The · Life · and · Times · of · Archy · and · Mehitabel

I'm planning a trip to Belo Horizonte, Brazil in August to see my sweetheart!
If Guilherme doesn't get into graduate school in USA next summer, this may be my last time to see him :(
Although, everytime we skype he says "I'm studying hard for my GREs so we can be together again."

If you want to support my trip by visiting my etsy, I will thank you forever!

I went last year and took some really neat workshops, but I really really wanted to do my own. I wrote a proposal and I got word last week that it was accepted!

The Class:
Common Feast: nutritious meals for your house at $1.75

Feed your co-op a hearty meal with organic and local ingredients for $1.75 per person. Ashley Asmus and L. Amelia Raley, authors of "Common Feast: 26 and Vegan" zine, are members of House of Commons vegetarian
co-op in Austin, Texas. Topics will include: kitchen and menu planning, management, community outreach, and of course, yummy food. Attendees will receive a complimentary copy of the zine. Come hungry!

Here is my bio:
L. Amelia Raley has lived in co-ops in Oregon and Texas since 2005. Serving as kitchen manager and chef, she has provided fun, nutritious meals for her roommates and friends. Professionally, she is a vegan ice cream maker and teacher of the gifted in Austin, Texas.

Essentially, this is the best thing to happen to me right now, in terms of long-term projects. The co-op is slated to open August 22nd, nearly 8 months to the day after the fire that shut us down in January. From there, we have to get our house kitchen open and fully functional for under $1000! Before the house closed, I had been working on a skeletal outline of "Common Feast" zine and had been passing out meal worksheets to the cooks every week. Now that we have a goal of November to get the zine done, we will have about two and a half months of vegan meals to include.

My strawberry/vanilla vegan softserve.

Yesterday I spent the day doing the most patriotic thing I could think of: work share farming at Johnson's Backyard Garden from 8am - 1pm.
I watched Food, Inc. with Ashley last Thursday. Even though the movie was mostly preaching to the converted, it put a lot of things back into perspective that I have been letting slip slide away as of late. Every 9 months or so I have to do this: watch slaughterhouse footage, reacquaint myself with the earth, read the ingredients and meticulously measure of every single bite I put in my mouth.

I spent the rest of my holiday eating a giant sandwich made from fresh vegetables, taking a nap, going to work, and watching fireworks from atop a parking garage. Ashley and I biked home and I made a pan of biscuits and we danced to old Soul classics while steaming squash and spicing beans. We fell asleep watching King Corn.
It's hard not to be scared of food these days.

Fresh off the hoop. Bird with valentine detail to be added tomorrow.

I used my tattoo for a guide. I kept sneaking off to the bathroom to peek to see if I was getting the details right.

Paper parasol - used in lieu of sunscreen while walking to the store
Freshly reddened hair
Cotton sheet material dress - clothing swap
black stretchy belt
( Parasols A-Plenty )

Dear Michael,
"Wanna Be Startin' Something"
with You
Love, Scooby Doo

Pretty Young Thing is still my quintessential getting ready to go out dance-jam.

When I was in elementary school and middle school, I loved Michael Jackson. Dangerous was my first cassette tape that I ever bought with my own money. Before that, I listened to a lot of Jethro Tull, Tony Rice and Beatles White Album that my father had made me on a mixed tape. Also I liked the Chipmunks Christmas Album, which may explain why I like this song so much (specifically the end!). But, that is neither here nor there.
Point is, I also wanted desperately to be a muppeteer like Frank Oz or Kevin Clash. At this time in my life, I bet I had close to 35 puppets in my collection and I would practice my muppeting skills by making them sing along to Beat It, Thriller and Dangerous on our frequent car rides to Little Rock to visit my grandfather.
So, every time I think of this song in my head I imagine me and my sister animating the dolphin, snake, owl, puppy and countless other puppets we had strewn in the backseat of our Aerostar minivan!

I should have never ever did those things
Embroidery on handkerchief, 2007

I've been reading all of the reviews from my show at Brown and it's funny to see how often they correct the title of my pieces to I never should have done those things.

I have been embroidering everyday, all day. I have an hour commute to school in the mornings and another hour again in the evenings and my arms have just been glowing with pain at the end of making so many stitches. These decorative Tidy Cloths (cum rags) are for a show in New Orleans this fall called "Deep, Down & Dirty; Female Sexuality in the South."
The best part of my submission was applying academic language to cum rags... you try it with your collegiate face!
Growing up in the South I was taught that in any personal situation, one must be, above all, gracious and hospitable. Sexuality, specifically coitus, was rarely talked about in detail, so imagine my surprise to find out that it was such a messy act. I knew there was a way to apply manners and frills to ejaculate.

For graduate school, I'm in a class called "Teaching Math to Elementary Students." There's about 20 of us in there, and we're all relearning how to do impossible things like multiply mixed fractions using concrete manipulatives. The goal is that we are learning better ways of teaching math through collaboration, models, real life scenarios. However, all of us are so scarred by past math classes that the frustration builds in the room until it's as thick as the Texas heat. One girl got so frustrated today that she threw her hands up in the air, made a bratty sigh and left! It's like group therapy, I swear.
It's hard to live in math-land. I love this part in Romy & Michelle's High School reunion (ffwd to 1:30 with the row-boat quip):

Tetsie, Penny and Maddie at Gadjo Disko last weekend.

It's mango season big time around here! I never liked mangos at all until I started seeing Guilherme and he taught me how to pick out the best ones. I like them a little sour, I found out. The saddest part of this week was seeing Guilherme off to the airport, back to Brazil. For ever, ever?
To console myself yesterday, I ate a mango while sitting in the shower, the cold water rushing down my hair.

This evening I went out for Indian food with Devon and his grandma, Kay, who is an awesome lady. We went to the Paramount theatre to watch "Easy Living" (1937):

This is probably the most adorable scene in the entire movie!

I hope you are all well this week. Please tell me there is happy news and goodness on your side.

Another Gadjo Disko success! I brought pineapple scented bubbles and held them in front of the giant fans on the dance floor. It was so hot my dress was soaked through clear till the next morning

Today it is hot in Austin, so hot and so bright that I could not look at the camera without squinting.
Élodie had this dress a few weeks ago but when I saw a strawberry print dress on ebay last week I knew it had to be mine. Dressing like your dolls, or having a doll dress like you?
It's an interesting outcome either way.

Hello Kitty as Alice in Wonderland cell phone charms that I made into earrings
Strawberry clip in my hair that goes to a Hello Kitty hair clip set
1940s strawberry print dress - ebay
Red stretchy belt - American Apparel
Red strappy shoes with wooden base

Details:

These scented bubbles come in a little soft serve cone container and are a fun activity to use near air conditioning vents and occilating fans.
They also come in chocolate, strawberry and pineapple
I'm enjoying my last bittersweet week with Guilherme, who leaves for Brazil on June 20th.

On Monday I started my first day of graduate school at Texas State. I'm taking Teaching Math and Teaching English to grades K-8. I have a 20 minute bike ride at 7:00am and then an hour long bus ride to get to San Marcos, Texas. By the time I get home at 4pm it's easily 98 F and very taxing.
The material is tough since my BA and MFA are in totally different areas, but I'm playing catch-up as best I can.

Today on the way home I saw a massage parlor on the side of the highway that just said "JAPAN" in giant hand painted letters. On a smaller sign it read "Geisha fantasy room."

Point of fashion: I watched Dames (1934) last night on the big screen and it was all about my favorite subject, 1930s chorus girls.

Elodie (Gentle River) wears a teal knit dress and Rement navy Mary Janes

( two more, bigger )

We rang in the first days of June with Lone Star Beer

And Tofutti Cutie Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches. We watched "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and worked on "y'all" and "yessir!" Teaching Guilherme to say "biskits n' gravy" with a convincing Texan accent has been the laugh riot of my week.

We took a long ride with Austin Critical Mass last Friday. You can see me and Guilherme in the dead centre of this photo. We'd stopped in a park to run around in the fountains. All together, the ride was about 15 miles. We stopped on Congress Street bridge on the way back to watch the bats fly from under the bridge.

On Tuesday, we paddleboated around Town Lake and visited Angel at Uncommon Objects. I had my first drink of cucumber soda and ate some lemon gummies from Big Top. I went to craft night and got a good dose of lady time in.

Gentle River arrived from Thailand this morning!

Tonight we saw Dames (1934) at the Paramount Theatre.

My sewing machine is now fixed and I somewhat understand how to work it. I sewed two tiny dresses for Blythe: the first was good but too small, the second one I accidently sewed the bodice inside-out but it kind of looks cute that way.
I removed myself from a LJ fashion community because people were making really hateful remarks about silly things and also going through my journal archives and snarking entries I'd made 6 months ago. Shameful.
I sometimes see horrendous outfits posted online but my policy is if you can't say something nice/positive, just scroll on by...

Tomorrow is Animal Collective... whoop!

There is a very awesome interview with me @ The Vintage Laundress

Tiny knife on a necklace
Red Bolero
1950s teal/white cotton dress
Apron from Julia!!!
Red belt - American Apparel
White socks from sockdreams.com
1930s reproduction dance shoes - dancestore.com

1. blog victoire decastellane 4, 2. blythe forest bunny apron dress, 3. Time for bed?, 4. Boston Blythe Halloween Meet 10/18/08, 5. Velvet Bow Capelet, 6. Manna dress from Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching!!, 7. lolita / halloween, 8. Dances of Vice - Les Secrets du Boudoir, 9. Dances of Vice Attendes, 10. CT-8012WE & CT-8012LB, 11. teapots_pinkBrown, 12. redminidot, 13. rabbits black, 14. Potty-mouthed Ring Bearer Carrier Pigeon, 15. Sharpie Paint, 16. get close>

My flickr favorites this week have been about my favorite things:
Blythe
Japanese Fabric
Adorable Girls dressed up in Vintage
& Embroidery

angeliska

Emma and Avimaan

Guilherme and me. I made my necklace out of a curtain at the toy store, and my headband is from Louise Black@etsy

It's hot and there's lots of bees around. I'm going to a flapper party tonight so I'm working on my chorus girl poses.

Yellow Poppy headband - made by me
Yellow American Apparel shirt - I wish they still made this style
Black beaded necklace
Black overalls - Buffalo Exchange (originally from Urban Outfitters)
Black Tstraps - Buffalo Exchange
Cat Strings Shopping bag - Japanese Import

Violet Crown wears Academy Beldam

Any print that has a kitten sitting on a moon is bound to snag my fancy. Check out my awesome mystery bruise! We've moved from purple and blue, it's now onto a brown and ochre color.

I'm in the shadows waiting for the bus so I can go to Thai Fresh with arhythmthief

Red Bandana - had it forever!
Red sunglasses - H&M, San Francisco
1930s wrap dress with scallop border - from Robin via Ebay
Red strappy sandals with wooden bases

Here is the strawberry vegan soft serve that I made at work. This is our strawberry scented Hello Kitty air freshener that goes in a car. I thought it was too darling/appropriate not to include.

Here is a picture I took of Odile on the way to catch my bus.