I’ve devoted no small part of my life to trying to gain useless skills.  I spent hours in front of a mirror in my youth trying to raise one eyebrow at a time, which I suppose is not as useless as it gets because sometimes there is no better response to a piece of news than an eyebrow raise, don’t you agree?  However being able to twitch my nostrils rapidly like a rabbit is decidedly less applicable in daily life.  Eventually I also learned to see the 3D shapes in the magic eyebooks, write my name so that it is the same upside down and right side up (luckily for me I have an “I” in the exact middle), and French braid my hair behind my head.  But I still haven’t acquired all the skills that I desire.

Useless skills that I still really want and am convinced I one day will learn:

- blowing bubble gum bubbles the size of baseballs
- whistling loudly with my fingers
- skipping rocks
- skating backwards
- cartwheeling (it looks so fun!)
- break dancing
- double dutch jump-roping

I’ve been working really hard on No. 1 lately and it has given me a sore jaw.

hoodie: spank! koenji

high waisted skirt: spank! koenji

One of my favorite things about traveling with my brother to his various swim meets around the state is trying out all the local restaurants.  A favorite whenever we go to Cleveland is called Airport Grocery, that’s dark and smokey and has interesting decor and serves really good crawfish pasta.

Airport Grocery is described in these Amazon CD reviews of “Live at Airport Grocery” as “a small Bar-B-Q juke joint in Cleveland, Mississippi. It is one of those places we have all seen, but often overlook; a great place to get some hot food and see live performances from some of the best kept secrets the South has to offer.”  And “Eating there, you can almost hear the ghosts of the great bluesmen who have sat on that stage and filled the room with the sounds of the joys and pain that are part of living in the Delta.”

I’m taking every opportunity to eat Southern food while I’m still at home– I will have a few more weeks than I thought in which to do so, since there have been some visa delays.  Still, all is well since my visa documents will be arriving shortly!

My brother’s Christmas wish list was was short– a shirt with the phrase “One does not simply rock into Mordor”.  Being a fan of both rock and Mordor, I wanted to make a design with genuine elements of each.  I whipped something up in Photoshop loosely modeled on a vintage ACDC shirt and was so amused by it that when it came time to print the designs, I made a few extra.  Happily, my brother likes it and even told me that some friends and classmates said they want one too– but entry into the Mordor rock club can’t just be bought!!

There were many failures along the way to creating an actual shirt.  Trial and error taught me these things about printing for an iron-on:

- There are iron-on sheets specifically for dark shirts- using the ones for light shirts will barely show up on a dark shirt.

- The instruction manual for the iron-on sheets suggest not having detailed edges to make cutting out the design easier, but pshh, that’s the kind of rule I don’t follow.  To add a margin of error for cutting though, I added a thick black outline to the design.

- Designs show up better on solid grey than heather grey.  I used American Apparel’s Asphalt color.

black jacket: thrift store in shinjuku
denim skirt: thrift store in shinjuku
tights: jcrew
ring: vivienne westwood

No I most certainly do not own Gimli and Eowyn action figures why do you ask?

under the sea
in an octopus’ garden with you.

adobe illustrator, wacom graphire tablet

I think this is one of the most pleasant songs ever. When I hear this song, I think of having tea with an octopus.  I imagine he’d be such a thoughtful host, pouring tea for some guests while passing out petit fours to others, all while telling stories and gesticulating animatedly, and that was my inspiration for this drawing.  (You can click it to view the full-size)

I love this muppet rendition of Octopus Garden, too.

My family asked me if I’d set up my camera to take a picture of all of us together- something we haven’t done in years.  I was too happy to oblige.  Can you see the family resemblance?

My family is always having to put up with my weird whims.  You know I love you guys xoxo

My parents spent today in New Orleans and came back with a king cake!  They visited the famous Haydel’s bakery and had to choose from a huge variety of flavors- and finally settled on a german chocolate one with chocolate, nuts, and coconut.  It was very tasty!  Though I’ll admit that plain old king cake is probably my favorite.  In whatever flavor, it’s a bready sort of cake, topped with cream cheese icing and grainy sugars of yellow, purple, and green.

Normally king cakes are eaten during Mardi Gras (but New Orleans is somewhat perpetually in a state of Mardi Gras) and come with a plastic baby (Jesus) to hide.  But the ones from Haydel come with a little porcelain figure that changes every year.  This year’s is a little court jester– past ones have included a jazz musician, FEMA trailer (honor Katrina rescuers), and king.  We didn’t risk hiding it in the cake– can you imagine chomping down accidentally on a piece of porcelain?

I wished that I could have gone with them– I’ve been eager to visit New Orleans again– so my parents promised us a family weekend trip at the beginning of next month!