I'm Keeping My Baby!

Here's what my hair is doing TODAY.


My hair hasn't been colored in forever to the point that the FedEx guy asked if I changed it (because it's so faded & stale.) But I turned out some cute plain make-up today with a quickness!


In 2010 my hair photos on Flickr were popular like wildfires. That's why I created my "Julie's Hair History" set of photos showing that my hair has been so many different lengths & colors. (With brief installments of fake hair too!)


It's too cold and my outerwear is repetitive, so I just took some strategy photos. (My overall outfit today was kind-of wacky.)

Exhibit A. New headband/ear-warmer. I'm not sure.


Exhibit B. Works like magic under the helmet! Looks super-cute too!


I was riding East on 72nd street and felt something fall off my bicycle. Fuck. Never good. I realized it was a pedal piece. By the next stoplight more stuff fell off. Then by the time I was at 3rd Avenue, my whole freaking pedal was almost all gone.


Luckily, my mid-high-heeled booties hooked onto the "peg" that was left-over.

I got these at Forever 21 last night. 


And when I realized my freaking pedal came off and I could have crashed, I was panicking that this is what I get for riding such a bargain-bin bicycle.

My husband lectured me (briefly) for not ever checking my bicycle to make sure my stuff is staying together.

I'm going to take this to the shop first thing Saturday, or maybe even tomorrow night after I use public transportation to get to and fro work- and get this puppy fixed and tuned-up and keep riding her! I don't need some crazy fancy bicycle! We've come this far together- I'm keeping my baby!

A+ Fabulous Baby Shower Getting Props

My homegirl, Meredith, sent me this link to this cute blog giving our baby shower props

When I joined Delta Zeta sorority in fall 98' it was a really special time in my life. Tamara was my chapter president and it has been an honor to know such a kind-hearted, good person all these years. I didn't let anything keep me from going to Mena, Arkansas (AKA - Middle of nowhere near border of Arkansas/Oklahoma) for her wedding and I really wanted to help celebrate her baby shower. By the time I got with Meredith, the hostess with the mostess. She had an action plan and a theme all picked out. Thank goodness! I really only did paper goods for this ultra cute shower.

I love old fashioned mail, so I did the invitations.


I also tore it up at the Lilly Pulitzer store. I think I bought pretty much every item that was offered in Desert Tort from the Madison Ave. boutique here in New York City.

I can't wait to print out some photos from the festivity and share with them!

Also a paper good; I made the baby name banner and the Martha Stewart tissue paper poms.
My husband actually helped me trim the edges on the tissue paper poms because he saw that stronger hands could cut the layers more smoothly. That man of mine sometimes really swoops in on a craft and offers some sweet advice.

To make this banner...


...I found a font that I really liked, then printed the letters out at the same height - almost filling a sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper. I placed/held the printed out letter pages over Watercolor Paper because it's rigid. Yes, MUCH more rigid than card stock.  Here are our letters cut-out of heavy watercolor paper.

Yes, essentially I free-handed these while holding down letters on top. If you're not strong in your exacto knife skills- You better glue that shit together or trace.

After I had the letters cut out and loved them, I decided to spray-mount them to the Desert Tort wrapping paper/gift wrap. I laid the gift wrap down on the biggest spot in my tiny apartment's floor and sprayed spray-mount while my husband was sleeping, so he would not act-out in protest.

The little "tick" marks are to help me lay & spray-mount the letters on at random angles, so the pattern was totally random when I flipped them back over. I wanted it to look like the turtles are running all over the place and it does!

After the spray-mount "set,"  they got trimmed out again and made neat and had the paper bleeding all the way to the edge like this.

I put them in the biggest book I had on hand - Gore Vidal's "Lincoln" I let them "Cure" Overnight. And I wanted to decide how to proceed.


I liked the letters so much plain that I just cut slits NEAR THE TOPS of the letters and threaded cute ribbon through. I left a ton of "overage" ribbon on each end so Tamara could tie them up easily and cut the tibbon ends off at home to her liking.


Rounding out the paper goods competition - I scanned-in the packaging from the Desert Tort merchandise and photoshopped it into the placards. This is graphic design and craftiness at it's best right here. Thank you, Henderson State University. The font is MA Sexy from dafonts.com - Love that site!

Meredith requested these, and so lovingly attached to a much-raved about pink & white houndstooth paper.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="461" caption="Meredith does not mess around, ya heard?"][/caption]

Testament to our Badness: We coordinated all of this with her living in Central Arkansas and me living in NYC. We set Gmail & G-Chat on FIRE working all this out and piecing together ideas. We were cutting it really close to Tamara's due date for MY travel schedule. The baby loves us and did us the biggest favor by STAYING INSIDE TAMARA'S BODY until a few days after the shower.

I'm also proud of us because Meredith has 3 little boys! All 6 & under and I do not own a real table.

I knew I'd seen a lot of buzz on Linkedin (lame, I know) about this Lilly Pulitzer Delta Zeta print and luckily, Meredith keeps an eye on LP business. I really enjoyed going to the Lilly P. store and while I'm not sure if I'm ready to wear Lilly Pulitzer on my body- I'm definitely ready to rock her prints on accessories and other goods.

I really wish they would "sponsor" my NYC Cycle Chic front by giving me one of the new Lilly Bicycles, but maybe I'm dreaming. WISH ME LUCK!