Halloween Costume

GUEEEEEESSSS what James is going to be this year? Garden Gnome Chomski, teheheheh. Making things from scratch is a bit of a challenge for me, but I dabble. Like cooking, my end result ofen varies from my original intention. This year for Halloween I had two ideas for costumes, but instead of making both for myself to wear on different nights I am making one of them for James! Also, I thought that he would look cute as a button dressed up like a garden gnome.

The first thing I made was this super sweet beard. Originally I was going to cut out a felt shaped beard and then sew on a bunch of threads or cotton balls. After I wandered into a local crafting shop I discovered some cheap mohair and a enthusiastic crafter. Fifteen minutes later I'm equipped with a huge needle and a free demo on felting. 

Two days later and I've created a soft beard, a gnome hat, and the sick nastiest gnome costume ever.

Denial Fall

If life only had four phases then I would consider myself to be leaving my summer and slowly entering into my Fall. Seeing as how Fall is one of my favorite seasons that shouldn't be too bad, right? Wrong. I feel that I should have something to show more than a minimum wage job, a bachelor's degree, and a baby blog. At least I am keeping myself afloat and only hang out at coffee shops when I have a good outfit on!

As you can see I have yet to perfect the ideal self portrait in my apartment, but it's a process to I'm having fun with. To properly reflect my blues of late I have been wearing these ridiculously bright blue pants for seven days straight. Who knows how long this will continue, maybe my coworkers will have an intervention, or maybe James will throw them away when I'm sleeping.

I'm also denying the stupid coldness my only wearing a cardigan, take that mother gia! We all know who the real winner is in this situation....

Back on track, I have also been cooking way too much lately. Some things that have gone in my mouth have been:

Twice baked bacon & broccoli potatoes with white cheddar on top
Thai influenced coconut squash soup (omg I used my new truffle salt on this!!!)
Kale chips
Wedding style appetizers via ingredients+boredom at work
Tahitian Limeade
Zucchini Fritters(good idea em)
Rosemary Bread
Green breakfast smoothies
Split pea soup
Banana Hazelnut French Toast
Parmesan Waffle fries
Buckwheat noodles with smoked salmon
Three day marinated teriyaki beef
Sausage, bean, and kale soup

Boredom leads to cooking, but frugality does as well. Many of the ingredients I've been using have been from the trash bins at work, on sale from wholepaycheck, or bartered for at farmers markets. One of the best example of a cheap fine dining experience at home I have made was steak and veggies. This meal would have cost +50$ for two people at a restaurant, but at home it cost 20$, and that was even with a bottle of wine thrown in!

Want to see some pictures of my extrordinary cooking??

Zucchini Fritters with salvaged parmesan cheese

Banana Hazelnut French Toast(salvaged bread, hazelnuts, and bananas a customer left at work)

Pear, Spinch, and Wheat Germ Smoothie(All salvaged or donated by friends)

Green Split Pea Soup(with bought HotDogs)

At least there's one thing that I can do to please myself, besides the obvious, and that is to cook. Another thing I have gotten really good at is drinking way too much coffee. I always have a jar of cold brew in my fridge these days, and all I want to do on my day off is drink coffee, go for walks, and read/nap. As for bike riding, I need motivation! I no longer have a ride buddy a few blocks away, and my main squeeze's schedule and mine are completely opposite.

As for getting a job within my intended career field, I'm trying! Really, I am. It's all about networking and I'm not so good, but I'm making baby steps. Non-profit career fair next week, yes please!

And I'll leave you with what I'm currently doing.

Halloween

Unlike previous Halloweens I am actually getting started on my costume early. Not to ruin the surprise I will conceal my idea, but the biggest thing I need to do is chop off three inches off my lucious mane! EEECK. Oh well, thats what rogain is for right?


So what does Fall mean for me other than halloween, rain coats, and dead leaves? COOKIES AND TEA. oh yeah and this year it also means RPGs. Yes, RPGs. Like Dungeons and Dragons but lovecraftian. My nerd cred is skyrocketing over the last few months, and I like it!

PS, here's a picture of some ghosts!

Some of Today and Some of Yesterday

Inspired by my dear faraway friend I feel the need to share the outfit that I wore today to go shopping at WholePaycheck.

 

Can you tell that I like purple?

Maybe not though, the colors didn;t turn out so well! Anyways the ourfit breaks down as such: Purple courderoy, a purple striped sweater, blue jacket, and purple toms(yeah I also have a pair, huzzah!).  These pants are deemed as my progress pants, the jacket from a free pile, the sweater is my boo's, and the shoes match a pair of my moms. Contraire to Portland etiquette this outfit is sans hood, but thats a o k because I managed to escape the torrental downpour that ensued after my voyage. Now this trip was all in preparation for a split pea soup I made this afternoon, not just some crazy jaunt to see how I could escape the rain. The soup turned out fantastic, even though it's vegan(!), but what was more amazing was the song I came up with on the way. If I had to come up with a title it would be Split Pea Soup Time, Double Time. I even shared it with the radical feminist cashier, but she wasn't impressed. Though I wouldnt be surpried if I hear it as a new hit single from some local grunge band.

Since this flow of creativity was unleashed from its closed up gates I have been producing a random assortment of edible&non-edible goodies. It hasn't hurt that the Lips has been dead slow and there's quite a few materials at hand for me to use. Here's a picture by picture of a baby flip book that I made using old recipts. The star of the show is one of my old friends named Sheldon, he's an egg, but you'll like him anyways.

As you can see I'm a genius, but I already knew that, and you did too. I'll put up the recipe for split pea soup later, but as for right now there's a Mr Draper here to see me.

Val Kilmer

Now we all have celebrity crushes, I mean it's hard not too when there are naked pictures of everyone dresses up like vampires up all over the place right? Not that that's the type of thing that gets me going, but judging by the current collective fixation I would thank that type of character floats many people's boats.  I digress. The famous people I would roll around the sack with might not be what some may deem attractive any more, and are even more would some would label as old men. The numero uno on this list is my ultimate dream boat lover, Mr Val Kilmer. Now this man is not in the best shape of his life at the current moment, but I still love him so. One of his more recent films is playing at the laurelhurst, and that is where I shall be this weekend. The only tricky part is distracting James from my pure adoration of Val.

I wish I woke up with this at my kitchen table