Threadflip.com

What I like about threadflip.com is it has style.  The way it is set up makes me want to browse through the  photos of cute high end current clothing that is not inexpensively priced, but affordable, compared to shopping new.  Also, the photos give you ideas of how to put outfits together with the clothing each person is selling.  And you can sell, too!  Or try to before you hold your own Bitch and Swap, which, let's face it, is probably still a lot more fun...

RE-Fashion

My cousin Kim sent me this amazing article that has pretty much everything you need to know about one of my favorite subjects: Re-fashion! It even has a link to a woman who made a dress out of a table cloth! Sound familiar?

Thank you, Fair Companies.com!

Housing Works in Hell's Kitchen

Shop for bargains and donate to a good cause on 9th Ave. in Midtown (730-732 9th Ave. between 49th and 50th). Today I walked past in a hurry, even though was a sign reading %50 off all clothing! Quel damage!

If you've never been to one of the many locations all over the city, Housing Works comprise seven upscale resale stores that not only provide steady funding to address the needs of people living with AIDS, but they also ensure a supply of clothing and essentials to people that other organizations have deemed too difficult to serve.

It's a wonderful place for the novice thrifter because of it's large selection of upscale clothing and furniture and often sells new items that stores have donated from overstock.

On a previous visit to the Chelsea location, I found an amazing fragrance pour homme that I gave to Ted for a birthday gift. $15 instead of $45. And all going to a good cause.

Eight Dollar Coats!

Better late than never.

Some of you know that I have just started rehearsals for a new play at Lincoln Center called War Horse so blogging time is scarce, but I woke up in the middle of the night tonight realizing that I had neglected to post about the Salvation Army Coat Sale that is tomorrow, or actually, later this morning!

• 46th Street between 10th and 11th in Manhattan
• 9am to 5pm (Get there at 8:45am to get a cart to shop with and the best selection!)

I wasn't going to attend the last one in December because it fell on my husband's birthday, but to my surprise, we woke up in the morning and he actually said (and I almost fainted), "Shouldn't we go and see what we can find for my birthday at the coat sale?"

What? My HUSBAND wanted to go THRIFTING? On his BIRTHDAY?

Well, I didn't need convincing so of course we were out the door and in less than 2 hours, we came home with 2 large bags of new (used) clothes for his wardrobe (we HAD to go upstairs to shop for other things, too!) including a black toasty warm down coat (pictured above) that he has been wearing almost every day since.

And the best news of all is that their prices for coats this year are even lower: Eight dollars for non-leather, non-fur regular length coats. EIGHT DOLLARS ! Can't beat that.

Later that evening, at his Birthday Party, our friend Todd (who is a fellow reader of What Would Leenya Do) showed up in his new/used coat, almost identical to Ted's and he had bought it... (wait for it) FROM THE SALVATION ARMY COAT SALE! Eight dollars!

Now I'm going back to sleep to rest up for another eight hour day of puppetry, but go! Shop! Be warm! And let me know what you find...

Happy Holidays!

Here's my Holiday Gift to all you Renaissance People out there!

"Comfort and Joy"

Arrangement and instruments by yours trully, all on Garage Band...

I Played My Drum For Him

Ask the Little Drummer Boy. He gave of what he had, and never gave up when he couldn't afford to go to the mall and spend hundreds of dollars for brand new gifts for the baby Jesus.

Ted and I looked around to see what we had this fall and saw things we've collected: Champagne and wine corks (no surprise there), leather scraps, and feathers from the birds in our neighborhood: wild turkeys, bluejays, Canadian geese, and tufted titmouse. After experimenting with a few different prototypes, little Christmas Tree ornaments emerged from our combinations and the Pocono Angel was born.

The next challenge was sending them in the mail without ruining the feathers and by using only recycled brown paper bags and cardboard.

Soon, we had over 30 made and our family and friends now had little personalized ornaments to hang on their tree.

Pa rum pa pum pum!

Reuse your T's

Happy Holidays, readers!

For your gift this year, I'm linking you to Huffington Post's list of reuse ideas, mostly for t-shirts. I want the book called 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt by Megan Nicolay!

Here's to a creative and eco-friendly 2011!

Thankful for Coats

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for you, my faithful readers.

AND for my faux leopard swing coat and Ted's charcoal wool dress coat that I bought at last year's Salvation Army Coat Sale, both worn to the recent opening of the play Elling (starring Denis O'Hare and Brandan Fraser) on Broadway at the Soho House! (paired here with a winter white lace mini dress that I found for $15 at H & M and a long gold chain and pendant I bought at a flea market for $8)

AND for our friend Kelly (pictured here) who accompanied us to the opening.

AND for the coat sale that is coming up at 9:30am on Saturday, December 4th at the Salvation Army between 10th and 11th.

It's good to be Ren!

Dulcinea Beauty Tip #4: An Apple a Day

At first, it was a saving money thing. Big surprise, right?

But then, eating a large apple plus a handful of raw almonds made a fabulous start to a lunch. Or was a wonderful way to curb hunger between meals.

And eventually, old snack standards like tortilla or potato chips and candy didn't seem like food anymore. In fact, I finally believed that excessive salt and sugar shut off my ability to notice I'm full and actually cause me to overeat.

Now, I start off each meal by filling up on the good stuff: Green vegetables, whole grains, fruit, and water so by the time I get to meat and dessert, I'm too full to ask for seconds.

Reward? Shopping spree (at thrift stores, of course) for a whole new smaller wardrobe!

Pictured right:

Leenya as Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina 2010

Dulcinea Beauty Tip #3: Fall in Love

In the final scene of Man of La Mancha, Aldonza assumes Don Quixote's name for her, Dulcinea, partly because he is the first man to ever fall in love with her, but also because after his death, she learns that it is up to her to love herself.

In Hilton Head, I got in the best shape of my life partly because of the intense fight choreography, partly because of 4 hour volleyball matches on the beach, but mostly because I fell in love... with running.

The best way to get in shape and then stay in shape is to find a physical activity that you will do every other day not only because you know it's good for you, but that you can't stand to NOT do it, that when you have to skip a day you miss it. And even better, is to fall in love with an activity that is FREE and that you can do anywhere you are, summer or winter.

Every other day, I would run out of the girl's cast housing and down the street, over the white sand dunes sprouting with tall grasses, and out onto the beach. With Dixie Chicks (Taking the Long Way Home) or Melissa Etheridge playing in my iPod, I'd challenge myself to go farther and farther each day, finding the perfect strip of sand that wasn't too hard packed by the receding tide nor too dry and loose to get my footing. Even with inclement weather threatening, the beach was the best setting for inspiring intervals of jogging and full out sprints. I raced dolphins and watched pelicans and ospreys hunt in the waves. A number of times, I even ran barefoot (inspired by an interview on NPR about running shoes being uncessary) and found it even more exhilerating (though my toes ended up with blisters between them from the sand).

Before long, my clothes were looser and I felt stronger and stronger and then my days between runs I found myself missing the beach.

Back in New York, 80 degree days are in the past, but I've held to my regimen and pretend that the New York sidewalks are the packed down sand of the beach. On cold or rainy days, I walk stairs, taking the elevator down and repeating the climb until I've climbed at least as high as the Empire State Building.

And it's wonderful to be back to my first true love: my husband.

What have you fallen in love with?

Fall Bitch and Swap

Have you thrown your Bitch and Swap yet? What did you get?

Dulcinea Beauty Tip #2: Once a Week

This is a photo of me with dirty hair.

And it's so much more manageable than just-washed hair!

I've been told not to wash my hair more than once a week before, but I never believed. I mean, what's a girl to do if she sweats when she works out? And what about product buildup?

As Aldonza, I didn't wear a wig and I wanted it to look like it hadn't been brushed or washed in years. DJ, our director, even suggested that I clip pieces of straw into the back of it, as if I had been dragged through the stables, but in the end, sometimes more is not, well... So I began to wash it once a week, on my day off.

And I liked my hair better! Even with sweat from running, salt from swimming in the ocean, gel and mousse that I put in it every day, my hair had better texture and felt thicker and smoother and healther and much more manageable. So why go back to washing every day?

The secret is I do get it wet as if I'm going to wash it in the shower but then I add conditioner and leave that on for the remainder of my shower, rinsing before I turn the water off.

Then, whether I leave it wavy or blow it straight, it feels as though I have twice the hair than I would if I had just shampooed it.

Fewer washes=fewer dollars spent on shampoo, not to mention fewer dollars spent on hair color, if that should apply to you...

Thanks, Aldonza!

Three Coat Sales!

No, I haven't posted in a while, but yes, I want you to know about the upcoming Salvation Army Coat Sales!

• Saturday, November 6th 9:30am to 5pm
• Saturday, December 4th 9:30am to 5pm
• Saturday, January 8th 9:30am to 5pm

Check back to my first Coat Sale posting for my tips to navigating these hectic and hilarious events.

And I promise to post again soon!

The OTHER Shakespeare in the Park

Shakespeare in the Park, brought to you by the Public Theater, went back to a wonderful and often unattainable conquest: Rep. Most of the actors perform in both Winters Tale and A Merchant's Tale. Ted and I saw both shows at the Delacorte Theater this summer: Beautiful, ethereal, clever, starstudded...

...and sanitary.

Call me crazy, but I like my Shakespeare (and most theater, for that matter) more hands on, more about human contact and imperfection. So when I went to see New York Classical Theater's production of Much Ado About Nothing (starring my longtime friend and onstage husband, Company, Fred Rose) Saturday night, I was, at long last, sated.

And yes, I am blogging about both because they are free to the public (with a suggested donation, of course) and they are at the top of my list of New York summer adventures, but I have to admit, when I heard that I'd have to sit on the pavement to see Much Ado and then get up and move around to various locations all around Battery Park with a hundred other various strangers, I anticipated the grumpiness that only a long time New Yorker who avoids events like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting and Macy's Thanksgiving Parade trully knows.

But at least until the word gets out, there is no standing in line starting at 6am for a New York Classical Theater Shakespeare play. Once you know where to meet for the initial scene, you just jump in with the crowd and don't get too comfortable. Which I found to be, unexpectedly, the beauty of this concept.

I joined Benedick, Beatrice, Hero and their friends in Castle Clinton, along with 150 other people of all ages, shapes, colors, and species (Duffy the dog was mezmerized by the fight scenes). Each theatergoer was respectful and eager to find out what happened at the next location (kids ended up in a race), all of which served as a great background for the 1940's seafaring concept.

When the sun went behind the horizon (Battery Park sunsets over Jersey City and the statue of liberty are pretty spectacular) the same assistants that ushered the crowd to the next location held flashlights as spotlights. Occasionally, ambient noise competed with the dialogue, but the actor's vocal work was impressive and the audience seemed to hang on every word of the abbreviated script. The acting and directing was strong and the story prevailed. And I never had a chance to sit and tune out. We were all a part of the experience.

As of next week, Much Ado moves to Central Park at 103rd Street, the exact location is listed on the website. Bring comfortable shoes, shorts/pants that you don't mind getting dirty, something to sit on that you can easily carry from place to place, and friends.

Trees Are Cool

Check out this The Lower East Side Ecology Center's website for instructions on how to safely recycle and for a money saving tip that we should all remember:

"The net cooling effect of one young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-sized air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.

How's that for free?

And true. I just returned from the O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut where I was in a 12 day workshop reading of an amazing new musical called "Clear" written by Paul Stovall and the best place to cool off was under one of the amazing huge trees on the grounds. There are photos of famous actors and playwrights and directors (Woody Allen, August Wilson, etc.) under what was known as the Conference Tree. What an amazing creative meeting place! Holy Ground, as our musical director/cast member Brad Simmons said.

Yay trees!

And yay Lower East Side Ecology Center!

More Divawear...

Another performance at Symphony Space with some amazing celebrities (I performed between a video of Stephen Colbert and Leonard Nimoy!), another reason to create another "Divawear" design.

This was a top I made from 2 identical silk scarves that I found in a ten cent bin at a thrift store in California (I bought 10 of them, stay tuned for the gown...) and then sewed together. I added a draw string and my Divawear tag... et voila! "Wow" comments from Jane Curtin, Carmen de Vavallade, and Eugenia Zukerman!

p.s. Strappy sandals from Payless, dark wash skinny jeans from H & M...

All because of a Blog

Donna Lynn Champlin is my newest Ren Girl Hero.

For under $1,000 she recorded and released her debut album, Old Friends.

Mine, with the amazing discounted and free help of dozens of musician friends cost $10,000. In this Broadway World article, Champlin relates her story of how simply blogging about her adventure, she assembled her team and emerged with a record winning album!

Guess what my next project is?

Target Women

Watching Target Women will definitely save you money.

I ran across this hilarious off-hand cable TV show between Tosh.O and the Daily Show and recommend it for a healthy dose of perspective.

Second Annual Bitch and Swap

It's a small world in this big city.

I was doing a reading of a new musical and met two marvelous new actors who had just come from a hike upstate: first clue that we probably had tons in common... But then I found out that Anna (who has a blog, too!) is also from Missoula Montana! Next (drumroll ladies and gentlemen) I invited her to my Bitch and Swap.... and she couldn't come because she was already having one that week! What?

But we did compare notes afterwards on Facebook. Seems more people are into purging than acquiring and we both had huge piles to bring to Sally's (thank you Renee for filling up your car the next morning!) and varying sizes of donated clothes are inevitable and everyone has more fun if none of that matters.

How was your Bitch and Swap Potluck?

$99 Headshots!

How can you beat that?

Ben Strothmann offers a 20 minute "Quickie" session for an affordable alternative.

Let's face it. When you've had several headshots in your life you know how to a)do your own hair and makeup and b) choose one outfit that you know will work. This short session requires that pre-planned focus (time for only one look/background color), and it forces you to do your homework: Check out other headshots on line, see what you like and don't like in backgrounds, poses, outfits, makeup and show up with ideas. Ben is great at taking those ideas and setting up the right lighting and background.

He recently moved to a new studio with a great big bathroom down the hall, complete with full length mirror, and mine was the first shot taken in this new studio! His clear instructions on his website made it very easy and fast to view my proofs online.

Thanks Ben! Now to get my new headshots to the casting directors...

Check out more photos by Ben of The Chalks in a previous post:

Practially Free!