Sunday, September 26, 2010

cedar beach [the miller place one]

 eeek birds.
 fishing off the rocks.  always a good choice to eat fish out of water that your septic tank filters into..
 awesome metal detector man.  and by awesome i mean...
 the first vestiges of sunset.. after we'd been there for an hour.  cos we went to the beach.  at 4:30.
 almost pristinely abandoned beach
basically full sunset cos of the clouds.  3 hours later it poured rain and there was a pretty spectacular lightening show.  in the mall parking lot.  while attempting to attend another creepy carnival.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

little black [purple] dress!

so i finally finished my dress-in-progress!  it has gone thru several iterations since the initial cutting and sewing, including a banded bottom in both black and purple, an awkwardly short black shift, and a weirdly long torso-ed black and purple scarf-added tea-length badness.
but i added elastic to the sides for some quick ruching..
[after removing brown thread and resewing] moral: sewing with all lights on is a plus.
readjusted scarf bottom
and voila!  flattering from both sides.  unusual i know.  now to get rid of it...

Sunday, September 19, 2010

food and frank part 972

yep.  thats 4 ounces of basil.  half of which i cooked in a sauce and half of which i put in the fridge..and promptly forgot about.  so it rotted.  lame. 
even more frikkin tomatoes.  18 plants seemed like such a good idea at the time..
i may be an old lady that cooks, crafts, and takes pictures of her cat, but frank is really fucking entertaining.  i bought a new laptop/shoulder bag at target [the apparently now sold out poketo line.  very cute.] and it was of course filled with paper to make it look nice, but otherwise is boon to the environment blah blah.  frank LOVED it.  he unrolled part and sat on it.  when i figured out what he was up to i unrolled another part and put it over him, forming a small frank cave.  he sat in it for about 30 minutes while toni and i watched tv.  shortly after the 30 minute mark...it was "frank will now make as much crinkly noise as felinely possible" time.  so we recycled the paper.  the end.
another frank moment.  plastic bag + cat = burrito.  possibly a purrito?  ...naw. 

weather appropriate attire

as previously mentioned, it is autumn in long island!  that means no more running around in appropriate clothing trying not to sweat to death wishing i had fixed my driver's side window when i had the money.  oops.  thats a whole different story.  suffice to say, my magic-self-healing-window-motor has... exhausted its time on this earth and will require $200 to fix.
  • sweater: INC by macys
  • dress: h&m $5 clearance
  • leggings: nz

  • "dress" aka tunic: modcloth
  • jeggings: uniqlo

and basically the same outfit the next day, only with matching turquoise nails

  • dress: modcloth
  • jeggings: uniqlo
  • necklace: fred flare
oh.  and kt if you want smiling pictures.. youre gonna have to rely on facebook.  or fly out to be my quasi-daily photographer.  its hard enough to concentrate on not schlumping while making sure my hand isnt having weird old people tremors. 

Thursday, September 16, 2010

ghetto cupcake season

the "worst ny summer ever" has broken.  thank god.  it was officially cool enough to use the oven yesterday.  keep in mind, we have possibly the most uninsulated oven in existence.  and the thermostat runs about 25 degrees hot.  but i digress.  I MADE CUPCAKES! 

but as it turned out, the mental picture i had was... about what i created.  not. so. great.
back to school!  ummm its a school house that reads "PS 71" and an apple.  in case you couldnt tell.  PS as in..public school.  and 71 is our house number.  which a former resident of the house ::ahem:: didnt seem to realize when she picked up her cupcakes-to-go. 
frank cupcakes.  noone likes black fondant and... i dont think i even know how to make black with food coloring.  and in these pictures it only is sort of apparent the cookie cutter was a cat... but whatever.  plus one cupcake is missing as a current roommate enjoys cupcakes without frosting.  too much sugar.  even though he eats half a box of children's cereal daily...
a closeup of a particuarly good looking apple.  it was a heart cookie cutter with the bottom cut off.  and yes with a layer of power sugar crack. 
a crack kitty close up
and just for good measure since my purchase of discount disposable [recyclable] cupcake containers has "creme filled" stickers... theyre your mom filled instead.  yep.  went there.

fred flare vs modcloth

to start, i do know in my head somewhere that shipping costs if "free", the price of shipping is already incorporated into the price of the items for sale.  I KNOW.  lets just get that tidbit out of the way.


anywho.  recently, i made several online purchases from retailers i know to be both cute and way overpriced.  mind you, i receive regular emails from both, ooh and ahh for awhile over the clothes, and then trash the emails.  why the fuck am i going to pay $90 for a one-of-a-kind "vintage look" dress.  its not even vintage.  and really all vintage means is its some really old dress someone found and is now marking up at more than triple the cost cos its "trendy".  ummm no.  i dont buy it.  plus "one-of-a-kind" from an online distributor is like buying a "limited edition touring package" on your car-stupid, overpriced, and you bought the hype.  too bad for you.  but apparently it was super-mega-clearance season.  woohoo!

from fredflare i bought this sparrow necklace that i have been admiring for a year or two now, and a skirt that was on super discount and is adorable and the "xl" that was left is about a size small.  fuck.  i will be attempting to remedy said situation with sewing...shortly.  regardless, the total [with free shipping] came to $40.23, shipped out from queens in about 6 hours, and arrived a day later, complete with UPS tracking.

on the other hand, from modcloth i bought a sundress, a tunic that was called a "dress", and a 3 pack of kitchsy calico cat fridge magnets which...turns out are now the strongest magnets on the fridge.  with my order i received free, 2 pairs of wood "naturey" earrings.  besides the fact the two dresses fit perfectly and i am becoming a crazy cat lady, i paid $7 in shipping, my order took 4 days to process, and 4 days to arrive from dun dun..... pittsburgh.  NOT THAT FAR.  and umm really kids?  free shipping from amazon takes a week from order to delivery.  paid shipping is usually 2 day. 

so what did i learn?  ummmm not a whole lot. 

my choices are apparently, free fast shipping for an item that was mismarked or i am entirely too huge for [?], or slow expensive shipping for things that happen to fit? 

hell.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

peruvian corn

just like at sushi samba.  only not.  chocolo [the corn people eat] is different than maiz [the corn animals eat] and in latin america it's known as mote.  same as hominy and...gigantic corn kernels.  but i was perusing the aisles of bravo! [new neighborhood grocery store] and found mote pelado-where the tough outer shell has been dissolved away by lye!  mmmm delicious!  and being stupid i bought the dry corns..which require 16 hours of soaking like dried beans.  when really, i should have bought a bag of the frozen.  but i digress.
prepping my giant corns
actual size
2 hour boil after 18 hour soak
all plumpy and waiting to saute in butter [with red peppers and taco seasoning]
mmm.  great with eggs, melted cheese, bread, beer, whatever.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

art? whaaaat?

for my "environmental politics and policy" [in the political science department] our first assignment was to draw good and bad environments that surround us.  as it turns out.. i do still know how to draw.  sort of.  but the witty arrows make up for any shortcomings in my artistic skills.

closeups to see some of my commentary...
i drew in a "stray cat crossing" in front of bob's house
and unfortunately i cut it off in this picture, but bottom right reads "2 generations of alcoholic neighbors".  im interested to see what the other 30 + students come up with.  theyre all in polysci and are studying for the LSATs cos they "want to go to law school"... woo.

retro floral

so i did my usual make-a-pattern-from-an-existing-piece-of-clothing sewing.  unfortunately im functionally retarded lately and forgot to account for the extreme stretch in the tunic and the moderate stretch in my fabric.  so its a size small.  but its cute and..heres the process.
inside out after sewing rolled neckline [v in front, square in back], shoulder seam, and sides.
my first ever sleeves!  quite the bitch to pin
and voila!  even with a little pleat to make it a cap sleeve
isnt it cute?  and teeeeny tiny?  like it?  go buy it.  k thx.

curry club

my new place of employment:
kind of dumpy from the outside.  it doesnt help that the major road along the building frontage is being repaved and widened.  aaand vibrations from construction knocked the sign down.  but blah blah dont judge a book by its cover... plus its a restaurant.  often the "hole in the wall" place has awesome frikkin food.
ganesh and a small chandelier greet you at the door along with this guy
who sits in a row with his buddies.  together they guard the lunch buffet [$10 on weekdays $12 on weekends] which yesterday consisted of:
yellow daal, mushroom masala, channa saag, vege pakora curry
lentil coconut basmati rice [best thing ever]
raj's artfully arranged vege tray
the oft sought chicken tikka masala, and [unpictured] lamb vinadalu, mixed chicken kebab, and chicken pakora-indian fried chicken.
a very ornate pitcher im doomed to knock over some day
and to close, some sparkly barely clothed art.  i do enjoy that shes kneeling in some kind of goblet.  the middle eastern version of a champagne glass hot tub perhaps?

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

blue polka-dotted brown skirt

found: one high-waist size 12 boden wool blend [lined] skirt at a thrift store for $6

problem:  size 12 ....european.  which is an 8 in american sizes.  or its a really old [doubt it] "vintage" skirt from back in the day when the average size 10 was small.  instead of the inflated average size 10 which accounts for fatty fatso americans.  regardless... way too fucking small for me.  but i liked the fabric, pattern, and style.
solution: cut off the waistband and remove the zipper and then.. do something else. 
post removal [including lining]
i serged the top edge cos too much futzing with potential ideas was making it fray like a bitch.
the zipper removal left the slit serged but unfinished, so i sewed it and double rolled the serged edge
lastly.. i added hooks.  cos i wasnt about to attempt zipper replacement.  plus i found matching thread in my giant-bag-o-embroidery-floss and despite my inability to sew in a straight line..i made some cute little french knots.  when it gets a little cooler [ie not 95 degrees] i will wear the skirt and take a picture.  or sell it on etsy.  havent really decided.

the end.
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