so spooky

Halloween was a success!

 

 

Mononoke turned out mighty fine. Got to spend Friday night snuggling Mikar and pals and Saturday at the party of a couple of friends I adore and see far too infrequently. I'm not sure Josh was totally happy with the weekend but he never really complains so I can't be sure... speaking of JOSH his MOTHER sent us this totally cauuuuuuuuuuuute package with a Harry & David treat box, yum! 

Absolutely spooky. 

Wednesday Jess will FINALLY be making her appearance here. And that one thing I mentioned I'd have as a surprise last Friday will be going down for REAL this Friday instead. Things have been moving pretty slowly, I have been spending too much time daydreaming and eating good food and snuggling. Oh autumn! You really have arrived. I can't drive anywhere without orange leaves flying by. I finally got a space heater (FOR FREE BTW) to stave off the chill rolling in at night. Next on my list of things to fantasize about now that November is here is THANKSGIVING! Except the great thing about this is that it's a fantasy that is REAL, and in your mouth. Yum. Also hopeful for a OL Thanksgiving Raffle win- FINGERS CROSSED SO HARD THEY ARE ALMOST GLUED TOGETHER. The odds of winning this are REALLY good, REALLY REALLY good- because they only sell a limited number of tickets. Granted they are $10 each, I never let spending that money on a slip of paper bother me because it goes to fund super duper awesome things like Gilchrist State Forest and keeping State Parks nice and neat and allllll kinds of things relating to our public schools (67% of lottery profits go directly to Oregon's k-12 schools- who knew?! And some of that to universities). So cross your fingers for me and/or maybe get your butts out and purchase a ticket- they are selling 500,000- 2 people will win a million, 20 will win $20k, and 2000 will win $100. Good luck y'all!

<3

eeee!

YOU GUYS. You will notice the side bars to your left and right look a lil different- yes they do! And I am so excited!

On the RIGHT you will see I have added a SEARCH bar- one that actually works! So when you have a vague recollection of that one thing I mentioned that one time but you're not realllllly sure- search for it! And hopefully you will have no trouble finding it.

On your LEFT you will see I have added an even easier way to subscribe for those of you who don't use a reader or like RSS feeds (what? Why don't you like them?! They are great!)- EMAIL! How easy peasy is that? Enter your email address and you'll get updates to your inbox! I've never tried that before but from what I've read I gather an email gets sent out once a day with my updates. If I don't update one day you won't get an email. Hooray!

I've also gotten rid of Arts & Crafts because the Near/Dear list takes you to my pal's arts and crafts anyway. Heart Heart is on the left now and in the coming weeks will be filling up with surprises. Oh you pals. Just wait and see!

IN OTHER NEWS: something to add to my pet peeves list.

 

ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Come on people. You know how long it takes to fill up a 20 oz water bottle at a crappy DRINKING FOUNTAIN? You know how many people in that gym are 5'2''? So instead of making all of us bend over, putting our precious backs at risk for injury after we've ALREADY put them at risk for injury by doing 1,000,000 of that one thing we did that was soooo hard, why don't you just USE. THE. SHORT. DRINKING. FOUNTAIN. to fill your stupid water bottle. Maybe I'm being selfish here, but- no, no, YOU are being selfish. It's the same water, okay? And the rest of us will thank you for it.

;)

In OTHER other news, my Halloween costume:

... is getting there! I still have some things to work on: 

-Add ears to the hood, and furry fur

-Work on the tail

-Make the head and arm bands

-Fix the necklace

-Sew the hood on

But I have no worries it will be done by this weekend. Whew! I also have to get a half a yard of tan fabric to tie over my shoes for my 'boots.' I keep having mini freak outs because it's not EXACTLY what San wears in the movie- but then I remind myself, IT'S CONCEPTUAL, NICHOLE. Just because you can't take off your furry hood and sling it around doesn't mean it's a crappy costume, k?

ZERO HOUR IS NIGH. What do you pals have in the works?!

halloweiners

Halloween is just around the corner... I like it, but I've never been one of those people who starts planning their next costume on November 1st. I typically start brainstorming ideas a couple of weeks beforehand and try to use things I already have or items I can scrounge up at Goodwill for super cheap. Last year I was the Black Dahlia:

It was aight. I don't even remember what I was the year before that.. oh yeah, a flapper- BORINGGG (no offense to all you sexy flappers out there). But THIS YEAR, I am actually a 7 excited on the excitement scale of 1-10, 7 being 'omg I totally chose this as my costume six months ago but probably won't actually get around to putting it together until 10 days before the BIG DAY':

Yeah bitches! I'm gonna be this sassy little frassy, San, from Princess Mononoke. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should!

One of the main reasons I'm excited for this costume is that it seems super simple. Black dress or black tank and black skirt? CHECK. Old ivory camisole slashed up and down the sides? CHECK. Old beige t-shirt or pillow case to tie over my shoes for makeshift boots? CHECK. Armbands should be super easy, as should the headband, earrings, and face paint. So really, the craftiness comes in with the mask and cape. LUCKILY:

I found out Ikea has this amazingness in the fur bins! All I need to do is attach two corners with some  black ribbon or elastic with cone shaped ivory things hanging down, a la:

That should be simple enough. For the mask:

I've already bought the balloons to start molding it with papier mache. This is going to be the most difficult part, I think. I haven't played with papier mache in years and I think I'll have to practice to get it nice and smooth. But what's nice is I don't actually have to wear the mask on my face, I can find a way to secure it to the top of my head. Adding red fabric ears should be a cinch. I'll maybe post pictures of the process when its time!

What are you going to be for Hallowiener? Do you have any tips or secrets for papier mache-ing?