Yay, it's another blog!

grab your purse - I've got the time machine warmed up!

2012-02-11T18:40:00.000-06:00

* Greetings, it is I, and I come bearing news.

* I got a job! kinda. A doctor's office is going to pay me to organize their files! The doctor is the husband of the woman whose office I have organized as a volunteer, and she liked what I did so she recommended me. I start next Tues, and I've already been told that there are other docs in the building who need the same help. yay!
I sent out an e-mail a couple of months ago to my family to see if anyone wanted organizing help, and got 6 hours work from that, so this thing is progressing.
Yesterday I scooped a Martha Organizing magazine/book (which doesn't seem to be pictured anywhere online) and it's so pretty pretty! Man, if I could make a living doing this, I'd be a happy camper. Happy and tidy :)

* I also have a new volunteer position, helping pack fresh fruit and veg for the Good Food Box. yay for helping the community eat better, fresher food! so that takes care of another resolution that I hadn't made yet.

* I've had some great vintage paper scores in the past week. At the Friends of the Library bookstore, found the 1980 Deities and Demigods, the one that includes the Cthulhu Mythos, for $2.50! I don't know if I'll ever game again, but more info on Cthulhu is a good thing. Also got a couple of nice vintage mystery paperbacks, Anatomy of a Murder and A Murder is Announced.

Yesterday we finally remembered to check out the thrift store at the Oak Bay church (which is only open 4 hours a week. the store, not the church.) and woo hoo! Buried beneath a stack of 80s knitting patterns, a Mid-Winter Sale catalog from Simpson's.

Mid-winter 1950 that is! C'mon, let's go shopping!

First stop, craft department! I'm gonna spring for some polka-dotted washfast prints in pink and white, just 37 cents a yard. After all, patterns are 25 cents each so I'll get enough for a wonderful dress.

and Glen needs curtains in his studio - that cowboy print is perfect!

The bulk of the catalog is in black and white, though.

There's some nice wool for knitting, in so many colours! Pink, Sand, Burgundy, Scarlet ... oh. oh wow. It's too easy to forget what used to be standard. wow. Uh, check out that washing machine beneath the cover, so glad I don't have to use that thing!
Moving on! Don't ask why valentines are paired with office machines, but "15 cut-out Valentines with envelopes for kiddies" is a bargain at 29 cents.

17 assorted cakes of soap for 98 cents sound divine. But I'll pass on "Simpson's Beef, Iron and Wine for anemic and general run-down conditions." ugh, beef wine, bet it tastes naaasty.

Words cannot express how much I want that dinette set and cabinet. In red. Good thing it's marked "del'd," which means Simpson's pays for delivery "to your nearest post office, railroad station or wharf." The catalog came from Vancouver so it's just across the water, shouldn't take long.

Last stop, ladies' clothing. Super cute dresses just in time for spring! They even have stout sizes! Good grief, if that lady on the far right is stout, I'm in trouble.

If I'm gonna buy a dress, looks like I'll need some assistance.

What's the point of getting a nice, cool, cotton dress if you have to cover yourself in rayon and elastic underneath? Holy cow, "G" is an "outsize pantie girdle" with "lightly boned inner panel for abdomen control" and "short back bones prevent top from rolling and cutting in." Outsize means "large fits waist 30, 31, 32 inches." eep.
I give up!

aaah, plenty of room to move around in these! I wonder why you can't find bloomers in stores any more? Heh, "D" is "sturdy cotton bloomers" in navy only. At least it's available in outsizes :)

And so ends our shopping trip - hope you got lots of bargains!
Later gators!

2012-01-30T00:22:00.001-06:00

* Well I'm all recovered from the cold except for an occasional nagging surprise cough. Being sick put a dent in my resolution to keep my resolutions. But I did get something done! Behold my pineapple cooler!

I'm proud of this one, think I finally got the hang of the stem stitch. The lazy daisies are too loose, though.
Edited To Add: washed the towel today and the french knot dots on the butterfly fell out but the daisies were all okay :)

This was stitched on an Aunt Martha's tea towel using DMC thread. Here's the funny thing - we have tea towels/dish cloths out the wazoo, so the last thing we need is more kitchen towels. But the designs are soooo cute!

The February stitch along has 3 themes: love, redwork, or weird and wacky. I'm looking at stitching a couple of lovebirds on the hem of a pillowcase.

* Hmmm, I think my Feb resolutions will be:

volunteer more. My current place has reduced me to 2 hours every other week, and I need to be doing more than that. The Royal BC Museum seems to have a good volunteer program, and Fernwood was looking for people to distribute organic food boxes.
take my vitamins. I know my diet isn't the greatest so I try to supplement it with ... supplements, but I'm not always successful.

Maybe that'll be it, since I'm still working on January's as well.

* This has been a good movie week. Today we went and saw The Artist. We had previously seen Jean Dujardin in OSS 117, a wacky take on James Bond spy flicks, and remarked what an expressive face he has. He was absolutely perfect as a silent film star. It was weird watching a silent movie, because in certain places it is really silent.
A couple of days ago, we got Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. HILARIOUS! I love me some horror movies, and this one takes those silly slasher tropes and turns 'em around. Plus, Alan Tudyk - Wash!

And Tucker & Dale gets bonus points because it's Canadian! well, half Canadian at least. Filmed in the province right next door! Between that and Fido being filmed over in Kelowna, I'd say the west has a lock on the funny horror flicks.

* I'm out of stuff to talk about, so later 'gators!

apparently, it's Do Not.

2012-01-11T21:23:00.001-06:00

After my wonderful proclamation last time, I got hit with a cold. Sure, at first it was fun, my voice all sultry like a nightclub singer. Now, pain and coughing and tiredness and sleep. Therefore, no "getting off mah butt" or "stitching," but yes to "more fruit and veg" if you count juice.

bleah.

"Do or Do not. There is no try."

2012-01-05T21:40:00.001-06:00

* Happy New Year! Hope you all had a pleasant holiday season. We ate at several different houses and played lots of games (crokinole is fun!)
But now, the eating is over and the resolutions begin. I know, it's silly, nobody ever keeps them, etc. but that won't stop me! I'm going to break it down, concentrate on a few things each month, that way it doesn't seem so BIG.

Here's the plan for Jan:
- do more stitching! I have 37 vintage embroidery patterns just sitting around begging to be used. So I joined my very first stitch-along! Since it's January, the theme is ... resolutions! Since I'd like to eat more fruit and veg, I'm putting this fellow on a tea towel.

from Vogart hot iron transfer set 198

so far I've transferred the pattern and picked my thread. I've been waiting for a sunny day to start stitching, ha ha.

- eat more fruit and veg! See above :)

- get off mah butt for at least 20 min, at least 5 times a week. (This unemployment thing is not good for your health.) I even broke out the Wii Fit board, and my segway skills are growing.

- make some dinners! I'm not the greatest chef (I could live on pizza and cheese dip) but I need to up my game. Today we visited The Whole Beast* courtesy of a gift card, and got some andouille sausage for jambalaya tomorrow. Perfect weather for it!

So there ya go, 4 items for January. I'm doing good on 3 and 4 at least.

* Tomorrow is Epiphany, also Twelfth Night/the last of the 12 days of Christmas, also Three Kings Day. I'm not religious, but after living in Spain and in the Southern US, I couldn't avoid it. It's also the beginning of carnival season, leading up to Mardi Gras. I'm considering making a king cake, since I didn't see any up here last year.

mmmmmm! it's actually more doughnutty than cakey.

And I have some spare tiny plastic babies!
It's also the day that I consider proper/timely to take down decorations. I'll miss the pretty white lights in the living room.

* In other news ... not a whole lot. I'm gradually tidying up/decluttering my studio and making a pile o' goodies for my eventual Etsy store. Still looking for a job, still volunteering once a week, still reading (vintage) lurid pulp and trashy gothic romance novels.

Later 'gators!

* The guy behind the counter had this pig tattooed on his forearm - wicked!

We're number one!

2011-12-27T16:07:00.001-06:00

Well, those masks were quite a hit! Right now, the one and only hit on Google for "ski masks of terror" is this very blog! I know I had seen the masks in other places, so I did a bit of looking around.

A blog called "ThreadBanger" did a round-up way back in '08 of all sorts of scary masks, including these. She linked to a Craftster user who actually made one in '05! oh man.

The Museum of Kitchy Stitches posted the masks, and even included a reader-submitted photo from a later issue of the magazine with a poor, poor boy wearing the mask that his mom proudly made!

Glen found the instructions for the boys' mask at Handmade by Mother - happy knitting!

Apparently, Swapatorium blog posted the masks and the instructions, but the blog is now by invitation only, and I don't have an invitation :(
Sadly, the only other photo I could find of a modern incarnation of the masks is on a blog that has been hacked.

Last year, CraftStylish had photo and instructions for another set of creeepy ski masks, from '92.

If I knew how to knit (and one day I will learn), I would make up a bag of these and stealthily donate them to all the thrift stores in town. :maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh:

The grande finale

2011-12-23T16:53:00.000-06:00

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, I present to you now the final post of my Christmas craft countdown! Taken directly from the pages of McCall's Needlework & Crafts Fall-Winter 1965-66 -

SKI MASKS OF TERROR!

"Pompon ski mask, made in one piece of knitting worsted on double-pointed needles. Boldly embroidered later in cross-stitch. Separately knitted red nose piece."

"Bright and bold pom-poned head covering for the cold. Knit-on dickey is neat and draft free."

"Warm little Indian wears his feathers knitted over pipe cleaners, his war paint of duplicate stitch. Knitted nosepiece sewn on."


"Girls' face mask is knitted around, has no seams. Warms neck as well as head. Fringed yarn bangs and pompon "hair" are amusing."

Since nothing could possibly top that, Feliz Navidad!

Christmas Ideas for 1962

2011-12-17T22:42:00.000-06:00

* The holiday hilarity continues.

We move on to 1962, same sort of stories, even the same price!*

Let's start with decor, shall we?

"The balls shown here were purchased in a West Germany store."

This is on the inside of the front cover - a credenza! Those hanging ornaments do look nice. According to the text, to make the porcupine baubles on the bottom, "completely cover a plastic foam ball with tissue paper and add some jeweled toothpicks to form the porcupine." Jeweled toothpicks? Like the ones with the shiny paper on the ends? Looks good from here, but I can't imagine that would work upon closer inspection.

"They're easy to do, yet attractive to display."

Gosh, I never would have guessed that this elegant decoration is made with only four items: metal foil paper, small tree balls, wax paper cylinders and rubber cement. Uh, sorry, actually I would have guessed that.


"Designers show modern ways to do old things."

Yowza! "Rich purple spray paint covers this regional pine tree ..." - just imagine how good the living room smells with that in it!

"For glamour, add electric lights in tree center."

This tree is a chicken wire cone with pieces of 8" tissue paper poked through the holes. It is kinda pretty, but it would take for-ever to put all that tissue paper on it. Then after Christmas you have to take all the paper out? Oh, right, no recycling, just toss it by the curb and it will disappear!

Awww, it's a Pride tree for your table top!

On to crafts. Again, not alot to work with since most ideas were either not bad or had muddy black & white photos.

Here's a couple of handmade gifts "for the teens." (the underlining is theirs, guess they wanted to emphasize that it's not for kids or adults.) The shirt above is made by adding embroidered tape to a slightly-altered white sweatshirt. It's not so bad, and I bet it's comfortable as all get out.

Another not-bad idea, an embroidered blue workshirt "to be worn with blue jeans." So don't wear it with a prom dress.

Time to eat!

Ladies, sit back down, this time is for the boys. I'm jealous, 'cause their spread sounds mighty tasty. And look at the dreamboat who's serving!

Rowr!

I'll leave you with an easy yet showy decoration to make yourself!

(you'll have to click to get a good view 'cause the image is too wide)

The finished product is pretty,

but they lose me somewhere between steps 4 and 5. Here's a piece of paper that looks like a spider, add staples and BOOM beautiful paper snowflake star!

Guess I'll be buying all my gifts this year.

Coming up next time, exciting winter crafts from McCall's Needlework & Crafts! You won't want to miss it, trust me.

*I looked it up, and BHG still puts out a Christmas Ideas magazine but it costs a wee bit more now. Since BHG's website is hard to navigate, I browsed the internets to find some clue as to whether the inside is the same in 2011. This year's issue featured the Christmas decor of several bloggers, but I haven't found any clues to craft ideas yet.

Christmas Ideas for 1957

2011-12-10T22:02:00.000-06:00

* There's still time to make something special for Christmas!

Most of the craft ideas in BHG 1957 aren't that bad, and therefore not worthy of my mighty scanner. But look how much fun the Westons are having with their crafting!

"For large star, stick two sizes of pencils into half a 4-inch plastic foam ball."

I love Mrs. Weston's skirt - I bet she made it herself. And the stars on the chimney are pretty keen, at least from this distance.

The decorating fun starts with the front door. That is one fabulous door tree! But how many people could re-create that without having an illustrator for a husband ;)
How could you possibly top a door tree like that?

With a tree made from wood triangles, with ornaments resting on the platforms! They say "wood tree," I say "irresistible to cats tree." Hmm, actually that would be cute, with catnip and rubber ball ornaments, little feathered bird toys ...

The "Japanese tree" is made from paper parasols painted gold. This would be great in the tiki rec room :) or out on the lanai. One last look at the fireplace -

as decorated by poor but glittery cowboys. I can safely say there isn't one thing I like about this decoration.

The BHG Christmas Ideas book is chock full of adorable illustrations.

Glen and I looked just like this when we decorated the house last week!

Here's Marilyn and the Jazzercise ladies working on the Monterey Recreation Centre!

And the Hodgins of 4 years ago (Dexter's in the next room practicing the fiddle) setting out another delicious dinner.

Speaking of dinner ...

It's a smorgasbord!* Ooh, I see meatballs, and an apple salad, and deviled eggs. Oh dear, what's that with the eggs.

"Jellied salmon with deviled eggs, pickled shrimp, herring in sour cream, anchovies, sardines, pickled beets, cucumber pickles." I, uh, I gotta run! I haven't finished my shopping yet!

And I didn't even make it to the ads! They are worthy of an entire post of their own.
Until next time, don't sniff the markers!

*up here all buffets are smorgasbords, even Chinese food buffets- cracks me up.

Fake fur part deux

2011-12-05T23:39:00.000-06:00

* And now, as promised, uh, 2 weeks ago, more fun fur!

These aren't specifically Christmas themed, but what great gift ideas! And you, yes you, can make them!

It's so easy, with just a few supplies, including some "now" colour fur.

"You can make a Merrie Monster pajama hide-away" - that blue thing? That looks like it's had some mind-altering substances? Will NOT be hiding, let alone touching, my pajamas. Or anything else for that matter.

Fake fur wrapped around a pop bottle makes a "perfect dresser pet." I beg to differ. Once again with the creepy stare.

Creepy stare down!

Sadly, again not very many photos of a good enough quality to post. But I'll finish the post off with a look at the "dynamic duo" of these craft projects, Cliff and Eleanor Zimmerman!

Until next time (whenever that may be, but hopefully before the 25th), peace!

Cozy and warm

2011-11-22T13:26:00.001-06:00

* Hi and welcome back to my holiday craft extravaganza! Since it's chilly outside, let's cozy up with some fur!

We're animal lovers so we'll stick with Fantasy Fur!
My first thought upon seeing the cover: "maybe they shouldn't have open flame right above what is no doubt a highly flammable material." Google doesn't give me any info on what the fur is made of except it's "a fascinating material."

Not many clear photos in here, but there are a couple of doozies.

Here we have a snowman (fur over three styrofoam balls), an Angel in the Cloud and a Nativity Scene through the Windows - yeah, in the center of that furry ball is a 1 1/2" tall nativity scene.

Christmas Morning, Deer in the Forest, and another accident-waiting-to-happen candle holder. I think that deer is giving me the evil eye.

yup. Thanks for the nightmares!
There are also instructions for making an angel mobile, Santa's boot, more ornaments sans nativity, and a furry green wreath.

There's a warning in the front of the book:

in a nutshell - don't blame us if your projects look nothing like this!

Fantasy Fur Christmas was published by Mangelsen's of Omaha, NE, and surprise! they are still around, but now operate as "a retail store, wholesale supplier/manufacturer of Halloween products, and haunted house." Quite a combo, but no more fantasy fur.

Not for them, but next time on this very blog we'll meet Sweet Lil' Stinko :)

Let's get crafty

2011-11-18T19:49:00.000-06:00

* It's time once again for one of my occasional "I'm gonna post more often" posts. Blame the chemicals in my brain for my spotty blogging record.

* Only 5 weeks until HTYCODWFYB - how's your shopping going? Me, I love receiving homemade presents, and making them. Doesn't mean I do make lots, but I always intend to. Need ideas for crafts to give? Let's drag some magazines off my shelf and see what we've got!

I don't remember where/how I got this one, but it's got everything from crafts to recipes to home decor.

And here I thought unusually decorated trees was a new idea. According to the description, those are "heavily flocked branches" - oh yeah. And the fruits are carved Styrofoam balls covered with tissue paper. I hate to think what fruit would look like if I had to carve it.

Too cute! He's made of felt. They also have instructions for a lion made of terry cloth.

Teenie bopper doll! Instructions not included in the magazine, send $3 for the pattern. Sneaky.

I know I said I liked homemade gifts, but you can keep your aluminum foil in the kitchen thankyouverymuch.

and stay away from my toilet seat! Sheesh, you wouldn't think you'd have to spell that one out.

Baked goods are always a great gift (well, unless the recipient is allergic to gluten and you find out too late). These are Lucia Buns, "traditionally served in Sweden on December 13, the day of St. Lucia." yum!

Here's the recipe, with suggestions at the bottom of ways to bend the bread. Is it just me, or are some of those Cthulhu-esque? Tasty tasty evil.

That's all for this magazine - stay tuned for more craft ideas from the swingin' 60s!

Aunt Nan's Chocolate Cake

2011-10-21T19:03:00.001-05:00

especially for Angela!

p.s. I was going to sell this cookbook on Etsy, but if you're interested send me an e-mail at luluk_670 at yahoo.com :)

Start your holiday shopping now!

2011-10-14T13:47:00.001-05:00

My husband has an Etsy store! It's filled with adorably retro prints and original art! You'll love it, I promise :)

Country Cupboard Part Deux

2011-10-10T23:51:00.001-05:00

Welcome back everybody - I made dinner for ya!

"the savory, tongue-tempting zest"

See, this isn't so bad. We've got sweet mix, overly-deviled deviled eggs, and a whole tray of cookies! Dig in!

Junior here is eating Corned Beef Hashstacks, "a particular delight of youngsters!" (This book uses almost as many exclamation points as I do!) Ya just open the can and push out the corned beef hash as a log, slice it into 1-inch thick rounds, put processed cheese on (they specify "processed") and bake. I don't know about that "delight" part.

After all that meat, let's have a Summer Garden Salad. Cucumber, green onion and radish mixed with Cheese Dressing, served on a tomato. Wow, don't go wild with the veggies now!

He's like a tiny Gorton's fisherman! Gloucester sauce: Tang Dressing, Horseradish Dip and Worcestershire sauce. Serve as a sauce for cold meats such as tongue. :P

It's a salad parade, coming out of the cookbook!

International flavour time!
This illustration is for "Spaghetti Meatcake." Uh, what?

"Make 2 pounds of ground beef into meat loaf. Divide and bake in two rounded 8 or 9-inch layer cake pans. Heat 1 can Nalley's Spaghetti with Meat in Sauce. When meat loaf is done, turn one layer onto a large platter; top with half the spaghetti. Arrange other layer of meat loaf on top. Spoon remaining spaghetti on top. Cut into wedges to serve."

Wow. wow. My friend Julie made a meatcake once; the inside was the same as this, but she frosted it with mashed potatoes. She then made a sheet cake that looked like a t-bone. Food was never dull at Julie's.

Noodles and Beef Romanoff and Strogonoff. Open a can of Egg Noodles and Beef, add some dip/dressing/mushrooms, and voila!

awww! For dining while camping.

Sticky buns!

Okay, those aren't deviled eggs in the beginning photo; they are Stuffed Eggs. Mix yolks with barbecue sauce? Oh no, honey, don't do that for me.

Spuds Glamorized! Just put french onion dip or bleu cheese dip on a baked potato.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay, I sleep all night and I work all day ...

and on that note, sayonara!

p.s. we decorated for Halloween today, photos coming up!

don't make juice with this Tang

2011-10-08T00:00:00.003-05:00

I'm not feeling very Halloween this year. But here's a cookbook with lots o' devils!

According to their website, Nalley's has been around since 1918 and is based in the Northwest. I'd never heard of them, but it appears they are still going strong.
They have recipes on their site, but a quick perusal shows me none of them are from this cookbook. Their product line sure has shrunk.

Devil #1 illustrates Hot Seafood Salad Diablo. Aand we are introduced to Nalley's Tang Salad Dressing, which, according to the photo on the cover, seems to be like Miracle Whip. I didn't scan in the recipes, because they are rather boring; it's the illustrations that spice this cookbook up!

Here's Devil #2, showing off his Oysters Diablo. Combine raw oysters with cans of Spaghetti and Meat, mustard and horseradish, top with Parmesean, and stick in the oven. Personally, ewwww.

Devil #3 is ready to chow on some Tang Devils Food Cake. That's right, chocolate cake with the previously mentioned Tang Salad Dressing (a whole cup!).

Hmm, seems there weren't as many devils as I thought. Oh well, onto non-devils!

With an assist from Nalley's, eggs star at any meal!

Alrighty, the top right? Not so bad. Eggs Benedict underneath on the right, sure.* But that abomination on the left just looks ... gross. That stuff around the edge? Nalley's Krun-Cheez. :shudder: The eggs on the bottom are nestled in cups made from barbecue potato chips. Damn, dude, that's just wrong.

Let's get back to the tasty illustrations, shall we?

Give a new day a bright new beginning with a breakfast that's different as well as delicious!

I don't usually associate smiling with alarm clocks.

Happy breakfasting at your house and easy breakfast making!

Anime Eyes woman is making omlettes!

We're makin' biscuits!
All these illustrations make me want to make up my own set of recipe cards. Too cute!

Oven Fried Fish. Coated in potato chips (again with the potato chips!). The hula skirt is optional.

Sweet and Sour Bologna, tee hee. This is in the outdoor recipe section, so you put a 1 1/2-lb piece of bologna on the barbecue spit and baste it with a homemade sweet and sour sauce, then slice up and serve on buns with relish. As a person who has eaten fried Spam many times, this doesn't bother me at all ;)

Seems like there's too many illustrations for just one post, so I'll make this Part One of two. See ya then!

* Eggs Benedict are amazingly popular here. I rarely saw it on the menu back in Florida, but here it's on every menu, in many different combinations. John's Place makes a killer eggs benny with chorizo :)

Rearranging furniture

2011-09-25T16:56:00.002-05:00

* All weekend we have been serenaded by Rifflandia. And by serenaded I mean we can hear it clear as a bell even though we are blocks away. Who needs tickets? It's stormy out there (rain and gusts) and they are still going strong. Better than hearing the chickens ;)

* I don't usually do '70s, but last year I picked up a furniture catalog at a yard sale and I must share.

According to their web page (and Google translate), Europa Möbel is a purchasing and marketing association with distributors in 11 countries.

I prefer to think that "mobel" means "wall of cupboards" because there are lots and lots of rooms that look like this. This reminds me of my aunt & uncle's house in England. But where are the windows?

This, on the other hand, I would have in my house. Well, the shelves and that crazy lamp at least. The upholstered furniture? no. The flokati rug? absolutely no. We grew up with a rug like that; it required taking outside and hanging on the line to clean it. Don't even think about vacuuming it.

The furniture I don't like at all - can you imagine the marks it leaves on the back of bare legs? And the carpet, once again no. But that television in the corner, and the lamps hanging above it? Grooovy!

Hey, it's the same furniture as in the room of mod shelves!

That couch on the right - goes across the back of the room, gets fatter in the corner, comes towards the camera, turns to the right and continues off-camera ... how far does it go? Down the hall, through the dining room, around the bedroom? That would be fun, continuous couch. Google translate says this room is "designed for spacious living." Indeed.

Let's move on to Schlafzimmer!

"Everything fits together in the popular Blumchen-Look room." Everything? Even the naked butt poster on the back wall?

My mom used to crochet afghans like that.

Again, furniture stars in one corner and goes and goes. A wall-to-wall flokati? Hope they don't have pets with fur.

Jugendzimmer:

Behold the amazing floating bed!
I kinda like this one, except the colours. And the afghan. And the creepy girl poster in the alcove. And the mug of spaghetti.
Wait, if this is a "youth room," why is there a carafe of what looks to be liquor on the top right shelf?

Those wacky Europeans! In fact, most of the rooms shown in this catalogue have bottles and/or glasses of alcohol somewhere in the photo.

Let's wrap it up.

I'll take that lamp from the left office, and the lamp, desk, cupboards and tv from the office on the right. They can keep the chairs.

Thank you one and all for touring Europa Möbel 1976 with me!
(Zombie Leah - I looked, but there was no macrame in the catalogue ;)

p.s. The storm has stopped, the sky is blue and the music continues from the park!

Graciously styled with a bonus of youthful and becoming details

2011-09-13T01:26:00.001-05:00

* So here's how I came up with today's blog post - get comfortable!

Our friend Mark recently lent us some great DVDs, including some compilations of vintage commercials, educational films and propaganda. How To Be A Housewife has a looong infomercial for Ironrite, this crazy self-standing ironing machine. It makes ironing so much easier and quicker! They even send a representative from the company to your home to show you how to use it! And we thought, yeah sure, but how much would something like that cost?

Voila! Glen has a collection of vintage catalogs. According to the Fall and Winter 1955 issue of the Simpson Sears catalog, a Kenmore roll-away ironer (which looks to be the same thing as an Ironrite) cost $87.95 cash. To compare, a least expensive Kenmore regular iron is $4.65. So yeaaah, I don't think too many housewives had an Ironrite.
But! Since we had the catalog out, I looked through it. Wowee is it chock full of goodness! There are 6 pages of sewing notions, wool, etc. but only 3 packets of hot iron transfers. You could also buy embroidery thread, and pre-printed pillowcases and nursery sets to embroider yourself.

The clothes! Oh, the dresses and coats and pages upon pages of girdles. And I started thinking, what size would I need? And lo, a blog post was born!

* Now then, my figure type, according to these descriptions, would either be Average Women's or Women's Half Sizes - I have a "mature, well-developed figure" and I'm 5' 4" so I'm right on the edge of those categories.

My measurements are 45 - 40 1/2 - 47 (yeah, yeah, stereotypical American). According to the Average Woman's chart, I wear between a 42 and a 44. According to the Women's Half Size chart, I wear a 24 1/2.

Most of the clothes (including the coats) in the catalog are for Misses - there are only 4 1/2 pages with Women's clothes. On the pages with Women's and Half Sizes' clothes are taglines such as "... give a youthful and slenderizing effect" and "slenderizing lines that do flattering things to a woman's figure."

Conclusion? It would have been just as hard, if not harder, for me to find clothes in 1955.

But wait, there's more! Glen also has a 1983 Sears Christmas Wish Book. Oh.my.god I can't believe I wore some of these clothes. (to be fair, some of the sweaters aren't so bad).

There are size charts for Juniors and Misses', and under "Hard-to-find Sizes" we also have Women's, Half Sizes, Petite and Tall (who only get loungewear and robes). Once again I can be either Woman (hear me roar) or Half Size. Surprise - my size is still 42 in Women's! I honestly expected it to be different, since I've always heard that size numbers have changed drastically since the '50s. In Half Size I'm a 22 1/2, so just one size down from 1955.

Let's look at Sears today. Whoa, they still have catalogs! Including the Wish Book! How retro of them. The size charts are Petite, Regular, Tall, Image and Image Petite. Image?!?!? For Pete's sake. ANYway, I am now a size 18W in "Image." So sometime between '83 and today they did away with Women's and Half Size. Also, the charts have specific measurements rather than ranges.

Meanwhile, Target sizes its women's clothes with its own numbering system: 1, 2, 3, etc. However, there are no size charts on its website, so good luck! Torrid uses 2 systems: they have 1, 2, 3 and they also use the usual numbers - I'm a 2, equivalent to 18/20. Pennington's uses usual numbers, so I'm an 18. At the Gap I'm between 20 and 22. At Land's End I'm either a Misses' 20 or a Women's 1X / 18W.

So, if I'm pretty much an 18 according to all those charts, why are all my pants and skirts size 16? I have NO IDEA.

Until next time, remember, always try it on before you buy!

what lurks in the wool aisle

2011-08-27T02:00:00.001-05:00

* Greetings, it is I, here once again to share my thrift store and swap meet treasures!

In honor of upcoming Halloween (what, it's never too soon to start counting down!), may I present Junior Casuals from Mary Maxim, date unknown.

Clowns. Scary, rubber-nosed, kneeling clowns with a suspicious look in their eye. The little girl seems happy enough, like she's about to curtsey. But we'll never see her again ... in this booklet at least.

How can they be smiling and not notice the scarecrow coming to life mere feet from where they stand?!?

They've brought along carrots to appease the appetite of the White Rabbit. Perhaps they will live after all.

I think the little girl is beginning to lose her mind. The pinata speaks to her, commands her to do his bidding.

This fellow isn't too bad, but he's about to win some kind of staring contest.

That has got to be one of the worst cat costumes I've ever seen. The eyes are so blank and soulless ...

We reach the end. The little girl has seen too much today. "Come and play with us, Danny. Forever... and ever... and ever"

Five towels agree ...

2011-08-06T22:37:00.002-05:00

* Let's talk about chores! And embroidered towels! what fun!

Srsly, as I may have mentioned I've been on a real embroidery/cross-stitching kick lately. I'm working on one cross stitch, and planning 3 embroideries, including some kitchen towels. I've been collecting vintage patterns for a year now, so I have quite the selection to choose from.

Especially popular/common are day-of-the-week towels. So I started to wonder, do they all say to do the same chore on the same day? Let's see!

Across the board, Monday is the day for laundry.
The funny thing is, I realized that I do laundry on Mondays. Got it from my mom, who also does laundry on Mondays. So I asked her why - it's because her mom did laundry on Mondays. There ya go, passed down through the generations.

Is there a GIANT cat looking through the window?!?

Everybody also agrees that Tuesday is for ironing. Guess it makes sense to iron the day after doing laundry.

Wednesday the towels start to disagree (not a sentence you get to type every day). Aunt Martha says Wednesday is the time for a notepad and pencil to dance - I'm gonna assume that means go grocery shopping. But everyone else agrees that Wednesday is for mending.

Thursday is the day for grocery shopping to everyone but the colonial girl and Aunt Martha. Martha says Thurs is for mending, and the colonial girl goes visiting. Hmm, the colonial girl never goes grocery shopping, guess she just eats at other people's houses while she's visiting.
(I love this design because we have a local grocery store called Thrifty. I stitched this onto a reusable tote for my mom-in-law.)

On Friday, Gretchen the Dutch girl leaves the pack and bakes, while all the other towels (and my mom and I) clean.

Saturday Gretchen and the other towels reverse - Gretchen does her cleaning and the kitten, bees and colonial girl bake.

Aww, little baby bee sleeping in the hammock!

Sunday everybody is back to agreement - in a manner of speaking. The bees and kitten relax in hammocks, Gretchen picks flowers, Aunt Martha's newspaper funnies sit around and laugh, and the colonial girl goes to church.

To sum up, the towels agree on Monday, Tuesday and Sunday. Other days you are free to do your own thing.
Hope you enjoyed my Tour of Towels! If you'd like to see more, check out Vintage Embroidery Patterns and New Embroidery with Vintage Patterns on Flickr.

p.s. I am sorely tempted to do something ... horrific with this one ;)

Hey Good Looking!

2011-07-18T18:06:00.001-05:00

Today's very special cookbook is Good Looking Cooking, published in 1959 by Knox Gelatine. The illustrations of the young ladies throughout are adorable!

And just what is gelatine? Silly girl, it's "a wonder cooking ingredient" And it's 85% protein!
I think that if they told the bare facts, that gelatine is "a mixture of peptides and proteins produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen extracted from the boiled bones, connective tissues, organs and some intestines of animals such as domesticated cattle, and horses " that just maybe all these recipes wouldn't sound quite so yummy. Whip up some boiled pig skin for dessert!

Why use gelatine? Because you have to be pretty, pretty, pretty! And especially to lose weight! :sigh: Even the "good health" mentions only the effects on her appearance.

Psst, Monsieur Moose - you might not want to eat that, it could be your cousin.

Another totally cute illustration! And the dessert sounds good, except for that pesky animal hide part.

"More good things to eat" implies that Ham 'n' Cheese Loaf is good. Au contraire - any recipe that instructs "mixture mounds when dropped from spoon" does not count as good.

And that concludes our gelatine tour - thanks for stopping by!

Beautiful but chilly ...

2011-07-04T18:29:00.003-05:00

A view of Manzanita and Nehalem Bay from a viewpoint on 101.

* Last week Glen and I took a well-deserved vacation, motoring down the Oregon coast in a Rialta. We had a blast, staying in state parks, wearing long sleeves to the beach, shopping at Tarjey and Trader Joe's, and browsing antique stores. Here's a sample of my finds!

"Disneyland's 5/8 scale doubledecker Omnibus carries hundreds of passengers daily on a fun-filled tour of Main Street. Camera fans especially like the unique angles the Omnibus' second deck provides."

6 Disneyland postcards! According to the wacky lady owner, these postcards were released just after Disneyland opened and go for $10 on eBay ;) Had they not been $2 each, I would have bought twice as many.

The back says "Pacific Telephone Employees' Booklet Rack Service"

As my husband pointed out, ALL cakes are cakes men like. Some sound pretty tasty, though - Banana Spice Cake with Banana Butter Frosting!

Picked up 6 more paperbacks for the ever-growing pulp collection. I love this cover!

We also visited Tillamook Cheese for a free tour and free samples of cheese and ice cream. Of course we had to buy some as well ;) A tasty tasty stop for sure.

After reentering Canada, we stopped at Ikea and got a lovely Benno DVD tower that's just perfect for paperbacks. And FINALLY some plain kitchen dish towels! Let the embroidery begin.

apple sauce!

2011-06-09T18:02:00.002-05:00

* I've really been lucky in finding vintage embroidery patterns lately! I go a while with nothing, then boom! Here's my latest find, only 50¢ at the swap meet :)

"Enliven your kitchen or dinette with these adorable animated fruits with their intriguing quips."

Cute cute cute! I love the pineapple cooler and the sugar plum. The pattern is uncut so no pieces are missing - yay! It also has some floating small border-type designs, including dancing cherries and a parade of berries.


"A parade of amusing vegetables that play and dance on tablecloths, napkins, curtains and towels."

I'm a sucker for anthropomorphic food I guess. This one had been cut, so the running tomato, the dancing green beans and the sitting purple thing are missing. I love that the onion is crying. Found this one at a thrift store up island, which is fast becoming one of the top thrift stores to find stuff we like - it has a great book section and craft section.

I have plenty of floral pillowcase borders, but who could resist that kitten in a shoe! Mom Walds Place in the New Embroidery with Vintage Patterns group on Flickr did an adorable version as a shoe bag :)

I have just one problem - where do I find good quality tea towels and placemats so I can use all these patterns? I've looked in Wal-Mart (ugh), Superstore, Home Outfitters and Zellers. All the ones I find are either made from the wrong kind of fabric, or already patterned, or waffle textured so the stitching wouldn't look right. And the ones I find at swap meets or thrift stores already have embroidery on them, or they are from the 80s.

The search continues ... (if only I could sew).

can't sleep, wallpaper will eat me ...

2011-05-03T18:56:00.001-05:00

I don't usually do 70s, but this book was cheap and the colour photos had to be shared! "Decorating Your Child's Room" by Carole S. Frankel, copyright 1971. I realize that children's rooms look good when they are colourful, but this is too much.

"Note that the gay design is carried out in the easy-care, easy-to-apply hard surface flooring."

This photo was provided by the Flintkote/Latex Foam Rubber Council. ;) The room looks huge thanks to the absence of a rug. Many of these rooms involve built-in furniture, which is a great idea but sure limits changing things around once the child has grown and tastes have changed.

"Teens with tiny rooms might consider the airy chic of wicker furniture. The light scale makes it ideal for bed/sitting rooms."

All the light and airy chic in the world isn't going to overcome that WALLPAPER. I do like how all the book covers match. Even the pencil is yellow!


"A shared bedroom can express two very distinct personalities. Note that the boy's side has a desk, while the pre-school toddler insisted on a miniature dressing table just like mommy's!"

That is a good idea, but based on the width of the dresser those are some shallow drawers. The yellow isn't so bad, but the orange is burning my eyes.

"An Early American home need not call for traditional furnishings, as this shared bedroom dramatically proves. Red, white and blue, a recent, as well as an "early" American color scheme, has great appeal for girls as well as boys."

I grew up in the 70s, and how well I remember the "rustic" furniture, and the red, white and blue explosion to celebrate the centennial! I don't see it used as a colour scheme much lately; the closest would be a navy blue and white nautical/boat flag theme, which sometimes has a touch of red as well.
And look at the points on the corners of the beds - just picture the horsing around, the fall onto one of those, the nice round bruise that would last for weeks.

"Fire-engine red carpet in a synthetic, easy-care fiber sparks the setting and takes daily punishment from its energetic master with no change!"

How anybody would be able to sleep in there is beyond me. But the carpet would enhance the "floor is lava" game :)

Until next time, namaste!

nom nom nom

2011-04-26T19:59:00.000-05:00

* For those of you who haven't had enough sweets, I present:

No clue on the date because there's no copyright or author info, only 2 photo credits. I found this tasty cookbook at video store that 1) rents DVDs; 2) has a used book rack outside; and 3) sells South African food. I love this neighborhood!

The cake at the top, with the cherry in the middle, is Alma's Quick Choco-Cake with Flaky Chocolate Icing. And the ring cake on the left is Aunt Nan's Chocolate Cake with plain white icing. I love recipes named after people, makes them seem more homey :) Although I think Aunt Nan got the short end of the frosting stick.

The book is filled with photo spreads like so:

oh my. Chocolate sundae, chocolate mousse, chocolate trifle, chocolate meringue pie ... and Queen Mary's Birthday Cake! (at the top, the stripey one that's been cut into). That was the most popular one in the book based on the stains on the recipe page. It calls for "castor sugar," which Google says is "an ultra fine sugar that is used mainly in baking cakes, souffles and mousses." Learn something new every day!

Under "Small Chocolate Cakes, Cookies and Goodies":

Chocolate truffles, chocolate eclairs, Noreen's Chocolate Fudge, and petites mousselines (those swirly round ones in the middle and bottom left). Never heard of them either, but you couldn't have a simpler recipe: 2 egg whites, 3 oz castor sugar, 2 oz ground almonds and chopped nuts for decoration. Oh, and you need Chocolate Butter Icing for the middle and the tops.

Next up, Children's Party Specials:

Which confirms my suspicion that this book is South African! The train is "Puffin' Billy," with a swiss roll boiler, a cabin of Norwegian cake, and rails and cowcatcher made from marzipan.

The cake at the top I would have called a log cabin, but it's a Native Hut. According to the description (which I just now read for the first time), "you can buy some little black dolls and construct a "native village" as a centre-piece to the table, or place a "hut" at each child's place, with a little black doll outside it holding up a card with the child's name on it." My word!

Moving along ... the book also provides some children's party games, including Do This - Do That, which sounds like Simon Says, and Spinning the Plate which involves a child holding a plate and calling another child's name while dropping the plate. The child called has to catch the plate before it hits the floor. yeah, I don't see that ending well.

And last but not least, Chocolate Drinks:

Well, those aren't all drinks, but let's not quibble about chocolate! On the bottom right, in the star shape, is a Chocolate Blancmange. As a child, I had lots of British children's books (my mom was British, and we lived in Bermuda for a few years). The children in those books were always excited about the prospect of blancmange but I never knew what one was, just that it must be good. It looks like a pudding crossed with mousse and gelatin. Still haven't had one, though ;)

Just above that, in the dotted glasses, we have Orange Cocoade. I like those chocolate oranges you can get at Christmas, but the idea of mixing chocolate syrup and orange juice doesn't sound tasty. Rounding out the drinks are Chocolate Egg-Nog (top left in the mug) and Cocoa Mallow (the beer stein with the marshmallows).

The big poofy white thing in the middle is Party Dessert. Don't even think of having it on a regular Tuesday night, it's PARTY dessert!

The last page of the book is a display of Cadbury's products:

I think they still make most of those. Don't think I've ever seen Mint Crisp, though.

Thanks for joining me in the drool-fest that is Cadbury's Chocolate Cookery!
I'm working my way through a stack of vintage cookbooks, so stay tuned for more festive foods :)

tiny as a tambourine

2011-04-02T00:23:00.001-05:00

* Wow, it's been 2 months and a bit? You'd think a person without a job would be on this thing every day. I can confess that I have quite the crop of squashumpkins in Farmville, though.

*Most exciting news? As of last Tuesday, I am officially a Permanent Resident of Canada! They only gave me a letter, but when I get the proper "green card" in a month I can start looking for a job! yay?

* Today's theme is HATS! Last month I went to a rummage sale held in the "older" part of town, and one booth had boxes of vintage sewing patterns and not-so-vintage craft supplies. Silly me, I'm not used to the cutthroat business of swap meet/rummage sale/ephemera show browsing. If you see something, you must grab it right away, then decide if you want it later, because if you don't it'll be gone in 30 sec to somebody who does operate like that. So I missed out on some vintage clothing patterns, but I did snag the following:

If only I were a size 12!

But the following patterns (uncut!), in a plain brown envelope with an address label "From the Editorial Rooms of the Ladies' Home Journal," these will fit!

Tambourine Pillbox, No. 1935

"This hat, tiny as a tambourine and a "no headsize" hat, sits over your right eyebrow. There is a matching tambourine bag for which we have a pattern, No. 1936, 5¢."

Velvet Chou Hat, No. 1924

"This hat is really a skullcap with an immense chou in three colors. It can be made in a number of dramatic color combinations - Royal blue, purple and light blue; black, scarlet and green; brown, beige and green; black, gray and Royal blue; fuchsia, shocking pink and purple. Or you could use two shades of a color and a contrasting color."
Holy cow, can you imagine that hat in fuchsia, shocking pink and purple?!? I can :)

Overseas Cap, No. 1918

"The style and smartness of this simple black velvet cap depend on the perfection of its tailoring. Make it of the finest Lyons type velvet, or of velveteen, and use silk bengaline to face the cuff."

I saved my favourite hat for last!

Stovepipe Hat, No. 1929

"This is a rather extreme hat and should be made in bright colors as purple, scarlet, parrot green, greenish gold, or in black velveeteen."

Extreme hat, woo hoo! I only wish these were in colour.

There were also two bag patterns in the envelope, but they have no photos. One pattern looks like it may be for the purse above.

I'm not sure of the dates on these, but on the list of available patterns that was also in the envelope, you can order patterns for John Fredericks Hats of November 1940 and 1941.

* That's quite the post for my return to Blogsville, so until next time, namaste!

What's that? Hawaiian noises?

2011-01-25T17:29:00.000-06:00

Aloha! Welcome to ~~Fantasy Island~~ "How You Can Give Hawaiian Parties" by Patricia Collier.

At first I was going to post just the drawings, but the lettering is so nice!

Let's star with the basics. "If you are lucky enough to have more than one lei, wear them all happily and proudly."

Ah, those Hawaiian nights, with their disguised posts and pillars.

"Would you like to entertain a fairly large number of women friends all at once? ... Then by all means go Hawaiian!" mmm, Green-and-Gold Rice Ring with Mushroom-Creamed Chicken!
I do love the lunching ladies all down the left side, wearing their leis and ... sitting on springs?

Next we have Buffet Suppers - "on the light side" sounds tasty.

"Curried seafood with fluffy rice, at least six accompaniments." According to the next page, the accompaniments for curry include bacon, chutney, hard-cooked egg yolk, lemon, pickled pineapple, and Bombay Duck (shredded dried fish). I don't think I'll be getting Bombay Duck any time soon.
And look at Mabel, standing there with a twinkle in her eye thinking, "that Bruce would be such a catch, he cooks divinely and sets a beautiful table."

Something tells me that Mabel is not his type.

How about a Hawaiian Bazaar? After all, "every club-woman knows that any bazaar or money-making affair attracts more attention and gets more good publicity if it is built around a theme."

I can just picture the little old ladies giggling as they plan their tropical bazaar.

Here's a little illustration from the Grill and Beach Parties section. I don't have a smart remark for this one, just that it's funny the ukelele/guitar stands out so much more than the player does.

These Hawaiian Suggestions can apply even to Christmas or Thanksgiving! Love the tiki idol and woman with the sunflower muumuu.

The last third of the book contains all the recipes. I was surprised to find that most of them sounded good. This one is an exception:

Peanut butter. Pineapple. Pimiento. Why not pickles, or prunes?

And finally, I leave you with a recipe from Bruce.

Thanks for joining me on this tropical vacation - sponsored by Dole Hawaiian Pineapple Company, LTD.

(Still in the mood for pineapple? Check out Pineapple Delight on Flickr!)

Baby it's cold outside

2011-01-18T23:32:00.008-06:00

* Hello there! How's it going? Did you have a good holiday-that-you-celebrate-or-don't-whatever-floats-your-boat season? I did! My first htycodwfyb here in Canada was filled with good food, and great family, and rain, and lights, and love. And presents ;)

Santa must have been reading my blog; I got zombie cross-stitch, and a purse made of seatbelts, and my mil crocheted me my very own Tiny Cthulhu!

He's been hanging out with Perogy Cat - I think they're up to something.

I also got the Halloween Tarot deck and book, illustrated by my favourite sinner Kipling West. There's something cheerfully creepy and smiling about her work. I'll never be able to afford a real painting, so I'll frame some of these lovely cards instead :)
Sadly, the box was missing the very last card (King of Imps), but after a quick e-mail to US Games it winged its way to me via airmail.

* Well, I came on here to post scans from "How You Can Give Hawaiian Parties", circa 1957, but went off track quickly. Here's a taste for next time:

Aloha!

2011-01-18T16:17:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the absence. I don't have a good reason, so I'll say ... holidays, yeah, that's why. In the meantime, go read Mutts!

Special Kitty

2010-11-27T17:36:00.008-06:00

* Earlier this week, Glen returned from the library with special presents - 2 vintage copies of Better Homes and Gardens! I usually prefer the 50s, but I love seeing stuff I remember from when I was a kid. And one magazine in particular made me very happy.

July 1974, 100 Ideas Under $100. Including a pile of plants on a piano! But what's this at the bottom?

ah ha ha ha ha! Critical Cat is critical! Why doesn't he like it? We don't know. Why did the cat deserve a word balloon? We don't know. Did I love this so much I made it my Facebook icon? Yes I did :)

* Today we took a nice little walk down to the Owl Designer Fair at Fernwood Community Centre. And it was awesome! Soooo much cool craftiness packed into one room.
I came home with a tin of delicious Blue Christmas tea from Traveling Sparrow - tastes of (local organic) lavender and Earl Grey, and smells wonderful. I drooled over Urchin Bags, made from recycled seat belts and air bags (maybe Santa will bring me one for Christmas? :) Siempre La Lucha had great cards and tees, including a scare-owl thinking of brains. Love Monkey's felted matroyshka dolls were adorable! And boo I forgot to grab the business card of the woman with the recycled leather and felt purses :( Never mind, found her!

* and now I'm running late - see ya later!

Snow Day!

2010-11-22T13:22:00.002-06:00

BEFORE!
AFTER!!! currently :D

Back from the dead.

2010-10-17T19:17:00.010-05:00

wow. Not only can I not do 3 posts a week, I can't even do ONE post a week. In my ~~favorite~~ favourite month even. Argh.

Heh, maybe I should just put these in a box and pull them out for my entries! Let's see ...

"Unstoppable human infects movie."
"I like grotesque headshot everywhere."
"The undead outrun insane chewing cadavers."

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

* So, getting ready for dress-up time. Don't forget your make-up! And here's a book to help you out.

By T. William Smith and Michael Carrington, copyright 1981. I like that each of the steps is accompanied by a FULL COLOR and a sketch. If you'd like to be a devil (like the fellow on the cover), just follow this diagram:

or you could be Snidley Whiplash instead :)

Okay, how about a clown?

dude, cheer up, it's Halloween!

uh, as you were.

But wait, I'm a woman, what about me?
umm, something not quite so ... psychotic maybe?

Much better.

* Until next time, whenever that may be, namaste!

Countdown!

2010-10-06T17:20:00.000-05:00

* The Halloween posts continue! (with just a tiny misstep on Monday)

* Old Navy Canada has the cutest spooky clothes for women! One of my fave pairs of pajama pants ever came from them. This year they have the pj pants, cozy socks and tees that I crave. Sadly, the store near me has a minuscule pj section, so they had none of these when I went to look.

* Target seems to have some nice tees as well. My fave is the spider web one. Also looks like they have Nick & Nora Halloween pj sets: Dia de los Muertos style skeletons, paisley owls and far-out fall leaves. And spooky socks.

* Not Halloween! This past weekend we were busy!
On Saturday night Glen, Marilyn and I saw Whose Live Anyway and laughed our butts off. It was great to see Greg Proops and Ryan Stiles live in person. And we were only 4 rows back!
On Sunday we all took the ferry over to Salt Spring Island for the Apple Festival. It was great (but cloudy), and I've never seen so many varieties of apples! We walked around a really wild organic orchard, tasted some apples and saw the cutest outhouse ever. We also visited a cheese farm (goats and sheep) and a teeny bakery.
I love that it's so easy to find local & organic foods around here.

* On Friday I'll try to provide a non-consumer oriented Halloween post ;)

Hooray for October!

2010-09-25T21:42:00.009-05:00

* I know very well that I can't do a post every day in October, but I'm gonna try for 3 a week (Mon, Wed and Fri). Wish me luck!

* For the past few years, I've made special boxes of candy for my friends and co-workers. No co-workers this year, but the boxes continue. Here are some favorite places to find just the right graphic elements:

The Graphics Fairy has everything from beautiful butterflies to antique photos waiting to be modified. She even takes requests!

The UCLA Library site took some digging, but the reward is high-resolution pdfs of the Antikamnia Calendar - happy little skull-headed men going about their daily activities.

Historical Anatomies on the Web. Once again, you gotta look around but there are plenty of skeletons and muscles to choose from.

The Fantastic in Art and Fiction, from Cornell University, supplies demons, more skeletons in clothes, and a naked witch riding a broom.

Just Something I Made has lots of stuff that can be easily modified for nefarious Halloween purposes. These apothecary labels include a "danger poison" label, and here's a lovely ornate gravestone border.

And of course there's Dover. Their Old-Time Halloween book and CD combo is great, because the CD includes higher quality jpegs.

* If you want a post a day, take a drive to Neato Ghoulville! (don't forget to detour through Weird Hollow, they're dying to see you bwaa haa haa!)

they read my mind

2010-09-07T20:54:00.009-05:00

* I took the bus downtown all by myself for the first time on Wed, to buy presents for my husband. I stopped in Chapter's to browse and from across the room it called me ...

zombie! and cross stitch! together at last! The box was all sealed up so you can't preview all the patterns inside but there are a few more pattern peeks on the back of the box. This is going on my wish list. (and the author has a blog over here!)

* In other spooky news, Martha's Halloween ~~mag~~ Best-Of book is on the stands (at least here in Canada). But it's a best-of so I'd strongly advise having a look through before you take it home. Almost all the projects have been in previous issues (tombstone yard, bubble wrap jellyfish costume, black vodka cocktails, etc.) But her costume on the cover is new - I wish I had access to her hairstylists!
edited to add: it is actually a book, and only has 2 ads (one across from the table of contents, and one on the back of the book) so it is alot of info handy in one place.

* So I've been volunteering at a facility, and I met one of the board members (1). His son is an actor (2) and was in Battlestar Gallactica. Lucy Lawless (3) was also in BG. But she was the star of Xena, which often guest-starred BRUCE CAMPBELL!!! I'm 4 degrees of separation from Bruce!!! this made my nerdy fan-girl day ;)

* and on that note ...

yay!

2010-08-30T20:12:00.003-05:00

(note to self: if you hit Enter after you type the title, the blog will post. you don't want to do that.)

* Gettin' in the Halloween mood. I want to make treat boxes again this year, but on a larger scale. I've been perusing a fantastic book my mom-in-law got me - Ghoulish Goodies! It's really cool with great recipes and adorably spooky illustrations. I'd love to try the pumpkin-shaped cookies with melted crushed candy for the eyes so they look like they're glowing!

* Also nabbed this year's BHG Halloween magazine (the magazine is great but their website is a nightmare!) My fave section this year is the "Dead and Breakfast" front yard ideas, and the photos of an antique shop's decorations. Weathered paperbacks stacked with pages facing out? Brilliant! Wrapping flameless candles with yellowed book pages? Spook-a-licious! Hmm, flameless candles were on sale at Costco last week ...

I haven't seen Martha on the newsstands yet. This year she even has her own costumes for sale at Grandin Road - the costumes that she tells you how to make in her magazines and website, but buying them would save time I guess. (Don't look at the other women's costumes there, it's all that unimaginative "sexy fill-in-the-blank" junk)

Well, looks like Target have started the ball rolling and revealed their mascots for this year - green witch, square-headed Frankenstein and mummy, and one-eyed ghost. Dagnabbit, I'll miss the Jones soda this year :(

World Market doesn't have a specific section on their website, but this branch candle holder would fit right in, these mercury glass votive candle holders are great, and I would love this kinda-retro paper pulp moon & owl.

Okay, I'd better spread this stuff out or I'll be bare by Halloween. See ya next time!

spooky times ahead?

2010-08-26T19:39:00.005-05:00

* Hi to anybody that's left!

* I realized last week that I haven't done a single post about Halloween and it's almost September! Blame Canada. No Target (they'd be on the bad list anyway after donating money to a PAC that then supported an anti-gay rights politician), and I have no idea what nifty mail-order places there are up here. I have scoped out Michael's collection, and the rack and a half at Winners/Homesense, but nothing is calling me. I'm considering making my Halloween treat box bigger this year and filling it with cookies. My sis-in-law picked up some cute cookie cutters on her trip to Oregon so I could break those in.

The spirit is coming, though. Today is super windy and the scent of fall is in the air! And the wind is chilly! Real fall!

* Last Friday night we attended a very special birthday party - Lovecraft's 120th! The giant Cthulhu head with lit-up eyes was amazing! They had spoken word artists, singers, poets, a trivia contest and they showed a creeeepy short film called AM1200 (rent and watch with the lights off).
My favorite parts were:

The gentleman in the photo above reading Nyarlathotep (which it turns out I've been pronouncing incorrectly).
The singer (Jeff Andrew), self described as "hobo noir," a combo of Tom Waits and Tim Burton, and accompanied by a saw! a saw I say! and a tin whistle!
Missie Peters' poem about a rift brought forth through a carving
a bouncy little Cthulhu song sung by the host and a robed gent with a guitar

They even served birthday cake.

* That's it for today - thanks for stopping by!

Swap meet goodness!

2010-08-06T22:11:00.011-05:00

* Oh boy I love the swap meet! (except for the getting-up-early part, and the walking-in-the-sun part). It's random - sometimes there's nothing, but sometimes we find something great!About a month ago, found this gem. (not exactly this one cause I haven't taken a photo of mine yet, but just like this except the top says "A classic game for two" and the bottom right corner says "Le Bourreau" because we're in Canada). Vincent Price! Hangman! Once I get some plate holders to hold the box upright, he'll go on top of the bookshelf with Cthulhu, the gargoyles and the jar 'o skulls.

Last week I got a handful of vintage patterns. I had been sticking with the 50s, but these ladies are just so cute! The one on the far right is having a VERY GOOD time, and I covet the shoes of the one in the middle.

He lives! He strikes! No grave can hold him! For $1 I got Tales of the Zombie #1 AND Vampire Tales #1! Glen also got a fantabulous photo album of Elks from the 50s through the 70s. Stuck between a couple of pages was this:

Nifty real human hair net invisible! With hair net enclosed!

Last but not least, the cutest vintage embroidery transfer pattern! One day I will make these for somebody I know. I don't exactly know WHO yet, but somebody deserves to bee relaxed!

Thanks for sticking around! Coming soon, an epic tale of vinyl.

My heart is racing!

2010-07-27T20:42:00.003-05:00

* Once upon a time, I met a man on the internet. Last February, I decided to show him how I felt by making him a very special stuffed monkey. He loved it, and the rest is history.

And now! q.D. paToOtieS, the designer of the pattern, has featured the Amazing Love Monkey on her blog! Hooray! Thanks q.D.!
ALM and his jaunty hot rod reside in my husband's studio. Hopefully his head won't get swelled by the attention.

thrift stores galore

2010-07-14T17:45:00.002-05:00

* I've been having sooo much fun up here visiting thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales and used book stores. There's a pile o' printed goodness on my desk just waiting to be scanned!

First up, Modern Needlecraft magazine, Fall Winter 1963. A thrift store up-island had tons of this magazine, but since I can neither crochet or knit I only bought one (the purple-and-black color scheme on the cover played no part in the decision ;) I kinda like the sweater on the cover, but as a busty gal it would NOT work on me at all.

There aren't many scan-worthy ads, but the Lane Bryant one is a keeper. IF you're STOUT? How kind of them to notice! And look at the teeny waist on her, with her gloves and pumps.

How about some thrills ... fun ... earn? "If you seek increased independence, greater happiness, and a worth-while hobby, and you feel you have artistic talent, write for this FREE booklet." I have never heard of this hobby before.

The ladies seem to be all a-flutter about Cardigan Cal. And he knows it!

Mr. Dobbs, is that you?

A yarn ad on the back. The woman at the top looks suspiciously like Julie Newmar.

* Thanks to those who let me know I'm not the only one having blogger issues! As you can see I changed some things around, and although Preview still doesn't match, the Compose part is fairly close to the final result.

2010-07-13T01:35:00.003-05:00

Well now. Now that Blogger has a new design template interface, I did some monkeying around to fix my preview problem. I did manage to get the text columns wider on my blog, but the preview still doesn't match what shows up when it's published. hmmm.

blogger issues

2010-07-11T01:05:00.001-05:00

hmmm. The Preview doesn't match what shows up on my blog. I think somehow the text box has shrunk in width. Must do research!

FarmVille is a vampire

2010-07-03T20:00:00.014-05:00

That "one post a week" idea? yeah. Blame FarmVille.

* But I did take the time to upload some more goodies to Flickr! The story: way back in March, us newlyweds and my parents took a drive up to Tennessee to visit relatives. While there, we visited a Saturday flea market. Not a whole lot to look at, but a shoebox of sewing patterns caught my eye. How much? $2 for the box. Sold! And voila, 30 patterns, 25 from the 1950s. swoon! I only wish I were a 50s size 12 and my life would be a technicolor dream. I can just see myself flitting around the garden party in that floral number on the left. (I wouldn't trust Red over on the right to get anywhere near my beau, though.)

* In other news, Canada is cold! Well, much cooler than Florida and (according to Glen) cooler than normal for this area as well. Last weekend we used a free hotel room and spent the weekend at Parksville. Fantastic view of the beach from our balcony - too bad we needed sweaters to walk on it! We also had fun watching the bald eagles fly back and forth taking twigs to their nest. Rathtrevor Beach was amazing; the tide goes out for 1 km! I'm sure not used to walking for 20 min just to reach the water ;)

Life here has been quite active so far: trip up-island to see Coomb s Market; Lauren's star turn as a wise-guy March Hair in Alice in Wonderland Jr.; watching the amazing Snowbirds and ships from around the world at the International Fleet Review; Buccaneer Days in Esquimalt; Celtic Festival and Highland Games; and Eddie Izzard LIVE!!!!! (I bought a bag that says "Cake or Death" :) I'm enjoying every minute.

spooky time in San Jose!

2010-05-28T22:10:00.013-05:00

Considering I’m not working right now, you’d think I’d update this thing more often! I should set some kind of goal, like 1 update a week.

Enough of that – on to the amazing, wonderful, bizarre Winchester Mystery House! I’ve wanted to see this house since it was featured on That’s Incredible in 1980. It’s an oddly designed house that might have ghosts, woo hoo!Last year my friend Michelle took a trip to California and returned with a postcard and stories of how cool the house was.

When Glen and I began our cross-country trip, and decided on what stops to make, this was at the top of my list. You wouldn’t know it was there based on the view from the street, but there were signs guiding visitors on the highway. It was $28 for the mansion tour but only $5 more for that and the behind-the-scenes tour so we went for it. I took tons of photos, but none inside ‘cause they aren’t allowed. Since the house gets their only money from tickets and gift shop (no govt money), it wouldn’t feel right.

The background of the house: designed by Sarah Winchester, widow of the Winchester who made the rifles. Both her baby daughter and her husband died, so Sarah went to a psychic to find out why her family was cursed. The psychic told her that the spirits of the people killed by Winchester rifles were angry. So Sarah decided to outsmart them by building a confusing house so they wouldn’t be able to find her – she lived to be 88 so I guess it worked. That’s Incredible had really played up this story, but our tour guide made it sound more like Sarah was just headstrong and couldn’t decide how to finish the house. Sarah was into spiritualism and was fascinated by the number 13 (13 hooks in a closet, 13 steps on a staircase).

The house itself is GREAT, kinda Victorian and gingerbready. They have a room filled with all the supplies she had purchased but were never used, like beautiful stained glass windows and deeply textured wallpaper. There are rooms that were never finished, so there’s only studs. Some rooms were damaged in an earthquake in 1906; she just left them and moved into another room. Other rooms are beautifully made up and fancy. There are 160 rooms total. None of the furniture in the house is hers, she had it all sold at auction after she died per her will.

There’s a staircase where each step is only 2 inches higher than the previous one, so it goes back and forth on itself and only goes up a couple of feet. Another staircase goes up to the ceiling and ends. She had windows everywhere – the house has more windows than the Empire State Building!There are windows in floors, windows that look into other rooms, stained glass windows she designed herself, spiderweb windows …she even had a window that overlooked the kitchen so she could make sure the servants were working. There’s a door on the second floor that goes to nothing. She built a gorgeous ballroom with an antique organ, but she never had any dances or parties. On one part of the outside of the house, you can see where she decided to add on and simply covered up what was already there, shingles and all. That’s how they were able to recreate the color of the house.

The garden is really cool as well, even though most of the plants aren’t original. She imported plants from all over the world, they know because of some paper records, but since the house was neglected for a long time most of the original plants died. Now they just use educated guesses, based on what plants they know were available in her time. The front courtyard has several statues and fountains, and the original entrance to the estate.

During the Behind-the-Scenes tour we got to see the coal-fired furnace, the water pump that worked the elevator, the batteries for the communication system she used to call servants and some more of the unfinished parts of the building.

All in all very cool and worth the 30-year wait ;) I do wish the gift shop had been better; only a few items were about the house itself (books, videos, pencils, postcards and a couple of tee shirts), but it had lots of generic knick-knacks of sun catchers, plant stands, stuffed animals for kids, bottle openers with flowers, etc. I was tempted by wine bottled especially for Winchester House, but couldn’t justify the price. Now if the grapes had been grown on the property, that would have been another matter entirely.

don't shoot, you dummy!

2010-05-09T00:00:00.010-05:00

* I have been busy scanning in pulp novel covers to post on Flickr (g'wan, have a peek). I've only read the Perry Mason ones so far, but look forward to reading the rest, even if the stories don't live up to the covers. For example, the one above. Did he steal that sexy mannequin and the rightful owner is gonna get it back with a gun?

After our honeymoon in Feb, the hubs and I, along with my parents, drove up to Tennessee to show him off to my American relatives. On the way back, we stopped at a flea market somewhere to look around (my poor dad was outvoted). One little old lady had 2 booths full of paperbacks, mostly Harlequin, Tom Clancy, John Grisham and the like. But there, in the corner, in 5 boxes, were mystery and detective books from the '50s. I scooped up the ones in good condition, for 25¢ apiece. Holy smokes! I can find more up here - Vancouver Island is used book heaven - but doubt I'll ever see that price again.

* We organized our storage room today. Whee fun! We had been just piling up boxes in the room, but it's difficult to get to what you want that way. Costco had some great and cheap storage shelves last week so we splurged, and now we have a room we can use! Amazing how much stuff the 2 of us have. I have 3 boxes of Halloween decorations and 1 box of Christmas decor :snicker:

Of course the year-round spooky stuff is in my craft room. Last week I picked up some cheap apothecary jars, just right to fill with tiny skulls or plastic spiders ;) Great Cthulhu surveys all from the top of the shelving unit, the 3-headed Boney candleholder grins next to a black tealight lantern from Target, and the hubs gave me a classic Haunted Mansion game for a backdrop. How had I not seen this before?!? It's missing some pieces sadly, and the box is a tad water-damaged, but squee! We visited the Disney World mansion twice during our honeymoon. I can't wait to see the Disney Land one :D

* I'm outta steam. Tune in next time for ... the Winchester Mystery House! ooooEEEEoooo.

Is anybody still here?

2010-04-29T18:29:00.004-05:00

Hi!

Sorry I haven't been around lately. To make a long story short, I:

- got married

- went to Disney and NASA on a honeymoon

- took a weekend trip to Tennessee to visit relatives

- drove cross-country, Florida to Vancouver Island, in 2 weeks!

- and settled into married life in a different country.

Whew, I'm exhausted!

I'm gonna get back on track soon. Until then, here's a whale (?) in a bathtub courtesy of The Daiso.

baked with love

2010-01-29T15:40:00.012-06:00

* I could not resist buying the Feb issue of Southern Living. C'mon, look at those cookies! (sorry, biggest version I can find). Lemon butter cookies with royal icing, mmmmmm. And simplified recipes for chicken gumbo and banana bread cobbler.

... just realized that if I can link to them, they're online. So I didn't have to buy the magazine. duh.

I used to think this magazine was for old ladies and doctors' offices, but after a while living down here I found it had great ideas for places to visit, tasty recipes and advice on gardening. The home decorating features leave me cold, however; my tastes are more eccentric.

Lately I have had a hankering to bake. A couple of weeks ago I was given a bag full of lemons, so I made 2 loaves of lemon bread, one with walnuts and one without. Zesting a lemon on a regular grater was a learning experience, but the juicing went well. Afterwards I remembered the large bag of craisins and now am itching to make more bread.

Baking makes the whole house smell so good!

* The future approaches at a breakneck pace. Glen arrives next Thursday, and 10 days later The Big Day! (then Disney and NASA!) I still don't have everything needed for the momentous occasion, but even if I'm barefoot I'll be happy :)

* It's pouring down rain. Wish me luck shoe shopping tomorrow!

warning, ranting ahead.

2010-01-16T20:43:00.005-06:00

* So here are the stockings! Hand stitched, hand embroidered (pattern from Sublime Stitching). They turned out too small, but at least I got them done before Christmas.

* I am in a bad mood. Bad bad bad. Foul, pissy, grumpy. And watching Premonition didn't help. I'd seen part of it last Sat while the car place was looking at my tire. (They couldn't find a leak, but the air keeps getting out somehow. I should go ahead and get new tires, sigh.) And I was intrigued by the movie, Sandra Bullock is good, so I got it through Netflix. The ending SUCKS!!! With many exclamation points.

At least the weather is warmer down here. Warmer and rainy, but I don't mind rain. Except when I need to go put air in the tire that isn't leaking.

* I packed one box today, in preparation for moving. Put all the candles and most of the candleholders in the same box, that way if they melt it's no big deal. But I keep forgetting that not everywhere has the hellish heat that Florida has.
I also got the serial numbers off the electronic goodies. Some progress is better than none.

Adventures in Diagnostic Imaging:

2009-12-30T15:09:00.008-06:00

Or, Reasons I Won't Miss Where I Live Now.

I went to the diagnostic center this morning for my first ever boob squishing. Signed in at the counter, and sat down to wait. The selection of reading materials was limited to issues of Diagnostic Imaging Today and Garden and Gun. That's right, a proudly southern magazine celebrating the beauty that flowers and plants bring to our lives, and killing living creatures for sport. It was that or watch the Today Show, and since I'd rather poke my eyes out with knitting needles than do either one, I decided to take a cat nap instead.

A man in the waiting room decided to strike up a conversation with an older woman. He distainfully exclaimed that the nurses calling out people's names to take them back made it seem like a "welfare office" in there. They should do the respectable thing and use those flashy light things (beeper coasters) like the other hospital does. Um, okay. I can understand having privacy issues, but there's no need to be classist about it. Actually a beeper coaster would have helped, because another woman in the waiting room had the same last name as mine :)

I was called back, and the clerk who took my information talked non-stop. There was a wire basket next to the monitor on the desk, with a computer print out with somebody else's information on it. Not giving me great confidence in your privacy regulations, people!

Waited another eternity to get into the Mammography room. The nurse technician in there also spoke non-stop, about the weather, the busyness of end of the year appointments, the recent attempted terrorist bombing and how the people on the plane should "praise Jesus" that the guy wasn't successful.

The scan itself wasn't as bad as I'd been led to believe, and the whole experience led to a blog post ;)

* My blog has been suffering from a lack of posts due to the wonderful presence of my fiance, for both Christmas and New Year's! Plus my brother is in town as well! Good times all around!

Glen filled my stocking with Stray Sock Sewing, You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. His mom sent along some adorable vintage Vogart embroidery patterns and skiens of varigated thread, a book to prepare me for life on Vancouver Island and a pair of embroidery scissors. His sister gave me a huge stack of scrapbook paper and tins of brads, rivets and label discs. I see myself embracing my craftiness in 2010!

My parents were generous and gave us a Wii, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports and Wii Play - no more excuses for schlumping on the couch all evening. Mom almost fell over laughing at our attempts to race knitted cows in Charge!

And I discovered that I'm quite adept at Bowling as long as I'm not wearing rented shoes.

They also supplied me with a travelling case for my embroidery threads and works in progress - more craftiness!

The next day Glen and I made our Miis, and even made one for my cat! She wasn't impressed.

* Phew, that's enough updating for now. Tune in next time for photos of handmade stockings with gingerbread embroidery!

tees part two and other detrius

2009-12-01T10:33:00.014-06:00

* On Saturday I went to look at fabric for the dress I'm getting married in, perused Big Lots for deals (nothin') and went by K-Mart for envelopes. When I left K-Mart I walked to the passenger side of my car to put my stuff in the front seat and saw 2 scratches through the paint from the back door to halfway down the back panel. It made me cry right there in the parking lot.

It was probably a shopping cart; if it was deliberate they would have messed with my Cthulhu fish as well.

* I haven't been sleeping well, so last night I took a sleeping pill. Woke up late this morning, and now I'm tired, sniffly and coughy. boo! I must have caught what my mom had on Thanksgiving.

* So, more tee shirts. How about horror?

- Last year at ScreamFest there was a Bite Mark Clothing booth
(whaddya know, it was her first big booth!) Lovely ladies with accents selling a small range of shirts. I walked away with an I Heart Zombies shirt and I love it. Got complimented on it when I went to see Zombieland!

- another seller at the con was Sigh Co. Graphics. I bought a shirt for a friend's birthday, and for myself I got the New Dark Age shirt. I hope to lose enough weight to be able to wear it :(

- 'Tis the season - only 21 more days until Cephalopodmas! Thanks to Gory Girl Pat I have a Cephalopodmas tee drawn by Apelad himself.

- Finally, Mini Cassette has a mix of scary and omg squee tees.

customer service win!

2009-11-25T12:10:00.010-06:00

* This is not a paid endorsement, but I have to share.

Last week I ordered 2 pairs of shoes from Lands' End. The ones I ordered in Jan for walking in Victoria are amazingly comfortable, and shoes were on sale (half price!). The package arrived last night, and the shoes are great.

I decided to wear the purple ones today, since I have tights and a shirt that match :) On the short walk to the car, I noticed they were a bit loose. On the walk from my car to work, across the parking lot, I realized that they are too big.

So I called the Lands' End customer service number to exchange the shoes. I dialed, the phone rang once, and I heard, "hi, this is Debbie at Lands' End, how can I help you?" A PERSON! A LIVE PERSON! Answered the phone! No endless menu of "para continuar en Espanol, precione uno" and "your call is important to us" and "all our operators are currently assisting other customers." I was so flabbergasted that I paused, then said "wait, you are a person?" and she laughed.

She pulled up my account, re-ordered the shoes in a smaller size for the same price (even though the price on one had gone up), told me that I could take the pairs I have to Sears to return them, and let me know that if I decided to order anything else today before 10pm CST, they'd add it to my new pairs so I'd get free shipping.

Yeah, that's what customer service SHOULD be!

and I found out they ship to Canada ;)

tee shirts part uno

2009-11-24T15:27:00.008-06:00

* I'm not one for wearing advertising tee shirts, but advertising fake products is a-ok! Wake up ... time to die has great tees based on companies and products in great movies! The Stay-Puft man shirt is a beautiful color and the icon is adorable. Their other shirts include tributes to Die Hard, Kill Bill, Event Horizon and Blazing Saddles. Too bad the company is in the UK, and the prices are steep.

Last Exit to Nowhere, also in the UK, does the same schtick with different movies, including Westworld, Alien, Re-Animator, The Shining and The Wicker Man.

If you're looking for Big Trouble, head to The Wing Kong Exchange for officially licensed BTiLC tees. (dang, once upon a time they had Egg Shen tour bus shirts but I don't see 'em now).

Since I'm a) not made of money; b) hard to fit; and c) hard to please, I end up making my own shirts with iron-on transfer paper and some $5 Old Navy shirts. My favorite so far is a quote from The (criminally underrated) Frighteners: You are violating my territorial bubble. Spoken by the one-and-only Jeffrey Combs.*
My brother's tee quote was: Sealed with a curse as sharp as a knife. Doomed is your soul and damned is your life.

*I actually saw The Frighteners before Re-Animator (gasp) so this was the first movie I saw him in. And according to this website, it's one of his favorite roles!

shopping panic begins in 3...2...

2009-11-19T10:08:00.012-06:00

* It's Thursday and I'm thinking of presents. So begins a new series on Yay blog!

I have a couple of friends who love to cook and/or bake. For them?

- Joie Shop has the cutest little gadgets in Canada! Egg timer shaped like an egg, cow ice cream scoop, the happiest bottle opener on earth, and a smilin' potato peeler!

- Fred Flare also brings the cute with Russian nesting doll measuring cups (I covet these), table saw cake cutter, and You Bake 'Em cat treats (includes cookie cutters).

- Via Mighty Haus, an excellent cookie decorating kit of squeeze bottles and spatulas at Sur La Table.

- Last year I got Gosamyr an udon noodle bowl for her Chinese take-out.

- Who doesn't need a soy sauce dispenser shaped like an origami crane? Or hugging salt & pepper shakers? ($30? yikes!)

- Finally, I like this fruit-infusion pitcher. Mmmm, iced tea with raspberries in the middle, or sparkling water with lemon and lime slices.

I'm very very lucky

2009-11-10T16:14:00.006-06:00

* According to an interactive graph in the New York Times, the unemployment rate "For white women ages 25 to 44 with a college degree" is just 3.6%. wow. From what I can tell, that's the lowest average overall.

The overall average is 8.6%

The absolute worst? "For black men ages 15 to 24 without a high school degree" it's 48.5%

* Ida was nothing but a storm.

* I've died and gone to cross-stitch heaven! LOOK LOOK LOOK at the beautiful old borders and alphabets at Patternmaker Charts! From France and Germany and Russia! And free in multiple formats! Just have a gander at this tea border:

Only 364 days to plan for next year!

2009-11-02T13:40:00.010-06:00

* I had a great Halloween! Partied with my Gory Girls and a good time was had by all. And so many creative, hand-made costumes! So here's a roundup of great costumes I've found on the intertubes:

Surreal Killer (via Metafilter)

LOL cat (via Fatshionista!)

Snuggie Elvis (via Facebook)

Pop Art Girl (via Charmed)

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (via Craftster)

filled with goodness!

2009-10-29T18:47:00.003-05:00

* I finished my Halloween candy boxes and handed them out Monday. Some photos of them didn't turn out, but the ones I'm most proud of are:

Oh yeah, Necronomicons made of paper mache and tissue paper! I should have taken photos of the inside as well, but I forgot. Here's another one of my candy boxes (with a peek of the other two in the background):

* Speaking of unspeakable horror, check out this meat hand! Truly, truly disgusting and creative.

* I bought some Burt's Bees soap bark and chamomile deep cleansing cream and it smells just like Bazooka gum! Which is entirely appropriate for this time of year - I remember many a Halloween getting those little pink rocks of gum. My favorite candy was always chocolate: M&Ms, Kit Kats, peppermint patties. My least favorite was Sugar Babies, or anything super chewy that sticks in the teeth..

* Woo hoo, 6 followers! Welcome Lille and Muza-chan!

Inspiration from Eddie

2009-10-27T10:06:00.001-05:00

Farewell, Fearsome Finds!

2009-10-26T11:08:00.000-05:00

* A Yokai A Day - paintings of Japanese mythical monsters by Matthew Meyer. Here's Kuchisake-onna - I see a future Halloween costume!

The yuki-onna is also amazing.

* Fantastic Mexican-theme posters/masks from Firecracker Press (although I can't imagine wanting to cut one of these apart).

* Well, since the theme today seems to be spooky art, have a gander at some Mini Monsters and Tiny Terrors! Aww, lookit the dainty dagonite, or cutie Cthulhu:

* I guess this'll be the last Fearsome Finds for 2009 - I hope you enjoyed it!

zombie time!

2009-10-19T10:31:00.005-05:00

Monday morning is appropriate for zombie posts, no?

* From shoeboxblog (yeah, Shoebox as in Hallmark):

Oops, somebody must not have liked it cause they had to take it down. But I'm all aboard with the Christmas music one! And the zombie complaint lists.

* Just when you thought all the zombie _____ ideas were taken, along comes the Calgary Zombie Walk:

* Zombie wedding cake! including bride with chainsaw. Flavor? Red velvet, natch. via Neatorama.

* I spent yesterday watching Fido and Evil Dead II while I worked on a couple of Very Special candy boxes. muaa haa haa!

random fun online

2009-10-16T10:15:00.006-05:00

* Thirsty bats! A gentleman in England set up quite a few cameras to get photos of the bats that drank from his pond each night. Amazing to see the texture of their outspread wings and their itty bitty tongues.

* Mystery Google! Type in a search, and you get results from what the previous person searched for. I typed in "halloween party cup labels" and got results for "mmmmmmmm cake." :D "dharma initiative" resulted in "Mystery Google is the shizzzz" :snicker:

* George Takei and his husband Brad Altman were the first gay couple on The Newlywed Game! I don't like the show, but awwwww. They won $10,000 for the Japanese American National Museum.

* Did you know there's a black vodka? Instant spook-ification of cocktails for Halloween. Of course Martha has the scoop! Ghost in the Graveyard (vodka, creme de cacao, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg) sounds delicious and looks fantastic.

She has some other black cocktails in the Halloween special issue, but they aren't online (which surprises me). They include using black food coloring in ice cubes - as the ice cubes melt in your drink the drink gets darker. The effect is cool, especially in a red drink.

* Sonic doesn't have decaf! Sonic doesn't have decaf!

* Fifty people, one question. I love the answer "a planet made of cheese"!

(feel free to skip this next bit)

While watching, I was struck/reminded how attractive people are. Yeah, it's a selection of people willing to answer a question on camera at a certain place and time, but still. I think that watching television and movies, looking at magazines, all that exposure to "pretty" people (or at least those who producers believe we will think are pretty) makes us forget how appealing normal, everyday fellow residents of earth are. Watching them think about the question, smile at the person standing next to them, laugh, I teared up (been feeling emotional this week). Something about turning a camera on them suddenly makes them stand out? I can't explain very well.

Back to your regularly scheduled blog post.

droll outer-space man

2009-10-13T21:59:00.004-05:00

From the Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Cook Book, 1965

Halloween for normals

2009-10-05T13:50:00.004-05:00

* How about Halloween finds at "normal" stores?

First up, Wisteria has a small collection of spooky, but I do dig the Corinthian candles - very goth. I also like the creepy votive holders.

Pottery Barn's collection is even smaller, but several pieces could be used at other times of the year as well. There's even stuff at Pottery Barn Kids - the chandelier is spooky cute!

Crate & Barrel - also tiny, but I do like the gourd candles and I've lately wanted some Japanese Lantern branches. (ooh, Japanese Lantern branches plus Chestnut branches in a matte black urn!)

* It's looking like I'll never get to Part Trois of my BC visit story - things have been crazy at Chez Kodama, what with getting the house ready to sell and certain sleeping issues. I'm working on my Necronomicon cross-stitch to settle my nerves, and I sorted through the scrap book paper for spooky goodie boxes. And I got some great cheapo toys at Tarjey to glitter-ize for the boxes - whee!

Palate cleansers

2009-10-01T14:13:00.009-05:00

* Ming makes cookies, too!

*LoL cats to the rescue!

* Wonderful collection of literary drawings, such as Jules Verne:

See more at Hey Oscar Wilde, including lovely Lovecraft.

* Spooky food.

* Dino van

* Too cool to save until Monday - when you get too old to trick-or-treat, try this:

"... one Halloween our doorbell rang and we opened the door expecting to see trick-or-treaters-- but what was in front of our open door--was another door! Like, a full-on wooden door, that had a sign that said "Please knock." So we did, and the door swung open to reveal a bunch of college dudes dressed as really old grandmothers, curlers in their hair, etc, who proceeded to coo over our "costumes" and tell us we were "such cute trick or treaters!" One even pinched my cheek. Then THEY gave US candy, closed their door, picked it up and walked to the next house. It was amazing."

my personal boycott

2009-10-01T12:19:00.003-05:00

WARNING - SERIOUS BUSINESS.

* The following movie-related people are among those who have signed a petition to protest the arrest of Roman Polanski. I will no longer spend money on their works.

Isabelle Adjani
Woody Allen (well, I've been boycotting him since Soon-Yi)
Pedro Almodovar
Wes Anderson
Asia Argento
Darren Aronofsky
Monica Bellucci
Adrien Brody
Guillermo del Toro (I don't think I can ever watch Pan's Labyrinth again)
Jonathan Demme
Peter Fonda
Harrison Ford (WHY?)
Stephen Frears
Terry Gilliam (sob)
Buck Henry
Isabelle Huppert
Jeremy Irons (he played Humbert Humbert)
Neil Jordan
Wong Kar Waï
Harmony Korinne
John Landis
David Lynch
Michael Mann
Sam Mendes
Jeanne Moreau
Mike Nichols
Natalie Portman
Martin Scorsese
Kristin Scott-Thomas (nooo)
Tilda Swinton
Emma Thompson! noooooooooooooooooooo!
Wim Wenders

Wow, that's quite a few folks. Makes me sad. At least Luc Besson is okay.

I'm SUPER stressed right now, and usually the cure involves watching movies. I don't think I can.

ETA: Some more folks are in the Okay With Me column:
Allison Anders (weird aside: I was just last week trying to think of the female director from "Four Rooms")
Luc Besson
Jesse Eisenberg - yay, Zombieland is go!
Neil Gaiman - thank you!!!
Javier Grillo-Marxuach - phew, going to Best Buy to pick up The Middleman
Greg Grunberg - psychic guy from Heroes
Kevin Smith

Stay home, Santa!

2009-09-28T20:04:00.001-05:00

* My mom received Lowe's monthly Creative Ideas magazine, and it had a few Halloween projects in it.

Amazingly simple - ghosts made of tomato cages, rope lights and drop cloths!

I also like the "hanging ghouls" from shepherd's hooks.

These are much nicer than the usual stuff they actually sell. And now they are on the BAD LIST for putting Christmas trees next to their Halloween decor. C'mon now, stop intruding on my holiday with yer trees - there's plenty of time for that later.

* Meanwhile, Dollar Tree pulls through again with 10 small plastic skeleton hands for $1 (ha ha, and on Etsy it's $2.25 for just one pair?). They also had some great stickers, and glow sticks of all kinds. They were still putting some stuff out, but they are also on the BAD LIST with aisles of tinsel and wreaths next to the skellies.

* I'm thinking of making gift boxes for my coworkers' candy treats this year, so I picked up a paper mache box at Michael's to experiment. (the skeleton hands would make a nice handle or border around the edge - I may even add some glitter ;). I also got a paper mache book. Hmm, Necronomicon maybe? :bwaa haa haa:

Fun in BC (part 2)

2009-09-25T15:17:00.009-05:00

continuing story ...

* Wednesday we spent the day in Vancouver. We barely made the ferry, it was raining but I was excited. The ride over was not what I expected; the ferry is kinda like a floating airport lounge.

Our first stop in Vancouver was The Daiso! Which totally deserves an exclamation point! It was completely awesome and fun and when I live up there will require at least 2 trips a year. For my ghoulish gals I got a fake gory brain and fake gory ear - that's right, even at a Japanese dollar store in Vancouver I head straight for the Halloween stuff. They are deliciously gooey. I also got some play money, dish towels, colored ballpoint pens, a couple of notebooks, embroidery thread (in fall colors) and a id badge holder. Yeah, they have everything. Only the size of my suitcase (and my wallet) limited my purchases. They have kitchen containers that are so specialized - one for yakisoba, one for marinating tofu, one for edamame, one for rice cakes ...

Afterwards, we walked around the rest of the mall. Aberdeen Centre is in Richmond, which has a big Asian population, so the stores were amazing. There's even a Ferrari dealership in there!

After a bit of driving around we got hungry, so we went to Moderne Burger (which came highly recommended by Lisa). What a groovy joint! The menu is simple: burgers, fries and shakes are the focus. Glen got a creamsicle shake and I got the chocolate covered cherry. They give you the shake in a proper old-fashioned glass AND give you the leftovers in a metal cup - these folks know what they are doing. I got a turkey burger but Glen went for the steak burger, and he definately won in the flavor department. We got one order of fries between us and it was more than enough, as you can see.

Thus satiated, Glen played tour guide once again and drove me around different parts of Vancouver: across the Lions Gate Bridge, through Stanley Park and through some of downtown. I look forward to going back for a long weekend and exploring!

The final stop on our whirlwind tour was Ikea! I've never been to one (the closest one to me is 6 hours away, either Atlanta or Orlando) so it was a treat. Once again my suitcase limited my purchases to a couple pairs of rubber gloves and a squeegee, but I spent plenty in my mind. And it gave Glen and me a good chance to discuss future decorating ideas: he's a neutrals kind of guy and I'm a fan of theme decor, but I think we can successfully combine the two :)

The ride home was ... interesting, to say the least. SO interesting that I'll hand the mike over to Glen to tell that story. :makes shooing motion with hand:

* Coming soon: part three!

Fun in BC (part one)

2009-09-23T15:20:00.002-05:00

I was lucky enough to visit Victoria BC and my adorable fiance earlier this month. I can't wait to move up there! Here's the details ...

* Flew up there on Friday. Not a bad trip, except I went the wrong way looking for lunch in the Seattle airport and ended up outside the secure zone so had to stand in line for 35 min to go through security again. D'oh!

* Saturday we went to the Saanich Fall Fair! Although it was raining up until the time we got to the front gate, the sun quickly showed and we had a wonderful time. I was quite the tourist, taking photos of all the cute farm animals (I saw a goat being milked!) and gawking at the fruit and veg display (huge pumpkin! tiny melons! long string beans!). And the baked goods competition made my stomach growl even though I had just eaten bratwurst and sauerkraut from the German stand (Glen stuck with a weiner and potato salad). My favorite part was the kids craft display - not only baked goods and sewing, but even a Lego competition! So cute!

We didn't even make it to the midway, but our feet were so tired.

* Sunday we joined Glen's mum, sister and sister's friend for brunch. I've never seen a buffet that had breakfast food like scrambled eggs right next to lunch food like salad. Afterwards we hung out with them for a bit at his mum's house to have a small birthday celebration for Glen.

* Monday was Labour Day so we took it easy - did some walking around town.

* Tuesday we had dinner with the H clan - chicken breasts stuffed with homemade pesto and wrapped in prosciutto (mmm); risotto with parsley, peas and parmesan; roasted squash; and rolls. I had fun discussing the merits of robots with the boys, and after dinner we played Hand and Foot.

* Sometime later this week I'll post part two!

look out below!

2009-09-21T16:00:00.001-05:00

* This find surprised me - I've been a fan of Flor for a while now and still get their catalogs, and their colors are gorgeous. Now they enter the spooky realm with Arachnophobia, a spiderweb-patterned series of tiles with random placement of spider! I love that they give you the names of styles that will coordinate with the spider-print so you can customize your horror. It's available in Raven/Pumpkin and Raven/Ash, but I think the Raven/Ash would spookily match with Skully and some plain black tiles.

* Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox, the beginning of Fall. I expect to wake up to cool air, orange and brown leaves, and NO HUMIDITY. Ha ha ha!
Ming's cupcake today is Chocolate Coffee Cupcake with Baileys Irish Cream Frosting, mmm. Autumn is the season for baking.

* I'm putting my house on the market next week. Hardwood floors, corner lot on a hill, new roof - what's not to like? Wish me (and my realtor) luck! Even though the end result will make me very very happy, the idea of a major life change is still overwhelming.

* Have a gander at my Flickr page to see photos from my Victoria vacation - I'm working on matching blog posts.

sweeeeet!

2009-09-16T15:03:00.010-05:00

* During my wonderful whirlwind 8-day trip to Victoria, I was lucky enough to visit not one but TWO delicious cupcake stores!

Glen's mom pointed us to Ooh La La, in a tiny mall on a corner. Oh my is it difficult to decide among frosted yummy goodness perched daintily under glass on cake stands. Their cupcakes are the size of large muffins! I narrowed my choice to Monkey Business (of course) and Twist and Shout.

Monkey Business is "lucious banana cake with a cream cheese icing and topped with Calibeault white chocolate curls." (mine had a banana chip instead of chocolate curls) DEEElicious! The frosting was thick and sweet, the cake almost like a banana bread. I thought, "ooh, I should have gotten 2 of this one."

Then I tried Twist and Shout, "a moist lemon cake with a surprise raspberry filling all topped off with lemon buttercream icing with a lemon twist on top," and was glad I didn't get both the same! The flavor was perfect, like the tartest lemonade on a hot day in the Panhandle. The raspberry got lost in all that lemon, but what tasty lemon is was!

Special cupcake store #2 is downtown, within walking distance (uh oh). Pink Sugar Cupcakery attracted my eye down the block with its PINK awning, then drew me in with a poster of an awesome retro pin-up girl posed with a stand of cupcakes. I didn't find out until later that their treats are vegan - go them, I wouldn't have thought it possible!

Pink Sugar offers bite-sized mini cupcakes but I had to go for the gusto: one Chocolate Orange and one Peanut Butter. These cupcakes were more traditionally sized, and I just realized now that both of the ones I tasted were chocolate. Chocolate Orange had "hint of orange buttercream" frosting, and Peanut Butter had chocolate frosting with peanut butter on the inside of the cupcake. Mmmm I love chocolate, and these were chocolatey indeed! I carried the Chocolate Orange one through the Victoria Airport and the Seattle Airport to save it for my 4 1/2-hr plane ride and boy was I glad - it sure beat a handful of peanuts!

I'm leaning towards the Peanut Butter one as my favorite from this store.

* I can't wait to go back to Victoria and try the rest of the flavors!

Horror in Orlando!

2009-09-03T16:05:00.009-05:00

* Last year I went to Orlando for scary good times in October. My zombie-lovin' girlfriends and I attended Spooky Empire's Horror Weekend (then called ScreamFest).

I spent the next week with Gosamyr going to Disney (Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom) and Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights. It was SO! MUCH! FUN! The theme for this year's HHN is Ripped From the Silver Screen, capitalizing on two of Universal's current scary franchises (Saw and Chucky) and pumping up their new version of the Wolfman. They have put much more info on their site since my last visit, and it looks great! Scare zones include Apocalypse: City of Canibals with creepy vaguely human creatures, War of the Living Dead with Nazi zombies, and Containment with a "toxic green mist that turns anyone in comes in contact with into an infected, melting glob of flesh and blood." W00t! I liked the scare zones more than the houses because the actors are right out there in the open interacting with passers-by.

I doubt I'll be going this year but it's fun to dream.

* This has been a pre-prepared post - I'll be back in the next few days to wax poetic on my wonderful visit to Canada!

:doot doot doot:

2009-09-02T12:44:00.000-05:00

sugar overload!

2009-08-31T14:15:00.003-05:00

* Halloween treat o' the week: Red velvet raspberry cupcakes with French vanilla cream cheese frosting and a chocolate brain. You can see a step-by-step photo tutorial about the brains on Flickr, but no recipe is provided :(

Kinda related: The lovely headmistress of Gothic Charm School has a blog called Cupcake Goth! I like her striped stockings & boots, her waist-nipping jackets and her not-grumpy Victorian gothness.

Check out these s'mores cupcakes over at Saucy Sprinkles! I feel hyper just looking at them, mmmmm ...

The theme continues with these GIANT cupcakes made from fun noodles over at Dollar Store Crafts. I can't think of a use for any day let alone H'ween ... wait! how about a Willy Wonka theme yard, he was pretty scary (both Gene and Johnny). And don't even get me started on the Oompa Loompas.

How about a cupcake flower arrangement? So cute, and better for those on restricted diets.

2009-08-30T20:36:00.003-05:00

* I found this on YouTube. I think it's cool - Alice is one of my favorite movies and I'm trying to find a cross-stitch pattern of her but no luck so far. Enjoy!

* WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! Went to Yankee Candle to pick up some of the wedding boney bunch - they are sold out! They are even sold out online! I wanted the bride and groom with the wedding cake to celebrate my engagement and I waited too long! :(

oooEEEooo!

2009-08-28T09:52:00.003-05:00

* B&BW musta heard me praising their lip gloss, cause today they put out a coupon for a free lip product with any purchase!

* Added a new exciting discovery to my Fun blogs over on the side - Ephemera Assemblyman! I'm gonna be perusing his delicious collection of ephemera for weeks.

rain? please?

2009-08-27T15:10:00.015-05:00

* Ooooh, it's sleepy afternoon time.

* Have you ever wondered what the world looked like to our fine feathered/finned/furry friends? Haven't we all? ;) Wonder no more, thanks to the Museum of Animal Perspectives! Sam lets you run and sniff (and sniff and sniff) with an armadillo, get licked by a cow, babysit a lamb, and glide through the swamp with an alligator. Wheee!

* I've never been one to wear lots of makeup, but I do love my collection of lip balms from Bath & Body Works. They don't just smell good, they taste good! Orange Kiss tastes like an orange cream soda, Limeade is citrus goodness, Vanilla Latte gives me that coffee taste when I'm trying to avoid caffeine. But they constantly change their flavors to make me want to try more of them :shaking fist at their slyness!:

I have been wearing more makeup since I got my hair chopped off - my face seems so much more plain without it! (all I'm missing is a fantastic hat!)

* Note to self: DO NOT READ ABOUT HEALTH CARE DEBATE! It only leads to frustration and disappointment with my fellow Americans. Why oh why is there so much hate and bile involved? When did we lose the ability to critically listen to a statement and judge it for ourselves, instead of blindly parrotting what somebody else tells us?

Must. think. of. happy.things. ...

like ice cream sandwiches!! The malted milk one is calling for me. Oh, but each sandwich has 36g of fat before adding any mix-ins.

okay, how about ... lolcats?!?

Yeah, that's better!

and where I'm gonna be in 8 days!!! And my adorable host!!!

cooler outside than inside

2009-08-24T09:47:00.003-05:00

* Halloween find o' the week: Blumchen, Purveyors of Life's Little Niceties, a great resource for old-fashioned and vintage Hallowe'en decor.

reprints of the classic Beistle Co. paperboard cutouts
super awesome black & white boxes
repros of vintage postcards
spooky lantern!

Okay, they also have items for Valentine's and Christmas.

I found them while searching for Dennison crepe paper. One day, I'll post some scans from the Dennison Flower Book.

Also in spooky news, I picked up this year's edition of the BHG Halloween special publication at Publix. Once again they have the best mix of grown-up gothy decor (the linked article is actually a reprint from an earlier BHG magazine, with more photos but less "where to find it" info) and cute kids party ideas (magic show party and retro owl paper decor), and a nice article on vintage collecting.
But Beware to those who try to navigate the BHG website! The magazine lists a link to "halloween tricks" at their site, but it links instead to the general Halloween category. And it appears that none of the articles in the magazine are actually on the website yet. Tsk tsk, how am I supposed to spread the word?

* The a/c seems to be broken at work. Air is blown, but it's humid and warm. I've got the window open for some cool fresh air.
ETA: a/c fixed!

Eye Spy

2009-08-20T15:25:00.000-05:00

* Interesting find: Nerd Boyfriend. Despite the name, it is neither about nerds or boyfriends. It is instead a very cleanly designed site with (mostly older) photos of famous men, and underneath each photo a couple of links highlighting what they are wearing. Yeah, I can't really describe it well, but who wouldn't want to dress like Gregory Peck, young Leonard Nimoy (looking amazingly like Syler - good call Abrams!), Mahatma Gandi, or even young men headed to the moon.

* I've decided to post my spooky finds each Monday instead of scattershot. Ah ha - Fearsome Finds, coming each Monday to Yay, It's Another Blog!

Pumpkins and spider webs

2009-08-17T13:51:00.000-05:00

* It's getting spookier all the time! The latest source to add is Lillian Vernon - not all of their stuff is to my taste, but some of their lacy goth items (cobweb tablecloth, spiderweb candy bowl stand or lampshade scarf) are quite elegant.

Also Hobby Lobby has stepped up - although most of their items are harvest or Thanksgiving, they have a great selection of pumpkins of all materials and colors. And I am drawn to their crow stuff!

* Claudette came and went, leaving behind tons of rain and pine straw. I didn't even lose power!

* I am STILL having problems with Firefox not finding the server - I have:
- checked my firewalls
- verified my connection settings
- made a new profile
- reinstalled Firefox

It just gets worse. Halp!

photobomb!

2009-08-12T20:13:00.000-05:00

* So a woman and her husband are visiting Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, Canada, and decide to set up the camera to get a photo of themselves. But they were foiled!

Bwaaa haaa haaa! Full story here.

* Over the past 5 days I have spent $500 on my car. It's fixed, but my wallet is empty.

* I thought for sure it was going to rain today but no such luck. The temperature did drop a bit though.

* My new printer/scanner works GREAT! I haven't used it to scan yet, maybe this weekend. I have a stack of magazines and books at the ready.

* Going on a trip ... in space? Don't forget to stop by Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. for all your interplanetary needs - you never know when you might need a space vehicle hull repair patch or Ambient Light and Noise Reduction Kit.
There's also the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. for those seeking capes, a forcefield generator, or just some plain ol' Intelligence in a can.
(I personally am rather fond of the design on these time travel posters.)

shorty

2009-08-06T20:51:00.000-05:00

* I bought a new printer, so now I can make t-shirts again!

* I am so tired, unreasonably tired. ONE DAY I'll figure out what causes it.

2009-08-04T16:45:00.001-05:00

Hey kids! Head on over to Para Abnormal for a ghoulish good time!

Hot Chocolate!

2009-08-03T20:06:00.000-05:00

* Emma ROCKS!

Spooky!

2009-08-03T14:30:00.001-05:00

* Hooray, the Boney Bunch are back at Yankee Candle! They have the cutest stuff in their Halloween collection. I especially love their patchouli scent (they change the name every year - this year it's Beware!) No minty vanilla this year, but I'm keeping an eye on Dreadfully Delicious Swirl (vanilla cupcake and pumpkin pie swirled - yum!)

Poor Glen didn't realize what he was getting into when he proposed ;)

* In other news, it poured down rain on the way to work this morning, but now it's bright and sunny. I can't decide whether I'll miss this kind of weather or not.

* My mom got herself a Wii for her upcoming birthday and I'm totally jealous. She got the Wii Fit bundle as well - go Mom!

* On Saturday I went to Gosamyr's house for a pool party. The day started off kinda cloudy but cleared up enough for sunning and swimming. And some zombie killing courtesy of Zogar and House of the Dead: Overkill. Also got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while and catch up. A good time was had by all.

On Sunday I cleaned out the linen closet in the hallway; now it's presentable for showing the house. That makes 2 closets down, 3 to go.

* Fun website of the day - iDIY. Marked as stuff for do-it-yourself weddings, but alot of the crafty freebies and tips have other uses as well. She also provides lots o' links to other fun freebies.

Hooray for Friday!

2009-07-31T16:31:00.000-05:00

* Ha ha! Where else would you want to keep your dice than in a d20? Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories even give you step-by-step details!

A quick browse around shows they know how to make their own geeky fun - like Crunchy Frogs (with poprocks), a cardboard cat chaise lounge, and LED garden lights (hmm, add some black paper and colored tissue and they could be creepy faces for Oct 31! )

* I finally gave in and joined Facebook. That thing is not made for ease of use, or I'm getting old, cause I have to click around forever to find what I'm looking for.

* So Glen, what do you think about a ceremony based on your favorite game? :snicker:

* Current time-waster: Awful Library Books. My local library is sadly filled with these sorts of out-of-date, no longer correct books. But maybe if I keep visiting the Friends of the Library store I can walk away with a gem like this one:

But he isn't wearing his heels!

2009-07-29T16:11:00.001-05:00

What a coincidence! Right after discussion of Eddie in the comments, I see that according to The Sun, Eddie Izzard will run 1,000 around the UK in 7 weeks to raise money for a sports charity.

Been having a bit of a bad day, so cake, especially in Lego, will cheer me right up!

I confess

2009-07-27T13:45:00.000-05:00

* Hi, my name is K0dama and I'm addicted to Halloween decor. And Target. And when they combine, I can't stop!
So of course I've been lurking at their website for a sneak peek and was rewarded today. Waaay in the back, on the last pages of a search for "Halloween decor", items marked "new" but also "not in stock." Like this guy, Zen the bobblehead! Or a spooky cute advent calendar!

* I'm also feeling crafty, wanting to do something with all the lovely scrapbook papers that I get on clearance because they are just too pretty to pass up! Maybe start making my own cards - I've done that in the past and they seem to be well received. Creative and economical!

* But I'm determined to save money for The Big Move. I'm in the process of tidying and cleaning all rooms and closets, so what better time to cull what I don't need (and don't feel like toting to the Great North)? 3 bedrooms full of stuff will take some time :)

Aaaaaand ...

2009-07-25T20:26:00.000-05:00

now it's fixed! I suspect that Firefox was the problem - I'm having other issues as well.

Yay!

Blogger issues continue

2009-07-24T21:11:00.002-05:00

weird - I can see my blog as a guest, I can post, but I can't see my blog as the owner!

thinking ahead

2009-07-24T13:44:00.000-05:00

* Glen has returned to Canadia :( but we have plans to meet up again in September!

* And other plans as well, after talking to the realtor. Time to start packing up my household! I know it's better for showing and selling, but I hate having to remove all the stuff that makes my house MINE: monkey mats masked, horror statues hidden and candles canned, Ganesha gone. I'll have to make a secret display in a closet ;)
When I think about everything that needs doing I get overwhelmed, but one small step at a time isn't so bad. I'm taking tomorrow off so work starts Sunday!

* So, last Tuesday Glen and I watched Unidentified Flying Oddball; I had fond memories of the novelization I had as a kid, but boy oh boy the best part of the movie is the title. Seriously. It was bad enough to erase any nostalgia I had. I may have to rethink watching The North Avenue Irregulars, although any flick with Cloris Leachman can't be all bad. Shoot, she even looks good dressed in cabbage!

* The outside may be 87 (feels like 95) but it is freezing in the office. Sigh, I can't wait for fall and cooler weather. And Halloween! I found what may be a sneak peak at Target's 2009 Halloween goodies, yay for purple cats!

* Waaaaaaant! No need or reason except it's wicked cool!

* Woo hoo, got my first stranger follower! Er, I mean follower who is a stranger to me, that I don't have a connection to ... Their website has some rockin' gravestones (look at the middle photo - CAKE OR DEATH!), and they even teach classes on how to make them! Welcome, Frog on the Pumpkin!

Feeling crafty

2009-07-16T15:24:00.001-05:00

* Hi! Glen suggested that I start sharing some of my burgeoning craftiness here, so I'll start with my favorite of the bunch:

The border is from Charted Folk Designs for Cross-Stitch Embroidery and the typeface is from In Stitches From A to Z. The chainsaw is my own after looking at several photos and drawings of Ash. And I'm sure you know that the quote is from Army of Darkness. It was made as a belated birthday present for a fellow Bruce Campbell fan. She LOVES it and has it displayed at work, right next to her Ash in S-Mart action figure.

I've already started on my next work, and the clue is Cthulhu.

ETA

2009-07-15T16:18:00.000-05:00

oooOOOoooh! I'm already thinking of Halloween, natch, and I heard that Michael's has their stuff out.

And Universal has the theme for their Halloween Horror Nights ... Ripped From the Silver Screen! I'd heard a rumor that they were gonna have Saw, and sure enough they do, in addition to Chucky and The Wolfman.

busy as a bee

2009-07-15T14:01:00.000-05:00

* I'm Queen of the Slackers! Nah, actually I'm just having too much fun with a certain Canadian.

* On Saturday we did indeed go to the capital. We went to the Downtown Market, I oo'ed and ah'ed over the delicious looking fruits and veggies, and had a cupcake of the best cheesecake I have ever tasted! Mmm, rich and chocolatey - if we'd had a cooler I would have bought a whole one.

Right next door was the library so we perused the used book store and nabbed a couple of great books, which you will soon be seeing on Flickr.
Next we went to the MOAS for an exhibit of Asian kites (beautiful!) and had fun playing with all the hands-on science experiments. It was Harry Potter day so there were kids running around in robes, but we didn't pay extra for those special classes.

Time for lunch! We ate at Hopkin's Eatery - verrry tasty and filling (I had the BET and Glen got the Special).

In the afternoon we stopped by The Other Side and I got a couple of 50s women's magazines from December, so great cookie recipes (including prune-stuffed prunes! :snerk:) and decor ideas. Next door was Bali Hi, pretty furniture but not in my price range. Glen admired the collection of Hawaiian shirts.
And finally Vinyl Fever. I haven't been in a few years; I was disappointed that their stock of used CDs has dropped and they sell mostly new ones, but I did pick up the soundtracks for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Unleashed.
Phew, we were tired when we got home.

But Sunday brought more fun, in the form of a pool get-together at Gosamyr's! A few showers didn't dampen our enthusiasm. So relaxing, tossing around a Spiderman beach ball and floating around with magic beer. I managed to get a burn on my shoulders (you'd think I'd know better).

* The house is looking mucho better thanks to Glen's dedication. The bathroom looks like a real bath! ;)

* And now I've run out of steam. Later!

Hot Now!

2009-07-10T15:37:00.000-05:00

* Just because it's sunny and the forecast says only 30% chance of rain doesn't mean it won't rain, especially if your car windows are down.

* I'm still having the blog issue with the interests, but I think I fixed the icon-on-another-blog issue.

* Last night Glen finally got Hot Now donuts from Krispy Kreme, and he was a happy camper. Nothing beats watching those wonderful Os coming down the track and getting a bath of frosting, mmmm.

* Tomorrow we are visiting the state capital, and hopefully some rockin' retro/vintage/book stores as well. Sunday we hope to hit the beach. He's been doing so much around the house he deserves a weekend off ;)

blog issues

2009-07-08T13:49:00.000-05:00

* Blog issues:
1) No matter what I click on in my profile, Blogger tells me that no other bloggers have it in their profile. Not even living in the United States. I'm assuming this is a Blogger problem.

2) I am following several blogs, but on Frocks & Frou Frou there's an extra box above followers that has my icon and link. I can't find anything in the Help section as to what this means or if I can cancel it. It only seems to be on that one blog.

* But everything else is going better than it has so far this week (although I'm still sleepy).

slacking

2009-07-07T10:39:00.000-05:00

* Yeah, I start up a blog then ignore the poor thing! Blame Glen for keeping me busy.

* To start out with some fun, I love the crying woman panels posted over at Easily Mused! Tears and more tears from retro romance comics - they would make some fantastic tee shirts. I think this one is my favorite.

* Glen and I had a busy weekend - we worked on the house (he's quite handy) but the joy of an older house is you never know what lies beyond the sheetrock. We installed a ceiling fan in the bedroom (what a difference that makes) and replaced the old wornout porcelain sink with a new sink and cabinet.
On Friday we had lunch with Gosamyr at the one-and-only British tea room in town. It has new owners who are doing a bang-up job, and have already improved the menu. We also browsed around an antique store and found 3 great retro books filled with tasty scans.
On Saturday had a burger dinner with my parents in honor of my mom's first Fourth as an American! The weather was hot and humid most of the weekend so we didn't spend much time outside.

* In the not-so-fun arena, I got my very first ticket yesterday! My tag was one week past the expiration date :( Not only did I get cited, I got the access sticker scraped off my windshield and had to go right then and there to the DMV to get the tag renewed. But surprise! the DMV doesn't take credit cards, so I had to run to the bank to pick up cash, then return to the DMV. Once back at work I had to go to the Visitor's Centre and get a new access sticker. Bleah, what a Monday morning! At least it wasn't raining yet.

* The rain arrived yesterday afternoon and continues through now. Gave me a chance to wear my flowery raincoat and green boots.

* There just aren't enough hours in the day to enjoy Glen's company, fix up the house, work on my cross-stitch, play Okami, do laundry, ... and work. This morning I was tired and the sound of rain didn't help.

b-day wrapup

2009-06-29T13:32:00.000-05:00

Hi there!

* As predicted I had a wonderful amazing weekend. Yesterday was my birthday and Glen made it extra-special! He gave me adorable purchased gifts like Cute Dolls and an ugnaught, and sniff-inducing handmade certificates:

I am the luckiest gal in the world! We went to Pasta Grill for dinner, and despite the plain look of the building the food was fanTAStic. We were so full we had to bring dessert home.

I also received a much-needed bathroom cabinet from my parents, retro kitchen linens and beautiful hand-made cards from my future mother- and sister-in-law, and homemade triple chocolate cookies from my friend Michelle.

* Ooh, today the sky is black and cloudy, we may finally get some rain! I just hope the rain cools things down. Beach day is tentatively Thursday, to beat the crowds.

* So, yeah, still getting used to this blog thing. I need to find more html tricks so I can do some tweaking.

* oooh-kay then, I'm outta steam, thanks for stopping by!

Wheee!

2009-06-26T13:35:00.001-05:00

More fun playing with colors, and I found where the title photo is so I should be able to change it.

I'm looking forward to this weekend - lots of relaxing with Glen before the house work starts, 2 dinners out and Up. And a trip to Target ;)

Colourful

2009-06-24T12:04:00.000-05:00

I've been having fun playing with the colors on this thing, with the assistance of www.colourlovers.com. People there know how to make a pallette!

My dear finace is flying this evening and I can barely wait.

Howdy!

2009-06-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

And voila, a new blog is born.