Spokane Shrinking Violet Society

Today is a day to celebrate not only because it’s St. Patty’s day, but it is also the day now known as: I survived my first quarter in grad school! So on my first day free, I have a bunch of cool stuff to do and also tell you about. First and foremost, has anyone heard of someone named Tiffany Patterson? She’s just an amazing artist that has a coloring book available at Tinman Too, aNeMonE, Paper Flowers and Boo Radley’s!  She’s done a bunch of art for us and created our logo!  Anyway, she’s having this amazing contest where you do some adaptation of her work and submit it to win prizes! You have to submit by tomorrow. I saw some of the other submissions and they are pretty much rockin, but is that going to stop me from applying my inner Bob Ross to her art? Hell no, I’m getting crafty up in here soon as I’m done writing this. Plus I dig her since she is going to (hopefully) make an artsy adaptation of me for my new vintage blog,  Miss Shabby ChicK!

Also: Check this out:

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is this limerick contest held by Riverspeak! The  voting for best limerick is tonight at the Checkerboard Tavern from 5:30-7:30 pm.  I’m really wondering what I was thinking when I submitted my limerick because it is very suggestive and I hope I’m not the only one letting my freak flag fly. But the  rules said it had to be brash and bawdy, so by God! I was. And please vote for me. At least a pity vote.

Now, I have something really good to tell you and I saved it for last, hoping perhaps you wouldn’t read this whole blog but if you have, prepare yourself because I can’t believe I’m sharing this. So, you all know I love vintage, right? Well, it’s a little known fact that Carousel-Vintage Clothing has an amazing stash of vintage stuff that hasn’t been seen before in storage. I’ve seen it and I sort of acted like a 12 year old boy’s first sighting of a girly magazine. I tried to keep my cool in front of Jenny Stabile, Carousel owner, but all I wanted was for her to go away and let me be in private so I could die in happiness. Ok, back to reality. So, she’s having a crazy cool sale on Saturday, March 26th from 8am to 6pm and a lot of these items will be out and ready to buy. I, of course, will be working there that day and trying not to cry and rip all of your awesome finds out of your hands and keep it all to my greedy self.  There is a $50 gift certificate to win, 75% off some items, I mean, It’s going to get crazy up in there. So by all means, come on down and check it out! I will be located by the dressing rooms and  will be available to sign autographs for these amazing blogs, and also to help you find items and clean up after you in the dressing rooms. But yes, I also can sign autographs. Ha!

So: To check out Tiffany Patterson:

http://www.uglyyellow.blogspot.com

http://www.tiffanypatterson.carbonmade.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uglyyellow

To check out Carousel’s sale, find her on facebook and make sure to RSVP to her sale event. (You don’t have to but there’s  a lot of information on that site). She’s also on 110 S Cedar!

And of course, !XXXXX! there is your pinch if you aren’t wearing green. Happy St. Patrick’s day!

Are you busy this Saturday at 11:30 a.m.? If you aren’t, I know for a fact that you will be hungry. So.. you might as well join us for our monthly Ladies Who Lunch at One World Cafe at 1804 E Sprague Ave. Please bring something to share or a donation!

So, this will actually be MY first Ladies Who Lunch. Every Saturday I am busy and cannot go, but this is the event to go to if you are interested in becoming a Violet! So, I hope to meet you there!

Now, I know that many of us still have our old prom dresses or want to go shopping for an awesome ruffled 1980′s hot mess of a dress. Now, you have a reason!

On Saturday, March 26th, we are having a retro roller party!!!  The main party  is at Pattison’s North Skating Rink on 11309 North Mayfair Street! It goes from 7-10pm and costs $6.50. The great news? That includes skate rental! We’ll be pre-funking at Fizzy Mulligans at 5:30pm so feel free to join us there as well! It should be amazing time and I for one, cannot wait to go find my hot mess of a dress.We recommend getting in line early, things can get really busy.

I hope to see you there! I know it will be a very groovy time!

I am assisting another Violet tomorrow most of the day so I won’t be blogging. But I will have something for you on Friday and I expect you to love it! (You will for sure, I promise!)

I get all types of questions about who the Violets are, what they do and more recently, why did I become part of this? So, here’s my story.

Last fall I began searching online for groups/volunteer opportunities I could be involved in when I made my move to Spokane. Nothing I found seemed to fit into who I was or what I wanted to do. I googled Spokane S on accident and came across this very page. I was intrigued. At this time, there was no weekly blogger on this website, just some information and a few links, etc. I quickly discovered that the Violets were also on facebook and I immediately friended them. I posted that I wanted to be a part of this when I moved to Spokane. I never thought anyone would take the time out to reply to me, but they did! Our founder, Mariah McKay took the time out to let me know she was happy to meet with me and invited me to come to their monthly ‘Ladies Who Lunch.’ After that, many people commented on my post and I felt friendships starting to form.

Then, I moved here and was overcome with depression about not finding a job. I didn’t leave the house. I forgot about the Violets. I just marinated in my misery.

One summer day I noticed an invitation on my facebook to attend the writer’s group. Since I love to write but have no idea what I’m doing (just do it for fun) I thought, what the hell, why not go? That first meeting was at the Coffee Social (now closed) and met a smiling group of men and women of all ages and for once, that summer was happy! We did a bunch of writing exercises and everyone was so kind and creative. So here was all the fun, funky mix of people I was searching for! I became a regular at the group. The best thing about this group is the non judgment if you can’t make it to a meeting. I even came to a meeting once but had writers block so bad I almost pulled my eyelashes out and left early and still they were cool to me! I also got the huevos to begin a novel, and no one laughed at it, at least not to my face (thanks writing group)!

I have never been able to make it to a Ladies Who Lunch. I will though, hopefully. I do make it to most of the board meetings and I will begin going to the book club meetings now that I have a handle on grad school. I am very interested in the music and wine nights but I haven’t made it there either. But my point is though, the times I can make it, I feel like part of something important.  I am really wanting to start a craft group and I’ve heard some interest in this from others so hopefully I can fit this in with grad school and work!

But through all of this, I got the opportunity to write this weekly blog. You might have noticed last week I wasn’t blogging! That’s another great story, I spoke with an AMAZING consultant over the phone before last fall about a possible job with Andrea Estes. She spoke to me for over a hour about her experiences and opening of her new business. She didn’t have any openings for hire, but she promised to keep me in mind. Who would’ve thunk it that at one of the Violet’s planning meetings, I sit across from this cute chick and while I’m admiring her hair, I can’t help but think to myself, Andrea Estes, I KNOW that name from somewhere! Then click. She was the consultant I spoke with 8 months ago! I introduced myself and she remembered me. She even kept her word and had me work at her first local conference in Spokane! It was a huge success and so many attendees told me how wonderful she was and how great the conference was. I can’t count how many people told me Spokane needed something like this and the conference was, in fact, the best they had ever attended. I would have to agree! I’ve helped out at countless conferences and never have I seen so many smiling faces. I’m proud of her as a Violet, friend and business owner.

So that’s my Violet story. I encourage you to  check out our info sheet, check out or facebook and ask as many questions you want. You should start by either coming to one of the lunches or attending one of the groups. There is NO, I repeat NOOOOOOOOOOO age limit and we don’t care if you are a dude. We just want a community involved. Maybe I will see you there!

I will be blogging on Friday instead of Thursday because I am helping an amazing fellow Violet all day tomorrow.

A few years ago I made a huge mistake. I stopped celebrating Valentine’s day. It just sort of got to me; the commercialization, years of serving  ungrateful, unhappy couples at restaurants I worked at and not to mention all of my depressed single friends on this day.  Come to think of it, the happy in love people irked me as well. I was so grouchy I did not appreciate my partner’s amazing 4star takeout and renting of the movie Chocolate, followed by a beautiful gift of a promise ring that particular V-day. We’re still together, 4 years later, but I still don’t know how he forgave my attitude  that night and the years following. So yeah, I banned Valentine’s day and declared everyone a jerk and that was that.

Last year something came over me. I found myself wondering why I had stopped celebrating this weird holiday. The year I started being about 100% localism was the year I started hating anything “commercial” and ” fake” (including Valentine’s day.) Although I found myself turning into quite the granola, I stopped doing so many  little things I had once loved. My veggies were fresh and local and my clothes, recycled. My armpits were happy with the Crystal. Everything was natural and local and centered but I realized some things can go too far.

As I sat on my boyfriend’s couch watching those delicious late night Red Lobster commercials with my stomach growling I wondered :why not celebrate Valentine’s Day? Yeah, maybe my man was happy about being off the hook for that particular day but maybe he wasn’t. I sat there thinking that there is nothing wrong with indulging in a little commercialization, nothing wrong with wearing a pink heart shirt and wanting roses and chocolate. I realized that being overly concerned with the world around me was leading me to forget little things that made me happy. It was 9pm when I grabbed my boyfriend and said, “Honey, change out of your sweatpants. We’re going out!”

Sitting at the restaurant (a locally owned one) with my glass of Camus Prairie Merlot (also local) I treated my boyfriend to a Valentine’s day dinner. We were crunched a the bar because we hadn’t made reservations. We could only order appetizers because that’s all they had. We just snuggled close and ordered more wine and  I apologized to my boyfriend for the 1093454875 time about being a jerk the year he’d surprised me on V-day. I said to myself, today is about supporting people you love and telling them you love them. Who cares about what Valentine’s day is really about in history? Well, I care but you know…

So if you’ve felt like this about the commercialization of things, consider this: make your sweetie or friend dinner or a treat with food from your community’s farmers market. Make them a card out of recycled materials. Make love to your partner. These things are all sustainable and come from the heart (at least I hope they do). If you are single, celebrate your sassy self with finger snaps every time you check yourself in the mirror and invite your friends over for some good old fashioned board  games, movies, or make cards for each other!

Whatever you do, just remember, Valentine’s day is about celebrating love, no matter if it’s eating at a huge restaurant chain, cooking at home, or giving someone a bouquet of recycled paper  flowers…. sort of localize that over-commercialization.

*Author’s Note*

Just so you know and don’t hate me, I was really grouchy that Valentine’s day because I had to give a pedicure to someone with very disgusting feet at work and not only did I get home at 8:30pm, I was covered in foot dust and funk because the client ordered a callus sanding service and her feet were so gross all the dead skin went all over my face, hair, and some say settled into my soul that night. My boyfriend is amazing and that night he loved me even though I covered in funk and in fact, in a funk. But come on, that is just disgusting!

Happy Valentine’s day Violets!

So, ya’ll know  that I am a huge fan of thrift, flea and second-hand stores. In fact, I send you there to find the objects needed to make the crafts I write about! More than a few of my friends (new to the thrifting scene) complained about the smell, disorganization and overall weirdness of these stores and said not only couldn’t they find that they were looking for, they were totally freaked out.   By the way, if you have ever seen the old movie “The Howling” there is a scene in which the main character-very gruesomely- melts into the ground at one point. Although I couldn’t really show this video on here- this is what happens to my boyfriend whenever I suggest we go thrifting. I read him my guidelines you all are about to read and he agreed every man should read this and they would be more likely to go with you, being more prepared. So: never fear Violets and others! If you are new to thrifting, I will help you by outlining these rules and feel free to add to them.

First things first. Not all vintage/thrift stores are created equal. We’re going to talk about the Value Village, Goodwill and Salvation army type stores. Actually if you can find a thrift store that is local , that is even better. (Easier haggling, nicer people).

What you need to know is you are going to this store to look at the stuff. Not the people, not the world around you. You’re not here to take pics for a freaky people of thrift stores website, you want to find cool stuff. When you enter the store, make a beeline for the section you want to search (I head to housewares first) and start looking. Some people complain that they don’t like searching for stuff at a store like Ross, and thrifting is more work than that-but I tell you to chill out and deal with it  because you can’t find vintage goodies at Ross.

You may be noticing by now that the store seems to smell. Is it you? No, it’s not. (I hope). It’s a mixture of people and used stuff that seems to have no point of origin. Most of the time this can be ignored. But I noticed Value Village particularly smells on Saturdays. I bring a body spray for these particularly bad times, because I can deal with the smell of b.o. but once it seems I can  taste it, it’s just too far. By the way- try to avoid thrift stores on the weekends, even if they are having an awesome deal. Everything is always picked through!

This next tip is very important. The hidden thing about thrift stores is that prices aren’t always fixed. You can usually haggle. I can teach even the most refined lady to haggle like a crazy bag lady. So, let’s say you spot a cool vintage vanity trash can. The price says $6.99. First of all, any price is too high of price, especially $6.99 for a trashcan. Try to get yourself outraged at this. Look for flaws on the item. No flaws? Does it smell bad? No smell? Then see if a similar item is priced lower. Bingo. Something to work with. Don’t bother trying to find an associate to help you. Depending on the item, you can always get at least $1 off. If the proceeds from a thrift store goes to charity than try not to haggle. Have some class! Have some standards, man.

If you plan to haggle, wait till you check out. When you do check out, you are allowed to look around at the people and take in a good whiff. You’ve earned it, you’ve been through the war of freaks and now you’re about to become one- a hagglin’ irritating person that everyone behind you is going to be mad at cuz you will be holding up the line. Embrace this. This is your freaky contribution to the public. The cashier will ring up your item, and this is your chance to announce what is wrong with the item, or that it’s more than the other like items, and ask “What can be done about this?”  99% of the time they will give you at least 20% off or more. This is good. This is a start. If they ask you what you think the discount should be, always, ALWAYS say 50%. But don’t say 50%, say the price that will equal 50% off, it works better.

I’m seeing that I’m almost out of room here so I think that this information is good enough to get you started. I hope this helps. But word of advice: Don’t go to a vintage boutique and start haggling. It’s not a thrift store. This is disrespectful. Only seasoned hagglers should do this, we have a code of ethics that newcomers need to learn.

So, I don’t think I have any vintage crafts in the queue for next week, but I want you to practice what you’ve learned today. I wish I could break this down for you into a 20 page manual but I see I’m now REALLY out of room. So have a great day Violets! Good luck embracing your new crazy baglady haggler self! You can do it! Now Practice:

My grandma is like a little doily sweatshop! It’s the cutest thing ever. However, every time she makes one for me I go home and see where I can place yet another doily! There is one on the coffee table, one on the kitchen table, one under the lamp, I mean they are everywhere but under one of my cats. And (dare I say it) the excess doilies were starting to put a damper on my style. Then I got a crazy cool idea.

Normally my grandma only makes white doilies, but I figured it would rock if I could buy some colored and regular ones at a thrift store and paint a few of them for texture, since it’s definitely NOT ok to paint my Grannie’s doilies. She’d probably skewer me with her crochet needle and slap me upside the head with her walker… and that thing is heavy. As you already know, I’m a big fan of the thrift and flea markets and doilies are one item that you can always find for cheap. I only needed about extra 5 doilies for this project but I intend to cover the entire wall over time.

This is what I’m talking about: It’s beginning to look really cool! If I had a painted wall underneath it would be even cooler but this is a good start. I hung a vintage picture frame over them for added texture and plan on making it a funky crazy wall! I even put a doily on my huge vintage lamp to spice it up a little: I just laced the edges with yarn and tied it around the back. It made the lamp look more romantic and funkier. I just think this is a great way to display hard and talented work in a contemporary way. I still have  a few huge doilies under lamps around the house because they are too big to hang, but honestly I am having so much fun building this crazy cool wall! The picture doesn’t really do it justice but I know when it’s done it’s going to look like a textured painting! And it’s really easy to find small vintage picture frames so I’ll be doing that this weekend!

I hope you all enjoyed this little tip and maybe gave you some crafting ideas of your own. Stay tuned for next week: I’m going to educate you on thrift store/ flea market etiquette and the low down about finding what you want, including how to haggle like a crazy bag lady. Yes, these things can be taught and I will be the one to take you there! Have a great day Violets!