HALLELUJAH!

Friday, January 30, 2009

Stop me, before I shop again.

My newest fashion purchases:





I can't help it. I have a weakness for navy/white in the spring. And that purse? Italian. I fold like a stack of tea towels for anything Italian.

Apparently, bangles are way back in for the spring and summer. Which thrills me, because I love bangles, and I have tons of vintage and not-so-vintage bangles that I have collected over the years.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

I'm having a pre-Easter dilemma.

Here's my dilemma. Last year, I created a "green" ensemble. Everything in my Easter ensemble was something I already owned or bought used. I had planned to do that again this year (I could shop for days in my accessories collection), but then I found out that BoringSidney over at Etsy makes this amazing hat to order:



She offers it in a variety of colors, including pale blue and cherry red, either of which would be fabulous in an Easter ensemble. So, what to do? What to do?

I. Must. Have. One.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5136576/best-obama-action-figure-ever-battles-darth-vader-terrorists-karaoke

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Formal Wear

I know a lot of people didn't like Michelle's inaugural gown, but I thought it was pretty. It flattered her skin tone and showed off her arms, and she has beautiful arms. Besides, who could resist the cuteness that is the First Couple?



Tuesday, January 20, 2009

It's here! It's here!

The day is finally here! **and the crowd goes wild**

Monday, January 19, 2009

Brrrr!

I marched in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March down Jeffererson Street this morning with parishioners from my church and members of a local mosque, and I like to froze my civil rights off. It was cold. It rarely snows in Nashville, but it snowed this morning. Not a lot, but it was still snow.

And it was cold.

Then we all went to have lunch at a Palestinian restaurant here in town. Not for the symbolism, so much as for the cheap buffet. :-)

Friday, January 16, 2009

I had a bad day yesterday.

So I bought myself a happy on Ebay. Actually, I bought myself two happies. Two sets of vintage Georges Briard linen cocktail napkins:



And this set comes with the original box!



I'm bidding on another set, even as I type. Keep your fingers crossed...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Free Books!

Simon and Schuster UK is giving away free books on LiveJournal.

Click here.

Also, eblog Book Love Affair (link below in my Weather Radar) is having a contest for a free Patricia Briggs book.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Aren't these pretty?

There's an artist on Etsy whose collage work I love. I have several of her small pieces, and I was checking to see what she had on sale. She was selling 2 for 1 on some of her prints. I saw two I loved, but I don't buy prints, so I asked her if she still had the originals, and she did! So I'm going to be buying these two pieces from her next week:



Janet Evanovich Book Signing

Or "How Min Got Her Ego Stroked".

A colleague of mine asked me to go to the Janet Evanovich book signing tonight at Borders. I didn't have a book for her to sign, because I don't read JE's books--they're not very good--but I do listen to them on CD, because the reader, Lorelei King, is fantastic. Her readings are so good that they elevate what are, generally, mediocre books to quality entertainment.So I agreed to go with Sue.We had a quick bite of supper first, and then we walked over to the Borders, which was teaming with young and middle-aged women, entirely too many of them overweight, badly dressed, and poorly coifed. Now I, myself, am overweight, but I would be damned, before I would go to a book signing for someone whose work I really enjoyed looking like a slob. I don't even like JE that much, but I was dressed up for the occasion. Specifically, I wore a coral brocade swing jacket with 3/4 sleeves, a gray pencil skirt, gray suede slingbacks (they're new!), a vintage gray velvet and satin beehive toque, and my John Atencio sterling/gold bracelets and rings. Granted, this was also what I wore to work, but it was appropriate for both occasions.

Anyhoo, I decided that I would buy something by JE, even though I didn't intend to have it signed, because that's the only way I could get a number for the line. Besides, I needed to have my parking validated. So I bought one of JE's Plum novellas on CD (read by Lorelei King, of course), and the cute young man behind the counter said, "I like the style." I didn't quite understand what he said, so I responded, "What?" And he said, "You have great style." Well, the child had to be half my age, so I was very flattered. I laughed, said "thank you", and sashayed off in my stylish suede slingbacks. ;-)

Sue and I ended up with big numbers, 274 and 250, respectively, so we waited for nearly two hours to get up to the autograph table. But we had a nice, long conversation, and we had fun quietly pointing out all the bad hair we could see. While waiting in line, we were offered free chocolate by a Borders employee (I passed) and free bumper stickers by JE's daughter (I took one that says "I heart Morelli", because Morelli reminds me of Mike in the Blood books, and I love Mike). I was also recognized and warmly greeted by a Borders staff member who sometimes works at the Borders in Brentwood where my sci fi book group meets.

I told Sue that I didn't intend to get an autograph, but that I would hold her stuff and take her picture on her cellphone. When we got to the head of the line, though, JE's husband was acting as official photographer, so he used Sue's cameraphone to take her picture with JE. Then he looked at me with his eyebrows raised, and I said, "I'm just acting as her sherpa." He laughed, complimented my hat, and asked if I wore them all the time. I said, yes, quite often, and he launched into a discussion of people he knew who wore hats. Then he said, "Janet, look! Isn't her hat great?" And I suddenly was having a conversation with Janet Evanovich about hats and shoes and other accessories.

As Sue and I walked away from the table, I said to her, sotto voce, "And that's why I wear a hat." When she looked at me, puzzled, I said, "Because people use my hats as an entre` to conversation. It happens everywhere I go." And she said, "It's because you wear such interesting hats." Which was sweet of her, but they're not really that interesting or unusual. It's just that most of my hats are vintage, and vintage hats were made better (usually in a union shop) and of better quality materials than anything you can get these days, unless you go to a custom milliner.

I can't wait to tell the people in my general fiction book group about my close encounter with JE. They will be sooooo jealous. :-D

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Voila!

I have a new color scheme for the winter, inspired by a photograph of the Eiffel Tower that my secretary's husband took in Paris back before Christmas.

At the end of December...

...Kanani gave me the honor of the Honest Scrap Award, but in order to get it, I have to write a few honest facts about myself or what I really think. So here goes...

1. I am a procrastinator of the worst sort, and that can be a problem when you're in a profession that lives and dies by filing deadlines and statutes of limitations.

2. I'm a great believer in free speech, but I have a difficult time being respectful of the views of conservative Republicans at the national level, especially after what their party has done to this country over the last eight years. It pisses me off that the Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. adminstrations have all spent this country into colossal debt, and yet it is the Democrats who are tagged as financially irresponsible, when they're trying to clean up the messes that Republicans leave.

3. I loathe the bailout for the banks. Loathe it. I have tons more sympathy for the car manufacturers than the investment banks. The carmakers sold great big cars and trucks, because people wanted great big cars and trucks. The bigger, the better, in fact. The mistake the carmakers made was in not planning well for when the market would turn on a dime, as it has. Quite frankly, no manufacturing industry of any size can efficiently weather that kind of catastrophic change. There's simply too much momentum behind the methods of production. The banks, OTOH, created a defective product, knowing that it was defective, sold it to people on a false premise, made a freakin' truck load of money, and then had the nerve to whine when the house of cards collapsed, and the market handed them their asses on a platter.

4. I will not voluntarily shop at Wal-Mart. And if forced to do so by circumstances beyond my control, I bitch about it the entire time.

5. I haven't missed a general election--local, state, or federal--in the 30 years that I have been a registered voter. And I have only missed one primary, and that was when I was still in college.

Before I forget...

Happy Twelfth Night!

What Min Is Reading on a Rainy Day

  • Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd, Alan Bradley
  • A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny

Min's Current Conditions

My photo
Nashville, TN, United States
If it was a perfect world, I'd be out of a job.