November

It was a whiplashy sort of month. I was fully expecting to lose my contract in December but at a late hour the producer announced to us his decision to extend it by six weeks. It was actually a good happenstance because it forced me to clarify my career goals and I revised my resume.

The next challenge in that arena will be negotiating a deal to get those goals accomplished. Lord help me, I've never tried this sort of thing before.

Anyway, here's the project run down for November:

Crochet edgings; made lots of sample bits. I'm thinking of selling them and making a bit of a side business out of them.

Godzilla series continues on instagram.

Began writing That Hideous Scream a follow up piece to From Above. 

Wrote/recorded demos for songs.

Ran out of ideas for the Kitchen Experiments, oh well.

Also began a shenanigan at work. More on that later, *wink.*

October

You know that moment when you realize you smell bad and you can’t remember when you last showered but you’re pretty sure it was a Wednesday and today is Tuesday? It’s been that kind of month.

October a lovely month

The Kitchen Experiment will be a regular feature now. I’m aiming to have one up once a month. If you find them enjoyable and helpful let me know.

Made bags

Got called in to help my friend Michael finish his set for LPT’s Around the World in 80 Days. Elephant ears!

Mistakes Were Made closed on the 21^st, no more fishy.

I returned to miXtape 1 November and there was much rejoicing.

Oh right, and my band finally named itself and we’re working on some visuals here’s a sneak peek.

Last but not least we have the Halloween costume for this year. This one's had more effort put into it than the last few. I don't know maybe it was because I was dancing Thriller for a Halloween carnival so I had to look like I tried.

This concludes the part with pictures.

I'm working on a newish script in addition to the other stuff that's always in progress. I feel like I had something else I wanted to tell you but I can't remember it... oh well.

November promises to be interesting. Things to look forward to:
the new Kitchen Experiment (I don't even know what it is yet!)
the band's photo shoot (hopefully soon I can tell you the name but we're waiting for a show to announce it.)

Kitchen Experiment: Edible Mask

Just in time for Halloween I get this brainstorm to make a mask that I can eat at the end of the night.

What I did:
Made pastry dough and put it over a form made from foil mixed peanut butter and cream cheese with honey and cinnamon spread it on and used raisins for the eyes and a prune for the snout. I was aiming for a coyote it kind of worked. For a first attempt it’s good.

Obviously you can do almost any sort of mask this way. The challenging part is finding the support for the dough during baking. Also, if you want to add strings to it you may have to think about reinforcing the outer rim of the mask.

Note: try to roll out the dough in one sheet. I ended up patching this one together and it didn’t separate from the foil how I wanted it to.

Enjoy!

Kitchen Experiment: honey wafers

I was reading Ezekiel, the performance artist prophet who made that weird bread, and there was a line about "fine flour, olive oil, and honey" that got me thinking wafers. So I invented this recipe.

Note: these things bake really fast don't leave them unattended in the oven.

Preheat oven to 350F(ish, the numbers on my dial are rubbed off)

ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/8 cup olive oil
salt
honey
water

In a bowl mix flour, salt, and oil as if making pastry. Add water slowly to form a soft dough. Divide into small balls, roll them out thin. Place on baking sheet. Drizzle with honey. Bake for up to 5min but watch them your goal is to have them crisp not burnt! Enjoy.

These make a good vehicle for fruit or ice cream.

April was a long time ago...like 5 months. I could say I was busy and that would be sort of true but I think more than anything else I was distracted so I didn't post all the wonderful things I was working on.

So let's get this thing started.

I've got an album with the pictures of the projects I'm referencing up on my G+ profile Link

June I started taking pictures of the nylon ball I've been working on back stage at miXtape. You can currently see it's progress through August.

Also in June we put the finishing touches on the house remodel. I have a picture of the group installation in the dining room in the album.

July I finally got around to making curtains for my "office."

August I took a picture of a little Godzilla.

September I finished the Red River Jacket, a lovely little table cloth, and Hobbs! Hobbs is a gift for a friend of a friend's kid. The table cloth was just a whack-out to keep me from going mad. The Red River Jacket is the tangible result of a road trip. Ask me about it later.

Yarn Ring

Yarn ring:

I "invented" this ring after being given a piece of yarn with some spiritual significance for me. The challenge was to find a way to incorporate it's presence in my daily life. Most of the others who also got this yarn tied it to various objects. My instinct was to tie it to myself but I wanted it to be more permanent than just knotting it on.

I wove it into a loop and sprayed it with a polycrylic finish spray. Now I wear it as a pinkie ring.

If you want to know the meaning of the ring you'll have to ask me in person.

From that Last Post to March

OK yeah, it's been a while since the last update...

book bag I made for my Father who is a member of the Audubon Society.

Visual Art:

I haven't been doing a lot of visual stuff lately. This does sadden me.

Writing:

had a reading of Erick Tree.
and working on some mind-dump piece that other people might call a memoir.

House Remodel:

is in the finishing phase, finally!

Future:

I'm planing on starting grad school in the fall. This will be interesting...
Some times I plan things and they don't happen.

Kitchen Experiment: beet dye hair

 

what you will need

 

take equal parts beet juice and vinegar

 

section out hair

 

dunk hair

 

dry it out

 

comb and style.

Beet juice makes a lovely pink color in light hair this doen't work well in dark hair. It's not permanent and will wash out in a few washes.

 

I'm shooting a little PSA today. These are props for it.

Yes Fingerless gloves (also armwarmers). This pair scrunches nicely. It's the 80's for your arms. I'll take orders if you want your own.

While I was cutting wood for a built-in loft bed (see below) I stacked the waist wood to make this tower. It would be way cool if this was like 20times bigger. I don't know if that's actually possible.

The built-in is for the second room in the reno project. Which is done but we still need to clean it up for photographing.

The other projects:

Music:
I'm loading stuff to my sound cloud account

Writing:
Tsegan made some progress but is going to take for ever
The Irish Pirate Ninja is stalled

Other:
I'm going back to school. But I'm doing it "ghetto" style! Should be interesting.

Curtains Video

youTube video of building curtains for Flood.

Kitchen Experiment: coffee staining wood

Step one: brew strong coffee.

Apply in various ways:

Method 1: plain coffee to wood
Result: nothing

Method 2: coffee and milk
Result: a very light stain

Method 3: rub warm grounds into wood
Result: light "muddy" stain

Method 4: cold grounds and vegetable oil
Result: light stain. but I think it was more from the oil than the coffee

Conclusion: coffee will make a light stain if it's mixed with milk.

Follow up: would a coffee infused oil work better than milk? Expect results in 3-6 weeks.