cranking out the sherlock tat

hey, hey, kittens! with the release dates of sherlock for both the uk and the us now available to the general public, it's time to start making things for the upcoming sherlock viewing party of ours.

yea, verily, i made a sherlock mobile.  are you excited silhouyet?

big guarantee from me that more of this stuff will be forthcoming. full set will be here.

have some birds and string

let's keep bumping the who stuff off the page. here're some birds with some string that i put together for a friend.

saturday housecleaning

as we finish up the leftovers from thursday (gobbler sandwiches, the reason for the season.) i thought i'd catch up on some things that can't be/weren't photographed. (the crab apple tree could be though so, here's your image break.)

right and ho, first up, capslock fully engaged, WE GOT OUR PLANE TICKETS FOR BERLIN AND AMSTERAM!! feb's big trip time and i am right smack in the middle of planning. we have not finished purchasing transportation tickets, however as HAHAH WE ARE ALSO GOING TO CHICAGO AND PRAGUE PRAGUE PRAGUEEEEEEEEE i am all PRAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA because I have been wanting to go there ever since i saw this video.

go ahead, laugh. but i know where to find rabbi loew's grave as well as david cerny's sculptures and etc, etc all of which i will photograph for you (i can feel your excitement.) after i have gotten fucking tanked on x-beer 33. (because, COME ON, it's, like, a prereq.)

also, CHICAGOOOOOO which was a former sort of stomping ground for me in the 90's. don't ask me about it though, i was pretty drunk most of the time. (although i do remember the henry darger exhibit at the cultural center. baller, that was. (but don't really ask me about that beer garden or bleeding feet or the pub etc, etc, etc it is blurry.))

also, also RHYS WILL BE BACK IN THE TACKY IN A FEW MONTHS which, lame for him, but great for me because i miss him.

what else, what else, oh yes! kim dropped by last night. it is always nice to see kim. she didn't drink an entire one of my "anxiety specials" (1 limonata, 1 diet lemon lime soda, six dashes of bitters, as much vodka as you need over ice) but she did think it was tasty (as its name implies, it fucking takes the edge off. try it. use a straw for maximum anxiety relief!)

erm, DO READ the golem and the jinni! i might get around to those new leaked salinger stories in a bit. necessary errors is next though (obvs). also i'm in the middle of the moonstone (so good) and am going to have another crack at the luminaries. word to the wise on that one, don't stop reading it once you start or you will lose the threads.

so, yes, back to the thumping huge books that i'm reading and the three languages (german, czech, dutch) i am trying to cram. see you soonish.

the one where we have a feesta

as you are probably aware, it is thanksgiving. again. time for another feesta.

starting from the turkey, going clockwise we have 1) cranberry sauce with oj and jalapeno 2) sweet potatoes with lime, cayenne, a little brown sugar and yogurt 3) macaroni salad 4) gravy 5) stuffing and 5) green beans with caramelized onions, toasted almonds and lemon juice.

all of it was finished with tiny pumpkin (not pictured) and key lime pies topped with vanilla ice cream

while we watched a chunk of the mst3k turkey day marathon that was streaming on youtube. 

that was a nice surprise. back when i was in college and the turkey day marathon was on comedy central, i would spend my thanksgivings solo (bliss!) mainlining the show with vodka and cranberry juice. (what. it was seasonal. and i was possibly vegetarian at the time. can't remember.)

the rest of today is probably going to be spent finishing the golem and the jinni and maybe taking a nap. or having a vodka and cranberry juice. for old time's sake.

turkey hand!

happy whichever combo of holidays you are celebrating today if you're doing that. "thursday!" i will yell at the bulk of you who read this blog. "turkey hand!" i will also yell because i have a turkey on my hand.

more posts from the land of november thanksgiving will be forthcoming. it's a public service of sorts. i KNOW there ain't shit to read out there today. 

surprise thanksgiving decorations

i am just as surprised as you are that i made decorations for thanksgiving but, well, i was feeling really down and last night's "sleepy hollow" was pretty great so i thought, fuck it, i'll chalk up the walls, cut some birds, grab some sticks and make some abbie and ichabod silhouetes.

result...

silhouettes with sticks and feathers.

oh, yorick. you are such a prankster.

here are some pictures of the crows.

oh yeah! i also got my white chocolate mouse.

 peel didn't understand what it was all about but, then again, she is a cat

moving on...

time to bump the "who" stuff off the front page and move on to the next bright bit of tv that will help to get us through the long, dark, bitter winter. yes, it is time to start thinking about "sherlock". which one of you is surprised? the answer no one.

but on to the stuff and nonsense. at certain times of day in our house, it now says "rache" on the wall kind of like in "a study in scarlet".

only, you know, not in blood but in light. i am NOT dealing with blood on the walls unless it's absolutely necessary. (it will, hopefully, never be necessary. art school was a long time ago after all.)

scenes from a "doctor who" 50th anniversary party

if you're on pacific time trying to have a doctor who semicentennial party concurrent with gmt festivites, you have to start shit fucking early. it's not even 9:30 am in this photo. we have not had sonic screwdrivers or fifth doctors (complete with celery salt). no, it is just coffee at this point.

coffee and old school doctors.

behold the 60's ish tea nibbles. caramelized pear and ginger mini scones, the chocolate upgraded cookies from earlier this week and the ginger loaf pieces with stenciled maple butter cybermen, tardi and daleks.

not pictured are the mini cheese and onion tarts. those are all gone now, btw. kinda' like yorik's face. not his personality though. that has remained even though he has shuffled off his (plastic) mortal coil.

saturn robot demands that you have a few pictures for atmosphere or face tiny extermination.

anyway, happy doctor who high holiday if it's a thing you do.

i'm just sad that our jelly babies haven't arrived yet.

(all 50th anniversary who stuff viewable in this handy, dandy set.)

upgraded cookies

normal day, normal guy.

until!

YOU HAVE BEEN UPGRADED!!!

(this recipe used. no cookies harmed in this production until we ate them.)

assorted things

decided today that the way to approach the food for the 50th anniversary of "who" is to prepare a tea that mighta, kinda' sorta' been available in 1963. after reading this lovely account, i made a ginger loaf using this recipe.

i think that version is supposed to be similar to what's available at starbucks? idk? i only go to starbucks when there's not a local place available? still, it's tasty and i will be transforming it a bit for saturday.

speaking of transforming, i'll be using this cutter

for an appropriate cookie. (cutter has been previously used to make thug life cookies during last year's "summer of cookies". (my, wasn't that fun. a real fucking humdinger, i'd say. etc, etc, etc)

non food related but still devourable is the lost art of keeping secrets. "breaking hearts in mono." ha!

it reminds me of dodie smith's i capture the castle which is a good thing. it's one of my serious comfort reads, ole dodie's book. it will be nice to add keeping secrets to the pile of things to consume when i want the world to end.

ps-- if leff's cold does not have me going all shallotish (A CURSE HAS COME UPON ME always and forever said like black francis (always sung as "curse", never as "joke. always screaming YOU ARE THE SON OF A MOTHERFUCKER), the transformed cutter cookies should be posted tomorrow.

this is just goofy

one silly hearty tardis.

one silly poster proving that twat smith agrees with me.

holiday baking

let's take a break from all this "who" stuff. i mean, i kinda' need to because i've got just a little over a week for thanksgiving prep.

i know, i know. a lot of you readers are outside of the us and you're probably thinking that we're doing a holiday a little early. (canadians, you probably think we're doing this late.) really, the only reason i "celebrate" thanksgiving  (read:  i don't. i have no sentimental attachment to family holidays) is for the pie and cranberry sauce.

fuck yeah, i like cranberry sauce.

plus i only wear my goofy vintage apron when i'm making thanksgiving food so that's fun. green cats and bees???? whatever, it has a phone pocket. (probably was not originally used to keep mobile nearby though.)

today i made the mini pies. two kinds this year, key lime which turned out nicely

and pumpkin which did NOT. eh, you can't have everything. word to wise, maybe when you are turning these out of a pan, maybe don't be iming at the same time. oops.

here's the trial loaf of a sandwich bread recipe.

obvs, i did not let the dough rise over the top of the pan. don't care, don't care. it tastes good with butter and ham and the next loaf will make a great stuffing.

i feel like i'm forgetting to do something? meh, i'll check my calender. (oh, COME ON if you know me irl, you KNOW that i have ocded the FUCK out of holiday planning. lists, they're what i do.)

some more who decorations

no, they aren't as exciting as yesterday's whoodles but these are two of leff's favorite "who" quotes. jon pertwee's "i'm EVERY kind of scientist!"

and patrick troughton's "oh CRUMBS!"

i don't have a favorite quote from this show but i do enjoy it when leff says "i will now speak to you in mathmatico, the universal language--- RAAAAAAAGGHDALKJFDA". i mean, it's from "kolchak" but he tends to say it when "doctor who" is on for some reason.

doctor whoodles for you to scarf down

i asked leff what he would like to eat in the week leading up to the "doctor who" 50th anniversary. after thinking for a minute, he said "it would be cool if you could make tom baker scarf noodles!" and so i did.

you could make them too if you like. for this you will need a pasta recipe (this is a great one), food dye, a chart for the doctor who scarf colors (this is nice.) and a pasta machine. although i suppose you could roll the dough out with a rolling pin and then cut it using a pizza cutter or knife. (it might be difficult, however.)

make sure that you don't get the dough too wet when adding color bands. this can be rectified by adding a bit more flour to absorb the water. here's my scarf dough before i ran it through the machine.

cutting into little scarves using the machine.

here are the whoodles hanging out next to some regular noodles. don't think that we used specialist material for this. it's just our broom. (we made sure to clean the handle first. ha!)

and the finished whoodles with a bit of olive oil. leff likes to keep his pasta simple.

check back all week for more who stuff. i'm not sure if i'll have something every day (and most days won't be as complicated as the noodles) but it could be fun.

dalek wreath

i imagine that daleks would exterminate any type of wreath they might come across.

do you have a feeling that things might get a bit nuts in the casa before next saturday? i have a feeling that things might get a bit nuts in the casa before next saturday. and this isn't even the project that i was thinking you might enjoy (if you are into this sort of thing.)

starting trends (ha, no, not really) and gearing up for 50th "doctor who" shindig

tiny stupid hats have been over for some time now. let's all start wearing tiny stupid sunglasses.

no, please don't. i only took that picture to keep myself amused while waiting on the power to be restored. (a suicidal squirrel blew a transformer.)

anyways, i started putting together some doctor who tat for leff.

fun fact! i am not the doctor who fan here. i just tend to hang out with people who are into the show. i will be "watching" the anniversary special while reading hild or luminaries or that led zeppelin bio that is killing me.

check back for more who stuff if you are so inclined. if i can get this one project to work, you might like it.

it was "curtain"s for us

tonight was the night that we had been dreading ever since the "poirot" series started airing in the early 90s. yes, "curtain".

even though leff and i both knew the story, it was still difficult to watch. poor hastings! POOR POIROT! yes, we both cried. i am not ashamed. i've spent 25 years or so of viewing time (and 31 years worth of reading!) with this character. he's kinda like an old friend who just happens to be inhabited by david suchet.

which, while we're on the topic, how fucking great is it that he made all of the "poirot"s?! THE BEST! leff and i have already started rewatching the series from the beginning again.

anyway, tonight's party, i made some decorations.

good lord! here's a close up of the "little grey cells" banner and the poirot shrine.

everyone got into the poirot spirit, as you can see.

i also made a bunch of fiddly foods to eat, tapenade, baba ganoush, hummus and four kinds of sandwiches. l to right they are, 1) roasted veggie with caramelized onion goat cheese, 2) cucumber sandwiches with irish butter, 3) ham, green apple, dijon, brie and irish butter (fucking LOVE irish butter, heh) and 4) lemon curd with berries on toasted english muffins

we also had a bit of fancy dress thanks to uedeline moutarde! 

WE ARE ALL POIROT NOW