2012: Year of the Roadshow!

If 2011 was the “Year of Madness", then 2012 is definitely the YEAR OF THE ROADSHOW!

Why?  Because my BFF partner-in-crime and I may be coming to an East Coast show/event near you!

So far – here is our (tenative) schedule and is subject to change.  This will be updated as we insanely add to this ever growing list!  HAHA!

Sunday, February 19^th – Pinup for Pitbulls event at The Park in NYC.  I won’t be there vending, but Enz’s NYC will be, and LittleAsianSweatshop hair accessories will be shown/available!

Wednesday, February 22^th – Chesapeake Roller Derby Auction in Westminster, MD – I won’t be vending, but LittleAsianSweatshop hair accessories (and boutonnieres for the menfolk) will be available!!!

Saturday, March 10^th – Charm City Roller Derby in Baltimore, MD – there will be special CCRG TEAM FLOWERS so you can show your support for your favorite hard-hitting, fastball spinning roller girl!

Saturday, March 31st – Tommy McGee and the Baby Please CD Release Party at Rams Head Live in Baltimore, MD – the venue is great, the booze is delish, the band is rockin'...and we'll be there vending!  

Saturday, April 7^th – Chesapeake Roller Derby in Westminster, MD – and we’ll have special CRD Team flowers available!  *squee*

Friday, June 22 through Sunday, June 24^th – Heroscon in Charlotte, NC – come find us at the Paigey & Her Amazing Friends BOOTH!  Yes, that’s right…BOOTH!

Friday, July 13^th and Saturday, July 14 – Psychobilly Luau – Paigey and I will both have tables (more gorgeous stuff to spellbind you with, my dears)!  This is an incredible festival/event…I believe it’s the biggest rockabilly event on the East Coast!

Friday, September 7^th – Paigey’s Solo Art Show “Thanks For Your Support!” at Ottobar in Baltimore, MD  (I won’t be vending…but I’ll be there to help out P’s merch table…be sure to come by to say “HI!!!!!!”)

Saturday, September 8^th through 9^th – Baltimore Comic Con…where again, come find us at the Paigey & Her Amazing Friends BOOTH (I just can’t stop giggling over having a booth at TWO shows this year!).

Does this schedule sound as insane (and mildly exhausting) to you, as it does to me?  I hope so…because our insanity hasn’t hit its peak yet!  Coming soon, we’ll be inviting some of your favorite indie artists to design special custom hair flowers!!!  Working out the details – so stayed tuned!!!

not even Wonder Woman can keep up with us!

Owning a Piece of History

After a year of procrastinating, J finally started working on our basement.  We had bought the house over a year and half ago, and the basement was unfinished and forlorn.  However with the new year, J found a new resolve and had been working on the basement steadily for several evenings after work. To expedite the work, he needed a sledgehammer to finish taking out the old walls.  So he headed over to one of our favorite thrift stores, ReStore, which is the retail store run by Habitat for Humanity.  Besides that J used to work for Habitat and that we strongly believe in their mission, the ReStore often has "upcycled" fixtures and tools at rock bottom prices, and of course, the proceeds goes toward Habitat.  Win win all around.

Although I normally adore going to the ReStore, on this day, I opted to stay home.  I have very little interest in demolition or home improvement work.  I have tons of ideas of what I would like done to our house…but the actual work…yeah, not so much.  Too much dust and grime and bugs.  Not a fan.  Besides, I had a ton of orders to get out (thank you fabulous customers for giving me an excellent excuse to skip helping J with the basement…heh).

I was merrily whipping out hats and hair flowers, and texting my BFF with ideas for new products, when J texts me a photo of an old piano.  No message.  Just the picture.

Tell me that seeing this on your phone wouldn't excite you too?!

Immediately, I call him, and J proceeds to read off to me the history of this piano.  As he’s reading, I’m running to my car (my shoes shoved into my purse in my mad rush) to get to the store ASAP.  In a nutshell, this piano was used in the Cotton Club in Harlem before it closed down in 1940 (yes, *the* Cotton Club – not the imitators that came after).  It was brought to DC to decorate the “salon” of a DC real estate agent, who then passed down to her nephew when she died.  The nephew in turn bequeathed it to his friend, who recently decided to donate it to a worthy cause…Habitat for Humanity…

As if the amazingness of the piano wasn't enough, it came with a killer story!

Now, J and I love many things.  We love vintage, and we have a deep passion for all things old Vegas and Mid-Century, but the both of us hold a deep and holy reverence to all things Big Band, Swing and Jazz Age (basically anything from 1920 - 1940). So this piano is a marvelous piece of history that coincides with our passions - it's like kismet!  And the fact that it was used in the Cotton Club…!!!  Needless to say, visions of Fats Waller and Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington using that piano had us writhing in excitement (I’m not going to lie, the ReStore staff was surreptitiously laying down newspaper under us in case we made a mess).

While J went to pay the nice ReStore staff, I was on the phone hiring piano movers, professional tuners, and looking up how to restore pianos.   

The much better and well written article about the history of the piano from the ReStore (the retail store for Habitat for Humanity) can be found here.

WOW…just…WOW.  Needless to say, I am head in heels in love with this piano, and I’m just giddy with excitement.  AWESOME way to kick off the new year!