Fun Find- Nutcracker!

I love to go to GoodWill and wonder around the home and kitchen stuff. There is so much interesting stuff!! I like wondering around consignment shops too- and I have found some great stuff there too, like this great find:

 Found in a shop less than 2 miles away from my house! It was $25- and its more than I would pay in GoodWill, but it was so unique, vintage and I just had to have it! I was in the shop looking for items for my sister's baby shower, we did a Victorian Safari Tea so this piece was perfect.
A few months later I was in the local GoodWill killing some time while my pictures were being processed and I stumbeled on this bad boy:

Oh what strange torture device is this? Well its actually a nut cracker platter!!! I know right?!  I love having a bowl/platter of in shell nuts out at the holidays-- or anytime its just a little harder to find in shell nuts after January for some reason.

You can use it as I have pictured, or the better way is not to put the nuts on the platter- but use it to catch all the shell. Or both as I did for Thanksgiving this past year.  I love this piece not only because its unique and fun, or because it was only $1, but also because my mother has terrible hand pain and weakness at times and its very hard for her to use the standard nut crackers that you squeeze in your hand. I get my love of nuts from her, so now she can enjoy cracking her own nuts! (you can take that as you will)

Yes I Do It

At my last job for some reason I was embarrassed to talk about it. I don't know why, its nothing to be ashamed of, I mean a lot of my friends do it. I even met some of them because we like to do it together. I talk about it a bit at my current job, but I find them to be a bit more open. So here goes-

I am a Cosplayer.

What did you think I was going to say? I am a bit, just a bit, of a geek? Nerd? I don't really know the proper term. I'm not super smart or into technology, so that seems to rule out nerd- but I don't really know a lot about comics and video games, so I'm not a typical geek? I know I enjoy anime, and some comics and video games. Mostly I enjoy pop culture or my own kind of it. Then I like fabricating the costumes to wear around at other gatherings of people with similar interests to converse and entertain ourselves in some fashion. So ya, conventions. I have been going to conventions since 2003- so that makes this year 10 years- wow. The only things I have been doing longer is go to school and be alive! Part of that makes me sad, and that may be my parents talking threw me. So many other "important" things I could have/ should have been doing. Also it seems a little sad to say that such a large part of my life was occupied with cartoons. But then in saying that why have I done it for so long?  Hmmm, good point parents! Why do something that you don't have to do? Because its fun! Simple. If I didn't really enjoy it I would have stopped years ago. I only feel like I really started to get serious about it after I graduated with my BFA. It has gotten pushed back a little over the last year- what with going back to school for a masters and getting a "real job" but I find it lets me focus on a few important projects rather then just throwing stuff together. I also have rediscovered my love of competition!
So with this being the 10 year mark for me I have a few special projects planed. And I can't say for sure how long I will be doing this, I will say as long as I find it fun I will keep it up. Cosplay has not consumed me, but it is a part of me and I should stop being embarrassed to bring it up or talk about it. I mean there are far worse things I could be into, right?  So as part of my vow to Peter Pan never to grow up, working with kids and attempting to live a little threw cartoon characters is how I choose to do it.

I saw people making posts like this on a popular web sight. It asked to post a picture of your first, most recent, and current favorite of your cosplays. So here is my currents.

It Came From Under The Sink!!

Did anyone else read The Goosebumps books? Well that's a silly question- of course others did, it was a wildly popular series. Still is. Are new ones even still coming out? I loved those books, had a ton. But when I was in High School my younger cousin fell in love with the series and my Grandmother told him I had a bunch and he asked me for them. What did I do, I gave most if not all to him.
Anyway I was reminded of all that because I wanted to make Shepperd's Pie and when I went for the potatoes I found this!!!!!

And all I could think was "It Came From Under The Sink!" And that is a title of a Goosebumps book. Even though I don't keep my potatoes under the sink, and it was little egg aliens not potatoes in the story.
Oh how things from the past end up showing themselves again.

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind ?

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne ?

Ah that famous song that nobody really knows the words to- except those opening lines. So should old acquaintances be forgot? How old is old? Is it just for the people you don't keep in touch with anymore?

New Years Eve 06-07