2010 April | Mascara or Motoroil

inspired by anne

Last Wednesday, local graphic design firm Landor held Inspired By Anne, an event to honor Cincinnati fashion illustrator Anne Wainscott. Anne worked for many years for the Cincinnati department store Shilitos, which later became Lazarus and was then bought by Macy’s. (Thank you to Tamia for reminding me of this!) I was invited by Micah Paladino, who’s firm PB&J did all the public relations for Cincinnati Fashion Week, and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy! It was an open event, but this was the very first invitation that I got to cover something for the blog. I took my lovely business partner/roommate Maya with me and we just had the best time talking to everyone there! Here are some of Anne’s illustrations that they had hanging around the room:

I also got my first opportunity to meet another style blogger in person! I try not to bore my non-blogging friend with the intricacies, so I don’t really get to talk about any of it very often. Tamia of The Style Sample sent me an email earlier that day that she was going to be there, so I was really happy that I didn’t miss her. She was such a sweetheart and her magazine is really incredible- plus she gets extra points because she rode her bike there in her great outfit!

Tamia of The Style Sample

She also took a very cute picture of Maya and I which was great since both of us forgot to get any pictures of ourselves!

Taken by Tamia

Anne Wainscott, looking incredible at 93!

I got a chance to chat with Anne for a moment and she was so humble, especially for how incredibly talented she is! When we told her how beautiful all of her work was she seemed so surprised you would have thought it was the first time she’d ever heard it. Landor did a really great job with the space they had, they set up a small recreation of her studio and had models as live mannequins! It was neat to see the final product that came from her sketches too.

The small reproduction of Anne's studio

And as you would expect at such a fabulous event, there were some superb outfits! Now that I have the blog and the shop I don’t feel so shy about telling people how great they look and that has led to some great conversations. I met so many remarkable women that night, it feels like Cincinnati is growing with us more and more.

This girl looked so funky and awesome! I wish you could see more of her cool hair and glasses.

We kept seeing these smoking hot ladies at all the events. Can you guess which ones are mother and daughter?

Sorry that some of these pictures are not so stellar on my end, my camera began acting funky this night and continued all through fashion week so I apologize for that.

Since Landor resides the original Shilito’s building they still have the original giant art deco windows on every side so big part of the evening was unveiling the Inspired By Anne window displays.

Pennies and newspaper ensemble, definitely my favorite.

All in all I had a fabulous time, and I’m so excited that the very first event I got to cover for the blog was such a great one!

My first press pass!

Thanks for reading, there will be much more about Cincinnati Fashion Week to come!

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what i wore – crafty supermarket, etc

For the Crafty Supermarket I wanted something comfy and fun so I pulled this adorable majorette dress out of my closet! It was perfect.

I had to actually hold it on because it was so windy!

The breakfast of champions from The Lovely Teaspoon!

WHAT: straw fedora, thrift

wayfarers, forever 21

majorette dress, chicken lays an egg

breakfast rings, lovely teaspoon

knee socks, yard sale

saddles, urban outfitters

WHERE: crafty supermarket

WHEN: saturday, april 17

We were also asked to participate in a fund raising pre-party for the very next day, so we basically did the same set up. Luckily this time it was just at the Northside Tavern, the bar right down the street.

My cool new brooch that I got from Lily In Flux at the Crafty Supermarket

The black version of the watch I bought from the shop. I was just modeling it for the day.

WHAT: apple quilt dress, chicken lays an egg

flower brooch, lily in flux

japanese watch, chicken lays an egg

wedge boots, forever 21

WHERE: reduce reuse run pre-party

WHEN: sunday, april 18

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crafty supermarket

As I am waaaayy behind on my blogging, I still have yet to talk about the AMAZING Crafty Supermarket that we had in Cincinnati last weekend. With tons of hard work Grace Dobush, Alisha Budkie, and Chris Salley put together probably my favorite event in the city, and it was so great to meet some other local crafters and see their stuff. I would eventually really like to go to one of the awesome craft fairs in Chicago or New York, but I think we’ve got a fantastic start right here. I apologize beforehand for the insane amount of pictures, but I tried to edit it down to what I feel are essentials. (Sort of.) I did try to arrange them so that it was like walking through it for yourself though!

Getting ready for the crush of shoppers

The lovely Chris Salley, owner of Fabricate!

The beginning of my love affair with The Lovely Teaspoon

All of us really fell in love with the adorable stuff she made, and since almost all of it was under $5 we each spent about $40 at her booth. Her work has a really great sense of humor about it too- lego cufflinks, toaster rings, and rings made from cake stoppers are all in her inventory.

Double-sided pendants for $14! I got the luger one.

Her earrings

The Lovely Teaspoon herself!

Super-cool screen printing by Off The Beaten Path

Moss growing in recycled lightbulbs!

Gear clocks by Garbella

1980's bed sheet tote bags by Kitschcafe

Some cuties from the Wholly Craft table

Adorable kite necklace by Charlotte Conway

Hand-bound books made from maps!

Ready to travel hand-painted suitcases by Final Approach

Hilarious.

Pendants made from old eyeglass lenses by Lily In Flux

Maya holding down the fort

Some of Maya's cool handmade vintage Playboy magnets

Handmade glass earrings by Melissa Soluski

These are my favorite earrings that Melissa made

Nik modeling her new earrings

It was definitely a total blast and I cannot wait for the next one in November! There’s also some video of the Crafty Supermarket that Grace Dobush took here. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

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spring soiree – part 2

As you can probably tell I am waaayy behind in my posts. It has been another insane week full of fun and Fashion Week, so not much to complain about. Here are the rest of the pictures from the Spring Soiree at the shop, although these are of our magnificently dressed friends and customers!

Can you believe that she has THREE kids?

The fabulous Dana

Don't mess with Tyrell.

One of our fantastic photographers for the day, Rachel Elliott

Our other amazing photographer, Amy Rudnik.

Our girl Abiyah looking stunning as always!

Another excellent Fancypack!

Hope you enjoyed them!

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good karma through the roof

Recently a bunch of people in my life have done some incredible things for me, so I feel like I need to be very aware of paying that forward. I don’t know if I have mentioned it before but I am a BIG believer in karma, it’s about the closest thing to a religion that I can get behind wholeheartedly. One of the awesome things is that I have been invited to cover my first event for the blog! As part of Fashion Week they’re having an event to celebrate local fashion illustrator Anne Wainscott, and I am really excited.

More recently, I spent the last ten or so hours doing some hardcore crafting and I have A LOT to show for it. I had a few minutes before I crash, so I wanted to get a post up before the weekend madness really starts. I can’t wait to post the pictures after the Crafty Supermarket!

I just got this cool vintage dress and it’s so breezy I know it will be perfect for a sweltering August day. Unfortunately since I still had massive blisters from the party I had to wear these shoes. I had been hoping to be a bit more adventurous with this dress.

It's so sheer that without a slip this one would be a naked dress.

WHAT: sheer floral dress, chicken lays an egg

brass buckle belt, thrift

fakelite roses, my gramma

slip, chicken lays an egg

bronze sandals, target

WHERE: work at chicken

WHEN: wednesday, march 14

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spring soiree – part 1

I just got some very exciting news today, ladies and gents. I am very pleased to announce that Chicken Lays An Egg will be participating in Cincinnati Fashion Week! I hadn’t really mentioned Fashion Week before because I couldn’t afford a ticket at $150, and if I couldn’t go it seemed a little pointless. However since they will be using our clothes for one of their shows, we get to go for free! The next few weeks are going to be insane for Chicken Lays An Egg; we will be at the Crafty Supermarket this weekend, Fashion Week next week and we have another event at the Northside Tavern next weekend! Whew, it’s gonna be a whirlwind. On that note, forgive me if I go a few days without posting.

These are some of the gorgeous pictures taken by our lovely photographers, Amy Rudnik and Rachel Elliott from our Spring Sale and Soiree at Chicken Lays An Egg. I am going to put a bunch of them on the Chicken site also, but these are mostly the ones of me. I feel a bit narcissistic putting up this many artsy shots of myself, but I’ve never had pictures like this taken of me.

This is how my photos for my blog are usually taken.

My favorite picture ever. <3

My adorable boy

I just like this one because our mannerisms seem so similar.

It was a blast of a day, we did fantastic business. Unfortunately we bought too many hot dogs, so now whenever anyone comes to our house I try to force them to eat some. Having drunk friends helps with that.

Here’s a good shot of my outfit for the day. I got this dress the day before the party and it was another maxi dress, so I stayed up until 5 am hemming it by hand.

All the white parts on the flowers are fuzzy!

The blister-makers

WHAT: fuzzy floral dress, chicken lays an egg

daisy brooch, thrift

green ring, bubblegum machine

mary janes, target

WHERE: chicken lays an egg’s spring soiree

WHEN: saturday, march 10

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long lost outfits

Oy – I had more outfits that I forgot to put up than I thought. I’ve really been in a groove with my outfits, so even though I’m behind on posting I keep having more and more to post! Not that I’m complaining though! I’m also fighting off a little chest cold so old posts are making my day easier.

This first cutie was originally a floor-length dress that I bought from Chicken the first time I went in. I love how tall I looked in it, but maxi dresses read really formal to me so I almost always hem them. I really love the unique straps on it too.

Me when I first got this dress almost three years ago!

A friend came in and sold me these while I was working and I had to put them on right away!

I found this tunic on the Forever 21 website, but before I could buy it they sold out! Luckily when I went to my local store a few weeks ago I found it there. It was long enough when I got it to totally be a mini dress, but I accidentally shrunk it in the wash so now it’s a tights only ensemble. It also gave me the opportunity to finally wear this awesome coral blazer that I’ve had for years but never worn for some reason!

Layers!

<3 this vent

WHAT: leather saddle bag, thrift

polyester blazer, chicken lays an egg

short-sleeve cashmere sweater, thrift

owl necklace, chicken lays an egg

garden party tunic, forever 21

twist ring, thrift

hunter tights, target

white boots, pre to post modern vintage (nashville)

WHERE: mayday for half-price drinks and work at the store

WHEN: monday, march 5

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hats and handbags

In my digging through some older pictures, I found a posts worth of pictures that I never put up! Last week the boy and I ventured out to Everybody’s Records to sell some of his vinyl that never gets played. Although it’s a bit peely, I really like their mural.

Actually in the last year or so ArtWorks, a local art non-profit group has been putting up some really incredible murals all around the city. This is my favorite one in Camp Washington just up the street from the old location of Chicken Lays an Egg.

"Campy Washington"

I’m so excited to see this move of more public art in the city. Recently Shepard Fairey even put up some of his wheat-paste pieces all over the city, and that to me seems crazy (in a good way). It makes Cincinnati feel like a real city!

This one is at the corner of 13th and Main St, in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati’s oldest neighborhood. Originally it was inhabited by poor German immigrants who referred to the rank canal that existed there at the time as the Rhine; as in the Rhine River that cuts across Western Germany. For the last thirty or more years though it has been a predominantly poor African American neighborhood, but gentrification is turning it into the ‘Gateway Quarter’ featuring million dollar lofts. Ugh. I’ve been reading a bunch of blogs about Cincinnati, so forgive me if I’m in the tour-giving mode. In all seriousness though, urban geography became a huge interest of mine when my brother and I took some classes about it together; it’s just so interesting to me what factors go into a neighborhood turning over.

Anyway, here’s what I wore to the record shop:

WHAT: floral hat, boomerang thrift (nashville)

neat pleats dress, chicken lays an egg

gold belt, chicken lays an egg

green scarf, chicken lays an egg

square handbag, thrift

square lace flats, chicken lays an egg

WHERE: everybody’s records and lunch

WHEN: tuesday, march 6

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special guest

I keep meaning to include more pictures of my extremely well-dressed friends, but I always forget until after they leave. I’ve been getting better though, so here’s a few different friends looking crazy styling!

Here is the lovely Maya Lou who I accosted with my camera as she was running out the door to work. I love how full this skirt is and we won’t even go into how jealous I am of the padlock watch necklace.

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nothing without the kindness of friends

Whew! This has been a really fabulous whirlwind weekend for me, so I’m a few days behind on my posts. We had our first afternoon party and sale at Chicken Lays An Egg on Saturday and then I babysat all day today. I cannot WAIT to put up the pictures from the party, we had two of our photographer friends snapping pictures all day and they did suuuuuch an incredible job. Thanks Amy and Rachel, you guys did an amazing job!!

This post however is about how my wonderful friend Jeni really kick-started my love of blogging again. Jeni is an old friend of mine from high school and when we reconnected a few years ago, we really clicked. She is one of the strongest and smartest people I know. She’s so full of life and ready to do whatever fun requires, it makes me feel very lucky to be her friend. Jeni sent me this amazing package last week and it really made my week. She wrote me several really touching cards about how she reads the blog regularly and gave me some great tips on how to keep it fresh. It was especially cool because one of the cards she gave me was this awesome Charley Harper card; he was a very cool modern artist who specialized in wildlife portraits and coincidentally lived in Cincinnati! Here’s a little sampling of his stuff:

Anyway, her letter and everything really lifted me up and put me back in my groove. I actually immediately put on three of the things she sent me; a perfect mustard sweater, bracelet, and the ribbon she used to tie up some of my presents. Here’s how I started my day. Not bad, but nothing too special.