Headbands, Humidity and HOLLA!

I am going to crank this puppy out! Let’s see if I can put together a blog post in 2 minutes or less.

First, if you have a minute, I’d love for you to go to my shop’s Facebook page and weigh in on the headband photos I put up this morning. Would you wear something like that? How would you want to see it modeled or displayed? What information about it would you want to know?

Next, the weather in Chicago has finally decided to be NOT COLD AND SNOWY ANYMORE, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy! Of course, warmth in Chicago is never too far ahead of my nemesis: humidity. Jerk. Humidity makes you sweat even if you’re just strolling along at 8am and the temp is only 75 degrees. Humidity makes your curly hair go nuts and it makes your straight hair die a flat, flat death. I asked on Twitter if I was allowed to complain about the humidity yet, and was told no, to appreciate the NOT COLD AND SNOWY ANYMOREness of the situation. So that’s what I’m doing. I can’t wait for BBQs, ice-cold drinks, swimming, a little gardening and coming inside to air conditioning for a reprieve.

Finally, here are a few things that have recently caught my eye on ye olde internets.

Citrus Leaves Hard Cover Book by Allison of the fuzzy grapefruit shop at Etsy. Allison is one of my Chicago Style Crafters teammates and an awesome chick to boot.

 

Converse and Flower Record Vinyl Glass Metal Frame Pendant Necklace by blue order on Etsy. A favorite shop and seller of mine – Scott and his wife Rosemary come up with some of the coolest art and accessorites. Cool functional art – right up my alley.

 

I’m already married and didn’t even wear white to my wedding (I wore wine! as in red!), but I think this photo and this sash are beautiful. It’s the Ivory triple flower bridal sash with pearls and rhinestones by another Etsy teammate of mine, Steph of the shop Clark and Diversey.

What the Heck is a Chiditarod?

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me re-tweeting a bunch of tweets from my friends who were participating in Chiditarod 2011. What’s Chiditarod? Well, it just happens to be “Chicago’s very own most important shopping cart race in the universe”!

Chiditarod is a shopping cart race/team costume contest/charity fundraiser. Teams pick a theme, decorate a shopping cart and themselves, and raise money and food donations for a good cause: to the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation, a food bank that makes donated food accessible to individuals, shelters, schools and non-profits. Teams race around the North Side of Chicago and must check in at checkpoints . . . which are bars.

The Derailers, 2010 Chiditarod

I first heard of it a couple months ago from Melissa, who is part of my local Etsy team. She’s a member of the Derailers team, and this year they raised a whopping $5,000! Funny – according to their Give Forward page, they made a donation to the Loch Ness Mobsters team, for “protection” during the race.

I next heard of it through my friends at ^5 Functions (aka High Five). ^5 is a non-profit in Chicago that seeks to make philanthropy easier by tying it to social events. Here are some of the events they’ve held so far (photos stolen shamelessly from the ^5 Facebook page):

· Pub Crawls

· Climbing a skyscraper – this one was fun – whoever raised the most money HAD to rappel down the face of the Wit Hotel! Everyone’s favorite parrot won.

· Halloween Party, collected gifts to give to Children’s Memorial Hospital

· City Farm Volunteer Day

^5 was founded by my co-workers and friends. Smart, funny, kind, generous professionals who like to have a good time – that’s ^5.

Learn more about the Derailers and ^5 Functions:

Derailers (Give Foward page)

^5 Functons (website)

· Facebook

· Twitter

Below are some of the photos from the Chiditarod, from the ^5 team. And here are more photos from around the blogosphere. Just google Chiditarod and you’ll be sucked into hours worth of viewing.

Parrot and Pirate Ship Captain

Mermaid

First Mate

Shark

(Following photos are by Jed Sullivan, photographer extraodinaire, Chiditarod Shark (above), High Fiver and soon-to-be-missed friend - he’s moving to San Fran!)

Tweeting!

Arrrr!

Le Ship

Go peeps! I’m proud of the good work you continue to do.

*Sorry about the formatting, y'all. Blogger isn't playing nice today.

My Office

I work full-time in higher education in downtown Chicago. I work in Academic Affairs, which is the department that handles academic policy – everything from instructor pay scales when chairing student dissertations to being the final word on student dismissals for academic reasons. We probably handle a broader range of issues than most AA departments do, but we’re a relatively young and small institution and that means a few people do a lot of work! It’s not the sort of work I ever imagined myself doing, but I love it. I also love that my school’s mission and core values are firmly about providing resources to the underserved.

Anyway – here’s a quick look into (some of) where I spend my time at work.

My laptop and ginormous extra screen. I have photos of friends, family and stuff I think is pretty.

Note, below my phone – that yellow thing is a button you can push – like the Easy button – and it yells “OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!” (a gift from a co-worker – funny story, someone bought a bunch of those on a trip and packed them in their carry-on bag on the flight home. The bag was stored in the overhead compartment and was bouncing around, making the buttons go off over and over again. There were also buttons that yelled, “I’M SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS” – ha!). And next to the yellow button is my precious – my trackball mouse. I loooooove it.

The other side of my desk is just a holding ground for tons of paperwork. I also always have about 5 cups or bottles on my desk. The 2 Starbucks cups there are what I warmed up my soup in, for lunch. I never remember to bring a bowl. The bamboo was a gift from my boss. Next to it you might see a small mortar and pestle – a gift from a co-worker who went to Greece. There is also a jar of Ethiopian coffee and a bookmark from Istanbul (not Constantinople), and the scarf draped over that chair is from India. All gifts from co-workers who go awesome places and bring me stuff. One day, I will go someplace awesome. That print on the wall is from IKEA, it shows a dock leading to a lake. This is my “window”. Oh, next to the mortar and pestle you may see my Schruteformer. What’s a Schruteformer, you ask?

This is a Schruteformer. The co-worker who went to Greece hosts Stitch N Bitch at her house and last time I went, I took my 3 year old. He brought the transformer, we forgot it there, she brought it to my office, and it never made its way home because I always step on them with my bare feet. I also had the wonderful Dwight Schrute stressball that usually sits on top of the mortar & pestle (which holds mints and chocolates). So the other day while a few people were in my office chatting, one of them went to work to make the Schruteformer. I wasn’t paying attention and got a good laugh when I noticed it later. That’s scotch tape holding his head on.

Totally boring pic, showing the black sweater I wear when I’m cold, my really nice red hooded coat that I got at the thrift store for $5 and my Klimt/Van Gogh prints on the wall opposite my photo collage. The cardboard has big post-it paper that you stick on the wall and write on, with words like “synergy” and “multi-faceted”.

My filing cabinet covered in funny magnets and my bookshelf full of junk. Note the poor fern or whatever it is on top of the filing cabinet. I occasionally remember to water it and leave in my boss’s window over the weekend. I really need to clean up those shelves, they’re an eyesore.

This is the hallway outside my office. Pretty cool, huh?

This is me when I visited a co-worker yesterday (the one who is going to help me with all my logo revision stuff, yay!!). She has awesome Chicago Bears headphones so I pretended to be in the recording studio, singing something in a really heartfelt manner. Think “We Are The World”.

Downtown lights + bodies of water = Chicago beautifulness. This is the view from the bridge about 50 feet from my office. I get to look at this as I walk to the train station, every night after work. As pretty as this is, though – I can’t wait for the Summer when it will still be light out when I leave!

Occasionally I smile in photos, but most of the time, I don’t.

And completely unrelated, but funny (and because I ran across this today):

Happy Thursday!

Shout Out Time!

Why, I think I’ll mention some stuff I like!

Let’s start the day off with the cast of High Fidelity coming to life in a Columbus, OH living room.  Written by Andy Whitman, a dude who writes great music reviews as well as thoughts on American culture and the Christian faith.

Have you ever heard of a Craft Social?  They exist in different forms around the country, but the one I linked to is the Chicago one.  It’s an evening to get together with friends and other crafters to work on different craft projects.  You can bring your own stuff, or you can float around to the different tables, each which offers a different project to work on.  I’ve attended a couple of these and walked away with a decoupaged cup coaster, spiral notebook with cereal box covers, keychains, cute cards/envelopes and I forget what else.  You should see if there’s one in your neck of the woods, they’re super fun!

This is a photo from a previous Craft Social, which has been held in my old church’s lobby . . . the upcoming Social will be at a cool new location which I’ve been to a couple times for work retreats:

Catalyst Ranch, downtown Chicago.  Check out their website for great photos of their AMAZING colorful, retro/vintage space.

Last, I LOVE LOVE LOVE these maps in flickr that show racial distribution in the U.S.’s major cities.  Check out your city, are you surprised?  Is the place you live considered racially diverse?  If so, is all that diversity mixed together, or segregated?  Do you think the segregation is by choice?  Due to circumstance?  What keeps your area segregated?

National Public Housing Museum

I work near the Merchandise Mart which is a landmark building in downtown Chicago, right on the Chicago River. The Merchandise Mart is the world's largest commercial building, largest wholesale design center, spans 2 city blocks and is 25 stories tall. The Kennedys used to own it (possibly still do, I just don't know).

The big building in the center of the pic is the Mart - I work in the red brick building to its right. Cool, huh?

Anyway, the Mart has (among other things) an amazing lobby that features some really cool seating areas (think posh, modern hotel lobby) . . . which they clear out occasionally for exhibits. Right now the exhibit is for the National Public Housing Museum, which will hopefully be complete in 2012.

It's a really cool exhibit to walk through - I hope to go back and take some pictures to post. For now, you can go to their website, look at photos, brush up on the history of public housing in the U.S. and read stories from people who lived in public housing at one time or another.

Site of future museum

I can't wait to visit this museum!! It will be located on the same site as Chicago's first public housing development, the Jane Addams Homes. Do you know who Jane Addams is? Does Hull House ring any bells? Jane Addams was a powerful woman who fought for the poor and disenfranchised, a rock star for social work before social work even had a name.

Storytime . . .

Tonight I have to give a presentation on a fake fundraiser I'm putting on for an organization I don't really work for, the Emergency Fund here in Chicago. It's an group that provides funds and assistance to low-income folks who are faced with a crisis. They want to get around the red tape that so many other aid organizations deal with, because when you're in a crisis, you don't have time to fill out forms.

Last year at this time, my landlord, who was going into foreclosure, allowed our building's heat to be turned off. We noticed it was cold, but the heating was always iffy. We complained to him, turned on our space heaters, and daydreamed about moving when our lease was up.

A day later, frozen pipes burst in our bathroom while we were all away at work & school, and "flooded" our garden level apartment. There was only a couple inches of water in the place but it was continuously running the entire time and being soaked up into anything porous that touched the floor -- the walls, bedding, shoes, bookshelves, tables, cabinets. We came home to a place that wasn't livable, with many of our posessions destroyed.

We were lucky -- we had friends, family and co-workers who bailed us out with money, food, a place to stay, encouragement, prayers. People were extremely generous. Oh, our landlord? He'd just given us notice that the bank would be in possession of the building in a couple days. He refused to pay for any damages, and because the bank had not yet taken over the building, they also would not pay. We didn't have renter's insurance, but after investigating, found that insurance wouldn't have covered our situation anyway.

County inspectors came to our building and immediately condemned it because of the water and soon-to-be mold issue. The other 2 families in the building, whose apartments were simply cold, had to find new places to live, as did we. The state has filed a lawsuit against the landlord but I doubt anything will come of it and if so there will likely be no compensation to us as tenants.

We were so lucky to have a safety net to protect us when this crisis hit. We quickly found a new apartment, moved in, and within a couple weeks, life was back to normal. Before we got stable, though, I called around trying to find some sort of assistance - vouchers for a hotel stay, help with food, anything -- all our money and energy was going into shuttling around the large Chicagoland area (we were staying with family in the city but still working/schooling in the suburbs), trying to find a new place to live, and fixing our car which decided to get in on the fun and completely die.

Guess what - there were quite a few organizations out there to help people who were in situations like ours, but they were tapped out. No money for anyone or anything. They relied on state funding which was late, and they didn't have anything else to give out.

So - that was a long, long story to explain why my group in class chose the Emergency Fund. It was beyond stressful trying to call around to this organization and then that organization, being put on hold, telling our story OVER and OVER and OVER again - just to be told no, we can't help. Or the only person that knows how to help you is on vacation. Can you call back in 2 weeks? The Emergency Fund helps people in crisis navigate the system, helps get their immediate needs covered so they can focus on the long-term strategies to get back on their feet.

Our little group is supposed to be presenting to the EF board of directors, asking for permission to put on a BBQ fundraiser. We have the whole little fake thing figured out - corporate sponsors, in-kind gifts, advocacy to the neighborhood, etc. It should be fun.

Now - on a totally different note, I have some Valentine's Day cozies listed in my Etsy shop. I also have selected a new charity to donate 10% of all sales to: Streetwise, a publication here in Chicago that is written and sold by homeless and near homeless individuals. It's a really inspiring thing and it turns out that many major metro areas in the U.S. have something similar.

I think the next charity I'll be donating to is the Emergency Fund. :)

And, oh yeah - shipping is free for the V-day cozies, through V-day! HOORAY FOR FREE!