There's mushrooms in my army...

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

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!!

Excuse me, I was promised there would be hats.

So far, since we moved here, I have made seven hats. Yes, seven. Scary, eh? It's good, because I need hats to wear over my hair at work, as opposed to always working the Aunt Jemima/ gang warfare look that is the bandana.

I've never really gotten the hang of bandanas, I have always felt.

Anyway, the small single skein crochet project that is the hat seems to work for me. I was even going to make seasonal ones if I can muster up appropriate yarn. I couldn't get candy corn colors that weren't acrylic (bastards!) but I still have hopes for an election day hat. Guy Fawkes day hat is a little much, though. I even have budget hats! I made this one with yarn from the dollar store and everyone loves it.

I've also started playing with stitch patterns and the like, with some successes and some weirdness. But honestly, for working, this green, floppy organic cotton one is probably my favorite.

It is really difficult to take a picture of yourself wearing a hat.

Hippo Birdie Two Ewes

I got a glue gun. AND a staple/nail gun. I also made two hats. It is hard to take a picture of yourself wearing a hat.

These awful photographs completely fail to communicate how awesome this is

OH HOLY SMOKES, PEOPLE, I MADE A DRESS!

Check it out now (the funk soul brother):

front,

and kinda the back, but mostly a chair in my apartment.

It turns out it is really hard to take pictures of your own back!

To make the straps, I took the extra material, marked off a strip 2.5 inches wide, and then folded that in half and sewed up the edge, then turned that inside out to make the seam. Pinned those in place using my bra straps as a guide (and can I just reiterate how difficult it is to pin yourself into something you are wearing, particularly if you are using your non-dominant hand?), and then sewed those in place, then trimmed off the excess.

I am doing such a ridiculous happy dance right now, it's silly.