What happens in Vegas aka My POOL Trade Show Adventure Part II

Sorry for the first teaser post *wink*

So here's the tofurkey and potatoes about what went down in Va-Va-Vegas!
First day of the show was pretty effing exciting. We arrived at the show at 9am sharp with 2 hefty breakfast burritos in hand (because when you are outside of Texas the breakfast burrito is like 900 times more popular than the breakfast taco - a fact that I will NEVER understand). The booth was all set up and looking super cute (if I do say so myself)! But you tell me - what do you think?



So yeah, by 9am the dj was already on the scene.. not that anyone was awake enough to dance, but he did a good job warming us up. Right off the bat I made friends with the lovely and out going ladies from Leatherette Heart. Liz (the brains & shot in the arm of the biz) is sort of the most wonderful person ever! Hilarious, crass & seriously one of a kind! AND she is was sugary sweet enough to share a box of "Fat Elvis'" with the rest of us on our row. What is a Fat Elvis? It's a fried spring roll filled with banana's, chocolate & *wait for it* bacon! Good Gawd - they were sinful. Here on the left is pic of Liz, Robin & yours truly from The POOL opening party @ The Hard Rock Cafe. I guess this is a good time to tell you that this was the night the debauchery really started. See - unless you are gambling in Vegas - the drinks are crazy expensive on the strip... but they were free free free at the POOL opening party! Don't we look like sassy drunk ladies?

The first day I was really nervous but it faded pretty quickly. I met lots and lots of super nice people. Many of them were from Canada & they really do live up to the cliche of being oh so seriously nice and polite! I also got a very flattering visit from Twinkie Chan (who is not from Canada as far as I know - but just as sweet)! She walked up and said "I heard you were here and I wanted to come meet you." I was like "you wanted to meet me?!" *blushing* She is even cuter in person (seems impossible I know) & her booth for Yummy You of course really was um, YUMMY! She is something to aspire to. No doubt! If you don't know who Twinky is - read her blog. It will not disappoint.

Later in the day our booth neighbors appeared- they'd had a shipping mishap that kept them from loading in on time :( What a nightmare! Enter stage right Magda & Jake of Marmalade Clothing! Well traveled, sharply dressed & witty as hell - we could not have had better neighbors। She is from Toronto, he's from the UK and while Magda had been to Vegas before - this was Jakes first time to the states! I spent the next few days swearing up and down that the US is NOT like Vegas. I think I finally convinced him. By day we helped reel people into each others booths (and made fun of the dj) then by night we were skipping through the casinos drinking beers and fawning over eachother. Instant BFF's!
The second and third days at POOL were a blur of handing out line sheets, shakin' hands, feeding people fortune cookies, talking about tiger stripes and lace. It was FUN and exhausting! Time in Vegas either doesn't exist or it passes you by making you feel nuts in the process. Before I knew we were pooped and packing up. With an armory of new biz contacts we wobbled back to our room and prepared for our last night on the town. We didn't just go out to gamble our hard won booty away - we actually got put on the list to see Ghostland Observatory - who were actually playing in our hotel that night! So we talked almost everyone on our row into going with us and we danced like fools before finally making our way to down town Las Vegas. WHICH WAS WAY BETTER THAN THE STRIP! It was real and gritty and flashy AND I won $25 on an Elvis slot machine! Winning always makes things better ;) It was hilarious though. I was sitting with Austin at another slot losing my ass and I got up to announce that I was going to hit the Elvis machine in the middle of the room and I literally said "because I need a little less conversation and a little more action" then after the first $1 I put in the machine spit out 100 quarters! That was the end of my gambling in Vegas. I now when to say when... most of the time.
The rest of the night was filled with bar hoping, photo-boothing, bar top dancing, country western sing-a-longs, pricey cab rides & saying "I'm going to miss you so much!" over and over again.
Here's the photographic proof:
yep - fried twinkies. Not served all night apparently.

I know it's hard to see, but this is a shark covered in bra's... hanging on the wall at a honky tonk called hogs & heifers... when in Vegas - right?

I know I don't have to say it - but it was a long night and I felt like death in the morning. We were totally green on our flight home - but we weren't the only ones in rough shape on the plane.

So - how did it go business wise? Well - I'm still finding out. People are still putting orders together. But I can tell you that soon you will be able to find Model Citizen at these fine retailers:
Hip Replacements - Asheville, NC
Cliche - Minneapolis, MN
Young Blood Boutique - Atlanta, GA
Hootenanny - Cambridge, MA

And I will be announcing more soon ;)

As for everyone that donated to help me get to the city of sin - I will be sending out your rewards shortly. I could never thank you enough for your generosity! EVER!

xo!
Bonnie Rue

What happens in Vegas aka My POOL Trade Show Adventure Part I

I love flying. Everything about it. Trotting through the airport with bags in tow, slamming into strangers shoulders, shuffling onto the plane in single file with that weird aircraft AC smell in the air, a tiny bag of peanuts in my near future... but then nothing tops the take off!
So about a month ago Austin and I fastened our seat belts, made sure our seat back and folding trays were in their full upright position & then we learned that Austin simply does not like to fly. The take off in particular does not thrill him. Why am I telling you this? Well - because it is the reason why we arrived in Vegas with a little bit more than a buzz. Flight attendants make a stiff drink & for that we applaud them. We went from TX to NV in the blink of an eye and as we descended into Vegas our hotel the Mandalay Bay glimmered like a golden starship in the desert sun. If you've never seen it - it's way over the top. Yes - everything in Vegas is, but no other hotel is made up entirely of mirrored gold windows. Wow.
We had one errand to run before checking into what we would later refer to as "The Man Bay". We had to pick up some astro turf for my booth from Lowes. The girl at Lowes did not know what astro turf was! This is funny because Las Vegas Blvd is lined with the stuff! There's no real grass in the desert - c'mon! So, after acquiring our lovely lush astro turf we were now ready to hit the hotel and check out our booth at the POOL Trade Show.
The hotel, our room, the convention space - it was all so overwhelming! We wondered around being touristy, taking photos and pointing at everything for the first few hours we were there. We flew in a day early just so we could have time to act like fools for a moment before we had to get down to business. After figuring out where we were to register in the morning and seeing the booth we had nothing really to do for another 20+ hours we decided to have a nice meal at Susan Feniger's restaurant the Border Grill. Black bean & plantain empanadas anyone? This gal right here says
"Yes please!"

After dinner we waited for the sun to set & then headed out on an adventure down the strip. Despite waiting til 9 almost 10 at night it was still 102°F!! Being from Texas we could hang with this - but still it was fairly punishing... and for those of you who have never been to Vegas - the later it gets - the more the strip smells like puked up daiquiri's. Yikes. So here's some pics from our stroll down the strip:

Lounging on the astro turf
the lady of liberty on the right is made out of jelly beans!
Sin City snacks!
Our neighbor - The Luxor - where we ended up spending a lot of our time.

















After sweating to death on the the streets of LV and losing some piggy bank money on the slots our swanky hotel room was calling to us. I slept like the dead - which was amazing because the next morning we had to be downstairs by 9am to register for the show and set up the booth..

Which I will tell you all about in Part 2! I'll introduce you to all the amazing designers I met at the show AND you'll even get to sneak a peek at my Tiger Lady's boyfriend! Truly love at first sight - it was all I could do to keep them from running off and getting hitched by Elvis!

Summer Lover

I've totally been ignoring my blog. This summer has me swept off my feet. It is my favorite season - even if it is 100+ degrees outside. I've been sipping margarita's, breaking into apartment pools, riding my bike, eating watermelon, setting off fireworks, trekking out to the lake. ... AND running around like a crazy person while I try to get ready for the Pool Trade Show. WHICH I leave for in only 4 days!! It's all starting to come together though - I think I may actually pull this off. Vegas - I hope you are ready!

I've put a lot of work into creating a simple yet awesome design for my booth and here's a little sneak peak at what I've got going.

This lovely lady will (inspired by Ms. Bake & Destroy herself - Natalie Slater) will be greeting everyone as they enter the booth:


And this bad ass hair hopper will be displaying all the Model Citizen bobby pins.

*Sigh* I wish my hair were that big...

So that's what's up in my world. What have you ladies been up to all summer?
I hope to hear stories of skinny dipping, beach bunny-ing & boozey watermelon eatting contests ;)

xo!
Bonnie Rue

Hair Hopper

I rolled out of bed recently, crusties in my eyes, sun coming in through the window.. I stumbled to the bathroom with my eyes squeezed tightly shut, splashed some water on my face and then as I peered sleepily into the mirror I realized that my hair-do has officially expired. Yes, I am a bottle blonde. Not exactly a secret... but there it is. So yeah - my roots are extreme. Extreme I tell you! Now before I go under the bottle I decided to dig around for some inspiration - I mean, I don't want exactly the same do again. No way!
What did I find myself looking at instead of hair styles that I could actually rock day to day? Over the top, avant garde, super stylie, highly structured, tampered, teased and sprayed do's from all over the world of course! Because that's productive. Right?
Anywho - I thought I'd share my favorites with you. Enjoy!

The good news is...

I tell myself (on a daily basis) that I am going to sit down and blog a lot in order to have a bunch of posts saved up so when I'm busy or feeling drained I'll have something to post. This obviously hasn't happened. Lately I've been both busy and drained. I've been buried at my jobby job booking bands & busy at the house trying to get ready for POOL and unfortunately getting things repaired. Yeah - the new digs aren't perfect. The water heater was all messed up, there were a few electrical issues & some plumbing issues too. BUT the ceiling & roof are holding strong. I like that!
Things aren't all bad though. No no! Let me share some good news with you:

*Comedy Central has been airing new episodes of Futurama!


*LUSH Cosmetics is having a pop-up shop here in Austin next weekend!

*Devo has a new record out! It's called Something for Everybody! (I love the album cover - it is hilarious!)

*Fan mail! Yep I got some awesome fan mail from a girl named Kendall who will soon be a bad ass pastry chef! Thanks Kendall you made my day <3

*Speaking of my day - I found a new way to start off each and every one on the right foot:


*AND!! My kickstarter project has been going really well! I've raised enough cash to help pay for my booth & with 20 days left my new goal is to maybe raise some more for the plane tickets.

That's what's been shakin' in my world! How about you?

xo!
Bonnie Rue

Calling all Tiger Ladies!

I need your help!

Remember how I'm going to Vegas in August? Then you remember how my ceiling fell down and went boom in the night a few weeks ago?

Well, all these out of the blue moving expenses have really tripped me up. I'm no longer on schedule to pay for Vegas on time. This will be an incredibly expensive trip. By the time I get back to Austin, TX after the show I will have spent roughly $5,000 on samples, airfare, hotel rooms, promotional materials, decorations for my booth to help me stand out in a sea of other super talented up and coming designers and many other little things that would only make me feel overwhelmed if I listed them.

So, I've started a little fund raising project on kickstarter.com
I'm only asking for $1,000 to help me finish paying off my booth. This is a huge opportunity. You all are the ones who helped me get to this point and that's why I set up a bunch of cool rewards for each donation received. Postcards, t-shirts, jewelry, mix cd's, art work inspired by your bad ass self - more!

Any and all support is appreciated. If you are broke - I absolutely understand! Please just share the link to the Kickstarter Model Citizen project page with your friends.

or refer them to the Model Citizen commercial on YoutTube:

Who's the best? You's the best!

tiger stripes & tandem bikes!
Bonnie Rue

My Big Gay Weekend

Friday afternoon I clocked out at work & ran home to put on the loudest dress I own. I was running late & had a very important date with the loudest and proudest of Austin's LGBTQIA community. That's right - Austin had it's first ever Queer Bomb Day! It was a smokin' hot success covered in love & glitter & of course - pride! We had to go march and show our support. There has been a rift here in the heart of Texas's queer community & some disagreement on how that community should present & conduct it's self... Some folks didn't want to concern themselves with what the rest of the world might think about them... thus Queer Bomb was born! It was a total effing blast! Pics? Of course!







I feel like I sort of failed this event. Not being fully unpacked yet I could not find my body glitter (yes, I own some) or any of my noise-makery things like whistles, kazoo's, bells... There's always next year - right?

We got home from Queer Bomb - LATE. Then I was up and out of bed, straightening up (wha wha) to have my lady friends over after we caught a showing of Sex in the City 2!
We sipped cosmos while they showed old trailers for movies like Big Trouble in Little China & Mannequin - which Kim Cattrall starred in! I totally need to revisit these movies with a quickness! I loved them when I was a kid.

As for the movie we went to see - it was totally over the top AND it was supposed to be. It wasn't bat shit crazy about the movie. I can't for the life of me figure out why the writers chose Abu Dhabi as the girls vacation destination - out of EVERY WHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. But - i'm not going to get caught up on all that... I loved Stanford and Anthony's wedding. It was fantastically over the top! *Spoiler Alert* There were swans, Anthony cries, Carrie wears a tux & she looks awesome - minus her lady gaga inspired head gear.. My favorite outfit in the entire movie was Miranda's dress she wore to the wedding. I could only find this shot of it.

My second favorite fashion moment was Carrie at the Souk in her big giant skirt that makes her look like Carrie from so many years ago:


*Spoiler Alert 2* Aiden comes back! He was my favorite. Okay - that's all I'm going to say.

While I think most people would find it hard to relate to the extreme luxury in this flick - relating to where the ladies are personally & in their relationships takes little to no work at all. Each woman lives such a different kind of life, but they are all struggling with trying not to lose who they were just a few years ago - while they try to warm up to the changes that have recently taken place. Marriage, children, menopause... The message the ladies have is sort of comforting. In a world filled with lifestyle magazines and Martha Stewart telling you the best way to deal with every little freakin' thing in your life - the fab 4 seem to be telling us to tune all that crap out and make our own rules no matter what. It's all set up at the biggest gayest wedding ever. Which was sort of perfect. All in all I'll give it a B-
which is equivalent to three (out of five) <3's.

So which of our leading ladies do you most relate to? I've always felt like I was a pretty even mix between Miranda & Carrie... with a touch of Samantha when I'm cutting lose. I've never been able to relate to Charlotte though. Not even a little bit.

And that is the story of my big gay weekend!

love, glitter & pride,
Bonnie Rue

p.s. What about that amazing pony ride of a bike? Are you as jealous as I am?!

Drinks are on me

As many of you know I've been moving. Which is a total pain - everywhere! Things are almost in their place though. I was hoping to go see Sex in the City 2 last weekend with my lady friends but instead I was unpacking & waiting around the house while a plumber fixed our water heater. That's right - after we moved in we took icy cold showers. It seriously sucked! It made me want a cocktail... and then maybe another! Especially since I wasn't sitting in a theater with my friends sipping cosmo's and watching Carie, Miranda, Charlotte & Samantha strut their stuff. It's true - the Alamo Drafthouse - our theater here in Austin TX has a full bar. We are spoiled - I know.

Inspired by my lack of fun this last week I created these luscious liquor earrings!

* Champagne * Tequila * Vodka * Whiskey *
All of which will come with a special summer cocktail recipe that will cool you down and chill you out! The recipe's will feature ingredients such as - cucumber, passion fruit juice, citrus fruits & avocado! All recipes are easy peasy & you and your friends will love them. Cross my heart!

I'm excited to see the new Sex in the City - I have heard mixed reviews, but I of course will have to decide for myself. Have any of you seen it? Did you love it? Did you hate it? No spoilers please!

Once I get totally settled I will post pictures of the new Model Citizen HQ!
It's a little bigger than the last space I was in. Exciting!

Okay kids - remember to accessorize (and drink) responsibly!

xo!
Bonnie Rue
moving, Alamo Draft House

Julie Ruin

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE Bikini Kill fan - and all around fan of Kathleen Hanna. The first vinyl record I ever purchased for myself was the Bikini Kill self titled record that came out in 1992. I played it to pieces and loved every second of it. Anyway, after Bikini Kill and before Le Tigre, Kathleen Hanna put out a solo record under the name of Julie Ruin. It made my heart thump and kept me dancing. That was 13 years ago and it's still one of my all time favorite records.





Recently Kathleen posted a Julie Ruin T-shirt contest on her blog. I HAD to enter! The winner will be announced on the 1st of June I guess BUT - I woke up this morning to find that she had posted my entries on her blog! This is insanely flattering to me!


I used the same colors from the album cover and paired it with all the lace that I've been using in the most recent Model Citizen designs. I guess it's kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but the name Julie Ruin is written in lace.

Anyway- I'm just so thrilled I had to scream it from the mountain tops..of my blog. If you are a big fan like I am there is still time to enter a design. The contest ends at midnight tomorrow! Put something together and email it to tshirtcontest@kathleenhanna.com

xo!
Bonnie Rue

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper
May 13th, 1936 - May 29th, 2010

The Roof! The Roof! The Roof is...

on the ground?

Hello Lovelies!
Sorry I dropped off the face of the planet! Since my last post Renegade Craft Fair came to town and the minute it ended everything started to go wrong...
Austin (my manfriend) and I loaded up the car after Renegade, we got some grub, went home and I instantly PASSED OUT.. on my face. Then we woke up at 5am to the sound of part of our ceiling deteriorating and falling apart over our heads.
So - we dragged the bed across the room and the hunt for a new place to call home began immediately. The next day the internet went out and has been ever since - hence the no blogging. It's been a week since the ceiling incident and amazingly enough I signed a lease on a new place yesterday. We will be moving in Wednesday.
Once I get settled I'll share my new digs and my adventures at Renegade Craft Fair.
Until then.. wish me luck! Time for me to go pack!
oh and check out some of the new goodies in the shop. Tell me what ya think ;)




xo!
Bonnie Rue

Beach Blanket Bonnie

Last weekend I hit the road with my manpanion and went to the beach. We needed to get out of the city for a while so we booked a little cabin in the quiet little town of Port Aransas. We turned our phones off, slathered ourselves in sunscreen, rode our bikes everywhere & drank micheladas with sand between our toes. It was fantastic! One day I will runaway, buy an ice cream truck and become a beach bum. I believe it is my calling.

We stayed at this cute little place called the Laughing Horse Lodge. It was kitschy & quiet & cheap - in other words a dream come true. Our little bungalow was called "The Hobby Horse" which we felt was pretty fitting.
Before we left town we stopped off to get tropical pedicures! We didn't plan for them to be girly pink and bad boy blue - that's just how it worked out - cross my heart. It was Austin's very first pedicure and I doubt it will be his last.

Since Austin and I both work ALL THE TIME we were "not allowed" to work during this trip. So there wasn't a lot to pack. I did bring my computer though - which I really only used to check the weather and listen to music. I thought it would be hard not to work for an entire weekend, but turns out I was wrong! Dead wrong!
When we weren't laying low or looking like vampires on parade at the beach we hung out at the local pirate bar - The Gaff. A gem of a place that is filled with characters and hosts belt sander races on the weekends. Yes, you read that right - Belt Sander Races. We did not get to see said races which left me feeling cheated, but that gives me another reason to return.

Speaking of vampires at the beach - we forgot to pack our kites so we went on an adventure to find one. Luckily this tiny town of 3,370 people has a kite shop and we picked up the most bad ass delta you've ever seen! It was black with a big bloody vampire mouth smack in the middle of it. Did I get a picture of us flying it? Sadly - no. Whatever - you try to take a picture of something flying next to the sun and see how it turns out. I guess you'll just have to trust me about the "most bad ass" part. Flying it made me want to get chinese take out and watch Lost Boys like 4 or 5 times in a row. So instead of pictures of a killer kite flying session here's a shot of me looking totally washed up:
The whole trip was totally effing delightful! Going back to work Monday morning felt worse than any sunburn, but you can't have the rainbows with out the rain... right?
Take my advice - raid your piggy bank and get out of town! Make like a tree! Shew! It doesn't have to be a big deal of a trip to make you feel brand new.

To see more pictures of our adventures check my flickr account!

xo!
Bonnie Rue

p.s. Best song to listen to at the beach? Summer Time Rolls ... if you ask me

Your Vegas is showing...

Yep that's right - Las Vegas has come up with a new slogan (that I find to be 100% hilarious). While I don't think "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" will ever get old, I do think that "Your Vegas is showing" is funny on so many levels! Anything that makes me *blush* & giggle is good in my book! But - what do you think? My manfriend says it just isn't funny. I say he's wrong. So what say you?

Anywho - Why am I going on about Sin City? Because I am Vegas bound!

No, I am not running off into the desert to be married by a pack of Flying Elvi.

A few weeks ago I got word that Model Citizen has been chosen to attend the POOL Trade Show this summer!!! It's kind of like a BIG deal & I am totally "lizzing" with excitement! I never really get to go out of town for work and I've never been to Vegas before - so excitement actually doesn't cover how I'm feeling.

So what is POOL? Well it is "a community of art and design driven brands creating industry connections for creative visionaries" so who is crazy flattered? It is me!

Well, I've got a lot of work ahead of me in order to be ready by August so I better get to it, but I wanted to share my good news with you, because I like you! Thanks for listening ;)

xo,
Bonnie Rue

Crush Alert!

Allow me to introduce Hilah Johnson - the lead singer of one of Austin's most bad ass local bands, The Hot As Shits & the host of Hilah Cooking! Bust out your bar wear, slip into your favorite apron and get ready to learn and laugh your ass off! She's Hilah-rious!
...I know. So very cheesy.. I couldn't help myself.

Here is a little teaser video where Hilah will teach you how to make one of my favorite adult beverages of all time ~ The Michelada!



xo!
Bonnie Rue

p.s. This is not becoming a food blog. Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a spork in my eye.

And the winner of the Vegan Cookbook Givaway is...

First off I'd like to thank Snubbr.com for supplying these awesome books! If you haven't checked out Snubbr yet - you totally should. They take the guess work out of shopping! All you do is hit up their site and ask them a question like "What are the best vegan cookbooks?" and voila! They will tell you what the experts recommend.

Wow - I'm super excited to see so many people interested in delicious & healthy vegan cooking! Maybe I'll post some of my personal favorite recipes in the future for ya!

Okay so for total fairness the winner of this bad ass giveaway was selected by Random.org

So without further ado - the winner of the Snubbr.com Vegan Cookbook giveaway is:
#9 aka (b)



Congrats! Please email me at bonnie (at) modelcitizenclothing.com to claim your prize.
If I were you I would get on the horn and invite all my favorite people over for a dinner party to share the love. Share the Love!

Oh and I want to give a special shout out to Jacqueline (#15) for being so nice as to offer to give her book (if she'd won) to the Peterson Family. High 5 for being a Model Citizen! What a doll!

xo,
Bonnie Rue