monday, 22 december 2003
that's gotta be some kinda record
oh brentwood towne center, new shopping mecca, how i love thee -- thy large and well-lit giant eagle, thy fully stocked liquor store complete with miniature shopping carts, thy uncrowded wendy's drive-thru, all of which allowed me to get the eddie vedder's birthday party shopping DONE in ONE HOUR.
let us give thanks.
so i got ALL my christmas presents done -- ALL OF THEM!!! now i just have to wrap them and dole 'em out and wait for the shrieks of delight (i hope). and i'm very psyched for eddie vedder's birthday. i'm actually COOKING some stuff this year instead of just dumping chips in a bowl and calling it a party. i think i'm taking the day off tomorrow so i can leisurely put up christmas decorations and wrap presents and make grogg and not have to freak out.
finished my christmas song challenge song. it's pretty silly, but i like it. come by open mike tonight if you wanna hear. and you can also see my totally wicked new bing crosby christmas purse. (you know you want it.)
xxoo
friday, 19 december 2003
fun stuff
lotsa fun stuff coming, so much it's kinda hard for me to sit and focus enough to write a halfway coherent blog entry. so instead, i'll just tell you about all the fun stuff.
tonight at 5 pm: my opening at casbah. there will be three people there at least: me, jolene, and jolene's sweet mom. so come say hi.
monday night: open mike at the rex. last week i was challenged to write a christmas song by monday and haven't done it yet so if you have any suggestions, lemme know.
tuesday night: eddie vedder's birthday party at my house. if you know where i live, you're invited.
wednesday: dinner at my brother's awesome girlfriend's family's house, then home to ohio.
thursday: durrr. presents and food! and maybe another viewing of return of the king??? hmmm????
monday the 29th: open mike. my birthday starts at midnight, mind you, so you better come and buy me a freakin drink.
tuesday the 30th: i turn 31, which somehow seems a lot older than 30. but i don't mind.
weds the 31st: parties at matty's and the rex . luckily they are only a few blocks away from each other.
the rest of the week: relaxing. not going to work. singing. petting frank. eating too much food and reading a lot. yay!
have a great pre-christmas weekend you lot and stay out of the malls!
thursday, 18 december 2003
best. movie. ever.
sorry it's been so long since i updated, y'all. i haven't been fit for much other than talking about the return of the king for several days now. i don't want to ruin anything for you but i will say, when you go see it, bring tissues or wear long nose-wipable sleeves. it's so incredibly lovely i can't even say!
trilogy tuesday was fantastic in every way. the seats were comfy, and my fellow geeks were on their best behavior, cheering and laughing but not talking!!! and the staff didn't care if you brought in your starbucks. i guess they realize folks need their coffee if they're gonna sit there for 14 straight hours.
meanwhile, back in the age of madge, things are trucking along quite nicely. i'm having an opening tomorrow at casbah, 5 pm, so please stop by and see me! i plan to drink some expensive wine and eat some yummy food i can't pronounce so it should be a good time.
my cat was so bad last night! he wouldn't shut up and kept waking me up from beautiful middle earth dreams. maybe i need to pay some more attention to him. between the purse-making and the whole trilogy tuesday thing i guess he feels a little shortchanged on the cuddle time. i'll have to rectify that.
friday, 12 december 2003
like buttah
last night i took my favorite lush bath ever -- marzibain. it smells like almond icing and makes massive movie star swaths of bubbles. unfortunately, i had to get out at some point. if i could, i'd sleep, eat, go on the computer, make purses, play music, and socialize in a marzibain bath indefinitely.
so i just got back from jerry's records in squirrel hill and that jerry sure is a funny guy. he showed me a psychedelic polka album that i think i'm gonna need sometime here soon. today's #1 score -- a belly dancing album with a really hot belly dancer on the front. yee-ow.
i'm also considering buying a guitar in the near future, from jolene's dad's store and went to visit it and steve and sherie, jolene's very sweet dad and mum. unfortunately i had to come back to school work before i had a chance to get bubble tea. squirrel hill is fun.
come see salena catalina tonight at the rex , why don't you. it's their 2nd CD release party and since they rock so freakin hard, it should be a good time. maybe i'll see you there and you can buy me a drink.
christmas deliveries all shipped, this is madge over and out.
thursday, 11 december 2003
unboring (i hope)
i just got back from ikea, where i bought 10 picture frames, a bunch of hooks, and some lamp fixins. the frames and hooks are for my upcoming show at casbah where madgeworld purses will adorn the walls and hopefully sell like upscale hotcakes. i'm excited about it! i never really did anything like this before -- i feel so grownup and like an "artist." tee hee.
last night i made a bunch more bags and my out of town christmas special orders are officially done! yee haw! i made one pearl jam bag for someone in mississippi (from my friend mama's hometown no less) and it is so beautiful, i don't know how i'm gonna be able to send it off. at least i know it's going to a really good home. farewell, eddie.
to celebrate getting so much done, i went out for a nightcap at the place where everybody knows my name. we sat around the piano and sang as we always do, and a bunch of crazy greek guys came in and started peeling off hundred dollar bills and buying us all drinks. and i got to sing "here, there, and everywhere" which has got to be one of the best songs ever. pretty fun stuff.
now i'm freezing my *$#$#@$)# off and wishing i'd gotten myself a caramel apple cider on my way back from ikea. the 4WD on my car still isn't working, though, so i didn't want to get stuck out in the nasty storm that's a-brewin outside. stay home, if you can, and pet yr cat.
wednesday, 10 december 2003
is there enough coffee in the world?
hey y'all, how's it hanging today? it's nice and warm in pittsburgh -- all the snow is melting and you can hear little drip-drips everywhere you go. it's a good day for knee socks, so i busted out a pair i haven't worn yet. white with pink stripes. very very cute if i may say so myself.
things are rolling right along at madgeworld headquarters. i whipped up a bunch of really cute bags last night and fell into bed around 10:30. on tuesdays i always need to catch up from lack-of-sleep mondays. next week i dunno how that's gonna work. i have open mike monday night, then trilogy tuesday. and i want to get to the theater as early as possible so i can get a good seat. i spose i'll be adrenalized enough that i'll be able to stay awake. i hope anyway.
today i'm off to sewickley to see if anything of mine sold in the holiday sale or not, and pick up the leftovers. then tonight i'm back at the gym and headlong into purse production again. i'm trying to ship all of my holiday orders tomorrow, so it may be a late night, fueled by harry potter & the goblet of fire on CD, christmas tunes, and coffee. i'm looking forward to making the next batch of purses -- i'm making really glamorous stuff for my holiday display at casbah, and i love making the really vixen-y type bags.
i'm firming up the date of the opening now and will let you all know when the time comes so we can drink wine and act like adults. it will be sometime late next week, i'm guessing.
tuesday, 9 december 2003
ein minuten, bitte
i am hurtin a little this morning, after another extremely fun open stage at the rex. this is the 3rd week we've gotten like 50 people, and i'm awful happy about. i prefer being a profit center and to being a cost center. let's see, what all went on?
1. everyone played lots of good music and i think martin and rene and i sounded pretty good, too, at least until the 1:30 set, by which time everyone was so drunk it didn't matter.
2. we celebrated a cute boy's 25th birthday with him and all his extremely musical friends. lots of dancing, tambourine-banging, etc.
3. several people at the bar took turns making my stadler and waldorf figures do very wrong things.
4. i smelled really good.
i guess that's about it. it was a seriously good time, but today i have this cotton-candy feeling blooming in my head, and i so wish i could go home and curl up with the kitty and sleep till about 3 pm.
instead, i'm going to write some enhancement requests and specifications, have some lunch with my sweet jolenepie, then go home and make a bunch of purses. with maybe a few trips to starbucks somewhere in between ...
(170 hours.)
monday, 8 december 2003
santa cutie
it's another freezin freakin cold brisk day in pittsburgh. i keep being in denial about it actually being winter, even though i'm more excited for christmas than i can remember being in years. i just wish the 4WD on my car was working so i wouldn't be so wigged driving in the snow.
this was a fun weekend. i made purses, of course, and went to a fun everyone-brings-instruments-and-rocks-out party on saturday night. watched about a boy again, too, and i'l be darned if that movie doesn't make me all misty every single time i see it. i like hugh grant when he's playing a bastard.
next year, i think i'm taking the whole month of december off of work. there are just too many orders to fill and gifts to make. i suppose i'll be hanging out a lot with my friends vanilla and latte over the next few weeks.
(7 days. that's all i'm saying.)
friday, 5 december 2003
baby it's cold outside
it sure is. meanwhile the song continues the colonization of my brain. we went to dinner at an italian restaurant on southside for martin's dinner, and they played dean martin's version, along with a great selection of other swingin christmas tunes. i am all about the christmas music this year and am gearing up to make a mix of the best ones out there. send me your nominations if you have any.
dinner was yummy enough, and afterwards we went to a fancy little place called dish to chat and have another drink, which was a good time, though me and martin and rene were all still dragging a little bit from the night before. then, i slept, blessedly, for 8 full hours. yay!
kathy jo put up all 7,000 pink christmas lights and they look amazing. if you happen to drive down brownsville road, look down our street and you will see them. the whole house looks like a circus tent and i love it. at least until the electric bill arrives.
well have a good weekend children. i plan on going to the gym (though i'm still sore from last time), making purses, and drinking lots of warm beverages, myself. xxoo
thursday, 4 december 2003
well, maybe just a half a drink more
yesterday i rediscovered "baby, it's cold outside" and got a new favorite song. i heard a great version by zooey deschanel and leon redbone in elf and went and got a bunch of other renditions -- dino martin, ray charles, and my favorite, ella fitzgerald. my brain sings it to me all the time now -- the next step is to learn how to play it.
last night was another late one. rene and i went to the gym, which they revamped to have way too much equipment on the floor we usually go to. so instead we went up to the 6th floor where all the tough men work out and that was way funner. i hadnt worked out in a couple of weeks so it made me happy to get up there and do my squats and chin-ups and all that fun stuff. then we came home and ate some tuna, and rene started moving her stuff upstairs while i finished up a purse order to canada.
THEN we took martin out for the dawning of his birthday and had a total blast singing along to christmas and beatles and the world's most random tunes (umm, "keep on lovin you," anyone?). i guess we finished up around 5, but i'm hardly even beat today. i guess once you see a legendary indie rock kid sing and play "the greatest love of all," nothing can get you down.
today i get to go to the record store and then continue the martin birthday celebrations. gosh, i sure am glad he was born. he's a grade AAAAA egg. have a look and see if you don't agree:
wednesday, 3 december 2003
13 days
i've been waiting so long ... but it's finally less than 2 weeks till trilogy tuesday. whenever i think about it, my heart starts pounding like an erratic marching band and my face feels hot. i dunno how i'm gonna survive the next 2 weeks, but i also don't know how i'm gonna like living in a world where there are no more lord of the rings movies to look forward to. i guess i dont really have to worry about it until the extended return of the king comes out. i guess, actually, i dont really have to worry about it at all!
last night was mellow. law & order and kitty-petting and turkey leftovers. i'm SO glad kathy jo cooked a turkey on sunday, cause this was gonna be my first thanksgiving ever with no turkey leftovers and i was little bummed about it. tonight i really would like to go see my friend gina's friend lizzie west play music, but i have to make a purse i promised i would ship out tomorrow so i dunno if it's gonna happen. the rest of you should try to go though. it's at boyce campus at 9:30 and tickets are $10 and include a copy of lizzie's album.
in the meantime, i got user interfaces to revamp, lunch to eat with my joleney, and power squats to do. hasta la vista ninos.
tuesday, 2 december 2003
why do we always come here, i guess we'll never know
ah children, i so wish you'd've been at open mike last night, cause it was very fun. we got an excellent crowd again, many talented people showed up and played, AND i got to carry my john denver and the muppets purse. even better, someone just happened to have statler and waldorf in his pocket, and gave them to me. i'm not even kidding. isn't that the weirdest most lovely thing ever? i think i'm gonna make baubles for that purse out of 'em. i also dont think i'm selling that purse now!
yeah so i busted out the knee socks and the marshmallow scented powder last night and fought with some boy who said i had split ends (what the heck do boys know about split ends???) and ran around a ton. the rex has 2 rooms -- one big movie theater room and one room that used to be the concession stand, which is now the bar. usually the open mike is in the bar area and it's real intimate. but last night we played on the big stage, so the crowd was sort of half split between the bar and the theater. it was a fun change -- we havent been on the big stage in a while. but it means me and marty (well, mostly marty) had to run around a lot. but yeah, it was still a darn good time.
got some purses to deliver today, and am fighting the urge to blast out of work and go to jo-jo's, the greasiest of all spoons, just up the street. i am craving bacon and eggs and toast and bad coffee, as one does after an evening of indulgence, and all can be had at jo-jo's for less than $5. you can't argue with that. at least, i can't.
monday, 1 december 2003
in my head
so i just read my last blog entry and now "rhinestone cowboy" is stuck in my head. grrr!
how was your thanksgiving everyone? mine was swell. my grandma made a tur-duck-en, which is a turkey + duck + chicken, layered with stuffing. it was real good. i also made my specialty, a bread pudding with warm jack daniels sauce on top, then watched my aunt lucy and my mom get tipsy off one jack and coke each. very cute.
so it was a chillful weekend all in all. i made a lot of purses, including one super darling john denver and the muppets christmas one which i'm carrying today. i gotta take it out to be sold later, so i'm enjoying it while i can. kathy jo was out of town all weekend with the car, so i just stayed at home and it was real nice. i sure like my house, especially with a sweet cat on my lap.
i also got to watch the extended two towers again with my brother and martin, and that was fun. the first time i saw it i was all like "wow" but this time we were free to make jokes which was a good time. i listened to some of the commentary once they left and as much as i love sean astin's portrayal of sam, he sounds like a bit of a git when he talks about the movie. sorry but it's true.
so yeah, back to the grind today. i have a lot of work to do at work, then another load of purses to get started, then a bunch of fun to have tonight at the rex for open mike. i think tonight we're in the big theater room instead of the lounge like we usually are. a great four-piece band called jack is playing, so stop down and see us. i'll try to wear something entertaining. xxoo
tuesday, 25 november 2003
there's been a load of compromisin on the road to my horizon...
how was your weekend? mine was fun. i didnt get home from buckethead's till 6:30 am, and as i drove home the moon was huge and low in the sky, with only a tiny little golden sliver showing. it was real purty.
saturday i saw a weird movie with my friends jolene and rich and rich's daughter tova. it was called the triplets of belleville and was real bizarre and charming and some parts were just gorgeous. that day, i also discovered the joy of comcast's on demand digital cable, which lets you watch anything you want whenever you want and it almost makes me cry it's so wonderful. changing rooms with no commercials!! yee haw!!!
open mike last night was a blast. we got a really big crowd (for a monday) and lots of very talented folks played and toward the end of the night, there was a spontaneous violent outburst of "rhinestone cowboy." i remembered all the words, and bill the piano man remembered all the chords and it was straight from another universe.
what else? hmmm. rearranged my living room. had lunch with jolene. got a pumpkin nutmeg shake. wearin cookie monster knee socks. talked to my sweet friend timmy who i used to live with in brooklyn, in a house full of dirt and love.
going home from work now. i'll try to update over the holiday but i don't, i hope you all get plenty of gravy. xxoo
friday, 21 november 2003
injun summer
it is so freakin beautiful outside today -- like 60 degrees, sunny, windy. i just had lunch with my friend erika and her sweet little baby gal maren and we ate grilled cheeses with apples and drank coffee (well, maren stayed off the coffee) and had a nice chat. she also gave me the most adorable hello kitty planner that has, among other things, hk on a seahorse, on a dolphin, and with a sad bear balloon. i totally plotzed.
the pursemaking is going pretty well, though i took a break last night to hang out with kathy jo for a while and then go down to the rex for a few drinkie winkies. they got yet another baby grand piano down there and it really, really makes me wish i played. or at least could lie across the top singing "so in love."
i was just checking out the stats on who visits my site and it's fascinating. i get a good number of australians, swedes, and brits, but today i got my first ever romanian hit. how cool is that? here's a shout out to romania. never been there, but want to. now i'm just waiting for someone from iceland to come and have a look, and then i will be officially seriously cool.
this weekend is gonna be fun. tonight i get to watch 2 months of tivo-ed south parks at my friend buckethead's house. then tomorrow materials shopping and purse making and maybe rufus wainwright? then sunday more purse making, no doubt to be accompanied by harry potter on CD.
have a good weekend yourself folks. if you want, email me and tell me what you're up to.
thursday, 20 november 2003
madge love
... for shopkeepers who pay their bills without being hassled.
... for libraries for being just like amazon.com, only free.
... for bank tellers who cheerfully figure out how to stuff they don't know how to do (like deposit canadian checks) instead of giving you the look of death and saying "we don't do that."
... for andy serkis, who is the cutest thing i've ever seen. long may he jump around in a motion capture suit.
... for the nice woman who emailed me today offering a chance to get my work into many celebrity hands. i cant afford it at present, but it's good to know the opportunity exists.
... for japanese hard candy that tastes like plums.
... for the office manager at my work who doesn't care if i use the company's binding machine.
... for the warhol gift shop and diva's which each sold a bunch of my blank books.
... for you, for reading my blog and wishing me well.
wednesday, 19 november 2003
so worth the wait
if there's anything better than sitting with your girlfriends on a purple couch, eating fried chicken and watching the two towers extended edition, i'd like someone to tell me what it is. the extended version is SO MUCH BETTER than the original. i won't spoil anything, but the ending is about 20,000 times more satisfying than the theatrical cut. and now of course, not only am i dying thinking about waiting for dec. 16 (trilogy tuesday), i'm also all hot and heavy to get the return of the king extended edition.
we went to super wal-mart to get the DVD and i did my grocery shopping while i was there too and it wasn't as terrifying as i thought it might be. i'd been there one heinous friday night a few months ago and swore to never go back, cause it was way scary. but last night it wasn't bad at all. not too many people there, and i got my trashy magazine fix while waiting in line. one thing though -- they didnt have any chickpeas in a can. plenty of dried ones, but none in a can. bizarre.
i did a pile of work yesterday and pretty much finished everything i had to do so i'm not sure what to tackle today. days like today, i totally wish i could work from home. at least i could get something accomplished there, instead of just having to sit here waiting for someone to give me something to do.
maybe i'll find me a nice geek message board and join in the rhapsodizing over the new two towers. it really did make my little heart sing, especially the stuff with merry and pippin.
tuesday, 18 november 2003
all you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you
yesterday was the day of nothing working out. between heinous, despair-inducing traffic and not remembering which highway to take to sewickley, the errands i'd allotted 2.5 hours for ended up taking 5. i felt sick coming back into work at 4 pm instead of 1:30 or 2 like i'd planned.
then on the way to the gym i get a call from the guy at the shop where i'd intended to get my extended two towers DVD, telling me he hadn't been able to get me one. harsh!!! that meant i was going to have to drive all the way the heck out to super wal-mart to get one at midnight.
fortunately, the whirlpool at the gym was working. if it had still been broken like it was last time i was there, i might've just sat down on the floor and cried.
it ended up working out ok though, i guess -- cause when we got home from the gym we ate middle earth sandwiches (turkey, apple slices, and brie on wheat bread) and watched the extended fellowship and i was passed out before the hobbits even met strider. i kept dreaming about driving to wal-mart. so i didn't get to see the two towers extended edition yet. so don't tell me what happens!!!
monday, 17 november 2003
hey you! go have some fun!
friday was one of the funnest nights ever, involving 7 different venues, a fender bender, a street race (which we won -- aw yeah!), a vaudeville show, and a heartfelt rendition of kenny rogers's "lady." started around 5 pm and ended around 5 am. everyone tells me this ability to party for hours on end won't last forever, so i've decided to appreciate it and work it until i can't anymore. i still can't figure out how my friend's jeans got muddy -- none of us remember him falling down -- but he's clean today so all's well that ends well.
saturday was a lot of hard work with a short interlude in which i turned on all the christmas lights, turned off all the regular lights, and danced around to otis redding. sunday, more of the same, but with jolene, which makes it way funner. also, we had crepes and i bought some marshmallow-scented glitter powder which also TASTES like marshmallows. i am so not kidding you. it's one of my top ten purchases ever.
kathy jo got into a fight at wal-mart saturday! her sister was involved too, and the two of them are freakin scary. i can only imagine the extremely brave/foolhardy person who would take them on. but i guess the super wal-mart makes everyone super aggressive. the cashier said he sees this sort of thing all the time. i only wish i could've seen it too.
today, i step back into the whirlwind -- gotta pick up purses from a few shops and take them to the sweetwater holiday show in sewickley, do a bunch of work here at work, and get my behind to the gym (which i skipped last week ... now i feel all mushy). THEN some kids are coming over to watch the extended fellowship of the ring. at midnight, we'll head out and get the extended two towers and watch that too. (see above statement about staying up all night before it becomes physically impossible.) i have been really good about avoiding spoilers on the extended two towers. last year, i knew what was going to be in the extended fellowship and it was still fun, but i think it'll be funner to be surprised.
check out what jolene did on the site yesterday. LAMPS!!!!
friday, 14 november 2003
feed me seymour
i am starving this morning. STARVING. instead of doing work, i keep surfing recipe sites and salivating. i'm in the mood for thanksgiving dinner RIGHT NOW. i want lots and lots of turkey skin. and mashed potatoes with 40 pounds of butter. OK i'll stop now before i get an NC-17 rating.
made a batch of purses last night and took the world's loveliest lush bath while listening to the conclusion of harry potter and the prisoner of azkhaban. it's still my favorite in the series, and i can't wait to see emma thompson as professor trelawney.
i picked up the most gorgeous album covers yesterday on my lunchtime jaunt, including one that has me and my cat looking very sexy on it. i so wish i could find a link to it, cause you really should see it. i dont know if i'll be sending this one off to toronto once i handbag-ize it, but i got a lot of other great ones for TO, including one of a girl in a french maid outfit, holding a tray of pastries. classic.
i'm headed off to the warhol now to deliver their bags (i'm especially psyched about the JFK one) but i so dont want to go outside cause it is FREAKIN COLD OUT THERE. ah well, i'll just pretend i'm on a quest to save the world. from what? ugly purses.
thursday, 13 november 2003
yay me
so i just got done re-doing the nav bar for all the pages on my site, which i have been meaning to do for weeks. this HTML stuff is fun, she says 5 years after everyone else already realized it.
yeah so that was pretty fun. last night after two consecutive nights of staying out till almost dawn, i was a complete waste. ate a bunch of cookie dough and went to bed. woke up with a chocolate chip stuck to my hair. lovely.
today i gotta get some stuff done. i just found out that my purses are going to be featured in a toronto newspaper shopping guide, so i gotta get some more together for boudoir. lunchtime jaunts to the record store are my favorite!
i recently joined the mailing list at another girl at play and am really digging it. there are some nice folks on that list. good inspiration and information for a mere entrepreneurial baby like myself.
wednesday, 12 november 2003
i won the booby prize
bunco was fun last night. it's always a good time to get together with the ladies from the office. add in a few bottles of wine and some good grub and you're talking world-class entertainment. also, i sucked the worst out of the whole crew so i won the $2 booby prize. woohoo!
but was that enough for me? no way! i went down to the rex to practice for this cabaret-ish sing-a-long thing we are getting started and ended up meeting up with some nice people and staying up till 5 am listening to and playing music. needless to say, today i am one sleepy yawny girl. i'm tempted to curl up under my desk and take a nap ala george costanza, but i got a lotta work to plow through today.
y'know it's almost easier to plow through it all when i'm barely conscious. it's like i dont have the energy to find any other way to entertain myself, so i just put on my headphones and get the stuff done. i just hate editing documents over the long haul. once i'm done with it, i like to be DONE with it. that's one more thing purse-making has over user interface design -- no one ever asks me to endlessly tweak the same purse month in and month out. as joni mitchell put it, no one ever says to van gogh, 'hey paint a starry night again man!'
not that designing user interfaces for a print procurement system can be compared to painting starry night ... but it does sometimes make me want to cut off my ear ...
tuesday, 11 november 2003
o great and wondrous
let us sing the praises of lovely caffeine, which enables a girl to get to bed at 4 am and get up at 8 am and sort of almost be able to function.
i blew off the big meetings today -- just cant face sitting in a room listening to 30 people try to make decisions on crap i dont give a good goshdarn about. there's really no reason for me to be in there anyway. i think my boss just likes to stock the room with every girl he can so he can pretend that there are any women who have power around here. there are a few i guess, but i aint one of 'em.
open mike at the rex was real fun last night. at one point i was waiting for someone to tune their guitar and started singing "5 years" by bjork and a whole bunch of people got up and left. apparently, as much as i love her bizarre brilliance, nothing clears a room like bjork.
blame my bjork hairdo maybe, but i was in a strange mood last night. i felt like buddy the elf . i kept wanting to play but no one else really wanted to. or, i dunno, they don't know how or something. jolene told me about jack russell terriers, and how they need lots of stimulation or else they start chewing up your stuff and that was definitely where i was coming from last night. i felt like dancing around and spinning in a circle and fake fighting all night. is that so wrong? maybe i should work in a daycare instead of a bar.
tonight, bunco. tomorrow, sleep.
monday, 10 november 2003
ack!!!
i'm in meetings at work all day today and tomorrow. it's so funny how everyone will decide one thing and then 10 minutes later decide its opposite. ah, the business world. how does anything ever get done???
at least i am wearing a super cute outfit involving knee socks, and i get to go have some fun at open mike tonight. yeah.
it was a good weekend -- saturday i was a waste of life and did nothing but watch movies all day. but i did see elf which is the cutest darn thing i ever saw. will ferrell makes me swoon when he makes a to-do list that includes making snow angels for 2 hours and snuggling. beat the heck out the the new matrix movie.
sunday i bought a lot of stuff. full-on capitalist pig mode. i had to take a shower when i was done but i should be set for clothes and knee socks for a while.
there's a new products page for your shopping pleasure. thanks joleney!
friday, 7 november 2003
free time ... what do i do???
usually i either have lunch plans with someone, or 40 million things to do at lunchtime. today i have neither and can't figure out what i'm gonna do with myself. i guess i'll go home and read a book and eat something? very strange.
finished up a batch of purses last night and had band practice which was fun. we're trying out some new stuff and not all of it is working but at least we're giving it a go. when i came home and went to bed, i had a weird dream about having to throw rocks at billy bob thornton's head to keep him away from my buddy kathy jo while she was fixing a window. i don't have the best aim, so i have no idea how i kept him at bay, but i did. bizarre.
i'm trying to get up earlier so i have time to myself in the morning, to drink a cup of tea and write in my journal and get my head on straight. but i dont seem to have it in me to get up even 10 minutes before i know i absolutely have to in order to make it to work at a decent hour. maybe i'll start drinking a giant glass of water before i go to bed.
mellow weekend on tap for me. nothing planned tomorrow but purse-making and cat-petting. sunday i'm heading back to torrid (egad! leave the debit card at home!!) and getting some shoes and maybe some more stuff for making lamps. then jolene can work on the site and i can make stuff. it's fun sitting there with her, both of us quietly working away. she has to shush me sometimes cause i always want to chat. it's like being in school again -- the moment i can't talk, i'm all of a sudden dying to.
have a good weekend y'all. there'll be more fun stuff on the site come monday!
thursday, 6 november 2003
she's a supergeek
just spent too much time reading aint-it-cool-news and theonering.net getting my fix of geekish news for the week. i can't believe it's less than a week until the extended two towers DVD comes out. guess this means i'll be getting even less sleep on monday night than i usually do. i've successfully avoided spoilers, though i gotta admit it's been harder than it should be.
i'm also psyched, but less so, for the last matrix. i'll see it, but i won't wait in line for hours to get a good seat, the way i'm TOTALLY prepared to for the screening of the lord of the rings trilogy on december 16. only 6 weeks away!!! yes see i told you i really was a geek!!!
started a new batch of purses last night whilst listening to harry potter and the prisoner of azkhaban on CD. (wow, even that sounds geeky.) but the purses are cute. i especially am fond of the nascient rolling stones bag. it's horrific and beautiful in that late 70s-andy warhol-graffiti kind of way. lots of hot pink and teal and all that. grandfather of miami vice. i'm into it and hope the warhol will be, too.
have a possible new song buzzing around my head too, though it might be too goofy even for me. we shall see.
wednesday, 5 november 2003
rode hard and put away wet
i feel kinda poopy today. couldnt sleep last night. woke up in excruciating pain around 3:30 and rolled around in agony until 5 when the advil finally kicked in. waaah.
this morning, though, besides being tired and having a slight advil hangover, i feel OK. finished up some orders last night and tidied up my craft room, which desperately needed it after the chaos i swirled up in there getting ready for flux. i also took down a bunch of stuff in my bedroom and put up my origami paper curtain, and it's perfect.
today, i'm looking forward to it being quiet at work, having lunch with jolene (i'm getting a chocolate shake and french fries -- it's only 10:30 and i know that already), and lifting lots of heavy things at the gym. and sitting in the whirlpool. sigh. then when i get home i'll probably start another batch of purses and watch law & order and go to bed. i sorted out my christmas list the other day, so i'll be getting started on various scrummy things for my loved ones, too.
not very glamourous, but after the tornado-like lifestyle i've had lately, this all sounds real nice to me.
tuesday, 4 november 2003
just call me angel of the morning
open mike at the rex was fun last night. we didnt have a huge crowd, but the ones who did show up were mighty entertaining. i especially liked their fast-as-hell cover of "amazing grace."
i'll chalk the sparse attendance up to everyone being tuckered out after a long halloween weekend of partying down, i spose. hopefully our regulars will be back next week and the new guys who showed up last night will become regulars.
so yesterday i sent out a newsletter and created a mailing list for folks to sign up on, out on the main page of madgeworld. don't worry, if you sign up your email address will stay locked safe away in the ether, and i'll only update you monthly or so.
i also announced a special -- if you place your holiday order(s) by november 15, you will receive 10% off. i just dont want to end up pulling my hair out december 20th, though i probably will anyway. so order early and order often, folks!
i have to do a bunch of work-work today. i'm actually a little cheesed, cause i applied for this promotion and someone else got it and they didnt even interview me. grrrr. but i guess i'm not *too* cheesed, cause i didnt really want the job anyway -- it involves lots of traveling which is fun but not good for business- and band-building. really i just wanted the money.
ah well. if you're in pittsburgh, get out today and soak up some sun. xxoo
monday, 3 november 2003
so proud
this weekend, i was so proud of my friends.
flux was fantastic, all except for the part where i sat on a chair and it broke. rene played drums like she'd been playing them all her life, my goofy artwork looked real cute in the space, and i met a lot of nice people, most of whom took business cards. saw some great costumes too, including a guy dressed up like sushi, a wind-up monkey who refused to speak, just clapped his cymbalhands together a lot, and bob barker. rene played plinko and he gave her 500 fake dollars! and my brother came, and brought me onion rings, for which i will always be thankful.
so that was a rip roaring good time. my only regret was that i didnt get to go to too many of the other sites. we played 2 sets with only an hour or so in between, so we didnt have time to make it anywhere but the hostel. ah well.
saturday was black tie and tails, the formal fundraiser for animal friends, where my darling adorable jolene works. she was in charge of registration so i went to volunteer with her and was so proud of how she handled herself, charmed and led all the volunteers, and looked fabulous the whole time. i also got to take home a GIANT arrangement of white hydrangeas, orchids, lilies, and roses, which i disassembed into about 6000 bouquets for around my house late saturday night. so i woke up to a flower and sun-filled house sunday morning. what's better than that?
yeah it sure was fun getting to be gogo (from kill bill) and play with a mace all weekend. i got pretty good with it by the time i went to my final costume party last night. rene was a crazy 88 and we had a lot of fun fake fighting with our plastic samurai weapons.
now i have to get back up against that grindstone, though, make the purses that the warhol museum ordered, make some for my shop in miami, and get some more stock together for some holiday craft shows i'm doing.
just a gentle reminder to anyone out there who might want or need a madgeworld product for christmas -- please order as soon as you can, so i have enough time to make it for you before the big day. i have nightmares that i'm going to get like 50 orders on december 10th.
many thanks!
friday, 31 october 2003
hello weenie!
my buddy kathy jo made the most PERFECT hello kitty jack-o-lantern with purple eyes inside and tiny squashes for ears. it took her like 5 hours to get it right but man, it is a beautiful thing.
i woke up this morning and put on a skirt and some kneesocks, as is my custom of late, and came into work. dressed cute, but not in a costume. when i got in, i found a pink and white wig sitting on my desk -- i totally forgot this girl i work with was gonna bring it with me. best part -- my kneesocks are gray and pink striped, so not only am i adorable, i also match perfectly.
yeah. it's a good day.
please come see me at flux. rene and i have been practicing like crazy and it sounds pretty good ... and the room all my stuff is hung in looks glorious. i finished up my last piece last night -- a curtain made out a of a curious george book. yeah so you can stand there and read my curtain if you want. tee hee!
have fun today y'all. xxoo
thursday, 30 october 2003
playin hooky
sorry no update yesterday. i stayed home from school, i mean work, to make some more lamps, finish up my album cover curtain (SO boss!), and make a few purses. i made a close encounters of the 3rd kind lamp and it's very cool -- the spaceship glows when you turn the light on. fun stuff!
i also finished listening to myla goldberg's bee season on CD while i worked. that sure was a good book. i dont want to spoil anything for you, but read it or, even better, listen to it when you can. the author does her own recorded books performance and she's really great. she says she's writing a book about the influenza epidemic of 1918 now, which killed more americans than both world wars combined. who knew? i'm sure they told me in school but i was probably practicing writing "mrs. eddie vedder" over and over again instead of paying attention.
i hung everything up at my appointed flux site and it looks very, very fun and cute and sweet. the site has those dropped ceiling tiles, so i hung everything -- lamps, purses, and curtains -- from the beams between them. stop down and see tomorrow night! go here for info on how to get there, where to park, etc. it should be a really fun time up in old mt. oliver and allentown. if you come at 9:20 or 11:50, you can also be among the first to hear my excellent buddy rene playing drums in louie and the humans.
there are BLANK BOOKS on the site today. they're not linked to from the main navigation bar yet but give me time children.
tuesday, 28 october 2003
pay no attention to the madge behind the curtain
last night i made my very first origami paper curtain! wow is it super cute! the only thing is, i dont know if it will be cost effective for me to sell them. the one i made took two hours and cost probably $10 in materials and is only about 2 feet wide by 3 feet tall. so for a big one, like shower curtain size, it will probably take me a few more hours and $10 more in materials. anyone want a $100 shower curtain?
that's OK though, i mostly just wanted to make them for my living room windows. they are enormous, and there are 3 of them curved into a bump out on the east wall. very nice and sunny. but for winter, i'm thinking i might actually want to invest in some heavy velvet curtains to keep the room warm. the origami paper curtain is so lovely though, with its delicate shades of pink and purple and sage green, so maybe i'll just do the plastic coating/hair dryer thing and use my homemade curtain.
i'll post pics soon on the site. tonight, i need to make a few more lamps and an album cover curtain. can't wait to see how that goes!
making new products might be my absolute favorite thing.
there are NEW PURSES on the site today, and you can order them directly online. one small step for madge, one giant leap for madgeworld.
monday, 27 october 2003
long way to go and a short time to get there
wow yeah, what a fun weekend. martin and i played at the rex on saturday night which was pretty fun and provided me with what i think is my last opportunity this year to wear my hot pink glitter platform sandals. it was warm and crowded and i had me some mole enchiladas at taco loco, and a crazy thing called canteloupe water which was awesome.
then yesterday i went shopping with jolene and discovered torrid. what took me so long? i'll never know. but i got a bunch of stuff, including a bunch of short skirts and knee socks. i've always loved that look, but seeing kill bill made me obsessed. just call me gogo. me and jolene ate spring rolls and took sad-face pictures in a partially functioning photo booth and basically had a ball.
last night was my brother's birthday party at an arcade called games'n'at, which was a hootin hollerin good time. i love me some skee-ball, and it's always fun to watch your friends blow away some evil zombies with teal plastic guns. i played a SUPER old school pinball machine called bobby orr's hockey challenge or something, and it was hilariously slow-moving. also gobbled up some flashing ghosties on pac-men and ms. pac-men, which i hadnt done in about 15 years. good times all around.
this week, i have about 100 hours of work to prepare for flux, where i'm gonna be showing madgeworld stuff and playing music as well. everything's going OK, but i have a weird problem where my hanging lamps keep wanting to hang crooked and it's making me crazy.
wish me luck.
friday, 24 october 2003
yummy things a-comin
i wont spoil it for you, but there are some really cute things showing up here in just a little while. i cant wait for y'all to see them!
yeah and i had a crazy dream last night. the man who runs the company i work for offered me a promotion to be the product manager for a new website that would allow for procurement of recycled goods across the printing industry. one of my first duties was to take a pile of national geographics and make a nature collage out of them (my first recycled goods to reuse, i spose).
so i spread out my magazines and glue sticks and scissors and glitter bottles on his office floor and expected him to go back to typing mile-a-minute cryptic emails behind his desk, but instead he picked up an acoustic guitar and started singing 'otherside' by the chili peppers. i chimed in on harmony and it was like a freaking hippie coke commercial, there was so much love in the room.
if you saw my boss, you'd understand how bizarre this dream is. he was probably voted least likely to play the guitar in his high school class. hell, i cant even believe he'd know who the chili peppers are, though maybe i'm underestimating him. he's just so not the rock star type. i woke up giggling.
thursday, 23 october 2003
hi it's my new blog
lately i've been reading some other folks' blogs, especially those written by creative women running their own small businesses (like the indomitable keri smith and the slightly cranky but terrifically kick-ass pamela barsky). i thought it might be fun to do a blog myself, as a lady on the same road, but not quite as far down it.
so here it is. if you're here, you probably know me already, either in real life or from the cyberether, so no need for introductions. my idea is to give a glimpse into my very busy, sometimes stressful, but always entertaining struggle to get out of debt, keep my full-time job, build a sustainable and profitable business, play rock and roll music, be a good mom to my cat, enjoy as much time as i can with family and friends, and maintain some semblance of sanity and fun in a madge madge madge madge world.
ok sorry about that. i love the madge jokes.
thanks and smooches to jolene, who i love more than cookie making and marching band music, for setting this up for me and being the sweetest webmermaid in the universe.
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