A Halloween Want

I've been surfing and bidding on eBay tonight, specifically hunting down some vintage Halloween decorations from my youth. While looking around for detailed information about Beistle decorations, I found something on the 'net that I can't find anywhere on ebay or off...and I WANT! It's a skeletal Beistle cat. Too fun! I like the good old days of genuinely creepy die cuts.

A Little Ironic? Joy of Cooking Frozen Food

From the cookbook that has more detailed cooking techniques than you know you'll ever use comes frozen foods. Just heat, repeat. I can't be the only one that sees a little less "Joy" in this. They should have named the product line "Joy of the Microwave" or "Joy of the Reheat" or most simply "Joy of Not Cooking".

Etsy is Fast!

I listed a crippy craft tree on Etsy last night at around midnight. By this morning, it sold! Yippee, skippy! My niece who sells some items on Etsy gave me a good idea on how to list the artwork -- list things over a long period. Say, for instance, one a day. It gives your shop greater exposure on the site due to the number of Etsy browsing tools that put items in listed order. It gets your shop ~out there~ for a greater number of shoppers. I think it makes sense. Maybe. Could be. :-)

Real quick like...Good and Bad Commerce

I sold five jars of jam on Etsy! Apparently Etsy does work for such things. Yahoo! That was the good news. The bad news... none of my crippy crafts sold at the art show in Minneapolis. Boo. Onto Etsy they go when they come back home. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! http://catay.etsy.com --like the jams are here. like.

The Jams Are Coming! The Jams are Coming

Just a pre-announcement about my little Etsy.com shop which will, shortly, feature some of my jam creations. I started taking photos this weekend and will be putting up the jams, butters and conserves this week. If you're a jam lover, here's the flavors I will be offering: Apple Butter; Apricot; Apricot Butter; Apricot-Jalapeno; Apricot-Pineapple; Blueberry; Blueberry-Apricot; Green Grape; Peach; Peach-Grape; Plum; Plum Conserve; Quince; Raspberry-Blueberry; Raspberry-Chocolate spread; Raspberry-Jalapeno; Raspberry-Lime; Raspberry-Peach; Raspberry-Pineapple; Spiced Apricot Butter; Strawberry; Strawberry-Apricot.

*phew* It was a busy jamming year in 2007. The majority of the fruit is grown in our orchards in an organic way...no pesticides or herbicides. This is just a heads up. I'll post a "c'mon down" to my etsy shop: http://catay.etsy.com/ when it's open for business.

Beautiful Igigi

Igigi does it again. (http://www.igigi.com/) I lurrrve this outfit. It's got a sweet French flair, and it's got a simple palette based in black.

By the way, have I ever mentioned why I love wearing black so much? I'm sure that a lot of people believe it's because black is *ahem* slimming. That's somewhat true, but let's be frank...at 400lbs+, you won't look slim no matter what you wear. The truth hurts doesn't it. ;-) The reason is this: When I was growing up I wasn't allowed to wear black. I could go as dark as navy and that's it. My mum thought that black was too adult of a color. Oh, fine. When I started making my own clothes in high school, I opted for black pants quite often...'cuz my mom couldn't stop me! Bwwaaahahah! So, even though I'm a little bit *ahem* past twenty *ahem*, I still love wearing black 'cuz I like to feel like a kid playing an adult from time to time.

By the way, does it drive you as batty as it does me when blacks don't match if you're trying to wear them together? There's reddish black, blue black, true black and the dreaded i've-been-washed-too-many-times faded black. I can't wear two different shades of black together. No way, no how. I just can't!

Abduction Lamp

What a fun lamp idea, especially with all of the recent ~sightings~ of UFOs. VERY clever. It's only in concept form, but c'mon, don't you wish you thought of it first?! The title above is a link to the site for more info. Cat's House of Fun, indeed, if'n I had this on a table! :-)

Foul Fat Chick Fashion!

  You'll need to kill me to get me to wear these hideous offerings from Catherine's. (http://www.catherines.com) I know that Catherine's is supposed to be the fat chick's friend for women over 35, but c'mon, even the over 35 set has taste.

The pink stripy thing with the "nautical" yet "valentine" anchor really makes me see...ahem...sea sick. Let's admit it...the "nautical" look that comes out every stinking spring has really got to set sail to its long overdue death at sea. Secondly, STOP the ugly APPLIQUE insanity! There. I feel better now.

The second top with that hideous "Christmas package applique sweater" look is also supposed to be "nautically inspired". The only thing nautical about it is the feeling that I'd rather walk the plank than wear this.

Sea Monkeys or Artemia Salina

I remember looking to the back pages of the comic books to see the advertisement for Sea Monkeys. The ads basically promised you supremacy over the sea monkey kingdom, but not only would you be their keeper, but they would, in turn, be your friend. And, they'd don gorgeous jewels or bows upon their crowns and show you the beauty of life.

Unfortunately, when it arrived, the sea monkey kit never really fully captured my dream. There were no jeweled crowns or even bows atop each creature, and they never survived to live past their lice-like existance. Worst of all, they never tried to befriend me.

A wee bit disappointed, true, but that didn't really kill the dream. I still have it. I see the kits for sea monkeys and the dream lives. The hours of day dreaming about the little lives that were coming in the mail still keep a smile upon my face. If I had known then what this meant -- "Caricatures shown not intended to depict Artemia Salina" -- my dream bubble may have burst prior to the actual "monkeys" arriving.

Ah, good memories. The photo above shows the Sea Monkey dolls. No water added! Here's the ad that deceived me so:

Fashion Forward

Please tell me that this isn't THE best photo of the jacket. Pretty please? I'm thinking the photographer just submitted the entire collection of photos taken on that day rather than bothering to delete the doltish shots. Then, some art director randomly selected the shot to be used in the ad. Right? I mean, no one would intentionally use a photo like that to sell clothing. Would they? Oh wait! I know that mentally challenged individuals need clothing, too, but I didn't know they were using them as models in fashion photography now. How very fashion forward of them!! By the way, I found it at Nordstrom.com. Be sure to thank them for their extreme diversity in fashion models.

Right out of Left Field

I purchased a new washer the other day from Lowes/Whirlpool. While I often disregard the registration card that shows up in the product literature, I figured, I better submit the registration just in case this beast gets recalled on account of too many electrocutions, or whatever. After filling out the registration information, I was prompted with a satisfaction survey. All typical questions about the quality of service at the store where I purchased the washer. Until...well, until the final question. "Would you use complementary medicine such as acupuncture or massage if it were included in your health insurance benefit and had a copay of $100?" What the fuck? I was happily answering questions about my experience buying and suddenly I was thrust into a discussion about health care options? So very odd. Maybe they were just testing to see if I was paying attention? All in all, very odd. See a screen capture of the survey above.

I want!!

I want one really, really bad. It's been a while since I wanted a new geeky toy. Can I have one little old iPhone, pretty please, with sugar on top??

Not for Mothers Everywhere

Contrary to the advertising I've been seeing/hearing... not every mother wants a pink camera for Mother's day. Don't believe the advertising. They're just trying to clearance out the pink crap that no one is buying. Capice? *ahem* That being said, I'm sure there are plenty of women out there who appreciate pink cameras. Most of them are named Elle Woods, Attorney at Law.

Eau De Play-Doh! DOH!

I've seen Demeter's scents for several years. Dirt is pretty cool. Oh, and they had an Altoid scent that was hip and happenin'. Now this: http://www.perpetualkid.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1698 Play-Doh scented. I don't know about you, but when I want to feel sexy, I just roll up a little ball of Play-Doh and put it behind each ear, in my cleavage and behind my ankles. It's a bitch when it dries, though. So, maybe this new scent will do the trick? :-)

By the way...

I went shopping today just to one store which I thought would be pretty quiet as typically it's a veritable ghost town. Not so much today. I drove around and around the parking lot looking for a space...completely full! Took about 4 rounds to finally nab a space. All I wanted was a few pairs of socks for Ivan. They were half off, and he has a pretty great need for some new ones. So, yeah, it was as busy as heck. Remind me next year not to go near a store on the day after Thanksgiving. Aaaaaaaaack.

We're well into Chocolate Season

For those of you who have survived the chocolate rush of Halloween, I’ve found a new treat that’s sure to please lovers of the Cadbury Mini Eggs. You know, the solid chocolate eggs in the crispy shell? Well, now, they have the same chocolate and the same crispy shell in holiday colors! I’ve been googling around trying to find ‘em online, but no luck. You’re going to have to hunt ‘em down at your local store. And you *know* you will. Yum!

Mo' Bad Fat Chick Fashion

Fat chicks, I DARE you to wear this "cropped vest" and try to look "normal". If you hear people laughing/pointing in your general dirction and then hear "Look, shamu has outgrown her mooring, " don't blame me. Even if they're not anti-fat, upon first glance, they'll see a denim bra over your shirt. Or maybe a denim swim suit top over a white shirt. Now, maybe, just maybe it would look good on a chick sans shirt and with tiny, pert boobs, but probably not.

What's the scariest thing at this time of year?

Going shopping for Halloween do-dads at Target's boo bazaar and rounding the corner of the aisle only to have blinking Santa yard art staring back at ya. Very scary for October 18th!

For the Love of Cute

While I've shared some of my obsessions here in my online journal, I really haven't shared them all. You know, I've probably got too many with which to bore ya'll. I've got a thing for beautiful fabric and funky, fun fabric, too. One of my current fun fabric obsessions is the stuff by Heather Ross formerly of Munki Munki. It's ~kind of~ kid stuff, but since I'm a kid at heart, I openly embrace it, too. Her current line (soon to be replaced by fun new stuff, yay!) is called "Lightning Bugs & Other Mysteries"<--click this link to view the collection. It's been out for around a year. Several of my friends received pillow cases made out of the different prints last year. Anyway, I recently found out that she's got a stationery set called "Goldfish I Have Loved (too much?)," that I just HAD TO get. It's really purty sweet and despite the fact that I lurrrve it a lot, I actually have used it already. Two sheets down and two envelopes gone. I'll stop when I get to the last sheet of each variety. Click the link in the title of this post to see the fun stationery for yourself. You'll be glad you did. Really, I'm not trying to sell ya anything, I just think it's freakin' cute!

Easy Cheese

I was walking through the cracker aisle at the grocery store when I spotted a little bit of childhood: Easy Cheese!

I have fond memories of this while on our month-long motor-home excursions around the good old USA (and Canada, too!). We’d get a little Ritz, squeeze the cheese and yum! A perfect road food! There was the traditional can variety Easy Cheese and I also remember some sort of tube cheese with a little hole in the center from which the gooey goodness was dispensed. I’m not sure what was going on in the 70s to make it so easy cheese friendly, but you know if you grew up during that time, you had some Easy Cheese, too! And it was good.

 

Recommend

I don’t recommend too many things on here, do I? I hope not. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m advertising rather than honest-to-goodness recommending.

Anyway.... I heartily recommend the magazine BUST (http://www.bust.com/). It’s girl-centric, alternative, edgy, crafty, sexy, sew-y, fat friendly, music-y and well written. I don’t really consider myself a “feminist” per se (I’m much more of a humanist), but much of the writing in the magazine might be considered ‘feminist’, so be forewarned if that bothers you. I happen to find it refreshing. Another side warning: the edginess means that there’s a lot of frank talk, “swear words”, sexuality and the like. Again, if your sensibilities are delicate, you may want to stick with a more mainstream mag. The articles themselves are interesting, but at the back of every issue, there are tons of alternative shopping resources all with fun, kitschy or koool websites – a great way to kill an afternoon! So, yeah, I’m just sayin...

Stupid Food Creations

Topping my list of new stupid food creations -- Oscar Meyer Fast Frank. Take something that's super easy to make -- the simple hot dog and make it even simpler. Package it in a "conventient" 3 pack and promise "bakery fresh" buns after it's been 'waved. I really didn't think this was serious. Next thing you know, there's going to be strips of ketchup and mustard that you peel and stick on the dog. It's going to save you time and of course it'll taste just like *real* ketchup and mustard. Oh, wait...an even better idea than the lazy dog. Why not sell toast already toasted? It'll save SOOOO much time and really, it'll taste just like real toast straight from your toaster plus or minus a few extra chemicals....

Sew..Sew...Sewssudio.

I made some purty curtains for my step-daughter's room in the house we recently bought. It was a bear finding the fabric! I found one yard at a local fabric store...then, after she formally approved of the fabric, the chase to find more began! We called JoAnn after JoAnn. Finally they did a source search on it and found it in a city about 45 minutes south. We shot down there only to find the source search was wrong. Next shop on the source search got phoned and VOILA! 5 yards. Another 25 minutes south! We get there, and it's 5 yards cut up into several pieces. DOH! Luckily, each piece was at least a yard. Four panels later and voila, bright happy curtains.

"Tastes Just Like an Oreo..."

That's their basic push in the advertising for Chocostix. Maybe it's just me, but if it tastes just like an Oreo, why would I buy the ChocoStix? Is it the chocolate on the outside that's supposed to sway buyers? If so, why wouldn't they just buy the chocolate covered Oreos? Is it the stick shape? If it's the stick shape that is drawing me in, I might as well buy a KitKat. Are confectioners losing creativity or is the general public too tied to familiarity? Why not a candy bar that "Tastes just like a cherry pie?" or something equally hard to find in a handy portable shape?

Fat Girl Fashions that *Almost* Hit the Mark.

This is from Ulla Popken. I really do dig a lot of her European looks. I even sneak into Ulla France website for more goodies. Anyway, this ditty is an *almost* for one reason. The jacket. What hippy fat chick looks good with a rounded jacket like this? Well, I guess if you're trying to make your hips larger, this would do the trick. For the rest of us, get the skirt (which I think is quite dashing) and wear the black shirt alone with it.

Also from Ulla Popken. I really like this. I really do. It's different than the same ol' same ol'. I was tempted to order it even. But then...then I realized that on a girl my size, the cut of the dress really won't work. I'll just look like a deflated balloon, with velvet accents, of course.