Fall down 7 times...

Friday night was "date night" for Steve & me.

I had gotten a $75 gift cert for a local casino and it was about to expire. We decided to use it for the chi-chi restaurant. I had looked the menu up online and knew that I could eat without many issues.

They had a "meal deal" for $35 that included an appetizer, meal & dessert.

All the appetizers had wheat. I told the waiter that I couldn't have wheat so he went to the chef to see if he could create something off menu for me.

Out came this amazing calamari dish. Oh I'd have a torrid affair with that chef!

I had the lamb. Steve had the chicken. Dessert was creme brullee with fresh berries. My dessert of lemon tart was boxed up to go for Steve to have later.

Creme brullee. Shit. Ohhhh... Who needs sex when you can have creme brullee??

Dinner out was just what Steve & I needed. We've not been connecting lately and this was nice to have an evening free of interruptions. Good conversation, good food & good wine all added up to a beautiful friday night.

*********

This past weekend I was invited to my friend Nancy & Sally's birthday party. Another friend Susan rented this amazing house on Lake Tahoe for 10 of us to celebrate.
I went up Sat afternoon. Everyone else was there Friday.
The house was amazing! Three stories with decks on each story, a dock and a beautiful seating area right by the water.
Nancy & I both have the same food allergies. Everyone was aware of it so there were plenty of "legal" foods.
Except for the sugar. That's not legal in my world.
I've been soooo good not having sugar.
Stoopid Tommi & her stoopid wheat free Jack Daniels dark choc cake with dark choc sauce.
I know I know. "You could have turned it down."
I know.
I KNOW!
Sun morning I had fake creamer in my coffee & then came home & ate the lemon full of sugar, cream & wheat tart.
I also just binged on Sunday. But binged on "legal" foods.
Sat on the couch with a bag of apple cinnamon rice cakes with a jar of peanut butter. Ate most of the peanut butter and all of the rice cakes.
Today: Back on the wagon!

May is Gluten Free month. I am now gluten free for the rest of the month!

Tonight is hoop class. I'll take my camera & take some pic's to post tomorrow.

Fat is not a 4 letter word

ok. So you guys know how I do the "Luscious Ladies Fat Girl Fashions"? Well I'm doing a fashion show on May 27th for "normal" sized women.

It's for a Women in Reality shin-dig and someone saw my fashion show back in Dec. She wanted me to do stuff for their "Moulin Rouge" themed thing the end of this month. I said I wouldn't sew anything but would pull off the racks & maybe do some accessories.

I'm dressing 9? women in corsets, petticoats, fishnets & feathers.

Sara is the contact.

"I want you to dress Carol. She's the largest of us and she really should wear something more Moulin Rouge-ee." Says Sara.

"Bring her in!" Says me.

Now I'm not one to judge BUT....

Carol comes in wearing a denim dress ala 1995 with a gray sweatshirt over it. She could model for me since she's about a 22-24. (meow. I know. meow.)

I go over to my rack with the corsets that go to 4xl and pull a couple out.

"I'm not wearing that!" Says Carol very indignetly.

I pull out a couple of sparkley dresses.

"No way!"

Shit.

So I show her the poster that's from last Dec's fashion show. I explain how I had just done a fashion show last week & that my smallest model was a size 22.

She reads the poster "Luscious Ladies: a FAT girl fashion show"

"That's very offensive."
Me: "What is?"
"The word FAT. I'm large not fat. You shouldn't say 'fat'. It's very offensive."
Me "No it's not."

Long & short of it: Carol left the store pissed at me, pissed at Sara and basically hates the whole Moulin Rouge idea for the fashion show.

It's the first time that I've not been able to find anything at all for someone. She was so closed minded and judgmental (which is how I'm feeling about her).

In the meantime I'm loving these other girls. They're all ages and really stepping out of their comfort zone letting me dress them. And I'm loving the fact that I can pull off the rack.

****************
Scale this morning says I've gained 2 pounds. WTF? Sugar free for 11 days, walking, hiking, pulling weeds almost every day.... yeah. I know I know. It'll happen.

And don't tell me to not weigh myself. I've done that & ended up gaining weight.

*****************
Picture for tonight:

Superhero Superbowling
I was "Super Stripe Girl!"

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Project 300
My Blog Buddy Tricia is trying to reach 300 fans.
Go read & join her.

************
I'm gone the rest of the weekend for a 50th b'day party.
I PROMISE no wheat or sugar.
MISS ME!!!

Pictures. I got em. I'm sharing em.

A picture tells a 1000 words.
Read away!
**********

Eco fashion show:
5 Luscious Ladies
5 corsets
5 petticoats.

*********

Hat made by my friend Kornal Killbuck.
*******

At Disneyland with Sharon & Hannah.
******

My crazy hair.
*******

See no evil
***************

Hoopity Hoop Hoop

This is hooping.

This is me.

On Monday's I'm taking a class to teach me how to hoop.

Goal: Hoop with fire.

Yes. Fire.

Cause that's how I roll.

Day #2 of Coming Cleanness

I bounced on the rebounder this morning for 15 mins. Yesterday I worked in the yard for about 90 mins and did hoop class last night.

Food is so on I can hardly stand myself.

I have pictures to post from my last fashion show. But they're on my store computer & I'm at home.

I promised Tricia I'd do this.

Here you go Tricia. I'm doing this!

Pictures to follow.

Coming Clean

Remember how I was all proud about losing 45 pounds?

Well I gained 20 back.

I know I know. "But focus on you losing the 25 pounds."

Whatever.

I'm back to blogging as of this minute. Facebook has taken over my life (Lauren Mari Hufft Gifford if you want to friend me. FYI: I don't Farmville, Fish ville or any ville so don't think I'm going to increase your levels. I'll block you the minute you invite me to join some game. No poker blitz, either.)

Tricia has been calling me a lazy bastard for not blogging.

Yeah yeah yeah.

So I'll take the hour outta the day that I spend on Book of Face and come back

1. I'm sugar free for the past week. Yeah me!
2. Did my first hoop class. It rocked. 4 more weeks & my goal is to hoop with FIRE at Burning Man.
3. We are getting a weekly box of produce. I promise that none of it will end up in the compost pile.
4. I'll post pic's tomorrow.

I'm back. Whatever Patricia. Whatever.

Happy New Decade!

Dance Dance Dance!

It's a NEW DECADE!!!

Dancing at Beats Antiques in November.
If you get a chance to see these guys you HAVE to go!!
Based out of San Francisco they travel all over the world. Zoe is the belly dancer and standing right in front of her made me want to just strip off my leather corset & dance with her. Oh wait. I did dance with her. Just left the corset on. (grin)
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Pictures from a photo shoot in my store

I really like all 3 of these. They show different parts of my personality. Plus they look young. Maybe I should ask the photographer if he photo shopped me. brb Calling him. No answer. I'll say no. That my skin is flawless. And that I really don't look 49.

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So New Decade. Welcome 2010!

I have so many plans for this year.

1. Exercise: I've lost 43 pounds over the past year. Basically all thru diet and very little exercise. I see it in my loose skin all over my body. It's time to tune & tone.
I know I have to exercise. I was diagnosed last year with osteoporosis. 49 is wayyyy too young to have an old ladies disease. Exercise is a basic "cure" for osteoporosis. Simple things like a walk.

So exercise starts this week. Then stops next Monday when I have surgery. Nothing serious. I'll blog about it later this week.

2. Fashion shows:
My "Luscious Ladies: A Fat Girl's Fashion Show" was a huge success. SRO with lots of press both before & after.
Steve & I went to a pot luck on Christmas. Two women were talking about the fashion show with a couple of other women. I was eavesdropping and the hostess walked over & said "Are you talking about Fat Girls? That's Lauren over there the designer!"
They gushed over me. Yeah. I said gushed.

I'm planning a spring show or early summer.

I've been asked to be part of an all white fashion show in the spring.

And

I want to put on a Trashion show with 3-4 other designers for Earth Day in April.

3. Weight:

Forty three pounds = 3.5 cans of Crisco.

My current goal is 10% or 19 pounds. That would put me at 170. Very do-able by June.
Goal for the year: Be in the 150's by my 50th b'day in Dec.

Other goals:
Get out of debt. Big nut to chew since we still owe $67K to the hospital for Steve's stroke in 2006.
Reno is #4 in the nation for people being upside down in their homes. Our block has 8 houses that have been foreclosed on in the past 2 years. Our block has made the papers both local & national about how bad the foreclosures are.
The city has come in & bought all the houses & is making them section 8. They bought the house next door for $30K. It's now renting for $550 a month.

Wayyyyy upside down.

Store is down about 15% over 2008. Tie-dye business was down. Yup we're part of that section of America: Medical bills, housing issues and small business owners that the gov't seems to be ignoring.

I really want us to pull it out this year.

That's it for now.

Welcome new Decade. I'm excited to see what you have to offer to me.

Good bye Appendix. Hello world!

So here's what's been happening the past month or so.

#1. I had a fashion show called Luscious Ladies: A Fat Girl Fashion show.

This is Meredith & myself in one of the publicity photos.
Meredith owns the Tree House Lounge where the fashion show was held.

Two of my models wearing "off the rack" clothes from the store.

Me pole dancing.
******
Signature looks:

Rhianna is wearing lavender mylar stretch bloomers, purple corset and multi-colored mylar fur shrug.

Dixie is about 6'1". She was my closing look.
Green raw silk corset with same fabric as an open skirt.

This was my original piece.
Tuxedo with corseted sleeves, faux maroon & black fur trim on sleeves and collar.
Bloomers that looked so wonderful in person! I loved loved loved this piece.

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#2: Random photo shoot in store:

Dana Nollsch of Photo Zen called this one "When photo shoots go bad".

I love this of me. It's about 9 degrees out and one of the models had grabbed this as a prop. I had 2 different photographers playing in the store with 3 models. I aimed this at Lenea and she grabbed the photo of me.

Local model Stefani & myself. She's hot!
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#3: Made the cover!

Cover shot of local alternative magazine.
Story was about shopping locally for Christmas.
The guy next to me showed up wearing just a plane blue t-shirt. He's wearing my sweatshirt.
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#4. Had my appendix out on Dec 10.
Celebrated my birthday in the hospital.
Big gift: Got to poop & fart and then was put on solid food.

I have more pic's to publish. It'll happen.

Oh and I'm at 190 btw. 42 pounds gone this year bitches!!!!

199 and holding

Yeah. 199 and holding. I really want that 192 back but it will come in time. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks. And honestly I'm still in ONEderland which makes me a happy girl.

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You asked for it.
(Not really but you're going to get it anyway.)
MORE Burning Man pics!

This is inside an installation called "Fire Tear"
I'm laying on my back looking up into the center.

This one pretty much says it all.
That's me on my dog bike. His name is Winston.
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In other news:

This is my friend Katie.
I hooked her up with the yellow petticoat.
She was Candy Corn for Halloween!

Katie & I met years ago on a weight loss support group message board. I had mentioned that tickets for Burning Man were going on sale the next day & she bought one for herself.

She didn't know anything about Burning Man except what I had told her.

She flew from New Jersey to Reno, was picked up at the airport by a friend of mine since Steve & I were at a wedding, hung out at our house waiting for us to show up and then traveled another 90 miles to the Nevada desert for her first Burning Man experience.

She got involved in fire spinning and the regional burn in Delaware called "Playa del Fuego". They burn a horse at that event.

She also met the man of her dreams: Nate.

In 2008 she brought Nate with her to Burning Man.

In 2009 Nate proposed to her at Burning Man.

Over the weekend they called me and have asked me to marry them next Oct. I'm honored to have such a huge roll in their wedding. (What would Micheal Scott do?)

"We want you to let your freak flag fly!" they said to me on the phone. "We want this to be a very Burning Man inspired wedding."

"Don't look better than the Bride" said Steve.

I promise Katie, I won't.

Brown rice is my friend aka an empty colon is a happy colon

Burning Man campmates
2009

I'm all the way to the left in the lime green dress.
The guy holding me is my buddy O Canada from
(wait for it.... wait for it....
wait
for
it....)
Canada!
Part of our camp had left including Steve before the picture had been taken.
I stayed an extra 2 days after this was taken.
******************

Me and my buddy Kai.

I do craft shows with her Mom all summer & fall.
She's my buddy.
This is at Apple Hill, California.
Don't you love our tie-dyed pumpkin shirts?? Yeah. I'm rocking the stripes.
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Fashion Shoot.

Yeah. That's really my purple hair. No extensions.
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Day #2

I got up early this morning & took a hooping class. I have to work on my opposite direction hooping. New goal: Hoop with fire next year at Burning Man.

I had a break thru this afternoon. Have I told you guys that I'm doing a fashion show in Dec and it's featuring all my fashions?? I thought there would be other designers but no. Just me.

It's called "Luscious Ladies: A FAT girl Fashion show".

Tomorrow is the shoot for the poster along with the model call. Sorry Miss size 12. You have to be at least a size 14+ to play in our game.

I'm starting tonight on a gold/maroon brocade tuxedo with this amazing fur collar & cuffs. Pants will be made from the opposite side of the brocade fabric with a fur cuff at bottom.

I'll take pics & post as I go along.

So happy to be back!

So It's Nov 1st and I'm back.

What I did on my summer and now Fall vacation.

I went to Burning Man for 12! days.

That's me in the mirror. Big Bess is our newest Van!
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And that's me last night at the Freakers Ball.
My friend Lenae took this pic. I think I rocked it!
(*************************)

So where to begin.

First off I was down to 192 which put me at 40 pounds lost for this year. Then I had a pb sandwich at Burning man & it was my catalyst to gain back about 9 pounds.

I'm feeling healthy but a little clunky right now. I'm going anti-sugar, no caffeine, and getting off the allergy foods. I want to get rid of that 10-15 pounds by Christmas. Hello cheap city run gym membership. Joining tomorrow morning & getting a 2 month membership.

My summer rocked! I was gone virtually every weds to Sunday in Tahoe. Rented an awesome room in a cabin by the Upper Truckee River. It's a house that crafter friends of mine have & they offered me the room. (According to spell check "crafter" is misspelled. huh.)

Anyway... Burning Man was incredible. I was on the Playa for 12 days. I interviewed/auditioned for a job for next year and got it. I'll be an art tour guide! Very very excited!

We still have the crank van & it's running great. Found a mechanic who actually knew what he was doing & got it up & running. It even passed smog! Yeah!

Oh and I have a facebook account. Lauren Mari Hufft Gifford is the name to look for. You can also become a fan of the store Prism Magic Clothing & Imports.

Speaking of the store. Me love me store!

Seriously.

I'm getting rid of the vintage & moving more into the sex/corsets/dance/plus size clothing.

I went to a lingerie/erotica convention in Vegas & just fell in love with the clothes. I'll post some pic's later this week.

What else? Ok. This is HUGE!!

I'm doing a fashion show in Dec. It's called (get this) "Luscious Ladies: A Fat Girl Fashion Show" for women size 14 +.

I'm doing all the outfits. Twenty five different outfits. I'll be sewing most of them including a WEDDING GOWN. Of course it's not going to be a "normal" wedding gown. I just can't do "normal".

Model casting happens this Weds or Thurs. Photo shoot with myself & Meredith (the woman who owns the space that we're having it at) happens on Weds afternoon.

Me spinning fire at Burning Man on the Shiva Vista stage. I helped work on the construction of the stage & got to be the stage manager one night.

That's it for now. I'll have more and promise to show up at least twice a week.

Missing you!

Why hello Lover

What I'm doing on my Summer Vacation

1. You need to know I'm down to 195, bitches. Yeah. I said it. One hundred ninety five fucking pounds. That's 38 pounds gone since Jan. Uh huh.

2. No, I'm not exercising. I have veracious veins that you wouldn't believe from all the standing I do. Either in the store, in the booth, on grass, on asphalt, on cement. I stand & have the biggest vein going up from my calf to my ass. Yup. Pretty things for pretty girls.

3. Update on Crank van: Yes we still own it. I put it on Craigs list, parked it in the lot by the store & had 2 people ask about it. We decided that we'd just finish getting it fixed & keep it. It does have that great sound system and if I leave the windows down I really don't notice the raw gas smell.

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Random photos

Taylorsville Solar Cook-off. Dancing with my friend Camilla

This is my favorite vending festival. Money's good & the music is great.

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Kim & me in our "Sears" pose.

Kim & I go dancing in Tahoe almost every weekend. She used to be a vendor but she's writing a book about her life and has a really nice advance to live off.

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Me & Kali doing a photo shoot for the store.

Yeah, I look hot.

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Artist Christopher Umana & me.

Back in June there was a big artist exhibit at one of the sleezey motels. Over 100 different artists rented rooms for a week & showed their stuff. I fell in love with Christopher's work and approached him about doing a show in the store.

Turns out he shops the store & was really honored to be asked.

So I have a nice display of his work in the window & inside.

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Fire spinning

I've been fire spinning and loving it.

Here's a link to check me out at the Taylorsville Solar Cook-off. I spun during the drum circle.

That's it for now.

Get off my back! I'm dating my blog already.

"When are you going to update your blog" asks my Sister almost daily.  

I'm in season. (Not like a dog in heat.  Season meaning I'm gone 4 days out of the week & am hardly ever home.)

She knew this was coming.  I've warned her.  But it seems that she's not the only one. 

"When are you going to update your blog?" asks my friends.  

I'm updating it right now.

This is my life over the past few weeks:

Thurs -Sunday I'm in Lake Tahoe (except for this weekend.)  I sell tie-dye to tourists.  Been doing it for about 13 years in Tahoe.  Love it & have a great following.

**********

This is my friend Jori. (Rhymes with Lori.)

She's what we in the craft business call a hawker.  She'll sell anything.  She doesn't make her stuff.  She buys & sells.

When I first met her she was selling gourmet popcorn.  Now she sells back rests.  She's a party girl and we go dancing all the time.  Love my Jori.

This is Don.

He sits in the back of his booth and says "Very good prices. Very good prices." or "Cheapest silver on the lake. Cheapest silver on the lake."

He repeats everything twice.  

"Lauren!  I'm going to the porta johns.  Lauren!  I'm going to the porta johns."

"Ok! Ok!" I repeat back.

He's into Scientology and marching bands.  He plays his marching band music at full volume all the time.  He also hands our free Ron Hubbard books.

I thought I had pictures of my booth but looks like I didn't take any.  I'm doing a show this coming weekend in Tahoe so I'll make sure I get a couple.

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Steve & Me at my Nieces open house.

I like this picture except I hate my chins.  

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Me in a very cool hat.

I have a leather guy who's making all sorts of stuff to sell in the store.

He said that he had to make this hat & had to show it to me right away.  The thing weighs a ton and I felt like I was going to lose my balance while I was wearing it.

Demonia boots

Got my shipment in this past week.  

**************

The store is doing ok.  I still have days where I want to just close the door & walk away.  We're down about 30% this month over last year.  

My weight:  I'm at 202 & holding steady.  Have been slowly adding fruit to my diet.  Love the strawberries.

Miss you all.  I'm doing the best I can.

I'm still here.

I know.  I've been neglecting my blog and you guys.  It's been a tough couple of weeks.

First off our store isn't making the money it needs to keep our doors open.  I'm having to make payments for rent.  You can't get to the store because of road construction.  I send out emails to our customers 2x a week saying "Come shopping!" 

This weekend is our 2nd anniversary sale.  BIG clearance.  Big whoop.  I've probably had 6 people walk thru the door since I opened at 9:30 and it's almost 2 now.  

Even my employees & the woman who rents space from us doesn't care.  There are days (like today) I just want to lock the doors and drive away never looking back.  It drains my energy and my life.  Today is doing that.

I mean come on people.  We have a giant rack full of clearance vintage clothes for $5.  This is stuff that I had marked up to $50 and now it's $5!  

Steve is out doing a local event.  He made more in the 1st hour than I've made in the 4.5 I've been open.  Thing is that money is our tie-dye business money.  It's what supports Steve & I.  

I love my store but today I want to walk away from the bills, customers and crap that goes with it.

My other issue is my health.  I had a huge chunk of melanoma removed from my arm last Nov.  The dr wanted me to see an oncologist.  We have such shitty insurance that I have to pay out of pocket for my chest x-ray & blood tests.

Finally got the blood tests done & found out I'm cancer free!  Yeah!  

But I still have something going on with my parathyroid.  That blood test happened on thurs. The oncologist should call me this week with results.

Oh something funny at oncologist:  He told me I'm losing weight too fast: 30 pounds in 4 months.  I don't think that's too fast.  I think that's pretty normal.

The rest of my metabolic panel came back normal.  My cholesterol levels were beautiful along with my glucouse levels.  Yeah!

I will be calling the dermatologist for my 6 month check up.  I need to ask what makes UV clothing UV clothing.

Sorry to be such a venter but this is the space I'm in right now.

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Photos from around the store today

Iris in bloom

****

Our old hand painted sign

******

Animal bikes

********

Basket of eyelashes

This is my life.

A picture says a THOUSAND words.  

Let's see if you can read them all.

A winged Jackalope.

How creative is that??

***************

A traditional Jackalope.

I wanna ride that pony!

****************

Kudo's to my friend Mac for sending me these in an email.

Gotta love a good cat fight.

******************

Who wants to know about crack van today??

Ok kids.  Have a seat & let Auntie Twinkely Dots tell you the latest.

Van is still in the shop.  Denny at Denny's Dependable found us a blinker housing & light.  It's being installed thursday.  $100.

I'll pick up the van, get it inspected at the DMV, register it & then put it on Craigs list.

We can drive it with the cracked manifold. So we'll sell it with the cracked manifold.

Good bye $4000 we've spent.  

***************

I'll be gone this weekend.

I'm heading over to Davis for the Whole Life Festival.  The fire group will be performing on Friday night.  

Miss me!