This weekend, at a Wu Tang Clan concert in Austin TX, I found myself in the middle of a mosh pit. I had never had the pleasure of moshing before, and was a bit unprepared. Considering that you too might like to enjoy the mosh experience, I developed this handy guide.

Goals:

To remain upright. Two reasons: 1) falling could get you trampled, and 2) the floor is going to be very, very dirty.

To have fun. This does not include getting punched in the face, but may involve being pushed around and pushing other people to your hearts content with a backdrop of your favorite songs.

Preparation:

Consider which songs will initiate moshing action. Usually more up tempo, popular songs will get people in the moshing spirit.

Make a note of exits and how you will get there if you need to.

Brace yourself but remain flexible. If a crowd of people is pushing toward you, you want to go with the flow of energy and not against it.

Methods:

If you’d like to minimize personal injury, surround yourself with people that are bigger than you. Swinging arms, legs, and feet will hit them first and give you time to get out of the way.

Keep an eye out for crowdsurfers. As they get tossed around the crowd, their arms and legs may be flailing around uncontrollably – getting kicked in the head is not ideal.

Link elbows with a friend. This will help stabilize both of you, and help you straighten yourself out if you lose your balance.

If you feel yourself falling, grab the person closest to you and use them to pull yourself up. They won’t mind.

If you do fall, it’s ok. It comes with the territory. Hopefully someone will help you up and you can continue where you left off.

Be sure to shove other individuals with all your might – it is a mosh pit after all – but be sensible about how much impact you can withstand. Know when to step aside.

The look:

Minus the sunglasses and watch, Amber Rose is ready for the mosh pit.

#1 Wear boots

Combat boots. Steel toe if possible. In a mosh pit, your feet will get stepped on, a lot. They will get stepped on with the full weight of people’s bodies. They will be stepped on with the force exerted by a person attempting to launch another person into the air. Your friends will be the worst offenders. You want a shoe that will protect your toes and prevent you from slipping.

#2 Leave your coat and purse in the car

Mosh pits are hot, and a purse will be lost, stolen or both. You also want to have full range of motion in your arms so you won’t want a coat and purse holding you back. Bring your car/house key and a few dollars, and that should be all you need. Once the moshing starts, reapplying lip gloss or checking Twitter will be the last thing on your mind.

#3 Wear a mosh-ready hairstyle

Don’t wear a wig to a mosh pit. Just saying, it will probably leave your head at some point during the evening if you do. Your lovely hosts may even be kind enough to spray the crowd with water and/or beer, so I wouldn’t advise trying that new curly look or updo. A ponytail or bun is more than enough.

#4 Do not wear makeup

If you must break this rule, please make it waterproof. There will be sweating.

#5 Do not wear jewelry

No one likes a torn earlobe, and rings easily become brass knuckles as your arms flail about.

Other notes:

Moshing is supposed to be fun. The people you are moshing with should not be trying to kill each other or you. If you see murderous tendencies, get out of there.

If you see people falling and no one is helping them up, people getting injured and not being immediately helped to an exit, the aforementioned punching in the face, or anything of the like this may not be a benevolent mosh pit. Proceed accordingly, ie, leave as fast as you can.

For more info and tips, check out this this excellent Guide to Moshing & Concert Survival:

Happy Moshing. ♥

I haven’t shopped at most of these stores, so I can’t say how their shipping or customer service is. I have taken a look at their merchandise and if it looks like something I would consider buying, I’m including it here. Hope you enjoy!

1. J. Magnolia Designs – 10% off all jewelry (CC: HLDYSALE)
2. A Journey Illustrated – various discounts on botanical prints
3. Obsolete World – 15% off all art prints
4. TPB Vintage – 20% off entire store
5. Oyin Handmade – 20% off entire store
6. Lady Luxe Vintage – 40% off entire store
7. Visual Luxe – 25% off blog design/installation
8. Uncle Brutha’s Gourmet Hot Sauce – $1 shipping, included mostly because I have an “Uncle Brother,” and the owner won Hell’s Kitchen!!!
9. Cyclelogical – 20% off Tshirts (CC: cycletee20)
10. Beebles – 15% off entire store (CC: MYBEEBLES)

Update – a few more lovely small business sales!:

• The Fox and the Teacup – 25 – 50% off art and stationary
• Babicakes Couture – 25% off entire store (CC: THANKFUL25)
• A. Micah Smith – 50% off posters
• Eleven Thirteen Jewelry – 20% off entire store

What did I miss? Leave your Small Business Saturday online finds in the comments!

Long sleeved Tee – Express, Short Sleeved Tee – Courtesy of WordCamp Philly
Scarf – Nova Ice, Jeans – Ann Taylor, Kicks – Nike/Gift, Earrings – A flea market, I think

After a long hard day volunteering at Wordcamp Philly, where a double super secret Easter egg in the WordPress dashboard was revealed by WordPress Happiness Engineer Sheri Bigelow. What happens if you compare a post revision to itself? I’ll tell you what doesn’t happen – a lame-o “files are identical” message doesn’t appear.

Do it! And report back here if you see it. No cheating. Don’t tell me if you already knew.

Check out my personal timeline for highlights from the event.

I wore this dress to a friend’s wedding. It was one of most unique weddings I’ve ever been to, complete with hundreds of handmade paper cranes, the most diverse music mix I’ve ever heard at a wedding (everything from Frank Sinatra to Jay-Z to Brittney Spears), and a super fun photo booth where guests were free to take as many silly photos as they wanted. It was so much fun - I hope they get married again soon.

This wasn’t the dress I planned to wear – my other one was in a FedEx truck somewhere – but as usual Buffalo Exchange delivered. I’ve been looking for a shift dress that I like at a good price for quite some time, and the shoes worked – enough of a heel to add some fancy but low enough for lots of dancing.

I love pompadours and interesting twisty updos, so this was my version for the night. You can’t really see it in these pics but I used a medium sized barrette from Ficcare to hold the back in place. So far, they are the only company I have found that makes a barrette large and strong enough to hold my hair in place without popping open – with the thickness of my hair that is quite a feat!

I wore this to see Namasya at the Arts Bank for this year’s Philly Fringe/Live Arts Festival. Shantala Shivalingappa’s performance was hypnotic, with her rhythmic, intense, intricate, and at times awkward movements. A few times during the show, she danced in complete silence, magnified by the size of the venue and the hundreds of people in the packed audience. I was lucky to get a seat – it ended up being standing room only and someone was kind enough to offer me his.

This is one of my new favorite dresses, which is really a skirt. It reminds me of the 90s, one of my favorite fashion decades. The 90s hold a special place for me – I really had time to dedicate to figuring out who I am and what I like. It’s been a long time since I’ve had black and white polka dots in my wardrobe, but I’m glad I do.

I totally stole this outfit from Elaine of Clothed Much. No I didn’t. She stole it from me…………. Ok fine she didn’t. We were both inspired by two completely independent sources and came up with nearly the same thing! That’s part of the reason we’re BFFs…

I saw a pink/orange combo in a BCBG catalog (page 3-4), and when I stumbled on this pink top at the Goodwill I thought I could recreate something like it. I searched high and low for an orange pencil skirt and didn’t find one, so I decided to look for orange pants. I found these on sale at Asos and decided to give them a shot.

Since the outfit is so incredibly bright (which I love, and hot pink and orange are two of my favorite colors!), I decided to wear lipliner so that my face didn’t get completely washed out. I used Milani Lip Pencil in Simply Natural, with MAC Lip Glass in Nice Buzz.

I decided to go sans earrings but to wear my gold necklace from Archives Chicago. It picks up the gold from my shoes and broke up the solid pink a bit for the blouse.

I’ve worn this hairstyle a lot IRL, but this is it’s debut on the blog. This is how it looks when I shampoo, condition, finger comb and air dry. This time I added some Eco Styler gel to hold the coils in place. I might keep it like this for a little while…

PS, I’ve started taking my own photos in public places as many bloggers do. Turns out I’m really good at it, it’s like a gift I never knew I had:

Incredible right???

I spotted these Brooks Brothers pants for $3.45 on a recent  impromptu thrifting trip. Of course, I could not leave them in the store, even though they’re…highwaters!!!! If I had worn these back in school, my classmates would have had a field day! Thanks guys, for toying with my fragile teenaged self esteem. Now, thankfully, honeybadger don’t care (sorry for the bad words, but you have to admit it’s hilarious, especially if you were a fan of nature shows back in the day) and I wear what I want without regard for fashion faux pas.

I wore them with a shirt I’ve had for 100 years but can’t let go of because I love the pattern, and a newer cardi from YesStyle.com. I got into Korean fashion because of the show High As the Sky, Wide as the Earth (one of the few reasons I miss having a TV…oh em gee it looks like the vids are available online) and YesStyle is one of the sites I came across in my search for the clothes I saw on the show. I love the styles on the site, and I love that they have a zillion pictures for each item, but a lot of their clothes are one size fits all, which equals small on me. That’s ok but they won’t always look the same as they do on the models – they still get worn to death.

In case you’re wondering why I’m wearing a long sleeved cardigan in mid summer, it’s because I work in an office that supplies sub-zero temperatures to its employees (totally kidding guys, you’re awesome! …). I try to wear a cardigan or light jacket every day, otherwise it’s my “you look like a homeless person” black mega wrap, drinking hot water, and wishing I had a trashcan full of fire.

You can almost see my silver flats from Ann Klein Sport which are super comfortable to walk in. I even wear them around the house they’re so comfy. I bought them in a pinch – I was wearing beaded sandals, rushing to an event, and my pants kept getting caught – and snagged – on the beading. It was a disaster. I ran to Liberty Shops, made the decision to buy them and was out of there within 10 minutes. I felt a little guilty when the sales person helpfully brought out a second pair for me to look at in case I didn’t like these and I was like “uh yeah…no kthxbye” but I had to do what I had to do. Anyway, ended up being a great purchase.

That’s my story, happy Friday!

I wore this outfit to run downtown for a facial. I really didn’t feel like getting up or getting dressed, so I threw on my trusty, well worn, twice-restyled, thrifted Express jeans and a more recently thrifted heather gray tee. It looked extra blah so I decided to wear my Steve Madden faux snake skin peep toe flats, which always put a smile on my face. I love these shoes bc they’re so comfortable and so my style. I realized recently that I really like snake skin. I have another pair of snake skin sandals that I really should wear more, but I rarely wear mules and they’re mules…I tried to take a pic of the Maddens (do you think any Cowboys fans will end up here via search and be sadly disappointed?) but the little one preferred that I take a pic of him and I obliged.

I was tired of looking at my hair so I decided to wear a scarf tied as a “turban,” which reminds me more of Rosie the Riveter (whose image I love) than anything. I wore my Virgo pendant, the first time in the many years that I’ve had it. This pendant, if it can be called that (it’s so big and chunky it reminds me of Run DMC in the best of ways) was once my mom’s. I saw it on her dresser a long long time ago and it’s been laying around in my jewelry collection since. I finally got a chain made to wear with all of my miscellaneous pendants (for only $20!) and so this baby finally saw the light of day.

Topped it off with my favorite Giant Vintage sunnies…

This outfit ended up being super comfortable, totally me and perfect for schlepping. Also, an old man with a cane exclaimed “you just as fine as you want to be!” as I walked across the street, which was nice because I want to be really, really fine.

Dress – H&M via Buffalo Exchange, Shoes – Franco Sarto, Watch – Citizen via gift from my sister…
Necklace – Gift, Earrings – Nova Ice

I found this gold dress at Buffalo Exchange and thought it would be perfect for semi-dressy summer parties. On the hanger it looked like something a Greek Goddess would wear on a casual day…well, it didn’t look like that when I put it on, but I was still happy with it and wore it to my mom’s retirement party.

I’ve developed a disdain for clothing with sashes or strings that tie into bows in the back (I had way more than my fair share of those at one time), so I wrapped the ties around and tied in a simple knot in the front.

For my hair, I did my usual – remove two strand twists for a wavy texture then bobby pin like there’s no tomorrow. I added my “diamond” flower combs, similar to these, just to add a little sparkle. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned these on the blog before, but I got them 4 or 5 for $20 at Cherry Hill Mall, at a little kiosk with hair accessories. They have lots of cute stuff. Of course I have no recollection of the name…

Also, I’d like you to meet my pink couch, also known as The Pink Lady. Why yes, that is vinyl, thanks for asking.