sachet, shantè

i miss watching RuPaul's drag race. every few days i catch my self singing the "face face face" song interlude by Miss BeBe Zahara Benet, aka "House of Camer-OON". that in turn, reminds me of 1992, being 12, obsessed with fashion magazines, and hearing RuPaul's Supermodel on the radio constantly. Remember back then? When supermodels were thin, but not sickly boneskinny, AND pretty? seems like ages ago. wow, i've gotten way off the subject. ok rewind...

RuPaul's Supermodel song coupled with my jellybean's poomergencies™ gave me the idea to do a mini lavender sachèt, form of swanpeacock (sweacock i think is what i settled on). they're teeny-tiny and smell delightful. they aren't so useful in keeping in a drawer per se, but if you keep them by your computer and start to feel a bit stressed, a little sniff will do ya.



for now, enjoy them virtually :)

crafties from the pasties- project redux 2

this one goes out to all the forgotten, but loved art school projects in the house...
my house to be exact.

art school kids & you, a blues haiku:

i had ♥ for you
art kids didn't understand
but, fuck 'em, i do.

now for our next project makeover, the apple playhouse:

closed

closed, close-up

open

The idea of the apple playhouse was for children to have a portable play thing, à la polly pocket, where, once opened, it would be a whole world/land for their imagination to explore. it would also teach them a bit about gardening and the importance of eating a healthy diet (it had a companion story book to go along with it). the outer and inner layers are made with felt, sewed together with yarn and stuffed. the brown circles you see represent dirt holes ready to grow delicious fruits & veggies, trees, or they can be filled with grass "mounds" to create a solid piece of land. it even came complete with a title character, corinna (get it? apple core...corinna?? i slay me.) and lil fruity friends, who understood that, although they were friends, they too would eventually be eaten because they're part of a healthy diet. i think that's the part that people couldn't get past. jeez, lighten up everyone. it's not a discovery channel special of a lion chasing down and ripping open a gazelle...it's a lil girl and an apple. grow a pair. ha! "grow a pair.", like fruit! i seriously slay me. ok, ok, enough of that. here's a pic of it open and full of growth:

lush and happy

At it's core (literally) was a treehouse...hmm...corehouse? with a yarn hanging ladder. admittedly, the corehouse wasn't as souped up as i wouldve liked, but it's a prototype.

here are some pics of our lovable corrina (sorry for any fuzziness, i'm no lachapelle)

up close & personal, standing in the dirt

standing next to: young tree, newly planted veggies, and fruit carousel

Ask me when I'll have time to re-do my beloved project? Yeah, I have no clue. But it will be soon. I'm just about done my stuff for Plush You, so i'll be able to focus more on other projects rather than constantly worrying about "does this suck?" for the Plush You entries. I'll keep you posted!

Iowa, or how I turned 30 without throwing myself into the Mighty Mississippi.

Now that I've had a few days to decompress, let us now talk about Iowa & turning 30.

First, Iowa.

Now, far be it from me to knock anyones home state. I, too, am from a state that is frequently a mystery to people. Many don't actively seek it out, they drive through it to get to their destination. Sure, you may stop in once in awhile to enjoy our tax-free shopping or our charming and clean beaches, but try explaining to people where you were. "Delaware? Isn't that a part of [Maryland, Pennsylvania, a county in __, a suburb of ____, etc]?" In actuality, Delaware is a lovely state. It was the first state to ratify the constitution; there were, or maybe still are, 300 chickens for every person in the state (I mean to give an idea of the actual number of chickens, not to imply the government hands out chickens); and is generally a great place to live or retire. Wait, i'm losing focus on my point. For more info on Delaware, check it out here

Where was I? right. far be it for me to knock anyone's home state. many do not seek out Delaware, just as I did not think I would ever end up in states like Iowa, or even Ohio, ever. The middle of the country is a mystery to me. A mystery that I was more than comfortable living with, without ever solving. It's one of those things I sort of promised myself around the age of 18--I would only live on one of the coasts, or at the very least, be in one of the outlining perimeter states near some body of water or a university. It's the sort of closed minded thinking that I happily held on to. Maybe it's an east coast thing? Looking at those landlocked states and thinking, "poor saps". Iowa, it turns out, was actually quite charming. There was a part...I believe it was called east dubuque, or galena, that was the epitome of Americana. Downtown Dubuque itself was quite nice as well, and it reminded me a lot of home--small, but cute, independent boutiques & eateries over big commercial chains, all right near a large body of water. It was the getting there that was the kicker.

Nine and a half goddamn hours. You look at a map and it's like, "Oh, it's right there, no worries we'll be there in no time." Wrong, sir. Wrong. Those are hard road hours, especially with a lil jellybean in tow

what's an Iowa?

At one point, both MK and I joked about preferring a drive to the center of earth than our current destination...and I may or may not have said that I would rather rip off 2 appendages & set them on fire before making that drive again, but in our defense, I believe that was around hour 8.5 of our trip and roadsickness had officially set in.

I didn't have huge plans for my birthday, though I never really do. I would've liked to have spent the day sleeping & crafting- Because I am old, and my loftiest goals involve being left alone with no big hubbub. Honestly I believe I am only 2 or 3 birthdays away from turning into the old woman on the block who shakes her fists at kids and calls them whippersnappers. But I digress...if you'd asked me in the beginning of the year what my bday plans were, it wouldnt have been getting up at 3:45am, hitting the road at 5, and sitting in the car for 9 or 10 hours to a state that was somewhere in the middle.

So why did we do it? why did we embark on this road trip?

To see two lovely people get married ♥

was it worth it? yes. it was a great wedding & reception and by the end of it, I was actually glad I came to Iowa. Hell, I was even taking pictures of the city. such as this one:i have no idea what that is

My point is I was feeling good enough to document the fact that I had been there, and that it was actually a nice place to visit. Though that feeling didn't last too long once the reality of having to get back home set in, for a few minutes there I was unexpectedly happy to be in Iowa, but still very ready to leave.

30 doesn't feel that much different than 29...or 28 for that matter. I think my turning point birthday was 27 to 28, and that was probably because 27 was my favorite age. I didn't have some magical moment when I realized everything needs to change, because nothing does. I still like the same movies, I'm still going to collect and covet toys, I'm still going to burp and giggle about it. Not that much has changed. Well, that's not totally true, I used to go to more shows, but that's different now because if I get pushed or even slightly nudged, someone is getting decked. I don't care what the music is, don't touch me.

I don't wish I was younger because the ages between 21-26ish are hell. There's some "what does this all mean" soul searching to be done during that quarter-life crisis that now seems laughable. I'm a lot smarter than I was when i was, say, 24 or 25, especially when it comes to selecting who stays in my life and who is toxic. The only thing I guess that I'd want to retain from that age was my metabolism and alcohol tolerance.

I'm sure there's some Doogie Howser-like lesson buried all of the chaos that was the road trip that can be applied to getting older and hitting a so-called landmark birthday. Taking things in stride because happy surprises show up in unexpected places? Wherever you go, there you are? Your life could be worse, you could live in Iowa? [kidding]. I don't know, I'm just glad to be home and not dwelling on being another year older. Or to sum it up it one picture, i think lil jelly bean does it best with this look during the ride home:

over it.

When we last saw our heroine...

Oh blog, I have returned to you, with much randomness to share (during dear Jellybean's downtime, of course). Let us turn back the clocks and remember father's day. I am in IOU status with an actual gift, but I did prepare some delicious meals that day, including the much requested....

Chocolate Banana Pops

Let me start by saying that *I don't play by the rules when it comes to recipes. I'm the person that will combine 2 different recipes but won't write down how I did it exactly. @Misfit_King frequently asks "why don't you write down what you do?" Oh misfit_king, because that makes too much sense, and I do not live in the rational world. Each batch is a crap shoot. It makes the end result like the big mystery boxes on Let's Make a Deal...Is it a sweet ass '76 Mercury Cougar or just a donkey with an apron on and a lifetime supply of Dentu-grip?? Although, it does make sharing recipes difficult. When people ask me how I made something, I end up giving them the individual recipes and tell them "good luck!"

Anyhoo, about a week before father's day, the Craftzine.com blog posted the recipe for Chocolate Banana Pops now if you compare my picture above to the example picture on their site, you may get a good giggle. go on, i'll wait.

The first glaring difference? I didn't use popsicle sticks...or craft sticks, whatever the kids call them nowadays. Sure, as a crafter, I always have some lying around, but that's just it. They are literally lying around: randomly on the floor where I last crafted, mixed in with my mold making & casting materials...my point is they were not at all food-friendly. You may ask, buy why didn't you just spend the, i don't know, 2 or 3 dollars for a pack of a hundred clean fresh sticks? You know why? Shut up, that's why. The second reason, see the above *. On a less hostile note, I'm more about improvising with what I have on hand then spending the cash. And what did I have? Skewers. Long wooden skewers. Long, pointy, wooden skewers. So a harmless, good time desert could now double as a weapon, if the situation called for it. Sweet sensible Chocolate Banana pops? meet your evil twin:

Chocolate Banana Pops...
of DOOOOOM!!!

I was going to cut the skewers down, but I was worried about slender strips of wood being ingested. Also, if you're going to be reckless enough to use skewers in the first place, you may as well go for full tilt comedic effect and use the whole thing. plus, it's father's day, what better day to make something dangerous and tough, yet sweetly delicious?

If you aren't a baking rebel, like myself, I suggest you follow the directions. It will make for a much more picturesque desert. But here are some helpful things that may or may not help you in your quest for chocolatey-fruity deliciousness:

1) if you don't use craft sticks, use chopsticks (assuming that you have some stockpiled from takeout or you have a set of chopsticks in your kitchen drawers). if you do use something long like chopsticks or skewers, insert the stick with care into the bananas. you don't want to puncture yourself, and because the bananas are curved, you could risk breaking it into chunks, which makes applying the chocolate hard.

2) instead of using shortening in the chocolate, use butter. this is just my personal preference for baking in general as I don't like the taste it leaves. I don't have the exact substitution amount for the shortening to butter ratio (see what happens when you don't write things down?), but if you do a search in the googles for the exchange amount, there are plenty of sites to help.

3) after dozens of mini rainbow sprinkleballs went a-bouncing everywhere, i quickly nixed the wax paper, and just put add ons over the chocolate bowl. I also mixed crushed heath bars into the chocolate itself. worst comes to worst and you have leftover chocolate mixed with sprinkles/heath/whatever add-on, you can either spread the leftover mix flat onto wax paper (or leave it in the bowl), and refrigerate. After it hardens, you have your own customized chocolate bars!

4) as seen in the picture above, I used an aluminum pan to place the bananas in. We didn't have a lot of freezer room for something to lie flat and still be untouched by frozen bags of veggies, so keeping them in a pan worked out great. I also didn't have to worry about them rolling all over the freezer if another item was taken out.

5) eat beforehand. there is way too much yummy chocolate tantalizingly close to you to not sample as you make this treat. if you make this on an empty stomach, you will not want to eat for awhile afterward.

Ok, go forth and enjoy!