Halloween, Tattoos, Grandmas and Vogue Knitting

Happy Halloween everyone! This year I went as Alex from A Clockwork Orange. I didn't get any fabulous pictures of my costume, but I snapped a few of my makeup, which is the best part of the costume anyway! I've been messing with some iPhone photo apps lately. So far I'm loving Labelbox and Pic Stitch. I tried out Spooky Pics for my Halloween photos...

I made some orange and purple Halloween cupcakes for the party. They got eaten up really fast! I'm not an expert at baking yet, but I was pretty happy with these. The frosting is the hardest part. I had to resist buying the cupcake icing kits from Target and settled on using ziplock bags for piping the icing. 

I also snapped a bunch of photos with my Instax. I'll be putting together my Zombie Mini Album soon! The party was full of zombies, pirates, 80's metal rockers, 70's coke heads, serial killer butchers, and of course a bit of the old 'ultra violence.' 

On another note, last Wednesday I got my tattoo! It was drawn by Mindy Massacre at Primal Instincts Tattoo in Anchorage AK. I made an appointment to get it colored in two weeks. I love how it turned out!  I heard that she and another female artist were fighting over who would get to do my tattoo, because they both loved the idea of the dress form. The sewing stuff is dedicated to my maternal grandmother, who left me her sewing room when she passed away. She always made tons of great stuff! I have a purse she made and I carry it everywhere. The butterfly on the dress-form's shoulder is for my paternal grandmother, who used to do a butterfly census at the UCSC Arboretum in Santa Cruz, CA. She would walk around and see how many butterflies were in the gardens and figure out what types they were. I'm going to get some flowers in the background for her too... Maybe some from this book that my aunt made of her artwork after she passed away. She did some wonderful drawings! Anywhere she went she would draw, she didn't bother taking photos. 

Last but not least is an update on my knitting progress... I had 24 hour duty the morning after the Halloween party, which sucked, but at least I had some time to catch up on my knitting. It started snowing yesterday morning and I thought to myself, "You'd better get that sweater done!" I started it last year but I kept putting it down to work on other projects. Now that it's cold out I'll need it!

The Fall 2010 issue of Vogue Knitting is still the best issue I've seen. They were on point with the London Calling collection. I may even make two of these pullovers! 

I chose a grey yarn that was too dark in comparison to the original pattern, but I like how it is turning out.

That's all for now! Thanks to everyone who stopped by for the October Followers Fest!  I'll leave you with a video for the lovely song "Dear Darkness" by PJ Harvey. She's a wonderful singer/songwriter and very "goth". Perfect for this time of year.

Raspberry Cream Martini

This martini is so yummy! I threw it together when I got a new cocktail shaker (it was all I had in the house) and it tasted better than I expected, coming from a person who has never attempted to make cocktails before. I'm inspired to create some yummy Autumn/Halloween drinks tonight. Enjoy and drink responsibly!

Painting Inspiration

These paintings come from Jeannie Lynn Paske's Obsolete World.

Desserts and Sweets Recipe Book

I've had the Sweet Stack 8x8 paper for a while now but I never knew what to do with it. It's not really my usual style paper and it looked like it could only be used for a kids album. I don't know why I thought that, seeing as there were cupcakes all over it! It was perfect for a recipe book. It was fun to do and I didn't try to spend a lot of time on it like I do my other albums (no inking edges, very little embellishments, no tags or pockets) It belongs in the kitchen and will probably get baking ingredients on it anyway. I am happy with it! It's even cuter than my little shabby chic notebook I keep the rest of my recipes in.

Now that I'm in the mood for sweets, I'll be baking some cupcakes and putting up a recipe later. Molten "Blood" Velvet cupcakes for Halloween!

Zombie Mini Album and Painting

I love Halloween! It's one of the few holidays I care about. For many years I haven't been able to celebrate because of work (except 2009... I was Sailor Moon!) This year my friend is throwing a party and I'm super excited! I haven't been able to take photos with my Instax since I went on leave. The film is so expensive that I try to reserve film for really special occasions (and sometimes I miss out on great events because I forget to bring it.) But Halloween is defiantly the right time for photos and a scrapbook. This year I'm going as Alex from Clockwork Orange. I've wanted to dress as him for a long time. I'll have to do a little entry on how I put together the costume. I found one blog that was really serious about getting the costume exactly the same as in the movie, Clockwork Orange Costume Blog. While I'm not willing to spend $400, I think I've gotten pretty close to the original so far.
I'm not dressing as a zombie, but I figured it couldn't hurt to title my Halloween album "Zombies." I really couldn't come up with a good sentiment that wasn't too long, like "Halloween" or too silly, like "Boo!" (not to mention the lack of black sparkly chipboard exclamation points... which would make it more like a sentiment of disapproval rather than a ghosts cry...) Someone's bound to come as a zombie, right? If all else fails I'll find a way to print the photos from the Mud Run and make an entirely new album, which is OK with me!

Of course the lettering is a little wonky, but I like it that way.

I used studs from a studded belt and safety pins. It's so metal ;)

Next is my first attempted painting in a long time! I never paint because I usually never finish. It's hard to come up with a subject, draw it out, figure out the lighting... Basically the whole idea is intimidating. But then last weekend I was checking out Margaret Keane paintings and I had some inspiration. I decided to do a big-eyed girl painting. I still need practice!

The face needs to be more dimensional, but if I kept going I'd muddy up the paint too much (like I did under the neck) Practice makes perfect.

New Tattoo Inspiration

I've been thinking about getting another tattoo. I usually don't dedicate my tattoos to anything (people ask me if they "mean" something... They mean I like tattoos?) But this time I want to dedicate a tattoo to my grandmother who passed away last year. She left her whole sewing room to me, so as soon as I get back from the Army I'm going to be a sewing monster! Since we both had the same hobbies, I want to get a tattoo for her. I either want a dress form or a vintage sewing machine. I think I'll end up with a dress form, just because of the way the existing tattoos on my arm are.

I love this little scene!

My mom has one of these old Singer sewing machines from my great-grandmother. It's so adorable!!

Finally Back

The past few weeks have been crazy. We went out to the field again, which is boring, difficult and YUCKY. I'm so glad to be back home! I was so exhausted from it that all I did over the weekend was lay around, with the exception of Saturday night, which I spent sipping wines at an incredible wine bar called Crush in downtown Anchorage. I didn't get to snap any photos because I was too busy getting tipsy and enjoying cheese plates. I had an excellent time! I'm bringing the rest of the girls there soon.

I received a wonderful scrapbook kit from Marion Smith Designs and put it together on Sunday. I don't have photos for it, so all I did was the cover. I think it turned out pretty cute. I'm still experimenting!

I'm excited to fill it with photos so I can use the rest of the adorable trinkets and flowers! 

That's all for now!