Maskery and Oktoberfest

Well, I was going to post about that shirt I made but seeing as I didn't get a picture taken of it while it was still light outside I'll wait until later. I also couldn't find my undershirt for it (seeing as it's a sheer the undershirt is very important to me). Don't know where that thing went because I for sure had it last night. Gnomes. I'll go with gnomes, gnomes moved it somewhere. Ah. Well.

My dad and sister are here now so I'm less inclined to spend time writing.

So... I will show you a picture of a mask I have in process. I won't show another until it's done and the person who I intend to send it to gets it. It's not the same something I had on my list to make for someone. That's a different thing. I'm excited about it because I plan on using techniques and materials I haven't used for masks before.

 

Masks always look kinda creepy at this stage but this one will likely continue looking creepy.

 

 

 

Despite a bunch of reminders around town I already forgot that it is now Oktoberfest here in Mount Angel. It's kind of a big deal. There are cars everywhere and a LOT of people. For a relatively small and quiet rural town it gets crazy here. It was extended this year to last Thursday through part of Sunday and I'm sure it will be crowded the entire time. Kitschy German touristy town, that's Mount Angel. If you like German beer and fried foods you'll love it. I may venture out at some point and take some pictures to share (and probably get at least one fried edible). I've never paid to go in to the stages and stuff to listen to the live music or watch the dancing so I can't really say anything about that. I considered making a dirndle just for the heck of it but seeing as I completely forgot that didn't happen. 

Clicky for link to Oktoberfest website.

Because Cupcakes Are Important

I like to cook and bake things from the ground up. Or, rather, the most basic ingredients up. I'm not at all opposed to cans although I plan on eventually learning how to can my own things. I don't like additives. Nitrates, monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, and sugar substitutes have no place in my kitchen (haha, I can't really call it my kitchen. Whatever.). It is ridiculous how much better food is and how much more satisfying it is without all that junk. A side effect of how I feed myself means I'm generally very picky about my food. It's not a good thing when I've been invited to dinner and I try to find a gracious way to decline because I know the food they plan on serving will leave me feeling sick. It has absolutely nothing to do with their cooking skills. It has to do with what my stomach is used to.

That and I don't like politely lying by saying "It does," when someone has described to me chicken roll-ups (apparently, if I remember right, it's cream cheese mixed with chicken and ranch dressing powder that is then rolled up in those croissants you get in a tube and the whole thing is topped with cream of mushroom soup) when I'm really thinking, "NoNoNONONONO." I hate lying to be polite but I couldn't see a non-offensive way to get out of commenting at all. Especially when they directly ask, "Doesn't that sound delicious?" I request that when you ask me questions that they are not leading questions. I don't want to lie and I really don't want to hurt your feelings.

So, basically, I am particular about what I eat. I apologise in advance. Well...honestly, I eat nearly everything but when I have a choice I try to keep it good.

I eat some terrible garbage every once and a while. I also generally regret it something awful.

I am very much an omnivore. If I go too long without red meat I get anemic feeling and kind of cranky. I don't like cheese (I had a roommate whose favorite food was cheese, means more for her!) with the exception of fresh mozzarella and feta in small doses. My dislike of cheese also means I kind of don't like pizza (BLASPHEMY! I know.). I'll eat pizza and I won't complain about it. It's just not my favorite and I tend to favor the chicken & veggie type pizzas. I'm not a fan of greasy things. Or, rather, I always want the grease balanced out by something green. Like, if I get onion rings I'm going to want non-fried vegetables too. I've never liked raw tomatoes. I've found that if tomatoes are mixed with either basil or cilantro I will like and enjoy them. I don't know why. Seriously though, bruschetta, salsa, pico de gallo -delicious! Tomato on my hamburger? No. Whenever my family had BLTs mine was always a BL. I have met people who were deeply disturbed by this.

Look at that. I was really just going to link to my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and then I went all blabby about food. I love food though. Could talk on the subject for days.

Anyway, here's a link to a super easy and tasty recipe for chocolate cupcakes: Clicky for Recipe

Do note that you really want to keep the dry and wet ingredients separate until the very end. My sister made this recipe and just dumped everything in at once which resulted in the vinegar and baking soda reacting. It's fun to watch but it somehow resulted in inedible cupcakes. They were bitter and metallic tasting -I don't know why. Baking is chemistry. Delicious, delicious chemistry.

Speaking of vinegar...this really is a good recipe. Just a touch harder than doing a cake mix too (in fact, you can put the dry ingredients in a ziploc with a note of the wet ingredients to add and you have a pre-made cake mix without nasty fillers all ready to go for some other time). I've always made it without organic ingredients except for the cane sugar, I only have cane sugar in the pantry (and I like it that way). I've never made the frosting she paired with this recipe, a plain powdered sugar +butter +milk +vanilla combo mixed up with a hand mixer has always worked for me.



It doesn't just make good cupcakes either, this is actually how we first used this recipe:

My dad made that for my sister's birthday cake, pretty darn cool, eh?

Facebookery

Eh. Social Media. I have a definite love hate relationship with Facebook and Pinterest. I haven’t really gotten into Twitter as not very many of my friends are on there and a Facebook status update serves basically the same purpose. As I am socially lazy I really like how Facebook essentially keeps me updated on what my friends are doing without me actually having to talk to them. The internet is the perfect home for introverts like myself, really. The downside to Facebook is its time wasting aspects (apps especially) and the awkward comment etiquette.

I often worry that I’m that commenter who thinks they’re being clever and amusing when really they’re just being annoying. I’m not writing this looking for “oh, but I like your posts!” No, I am writing this because there are many times where I am tempted to comment but stop myself for one of these reasons:

1. Just commenting for commenting’s sake. AKA I’m bored and I’m looking for amusing banter. Rarely do I get it in these instances.

2. Solely commenting to be clever/snarky/funny. This is especially applicable on statuses of people I actually don’t know very well. You know, the people I’ve maybe said a word to in real life (and that’s the sole requirement of me accepting a friend request –one word. Otherwise I wouldn’t have any Facebook friends).

3. Commenting on a big issue in a way I know will start an internet debate. Those never end well. If they ever actually end.

4. Commenting out of annoyance. This happens in regards to Pity Me statuses, excessive postings of internet memes, and statuses whose grammar and spelling is so bad that I can’t understand what the heck they were writing about to begin with. I’ve found it also happens when someone posts an open ended question when you can tell by their previous words they already know the answer they want to hear (in which case I’m always tempted to give the opposite answer solely to metaphorically poke them in the brain).

5. If I've already commented on something else of the same person in that day and sometimes even in that week.

There are times when I just can't resist and comment anyway. I feel like I need to take a Facebook hiatus when that happens.

I always wonder if anything I ever wrote ended up on Failbook because that would be truly fantastic. Clicky for link to Failbook.

Pinterest is for pictures, inspiration, DIY projects, and unabashed geekery which basically means I waste hours on it. My Geek board has the most pins of any of them (even the cat one). Wasting mass amounts of life clicking on virtual images with absolutely no substance whatsoever, fun times. It could easily be used as a creative inspiration resource but instead it tends to be a time suck of epic proportions. I don’t really recommend it but... Here's my page anyway! Clicky for my Pinterest boards.

 

Here's a picture of my sister's kitten. Why? Because I can.

 

The Hand Written Word

I get so bored with my own writing that I never really stick with blogs. This one hasn't been an exception. Anyway, I decided to make a list of things I wanted to do before my 27th birthday and keeping a blog every day for a week was one of the things. To avoid the whole "I don't know what to write about so I'll write about not knowing what to write about," I'm going to write about handwriting.

Keyboards are fantastic. The really are. I can write mass amounts of words in very little time. If I were to attempt the same volume in regular handwriting it would take an infuriating amount of time and my thoughts would get all backed up. When my writing thoughts get backed up I either lose track of where I was going or I go to write one word and the word I was thinking of in that moment makes its way out onto paper resulting in a mangled Frankenstein's monster of a word. Or a random word from a future sentence barges in all out of context. Those occurrences are fine if I'm writing with a pencil (erasers are fantastic too) but when a pen is involved the result is messy and awkward.

That being said, never underestimate the wonderfulness of a hand written communication. There's an art to even the most messy of hands with a pen or pencil. Or crayon. Or smudgy bit of charcoal. Or stick + sand combo. I've had my frustrations with nearly illegible handwriting. I recall a teacher once who used to give me handwritten notes on some of my writing and they'd always be nearly a paragraph long but I couldn't ever figure out the cipher for that teacher's script. 99% of the time I got full points so I just kind of....didn't worry about it. Which is terrible when you think about it because so few teachers ever bother with written feedback. Alas.

My thought continuity is a little scattered, it has been a long time since I wrote for any sort of audience besides myself or friends. Bare with me, I'm almost done. I'll even give you a picture at the end. I'd give you a cookie if it were possible but computers haven't progressed that far yet (one day...one day).

The wonderful thing about handwriting is (cliche though it may be) the personal touch. No one has writing just like yours. There may be similarities somewhere but it's just not the same. It takes longer to write something out by hand which means you've had to commit pen to paper as well as time. It shows care. It shows personality. If I ever have the occasion to write a love letter (Do people even do those anymore? I don't care, I would.) it'd be painstakingly handwritten. (And then probably set on fire so no one would ever read it, including the intended recipient).

I leave you with a picture of my handwriting. My pen to paper thoughts are even more disjointed than my keyboard to internet ones, enjoy. (Why does cursive get such a bad rap? I like writing in cursive. It's like writing in fancy.)

Everyone can use a bit of sparkly...

I really must know: If you happened to be trying on THESE SHOES just for fun while this song started to play:



would you not bust even the tiniest move?

Apparently it is somewhat frowned upon in certain company.

Picture taking...

Eventually I plan on opening another Etsy shop that has one of a kind items as well as clothing. I don't know when I'll be able to do it but in the meantime I've been drawing things up and otherwise dreaming.

I have a steampunk style mask that I made that I haven't listed to my Etsy yet because I kind of want it to be one of the first items in my potential shop. I photographed it today in the type of style I'm thinking that shop would be in. I would make one of these sepia colored photos the main photo and then have multiple full color photos to show the details and "real" look of the piece. I would photograph my other items in a similar way but not everything would be steampunk.

Here are the same photos in color. I was originally going to do my makeup but I could not find my makeup kit (it's been a long time since I last used it). I went ahead and did them anyway since I intended for the photos to be sepia-fied and my lack of makeup would be less noticeable. I wouldn't have done foundation either way because I don't want any makeup getting on the mask.

Can I just say that styling, photographing, and modeling all at the same time is quite a pain? I need to find someone willing to be my model and a person who actually knows how to use a camera. I did figure out how to work a tripod and timer though. I should have set up a mirror so I could keep from making the grumpy faces I tend to naturally do (I can't help it, my face just does that) and have some sort of pose going. I started feeling like all arms and legs while waiting for the camera to shoot. It's a weird sort of momentary panic-inducing anxiety to be in front of a camera about to shoot and not know if you're even in the shot.

I know very little about photography but I've found that I prefer to take pictures without flash whenever I can as it keeps makeup from looking really shiny and doesn't cast hard shadows. However, no flash means you need more light around or all you've got are shadows. Here I used a three light lamp with regular florecent bulbs (haha, I'm betting real photographers are shuddering right now) to add more light... it didn't work very well because all of the light I had was coming from one direction and resulted in a hard shadow anyway. I'm really just making stuff up as I go photo-wise. Maybe one day I'll get to take a photography class. By the way, the first picture accidentally had flash (I didn't turn it off), I don't know that you can tell the difference in this instance (especially since I didn't wear makeup) but it did result in my needing to correct the photo for red eye.

Of puppets and potty mouths....

This has been out for a while and I shared the link on Twitter but... here it is here too! I made that potty-mouthed puppet~ hahahaaa!



My father joked that it picked up some of its colorful language while I was making it. I assure you I did not swear during its creation - it was a lot of fun to make. However....I will admit that swearing is one of my favorite sins. I don't tend to do it around other people unless I know they partake in swearing as well. There is a reason why "I believe a well placed swear word is a thing of art. I also believe I probably shouldn't." is a line in my manifesto. Yeah... I once wrote a manifesto. It was technically a school assignment. I should revisit and revise some of it for more general life things (I included a few pop and LDS culture references in it since my audience at the time mostly consisted of BYU college kids).