Conspicuous consumption and brand whoring

[Res]

Congrats on the car Pig.

My mom now has a wheelchair and even though I can break it down it is too bulky to put behind the driver's seat and too big to put in the back without folding down the 2nd seat. Plus there really isn't anywhere to secure it in case I'm ever broadsided again. Looking at a carrier I can put up on the rack but that would be too high for my Munchkin self.

I was looking at Fords over the weekend and liked the Freestyle the best (esp. the 3rd row) but the price was just a bit much.

[piggay]

D, a lot of my friends who have massive hate for the SUVs like the Subaru wagons (esp the snazzy WRX-- v. fun to drive) and the Saturn Vue.

My Saab is actually a Saabaru! The 9-2x is actually built off of the Subaru Imprezza (Aero is the WRX version). It's 100% Japanese parts and Japanese built! I never seriously considered a Saab due to its reputation for not being reliable (a friend of my sister has a '03 Saab 9-3 that is a complete LEMON), but when I did some research after I heard about the GM special, I found out it's an egg -- white on the outside and yellow inside . So I have a Swedish-Japanese American car. It's more Japanese than the Toyotas built in Mexico!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...23357-2004Jul2

Eventhough it's a small car, there's plenty of head room for Kermie. The back is kind of tight, but Kermie is by far the tallest person on both sides of the family so most visitors would do OK in the back I think. Plus it does have anchors for child seats in case that becomes necessary . Hopefully, I won't end up with triplets.

D - I will come visit the babies! The car is being delivered soon (either Thu or Fri) but I'm going to be out of town the next two weekends for weddings!

[ophy]

I have no idea where to put wedding deets, but since $ is a theme here, I guess this works.

So we bought the fabric for my dress last wkend at this place Mood Fabrics, which was FAB. I only knew to go there because it's where they always sent the contestants on Bravo's Project Runway to buy their fabric for the fashion shows. I highly recommend this to any and all sewers out there that are breezing through the manhattan area. Ended up with 5 different layers of fabric (and this is for a simple dress! I mean, really simple). Had to get a cotton liner, a silk liner, a super thin silk satin, a silk organza and a blue organza for the trim. The blue is what I call a funny blue . . .almost a baby blue with a hint of greeny-ness. Total cost: $456.00

Insane, right?

We also went vintage jewelry shopping this weekend, and I bought two edwardian filigree bar pins. One with a diamond and one with a sapphire, to give to our mothers the day before the wedding. They are really similiar in style to the sapphire pin I am wearing on my dress, but they are a little bit fancier.

My cheapskate wedding budget is now totally blown!

(and this really belongs in the craft thread, but my old college roommate who is making the dress, wrapped me in three rolls of duct tape this weekend, which I had to wear for 2 HOURS in order to make a dressmaker's dummy of me for future fittings. The sucky part is that I guess I was slouching, because it looks like a dress form for a shotgun wedding. *sob*)

[isadora]

You must post pics of the dress! Or email them to me because I *need* to see it like a crackwhore needs the penis to get the pipe, if you know what I'm saying. And I think you do.

OMB! I love the vintage jewelry idea! WHY didn't I do that? I did engraved mussy-tussys with roses for the moms.

I've been eyeballing vintage jewels like *mad* lately and talking myself out of everything -- so far! I already have an absurdly large collection of vintage costume jewelry from my tacky/jewelry crazed grannies! In fact, I've unloaded two packed shoeboxes of jewelry last spring and I still have three jewelry boxes (one belonged to mom's mom and the other belonged to dad's mom and the third -pink!- I picked up from a sweet old lady at an estate sale for $5!) and one *packed* plastic shoebox filled with jewelry. All of it (except for the stuff I wear regularly -- which, incidentally is in a small silver trinket box I got as a gift for being in my high school BFF's wedding) is packaged in individual plastic tiny plastic bags so that it doesn't rub together and to keep any pieces that fall apart together. <---obsessive. No wonder I've been avoiding re-packaging all of the Barbie stuff in the basement! I'm a freakshow!

*whew*

Weekend shopping plans: Since I am now officially out of high-quality cardstock until I place my order -- oh, and I will place it sooooon -- this is an excellent time to rise up out of the tiny pieces of paper created from the magnificence of the wire binding machine's hole punching mechanism and wipe my bleary eyes, grab the vacuum and reconfigure the craft room. I need to rethink the space given how many journals I've been making since purchasing the best.craft.toy.evah.

[ophy]

I have been salivating over the vintage stuff here: http://www.faycullen.com/

I bought all three pins in a shop for way less than what Fay Cullen charges, though. The pins I bought are in kind of this style: sapphire pin only with only one stone each and not a zillion, and for a third of the price.

It was mr.o's idea to buy pins for the mothers . . .I was just interested in sparklies for me, me, me.

[isadora]

ophay, I LOVE that website. My coworker and I were oohing and ahhing over it all day yesterday!


And, given the upscale nature of my life, you know I had a fabulous (rummage sale) shopping day today!

Fabulous purchases include:
Bath & Body Works brand new gift set (full-size bottles!) in one of my fave scents (included a summer purse, hand creme, body lotion, shower gel and tea lights): $10. Normally I don't buy personal products at the sales (I didn't buy the case of toothpaste on one sale, for example, in spite of the absurdly low price of $10) but this was in a very upscale neighborhood and they had all sorts of nice new crap! That and the retail value of that gift bag was at least $40!

Dolly Parton LP: .50 cents!

Two spools of gorgeous vintage ribbon in emerald and purple: $1

Bel Biv Devoe CD: $1 (Never trust a big butt and a smile...that girl is poison!)

Two Tae-Bo boxing work-out tapes: $2

Favorite find:

Two 5 1/2-inch floppy filing cases with plastic tabbed dividers: .50 cents!

Now, I know that sounds kerrazy but as soon as I saw them I realized they would perfectly fit on my shelf in my office and hold hundreds of view-master reels. And I collect vintage view-master reels at estate sales and on vacation so it was a *VERY* exciting find for me!

And when I got home? I was right. It works like a dream! SO FABULOUS.

[isadora]

Okay, so my computer snagged and pretty much died back on August 4th. It was a fairly massive heart failure and while some parts were salvagable, the baby was simply NOT playing nice when it got it a new hard drive!

So Mr. Is and I discussed at length and ended up doing the least reasonable thing in the world last night: we ordered matching laptops from Dell. Because, clearly, neither of us could get a better machine than the other. And, even more clearly, we can not share a computer (as we learned this past week).

I am BEYOND excited. I'm over the moon and can't wait for my new baby to arrive.

The specs:

* Intel® Pentium-M® 740 Processor at 1.73GHz, Intel 915 Chipset, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz Front-side Bus, 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz SDRAM (2 x 512MB) expandable to 2GB.
* 80GB Ultra-ATA hard drive.
* 8x DVD+/-RW, DVD & CD Burner Drive3
* 17" UltraSharp™ WXGA+ display; up to 1440 x 900 pixels
* 64MB DDR PCI Express ™ x16 ATI® Mobility™RADEON™X300

* Intel® PRO/ Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11a/b/g, 54Mbps)
* SD Memory Card Reader

* Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Edition

* Battery: 9-cell 'smart' Lithium-Ion battery, 80Whr5

* Dimensions: 15.5" W x 11.3" D x 1.6" H
* Weight: 7.85lbs.6

It's silver! *squeee* Pretty! *applause*

Who needs a downpayment on a house when a couple can have two state-of-the-art laptops?

Mr. Is was excited to tell me that we can now slack at the coffee shops all day and not even *speak* to each other. We can just IM. We're really hoping the initiative to have county-wide free wifi goes into place asap. Hee.

[diesel]

Whee! New laptop! I got the Dell 700m a couple of months ago and it!

In other spousal competitive news, Mr. D and I both got new cars on Saturday. Yes, we are insane. But let's face it; sedans just wren't cutting it with the twins. Once you've got the carseats and the stroller, where the fuck do you put groceries? Much less try to take a road trip with, you know, luggage and stuff.

So Mr. D got a Honda Element and I got a Chrysler Pacifica ('cept mine is dark gray, not the color in the photo). Whee! Mine has all sorts of kerrazy options -- it even has GPS! It's wacky, yo. But so much more room! And I can take other adults in the car if need be!

[isadora]

My widescreen makes this website look HUGE. WHEEEEEEE!

Actually, this laptop just seems wholly oversized for portable fun. Since its replacing my old desktop I needed something I would be using exclusively but this baby is a monster.

[diesel]

That's why I got the 12" instead of going for something bigger. I still have my old 19" monitor on the old desk, so I can use that if I want when I'm home, but the wee 12" is so lightweight that it's easy to drag around! After I had the 14" laptop from work while I was on maternity leave and I didn't even like toting it from the living room to the bedroom, and I would look jealously at Mr. D with his 12" iBook that is permanently attached to him, I decided to go small with the laptop. And since the 700m also has widescreen, it actually doesn't seem as small as I thought it might. But I bet the 17" screen is puuuuuurty!!! I the widescreen, and it's so BRIGHT and CRISP! Whee! I likee my new computer.

[isadora]

I actually think my inability to let Mr. Is have anything bigger (perceptually bettah) than me got the best of me.

I LOVE it but there is always room for bitterness and here's mine: damn thing won't fit in ANY bag we own and all of the most adorable laptop totes I've been eyeing are way too small! Tragedy! I HATE those black leather suitcase things!

Congrats on the new cars, bdw. That is next on my 'major purchase' list. Of course, I am horrified by how quickly cars depreciate and I'm hoping to scoop up a year old baby that was sold on one of those "EVERYBODY GETS A CAR! (TM: Oprah)" (cuz we're all family) discount price dealies. I love one-year-old cars with a strong warranty and low miles. I just don't care about cars at all.

Except I have a hankering for a VW. But I don't care enough to want the car payment. I hate me some car payments!

<---has hopelessly (lower) middle class values.

[Sarah]

We were at an antique show today far enough north where they still have cows and 4-H, right? I bought a few gifts mostly and one thing for myself: An oil painting by my grandmother for 55 bucks.

[isadora]

My grandma gave me her paintings for free! Hee!

[Sarah]

No! Hee! I have the ones she kept, this is one I found in the back some random booth!

[isadora]

I'm redecorating my bedroom to better reflect my desire to live inside the elephant in Moulin Rouge and this is my latest acquisition and I'm OBSESSED WITH STUPID FUCKING LAMP: Large pic of beloved lamp of hottness!