Doh!

I found this adorable salt shaker on our trip to Michigan.
I'm not sure if the little guy is shielding his eyes from the blinding light, or if his gesture is due to the realization that he should have had a V-8.

A New Family Hare-loom

Lookit what I just ordered from Magic Jelly's etsy shop!
I'm envisioning displaying it as a family portrait with an ornate gold antique frame.
It will take a couple weeks to wing its way over from Australia, and I'm pretty much planning to stand by the window staring at the mailbox the whole time.
You can check out the very cool Magic Jelly blog here.

A Finished Object

It's probably too warm to look at woolly stuff where you are, but up here in Maine we still have several more weeks of sweater weather (it's actually beautiful today, but it is Maine and you never know when it's going to drop below freezing). This is the Drops Jacket that it seems like everyone on Ravelry has been making. I probably wouldn't have made it if I hadn't seen how good it looks on nearly every body type - my favorite thing about Ravelry is that you get to see how knit patterns look on real people, not just on models with stylists cinching, hiking and hoisting. This is the first sweater I've made for myself, and it only took a little less than a month. Granted I worked on it while on vacation, and I have needles in my hand in virtually every photo, but still that's a vast improvement over the year-long Avast project for Davis! And don't worry, seeing these pictures inspired me to get my hair trimmed almost immediately.

I'm Back!

Not that you knew I was gone due to my being an ill-mannered blogger who didn't tell you I was going on vacation - sorry about that!

Anyway, we just got back from a tour of the old country to see the land of Davis' people and to pay our respects to his heritage:

We had a great time in Michigan.

If the mid-west looks a little different than you expected, it's because that photo was taken at the Dutch Village theme park in Holland, Michigan.

Davis is from Grand Rapids, so we went on a pilgrimage to visit his very large family there (he has seven brothers and sisters!). I only have one sibling, so it can be a little intimidating but they always welcome me with open arms and make me feel like one of the family.
Here's a photo of me peeking out of a window in the house where he was raised:

Well, maybe not the actual house he was raised in, but it's pretty close to the same size. I don't know how they did it at the time, but it seems to have worked out well - they're still a close-knit bunch who have a great time together. Every time we go there's a big boisterous family party that goes on well into the wee hours....or so I'm told... I always poop out long before the rest of them do.

I hope to post some more pictures from our travels shortly, but first I need to spend some time unfunking our refrigerator. Two weeks of being sealed up with aging perishables has led to some rather unappetizing aromas.

Take Back the Nest!

Now, I'm not much of an activist, but every once in a while I see something so horrific that I need to take a stand.

We've stood by long enough, doing nothing while activities that border on genocide go on under our noses! This egregious violation of all that is good and right has been going on for hundreds of years, and it's time we put an end to it.
Who is it that is engaging in this slaughter of thousands?
I'll tell you: it's the cuckoo bird."But Petula," you're saying, "Cuckoos are just sweet little birds."
Sweet little birds? Sweet little birds? Does the bird sitting on this nest look sweet to you?:

Many species of cuckoos are brood parasites - they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, the baby cuckoos hatch before the rightful inhabitants, throw their eggs out of the nest, and then run the foster mother ragged making demands for food. For more evidence about this heinous crime, please check out this shocking video. (all kidding aside, you really should take a look. The bird's behavior is so over the top that it's hilarious. It's like a Saturday Night Live skit about the worst houseguest ever)

So what can we do to let them know that this activity has to stop? Obviously we need to boycott cuckoo products.
I haven't purchased a single box of Cocoa Puffs since I first learned of the cuckoo's cruelty, and I have to say that I feel really good about it. But what about cuckoo clocks? This one is harder, since I've wanted one ever since I was a kid.
Well, I've come up with a solution that I feel rights nature's wrongs: I joined forces with the once-persecuted reed-warbler, and together we've managed to bring some justice to this situation by throwing a particularly guilty looking cuckoo out of her own home. Restitution has been made, and the reed warbler now rules the roost! It sounds cruel, but something had to be done.

The obvious problem with this is that the cuckoo actually looked better on the clock.
Oh well, sometimes the fight for justice gets ugly.

Skirting Spring

My new skirt arrived today from Made With Love By Hannah!
Davis got me the red Scherenschnitte Skirt with lovebirds and I love it. I can't wait until it's warm enough to be able to wear it beyond the confines of my dressing room.
note: Hannah has an A-dorable blog that I highly recommend.

In other news, my Alice obsession is slowly abating. I finished the game the first time and then immediately started again on a harder level. Now that I'm nearing the finish of my second run I think I may be able to put it away for a little while. Maybe.
It became so all-encompassing that for a week and a half I've woken up with its soundtrack in my head. When real-life things occur that I don't like, my first instinct is to pause and revert back to the last time I saved. The game has even started to influence the way I dress.
Sure that's a little obsessive, but Alice is such eye-candy that it actually makes for a fabulous little vacation from a gloomy late-February/early-March.

Down the Rabbit Hole

I'm happy to report that my cold is finally abating, unfortunately a new illness is upon me. This new sickness is an addiction - an addiction so great that it could easily threaten my health, my family and my ability to hold a job.
I know you're asking yourselves, "Is Petula smoking the crack? Chasing the dragon? Paying a visit to Mr. Brownstone?" (because that's how you guys talk). No, it's something far more insidious: the video game American McGee's Alice.
I read about it when it first came out about eight years ago and really wanted to try it, but it was for pcs and in those days we just had a Mac. Since then they've released a Mac version and I've switched to a pc, but I'd already forgotten about it.
Just a little while ago I ran across a reference to the soundtrack of the game which jogged my memory and caused me to hunt it down. How was I to know the mayhem that would ensue?
After a rough beginning (I'm a complete novice at video games and definitely not a natural) I got completely sucked in. Morning turned into afternoon which turned into night. At midnight I tore myself away and went to bed, only to toss and turn sleeplessly as I imagined myself battling the Queen's guard cards and evil mushrooms. I then caught myself thinking, "Hmmmm....maybe I should go downstairs and play a level or two just to help me relax." Just a little fix, that's all I need....
Today has been more productive, but only because I'm using the game as a carrot on a stick. In fact, the only way I was able to write this post was to tell myself that as soon as I finished I could play another level.



edited to add: I've put in at least 12 more hours of playing time and I'm still not at the end. I think my addiction might be on the verge of curing itself as I've started to develop a hostility towards the game.

Snails in Love

I have a bit of a head cold, so I thought it would be best to wait until my brain is capable of complete sentences before I do a real post. Until then, I'll give you this picture of my kitchen that shows true love between a salt and a pepper shaker. Insulin anyone?

Scherenschnitte

There have been many great scherenschnitte/paper-cutting posts on the crafty blogs lately (see: here,here,here and here for starters). I've been tempted to try my hand at it, but reluctant to start something new when I currently have so many half-finished projects strewn around my studio.
When I saw this post at Little Acorn all my good intentions went out the window. I could resist the call of the X-acto no more.
I used her pattern, and here are the three I made before I ran out of paper choices. As you can see, it's highly addictive.

Cassoulet Soiree

I didn't think it was possible, but Mary Jane's 4th annual Cassoulet Cook-off was even better than last year's.
There were 12 (12!) huge cassoulets, 7 gazillion jovial guests, 2 wonderful hosts (the petticoat-bedecked Mary Jane and her prizewinning cook of a husband Erik), countless bottles of wine, and one giant bonfire all at their French-farmhouse-like home.
First prize was taken once again by the Kilted Cook (I wanted to alliterate, but "Kilted Kook" had an entirely different meaning than what I was going for), who narrowly squeezed by silver medalist Erik.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview the world champion cassoulet chef and was able to glean a few of his secrets:
Not only does he make his own sausage from pork that he butchered himself, but he also happens to have a coveted duck fat collection that he saves for just this sort of occasion. But the real trick? He says that the dish needs to be prepared with free range ducks that have been lovingly tended and raised almost as family members. The Kilted Cook even goes so far as to incubate the eggs of the ducks himself before they're hatched. When unable to sit on the nest, he has been known to tuck an egg under each arm so he can do things like attend the Christmas pageants of his human children.*
(Erik: you might want to take note of this to get the winning edge for next year)

Here are Mary Jane and I, both photographed with our eyes open and only one chin each! I had been hoping to post some delectable pictures of cassoulet, but we were so busy eating it that it wasn't so delectable looking by the time Davis got the camera out. And, yes, I'm drinking Labatt's. I'd like to say that it's a reflection on my own lowbrow tastes and not those of my hosts. I thought it would be a nice yin to the cassoulet's yang.

*believe it or not, I only made up that last part.

Odds & Sods

I've come up with some more potential names for our ramshackle mansion since Quincy Jones wasn't getting any love. They are:
Crumblehurst
Tumbledown Manor
and
Trickly Fifth
That last one is a reference to the house's leaky inclinations (slate roofs are lovely, but not so easy to repair) combined with either the 1/5th acre it sits on, or the very old and empty liquor flask that was found in the eaves of the barn, possibly explaining the logic behind some oddities regarding the house's construction.

I'm sorry to report that I'm still not spatterdashed. I have been working on my steam-pest look though, and have acquired the following items to give me some Gashlycrumb flair:

The pendants are from etsy seller adorapop, and I think they're so cute I've been wearing them almost constantly. The boots were an ebay find, and I think they're exceedingly spiffy. So spiffy, in fact, that the first time I wore them I expected strangers to stop me on the street and marvel at them. Shockingly, no one did.... perhaps they were too shy?
Undaunted, I wore them three times the following week, ran into plenty of friends, and still no one said anything.... hmmmm..... obviously it might be one of those if-you-can't-say-anything-nice-don't-say-anything-at-all situations, but it really seemed more like nobody noticed the new look. And then it occurred to me: my look isn't steam-pest, it's invisigoth!

Spatterdashes!

I recently rewatched The City of Lost Children, and it has resulted in a new fashion obsession. The story is rather bizarre and convoluted, but the sets and costumes are so gloriously steampunk that it's a must-see. So what, praytell, is my new fashion obsession? Spatterdashes!, or spats, as they're more commonly called. They have practical benefits: they're warm (like legwarmers, but with far more elegance), and they protect the tops of your shoes from dirt. Ok, fine, that second one isn't especially helpful these days, but if you think of them as aprons for the shoes they seem almost au courant. Of course the real reason I want a pair is that they're really really pretty. I neeeeeed some! How have I lived all these years without owning a pair? The mind, it is boggled. Obviously I'll need to downdate my wardrobe with some Steam garb so I'll have something to wear the spats with. I don't want to draw too much attention to myself (no bustles or undersea globe helmets), so I'm thinking my new look will be more Steampest than Steampunk. The top pair of spats are new ones, done in the classic style. The second pair is vintage. They were found on ebay, but, sadly, I was too late for the auction. The next two pairs are made by etsy seller Straight Razor Slasher and they're shockingly reasonably priced at a mere $35. $35! With all those buttons! They're selling faster than she can make them, and they're often sold out. (update: she just increased the price to a still-very-reasonable $45) The penultimate spat is from Maide The knitted spats on the bottom were found at Booze & Yarn. There isn't any information about them there, just a picture. Too bad. It would be nice if they had a pattern so I didn't have to trouble my poor little head with all those bothersome calculations to make a pair. Hopefully the next time you see me I'll be spatterdashed! (hey- that one's actually a real word)

p.s. - Thanks for all the great comments on the previous post!
eta - Whoops! I didn't mean to have comments turned off for this post - all better now!

Jane-uary

Are you all watching The Complete Jane Austen on PBS? It almost makes January tolerable. I just watched Northanger Abbey last night - it aired last week, but I'm a little behind. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it. I've never read the book, but I have seen the 1986 version and I liked this one much better. An added bonus is that the costumes are beautiful. I'm assuming this means that they're historically inaccurate, but I can live with that.

Watching Jane Austen always fills me with a need to give our home a name like the estates in her books - something romantic like Pemberley, Netherfield or Mansfield Park.
I wanted to go with something that speaks of the history of the land we're on and contemplated the family names associated with the earliest records of our property, but Walsh and Jones didn't give me too much to work with ( I was hoping the records would make something like Chateau Lafite Rothschild a sensible choice).
Maybe if I combined one of those names with some other attribute of the property?
We're on well under an acre of land, ruling out anything with "field", "wood" or "meadows"...... ok then, what about going with a spin on some of the flora and fauna we found here when we first moved in? The Feral Cathouse was quickly ruled out, as was anything involving raccoon carcasses. Plants then? Davis the magical gardener has turned it into a virtual jungle out there, but there weren't many plants when we first moved in - some peonies, an ugly mystery tree that's we've only been able to narrow down to the genus Prunus, and a quince.
All this pondering, and what name did I come up with for our "estate"?
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our family home: Quincy Jones.

Yeah, I might need to work on that a little more.




Edited to add: comments are back - I missed you guys!

Bookends and Blogs

After whining about a lack of thrifting adventures in our area last week, we decided to make a pilgrimage to more fertile flea-friendly fields. Our excursion was 160 miles round trip, but it made for a fun day by Maine-in-January standards.
I've only had time to get pictures of one of my finds so far, but I hope to take more shortly. In the meantime, I present you with these freakishly kitten-like deer bookends that I'm quite smitten with:



I also thought I'd promote two blogs that I've really been enjoying lately:

	Little Robot is working on a paper & wood theater that is boggling my mind with its greatness. She's showing the project from start to finish, and it's really interesting to see the process.
	The artwork at Art and Ghosts is really inspiring - lots of dreamy pop surrealism.