Cinderblock Bench

Not that I am ever really going to sit outside my front door, but just in case Chris and I built a bench. Well Chris built me a bench, but I did help carry all 16 of the cinderblocks and went to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy the weather resistant red material.

See a while back I was looking through that book Home Cheap Home by the recently deceased Budget Living people and there was this great project on making an outdoor bench out of cinderblocks that looked super easy. Let me back up just a minute…When we first moved into our house there was a big flower box attached to the house outside the front door. However, the dirt went right up to the wood which was a termite nightmare so it had to go. Ever since there has been this empty space there just begging for something. Well that something is now my new bench. It is so long I can lay on it.

All we did was lay 8 blocks on the bottom alternating short and long sides and then did the same thing on top. Chris went and bought a piece of plywood and cut it to the size of the top of the bench. I went and got the red fabric and batting. Chris laid the batting down on the plywood and wrapped the red fabric around to the back and staple gunned it to the plywood until everything was nice and taunt. Now it looks super cute.

The finishing touches are the screen door I need and a new outside light. Well and the whole landscaping overhaul I am looking into. Baby steps.

Miami Vice

This morning I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and the only thing worth a lick on TV was Miami Vice. Actually Miami Vice is not a bad show all things considered, the outfits and home décor are dated, but overall it’s a good cop show. Well one of the episodes I watched Crocket and Tubbs were undercover and in the big apple. Lot’s of guest appearances Pam Grier and Penn Gillette for starters. The guys were hot on the trail of some bad drug dealers or something but then realized there was a higher force at play. When they went to confront the head bad guy it was a super old man with his back turned to the dudes. As Sonny and Ricardo start yelling and the old man starts spinning yarn his voice and profile begin to give me the chills. He keeps facing the blinds and talking, but something about him is really disturbing me. Then it clicks. Holy crap it is the old scary guy in Poltergeist 2, the Reverend Henry Kane. Remember when he sees Carol Ann and starts singing “God is in his holy temple”. Man that dude creeped me out. He was pretty scary in Miami Vice too. Alas, Julian Beck died the same year that this episode of Miami Vice was filmed of stomach cancer. Ok back to the program Tubbs is getting bizzy with Pam to a Phil Collins song.

Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song"

“Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin is my favorite song of the moment and it keeps coming up in weird ways. First of all let me preface this blog with the fact that Led Zeppelin is not my usual cup of tea and I am not one of those people that has to get the lead out or anything – I just like a good rock song every now and again.

So one night while in London Jeff played the movie “School of Rock” just for background banter. There is this special part on the DVD where Jack Black talks about how he had to beg Led Zeppelin to let them use “Immigrant Song” in the movie. The song is playing when he and the kids are in the smoking van driving back from the rock contest auditions. So the song got stuck in my head.

When we came home from the airport I dug through Chris’s vinyl and CD collection and came across a double CD of Led Zeppelin with “Immigrant Song” which I promptly played. The next day I went so far as to add the song on my My Space profile. Hours later the song said “deleted by artist” so I moved onto the Gloria Jones version of “Tainted Love”. So then last night I am at Whiskey Bar with my friends and what does the DJ play but “Immigrant Song”. Not a very danceable ditty, but man is it a good one. He played Lady Sovereign too, which also made me quite happy.

So anyway that is the story of my love for a Led Zeppelin song. Oh and the picture is my hubby Chris in Berlin in front of some metal van we found.

Home Sweet Home

Like Whoa does it feel good to back home. Vacation rocked my face off, but as Dorothy said: “there is no place like home”. We got home about 2:30 yesterday and proceeded to sit on our porch in the sun and hang out with our shoes off. Our feet have funny spots all over them from wearing socks 24 hours a day with a brief shower intermission for the last two weeks in Europe. After relaxing on the porch it was dinner time, and I don’t mean fish and chips. A little known fact is that my husband is addicted to spaghetti, he has to have it at least 3 times a week for dinner. He often puts Brussels sprouts in the noodles and refers to them as “nature’s little meat balls”. Needless to say he was going through spaghetti withdrawals so that is what we cooked for dinner, sans sprouts. I was pumped to catch up on Big Love and made it through one episode before I passed out on the couch and Chris on the floor. Jet lag will get ya.

Here I am Thursday morning now trying to play catch up. Sorting through emails and doing laundry. I am also uploading all my pictures and working on a massive travel diary type blog entry that I will post soon.

shamless self promotion

Hey kids,

Since today is officially Secretary’s Day I wanted to remind everyone again about the 15% off sale at Naughty Secretary Club. www.naughtysecretaryclub.com Shop you heart out, enter this code 111014016 when you check out and then hit recalculate and your discount is there presto!

Also while I have your attention don’t forget to watch a brand new episode of Stylelicious tomorrow on the DIY Network. 1:30pm Central. If ya miss it catch it again on Sunday at 3.

Last, but not least the Austin Craft Mafia is helping the Blanton museum in Austin celebrate their grand opening this weekend. 2am (you heard me right) Sunday morning at the Blanton catch and Austin Craft Mafia fashion show.
Blanton Museum of Art
The University of Texas at Austin
MLK at Congress
Austin, Texas 78701

Last night in London.

Last night in London. I might as well not even go to bed since I have to wake up at 4:45am to catch my flight. Today we went to Ealing, a town outside of London where I spent a semester in college. Oh the memories. We ended up getting on a double decker bus and rode that puppy all over and back. Had the most wonderful Indian meal and now here I am wrapping up loose ends, packing and blogging. I will tell you about the trip in full detail and post pictures when I get back.

SALE!

Happy Administrative Professionals Week from Naughty Secretary Club. Come take 15% off of everything to celebrate! All you gotta do is type in this code 111014016 in the voucher field when you check out! www.naughtysecretaryclub.com

Go ahead and tell everyone you know!

Yup i am still in London, but Ginger is home manning the fort. We took a trip to Brighton yesterday and saw the sea and did some shopping. Lovely. I think today I'm gonna drag the boys down to my old home town ealing for some sentimental time. Two more days and then I am home.

Berlin

just a quick post. i had written a longer one, but the computer deleted it and frankly i don't have the will power to write another big one.

we are sitting at home in London tonight watching The incredibles because we just returned from 3 days in Berlin which exhausted us. Berlin was super fun and my friend Bee from back in Texas was there visiting her family so she was sweet enough to show us around. I found amazing beads, saw ever major tourist attraction in Berlin and Bee took take us to parties in old Chinese food restaurants and high up in office buildings.

4 full days left here.

These things happen.

I just fell into a very deep bath tub, why you ask... Because my host here in London has a crazy raised wooden bath mat, a cookie monster door stop and it is 3 in the morning in London. These things happen.

Today we spent a delightful day in Hornschurch east of London with Jeff's parents. They were so cute and took us to a proper English pub for an Easter Sunday lunch. I had some puffy pastry chicken thing that looked a lot like a pot pie if you are asking me. It was yummy either way. Spent the day out there visiting and seeing the sights. Jeff's dad drives a cab, not a creepy mini cab, the black kind, and we drove all around.

After dinner we came back into London and wound up at some place called the Foundry where we saw some bad poetry. Later we went to a place called Bar Music and after that went to another place where honestly I did not catch the name.

I also wanted to rave about the great Mexican food I had last night in Covent Garden at La Perla and the shopping in Portabello Market. I scored some fun tops, watched a crazy guy dance, help jeff buy a suit and bought some cute hand made things for myself.

Tomorrow is shopping in Camden and a gig then off to Berlin.

London Calling

Chris and I made it to London fine and dandy. We already went out and hit the town last night as you can see. This is my friend Jeff who we are staying with. We met up with his friends Kelly and Ian at a bar called the Intrepid Fox early on and then went over to Madame Jo-Jo's and saw Client and Mechanical Cabaret play. Today we tooted around town and shopped. I finally got to go to Top Shop, which is a lot like H&M. I did score of the most awesome rainbow-rific Adidas trainers in Covent Garden. We also had yummy fish and chips at The Rock and Sole Plaiece. We ordered way too many pickles, it's a long story. Oh and we booked our flight to Berlin for a small trip next week. It's been a full day and there is more yet to come. I need to get off the computer and shake a tail feather in the getting ready department. Going to a club called B-Movie or something where they don't show movies at all.

Loose Ends and Rabmlin'

You know I just realized I accidentally erased my post about embroidering on a Satin jacket from Target. How did that happen? Weird. Oh well, it's not like I said anything really juicy anyway.

I'm off to see the wizard today, or going to London at least. It's been 10 years since I have been there. I emailed my girlfriend last night to see if she could remember the street I used to live on or the name of the family I stayed with. I have to go out to Ealing for old times sake. I am really excited about the shopping and have been told to hit Top Shop then I am dying to go back to Camden and Portobello Markets. Plus the Tatty Devine store. Oh the excitement.

While I am away my friend Tina is house sitting my digs, she is very excited about 2 weeks of cable and netflix. Ginger will be here diligently filling orders and working - so it's not like Naughty Secretary Club will not be up and running. Gotta go tie up a few loose ends before vickie gets here at noon to drive us to the airport.

Stylelicious Party Pictures!

How cute are these people? You are feasting your eyes on my cousin Johnny Musselman, my mom Fredda Perkins, my sister Hope Perkins (wearing my favorite necklace I ever did make) and my cousin Katherine Kelly. This is one of about a bazillion adorable pictures super photographer Jody Horton took at the Stylelicious premiere party. Wanna see the rest? Sure you do, click here. Thanks to everyone who came out to help us celebrate!

National neck week at Naughty Secretary Club.

Man I am off to a bad start on watching Stylelicious. I missed the second run of the episode today. I saw pictures and know that Karly was wearing my very favorite souvenir skirt. I wanted to see if everyone was wearing my jewelry. 9 times out of 10 whatever jewelry you see any of us wearing on the show, I made. I just brought boxes of it to the set and laid it out on a table for the girls to pick from and the stylists to work with. Same thing with Craft Lab.


Well I missed the show today because I have been furiously adding new goodies to Naughty Secretary Club. Last week I snuck in a whole new section called Fredda Perkins. AKA my mother. She is making her own line of fantabulous necklaces. I added two new Revamped Vintage Necklaces and am hoping to add more tonight or tomorrow. The biggie that took me forever was adding all the new Nouveau Necklaces to the site. So it is like national neck week over at the website.

It’s a beautiful sunny day and I am stuck inside working. I leave for London on Wednesday for two weeks. Well there is a side trip to Berlin to see my friend Bee, but mostly London. Have any fun suggestions on places to go? I lived there for a semester in college, but that was 10 years ago. So the next several days are going to consist of me crazy working.

The rest of the flea market was delightful, got tons more fun jewelry to play with. Got my mom off today just fine, Chris got back from Corpus Christi and now I am just working my toosh off and packing until Big Love comes on tonight.

The most wonderfully tack-a-licious thing I have seen in a good long while.

I took this picture on my phone yesterday at the flea market, creepy indeed. These are the kinds of things you see out there for displays. I went into another booth yesterday with Hope that had that this mechanical oscillating life sized 8 year old kid doll dressed in a giant Mardi Gras costume. The costume was this huge ostrich feather covered concoction from the 60’s with a wing span of maybe 6 feet. The kicker however was that in the 80’s the people had attached a sequined ET doll (as in the extra terrestrial) to one of the wings. Just to bring it more up to date or something. I guess when the man that wore this costume walked down the street he would throw Receses Pieces instead of beads to get the girls to lift up their shirts.

I bought lots more fun jewelry parts on yesterday’s trip. Hope, Katherine and Cory came with mom and me. I don’t know that I got anything for myself or the house yesterday. There was this huge plastic faux plant from the 60’s that I wanted really badly. Everyone kept saying how awful and tasteless it was, but that was the beauty of it. It was taller than me and needed a bath desperately, but it was the most wonderfully tack-a-licious thing I have seen in a good long while. He would have looked so good in my Florida room. Alas he was $75.

Today is my last day out in the fields, wish me luck. No whammies. Big money.

Reunited and it feels so good.

Yesterday at Roundtop was a successful haul. I bet I got enough small vintage gold charms to make an all new gold cha cha bracelet. Not many personal scores, most everything was for Naughty Secretary Club. There was a couple of panels of Barkcloth for some throw pillows and a couple of other things. My FAVORITE thing I got yesterday is my new Peanut necklace. It’s like I have been incomplete my whole life and now that Mr. Peanut necklace and I are reunited all is right in the world. He is the size of an actual peanut, metal and hangs from some gold toned chain. He called to me from the bottom of a crusty “Everything’s a dollar” box”. Look at that mouth. I guess it might be a Mrs. Peanut with all the lipstick. The teeth are a little jagged and creepy. Who made this necklace and why? Is it a Jimmy Carter souvenir? Who knows? All I know is this necklace is hi-larious and I wore him to dinner last night and made him do ventriloquism acts for everyone at the table. It was a big hit.

I scheduled my wedding around the same flea market.

I know you are blue in the face of me talking about it, but today is the premiere of our new TV show STYLELICIOUS! Please be sure to tune in 1:30pm Central. Here is what today's show is about...

The fashionistas take vintage clothing and make them into custom creations. First, we get some tips on vintage clothes shopping from Jen Barker-Benfield, who runs a vintage shop called Blue Velvet. Host Karly Hand converts a blazer into a boat-neck jacket with a few snips and some basic sewing skills. Host Jesse Kelly-Landes takes an ordinary A-line skirt and gives it a mod feel with some appliqué.

The sad thing is, I am not even going to be able to watch. Why? Because I am headed off to Roundtop, AKA the second largest flea market in the country. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for me that I score tons of goodies. Is it weird that I am missing the premiere episode of my own TV show for a flea market? Not as weird as the fact that I scheduled my wedding around the same flea market 3 years ago. I take junk shopping very serious.

Business in the front and party in the back.

So this blog post is kind of like a mullet, business in the front and party in the back. Oh and I'll explain this big picture of me in a minute.

First business. Do you receive my newsletter? Well you might not anymore if you don't follow these steps. That's not a threat, it's a promise. Ok not really. Ya see I have switched over to an email newsletter manager through my web host so you gotta do some fancy stuff to say on the list.

1) You may have gotten an email from me or Dreamhost recently stating that you need to verify your email address. Go ahead and follow those steps and you will be all signed up and remain on my newsletter list.
2) If you are thinking “I never got an email”, the other thing you can do is go to the top right hand corner of my front page and sign up for the newsletter all over again.

I want us to stay friends so please be sure and sign up! Plus something BIG (think sale) is happening mid April, you are gonna want to know about.

Two days until the Stylelicious premiere! This Thursday April 6th on the DIY Network at 1:30pm Central and again on Sunday at 3:00pm. If you live in Austin clearly you already know about our party at Docs Motorworks Wednesday at 7:30. Did I mention the cheap drinks and tacos?

Have you heard what people are saying about the show. Don't listen to Flavor and Chuck, you should totally believe this hype.
Austin American Statesmen
the Austinist
Tribeza (this is where the picture is from)
Austin Woman

Speaking of Austin Woman they also did an awesome write up on Tease : Inspired T-shirt Transformations by Superstars of Art, Craft, and Design. Which just so happens to be coming out today. This is an amazing book, and I'm not just saying that because I have a project in there. Ooodles of the Austin Craft Mafia girls and our crafty friends have projects in here not to mention famous people like Amy Sedaris, Patricia Field and Todd Oldham. It's by the sassy lady who helped bring you the You Grow Girl Book Sarah Sockit. Go snag a copy at Amazon.

I am starting to refer to myself as Powder.

Weird. I just came in to whip up a blog entry about my camera dramas as of late and the first song out of my ITUNEs is “Kamera” by Wilco. Really my problems started way before the whole camera debacle, let me start from the beginning and here is an IMIX about cameras and getting your pictures taken for while you read.

During SXSW my phone started to have issues. First it was not texting and then the touch screen started to freak out. On a recent trip to my parents house I ran out of batteries and since I have a Treo this means EVERYTHING in my phone was erased. Notes, calendars, contacts and most importantly Tetris. If I don’t call or text anymore, this is why.

Next my IPOD starts to freak out. To be fair I should say it is the headphones. One ear, my left one to be exact, is starting to crackle. I am assuming it is the headphones and not years of concerts starting to catch up with me. Actually I went to a doctor a few years ago and he looked in my ears and did some tests and told me that I had damaged hearing. That’s what I get for all those years of Ministry and KMFDM concerts. Guess I’ll never be a fighter pilot, no highway to the danger zone for me.

So that is my phone and my IPOD and at this point my sister is starting to call me Powder. Remember that movie about the Albino alien kid that was directed by a child molester? Everything electrical that Powder touched got all jacked up. I am pasty white, though the fake tan is starting to help a bit, and now all the electronic incidents - maybe I am like Powder.

This week it was my camera that started in with the problems. I recently got a light tent, Ebay in a box as they are referred to. I was so excited to take pictures of all the new and exciting jewelry I have bought and created for the site in my new light tent, but things were not working out as I had planned. The background in the tent looked gray, not white at all. I have two bright lights pointed in there and everything. I consulted with some wiser friends who recommended I tweak the aperture of the camera, a word I promise you is not in the glossary of my Sony one shot camera manual. So after pressing tons of buttons my camera would not take pictures at all.

At this point I am starting to refer to myself as Powder.

Today I woke up and took my butt to camera co-op here in Austin. Those dudes were friendly as all get out and helpful too. There was some drama over my Camp Fig shirt depicting a Chihuahua because apparently the nice gentlemen helping me had recently lost his, however he pulled through and he and his trusty co-worker fixed my camera. They also sold me a fancy little tripod and some piece of gray cardboard.

Now the pictures I came home and took are still not perfect, blurry actually, but at least it is taking pictures at all again. I think I am just going to have to mess with the camera and the lights. In the meantime I want you to know that I promise I have new and exciting jewelry I want to show you, I just can’t currently take a picture of it.