I have decided

Among other things to:

-Do more photo shoots with Karlie. FO' REAL. At least once before the year is over.
-Make a diorama. Of what? Not sure yet.
-Finish ALL of my clothes-in-waiting before New Years. It will be done.
-ALWAYS take my lunch. So far so good :)
-Pick up weekend baking projects again. It stopped before my birthday and then I forgot to start again. This weekend: Russian Strawberry Birthday Cake.
-Dress up for work more often.
-Find Spencer's camera.

And Just So You Know

Everything is better with pesto.

One Night in Bangkok And The World's Your Oyster

I didn't really care for that song until Tyrus pointed out to me once that it's a song from a musical about chess, called Chess Moves and that song is pretty much the only successful thing about it. I never realized that, having never paid attention to the lyrics. Hi-larious.

Anyways, here's the update:
Over the weekend I sewed a dress and a tote bag.
I don't have real pictures yet because we still haven't found Spencer's camera, but I have a quick paint-rendition of the dress.

The Dress

However this drawing is nowhere near as awesome as the real thing. Just you wait.
Also the tote bag is black canvas with a gold tiger head emerging from some grass.
Needless to say, it's the single most perfect thing I've ever sewn.
And my quilt. Um, well, it's been put on the back burner for now. I've yet to go get its batting and decide on a backing piece. Choices choices.
But I've still been sewing; almost mastered sewing zippers, got back on track with sleeves and I'm going to try and alter a few dresses I've kept in the closet for a couple years this week.
I've also shaved my fabric collection down by nearly 50%. It was painful but also really relieving. Having unlimited resources is tickling to think about, but limiting your possibilities really forces you to be more creative at times, and it's fantastic.

Sidenote: my water bottle tastes like dishwasher. Blech.

Also, I've almost finished watching Wonderfalls, which is a show that Bryan Fuller (and Todd Holland) created and I hadn't seen it yet, so, I did. It was super easy, we just checked it out from the library, and I'm about 2/3 through it. It's lovely.

The Cast

If you haven't heard of it, it's probably because it aired on Fox for all of 4 episodes (though the commentary says "Crime Dog" aired which would actually mean 5 episodes aired) before it was completely canceled.
But real quickly: loosely based on Joan of Arc it's basically a girl working at a souvenir shop in Niagara Falls and her misadventures when little animal toys with faces start talking to her and telling her to do things.
It's cute, and I was also delighted to find out that Lee Pace (Ned from Pushing Daisies) plays a character on the show although he's not on it very often (or from what I've seen so far).

And here's something new about me, if you didn't already know: I have a terrible fear of Submarines.

I just about crapped myself looking for a picture.

I tried to look for a sunken submarine picture just to one-up the sitch but I literally was jumping away from the screen and compulsively, frantically searching to close the tab. It can't be done folks.
So yeah, it's not just submarines, but my fear can be defined as pretty much anything massive, man-made and in the water.
Large ships, mines, sea labs, but worst: submarines.
Also, sights of ships that are sunken or in the process of sinking scare the crap out of me too.
The sights of any of the above will undoubtedly have me gasping and squirming away if presented to me, in a book, online or on the television, it doesn't matter.
Why am I afraid of these things, especially when I love the sea so much?
No idea, it just has me panicking.
I shudder to remember the time my family in Washington all got together to tour a docked (but ready for service) Nuclear Submarine.

Anyways, I learned something new about myself today, something I always suspected, but have had confirmed today: I am also afraid of large man-made objects in the sky.
I'm not talking sky-scrapers or airplanes people; I'm not afraid of all boats, just incredibly huge ones, especially when resting at the bottom of the sea, like a mangled corpse never properly put to rest.
No, I was reading an article about the Saturn V. I know the Saturn V is a rocket, built by NASA, because my dad built a replica out of paper that hangs out in his basement.
But I didn't know it in the biggest rocket built by NASA. I also didn't realize how frightening it looks in comparison to other rockets.

None of these things could have had to come
to fruition if we'd have just taken a lesson
from The Doctor and his blue box.

This isn't comfortable for me. I hope you enjoy reading about this, because it's ALL FOR YOU. Yes, you, the 5 people who read this. ENJOY.
Submarines are still scarier though. Probably because, they're on the sea, which is very different from the sky. It's the bottom, the VERY bottom and there's no coming back up.
I meanwhile, am going to go crawl into the space under the benches in the dressing rooms. I will be safe there.

One last thing, it has been raining a moderate flow, non-stop, since I woke up today. FOR REAL.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

Whoa. Hold up.
The next Pushing Daisies episode has been delayed till November 19th?
H4x.
Total and utter h4x.

ABC you are so not on my good list. Well, actually you are, since so far you still haven't axed what is arguably THE BEST SHOW ON TV RIGHT NOW (at least until LOST returns next year...)

SERIOUSLY though. NOT COOL.

Maybe I'll take this time to catch up with Torchwood and ultimately finish Doctor Who.

Quick List Round-Up

-I voted yesterday and it was superb.
-My consultation with Landis is tomorrow, can't wait for it.
-I am going overtime this week (like 3rd week in a row)
-We are short-staffed at work (hence above sentence)
-Two interviews scheduled next week, plus two other almost-sure-hires coming soon
-Apartment was freezing last night; heater stopped working AGAIN
-Electrician supposedly coming today to fix it (AGAIN)
-Have watched The Fall almost 10 times since renting it; soooo good.
-McKay (Spencer's younger brother) was set apart as a full-time missionary yesterday
-Much crying ensued (tears of joy!... mostly)
-That makes 3 Holts having left home in the last 4 months (Spencer marrying me, Rachel's mish and now McKay's)
-NEW PUSHING DAISIES TONIGHT! (not that I get to watch D: )
-Have resolved to search for my sewing machine's zipper foot and try out a new skirt pattern I've been thinking about
-I seem to be developing the illness that Spencer has had for the last week and a half.
-Hopefully this Zicam can help... so far it doesn't look great ):

-oh yeah, and it's been SNOWING all day!

A Slight Pang of Regret

Don't get me wrong: my wedding was gorgeous.
In fact, I remember very little of it; all the panic and the hullabaloo, why didn't anyone TELL me that all I would care about was Spencer, visiting, and having everyone look at me?

One thing I did love though, were the perfectly themed, colored and (maybe not) so nicely fitted dresses I snagged for my girls.
I originally budgeted $100 per girl, accessories and all for all three of them, but lo and behold, Forever 21 had the perfect ones for a whopping $25 each.

Pink for the Maid of Honor, yellow for the Holts,

True, the dresses did end up giving the girls a badonkadonk, otherwise known as the humongous J-Lo butt.

Badonka-DONK.

Anyway, I'm going about my usual internet surfing and being a creepy fan and looking at promo photos for pushing daisies and I see that the lovely costume team on the show has seen my wedding album and decided to one-up my decision:

All that and honeycomb too.

Not that it would have been feasible to alter or rebuild the dresses. Still, it's a pretty awesome dress. The character Chuck is yet another figure added to my "inspirations for wardrobe" encyclopedia.

Past inspirations have been David Bowie, Grey Gardens and Enid, to name too few.

Just in case you forgot:

Help keep Pushing Daisies' ratings up and watch them on Wednesdays at 8 on ABC!
Tell your friends, it's a wonderful show! (tomorrow night!)
oh yeah... And vote please :)

(but seriously... watch Pushing Daisies.)

I Don't Care Who You Are

Or if you have the best relationship with your mother or the worst, or, if you're like me, a little of both; sometimes, you're mother knows just what to tell you to make you feel like all is not lost.

So The Hair Thing... yeah.

Not a good turnout.
I personally would say the girl ruined it.
Most likely she didn't. Although, yes, it's true. She did.
AND she left town for 4 weeks to tour with her band so she couldn't reschedule to fix it, not that I'd really trust her with my hair again. Then I scheduled to work with the owner of the salon, until I realized that their prices and high-end-ness is the same as Landis (our sister company) with whom I get a 30% discount.
So, come this Thursday, I have a consultation at Landis with a "Grand Stylist" I guess meaning not a "new artist" and we start the process of fixing my hair.

To give you some visuals without actually having to show you the new do, I have some near-perfect examples.This is my hair before, only I had bangs that went straight across, and it was maybe about an inch longer. Also there are no copyrights on my arm.


This more closely resembles my hair today. You know, the Berries and Creme Starburst "lad."

Yeah, that's just about perfect. Only wait, she also gave me "hot roots" which basically meant "I'm going to make you look like you tried dying your hair from a box at home with horrible results!"
I use demi-permanent dye-- a fact I made her very aware of and so any dyes lighter than, oh say, BLACK, would require that my hair be stripped of that demi dye.
So yeah, imagine that berries and creme kid, only with purple-y red roots.

And just to give you some more perspective, this is what the stylist (her name is Ashley) and I discussed previously:

Grow out my bangs a little more, give the rest a trim, strip the black and and we're on our way!

And that's what we discussed. I wanted to start migrating towards a blonde color, throw in something unusual (the blue) and I distinctly remember her and I discussing "cutting" to be closely connected with the word "trim."
The picture, by the way, is some girl name Peaches. From what I gather she's almost like a British Paris Hilton. However that doesn't deter me from coveting her hair.

Anyway, through one reason or another, she was saying that "we'll keep the black and give you hot roots." I mistake "hot roots" to mean like, attractive; hot. Then she's applying red to my hair. I tell her my husband and I aren't exactly huge fans of my being a red-head as it only makes me look slightly more like his sisters, who are both red-headed. She gives me the color-book to start searching a new color when I notice in the mirror that she's cutting 4 or 5 inches off my head!

At my panicking, she tries to console me by telling me she's only giving me that asymmetrical cut we talked about, which we did not, by the way, it turns out, she was thinking of a different model she was cutting after me.

And after trying to "fix" it (cutting the rest the same length) I tell her I feel like a page boy and want a softer look, at which point she starts "shattering" my ends, which, because of the texture of my hair (hint, goose down) only makes the end look frizzy and flared.

I tell her "thank you" and that "I think I'm going to try and move into a different direction" and that's where we come to the whole making-an-appointment-with-the-owner to making-an-appointment-with-Landis part of my story.

And just for your amusement, I realized throughout the weekend that I can also be likened to Matilda or V from V for Vendetta. Any other ones you can think of?
Oh! Holly from Red Dwarf, only with brown/red hair.

I wonder what will happen next.
/stomach grumbling in anxiety.