One expensive week.

The week started out beyond awesome. Dan said he'd pay for half of a new Blythe (I'd been majorly jonesing). Woot! And thusly I ordered a Punkaholic People. Yay!

A day or so passed with dancing and rejoicing, etc. Then I noticed Topanga was limping a little. Upon closer inspection, she wasn't just limping. She was bleeding from the toe (OUCH), AND her lady parts were all red and swollen and horrifying. The scooting. Oh, the scooting! Poor dog!
An unexpected expensive vet visit followed this discovery.

Anyway, Topanga's back with pills, ointments, and a very infected ear. (An ear infection? Just for the heck of it, apparently.)
Anyway, how are you? Seen any good vets lately?

New Hooded Capes!

Here's a few little somethings that I've been working on. I drafted a new pattern and everything.
These ones are near & dear to my heart: hooded capes for Chickenpants!
All that amazing fabric I've been hoarding has been calling my name lately. Plus, what is cuter than a small creature in a hood? NOTHING!




I've been working on other Chickenpants/Blythe accessories lately, too. Things like:

vinyl wings
and gothy tutus:

the Robert Smith model...
and the Siouxsie Sioux:


What do you think?

When Creativity Knocks...

At Maker Faire this year, I was invited to film a demonstration of how to make a SQUID.RO plushie. Here it is!

It's featured on When Creativity Knocks this week. (And it has a pathetic amount of votes. Sad!)

(And if you're looking for the SQUID.RO kits, here they are!)

Cooking with Buster - Lentil Fettuccine

Today on Cooking With Buster, we'll make Lentil Fettuccine. This is something I made up after looking at a similar recipe in an old Sunset cookbook. The recipe seemed just wrong, so I scrapped it and made what seemed right.
Here's what you'll need:

• 1 cup of lentils


• 1 can of vegetable broth


• whole wheat fettuccine


• 1 onion


• 2 cloves of garlic, minced


• 1 big bunch of swiss chard cut/torn into largeish bits


• olive oil


• salt & fresh ground pepper


• parmesan cheese for garnish

First, you'll need to cook 1 cup of lentils in a can of broth + some water so they're well covered. Simmer until they're done, but still a little firm. Set aside.

Cook whole wheat fettuccine according to the package directions. They probably know what they're talking about, over there on the package.

Cut 1 onion up into half moon pieces, and cook over high heat in 1/4 cup-ish of olive oil. Brown that onion! Feel the burn! When it's brown, remove the onion pieces, and put them in with the lentils. Toss in 2 minced cloves of garlic, cook until golden brown. Throw in the swiss chard pieces, cook until slightly wilted.

OKAY!

So! Combine everything together in a big bowl. Put lots & lots of salt & pepper on it. BAM! You're done! No, wait, put some parmesan cheese on there. More. More cheese. Okay. Now you're done!
It doesn't look like much, but it is really tasty. And it'll serve a bunch of humans, or two dogs. Your choice.

Where's my dinner, human?

I am this kid...part two.

Okay, you've probably already seen this:

This kid is SO MUCH like I was when I was her age. It's probably for the best that I was raised in an age when video cameras were bulky luxury items. Anyway, I love this video.
Imagine my delight to find this:

Dolls! Inspired by Kittens! Made by the amazing Jenny Couture.
And then imagine my surprise when towards the end a certain chicken doll near to my heart pops up.
I think this is going to be the best day ever. And I'm not just saying that because I am drinking regular coffee for the first time in months. No, wait, maybe I am. Hey, am I typing really fast?

Of Ballgowns & Blythe

I've been giving myself a lot of time slack lately, what with being sick and all. This has meant that when I feel like creating something ridiculous:

Prom dress? Or extremely poofy ballgown.

I just go ahead and let myself do it.
I'm three Blythe dresses sick.

(third dress not yet photographed!) More photos are up on Flickr, as always.
I've also been away from the computer a lot...sorry for the lack of blog posts! Hope to be back, swinging both fists in crafty awesomeness soon!

Itty bitty. Eensy. Ickle. Tiny.

**Update: By nearly unanimous vote, we're going with hamster. Hamster. Best other idea: Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz as a fetus! Thank you, Cat!**


But what IS it?

A bear? A hamster? I can't decide. Good people of the internets, please help me name this tiny creature!

Here's the rundown: It's a creature of incredible cuteness, made from handmade pompoms. Those back paws? Needle felted, baby. And it's sleeping, not dead. Or, maybe dead works for him. Hmm.

He's small. Tiny enough to be a Blythe pet.
I seriously can't decide here. I'm leaning towards hamster, but I'd like to open it up to a vote. Leave your comments below to let me know what you think it is. Or, tweet them to me. (@absolutelysmall)
Thanks for your help!

Best thing ever? Star Wars Uncut.

The idea is fairly simple: break Star Wars - A New Hope into 473 15 second segments. Let people re-film these segments any which way they choose, and then stitch them back together.
So brilliant.
It combines a few of my favorite things: low budget home made movies, old Star Wars, and...um...the internet.
The project isn't done yet, but you can watch the finished clips now. Each clip seems to be better than the last.
You've got clips made of legos:

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 303 from Hugh Rodman on Vimeo.

Clips enacted by little kids:

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 076 from essforgee on Vimeo.

Clips enacted with clip art:

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 093 from Ed Bear on Vimeo.

Lots and lots of paper beards and armor:

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 243 from Sam Vest on Vimeo.

And also, the purely inexplicable:

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 309 from Daniel Cassaro on Vimeo.

Hop on over to http://www.starwarsuncut.com/ to see more.

In which I have a cold...

I have way too foggy a head to try to construct whole sentences, so allow me to share with you clever things that other people are doing, heavy on the photos:

CRAFT blog has these amazing looking Carmel Apple Cookies:

Click here for the recipe...love all the photos!

I've been very much admiring these amazing cards by aviewto on Etsy:


One of my favorite sketchbookers/artists/bloggers, Tommy Kane recently went to Lebanon. The sketches that are popping up on his blog are really exciting! How much do you know about Lebanon? Me, not much. So this is pretty interesting stuff.

Okay, that's it. I think a nap is in my immediate future. I hope you all have much more exciting afternoons planned!

New creations & a handful of kitsch

I've got some sneak peeks for you this afternoon! I've been fiddling around in the new studio, which could explain why you're going to see more pink than usual.
Up first is Henrietta:

Turn around, you crazy creature! She just wants to show off that amazing hair, I bet. Best Chickenpants hair ever? Hmmm.
I wanted to create something really special for Chickenpants #222, so allow me to present to you:

Mohawk Judy Chickenpants! Crazy mohawk/comb complete with gems? That's pretty special.
I've been getting a lot of really interesting feedback from the survey. A lot of people are asking to see more Chickenpants accessories. Someone even suggested a Chickenpants tutu...

Oh, yes.
And Blythes like them, too!

I've also finally got my act together enough to start listing a few of the gems that the little old lady left behind:

Copper strawberry drawer pulls. Yes, please! Looks like there will be a vintage section of the shop very soon.
Expect to see all these lovelies in the shop later today.
Thanks for reading!

Inspiration on Friday

I want to share with you one of my very favorite blogs. It's inspiring not just because she makes such fantastic, and always changing art, but also because she shares little slices of her life with you. You probably already know it, but oh well.
It's My Paper Crane! Heidi Kenney makes not only some of the most adorable plushies:

she also links to wonderful craft projects like this diy dollhouse.

And then, she posts gorgeous photos of goodies she makes:



And cool things she thrifts:

Inspiring, indeed. And if you take a look around her blog, you just might notice that she has some fantastically painted walls. ^-^

(All photos by My Paper Crane, of course!)

Survey time!

Hello there, you good lookin' go getters.
Whaaat? I don't want anything from you. You're just the best looking, smartest, savviest blog readers in all the land and...yeah, okay, I want you to fill out this survey.
It's quick! And if you do it, I'll give you a coupon for 40% off anything in either shop. Seriously. Anything. Except shipping. (Your money will be refunded as soon as payment is received. Or, wait around a bit and I'll email you a revised invoice from Paypal.)
Here's the link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Db8U7lvySzXf93FdDXXpkg_3d_3d
Nine little questions. So easy!
(And no, actually I don't have a 40% markup built into my items. It actually makes me a little ill to think of discounting them that much. But, I really value your feedback, and I want to do something nice for you. So there!)
p.s.: this is only good for the first 100 survey takers.

In which I randomly see goats

On the way home from the movie theater, there were goats. In my neck of the woods, this would not be at all uncommon. However, I was in El Dorado Hills, one of the snottiest nouveau riche towns in all of the middle of California. Cars were parked along the side of the road, adults and children flocking around the gate. My first thought was carnival. My second thought was park the car and check it out. My third thought was darn it, I left the camera in the car.
Turns out they were a sort of demonstration of natural land clearing. They were munching down the weeds in this little patch of land. You could hear this loud mass chewing sound. It was strangely charming. Also, stinky. 100ish goats in a small area does not a lovely perfume make.

Here are a few more of my favorite photos from this unexpected goat adventure-let:
Behold! Tiny teeth!

Ever seen a goat laugh at a human doing stupid things to get his attention?

Ha ha ha!
(Yes, of course there are more on Flickr, if you are so inclined. Betcha can't upload just five!)

In which the Star Wars Chickenpants come home

Confession: I used to be suuuuch a Star Wars nerd. No, really. I'm talking writing my own trilogy caliber of nerd. You used to be able to ask me any Star Wars question, no matter how obscure, and I could answer it. I COULD NOT BE STUMPED! Little boys everywhere looked up to me in awe.
So naturally, I jumped at the chance to participate in Stitch Wars, the textile Star Wars art show. I just had four strapping Chickenpants return home from Stitch Wars...Luke & Leia, Han & Lando. Secretly, I'm more than a little thrilled to see them again. They were so much fun to make, and I just love how they all turned out.
I mean, just look at Han's hair:

Chickens don't get much more handsome than that.
OH NO WAIT THEY DO:

Remembering how hard it was to make Princess Leia's buns still freaks me out.

And, to round out this horn-tooting post, allow me to share with you one of my proudest Stitch Wars achievements: Luke Skywalker's belt, complete with lightsaber:

Thanks for sticking around with me and putting up with my chest-puffing-outing! I just had to share these guys.

p.s.: I just realized that I left no links whatsoever for you. You can find these guys at my Etsy outpost, as well as Artfire. (I just started accepting Google Checkout & Amazon Payments over there, by the way!) So there you go. Give them some clicky love.

In which I introduce a few custom Chickenpants

It hasn't been all house related goings on around here. Oh, no. There has also been procrastinating, hiding under the bedsheets, forgetting things and getting zapped by bank fees, and...there was a little crafting.
A very little. Bright specks in the crazy swirls of chaos.
Two friends were moving to Texas (ones who brought G. Pete to France!), and I decided they needed some mini-me Chickenpants to accompany them.

So here's Dewey & Robin Chickenpants, all ready for their big Texan adventure. (They're numbers 223 & 224, in case you're counting)

And of course I had to make one for James, our friend and super realtor who helped us so much with buying this house. Seriously, if you're in Northern California and you need to buy or sell a house, look him up. (He's on Facebook.) He's the best!
This Chickenpants is number #225.

His felt cape is hand embroidered: (as if you couldn't tell from sheer imperfection!)

In other Chickenpants news, I just received a few stragglers from Stitch Wars. I'll be posting about them as soon as the light gets better. Stay tuned!

Almost unpacked!

Life is slowly returning to normal-ish around here.
The pugs are settling in nicely:


Paintings are getting up on the walls:


The studio is 97% set up! Which means I should have some new creatures to share with you very soon. I love this wall the most:

Best studio I've ever had.

Oddly enough, I've even got a bit of the baking bug:

So maybe things aren't exactly back to normal. They're better than normal.

In which the carpets get stained

I used to think that one of the great things about dogs is that they certainly throw up a lot less than kids.
WRONG. SO WRONG.
Let me just warn you now that there will be some discussion of how the brand new carpets lost their innocence. And it won't be pretty. So, in order to not get too graphic, I'll substitute "present" and "cotton candy" for some of the actual words. Here goes:
The morning of the move, Dan woke me up saying "Hey, Buster left a present for you in the closet." Boy, did he ever. It was a thing of terror, this present. After lots of cleaning products and time, it still left a stain. But oh well! We were moving! Who cares! On with the world's longest moving day!
The next day, in the new house, I was awakened bright and early to the melodic sounds of Buster making cotton candy. All over my new carpet. And he continued to do so throughout the day, in pretty much every room of the house. Almost systematically.
And this was not ordinary cotton candy, folks. It STAINED. Stained my new carpet.
The weirdest thing was, most of the times seemed to coincide with my trying to catch a bit of sleep. I kept hearing the cotton candy dog gearing up, waking me out of sleep.
"It's okay! It will get better! He'll stop soon..." I reasoned to myself.
Onward came the presents, into the night and next day. At this point I started to freak out. "He's DYING!!! NOOOOO!!" It was too late to call the vet, so I decided to leave it until the morning. Fitful sleep. Visions of dogs cottoncandied to death.
The worst present EVER came that night. I promised myself I wouldn't actually describe anything, but let's just say it burned a hole in the floor. And our carpets will never be the same.
The next morning, Buster was...fine. Better than fine, actually. Leaping around, guzzling food & water and keeping it all down. The twinkle was back in his eye. What the heck?
I asked the vet if perhaps dogs can catch stomach bugs. "Eh, kind of. It's far more likely this was all just stress related, though." Stress? Seriously?
It's been a few days since then, and Buster seems perfectly healthy and happy. So we're chalking it up to stress. Let's add this to the "reasons to never move again" list.

How to make larb tofu - sort of.

I was turned on to Thai food at the tender age of 16, back when such things were quite the novelty. My impressionable taste buds were apparently burned for life, and to this day I think larb tofu is one the best tasting dishes on the planet. For the as yet uninitiated, it's sort of a salad/appetizer that can easily be a whole meal. It is something so good, so pure, so fresh, that I never even bothered trying to replicate it at home.
Well...until yesterday, anyway. An article in Readymade magazine sparked an idea, and a few hours later, I accidentally had something on my hands that tasted an awful lot like the beloved larb tofu.

Want to try it for yourself? It is nomulent. And easy (especially with a food processor. Zip zip zip!). And probably low fat and magic.
Okay, here's what you need:

For the salad:
1/2 head green cabbage - shredded
2 carrots - sliced
1 cucumber - sliced
bunch of mint - minced
bunch of cilantro - minced
mung bean sprouts
2 tomatoes - sliced
handful of honey roasted peanuts, chopped
1 block extra firm tofu

For the marinade:
1 serrano chili
1 very large shallot
1/4 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
2" piece of ginger
juice from 4 limes
3 tbsp. fish sauce
3 tbsp. soy sauce
(Note: thin slices of lemongrass would be soooo perfect in this. I'm doing that next time.)

The tofu needs to be pressed for about two hours. I put it between two cutting boards balanced on the sink and place a heavy jar on top. Jury rig it all you want, but this step is important! Really. Pressing out the excess liquid means it's going to be more flavorful. Once the liquid is mostly out, cut the tofu into little 1/2 chunks. Put in a ziplock bag.

Now, the marinade:
Peel the shallot. Cut everything into thin chunks. Combine all in a bowl with the lime juice- soy sauce. Set aside half as dressing. Put the other half into the ziplock bag with the tofu. Marinate for at least an hour, but longer is better! Flip over occasionally.

Combine all the salad vegetables together in a very large bowl. Put in the tofu, and the dressing. (You can add the leftover marinade from the tofu - really!) Gently toss to combine. Let it sit together for a bit so the flavors come together. You are done! It tastes even better the next day.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here I am.

Well, we're here. Boxes in all states of fullness are everywhere. I stub my toes at least five times a day. The internet is hooked back up. I'm home.
It's starting to feel like home a little bit, too. (Instead of some stranger's house, or the place where we go to work until we drop.)
This afternoon I took a little break from the crazyness to actually cook food. I haven't "actually cooked" in weeks, and I felt horribly under nourished. Tonight's dinner was chockablock with fresh vegetables and such, and it felt great. I burned some of it. Oh well. Still great.
This has been the most disruptive move of my life. We've moved a grand total of three times in the past 12 months, so that might have something to do with it. I have high hopes that this move will stick, and that we'll live here for a very long time.
I want to take a little time before I leap back into most of my internet things, though. I want to make some new routines, and create some new things. I feel like I have the chance to create a whole new everyday. I'm taking it.