Friday, October 22, 2010

Two Thumbs Up!




Ok, I just woke up from a bit of a catnap with my daughter. I am still tired, and therefore do not understand the rave about catnaps. But since it's 8:45 and I shouldn't be sleeping anyway, I'll let it pass. So now I am on my computer for the first time all day (shocker, I know), and the first link I clicked on from my homepage took me to the cast for the new The Hobbit movie that they've been trying to get going for years. And, if I am recalling correctly, Kili and Fili are two Elf brothers or cousins or something (I only made it halfway through the book, but I did watch the animated movie). My completely and hearty approval for the choices of those two actors!!!! Holy hotness! I am so very, very excited to see this movie now, even more excited than I was before, because I can now look forward to seeing those two actors. I feel like I'm in high school again. *Breathy, girlish sigh*

Onto other news . . . for Halloween I want to be Tarrant Hightop, the Mad Hatter that Johnny Depp (*swoons*) played in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Well, there were and still are a few problems with that plan: I had NONE of the costume. Like, seriously, none. Not the hat, bowtie, shirt, coat, pants, socks, shoes, hair, the white face makeup, NONE OF IT! Well, after spending my $20 gift card at JoAnn's and taking a sneaky and not quite approved trip to Walmart, I got the fabric and pattern for the coat! I know, it would be 1000 times easier to buy the thing, except, the coat I want, a frock coat, is upwards of at least $50 online. I don't have that kind of cash, but I have exciting news on the matter . . . I made the coat! And it was surprisingly easy, once I quit being stupid and sewing the pieces together wrong. I made it out of brown costume satin (but turned the other way, so it was shiny side in), stretchy brown velour/velvet stuff for the collar and cuffs, and I even did lining, fell free to be impressed. I am so proud of myself! The only things I have left to do it hand sew a bit of trim on, and slip stitch the lining in place at the bottom and waist. I wore it out to lunch with one of my best buds today, and she said it was awesome, and I wore it to work too, and they were all suitably impressed. And I felt all sorts of awesome, wearing my Mad Hatter/Pirate coat. It makes me all sorts of warm and gooey inside. Oh, and I bought the white face makeup for my costume, and I already had the other makeup needed. So now I just need . . . all the other stuff. I can borrow the crazy socks from my sister in law, and the pink shirt should be easy, and lacy cuffs should be easy. And hopefully the fingerless gloves. I need to go to DI. They have everything there.

In other news, I finally read my stack of Dr. Seuss books I got from the library! I've had them for at least 2 weeks, and I finally squeezed in some personal time to read them. I read The Sleep Book last week and had the funnest Kid Moment. My dad used to read us that book all the time when we were little, and you have never heard Dr. Seuss until you've heard it read by my dad. He was about 17 different kinds of amazing. He could read it so fast, and he never messed up, and when I was reading it last week I could just hear his voice while I read it. It was the coolest thing ever. That is still my very favorite Dr. Seuss book, and I just read Oh The Places You'll Go for the first time, and that contends for second place next to Scrambled Eggs Super. I love Dr. Seuss. Brilliant, brilliant, genius man.

Ok, I may be done yammering on for now, and it's almost time to get my two year old out of the tub (she saw one of those Pillow Pets for the first time the other day . . . she latched onto the unicorn, gave it a HUGE hug, and didn't let go til we got to the checkout. Now we know what to get her for her birthday . . . ) and put her to bed. So, bonsoir everyone, have a lovely night!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

For the Love of Autumn . . .


Today I'm talking about autumn, at least I'll start talking about that, we'll see where else it goes. Our neighbor across the street has a big tree, I'm not sure what kind, but every October all of it's leaves turn yellow. They're doing that now, almost all of them are this gorgeous golden yellow color that is the very color of happiness. The picture almost nails it, but think all highlighted by the setting sun and just that much more cheerful. And then, after they are all yellow and golden and gorgeous, they will all DROP, within twelve hours. It's like a slightly longer version of the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter movies. It's hysterical. Last year we went up to my mom's for the day when it was all leafy and yellow, and when we came back, the tree was naked. I laughed really hard and my husband looked at me funny.

Ok, so aside from my deep and desperate love of autumn, I have been crazy busy to the extreme the past few weeks. Last night I was going crazy doing stuff on my computer. I had both laptops on (have I mentioned yet that I got a new one? Well, I DID! And it's gorgeous and fast and perfect, I love it), I was talking to one of my best buds on MSN messenger, and I had not one, not two, but THREE ideas for muses and I was also burning myself a new mix, or at least trying to (it was Mix 16, if anyone cares. Yes, I have 16 mixes. And that's not counting my Country and Oldies Mixes, Country Mix, and Rock Mix). It was overwhelming and crazy and I was all psycho for a minute, but I lived to tell the tale. I even managed to make my bed today. I didn't until almost 2:30, but it got done. And that was even after work, which was intense.

I'm very excited for Halloween. My mom is all sorts of crazy about holidays (I may have mentioned this), and Halloween is no exception. She used to make us costumes when me and my brother and siser were little, and she's not been able to do as much in the past few years because of health problems, but this year she's making my littlest sister a bunny (at least, that was the last report) and my littlest brother might have said something about being a ninja. I have no idea what to do for my daughter. My husband said he wants to be Batman, and she can be Batgirl, but that costume at Walmart is $20. I am not paying $20 for a costume she will wear all of once. Okay, she might wear it more than once, but still. $20 for a little knee length black vinyl skirt, a tank top with a yellow Batman symbol, and a mask. Perhaps shoe covers. So not worth it. I could make the whole thing for maybe $5-10 and they'd be warmer and cuter. It's cold in Utah in October, sorta, and we've had a few Halloweens when it was snowing. So, the jury is still out on that. I might make her a princess, there was an adorable dress at Target for $12 (now THAT I can handle).

Okay, one more topic then I'm leaving before I finish writing a novel . . . *casting around for a topic* . . . I have one. Laundry. I have a hamper sitting ominously at the end of my bed, full of laundry. It is taunting me. Because as soon as I fold it and put it away, there will be more laundry to wash . . . and fold . . . and put away . . . and wear . . . and wash . . . and so the vicious cycle goes. I need to just knuckle down and do it, but I just don't wanna! *Throws childish temper tantrum* Alright, on that note I should leave. I am either going to force a muse out or fold laundry or become completely distracted by something else. Probably tickling my daughter, who keeps expecting my hand to dart out and get her tummy. She keeps bouncing on the bed on her knees towards me, to see if I'll go at her. So ta-ta for now, be good while I'm gone. Clean up your messes that you make.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Conference Weekend


Hi all. Today is the second day of General Conference (I think I've said before, but I'm LDS and General Conference happens twice a year for us, it's this awesome church meeting that is broadcasted worldwide and our church leaders give amazing talks and it's just so many kinds of cool) and I sadly missed yesterday because I was at work. But after the second session today (there are 4 sessions, two each day from 10 am to 12 pm, then 2 to 4 pm) I'm going to watch the ones from yesterday. I missed half of the one this morning, too, because my stupid phone alarm didn't go off. Grr. But I'll just watch it online, and since my hubby hooked up his desktop computer to our TV, I can even watch it on our big TV! Yay me! The picture is of the new Tabernacle in Salt Lake City (I call it the Supernacle, since it's HUGE and lots bigger than the old one across the street with the shiny turtle roof), where Conference is held.

Ok, so news on my book. We had some sort of . . . we'll just call it a misunderstanding about how much it would cost for mem to get my book printed. I understood it to be about $60 for 15 paperback books. It's actually about $25 PER BOOK with an additional $35 for setting it all up. (The first word that came to my head was RIPOFF, but I was nice and kept that word to myself). So I'm getting 3 copies for $78. *Wincing a little* A couple people have already called dibs on a copy, but to make things affordable since I doubt anyone will want to pay $35 for a teeny little book (the printers also futzed up the sizing, so the font is teeny and therefore the book is teeny and it's all just annoying). So I'm going to reformat the document and print if off myself, then take it to a different copy store and do spiral binding. Cheaper, and I can make sure everything is how I want it that way. I'm picky. And that way people can actually buy a book that they can read that won't cost them an arm and a leg.

In other news, I tried out 2 new recipes this last week, both of them truffles. They were super simple, and the one with cream and butter turned out fabulous, and the one with cream cheese was very delectable as well, although I did like the first one better. And I have a recipe for tomato and red pepper soup that I've had before that is so many kinds of divine, and I think I'm gonna make that sometime today. Maybe for dinner . . .

Well, I'm gonna go now, the last session of Conference starts in 5 minutes and I'm going to watch the whole thing if it kills me. Love to all!