It's a matter of taste

A few days ago my mom had a catering job and she called me on her way over in a moment of panic and requested my mad catering-skills to come and assist her before the party started. So I went on over and she handed me some frozen concentrate, countrytime powder, real lemon juice, and a large orange cooler and told me to make some lemonade.

Now, unbeknownst to my mother I have never mixed such things to make a drink. I am a very much a one- or two-ingredients per drink kind of girl, but she's the boss so I just started mixing some stuff, tasting along the way to see how I was going. When I thought it was nearly there I had my mother taste-test it, and her reaction was not what I was expecting.

"Whoa! Wow. That's... that's, well..." I was kind of surprised because, I mean, how wrong can you go with lemonade? Especially when there's powder and mix for you? I guess I must be really talented or something. Mother continued, "You put that much lemon in? Ok, well... hmmm...." She then took the Costco sized Countrytime powder mix and dumped half of it it. "Hopefully that will do something." She said.

Somewhat abashed I abandoned the lemonade and moved over to the caprese and lettuce-wraps. My mom ended up fixing my bout of creativity and the lemonade was fine. But, lesson learned for next time!

I made a bag!

Look at this!

Hidden in the depths of 50 lb. flour bags and enough rice to feed a chinese village, not to mention a sizable box of ties, a partial drum set, and shoes of various kinds and sizes was this! It happens to be my grandfather's sewing machine, sewing table, I think, technically. I had no idea we had it until I was organizing and tried to move this surprisingly heavy nightstand. I explored and found a sewing machine within its bowels.

SO (sew)

A day of furious planning, pinning, ironing was immediately necessary.

After digging through boxes of fabric inherited from my grandmother, and after doodling all over my sketch book, after debating color schemes and my actual talent with a sewing machine, I made this!

It's a purse! And it's just the perfect size (big enough for a notebook and novel, plus other normal purse things, but without being too cumbersome).

And look inside! That is correct, it is lined with adorable fabric and given pockets too! A pocket for a pen, my sunglasses, chapstick, and then a couple extra for girly things, I suppose. Or my pocket knife. I should get a pocket knife.

It was hard, but satisfying. Those little flags were... let's just say it didn't take long for me to hate them. And attaching the lining and the outside together was also difficult and in need of restitching a couple of times. But we all made it through, and I am glad.

Ode to Neil Gaiman

(illustration by Tom Gauld)

I kind of have this thing for Neil Gaiman. He is an author that really bends his genre and does fantasy in a refreshing way that reminds me that fantasy can be good and enjoyable without being cliche or trite.

I just got a collection of short-stories he helped compile (along with Al Sarrantonio). In the intro he described very well my reason for reading, "We wanted to read stories that used a lightning flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we had never seen it before... It's the magic of fiction: you take the words and you build them into worlds. It seemed to us that the fantastic can be, can do, so much more than its detractors assume: it can illuminate the real, it can distort it, it can mask it, it can hide it. It can show you the world you know in a way that makes you realise you've never looked at it, not looked at it. G.K. Chesterton compared fantastic fiction to going on holiday--that the importance of your holiday is the moment you return, and you see the place you live through fresh eyes."

A lot of other people seem to think so as well, because they keep making his stuff into movies.

Coraline

This one is just good. Unexpected, slightly creepy, but good for many reasons.

Stardust

This one is just enchanting, clever, and highly enjoyable.

Sandman

This one is a graphic novel series, not actually a movie, but it's cool

Good Omens (Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett)

This one is also not a movie, but a really fun book. This is an adaption by some kids and I actually think they did a really good job, considering their budget. They remain true to the book (huzzah!). Plus it reminds me of these book projects we had to do in high school.

So there is some inspiration, to get me to use my pen to capture a snippet of the vast expanse of my mind.