the ice museum

One of the cool things about living in Minnesota is that, well, its cold. Without the mercury dipping below freezing on a regular basis there would be no ice. With no ice there would be no ice skating on frozen ponds, no amazing icicles hanging from my porch roof, no ice block sledding, and no Art Shanty Projects
. Really, what's a better time to make art than in the dead of winter? When even the thought of leaving the couch brings on a bout of the shivers, the Ice Preservation Fund is taking ice to a whole new level with The Ice Museum.

uniformly

This is my uniform. That one outfit that you always lean back on when you've overslept your alarm or are just too hung over to think straight in the morning hours... Each item may change a bit here or there, but the components stay the same - and the boots never come off.

tee: buffalo exchange
cardigan: target thrift
bandana: goodwill diggers
skirt: made by me
sweater tights: ?
boots that are surgically attatched to my feet: frye

What's your uniform?

ringing in the new year with a bang...

...more like a crash actually...

Icy roads and biking do not mix. Hopefully the rest of 2008 won't be quite as eventfull as the first few hours were. At least my gold dress was sparkly enough to draw attention away from my face...

fake blood is fun

"but it was just a little cut..."





"yeah, but you should see the other guy"

proof of duping

arctic air, originally uploaded by haute pocket.

Here's a shot of the dress referred to below.

I've been duped

Let me preface this by saying that I have a love/hate relationship with the Mall of America.

I love that there's a store that sells only magnets.
I hate that there's always a rotunda full of teenyboppers fainting over their latest teen idol.
I love Ruby Tuesday's megarita (seriously, a margarita as big as your head).
I hate that you can't turn a corner without running into a Victoria Secret (how many Victoria Secrets do you really need in one mall?).

I also have a love/hate relationship with H&M and Forever 21.

I love some of the designs.
I hate that most of the good designs aren't even original.
I love that it's one-stop-shopping for when I'm in a hurry.
I hate that the clothes are cheaply made.
I hate that the clothes generally fall apart in under a year.
I hate that I don't know what kind of conditions the clothes are produced in.

I guess that's more of a hate/love relationship than a love one...
Because of this said relationship I have been trying not to buy anything from either H&M or Forever 21 since August. I didn't make a pact with myself or anything - I just wanted to try to make my shopping habits a bit more sustainable. (Check out the amazing Suburban Queen blog for a great post regarding this same dilemma.) Now it's December and I've only bought one $20 basic black zip-up hoodie from H&M since August. I'm pretty content with that.

Anyways, the other day I was at the megamall (do all Minnesotans call it this or was this just my mother's weird nickname for the beast of all malls???) with my friend from Chicago, Reba. Long story short I ended up buying a cute dress off a clearance rack from some random store called Heritage. Later that night I was checking my bank balance online and I saw a charge for $13 for Forever 21.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

They duped me. Dammit.

crazy days

Here's a recap of my crazy life.

Snow was forcasted to fall yesterday so I rode my bike to work in protest of winter. My bike protested back at me on the way home with a flat tire.

My roomate and I finally cleaned out what was once our ex-roomate's room but could be more truthfully described as an 'unusually large closet'. It is now our sewing room and once I'm finished organizing it I plan on gorging myself on food and hibernating within it's walls for the upcomming winter months.

Frida-mania: The art center I work at just opened the Frida Kahlo exhibit that has been in the works for the last few years. It's an amazing show that includes artworks that have never before been shown to the public and/or have never left Mexico. The opening party was crazy - bringing in over 2,500 guests - and my workload hasn't left me much time to recover....let alone rest. I know that Frida-mania has been growing continusly for the last several years and I attribute a large portion of that to the Salma Hayek movie (which was based on the biography of Frida by Hayden Herrera [a co-curator of this exhibit]). This year's Halloween and Dia de los Muertos were no exception. Everywhere I looked I saw trinkets, knicknacks, and calendars with Frida's image on them, articles on how to DIY a Frida costume, or people with drawn on unibrows. Her image (specifically as seen through her eyes) is so oversaturated in todays culture that I'm afraid it has lost some of its poignancy. Whith that said, I have been completely blown away each and every time I walk through the exhibition. I can safely say now, after seeing many of her most famous pieces in person, that every reproduction I've seen of her work (whether it be in the movie, online, or in print form) have not done the orignals any justice. If you live in or around the Minneapolis area I urge you to come see the show - you have until January 22nd. You've been warned...