don't tell anyone, but i think i am going to steal my brother's copy of super troopers because it is one of the best films ever made. really, after an extended hiatus, i have now seen it 5 times in the last week, and nothing could make me happier. meow. whey they get that syrup in them, they get all antsy in the pantsy. anyhow, i just forgot how good it was, and how it just gets better and better all the time, and that i need to have it....and it looks like broken lizard has a new movie coming out in 2004, club dread. ok, so i doubt that anything could be as good as super troopers, but i am quite excited.

i trul, truly believe in some crazy sort of thought energy thing. in my quick escapes from the party, i sat to write some e-mails. i wrote to my favorite climing, crazy, amazing mechanic friend ant who sort of lives outside boston or new hampsire or could very well be riding his bike to guatemala and is sometimes hard to get in touch with. after sending this e-mail i went back to the party and had a conversation about a friend's son who is trying to convert a schoolbus to a camper in order to drive to the tip of south america and back...and i told her my friend ant would be perfect to help with the mechanics of the change. weird? maybe. maybe i just had ant of the brain, but ant is also the only person i know who would be valuable in a school bus to camper switch. anyhow, i was so excited to see that ant actually wrote back to me in the last hour. what are the chances? slim to none, but i caught him on the slim side and that made me so happy. so, here's to serendipity and ant! cheers.

party is almost over. i think i have told the duct tape story and the mad december rush story (not to mention the anthropologie story) 4 million, one hundred thousand fifty six times today. luckily, there are left overs of the dessert, and b-dog is coming over for a left-over-eating/say-goodbye visit. oh that brian, what would i do without him? ok, so these parties aren't all bad, cause i actually did have a good conversation with a friend of mine from high school who is working at being a pro-golfer. we can keep track of him at golden state tour dot com. but that was one nice catch up conversation to have, mostly because it was the longest conversation we had ever had, despite going through high school together and having all the same friends. oh well. his mom is also one of the most rad artisits i know, and i have loved her work for years. when i find a link i will post it.

tonight my parents are throwing a party.
whippeeee.
i think i might escape to the safety of my room everyone once in a while for some respite.
if only i could run away, cause i'm not quite sure why i am in such a crabby mood.

ahhh, gossip.
there just ain't nothing like it.
last night was a long and late night of all the juicy goods from the home town
and i couldn't be a happier camper!

ah yes, it's christmas time here. something about christmas and gift giving really brings out the funny, funny moments in the family. well, i'll do my best to recount a few of them here...

1. my brother was gifted a ronald reagan 2004 calendar. i didn't know such things existed, maybe my dad ordered it off the fox news website. anyhow, i was about to open a calendar shaped gift, and sarcatically said "geez, i hope it's my very own reagan calendar." to which my mom replied, "it's your own john dean calendar" to which my brother replied "howard mom, it's howard." and my mom admitted that the democratic candidates were all over her head. (although commenting later that lieberman is her favorite if she had to have one. when pressed she said it's because he is the one who has changed his policy the least over his campaign, then admitting that he is the most conservative.) more to come...

2. i was excitedly gifted a 'learn to knit kit' from my grandma, which i have been really looking forward to. of course, i sat down immediately to figure out what this whole knitting this is about. so far, this is what i have learned...
a. i have learned that i will not be able to learn how to knit based on a few drawings.
b. knitting seems like fun, but there is no way i am going to figure it out on my own.
c. knitting near a kitten is a challenge. i like yarn, and so does said kitten. the kitten also really, really like the shiny knitting needles.

3. we have already had our first christmas gift casualty. someone was given an m & m mug, and the mug is already broken. i was in the other room when it happened, but it had something to do with a dog and one of my silly family members.

4. i know own 4 complete sets of drinking glasses. all completely bizarre and sentimental in their own way. this is the set i got today from my very happy father. he thought i might like them because i liked the craziness of the 'slanted glass set' i inhereted from my nana (ie one set of glasses that i own). not to mention that i took the entire set of glasses from my house upon departure back to new haven. well, just like they always say, a girl can never have too many glasses. but if you look at these glasses (the roly poly glasses) they look really, really easy to knock over, and so knowing me (and my infinite grace) it's probably not such a good idea!.

peek peek is one of my favorite cats of all times. more like a dog-lion-cat, but fantastic (with a fantastic owner to boot) and a cat with some real personality. but i strongly suggest you check out peek peek (previously egg nog) right here at this link and then pass it along to all your friends.

merry christmas eve dearies!
enjoy your crazy families and being surrounded by love,
and i hope you all get good presents tomorrow.
much christmas love,
v

it's time to settle in to the family christmas eve. it's like our traditional christmas eve, except not at all. we usually have a nice polish dinner at the grandparents' house with the extended family. and we are all allowed to open only one gift, which grandma forces into 4 or 5 (not that i complain)...and we all have a bit to drink and all...so this year is a bit different, as my little fam sits in the red room, watching pirates of the carribean on the new big tv, eating take home thai food and delivery pizza with lots of wine and beer and shoo-ing the dog. we're calling it the international christmas eve...thai, italian, mexican beer, and french pastries...and pirates. who doesn't love pirates.

yes, so off to celebrate christmas. probably with pictures to follow tomorrow.

is this not the cutest dog you have ever seen? and he is even tamer than before...i guess that happens when you go away for 6 months. but really, such a good dog, and so tolerant of steve the monkey hanging on like that. and lucky for sport he has been hired as the newest intern at vanessa jean, so he will get to be on the about us page in no time!

i am going to post some adorable sport pictures (ok, a picture) as soon as i can figure out how to get this new fangled scanner thingy to work.

i really want to see big fish.
as my mom says, 'it's by burton, he did scissorhands.'
i guess that means it must be good.

after reading my own posts from the past week...i think i was going a bit crazy. ok, not that i am not usually crazy, because i think i am a bit off-the-rocker to begin with...but i think i was driving myself to some sort of duct tape related insanity. luckily, however, that is over now. the christmas rush is entirely sent out, and i am quite excited about that! what a busy time of year! i've officially shut down the studio for the remainder of december and all of january so that i can enjoy a little r & r, some more trips to ny, dc, boston, provi and vermont and actually hang out a bit. not that i haven't been hanging out a bit lately, but now i guess i will just get to add sleep to my schedule. that's not to say i haven't already committed to a few duct tape related things for january...very very exciting things that i can't quite talk about yet because they aren't confirmed, but when they are, i will share them. yay yay yay!

there are a few things that annoy me. this website is one of them...the least of the reasons being that it has one of those annoying floaty text things that follows your cursor.

does this look familiar to anyone? hmmm.
i was cruising the ol' internet (i do have my father's genes afterall) and came across this. the text is even eerily similar. oh well, if you look at the quality, vanessa jean wins out again!
harumph...we'll see what she gets for copying me.

wow, i thought i was in to duct tape. check this out.
apparently my goods are mentioned in here somewhere, as too expensive, so the gal opted to make her own instead.

vanessa jean on the henrietta fahrenheit site. h f is a way waay cool store in ypsilanti, michigan. the woman who owns is is tre cool and a great vj supporter. and when i was in news haven (the stricktest magazine store in town, so bizarre) with a pal last week, i was looking through venus (hello natasha lyonne) and there was an article about the store and jennifer albaum who owns it. it was so cool to see this store with my stuff in it in a mag. yes, i know i am self impressed, but i just can't get over it. love it! anyhow, check h f out online. they're great.

all this air france cancelled stuff and the no-curbside traffic at lax means i might have some trouble getting back to my snuggly home in connecticut come sunday. what's a girl to do? apparently the freeway leading up to and the off-ramp to lax was like a parking lot today, and people were getting out of their cars and walking to the airport. whippeee.

yes, yes this article explains so many things. thanks for passing along dear reader. and this is also why you will never see vanessa jean in wal-mart. darn you walmart! darn you!

on a non-walmart level it's something i can relate to after doing so much wholesale business this season. there is something to be said about doing 300 piece volume in one sale, but it's so much less than doing them individually. oh well, onward and upward.

this is a fun, fun site for anyone who has a few free minutes and any interest in zip codes. i haven't figured out how to make it refresh to a blank screen after doing it once, so i just end up re-loading it, but it's cool none the less. and so far i have learned that 55555 is not a valid zip code.

merry christmas eve everyone!
home at last, after a debaucle of sickness through the week.
grrr. sickness is a big goober.
but i guess i had it coming with the incredible amount of work and fun that was going on.
and now i find myself at home, in cali
with some strep
and a lot of free time
and an internet connection...
do you know what that means?
blogging, lots and lots and lots of blogging.
all the posting i've been so good at not posting these past few weeks.
onward it comes!

almost there! the end is in sight.

pizza, coke, cake, breakfast burritos, cake, tea. rinse and repeat as needed.

what do we want?
duct tape!
when do we want it?
now!

yo! so much duct tape i think i am going crazy. going to call it quits for the night so i can get a good full day of work in tomorrow before a super rushed and full trip to the post office (thank goodness for extended holiday hours and really, really long lines!) but before that, i get to be the heroic knight-ess in shining armor and rescue jeepie from the dealership again. why oh why oh why so many car problems lately. grrrrrrrr. yes. i am clearly losing it.

rollin' rollin' rollin'
keep that duct tape rollin'
(or, i guess un-rollin' would be more appropriate!)
things are crazy busy, i've been assembling marons and danas and hannas until my finger are raw.
i can't believe christmas is so so soon!

much too late...much, much too late for this, but...

happy birthday chi!

i hope you had a fan-tas-tic celebration day and many more to come!

the orders are pouring in like a flood. where's the arc? can the clutches and mini erikas and wallets board two by two..? yes, going crazy. don't forget that the 18th is the last day to place orders...and some will be able to be filled after that...but there is such a rush fee...

ok, back to work!

there was indeed a sledding adventure on sunday, and it was much needed. the roomie came home with plans to sled with friends, we took jeepie on the adventure to the div school, and met up with her friends. we sledded a bit. the snow was flakey and not too packed yet. it was all going well until there was a sledding accident. it was neither me or the roomy, but friends. it was kinds freaky, and not the first time i've been to the emergency room after sledding. anyhow, we were going to get hot chocolate and snacks for the troops at the med center, but someone locked her keys in the car. ok, so i left them in the car, with the plan to leave the car unlocked, so i wouldn't loose the keys while sledding (as happened to my irish pal last weekend), but my habit is to lock the car and so i did, and was locked out. so we hitched a ride home, i called my roadside service for the millionth time this year, and then took a quick trip to the med center and delivered some snackies to warm up the injured (nothing was broken, thank goodness) and then got back to jeepie, but the tow truck got stuck in the snow, so i waited for a bit (thank goodness for the roomie and her warm car!) and then the really really really incompetant (i am a bad speller!) vehicle helper man came and couldn't figure out how to unlock my car...it was 45 minutes standing out in the snow with him cursing my car and his company and equiptment...on and on and on...and did i mention it was snowing and windy and cold...but fun to be outside...anyhow, while he was on the walkie to the garage asking for (cursing for) more help, i grabbed the tools and unlocked it myself. yes, i am a genius. ok, so i'm not a genius, or else i wouldn't have locked the keys in there, with the spare conveniently in the front seat, but i always feel good when i can do things involving cars that mechanics can't. end of story. and then i went for a run in the snow with my running shoes. then i worked. and worked through alias, which was a re-run, and worked and worked and worked.

it's quiet, still and snowing. perfect for cuddling up and watching pride and prejudice and work-work-working. snow is so beautiful. the flakes aren't too big, but i hope enough piles up for a bit of afternoon sledding. smiles!

you know what's great? new running shoes...and i'm going to pick mine up!

ah yes, it's that time of year again...time for rudolf the red nose reindeer punch...no, it's not quite the same without green pants and the e.s. crew around, but we'll have to make due!

sad news for yale, good news for duke.

oooops, more overdue videos.

you might think that running a small business would get me over my phone-phobia...but sadly that is not the case. oh well...i'll just be a scared little phone caller and receiver for the rest of my life! i'm trying though, i swear.

alright little chipmunks...i'm back, and clearly going crazy from all this duct taping. maybe i should start taping ducks, that sounds a lot like fun...

anyhow, note to holiday gift purchasers...
december 18th is the last date to place an order with guaranteed holiday delivery.
orders received december 19th-23rd can be delivered in time for the holidays, but will require a rush delivery and handling fee.
the studio and elves officially shut down on decemeber 24th...and will spend january recovering. more to come on this though!

so don't wait until the 12 days of christmas are dwindling down before you place your order!

aren't you all the luckiest duct tape fans in the land...

i'm on a duct tape engineering streak...and i actually have a few minutes to post. it's been so much work lately that i think i am going crazy...so maybe a little posting will keep me sane. so far this morning, a tom, a suzy q, and initial belt and a black and white clutch. still 8 gazillion pieces to go. and it's also a gorgeous day outside...so i...must....stay......put...ahhhhhh! how many days until christmas and this craziness is over?

the most exciting thing...
this monday was a fab day...fab to the max. i happened to head into the not-quite-so-daunting-anymore city for an annual reunion. phwa to the max, but totally fun! one of the coolest parts was seeing part of the vanessa jean collection in public! wahooo. new york's grand central terminal has a cute little gift show in the lobby coming in off of one of the entrances (that's the most i can give you...see how well i know my way around!) anyhow, uncommon goods has a fancy-schmancy booth there, and i cruised by and saw my stuff. it was good. my heart was racing, and i just had to point it out with everyone i was with. ok, truthfully, it was my second time seeing it, but i was just so excited and validated that i had to show everyone i was with. yay! yes, hyper. yay!

ahhh, things that are exciting!
1. a re-order for the large clutch, but this time in the black and white stripes for the valentine's edition of the uncommon goods catalog! yay. the only negatory is that they want it this week...more business for the elves.
2. possibly really great things at another, larger chain...can't give details cause i don't want to hex anything, but really really exciting, so keep your fingers crossed!
3. i think we might be up to orders from all 50 states by now. that is my goal, and i think it might now be the case...although i think alaska might be left out...if you know anyone in alaska...send them our way.

from glorious green pants and very true...find the number in your area!
Anyone Given You This Phone Number?

In Boston, it's 617-861-3962. In New York, it's 212-660-2245. In Miami, it's 305-241-0033. In Seattle, it's 206-376-9798. In Washington D.C., it's 202-452-7468. Has anyone given you these phone numbers? If so, go cry. We sympathize. You've been rejected. This is what happened: You met an exciting new person and thought you'd like to set up a date. So you asked for the phone number. And you got it! One problem: When you called the phone number, it wasn't the hot gal or guy you reached, it was the Rejection Hotline.

"Hello! This is not the person you were trying to call. You've reached the Rejection Hotline." The fast-talking male voice goes on to explain in gritty detail the many reasons why you were rejected and then jauntily tells you to get over it. How cruel--and clever. Started in Atlanta in 2001, there are now Rejection Hotline phone numbers in 30 major cities. The Rejection Hotline is hot. Each city routinely gets more than 50,000 calls a month.

"The dating scene is full of people who can't take a hint or can't take 'no' for an answer and many who apparently can't take showers, can't brush their teeth, or can't seem to go out in social settings without awkwardly embarrassing themselves by an inability to read a situation," the RejectionHotline.com Web site says. "The Rejection Hotline exists as a public service to both the rejector and to the rejectee." If nothing else, it's an easy way to get out of uncomfortable situation when someone asks you for your phone number and you're not interested. And for the person who is being rejected, at least there is no public embarrassment.

thank goodness for brian and keeping the posting going. posting slow = business busy!
the little elves and i are going crazy in the studio, hardly enough time for anything but turning out duct tape goodies for the masses. more to come...but since i have a minute...i am going to post some juicy little tidbits. ok, well, if you read these chronologically this will be last, but that's ok. can anyone tell i'm a bit sleep deprived?