Honourable Mentions: The Pretty Prince of Parties, friends, cheese, weddings of friends, skype chatting with my Giffy, pretty art and my heart shaped sunglasses.
I found this luciously illustrated blog Cake on the brain by googling for a recipe for white chocolate cupcakes. Check these babies out. Must try the recipe. Plus she has a handy link on the side bar to all her recipe posts. Neato.
Also stolen from the side bar is this gadget which should be pretty darn useful to me in the future:
This website is also a handy conversion reference.
I'm sure I've linked it before but I'm always impressed with the cake blog, a professional American cake maker, specialising in wedding cakes. The Portal inspired companion cube cake they posted recently makes me pretty happy.
Robin: The Big Leagues by Adam Beechen.
Let me get this out of my system first. Ahem. What the hell is up with the new Robin costume? Click here, first panel to see what I mean. I think they've retconned it in the comics to match the outfit in the anime Teen Titans and although I think it works in the show I hate it in comic/realistic form. It just looks like he's dressed as Mr Incredible. And badly, I mean, he added a cape! Also, I need there to be green on Robin's costume, ok?
Ok. The comic itself was very good. Robin comics tend to have good action and this one had a lot of great fight sequences as well as some humour and geeky teenage stuff that was very endearing. Tim and Bruce's loving father/son relationship was a but too gooey for me. Having seen countless examples of Bruce being a terrible father to Dick Grayson I can't quite buy into this stuff with Tim. I am aware though that I miss huge chunks of canon by only reading random graphic novels that the library has but still. It was jarring. That said I really liked the whole first part where Tim is trying to get a father's day present to Bruce and is waylaid by villains. That was cute.
It's a Bird by Steven T Seagle
I can't get over how awesome this comic is. It's (mostly) autobiographical, or at least, it appears to be. Steve is a comics writer who is offered the chance to write Superman. Instead of being thrilled at the chance to write such an iconic character he becomes angry and depressed. Superman is tied into traumatic event in his childhood when his grandmother dies of Huntinton's Disease and that brings up the whole can of worms: Huntinton's is a genetic disease. Steve may come down with it some day.
The story follows Steve failing to deal with these issues, interspersed with little two-three page Superman vignettes relating to what he's thinking. The art is stunning, really sketchy and real and the emotions are raw and confronting.
I can't recommend this book and expect people to read it. Autobiographical graphic novels are a particular taste after all, but I did love this and if it sounds at all appealing to you then go ahead and get it. Wellington City Libraries has it.
PoF: slackah
CO: got paid time and a half today
There's a couple more pictures up on Tasty baking, although I need to take a better picture of the ginger crunch. It's hard because the ginger crunch topping is so squooshy.
The last time I made ginger crunch was using the Edmond's cookbook recipe and it was a disaster. I must have messed up the amount of butter in the base or something. Anyway it was inedible. The ginger crunch recipe in Ladies, a plate is dead simple and came out amazing. Super crunchy base and I doubled the icing amount so there would be plenty. It is tasty and delicious. Lee also gave it the seal of approval.
I went to Briscoes on Friday night because I got antsy after work and it's like....a block away. I bought a slice pan, a silicon foldy bakeware loaf pan and a silicone foldy bakeware muffin tray. I also got a neat 'umbrella' fly screen thing for putting over baking. It was about $5.00 and it sproings up and down very pleasingly.
I am on a low level hunt for a gem iron (cast iron). There are a few listed on Trade Me but the one I liked went for $62 and I'm just not feeling that rich. Mum used to have one but she doesn't know where it went. It's a weirdly consuming desire I have for a gem iron, given that I only want to make ginger gems and I don't even know if I will want to do that more than once. I think it's the fact that they are difficult to get that is making me want them more.
I also wish to make myself a new apron. Possibly out of canteen bandannas. I'm not sure if this will actually happen, but in my head it looks very nice.
In non-baking news I managed to do a good two hours of editing work yesterday, moving from making notes with pen on printouts to actually updating the manuscript digitally when I got bored of that. I am working exclusively on Kiki at the moment, just because it is clear that there is a lot that needs changing as I look at it again and also to give WtWTCh? a chance to rest.
I am still desirous of writing more short stories....just in case I am successful with my first one and they ask for more. They're a nice quick form to write obviously, I just need that kicker of an idea.
I've also been toying with the idea of using characters I have invented for roleplaying games, making stories around them. I don't though, because I feel like those characters don't belong just to me. Even if I used just my character Sam from The Other Side I feel like I am, well, stealing almost, from the creativity of my roleplaying group. I don't know how justified that really is, but I can't help feeling that way anyway.
It's freezing cold today. If I don't warm up soon I'm going to have a mid-afternoon bath. Actually, I might just do that anyway. Lee wants to watch The Fellowship of the Ring so I'll have to close the blinds soon anyway.
PoF: emo bear
CO: baking and writing, clearly. I should write about baking. Hmmmmm.
Things that have made me laugh this week include:
Natalie Portman talking about the Global economic crisis video. (Link via Meg Cabot).
An extra big Bwah hah hah! for this Robin Hallowe'en costume, in case you couldn't tell, it's for girls.
Improv Everywhere's latest MP3 experiment looks like it was fun. Basically everyone downloads the same MP3, goes to a meet up place wearing a red, green, blue or yellow shirt and then presses play at the same time. The MP3 gives them instructions.
Baby huskies, especially the nose biting one.
Oh and the awesome dream I had that Lee and I were in a community theatre production of Hamlet where I was Ophelia, Lee was recast from Horatio to Hamlet so that we could make out on stage and Stoozle played the zombie lizard.
PoF: Gala Darling
CO: getting up energy to close the door.
Late addition: Thanks Hot Topic, for encouraging the creepy stalkerness of Twilight in teenagers. *shudders more than laughs at that one.*
PoF: tracksuit fantastic
CO: pizza for tea, please?
Today I is sleepy. I is sleepy and distracted by t'internets. Despite both of these debilitating conditions I managed to savagely attack about 15 pages of Kiki, striking out whole paragraphs and clarifying certain points, making it flow a but better, giving my leads a bit more character....it's pretty shocking how much I feel I can just remove to make a better story but I suppose that's the whole entire point of the process.
Stephen King recommends letting drafts of things 'sit' for about 6 months before you go back and look at them, and I think there is real merit in that now. I remember back last year when I was doing this exact same thing (going through the printed manuscript with a pen) and I feel that I am doing better this time. I have emotional distance from the words and I can't clearly remember how it felt to write them. I am approaching them this time with an editor's eyes and I think this is a Good Thing Indeed.
On the other hand, my sleepiness has meant I had to have a nap during the process but whatever. The good thing about this stage of the process is that it's easy to do, so I can do it more often. Hopefully.
Awesomely funny article about how to care for the writer in your life made me smile.
Reading-wise, I finished both of the Allie Finkle books and I really enjoyed them. I want more!
I bought some more baking supplies from the supermarket, but I forgot butter. Baking uses up butter at an alarming rate. That is why it is so delicious I think.
PoF: warmly
CO: Trouble maker
Love this article from The Discomfort Zone about being more open minded, basically teaching yourself to think like a child again.
I am so musical-geeky excited that Starlight express, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical about trains in which all the cast is on rollerskates and has races....is coming to Wellington! Eeeee I am so going to it. If anyone else is keen let me know because if we get a group of 10 there's a discount.
I started a food image set on flickr, because I must copy what Giffy does...but very slowly. You can see it here tasty baking. So far there's just cupcakes and afghans up there but I will add more as I bake them.
During my lunch break and when I got home from work I made 'spice crisps' which are kind of like a home-made version of gingernuts and very very good. Seriously...kind of sinfully good. I sent a package of afghans and spice crisps with Lee to quiz night to give to his dad and got quite a lovely text message of thanks.
PoF: Forgot to post this on actual Tuesday
CO: what else can I bake that will turn out awesome?
I have been frightfully busy.
Being on holiday, having two birthday celebrations in one day followed by brunch, balcony lounging and then dinner out makes for a fantastically fun weekend, but not one with a lot of blogging time.
Awesome things I got for my birthday (in list form, to please Karen ;) )
- Books, books, books. On the Road, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Last Unicorn(special edition, with signature of author made out to me!) Notebooks too.
- A very special handmade writing muse doll and painted skull picture from the marvelously talented and woefully absent-from-my-life Amphigori.
- Tasty strawberry wine, personalised home brew blonde ale.
- Lush goodies and amazing pink Lolita (read: heart shaped) sunglasses, 'tooth picks', a quilt fabric 'lollipop', pink jewelery box and heaps more. I feel so lucky and spoiled.
Awesome things I have eaten recently:
- Breakfast burrito at Sweet Mother's Kitchen. I wasn't hung over on Sunday morning but I hadn't got enough sleep. This was the perfectest food I could have ordered, especially when combined with perky nana milkshake. Om nom nom.
- Dinner at Kazu restaurant. Best takoyaki and miso in forever. Realised, talking with the girl-Seraph that miso makes me calm. Need more miso in my life.
- Brandy snaps and warm Mississippi mudcake with chocolate syrup at Lakota on Paraparaumu Beach. So retro and so right. Not so into the Bailey's Creme brulee, because I don't like the taste of Bailey's.
- Ice cream cake at the family October birthday celebrations. Strawberry, banana and bubblegum strata of good creamy icecream. I am also impressed with how I managed to get all four birthday people's names on there with the edible letters.
Awesome Stuff I have read lately:
- More H.P. Lovecraft stories At the Mountains of Madness, The testimony of Randolph Carter, Dreams in the Witch House. Good and spooky. It's also really nice to learn all the actual mythos that I have been blithely referring to for all these years. Also giant albino penguins = win.
- Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Moving day Meg Cabot's first book for younger readers is really really good. Her style is perfectly suited to it actually. It's also made me rethink how I have my girls speak to each other in Kiki so that's useful too.
- Violet and Clare another Francesca Lia Block re-read, I can never remember how this one ends for some reason. I loved reading it again. The characters of both leads are so well rounded and real to me. The end made me cry as it turned out.
- Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 a beautifully artsy looking graphic novel about mice fighting wars against predators and each other. There are mouse cities, you see, and the Mouse Guard are like the police/army keeping the order. Great characerisation and impressive expression from minimal facial details. Looking forward to reading the Winter installment. Official site. I agree with Mike, the roleplaying game should be awesome.
- Ladies, a Plate turns out to be fascinating reading. The history of each recipe really makes it for me. I have actually baked from it now, made afghans when I got home from work today. After dinner I will try the fancy fudgey icing that she recommends. Om nom nom the second.
PoF: slobby
CO: hungry for tea and afghans!
I just realised I completely missed my five year blog-o-versary. I am a terrible blog mother. It was back on the 4th of September, and I didn't even post that day...it's just a blank space in between other days.
If my blog was a person I would be sending it to school now. It is scary to me to think that I have been writing on this little Talula blog for that long. It's longer than I spent at high school.
So happy birthday Talula! I'm sorry it's so belated.
Time to think about some things. My blogging direction has always been pretty wishy washy: a bit of food, books and films, lately there's been a lot about writing and less about my day to day life.
I would like to encourage more visitors which means providing more content that people want to read.
So the question falls to my delightful readers: why do you read this blog? Is it for an update on my life? Is it for reviews of stuff? Is it for the RPG content or the things I am learning about writing? Is it for the links I mention? Basically, what would make this more interesting for you?
.....
TiLT super tiny edition:
The ocean out the window, cuddles, mink blankies, birthday presents, kind friends, giving things away, warm clothes and good food.
PoF: wonder woman
CO: head muzzy, too much napping
My Angel-in-law got me a fantastic recipe book called Ladies, a plate which is a book of classic New Zealand recipes, all pre-1970, which have been collected from family recipe books and community cookbooks, then tested in the author's kitchen and proven to be good. The recipes are all familiar: chocolate fudge cake, neenish tarts, pikelets, butterfly cakes, ginger crunch, queen cakes....the pictures are lush and delicious looking, the foreword has taught me something about baking already. Of course, now I am going to leave my kitchen and all its baking utensils for three days....it's crazy to take my baking stuff away with me isn't it?
So, to summarize, there will be baking in my future. And yours if you happen to come over.
Sister in law gave me a pale green wrought iron cupcake stand. It has three tiers and is very curly and pretty. I *heart* it. I'd been looking at buying something like that for myself but all the ones I found on Trade Me were muy expensive.
I also got some designer chocolates, a martian man bracelet I picked out at Craft 2.0, strawberry bubbly and a block-a-day quilt calendar which I am very much looking forward to cracking open and trying out the patterns. Is it cheating to start it before 2009? I hope not, because I don't think I can wait....Oh and I got an awesome Batman tshirt from LA. It shows Batman and Robin kissing in a heart shape in red on a black tshirt. It's awesome in the extreme, especially because Batman looks so very happy.
awesome awesome awesome.
Now to pack what I'll need for the next few days (plain flour, cupcake tray, baking soda, uhm. Clothes I mean.) and have some breakfast.
I had an awesome birthday, cleaning and blasting Tori in the morning, a call from Mum, lunch with DH, afternoon in the sun stencilling tshirts that came out really good, dinner with friends and extended family, cupcakes to finish. Looking forward to my party on Saturday now.
PoF: robe
CO: baking
I found a cool website called Instructables where users upload how-to guides for DIY projects. Some of them are seriously hard core (make your own electricity generating wind turbine anyone?) and some are easier. The subcategories make it easy to use and you can also search by key word.
WikiHow is also a font of knowledge and has given me an excellent suggestion for stencilling tshirts. I think that's what I'm going to do this afternoon.
Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone, 29 as it turns out, feels just like 28.
PoF: bed
CO: doing what I like
Oh, and further to the Graysons story of the other day, check out this fan made preview for a Grayson movie. Cheesy Catwoman is cheesy but the others do pretty well. It's very revisionist of the DC canon and not too sure why he didn't go the Nightwing route, but the trailer is impressive.
Notable things I have done* since I turned 28, 364 days ago:
Got books in the mail today, Meg Cabot's first Allie Finkle book and the Life on Mars tie in book The Rules of Modern Policing by Gene Hunt. They can be my birthday presents to myself. I also got a voucher from work and a birthday card with lots of pictures of robots drawn in it.
Now just have to finish tidying the house before we go away. Bathroom, spare bedroom and main bedroom done, except for the floors in the bathroom.
I should also mention that today marks the last day of my antibiotics and they have definitely done the trick. Cough is mostly gone, nose mostly dry, although the air conditioning at work wasn't good for my chest and brought the cough back a bit. Luckily I'm taking the rest of the week off work so that should give my lungs a chance to clear up properly.
PoF: Stripes
CO: Birfday
* or accomplishments.
I don't have anything much to say except that I have finished reading my first ever H.P. Lovecraft story. It was neat. It was The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It is testament to how sick I was last week that I picked up the book, looked at the table of contents, thought to myself 'I won't read Mountains of Madness because it is too long, I will read a shorter story.' And then I picked the longest one in the book instead. Math fail!
Yesterday the Pa was opened and I got up very early to witness the ceremony and then speeches at the City Council and then breakfast with all of Lee's family. It was petty neat. I got a letter from Swearing Niece which was very sweet.
Svend and C took me to Craft 2.0 which was very cool, although there was a distinct lack of edible cupcakes. There were heaps of crochet and felt cupcakes but that's not the same thing at all. It was very sunny yesterday. I approve of sunny.
PoF: pretty
CO: feeling good
I love taking deep breaths that do not end in coughing. I love it so very very much. I also love anitobiotics, which are getting me back on track to breathe without coughing.
Hail coming down while it's sunny. Wellington's weather is made of win.
Thinking about all the nothing I'm going to get done on holiday next week. Mmmm tasty nothing. In actuality I will read, sleep and write. But not a lot else. Mmmmm.
Little fluffy mammals, such as bunnies, kitties, puppies and ratties. Related: trawling cute overload, dog blog and icanhscheezburger.
I want one of these dinosaur robots. Kota is awesome.
Getting stuff done. I actually did manage some writing yesterday, did some work on the Robyn Hood scenario for Best Friends that I'm thinking of submitting to the Kapcon Scenario Design contest. And then seeing if I can sell it somehow.
Also quite excited in the prospect of a TV show about Robin before he was Robin, except can I just say DJ? Ick. I mean, I can see why they didn't want to go with Dick but there's other nicknames that come from Richard. And don't remind me of Full House. Ick. But yay!
Honourable mentions: fresh fruit smoothies, blankies, my ugg boot slippers, the feeling when my ears clear and I can hear again, Lee being a honey even at 4am, Gizmo the mogwai, chocolate covered marshmallow and new friends.
PoF: Cryptozoology
CO: clear nasal passages
The Langoliers by Stephen King.
Novella, as I mentioned previously. It was too tense for me to read before sleeping because I'd get all riled up and freaked out. I finished it while feverish and unable to do anything else and it really was very good. Scary as, very tense, but with a great payoff. Now I'm a bit scared to read more Stephen King, so I'm reading a Lovecraft short story instead. It made sense at the time.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
(Which you can download for free from here)
This book is awesome, set in a couple more years in San Francisco, it's a story about terrorism and hacking and HomeLand Security and romance and being a teenager. I loved it to bits and have passed it on to Lee to read. I don't want to say much about it because it's best as a surprise, so I'll just recommend you download it and have a look yourself.
Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block.
Ok, I seem to read this book all the time. It's comfort food. It's all about clothes and hotels and kisses and being out on your own and magical things happening......oh and food. Francesca is always careful to describe the food. Perfection.
Welcome to Tranquility by Gail Simone.
A graphic novel about a small town where superheroes go to retire. It was pretty neat, mixing in classic style comics from when the heroes were famous and an overarching murder plot tying together all the character introductions. It was gentle and fine. It was very much like the TV show Eureka if the town was supers instead of geniuses, and like the show it was fine but it wasn't spectacular.
PoF: window
CO: even deep breaths.
I am feeling better, not all the way better by any stretch, but quite a bit better.
I have developed a new kind of cough though, I'm thinking of taking out a copyright on it. It starts as a throat tickle kind of cough, and I think I get it because there is something in there that needs to come out, but you don't actually produce anything with this cough. You just cough a lot, every couple of minutes for about 15 minutes or until you can't breathe. Then when you can't breathe your nose starts running, but if you try and blow it you will cough so that you make a weird 'herp!' noise. Tears should also be streaming out of your eyes and your chest should be complaining about the lack of air.
Then you just keep on going. Bonus points if you cough so hard you nearly throw up.
It's awesome fun, I did it for about an hour last night when we were trying to get to sleep. I eventually gave up and came out to the couch so that Lee could sleep. I dropped off eventually and woke up at nearly 1am and crawled back into bed and managed to sleep through til 7am! Bliss!
I managed my Wednesday half day almost the whole way through and then I started getting the above cough as I was training someone. No fun. No fun at all.
I feel really weak and worn out now, might have a nap and see if that helps. The antibiotics definitely seem to be working so that's all good. I just wish I could speed them along a little.
Later I will try and review the stuff I've been reading, just to give this blog a little variety.
PoF: duvet
CO: no more coughs plzthx.
Codral helped me sleep an extra two hours, for which I am grateful. I am still coughing up disturbingly coloured gunk.
I couldn't get an appointment with my usual doctor so I went to the after hours this morning. I have a fever right now according to the thermometer. I have been diagnosed with bronchitis and giving a prescription for penicillin in case it is bacterial in nature.
Yay me?
I am going to have a nap now.
PoF: bed
CO: fever
I've spent the whole weekend in a sick-bed funk. The past three nights I've woken up at 4am to cough gunk out of my lungs/throat/wherever the heck it comes from for roughly two hours. Then I try to get some more sleep, generally on the couch where Lee can't hear me so much.
Yesterday I managed to do a little work on my manuscript and had a not-long-enough-at-two-hours nap. Had dinner at Lee's parents because his cousin is visiting from the UK and took my tissues with me and insisted on being brought home again at 7.30.
Today I had less luck with the getting back to sleep after 6am, coughing up gunk was way more intense and a couple of times I nearly threw up. I also had the shakes and got way overheated when I did manage to get back to sleep briefly.
This morning Lee bought me medications, cough syrup made by the gods (errr, Benedryl) and pills that will knock me out tonight. This is because unlike the past two days the coughing up of gunk has continued into the sunshine hours (is this good or bad does anyone know?) and the sleep dep is taking its toll on me.
I feel barely human. I've tried napping twice this afternoon and it hasn't worked either time. My bedroom seems to exacerbate my cough so I've put the dehumidifier on in there. My nose is also running like crazy which gives me a headache and ear issues.
I guess it's not winter anymore, so I can't say it's my fourth cold of the winter but it's pretty similar to the second one I had. Just worse and harder to sleep through. I even EFT tapped on the damn thing this morning and did feel a bit better, now I'm just exhausted and that's my main symptom. I think if I could get a good night's sleep I'd feel ten times better.
There was no Wednesday writing update because on Wednesday I was basically a beached walrus, moaning and groaning on the couch and falling asleep. Not a good frame of mind for writing.
I am just beginning to think I could open up the ol' word document and have another crack at What's the Worst That Could Happen? and this is in part because my illness is all in my nose and throat now, not the brain, and mostly because of these two articles I found through Gala Darling:
Tyler Durden's rules of Innovation is massively inspiring, from Lateral Action.
Are you a writer? from the Copyblogger.
Both make me want to Just Do It in the best way. So off I go to do so, but I felt like I needed to share the awesome with all my writingly inclined friends.
...that I have noticed about the street outside me while I lie infirm on the couch.
-> I prefer to hear random Opera singing than random Hip Hop music. I suspect both come from cars waiting at the lights, but I also really like the idea that the opera I heard this morning was a lonesome tenor just wandering Wellington's streets and singing an aria.
-> There's *something* that goes outside my apartment at around 5am Saturday morning and plays chimes. Like 'come out and get ice cream' chimes. I suspect it was the recycling truck, because that was definitely around at the same time. I heard the crash of the glass. I can understand recycling trucks having chimes on a sunny afternoon in the suburbs so kiddies can run out with the recycling like I used to with the milk bottles....but 5am? Central city? Maybe it was for the bar workers.
-> People will stand in the middle of the busy four lane road and shout at their friends who are inside the apartment building.
-> There are some very big dogs that get walked through town. The people all head towards the waterfront with their giant dogs.
-> Teenagers are freaking loud.
PoF: comfy and warm
CO: dumb sickness
PS. If you have ever worked in Customer Service I think you will enjoy Not Always Right.
A love letter to the Lush shop basically, my recommendations, also I'm still freaking sick and this entry is easy to do. (I am also not being paid by Lush ;p)
I adore their scents, I love their pun-laced product names, I love the friendly service and the way the shop assistants congratulate you for buying stuff for yourself (as opposed to gifts). So, prompted by my heavenly scented shower I give you my list of all time best products from Lush. (In no particular order.)
So those are my best Lush picks. What are yours?
PoF: pjs, robe, bed at 10pm on Friday. Such a party animal.
CO: breathing.
This Thursday I love breathing without coughing the very most. I wish I was doing more of it! But it's ok, because there's other things I am grateful for as well.
Honourable Mentions: this shirt, my Wonder Woman hoodie, doing the laundry, fresh baking, ice creams on a stick, feeling appreciated, receiving printed out photos in the mail and Lindt milk chocolate.
What are you grateful for this week?