ann, tegan, dabney and sara

on friday night, ann and dabney had the pleasure of seeing two singing canadian lesbian identical twins (yes, you heard that right), otherwise known as tegan and sara.



the show was fantastic. the music - stellar. tegan and sara combine a power pop sound with an ani difranco attitude. their harmonies soared live (perhaps their identical chromosomes give them an advantage???) ann and dabney even appreciated that they weren't afraid to flub up a song and start over. bonus: melissa ferrick (who they used to open for in the past) joined them on stage for a surprise encore.

plus they - individually and collectively - were hilarious. usually, when ann and dabney go to a concert they want the artist to shut up and just play their music. but the banter between tegan & sara's songs was a window into their inimitable sisterspeak. they would tell childhood stories, interrupt each other to give another perspective, tell the other one to stop talking and play, or adopt the voice of a national geographic narrator describing the other's movements actions, i.e. "tegan, 24, is tuning her guitar."

and then there was the other show. perhaps because everyone was there to see two canadian lesbian identical twins, there was the obvious freak factor. it was the best people-watching opportunity that ann and dabney had had in some time. there was a bookish couple sitting to their right (how did ann and dabney know they were bookish? they tried to READ during the concert) and only a handful of people over the age of thirty scattered about (yes, mika and sherman, you count). and the lesbians. oh, the lesbians. the entire baby dyke population of all the area new england colleges was out in full force.

last but not least, tegan & sara had some of the best concert t-shirts that ann & dabney had ever seen. none of that plastisol photo of the band on a black t-shirt with the concert location and dates on the back shit. these concert tees looked like they could have come out of superette's craft room. to order one, click on a design.

matcha!

go ahead and say it, starbucks is the wal-mart of the coffee world steamrolling over competition and turning up on every corner of the globe with the same green and beige non-descript decor. superette hates to advocate for such atrocious mass marketing, but damn, this one may just be worth the four bucks at "fourbucks."



if you have not tried a green tea frappuccino, you have not lived. when ann and dabney were in japan last spring, they discovered these frothy concoctions and could not wait for them to make their american debut. (while on a layover in nagoya earlier this year, they ran to the airport fourbucks just for a quick icy treat.) walking down newbury street last week, they had their first domestic sighting and immediately changed directions to the closest fourbucks. superette fully expects green-laced whipped cream mustaches to be the hip look this summer.

"real" mail

in the sea of catalogs, bills, flyers, credit card offers, and fundraising solicitations, it sure is nice when superette receives fun packages in the mail. today's delivery included two fantastic surprises: two handmade silkscreened patches from the lovely maitreya at craftlog and a rainbow flag courtesy of faithful friend, lindsey.

the patches are a thank you from maitreya to her faithful readers.



lindsey picked up the flag on a recent trip to p-town, and thought ann and dabney would want to hang it up when boston pride hits next year.



many, many thanks to both for making ann and dabney's day...

macworld nerds

ann and dabney let out their inner geeks at the macworld expo today (not that they are ever really that far from the surface). ann has been chomping at the bit for the past two days wanting to go, but other projects kept them away until today.



since she was about ten years old playing around on her apple IIc, ann has been a mac enthusiast. hard core. back then, graphic design entailed making images out of x's and o's on a dot matrix printer. dabney's slightly lesser addiction came later, via tetris on her apple se during college. today, ann and dabney are the proud owners of one imac, two powerbooks, two ipods, and two ipod shuffles. see, nerds.

both ann and dabney attended the macworld expo years ago and had memories of a carnival-like atmosphere where thousands of fellow geeks rejoiced in their love of the macintosh and admiration of steve jobs. today's experience was much tamer; the expo was about one quarter of the size of the 1998 event. although, all their nerd brethren were certainly still out in full force.



today, it's all about accessories for mac devices. cases, clips, sleeves, bags, lanyards - you name it. even mac accessories come with accessories. witness the cable yoyo. as a result, ann and dabney came home with a lot of shwag. their favorite items were - hands down - attachments for their shuffles. one is the imojo shuffle sweat and one is called a flip clip from dlo. -- both of which are perfect for use during exercise. ann and dabney will post their reviews after they go to the gym. stay tuned, or should we say "ituned." see, nerds.

voilá... wedding invitations

it has taken four trips to the paper source, three priority mail packages, two fedex deliveries, three hours of hp phone support, three printers, and countless hours of frustration. but at long last, superette is pleased to announce the completion of crazy bride and golfin' groom's wedding invitations.

invitation and cover of the accompanying folder of information:


invitation and open folder:

now for some feidler madness

after further consideration of saturday's spaniel madness post, superette thought some feidler madness was in order.


feidler seurat


feidler pollack


feidler warhol


feidler gothic


feidler neel

flirting with skirts

there was the mini. there was the maxi. now, there is the "dabney."

dabney has always dreamed of making her own clothing. now, with the help of a sewing stars pattern, slightly modified to accommodate a zipper, she has. over the weekend, dabney stitched up two a-line skirts, one brown and one navy blue.

she wore the appropriately somber navy one to little blue scooter's wake last night.



and then she took a close-up of the brown one this morning, so you could see the teal blue stitching on the bottom.

spaniel madness

everyone knows that here at superette, dogs rule. but this is ridiculous.

the first of many posts about the farm co-op

ann, dabney, and ashbloem started their first food co-op last week through stillman's farms. the may rains caused new england's growing season to begin rather late. but boy, was it worth the wait. ann and dabney worked out an arrangement where they pick out their produce from the stands at the copley farmers market on tuesdays and fridays. so this week there were oodles of green beans, bunches of strawberries, and heaps of tomatoes to choose from. but ann and dabney weren't quite prepared for the mounds of zucchini that welcomed them in this first cornucopia.



this totally changes the way ann and dabney go about cooking in their household, and signals their foray into the world of ingredient-based cooking. so please forgive them if this summer they sound like a vegetarian version of forrest gump's good buddy bubba - because so far all they can talk about is zucchini: zucchini bread, grilled zucchini, pickled zucchini, roasted zucchini with thyme, zucchini fritters, steamed zucchini with scallions, portabello zucchini tacos, zucchini pizza, stuffed zucchini, spaghetti with fried zucchini...

aaarghhh.

today was a day of total sadness and frustration, both in large and small ways. ann and dabney woke to news of the london bombings, and the people who died there. then they spent the rest of the day on the phone with hewlett packard, trying to make their printer print as it should.

not much else to say today.

we lovermont

ann and dabney had a blissful weekend in dabney's homestate. thanks to their good friend jen b., who provided the view above, they were able to swim, play tennis, sunbathe, eat s'mores and sing campfire songs all weekend long. joining them were ashbloem and girlladyfriend, along with some new faces isaac, jess, carmella, and phillip. for more on the fun they had, go here.



while in vt, ann and dabney were able to catch up with their favorite happy family, the joneses. ann and mom were college roommates.



ann's future parental shutterbug tendencies manifested that afternoon. she couldn't help herself around little "e" and snapped pics of her every few seconds.



although ann clearly enjoyed herself, she is not sure if e cared for it much.

an old friend here, an old friend there, here a friend, there a friend, everywhere an old friend

old friends have been coming out of the woodwork in droves this past week. so much so that it's freaking ann and dabney out a little bit. the first part of the week was all about ann's past life; now dabney's past has started to emerge.

first there was sumana, ann's boarding school classmate, at supreme trading the other night.



sumana then brought their other high school classmate, roy, by their booth at the renegade craft fair the next day to say hi. it's been fifteen years since ann has since either one of the them.



then in the middle of the fair, a former colleague of ann and dabney's, maria, walked right up to their booth. ann was in the middle of explaining the cell phone charms and cleaners when she realized just who she was talking to. maria was herself a bit weirded out when they told her that a couple of weeks ago someone brought them a bottle of wine from her family's vineyard in sonoma valley. it's been six or seven years since they'd been in touch. and she now lives in Brooklyn.



ann also got to relive her glory days at wellesley with her favorite former londoner, jenny. it had been seven years since their last visit and it was as if they were back in college, except there were no dining halls, no rushing off to class, nor stale beer smells. instead, it was leisurely conversation at the w hotel over bellinis and vodka tonics.



this week was also dabney's reunion with childhood friend amy olk and her boyfriend sorin. they had a great overnight visit, and screened amy's short film jack's garden, about the death of amy's father.



and then just last night, in the middle of dinner with new friends seth and mana, gil called out of the blue. gil is a very old friend of dabney's from her college days. although a student at umass, gil used to spend much of his time on smith campus. in those days, they used to sit around in their birkenstocks, chain smoke, and listen to bread together. it had been about six years since the last time dabney saw gil.

dabney couldn't find a picture of gil, but a print that he gave her back in 1993 hangs in their bathroom.



although not quite the same, it also turns out that mana used to date one of dabney's high school classmates, scott. scott and dabney used to do theatre (scott did lighting and set design; dabney did set construction and stage management) together back in the day. dabney dated his younger brother for a couple of years. dabney discovered that, until just recently, scott was a performance artist in (where else) brooklyn, where ann and dabney just had their first craft fair this past weekend.

this is a picture of scott, which dabney found on-line. she hardly recognized him without his mohawk. scott graduated a couple of years before dabney, so it's been about eighteen years since she saw him last.



ann and dabney think it's clear that there is some weird juju going on...

little blue scooter: march 15, 2002 - june 28, 2005

little blue scooter was born model #chf50p, near tokyo, in 2002. The offspring of a well-established multi-million yen company, her childhood was blighted by her distant parents and she was brought up mostly by a surrogate mother in boston.

she attended public school, which she hated, an ordeal which was offset by the moment she first saw michael caine ride a vespa in the original version of alfie.

little blue scooter was the apple of her owner’s eye for over four years. she led the way in promoting alternative modes of transportation around the boston metropolitan area and always kindly allowed strangers to give her a try. little blue scooter will remain in the hearts of all who rode her, and will be remembered for her unique style and nerdy-chic image around town.

little blue scooter was, at first sight, the antithesis of many of the mopeds out on the road. plastic-sided, not the speediest, and cheap - she was more like a best friend than a motorized vehicle.

yet little blue scooter’s uncompromising reliability transformed the face of travel all the way from boston to arlington to wellesley and back.

her regular evening cruises ran three to four nights a week and in 2004 she became the godmother to many a scooter offspring in the neighborhood, taking her passion for sidestreets to the wider world.

right from the outset, little blue scooter changed the rules. she could go miles without a fill up, and when she needed fuel it only cost $2 to top off her tank.

two nights ago, little blue scooter was stolen. she was parked in her usual spot, chained to the railing outside ann and dabney’s door. ann and dabney later learned that next door neighbors heard noises sometime between midnight and 2am but didn’t leave their cushy little couch to investigate. her whereabouts are now unknown, and police have no leads.

little blue scooter leaves behind her heartbroken owner ann, and her partner dabney, who was too scared to ride her.

there will be a traditional irish wake held in little blue scooter's honor next week at its former residence.

strange men and sticky substances

ann and dabney came back from new york on monday evening, happy to see feidler, who stayed home with ashbloem in their apartment while they were away. getting ready for bed that night, dabney noticed some mysterious goo on her side of the bed. no, not the kind of goo you are thinking. it was black. and sticky. and formed strange linear patterns. ann and dabney changed the sheets and didn't think much more about it.

a few days later, they stumbled across a strange camera in their spare bedroom. in an attempt to figure out who it belonged to, they scrolled through the photos, hoping to recognize someone they knew. after a few photos, they began to recognize people (a few of them anyway).

then they recognized their apartment.



and then their bed.



and then this.

warning: very long post coming up where ann and dabney talk about new crafts and old friends

superette returned to boston last night after an absolutely fantastic weekend in new york.

on friday night the lovely people at sockit projects and fred flare hosted a pre-renegade craft fair mixer at supreme trading in williamsburg. a mere hint of a rumor about amy sedaris providing cupcakes for the event meant that ann and dabney arrived promptly at 6:01 pm, well in advance of other arrivals. although the funny woman herself wasn't in attendance that night (something about traveling for her upcoming movie, blah, blah, blah, whatever) she had left behind a batch of homemade cupcakes. the best part is that they were decorated with cut out photos of herself dressed up as all the various characters from strangers with candy. ann and dabney were happy to snag two and stashed the decorations away in their bag.



while happily munching away on the cupcake in one hand, and sipping a gin and tonic in the other, ann received a tap on her shoulder. she turned around to find her friend sumana from high school -- who she hadn't seen in about 15 years. it's rare enough to run into old friends in a strange bar in a strange city thousands of miles away from where you went to high school. but it's even rarer when your graduating class had only THIRTEEN people in it.


sumana and ann

and it gets even weirder when you realize that you are now pursuing similar ventures. because sumana, along with brother nick and another high school friend roy, have started a fantastic stationery company called imaginary friends. they have a very smart and creative line of cards called haikudos, where traditional greeting card sayings are replaced by... and this is brilliant folks...haikus. it's enough to make girlladyfriend, and her annual haiku contest, proud. here's a sample:

A baby's bottom- Nine whole months in the baking, A cute pair of buns. Congratulations

The open-backed gown, Everyday wear for luring Hunky physicians. Get Well Soon

sumana and her group of friends made for a great party in and of themselves. ann and dabney wound up chatting with devon of ihotto for hours about one of their favorite topics: japan. it turns out that the three all share a love for japanese crafts, 100 yen stores, and cell phone charms. ihotto, run by devon and her fiancee, peter, sells these great road trip t-shirts that are worth checking out. erika of the very fabulous mini minimarket in williamsburg was great to talk to and had lots of advice about what it takes to run a store. ann also met her new filipina sister, des, of creme fame.


devon and erika

over the next two days ann and dabney were camped out in mccarren park with their wares.



they were so pleased by the positive response to their things (how gratifying after sewing for weeks alone in the batcave) and were pleasantly surprised when they sold out of most things by the end of the day on saturday. that this was a happy problem was not lost on ann and dabney, but it still made them have nightmares about sitting in front of an empty table all day long on sunday. superette got a few nibbles from stores about carrying some items. and a woman from a nationally-distributed magazine came by to talk about featuring their sewn crochet hook case in their next issue. cross your fingers.

in their spare time, ann and dabney were able to run around and look at the other booths. the amount of ultra-talented people in attendance was both inspiring and humbling. in particular, they loved julie meredith's graphic cards at etui, maryink's totes and t-shirts, jill killjoy's kitty wrist pincushion, amy tavern's silver circle jewelry, and last but not least, the momomoogie booth. in addition to being a fantastic illustrator, stella im hultberg is also just quite possibly the cutest woman on the face of the earth. ann was also so happy to finally place an order for a belt buckle from erica at steel toe studios.

our booth neighbors were the collective girls from the polka dot life, whose website dabney has admired for quite some time. ann and dabney were very lucky they were there. whenever the wind threatened to carry superette's things (and at one point the entire booth) to the opposite end of the park, a few kind souls ran over to retrieve goods in flight. thanks again guys.

superette debut

thanks to everyone who came and visited ann and dabney today at the renegade craft fair, and especially to those that purchased something. they really enjoyed talking to all of you, and were so pleased by the response to their stuff.

for new visitors, keep checking back at the site. ann and dabney will post more in the upcoming week about available merchandise and how to order.

in the meantime, here's a few of superette's happy customers.