Greener Living

End Times

2009-02-08T11:14:00.003-08:00

Alright, this is the end. No more posts on blogger. "Why!?" You ask?

Because I've moved!

Greenerliving is now to be located over at www.hitherehammy.com on a brand, spakin' new blog! Hurrah. It's no longer "Greenerliving" either. I know, change is hard, but I like "Hi There Hammy" much better. Don't you? Go ahead and sally on over to the new site because that's where all of THIS sweet stuff will be happening from now on. P.s. the site is going through changes of this and that nature so what you see isn't what you're going to end up with. Exciting, no?

See you there!

The Small Object

2009-02-07T09:20:00.003-08:00

Today's discovery: The Small Object. Ohhh I think I love them!The Alphabet Stamp Chart.

Alphabet Folk ABC Chart

The Bandit Bag Lunch Sack

The Get-a-Long Gang Stamps.

A is for Artiststamps.

So Very Beautiful

2009-02-06T08:42:00.004-08:00

These are some amazing prints from dust breeding. He's taken bits of type and used them to create these little animals. My mind is blown by how long it must have taken... but it was so worth it.

So very worth it!

Monty Needs...

2009-02-05T08:32:00.004-08:00

a lady friend. It's no secret. While I seem to have become his lady-friend-substitute, the best I can do is give him some pets and carrots. There's no quality groom time... or quality time of other sorts. This doesn't mean that he'll get one any time soon (or at all... you know he's got to get some alterations done before we can have a lady in here without the potential twelve mini-Montys showing up every sixty days for the rest of their lives). Someone over at Vice Magazine had some similar trouble and here's his little thing about Bunny Dates. Please, no bunnies people. I'd love to have them but the house gods have said no.

This is the potential photo for Monty's "Lonely Buns" add.
Soooo suave... so Gunther (warning, Gunther not safe for everybody (NSFW!)).

The Bachelor Pad

2009-02-04T12:50:00.002-08:00

Before work I traipsed outside to sink Monty's new pad de bachelor into the ground yesterday. After a few choice words directed towards those stubborn rocks wedged in dirt where I was trying to dig I finally wrestled this (really) heavy contraption into place and then reburied it. Monty seems to like it so far. Dad built a little shelf for him to hang out on in the back but I haven't seen him make much use out of it yet. Hopefully this'll keep everything from kittens to raptors out and keep his beastly self in. I'm thinking it will.

Stay tuned for a sweet new paint job in a couple of weeks when it warms up a little.

Right now it's looking a little trailer.

In Class

2009-02-04T10:00:00.003-08:00

We've been talking about logos and business cards in class this week. One site, cardobserver.com has some really beautiful examples of business cards. So gorgeous but also sooo expensive, I'm sure. Anywho, I thought I'd post some of my favorites.

Oh My Goodness

2009-02-04T09:01:00.003-08:00

A new perfume called "In the Library" described as "English Novel taken from a Signed First Edition of one of my very favorite novels, Russian & Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish." Ohhhhh I can smell it now! Me want... well alright, me like idea... I don't think I really want to smell like musty books all day, as much as I love that smell on the books themselves.

A Comic an Hour

2009-02-02T09:32:00.004-08:00

Star and I decided to do a comic an hour for all the hours we were awake on February 1st. It was fun but I definitely realize how much time I spend doing... nothing. And how important things like toast are. Ohhh toast. So very tasty.

You can click to enlarge.

Monty Madness

2009-01-31T17:03:00.003-08:00

Dad just started building Monty an outdoor bunny run yesterday! I'm really really excited. I've been planning a good one since Jessie found him a year ago and now I'll be able to stick him in the yard for some exercise in safety. We have a healthy looking hawk that likes to perch in one of our trees out back, about a dozen large dogs that roam the neighborhood freely, some small ones too, and at least two cats that have a habit of sitting right outside our sliding door and mock Monty throughout the day. All of these are bad news without a heavily reinforced pen and that's exactly what Dad's building from scraps of the old deck rail we tore out when we redid it.
The wire is left over from the totally lame pen I made him while we were in Olympia. It kept the neighbor's cat out and Monty in so I guess it did its job. Mostly.

Star's Influence

2009-01-30T11:40:00.004-08:00

When I was in Olympia a few weekends ago Star and I started pouring over seed catalogs. She'd already ordered a good handful or so different kinds and, after looking at all the cool tomatoes I could order, I decided that I'd probably have to order some too. Fast forward a few weeks and here I am, a little giddy because I just placed my order with T erritorial Seed. Curious about what's going to be growing in our planter boxes? Yeah, I knew you would be! So here's a list:
Lemon Cucumbers
70 days. These 3-4 foot, semi-bush type plants bear loads of apple-shaped cucumbers with lemon-colored skins. The flesh is VERY mild and sweet, never bitter. Scrumptious and colorful in salads. Best harvested when the size of limes. This old variety is a favorite among many cool season gardeners. HE.
Goldrush Squash
C. pepo 55 days. This bright golden-yellow zucchini yields wonderful, smooth cylindrical fruit on compact plants. The attractive color and gourmet quality sets Gold Rush apart from other yellow zukes. At their best when picked at the 8-10 inch stage. The sweet white flesh is a perfect addition to both raw and cooked dishes. An AAS winner.
Gladiator Parsnip
110 days. You'll be impressed from the start with Gladiator's quick germination and vigorous early growth. The vitamin-rich, cream colored roots have a clean parsnipy sweetness that makes it the most flavor-packed parsnip we've had the pleasure to eat. The smooth tapered roots reach 7 inches when they're ready for the kitchen. Try Gladiator in stews or grated in salads. Seed is from England.Mamoth Sweet Basil
Ocimum basilicum The beginnings of a culinary masterpiece! Hailed by the chefs of Italy, we bring you the largest-leafed basil we have seen. Sought after for its culinary wrapping qualities, Mammoth Sweet has large yellow-green leaves with slight puckering and the most heavenly aroma.
Roodnerf Brussels Sprouts
100 days. One of the last open pollinated varieties in existence that still retains excellent eating quality and uniformity. Bred in Hurst, England, Roodnerf is quite cold hardy. The medium to tall plants yield plump, green sprouts. If you've turned up your nose to Brussels sprouts in the past, Roodnerf will certainly turn you into a fan!
Purple Haze Carrots
70 days. This 2006 AAS winner is the first Imperator-shaped purple carrot. Sure to be the talk of the table, Purple Haze has a sweet flavor with a tender yet snappy crunch. The 10-12 inch purple-skinned roots have vivid orange centers, which make quite an eye sensation when sliced on a relish tray. Purple color will fade when cooked.
Red Samurai Carrots
75 days. We've searched worldwide for a great tasting, true red carrot, and finally found it! Its bold, sweet flavor synchronizes flawlessly with the crisp, bright, rosy flesh. Red Samurai adds panache to salads but the flavor really shines when cooked. It even retains its distinctive color when steamed. The slim, tapered roots reach 11 inches.Oregon Giant Peas
70 days. This snow pea has unusually large, broad pods growing to 5 inches long. They are thick, very sweet, and tender, and remain so longer than others. The plant is 30-36 inches tall, similar to that of Oregon Sugar Pod II. Developed by Dr. Jim Baggett at Oregon State University.
Canoe Peas
70 days. Canoe packs more peas per pod than any other variety we've seen. Approximately a dozen delightfully sweet peas snuggle in each long, slightly curved, boat-shaped pod. The semi-leafless plants reach 30 inches, and provide plentiful crops. This variety is a canner's dream since more peas per pod means less shelling.

We're going to get some strawberries, rhubarb, potatoes and tomato plants locally instead of ordering them and all the rest of the things we'll just buy at Twelve Mile or farm stands around the countryside. After all, what's the point of living out here if you're not going to buy the food growing right down the road?! I think all but two of the seeds is Organic (that damn basil sounded too good to buy the boring organic version and none of the yellow zukes were organic... all hybrids.) and I think 90% are open pollination. Something like that.

Her Morning Elegance

2009-01-30T08:43:00.001-08:00

This is a very beautiful little video. Ohhh it made me so happy this morning! Via: swissmiss.

Oooohhh No You Didn't!

2009-01-29T11:45:00.003-08:00

Someone hacked into the traffic control signs in Austin. Can YOU think of anything more awesome than these new warnings!? I sure as heck can't. (Plus whoever it was changed the password after they were done and they haven't figured out the new code so the messages are still there.... nice.)

Baby Timelapse

2009-01-28T08:11:00.003-08:00

That baby spends a good deal of time at the end staring at himself in the mirror on the floor.... and karate chopping that cardboard box. Busy little thing isn't he?

Me WANT

2009-01-27T09:06:00.002-08:00

This is amazing! It's a flatpack mule storage thingy. So amazing. Unfortunately, this lady's site is terrible and I can't find it anywhere. She does, however, have some very cool animal stools like this. Via: Design-milk.

Hanzipan, it's Official!

2009-01-24T20:59:00.002-08:00

My darling lady-love Star and I have started a cooking/baking blog. I wanted everything to be ready before I shared it with ya'll and I'm thinking it's pretty darn close! So here it is... Cooking with Hanzipan!

Old School Star Wars

2009-01-23T11:55:00.002-08:00

In Hannahland, this is funny. Like it or be banished from Hannahland... forever...

If I had to Pick a Way to Go....

2009-01-19T14:49:00.002-08:00

It would probably not be death by peanut butter.

Thanks for offering anyway: South Bend Chocolate Co., McKee Food Corp., Perry's Ice Cream Co., Hy-Vee Inc., Kellogg Co. and Peanut Corp. Salmonella laced peanut butter has struck down five Oregonians and since that's where I live, I won't be touching peanut butter for a while even if it does come with a cute baby.

That Northern Town

2009-01-19T08:34:00.007-08:00

OoooliolioOooooO! I went to Olympia this weekend for a mini break. The trip was uneventful and after I'd set up my roost in that crazy room-that's-not-a-room room (it's essentially a way of connecting the sauna that was added later to the house... like a huge glorified hall with no insulation, that is separated from the rest of the house by a sliding door.) Star and I immediately started mixing this and that in bowls and eventually we created these!Butterfly cupcakes from that cupcake book we got together. They are a lemon-poppy seed cupcake, with lemon filling and a lemon sauce drawn down the middle. Even though they took zest from three lemons and the juice of two to make, they were wonderfully light and not too lemony. That book is definitely paying for itself.

I'm sorry these pictures are still so yellow even after I worked on them in the ol' Photoshop... we took them at night and whether we used flash or not they just wouldn't turn out beautiful. Trust me, they are wonderful and pretty in real-person life.After cupcakes we went to the re-opening of the library in town (apparently there was some sprucing up going on between the time I left and my visit) and listened to Kimya Dawson play. I say listen because there were so many people there that we couldn't actually see her, however Star did manage to gain about two feet by climbing on Ben for part of it. If you aren't immediately saying "Ohhhh Kimya Dawson... cool!" to yourself, it's because you don't realize that she's the one who is on the vast majority of the Juno movie soundtrack. Once you've heard the cd, I think you can imagine the gist of her style... there was an awfully cute children's song talking about poop and butts though. I'm always charmed by children's songs that don't try to avoid references to bodily functions because that's really all children talk about (ok, I'm going to qualify that, it's really all boy children talk about.)

After everyone woke up the next day we went to the Co-op down the street (I'd never been to that one and now I wish I had!) and got some tasties including some pretty purple carrots! Star had invited some people over for a little visit at 6 and in the mean-time we made cheese!Star had read about a cheese making kit either in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or Omnivore's Dilemma (sorry Star, I can't remember, but I'm sure that you'll correct me in the comments later). The idea intrigued her and she bought the makin's for hard and soft cheese. We made some mozzarella. Now, in hindsight, we probably should have used whole milk to do it (I think that's why we didn't have many curds, Starzy... just occurred to me... unless we did and then I don't know what happened), as it was we used a half gallon of milk, a tablet of some such thing that makes curds appear like magic, and a stove. When you make mozzie you have to knead it for a while until it looks like taffy which just so happens to be what I'm doing in these pictures. Unfortunately, you have to heat the cheese in the microwave until it's lava hot, so I was pathetically trying to do it with a spoon. It worked, more or less.

(p.s. If you ever wanted to create the illusion of cooking with yours truly, I bet you could print this last picture, blow it up real big, cut it out and then stick it on the wall of your kitchen. Cooking never seemed so cool! Just a thought.)

And then you have cheese! We made a lovely quiche for the party with the purple carrots, mozzie cheese and other tasty things. I decided to write about what we were doing in the pictures because Star has already done a lovely summery of what we did together on her own bloggerino and I'm going to be lazy and point you in her lovely direction. It was a fantabulous weekend, I even miss that little room I commandeer when I visit.

The Best of Both Worlds

2009-01-17T12:45:00.002-08:00

So I've been taking a couple of graphic design classes at the college these days and today's Swissmiss post really really makes my day! Knitted font... sooo fabulous.

To the Batcave, Robin!

2009-01-17T12:24:00.004-08:00

After much gnashing of teeth from Aunty Carol, here are some pictures of the (now warmer) basement. Mom and Dad have set up a little heater between the couches and as long as the door to the upstairs is close it can actually be quite toasty.The main room. Jessie has a futon just to the left outside of the picture that she sleeps on when she's home. The infamous dirt room is behind that door and Monty's bachelor pad is right in front of the sliding door so that he can guard the house against the neighborhood cats.

The doorway into Hannahland, you must be this tall to enter. Epic, no?

The land of make-believe. This is where all that crafty magic happens, more or less (really that magic happens all over the house... a needle in the arm of this chair, a wad of yarn on this table, some fabric in the kitchen. It's all good.) Oh, and you can see the little shelf Dad built for all of my books along the ceiling there. I think that's my favorite thing in the whole room!

The place for to be sleeping and snuggling (Monty is banned).

More crafty action happening this corner too. There are little things tucked into every feasible cranny and bits of thread clinging to everything else. Anyway, that's the tour of the downstairs.

Yarnia is My Narnia

2009-01-16T11:13:00.004-08:00

After I got the last of my Christmas knitting books in the mail the other day, I decided that I wanted to knit a sweater. Really, I've been wanting to knit one for a long time, but the arrival of all these great patterns cemented the idea from a want to a need. So, I went in search of some yarn. Unfortunately, if I bought yarn either in person or on the interwebs it would wind up costing between $60-70 to make something sweater-sized. I can't justify spending that much on an already made sweater let alone the raw materials for one that I make myself. I put everything on hold, until I found Yarnia. I think it was through craftzine.com. Maybe not. I can't remember. In either case, Yarnia blew my mind (as many things yarn oriented seem to do these days!). When you go to a yarn store in pursuit of yarn, it is generally sold in skeins. Each skein is between 50-100 grams which is generally enough for 1.5 hats, .33 scarves, 1 pair fingerless mittens, 1.25 pairs of socks, etc. To back it up even further, yarn is (generally) comprised of several threads, twisted together to make one larger piece of yarn. Yarnia, on the other hand, sells a couple thousand different kinds of single strands that you can then choose from and the group of strands is then combined to form a unique yarn, just for you! Make sense? Essentially you pick out, ohh... maybe three different kinds of thread and then you take them to the nice lady and she loads them on a machine and they get wound onto a cone and voila! Yarn! Plus they're sold by the pound. Unlike piddly things like mittens or hats, sweaters generally require between 1 and 2 pounds of yarn to make so this system is absolutely beautiful. Plus when you buy anything from food to yarn in bulk, the price tends to go way down than if you buy it in pre-measured increments.

Anyway, Mom and I made it down to Division and 42nd yesterday to check yarnia out. I had two or three sweater patterns in mind before I went and the minute I walked in I settled on the perfect one. It's from my new Vintage Knits book. Mom and I spent about 15 minutes oogling all of the spools before deciding on two wool strands and one acrylic strand to give it some shine.

Here it is being wound on this incredibly crazy machine she's had custom made from older machine parts. It looks a bit like this vintage sock knitting machine I saw online a while ago. That process is also very neat from a mechanical standpoint. I took a video of a portion of the process but it was a little boring if you weren't there. And you can't see much because, in one of my genius moments, I was standing right behind her back. So, bummer, you'll just have to do there for yourself and order up some yarn.

And the final product! It's very nice (a little rough and not so stretchy, hopefully that'll be just fine in the end.)The yarn and the pattern. I started knitting with it last night so you can see it starting in the corner there. Oh, and it wound up costing $40.04 for 17 ounces (1 pound 1 ounce) yarn.. much better than $60 or $70 and well worth watching that process! And since it's all about the weight, if you picked lighter weight yarns than I did, it would cost much less. Oh and if you bought less than I did as well!

Oh My

2009-01-13T17:37:00.002-08:00

I made some of those tasty Sparkled Ginger Cookies this morning before work and they are tastier than tasty be! And then there was a good day of work and then I came home to a small pile of boxes that had come in the mail! I'd ordered these two books and then promptly forgotten about them but all of the enthusiasm I ordered them with is back, and my head is practically spinning with all the possibilities!
Oh, I'm such a dork. I know it. But I think it's nice that I get all weak-kneed at the little things, like sock patterns. You can keep your fast cars and large fancy purses, I just want to knit some socks while I watch Masterpiece Theater, maybe keep a sheep in the yard and bake some cupcakes.

Good Day

2009-01-12T08:22:00.004-08:00

I was picking out my twice weekly groceries at Twelve Mile on Saturday when I found these lovelies! The eggs are called Girls-a-Layin' (P.S. don't type that into google for a search... it will only end with naughty things. Who'd a thought? Geeze...) and they are local. I think I'm in love! The lady was saying that she has forty some-odd chickens and she always knows which ones are laying and which aren't because each egg is unique to the chicken (and she doesn't just mean the really obvious color difference, that's how good she is). I love that.

And on the way home on Saturday I decided to keep my eyes peeled for a Goodwill. I knew there used to be one in the area and sure enough there it was! I popped in with a very specific idea in my head. I wanted to take an already made sweater and deconstruct it for its yarn ever since I saw this tutorial. This was a cotton (I think) Large sweater. Ok, in the end it took me about 5 hours to pick the damn seams out without tearing the yarn and about 4 hours to unravel everything, but now I think I have enough for four pairs of mittens and a pair of socks or something. It's about the journey... right? Anyway, my fingers are sort of purple from picking at little threads for hours and hours but it was so worth it.

At least that's what I'm telling myself, and don't you go contradicting me either.
Oh, and the photo above is of the sweater with the arms already detached and unraveled and one side open with three more seams to go. Sigh....

The Great Promise of '09

2009-01-11T15:29:00.002-08:00

I’ve been thinking about this whole concept of resolutions. I’ve always thought that I shouldn’t need to wait for the New Year to begin to decide to change something, or use a date as justification. That being said, I am intrigued by this idea of trying something for a long, but definite, period of time. This year I hadn’t given it much thought. I never have and I didn’t see why this one should be any different… until I saw a post on Needled. For the past year, the woman who writes on Needled has made a pledge not to purchase any new clothing. Mending, darning, sewing new pieces, re-vamping and all manner of things are perfectly wonderful ways to make clothing that don’t involve buy new (usually cheaply made and shortly worn) clothing.
I’ve always felt slightly guilty when I sneak into Target or Forever 21 and buy something. In my mind it’s like buying disposable clothes, something you wear maybe ten times before it self destructs. The price is just right for something like that and it works out to be something like $1 a wear until it dies, twisted into an unrecognizable mess when it comes out of the washer on that fateful day. My problem has been trying to justify buy fabric to make my own clothes. It is expensive. Sometimes it works out to be $15 for a simple cotton skirt in materials and then six or seven hours of swearing and ripping seams out, not to mention those damn zippers! Now, though, I think I’ve changed my mind since I started working at Twelve Mile Market.

Twelve Mile Market is an organic food store in Gresham. David Shonk takes veggies and other good things from his farm and then sells them in the little store, wedged in next to a karate studio, Mexican restaurant and locksmith. The food in his store doesn’t last forever. Good food isn’t supposed to last very long, that’s how you know it’s good. The same should be said for clothing. Something good shouldn’t be cheap and expendable. A good piece of clothing is something that’s made to last and to be loved.

So, the point of all of this is that for the next year I’m going to make a pledge not to buy any new clothing. I’d like to make things and to really appreciate what goes into making a shirt or a pair of socks. I have the time and a little bit of expendable income that I would much rather spend teaching myself things and keeping myself busy than on a speedy trip to Target to buy something I won’t even remember in two months. As the woman on Needled was saying, this isn’t an exercise in denial. I’m not going to feel guilty if I do buy something, but I will feel infinitely satisfied if I chose to challenge myself and make the same thing myself… albeit with more cursing and sore fingers.

I hope you’re all having a good year and that you’re all doing something that makes you happy. After all, what good is doing something if you’re not happy/satisfied/content?

Doodlie-Doodlie Dooo...

2009-01-10T09:05:00.006-08:00

Ah, the rain. It's been pouring the last couple of days and this morning everything frosted over. Between class and work I've been doing things. Like watch a movie here and there, or read a book, or even something crafty if I feel like swathing myself in blankies while I'm downstairs in the meat locker (now, to be fair it's no where near freezing in my basement lair. However, it is at least three degrees colder and I do not do well in arctic climates so I tend to bundle up when I go down into the bat cave). So, here are some of the products (more to come when I get around to it).
Felted nesting bowls. Infinitely useful as long as you don't want to put liquids in them. Like cereal. And even then it is possible to use them for cereal, it would just be a bit messy and soggy. These are going to Twelve Mile this afternoon when I go to work for foodstuffs.
And then here is the horse. A few weeks ago Dad, Lisa and I went to check out this little used bookstore in Sandy called "Some Bookstore in Sandy" (which made me want to check it out so badly! With a name like that, how can it not be wonderful?). I dug up a couple of books, among them "60 Great Horror Stories" (or some such thing), "The Herb Bible" and, best of all, a book of sewing patterns. The patterns were from the 90's but that didn't even matter because they were all plush toy patterns! There were horsies, penguins, foxes, chickens... a really good assortment.

I can do some 2-d things on my own, but when it comes to actual shaping or anything my skills just aren't there so this book was perfect for showing the construction of stuffed animals. Very complicated, I would never have been able to brain storm these things up myself without a TON of wasted fabric and frustration. Anywho, a few weeks later Chachi was born. After I took the pictures and started writing this I realized that he looks eerily like something from Charlie the Unicorn, a happy accident I guess because otherwise he just looks like a retarded clown horse. At least now I can say "Why of course he looks slightly retarded, I meant to do that. Haven't you seen Charlie the Unicorn?" with a bit of a condescending-holier-than-thou tone. Right?

Now that he's done I love him very much because of all the time it took to make him, and how huge he turned out (he's about 14 inches tall, if I could get his back legs to stop collapsing in this mincing sort of crouch). Plus he fits very nicely under my arm, especially since he's about the size of a new baby lamb and those are always adorable.

Thinking Ahead to Birthday

2009-01-09T10:04:00.002-08:00

I've always LOVED these little axolotl salamander guys since I first saw them at OMSI about a lifetime ago. So cool. And this morning I found this tutorial on craftmagazine.com on how to make a BIRTHDAY cake in the shape of one! EEEEEEeeeee (breathe gasp) EEEEEEEeeeee! I know exactly what I'm making myself for my birthday... and then I'll send myself a thank you card.

Pretty in Motion

2009-01-07T17:49:00.002-08:00

I found this on Craftmagazine.com today. Very cute, but I couldn't turn the sound on so I don't know if there's music. If you want to re-live the Hannah viewing experience, you could turn the sound off. Just a thought.

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

I Can't Help it!

2009-01-04T13:49:00.002-08:00

I found these hair pins on MelissaAbram, an etsy shop, and today I accidentally hit "put in cart" and then "purchase" and then "pay" and then "confirm" and then ooops! Before I knew it, they were ordered. Oh well. What can I say? They're pretty darn awesome.

Le Sigh

2009-01-04T09:10:00.003-08:00

It's the end of an era, Jessie is going back to school. yessss........ However, this means that I started to get the baking itch, I wanted to send her back with some cupcakes. Now, to back it up a little, Star and I were in Portland the other week and she took me to Powells to see The Book. The Book is the ultimate (in my world, that is) book of cupcake recipes, also appropriately called Cupcakes!. She'd gotten one a while before and now I had to get one so that we could bake the recipes together, even though she's two hours away. I'd already baked Cinnamon Sugar Puff Cupcakes (p. 64, Star) and something about their warm cinnamoniness plucked a few heart strings. Everyone loved them. Afterwards it was deemed that the Cinnamon Sugar Puff Cupcakes were not in fact cupcakes proper because they didn't have any frosting (a. This was said with a bit of an eye twinkle and b. I don't like frosting which made this recipe even appealing) so it was decreed by the less than silent masses that I make another batch of real cupcakes, complete with frosting. Thus the White Christmas Cupcakes were born (p. 128, also Star). I didn't use their frosting because I didn't have any of the ingredients. The Joy has plenty of sugar/butter/egg based frostings that are pretty easy. I think I blew the frosting anyway though because it came out on the liquid side of things. Ah well, I'm not going to be eating these, and they sure look purty.

Here are your cupcake pictures Star!

Mini Things

2009-01-03T23:00:00.003-08:00

Are always cute! So I made some mini shoes for wee people. They're at Twelve Mile already!

The Sweetest Things

2009-01-02T17:37:00.003-08:00

You never know when you'll find something that surprises you with its sweetness. Dad sent me these little poem/short thoughts. They remind me a little of A Softer World. A little.

APTITUDE

Today after being asked the question
“Were there buildings when dinosaurs were here?”
I tried to explain evolution to a five year old.

It took thirty minutes.

And I still failed.

Why can’t he ask questions like
“If you were a pair of shoes, what color would you be?”
I know the answer to that.

Gold.

Someone Hand me a Paper Bag Before I Hyperventilate!

2009-01-02T09:35:00.002-08:00

Our friend Lisa was here last week. She knits just as much as I do and she recommended this website called Knit Picks. However, when she mentioned it she was talking about the knitting needles they have on there. I went and scoped it out but knitting needles don't really do anything for me. For some reason I wound up on that site again this morning and glanced at their yarn. This is where the heart palpitations and erratic breathing come in.

THEY'RE PRACTICALLY GIVING IT AWAY!

Now, I know I get excited about little things. Like buttons. Or cupcakes. But really, this is fantastic. I ordered a boxful of 100% wool yarn hand woven by poor Andean folk for $3 each. And a book. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little. I ordered four skeins of really REALLY nice yarn and my favorite knitting book Vintage Knits (found that for pennies as well). Have you ever seen that Austin Powers movie where the femme bots' heads explode? Well, if you have then you could draw a pretty good parallel between Powers' mojo = Yarn and Femme Bot exploding head = Hannah exploding cranium.

Oh, and on top of that I got the two knitting patterns from Hansigurumi on Etsy that I'd ordered around Christmas!The Garden Snail

The Jackalope

Star, I wish you were here. I think you'd understand the magnitude of this amazingness. All that's missing is some fresh baked cupcake to make this day coma-inducingly good.

But wait, there's more! My Grandmother Joyce was here last night for a New Year's Eve dinner and she recommended this site called paperbackswap.com. You list any paperback books you don't particularly want on their and people can request them. So you pay for the shipping out and for every book you send you get one credit and you can then order any book you want and receive it for free. Each regular book costs 1 credit to order, audio books are 2. By listing ten books when you sign up you get 2 credits to play with. I did that last night and I ordered the Forsyte Saga. I just got an e-mail telling me that my request had been filled and I'll be getting an e-mail in a couple of days saying the book has been shipped! I'm pretty excited.

Cooking in '08

2009-01-01T10:24:00.004-08:00

I've been busy cooking for the last couple months of good, old 2008. I more or less promised myself not to show anyone these recipes because they make me look like a god in the kitchen, but then I figured that most of you don't live with me and I can still wow them folks with these. I've tried all of these without any messups and with really great end results. Plus, all of them are on the internets so I don't have to mess with a cook book that won't stay open. Anywho, enjoy these during the whole new year thing.

Baked Pasta Casserole

(one of the ultimates of ultimates lately)

Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sparkled Ginger Cookies

(I got Jessie to eat almost a whole batch even after she knew they were vegan... which says something about how awesome these are.)

Classic Apple Pie

(I made that for Not-so-Turkey-Turkeyday and it turned out beautimous, I did use my own pie crust recipe, so I'm not vouching for theirs.)

Pumpkin Scones

(I can't stress how mind blowingly good these are. I gave the recipe to Star and I think she made at least two batches within the first week.)

Apple Crostada

(very tasty, very buttery)

Honey Mousse with Pomegranate

(This is another one of those foods that make you want to roll your eyes back and ask "If this isn't some sort of religious experience, what is?" So good. Mine turned out a tad more yellow than the picture but that's because I used local, happy eggs with happy egg yolks.)

Swedish Walnut Tea Ring

(My first success with yeast, and a tasty success to boot!)

Gingerbread Cake

(this was tasty as heck however I decided to do something silly. I tossed it right out of the pan onto a rack after it had cooled, instead of treating it like brownies and cutting it up while it was still in the pan. Oops. I lost a good chunk out of the middle but that just meant I got to munch on that before everyone showed up.)

Country Crust Bread

(This is my new favorite bread and also the only bread I've gotten to actually turn out like it's supposed to. Ohhh new bread... you smell so good!)

And yes Star, I do know that I haven't put up pictures of those cupcakes I made, but Jessie got into them like a fox in a hen house and before I knew it they were gone. I guess I'll just have to make some more, now won't I? I have my eye on those hi-hats in that book...

Old Time Religion

2008-12-30T08:40:00.004-08:00

Jessie caught Monty and was doing the coma-bunny routine last night. I always think it looks like one of those religious awakenings where the man in the robes tries to exorcise something or calls upon the big kahuna to solve a problem (see the movie Benjamin Button to figure out what the heck I'm talking on about).

Way to Shank the Environment in the Back, Guys.

2008-12-29T19:06:00.003-08:00

An earthen retaining wall broke this last week and spilled enough toxic coal ash to cover more than 3,000 acres in a foot of sludge. The 40-acre pond was used by the Tennessee Valley Authority to hold a slurry of ash generated by the coal-burning Kingston Steam Plant in Harriman, about 50 miles west of Knoxville. This is now considered the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the U.S.

Seriously, guys, come on. This is disgusting.

Oh, and P.S. A test of river water near the spill showed elevated levels of lead and thallium, which can cause birth defects and nervous and reproductive system disorders. Nice.

Merry Christmas Eve

2008-12-25T12:19:00.002-08:00

The Schommers came over for dinner last night. We had a turkey-lurkey, an apple pie, some potatoes and bread and things. Very tasty.

Jessie wandered around, taking myspace-esque pictures. Heeerrreeee's Jessie!

And the dead turkey man. Sigh...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T12:07:00.003-08:00

Love, Willow doll.

Jessie and I Decorated Those Sugar Cookies

2008-12-23T13:13:00.002-08:00

You Crazy Nuts!

2008-12-23T13:04:00.004-08:00

After last night's mouse fiasco (and it was a fiasco) Mom and Dad made their way into town to pick up some mouse-death. Amongst the tasty options they found this beauty.Essentially, it's a garden hose attached to the back of your car. Nice.

Egads! A Moose! A Mice! A MOUSE!

2008-12-23T08:22:00.004-08:00

Last night Jessie and I were watching TV. I was knitting and looking at something by Monty's cage when I see a little black thing run and sit by the couch. I thought "Now, that's weird... how can Monty's ear be moving there if he's in the cage..." and then it dawned on me "Jessie! There is a mouse. There is a mouse by your water glass. Oh no! HO Oh no!" Jessie made an appropriately loud screech and jumped up onto the back of the couch. The mouse disappeared and I went to get Dad. "Well.... we don't have any mouse traps so I guess we'll just have to wait until the snow melts to get some." That was lame so Jessie and I tore things up trying to find it and trap it in a little pencil holder. That didn't work. We went back to watching something, I fell asleep and then eventually wandered back to my room to do some real sleep, none of this curled up on a couch clutching the remote next to my face business. The second I get into my jammies and crawl into bed Jessie screams "Hannah! HE'S BACK! That mouse is right here! Oh god oh god EEEeeeee....!" I jump out and throw my door open. Jessie is huddled on the couch staring at the bookshelf where mister mouse is hiding. We look and look and look and find nothing. I know he's there somewhere. At this point it's 11:30 and I'm getting a little fuzzy and sleepy. I decide to call it a night a second time, walk over to my room look in and there he is, sitting next to my bed staring at me. "OH shit! he's in here!" He looks enormous and black and scary-fast. I lunge at him with my Tupperware container (Jessie and I raided all of the cupboards in the house for Tupperware to trap things) and miss. He scurries under the bed to a pile of pillows on the floor and hunkers down. With a bit of adrenaline helping I chase him into a corner. "Jessie! Get in here NOW. I. Have. Him. Trapped. Behind. The. Yarn." She gets in with a Tupperware in each hand and one in her armpit. We spent a good half-hour chasing him back and forth behind my desk. He kept disappearing and we had to figure out what nook he was hiding in THIS time. At one point he wedged himself under my bucket of yarn (that thing must have had 1/8 inch of clearance) and then flew at me when I pulled the drawer out. Finally, at midnight, I managed to trap him under my plastic box and we dumped him into a larger Tupperware with some hay in it and a lid. Mom and Dad were no help so we decided to go show them our prize... at midnight. That was popular. Jessie flicked on the lights in their bathroom and Mom groaned "Whaa... you brought the mouse here? No Hannah, it's not cute. You can't keep it. No more pets Hannah." And then she put her glasses on and after some serious squinting at a corner in the box, "Oohhh, he a pretty cute shape! Oh look at his little tail... and those beady eyes. He is pretty cute, wait, is that bedding you have in there? No Hannah, no more pets!" It was decided that we would decide what to do with it in the morning, until then he could stay in the Tupperware. After a bit of rustling around I figured out that mister mouse was really more appropriately name Miss Lola the mouse because of her lack of man-bits.

Miss Lola spent the night with me in my room. You've got to admit that after all of that fuss, she's pretty sweet.And here she is this morning, before being released into the woods down the road.

Poor mousy-mouse. I don't think she's going to do very well. But in the end anything is better than poison.

The trees looked so pretty on the way back to the house. Poor mousy-mouse.

It Snowed Again.

2008-12-22T16:51:00.006-08:00

We decided to try and escape today. Dad and I went out at about 10 and started shoveling. And shoveling... and shoveling. I finished a bit from the garage to the front door only to turn around and see two fresh inches of snow covering up everything I'd just done. I cleared out part of the driveway before Dad got the tractor out. The tractor, unfortunately, had water in the bucket before the snow and now it had a block of concrete from somewhere, some rocks AND ice all piled up.After hacking at it for a while everything came out and some of the snow could be pushed around.

Enough to let us get some chains on the subaru and make it out to Sandy for more food. The crazy part is that when we went to get into the subaru we had to push almost two feet of snow off of everything and then up to two inches of ice off of all the important bits, like doors. Dad and I went to the store and after a crazy bit we got back in one piece.

(I found this wine at the store and I thought it was pretty funny. Funny enough to take a picture and then spend some time posting it. So there.)Sandy was a mess, there was about 8 inches of packed snow on the plowed roads and for a while we had to snow plow our way out of our road. Jessie spent some time sleeping, and playing tetris, and watching tv. Mom shoveled snow off of the back deck TWICE today (there was about a foot of snow on it the first time and about four or five the second time). Now, after spending a good chunk of the day shoveling things here and there I'm making some of this pretty bread and Jessie's making some sugar cookies. I've been baking and baking and baking some more!

The Evidence

2008-12-22T09:31:00.003-08:00

Why are we still trapped in this house? This is why.

I think there were some cars under that snow. Anyway, last night we were eating dinner and trying to invent some things we could make with what food we have (we're down to two eggs and 1/4 gallon milk so I've been making this AMAZING vegan cookies and everyone's stayed happy... so far) when mom started trying to figure out when we last left the house. "Tuesday," I said, because that's the day I tried to go to Twelve Mile Market and it was closed. "Nooo... I think it was Wednesday, because that's the day I went to the store. I think. Maybe," Mom thought. We all thought about this for a while and then decided that it's been too long if you can't remember the last time you left.

It's been 6 days since I've left the house for sure. SIX DAYS. I've got plenty of yarn and fabric to mess about with but Jessie is going mad. After spending the last couple of days on the couch playing Tetris she surfaced upstairs lastnight at 8 and wanted to build a snow fort. Since she couldn't hang out with her friends in Gresham they wanted to try to do the exact same thing at the same time. That thing: build a snow fort. I'm always game for things like that so we got into our snow pants and dug a pit in the snow. Not so much a fort as it is an ice crater because when we tried to get to a good place to build it we had to punch our way through 6 inches of snow, down to a thick layer of ice and past it to another foot of snow with each step. It was a lot of effort, in the dark, in the snow, in 21 degrees. Plus the snow was all loose and powdery and no amount of hitting it could make it stick together. So, we have an ice crater in our yard.

It's Getting Deeper and Cuter

2008-12-20T15:03:00.003-08:00

Now, the snow is taller than Monty. Can you guess what I did?

Yep, I tossed him right out into the middle and watched him schoon around.

Walkies

2008-12-20T12:30:00.002-08:00

We all went for a walk this afternoon to see how the road looked. Turns out it's pretty icy/snowy. Just in our yard the snow is almost up to our knees in places.

Willow keeps darting through the deep snow (it's up to her chest) and then coming back all bleedy. She's fine, it just looks terrible. I think she's hitting some sticks at supersonic dog speed and getting a little banged up. It's not stopping her at all.

Map Quilts

2008-12-20T09:48:00.002-08:00

I found this via: label-free this morning. Leah Evans makes these wonderful quilts based on maps and other aerial views. Absolutely amazing.

"Alluvial Fields"

"Development"

Did Someone Say.... Finger Puppet?

2008-12-19T13:39:00.004-08:00

Well if you didn't then I certainly did!

A handful of finger puppets.

In the etsy shop with all the rest.

The Only Thing Cuter than Regular Monty

2008-12-19T11:27:00.003-08:00

A snow-covered Monty!The snow turned into these BB gun pellets the second I decided to take himself out for a walk. Right now we've got about four inches of snow and it's still snowing pretty steadily. Monty's shortness was having trouble negotiating the deeper pockets.

Monty, on high alert.

I thought he looked awfully cute dipped in snow with his little rugged shoulders, as mummy likes to describe them.

Christmas Bunnies

2008-12-19T11:00:00.003-08:00

A bunny for Star!

And a bunny for Angelina!

(and yes they have their own little stories, but you've got to be Angelina or Star to read them!)

Smashing Opening Sequences

2008-12-19T09:00:00.002-08:00

Smashing Magazine has compiled a list of 30 great movie opening sequences. Each has a video of said sequence so you can see them if you haven't already.

One of my favorites movies is Delicatessen, and here is it's opening sequence:

Oh NO!

2008-12-18T18:28:00.003-08:00

You hear things about this Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and you think, "Well, how can that be a bad thing?" It is. It's so bad! Craftzine has posted a nice summary of the dilemma:

"We've been following the CPSIA development, and it's apparent the groundswell of protest is in full swing.

Petitions are being signed by the thousands, letters are being sent to Congress, and small business owners are mobilizing to take action against what they believe are unreasonable demands being placed on them by a law that will take effect on February 10. The new legislation will mandate that every part of a child's toy and clothing be tested for lead before it can be sold to the public.

The law was passed in response to high levels of lead being found in toys manufactured in Chinese factories, but does not take into account the thousands of small businesses who make toys and clothes in much smaller numbers, and many of them by hand in their own homes or workshops. If the law goes into effect as it's currently written, they will have to pay up to thousands of dollars to test just one set of handmade goods."

So far thousands of people have added their names to an ipetition (have YOU ever heard of this phenomena? I hadn't. Turns out you have to donate at least $2 to add your name... poo to that!) and plenty of crafty sources are keeping tabs on the developments. Yet another thing that sounds good in principle, but in practice it turns out to be utter poo.

Snow Does Funny Things

2008-12-18T12:05:00.004-08:00

It's snowing here... again. It all melted yesterday so I thought I was safe when I told Star and Ben I could come meet them downtown for some shoppin' today. WRONG. I woke up this morning and it was snowing and had been snowing for a while. "Awww... I'm still good!" I thought. DOUBLE wrong. I got in the shower and by the time I got out it had gone to full scale blizzard. Still thinking I could manage, I got all bundled up and headed out the front door. It wasn't until I listened to my tires spinning uselessly in the snow that I realized I was trapped. I tried to back out three different ways, Dad tried to back it out, and all we were left with was my car blocking the Subaru, the only useful car in snow. I called Star and Ben to tell them I couldn't come and then waited while Dad tried to rearrange my car so that it wasn't such a problem. While I waited, this happened:

Ohhhh Jessie, in your shorts, in the snow. Of course I'm going to throw snowballs at your naked legs. Duh! Sucka...

Even the tree is wearing more clothes than Jessie. Sheesh.

All snowed in!

After it stopped snowing I decided to clear off the driveway to see if that helped with the cars. Who would use a shovel to clear a driveway when you can make a perfectly AWESOME snowman? Mr. Snowman can watch you all of the time, he has eyes on both sides of his head. Creepy thing.
If you were of a mind, you could probably find more pictures of snow and housy things here, at Dad's blog.

Determination...

2008-12-16T19:33:00.004-08:00

Looks like a rabbit with an old, dry, frozen leaf clenched in it's jaws for five straight minutes.

He picked that leaf up outside and then hung onto it for a good five minutes while I showed Mom his cuteness. I hope it was tastier than it looked.

Ohhh Toes, I Will Save You!

2008-12-15T15:41:00.002-08:00

I've been idly looking for a pair of slippers that'll work for this whole "winter season" thing that seems to keep showing up every year. The nerve! I wanted something that's sort of like a super thick sock with a grippy bottom and so far only these've come close. I hate slippers with hard bottoms (they feel too much like real shoes and I have a thing about not wearing shoes in the house) so all those toasty Haflingers my relatives are so crazy over are out of the running (hah! Get it... running... shoes. Oh whatever.)
Anyway, that was until Presents Knits posted THESE today! The minute I opened it it was like my computer screen developed an aura and the heavens parted to let a single shaft of light through to illuminate everything and there was a chorus of singing sighs.... in short, it was glorious. THESE are glorious. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this too! Now I just need to find some stick grippers for the bottoms and I'm ready to knit these up and stick them on my feets.

This is what Hannah heaven looks like.

Buns in the Snow

2008-12-15T10:37:00.006-08:00

I had a sneaking suspicion that Monty would love snow. I don't think we really had any last year so I didn't get to test my theory out. This year is a different story. I took Monty out this morning and away he went!

When he hops around his ears fly up, he's just coming down from an especially good hop in this picture. I wish he could yell "Huzzah!" when he does that, instead all he does is a little "montmontmontmont" motoring sound.

Monty rumpling through the snow.

The frozen bits didn't stop him from digging around in his usual spots either.

Apparently the snow turns him into survival bunny. Usually he won't eat anything outside but today he was eating every dried up bit of leaf he could find, some of them he carried to a corner of the house and stashed, probably for later. Silly guy.

And, video evidence of his eatery abilities.

Huzzah!

And then Willow decided to stand at the door waiting for Mom and Jessie to let her back in. Soooo pitiful.

Oh, And...

2008-12-14T18:47:00.002-08:00

I've been sick. Throw-ie-uppie don't feel good sick. I don't know why, and I'm feeling better now but I'm still a little wonky. I crashed on the couch yesterday morning after getting about 2 hours of sleep (not consecutive either!) and Willow decided to get in on some of that sweet sleep action.

Snuggly snuggle.

Ohhhh That Was a Mistake

2008-12-14T17:38:00.005-08:00

Ok, so I've been looking forward to Winter Wonderland, which is etsy.com's yearly winter sale, for months. It just so happens that it was today and today was also the day that it decided to snow and snow and SNOW! We planned on going to the sale today and then I was supposed to make my way up to Olympia to visit Star and Ben for a couple of days. The weather wasn't looking good and I don't have chains or snow tires AND it didn't look like it was going to warm up any time within the next couple of days so there was a potential for things to keep getting worse and worse. We decided to look up the weather between here and Olympia and that just looked super ugly. It was unanimous: there would be no Olympia trip. However, if we could make it to the max station in Gresham we could maybe make it to the Etsy sale. Mom, Dad and I decided to give it a try. We left at 10:30 and made it with a minimum of slipping and sliding to the max station at the little outlet mall nearby. We hopped on the max and went to the Convention Center just outside of Portland by 11:30. Last year the show was at the Norse Hall, it was tiny but amazing. This year, because of last year's crowds, they moved to the much larger Convention Center.

OldSchoolStationers' booth at the sale. Mom got a few cards, and I really loved this print.

Now, this is a lamp made from slides. The cool thing about this one is that it reminded me of Star. Why, you ask? Because it's an LOL Cats themed lamp! I knew you'd love it Star! I just wish I could have gotten it for you...

These were some sweet sock monkeys, but I didn't catch the seller's name.

I wound up buying the Sloth and Bunny print from berkleyillustration (I'm going to frame them and hang 'em up!). I loved all the ones he had, but I had to pick just two and these were my favorite. I would have loved to get the lady-bunny version and some others but I know where I can get them later!
The real adventure began when we decided to head home. We hopped on the max but then decided to get off again at Grand Central Bakery a few stops away. It was soooo cold outside! We hustled over and got there three minutes before they closed early and then hustled back the max tracks. Unfortunately, we probably should have stayed on that first max. We were waiting at the stop for a little while before we realized that the red line that was sitting in the station wasn't going to go anywhere. The switches at Gateway had frozen so everything was backed up. We got on the red line just to keep warm and sat there for at least 40 minutes. The conductor or whatever got on the intercom and announced that they were going to pull out, but that there was a blue line (which is what we really wanted) coming right behind it. We got off only to realize that the next train was, in fact, another red line. We hovered outside for about 15 minutes until we gave in, got on that train which was also sitting in the station for a long time like the last one, and rode that to Gateway. THAT process took well over an hour. It was freezing and crowded and boring. We had to sit at each stop for about 15 minutes because everything was backed up to infinity. We finally got to Gateway, sat there forever, then the red line we rode in on changed to blue and we thought "YES! We can just stay here! You suckas who thought you were going to the airport gotta get OFF! Hah!" Fifteen more minutes later the conductor got back on the PA and announced that he was changing BACK to a red line and everyone who wanted to be riding on a blue max had to get off and wait for the train that was "right behind" him. LIES! We huddled in the cold, windy arctic tundra that is Gresham for 15 minutes. 15 MINUTES! At that point I hadn't felt my feet for about two hours and things were going from bad to worse. My chilblains (ok, I included a link but there are pictures. I do have these, but not THIS bad, still...) were practically moving in to stay. Sigh... We'd left Grand Central Bakery at 2:30 and we finally got home at about 5:30... that's practically 3 hours of cold hell.
Now, we're home, in one piece. There's no WAY I'd be able to brave the weather to get to Olympia at this point. I think knowing what I do now, I wouldn't have even gone to the sale! But really, I love supporting local artists, and etsy, and seeing crafty things. But I'm not ready to sacrifice my toes to do it!

That's a Big Beaver

2008-12-14T17:27:00.002-08:00

Mom and I went to Wieden + Kennedy for a presentation by Art Center of Design yesterday. The presentation wasn't particularly good, however there was a giant beaver in the front lobby. It was made from layers of wood and extremely cool! I just wish the presentation itself was as neat as this beaver.

Good Morning Mountain

2008-12-14T17:19:00.002-08:00

Mt. Hood in the wee morning a couple of days ago, looking oh so pretty!

Monies for Hannah!

2008-12-13T08:54:00.005-08:00

Ohhhh I made my first sale on etsy in a very very long time!

Lupin will now go to live in LA, he'll be in the mail today!

Crazy Shoe Alert!

2008-12-12T16:50:00.003-08:00

Mom, Dad and I were in Portland last weekend making the rounds of artist's open studios. That was depressing. However, we also wound up on Alberta St. and browsed in amongst some of the cool shops there and then down to Water St. by OMSI to stop into Olio United. The same Olio where I discovered my ultimately awesome plastic shoes. This time they had a selection of TOMS (which, I have a feeling, will wind up on my feet for good at some point!) as well as these.... "shoes".

Cow feet nailed to a pair of heels.

Sigh... I'm not all "don't wear leather or I'll throw paint on your bod!" But I do tend to avoid buying things made from leather, especially since there are so many neat materials out there to make things out of that isn't from a dead animal (you heathens, you!). That said, these are pretty raunchy (but totally awesome because, can you imagine? Wearing these hooves around and having them peeping out from underneath the edge of your pants? A little "Hullo!" from my feet to yours.)

Whole Foods, You are a Bit of a Naughty Pig

2008-12-12T16:47:00.002-08:00

New Seasons vs. Whole Foods. So, from what I've been able to glean, it looks like Whole Foods is attempting to merge with Wild Oats but the FTC has some sort of problem with the idea. However the bigger story is that Whole Foods, in the midst of its legal battles is now attempting to slip a subpoena under the radar that would force New Seasons to give them a plethora of their financial records, business plans, etc. This is bad. Very bad.

Anyway, my brain can't process the information and spit it back out very well, so here's a link to New Season's excellent discription/rant about the process. No more Whole Foods for me (not that I would shop there anyway).

I Was Cleaning Out My Folders

2008-12-12T11:19:00.004-08:00

When I found one I called "articles". Whaaaa? Backstory: I have lots of bookmarks, I love each of them and tend to enjoy going back and look at all of them, grouping, sorting rediscovering. But this "articles" folder had never been touched so I opened it. Inside was a veritable treasure trove of stuff. All sorts of little stories and collections, I'll even share a couple of them with you. They're all good, in one way or another. Enjoy!

from Defective Yeti: Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure. (ever do those games where someone describes an environment and then you have to try to negotiate your way out and it requires that you keep track of where you are in your head? This is one of those, and you are Pres. Bush.)

Clientcopia (a collection of the stupid things clients tend to say, posted by those of us wading through a life of interacting with the general public).

from Rollingstone: Boss Hog (a story about the pork industry and how utterly nasty it is. This is why I don't eat meat. It's not from any sort of sympathy with animals (although that is part of it), but more because the industry, as it is now, is so destructive and unnecessary that it makes meat a toxic death trap).

Weight Watchers Recipe Cards from 1974 (a collection of recipe cards depicting what passed for "diet food" in the 70's).

from: Nothing is Real: Why I will Never have a Girlfriend (a look at the statistics behind dating, hilarious).

La Vida Robot (an article about a group of kids from Pheonix, AZ who compete in the national underwater bot challenge. It's a very sweet story.)

50's Pipe-Swank

2008-12-10T17:07:00.004-08:00

I've discovered that while most knitting books are full of terrible, weird and mostly really boring knitting patterns I can usually dig up one or two good patterns. To get my hands on these while avoiding the rest of the filth, I turn to my handy-dandy local library. I can order books from most of the other Oregon libraries and have them here really fast. For example, Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art is a great book if you're looking for a giggle and some really interesting history on knitting, but I really didn't need to own it. However share from it's recently rented pages, I will.

There's something about vintage knits that mean they either have to be terribly kitschy or super cool, but there's never really an in-between with vintage. Let's start with the "terribly kitschy" end of the deal:

I feel like I have the host of that show about Birds they like to show on OPB whispering in my ear "The youthful knitter could express her patriotism by knitting sportswear in patriotic colors". AS IF! This is soooo air-hostess-meets-cheerleader that it screams wacky.
But then you get Mr. Pipe Swank. He is total cool, right down to his "Hey, ladies" eyebrow cock. All of the ads featuring men, wearing knitted things (which are also made by the little ladies in their lives) also involve pipes. How else are you going to let the world know that you are a swingin' fella? That sweater sure isn't going to do it.And lastly, the best part of vintage knitting is the sheer usefulness of things. Like this awesome mitten (perfect for golfing or... riding bikes? I don't really get the situations they're giving) which would be great for smoking, giving a little "pew-pew!" gun hand to someone, pushing elevator buttons, holding onto a mug, really the options are endless. Now, if another, saucier finger were left independent as opposed to the utterly useful first finger, then and ONLY then would this pattern graduate from being a utilitarian vintage knit to a kickass modern knit. See the difference?

But if you're actually looking for a book of absolutely gorgeous knitting patterns, Vintage Knits is the perfect book. They're inspired by vintage knitting patterns and the movies Amelie and Chocolat and then regurgitate the amazing patterns (I can see myself knitting just about all of them over a long period of time).

Fredo Viola, You've Haunted me Long Enough

2008-12-08T19:19:00.004-08:00

Maybe... oh, four years ago, maybe more, someone gave me this video clip called "Sad Song." No more, no less. Every once in a while I stumble on the file, tucked away somewhere in the depths of my rusty trusty computer, and begin the quest to figure out who created this masterpiece. Four years later and I hear Dad listening to something on his computer. "Who is that?" I ask, innocently curious. "Oh, it's that guy who does the Sad Song," he answers, idly. Now, I hadn't even thought about that song in a good while but I instantly knew what he was talking about. He knew who did that song the. entire. time. I never even thought to ask.

Anyway, it turns out that his name is Fredo Viola and that clip is utterly, totally, brain-meltingly-easy to find on youtube.

This video was made with, I think, a cell phone camera which is why it's cut up into such short, even lengths. I love his voice and experiments with sound (Ben, I thought of you when I listened to some of his other stuff, and this one too). He has some more amazing work here, and I really recommending perusing it. Unfortunately I don't have the latest version of anything so everything at that last site is a bit bunged for me.

Henny

2008-12-08T12:46:00.002-08:00

So, I made some chickens. Two to be precise. They have an open bottom which hides a little chick and an egg (or any such thing, but those two are what actually come with them). These, like just about everything else, are available in the shop now-ish.

What Does Crafting Look Like?

2008-12-07T18:50:00.003-08:00

Dad unearthed his (as he informs me) authentic "Home of Mark Twain, Hannibal, MO." corncob pipe that he's had since he was teeny tiny. He said that with a little bit of pride mixed with embarrassment (picture in that brain of yours a life in Idaho, in the 70's, in the next town over from Napoleon Dynamite's in that movie. Yes he had that suit, yes he had a perm and YES he milked a few cows). It was a while before I realized that my jaw was starting to ache and an even longer while to remember that I had that pipe clenched between my teeth. There's something to be said for good concentration. (P.s. I LOVE it when blogger tells me there were no misspellings found at the end of these posts! Hurrah, the internets haven't corrupted me yet!)

Warning Signs

2008-12-06T17:15:00.002-08:00

Apparently the government is getting trigger-happy and are making new signs to illustrate warnings/disasters/accidents. You know, like those inserts they want you to read on the plane. Fortunately they are so ambiguous that they have given rise to a whole website of hilarious interpretations on this site. Here are a few, enjoy the rest at that site.

If your intended destination is suddenly vaporized,
consider pulling over and watching the cool light show.

If you are trapped with no hope of being found,
amuse yourself in your final moments with shadow puppets.

If a door is closed, karate chop it open.

Maurice

2008-12-06T08:51:00.001-08:00

Is in the shop along with the rest of his buddies.

Venice is Flooding

2008-12-05T09:56:00.003-08:00

Via Boston.com: "The recent "acqua alta" (high water) in Venice, Italy reached a depth of 1.56 meters (5 ft, 1 in.) on Monday - the deepest flood in 22 years, and the fourth highest flood level in recent history, claimed Venice's Tide Center. The water began to subside on Tuesday, while residents and tourists made their way through the city, hip-waders or not - one man even took the opportunity to ride his wakeboard through Piazza San Marco (until police stepped in). Although this flood was severe enough for the mayor to ask tourists to temporarily stay home, Venetian floods are fairly routine, several occurring every year, and residents usually take it all in stride."

This picture is so perfect. Oh Italy...

I've Been Doing Things....

2008-12-01T15:58:00.003-08:00

Like making twelve sand/weight bags for MHCC's video department. They are yellow because, if they are not, someone may trip and die. We don't want that, so they are obnoxiously bright. You fill each saddle bag with sand and then use them to anchor tripods and stands. Or something. All I know is that I've finished them and I'm not relishing ever making more. EVER. Unfortunately I have about twelve extra yards of this hideous yellow. So, if any of you want a yellow tote, weight bag or what have you, please don't hesitate to ask. Please.

These are now at the shop. Don't buy them, they are not yours, but feel free to look.

A Softer World

2008-11-30T19:16:00.002-08:00

These amuse me, from A Softer World

(you can click on them to make them bigger, unles you have magnification eyeballs, in which case you won't be needing to now will you? No, I didn't think so.)

Made for Lisa

2008-11-30T18:56:00.002-08:00

Our friend Lisa needed some love, so I sent her Bijou.

And it looks like she made it to Arizona dandily! And she matches... that's so lucky!

Here is her story: "Bijou has a habit of collecting smooth, happy river rocks. When she wanders off she always returns with her pockets heavy with little grey treasures. What exactly it is that she does with these rocks once they’ve been collect is a mystery. Her eyes get a little glossy when you ask her and she simply replies “Ohhhhh this and that, more that than this, but never too much of that.” This dreamy bunny wants to waft around your house behind you, quietly humming and ready to snuggle. All she really wants is to curl up in the crook of your arm while you go about your day and rest her fuzzy head on your shoulder at night."

Dusty Dirt Bunny

2008-11-30T16:49:00.003-08:00

Monty was outside for the first time in a while today. Dad's scraped away some of the construction bits from the front yard, leaving a swath of dirt for Monty to root around in and grunt like a happy pig. And he did.

Oh boy, sooo happy! And so muddy...

Pin me Up and Shake me Down

2008-11-30T10:11:00.004-08:00

Lisa Kellner made this wonderful piece called Oil Spill. It's composed of 60,000 bright yellow quilting pins.

"Oil Spill"

She also makes these amazing sculptures out of silk.

"The Emperor Has No Clothes"

"Inner Sanctum"

via: craftmagazine.

New (Fake) Bunny

2008-11-29T08:59:00.002-08:00

Jo! Now in the shop.

Monster Silliness (I Don't Get the Appeal of the Real Thing)

2008-11-28T08:20:00.003-08:00

Dad told me about this video made from tilt-shift photography. This guy went to a monster truck rally and set up a camera to take pictures at short intervals but the cool thing is that the tilt-shift effect makes everything look so tiny (and therefore really silly).

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

New Bun Buns

2008-11-27T09:07:00.003-08:00

I finally went to the feed store down the road to get Monty some hay. I used to go to this feed store with mummy when I was little to get hay, look at all the baby chicks in the backroom and even MORE specifically to coo over the bunnies in the very back room. Now, I love bunnies I really do. But there are so few times when I actually see any, other than Mr. Monty-pants, and when I can find them in groups of more than ten I get absolutely giddy. Burns feed store is one of those places. I'd more or less assumed that Burns had stopped carrying rabbits. Not from any sort of proof or anything, I'd just used my child-logic that once I stopped going there, the bunnies wouldn't be there either. After all, bunnies are only there to be cute for me, right? When I stopped in yesterday I slowly walked back there and opened both sets of doors, dreading the idea that there would be no bunnies and all those cages would be empty and lonely. Instead there were about ten bunnies of different sizes and friendliness. I'm still a little dreamy-eyed about that. I picked a couple out and held them for a while. Most of them were Rex bunnies which means they were obscenely soft, they made Monty feel like a bristle brush.

I got a little misty, took some deep breaths and went back to the front to buy my hay. Now I know where I can get my fix and when those sad days happen to pop up, I know where I can fix them!

Speaking of bunnies and cute things, here are some of my own.

Lorna-Lu

And Jacco are now in the etsy shop!

Go and see their stories as well as the other little goodies hiding in there lately.

Don't Let it Unravel!

2008-11-25T22:10:00.002-08:00

"Knitted World" by Sarah Cox.

Via: Craftmagazine

"An animated short that was shown at the Encounters Short Film Festival."

I'd Get that, I'd get 200 mpg per/voodoo too!

2008-11-25T07:49:00.001-08:00

Nataliedee's drawing today.

"Get Walkin Yall"

Mommy Loves to Photograph Monty

2008-11-23T09:25:00.004-08:00

Whenever Monty needs to come upstairs for his medicine Mom dissolves into "Ohhhhh.... Let me get my cammera!" Which means her phone. Monty's a pretty good sport and he always looks pretty darn cute.

Oh NO, You Naughty Thing You!

2008-11-22T19:52:00.006-08:00

Soooo it turns out that that Downy fabric softener crouching in the cupboard above our washing machine is made out of animal fats. Via Treehugger: "A derivative of rendered fat from cattle, sheep and horses. Just boil it down and mix with ammonium. After a series of chemical pit stops, it comes out a quaternary ammonium compound, or quat... quats effectively coat your clothing with lipids, (fats) making the fibers soft to the touch."

Oh SNAP that's gross. Seventh Generation, however, is a vegan product. For now, I'm going to be shunning that blue plastic bottle.

Felty McFelty-Pants

2008-11-21T15:33:00.003-08:00

My hands are sort of pink these days. I've been felting rocks to try to sell at Twelve Mile and all that hot water and dish soap is making my hands grumpy. I thought I'd share before I take them in tomorrow.

These Flocks

2008-11-21T11:07:00.005-08:00

These Flocks is a site that sells all sorts of unusual knitted things ranging from huge knitted rugs,

(and yes, this was knitted on enormous needles)

To mittens which, when you order them, have a tag that corresponds to the animal whose fur it was knit from. So cool!

And lastly, they are selling this book by Christien Meindertsma who spent the last three years researching all the products made from a single pig. Amongst some of the more unexpected results were: Ammunition, medicine, photo paper, heart valves, brakes, chewing gum, porcelain, cosmetics, cigarettes, conditioner and even bio diesel. Nice.

I Laughed Until I Sort of Snorted

2008-11-18T08:52:00.005-08:00

A little e-mail exchange between person A who owes person B a bit of money. You can click on each of the pictures to enlarge them. Via: LOTD.

Things of that Nature

2008-11-17T18:37:00.003-08:00

These are some of the things I've been busy making with my skinny, cold fingers the last week or so.

These little octopiddles are pretty tiny, about the size of a palm.

These sewed bunny people have been springing up everywhere in the afternoons these days. They're a little over a foot tall and really easy/fun to make. I think my favorite part has been sorting through my button tin. Ahhhh the eyes I could make with novelty buttons.

Minnow, who doesn't photograph nearly as well as she looks in person.
Doodles.

Lulu, who photographs exactly as cute as she really is.
Ahi, similarly afflicted with a lack of photogenic attributes.

And lastly, Dom with his fuzzy face.

The grand plan (and I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up) is to sell these little guys, and a few other things, at the Twelve Mile Market in Gresham. I'm going in tomorrow to start my volunteering-ness. I got my food handler's license today in preparation and this last weekend I'm officially Red Cross CPR etc. certified. That last bit has nothing to do with volunteering, I just felt like sharing. Anyway, I went in and scheduled a time to get trained at Twelve Mile Market and David Shonk, the owner, said that I might be able to sell some of my things in the store! I'm pretty giddy about that.

Oh Holy Pancakes Batman!

2008-11-17T17:01:00.003-08:00

These are super crazy. Like "drug-me-and-put-me-in-a-padded-room" crazy.

Earrings made from dead squirrel hands, via Craftzine and Craftastrophe.

Oh mUsic Videos

2008-11-17T16:51:00.002-08:00

You make me giggle...

Pharcycle: Drop

Daft Punk: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (fan made)

And just about any Bjork video EVER made. Those are gorgeous. Unfortunately, our Internet connection has a limit on the amount we can use, so random youtube browsing or extended anything is off limits. You'll have to find those yourself. However, the ones here today are some that I've seen before and loved, brought to you this time by Smashing Magazine's 60 Beautiful Music Videos

I Love

2008-11-15T16:45:00.001-08:00

Piggies kissing at Christmas!

From Linda & Harriet

Oh Vice, You are so Funny

2008-11-13T09:53:00.002-08:00

Vice magazine posted Save the Stupid with this video:

Apparently about 70 sheep wandered onto some ledge that was impossible to get off of and then were being harassed by wolves. People of course, seeing how helpless they were, decided to save them by tying them up in bunches to a zip line and sending them off the mountain. Way to Save the Stupid and by-pass natural selection again people. That's how we end up with retarded chihuahuas and those ridiculously adorable short-legged munchkin cats.

Bunnies

2008-11-12T14:52:00.002-08:00

Monty's abscess has gone Vesuvius on me which is yucky, but apparently ok. So that's different. I've also been making things all weekend, here's one, there's a little in the shop and a lot in a pile in my room!

Meet Nola May in the etsy shop!

Today

2008-11-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

So I See

2008-11-11T08:53:00.003-08:00

1984

Mom: age 27 with Daphne the terror-bunny.

2008

Me: age 20 with Monty the abscess bunny.

Mommy, How Are Gummy Bears Made?

2008-11-10T08:20:00.003-08:00

Jason Freeny does these great prints of the inner workings of man-made fun things like gummy bears, balloon animals and lego men. My favorite part are the gestations of each that he's illustrated along the bottom. Ooohhh it's so good!

"Immaculate Confection"

"Pneumatic Anatomica"

Oh Monty

2008-11-09T21:49:00.003-08:00

So, until tonight his fur had been hiding the worst of it. He had been dribbling carrot on his abscess so I decided to take a wash cloth and clean him up. Unfortunately that exercise showed just how bad his face has gotten. He has a puffy face to begin with so it hides it, a little. Until now, that is.

These are some sad days.

Especially when you're the one with an abscess 1/8th the size of your face.

Garfield minus Garfield

2008-11-09T11:35:00.002-08:00

"Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

Oct. 9
Oct. 8

My Little Invalid

2008-11-07T07:54:00.005-08:00

Monty, once again, has an abscess. This is sad because he's sleepy, ouchie and grumpy. And it requires one of two available treatments. The problem is that this one is the second abscess. Apparently bunnies are prone to these nasty infections which act like cancer and have to be treated like tumors. They. Are. NASTY. And painful.

Monty feeling sad and needy.

1.) Get an x-ray of his head for $500 to see if it's his tooth (which I think it highly likely) and if so give him a $850 bit of surgery to remove the abscess and possibly the tooth (in all likelihood it doesn't even include tooth removal because the vet said they don't have the technology there to do it). Total foreseeable cost: $1,350 with the possibility that it won't work and that he won't be able to eat correctly.

2.) Shoot him full of antibiotics for a month and hope that against all expectations they actually do something. The vet said that she's gotten it to shrink bunny abscesses a few times before, but no one actually recommends doing it. Total cost: $100 and a months worth of time with Monty and, in the off chance it cures him, a happy time until the next one. Oh, and this means that I have to shove a needle under his skin but above his muscle and inject him with refrigerated antibiotics every three days on top of giving him oral doses every morning for a month. I am not good with the injection part, really not good. I try so hard but he has skin like a rhino... the cutest rhino you've ever seen. Damn rhino skin.

I chose the second one. The antibiotics should at least shrink the abscess and make it easier to deal with if I choose to go that route and they might even make it go away. Which would be nice. Right now Monty has been super cuddly, I think it's the drugs but I keep telling myself that he always loves to be held for hours and falls asleep on me all the time. He doesn't, but it makes me feel a little better. He's been getting some bananas and raisins and carrot tops as treats which make him happier than a piggie in fermented corn.

Pumpkeenies!

2008-11-01T21:25:00.004-07:00

Star and Ben carved their pumpkins today! Yes, it is the 1st and yes, it is the day after Halloween but putting faces in vegetables should really be a thing for all seasons. Don't try to label me mister, I see you! Tryin' to put me down... with your ways.

So this is what murder looks like!

Ben, carving his pumpkin using saliva. I've heard mother's spit can work miracles, just imagine what a 20 year-old male's mouth secretions can solve. The possibilities are boundless.

Star's pumpkin fini.

And the sweet glowing emanations coming from it, the reason: a mystery.
I liked her glowing star-top.

Ben pumpkin: face #1.

Who? Who carved this pumpkin? Oh... that guy.

Ben pumpkin: face #2, giving me the googlie eyes.

Googlie-ooglie-doo...ooooo.

Hallow-Weenies

2008-11-01T17:41:00.006-07:00

I spent Halloween at Star, Ben, Jame and Jenny's house in Olympia this year! I missed out on the sweet costumes last year but I'm sooo on the bandwagon this time around.

Star and Ben in their matching shirts Ben's aunt sent him.

Ohhh it's too good!
Ben made some wicked hand-cicles for the punch. If you fill up two rubber gloves with water and stick them in the freezer then remove the rubber you're left with these crazy ice hands! That's crafty that goes way above and beyond my brain skills.Hands in motion.
Star dressed up as a 12 year-old girl complete with flashing plastic jewelry and hello kitty backpack.Ben was working class complete with grease from black cocoa coated almonds I brought from Trader Joes.

Star and Ben.

Brian was all of the Beatles and Matt was The Dude.

Julian was a mouse...

Complete with cheese!

Evan was... himself but with a can of Dragon Joose. Dragon Joose, by the way, makes me die a little inside.

Jessie, Jon and Freddie came late tricked out with every piece of fluorescent colored 80's wear they could scrounge.

And then Harmony was a Crusader we assume. She made herself a SWEET beard out of spirit gum and either her own hair or her boyfriends'.

2008-11-01T13:23:00.004-07:00

Here's a video tour of the new house!

And here's the view out the back right now.

Pretties.

The Day of Days

2008-10-29T07:48:00.005-07:00

We're moving! 9 a.m. the moving guys come and help us with the big stuff and then the house is ours! Mostly. It's still not really done, but it's done enough!

(this is the after!)

(this is before)