re: Mom Jeans

This is the outfit that I put on Thursday morning. It includes a pair of funny high waisted pleated trouser pants with tapered legs that I found at an estate sale for $2 that I've been wearing around lately, despite the fact that they make my butt look big:



I came out of the bedroom in this ensemble, and Derek told me I looked nice and asked what I was dressing up for (he asks that pretty much any time I wear heels). I told him that I had a meeting this afternoon. Then I turned to the side, and I could see him examining the back of the pants, since from the front they are deceivingly normal looking but from the back the mom-jean-ness really comes across. I suspected he was re-evaluating his complement that I looked nice today.

"Do you think my butt looks big in these?" I asked. He looked at me like I was asking one of those questions that women ask to trick men into saying something that they will regret.

"I promise, people are wearing pleated trousers again," I told him. "Granted, I think the style right now is usually a little looser than these, but I liked them anyway because of the double buttons on the waist band, and the cropped leg ..." I trailed off because his eyes were glazing over, and I could tell that despite me trying to lecture him on current fashion trends, the only thing he could knew was that I was wearing a pair of pants outside the house that made my butt look weird. And that I was wearing them to an important meeting.

We finally agreed that this probably was the kind of outfit that I should wear when having a meeting with fashionable girls, because a dude is just going to think I'm wearing mom jeans. Which I kind of am.

(I wore this to my meeting anyway)

re: Shirtless Hangouts

In the last few years, my brother has taken to not wearing a shirt most of the time unless it is absolutely necessary. And ... you'd be surprised how seldom a shirt is absolutely necessary. In fact, last year on Christmas morning he came down stairs shirtless for Christmas breakfast. The brother-in-laws, not to be outdone, took theirs off as well and declared the holiday Shirtless Christmas.

Over the weekend we were hanging out on Google+ on a family conference call, and my brother Dave appeared onscreen shirtless. No surprise.

Without even missing a beat, Derek and Jake removed theirs as well, and we proceeded to enjoy a shirtless family hangout:


My family has the best traditions.

re: The Art Houses of Detroit

Why does everyone look at me weird when I tell them that Detroit is where Derek and I decided to go for our one year anniversary?

The rise/fall of and struggle to rebuild Detroit over the last few years has been interesting to watch. We'd been hearing about so much opportunity in the revitalization of Detroit - you can imagine that the news of abandoned buildings being sold for $500 spread like wildfire to anyone who pays four times that in rent every month - and wanted to see it firsthand.

When a city built on the wealth of the car industry loses its big stronghold in that market, and the only other surviving industries left in town include Faygo (drink of choice for Juggalos everywhere) and Better Made Snack Food* (whose best selling Rainbow Chips are actually just a bag of crispy-to-the-point-of-being-burned potato chips).... well? It makes it easy to see how so many buildings have ended up abandoned, and how people have moved elsewhere.


One upside of those abandoned buildings is the artists that they are attracting.

There are a group of several homes on Moran Street in Hamtramck that were purchased by Power House Production and left to the hands of various artists to beautiful and create out of the rubble. The houses aren't really open to the public at this point, but we happen to have an IN (thanks, Harrison) and were able to see the awesome Powerhouses up close and personal.

We started with Monica Canilao's Treasure Nest, which includes an elaborate porch collage, a chandelier room with rotating mass of lightable objects, an installation made of the soft wooden backs of destroyed Detroit furniture, a huge wooden bird on the side of the house and more.

photo credit: Juxtapoz




Saelee Oh's illustrations, with wooden installations by local architecture students:



Swoon
(the hole in the floor existed even before the artists arrived. apparently the neighborhood folk used to congregate there at night, and one person would sit in the hole and tell ghost stories to the people sitting on the floor above):




Richard Colman & RETNA:





I'm not sure who made this light barn out back, but it was beautiful. The roof was filled with glass rods that filtered the sunlight into the darkened room and looked pretty rad. Apparently it works at night too:



It was really inspiring to see so many great artists currently hard at work to beautify and revitalize the area.

Closer to Downtown Detroit is one of the original "art house" projects by Tyree Guyton - The Heidelberg Project started in the 80s, encompasses an entire block, and encourages a lot of community interaction/artwork. (Check out the Google Maps Street View to get a good sense of this one).

3658 Heidelberg Street Detroit, MI 48207





We also visited Hamtramck Disneyland, which was built in the 90s (and looks a little more rickety than the Disneyland I grew up with).
12087 Klinger St (Alley in back)
Hamtramck, MI 48211



I really enjoyed seeing all these wonderfully creative spaces that my homeowner's association would have been shocked and appalled by. It makes me want to buy a $500 house, bust out my hammer and a glue gun and see what I could create. And the Faygo would flow freely ...

*Fun Fact: The Better Made Chip website boasts that Detroiters eat 7lbs of potato chips a year on average, whereas the rest of the country is hovering somewhere around 4lbs

re: Labor Day Thrifting

Derek and I visited Amanda and Casey Smith in Northern Ohio over the long weekend, and they all indulged my thrift store obsession and let us hit all the Labor Day sales.

Casey took several photos throughout the day, and I laughed because all the photos I'm in show me delightedly shopping to my heart's content ...


And all the photos of Derek show him loitering in the background or patiently hanging out, trying his best not to look bored.



To be fair, Derek knew all about my impressive tolerance for shopping and sorting through piles of junk before he married me, and I rewarded him this time by doubling his shortsleeve button-up wardrobe with some real Ohio gems.

Thanks to the Lynch/Smith/Twelmeyer clan for hosting us and showing us all their favorite Ohio thrifting goldmines.