Voodoo or Cat Toy?

Gat and I were looking at craft idea's on Pinterest, when we ran across this awesome do it yourself pincushion. I do a fair bit of sewing and  Gat does needle work, so a pincushion was something that we both would use.  The pin cushion looked like a cute voodoo doll. It wouldn't be one of those crafts that is more for artistic purposes than function purposes.  Charming and useful. I did what most people do on Pinterest, I pinned it and forgot about it.

Fast forward to a couple of months in the future, and I  was looking for something else in my catalogue of saved pins, and stumbled across it.  The website was awesome. Not only did it have clear instructions on how to assemble the voodoo pincushion, there was also a video.  I decided that it was time to make a pincushion.

There was only a small hitch in this plan.  In the instructions, it says to use a gingerbread cookie cutter as a template. I have a lot of cookie cutters, but no gingerbread cookie cutter.  The closest I can get to a gingerbread cookie cutter, is the two headed cookie cutter I picked up at the Mutter Museum. I think there is a certain sort of charm to having an extra head.  Dib, the official cat helper for any craft project did not seem to be all that amused.

Honestly this project took less time than anticipated and I am thinking about making a couple more pin cushions for various people.  My husband remarked that it looked like a cat toy to him, and I can picture it.  I know I have a fish cookie cutter and a squirrel, so perhaps in the future I might add a little cat nip with the stuffing and see if the cats take an interest in more than just a supervisory role.

If you are looking for a craft that you can easily complete in a single evening or you just want to make a small toy, just  out Red Ted Art.

Sticky Conversations

Conversations with my niece are the best.  She might not think so.

Hailey: What is your favorite flavor of taffy?

Me:  Uhh..... Strawberrry?

Hailey: Pumpkin Donut Taffy is mine.

Me: What?

Hailey: Puummmppkiiinn. Dooonnnuuutttt Taffy

Me: I have never heard of it.

Hailey: I'm eating it, right now.

Me: What is the donut part of the taffy?

Hailey: ...What?

Me: You know, the donut.  It is kind of like a cake but frosted or glazed and people eat them for breakfast.

Hailey: Aunt T, I am talking about Taffy!

Me: Me too.  I just want to know what the donut part of the taffy is.

Hailey: It is just pumpkin!

Me:  Then why is it called Pumpkin Donut if there is no donut in it?

Hailey: Because that is the flavor.

Me: I know what pumpkin tastes like, but there are so many types of donuts out there, so I want to know what the donut component of the taffy tastes like.

Hailey: You're weird.

Me: Sprinkles?  Do you think it tastes like sprinkles?

Hailey: Insert exasperated sigh, that only a ten year old can give with conversing with adults that just don't seem to get it.

Laffy Taffy Joke: What kind of shoes do mice wear?    Squeakers!

Eat Paint Chips

I think that in my next life, I want to be the person that names paint colors.  Some of these color names leaves me baffled.  My place of employment is really into Halloween, and we did a construction/remodeling theme.  While I was tearing down the decorations, I looked at some of the paint colors samples that were picked at random.

What sort of person names a color Banana Oil?  Does that person hate bananas?  Who could hate a banana?  If a person were to tell me that they were going to paint their kitchen a lovely banana oil hue, I would be hard pressed not to recoil and grimace.  I would not be picturing a blanched out shade of new grass green.  Banana oil makes me think of a yellowy brown greasy color, which is like the residue of fried bananas on a paper towel.  Only a person that hated bananas would name such a lovely shade banana oil. 

I think after a while the person who names the colors gets desperate. After all, they did name a perky peony pink color Apron. What color does Apron make you think of?  It makes me think of warm kitchens and fresh cookies. It would be a mellow off white from being washed over a dozen times with perhaps a soft blue tint to it from a stray sock that ended up in the wrong laundry basket, that is what the color Apron would be to me.   I can’t picture it as a peppy, perky pink that would make bubblegum jealous. 

I will have to look into this at a future date to see what sort of qualifications a person needs to name paint colors. I think I can do this.  I also think I might use my power to name paint to really mess with people.  I would name a paint color Existential Crisis. Can’t you just picture that paint color in your head?  It would be deep and profound and would probably make a great accent wall color. It would certainly be a lot more complex than Banana Oil and Apron.

Ramen For Dinner

I am thinking about deleting my Pinterest boards and starting over again. I know that this sounds crazy, because Pinterest is just a fancy way to collect ideas and store them.   I think half the fun of Pinterest is finding the new idea or trying the new recipe, but then I think about how I have almost 9K pins and I don't think I have actually used 1% of them.  Why should I look for more idea's if I am not using the idea's I already have pinned?  First world problems, I know. I am still on the fence as to if I should or shouldn't.

One of the things that I do like about Pinterest is that I can look at several recipes or ideas and then combine it together into something that I want. A perfect example of this is my ramen recipe.  I took the elements from  a Simple Sesame Noodles Recipe by The Pioneer Woman and bastardizing some elements from Half Baked Harvest's Crockpot Crispy Caramelized  Pork Ramen Noodle Soup w/Curry Roasted Acorn Squash  to come up with an easy ramen soup recipe that takes maybe 20 minutes to make and is now my go to recipe when I have no idea what I am making for dinner.
If all else fails for dinner, soup is always the answer.

I normally would try and have a picture of what ever I am talking about, but I can never seem to remember to take a picture before I have already started to devour it.  Instead here is a picture of the Dib Cat.  The internet needs more pictures of cats.

 My Ramen Recipe

1/2 C Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Hoisin Sauce
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
1 Tsp Chili Oil
2 Tsp Sesame Oil
2 Tbs RiceVinegar
1 Tbs Red Chili Sauce
1 Tbs Korean Hot Sauce or Rooster Sauce
1/2 Tsp Powdered Ginger
1/4 Tsp Fish Sauce
1 Tbs Minced Garlic

Mix all these things together and set to the side.  The oils may separate, that is okay, you can stir it back together.


In a Wok or frying pan on medium heat cook:
1/4 C Diced Onions
1/4 C Shredded or Diced Carrots
Hand full of shredded Cabbage
1 medium to small cubed pork chop
Splash of Soy sauce and oil to keep things from sticking
(You can add mushrooms, but my husband hates mushrooms, so I don't)

When this is done set it to the side. Cook your noodles. (I use Soba, but I am sure you can use other types. Noodles are just a vehicle to get soup from one place to another.)   Keep the water.  Divide noodles out into bowls. Add your meat and cooked veggies on to each pile of noodles.  Pour your sauce over your bowls of noodles.  Add some of the retained water to make it more soup like.

This is where I top each bowl with a fried egg and sprinkle it with sesame seed and some times spring onions if I have them.  I know it seems like a lot of steps, but really it is just throwing a bunch of stuff in bottles together to make the sauce and tossing it with what ever veggies I have on hand with noodles.  The fried egg is because ramen is always better with a fried egg on it,  much like hamburgers.   Enjoy!

Bad Machinery

A Review: Bad Machinery

My stack of comic to read has been overflowing for a while now, and I decided to do something about it.  In the deep abyss of things I should read, I found Bad Machinery Volume 1: The Case of Team Spirit by John Allison.  This is published by Oni and can be found at your local comic shop or at least ordered by them if they don't have it in stock.  This is one of those comics that my husband picked up for me, thinking that I would like it.

He was wrong.  I don't like it. I love it.  It cracked me up laughing several times.  The story flow is fun and inviting.  There are jokes that adults can appreciate, but not so over the top that I would feel uncomfortable having my niece read it. In fact, if my niece did read it, I could see me ending up with more than one wet leaf in my pocket. (Hailey, I do not want a wet leaf in my pocket. This not an invite to put wet leaves places.)

If you are looking for a series that is off beat, fun and has nothing to do with super heroes, you might want to check this out. This is definitely a book worth giving, and a fun read to pass an afternoon with.

Unicorns are Underrated

Day 2

Unicorns are under rated. Everyone knows what a unicorn is, but very rarely are they a main character.  I was thinking about this over the weekend while I was folding laundry.  I few weeks ago I had picked up two animated films that I had loved as a child. They were The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico and the Island of Magic. I loved those movies as a kid.  They were the right amount of whimsy sugar filled sweetness with a little bit of plot and angst to keep the story moving.

Once you watch one nostalgic film, it is easy to spiral down into a path of re watching other childhood favorites, which is what lead me to rewatching Legend while folding laundry over the weekend and got me wondering about having a unicorn movie marathon.

I quickly discovered that there are not enough unicorn movies to have a marathon.  I can name four unicorn movies.  That is it. There are more leprechaun based movies out there, then there are unicorn movies.  Some how this seems unfair.  Which leads me to believe that unicorns are the under-rated fantasy creature.

Some where are in a time where people just remake movies instead of creating something new, I think they should remake The Last Unicorn into live action.  It's just a thought.  Who do you think would be cast in it?

Day 1

November Challenge

Day 1

Every November for the past seven years, I have participated in NaNoWriMo.  It is something near and dear to my heart, that challenges me and makes me a better person. This year is the first year that I am not actively participating in NaNoWriMo.  I find that I write these stories and then never touch them again.  No editing is done, no re-writes, no spell checks, it just remains a raw piece of work. 

I keep telling myself that I will eventually get to editing, the hard part of getting the idea out of my head it done.  I have discovered that I am really talented at procrastinating. It is unfair for those ideas that made it onto paper not to be polished up just a little bit.  

Instead of adding to the pile of stories that need a good scrubbing and detangling, I am going to do two things instead.  One, I am going to pick one story out of the pile to be edited and really start editing it, to see if it is a diamond or just a lump of coal. Two, I am going to post something on my blog every day that NaNoWriMo runs.  The reason for the blog post requirement is to give myself a writing challenge, but perhaps one not as aggressive as NaNo.  I tend to get lazy if not given a challenge, and lately trying to get any of the half-baked idea’s out of my head and onto my blog has been a challenge. 

For all those that are taking up the pen and pouring out the words, Good Luck!  Happy Writing, and if all else fails, kill a character.