Multimedia oh my

I know I’m terribly behind on blog posts, and I will get around to that, I have been crafting a bit of sewing, burning myself with hot wax, cutting my fingers with a deadly round bladed wheel of death-and fabric cutter, knitting badly, and for some completely unfathomable reason I have been attempting to learn to crochet (don’t ask you really really don’t want to know how bad that is going.) Also I have been trying to work on my writing, a little fable/fairy tale that I wrote the notes for in my journal but every time I try to expand on the notes it all goes horribly wrong and I end up in a grump.

What else have I been doing? Aside from giving Peggy Bundy a run for worst housewife.

At the Movies:

Matt and I went to see AVATAR last week, in three dee, so I looked ever so fetching with 3D glasses over top of my glasses. The movie was visually stunning, it was amazing to see, and worth the ticket price (2 for 1 Wednesdays) and the headache. the cast was great if underused, but the dialogue was… terrible, ‘Unobtainium’ says it all really. I would still see it again, it was fun, the planet was vivid and I wanted to know more about the science and biology of the world than was on offer (all the alien creatures were 6 legged except for the 9ft tall kitty cats). I kept waiting for one of the Na’vi to say “You no can has unobtainiums.” but that was probably just me.

Dear Mr. Cameron,

you have oodles of money, peons and slaves galore please use your resources to hire some writers. Because seriously ‘unobtainium’? Also stop writing fanfic about Ferngully, Dances with Wolves, and mutant Smurfs.

yours,

Meri

.........................................................................

DVDs:

Zombie STRIPPERS: ridiculously bad… so obviously we loved it. Zombies, bad acting, stripper, Freddy Krueger.

REPO the Genetic Opera: Fantastic, absolutely loved it from the very start. It is completely bonkers, but fabulously so. I had to download the soundtrack because I NEEDED to listen to have the songs playing on my ipod while I cook dinner.

Star Trek: Fantastic, though the Boy got upset that he couldn’t find his phazer while watching it. T loved the gag reel and the making of documentary too.

TV:
Most of the good shops seem to have disappeared before Christmas and haven’t returned yet. Glee started the other week and I love it (although some of the cheesier songs make me hide behind a cushion.) Dollhouse is ending soon which is a sad as it is a great show. oh and CSI’s Vegas and New York are still on the sky plus but mostly we sit and mock the awful descriptions of the tech used.

Books:

I have a new Literary crush on Neil Gaiman, over the last few months I have read Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere, and one of his Sandman Graphic Novels. American Gods is my favourite thus far I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it.

Devine Misdemeanours: Laurell K Hamilton… pure trash. Paranormal Pulp, but I love the idea of it, the world is good and the books are entertaining if you ignore the pulp.

Coyote: by Allen Steele .. epic sci fi/space opera novel of interstellar exploration, colonization. Apparently it is a reworking of his short stories which I just found out, praise wikipedia, it was quite good, I might read the second book but I’m not so sure about the others after reading some of the reviews on Amazon.


I have another 4 or 5 books that I’m partway through and quite a few more I haven’t started yet.

webcomics

xkcd A webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language. Sometimes the math loses me, but otherwise its a fantastic webcomic.

Questionable Content: very funny webcomic that I have been reading the last few days from the begining. Its great but I only know one in ten indie band refrences.

so what have you been watching, reading, listening to?

.........I’m cold, I think its time to put the kettle on and go watch a DVD or the idiots audition on American Idol.


this blog post has been specially brought to you by the shape cup and the number 4 and the letters C, O, F, F, E and E

Converse One Star Cushion

Apologies in advance for the dire photo, the light had gone and I couldn't wait to share the cushion because I'm so happy with how it turned out. The cushion was made from a Converse shirt of Matt's that we bought at Target last year in Idaho. After having a coffee at the Starbucks inside the shop first. Oh how I miss Target, I never through I would after all those years of working there dressed in tan and red.

The shirt had a couple of holes in a sleeve and at the bottom but the rest of the shirt was in good condition so I thought it needed to be recycled into something else. A cushion was the simplest thing I could think of as I already had a cushion inner that was taking up space in the box I keep my fabric in. It was a simple and fun project and I'm glad the shirt is still around. It was a nice shirt! Matt has acquired it for the back of his chair in the office, citing that it was his shirt so it should be his cushion!

the shirt before I hacked at it

things that amuse me

Awkward Family Photos - because nothing says love like family portraiture in hell

Fail Blog - nothing amuses more than the fail

Epic Win - failure isn't everything..

Craftastrophe - I love it, perhaps because I craft and love to troll etsy.. and sometimes you see things that are a world of WTF??

People of Walmart - fashion is not an option.

Demotivational Posters - its a possibility I have a cynical view of life.. but the Internets reassure me that I'm not the only one.

Oddly Specific - signage

xkcd webcomic - romance, sarcasm, science, general geekery

COMIXED - web comic that had me giggling the other day..

Longmire Does Romance Novels - I'm not entirely sure who Longmire is but I found his page of mocked up romance covers and I laughed till I cried.

Books that Fail - probably more about the snark and humor but its nice to know that thier are like minded people out there who don't judge a book by its classic status or the sparkliness of its heroes.
Savage Chickens - Cartoons on Sticky Notes by Doug Savage... I must say that I especially love the zombie chickens.

It Made My Day - Life's little moments of WIN.

Six Word Stories - stories in six little words. Awesome.

Vampires(Cracked.com) - vampiric glee

I started this list ages ago, and never posted it, so I thought I would post it today. I'm sure there are more things out there that amuse me but for now this will do.. and hopefully amuse you too...right I suppose I best go do something useful... watching tv while nibbling on a cookie is useful right?

Parenting you're doing it right when...

Last night when I was cooking dinner, Cajun Chicken wraps, and H was helping me take the ends of the green beans I put my ipod in the docking station and turned up the music.

the Boy: This is my favourite.

me: the Foo Fighters?

the Boy: Yeah the Foo Fighters. This is my favourite song.

Me: It's called The Pretender.

the Boy: Yeah, the Foo Fighters rock. (cue dancing before returning to cutting the ends off the green beans)

Me: What are your other favourites?

Boy: You can only have two favourites.

Me: oh OK.

the Boy: Smoke on the Water

Me: Deep Purple

the Boy: yeah I know Deep Purple.... Smoke on the Water....You Know it's about a hotel on fire? It's awesome! Can we listen to the Blues now? I like the blues.

Me: later we can, I'm cutting up the chicken now.

the Boy: oh

He wandered off after that, the green beans sufficiently murdered, leaving me grinning as I cut up the rest of the chicken. We must be doing something right in the Boy's musical education!

Meri's Got a Brand New Laptop

Today a little man knocked on the door, grumbled something that vaguely resembled "Sign 'ere on the dots...grunt." so I signed on the dotted line and he gave me a box containing a brand new laptop of my very own. I didn't know it was coming as Santa didn't bring me a laptop for Christmas and Matt kept say non-committal things like 'When the next sale is on.' and 'We'll look in a bit another night.' He didn't tell me so I had no idea that I was actually getting one anytime soon. squeeeeeeeee

I now have to figure it all out as I haven't got a clue. I need to add itunes and find all the stuff stored on the old hard-drive. But I feel so happy. Matt is brilliant and I'm very lucky to have him. And I can't wait to write something worth reading on here but I'm to happy now and I'm off to play. la la la la la

ipod cozy prototype

ipod cozy prototype

Whereby the definition of prototype is total FAIL...

ok it's not that bad but it is wonky. I made it for Matt for Christmas... well I gave it to him before Christmas as I completely lost faith in my abilities to craft at the time. This wasn't my only craftastrophy in recent weeks, and it isn't THAT bad but I had wanted it perfect.. so back to the drawing board and I will try again later this week.

The coffee cup was stamped with fabric paint with a lino tile I cut awhile back. If nothing else it did make Matt laugh so better than nothing eh?

OK I'm freezing and I need coffee before I can type anymore.

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Cinnamon Roll mmmmmm.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

Rolls:
1 1/4 oz. package. Yeast
1 cup. warm milk
1/2 cup. Caster (granulated/white) sugar
1/3 cup. melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups. all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbs. cinnamon (use the best cinnamon you can find)

Icing: (optional)
7 tbs. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 t. salt (if desired I left it out)

Directions:

Rolls:

Dissolve yeast in the warm milk.

Mix in sugar, butter, salt, eggs, and flour. Mix well.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface it will be a very sticky dough so you may need a lot of flour to knead it. Knead into a large ball. Place in a clean bowl and cover with a tea towel and put somewhere warm (I put the covered bowl near the fire as it was the only place not freezing); let rise 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 360 F (180 c).

Roll dough into a 21 x 16 wide rectangle. With the butter softened, spread it generously over the dough (I used my fingers but you can use a spatula).

Sprinkle the filling over the buttered rectangle.

Roll the dough up carefully from the long edge. (I rolled from the long side but you can roll from the short side to make a smaller amount of fatter rolls)

round and round we go

Using a very sharp knife cut into 1 inch wide rolls, making sixteen large rolls (or carefully cut the roll in half and measure out the dough to get 24 smaller pieces that can be tucked into muffin tins/muffin papers). Alternatively if you want big fat rolls, cut them wider.

Grease (butter) your baking pan (11x 15 pan or muffin tins or use muffin cases) Then place rolls in pan and into oven. Bake until the rolls are browned around 15 to 20 minutes (depending on your oven).

Take them out and cover them in icing.

Filling:
While dough is rising, prepare the filling and the icing.
Soften butter.
After dough has been rolled out into a rectangle, spread the softened butter all over.
Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle over entire buttered rectangle.



Icing:

Cream together butter, icing sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Spread onto the hot rolls.

nom nom nom

cook's notes: I have been suffering withdrawal pains lately for all things sugary sweet, cinnamon drenched and American and in that vein I have been mulling over this recipe I have for making Cinnamon Buns (an much altered version of a Cinnabon clone recipe I found long long ago) which as anyone knows are the embodiment of all things sickly sweet, fatty, and overloaded with cinnamon and cream cheese icing. They have helped me get through some very tough times in the past. There are dozens upon dozens of cinnamon roll recipes on the interwebs, this is the one I use and have for years, though I do alter it from time to time, little tweaks here and there until one day the recipe will be as perfect as I can possibly make it. Until then its a pretty damn fine recipe.

It's also really important to use the best cinnamon you can find, I used cinnamon that I bought at Chatsworth Farm Shop and it is amazing how different cinnamon can taste from the regular (cheap) storebrand.

Alice in Wonderland Swap Partners emailed

I'm working on emailing and pairing partners up.. I'm waiting on two emails at least but I have just noticed that 26 people signed up but I only have 19 emails so if you signed up but forgot to fill in the questionnaire please can you get it done now and I will partner you up later tonight or first thing in the morning.

p.s.

H is much much better now.. ..thankfully it wasn't a really bad bug he picked up. He is currently playing out in the snow! But I need to go call him back in so he can have a warm by the fire.

New Year, Plague House, Alice swap update

First of all Happy New Year Everyone! Secondly I Have a bit of a poorly child on my hands. H has caught a bit of a tummy Bug from a friend. So I have been babying him all day and he seems a bit brighter and less grey in colour. Because of that I haven't sorted out partners and emails for the Alice in Wonderland Swap. I'm so sorry I will set out the time to sort out partners and emails later tonight or possibly in the morning if I can beg the use of M's laptop for a few hours. So if there are any last minute straglers or people sitting on the fence you have till tommorrow to sign up. X Apryl