Musical Inspirations

Like any other human being on this planet I have many sides. One is my feminist side who is currently not speaking to me.

The communication ended when while driving in the car with my sister listing to the to the radio we found ourselves singing along to Usher's OMG (OMG). The song is damned catchy. While my preferences tend towards harder music (I'm hoping to go see Iron Maiden in July) there is some part of me that wants to be the girl described in that song. Mostly because "Baby how you do that, make a grown man cry"


At this point my feminism rears itself to point out how this entire song is about a guy claiming to fall in love with a girl based merely on her appearance and sweet dance moves which probably emulate some depraved sex act and why would I ever want to stoop to being loved merely for being a sex symbol shouldn't be my personality and brains that causes guys to love me? At which point it has to stop and take a breathe before glaring at me and walking away in a huff. 


Currently I'm trying to coax her back into speaking terms by promising that when I'm older I'll be a a cougar, and that's empowering right?

Denim Remix

Scrooge McDuck is my hero. I want to one day swim in a pool of gold coins (with proper safety measures to prevent drowning of course) So I like to try to save my money. 

On the other hand I love new stuff. And these past few months I, the reformed tom-boy, have embraced my girly side. This has led to purchases like new shoes, a new dress, and a really cute pair of earrings. Unfortunately these things have dipped into my gold swimming pool fund. 

In an effort to preserve that fund I am trying to re-use and/or re-purpose clothes I already have. So I present the jeans I fixed for $1.70. 

To the left is the before picture, to the right is the after. For a cheap box of dye i was able to breathe some new life into these faded jeans. I still need to cut and hem the bottom of them though since they are too long so the bottom is all torn up.

I am also considering trimming these jeans down into skinnys but I am hesitant to do so since they are a really nice boot cut and fit just perfectly over most of my shoes (minus the Boots o' Doom) Hopefully these will be finished by the end of the week so I can have options to wear for the holiday weekend. 

Adventures in Phones!

Today was an auspicious day. The Boyfriend got a new phone. One that works, and has a charger that works and it doesn't drop calls, and is big enough he can stop losing it. He got the LG Ally, a nifty Droid phone, and for the 10 minutes I got to play with it (plus the 20 minutes I played with the display model in the Verizon store) I was really impressed. Now I have done my research on smart phones (three years ago I purchased my BlackJack II, I was a rich engineering intern back then. pulling in $400+ a week. Ah the good ol' days) and have been continually impressed by the Android OS. So I was really excited when the Boyfriend picked up this new phone, which we promptly dubbed "Ms. Jackson"

It confirmed everything I had read about Droid phones and in my humble opinion it  way out performed the Motorola Droid (which I have played with on multiple occasions). 

The Boyfriend's phone looks like this: (only black)

Now I am so excited for my graduation. I have promised myself that for my Graduation present to me I am purchasing an HTC Droid Incredible (provided I have a job)

Nick and Nora

So I finally watched Nick and Nora.

First off I was already prejudiced against this movie for two different reasons: 1) I detest  Michael Cera. Ever since arrested development he has played the same character over and over. (Lust for cousin strictly optional). I find it hard to believe that women find him attractive. Even with the guitar and on stage he still seemed like that odd kid who isn't quite right in the head. 2) They stole Nick and Nora and dumbed it way way down. If you have never heard of the The Thin Man watch it! The Complete Thin Man Collection (The Thin Man / After the Thin Man / Another Thin Man / Shadow of the Thin Man / The Thin Man Goes Home / Song of the Thin Man / Alias Nick and Nora) These movies while they may claim to be mysteries are really built around the interactions between the two main characters Nick and Nora. Every scene is dripping with wit and artful duels of conversations. Instead, I was treated to discussions about who has more indie cred, and why my friends suck more than your friends, and let's discuss our exes.

There were some positives though. The biggest one for me was Nora's drunk friend Caroline. The girl was perfectly convincing as the person who is too much trouble for anyone's good. Plus when I read that she improved the majority of her performance I was further impressed (See the turkey sandwich scene YouTube it if you have to). Other good things include Nick's band. Sure they played up some gay stereotypes but frankly who doesn't? They were amusing and their interactions with the rest of the cast made me giggle.

Overall this movie was worth seeing just to be caught up with the rest of my generation. While the idea of running around NYC looking for a band that only likes to do "secret shows" is actually creative and sounds like a whole lot of fun (especially to those of us trapped in the Midwest), Michael Cera's monotone and the "witty" dialog leave a lot to be desired.

Men's Clothes into Cheap Girl Clothes

Being a huge fan of DIY any excuse I have to make something I take. I work at the Michigan Renaissance festival and I love making my own costume bits. Living at home for the summer is so nice since my little sister (Like my little brother only little in age) and her expensive sewing machine are home for the summer too.
My latest project was a skirt made from the sleeves of men's dress shirts. I stumbled across a tutorial on ThreadBangers.com (Video Tutorial)

My skirt wound up looking a little different than theirs:


Eventually I will post pics of myself modeling the skirt. It hits just above my knee and makes my legs look long. And every short girl knows any item that makes you look taller is a good thing. Also since I used white shirts I have to wear a slip underneath it because the skirt is a little see through. Though my decision to use the white shirts instead of colored ones was the tie.



The beautiful shiny forest green with the gold Fleur de Lis just tickled my fancy. I love the look of the Fleur De Lis, and since I am part French I consider it part of my extremely mixed heritage. Upon finding this tie at GoodWill I knew I was going to use it for Something. Even if I didn't know at the time what it was. I wound up making belt loops for the tie out of the button hole side of the shirt. Originally I was going to just tack the tie to the skirt but this allows me more freedom with the colors I can use.

Now I just need a cute shirt to wear with this skirt, on the plus side I already have the perfect shoes.

Storms and Stomaches

I love thunderstorms, especially during the summer. The warm weather combined with the amazing displays of nature is like an invitation to sit out on the porch and enjoy. The one thing I dislike about them is when it is stormy in the morning and becomes sunny later in the day. I get into that cloudy day mood, ready to do things that mostly entail being inside then the weather changes and my plans feel all askew.
This morning's thunderstorm through the Mid-Michigan region was one of those good, curl-up-and-read-a-book ones. Not awe-inspiring and loud, but the occasional rumble of thunder punctuating the sound of rainfall. Very pleasant to listen to since I was woken up this morning around 5:30am by a very very upset stomach. Luckily my brother was sleeping on the couch just outside my room so I could yell just loud enough for him to get me a damn bucket.
The thunderstorm was just a little reminder that God does not hate me, even though my stomach was punishing me for something. (Frankly I think it was my 1am snack that did it. The ice cream tasted a little off.) Any ways. I have all my indoor plans laid out and the weather man assures me it will be dreary and humid all day long, two good reasons to stay inside and relax.

Hi World! Let's start with dinner...

I am interested in pretty much anything. I love having at least basic knowledge of a variety of subjects.

One subject I find particularly fascinating is food. Eating, smelling, tasting, shopping, every part of the culinary experience is akin to the sensation of finding a 5 dollar bill in your pants pocket. (With the exception of prep work, which can be really tedious, though some good music and sharp knives help)

Tonight I made dinner for my family. Since we are on a tight budget the trick is to use ingredients that are in the fridge already or come cheap. So even though I was really really craving red meat (a trick for curing that post-time of the month yuckkies) I found the chicken breast we had in the fridge and made an old stand-by, Chicken and veggie stirfry.

The vegetables this time were a red bell pepper and a pound and a half of fresh green beans. It was a good thing I had that extra half pound of beans since my little brother (Little only in age, size-wise he has a good 6 inches and 30 pounds on me) had invited a couple friends over. The food turned out delicious and juicy.

This last bit was a bit tricky. I am a little paranoid about my food, especially pork and chicken. When over cooked chicken becomes dry and not unlike eating a cotton sock. When under-cooked the slimy texture puts even the most slippery eel to shame, plus the risk of disease exponentially increases the "ick" factor. So the trick with cooking chicken on the stove top is to cook it at a high enough temperature that you get a nice caramel brown color on the outside, but not too high so it doesn't burn when you try to cook it all the way through. Using the singed chicken bits left at the bottom of the pan as a base for any sauces enhances the chicken flavor (Yes chicken does taste like chicken if you do it right).

The end result was this:

While the presentation was rather basic it tasted better than it looked.

I was also craving pie. Apple Pie. So this happened:

It was also yummy. Unfortunately I have yet to perfect my pie baking technique so the filling was a little watery. Still good but the slice kind of disintegrated once it was separated from the rest of the pie.

Currently I am finishing alterations to a skirt while watching the original karate kid. I'm kind of hoping to dream with "You're the best, around. Nothing's gonna ever keep you down." as my soundtrack.