Living like the Settlers

I know, I know I'm a lucky ass bitch to live in NYC and have a washer dryer combo in my unit...well the past few weeks have felt a little like tenement living when the dryer broke. Since I'm cheap (bye fluff n' fold) and I'm lazy (hell no laundry mat), the clothes lines have come out!

The lines fill my already small and overly hoarded bedroom. At first I was kinda pissed cause I don't like the way my clothes feel being air dried, but now I actually kinda like to see my clothes all lined up in a neat long row. It makes me think of my clothes in a parade marching, plus its fun making your boy roommates have to look at your underwear every time they enter.

my artsy tenement pic

20x200 Print Giveaway!

For those who don't know 20x200, its an amazing website that sells prints for really cheap. Their concept is to provide limited edition prints in series of 200 for $20 each or a series of 20 prints for $200. They release two new ones every week, I've bought some cheap ass art from them in the past. It's a great way to fill up those walls and make a nice little investment for cheap-o.

Well 20x200 and Thrillist are giving you the chance to enter a giveaway for a free print. You have to enter some private information...but I have been a member of Thrillist for awhile and have never received spam from them, so I think its safe. It's also not clear if everyone who enters gets a print or just a selected bunch...I'll just have to wait and see.

Enter the giveaway here!

photo by Carlo Van de Roer for sale on 20x200

Cheap Laughs and Things that Make You Go Awwws

I saw this the other night on TV and I almost died laughing out of amazingness/cuteness. I kept rewinding and rewinding it over and over, my roommates got annoyed, I don't think they saw the pure cinematic genius behind it. Kubrick who?

Its all about the PIGS!

Cheap Ass Halloween!

I love dressing up crazy, I would dress up crazy all the time, but most mornings I get lazy and stick to some of my usuals....But Halloween, getting to dress however the hell I want and take over that persona for the night, amazing. I can't wait till the day when I can spend a shit load on my costume, but unfortunately I work on a small budget every year, so its all about being crafty.

Some ideas I have been collecting over the past year: Peggy Bundy, Sookie (True Blood), a Chola!, Bob Ross (though I have found myself in dragish costumes the past few years)...

Last year my roommate and I were characters from Waiting for Guffman, for those who don't know the film, go watch it! And for those who love the glory that is Christopher Guest, we were Blaine Stool facotry workers, with stools and all. We memorized the song and made a little dance. For those that recognized us, it was the best feeling.


It was a fairly easy costume to make and not a lot of money. Bought cheap jump suites, stenciled letters on the back and bought super cheap stools, however those didn't last very long that night.

The year before I went really cheap, inspired by my white and red striped shirt, and was none other than Waldo himself. The only thing I had to buy was a red beenie for about $3 and a pair of round hairy potter like glasses for about $5. The rest of the costume came from things found around the house.

An important part of a DYI cheap Halloween costume is attention to detail. I saw lots of Waldos that night, but everyone even atmitted that they were the imposter Waldo found on the last page of the book compared to me, my backpack and all the other shit I had to carry. Can you find Woof?

Unfortunatly due to my job there were a few years where I didn't get to celebrate Halloween or I completely half assed it. But quite a few years back I was Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction.


Damn I love Halloween, when else do you get to walk around NYC with a syringe coming out of your chest?

This year though I'm very excited, I think its going to be pretty awesome and both of my roommates are involved as well. I will get to be all bloody and be a red head! Fun times!

Anyone have any good Halloween costume ideas or making their own cheap DYI?

Stenciling Away My Madness (and creating more along the way....)

I have been an avid decoupager for awhile now, and as much as I love that damn crafting, I decided to branch out to something new...Stenciling!

I started by taking my favorite picture of my most favorite man...oh Chuck Close (hearts all over his face right now)...in retrospect, I maybe should have started with an easier picture for the first time around...


and from there I brought the picture into photoshop and made it into a stencil...I found a really good "how to" here. You can also find already made stencils online, but why half ass crafting...am I right ladies?!

Next I printed out the picture and taped it to a hard card stock and started cutting into it with an exacto knife. So I wont lie, this part took FOREVER, grueling, back aching foreverness...but at least I was looking into Chuck's beady spirally eyes...

But once I was done the positive and negative looked awesome, so awesome I almost didn't want to get them all painty

But of course I painted it, cause ya know, you have to commit or quit...and if I was going to quit I would have like 2 hours before. I also did mutiple layers of colors...

and here is my stencil in all its glory...more colors to come, fabric paint for a t-shirt and a possibility to play around with the positive image.

So I have now decided I am going to challenge myself to a new crafting task every other week...I have to be realisitc here.

Anyone have a fun craft project I can try?

Fatty Fatty Boomalatty

White Castle has a 2 for 1 coupon good until Oct. 31st, luckily there are none in my neighborhood, otherwise I would become the aforementioned. This coupon still has nothing on my summer favorite 2 for 1s from Jamba Juice and Ben & Jerry's Sundae Monday.

printable coupon click here

Born Cheap

Last week there was an article in New York Magazine titled Born Cheap about a spendthrift mother and a tightwad father, and how their ideas of money/spending influenced their three children.

Of course I immediately begin to analyze the cheapness of my family, only going into my mothers side, as it's the women in my family who are the spendthrifters/tighwads. My cousin, the Mission Madre, is clearly a spendthrifter, like myself. I have never talked to a woman in my family about shopping without saying "sale rack", "deal", "coupon", "lohmans!" Basically you get the idea, we wont buy it unless we know we are getting a deal and then we must tell all the other women.

My mom is also clearly a spendthrifter as well and loves to know she is getting the best deal. "Look at this dress I got at Macy's $20 down from $250" and it is a cute dress, it was quite the deal. Though my mom is a spendthrifter she came from a family of tightwads and I think used this same mentality on me while I was growing up, quite genius really.

grandpa & grandma

Though I do look at the price of two cans of beans before selecting the cheaper one, I'm real glad there are no hardcore tightwads in my family, just a bunch of cheap ass bitches who know how to go to town on a sale rack. I learned from the best, love you ladies!

So are you a tightwad? spendthrifter? cheap ass bitch?