kustom klogs

I wonder when my clogs obsession will end… is it an innate tendancy for a native pacific-northwesterner to have a predilection for scandie-wooden shoes?? Perhaps. Anyway, here is a link to the candy shoppe of clog stores, Sven custom clogs, they come up to a size 43 in every material from silver metallic to fuchsia suede. It literally took me a year to make up my mind… finally I settled on medium-heeled smooth grey leather diamond t-strap sandals with a natural sole to be exact. They were the “deal of the day” for about 3 weeks. Incidentally the fake one-day only deal is totally working on me. I go to the website near daily & ‘friended’ them on facebook just to keep up with the promo!

the Imelda Marcos of the #54 bus

This is my real bestowed nickname on my bus… it’s particularly funny because I don’t really have that many shoes. And the ones I have aren’t particularly amazing (‘cept for my pirate boots.) I wear a size 12 which greatly limits my selections, and also begat my bloodlust for shoes.

I’m thinking the reason I stand out on my route is because I might be the only girl who commits to a pair for the whole day, rather than switching out of my commuter sneakers when I reach the office…

the hottest fashions from Milan…

I didn’t know Muccia Prada watched The Simpsons…

Is that weird that this episode of The Simpsons probably ran in 1995 and it was burned into my subconscious? This photo was actually a little hard to find. I tried “Bart Simpson striped suit” and “Bart Simpson small dog” but it only came up when I tried “Bart Simpson Chihuahua.” I can’t remember exactly what this episode was about except that Bart was using optical illusions to make himself appear taller. Anyway, while searching, I found what to get Mike for Valentine’s Day! (Since we don’t really celebrate hallmark holidays it won’t be a big deal that it’s a month late…)

prehistoric fashion blogging

Remember nameplate necklaces & hoop earrings? Youth size M sports tees? I do. Obviously… Btw, this was before Patricia Field sold out the nameplate to Sex in the City. I bought it at the Fulton Street Mall in Brooklyn. It’s not really a mall, more of a street with shops in this order: gold, wigs, timberlands, & repeat for 3 blocks on both sides.

prehistoric fashion blogging

Here’s a fun holiday look from 1997, featuring a wiglet which actually looks pretty legit, like Jessica Lange from American Horror Story (new fave show!). The faux-fur-lined chinoiserie jacket which was a previously most-prized possession. I just wish I had better shoes on. They are probably from Payless since at the time all I ate was bagels with no cream cheese (too expensive!) & mountain dew because it was cheaper than coffee in NY. Poorsville. The LBD belonged to my grandmother, it’s velveteen with those weird little armpit sweat pads on the inside. I like old details like that. It reminds me of being in her bathroom and her deodorant was in a little metal tin sort of like Murray’s pomade. Why don’t clothes still have that? Nothing is worse than a dude with pit-stains on a french blue or heather grey shirt… bring back pit-liners in 2012! Happy new year!

present belt, a new sensation…

I have a hard time breaking up thrift store sets… like when you find multiples of anything from drinking glasses to, I dunno, matching cheerleading sweaters, how can you break up items that have lived a whole life together? The funny thing is when I find a dress that comes with it’s original belt, the first thing that goes into the back of the closet is… the belt. Brown leather always wins over self-belt. The other funny thing is that even though I am a “visual person” (one of my pet peeve sayings) I can never wrap a present decent. Even if I hoard cute wrapping paper from the Borders going-out-of-business sale I never have ribbon & can’t quite execute it to perfection. But I just came up with the solution: Thrift store belt as gift wrap bow! Goodbye belt… I’ll be sad to see you go, but honestly when I got done with this dress you probably wouldn’t have ended up in the same donation bag anyway. Now you might be a cute bow for a 6 year old’s ponytail! A much finer fate.

big sur

finally out of LA

rest stop wildlife

After our trip to San Diego we drove back up the coast to Seattle. If you ever google map the route between San Diego & Big Sur you will see that it says 7.5 hours, up to 10 hours in traffic. Um, LA traffic is no joke. I don’t know if there is a non-rush hour time of day there. We took a 1 hour break and it literally took us over 12 hours.

I don’t recommend driving on California Hwy 1 at midnight either. It is crazy windey and the visibility is, oh, maybe 12 feet. It was a pretty terrifying experience, we were sure we were driving on the edge of a hundred foot cliff and that any false move would mean our demise. Kind of like when Pee Wee is riding with the ex-con Mickey in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure & the winding road signs turn all crazy & they end up crashing off the cliff and surounded by taxidermied wild animals… But we survived! And so we got to stay at the Ripplewood Resort in Big Sur.

The Ripplewood Resort has a super cute grocery with a decent variety of food. The attached gas station is something like the last gas station until Carmel. So they charge upwards of $4 per gallon. But hey, they have to get that gas delivered in the middle of nowhere so they have to pass the spendings on to you, right?

Mike & Hondo lego-ing in the cabin

Hondo's drawing

A surprise drawing left in Hondo's sketchbook by our Japanese artist friend KaToPe

Ripplewood Resort is just up the road from Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park.

kelpie

maxin' & relaxin'

Legoland!

After the Comicon we spent our last day in San Diego at Legoland. Mike’s mom’s bowling team mate works for Lego (dreamy!) and got us a couple of comp tickets. What a treat! 

Lego bulk aisle

raw Lego plastic nibs

One of the coolest things that happened was that this lovely lady Renata who runs the mini Lego Factory took us on a behind the scenes tour. We weren’t sure if she singled us out because she saw Hondo’s pump or if we were just regular plain old lucky. She gave us a handful of the raw bits that legos are made of & took a bit of molten lego off the press & made a little lego goo sculpture for us.

Renata

dalmatian

Isis

sarcophagus

Lego textiles

Some inspiring home decor ideas, I fully intend to make a lego Navajo blanket & some ethnic masks for our walls…

masks

pirate cannon

The mini Star Wars exhibit is pretty awe-inspiring. The details are so perfect & minute and it’s all made with the more classic brick shapes.

Does anyone else smell bantha budu?

endor

ewok village

millenium falcon

There are also lego depictions of different cities & world landmarks… my favorite being the sort of antiquated version of the old seedy times square. Amazing…

times square rolexes

tour de france

prehistoric fashion blogging

My intention was to use these funny old pictures as fill-ins when I didn’t have any time to write… the past 6 months have gotten the best of me so thoroughly that I couldn’t even do that much! Anyway, here is another gem from 1998-ish. I am still all about the black tights. And those old quilted jackets? I haven’t seen one at the thrift store in ages… I used to have multiples. This was right before I moved back to Seattle from Brooklyn, that’s why my mattress is propped up against the wall. I might have also been crying (judging by the flushy cheeks) because our family dog back home here in Seattle was dying & I wasn’t sure if I would get back in time to see her.

the ultimate doorbuster!

Forget 99″ flat screen TV’s & pepper spraying fellow shoppers to get the edge on grabbing a video game console… I scored the most epic thrift prize ever tonight when I got a Chloé handbag at Value Village for 60 bones! Not only that, but it still had the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale price tag attached, and all the authenticity tags in the inner pocket. It was originally $1495, $998.90 on Anniversary! Huzzah! Mike said if I were a different kind of person I might say I had crossed something off my bucket list.

And… I wasn’t the only one to thrift score, Hondo found a Clone Trooper Turbo Tank for $3.50. We’ll check in on him in a few hours…