Geeky Girly Fabric Joy

My new fabric swatch, One Ring Cathedral Window - Hot Pink, from Spoonflower came in the mail today, and it's even prettier than I expected. I'm thrilled. I forsee myself getting some of this printed off to edge some pillow cases, and possibly shrinking it down a bit for some more geektastic Raggedy Rebels. I missing having the truly nerdy dolls in the shop.

Of course, I'll have to shrink it a lot to make it a doll size print. I can't  help but think that the One Ring Cathedral Window print, in all the different colors I have put it out in, would make a FABULOUS bow tie or neck tie fabric. Of course, I'm partial to bow ties, you know, because bow ties are cool.

Laser Eyed Pigeon of Love Valentines Day Printable!

Picture it, dinnertime- chicken and toasted ravioli. Sure, it's not "healthy fare," but the kids were happy and that's what matters. Somehow the conversation swings around to light bulbs. Light bulbs? Yes, light bulbs, and the wasteful nature of the warmth and wholesome glow of incandescent bulbs and the wonderment that is the efficient and passive aggressive maverick way to light your home, the compact florescent. This reignites the age old debate of Tesla v. Edison. Here's a hint- we're Team Tesla in our household. All discussions of Tesla lead back around, eventually, to his laser eyed love pigeon. You wish I was joking, I wish I was joking, alas, I'm not. Tesla loved a pigeon, and at St. Valentine's Day, it's always good to honor those who embrace the adage, "Love as thou wilt." So, on a lark, I decided to throw together a Laser Eyed Pigeon of Love design for her to hand out for Valentine's Day. I mean, who doesn't want obscure geek references for their Valentines cards? Really, it worked out well, because writing Valentines in Circular Gallifreyan was proving to be a much more complex task than I'd originally thought it would be. 

I considered using a great Tesla quote:

“I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years. But there was one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me.

I loved that pigeon as a man loves a women, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.”

Long story short, that was too many words and we wanted something less... heartfelt. Since it's a fun and simple design, I thought I should share the printable geekery. Feel free to distribute to those who would get a kick out of it, just, you know, don't sell it. That'd be tacky.

Just fit-to-printable-area and print on standard 8.5x11" cardstock.

For more nerdy Valentines, check out the Standardized Test Valentine I made a couple years ago!

Let Them Play Dolls

In the spirit of the Halloween season, I spent the evening in the Sewing Cellar working on a Marie Antoinette Zombie doll.

They cut off her head, but now she's back, and she isn't looking for cake.

I'm pretty pleased with how she turned out. This was my first attempt at a cut & sew fabric design from both perspectives. I'd never designed one, and I'd never tried to sew one before either. She came together almost exactly the way I had envisioned, and all in less than the time it took my daughter to watch the latest in awful vampire dramas on television. :-)  The hardest part was turning the sewn doll body. I always struggle with turning, and this was no exception.

Now that my ghoulish gal turned out so well, I may be on to making more cut and sew dolls. It was a lot less labor intensive than my usual process, and since I had the design printed on Kona Cotton, she's just as durable as my typical Raggedy Rebels.

Now that I spent this evening playing, tomorrow it's back to the serious work of sewing on Halloween and Teslacon costumes.

What are you working on these days? 

Color Me Flustered

So, I designed a TARDISy fabric on Spoonflower because I am a big fan of all things TARDIS for my home. Doctor Who, and the lovable TARDIS are probably some of the best things ever developed by the BBC (which owns all of the concepts, I'm just a fan artist who loves creating things that make people's lives a little geekier).

But, here's the problem, I have this The Doctor's Ditsy fabric which I love. It's dark and full of stars, and looks cute as just about everything. My friend over at Brooke Van Gory Designs, who makes super spiffy custom bags, clutches, diaper bags, wet bags, and sundries,  even turned it into a clutch for a really happy owner, but that's when it was brought to my attention that for some prints, Spoonflower's  Old Color Profile and the New Color Profile DO NOT TRANSFER WELL.

I never dreamed that such a simple design with so few colors would have been drastically affected in this manner, but nonetheless, check it out.

The OLD COLOR PROFILE

THE NEW COLOR PROFILE

See the difference? Yep, the background. The one printed in the OLD COLOR PROFILE is a nice strong dark blue, the one printed in the NEW COLOR PROFILE printed up a funky dusty purple color.

So, long story short, I'm working with Spoonflower to find the best replacement colors, and until that date, always pick the OLD COLOR PROFILE until it's all straightened out. 

Stalking his Stocking: 42 Ideas for Him

1. Socks.  Come on, stockings in the stocking, it's a pun that makes itself. I hear Gold Toe are still made in the USA, as are those from the Fox River Mills, which makes the iconic Red Heel socks. As a Sock Monkey maker, I'm partial to those.
2. Chocolate. Men love it too.  He probably has a favorite, you probably know what it is.
3. Batteries. Not just any batteries, but the ones he's always looking for, like AAA for the remote.
4. Solar Powered cell phone charger. Not even joking. They're small and useful.
5. Memory card/ flash drive. Bonus points if it's a rad modified one like you find on Etsy or Artfire.
6. A pocket monkey or other ridiculous tiny toy he can squeeze or toss at will.
7. Paperback book of his favorite genre. Mystery? Adventure? Suspense? Science Fiction? Go for it.
8. A new belt.
9. A tie like no one else at his work has. I love this one.
10. Rad, yet masculine soap.  My spouse rocks the Stonehenge from Burnt Mill.
11. One of the t-shirts dejour from a site like TeeFury, RiptApparel, Shirt.Woot, ShirtPunch, or the Yetee.  Just you know, don't opt for the slow boat shipping. Watching them all for about a week tends to lead to finding something that will scream his name.
12. Sunglasses
13. Sonic Screwdriver Flashlight (or boring pocket flashlight if he's not that cool)
14. Gloves
15. Wallet preloaded with gift cards to his favorite coffee and or breakfast joint.
16.  Those gift cards to his favorite coffee and or breakfast joint.
17. A new scarf. Bonus points if you knit it yourself. Double bonus if it's a Doctor Who scarf and you fit the whole thing in his stocking, you know, if he likes that sort of thing.
18. Gift cards to your local theater wrapped in that day's movie times. Just add a babysitter (if necessary) and you've got something fun to do this afternoon together.
19. Cufflinks
20. A rad new ear ring, if he rolls that way.
21.  GC to his favorite ink shop to make it a holiday to remember til both of your eyesight is shot.  Just remember, a great tattoo is priceless, and a bad one is hard to cover, so be sure it's really his favorite place.
22. A new watch. Preferably an unusual one.
23. Measuring Tape.
24. Universal Network Cable. Seriously, how cool is this?
25. Small notebooks to jot things down in, you know, with penmanship.
26. Pens, nice ones. or Pencils even.
27. Dare I say duct tape?
28. Two words: Titanium Spork
29. Caffeinated breath mints. I'm not even joking. They exist.
30. They also make bacon mints, but I don't think I'd personally go this direction.
31. Freeze dried "astronaut" ice cream.
32. Membership to nearby museum he actually digs. For spouse, that's the Sciencey one.  For my dad it'd be the Natural History one.
33. One of those remote controls that do ALL. I personally like the wand one, but it just does SOME.
34. A nice well balanced pizza cutter, you know, for when he cooks dinner.
35. Dare I say a new game controller?
36.  iTunes gift card
37. Electronics cleaning putty.
38. Cable organizers for all his new electronics, maybe like the cable monkey, because they're cute.
39. A small book on surviving the zombie apocalypse.
40. Ammunition, for the zombie apocalypse.
41. Polyhedrals.  (If you don't know what this is, it's probably not for your guy)
42. Giant Plush Microbes. Come on, what says love like Malaria?

Okay, I guess I went off on a geeky tangent on some of these, but I hope you forgive me.  A few of these might need to be compressed to fit, especially if he has a tiny stocking, but why have a tiny stocking? If he does, then I highly recommend a new one. ;-)

When in doubt, buy handmade, and have the happiest of holidays.

Fan Girl Friday- Five Geeky Things

Five geeky things you might not know about me.

1. I seriously considered naming my poor offspring River Thrace.  (Serenity/Doctor Who/Battlestar Galactica much?)
2. When I have to choose, I always pick the TARDIS blue one.
3. My favorite TV show as a kid was Star Trek.
4. When I was 4 I was obsessed with the idea of faster than light travel and it's implications for time travel.
5. My daughter told me that there were 10 kinds of people- those who understand binary, and those who don't. It was one of the proudest parental moments of the year.

ABC Fail.

Having written earlier to ABC, via their contact form, to inquire as to why V is not available for streaming, I was directed to read a blurb which they have posted on their site in which they say that they're sorry that they are unable to offer said content online via ABC.com or Hulu anymore and wish they could.

Let me quote the email I recieved.
"Thank you for your feedback regarding the ABC TV network show, “V.”

For more information on watching full episodes, please read the notes on ABC.com:

Go to ABC.com
Go to the top of the screen and click on SHOWS
Go down the page to “V”
Click on that show.
Go down the page to the “V Extras Section”
Read the article titled:  “A note from ABC.com” 

So, I just sent this reply. It's possibly a bit more hostile than it should be.

"In writing to ask why there were no episodes available for watching online I received a response to read the note from ABC on the V site.
I have read said note, and now I ask, again, why are they not available?
It is disheartening that other content is available, but the meaningful content is not, and lack of a public reason for this decision reflect a disdain and disrespect for the loyal viewers.
I am very disappointed."

I don't know how to say this without anger.
I get that three and four years ago, I wouldn't have been able to watch any shows online, and the notion of not being able to stream television episodes the next day would have seemed like the farthest thing from an actual irritation.  I get that this is, in the grand scheme of things, not a big deal.
But to me, it is important.  It's important because I can watch bad low budget programming like "The Bachelor," on their site, or any of the increasingly sexually charged medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy or The Practice on their website, but programming which challenges us to ask questions about the soul, humanity, and what "the greater good" actually means, get relegated to "after school special" status in that you catch it or not, but can't expect to have a second chance.

I'm insulted that they gave us the classic deflection response.  We ask why? They say "Because." Maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't like to treated like someone who isn't smart enough to know that she hasn't received an answer.

So, I am up in the air as to whether or not I will watch the rest of the series. If I can't go back and catch what I missed, I don't see a point.  I'm the type who will wait and watch online or at a re-airing if I miss the first 15 minutes, because I want to understand what is going on and I respect the writers' and directors' work enough to want to enjoy the bits and pieces of foreshadowing and excellent storytelling they've put together.  No, reading a synopsis isn't enough, nor is trying to fill in the blanks and move on.

I don't want to say "I won't watch it anymore because it's not available on the internet" because I want the show to succeed.  But I don't see myself watching it anymore because I won't be able to fill in the blanks and at that point, a serial show with this much detail and subtlety loses much of it's appeal, whereas an episodic series wouldn't suffer so greatly by the break in storyline. I am not going to say that I won't watch it.

But I will say that I'm not going to watch anything else on ABC. Sure, I like to catch Desperate Housewives. Yes, I adore Nathan Fillion and love watching Castle. I also enjoy some medical drama, even though they dramatize pregnancy and birth and further contribute to the notion that these are life threatening conditions which helps create the environment in which women find it acceptable that 1 in 3 births in the United States occurs via cesarean section.

I won't be watching the Oscars.

Here's what I will be doing instead- I will be watching their competing networks and learning to like programming I can catch up on, delivered by networks which don't treat me like a 2 year old.

Five Characters I Adore

Not feeling very wordy, so in short, five fictional characters whom I adore: some for their strengths, others for their weaknesses.

1. Elizabeth Bennett Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
2. The Doctor Doctor Who
3. Malcolm Reynolds Firefly
4. Mary The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
5. Giles Buffy the Vampire Slayer




Don't worry, I love a lot of other characters too, but these are in my heart this moment. Who is in yours?

Madd Make up

Yesterday I happened to be sitting at the computer at the right time to notice that Madd Style Cosmetics was having a giveaway (a super complicated giveaway) for a full set of pigments. Um, hello? Yes, please!
Did I mention the super complicated part?
Ah, well, here's that bit.
Super complicated means that you had to opt in, tag someone, be tagged, and then get assigned by the party who tagged you/assign the party you tagged three to six colors and a theme for a sugar skull inspired look for them to create on no more than half the face, but at least one eye.
I was assigned white, pink, yellow, and blue in something super girly with hearts and flowers.


This is what I came up with.  

Noting the exclusion of black or green, I did hot pink (Young Blood with some Ben Nye bright blushy goodness) flower of traditional sugar skull styling, layered over a multi-yellow (Ben Nye creamy yellow and some scary unlabeled yellows I borrowed from the tween) sunflower with pink hilights, a couple hearts and polka dots in light pink. Eye done in Disco Biscuit, one of my favorite blues and Gothcupcake's Zombify- Police Box (also sold as TARDIS), which was also used for the lines. The white is Ben Nye creamy foundation.
I decided to go with the "phantom mask" or quarter face approach because it's girly, as commanded by Megan, in the mommy can kiss the toddler still kind of girly way, and because I think it rocks old school.

Just before washing it all off, after dinner (yes, I sat down to dinner this way, because it made me giggle) I decided to rough in a full half face, for giggles. I would have finished it, but without my glasses, I really can't see at all, and my glasses slide around so much I didn't want them smearing things.  But this is what it looked like roughed in.

This is with the glasses, since I wanted to see it before it had been washed off.
Of course, they ended up smearing the heck out of the details they're covering.

In any case, I had a lot of fun working on this, and the toddler thought it was funny and enjoyed sticking his little fingers in it.

He likes makeup.

Pink Saturday: Kids at the dairy

Halfway between Indianapolis and Chicago on I-65 there is a dairy called Fair Oaks Farms. It is perfectly situated to stop for the toddler's patience when traveling between the two.  There are times we've tried to skip the stop, but alas, it leads to immediate waking and crying.  It seems he's learned to schedule his naps around watching the brine room and snacking on samples of Gouda and Emmentaller Swiss.
The tween likes it too.  She likes to peruse their hilarious gift shop (Moo Shoe Pork stuffed animals for the win!)
It's a great chance to sit down, enjoy the moo, I mean, view, sip some hormone and antibiotic free chocolate milk (except the toddler, chocolate milk gives him diaper rash) and enjoy a few calm minutes in a community collective, talking about the economics of cooperatives, how the holes get into the Swiss cheese, or you know, whether the Doctor could go back in time with some fresh cheese, drop it off, and have it be perfectly aged when he wanted it.  Because we geek that hard.
The toddler likes it because he gets to nurse. Spouse thinks the dairy should have a problem with that because I'm competing by bringing another milk source in.  I'm pretty sure they like the family business more than they care about where the toddler's getting his milk.  The toddler also loves watching the films on how they make the cheese. One of these days I'm hoping we'll get a chance to take the full tour, including stopping by the birthing barn to see a calf born.

Long story short, stopping off tickles us pink. :-)

For more Pink Saturday, head on over to How Sweet the Sound.

Treasury!!!

I admit it, this is my second treasury, but it's the first I've had the presence of mind to take a screen shot of.

So go check it out, because Battlestar Galactica stuff is truly rad.

Frak, it's BSG!

A Very Doctor Christmas Carol- Abagail's Song.

So, um, if you know where I can get sheet music for this.... I'd be much obliged.

And for those of you who want the lyrics, the lyrics to the whole thing, and not just this bit, are (the first two lines are cut from everything I can find on youtube, probably because the Doctor is talking over them.):

When you’re alone, silence is all you know.
When you’re alone, silence is all you know.

When you’re alone, silence is all you see,
When you’re alone, silent is all you’ll be.
Give me your heart, come to me.
When you are here, music is all around.
When you are near, music is all around.
Open your eyes, don’t make a sound.
Meet in the shadow, meet in the shadow.
Meet in the light of your bright shadow….

Doctor Who Christmas Carol - The 12 days of Christmas

This year Mongoosine parodied her favorite Christmas songs in honor of a very merry Who-mas.

The 12 Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me, a brand new TARDIS key.

On the second day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the third day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the fourth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the fifth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the sixth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS, four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the seventh day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the eighth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the ninth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the tenth day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me ten cool fezzes, nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the eleventh day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me eleven time vortexes, ten cool fezzes, nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Doctor gave to me, twelve Bad Wolves, eleven time vortexes, ten cool fezzes, nine red bowties, eight fish custards, seven trips to Midnight, six Weeping Angels, FIVE SONIC SCREWDRIVERS- four adipose, three Daleks, two Cybermen, and a brand new TARDIS key.



Copyright 2010 Slee & Mongoosine, all rights reserved.  Have fun singing it, but you know, don't be evil.

Wordless Wednesday: A Fairly Wonderful Weekend

Wordless Wednesday

My Hero(ine)

Yesterday started out pretty normal.  Mongoosine fought the heat off by lazing around the house until the pool opened, and then gave her customary half question half statement "Pool?" accompanied by eyes darting toward the door, right before her feet followed pursuit.  It helped that a friend had just shown up on the porch.

I hollered "Sunscreen!" after her as she was dashing off the porch, waving a hand holding said sunscreen toward me as she and her friend rushed down the sidewalk toward the pool in that huddled way that girls do when they have secrets to share.  

I smiled, sighed, and went back to doing my mom-stuff, figuring she'd probably come home around 3:30 for adult swim, so I was somewhat surprised when at 2:14 a drippy wet daughter of mine was standing at the door asking if she and her friend could take snacks to the park.

I heard my husband ask why they'd left the pool.

"Pool's closed."

I admit, my eavesdropping mommy-sense kicked in.

I'll spare you the tween speak two word answers through which the rest of the story unfolded and sum it up.

Basically, my daughter made them close the pool. That picture up there? That's of the fire department draining the pool in the most summer-fun way they could think of.  They eventually got tired of doing it that way and got a few fire hoses to spray at ground level so no one had to hold anything.

Mongoosine had a lot of fun dancing in the spray while I verified her story with the pool managers.

Snapdragon even enjoyed the mist at the edge of the spray.

WHAT HAPPENED. (I'm sure she'll correct me and that I have the story ENTIRELY wrong - insert eye roll)

While swimming in the shallow end with her friends, doing underwater stunts like handstands and sitting on the floor of the pool, Mongoosine noticed something tickled her feet.  Upon further sub-aquatic investigation, she discovered the source of the "tickle" was a crack that was creating suction and pulling water through it.  Upon even closer examination she discovered a crack perhaps a foot long, and straight.  No, it was NOT shaped like this.  

She checked.  Twice.

Alas, it was merely a very normal not-two-moments-in-time-which-never-should-have-touched-creating-a-crack-in-the-universe run of the mill kind of crack.  But, she decided that it did have quite a bit of suction for a crack in the pool, especially in the shallow end where the not-so-great swimmers swim.  Therefore, she told a lifeguard. 

And the lifeguards had to get everyone out of the pool so they could investigate the boring normal not-Doctor-call-worthy crack in the bottom of the pool.  The crack was deemed a safety hazard, the pool was closed, and immediately drained.

The fire department had the pool drained in about 2 hours while the pool manager called the swimming lessons kids to cancel their morning lessons.  

Mongoosine was sad that she wouldn't get to swim for a few days while they fixed the pool.

Empty pool. *sigh*

See here the people working in the far away pool as the sun began to sink low?  Well, they did their job and did it well. Spouse tells me there is a patch welded into the bottom of the pool now, a bit over a foot square.  I didn't have a chance to see it because my sundown they were already refilling the pool.  Much to my surprise, it reopened at 1:00 this afternoon, right on schedule.  I imagine my little heroine who had the bravery to report a problem will be back soaking up the sun and splashing in the pool as soon as she finishes her leisurely lunch.

I'm proud of her. I don't know if I'd have said anything when I was her age.  I'm proud that she has the confidence to say something when she sees something she doesn't think is right.  I'm proud that she has ability to recognize an unrecognized problem.  

I'm just proud of her.  She's my hero.