Monday, November 29, 2010

Zines, Mags!


I'll openly attempt at least two months of this year were passed at the pool soaking up the rays (best money I've ever spent)and reading magazines. I'm completely up on fashion, cooking and the goings on of celebrities. I have an addiction to magazines. My mailbox confirms this once or twice a week. Each promises to solve all your life's problems. I don't think they, the mass media, nailed it yet. I still can't get my fussy eater to touch, let alone eat a veggie, and my week nights are still hectic even with the greatest 30-minute meals. But with each article I stuff my brain full of more information. Some of it is useless (pretty anything from US; a subscription I share with a friend). However some makes me into a complete geek(I know things no 40ish suburban mom should know, directly from Wired). Most the information I receive from these zines is stuffed into the little corners of my mind to pop out at gatherings with friends, leaving them with more evidence that I'm quite nuts.


A couple of years ago my magazines started to guilt me out. How can I spent money on this? The US weekly issue ISSUE was solved when I started sharing a subscription with a friend. Seriously I can not spend $70 dollars on something that offers me no usable information. US is purely entertainment and I can get that for TV. Oh but the "Who Wore It Best" section calls to me like the Sirens called to the Sailors. I rarely resist and therefore I was saving money by getting a subscription. A-Ha! They got me.
Magazines have become so discounted, I had to buy a subscriptions to any magazines I picked up one or twice a year, because the subscription price was around the price of two at newsstand prices. Again saving money. I have a recycling center near me and all my mags go out the door to new owners or to be recycled. Luckily, I will not have to have the production crew of Hoarders over anytime soon and the guilt is dissipating.

Seventeen was my first subscription and I felt like such a seventeen year old when I read it at fourteen. At around seventeen I stopped getting Seventeen of course and started with Glamour. I have had a subscription to Glamour for twenty-four years. Can you believe it? Out in the world I'm sure there's someone very impressed by their 75 year anniversary with National Geographic, I assume they are better person for it. But I have really been through a lot with Glamour. At seventeen I cut out pictures of my favorite fashions and I made a scrapbook. It's funny to see that most of the stuff I choose you could walk down the street with on today and not be laughed at. O.k. there's a few neon pieces that might get a few stares, but no laughing. Fortunately, I didn't like shoulder pads, so that spares a lot of ridicule.

But Glamour was with me during the college years, dating, getting my first job, marriage, first baby, second and third.Over the years my interests have changed and so have my concerns, but I assume I'll always getting Glamour. The covers didn't embarrass me until I was around 37. My dad was over and a Glamour was lying on the table with a teaser on the front cover in giant letters that read something like "Have even bigger and better orgasms." From that point on they was relegated to my bedroom or bathroom. There's nothing better than hanging out in the tub with a new magazine.

When I was around thirty I went through a period where I was going to get smart about the world and finances. Time, Money and Newsweek showed up in my mailbox and I tried. I mean I really tried. They couldn't keep my interest. With a new baby in the house, Parenting and Parenthood magazines were more fitting and they kept me up-to-date on everything to freak out about. Then came Family Fun, and I must admit it was really fun.

There was "O"prah. Paaahh! I couldn't be that deep every month. I've had a ton of "A-ha! Moments," but they never amounted to much.

I am crafty and I do get several scrapbooking magazines, my favorite of which went belly up, Simple Scrapbooks. Creating Keepsakes just expired and I will let it go . . . I haven't scrapbooked in a year. If I get my butt in gear to scrap, I'll probably get a new subscription.

Martha Stewart's Living and Everyday food are loved along with a new edition Food Network Magazine. I get Rachel Ray's Everyday but I will not be renewing. I will never ever make Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Sauce and Saffron Pilaf. That ain't happening here.

When Real Simple hit the newstands I knew I'd found my match. Organizing, life stories, great recipes, little crafty things it was a match made in heaven. They seriously do have ways to make your life simpler. I use lots of little time savers from Real Simple and they work.
That just reminded me . . . .what happened to Hallmark magazine. That was so pretty.

For the good and the bad of it, I love magazines.

Now the real reason I sat down here was to show you what I have going on at my Etsy shop Bitsofme. I've been cooking up monsters and dolls. Santa's little workshop, right in my shop.

I'm running a Cyber Monday sale 10% the entire shop with the coupon code CYBERMON used at checkout.






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