Mission Accomplished?

You be the judge. I of course couldn't get them to stand still long enough to take good pictures. The other little boy in the jacket over a Spiderman costume is Dallan's friend, Lawrence.

The Aang collar does have the little pie-piece cut out of the front, but she kept turning it sideways.

I even made little webbed feet things to put over Dallan's shoes. You can't see them very well b/c of the bag, but they were velcroed (is that a word?) around his shoes.

The Quest for the Costumes

It's that time of year again. This year is proving to be stranger than any previous. Recently, we started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with the kids. Since then, my little girl (yep, the girl) decided she wanted to be Aang for Halloween:

Then there's the boy. At first he said he wanted to be a Chomper. Thankfully, he changed his mind and decided he would rather be Perry the Platypus:

The helicopter is optional.

There's mushrooms in my army...

My zombie mushroom must have had a coffee bean to be out in the sun....

Building my plant army

This one looks better in person than in the pictures. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was basically a sphere with a sleeve around it. Again, I used a skewer for the stalk. This time rather than wrapping an i-cord around, I made a little 3-row sleeve to stick the skewer in. I think it looks better.

At some point I'm going to get something to mount these things in.

Baking

It's been an age since I posted but that was partially because it takes us so long to upload photos from our camera. I know, Lame.

However, I've been trying to get back in the swing with baking and experimenting over the last year. Here are 2 successes. Bunny cupcakes for Easter and also for Easter, a different family party, a Honeycomb Pie (thank you, Pie and Pastry Bible).

Cupcakes were easy other than the fiddly bits of decorating. Ice cream cones should have ice cream, not cake. Oddly the reason for doing this was to use up cotton candy that had been purchased by mistake (my mother thought it was cotton puff balls for crafts, not seeing the dietary information on the back). I stuck bits of cotton candy on the bottoms of the cones to serve as tails, unfortunately they got squished and flattened into sweet but ugly discs. I had planned to make ganache ears, but they didn't harden and wouldn't stay where I put them, thus the decorative chocolate doodads I've been saving for a while.

The pie was a challenge but not really. Honey-Apricot chiffon, apricot glaze, crumb crust, chocolate ganache bees on top. It really was divine. The chiffon was great, the glaze a little lumpy as you can see but added a nice tough and the bees were great. I'd use the cookie crust instead of the crumb crust in future; I'm just not a big fan of crumb crusts.

Ready, Set, Plant!!

Adoxograph and I were chatting the other day, lamenting our shared abundance of yarn coupled with lack of inspiration. I suggested that we have a cooperative project in order to spur each other into action. The most animated of our conversations of late have been about the game Plants vs. Zombies, so she suggested that we crochet plants and zombies from the game.

What an idea! An army of crocheted plants! I love this. This is my first attempt. It is the Chomper, my son's favorite:

I made the head from a Pac-Man pattern that I found. The teeth are the points from the ghosts. My husband says that it looks like an angry Gobstopper.

As you can see, the craft wire proved problematic as a support system, so I resorted to kebob skewers. Ultimately, I would like to get some small pots with maybe some foam or other counter balance to support the plants. There are leaves around the base and in the back, as on the plants in the game. This little plant was much more detailed than it looked at first glance.

Next up, the peashooter:

holy cow!

The craft blog linked to a recipe of mine today.

Yes, I'm pretty much telling everyone.

also, hey, did anyone notice?

We've been doing this blog for two YEARS now.

Go us!

Where's that damn muse?

I have been told I need to revitalize my hobbying strategy. Lately my hobbies have included, in no particular order: advanced worrying, budgeting for the weak willed, feeling guilty for spending money, cooking after cooking, trying not to kill plants, and not finishing hats. Also I have been experimenting with frustration and playing zombie computer games.

Yeah, maybe he's right. But I'm sure you guys can sympathize. I have ideas for things I would like to do, but all of them require Bright Shiny Purchases; right now I can't justify spending for anything new. I have lots of great yarn, but don't feel like knitting or crocheting. I have a scanner, printer, camera, thread, modge podge, awesome aluminum tape, altoids tins, nature, a sewing machine that hates me, a needle punch doohicky, perler beads and the more stuff I put on this list the worse I feel for not doing anything with it and/or feeling like there is a need to buy anything ever. Gah! Rampant vicious consumer guilt cycle! I want little projects, not quite instant gratification but something that I can put down when the pastry cream boils over but still want to pick back up when the strawberry tart is done.

Really, though, I want something that is mine. Something that is more than just copying someone else's project. Something that is immune to the critique of others. I read on someone else's blog recently that cooking professionally is the equivalent of saying I love you to complete strangers every day knowing they will never, ever say it back. What I'm looking for right now is a project that lets me say I love you to MYSELF, because I know I will totally reciprocate.

Know the feeling?

Song-a-Day May: Where the Road Disappears

I can't believe this is the last day!

To celebrate, we wrote a super emo tune about the lengths of the months.

I feel that it is reasonably likely that, after today's song, Schmitty will no longer need to ask me how many days there are in a given month. Good thing, too, as I always have to do the trick where I count across the tops of my knuckles in order to remember.

Well, except February. That one's pretty easy, other than the whole leap year bit.

The plan going forward is that, while we won't write a song a day every day this month, we'll probably write more songs, and perhaps we'll also revisit and improve some of the things we put together thus far.

It should be neat.

Also: The Schmitty has asked me to apologize to you, the internet, for his, as he puts it, "terrible singing." I don't think it's that bad, but then I might be biased, as I am rather fond of the fellow.

Song-a-Day May: Math is hard

Gretchen's still in open D tuning, this time piloted by the Schmitty. I played Josie, who remains in standard tuning.

We were trying to think of good fractions and the only one that came to mind was the length in miles of a marathon.

I have soy sauce on my glasses.

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day!

Song-a-Day May: Open D tuning!

When it comes down to it, as much fun as Song-a-Day has been, we really are trying to learn stuff about how to play and assemble music. Schmitty picked today to teach me about open D tuning. Basically, it's a different way of setting up the relative tones of the strings so that when you strum all the strings, it forms a D major chord. Likewise, holding down all of the strings on the same fret will produce a chord.

This is neat and useful and makes it super easy to play chords...unless you want to play something other than major chords. In that case, you still have to come up with the right finger positions, which is tricky in part because all of the things you learn about how to form minor chords in standard tuning no longer apply.

Serious stuff, people.

Song-a-Day May: The one where the cat helped

If you listen close, the cat meows twice near the beginning of the song, and then, at the very end, rubs his teeth on the microphone. He's special.

Other than that, the song is actually pretty simple.

(Warning: Schmoopy.)

Song-a-Day May: Self-referential

I'm starting to think that we've officially jumped the shark owing to the fact that we're all trying to be clever and make references to our own songs in the lyrics of our own songs.

It's kind of terrible.

That said, we had dinner at Endo Sushi in McLean, and it was delicious, and then I made s'mores using the flame of the gas stove to toast the marshmallows. That's not at all relevant to the whole song-a-day paradigm, but, hey, whatever works, right?

I like making music with this Schmitty fellow.

Dee-Ay-Gee. It's kinda been done.

Song-a-Day May: Dinner!

We had soup for dinner. It was delicious!

Song-a-Day May: Holiday Weekend Edition

I think we used up the entire quantity of internet available in West Virginia to post Friday's song. Or, in the very least, that is what is suggested by:

• the fact that Friday's song never even loaded correctly
• the bit where, for all intents and purposes, none of us were able to get even a little dribble of signal for the rest of the weekend

Granted, it's kind of okay, it probably prevented us (well, Jay and I in particular; Schmitty and Jackie tend, on balance, to be a lot more sensible about these sorts of things) from foolishly spending our vacation working. But it did mean a break in posting the songs...but not in recording them! Thus:

• On Saturday Schmitty dropped a pick into the body of his guitar while we contemplated the difficulties of making songs
• On Sunday, Schmitty was particularly entertaining by the time we got around to recording after a full day of white water rafting
• Today we're dehydrated and tired and couldn't keep the cat away from the microphone

I can't believe we have less than a week left!

Song-a-day May: in West Virginia

Keeping the text to a minimum owing to lack of tubes, but this is a great song, inspired by (and featuring!) Jay and Jackie, introducing you to our holiday weekend in the good ole West V.A.

We're terrible!

Song-a-Day May: Video killed the radio star

This is a song that the Schmitty and I wrote about the television show, Lost.

Yep!

We have problems!

Song-a-Day May: Anticipation will kill you

I think the Schmitty and I are both having one of those weeks where, come Tuesday, you're already tired enough to wonder why it isn't Friday. Compound this with a certain amount of work frustration on the part of the boy today, and you end up with today's song.

Secretly, I hope to one day manage at least a few of the interesting strumming patterns that Schmitty manages. I think I am at least getting decent at maneuvering my way around the chords, but, truth be told, I am still pretty terrible at strumming.

Ah well, practice makes perfect.

In other news: check it out, the doc said that Schmitty doesn't have to wear the boot all the time anymore!

Song-a-Day May: Scales

The scales I am currently pondering are rather different from the ones my sister works with on a day to day basis.

All I Want Is A Room Somewhere

I am starting to breathe a sigh of relief as my
basement is now complete, and my house is beginning to have some semblance of order. Gaby has moved her bedroom down to the basement, which freed up her room to become my craft room! Right now, it's mostly empty. I have some cute purple curtains to hang up once I repair the curtain rod. It's basically my desk, my sewing machine, and baskets of yarn and fabric.



The best part is that, unlike my makeshift craft room (that was really my dining room), I now have a closet in which to pack away unused supplies, like my scrapbooking materials, and bags of stuffing and batting.



Also, the fact that it is a proper room with a door makes it much easier to keep out these critters:

Song-a-Day May: After the movie

After seeing I Love You, Man at Arlington Drafthouse, it seemed like a good idea to come home and put together something slow and sad. It was an interesting process, actually, because first we played around with some stuff that could have made its way into a metal song (that must be the result of taking in the movie Anvil! yesterday), and then a few tidbits that were moderately French pop-ish, and then it took approximately 47,000 tries to figure out just the right set of chords to make something that sounded appropriately sad.

It all came together relatively quickly once we figured those out, though.

Well, but for the lengthy singing of "oooo."

You know, I don't know if I would be able to do the whole singing thing were it not for the hours and hours of my life spent playing Rock Band. That little bit of auditory feedback you get on your own voice as part of the game makes it a lot less awful to listen to recordings of yourself.

Song-a-Day May: Jackie's Birthday edition!

It's our good friend Jackie's (pictured here) birthday today, which is, without a doubt, an incredibly auspicious occasion for the universe as a whole. Her husband, Jay (also a dear friend) asked us to write a song for her. This was both easy (seriously, if you haven't yet met Jackie, you should. She's really wonderful), and very difficult (how on earth can we make a song good enough for Jackie?), but we tried to make the best of it.

Jackie recently started a blog in which she talks about food and restaurants, her dogs, and her efforts to make wine, so we thought it would be fun to make a theme song for her. We toyed with the idea of composing the lyrics entirely from the blog itself, but decided it wouldn't really capture our personal endorsement of same. On Jay's advice, we went with funk as the genre. I think it came out pretty decent, actually!

Obviously not as awesome as its inspiration, but hopefully the song still does a decent job of letting Jackie know we love her.

Happy Birthday, Jackie!!

Song-a-Day May: A tone poem

As it turns out, Schmitty and I only managed about two hours (well, a bit less than that, actually) of sleep last night, and that all happened between about 5:15AM and 7AM. Given that it's now 11PM, we are feeling awesome!

Truth be told, we had some good chords worked out to use for a song, but then we both became incredibly cranky, and we abandoned that in favor of this.

Hey, at least it's a break from our usual genre(s). And we still only used guitars and our voices!

Seriously, I am so going to bed now.

Song-a-Day May: Morning Edition

We're double triple booked (half caff with a twist of lime) tonight and I started getting worried that we wouldn't have time to do song-a-day (which would, clearly, be terrible), and so I woke the Schmitty up early so we could get the whole thing sorted out.

Schmitty continues to be fascinated with the idea of exploring all the things we can do with the chords G, C, and D, and he was rather tired as we were going through our usual brainstorming process, so today is another one of those, but with a twist--today, the order in which we played those chords was...wait for it...D, C, G!

Shocking, I know.

The cat helped by providing a topic about which we could sing. And, you know, by sitting there looking judgmental in the way only a cat can.

Song-a-Day May: in which we break down into gigglefits

Here we are with nachos and a song that included the chords G, C, D, and (though only briefly) F.

Now that the song-a-day is done, Schmitty is beatboxing along to his internal jukebox, which is playing, "Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz."

It's a good life.

Song-a-Day May: Triskaidekaphobia

Oh dear lord we were not really in the mood for doing a proper song-a-day today. I'm glad we established the rule that song a day not only doesn't have to be perfect; it doesn't even really have to be good.

That said, I am kinda proud of myself for coming up with a neat chord progression.

Whee!

Song-a-Day May: Sick day

The best part is that now Schmitty has my plague and we're all gonna die.

I made some soup, though. And we did this thing where we played guitars.

It was awesome. And by awesome I mean it fulfilled the requirements we set forth for Song a Day May.

YES.

I'm going back to curling up on the couch now.

Wake me when it's over.

p.s. We're both sick. THIS MAKES US AWESOME.

Song-a-Day May: 100 days

Actually, we've only been at this for 11 days, but, really, who is counting?

Come to think of it, I am. Can you believe we're more than a third of the way through this thing? Time flies when you have a head cold, apparently.

It started raining as the Schmitty and I were trying to work out what to play today, and this is what resulted. We were aiming for something sweet and nostalgic--I'm actually pretty pleased with how this one turned out.

Have you ever had that moment where you feel like you're enclosed in a bubble that exists outside of time and space because everything external to your home is surrounded by the visual and auditory filter created by a slow, steady rain?

Maybe that's just me. I am running a fever, after all.

Clicky.

p.s. The Schmitty would like to apologize for using his favorite John Mayer chord.

Song-a-Day May: Electroemopunkitronica for Echo

In keeping with the emerging tradition of responding to requests, we have made this piece of...something...because Echo requested electroemopunkitronica.

It turns out it is extra fun to make something like this using (almost) entirely acoustic/vocal components. Two acoustic guitars, our voices, and one shout out to technology: a slowed recording of the automatic text-to-speech utility that is built into my macbook's text editor.

I'm actually really glad that I didn't have to sing today. I have some kind of crazy head cold thing that is making me a less-than-stellar performer. I hope it isn't the hamthrax. (kidding. What, too soon?)

Wheee! Happy mother's day!

Song-a-Day May: time constraints

The house is clean, we are about to run into the city to pick up a friend who is visiting from out of town, and guess I'll just have to put off calling maintenance about the broken sink until tomorrow. This song was brought to you by the chords G, C, and D, and the sentence, "Is this just terrible enough that we can leave it as it is?"

The answer, in our estimation, was yes.

Sorry!

Song-a-Day May: the ocho

Today is going to be even busier than yesterday, so we're getting Song-a-Day done early.

Schmitty would like to officially apologize to the internets for, as he puts it, "my terrible triplets."

Tomorrow stands to be slightly less overwhelming, at least during the day. And I think we're only triple booked for the evening!

(As an aside, I think Schmitty and I lack the vocal commitment we'd need in order to play punk songs. I'm not so good at yelling.)

Song-a-Day May: A song about ice cream for Lawrie

This is not always true, but today Song-a-Day was the last thing we did.

Now, you might ask, "what gives? Why assign such a low priority to this artistic pact you have made? If you fail, the only person you will hurt is yourself!"

If faced with such an indictment, all I could do is tell the truth and hope you could see the dilemma I faced. You see, the new Star Trek movie came out today.

It is simply beyond my ken to deny my nerd heritage by not seeing this film on opening night.

Conveniently, the movie (or rather, the social circumstances associated therewith) proved inspirational. Specifically, my friend Lawrie, who kindly joined the Schmitty and I at the movie, provided us with this helpful advice:

"The song can be about ice cream!"

She was totally right! It can!

Song-a-Day May: the one with mojitos

I took Schmitty to happy hour before we put together today's song a day. I was the designated driver, so I don't know whether this means I should or shouldn't be held responsible for what we came up with.

Really, I am just delighted that the bell on the cat's collar made an appearance.

So fine.

Song-a-Day May: one take

Seriously, it was a long day, and we are really dead on our feet.

I did manage to ask good questions at work today.

It's okay, we'll just run on the awesomeness of yesterday.

Cheers!

Song-a-Day May: Star Wars Day

(May the fourth be with you.)

Okay, not going to lie, this one is my favorite so far.

Today's song features the click track (we talk about it so much, we figured we ought to share), keyboard noises from an old-school standardized IBM model M circa 1984 (Schmitty claims this is "the sexiest keyboard of all time"), and a voice mail that I hadn't listened to yet, dated March 17th of this year. I guess I ought to feel terrible about missing the ping-pong tournament.

But I don't.

Enjoy!

Song-a-day May: Triplets?

Today we experimented with scales and metronomes. Specifically, with a minor scale (I am still learning my scales, so I can't for the life of me recall which version of minor this particular scale would be labeled). The metronome part came in because we noticed how badly we kept up with yesterday's click track, and figured we could use the practice.

Schmitty tried desperately to convince me to add a second track of lead guitar noodling, but I just lacked confidence. You do get to hear the fella on vocals (finally), though.

Onward and upward!

Song-a-Day May: Secondary Infection

If yesterday and today are any indication, Schmitty and I will need to become far more efficient if we want to succeed in our compose-a-song-every-day-this-month venture. Well, that, or less particular. Regardless of the original cause, the effect is that we spent literally hours each day trying to put together these tunes. HOURS.

Today's endeavor builds on the continued inspiration from yesterday's bottle, though not as an instrument. This time, Schmitty got to thinking about how, back in the day, guitar slides used to be made from the necks of glass bottles like the one we were blowing across yesterday. Thus, today's song incorporates slide guitar on the lead track, as performed by the Schmitty. Day 2 also features a new guitar--you already met Josie and Gretchen yesterday; today we included Riot (short for the Red Riot). Riot is an electric guitar, which meant plugging directly into the computer for recording purposes, which was great except for the resulting super audio leveling win.

I got off easy today; I just played the baseline. Regardless, have a listen!

The idea was something like an old man on a porch noodling on slide guitar, dreaming of better times, pondering the choices he made such that he ended up sweaty and alone with his guitar. Or something.

(I really must apologize once again. But, you know, the point is learning. Maybe by the end of the month we'll manage something mediocre!)

Song-a-Day May: Mayday

Hi there!

(I'm on my way, I'm making it.)

Okay, not really. And, quite frankly, this isn't, strictly speaking, a post about something crafty. But it is a post about something art-y. I'm hoping you're all willing to accept a little deviation from the norm.

Anyway.

In keeping with the grand tradition of this blog, I once again find myself faced with a task that will likely fall by the wayside unless associated with a certain amount of peer pressure. Specifically, I am trying to teach myself to play guitar. Conveniently, my fella (hereafter referred to as "Schmitty") is also learning to play, which is really neat from a "misery loves company" perspective (truth be told, he is a far better player than I). In an effort to encourage regular practice, the Schmitty and I have decided to implement "Song-a-day May" - this month, we'll compose and record a song every day, and share it with the internets.

Yeah, I know. Why would we do that to you, our friends, on the internets?

I'm figuring this is as good a sign as any that we are complete weirdos. I am learning to be okay with this.

We recorded a brief explanation of Song-a-day May, along with some elaboration about the associated rules. You can listen to that here.

Today's song was inspired by our discovery that blowing across the top of the empty Honey Moon Summer Ale bottle produced a nearly perfect G. It incorporated the following chords: G, A minor, C, G major (4th position), this chord that is basically C moved up two frets, and a chord that Schmitty describes as "A, an octave up, and with the E root note," which could also (apparently) be tabbed as xx5588. Rad. Regardless, you can listen to the song here.

Dear lord, what have we signed ourselves up for? (Besides dangling participles.)

you know how some people just can't pull off elegance?

I consider myself in that category. Not that I wouldn't want to, mind. I mean, it's a lovely thing to have people walk in to your home and say, "My what an elegant foy-yay and such a fabulous patina on that armoire!" but these people are not going to be swinging by my apartment any time soon. I mean, first of all, apartment. Not exactly Auntie Mame, either. No, I find myself in a place that has white walls and beige carpet, again, with miniblinds, again. At least this one has a few fun details that make it distinct from my last place. Like stairs. But I do not own. I do not even rent to own. I just rent. And that means I know, with absolute certainty, that at some point all of my belongings will be packed up and moved out, and I'll need the place to return to its white and beige self.

People say I could repaint, but who wants to do that when they are moving out? I could put up curtains, but with the exception of my kitchen there are drywall issues involved. No carpets yet, but I know one day I'll be able to tie the room together. Until then, I'll just have to find other ways of adding a bit of color. Like this:It's amazing what you can do with temporary spray mount and old betty crocker recipe cards. And I can look at things like chicken salad in melon rings every day! Inspirational!

No, I haven't been just goofing off...

I had a shower to go to. I made a duck with matching hat. It also got wrapped nicely with a little hand stamped card. Now, I have to go to work.

Successful hat attempt!

I tried making this hat for the Nuggie once before, but it came out way too big. Truth be told, it was actually too big for me as well.

This one came out nicely, though:

I must make these

Apple Hat

Froggy Hat

Panda Hat

1st Dress

I finished sewing my first dress. It is for Chelsea. The last time I tried to sew clothes was 8 years ago. It was supposed to be a pair of pajama pants (or was it a robe), regardless, it did not go well and I left making clothes for the more sewing machine skilled. What made me decide to give it another college try was I was at Hobby Lobby and saw this adorable fabric and then saw Simplicity patterns were on sale for only 99 cents. Must be fate, right? FYI- Simplicity patterns are 99 cents again :)

The dress has a zipper and a gathered yoke on the front and back. The close-up picture shows the gathering and also the fabric. The pattern on the fabric is a nursery rhyme toile.

Following the directions carefully (I don't think I even read them 8 years ago) it all went pretty easily. I was pleasantly surprised. I added the trim to the arms so that it would match the band on the bottom. I also had to learn how to do a french seam so the inside wouldn't look too horrible. I only wish I had asked Heidi (a master dressmaker) what to do about seams earlier.

Though she isn't smiling in the pictures, Chelsea like it and gave it a "too cute."

Can't wait to make another one.