VOTE!

My friend Kenny over at Nude Celebrity Death SUV just found this video. It's pretty darn awesome. Everyone has their opinion on who should be our next President, but there's one thing we can't fight about - we are lucky to have the power to vote.



VOTE next TUESDAY!!!!

Happy Halloween!

I made a big tin of these for Halloween, but I forgot to take a picture before I put them out for the office...

Finger-licking Good Cookies

I saw a picture of these on a blog somewhere, but I can't remember where. From the picture I guessed that they could be make from a shortbread cookie recipe. I tried making it and it was too crumbly to mold so I added an egg and that did the trick.

3/4 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 egg
Raspberry jam
Almond slices

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, work in flour. If dough is crumbly, mix in 1 or 2 tablespoons soft butter.

Form the "fingers" and press a dent with your own finger to make the nail bed. Add a drop of raspberry jam to the "nail bed" and then place one almond slice in the jam to look like a finger nail. Add a little bit of jam to the opposite end of the finger to make it look like it was ripped off the hand.

Bake 20 minutes or until set. Remove from sheet immediately. Makes about 2
dozen.

Gone Trappin'

Last night I had some people from Neighborhood Cats come over to trap the cats in my backyard. They will be checked out by a vet, neutered/spayed, have a supervised recovery, and then will be released back into the yard once they are recovered.


They brought 5 traps. Looks scary, but they were actually very safe spaces for the angry cats.

I have to tell you that I really don't feel 100% okay with the trapping. I felt terrible for scaring the poor little guys, and I am not totally sure if it is okay for people to control animal populations. I know there are good sides to it - after all, it is very sad to see animals struggling and know many of them will die and grow up with diseases and have short lives. I mean, I just saw a little kitten pass away from disease and it broke my heart. But on the other had, I kind of feel like they are wild animals and you should let them go through their natural cycle....but I guess their lives are already being interfered with because people feed them.

At any rate, I'm in the mix and the organization is coming back to do more trapping this weekend. They are a great group of people that really do care about the cats and will put kittens up for adoption if they are young enough to be socialized. Sick cats are tended to by vets and the volunteers pay out of pocket for these services. The people really do go out of their way to care for these animals.

The kitten I have been feeding was captured last night (I started crying - he was so scared) and will be neutered this weekend and released next week. I can not take him in, but I believe he could definitely be socialized if someone was willing to adopt him and put in the time.

If you would like to adopt an adorable little kitten please let me know. I think he could warm up to being an indoor cat pretty quickly. I would love to find him a loving home.


The line up. We caught Kitten, Papa Duke, and Mama Bette. Papa Duke was seriously the size of a bob cat. The thing was GIGANTIC.

If you have feral cats in your neighborhood, or would like to help out with Neighborhood Cats (the training program only takes a couple hours) please see here for more info: Neighborhood Cats Info Center



Or sign up for the next training program:

http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/events/index.htm

Craft: Vintage Skirt is now a Pillow

When my grandparents died the family had the daunting task of cleaning out their house. I definitely take after my grandmother and my grandmother saved everything from furniture to tin foil - and it was all super organized and in great condition. My grandfather wasn't much better. I remember my grandmother and I getting on his case to go through 60 years of bank statements he had stored in the basement.

One day I was cleaning my grandmother's closet and I found this super cute jacket/skirt combo. My grandmother was super tiny when she was my age so the skirt had like 10" waist and could not be zipped up around my "I eat Peanut M&M's for breakfast" stomach. However, the jacket fit great and was still in perfect condition.




Faux-suede buttons on the jacket.


Paws thinks I'm ridiculous.

I already mentioned I save everything just like Grammy so of course tossing the skirt was out of the question. I could have given it away to the Salvation Army, but the edges were worn and frayed and frankly, I didn't want to give it up. So instead I decided to chop up the skirt and use the material for a pillow!



For the front of the pillow I used Italian wool that my ex-roommate got as a sample (she is knitwear designer for Express). I've been saving it for like 4 years.



I used gold ink to print Paws on the front because I thought it would make it a little classier, but now I kind of wish I did it in black. I might try a second version this weekend.

My Very Own Sven

Yay! I finally got them! Sven's sent the wrong pair to the store so it look an extra week before I got the ones I wanted. They guys are going to see a lot of action this winter.

Here is a not-so-great photo of them that was just taken:

Cool Sky

I just looked out my window and thought the sky looked cool.



Enlarge and center on your screen for the full effect.

The Kitten Crisis

So I have a yard/lot behind my building, which is adjacent to several other backyards. I also live above a Chinese restaurant that has access to the yard. We have a lot of feral cats that hang out back there - it's a pretty sweet layout for a stray cat.


If you click & enlarge this photo you can see 2 of the kittens snacking.

In the spring/summer one or two cats usually have a litter of kittens and we'll have a little kitten playground out there. I kind of let them be because it's summer and they seem to do fine on their own.

However, this year a cat had a litter late in the year - sometime in August. Now it's October and the kittens are still small and will be as winter hits. There was one kitten that I named Harry - he was sickly, but so freaking cute and would let me pick him up. I tried to monitor him, fed him, gave him a little attention. Finally I found a place that would take him away to be fixed up by a vet and put up for adoption. Unfortunately, I went away for a few days and when I came back he was missing. I cried for two days - I wish I had found Neighborhoodcats.org a few days earlier.


Harry's twin brother.

I hope Harry turns up again this week, but in the meantime there are 4 other kittens back there that I need to help. Neighborhoodcats.org is supposed to come by sometime this week to set up humane traps. The kittens are so cute I'm sure they will be adopted right away and we will also try to catch the adults so they can be neutered and then released back into the yard.

Bands, Gardens, Dorms & Fried Chicken

This weekend was action packed.

On Friday I went to a CMJ show at Mecury Lounge to see the band The Delta Spirit. Colleen recently got into them and she got a few of us together to go to the show. It was really, really fun - I think I have a new favorite band.


After the show Colleen, Abe, Katie, Greg and I went back to Greenpoint to the bar Matchless and Starr met up with us. When Abe and I left the bar we went over to Palace Fried Chicken and got chicken and French fries. It's pretty disgusting there, but sometimes it just hits the spot.




Saturday my aunt, uncle and cousin came into town to see my other cousin, Eddie (he lives down the street from me). They picked me up and we all went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was supposed to be a stormy day, but the rain held up and we had a great time enjoying the fall weather.



Saturday night was a big one - Piper's 30th birthday!! She held the party at her apartment in the city and the theme was "College Dorm". Kind of a vague theme, but once you saw the decorations and got everyone in costume the whole look really came together.

Pacific Northwest Getaway

This past weekend Abe and I went to a wedding on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington. Paws did not want me to leave.

Abe got there on Tuesday because he was a groomsman in the wedding and then I flew in on Friday, drove a car 2.5 hours to the ferry, took the 1.5 hour ferry, and made it just in time to have dessert at the rehearsal dinner. The wedding was amazing and special, but it was particularly exciting for me because I finally got a chance to meet the rest of Abe's friends that I have heard about for 3 years!

Orcas Island is totally Jurassic Park.

Saturday morning I went for a walk and ran into some deer by the resort mansion. They are wild, but tame, and will let you pet them. It was awesome.


I found some celery by the kitchen door - deers ain't interested in celery.


I had some time to kill before the ceremony so I went for a long hike in Moran State Park. Here is where I saw my first Banana Slug.




The ceremony took place on a grassy cliff overlooking the bay. They had a mariachi band playing in the background.

The reception was fun - great food (I must have had 10 bacon wrapped scallops), lots and lots of dancing, and even a hot dog station late night.

The after-party was just straight up shenanigans back at the suite. Abe and I got locked out of our room at 3am and didn't get in till 4am. The next morning we pulled ourselves together with the rest of the kids and took the ferry back to Anacortes. I think this is Mt. Baker.

From there we drove to Seattle where Abe's dad picked us up and took us to Olympia.

On Monday we took a day trip into Tacoma. We were going to go to Mt. Ranier, but it was rainy in the morning. All the museums were closed in Tacoma, but we walked the Crystal Bridge that features Dale Chihuly's work.




On our way back to Olympia we stopped at some crazy outdoors store called Cabela's. There was an aquarium inside and a huge taxidermy display. I got a great sleeping bag on sale.


Then Abe took me to Evergreen State College (where he went to school). It was real purty. Too bad Ted Bundy is forever linked to this place in my mind. We poked around the new buildings, which were really cool - great architecture and it really incorporated nature into the structure.


We kind of just hung out for the rest of the time and flew back Tuesday afternoon. Biggest lesson learned: if you live in Brooklyn do not fly into Newark airport at night and take the train home. It took us 2.5 hours and we had to take 4 trains.

Heading West

Tomorrow I fly out to Seattle to join Abe for 5 glorious days in Washington. We are going to a wedding on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands for the weekend and then we'll head back down to Olympia for a couple nights at his dad's house.

I am renting a car from the airport and driving to the ferry in Anacortes. The islands we are going to are practically in Canada. I'm very excited. Here is my driving route:


View Larger Map

On a sad note - very, very sad. My Sven's won't be here on time to come on this trip with me. I had 5 outfits planned around those boots. Life is truly like a box of chocolates.

Craft: Hippie Necklace...No, Actually a Headband

Last week I went to some bead stores with the vision of creating a hippie necklace. I wanted to braid suede lacing and then attach a stone to the braid. For once I actually had it mapped out pretty well and bought the right materials, but the actual construction was problematic.

See, my gorgeous amethyst stone broke while I was trying to fit a gold hoop through the hole. My fault because I was definitely forcing a too-small ring into the space. So sadly, the amethyst stone is now stationed in the bathroom amongst my aloe plants.



But I still had a perfectly good braided suede band that I fashioned to a gold hoop. It didn't work as a necklace, but it looked kind of cute as a headband!

I just attached a hook and eye so I can take it on and off easily. Voila.



Blue Steel.

Craft: Making a Pillow from Recyled Materials

My mom was here this weekend and I took her to Ikea for the first time in her life. It was very exciting. I tried to curb my desire to by things I don't need, but one thing I coudn't resist was the fabric. Ikea has some great fabric and I wanted to pick up some for my new pillows. I chose the Gunilla fabric in turquoise and some rainbow fabric.


So last night I decided to practice making my new pillow covers and make one for our bedroom.

I tend to save a lot of stuff people would normally throw away (glass jars, oatmeal canisters, take out containers). Abe is the same way except he just avoids accumulating things. I, on the other hand, save everything that comes my way with the idea that some day I will use it.

I had an old, feather bed pillow that I had stashed away a couple months ago when we got new pillows. I decided to take out the feathers and make a fresh pillow insert.

First, I needed a case to hold the feathers. My mom had bought me and Abe a new dust ruffle from Ikea so I took our old dust ruffle and cut four 14"x14" squares from the netted fabric that stretched across the box spring.



Next I had to remove the feathers from the bed pillow and fill up the case. I don't really recommend doing this. It is messy, dusty, and just not a good idea. It's kinda gross actually. Oh well, what's done is done. I sprayed a little tea tree oil on the feathers in an attempt to sterilize them.


I did this when Abe was at work because this would not fly if he was home. Fly...feathers...get it?

I filled up one case with the feathers and sewed it closed then I put in into another case and sewed that one closed - extra protection.




Now that I had my pillow form I got to work on the pillow cover. I used the Gunilla fabric for the front and rainbow fabric for the back.




And here we go - a new pillow for our bedroom!

Hot Hands, Chili, Boots & Mom Time

This week has been a little slow for me. I am trying to update my website and so that is taking up my evenings and I haven't had time to do projects. My mom is visiting this weekend so I'm going to recruit her into helping me get ahead with crafting. After all, I learned everything I know from her.

Last Sunday my friends, Andy and Maria, had people over for dinner because our other friends, Alex, Becca and baby Ella, were in town. Alex brought a huge sack of assorted peppers from their garden.



Dave trying to judge the weight.

Last night I made chili with these peppers and my hands are still on fire from handling them - 14 hours later!

Tonight I have rehearsal with HEXA from 8-10pm and then I have to go home and do laundry. My mom is coming tomorrow at 1pm so I'll have a little time in the morning to clean up the apartment.

In other big news..... I bought the black Sven's! Yesterday I went to this store on the Lower East Side called Valley and tried them on. They didn't have the exact ones I wanted, but they ordered them for me and I should get them next week.