Fin!

With my husband anxiously looking over my shoulder, I finished the "Priest Zombie" last night:

I redid the eyes that I burned (see yesterday's post for more on the priest zombie) and decided to needle felt the white collar thing, cross and blood.

Here's the "Priest Zombie" and the "Corporate Zombie" at home on a shelf in our kitchen:

As long as we're talking priests here, you may have noticed the nice picture of the Virgin Mary below the shelf:

Or was it Jesus?

It's basically the sweetest Jesus/Mary hologram ever, courtesy of the Pennsauken Mart (read: dirt mall in Jersey). When I went to my friend Bonnie's house for the first time years ago and saw the same Jesus/Mary hologram thing on the wall, I knew we were soul mates.

Zombies!

My husband purchased me the book Creepy Cute Crochet, by Christen Haden for Christmas and so far I had only made the Grim Reaper for my brother:

Apparently my husband actually only bought me the book because he wanted an army of creepy cute zombies in our house, not because he thought I would really like it. Which I do, so it worked out for both of us. he has been begging for more creepy cute monsters, since the only one I made, I gave away. I finished the "Corporate Zombie" two days ago, with a few modifications. This is what the real corporate zombie looks like:

This was made by Ravelry user RSPS (you will need a Ravely account to view link).

I left off the hair, per my husband's request and changed the skin color to green. I used Lion Brand's cotton yarn and the colorway for the face is Avocado:

The pattern calls for the tie and blood to be cut from store bought felt, but I decided to needle felt the tie and blood instead, since I had the stuff at my house to do it that way. the eye is made from white and black polymer clay and the eye and mouth are in embroidery floss.

After I made that one, my husband was full of ideas for more zombies. His next request was a priest zombie. I think he wants me to make all the main zombies from the Dawn of the Dead or Day of the Dead. I'd have to watch the movies again to see what accessories would be required to distinguish the different zombies. I finished most of the priest zombie in a few hours last night.

I had to improvise on the jacket and collar, but I like how it's coming out so far:

I can see I've crocheted some cat hair in too...oh well. I made the eyes and the white "priest collar" thing, too:

But I was blogging while they were in the oven and I forgot about them, so now they're burned garbage. I might use the eyes anyway, since a zombie might wave torn up eyes, assuming he's been through a lot that day. I will either remake the "priest collar" thing out of clay or needle felt it.

If it stays in one piece that long:

I don't feel secure at all!

Yesterday I took the day off work to support Mr. Fight as he applied for disability. Oh, yes. A fun day at the Social Security Office was had by all. Yes, the one downtown. To kill time in the waiting room husband was going from person to person and making up reasons why each person was there. The Social Security Office downtown is usually full of some pretty interesting, uh, "characters".

I won't go into detail about what he was saying because it was pretty rude, but there was a Wolf man (think Eddie Munster) and some Mickey Rourke looking guy with a leather jacket with all the fringe and silver circular things hanging from it, so you can use your imagination. It was pretty funny. Before anyone gets upset, let me tell you my husband was looking like no prize. He was in rare form actually. He went bald in high school (yeah but he also had giant mutton chop sideburns in middle school) and he always shaves his head and wears a hat. Always. Even around the house. In his mind, he thought it would be a good idea to make himself look as pathetic as possible for his disability interview. He let his hair grow out for a few weeks and it was all scraggly and he didn't wear a hat. It was full on male pattern baldness on a 26 year old. I've never seen him like that. I mean, I don't give a shit if he's bald or not, but it's funny to see your husband with a "look" you don't know. He also has been growing this crazy beard all winter, which is now like 3 inches off his face and looked really nice with the hairdo. The decision isn't up to the lady who interviewed him, so looking pathetic wouldn't really help or hurt his case I don't think, but it was funny to see him cultivate this "pathetic look".

Anyway, Mr. Fight had to recount every job he has ever had since he was 14 in 1998. The lady was asking him stuff like how much money did he make at each job and what type of hours did he work. He didn't even remember some of the jobs! After that he had to go over all of his health care info like every doctor he's seen since 1998. I can see how people would get discouraged and overwhelmed at all the paperwork and the quantity of information you have to gather. I'm ready though. I am ready to fill out every form they throw at me until my husband has the benefits he needs and deserves. So in 6 months I should have a decision and if he gets denied I have to appeal it and get a court date. I was told that takes up to two years.

I know this will be a long process and I will probably be frustrated and overwhelmed myself, but I feel good that the wheels are in motion. I have a little bit of hope that my husband and I will begin to live a normal life within the next few years. The last six years of my life have been such a roller coaster with him, learning more and more about how sick he really is as it became harder and harder for him to hide it from me. We just want the same kinds of things that other people want; a home, a family and our next meal.

Under Construction-part deux

Like many other bloggers I coveted a more unique design than the blogger template could offer. That and who wants their to blog scream, "I'm a template!"? Not I. So I've been adding things here and there, but what I really wanted was a fancy header. However for some reason when I added the second sidebar, I broke the header. No image for me. :(

My amazing friend and blogging inspiration Kathleen, over at Katydid and Kid had offered to design me a button and a banner in exchange for crochet trade! What's a girl with a broken header to do!? Well, I reached out to my Ravelry friends and the fabulously generous Cesia from Cece at it again stepped up to the plate to offer her brain power! She fixed my header! Whooo-hoo! I have the test header Cesia created up now and I think it will stay up until I switch it to my shiny new one. So for the time being, "Fight or Flight" will now be known as "Tester Image". Deal with it.

Cesia does full on blog overhauls as well as tweaks and accessories so if you need a little sumthin' sumthin' for your blog, go check her design blog out at:
Design by Cece

She is offering deep discounts through her grand opening promotion!

Under Construction!

Forgive my header looking a mess! It will look better soon! Details to follow!

Farmer's Market!

One of my new favorite ways to save money is to buy most of our groceries at the farmer's market. There is one about 25 minutes from my house and there are other fun things to look at there (besides produce) so the trip does double duty as weekend entertainment.

I know that we're not supposed eat carbs any more, God forbid, but I am in love with this bread:

To make it even worse, I've been eating practically nothing but this bread and butter for the past two days. I figure since it's fresh and not jammed full of chemicals it will go stale soon, so I must enjoy all of it's deliciousness right away! And yes, I know you're jealous of my chartreuse counter tops. (I actually love them! I have the big pink Kitchenaid stand mixer and other pink kitchen stuff and it looks oh-so-cute on the pukey yellow green counters! Squeal!)

I also got all of these fruits and veggies:

1. 3 apples
2. 4 red plums
3. 2 orange peppers ($1.49 a pound!!!!)
4. buttload of sweet potatoes ($.39 a pound!!!!)
5. 2 eggplants
6. romaine lettuce ($.89!)
7. bag o' garlic ($.99!)

I don't know how much all the other stuff cost per pound, but the whole table full cost only $10.60! Amazing!

Thank you farmer's market!

What better way to celebrate...

My husband celebrated his 26th birthday on this week and as a result, he got a little cash from his dad. I resisted the urge to snatch it all away to pay bills, because I indulge in things like yarn and crafty supplies now and again, so he got himself a present. (We don't really buy each other gifts, except for something small at Christmas. I mean he's on unemployment, I don't make much money, so why would we buy each other gifts? So we can have less money to eat food? I consider our home a gift, the fact that I have a cell phone a gift, the computer and Internet I'm using right now a gift. We get gifts everyday!)

What did my husband choose for his birthday present? Friday the 13th, part 3, 3d! This cover art is pretty radical, although it's actually from the soundtrack, not the movie.

The movie came with 3d glasses, so this was totally us:

Oh, p.s., the 3d glasses were printed to look like a hockey mask. Radical x 2.

The first person killed is poor Edna, who gets a knitting needle through her skull! How tragic! (I like her knitting basket.) Now that I think about it, a dude may have gotten killed before Edna, but that would have been in the beginning part of the movie that overlapped with part 2.

The 3d was throughout the whole movie, not just in a few scenes like some 3d movies. There was tons of "eye-popping" shit like this:



"Hey guys, wanna smoke this joint?" Whooooaaaa. Awesome! It was like I was there.



This movie ruled. Happy Birthday Mr. Fight! And happy Friday the 13th!

You like me, you really like me!

I'm jazzed! My good friend Kathleen from Katydid and Kid has given me an award! She's given me the Passionate Blogger Award.

The "rules" for this award:

1. Put the logo in your blog post
2. Write five things you are passionate about apart from blogging
3. Tag up to 5 people on your lists and let them know you tagged them.

Five things that I'm passionate about:

1. Being an advocate for my husband, who lives with severe anxiety and depression.
My husband suffers every day with an illness that isn't taken as seriously as it should be. These aren't diseases that are diagnosable through conclusive tests and he is often told to "suck it up" or "get over it" by people confusing his sickness for laziness or immaturity. I believe that he deserves a life as full and satisfying as anybody else and I will fight tooth and nail to see that he has the services and treatment opportunities that will make that quality of life possible.

2. Fiber-anything!
I loved to sew as a child and began weaving in college. The repetitive operating of the treadles, the shuttle skimming quietly across the warp and the thrill of seeing the colors interact as the fabric builds-slowly but surely-is a very meditative and wholly satisfying experience. I also needle felt and recently learned to knit and crochet. I must say, I'm in love! (Natch.)

3. Ephemera
These items help show where we've been; trips we've taken, bands we've seen, places we've visited, either on purpose or by accident. By saving them it helps give significance to those fleeting moments, which may seem ordinary now, but down the road these are times I want to remember.

4. Promoting arts in education.
It is my philosophy that we are all helping to "write" the story of our time for future generations. We learn so much about past cultures through the art and artifacts left behind. If we do not instill an importance in art making of all kinds in today's children, who will be there to tell our story?

5. Good Cosmetics
Ooooh boy, do I love me some nice make up! Now that we are having financial hardships, it's not a luxury that I can indulge in often. Some people think it is a waste, but they can have the Wet n' Wild all to themselves. I'll go hungry for some good eyeshadow! MAC eyeshadow in yogurt (pink), behold (grey), era (tan) and vanilla are my "go to" girls. I love Benefit's Brow Zings and Highbrow (an arch highlighter that makes you look like a drag queen, but in a good way. Trust me.) For foundation, nothing beats Bare Escentuals.

So, that's me, in a world without blogging! Here are my nominee's:

1. Suffering from Nostalgia

2. It's About Me, Amoena

3. The Land of the KnitaSaur

4. My Knitting Basket

These are four blogs that I really enjoy, and I'd like to hear more about their non-blogging lives!

Wordful Wednesday

As a person with limited financial resources, it can be a challenge to come up with fun things to do on the weekends, etc. One weekend activity that Mr. Fight and I like best is go to yard sales and antique stores. We can look around for a while, see all the cool or weird stuff and find something small and inexpensive to bring home. We collect salt and pepper shakers, cigarette snuffers, thimbles, Wade figurines from Red Rose tea packages and any other chachka we can put on a shelf for the cats to break. Oh yeah, we like to look for shelves too!

We went to a garage sale recently, which was fun because it was actually in the person's garage, not out in the driveway.

I found quite a treasure!

It's such a cute recipe box! I am in no way Pennsylvania Dutch, but I live in "Dutch Country" and I love the PA Dutch Hex Signs with their folksy decorations. I have a couple of hex signs in my kitchen and this box obviously has that same appeal.

But wait there's more! The box was full of family recipes, along with funny old ones torn out of magazines or off very dated looking packages:

Now I can make you anything you want if you give me a box of cornflakes.

I can say with confidence that this box is from the late 1960's or early 1970's, since I found this torn out sheet from a calendar inside the box:

And you guessed it, there was a recipe written on the back! It sounds like it would not be my favorite snack, but I like keeping old recipes alive, so here it is. It's called "Rocks", sounds delicious, right? If you like dates, I guess it could be good.

"Rocks"

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar (brown or white)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in water
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup black walnuts (chopped)
1 pound dates (cut up)

That's where the recipe ends, so I would assume that you just mush all that stuff together and eat it. I don't know what to tell you about those 3 raw eggs. Bon Appétit!

For more Wordful Wednesday visit:

I has NPR!

I just made my pledge to WHYY! Yay local public radio! I am seriously in love with NPR/WHYY. Marty Moss-Coane is my freakin' hero. Once I dialed a wrong number and I got Mike McGrath on the phone. I was like, "Oh my god, are you Mike McGrath?! Is Terry Gross right there?! Marty?! OMG!" He was very nice and did assure me that Terry and Marty were right down the hall. (Isn't that wierd? Of all the wrong numbers to dial, I get Mike McGrath's office line.)

It is awesome they let you spread your pledge out over the whole year, so now I only have to pay $6.25 a month! Support public radio! I'm totally impoverished and if I could find the money, so can you! Think about what you waste 6 bucks a month on? Right? Ok. I thought so.

Felted Friday

I apologize in advance if my posts have been "cat heavy" lately. However, I thought I'd post some pictures of a few needle felted "thingies" I've made recently, because Bubsy (the cat) tends to destroy all felted items quickly. At least this way I'll have a record of them.

Exhibit "A". You may remember a post showing a wet felted pineapple.

Here it is today:

Sucks, right? The piece didn't come out perfect, but it was the first felted thing I ever made, which made it special. While, I'm sure Bubsy did this, perhaps Penelope was trying to frame him. This next photo is Penelope while I was trying to photograph the damage.

Exhibit "B":

The felted pineapple thing above was on a high shelf, which Bubsy actually ripped off the wall to get to it. Sigh...wool is irresistible.

Because these following items will surely be destroyed soon, here they are now for your viewing pleasure. When I first learned how to needle felt, I made a little pineapple. A wee pineapple. It has since been eaten. The fruit thing became somewhat of an obsession for a while.

Here's a few:

This is them on a sewing machine table, so you can get a better idea of the size. (The table is dusty! Where's my house husband?!)

Finally here's a cat toy I made to discourage eating of my other felted stuff:

Giving this to the cats is probably just making me an enabler. Oh well.

Just a little tit bit.

I just came across I really cool website and I thought I'd share it with anyone who actually reads this. Breast cancer is something that has affected more than one woman in my life. My grandmother died suddenly of breast cancer. By the time she found out she was sick, she only had three weeks to live and wouldn't take visitors. She refused to have a funeral or viewing service, so it was pretty much like she just vanished. No closure. No dead body to look at to make it real. It sucked and was super sad. She was really cool and young, only 69 when she died.
On the other hand, I'm actually thankful in some ways that I never saw my grandma looking like Skeletor. My husband's mother and grandmother also died of breast cancer and it was horrible to see what they went through. It wasn't the same experience because I wasn't as close to either of them because I did live with my grandparents until I was in third grade.

So now that you've read my dead grandma sob story here's the website! It's called Tit Bits and they make knitted prosthetic boobs! My mother in law had a mastectomy and she had this rubbery fake boob and she never wore it. I bet it felt gross against the skin. I have strapless bras with that silicone stuff around the band so it doesn't end up as a belt and I hate wearing it.

I think these are awesome:

How cute! A little pink boobie! I love that they are fun and quirky which I think would be a refreshing departure from all the doom and gloom of cancer treatments, wigs and rubbery boobs.

Feeling flashy? They come in tons of cute colors!

Want the "natural" look? They come in a bunch of flesh tones with cute star-shaped button nipples!

Or, what the hell! Wear a watermelon boob!

You can also choose 3 different nipple...uhh...lengths. There were "natural", "naughty" and "discreet". I have no idea what the heck a "naughty nipple" looks like, since there were no pictures of that.

What a great idea!

Wordful Wednesday

The Associated Press is hassling Shepard Fairey over his use of an AP image. In the article he admits he used the image, but argues it falls under fair use.

AP image on left, Shepard Fairey poster on right (duh).

Here's the article.

The image was changed significantly and the use of the image didn't really affect the original. Of course I'm not a copyright attorney, so what the hell do I know? I do know that it would seem horrible for Shepard Fairey to have to pay the AP "compensation" when he didn't keep any of the money from the poster sales and he charges far less for his work than he could. When Fairey was interviewed on Fresh Air , I believe he said it all went to the campaign and OBEY.

For more Wordful Wednesday visit:

For Matt

I've always had a lot of respect for people who go out and make their own way in the world. Conversely, I've always thought it was lame to never want to leave the area you grew up in.

I mean, just because you were born somewhere, doesn't mean that's the place on earth that you belong. Where's the sense of wonder? Adventure? Independence? I think we all need to find our way in this world and to me, that does not mean say, working at your old high school. My mother was so proud of me when I decided to move from New Jersey to California for college. She said I was doing things other people only dream of. Why dream when you can DO! It's a big world out there and it's full of experiences just waiting to be experienced!

So that said, I had a nice time catching up with an old friend over the weekend. (Hi Matt.) We went to college together here in PA (he's from here, I'm from Jersey) and he is the ONE person that I know from school that got a job teaching art in a traditional public school after graduation! I know of two others finding jobs since then, but not for a year or more (much more). In my department at work almost all of us are certified art teachers that never found a job. To the museum educators I think the museum is like a purgatory for art teachers. Or a waiting room. Same dif. Happily, some, like me, realized we were destined for other things. I found my home working in an art museum and now I would rather jam a #2 pencil in my eye than work in a school. I love working in a museum. I will always work in museum education. It turns out that's what I was meant to do. I love being around the art. I love that we get new special exhibits every few months and I get to learn about so many new things and see so many amazing works of art in person. I still teach (kids on field trips and after school/weekend programs), but it is always something different and it isn't all day, every day. I get plenty of kid-free time at work as well. Holla!

Anyway, back to Matt. After we had our chat he texted me and asked me why I hadn't blogged about it! He is so cocky, which is one thing I've always liked about him. (I usually like cocky pricks. Is that like a double negative? Cocky Pricks? Pricky cocks?) Like in his mind, of course a conversation with him would make me drop everything to write a blog post. Well, here ya go a-hole! I kid, I kid.

He moved to Arizona after college to take a job teaching. When we were in school the way they described Arizona reminded me of the things immigrants must have heard about America before they made the trip. It was the "land of opportunity", etc. Well, Matty made the voyage and it paid off. He seems to have things pretty sweet, well in the paycheck department at least. I hate to say that I'm envious, because like he so quickly pointed out, we both had the same opportunities and education (ok, well I have a little more education...ZING!). But I fell into my job at the art museum and I was in love! I didn't want to teach like that and the extra money wasn't worth it. But, you know, I'm sort of envious of how cushy his life looks. It's hard not to be envious of people whose lives seem like they are going really great, when you know they don't deserve it any more than you do. (Not that he doesn't deserve great things, it's just that I do too!) However, more than envious, I'm really happy for him. He did the one thing I admire most, he made his own way in the world. (Ok, are you happy Matt? I blogged about you.)