MONSTERS! Get them here....

Currently: March 31, 2002 Happy Easter! Happy Birthday to Me! Happy BIrthday to Lucy!

March 29 2002

I started a food journal. Not anything like Malika's Nobody's Fool, but just something that I can write in to keep track of my food successes and failures. I feel like I try so many recipes, and make so many things, that I find myself not remembering what I made that I liked. I also feel that for as much as I cook, I really don't know anything about food. Hopefully this will help. I tried once to keep a wine journal since Super J is in the wine business and we get TONS of fabulous wine to drink. My palette is horrible. Our conversations go like this:

E:"Yuck. I don't like this one."

J: "You liked it the last time we had it."

E: "We've had this?"

J: "Last week."

I used to buy wine on the basis of whether or not I liked the label. I cannot connect the "smell" to the "word"...cherry, black cherry, cassis, current, so on and so forth. J can spit out the vernacular and sound like he knows what he is talking about. I'm like: "Yep. Smells like wine." I need one of these tasting and scent essence kits.

I have begun to notice, after watching hours and hours of television, that there is a group of musicians suffering from male pattern baldness who seem to have SERIOUS issues concerning the state of their hair. Or lack there of. "The Edge" from U2 is never without a trendy black skull cap. Dwight Yoakam, with exception of his movie roles, is always seen in a cowboy hat worn so low on his head that you would think that his eyebrows were also balding. Then there is Tim McGraw. Another Country singer that actually sparked this train of thought. I have often commented to J about his ever present head accessory, which includes: the cowboy hat, the handkerchief tied around the head, and the baseball cap. I could SWEAR that I have seen pictures of this man without any sort of hat and I could SWEAR that he is indeed going bald. Imagine my surprise while watching CNN's coverage of the Oscars I happened to catch a glance at Tim McGraw standing next to Faith Hill with a flowing,... thick,... long FULL head of hair. Did my eyes deceive me? This is driving me crazy and I have spent hours trying to confirm or deny the presence of hair on Tim McGraw's head. I could have spent those hours educating myself on the conflict in the middle east, or being productive by working on some illustrations. But no.

Not that I care that these men are going bald, in fact, my own Super J is a bald man. I guess it's a matter of self esteem. Super J loves his hairless head, and when dealing with people's own insecurties I know sometimes it's just not that easy.

And since I am on the topic of hair, I will tell you all that I am currently experiencing a quandary of my own. "Should I cut my hair?" I am in need of something different, but I am afraid if I cut it, I will miss the long hair I have been growing for the past four plus years. I know once the hair is gone, I will forget about all of the angst is has given me and remember only those few moments when it looked perfect. Never mind the fact that those moments tend to be at about 10:30 at night, in a bathroom lit only by a flickering candle. "Wow, my hair looks good," I think to myself as I run to the toilet to pee. In candlelight my hair looks full, sexy and luscious, like Catherine-Zeta Jones hair. Flip on the light however, and you will see fine, limp, stringy hair that is curly around the neckline, straight as a bone at the crown, and somewhat wavy everywhere else. If I cut my hair short, I will pine for long locks and forget that my hair is so fine, it breaks even if I use one of those new fangled "ouch-less" elastics. I will forget that I wear it pinned up, clipped up, or braided 90% of the time. I will forget about the rarely used one inch, half inch, and every other inch curling irons twisted into a corded mess at the bottom of a drawer.

I actually had the "perfect" haircut once. It was a lovely chin length bob, longer in the front and shorter in the back. Very Vidal Sassoon. I loved it. My mom loved it. EVERYONE loved it. That haircut gave me one of the greatest epiphanies of my life. The haircut was SO perfect that I didn't have to spend any more precious moments fretting over the state of my hair. I had reached hair nirvana. You would think that would make me happy, but it was an empty joy. Only then did I realize that perhaps I could only be happy with my hair...if I was unhappy with my hair.

March 28, 2002

I broke down and bought an embroidery transfer book yesterday at the craft store. It has a wide range of designs that will keep me busy for as long as my attention span for embroidering will last.

I love this knitted bunny posted on Not Martha. I have to say, however, that all of this Easter stuff I keep seeing all over the place makes me realize that I don't give a hoot about Easter. I used to, when I was little, but now it's lost it's luster.

March 27, 2002

I am an embroidering fiend. I think that I am going to order some linen from DollarFabric.com. The Jo Ann's near here does not carry linen. I think that is crazy, and a little annoying quite frankly. I don't really know what I am going to make...but the process is so cathartic that I can't stop. Perhaps the dream pillow I spoke of, or some sachets. I have an Embroidery book by Katrin Cargill that is quite lovely, but not really my style. Here is a book of iron on transfers of traditional Chinese designs, which could be cool. There is a thread on Glitter about this talented embroidered who has an embroidered illustration featured in the new issue of Bust. She has some funky little iron on transfers that will soon to be available.

March 26, 2002

This is a face that I embroidered. He's a prototype to a dream pillow I have designed. This was my first attempt using the chain stitch as a filler. I used cotton pearl thread. You can see that one of his cheeks is a little funky..I learned that it's better to encircle the cheek with the constrasting thread in order to maintain the shape. Sorry the pic is not the best quality...I had to use the scanner.

March 25, 2002

I bought another issue of the English magazine "Living Etc." and inside was a subscription card with prices for United States delivery. Yowza. I reeeaaaly like that magazine, and as much of a magazine whore that I tend to be...I am not sure if I am willing to shell out close to $100 for a subscription. I have to meditate on that.

I echo Squib's sentiment on Jennifer Connelly's dress. Ick. And since I am being a little catty, why not be a lot catty and say that Jennifer Lopez's hair was HORRIBLE. And Gwenyth Paltrow (under Most Discreet) ....were those her nipples? Yikes.

Today on Martha, she had a craft segment on "Making Matryoshka Eggs ". I collect these dolls..not super actively, however. I have a few Santa sets that I bring out for Christmas, and an Easter bunny set that is sitting in my closet. My mom bought me a set, I that is my favorite, it's based on a Paul Gaugan painting. It's really colorful and unique. I also have a set that my bro bought me that is an authentic Russian set. What I really love, however, are the unpainted wooden sets that you can buy to paint yourself. I saw this set (shown below) somewhere on a site and it made me want to paint my own.

March 23, 2002

HOLY COW WHAT A MESS! I was having technical problems and it was all very stressful. It's fixed now, thank God. Did you know my birthday is on Easter this year?

I got a charming little catalog in the mail the other day. It is from Dining and Company. They are a little too "country" for my taste, you know...crackle rabbits and such. They do have some cute soaps AND...those little Heart Felt creations that Anthropologie is selling on sale for about half of Anthropologie's price. Has anyone ever made hand dip candles? I made some several years ago and I think that these pear candles could easily be made by hand dipping. I would have to try it to be sure.

I saw a segment on "From Martha's Home" on HGTV about stenciling on fabric! Here are the instructions. It looked so easy. Christine Isles was demonstrating the technique and she does some beautiful work. One of the interesting techniques she did was to stencil two colors, one on top of the other, almost like a drop shadow. Like this. Here is my favorite design, called "Tossed Insects" You can see the rest of the designs here.

Oh, by the way, in case you were not aware...IKEA furniture is cheap for a reason. The dressers were crap. They look really good in the catalog, and even in the faux rooms they have set up in the show room. But, if I am going to pay $200+ for a dresser,...I would like it to have something more than a particle board backing. I am thinking of going to the Unfinished Furniture store near hear and perhaps trying to emulate the finish on this Pottery Barn sideboard. I am not sure how to do it...I think that I would prime it, then paint on the ivory undercoat, then perhaps run a candle along the edges to repel the paint, like I have seen in the countless "Do-it-yourself" shows. I would then paint on the black, and along with my trusty sandpaper...sand the edges to achieve the desired effect. A couple of catalogs ago..The Pottery Barn was selling something similar, except in this case the ivory undercoat was red. That looked pretty cool as well.

March 15, 2002

TGIF. Thank. God. It's. Friday. Holy cow, what a week I have had..I am so glad that it is over. I was working on a HUGE project that I HATED and it is done. Needless to say...I have not had time to watch Martha, or scour the Internet or anything else for that matter. I bought a stack of magazines, and received a stack in the mail and they have just been piling up, untouched,...unloved. Do not worry dear magazines...I will spend some quality time with you this weekend.

I did find this pretty cool resource for boxes...like origami boxes. It's a rubber stamp resource list, but it has SO MANY box templates, and cards....and it has the origami shirt that I remember making in middle school when I wrote notes to my friends. Ah....memories.

Super J and I are also going to IKEA tomorrow! Yay! I love going to IKEA. I think that we may finally buy a dresser. I can't wait.

Oh yeah...Happy St. Patricks Day!

March 12 2002

I am a very busy working girl this week. AND I just found out that I was given the wrong item to work on so I have to start ALL OVER.

In the March issue of Marie Claire (it's the pink one) has an article about a woman that lived her horoscope for a whole month, meaning..if her horoscope said "Stay home and watch TV", she would. I thought that was pretty funny since I am a big fan of all things astrology. The horoscope the article used is Astrology with Jacqueline Bigar and I have decided to do the same thing and see what happens. Tonight I am supposed to do something totally for myself. Hmmm...what shall that be?

March 8, 2002

Found on Loobylu this morning: Donna Hay, writer of magnificent cookbooks, has a magazine. It is available for international subscribers, unlike UK's Living ETC. I am ALL over that.

Oh...what am I going to do this weekend? I can tell that I am already bored. I should work on some illustrations, my mailers and my business card stuff. It'sall so daunting that I am going to keep putting it off. I should also work on my grand plan for my toiletries business...but I just want to sit around and watch TV.

March 7, 2002

I am having such a hard time getting the 2002 date right. Anyway...a thread on glitter lead me to these Jell-O jelly bean molds. They are so cute! On the Glitter thread someone was asking about using them as resin casting molds, and I am thinking that you could make some great jelly bean soaps.

Last night I tortured J and made him watch the HGTV 2002 Hobbies and Crafts Show hosted by Carol Duval. The item that most excited me was the adhesive backed vellum paper. Also...and one of the coolest...a craft size rotozip saw. Use it like a scroll saw...it was pretty cool. It made me want to cut things out of wood.

Have you all seen "The Osbournes" on MTV? Tuesday nights at 10:30..it was also on yesterday. FUNNY. Ozzy Osbourne is so hilarious..I had to turn the TV up in order to understand what he was saying sometimes, but it was great.

March 6 2002

For those of you who love Spongebob: I forgot to mention that I purchased a Spongebob Squarepants Uno Game! I can't wait!!

I got a Chiasso catalog in the mail yesterday and I want these:

 

March 5, 2001

This weekend, our friends Meg and Mike gave us a Home Coffee Roaster. Now, for those of you who do not know Super J, he is crazy in love with all things coffee, espresso, wine...anything that you would "taste". His job is in the wine industry and his heart is in coffee. Well, I guess his heart is in wine also...but he is currently driving me crazy with excitement over our new coffee roaster. You really have no idea. Take this for instance: He took the roaster out of the box and washed all of the components. They sat on the counter to dry overnight. This morning he says to me in a frantic voice "CAN YOU HELP ME?" In putting together the roaster, he has realized that he has misplaced one of the components. It's one of those "It was here this morning and now it's totally gone," We spent the next HOUR tearing apart the house looking for a thin metal ring. It's so strange...it's has completely disappeared. Even I remember seeing it this morning. Stinky fish and cat food laced garbage is rummaged through, and steps are retraced. After all of this, I start to take the roaster apart in defeat and lo and behold...there lies the thin metal ring.

"Oh. He he...um..I guess I already put it together."

In the March issue of Home Style magazine there is an article showcasing some pretty righteous crewel embroidery. Here is a close up. Some of the crewel fabric is "hand embroidered by Tibetan farmers who, pass their craft down from father to son, perfecting it over generations." Crewel is a form of embroidery in which two ply woolen yarns are used to create patterns on cotton or linen. Just in case you were wondering. I went to the craft store yesterday in search of some crewel wool inspired after reading that article. The color selection is dazzling and I was again overwhelmed (like the felt from last month). I realized that I need a cohesive design plan with colors picked out before I dare enter the embroidery isle.

March 4, 2002

I bought art this weekend...am pretty excited about it...now all I need to do is visit Sweet Caroline up in LA to get it framed ( she has a top secret framing buddy). I got number 13 out of 300. It was a lot of fun as I got to spend time with friends that live too far away from me.

Donna Hay was on Martha Stewart this morning. I have two of her cookbooks, Entertaining and Flavours. I love her cookbooks so much..they are so beautiful. Her food stylist and photographer kick some serious ass

March 1, 2002

Unique projects has How to Make Yogurt. Looks easy enough...I have also always been intrigued with the William Sonoma Yogurt Maker. I am going through a vanilla yogurt phase right now. Growing up, I never, ever tried vanilla yogurt. Ever. I was scared of it for some reason...I just recently had some for the first time and have discovered that vanilla yogurt is indeed, quite yummy.

I made some bath fizzies yesterday using this recipe page from The Chemistry Store...how to make your bath bomb foam. It works. I used cucumber fragrance oil and the mini ice cube tray as a mold and they turned out great. Here is the label I have dreamed up for this product if I ever decide to go into business.

Also..I ran across this hilarious web log through Dollar Short, (which is also very funny). It's an outrage that this person was fired from her job because of her personal site. I personally cannot fathom how that is legal, but what do I know...

February 2002-->