
I
tag
whoever
wants
to
participate
in
8X8

he rocked my world

2009-06-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

How much do I love Michael Jackson? IT IS AN UNENDING LOVE!

My parents are hella Christian and I wasn't allowed to listen to secular music until I was in middle school. So the first time I really fell in love with Michael Jackson was when I--on a whim--decided to rent some VHS tapes of his videos/performances. I couldn't believe how cool they were!

Then in 2001 I watched the Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Celebration and seeing him perform alongside pop performers like Britney and Usher made me realize how truly magical he is and what a better performer he is than preeetty much anyone else. That was also the night I started learning how to moonwalk.

In 2003 I did a photoshoot with a Michael Jackson temporary tattoo on. I considered getting a real one, but I think it'll be awhile before I get another tattoo.

Just the other day I was organizing a lot of my paper/art and stuff and found this newspaper collage I had done of Michael Jackson when I took Design/Color in college. It's of one of my favorite pictures of Michael! I am so sad he's gone and part of me believes he's faking his death.

I always hoped he'd outlive me!

I'm currently ripping Michael Jackson HIStory cd set onto my computer. Today is a day for watching Michael Jackson HIStory DVD and remembering how inspirational MJ is. Perhaps I will bedazzle a glove?

What's your favorite Michael Jackson song? Mine is probably Stranger in Moscow

What's your favorite Michael Jackson video? Smooth Criminal? Maybe? It's almost impossible to claim just one favorite!

<3 Love you MJ! <3

pink and black and blue for you

2009-06-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

What I've been listening to lately ...

I tried to do handstands for you
I tried to do headstands for you
Everytime I fell on you, yeah, everytime I fell
I tried to do handstands for you
But everytime I fell for you
I'm permanently black and blue, permanently blue for you.

I tried to do handstands for you
I tried to do handstands for you
Everytime I fell on you, yeah, everytime I fell
I tried to do handstands for you but everytime I fell for you
I'm permanently black and blue, permanently blue for you-ooh-ooh-ooh

For you-ooh-ooh-ooh
So black and blue-ooh-ooh-ooh
For you-ooh-ooh-ooh.

I grabbed some frozen strawberries so I could ice your bruising knees
But frozen things they all unfreeze and now I taste like....
All those frozen strawberries I used to chill your bruising knees,
Hot July ain't good to me
I'm pink and black and blue for you.

I got bruises on my knees for you
And grass stains on my knees for you
Got holes in my new jeans for you
Got pink and black and blue

Got bruises on my knees for you
And grass stains on my knees for you
Got holes in my new jeans for you
Got pink and black and blue for you

Other songs I've been listening to lately:

and of course ...

You are just a young girl who likes to sleep around yeah?

2009-06-22T20:49:00.001-07:00

I've been giving my room an intensive cleaning. Looking through my sketchbooks to decide which ones I should put in storage boxes under my bed and which to keep out to access, I came across this dialogue in a letter I'd written to a friend trying to describe this ridiculous guy I met. Luckily, I never sent it and therefore get to relive this amazing conversation I had via IM with a scary dude I went on a date with. After this one date, I decided I liked him, but wasn't ready or willing to date him exclusively. When I told him this he went nuts.

The date of the letter is May 11, 2006. It was this dude that worked at the same place I did and I thought he was really cute, but he turned out to be crazy! This is the conversation verbatim:

D: You are going to make a lot of serious enemies, Sarah.
Me: I already have some, haha.
D: What? Who?
Me: I was joking. I just meant boys that are disappointed if my expectations don't match theirs.
D: Why do you call men boys?
Me: Because I call males boys?
D: Is it because you don't think they are good enough for you?
Me: No ... male people ARE boys.

D: You knew from the first time we hung out that you weren't going to give me a chance.
Me: No I didn't.
D: Yes you did. I've been on this earth a little longer to know.*
Me: I think I know how I feel better than you do.

*I think he was like 2-3 years older than me

D: Women just walk in and they fuck up the balance and waltz out.

D: Over the years I have become very proficient at dealing with smartasses.
D: Maybe the next time I see you I'll put you in your place.
D: I've never hit a woman before but you just might be the first.

D: What's up with the slow responses?
Me: I don't even know what to say to your questions.
D: Why because you think you're more intelligent than me??

D: You are just a young girl who likes to sleep around yeah?

Ahhhhhh. That was terrible, but fun to look back on! Insecure much?

A couple videos that leave me teary-eyed.

2009-06-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Christian the lion

Christian was a lion originally purchased by Australians John Rendall and Anthony "Ace" Bourke from Harrods department store of London in 1969 and ultimately reintroduced to the wild by conservationist George Adamson. One year after George Adamson released Christian to the wild, his former owners decided to go looking for him in Africa to see whether Christian would remember them. Surprisingly, he did and with him were other lions in the pride who were also friendly.[1]

-from the Christian the lion wikipedia entry

The part in the video when they reunite is too precious.

This second video is cute too, though possibly less dramatic. Carolyn Scott had polio as a child and doesn't dance with her dogs anymore and I'm guessing Rookie is dead now because he was 15 last year and health probz, but he looks like he had so much fun dancing!

Carolyn Scott & Rookie

fallen princesses

2009-06-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

I'm a girl (duh) and of course I like fairytales and the story of Rapunzel is one of my favorites. This photographer, Dina Goldstein did a series of photos based on fairytale princesses with "realistic" outcomes instead of the "happily ever after" types we're accustomed to.

I'm not sure how seriously to take them, or how serious they were meant to be, but I like them and the Rapunzel one made me lol (yes, I am a terrible person). I really like the Sleeping Beauty one too, mainly because I love old people so much.

http://www.dinagoldstein.com/

"vlog"

2009-06-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

So this morning I had an appointment with the lady doctor (ugh) and I got up at 7am (gross) and took a shower, got dressed, and hopped in my car to drive over there. My car wouldn't start. It wouldn't do anything. It didn't even try to start.

Ugh! So I ran back inside, woke my mom up and asked to borrow her car and then I went. The lady doctor appointment went stupidly, I'm not going to go into detail, but I was a little pissed off that I even got up for it this morning. I am definitely not a morning person.

Last night, Michael and I attempted to record some footage for a vlog, but as most of it was unusable (mainly us just giggling and talking about private jokes that were hilarious to us, but I'm sure obnoxious to anyone else) I cut it down to just a few minutes of some of my fave moments. I don't even think this is worth calling a vlog, it's really just several clips of us being ourselves: Dancing, name-dropping, and Michael standing on his hands.

Check it out:

Michael helps me vlog from Polygnome on Vimeo.

Oh, also I made quite a haul at some thrift stores so I'll be posting pics soon and today I'm thinking I'll be making the giveaway clutch too. Maybz. If you're lucky.

what i've been up to ...

2009-06-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting as often lately. Apologies to anyone who has noticed my absence.

I'm going to do a giveaway within the next week or so. The item(s) will be something handmade by me, like a clutch or jewelry maybe? Any ideas of kinds of things you'd want? Comment and tell me!

I have been craving shopping reeeally bad lately but I've been trying to avoid spending money. I decided to try sewing some new clothes to ease my feelings of withdrawal. Here are some creations I came up with:

This is a romper I made and a little vest/shrug/bolero thing with pleats.

Below is a flowy maxi dress I made of jersey with some cool sheer appliques I cut out.

A skirt I made and me being a dork doing an action pose!

This is a purse I sewed out of a windbreaker. This is what I did with the hood and one of my friends bought it awhile ago! Awesome!

And here's a picture of my dog because I think he's cute and he always looks so guilty when I pull the camera out.

Soooo ... let me know in the comments if you have any specific things you like that you'd be interested in seeing me do a giveaway for. And let me know what you think of my sewing lately. And how has everyone been? I need to catch up on my google reader.

While I was out ...

2009-06-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I was busy sewing and didn't check my computer for awhile. Jeremy had left me some messages.

(2:42:34 PM) jeremy: Hi bun
Im at vid store
What u doing
(6:49:48 PM) jeremy: Hi bun, how r u?
(9:44:09 PM) jeremy: bun
(9:44:14 PM) jeremy: how come u not talking 2 me
(9:44:21 PM) jeremy: r u bored aand frustrated
(9:47:26 PM) jeremy: is it cuz i never paid u for that hello kitty merch i won off u on ebay
(9:49:44 PM) jeremy: is it coz i havent bought a house yet for us 2 live in
(9:56:25 PM) jeremy: is it coz i still have my msn picture containing a beard?
(10:01:43 PM) jeremy: ooooooooooooh wait is it coz i didnt come help u clean your room yet and now you have no room left on bed so you cant sleep and youre too tired to spell replies correctly which could be potentially embarrassing?
(10:15:33 PM) jeremy: is it because i didnt have michael jackson on a pony bring you a pony for christmas
(10:15:35 PM) jeremy: im sorry
(10:20:18 PM) jeremy: bun is it cuz i didnt get u an iphone
(10:20:25 PM) jeremy: that was bedazzled
(10:20:38 PM) jeremy: by herman li

Lay it Down

2009-06-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been kind of in a slump. My brain has not been working like it should and I wanted to sew some more clutches, but I couldn't do it. I tried making ruffles (easy!) and was an epic fail.

FINALLY my head cleared. And yesterday I made THREE new clutches. I'm very happy with them, and my favorite is the yacht clutch because it's so Blair Waldorf prepster.

Here are my latest creations!

Old Money Yacht clutch made with an upcycled turnlock clasp, old charms, beads, costume jewelry, vintage fabric and new white/navy chain fabric.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26284584

Engrish T-Shirt Clutch. I made this from a shirt I got in Japan but didn't really fit me. Made from recycled materials so it's eco-friendly (only the snaps and thread aren't). Check out the description I made for it on its etsy page too. Haha. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26282954

Family Candy Jewels Clutch. I had this idea to use felt candies on a clutch and I really like how it turned out. I am enjoying this odd combination of colors. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26283907

Insomnia-driven crafting

2009-06-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't gone to bed yet. I made some things last night/this morning. All the rings are 5 bucks, so buy buy buy plz. k, thx (:

Not even going to post pictures of everything I listed this morning. Toooo tired!

Good night!