I'm not a big pie person, so I made Mashed Potato Cupcakes and brought them to dinner on Thursday.


The idea is not an original, but stolen from the fine volume of cupcake ideas, Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.


If you enjoy making cupcakes I highly recommend this book. It's a great resource of how to hints for making adorable and quirky cupcakes.



It's a basic butter cake recipe with buttercream frosting for the mashed potato. The gravy is warmed caramel sauce and the pat of butter is a Pina Colada Starburst candy.

I expected this to be a case of "It's pretty but tastes awful". Not at all. The warm caramel sauce seeps into the butter cake cupcake and you end up with a Tres Leches cake taste. So yummy!

LUSH is coming to Tallahassee.

o_O

Before my other LUSH loving' Tallytown folks lose it too, LUSH Tampa is sponsoring a LUSH party in Tallahassee on Sunday, November 29 from 11am to 6pm at Aloft Downtown.

They're only bringing best sellers and holiday favourites. But if you call, you can place a presale order and won't have to pay until the party.

I am so frakkin' excited.

This is so random. I wonder if they are testing the waters to see if Tallytown is worth opening a LUSH store in.

I wonder if my monthly letter writing to LUSH HQ requesting a store is finally paying off?

I'll be over here, losing my shit now.

* French Press coffee maker

* Mr. Coffee Frappe Maker

* 4GB/8GB Sandisk Micro SDHC card

* Simply Knitting magazine subscription

*Tom Waits "Nighthawks At The Diner" album

* Battlestar Galactica The Complete Series

* Tracing paper

* Pedicure

* British chocolate (Yorkie Not for Girls bar, anything by Cadbury, basically.)

* MP3 player speakers

* Bicycle

* Working sewing machine not possessed by the devil

Threadless sells t-shirts. A while back, a contest began called ThreadCakes. Contestants made cakes of the Threadless designs.

Now, there is ThreadKnits. That's right, contestants can knit or crochet their favourite Threadless t-shirts.

I am entering.

Below are the t-shirts I am contemplating knitting up.




The Gaming Revolution






Milk Moustache





Celestial Summer Camp





Camouflage





Revenge of the Sushi


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Threadless has so many awesome designs that would be a great challenge to knit or crochet up.

I am having trouble deciding which one to focus on as my entry.

Dear readers, which design do you think I should focus on? Either of the ones listed above, or something else you found on the site.

* Improve the Yaakov the Jewish Yeti sketch. Turn into amigurumi pattern? Possible Hannukah card this year?

* Remember, a bad day of painting is better than a good day at the office.

* Drink more tea.

Click the picture to read more on random Frank and Hilde information.

I think I have found the style of wig I will use for the Tom Servo costume for Dragon*Con 2010. A bouffant.

I found a wig on Ebay that fits my vision. Unfortunately, it's in black and not white or platinum blonde. Also, it's out of my price range.

I found a cheaper version. It's a little longer than I like, but will do as a back up.



It's a little bit too long. I like the volume, but I want it to be at chin length, maximum. Depending on the quality of the hair, I could give it a trim and restyle if needed.

So I am on the look out for a bubble bouffant wig in platinum or white that will fit my giant Irish cranium. Tallahassee has a ridiculously large amount of wig shops, which is good. I'll be hitting those over the next eight months as I slowly piece together the Sexy Tom Servo costume.

Click picture for today's strip, "Frank & Hilde Announcement".

Torrid is having a 50% off of clearance sale right now. I've been drooling over these shoes since they first went up a few months ago. But being a cheap bastard, didn't want to buy them. Now that they are marked down to $15 I bought them along with a few other items, including this dress.

They arrived today, and I spent this afternoon prancing around the apartment and humming the score to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It's been awhile since I've worn heels. I missed them. When I was in high school, I used to play my best games of basketball when I wore four inch or larger heels.

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Haters are going to hate, but I love Lady Gaga. That bitch is crazy and fierce. I'm looking forward to her next album being released at the end of November and this video release for her song, Bad Romance only increases my love for her.

I have to ask though, am I the only one who feels those costumes they are wearing when they crawl out of the coffins look like what would happen if Max from Where the Wild Things Are grew up and developed a latex fetish?


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Things that Happen that I Probably Should Write Up as Script for Every Sad Story Needs Nuns But Don't:

Random Woman at Michael's: Excuse me, but is that your real hair?

Me: Yes.

RWaM: All of it?

Me: Indeed.

RWaM: Good genes.

Me: Thanks, I was a drag queen in a past life.


(I can understand why she thought my hair was a wig. Tallahassee was receiving massive amounts of rain courtesy of Ida, and the humidity made my two and a half feet of hair especially drag queeny yesterday.)

Click on the picture for today's strip, "Confessions, Part One".

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1.) I am such a dorky fibre art fan girl. I emailed Alan Dart, the knitting pattern designer, and asked him if the Tales of Yore, aka Medieval Mice, pattern would become available on his site. I expected an assistant to send me a form response. Alan Dart actually emailed me back. I squealed like a fan girl. Ridiculous. Oh, and yes, the patterns should go up sometime next summer.

2.) Today I start drawing the first chapter of Frank & Hilde. I am pretty pleased with the script for the first chapter. I wrote a story I want to read. Hopefully other people will feel the same way.




3.) NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month is going along pretty smoothly. It helps that I am focused on writing a 50,000 word novel, and not a good 50,000 word novel. Allowing myself to be a shitty writer helps the words to come out.

Click on the pic for today's strip: "Phantom of the Opera headache".





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http://www.alandart.co.uk/products/product/28    Meet Hannukah Hiram!




I learned that the awesome medieval mice patterns from Simply Knitting are courtesy of knit designer, Alan Dart.

He has a website, that does not offer the medieval mice patterns for purchase.

Unfortunately, it offers some other fantastic knit patterns.

Like Hannukah Hiram, whose pattern is now safely stowed on my computer and in various emails in case of  blue screen of death.  Yes, I purchased it.  (You can't tell from the picture, but he is wearing a yarmulke. Pardon me, I'll be over here dying from the cute.)

and these guys:



Dickensian Party Mice!
http://www.alandart.co.uk/products/product/26

I would post more, but I am dying from the cute. Go to his website for more awesome cuteness.

http://www.alandart.co.uk/
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More patterns are being posted in December. Mayhaps the Medieval Mice?

During my search for another knitting pattern, I stumbled upon this picture;



I immediately halted my first search and began a second search to track down the pattern(s) for these adorable mice.

Which lead me to learn that the patterns are in a UK knitting magazine called Simply Knitting. Specifically issues 53 (April 2009) and 54 (May 2009).

I managed to track down their main site, with information on acquiring back issues. Only to learn that the oldest back issue available at this time is for June 2009.


Cruel Fate, Why Must you Mock ME!?!

So my quest continues, someday I will have issues 53 and 54 of Simply Knitting.

And right now, I am seriously considering purchasing a subscription. Looking through their "latest magazine blog entries" I have yet to find an issue with a pattern I don't want to knit up.

Damn you, UK!

Click on picture above for today's strip, Nanners Part One.

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Three Things:

1.) Nanowrimo is off to a great start. As of last night I have 3,027/50,000 words written. If I can keep up this pace, I could reach goal by November 17.

2.) The cockroaches are back. And showing up in bizarre non food, filth, or water areas. I am trying really hard to resist the urge to go into daily eight hour binge cleaning cycles. Really hard.

3.) Halloween was pretty awesome. If you can be an aunt, or uncle depending on your gender identification, I strongly suggest it. It's a sweet gig. I spent it running down the street with this awesome 2 year old Snow White.
Her grandmother, my MIL, made her costume by hand. In addition to the Prince Charming costume for her father, the Princess costume for her mother, and the Sleeping Beauty costume for her sister. The woman has mad skills that I am totally taking advantage of for next year's Dragon*Con. (See what I did there, turning everything into a conversation about Dragon*Con. I'm good like that.)

Click on picture above to see today's strip, "And on center stage, Thumbgina!".

Permanent Link:

http://everysadstoryneedsnuns.blogspot.com/

This past Dragon*Con I saw some most excellent costumes.

My favourite was a woman dressed us as a sexy Freddy Kreuger.



I complimented her on the creativity of her costume, et cetera. The common courtesy you bestow upon cosplayers who are really creative, put a lot of work into their costume, and/or both.

She gave me a sheepish grin and then walked away. I shrugged thinking nothing of it.

Today, I was checking out Hot Topic for Halloween clearance and came across this:

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Halloween/50OffSelectHalloween/Miss-Krueger-Costume-232630.jsp

For the linkaphobes, that cleverly thought of costume that I praised her for putting together. Yeah, it's a package deal. Hot Topic sells it.

I'm a little bummed out. Does the costume lose any creativity points because it is a packaged item sold at a mass retailer? Well, maybe not, but I was under the belief that the cosplayer had come up with the idea of a sexy crosplay Freddy Kreuger herself. I even applauded her for coming up with such an awesome idea.

I don't know how other cosplay circles run, but where I come from, if you are wearing a packaged deal, you mention it. Or if you toiled for the better part of a year on said costume, you mention it.

And I feel a little sheepish because odds are good she is one of those people who think you can slap on a sexy package costume and hang out late night at Dragon*Con and let geeks drool over you. And sadly, I proved her right.

Ugh.

A couple of days ago, I witnessed the most disgusting sound in the world.

SCHHTUC-UCK.

That is the sound a chefs knife makes when you try to pull it out of your thumb, and its wedged into a rather meaty bit. I was chopping up romaine lettuce for Jonathans lunch and ended up wielding the knife into the side of my thumb instead of the heart of the romaine. I assumed the entry was pretty shallow, and only pulled with mild resistance.

And thus, the SCHHTUC-UCK sound emitted from the delicate sliding of the chef knife in my meaty thumb bit.

I am alright. but my thumb looks like it has a little vulva.

Fun fact, this is the first time I have every cut myself while preparing food stuffs. Which is impressive considering some of the crazy Japanese chef style ways I chop food.


Three guesses what tomorrows strip will be about.

Click picture above for today's strip, "get out of my head, charles!".



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Three Things:

1.) I've taken up watercolour. Because I think it would be really cool to do Frank & Hilde webcomic series in watercolour. Yesterday, I practiced the flat wash, amongst other things.



 On the viewer's far right are samples of my flat wash exercise.  In the middle, Dr. Girlfriend. I've been watching a lot of old Venture Bros cartoons recently. Not a bad Dr. Girlfriend for a first time watercolour. On the left, an X-Files X.  Not that great, but I am still learning.


2.) Nanowrimo starts up in a little over three days. The Tallahassee meet up is this Friday night at Ray's Steel City Saloon. Jonathan and I are going to meet other Tallytown folks, crazy enough to attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. And eat tasty food. Jonathan's going mostly for the tasty food.

3.) Woot.com is a site that typically offers one item for sale each day at a fraction of the normal retail price. Sometimes they have these sales called Woot offs, where items stay up until they sell out, and then a new item shows up.  The Woot Off can last from 24 to 72 hours.  There is a Woot Off going on right now, has been going on for the past 33 hours. I haven't been glued to the computer the entire time for this event. But lets just say that while I am working on my script for Frank & Hilde, I will be checking woot's website frequently.