Fleas & Things on the street market shopping!

This was another wayward post. Several years ago started but the bones of it still hold truth when you are going to a flea and doing street market shopping in any country.

A while ago I went to the Short North Reduction Sale. It was packed!  Never had I gone to a reduction sale where there were so many people before.  I usually go later and get some good pickings but this year I wanted to be early to make sure I had first dibs.  Oh, so not the case this year.  It was heavily advertised in ways that it wasn't in the past and I felt the space was much smaller.

After going through that and then to my Friends Flea Swap at the Gangway it got me thinking about some not so common sense tips when going to these sorts of events.
1. Do not expect there to be a dressing room
2. Don't bring a super bulky bag (if you even bring a full purse at all)
3. Be prepared to be elbowed and disregard this as rudeness (it is a battlefield of discounts essentially)
4. Bring lot's of Cash most vendors even though they have credit card machines in their stores they rarely bring them out to these events or the wifi will be spotty.
5. Be prepared to wait in a line
6. Come early at least an hour before the actual opening if you want the best picks.
7. Dress Prepared!

This last part is what I want to cover mostly.  When I say dress prepared I mean dress as if you need to try things on and won't have a fitting room available because most likely you won't.

 My staples for dressing for a flea or sale like this are

1. Leggings, bike shorts or boy shorts
2. Tank top (or sports bra)
3. Baggy sweatshirt to go over (can also be used to put on the ground if you don't want your feet on the direct floor)
4. Skirt (if I feel I need to have something besides the leggings/tights)
5. Flats to wear but heels in the purse (to try on things for height).

 Another trick to use if there isn't a fitting room and you don't want to try something on there at least for pants and skirts is the neck trick.  The neck trick is where you take the garment and wrap the waist band around your neck.  If the two side seams don't touch them it is too small or if it goes way past each other when they meet then it will be too big.  You do not want to make it choking tight or else you are just cheating yourself.  Keep it as loose around your neck as you would like to be on your real waist.  I know that seems like witch craft but it is a tried and true method. Just remember this is to match your waist so of course if they are high rise or vice versa and hip hugger pants think about that accordingly.

When I go to the street markets in Korea often times there are never dressing rooms and they would hand you a big elasticized skirt that you could either put on top and hang on your neck or just over my waist to try clothes on with out being indecent. Sometimes they would let you behind their booth to change but most times they would take you just to the end of the aisle with the "to-go" dressing room. It's not for everyone but for some people the discomfort is worth the discounts or they just like a little adventure and non-uniformity.

Best of luck to you if you take the dive to hit up a flea or street market and remember it's not personal if you get shoved a little (especially in Korea from older women, that's pretty normal).

2019 Updates on Life - it's just words

I had been away from my blog for a long time. There was a point where as much as I loved this and writing I had gotten too busy taking care of my little Colin, training, being a wife and small business owner.

My mother passed away just days before Thanksgiving due to pancreatic cancer. It was terrible she was diagnosed only three months prior. I was the one who took her to the ER where they began testing and found the tumor. It was my first time going out to visit my brother in Las Vegas and seeing my parents after they had moved out there. I had Colin with me. We enjoyed most of the time there then Sunday after my brother Birthday Brunch mom told me she was in pain and wanted to go to the ER. I knew she was in pain the whole weekend, but no one else noticed and I kept an eye on her. I took her temperature and she had a fever over 100, I made a quick call to my friend's mom who is a nurse and she confirmed I should take her to ER. That was the day before I was supposed to leave. It was heartbreaking to leave her then knowing she would be in the hospital for days doing testing. From there it was fast and progressively worse and I am thankful we got her into Hospice for her last days to be comfortable. It's obviously still a fresh wound which is why I am coming back to writing/blogging.

As a friend told me I am a private person, yet not at all. I just don't like to talk about feelings much, I don't like to be exposed but I do like people to know there are things going on. I use social media a lot as a quick way to update friends abroad or that I don't get to see very often so they know I am living life and doing ok. Some days are better than others but I'm still here.

I think another thing that spurred my want to write again is going through this aftermath of death and how there are so many things I had to figure out for my father and myself with how to deal with death, not emotionally but fiscally and what a death means in terms of a process not a person. Unless you have been through it is not an easy thing to grasp while you are mourning and no one prepares for this because it is a dark thing that leads to dark thoughts. So I wanted to write the process in a practical guide and maybe it will be published maybe not but at least it will be out in the world in some form or another and maybe when it's my time my son will find it and get some comfort in his mom's overly practical mind.

I was also approached by someone I didn't know very well at my gym and was touched. It was my first time working with this person and after class was over he said to me that he found one of my blog posts about testing and it inspired him to come to my gym (Short North Muay Thai). I didn't know my blog, my posts had an impact and were still circulating.  He's been at the gym over a year now and I'm happy to say that he is now on his own path and will be testing in March.

It's a funny thing how something so abstract as the internet has now connected so many people for the good or bad it is a big influence on our lives. I am just one person, small insignificant but I see I have made an impression in the world no matter how small and that is a comfort. It maybe just a little but it isn't nothing and that is a victory to put something positive and helpful out there.

This is a new beginning for this blog so Cheers! let's be logical, depressed, helpful, cheering and celebrating all together because those are all parts of life.

This is Me, or how I perceived myself in 2018

This is yet another old post that I thought I needed to clean up, finish up and put out there as part of my 2019 de-clutter. I started this sometime in 2018, I don't remember when but it was before I decided to take part in fights.

 I'm a proud small business owner of a specialty Yarn Store and Knitter extraordinaire! 

 Someone who loves to dress up as a bad-ass with a love for cheesy Kungfu

 I also like to dress up and play at being a model for friends

 I'm an avid Muay Thai fan (Top is Lerdsila at the Ronin 2018 Seminar and bottom is Saenchai from 2017)

 I like to leap up and take chances at being a badass in the most humbling environment surrounded by supportive friends in a muay thai gym unlike any other. (Short North Muay Thai)

I even went so far in 2018 to check off another bucket list item and went to my first fight! I had two fights, first a win and then a lose by decision (it was really close I think I was nicked points due to headgear is what I overheard) but they were good and amazing and I'll talk about that more in another post.

 I'm the mother to an adorable mixed child, Colin Eldon Hall and am prepared to stand up for him and with him when it comes time to talk about his multi-facted ethnic culture.

 I have been and will return to being an independent Fashion Designer

 I am a positive force with colorful hair no matter what other people may think. Both traditional and radical but always respectful and full of empathy.

 I'm a wife and partner to someone who likes to smile and laugh with me.

 Had the pleasure of being on national TV with one of my best friends aiming high for a dream that has not come true.

Being almost famous by association (that is a young Daniel Henney and I was his dresser for my school fashion show at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago)

We still have three cats that are complete idiots that love us unconditionally and they just add to the disaster that Andy and I try to call our home.  It's hard with an anxiety ridden orange girl, broken trash cat who thinks every meal is his last then pukes and a high strung princess cat that thinks she is the center of everyone's world. But we love them.

I still try to make time for video games and I'll never stop my love of plushies or Final Fantasy.

The Blank Agency and a little 2019 fashion update.

I had the pleasure of having work with The Blank Agency that was made public and it is an amazing piece of work.
Using my fashion designs to shoot this cinematic presentation. Which you can view here!

The pieces used were from a white and gold collection I did to embody different royal characters from Alice in Wonderland.

The White Queen is long silk and velvet dress
The Red Queen is the gold silk skirt and embroidered top
Queen Alice is the gold bow dress
Simply Alice is the white bell pants with the Silk coverup

This was part of my Senior Collection for The School of the Art Institute of Chicago back in 2003. It is crazy to see old work of my still being relevant and exciting for other people. It's an inspiration that I would like to visit again some day in the future to see how my style has changed since then.

From here on is an update on since I had stopped my blog but wanted to finish off some of my drafts that I had started. 

It has been a few years and I feel like my design aesthetic for fashion has moved even further into two directions. Full functionality in the form of the handmade slow fashion movement to wear clothes you made yourself and high art form where it may not even be a wearable piece as much as sculpture or a representation of organic form.  We will see what 2019 can unfold for my progress as a designer and artist.

Business is never usual

WOAH what a trip the past few months have been! Our first holiday season at the store and it was great! but then quickly came the checks and balances between paying off orders, new orders and still being mid season for fibers.

We found we have had lurch just the same as everyone else in February. Somedays no one comes in and other days during a snow storm a stream of people come in. Who knows what will happen in retail. Even as long as I have worked in retail clothing (over 10 years)  it's hard to judge what will happen day to day.

I have good vibes and strong faith in our little growing business.
I feel more and more encouraged by hearing great feedback from my vendors and new vendors. Lately there has been a good amount of compliments saying that we are their biggest and best stockist, or they came across our website and liked what we were doing and how selective we are and would like to be a part of that selection. I also appreciated that when we talked on the phone they said we were their first choice in the area of shops to be a part of and wanted to know if it was ok for them to contact the other stores or if we wanted to be their primary stockist for central Ohio.

PRETTY FRICKING FANTASTIC EH?!

This week also had a short email conversation with someone in England about us carrying their crewel wools to start embroidery classes and they complimented us heavily on our lovely looking website and being so modern with our design and selection of companies that we carry.

Even though sales are in the slums with everyone recovering from overspending on the holidays and guarding their pockets for tax season, these compliments and conversations are just what we needed to know we are doing good and it's in a much larger sense than just our local community.

I just had to post this little love rant diddy out there someplace and not clog up the social media spheres.

Cheers and Onwards friends!

Oh, Hallo blog!

It's been a while since I have blogged.  I'm not going to say this is a new year's resolution to start blogging because that would be a lie. I am going to say that I have a lot of things on my mind lately and stuff I want to share with the world for whomever still watches and follows my life adventures.

I would not suggest for you to not live vicariously through me and the events in my life. However I would strongly suggest you go out and make your own waves, jump into the deep end of the pool and make yourself a little or a lot happier in your daily going ons.

My life is swiftly making some bold changes and it is very scary but all for the best. Finances are heavy on my mind as I get older and see the bills from student loans or silly things that I could of not bought but did through store credit cards. I am trying to catch up and be as debt free as possible. It is also hard to budget when some of the new things in your life have a higher premium but you know their value. To help out on top of opening a new store and continuing my arts administration job, I clean part time to pay for my Muay Thai classes.  Did you not know I do Muay Thai? maybe you did and maybe you didn't.  I don't think that is something I normally have ever discussed on the blog but that will be changing. This is going to be more about my life as a whole and not focused on fashion or fiber. My one promise to you is I won't blog very much about food because I sort of detest food blogs, it's just a tease they make me hungry and I will never actually make those gorgeous desserts people post.

So in the upcoming year/s these are some of the things you'll expect to hear from me:
- Little life philosophies as I reach my mid 30's
- Things that have inspired me
- Muay thai and other physical attributes that have heavily affected my life
- Knitting, Crochet, tatting, Spinning
- Sewing
- My personal artwork
- Video games and general nerdiness
- I also maybe have less pictures and more writing because, writing is what I dig and pictures are fillers.

As always I invite you chime in and start a conversation through the comments. Without discussion how can anyones opinion change or point be made? I like facts, I like having things brought to my attention that maybe I'm not the most educated in.

Cheers!

At 33

Hello world!

Tomorrow I turn 33. It is sort of a milestone for me at such a random number.  Firstly it took me some time to realize how old I really am since I pretty much stopped counting after 30. It's not even the number that makes it a milestone but more just the amount of things have have happened in the past few years, let alone months.

 I was humbled and honored to test for my level 2 shorts at Muay Thai.  It was a hard decision and big challenge for me. I wanted to do it and train for it but I don't think I started to train for the right reasons.

I was coming off of a pretty big high from seeing friends fight and all the fight training our gym had been doing. In the end I did it for all the right reasons, my friends around the gym and fellow testers training kept me level headed and helped me to remember what was really important and the spirit of our gym. There was even a point when I thought I might of pulled out just because I didn't feel my mind and heart were in the right place for this honor.

In the end I went through it and it was AMAZING. This time was somehow more impactful in my life then the first test. It was rough no doubt as I had only started into sparring maybe two months beforehand and even with all the extra gym time I put in there just wasn't anything to prepare for the endurance needed just for sparring. 

Overall this helped me to let go of my senseless competitiveness and goal driven accomplishments. It let me just relax, enjoy and appreciate the moments in life more. I also learned to let go some of my silly cultural habits of seniority which has always been this hanging stress in my life. 

Super proud of all my fellow testers and big shouts out to Doug, Malik and Lavaughn for being there with me through Level 2! It wasn't that long ago but I feel that in my short time of about a year and half I have learned so much and looking at the new beginner's classes I get excited for them and to be a part of their journey.

Then two weeks later........

I completed another wonderful runway show with the Alternative Fashion Mob.  I couldn't be more happy with the results and most importantly all the people I worked with. I have amazing friends all around me and they really lift me up and assist when I need it. My Muay Thai testing definitely help me be very "whoo saaaa" through this fashion show where I let all the problems other people were having slide off of me and didn't stress with what was wrong but just how to get through it and have fun.

I was so fortunate to also have the amazing models that I did for this show. To me the right energy and personality is more important when doing such a big production but I was also fortunate enough to have beautiful models.  You can see photos of my full collection on my Torn Angel Facebook Page. 

Amidst all of this has also been the store!

 Everything is coming together and I just got back from TNNA this weekend and made some very interesting orders that I was not prepared for. It was so hard to go there not knowing what exactly my customer base will be and figuring out who my client really is before I am open. It's a struggle to think about what I want my store to be and how I also want to service the community at the same time. I don't want anyone to feel alienated at the same time I want to stick to my creative guns with my yarn selections.

The POS is all set up and I didn't think that would be such an ordeal but it was and now it's all good. We have a rhythm for it all and I understand how it all works. I would show pictures of the whole store but it's still a slight mess right tools and things needing to be made. I'm also a bit spread out to work on the display for the windows and just general it's a mess.

Lastly I got my second tattoo and I can't say it will be my last but she might be. I'll just show you a picture because it means too much to me to just clump my feelings together with everything else and I am still relishing in the glow of it and all the feelings surmounted with this tattoo.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'll be spending the entire day traveling across time zones to be in Korea! now that so many things are over with I can finally start to get excited as I pack and get ready. I can say that I am nowhere near where I thought I would be today.  If I talked to younger self I would reassure myself and say:

"No, you won't be married with 3 kids as a housewife or working for a large fashion company, but it's ok. You will find a new fantastic path, be happier and be full of wonderful encounters, friendships and fulfillment in ways you didn't know exist. You will be an entire person on your own whole and without regret and you will love everything with all your heart and it will be ok even though it's not where you thought you would be. Enjoy the adventure because it is all yours alone"

Cheers!