Fat girl flea market

It was awesome!! Intense, but awesome.  pics of my haul when I get home

Chopping humanity up into neat little segments

So there's an ongoing battle in my neighborhood to prevent a developer from plopping down a crappy strip mall with discount crap stores.  They claim "our studies say the demographics don't support an actual grocery here, blah blah blah blah".  Since this quite frankly is bullshit, and the developer won't show his report, a community activist is assembling her own to share.  Which leads me to this nifty little website:  Esri Data.  They've got American consumers carved up into 65 neat little boxes.  Some of the details are average age, race, area, and little factoids such as "eats at Friendly's" "owns/leases Honda" "watches cable tv" "plays soccer".  This whole thing strikes me as kind of odd.  My household doesn't fit neatly into any of the boxes.  But I am finding it very interesting to get an inside look at how businesses look at potential customers and how to locate stores/separate them from their money.

Oh, and how do you know if a developer is lying?  HIS LIPS ARE MOVING! LOL

Quote of the Day

"I don't have low self-esteem.  I have low esteem for everyone else."  Daria Morgendorffer. 

Just put the kid down for a nap and found a couple episodes of Daria.  I love this show.

Fat Girl Flea Market

I was aimlessly browsing the fatosphere yesterday when I ran across this:  2011 Fat Girl Flea Market.  A buttload of plus size clothes?  Nothing more than $10?  Benefits a good cause?  Coats, formals and swimwear?  Sexytime lingerie?  WANT!!!

Once I collected my jaw from my keyboard, I made plans to go.  Even though it's a two hour train trip for me, I have a feeling it will be worth it.  And who can resist a trip to Manhattan? Not me! Woohoo!

The Cycling of Trends, or Return of the 90's

As a lover of vintage stuff, I like to follow the cycling of fashion trends and try to predict which things will come back and when.   I have a feeling the 1990's are due for a resurgence, and as someone who came of age during that decade, I cringe.  Remember grunge?  I remember seeing ads in Seventeen magazine for hair products to make it appear you had not washed your hair.  WTF.  And how about distressed jeans (which I don't believe ever went completely away)?  If I'm forking over $80 or more for a pair of jeans, they should have knees.
Oh, and there were kids in my high school that did this:

Yep, their clothes are on backwards.  This one didn't last long.  Who else remembers Umbros?

Shiny and Neon!  Why not write "LOOK AT MY ASS!!!!!!!!!" on your butt instead and save a couple bucks?
And I couldn't leave these out:

STOP!!!! Hammertime!  I'll admit that the first concert I ever went to was M.C. Hammer at the state fair with my dad and little brothers.  Good times.

Getting dressed

For a long time now, I've been wearing very basic, boring clothes.  Years of being encouraged to hate my body have made me want to hide it in shapeless baggy clothes.  I'm tired of feeling that way, and have taken baby steps toward wearing prettier, more colorful, fun stuff with personality. However, I know that changing my clothes means getting attention, and not all of it favorable.  I'm trying to reconcile my desire to express myself more via clothes with people who want to embarrass me for having the gall to do something "different".  I don't want to look the same, but at the same time I'm not quite ready to stand out.  I wore a dress for the first time in ages recently and some of the reaction was a bit unsettling.  But I guess that's the price to be paid for being "visible" again.  And I really don't want to spend the rest of my life in a t-shirt, even if it is the awesome "you have died of dysentery" one I found online.

Royal Wedding souvenirs

So the big Royal Wedding is coming up.  Not sure if I'll get up at 5am to watch it, but I wish William and Kate all the best.  I wonder if they have seen any of these wedding souvenirs.  Some of this stuff is downright strange. 

The happy couple on a fridge.  Why??  I think I'd be a little creeped out by their eternally happy gaze following me around my kitchen every day.

The royal "ring".  LOL

Along those same lines, a royal beer spiked with aphrodisiacs.  Hehehe.  The brewer was kind enough to send a congratulatory bottle to Prince William.

The royal couple on a pizza.  A PIZZA.  Om nom nom.
This next one is not specifically royal, but damn does it kick ass

Engagement Brass Knuckles.  DO NOT FUCK WITH THE BRIDE!!!!
Rock on, royal couple!

New project

Apologies for the cellphone pic.  Here's a new project i'm working on, a cocktail ring.  Not crazy about the ring base.  Will probably use a different one for the next ring.  Wondering if I should try setting it in a bezel or wrapping it in bezel lace.  Part of me kind of likes the look of the unwrapped stone.

A love-hate relationship

I have a love-hate relationship with Old Navy.  I love the giant pile of clothes I got this morning.  Cute little cropped cardigans were on mega blowout sale this morning, and I found some awesome dresses. 
However, I'm at the top of their size range.  And it really pisses me off that they took the plus sizes out of stores.  I don't like the fact that anyone larger than me has to shop online.  And what about me?  One more baby or a fucked up thyroid, and I'm screwed, too!
But the thing is, I'm not independently wealthy.  $95 at Old Navy buys like six months worth of clothes for me.  $95 at Lane Bryant or Torrid is maybe two things.  Three if they're something good in the clearance rack.  And sometimes Torrid trends too young for me, and Lane Bryant skews, well, old and fugly.  I am NOT gonna wear ugly clothes, nor will I pay out the ass for the privilege.
I do love thrifting, but that requires both time and luck.  My time is in short supply right now.  An afternoon of treasure hunting in my favorite thrift stores is a rare treat. 

I guess the solution is to improve my sewing-fu.  Maybe once I'm done with my jewelry class.

Captcha funny

I left a comment on another blog, and the captcha word it gave me to enter was "humperin".  LOL. 

What to do with a broken brooch?

So I listed a neat little brooch on etsy today while my son was napping.  Then I forgot to put it somewhere safe after his nap.  At some point it got stepped on and the pin broken off.  Bummer.

I quickly de-listed it and am currently pondering what to do with it.  I'm not sure I can repair it to the state it was in.  Here's some pics:

Pre-steppage, it had a pin across the back, now, not so much.  I hate to give up on this piece, because I really like the reverse carving and the mythological subject matter.  I might take it to jewelry class and bounce some ideas off the instructor.  Maybe I can solder a bail or two on the metal and make it into a pendant.
But I will definitely make sure it's out of my kid's reach from now on!

Jewelry Class

I signed up for a jewelry class this spring.  Last Wednesday night was my first session, and it was awesome.  I knew I was going to love it when the instructor showed us all the neat stuff in the studio we can use.  Sheets of copper and brass!  Saws, stamps, torches, tools, oh my!  I can't wait to learn soldering.  Open flames, baby!

For my first project, I'm making some stamped copper earrings:

If you can't see, they say "Duh, Winning".  Yeah, I have a funny sense of humor.  I'm going to try to find some blood red crystal beads to dangle in the center of the discs.  I can seriously see myself making more smartass stamped word jewelry.

Focus Group Follies

Today I visited the Campbell's soup complex for a focus group.  Since I'd really like to be invited back, I won't go into detail about what we discussed.  One thing did strike me as funny--on one side of the table were two women and a man who were pretty anti-canned soup.  I was on the opposite side of the table with two young single guys who ate canned soup pretty regularly.  It was weird how neatly we were divided up.  No preservatives vs. Bring on the preservatives!  No MSG vs. Lots of MSG!  I'm going to make fabulous homemade soup for my loving family vs. screw it, I'm tired, you're all eating Chicken and Stars!  Odd to say the least, but interesting to see the thought process that goes on with product development.  I hope I get to do another one someday.

The Campbell's complex also has a store that's open to the public stocked with all sorts of giftware, all the soups and V8 varieties, and...some tasty refrigerated soups in flavors I haven't seen at the grocery store.  Think lobster bisque with sherry, chicken basil chili, tequila lime chicken, some variety of super green curry, etc.  I got a 4lb bag of jambalaya.  We had it for dinner tonight and damn, was it tasty!  They should take that stuff nationwide!

And now for something completely different!

Here's some lovely old necklaces I'm hopefully going to get up in my etsy shop tomorrow.  I love the vibrant, springy colors!

I call this one "Hawaiian Punch". 

I call this one "bananas".  Go bananas yo!

Check out the vivid lime color on this one.  It's an awesome opera length chain, too!
All coming soon to my etsy shop, ChelseaShellenbarger's Random Things

First Post #538

Yep, I've started and abandoned my blogging project that many times at least.  I make no promises about how long I'll stick with it this time, but I'm going to give it a shot.