Madsen Cycles

There's a guy in my neighborhood with one of these [I think] he totally puts his kids in it! [apparently legal from their site]

doesn't it just make you want to grocery shop with one, just because you can? check out their scratch and dent section [save some bucks]. super cute designed website too I might add

something frivolous

I own about 3 dozen scarves. Mostly because I'm cold all the time but I found it's easy to jazz up an outfit with a pretty colored scarf.


The Blanket Scarf looks pretty yummy $48

Perfect

accurate. thorough; complete; utter: perfect strangers. pure or unmixed. expert; accomplished; proficient. These are the words you find when you dictionary google the word perfect. Not a surprise I would guess, we all know the word perfect.

Did I tell you I hate the word perfect? I do.



People have called me this since I was very small. I didn't ask for this label. I was a kid who didn't like to get dirty, who didn't like the way grass felt, who preferred to listen to commercials and draw pictures than cause trouble with the neighbor girls. I had moments of the trouble, don't get me wrong but they were small infractions compared to others I guess. I was also a kid who did her homework at recess. I read books during the summer and did practice book reports. The label weird kid is more apt don't you think? I don't know what it was I just wanted to be good. Unless somebody pissed me off then I wanted to ruin them but that's another tale.



In my 30's after my life fell apart with my divorce I realized that this perfection thing was a lot of f*ing hard work with not the best in returns and I decided to let it go. The idea of perfection is wonderful, but to attempt to live in that space is horrible. I still fight it a good deal. The not wanting to fail thing. It's a giant struggle of mine to be ok with failure.

I find that my outside person doesn't display this as well and this title still follows me around and appears when I'm least expecting it. Such as Thanksgiving with friends and someone pulled out a game.

did I tell you I don't do games? I don't.



The reason I don't do games is that I'm not very good at them. I don't know the answers quickly ever, I can't add to save my life, and lord help me if you ask me to spell something. I reluctantly played the game [and blatantly cheated I might add] and my friend yelled at the table "oh my gawd she's not perfect!"and what I wanted to scream was "I'm not perfect. please don't call me that". It's what I want to say any time someone uses that word directed at me.

If I might, will you just indulge me in a moment of non-perfect barfing? here are just some of my many short falls: I leave water glasses all over my house. At any one time there are 2-4 in my bedroom alone. I leave my laundry in the dryer for as long as I can. My poor roomie is left to schelp my undies out to the couch a number of times a month. I use to be organized but my desk looks like a hurricane set down. My car looks like a homeless person lives in it, wrappers clothes etc. it's a sad state. I hate cleaning out the fridge - as you might guess there are science projects growning as we speak. Lastly, because I don't want to bore you but I just unloaded my dishwasher for the first time in oh... 6 months. I just left the dishes in because I didn't want to unload them.

wooah. monumental right? not very exciting I know, but it makes me feel better, just knowing, that you know, that I'm not perfect.


the photos? they are perfection via my friend Gyslain Yarhi He's a French photographer don't you know? The French, they are perfect, that I'm sure of.

product review M2 skin care

In full disclosure the fine folks at Skin Care RX who are also my only sponsor here at richie headquarters asked me a while back would you be interested in testing a skincare line called M2? Skin care? Me? hells-to-the-yah. And then I stopped. Er...um I dunno, I'm really partial to my Clarins I thought, what is it you want me to test? They said this set that involves an Alpha Hydroxy Acids or something of the sort.



I don't think I'm the right person for you, I said. I'm super sensitive. I'm allergic to everything I say trying to weezel out of it [the Alpha Hydroxys have not been kind to me in the past]. Some more emails went back and forth we have one for "sensitive skin" it will be great they say, I say sure and expect to be making a trip to my allergist when it's all said and done.

This review thing is harder than it seems I have to admit. What if I hated it I thought? Ok, I just won't write about it. I mean they did give me a free set of product I would hate to bum them out by a bad review. No wonder every product reviewed in a magazine talks about how amazing it is. Don't believe it unless you hear first hand I'm telling ya.

But here's the thing, since we're talking about it. I like it. And I've been using it for 4 weeks or so and no skin irritation [amazing I might add on that part] and this Malic Acid [a type of hydroxy acid] thing? whoa a little zingy but I'm telling you whatever it is ate off the top layer of skin and my face is baby-butt soft. I'm not blowing smoke up your ass either. This weekend when Chris was home I had planned on handing it over to him for his take on it but I don't think I'm ready to give it up just yet. I am as surprised about this fact as you are at the moment.

so exfolating cleanser, skin refinish and skin recovery moisturizer. is what I've been using. The kit is $90, which considering I've paid that for one product, makes it a steal.

Some side notes on the product though. I don't find the moisturizer to be enough for me [I'm dry] and I've needed to supplement it with some of my standbys. I also might add I didn't care for the neon yellow color of the moisturizer either but it was just color, the smell was fine.

The Skincare RX site is pretty impressive. I've been poking around a bit to make sure they were on the up and up. Sothys, Murad, Perricone, Jan Marini, Kinerase, Dermalogica, Decleor [love their oils!], Cellex C are just some of their brands that I know and either have personally used, or have been used on me in treatments.

So from this skin junky...a surprising thumbs up

The cutest art book in history

OOps I used that word again but seriously...Do you know Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine? I've featured him here before. He's famed for his snuggly bear posters kinda like this:


I was at the book store today and saw his new book, featuring many of his top posters and graphics featuring his curious animals: bears, fish etc. It's really swell and I had to fight myself to put it back.

If you have a art person in your life, or a teen involved in good music they would love it. He has done posters for bands such as The Melvins, The Flight of the Concords, The Monsters of Folk, My Morning Jacket, Jeff Tweedy and more. The book also features a funny graph in the back of the book listing the amount of times an animal appears in his graphics. The bear I think won out but, fish, cats, pigs and the like made appearances.



The book is available at Amazon $15.61 significantly less than the Barnes folks or check out the other book he has called 100 Posters 134 Squirrels also available on Amazon or The Bird Machine Site.

#3 IN THE SERIES

I purchased camera poster #1 some years ago, then I purchased #2 and gave it to a photog friend for his new home, #3 is done and as cute as always. I mean not cute, Chris says I am not to use cute when describing masculine things. Are cameras masculine or feminine? anyway it's RAD and it's $30 And if it didn't cost $200 to match the frame I have on the other one I would totally buy it right now.
by Rod Post

funny how...

shoe image from here who by the way, I'm jealous of. I might add she's 13!! and dog image from here, she's for adoption.

Sade is back

short music week finishes up here with the queen of smooth



via starworks Sade's new CD drops Feb 2010
Till then lets have a listen to a lovely tune. sorry it's a static pic but the song wasn't available in full video.

Tuesday Music

More Tunes for this holiday week.

Iron and Wine's Naked As We Came



They haven't been on my radar even after one of the cool kids at the local music store told me about them oh, 7 years ago or something. Which as we know in music is like dog years. I don't know why I didn't like them then. I'm a sucker for sad, melancholy music as all my friends will attest too. I prefer to think of it as quiet, soft, thoughtful music myself.

So Naked As We Came? I hear it and want to curl up under my down comforter. Warm and Fuzzy for your holiday week

She Does

she said yes, and so did she



There is the most stunning photos up over at my favorite wedding photog Anna KuperbergI don't know these two women, but you can just tell that "this is what love is" by the way they look at one another.


------
I often wonder what it says about our society that can deny LOVE because it doesn't look the way they think it should. Love prevails always. This, I'm sure of.

please go click to the full slide show, it gave me chills, made me cry and smile all in 3 minutes flat

Happy short week

Well, how about that excitement from Friday hu? I've been catching up on the breathing thing and the sleep thing ever since. We had a lot of prep around here to make sure we had enough goodies in stock. Anyway, I'm still recovering. How about some tunes for this holiday week?

First up Nick Drake


I dunno it just makes me think of itchy wool sweaters [in a good way], fall leaves blowing along the ground and drives with the heater on and the windows down. perfect for this week

This is why I couldn't breathe

I didn't want to say it until it actually happened but this is why I couldn't breathe.



Author, TV star and the patron queen of style featured me on The Zoe Report today. My Illustrated shoe cards were spotlighted.

I'm truly honored and a little speechless today.

SUPER CUTE

a look book for a clothing brand Suno. Shot in cuba with the girls being towed behind moving cars?! The music is to die for, makes you want to cha cha.

> fashionista

Do you forget to breathe?

I forget to breathe all the time. It's much better than years ago when I barely inhaled at all. I got super sick during those years as you might guess since oxygen is important and all. I guess enough seeped into my skin to keep me standing upright. Some day I'll tell you how it began, the not breathing, but I feel like keeping things happy and chipper today.

Somehow I programmed my body from that time that anything good, bad or in-between that's out of my day to day norm sets me into this little not-breathing-thing. Even the good or the great.



And today I'm not breathing because of great. Something exciting is suppose to happen tomorrow. I'll tell you when it actually goes through because well, the chubby lady hasn't sung just yet. So I'll wait for a little Do-Rey-Me before I spill. Till then, posting a big yellow stickie to my computer reminding me.

image

Fishing

Don't laugh but I went to a fishing and tackle store on Saturday. And no it wasn't of my own accord as you might guess.


Chris has a small lake outside his back door over at his other house by school and he's been borrowing his roomies fishing pole. And as you might remember me telling you, I met him in a fly fishing store. As-in he was a professional guide for a number of years. Pros have to have the right gear don't cha know. Even if you only are catching little catfish out your back door in a man-made lake and tossing them back.

He got me suckered in with a comparision to shoes and a bag matching or something fashion related. Got it. Let's go. So we did. 15 min into it I got antsy and trying to humor myself began taking pictures of sparkily fish kinda like this.


they're all very facinating. These rubbery,sparkily pretend fish. I dream of having 400 of them and glueing them to a skirt so that the little rubbery things dance all over as I walk down the isle of the grocery, or maybe this saturday to the movies. But after my red carpet moment faded in the lovely tackle store [next to the sports bar I might add]. I began posting them to facebook along with a humorous note that read "I feel like dudes do when their chicks force them to the mall. Honey, are you still looking at plastic fish? Really?"

and my lovely brother who has a similar quiet, wicked sense of humor responded. "Hell yeah, still looking at plastic fishy, then hooks with fuzzy stuff tied to them, then some long sticks (aka fishing poles)"

Fair enough, next stop though the shoe department at Macy's.

strong girls

Karey is worried about her NO Girls today. The talking back girls, the possibility of teenage years run-amuck. Because I was not really a kid that said no and I'm not a parent who has to contend with the no, I'm seeing it as a positive.



Now don't let me fool you I was and am stubborn. I'm a Taurus after all. We invented stubborn. But I was a quiet-give-you-evil-stares-kill-you-with-silence kinda stubborn. I don't think no was allowed. By the way I'm still good at evil stares. I'm quite good at it really. Chris has seen a couple and was surprised at the level of evil I can shoot out from the hazels. He was on the receiving end of only a couple, most were aimed at others who don't know how to read it quite like he does.



But the No part. What if the good part is learning to stand up for yourself? I didn't know how to do that until was in my mid 30's. No, wasn't allowed remember? No, can be a good thing to the boy in highschool who thinks too highly of himself, or No, can be a great thing when someone mistreats you. No, could be a better thing if the wrong person asks for your hand in marriage. It can also be good when a friend throws you under the preverbial bus for the last time. Maybe one day one of the NO Girls will be sitting in her big office on Wall Street and someone comes to her with a shady deal and she says no.

This is my thought, I think that No can be a positive when you learn it along the way to becoming strong and independent. And I say this without having a 4 yr old having a giant screaming match with me by the way. But just remember to giggle a little when you walk away, they're just getting strong just like you want them to be.

So now little ladies, you have to do your chores and no, isn't part of the answer for that. Aunt Richie says so.

isn't the word no, suppose to have a comma after it each time? lordie I hate english rules. anyway, I thought about it here but sometimes it just didn't read right to me. I never claimed to be writing for the NY Times people.

what's a blind impression?

remember the holiday notecard project?



I didn't have a chance to photograph an example of a blind impression [no ink] the other day, this morning the light was pretty in my office and I got a snap off. blind impression is letterpress with no ink involved, just impression.

click the photo to enlarge the super yumminess

On my short list

An Education. I love Alfred Molino

Let's Letterpress for the holidays

after a number of people inquired for affordable letterpress gifts for the holidays, I came up with a simple, affordable way for paper lovers to give something unique this year.

you have a few choices to make. It will be difficult, I know. I think you’re up for it though. There are a couple of things to note:

1. Don’t dilly-dally around, there is limited space available [hey, I can only print so many hours a day! ]

2. Registration closes Saturday November 28th at noon

3. Packages will be shipped out on Wed Dec 16th

4. first name only for this super swell dealio but if you would like a full name [first, last] we can work it out. lets chat via email first.

5. sorry US folks only

6. To order: Email me to set it all up and I'll make an Etsy Order based on your requests and send you the link to pay.
RICHELE[AT]RICHIEDESIGNS.COM

7. ready? here’s the scoop...


[CLICK TO ENLARGE THIS FOR DETAILED INFO]


[CLICK TO ENLARGE THIS FOR DETAILED INFO]


[example of a blind impression/click to enlarge]

Domino Mag goes online

I'm not reading the usual suspects anymore [design sponge etc] so I'm sure it's out there already but did you know this? It's not really Domino, but almost Lonny Mag

Former Domino Editor Michelle Adams and her side kick Patrick Cline are kicking some serious internet bootie with this one. All the pretty but none of the snuggle in bed factor I'm afraid. None the less. Very Impressive all the way around.