It’s great to see my mom.  This is the first I’ve seen her in about 15 months.

Her hair is purple.  It’s not supposed to be.

Truth be told, I’m exaggerating just a touch.  Her hair is not completely purple.  It has purple streaks in it - a dye experiment that had unexpected results.

She and I have long had issues with her hair.  I want her to get a cut, appropriately styled for her personality and her age.  She often talks of going for the gusto, getting that long overdue cut and style.  She’s been telling me “I’ve been looking at styles - I’m still thinking about what I want” for about 10 years now.  (more…)

“Social Tools” is going on a trip!  This morning, I’m flying home to Charleston, SC.  Charleston isn’t technically my home anymore, but I went to high school there and my mother still lives there, so it’s still home to me.

The occasion?  K, one of my friends from high school (a Magneteer) is getting married.  She and I played varsity softball together, laughed together, and commiserated about the rigors and occasional absurdity of Magnet life.   Magneteers, or folks who attended Academic Magnet High School, are a pretty tight bunch.  There were only 88 of us in our graduating class, and I could actually list everyone out by name if I had the time and inclination.  (But I have neither.  So sue me.)

The first scheduled event is K’s bachelorette party on Thursday night.  This will require a stop by an adult novelty store for the purchase of an appropriately inappropriate gift.  (What’s the name of that store on Cross County Road?  Is it still there?) (more…)

Ah, eBay.  It’s a treasure trove for lovers of vintage items.  This summer, I fell in love with vintage suitcases - mostly American Tourister-types from the 1960s.  I ended up purchasing a blue-gray round American Tourister “Tiara” suitcase from the ’60s.

The upside: It’s a classic that will always be fashionable.

The downside: It’s heavy as hell!  Carrying this bad boy through the airport would probably be a nightmare.  And would it fit in the overhead compartment?  Doubtful.  So far, I’ve only used this suitcase for short road trips, 1- or 2-night stays and the like.

Check out these delicious vintage suitcase finds:  (more…)

You probably don’t know that in addition to Hi, Society!, I have a design company - Element K Creative.  That’s probably because Element K doesn’t have a website.

Yet.

I’ve been able to put Element K’s website off this long because projects come in pretty steadily by referral, which is always great, plus I took a little time off to launch Hi, Society! Design Studio.  I was busy and kept saying, “I have sooo many projects to do that I don’t have time to design my own website.”

Excuses.  (And some of you know what excuses are.)  (more…)

You might recall that I currently live in the middle of nowhere.  Well, when you’re in the middle of nowhere and you have even the slightest acquaintance within 1 hour of you, you meet up with them.  Seriously.  Do it.  You just might have a fabulous time.

I just got in from having dinner and coffee with a new friend. He’s actually my fraternity brother, and while we’ve known each other for about 3 years and have several friends in common, we never really traveled in the same circle.  We were friendly, but we didn’t become friends until just a few weeks ago.  Our friendship, for me at least, was solidified tonight.  But that’s not exactly what this post is about.  I’ll get to it.  (more…)