sheebs posted a tweet/RT from two other people on IG today, about basic/UO shopping lemmings just now exploiting and “appreciating” asian snacks, while she was (/they were) made fun of years ago for enjoying on the regs.  i immediately related, but in a different way (which i also immediately felt bad about).

i can’t relate to cultural appropriation on any level at all.  my father wasn’t in my life until i was 21, and my single mom didn’t raise me instilling any cultural traditions or anything.  i’m 4 ethnicities between two parents, and i was mostly (barely) raised w the german and irish upbringing.  my mother and her very large side of the family also never concentrated on cultural traditions.  they weren’t raised that way, either.  i think we were raised more as christians than irish/germans (and none of that religious nonsense for me anymore, thank you).

when sheena posted the thing about the snacks, my brain defaulted to my subculture, which i find more of my soul fabric than my own actual cultures.  i feel like people might find that offensive, but hear me out.

i got bullied for being into all of that stuff when i was younger, bc kids are fucking jerks.  now it’s all the rage bc of bullshit urban outfitters and F21, and MERMAID/UNICORN HAIR, etc.  –  i get defensive and angry about that.  i always feel like it’s not comparable to cultural appropriation, because i don’t have punk blood running through my veins…  well, the blood that i do have, from the roots of the places my ancestors came from – i really could care less about it.  that sounds really stupid and disrespectful, bc had i grown up with those types of traditions, maybe i’d feel differently.  the truth is, those ties are broken.  there are now 3 generations of us between those times.  even if i went to the little town in ireland where my grandmother and her ancestors were raised, how am i connected to that?  i’m already 36, it’s out of reach.  i don’t mean to disrespect my family history, but clearly, my family didn’t care.

anyways, i default to punk, but i suppose alternative is a better description of my lifestyle and culture.  i was raised loving metal and gothy stuff, i found grunge and punk in my coming of age years, and started going to raves in my late teen years into my 20’s.  that music and those concerts has always been there for me, through bad and through good.  i’ve made tons of friends over the years through this subculture, and it means more to me than being italian, german, irish or polish.

i guess the point of this post is just that i hope if anyone else finds it, hey, you’re not alone if you feel this way also.  i don’t think it’s so wrong comparing it to cultural appropriation.  maybe it’s bc i’m a misfit kid from a broken, single parent household.  i dunno, but i have absorbed a lot of culture over the years, and i’m happy to have it all in my heart, brain and expressed through my creativity.

i’ve been toying with the idea of a new york rangers tattoo for quite some time now… i never know what to get, though. i definitely would want it integrated with autumn, whatever i decide on. i’ve toyed with the idea of autumn leaves in the shape of a laurel wreath, traditional style, liberty logo, something with MSG (outside or the ceiling), something with a “30” incorporated… i don’t want the shield because it’s got too much white in it, no one ever gets the blue correct, and i hate negative space in tattoos. what it always boils down to is the liberty logo or generally the statue of liberty (wearing a jersey?).

i started re-watching daria again last week, and at the end of every episode there are alter egos to the left of the running credits. lo and behold, jane as the statue of liberty popped up, and an idea was born (left). it might need some tweaking (and the addition of daria), but it’s a start.

and speaking of daria fandom, can we just talk about my SWEET photoshop skills circa 1997…

as soon as i started making dreamcatcher earrings about a month back, i had to start packing up my apartment to move.  now all of my supplies are packed and i can’t wait to get them all out and take over the lobe-filled world!!!  spring and summer are coming, so i’ve been working with super colourful and fun hues.

here are the last few pairs that i had made…

i also always have new rings in the works…  these bad boys are my new favorites (below).

you used to be able to buy this via my skreened shop, but they took it down. probably because the of altered logo… if you’d like one, contact me.

steve and i are moving into our new place next week (♥ ♥ ♥), and i’ve been fiddling with paint colour ideas for my bedroom.

for my last apartment, i really wanted dark and cozy.  i didn’t realize that living in the basement, and painting half of your walls black in a studio apartment, could make it a super cave-like dwelling!  i swear!!!  but on the real, the black paint made it seem more open, if that makes any sense.  that being said, i wanted black in this new place as well.  a trip to ikea earlier in 2014 left me DROOLING over this pastel pink bookcase i just knew i needed… so i’m glad it flows well with all happy hues.

i can’t wait until i’m in a space with all of these happy colours, in addition to the light olive/pea green bookcase and dressers that i’ve scored from ikea over the years. 🙂

things that happened within the last two weeks…

1. 🙁  korn passed away (RIP)
2. office xmas party!
3. i still have a lot of blue hair?
4. the disney store has RAD mirrors that i want in my adult bedroom.
5. it turned from autumn into dreaded winter.
6. rafael ramos’s funeral took over my neighborhood (RIP)
7. my boyfriend bought gold dipped sneakers. sneakers are weird.
8 & 9. horror pics from ian skelton arrived (#8 for me and #9 for my seester for xmas)!
10. i made a beautiful new ring! you can buy it here.
11. ricardo and i found abandoned coquito in the fridge here at work, so we claimed it.
12. the post is a piece of shit.
13. i FINALLY prevailed and got that SSUR wonder wheel tee that i wanted at a wayyyy lower price than the original.
14. while packing up my apartment, i found this stagebill from when i sang at carnegie hall back in 1995.

2014… so far so good.

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i often forget to post about #JAEJESS here, but here’s a good/cute update!

$5 seasonal rings! (or for you all-year-round goth folks ♥ — also: free shipping!)

SHOP MY HOCKEY/NYR SHIRTS! 😀

i’ve been making general hockey/new york ranger fan shirts — these are the brainstorms between myself and the help of my BFF lauren and my boyfriend mike.  at first, i was trying to gear things towards more anti-puck bunny females that actually know what they’re talking about where hockey is concerned, but i thought to myself, why limit the “brand”?  i think dudes should be wearing my shirts also!

(i’d like to thank glassbangers and sec406 for inspiring me ages ago to make these.)

anyhoo, i tend to stick to my own team, but am open to working on shirts for other teams.  holler if you’re interested!

oh, and i apologize ahead of time for the prices on that website.  i have a few printed though, they are pretty nice.  i think they’re so expensive for the most part, because i have them set to sell on the athletic shirts.  you can change the style/colour to drop the price a bit.

LET’S GO RANGERS!

24 days until hockey!

i’m not gonna lie, i did NOT think of this gem on my own.  i was cruising around the interwebz and landed on kreayshawn’s tumblr and was like #UNF at her theme.  so i hand coded this entire thang to function as closely to classic myspace as possible (so much went into it, i was surprised how long it actually took).

if you know me, you know that i loathe facebook.  mainly because it was the downfall of my beloved myspace.  i used to have a heavily/worldly supported website for contact tables and it was my creative outlet for years.  once it was gone, my creative flow was just like… KAPUT!

i had my website on hiatus for years, then i started messing with photoshop/coding again once i got my job doing website development full time back in 2008.  i appreciate people’s websites and the effort that goes into building layouts from the ground up.  when i decided to make this layout, it wasn’t as easy as i had anticipated, lol.  i always remember the myspace layout being mainly tables, but i forgot just now nested/terribly they were laid out (that was sort of nerd talk, sorry.  tables are a bunch of invisible boxes where all of the content lives in cells).

so i’m rambling about bullshit nonsense…  i only wanted to say it was via some themeing site that kreayshawn used, and not my own bright idea.

ANDDD… that i’m psyched to have my old profile functional, sort of, lol.

buy it in t-shirt form, here.

i added a bunch of new hoops, go look! 🙂

i remember being around six, and wanting these soooooooooo badly…

i googled them earlier today and found that they didn’t make them anymore, but i did find these gems anddd these gems.  i absolutely love the idea of this – kids actually getting to build what they play with – getting hands-on vs. being lazy videogame playing little shits!

i think that this was an amazing idea, although i’m sure there was a handful of weak/moron kids that fell off and cracked their heads open, or something.

boo those children.

my kid(s?) will definitely have this.

JESS HERE…

at the beginning of this year, i started making earrings with lyrics/words/quotes on them… obviously i can’t fit all that inspires me on 3″ diameter hoop earrings, so i took to the t-shirt template. i have been compiling ideas for new york ranger fan shirts for like 2/3 years that i never put to use, so a couple of weeks ago, i just opened photoshop and went with it. i currently go through a website “skreened(.com)” because i don’t exactly know if the t-shirt business would even take off – t-shirt companies are a dime a dozen these days… either way, i am not trying to step on anyone’s toes – i want to have fun/hitting close to home/true-fan shirts, and this is just my way of paying homage through something that i love – graphic design.

ANYWAYS… i met michelle via instagram at some point in the last few months and we connected on the wu-tang front. i make earrings and she does (amazing) cross-stitch pieces paying wu-tang homage. she’s been on the wu-tang blog before, she’s no stranger to wu-exposure and she included me in my first batch of wu-tang shirts. yeah, i’m actually being featured on the wu-tang blog, insane.

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i love and actually understand the sport of hockey, it’s my thanggg. of course, i’m one of those girls that can’t stand puck bunnies…  i don’t feel like going into a whole schpeel about it, so if you’re really curious/don’t know what a puck bunny is, try to ignore the horrifying background, and read this.

anyways, i’ve been dying to make ranger/hockey fan shirts for like, two years now.  i never have the extra money to do it, so i figured for now, i would just go through a website that does the work for me… if it actually takes off, then i’ll consider going to get shirts screen printed… but for now, i just used skreened. so here’s one of my first shirts, puck bunnies // HOP OFF.

i swear, i need a damn intern, lol.

i have been thinking about how i don’t really market #JAEJESS products enough.  i’m always thinking about how we should have a twitter and/or at least a facebook for more exposure. We started this whole thing on instagram, so that’s the only place that we’ve been doing any type of marketing.

if you follow me on IG, you’d see a lot of the stuff that i’ve been doing post-pop-up shop has been wu-tang related…  it’s my biggest seller (i mean c’mon, it’s the wu…), so i’ve been trying to have more options for people where the clan is concerned.  i made some black and yellow earrings and started creating some cool pin combos for earrings.

i have only posted seven pairs on the site so far, but one is actually a templated pair of hoops and you get to choose which pins you’d like… there are ten to choose from at the moment.  i feel like it’s kind of OD and i want to start posting other stuff that i’m making also, but i want to get these wu-tang earrings out there in the world.

click here to see the ones that i currently have in the shop.

hey guys! sooooooo i’ve totally been ignoring my website (again, wth? i dunno…), but this time, it’s because of good reasons! aside from traveling and working full-time again, i’ve been crafting my butt off for jaejess. that hard work is paying off this year alone, no matter what the future of jaejess holds… getting to be a part of the ladies love project holiday pop-up shop this year, was a goal i was silently setting for myself, and we’re here – we made it. most of all, it’s so that we have a good time/meet great/new peoples.

basically, the LLP gals rent out a space and have a bunch of super rad vendors that craft amazing stuff. i’ve met a lot of cool people whenever i’ve been there to help support jes of toughlovenyc.

i’m extremely humble when it comes time to jaejess, i didn’t even think i’d sell as much as i have, so far. i don’t think jae and i market ourselves nearly as much as we should, but we’re a pair of busy ladies. so far, we’ve only really used our instagram accounts, twitter and i’ve been using pinterest here and there. to be able to bring my stuff somewhere to expose it to a bunch of new/different people is great (which is why i guess i’m so damn excited, lol).

that being said, if you’re going to be in the NYC area on november 17th, pretty please stop by the pop-up shop on the LES and say hi/shop/chill/browse others, etc.

i’ll have some pop-up shop exclusive earrings and the new headbands on hand, and it’d be great to meet you!

184 eldridge st. // 12-7PM

here were all of the nails that i’ve done since march, since i forgot to post them all. i apologize for being a lazy shit… AGAIN, lol.

okay, my computer is up and running again.  i thinkkkk (since i don’t often download things) that i got this nasty virus from trying to view illegally streaming hockey games online…  stupid cable provider and MSG didn’t want to cooperate financially for a while, so they were blocking out my ranger games…  since i don’t watch much TV anyway and it’s almost the end of the regular hockey season, i cancelled cable and was relying on the bad stuff to watch games.

served me right, i suppose :\

my boyfriend and i went to florida and back since last i posted 🙂

i made some earrings and did my nails a few times… as per usual…  (i lead a super exciting life in the winter, ey?)

my website to sell my earrings is almost done, so i can begin selling them! i haven’t been posting them here at all, i’ve been posting them up on instagram… sorry!

here’s a sneak peak at a few of my favorites so far 🙂

all i’ve been doing is catching up on work since i got my computer back, so i’m off to do that a little more… bartering for a tattoo for a website (via my friend kelly who also did my misfits skull), and working on a wedding website for my cousin getting hitched later this year… so farewell for now. thanks for reading this, if anyone even bothers to, lol.

i want to have a section for “manicure monday”, but i’m not so sure how it’ll work out.  i have a dreadful feeling that if i do decide to commit to it, i’ll then get lazy and not do it at all (hello, look at how i generally neglect this poor website).  plus, all i’ve been doing is this dual tip diagonal thing…  WHICH I ADORE!… but i don’t even know how many female readers i have that would appreciate the section in general, never mind seeing the same style over and over, only showcasing new colours…  i’m too lazy to do what other nail obsessed people do, lol. i have scotch tape, a ton of great colours and some glitter i break out sometimes…  i’m not a pro, it’s just for fun… we’ll see.

aside from instagramming and working all the time, i’ve been doing the following for fun, and to maintain my own sanity…

1. keeping up with them diagonails

2. making a bunch of friendship bracelets and chinese staircase earrings! (while watching TV, usually… never have extra time for anything fun)

i’m actually going to start selling those earrings, i bought some hoops. if you’re interested, HOLLER.

3. playing lots of scrabble with my boyfriend on my iphone.
4. hello, it’s hockey season…
5. watching lots of netflix.  i finished up breaking bad, brothers & sisters and gossip girl 🙁  i need a new show! suggestions???
6. hanging with my boyfrannn michael<333 we had his sisters wedding, my sisters birthday, christmas with our families, new years eve (obv) and his cousins sweet 16 in addition to some other stuff that i had to attend… it just felt like all of december was so dang busy…

other than all of that, when it gets cold out, my social life usually just shuts down.  i hate being outside in the cold! although, i did recently get to hang out with the amazeballs online friend chris for his birthday last week. i met him on le twitter a couple of years ago…  FINALLY made it out while he was in NYC (he’s connecticut based), lower east sided it! got saucy, hung out with his stuntman cousin, had pancakes at like 4AM… we had a blast 🙂

hmm, i guess that’s it really. just trying to craft more. i should start working on the site for the jewelry, while i’m feeling this graphic design creative…

i’m too lazy to post, i don’t have a facebook or a google+, and i sort of fell off of twitter. the only thing i ever really do anymore is instagram. LAZY BETCH…

whatever, i keep meeting rad people on it and it’s the only social media i really use anymore…

i have been super busy freelancing, trying to stay above water as well. need rent monies and me and kitty need to eat!

so work first > my own website later, i guess.  although, i do find it important to work on this because it keeps my creative juices flowing… dur dur dur.

AKA NEW HEADER BECAUSE THE OTHER ONE WAS MAKING ME NAUSEOUS!

as far as work goes, i’m gonna take over 2012 projects now, i have a bunch of friends websites i need to start.  now that i’m getting projects out of the way, i’ll post about them as they get launched.

the amazingly talented homie jae (aka the cutest mommy in the whole entire world) and i, are going to start a site for the jewelry that we’ve been making.  other than that, i have to start working on my friends hair styling site, and i’ve got my friend kelly who is a tattoo artist coming up very shortly soon as well.

anyways, blah blah blah.  i shall now end my apologetic “i never post, i’ll try to start again” post now.

xo

sometimes i get bored and start tumbling and find awesome eye-makeup ideas, hair stuff, nails-did pictures, etc. and i get all inspired to scour through youtube for tutorials. well this one night i found a tutorial for water marbling [view video example here] and was hooked on trying different things for months. some worked out, some didn’t (got lazy doing many of them, lol), but i found a fast, easy and yet not-so-creative style to integrate into my beauty regiment… two-tone colors separated diagonally. 🙂

(forgive me, i didn’t fill in near the cuticle before taking the picture…)

i love this because it’s super easy, it’s cute, and there are so many different colours to combine. sometimes after rocking em like this for a week, i’ll throw some glitter (like big, chunky glitter) on them to switch them up, too.

i prefer to do them diagonally but i’ve also done half and half vertically and horizontally… but this is my favorite… it’s simply done with a small piece of scotch tape going across the nail to keep the line straight.

there’s nothing to it really, a few suggestions/tips:

• put the pieces of scotch tape on the back of your hand first. if you put it on your skin and take it off once or twice, it removes the strength of the tape adhesive and it doesn’t stick to the polish.
• tape up all of your fingers before painting even one of them.
• try to pull it off while the polish is still wet so it doesn’t stick.

i don’t have a favorite top coat or anything, just whatever clear polish i have laying around.

i’ve kind of been in this personal rut for a while, and usually when shit starts to really get the better of me, i just take the reigns and hit the refresh button.  since i can’t control most of my surroundings that are affecting me, i will change what i can.  i figured it was time to buy a new domain…  i’ve owned posed-to-death.org since june of 2004, and for two years i kind of fell off of updating it.  i only really started using it again in 2008 and since then, it’s full of a lot of personal turmoil.  break-ups, fights with friends, moving out, being miserable and single, confusion, etc.  i feel like it’s like dirty bathwater or something.

things keep changing around me, but i’m at this awful standstill.  my heart is again is bruised, the company i’ve been working for, for three three years, has dissolved, my best cousin (who is exactly a week younger than me) is pregnant and about to be a mother within the next month, one of my best friends is on the verge of practically being engaged and is moving in with her boyfriend next month, my family sucks, i live in an annoying area of queens – kind of out of the way for most of my friends for daily hangout sessions, etc.

i’m just like…

blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

i’ve been meaning to get myself a PMA tattoo for a few months now. i want this tattoo somewhere visible, so that i’ll always have that perspective when i need it. maybe a forearm or the side of a wrist.  like life in general, instead of bitching and moaning about my seemingly shitty life on this website, i’ll try to feel positive vibes and not have it polluted with complaints about my personal life. i want to not drive myself crazy or throw pity parties. #F5

so i kind of just wanted a new domain name…  so i purchased this domain after this deftones song. it’s my third domain named after a song, and it’s one of my favorites off of the album “white pony”.