Will our heroine replace a razor? Is a nick in her future? Oh, the suspense!

Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14

I’m in a lather.

In the last two days, we’ve raised $240 of our $1,200 for our ScholarMatch project in partnership with Rivet & Sway. Will you please help us put some kids through college this fall by making a donation? If you can, tell us in comments so we can keep track.

Here’s what the team has done so far:

Kimberly is donating 25 percent from her next two weeks of Nottene sales. Your purchase comes with her hand-drawn sketch of your item. What the rad? Please let her know in comments that you’d like to support ScholarMatch.

Jen is donating 20 percent of sales from Cultivating Me through the end of June, plus matching those proceeds with her own cash. Her stuff is very reasonably priced, so have a look.

Lauren offered 10 percent of her proceeds from The Little Donkey for the next three weeks, so go stock up on baby shower gifts.

Huge thanks to Amber, Jen Bruntlett, Sonia Gustafson, and Kim for their donations. Thanks also to @JennyStockton, who you may remember from her Go Mighty bakesale, for lending her megaphone. And thanks to @cultivatingme, @kellytirman,@miametro, and @jackiewolven for the RTs.

And finally, hooray for our Elaine (comment 243) our Rivet & Sway giveaway winner! Elaine, get your vision checked and then check your email for info on how to claim your Punchline Neopolitans from Rivet & Sway.

Again, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help with this, guys. You are good eggs. Thank you.

Kellee Bryan didn’t buy any new clothes for a year. Well, two exceptions. (Kellee also needs fiction recs for her 100 books project. I’m looking at you Liz.)

Sheri Silver gave herself a perfect day in Manhattan.

Read this for the last three lines. Oof.

Photo Source

Thanks to Rivet & Sway for sponsoring this post, supplying the resources to do something nice, and being so cool to work with.

What I Did

I mentioned last week that I got my first pair of glasses when I was in college. What I didn’t mention is that my childhood before that point was kind of rough. A bad situation became untenable a few months before I was set to leave for school, and nearby relatives took me in so I could attend high school graduation with my class. Still, I had to reassess my plans.

No one in my immediate family had graduated from college, and most of my extended family hadn’t either. Though I always knew I would get a degree, now I had no idea how I would pay for it. I delayed my college acceptance, switched to a less expensive school, and applied for jobs, grants, loans, and credit cards. The combination got me through, along with help from an incredibly generous family friend who let me stay with her for a couple of years. Still, there were plenty of tears and sleepless nights over money.

What I’m Doing

When I think of that time, I worry for kids trying to pull themselves up. Education is the most straightforward way to improve your situation, and it scares me how daunting tuition can be for a kid with no money.

As part of their “Find Your Joy” campaign on Go Mighty, Rivet & Sway offered to fund an item on my Life List. I thought helping someone through college would be cool in partnership with an eyewear company. We support intellect! We are pro-nerdiness! We encourage our offspring to seek mates who exhibit global curiosity! And so forth.

So we decided to donate $1,000 to ScholarMatch, which is like a Kickstarter for college tuition. They use a crowdfunding model to pair you with a student who matches your criteria for support.

I’m hoping that together we can add another $1,200 to the Rivet & Sway advertising dollars, because ScholarMatch says it costs $1,100 to put a kid through one year of a two-year college. ScholarMatch also has a $50,000 tuition gap they need to fund before August so all of their students can afford to attend school in the Fall. They’ve raised about $38,000 so far.

What You Can Do

If you’d like to help, will you please:

1. Donate to ScholarMatch.

Choose the criteria for the student you’d like to support, and use PayPal or a credit card to make a donation here. Please leave a comment telling us how much you donated, so we know when to celebrate. Honor system, so you can be anonymous if you prefer.

2. Donate your time, or lend your megaphone.

If you make something or sell your services, and are willing to donate over 10 percent of your proceeds over the next three weeks, please leave a comment with a link to your site and the percentage you’re willing to donate. I’ll do a roundup of vendors early next week.

If you have a blog or are active on Facebook or Twitter and can help rally friends to chip in, that would be awesome.

3. Support Rivet & Sway’s decision to spend ad dollars this way.

If you’d like to see more of this type of campaign, let Rivet & Sway know. You can do that by entering the giveaway, for yourself or a geeky pal. You can also just visit the site and have a look around, to say, “Hey, thanks for not blowing that $1,000 on brochures.”

Thanks, guys. I’m excited to kickstart summer by checking this one off together.

Thanks to Rivet & Sway for sponsoring this post, and allowing me to provide fodder for girls-in-glasses fetishists the world over.

I got my first pair of glasses in college. They were tiny, wire-rimmed specs that made me feel like a genius, and look like an awkwardly feminine James Joyce.

I’ve been through dozens of pairs since then, but a few years ago, I realized I’d been wearing the same glasses for about seven years. I got so many compliments when I first purchased them; it poisoned my brain.

Then one day it clicked. Glasses are an accessory, and are subject to trends. My once-chic glasses had essentially become a pair of Capri pants for my face. “Do you have some gladiator sandals I could balance on my nose? Thanks.”

So I decided to change out my glasses more frequently, which brings us to Rivet & Sway. They’re like Zappos for sexy librarians. You choose three frames you want to try, and they ship them to you free so you can try them on, take a bunch of selfies, and ask your friends if they make you look stupid. Like so:

PUNCHLINE, NEAPOLITAN

I love these. Are they too “seventh-grade art teacher who used to over-explain about how it’s not a big deal to eat paste”?

I think they’re like when you ask your favorite barista with the sleeve tats where you can get a pair of her glasses, and she says, “Oh. My aunt was a rocket scientist. I got these out of her old jewelry box when I was visiting her in New Mexico.” And then you shake your fist at the sky.

TUSK, GALAPAGOS GREEN

Whoa, so cute — cat eye update. I think these might be cuter in Black and White. Still, these glasses say “I know you can do better if you just apply yourself.”

Or maybe I’m dubious about your excuse for missing the midterm.

POETIC LICENSE, TORTOISE

“Hi. I’m looking for an Awkward Architect boyfriend. In the meantime, I’ll be writing about my feelings in a Moleskine.”

Too demure?

What if I make duckface for sexiness? Yeah. Nailed it.

OK, share with me your thoughts. Is one of these the one, or should I try on more? Let me know in comments, and while you’re at it…

CONTEST!
If you’d like to enter to win your own pair of Rivet & Sway glasses, and you happen to be a U.S. resident, please do this:

1. Choose which pair of glasses you want.
2. Leave a comment here with the name and color of glasses you covet.
3. If you can’t decide — because you are not some sort of eyewear wizard and you want to see them on your face (or you just want more chances to win) — you may leave up to three comments without being considered a cheater.
4. Check back here Wednesday, when I will announce the randomly selected winner. And then champagne.

As part of their Find Your Joy Campaign, Rivet & Sway is also gifting a $500 goal grant to one Go Mighty member. So be sure to check that out too.

On Monday we’ll talk about the next thing I’m crossing off my Life List with Rivet & Sway’s help. I hope it’s something you’ve thought about doing too, and we can roll up our sleeves together.

Now choose your glasses smart people, that you may easily locate other smart people and mate with them. See you Monday.

- Amber joined the fantastic Pintester Movement with an epic “nailed it” and a defense of crafting drunk.

- Boom! Jenny did it. This is one of my favorite projects on Go Mighty in the history of ever. Well done, sis.

- Sarah, who lost her apartment in Hurricane Sandy, is pitching in with the team from We Rebuild. And loaning out her son, which is totally legal.

- And Stacey? We’re doing some sipping next time we’re in the same city. Pinkies out.

- Finally, if you haven’t checked anything off your Life List in a while, here’s how to win a $500 goal grant from partner Rivet & Sway. They make eyeglasses for girls who excel at both mathematics and manicures, so we like them. Good odds, so hit that up.

I’m still doing this. I know, right?

Day 1
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Day 6
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Day 8

In conclusion, I want to make out with myself all the time.