featured Archives • FAUX REAL THO

Riding Bikes With a Teenager

There are so many pieces out there about riding with young kids, but not many about riding with older kids, so when I started riding with my older child, a young teenager, I felt like we were on the steep end of the learning curve. The Big Kid learned to ride a bike when he…

Riding Bikes with a Toddler

If you’ve considered riding bikes with a toddler, you know the needs and options for outfitting yourself for a ride can be overwhelming. When wee Baby Cletus turned about a year old, I located a helmet that fit her head and promptly began sourcing iBerts on Craigslist. I liked the idea a lot — baby…

On the Vintage Spiro Agnew Watch by Dirty Time Company

I ran across this hilarious Spiro Agnew watch this weekend. Spiro Agnew was Nixon’s extremely unpopular vice president, and the first VP to resign from office due to criminal charges. One of the many jokes targeting Agnew was: “Did you know that Mickey Mouse wears a Spiro Agnew watch?” I don’t get it either. During…

Three Easy Steps to Good Customer Service on Social Media

The bad thing about social media is that as a business owner this is an opportunity to fall on your face, and an opportunity for the Internet (capital “I”) to laugh at you. However, it’s also an opportunity to show how classy and gracious to are to your clients and how eager you are to see they have a good experience.

How to Blog, For Real

I’ve been blogging for roughly twelve years, and writing online daily for longer than that. It’s both just a habit and vastly more than a habit. Sometimes it’s nearly compulsive. There are so many listicles online about what makes an effective blogger, and how to blog to succeed in business, but I think it can…

Free Vintage Clip Art!: 170 Vintage, Retro, Mid-Century Fair Use Images for Download

For many years, I designed all my personal sites with a 1950’s era, mid-century vibe. During this time I amassed a huge collection of free, fair-use, mid-century clip art. Behold, free vintage clip art for you to use on your own projects! The following may include space references, pro-cigarette ads, martinis, kitsch, weird babies and/or Ronald…

One of my favorites: Schoolhouse Auctions in teeny-tiny Yeoman, Indiana.

That Auction Life: When all your belongings are disposable, for sale, or have a price.

One of my many hobbies is moonlighting as a vintage jewelry dealer. I’ve been thrifting since I was a teenager, and started getting into auctions in a serious way a few years ago. About that time, I started to specialize in jewelry and sell jewelry online. Why jewelry? It’s the subject of another post. Just…