Category: My Life List

Chewy Words; Broad Summit Winner

Wow. As it turns out Twitter contests totally work. Plus, I liked seeing your photos next to your posts. This way, if I ever see you at the grocery store wearing a Burger King crown or holding a flower in front of your face, I will recognize you instantly.

I wanted to collect a few of my favorite #lexicon responses here. But first things first. The winner is…

@KASalomon!

Is that you? Hooray for you! I’ve DMd you, but please comment if you have no idea how to use Twitter, because it seems like you may have set up an account just for this contest. As it turns out, that was worth it, no?

Now for the rest of you. Did you follow the #lexicon thread? It was good. I went to collect my favorite responses, but after about three hours of collecting, I decided enough was enough. So if you don’t see any of your responses here, it’s because I never cared for you.

Good Words

haberdasher, moxie, @talulattdh
troglodyte @kristenekelly
balderdash @aliceRTmiller
Jejeune! @superdumb
*unguent* – more serious than ointment with a good dose of urgent, but not as calm as balm @ChiefWrangler
‘faffing about’- british slang, messing around, wasting time.usually used as ‘stop faffing about and let’s go’. fun to say too. @sunguru24 (Ed note: Faffing sounds like an unpleasant sexual encounter. And that is how I will use it henceforth.)
Besmirched @allinblack
dulcet @alfieri
penury @CaleeL
Dodgy @gwentropy
akimbo and the phrase ‘on a lark.’ @Kikkiland
whirlygig @MomOfDavidIsaac
fabulist @whoamell
comeuppance @TeenSleuth
zaftig @TeenSleuth
Gumption @deepthoughts78
peckish, onomatopoeia @ALundgren
blast! @CBJbookoflists
Jiggerypokery @jill_y
“peeved,” for its ability to make an angry situation more lighthearted. @4thmonth
leviathan, dupe, caddywhompus @SassafrasMama
sluice, whorl @mriggen
expunge @sainmyownmind
compunction, shebang @thegastronome
foist @emilyluce
taciturn @missfinncrisp
knackered @okimusso
simonize @catibasmati
nebbish @jessicaroberts
bloviate @i_scrap
aces @kristense

Words I Had to Look Up

transmogrify @JastasticSF
crepuscular @lisalou2
Concatenation @margism
peradventure @clayahh
taradiddle @noisyoyster
prestidigitation @talulattdh
skulduggery @betherin
doolally tap @lizzielou68

Wait, Maybe I Should Include Definitions

lucubrate — to work, write, or study laboriously, esp. at night. @JessWalker9
cromulent — fine, acceptable @slnoonanj
dogsbody — a menial worker; drudge @aek1974
eleemosynary — of or pertaining to alms, charity, or charitable donations; charitable. @editrix
mulligrubs — ill temper; colic; grumpiness @editrix
esprit d’escalier — (staircase wit) thinking of a comeback when it’s too late @editrix
malkin — untidy woman @editrix
folderol — mere nonsense; foolish talk or ideas @megastore
uxorious — doting upon, foolishly fond of, or affectionately submissive toward one’s wife. @hannahmaec (ed note: I love this.)
perspicacious — having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning: to exhibit perspicacious judgment. @mirielmargaret
etiolated — 1. to cause (a plant) to whiten or grow pale by excluding light: to etiolate celery. 2. to cause to become weakened or sickly; drain of color or vigor.@bridgejr
sylvan — of, pertaining to, or inhabiting the woods. @sarahbrown
psithurism — A whispering sound @jenkinkn
lollop — 1. British Dialect. to loll; lounge. 2. to move forward with a bounding or leaping motion @bookgeekgirl
clamjamfry — mob, rabble, crowd @bachelorgirl
foofaraw — a great fuss over something insignificant @Victoria_Etc.
clapperclaw — to fight and scratch; to abuse with the tongue, scold @Victoria_Etc.
toodle-pip — humorous British goodbye @piehands
Petrichor — the smell of rain on dry earth. @dzandone (ed: So good)
pfui — Alternate spelling of phooey @katharsisjones
farrago — which is a confused mass of objects or people. Also known as “the Internet.” @sarawr
mizzle — rain in fine drops @amy_m_eller
syzygy — 1. Astronomy. an alignment of three celestial objects 2. any two related things, either alike or opposite. @chemmefatale
whinge — whine @doobleveh

Made Up Words, and Onomatopoeia

Sweaky (when you have a fever/ are sick and feel all sweaty and icky) @soukii
Wurrow (whir-row) – (v.) to luxuriate amidst fluffy blankets in bed (burrow/wallow) @suburbanal
ignoration, whorepaint @MsYuppieScum
bazinga @laurenbrown
Toebug. Toebug. Toebug. Man, I love that word… just wish there was a way to use it in an everyday sentence. @jenniferjune
Splooie @nowsexyrobot
kerflummoxed @peprallytoday
limerence– an involuntary cognitive + emotional state of intense romantic desire for another person @lmdupont
lasterday — any time before right now @carliches
kookamarook — crazy person @jlcs621
jackety — my nephew’s made up word for off-kilter, junky, or not-quite-right. As in- “My old car is really jackety.” @katiemfree
oobleck @deodand
Ugglesome @thejiffer (ed note: a kinder derivative of ugsome?)
explorganize — what toddlers are doing when they take things out of a container, inspect them, then put them back @krotondo
nelphric, which I dreamed, but sounds like it could be real @ptrae
flouncy – as in “I hung my clothes on the line to dry today, including my flouncies.” @gillh
woobly — a wonderful made up onomatopoeia for an upset tummy @sarahjlyons

Multiple Entries

Finally, many, many of you wish we’d use the following terms more often:

kerfuffle/kerfluffle
defenestration
fisticuffs
plethora
thank you

Speaking of which, thank you for playing. You are smart.

Twitter Giveaway: Broad Summit Giftbag

Update: And the winner is KASalomon! Thanks for playing everyone.

So! When we were pulling together gift bags for the Broad Summit we set one aside to give away, and it is magnificent.

This is a Twitter contest, and the theme is words you wish people would use more often. To enter follow @Maggie and send me a reply tweet with the word (or words) you love. You can include #lexicon if you want other people to be able to search on your answer, but that’s optional.

Here’s what’s up for grabs:

portertote

A huge, zip-top tote from Lands End. (Yours will not say Porter.)

Tech

flickr-logo

Two Flickr Pro accounts. If you don’t already use it, Flickr is an excellent photo sharing service. (I use it to store all my photos.) Flickr also threw in a handy lens cloth that attaches to your camera strap.

typekit

An invitation and one-year subscription to Typekit, the new service that helps you use a variety of fun fonts online without having to serve them as images. Pretty! (You may remember that my husband is one of the founders, and that he is adorable.)

Media

Chronicle Books threw in three of our favorite titles:

Apartment-Therapy-Book
Apartment Therapy Presents by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan of ApartmentTherapy.com.

list
Listography Journal: Your Life in Lists by Lisa Nola of Listography.com.

cheesetastekit
And, appropriately enough, The Cheese Tasting Party Kit by Janet Fletcher

The folks at McSweeny’s provided:

comedy
Comedy by the Numbers, a compendium of 169 secrets of humor and popularity.

But wait! There’s more:

fray1
Fray Issue #1, Busted personal stories and original art compiled by Derek Powazek, creator of Fray.com.

maghound
A free six-month membership to Maghound Magazine Membership Service.

meditationcd
A Moment’s Peace, guided meditation CD by Elizabeth Irvine.

instylenotes
A three-pack of cutie notebooks courtesy of InStyle Magazine.

Bath and Body

ddfskin
DDF wanted to include some of their products, but they work better if they’re personalized, obviously. So if you win, I’ll send a note to DDF, and they’ll contact you with a quick skin care survey you can fill out to let them know your needs. Then they can send you a separate care package that you’ll actually use. Nice, right? I think so too.

zicamkit
Zicam put together a mini travel wellness kit that contains: Zicam Healty Z-ssentails with Echinacea, Zinc, and Vitamin C, a vanilla jasmine travel candle from Voluspa, green and white whole-leaf tea from Tea Forte (which is great tea, by the way), a mini Frais hand sanitizer, Birch Soaps gardenia solid perfume and cuticle balm, and Eos honeysuckle lip balm in a cute round package. Tuck it all into your dopp kit for your next trip.

Handmade

ritual
Crazy good Ritual Roaster’s Helsar de Zarcero coffee beans from Costa Rica. Ritual Roasters is the coffee shop where I wrote my book (free WiFi!), and their coffee convinced me to give espresso a try. It tastes the way coffee beans smell. Purrr.

prints
The aforementioned limited-edition Broad Summit print from 3 Fish Studios.

reddahliaears

And of course, the epic felt earrings from Feisty Elle.

All that, plus a reusable red grocery tote from Toyota. I didn’t add it up, but I’m pretty sure this is a zillion dollar giveaway, possibly a jillion — I’m no mathematician.

For those of you scratching your heads over how to enter, here’s a more detailed how to: Go to Twitter.com. Are you there? Good. Now! Follow me, @Maggie, and send me a tweet reply with the word (or words) you wish people would use more often. It’ll look something like these:

@Maggie Bangarang! #lexicon

@Maggie Fictional, used to describe something so awesome that it doesn’t seem real. #lexicon

I’ll pick a winner randomly from the tweet replys, and send him or her a direct message on Thursday. I’ll also update the top of this post to let everyone know who won. This is my first Twitter contest, so let’s see if it works.

Fingers crossed that you win, because you are a goodie. Thanks for reading.

Broad Summit Details, Day 3

Here are Day One and Day Two, if you’re looking for them. Spoiler alert: Today’s post is sponsor heavy, as our partners made the weekend far cooler than it would have been without them. Thanks, sponsors. You are nice.

yogamats

Our last day at Broad Summit was a spa day, so we started things off with a yoga session led by Gwen Bell.

yogagwen

Gwen was an attendee who also happens to own a yoga studio in Japan. She said this was the only yoga session she’d ever led where she received applause afterward.

yogabuddha

Zicam sponsored our yoga, and their representative Kelly has quite an eye. She knew it was a designy crowd, so she brought the yoga mats, set up the towels and pre-filled water bottles, and made everything look so pretty. I brought the Buddha head from home, and Kelly found a cute place for him. (More about the pretty yoga session over on Design Mom, by the way.)

ddfpersonal

Throughout the weekend, DDF Skincare asked if they could set up personalized facial consultations for everyone.

ddfhottub

They had us fill out forms in advance so they could bring specialized products, and then had an aesthetician go through a skincare regimen for each woman. DDF’s products are really high end, so we all tended to gather around when each girl came back with her bag.

massages

My sister Raina is a masseuse at the Fairmont Mission Sonoma Inn & Day Spa, so she brought along a few co-workers to give massages in the Boon Hotel spa rooms. Lots of the guests had never had massages before. As you might imagine, they were a hit.

boonsand

Boon catered our breakfasts and lunches for the weekend, and everything was as tasty as it was attractive. They made things really easy for us.

boonsalads

We asked Boon to set out a lunch buffet just before everyone left so girls could enjoy lunch outside or take a boxed lunch along for the drive to the airport.

carjennyinterior
(Photo by Jenny Lawson.)

With Toyota’s help, all the attendees had access to cars all weekend, so we were able to set up carpools on the way to and from the airport instead of having a million separate vehicles.

carjumpjenny
(Photo by Jenny Lawson.)

I like to think that everyone felt so pampered that by the time they left, they had more energy than when they arrived. I love these girls. They deserve good stuff.

Broad Summit: Feisty Elle Favors

leslie

This is the adorable Leslie Yang of Feisty Elle, a San Francisco accessories shop I fell for when I was hunting down Mighty Goods posts.

A few months after posting her Red Dahlia Earrings, I ran into Leslie at the Renegade Craft Fair and told her I was planning the Broad Summit. I asked if she’d like to include her work in the gift bags, and gave her my mailing address. A few months later a gorgeous package showed up at the office.

package

Leslie had made wooden, laser-cut versions of her earrings, painted them gold, and used thin black elastic to secure them to craft paper boxes. The result was so chic, don’t you think? I think they’d make great packages for wedding favors, and I’ve had mine propped up on my desk since it arrived.

ellebox

elleearrings

The packaging was so cool, we used them as turn-down favors at the retreat, and several of the girls even wore their earrings the next day, which is the ultimate endorsement.

lauraelle

Go Leslie! Thanks so much for the lovelies.

Broad Summit Details, Day 2

If you’re looking for it, Day 1 is here.

dahlias1

The afternoon before everyone arrived, we arranged posies of Dahlias, orange tea roses, and green hypericum berries. We used pint-sized Mason jars as vases, and made a few dozen small arrangements so we could move them around to decorate various event spaces.

tastingtables

I love working with Dahlias because they’re pretty tough, easy to arrange, and stay fresh for quite awhile — even if you’re transporting them from place to place. We had a full day of wine tasting planned on Saturday, so we kicked off right after breakfast with a tasting class at 10:30 a.m., which was… ambitious.

tastingglasses

Our team rose to the challenge.

The Wine Sisterhood brought in Leslie Sbrocco, author of The Simple and Savvy Wine Guide to walk us through some food pairings and offer some wine education. My favorite tip was to freeze leftover sparkling wine to use as ice cubes in orange juice. Insta-mimosa.

lunch

Moshin Vineyards helped us set up lunch and a tasting in the cask room, which was the most romantic lunch I’ve ever had with thirty other women.

lunchchips

Boon’s restaurant catered our lunch, including their signature homemade parmesan potato chips, which haunt my dreams.

arista

At Arista Winery, we tasted outside with a view of the vineyards.

cheesewhizzes

Finally, we headed over to Hop Kiln, where Helen Jane set up a Cheese Whizzes tasting for us. Word to the wise, Rogue River Blue Cheese from Oregon. Holy holy.

prints

We wanted to leave the Broad Summit prints on the ladies pillows, but realized belatedly that guests would need a way to get them home safely. Guerneville doesn’t exactly have an Office Max, so we clipped some prints to boards and left others in pretty office folders on guests pillows. I especially loved how the clipboards looked.

Broad Summit Prints

One of the happiest parts of organizing the retreat was working with Eric Rewitzer of 3 Fish Studios. Eric and his wife Annie Galvin (who is also an artist) are friends I met through Evany years ago.

prints

Eric made us these lovely limited edition linocut prints to commemorate the weekend, and took a few photos of the process for me.

printmaking

California iconography is a running theme for 3 Fish Studios:

bearflag

49mile

(Update: Oops. My original upload contained some similar work by Annie, these are Eric’s prints.)

When I told Eric we were staying in a redwood forest, he already had a few photos of redwoods he’d taken as inspiration. He even surprised us by hand coloring the prints.

handcoloring

They were so lovely, we decided to use them as favors instead of adding them to the gift bag. If you’d like to learn to make your own and you’re near the Bay Area, 3 Fish Studios offers linocut printmaking classes pretty regularly, so drop them a note and they’ll notify you when space opens up. Thanks again, Eric!

Broad Summit Details, Day 1

bhaughey

All right, I’ve been asleep since last Sunday.

The retreat was amazing, and exhausting, but worth every minute of planning over the last eight months. All the Broad Summit organizers love to entertain, so we incorporated lots of details.

bblankets

We met up in Guerneville, CA, which is near our cabin, so I brought over my collection of vintage wool blankets. We use them at the cabin all the time, and we had a bonfire planned for the retreat, so I knew we’d need them. Bryan mocks me whenever I come home from the flea market with yet another blanket, but seeing them all stuffed into our laundry basket on the lawn was profoundly satisfying.

bgwen

We got use out of them all weekend, and they smelled amazing because we store them in a cedar chest to protect against moths. When I was passing them out, I swear I heard Martha Stewart howling at the moon.

blauragiftbags

It was a small enough group that we could really personalize everything. We wanted to make sure the gift bags really felt like gifts, so before we decided how to fill them, I told Laura that my dream was to get monogrammed totes from Land’s End. She just called and Land’s End and figured out how to make it happen, then collected guests’ initials via email. Then I proposed to her.

bgiftbags

We spent Friday afternoon stuffing the bags (more on the gifts inside later), and when they were all set up, they looked zowie — though they do sort of evoke the image of having thirty bridesmaids. I feel slightly faint at the thought of getting that many girls to wear the same ugly dress.

baubstaco

Instead of hiring a caterer, we arranged for a taco truck to arrive before cocktails. For a large group, it’s a surprisingly economical.

bgabbytruck

Plus, there’s something so decadent about walking up to a window and ordering whatever you want without having to dig out your wallet.

btacotruck

If you’re planning a casual, fun wedding, taco trucks are the way to go. Delicious, and they make for great photos.

bsoda

After tacos, we headed over to the sangria and soda pop bar. There were lots of non-drinkers and pregnant ladies in attendance, so we took inspiration from Jordan Ferney’s adorable soda bar. BevMo had a huge selection of cute pop in bottles. I called Jordan last-minute to ask where we could get striped paper straws in San Francisco, she offered to tap into her extensive personal collection. Score.

bbunnies

After cocktails, we all changed into our pajamas for a Milk and Cookies PJ Party by the bonfire.

bmilk

A few days earlier, we found this milk-carton vase at CB2. Perfect.

bmilkandcookies

Cookies were from Annie the Baker, who makes cookies for folks who would prefer to eat straight cookie dough. (Peanut butter. Order the peanut butter.) We also had a selection from Bountiful Vegan, because we were hosting women with all kinds of food preferences and allergies.

bbonfire

We pulled over the chaise loungers from the pool area, wrapped up in blankets, and used the milk to mix White Russian nightcaps in our coffee mugs. It was very Prohibition.

If you’d like to see more, Jean Aw took some gorgeous photos of the bonfire and hotel over on NOTCOT. More details from me Monday, have a good weekend.

Mighty Life List: Organize a Retreat

redwood

Remember when I said I would nap? I will get to that. But today I woke up at 6 a.m., like a kid on Christmas. Laura Mayes was sleeping beside me, so I whispered, “You’re so excited!” She laughed. With her eyes closed.

Today I get to see my Blogroll in 3-D. The Broad Summit is this weekend, which means that a good chunk of the online publishers I’ve grown to love over the years are coming to Guerneville to drink wine and talk about smart things. If you want to follow along, everyone’s Twitter handles are here, and their sites are in the sidebar.

All these women have meant so much to me, some of them are close friends, some my inspirations, but every one of them has enhanced my life in some way. For me, this weekend is a thank you for everything they’ve done to make my life better.

Hooray for the Internet! I say hooray.

Organize Your Own Giant Food Fight

group

So you’d like to organize your own giant food fight? Smashing idea. Here’s how.

Invitation

I should start off by saying that some of your friends just won’t be into this. I was surprised by people’s intense pro or con reactions. The invitation can say whatever you want, but there are a few things everyone needs to bring:

– Five containers of Cool Whip
– A towel
– A change of clothes
– A bag for wet clothes
– Their friends

Why Cool Whip? It’s easy to get, doesn’t go rancid as easily as whipped cream, washes away with sprinklers or rain, won’t bruise anyone, and tastes reasonably good. Plus my Google searches of “Cool Whip kills grass” “Cool Whip kills plants,” “Cool Whip hurts dogs” came up clean. Bonus.

Location

Food Fight Rinsing Off
(Aubrey took this.)

The ideal place has five main features:

1. A large grassy area
2. A sprinkler system to wash away any mess you can’t clean up
3. A hose for cleaning up guests
4. Someplace for folks to change
5. Garbage cans and recycling nearby to dispose of all the Cool Whip containers

If you’re doing this in a backyard or somewhere equally convenient, consider collecting containers for local teachers. Thirty-plus empty containers are good for craft projects and storage.

Supplies

stakes

You’ll need:

– Large, lightweight painters tarps if you’d like to contain the mess and make it easier to clean up
– Tent stakes and a hammer to pin down the edges of the tarp
– Large garbage bags

Note that the tarps get very, very slippery when they’re covered in Cool Whip, so the fight tends to go in slow-mo. We didn’t have much choice because we were hosting in a public park, but you may want to forgo them and use a hose to cleanup instead if you have private land.

The “Rules”

Everyone places their open Cool Whip containers around the edges of the tarp. Once the fight starts, all the containers are fair game for anyone to use. Have your host do a countdown and commence chucking stuff at people.

Cleanup

If all the guests help, it takes about five minutes to roll up the tarps, put them in garbage bags and throw the Cool Whip containers in recycling.
kristenm

In all this is a ludicrously simple party. If you plan to tack on any other activities (food, drinks, a birthday party), make sure you end with the food fight, because people will really want to go home and shower afterward.

That’s it! Go forth and live your dream.