rounding machine

after years of sprained thumbs cornering mogo tags and signs, dabney finally fulfilled a wish of mine and bought me an industrial-sized corner rounder for the low, low ebay price of $31!!!

now, i can't stop rounding. rest assured that all magazines, mail, and notebooks that enter this household will have safe corners from here on out.

busted.

thanks to the kind folks at bust magazine, the mogo show season has gotten off to a good start.

we also got a nice little mention in sunday's new york post and their accompanying website.
click to embiggen:

yep, that's a genuine mogo snap case featured for all of ny to see.

in many ways, it was a very successful weekend. thanks to the following:

brooklyn, you rock. thanks for all the shopping at mogo and for the extra cool people-watching (i think i managed to spot a haircut to aspire to).

manhattan, i heart you. thanks to you and your many, many shopping options, we found a couple dresses for a certain event that will work nicely.

thank you, girlladyfriend, for hosting us once again and, not to mention, the red velvet cake.

thank you, colbert report, for generously allowing us to park in front of your manhattan studio all weekend. stephen, you did a great job watching the station wagon, by the way. next time, we'll leave a tip.

bust spring craftacular

it's the first mogo show of the season!



new yorkers, come join us this sunday at the bust magazine spring fling craftacular.

DATE: april 27 from 11 am to 9 pm

LOCATION: the warsaw in williamsburg, brooklyn, 261 driggs avenue.

it's not just a craft fair - it's a craft fair with a prom theme.

PROM + THE WARSAW = PROMSKI!!! check website for more details.

bitten

tony bourdain is sooo five minutes ago...

mark bittman, i *heart* you. here's one small example why.

muumuus are the uniform for the working from home

man, i can relate.

and, yes, i have been known to sport a muumuu from time to time.

makeover

the mission to change our victorian rowhouse into a mid-century modern richard neutra-style california beach home (minus the beach) has now begun. i know it's radical, but i figure this is the only way to get dabney's chairs to look like they fit into their surroundings.

$300 lighter

the tag sale was a success! man, we shoulda done this ages ago. we were able to find new homes for many of our possessions. wilhelm and ron joined us in our efforts by adding many of their own items to the mix. (they were smart and actually sold stuff with value.) our cheering section was made up of jeannie and ottokahn, who made the day go by even faster. overall, we all had a great afternoon in the sunshine.

our sales categories:
arts & crafts
fun and games
electronics
let's go on a picnic
women's clothing and purses
men's clothing and drag

the categories seemed to work. people opened their wallets and purchased some of the most surprising things. it was an epic day and dabney's chair fund grew richer.

of course, our day would not have been complete without some goofy pictures. here's wilhelm posing with some prime yard sale props - ugly santa teapot, "nana" glasses, housecoat, and orange hat.



we'd like to thank...

the young woman who was our first customer of the day on her purchase of my old "coach" bag. she whooped and hollered even louder after i told her it was a very good canal street fake.

the retiree from lawrence street who bought my old pair of ginormous mary kate and ashlee olsen-inspired sunglasses. where was my camera when i needed it?

the young guy who purchased five handmade felt moustaches. apparently, his wife was going to love them.

the very appreciative med school student who carefully studied each table of items and managed to walk away with an armful of great souvenirs from abroad.

our weekend mail carrier who purchased, not one, but two old polaroid cameras for a bargain price.

the moving crew who bought cds on their lunch break.

the dude from union park who thought he was so sly. you can't get past us. when someone asks about the provenance of a yard sale item, ya just know they are about to sell your possessions on ebay.

we're having a sale

as we began purging our apartment, we noticed that we have enough surplus stuff to invite strangers over and ask them to pay for whatever treasures they deem worthy.

in amongst the stuff, extra crafting supplies in the form of fabric, paper and glass, lots of clothes - (back in the day dabney and i were clothes horses - now, not so much), bags, hats, scarves, a coat rack, a padded bench, an ottoman, and folding chairs. just for kicks, we might throw some mogo in the mix.

we're hoping that between the multiple craigslist ads and the signs above that will be hanging around the 'hood, we'll gather a decent crowd of interested shoppers. wish us luck. dabney could use more dough in her chair fund.

is there such a thing as frequent flyer anonymous?

dabney and i are about to stage an intervention.

we have a certain "friend" who is absolutely addicted to frequent flyer miles. he loves the perks that come with travel so much that his goal in life is to garner as many miles as possible in one trip. he's addicted to the point that he gladly considers flying 24 hours on what would normally be a 3.5 hour trip.

exhibit a:
a regular route from omaha to boston



exhibit b:
friend's regular route from omaha to boston



exhibit c:
friend's dream route from omaha to boston


we'd like to tell him no elite class status, or free drinks in first class, are worth this.

ann and dabney leave their apartment

between getting mogo orders out, prepping for spring shows, and purging the house, we've been such homebodies. lately, our evenings have consisted mostly of doing work while watching the hbo mini-series, john adams. how's that for exciting?

you can imagine the anomaly of last night when dabney and i actually left our apartment, stepped onto the t, and crossed the river. the only thing that could have shaken us out of our domestic groove was the pleasure of catching mr. colin meloy, of decemberists fame, perform live.


i should add this isn't my picture, but instead that of some lucky attendee who happened to be 20 yards closer to the man himself.

accompanied with only his guitar, colin sounded amazing. his opening song, "wonder" - a tune he wrote about having a child - was so incredibly sweet. he also sang a lot of my favorite decemberist tunes including, "the sporting life" "shiny" and "apology song." that he forgot a few lyrics here and there only added to his charm. we'll give him a little credit here - decemberists' lyrics score high on the difficulty scale.


yeah, not my picture.

previous meloy EPs include him singing to the likes of morrissey and british folk singer shirley collins - so it was nice to hear that he has recently added sam cooke to the mix. for proof, he performed the cooke classic "cupid" with opening act and fellow portlander (portlandite?) laura gibson. it was such a highlight i was sad not to have picked up the sam cooke ep as i was leaving. i guess i'll be awaiting for its itunes appearance.

ghosts of worlds past

dabney and i sank to a new low last night.

we watched "the real world awards bash" on mtv.

not that we actually watch that show anymore. we gave up on it years ago when the reality series devolved from being about seven strangers picked to live in a house to being about seven strangers who regularly party and hook up on mtv's tab.

honestly, i just wanted to see the faces of those i remember tuning into see. but where were you new yorkers, norm? julie? heather b? becky? too busy to make an appearance, san franciscans? pam? judd? muhammad?

damn.

instead, there were lots of images of folks i could not identify for the life of me...



... interviews with people who confounded me.



... and a few ghosts of seasons past.


this is, matt, the freaky jesus dude from rw new orleans.



beth (from rw LA), i think you look better than the old days. bravo, girl.



oh, eric (from rw NY)... beneath all that hair, you're still one handsome guy.

mogo in the west... and in the middle east

it has been a long time since we did a web welcome to new stores carrying our items. while we are at it - let's make it a double...



today, we welcome two new stores to the mogo family.

how about some mogo goods to go with your chic new hairdo? why not? ten pachi is a salon and store in seattle, washington. we love their $20 haircuts, blow-dry bar, and general japanese bent.

mogo meets the middle east!! powder talk is a website based in kuwait and is dedicated to providing the latest funky and fashionable merchandise from selected retailers from all over the world to local customers. powder talk is among the first fashion online stores in kuwait.

friends' quiz

this post absolutely fits into the category of "geekery."

chez superette, there's hardly a better sight than the presence of a red paper envelope from netflix in the mail. the contents contribute to our week's entertainment in the form of a dvd. we kinda live for their arrival. how's that for pathetic? (however, don't even get us started with netflix's "instant play" feature... your system is incompatible. mac-haters!)

we're always tinkering with our movie queue - adding, subtracting, shuffling. nowadays, i even pay attention to the "new on dvd" section of websites, newspapers, and magazines just to stay on top of it all.

but i have to admit, each time i visit the netflix site, i always take a little pleasure from the obscure "friends' quiz" feature buried deep in the "community" section (one quiz per visit). the quiz requires you to make your best guess about your pals' movie tastes. usually, i am pretty good at this, but today's was a stumper. we probably have the least in common with ronald as far as movie preferences. we still love him though.



i won't even get into the fact that his avatar appears to be a pensive woman who would probably look more appropriate in a calgon ad or even a box of tampons.

hey if you're on netflix, too - drop us a line so i can make bad guesses about your movie tastes, too.

dabney and her growing brood

as if we don't already have enough chairs to accommodate thirty in this apartment, dabney introduced another to her flock - a $20 craigslist find.



she saw its ad yesterday and quickly made contact, only to find that someone had already made an offer of $50. oh well...

this morning, her inbox welcomed her with a message from the owner. turns out the first bidder apparently wanted "more than just the chair" - whatever that means. nonetheless, the lecherous turn of events meant the chair was hers. hooray!

speedy craigslist trolling with image preview

if you're anything like dabney and addicted to vintage finds on craigslist, you must download this handy dandy firefox add-on - craigslist image preview extension from craigstoolbox.com.

it allows one to see thumbnail images of advertised items. plus, it has a fantastic rollover feature that enlarges any thumbnail without clicking away from the main list.

no longer will you fall prey to those lazyboys advertised as an eames lounge chairs. you'll have pictorial proof right there. makes trolling craigslist much, much faster.

a pug after my own heart

photo by emilybtm

dream office

this might be the coolest workplace ever.

call for umbrellas

the last time we visited japan, we were fascinated with all the clear plastic umbrellas that were sold on every street corner, in every convenience store, and at every subway station. cheap and functional - we love how they let light in even on the dreariest of days.

we loved them so much - we hand-carried a half dozen home.

now, we are sadly down to one. i was reminded of this as i was about to head out into the pouring rain and looked in our empty umbrella stand.

help? anyone out there have any of our plastic umbrellas?

ashbloem's bachelorette weekend sure was fun