firechicktick’s Neighborhood

Nostalgic moments since Andrea G. said she's coming to visit in January:

Andrea and I (as NAZIRECTIONS) playing in Portland at Reed College.

In retrospect, it really was just drunken noise.
Later that same night I remember falling on my face (not because I was drunk) because I jumped from the top of a staircase (because I was drunk) and waking up with a fat lip. I deserved it.

In other news, last night Ben and I were interviewed (videotaped) and photographed by these young local filmmakers wanting to talk to young designers (I think---it all happened so fast). There were all these cameras positioned around me and people looking at me while I worked. It wasn't unpleasant, just unusual.

Anyway, one of the questions they asked me was if I had any advice for someone just starting out (as if I'm not).

Well, first of all, I had all my words together and basically said that you need to have a plan and goals in mind. And that you need to stay focused and keep good records. You need to know where your money is going! OKAY.

And then I finished it off by messing up my words...
Instead of saying "you need to hang in there", I said: "You need to stick it in."
I guess I was trying to say, "You need to stick with it."
I don't know. But it keeps playing over and over in my head.
I'm not really embarrassed. I just keep thinking how dumb I was. Dumb!

In OTHER news, we shoot our look books on Sunday, which is cool.
We're both really (very) busy with getting samples ready for this AND getting holiday orders out. I leave for Texas on December 16th. So, the last day to order anything from Cubist Literature until 2010 is December 13th!

SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
12.10.09

This weekend was devoted to the loft bed that has been sitting in pieces around the bedroom and apartment. We've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor in an unfinished loft bed frame for about two or more months now. Quite the eyesore. I thought we would have gotten around to fixing up our bed a lot sooner than we had, but when you work a lot, many things suffer. Beds, social life, hygiene, sleep schedule, etc.

The bed was a whole lot of drama we just didn't want to deal with, I guess.
It was given to us. It's from Ikea, but Ikea doesn't make this design anymore.
And as luck would have it, we lost some important hardware that Ikea ALSO doesn't make anymore.
(We found that out halfway through constructing the bed, which is why we were sleeping in a frame.)

Anyway, we figured out another way to make things work.

And here you go:

Cats panting.

I didn't leave the house today.

I'm really into this:

Somebody got a C.Lit drawing tattooed on their wrist.

Dear Grim Reaper: This past year you took away the following: My favorite Comedian (George Carlin), my favorite sidekick (Ed McMahon), my favorite dancer (Michael Jackson), my favorite actress (Farrah Fawcett) and my favorite pitch-man (Billy Mays). I just wanted to write a quick note and let you know that my favorite politician is SARAH PALIN! Thank you.

As I sit here with my coffee, I'm thinking ahead to the upcoming Christmas season.  It brings about a certain feeling of both frustration and makes me feel just a little bit crazy.  It seems that for the past several years I've struggled a lot with finding my Christmas Spirit.

I remember clearly last year when we finally arrived home Christmas evening after all of the family gatherings and gift exchanging thinking..."Wow it's finally over." Then I was suddenly filled with a slight feeling of joy inside that I had come through yet another Christmas alive.  I actually joked with Bart all Christmas Season last year that all I wanted for Christmas was January 1st. For that year to just be over, fast forward through the holidays straight to the new year.

I wonder when it happened....

I wonder when I stopped getting excited about Christmas and instead started feeling a sense of dread and drudgery about the whole season.

Don't get me wrong, I love the whole food aspect of the holiday season,(Just take one look at my ass and you can TELL that.), but what I despise is the whole sense of consumerism in it. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, whatever you call it....people trampling each other for cheap plastic crap from china...I just don't get it!

You know when I do my Chritsmas Shopping? Generally between December 18th and Christmas Day. Payday is the 1st and the 20th for me so that's when I have money.

I always tell myself every year, "I'm going to get it all done before Thanksgiving.." and it never happens that way..EVER.

I don't use credit cards, I hate them, I think they are evil and get you into trouble. We're pretty much a cash only family, if you can't pay cash for it then you don't need it.  The exception to the rule on this is cars and really big items like our house. 

I know some people who spend literally THOUSANDS of dollars on Christmas on credit cards, and  struggle all year to pay it back. Sorry but that kind of takes all the joy out of it.  We buy what we can afford to buy and move on. It's Christmas, it's not worth going into debt or going hungry for.

I love giving gifts, but hate feeling like I didn't spend quite enough on people, and maybe they didn't like what I got them.  It's almost as if some people feel like the dollar amount you spent is equal to how much you care about them.

I generally make up HUGE batches of homemade fudge and other treats and package them up for gift giving. I'll give those to friends and family either alone as a gift or with something else as an add-on gift.

Getting gifts is great, but still makes me feel a little uncomfortable, especially if what I get from someone obviously cost more than what I spent on them. It's a vicious cycle.

A couple of years ago I said to hell with it all and just started buying Master Card Gift Cards from my bank for all of the people on my list 12 and over. It took a lot of stress out of my holiday shopping and I felt it was a great gift because then the recipient could go and pick out whatever they needed or wanted. (Our local bank offers Master Card Gift Cards with no hidden fees and no expiration dates. They make great gifts and you get them directly from the teller and they take the money directly out of your bank account when you purchase them. I think they make GREAT gifts, and it's a really great service.)

If you needed a tank of gas, or a haircut, or a lunch out, or a new sweater you could make the choice yourself what to spend the money on. I personally LOVE gift cards for anything.

As a matter of fact I have let it be known to all that might be shopping for me this year that I want gift cards for Lowes for Christmas. Why? Because for the past year I have been without a working dishwasher, and it would thrill my heart to no end to be able to put all of my Christmas Gift Cards together and purchase one.

Hand washing dishes for 5 people has become a nightmare chore for me, and my hands, and my nails. I can't even imagine how joyful it would be to be able to just load all the dirty dishes into a machine and close the door and walk away.  I think it would be downright heavenly.

Of course if I don't wind up getting a dishwasher for Christmas it won't be the end of the world. We'll just save our pennies and other change for awhile and get one ourselves.

And on that note I'm going to hit publish on this post and go and try to find something productive to do....there's plenty of dishes in the sink that need washin'!

I have been sorta depressed lately. And to top it off, I haven't been feeling well since I got back to NYC, so I haven't been able to work.

I don't like the feeling of knowing there is a lot of work to be done but being physically incapable of doing it.
(I mean, I could probably do some work, but there would most like be lots of mistakes as I battle the waves of dizziness and nausea and headaches that have been plaguing me lately. I'm all about realizing and respecting my limits.)

I really want a Boston Terrier. Two of them.
I'm going to keep saying that until it happens.

I found this picture of Helen Keller and a Boston Terrier:

When I was away for Thanksgiving I got to go to the Textile Museum in DC, which has a really nice contemporary Japanese fashion exhibit going on until April 2010.

It showcases the works and styles of Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo.
It's particularly interesting if you're into avant-garde anything (like I am) because it is amazing to see what these designers started producing at a time when no one else was doing anything like it. Very revolutionary.

I had to whip out my camera to remember the occasion---and to share with you of course:

(Miyake is known for his pleated garments. I strongly recommend you look these up. Also look up runway videos of these garments to see how they move!)