Rambling blog of much ado about nothing

Yes, I am blogging instead of doing what I need to be doing - the dishes, picking up the room or finish making the paper poppies I volunteered to help with, but I just got back from a very long string of errands and sitting on my ass feels nice. I'm freaking excited though - our MH order came in at Wal-Mart!!! I can't wait to open the playsets and the beautiful WtMH Lagoona. I grabbed Cleo's vanity set for a Best Offer of $19 off of eBay. It appears to be moving at a snail's pace. and being that tomorrow is Veteran's Day, it won't get here tomorrow after all. Dang! I can't wait for it to get here. It is such a neat set. I just love the MH playsets. :D 

At Hobby Lobby there was a little spattering of Halloween stuff left at 80% off. Yay! We grabbed a few things, which included this awesome mummy coffee cup. Which I will be using tomorrow morning. I'll get a picture of everything if I remember to and add to this blog later. They had these neat little metal buckets with lids on them for $0.40 which I passed on due to the scratches they seemed to all have. I'm wondering now if I should have gotten them any ways....I have no idea what I would have done with them, but I would have found something for them.

At Joann's I got some fabric for the AG 1950's Christmas dress I have in the works, and some more coat fabric. As well as the lavender cotton and lace for the Lolita dress I sold on Etsy. 

We also went by the movie rental place and got 3 movies for the weekend. I am vegging all weekend I swear. Beyond the important stuff such as meals and dishes - nothing. Nada. I am going to be lazy as all hell, so movies will be a nice distraction. 

Okay, that should wrap up this pointless post! I plan to do more MH doll blog reviews. I have the pics for several, just haven't done them yet. Now, off to the dishes!

Ginger's 1950's Skirt and Tee

I decided to finish up Ginger's tee shirt and skirt set. Finishing up the tee took me longer than I had expected, but I got it finished up around lunch time. I worked on her circle skirt next. After I got it together, I decided to look for some inspiration pics of something to applique on the skirt, a la poodle skirts. I found a lot of cute ideas looking at actual patterns from the '50's. Along with the iconic poodle, I saw cats, flowers, fish, donkeys, dogs (other than poodles,) and even doves. Several of them, complete with a birdcage! The latter was on an adult woman's skirt, but I thought "why not?" I attempted to draw out a dove shape that resembled what I saw on the real skirt and cut one out of white felt to sew on Ginger's skirt. I lined it with tiny stitches in a tannish gold around the edge of the bird. I still need to add the eye. Besides that and the snaps, her outfit is done. And in a bad, bad need of a crinoline, slip, or something of that nature! Here's some unexciting pics of her snapped quickly outside.

Please excuse Ginger's hair. I need to glue her wig on and give it a nice brushing. In her hair is the matching scarf for her to wear either around her neck or in her hair. Right now it is simply pulling her hair back.

I really enjoyed making the circle skirt. It's simple and fairly quick, though hemming it around the bottom edge is a pain as its so curved. I plan to make her many more in this style with various appliques! I'd love to maker her one with cherries, so I will keep an eye out for the right fabric.

I  have also started on a 1950's style of coat. Right now it is getting the best of me, but I'll get it. At one point it will have to get cold here, and having a coat for Ginger will be really nice. Next in line for her is a nice dress. She's kind of my focus right now, which is fun!

Plans for Christmas 2016

I really didn't want to even think about Christmas this year. Last one was a miserable time, having just lost my special kitty before the holiday craze, so it all went down in a funk. We got rid of everything Christmas with relish over the Summer. Not that we had much to begin with. My 4 foot silver tree which I have treasured since 2008 (it made the most amazing Halloween tree) didn't escape the mold rampage that many things suffered from being stored in the garage, and out it went as well. I was not particularly happy about that, but not as upset as I thought I would be. I guess it had been through a lot and maybe just needed to leave my life.

We had thought about maybe doing a goth themed tree this year, which we have actually never done. I don't think its something that the household would agree on, but since it'll just be up here, I think we're going to do it! The theme is Gothic Victorian. I want to do similar things in smaller sizes for my AG dolls. (Damn American Girl dolls - they always put me in the mood for Christmas!)

I have the Gothmas Tree master plan list and will see what I can bring home from Joann's today with my 25% off total purchase.

Here's some inspiration pics of some of the things we are planning on making:


This is one of the most beautiful ornaments I have ever seen. The challenge will be to find the right kind of roses. The plan is to have black with silver/white and red with black. Pretty, pretty!

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This is a crocheted snowflake in BLACK. How cool is that? The plan is to do them in black or silver and cover them with glitter and then I will bead them with red, clear and/or silver.

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I will be making some felt bats out of glitter black fabric and we will get some glitter silver icicles and paint blood on them. I have no idea yet what we will have for the tree topper. We'll be getting a white tree. I think the color/theme we have going on would look the best with white.

I'd also like to get a little black tree for the dolls this year, but that is a whole other blog post.

A tale of rick rack - AG Cecile's Red Dress from her paperdolls....

I got a custom order via Etsy for Cecile's red dress from her paperdolls as well as MG's Polka Dot dress. I can talk about the polka dot in a separate blog. For some reason I think I might have already blogged it....

Cecile's dress - its a handful. I'm titling this blog post 'a tale of rick rack' but maybe I should title it 'a tale of pointy tips and how to get them to hang right.' This dress was honestly, the trickiest AG dress I can remember to date working out a pattern for. The bodice itself is easy, and the skirt is straigh forward. It's the peplum and the sleeves that led to those "AGH!" moments.

You can see on the illustration how Cecile's hand covers the front of the peplum, so I tried to fill in the blanks as well as I could, mimicking the sleeves form. You can also see how there is no break in the rick rack trim going from bodice to peplum. It is an illustration, yes, and those things can be tinkered with to make the sewing actually work, but in this instance it did need to be done as shown here due to the difficulty it would cause to try and line it up perfectly after cutting the rick rack into 2, not to mention creating unnecessary bulk.

The peplum was a fun challenge, getting the shape right and also getting the hang right. I wasn't sure if it needed a light gather, but pretty quickly decided that would look very wrong. The sleeves I had to re-do more than once as my first attempts were gathered just enough to make them look a little bit like bird wings. Lol. That didn't work. So, I took out some of the gather, shortened the layers a little as well. That worked really well.

My beautiful Luna is modeling the pictures of my dress here. I wish I had taken the time to get good pics of it, but as soon as I finished the dress I wanted to get it out to the PO immediately. I will make another one for my own dolls to fight over. (Luna has decided she needs to wear 1850's dresses, Henrietta is screaming it should be hers, and I will at one point be getting a MG in a trade, which neither girl presently realizes. :P)

Gnocchi and rosemary lemon chicken cream sauce recipe

I was suddenly overcome yesterday mid morning with this desire to have gnocchi. I have had it once before - it was the prepackaged stuff you get at the grocery store. I don't remember the brand. I have no idea why this of all things was the thing I was craving, but man, I had to have some. After some quick googling, I found a vegan recipe  (I don't do eggs. Not even in baking if I can help it.) which had some good reviews (you can never be sure sometimes with healthy alternatives), so gnocchi was a go!

I baked 6 potatoes in the oven for 2 hours and did manage to overcook them just a little. That's actually how I like my baked potatoes - the skin nice and crunchy and just a little bit hard. I should have taken them out about 30 minutes before I did for this purpose, so I will remember that for next time. The recipe said to let them sit for 5 minutes, cut them in half, grab a kitchen towel and scoop out the soft insides using the towel to prevent hand burn from handling a hot potato. I didn't do that. I just left them and went on my merry way. (I spent a little time in the afternoon working on my Volks SD10's clown suit. That's for another post.) About 2 hours later I came back to the kitchen to scoop out the potato guts and start assembling my gnocchi. (There is a reason they say to do it that quickly - after this long, the potato was kind of hard. *ahem, over baked, ahem*)

You mash the potato guts as fine as you can get them, and add salt to season. You then add in half cup increments up to 3 cups of flour. (The last 1/2 cup might not be necessary.) You are supposed to cut the flour in using a sharp spatula. The closest I had to work with was an old bent metal spatula, which worked fine turned on its side. I had no idea what I was doing. And the only problem I had with the recipe was it failed to tell me what the texture is supposed to be like when you have added the appropriate amount of flour. What is it supposed to feel like? I stopped at 2 1/2 cups because whole wheat flour is heavy and I didn't want to make it like concrete by adding any more. Let it rest wrapped in plastic, and you are good to go!

Once it has rested, you cut it into sections which you then roll out to 1 inch logs, cut into 1 inch pieces, and cook in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes, or until they float. (I about made a corpse joke but this is food I am talking about here.)

The recipe for the sauce I planned to make called for chicken, fresh rosemary (I only had dried) lemon juice, onion, chicken broth and garlic. Simple. I made sure to set out the chicken breasts which were the frozen variety in advance (in a plastic zip bag in a bowl of water. Poultry must remain cold at all stages of thawing to prevent bacteria growth and spoilage.) You melt butter in a pan, cube the thawed chicken, season it, and cook it. It cooks fast. Here's the only problem with the recipe - it says to cook the onions AFTER you have cooked the chicken, and toasted the gnocchi (which didn't work, by the way) which is not a good idea. Onions take too long to cook for that. Next time I will add them before I cook the chicken and keep them cooking while the chicken cooks.

We had spinach in ours instead of the recommended peas. And instead of heavy cream, a healthy alternative in 1/3 cup of plain yogurt to about a 1/2 unsweetened almond milk works just fine. The almond milk is too sweet on its own, the yogurt is too tangy on its own. They off set each other very well. This is also how you make a buttermilk substitute, with an adjusted ratio.) So this will definitely give it a different flavor than heavy cream. I had half a container of firm tofu left over, so in the pan it went too. (To ensure the tofu has a good flavor, season it first. Add salt, onion powder, garlic, and whatever other seasonings you plan to use in your dish, mash it up real good using your fingers, and then add it to the pan. Otherwise it becomes a bland flavorless component that slowly sucks the flavor from everything else in degrees.) At the very end, add some finely grated (or chopped) mozzarella. Oh, and be sure to toss the gnocchi in the sauce before serving. Yum.

The Recipe

Sauce:

3 chicken breasts cubed and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic\
Half cup diced onion
1 can chicken broth
1-2 T dried rosemary (to taste)
2-3 T lemon juice (or juice of one lemon and its zests)
Half package of seasoned tofu
2 cups thinly sliced spinach
1/3 cup plain yogurt mixed with half cup almond milk
Garlic, salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup mozzarella

Gnocchi:

6 baked potatoes
Salt to season
2-3 cups flour

Waiting, waiting for that shipping notice! Iplehouse JID

So, I went and put an Iplehouse JID on layaway a few weeks back. He was kind of a surprise buy. You know how that can happen? I hadn't payed a great amount of attention to these dolls in the past, but I suddenly got seized with the desire to get one. So, I did the money calculations we all do when considering buying a new doll, the numbers worked, and WS Owen was put on layaway! I paid him off in full 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I cannot wait for him to arrive. It seems like FOREVER since I paid him off, but I know it hasn't been. :P I'm so impatient, my coping with the wait is total denial that I have him to "OMG, how am I gonna survive until he is HOOOOOOME!" The drama, the drama.

I have no idea really what I am going to do with him. I fell in love with this picture of Owen:

I found this while looking for inspiration pics of men's mori clothing to make for my Dollshe Hound. I ended up ordering the doll a few weeks later. I am thinking I might dress him in a similar style, but I know not to settle on anything until he is here. Which *hopefully* will be soon. IH has been shipping pretty quickly lately, so I am crossing my fingers I will be one of the lucky people who gets their dolls within 2-3 weeks.

Kool Aid, my epic hair dye fail

I may have mentioned it on my blog - I don't know for sure, but any one who talks me has heard more than once about my really frustrating allergy that I developed towards hair dye. I think I have already mentioned it, but I will say it again because saying it has some sort of venting power. (Like if I say it loud enough, with enough feeling, enough times, the hair gods will hear me, be moved with pity, and will right this egregious wrong.) It also explains my stubborn determination with trying kool -aid to color my hair.

Now, it works. With mixed results for various people, depending on natural (or starting point) hair color. It also depends on how much and what colors of kool aid you try. In theory, the lighter your hair color is, the better kool aid takes to it. In theory. My hair is in the dish water blonde category, so *in theory,* mine should take to it much easier than say, someone with dark hair. I have tried 4 different colors, with 4 different methods. And here are my (unfortunately) photo less results. (I wish I had pics of it all, but never took the time to really try except once to capture any of the colors.)

First off, I went with grape. (Come to find out, that is a harder color to actually have success with. Should have known I was doomed for failure from the start.) I first tried the "make a paste and mix with conditioner" method. I let it sit for over 4 hours. I couldn't take any more of the smell after that much time, so I was pretty much like "the hell with this" and rinsed it out with conditioner only, per instructions. (Later I found some people advised only rinsing initially with water. I did that later....)

Result: nothing. Maybe a slight, slight frost look that managed to mellow out the grays (yep, I got them) and that was about it.

Next attempt landed me with choosing - yet again - a very hard color to get results with. Orange. (I have a fantasy of having orange and black hair. More achievable than my ultimate fantasy of black and white/silver.) This time I boiled some water, made a paste and brushed it via a tooth brush on to my hair. I let it set the recommended 45 minutes. Then I heat set it with a blow dryer, and washed it with conditioner. (No, its not color safe conditioner.)

The result:
A little color stayed, albeit, predominantly on my scalp. But, it did give a bit of orangey tones to the blonder hairs that have an orangey tone more naturally. It was more visible in he sunlight. This washed out when I did actually wash my hair with shampoo.

Attempt number 3. I went with Black Cherry. Surely if success was to be had, it would be with red. After all, people have had it last for MONTHS merely dip dyeing their hair! So, I did followed the instructions which said to bring water to a boil, add the kool aid, boil for one minute, then soak for 20-30 minutes. I did have a slight hiccup in my prep time, but I figured I'd go ahead with it. So, after soaking my head in a large plastic bowl, bent over on my knees, and the allotted time had passed, I was extremely excited. The color of the liquid was beautifully bloody, and I had visions of having this deep blood red hair. I also heat set it without washing. And then I looked in the mirror.

The result:
Barely a thing. I did not wash my hair out that night, figuring I would leave it until morning. I ended up leaving it longer as I wanted to keep that slight burgundy frosted look. As soon as I washed it, it was all gone. (Save again, the stubborn residue on my scalp. I don't have a shower which would make it much easier to wash out than just having a bath tub.)

Final time - the vinegar method! I went with blue. (2 cups water, 1-2 T vinegar) This time I boiled the water, then added the powder and boiled for the suggested 10 minutes. I let it barely cool before dunking my head, and stayed put in that uncomfortable position (which would have been so worth it....) for 35 minutes. Once that was done, I heat set it once again, and left it in my hair to be taken care of in the morning. This was my best attempt.

Result:
It ended up not being that gorgeous shade of blue, but instead turned almost greenish teal-ish. (Not unusual.) It did not color my hair over all, but just sort of gave a sheen to it. Some strands had zero color. Some were teal, and some a frosty silver blue. When I did wash my hair with shampoo and conditioner like normal, most of it washed out. A little color lingers, which you might only be able to see in certain lighting.

I have definitely given up on kool aid at this point. People might say I did this or that wrong and that's why it didn't work for me. There are quite a few different tutorials on how to do it (believe me, I have spent way too much time researching this), and I tried 4 different methods. So I think at this point, I will throw in the kool aid towel. If it works for you, good for you. (grumble, lol)

I will take my impervious- to-kool-aid-hair and just go the henna & indigo route. I really only want black hair any ways. The reasons I have not done it yet have been the concerns over the messiness, from application to washing it out, as well as where to buy it to begin with.