Cookie Tower!

PB and oatmeal cookies! I added a bunch more oatmeal (about another cup) and less than a cup of chocolate chips to this recipe: 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Oatmeal-Peanut-Butter-Cookies/Detail.aspx.

Also

I really want to see Doctor Who tonight. I think I'm one of the few that don't just watch it all in one go online, or whatever it is that people use technology for. But I gotta go to work, so I have let it be known that I expect someone to PVR it for me to watch tomorrow...

And play more Rockband 3! (tomorrow, after watching said episode)

Yesterday me and the BF made a bunch of our friends as Rockband characters (weirdly enough we were all in a band in real life, in the dark ages when we were 16) and holy poops it was uncanny! Most of us just looked good, but I swear, one of the EA guys working on the game must have been the doppelganger of our pal -- all his weird facial expressions and movements were spot on. Even when you couldn't see his face in the cutscene when they're waving on the tour bus! We had a pretty fun time switching his hairstyles too, cause it looked exactly like him but with a mohawk or anime hair...

Now, We Wait

Nothing like waiting for a call. From a place that's closed on weekends.

(This be about that job I wanted. I think they want to hire me. Not sure yet.)

Page 38

It's been a while since I've read a book (not for school), especially a fluffy bit of mystery. So by the time I got to page 38 of Morty Guggenmoose's Speechless (everyone in the book has weird names, and most of the main characters have names that end in "ee" - Morty, Mashie, Alvy, Sunny Lee, and the Anchovy) and exclaimed "blarhfhd!" or something to that effect, signalling that I had figured out the mystery, it was a bit of a shock. Not that guessing what was going to happen was a shock, I just hadn't had the satisfaction for such a long time that I'd forgotten about it. (This is how I pretend to be a detective - figuring out the plots of random books and movies)

So! What I shall say about this book: read if you are a part of the sordid world of academia (preferably Humanities or the Arts - the thoroughly useless stuff) and like to have a laugh at the lifestyle. The author is from York, but the descriptions of LOTMU (the university in the book) could easily have been my university or any other (the horrid atmosphere and locations exactly, minus the study carrels that are like tiny locked cells?!) If you don't know what I mean, or are getting some sort of useful degree, the the book probably won't be very funny/probably will be very confusing.

If you have ever written a paper based on a genius brainwave at 2:00am and then realized that the last page of your source material negates your entire argument, but you were reading as you went and didn't get to the last page until 4:00am...so you went back and rewrote the thesis to say that your argument is only based on the first half...Basically, this book shows that academics are capable of anything, especially murder, theft, framing people, etc.

And with that cheery thought! Adieu!

SPOILER ALERT

One last thing: I really wanted Horace's use of ablatives to be solved with verve and genius at the end, but, as in life, one's papers are never ready in time for the conference and you end up bullshitting the whole thing, thankfully forgetting what you even said, and drowning your sorrows at the pub. Except in real life your rival doesn't turn out to be conveniently gay, allowing you to hook up with the hot/super intelligent Asian chick of your dreams. 

Tom Baker's Scarf

I started this in October, thinking I could do it by Christmas. Boom, November. Finals finals everywhere, and all the papers are due. So it ended up being more of a Valentine's Day present.

Longer than my bed unblocked, and longer than my entire room after blocking. I actually had to lay out one end inside my closet! Aiaiai. Much hassle. But worth it! Here's a link to the pattern, and the website itself has a handy list of colour matched yarns available online (I went with the KnitPicks stuff, came to about $45 after shipping and tax)

http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/pdf/fullworsted.pdf

Last Birthday's Hat

I started a thing where I buy myself a really nice hat on my birthday. So far I have three really nice hats (and seven regular ones, plus a couple ugly ones from 10th grade...)

 

Folks, wearing a really nice hat and carrying a banjo makes you seem older. (Ahh, a story for another time!)

Not this hat though. Fake porkpies (it hasn't got an indent in the crown! Tut tut, Goorin!) move people to call you a hipster (wearing plaid and old man pants plus this hat to a conceptual writing class, yep. Talking about Martha Stewart and making croquembouche during said class, double yep. Hipster.)

Speechless.

Next on the reading list...

All I can say so far is...holy poops! Commas! Everywhere! Reminds me of me, and not in a really good way :P But I'm hooked 'cause of the subject matter. And the ridiculous names. Oh the foibles of academia! 

MILESTONE!

Today. I bought. My first book. From a bookstore. That wasn't for class* EEEEEEEEEE!!!! (That's excitement, by the way.)

A gorgeous (and quite enormous, 11 by 7.5 inches!) Wind in the Willows!!!!

This is a bit from Brian Sibley's introduction, quoting the pretty cool himself A.A. Milne:

One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. The book is a test of character . . . When you sit down to it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgement on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgement on yourself. You may be worthy: I don't know. But it is you who are on trial . . . (28)

We went out for celebratory treats, and I got the pie (peach!) and coffee special, BF got the peanut butter sundae. Delish, as usual. They have tons of old fashioned candy, too, but we still have our goody bags from that party...

Glenburn Soda Fountain and Confectionary! Photo linked to their blog!

After that, walked past the bookshop next door and lo and behold! RICKY MARTIN'S FACE! Of course, I had to investigate! And once we got inside there was a fat cat named Gouda sleeping on the counter (wanting his dinner, apparently) and THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS RIGHT THERE I HAD TO HAVE IT! (The reason I don't have it from childhood is because I never had any books as a kid. No space!) Apparently someone wanted to buy it online the other day, but they wanted pictures and the guy couldn't find the book. It was meant for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! 

Then we went home, and there was Rockband 3, sitting on the table, like some mythical beast come down to drink at the fountain of...IKEA kitchens. Seriously, Rockband 3 is impossible to find. If you've tried, you're probably still trying. And at this point are willing to shell out $150 for this copy you heard someone's friend's brother has...

Whatta day!

I will now go read about Mole, Rat, Toad, Badger, Otter, and those danged weasels!

Not gonna lie, I always thought those weasels were pretty sexy. And good dancers to boot!

*I don't buy books because I don't have very much money. Or very much space in my super messy room. Hence the continual library visits. Free, and they store everything for me!!

Interview and Monsters

Had a pretty awesome interview today. I won't say with whom, but it involves running around in nature/science centres/aquariums/beaches and telling people that they should get out there and look at stuff. I'm afraid I quoted Anne of Green Gables ("scope for the imagination!"), and somehow managed to use my monster mask. Let's just say I did a short presentation on grizzly bears... I met a couple suits in the elevator going down afterward, they were covertly checkin' it out, so I breezily said "another day at the office, eh?" or some such thing and felt coolly weird and mysterious. Then I went to my favourite library across the street and picked up some light reading. I pretty much live at the library if you hadn't guessed.

I haven't got any pictures of the monster mask, but here's the video I used it in.

So! To celebrate being free of schooly bits (for noooooowwwww - as the Pepsi people say. In a really dumb tagline) and because my niece wanted one, I have almost finished knitting up one of these monsters!

Ahh, feels good to be carefree and able to fritter away my time! Fritter fritter! Yeah. Feels good. Also these. I wanna make these too.

Kinda hard to see from the pic, but it's written by Tina Barrett if you wanted to look it up. As usual, pics to follow at a later date. I haven't got a camera or a phone or anything, so I have to wait til my mom goes to work so I can use her iPad, and I usually forget :P

First 'Vogs

Fluevogs. Brand new. $30. Holy poops!

Now with 100% more filter! 

What can I say? It made my carpet look cleaner and really showed off the colour.

Foraging at the Library, Thoughts on Birthday Parties

Huzzah!

It's been a couple years since I read Blacksad, and I totally forgot about these guys (Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, creators of aforementioned comic books). But lo and behold, tucked away on the shelf of my third favourite local library, the latest addition! I was gonna wait and read it with the BF* but he was incommunicado eating candy from a party we went to last night** and I just couldn't help myself. 

How many 20 somethings have goodie bags at their parties?! When were little bags of candy replaced with craft beer? And you have to bring them instead of get them? Folks, goodie bags need to continue. They make everyone happy, especially when you're almost a part of the real world (i.e. almost done with your degree, moving out, having to get real jobs, etc.) but you don't really feel like it. 

But I digress! The first Blacksad collection was gorgeous and atmospheric, you should pretty much read this series just for the artwork. And don't be fooled by the animal characters (and the fact that Blacksad kinda looks like Batman) it works perfectly with who they are. Only downside, sometimes the writing isn't up to snuff (maybe a byproduct of being written by a Spanish dude in French and then translated into English?). It's hard boiled detective stories, but without the kind of guts that really stick with you (also, I've just come out of a class on noir, reading some of the great crime writers of the 40s and 50s so my standards might be a bit high. When I read the first Blacksad my only experiences of noir were Humphrey Bogart everything, but still.) Anyway, I'll update after I finish it, maybe with a second opinion :)

UPDATE: Second opinion sez, best art and character design of the series so far, but definitely the worst story.

Now, you can get away with plot holes in The Big Sleep, but for something of this length...nope. (That part was me)

*amazingly I do have one. He's secretly weirder than me, so we get along alright.
**Minecraft themed. Unfreakin' believable (this is what Pinterest has done to our society!) I actually felt like the least nerdy person there. What.

More Reading

Finally getting through the pile of comics on my floor. 

Read this one in between Avengers episodes. Not really impressed. With the comics, not the Avengers! Lots of the regulars (oddly disconnected though, as in one page by an author, three pages by someone else, and then back to the first author for another two pages), plus some kiddie stuff. Watch Mr. Steed and Mrs. Peel kick "Venusian" butt instead! 

Man, I'm just so disappointed lately! Usually I freakin' love Goon and Franky (or anything else Eric Powell touches), but though there were some excellent lines and lots of burlesque babes (and of course top-notch artwork), I just wasn't diggin' it as much as I felt I should. I guess it was the standalone episodic format - everything felt too short! I want more Goon time! 

Much as I love you Eric Powell, Joann Sfar's gotta be my favourite dude in all of comics :)

Champagne for everyone! Okay, just the cool people.

That's all for now!

Two Hour Gloves

I have rather short fingers and pretty small hands overall. I found some stretchy fake leather fabric ($7 for half a metre) at my local sewing store so I decided to make gloves instead of trying to fit into kid's ones. Here's how that went, plus instructions.

Sometimes you just gotta have elbow length gloves. Sometimes you're in a hurry! Here's how to make gloves in two hours and eight steps. Perfect for various costumes (add some claws - Catwoman!) or performances. 

1. Draw your hands! But tuck your thumb under! Try to draw your pattern on thinner paper, 'cause you need to sew through the fabric and the paper together. I used some recycled gift wrap tissue.

2. Pin the tissue paper pattern to your fabric (I got some weird stretchy stuff that kind of looks like leather) and sew through the three layers, making sure the two layers of fabric have the right (shiny) sides together. 

Also, draw a bit of extra space around the tracing of your fingers, with a "u" rather than a "v" at the base of each finger. I didn't leave very much space in my pattern because I'm using a stretchy material and I want the gloves to be pretty tight. You can't really see the "u" shapes in the picture, but you should add them! (This was my first glove so I didn't know better, the second one has "u"s and the fingers turned out much nicer). 

It helps if you turn the sewing machine by hand when you go around the fingers (spin the little wheel on the side) and lift up the machine foot (with the needle still in the material or else the thread will get pulled).

3. Cut around the sewn glove and rip the paper off! Messy! Fun!

4. There is no thumb, only Zool! 

Turn the glove right side out and try it on for size. Line up the side seams where you want and mark where your thumb is.

5. Well, I sort of drew my thumb and the side of my hand, and then an oval about how big I thought the base of my thumb was. I didn't actually end up using the thumb oval, I just put the glove on and cut a hole where my thumb was. Give yourself some extra space around the pattern.

6. Sew the same way as the rest of the glove. Here's the thumb piece, right side out. Again, first try, so I cut out two pieces. What works better is putting the long flat side of the thumb pattern on a fold, so you don't get a seam on one side.

7. Cut out an oval about the same size as the base of your thumb. I just started with a slit and stuck my thumb through, then cut away the excess fabric until I could move my thumb freely. Turn the glove inside out and sew the thumb piece in the thumb opening. I did this part by hand 'cause it was a bit too fiddly to do by machine.

8. Hubba hubba! :)

All in all, a pretty easy and super fun project. I started making these two hours before dress rehearsal and the only thing I had to sew later was the top hem at the elbow. The material didn't fray, so that was just the finishing touch.

What Am I Reading Now? (And Writing Essays On)

Ooh la la!

There's a hotel bellboy, his dad, a swell-looking babe, gangsters, Oedipal complexes, lawyers with impersonation skills, and general noir-ness. And it's under 200 pages! 

Yes, I get to take a class on crime/film noir. Yes, it is a laugh a minute (I'm serious, the prof is awesome). 

No, I haven't finished my paper (due tomorrow morning). 

Pigs Have Wings and Record Collections

When pigs have wings!

I made this from a lovely lil kit I got at a Christmas party, way back...during Christmas. I broke various bits of it during construction (the reason I do a lot of knitting/fabric crafts is because I can't break them, but I do tend to sew things upside down - shhh!) Luckily this piggie came with lots of glue.

Yes, he is sitting on my record collection (not too exciting, though I do have Stringband's Thanks to the Following* and John Hartford's Aereo-Plain** both found in the bins at work for $1 each!) My niece's last pick was Frank Sinatra, so he's in the front there (whenever she comes over she likes to go through my records and pick one to dance to, and she usually has pretty good taste for a four-year-old!)

*70's Canadian folk
**70's bluegrass

(Look 'em up! Good stuff sez I!)

Finals...gross

My calendar

Every time I look at my paper due dates/final exams I get to think about being eaten by the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I think it's about the same as studying. Yeuchh!

Crochet collars!

Crocheted collars

Close ups!

Both of these lovely collars were crocheted using this pattern: http://www.lululoves.co.uk/item/crochet-collar-pattern.html The blue collar was made out of a worsted acrylic yarn, so it ended up a lot bulkier than the white one and I left off the last couple rows in the pattern. And I still need a cute button for the white collar... (blue one has a self-button)

Costume Details

This costume was super easy/cheap to make. I got an underbust corset ($10) and a bunch of sequin trim ($2) and sewed it along the boning channels (you can only see two lines of sequins in the picture, but there are more on the sides). For the tutu/bustle I gathered two metres of tulle ($4) and sewed it onto a sequin/elastic bit of trim the size of my waist. I tried to shape the tulle into two parts to keep the fullness mostly at the back and sides.

Finishing touches: heels, fishnets, frilly garter (made out of the same trim as the bustle, can't see it in the picture), black sparkly bow tie, sequin bra, and elbow length gloves (pictures/tutorial to follow)

Costume One of Three

Tulle bustle with underbust corset and sequins

Goings on

Finished sewing my costumes for the show! Took some pictures today while it was a bit sunny, but then I had to go to work. Will upload later and thus begin the Official Blogging! Also thought about not liking cupcakes.

Well now...

Things appear to be progressing splendidly! Don't worry, all this junk will go as soon as I have everything set up :)

First post

Greetings! This here post is just to get things started so I can see how everything looks on the page. Hopefully I can get this to work (and look lovely!) sooner rather than later!