Ripping the Fright Fantastique

(Some stuff is open for public viewing...)

A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

I need help deciding which rug to get. For reference, my walls and curtains:

My couch is very close to this sandy/mocha/putty color:

And my furniture is sort of close to this mahogany swatch:

My garden has assploded. It's an out-of-control jungle. 

Seriously, LOOK AT THIS gorgeousness! The sheer depth, texture, and color just dazzle and fascinate me! I am honored, flabbergasted, and lucky as hell to announce that the fabulous, amazing, super talented RAVENARI aka moonvoice is going to illustrate my upcoming Children's Book! OMGOMGOMG!( more pics )

Dinner last night. OH NOMMIE NOMMINESS McNOMNOM!


Inna pan. Of course, I have no pic pronz of it on the plate as it was decimated to quickly. He's quick when he wants to be, that hubs of mine.

( neighbor stuff and pics )

Ugh, why the hell was I up at 4:30 am? *grumble* Anyway, I finished the mosaic table top I've been working on all week last night, that caelum_rainieri will use as his desk in the office. Here it is:

My friend Heather passed away this morning. Many of us knew her as Ivy, though. We invited her over for last Thanksgiving but she couldn't make it. She loved my Neroli soap. I will miss her so much. She would've loved this picture. She was in pain, and now she's not. Good Journey, darling Heather.

So last night I made this. It was some serious Nom-ness.  We were at Costco and I saw these amazing blackberries (above) omg they were HUGE! The result?

It was even better than it looks, trust me on this. I served it with some Danish Vanilla Bean ice cream from a local creamery, but I'ma have to try PW's recipe for homemade ice cream very, very soon. 

The stepping stones I made drying on the kitchen counter. I used some of the extra tiles on my garden stakes.

Finished garden stakes. kickthehobbit , you were right, thanks for the Modge Podge tip. Worked perfectly! Also, holy crap where did the weekend go? I'm exhausted and my back hurts.

Lastly, a HUGE THANK YOU to aunty_kreist for the gorgeous copper wind chimes, flower seeds and card! I'm going to look for a copper hook for it and hang it in the pollinator garden! Then pics! Smooches!

Holy Crap how can I get Maryann to go talk to my mother? SERIOUSLY, YO.

Yes, I know it's father's day, but since I just put up a post about him a day or 2 ago, and True Blood is on tonight... you know I couldn't resist. In other news caelum_rainieri got the newest season of 24, and clothes for Father's Day. I'm also making him spicey chicken tacos and homemade refried beans tonight. Also, there will be Patron margaritas and other shenanigans apparently. Also, all of our Sparrow nests now have chicks in them instead of eggs! Sooooo damn cute!

Happy birthday to all my Cancer Friends! obigrrl , entilmax , orangebeaver , alletiders , seethingheathen , ditzy_pole ! My good bruiser friend, Ron and my gorgeous nephew John.
Have a wonderful birthdcay and Solar Return! May this new cycle bring you all the joy, wealth, and health you can possibly stand!

Also, amazing gorgeous art provided by moonvoice / deviant art = ravenari !

The Secret Life of Bees... what an amazing movie! It really touched me so many differnent ways, I cried through the whole thing! This is one of my favorite scenes..., also, I saw Defiance. Such a stellar cast, such an amazing true story. Damn you Ed Zwick! You ruined it the same way you did The Last Samurai. Ugh. Lastly, saw The Gray Man which was about the child molestor, murderer and cannibal Albert Fish. They took a lot of liberties with the truth, and sort of glossed over a bunch of important stuff which was disappointing. Could've been far better as the truth was so much more horrific. 

In Port Townsend we finally got to see Van Gogh's fawns! (She's a doe we see around with only one ear, the other looks like it was torn off in a scuffle.) They're getting so big now! Some serious cuteness right there, especially because they were nibbling bushes on our friend Eiko's lawn. >=]

1. Doubt - Loved it, not quite what I thought it would be, but actually better. Holy crap Meryl Streep & Phillip Seymour Hoffman were great.
2. Gran Torino - Watched this one under protest, but liked it more than I thought I would. I thought about it for days afterwards... I loved the Hmong Grandmother and Hmong Shaman characters.
3. Fritt Vilt (Cold Prey) -  Fun little slasher flick... bork bork bork!
4. The Uninvited - Meh, Tale of 2 Sisters was so much better. And complicated. Huge surprise there.
5. My Bloody Valentine (remake) - Complete crap but the 3-D effects were cool.
6. Imprint - Excellent! I love all Chris Eyre's films, he produced this one.
7. The International - Sort of disappointing. Had some good bits though.
8. Taken - Far better than I thought it would be. All I could think of though, was just after filming this Liam Neeson lost his wife. So awful... =
9. Il Bosco Fuori (Last House in the Woods) - UGH. Couldn't even finish it... and I adore Italian Horror!
10. 100 Feet - Decent, worth watching. Had some scary moments, excellent atmosphere.
11. The Burrowers - Not nearly as good as Blood Red Earth. Creatures were dumb up close. 

      Sitting on my shelf ready to watch: Shuttle, Walled In, Mum & Dad, Jake's Closet, Laid to Rest, and The Gray Man

So ya, most of you know I've been super busy fiing up this house we just moved into and planting several gardens. You can check my garden tags to see gardens from last year if you're interested. We've only been here a month now, so everything still seems to be going at a snail's pace, but here's some pics of our front porch.
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We were at my favorite nursery yesterday (The Secret Garden) and I saw this beauty. Now, some of you may already know I have a serious love for Japanese Maples, but check this one out. It's over 40 years old and I WANT IT! The guy who grew it lives in PT and growing Maples is pretty much all he does. He clips and shapes them, turns them, the whole bit. Of course, at the price of 2,500$... I'd need to win the lotto first. =/

After the nursery we went to the local co-op and Farmer's Market where we saw this guy:


Sorry about the blurry action shot, but I didn't want him to see me take his pic. Apparently Pirate Pete has quite the fashion sense. I should have gotten a pic of his genie shoes. And lastly, on the way home we stopped at the famous (at least around these parts) Fat Smitty's:


Mmmmm... I should've taken a pic of my lunch, but I was too busy eating it. YUMMOLA.

OMG how I can git me a Loris?

I transplanted most of the first tray yesterday save for the tiny dill, which is only now just sprouting. The tomato tray has pretty much sprouted overnight! Mostly everything else has been transplanted into plastic cups (damn you cowpots... DAMN YOU!). If the tomatos keep this up, I'll be needing to transplant them tomorrow.

Ugh, went through the house and put tape on everything that needs to go into storage. No fun. I'm exhausted! Grrr... so here's some garden porn to make me feel better.( pics )

So this is my baby veggie & herb garden. The first tray doesn't have too many sprouts yet, but the second one needs to be replanted already. Damn! We just planted these babies Friday too! We planted 4 kinds of tomatoes, dill, thyme, and basil, corn, 2 kinds of carrots, beans, squash, cantalope, cucumbers, strawberries, and a few others. I'm not usually good at seeds - there's so much that can go wrong between planting a seed and putting them into the ground/planting bed. I usually do better with small starts. This hasn't stopped me from trying again though.

( more pics )

Happy Birthday Friends and Family and my beloved F-List! glitteringlynx and papilio_luna ! Richard Moo Man... I'm looking at you! Also, remembering the amazing Stephen, who was always good to me in the short time I was honored to know him.  May this year's Solar Return bring you all, all the Joy, Wealth, Health, Success, and Love you can possibly stand!

Last night I watched Blood Red Earth, a 30 minute prequel to the soon-to-be-released 'The Burrowers,' is spoken exclusively in the lyrical Lakota language with English subtitles. All I can say is WOW, this is a must see if you like horror or are interested in American Aboriginal lore. The story takes place in 1918 and is about 2 brothers, Red Earth the young warrior and Waiting Crow the boy, who go out to hunt and bring back a dead deer because they can find nothing else. Havoc ensues. Waiting Crow is stolen in payment/replacement for the deer, and ultimately an "enemy" Ute huntng party help defend Red Earth and his family from the mysterious evil that took his brother. This movie is simply GORGEOUS. The actors are gorgeous, the cinematography is gorgeous, the music and language is gorgeous... the whole shebang. Absolutely see this if you can, on FEARNET.( 2 More Movies... ) and I saw 'A Haunting in Connecticut,' which was based on the Snedeker family's experience living in a haunted house/mortuary. This movie was taken from Ray Garton's book 'In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting'  which has a lot of controversy surrounding it as the various family members' stories didn't quite match up when relating their experiences to Garton. This movie had great special effects, and was well written and acted. Yes it was cheesy in parts, but it was still a fun scary movie. </div>
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Hey all my new friends! Welcome to my whiney, bitchy, product-whore lj. I usually post rants, the occasional meme, recipes, and book/movie reviews. Uh, here's some more info about me. Right now I'm working on 3 mauscripts, 2 children's stories and this. My husband is working on this right now:
( ... )

... stolen from Miss purplevenus 

Name: Lilly
Height: 5'10"
Tomboy or Girly Girl? I'm farily girly

Describe Your Beauty Routine:
Cleanliness is most of it, I'm a big fan of hygiene, lol. 

Describe Your Hair:
Sort of a dark golden/strawberry blonde. Wavy. About 5 inches past my shoulders.

Describe Your Personal Style:
Mostly classic. I do like long, soft, flowie things, as well as fabrics that feel good against my skin. I'm a firm believer in quality but I'm not a designer hound. I favor occasional status pieces, but those are few and far between. I like subdued colors like grey, navy, bone, and black with a few accent colors that favor my complexion like teal, green, and blue.

 

( Read more... )

 

 

Look at this beautiful person. His name is David Reimer. I didn't even know who he was until last night when I watched 'Born a Boy and Brought Up a Girl' on TLC, taken from the book "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who was Raised as a Girl." Brian (his twin) and Bruce were born identical male twins but after a botched circumcision (Bruce's penis was pretty much destroyed), on the advice of doctors, the twin's parents decided to just turn little Bruce into Brenda. They removed his testicles and gave him female hormones as well as so-called pyschotherapy with Dr. Money, the guy who made his career on the so-called Case of Joan/John, Which basically said "nurture" was everything and biology ("nature") was irrlevant. 

At about 13 Brenda decided he wanted to be a boy again, and started calling himself David. He eventually killed himself because of all the bullshit he had to go through in his short life. David was never intersexed, but I know that community as well as the Trans Community very much identify with him. Fucking doctors man... who profess to know shit about YOU and WHO/WHAT you're "supposed to" and "should" be. This just made me so angry and sad, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Why can't people be different? Why can't they be who THEY want to be? What the fuck is wrong with people and their little narrow minds?

I saw this movie last night and WOW was it good! It's on Fearnet right now under 'Baby's Room' and was filmed in Spain. If you like old-fashioned creepy horror movies, then you'll probably like this as much as I did.

Now, you might know what a horror fan I am, have been ever since I was a kid, thus very few horror movies actually scare/disturb me. Besides 'The Strangers,' 'Quarantine' is one of those movies. Holy Shit what a tense gut-wrenching ride! It stars Emily Rose and Dexter's sister Jennifer Carpenter and Hostel's Jay Hernandez and I highly reccomend it.

Lastly, I watched 'The Haunting of Molly Hartley' which started out great, but quickly dissolved into crap. Ugh, avoid if possible. Also, Dollhouse is pissing me off. Joss, you're losing your touch.

Damn Carla! I wanted you to win, but alas, the Soufflé was burnt and it wasn't to be. I still love you BB!
(Oh well, at least Stefan didn't win.)

Yes, more Samson Pic Spam, you know I can't help myself. So last night we drove to our favorite candle store in PT, and naturally took Sam with us. He absolutely LOVES riding in the car as I've mentioned before, and basically piles into my lap and starts to snore. It's flabbergasting that he feels so safe so soon with us, considering all he's been through in his short little life. We're just over the moon about it, honestly, so we've been finding excuses to go riding around with him each day, lol. "Oh gee, we just got back from the market but I think I forgot the celery." Ya... that's the ticket. Here's a pic of caelum_rainieri and Sam at the famous PT Venus fountain.

( Pics & Drama )</div>

One of THE funniest movie clips of all time, from Turner and Hooch. It's about 40 seconds in (when they start playing 2001 Space Odessy) where Hooch goes for Tom Hanks jowls flapping, splooge flying. Ahahahahahaha!

So today we took Samson (aka Samburger, Samsonite, Abe Frohme Sausage King of Chicago) to PetSmart to let him socialize and get an engraved name tag...

So this handsome boy was found wandering a few days ago, so the kind folks that found him crashtestcase and the lovely seattle comm thusly.

My friends, you know me, I couldn't say "NO" to that face, could you? Somehow, I think Brutus would want his home to go to someone else in need. And how is Brutus doing? Not so hot, but ok for now. He sits a lot unless he has to stand these days. It's hard to watch, we love him so much, but I tell you what... we're spoiling the crap outta him - and he deserves every bit of it... and MORE.

Anyway, caelum_rainieri and I are super excited about this new boy coming home. We're going to pick him up tomorrow, so tonight we're going to pop out and buy him a bunch of stuff, toys, collar, bowls, bed, etc.. bellasmommy I'ma order some beds from you as soon as I can -  & I'ma cook a giant pot of Dog Soup TM.

Cue the HAPPY DANCE!

 ( I'm Thinking of You Today... )

I really love both of these tattoos. Now, let it be known that I have no tattoos myself, not because I don't love them, rather because I could never decide what to get and I'd hate to pick one I'd grow to hate in a few years. There seems to be so many beautiful tattoos coming out recently, it's just astounding to me. I have themes that have been important in my life, so were I to get one, it would be one of those I think (dragons, mermaids, lilies, willow trees/leaves, peacocks/feahers, koi, etc..)

In other news we got one of these and it's everything they hype it to be and more. Of course, we got ours at Costco, so it was far cheaper than the going rate - thank goodness. It's made incredibly well and simply operated. Genius! Still sick and in bed right atm, so that's all for now. 

Happy Imbolc! What do I wan to light the way for in my life? Buying a house, continue to heal my back and body, and my writing. Speaking of writing, my husband just got word he's getting pulished again! They're sending the contract as I write this, but what's getting published you might ask? I can't give you any details right now except that it's in a completely different field than where he's been published before (and for myself as well, even though I'm not working on this one with him). Also, our "maybe move to Mass" is looking more and more like it's going to happen. Le Sigh. I love this state and will hate to leave it, even for 5-7 years, but on the upside it'll do wonders for our business outlook.

That flu came back. I'm seriously illin' folks, please to be shooting me now. Ugh, I had this crap almost the entire month of December and thought I was over it. I guess not. We saw Rise of the Lycans this weekend and whoo damn was it good! The best in the franchise imo. Other than that, I have nothing of interest to report. I hope you all have lovely Imbolcs (for those of you that practice) and rest of the week!

Last night, caelum_rainieri brought me home this Phalaenopsis. I love my husband! Also, here are my toes.

( feets )

Happy Chinese New Year Yesterday! Are any of you celebrating? Here's some info about what to expect as far as (earth) Ox energy goes. Do you guys know what Chinese sign you are? I'm a fire ram/sheep and caelum_rainieri is a wood horse. Supposedly this year will be crap for both of us, however, this last Rat Year was supposed to be an excellent year and honestly it kinda blew. So I'm not too worried. 

In other news I'm exhausted. Busy weekend and dark moon magic/k Saturday night. nerdtopian I saw Saw V and DAMN, they did a great job tying everything together. Otoh, I also saw Keifer Sutherland's Mirrors. Now, the special effects and possessed CGI was really scary, and coming from me, that's saying something, but the overall writing was predictable and dumb.

Anyway, yesterday we went to our favorite candle store in Port Townsend and as we were getting back into the car, we saw 3 deer walking down the street and then make their way tot he fountain and swet violets planted by it. Wish I had my damn camera! Oh! And remember that property we're interested in? The guy has decided to sell the plot next to it as well, which would be a dream come true for us. OMG... NEED MONEY NOW! I almost assploded from sheer excitment in the car. *crosses eyes, fingers, and toes*

So caelum_rainieri and I love dem damn crows, that's no secret. We feed them raw peanuts almost every day, but during the winter when food is more scarce, we feed them something a bit more substantial. Crows are omnivorous, but it's best to try and feed them whatever is found naturally in your area. As we live right on the water, we feed them bits of sea food plus raw nuts and seeds. 

( Pics & Recipe )

So last night caelum_rainieri and I watched the Inauguration (which I'd tivo'd earlier) and I made one of his favorite meals. My famous pasta sauce and meatballs. Now these aren't just ANY meatballs, mind you. They're a little ball of heaven on a plate. Here's pics and how I made 'em:
( delish ahead )
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vandaluna , thewalkingman ,devilshe , wortschmiedin , amnormand , kibbles , jezemel , rachellynne , and auntiesiannan do you identify as an Aquarius or a Pisces? Also, kisses to the illustrious ZEN and the wise Kedar! All my friends and family Water Bearers, have a wonderful solar return and new year cycle! May tons of blessings and good stuff dog-pile on you all! WOOF!

Also, as a side note, a big sloppy HELLO to all my new friends!

Well, I was waiting to post this, but having this conversation over here sort of makes me think I should do it today. We're going to have to put down our Staffie/Mastiff boy Brutus very soon. Tests have shown that he has a tumor wrapped around and inside his spinal chord. He's already lost the use of one back leg, and the other one is slowly going numb. There is no treatment for this, and even if we put him on wheels, the tumor is most likely malignant as Staffies and Mastiffs both, are extremely prone to bone cancer and tumerous cancer.
(We put our beloved Oberon down in March, 2004 because of  Bone Cancer in his jaw, icon pic.)

Brutus is not the kind of dog that will show us he's in pain. He'll be playful and happy and eating right to the end, thus we'll have to watch him closely for signs because he won't be able to tell us himself, as most pets can do. We just love him to pieces, as we do all our furry children. We're heartbroken, but we've sort of been in a deep freeze with that because right now, he needs us at our best. He gets lots of toys and playing, lots of treats and cushy pillows to lounge upon. He's a tough guy, as most Pit Bulls are, so for now, he's having a blast.

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Imagine this all black and sitting in our driveway. It's an Escape Hybrid 2007, less than 23K miles on it, and it's all ours!
Now all my wolfies can fit in our car at once... WOOT!