Meetzorp

Holy Crap! Big ol’ spider!

Sep 17th, 2009 by Meetzorp

We’ve been finding these big ol’ garden spiders all around the back yard just lately. They’re huge-o-normous and build the burliest webs which quickly fill up with dried fly husks.

This one wasn’t garden-spidering so much as in-Joel’s-workshop-spidering, so he caught it and put it outside where it belonged. This picture was a team effort, with Joel holding a flashlight and me holding very still, trying to get a reasonably clear low-light picture without a tripod.

Same spider w/ flash! I backed away about 6′, zoomed in, and got a brighter version of the same photo. You can see a bit of the workbench that its web was built on.

I know some people are really freaked out by spiders, but on the whole I don’t mind them at all. I avoid the ones I know to be bitey, but benign (if gnarly) spiders like this one, or those super-hairy jumping spiders simply fascinate me.

Posted in Distractions, Photo entries | 3 Comments »

How I did it:

Sep 16th, 2009 by Meetzorp

Yesterday, I was so stoked about my Minnie Pearl dress that I didn’t really go into how I got this rig together.

So, tonight, I’m gonna ‘splain it all!

This past winter, Joel was helping Calvert shift some stuff around in his studio and Calvert sent Joel home with a big ol’ sack of random fabric. Within the selection was a 6-yard length of deep-green floral print calico.

I was kind of in the frame of mind of “what in the Sam Hill am I going to do with six yards of green floral calico,” but I figured I’d eventually figure it out. Maybe I’d use it to test out a couple of patterns or something.

Well, sometime later on, I hit upon the notion of going as Minnie Pearl for Halloween this year. I started looking up videos of her and photos and determining how I’d best re-create her iconic look. The hat is obviously the key requirement, but Minnie Pearl rocked a specific and instantly recognizable type of dress. Akin to a square-dancing dress, it was a frilly, flouncy affair with a distinct waistline, puffy sleeves, usually a square neckline outlined in a fluffy ruffle. The skirt was full and swingy. Usually it was a solid color, gingham, polkadots, or once in a while stripes. The floral print isn’t exactly what she usually wore, but it’s close enough. Also, it was free.

I figured I’d probably be modifying a commercial pattern or two to get the look I wanted. I had a couple of patterns for square-dancing dresses (I don’t know why, but I do) unfortuately the one was tiny-tiny (young junior/teen size 7, for a 28″ bust) and the other was quite a bit too large for me (size 20 @ 40″ bust). Also, neither of them was quite right in the bodice department. The tiny one had a peasant-blouse with a quasi-Germanic dirndl/apron affair over the skirt. The bigger one is pictured below. If it had been closer to my size, I’d have just modified the neckline and changed the sleeves, but I really didn’t think it was worth my while to take it from a 40″ to a 34″ I’d have to had re-drawn the entire thing, which is way more work than even I can warrant for a Halloween costume!

I ended up using (and modifying) pieces of three different patterns from three different eras to get precisely the look I wanted:

An early 1960s Simplicity square-dancing dress pattern provided the perfect, flouncy, 3-tiered skirt. A 1973 Simplicity minidress had the perfect puffy sleeves which fit just right into the bodice of a contemporary Butterick! I re-traced the center-front panel of the Butterick, re-contouring the neckline for the squared-off shape I knew I wanted. I measured for a ruffle and traced out facings to match, as well as a wide sash that’s set into the side seams and ties in the back in an outsized bow.

I’m so happy with the fit and effect of this Frankenstein Monster of a dress that I just don’t know what to say for myself.

That Butterick pattern is just plain magic, and I expect I will be using it as Butterick intended sometime in the future. The bodice was a perfect fit right out of the envelope, and I often find that Buttericks run big. I’ll probably mock up something different in the sleeve department…I don’t like the look of that little cap sleeve. I think I’d rather just have a plain, set-in short sleeve. Or else go with the sleeveless option, but that can be a little difficult for professional settings. I don’t like cardigan sweaters, and I don’t always want to have to put on a jacket anyway.

Anyway, back to the Minnie Pearl dress.

This dress has turned out to be a real bargain. The only things I bought were the Butterick pattern, which I caught on a $2 special and the thread. The fabric was from that stuff Calvert was getting rid of, and the white eyelet lace was from some stuff that my mom’s friend Vi was getting rid of. The square dancing dress pattern was one that a friend had passed on to me years and years ago and I got that ’73 Simplicity pattern for $0.05 (in a lot of 20 for $1) at a yard sale when I was in college.

My goal is to spend under $5 for the hat, which shouldn’t be a problem as I’m sure I’ll find something acceptable at a thrift shop, and I have a good stash of fake flowers from my various dumpster dives. As soon as I have accomplished the $1.98 hat, I will post a photo of the entire effect.

Posted in Art Projects & Making Things, Costumes and disguises, Sewing | 1 Comment »

Minnie Pearl Dress complete!

Sep 15th, 2009 by Meetzorp

Now for the big question: petticoat or no petticoat?

(feel free to click any of the above pictures for a bigger view)

So feel free to weigh in:

Discussions View Results

Posted in Art Projects & Making Things, Costumes and disguises, Sewing, Utter Silliness | 5 Comments »

When life gives you a pile of trash

Sep 15th, 2009 by Meetzorp

make trashmonade?

Yes, yes, I directly cribbed that from Strongbad and piemonade. Pretty much everything funny I’ve ever said was probably cribbed from somebody funnier than I am. Wit by proxy, isn’t it?

Anyway, I’ve been makin’ some trashmonade just lately.

You’re probably looking at this picture right now and thinking, “WTF does this lady’s laundry have to do with trashmonade?” Right? Right!

Well, this isn’t my laundry as such. This pile of dirty clothes represents phase 1 of a salvage effort I’ve tied into.

This past weekend, on the ACME Saturday ride, we discovered a major trash heap…a big ol’ dropoff of illegal dumping of all sorts of household goods, toys, clothes, etc. As we wandered amongst the boxes and bags of stuff laying around this empty lot, we were all kind of shocked at the quantity of quality stuff that had just been pitched out. “Why didn’t they donate this stuff?” Paul asked rhetorically and repeatedly. Nobody knows why, but they didn’t. Not only were there heaps of kid stuff, there were around 25-30 library books, and boxes and boxes of documents, mail, etc. I took a couple of pieces of mail with phone numbers and tried to call the apparent owners of the stuff to make sure that this mess wasn’t the aftermath of a break-in or eviction, but the numbers have since been disconnected and reassigned, so I wasn’t able to make contact.

After I made those calls, and couldn’t get in touch with the people whose stuff this once was, Paul’s question settled back in my head. Why didn’t they donate this stuff to charity, a thrift shop, pass it along to someone else who could use it? If it just sat in that field much longer, it wouldn’t be fit for anything but the landfill.

It struck me that even though they didn’t there’s no reason why I couldn’t!

So, I went back out yesterday after work with my panniers and large back pack and loaded up as much as I could haul away. The panniers were stuffed tight as drums with children’s toys and baby clothes. I loaded my backpack full of library books and returned them to a nearby branch library. I laid out a few baby blankets, heaped more clothes upon them, rolled them up into a gigantic fabric burrito, and secured the bundle with some belts, then Bunjied that across the top of my rack-and-pannier setup.

I’m going back on Friday with the panniers, my BOB trailer, and the big pack once again, to try to pick up the last of whatever there is salvageable. I think I should be able to get the rest of what’s recoverable in one more big trip, then I am going to call the City’s “illegal dumping” hotline and let them take care of what’s left. I plan on consolidating it so that it will be a pretty easy trip for them. They’re pretty overworked as it is.

But this is my plan for any future trash heaps that I find that have lots of good shit in them, but it’s nothing that any of my friends or I could use. I’m going to try to salvage everything that’s salvageable, clean it up, and donate it to an appropriate charity or drop it off at one or another of the thrift shops that I like to support.

So much shit gets wasted in this society just because people are lazy or ignorant or a combination of both. Whoever ditched all this stuff could have called Big Brothers & Big Sisters, and they’d have sent a truck to pick it up from their very doorstep. It would have been less effort that it had to have been to load this stuff into a pickup and find an abandoned lot and throw it out.

I’m not trying to be all Robin Hood of the Trash Heap, but I also feel like this is something I pretty much ought to do, since I can. I’m always poking around in the trash anyhow, and this is a pretty easy way to help my fellow man. I feel like right now, it’s especially imperative. I’m having a pretty difficult time financially, myself, but I know there are a LOT more people out there who are having it way, way, way worse than I am. Since I’m always finding great stuff in dumpsters and trash heaps, I figured I ought to “pay it forward.” I regularly find things that I have no use for, but which still have significant utility. Why not recover and re-circulate them?

I also found a bunch of sewing patterns and fabric:

Some of them had even been cut out, but never assembled.

I’ve decided to go ahead and put together these garments and add them to the donation pile. Some of the other fabric will probably be put to the same purpose, while some of the rest of it, I have designs on for my own requirements. Again, I kind of feature this as a way to even the balance against all of the dumpster prizes I’ve “won” in all of these years.

There’s like 2yds each of each of these.

There’s like 3 yards of the purple, one-and-a-half of the kitty and frog, and two and a quarter of the sunflower.

There are the rest of the kiddie patterns. I reckon I’ll hang on to them for the time being. They’re not the right size for my niece, but I may end up with someone in my life for whom these would be appropriate.

Posted in Adventures, Oh, for fuck's sake, Sewing, Well I'll Be Darned | 3 Comments »

That awesome fungus

Sep 13th, 2009 by Meetzorp

Here’s that cool fungus I was talking about the other day…the one we had to stop and marvel at when we were out riding the trails at Smithville Lake.

I have no idea what it is, other than some kind of a fungus, but man, isn’t it pretty? Looks like a big old hunk of coral.

Posted in Photo entries, Super-Short Entries, Well I'll Be Darned | No Comments »

Snail: The movie!

Sep 9th, 2009 by Meetzorp

Yesterday, I was ratting around in the garden picking weeds and taking pictures of some of the zinnias, when I noticed a little brown snail intently exploring a fallen leaf. So first, I snapped a few pictures of it, because I thought it was oddly cute.

Then I realized, “duh” with this new version of WordPress and all those fancy-pantsy plug-ins, I can actually directly embed my Flickr videos now. And so, there you go. A video of a snail on a leaf. Isn’t technology grand?

Here’s a butterfly on a zinnia, against a gratifyingly blurred-out police car. We had some dramas next door the other night, and the police were back the next morning to continue their inspection/investigation with the benefit of daylight.

Zinnias seem to draw butterflies quite nicely. I’m going to try to get some better butterfly pictures before the season ends. It’s tough, though, because they startle off so very easily.

It was really,really foggy on Monday morning.

I got a cute, hazy picture of Miss Varmint-Feathers as I was coming back up from taking that picture down the hill.

I’ve been trading work with a friend, and one of the projects I took on was re-covering the cushions for her patio furniture. We had a blast shopping for fabric. She’d independently alighted on Amy Butler Designs as a source for cute prints, and so we went to Urban Arts & Crafts, the local shop that carries Butler fabrics and scoped it out in person. I think she had a hard time narrowing it down to just the two prints, but these two make a great mix-and-mismatch duo. This was a surprisingly fun project.

The “fleurgyle” hat was another part of the work-trade project. The floral parts of this hat were a blouse that had seen better days, and the plain tan band is a bit of scrap ultrasuede. Though the sleeves were departing the armholes, I found there was still plenty of good, re-usable fabric in the back and front of the blouse. Enough for the top of the hat, the brim, and a little bit of applied decoration.

Posted in Art Projects & Making Things, Photo entries, Sewing | No Comments »

Just about here, now!

Sep 8th, 2009 by Meetzorp

Been re-adjusting and re-configuring the site since I moved it from wordpress.com to meetzorp.com.

I had to download and upload my preferred theme, and somehow it still looks a bit different, but it doesn’t suck, so I am okay with it. I kind of need to find my original header images, though, ’cause the version I have up right now isn’t lining up right. Either that, or re-make the image, which will be a bit tough without Photoshop at my disposal these days.

I re-did my blogroll/links thingy and will probably be adding more cool stuff like that to the sidebar. I think I will be doing away with the “Nifty Sites” page, much like I did away with the “Funny Pages” page, and adding it as a link-list to the sidebar, along with more cool sites that I was too lazy to add to “nifty.”

I think, because I haven’t had much steam to write about my own life lately,
I will be writing about some of the blogs, links, etc. that I have listed here. Why I think they are awesome and why I think you’d enjoy them.

Humm, humm, what else. Not much, other than I need to remember to take a picture of my studded snow tires, since I promised to send detail photos to a friend. I hope maybe that since I have written that out here, it will remind me to DO IT!

After Joel uploads his pictures from this past weekend (and I can do a little judicious borrowing) I will write about our little mountain biking jaunt at Smithville Lake. We saw the most glorious fungus there! It was kind of orangey pink and basically looked like a huge lump of coral. The riding wasn’t half bad, either. Smithville’s trails are pretty much the awesome-est. The only time I’d ridden there before this past weekend, there was about a foot of powdery snow on the trail, so the ride was super slippery, and remaining on the trail involved something akin to aerial archaeology (“hmm, seems to be a slight depression, curving toward that gap in between those two trees…it seems that it was a habitual path of some sort”). It was great to have a chance to ride out there and actually SEE the trail!

We’re trying to get out on the trails a little more regularly in the next month or so, considering that Bonktoberfest is coming right up, and until yesterday, I hadn’t been offroad in probably over a year. Shameful, I know!

Posted in meta, Mountain Biking | No Comments »

Inside an imaginary pink river

Sep 4th, 2009 by Meetzorp

IMG_0511, originally uploaded by Meetzorp.

I pushed my way through a home-made revolving door into a diaphanous, amorphous, rustling pink antechamber. It was not unlike being encapsulated in a gigantic chewing-gum bubble. This was the entrance to Jaime Burkhart’s conceptual installation project, “Great Accommodations!“

The piece takes its form as a large, inflatable maze, a human-scale Habitrail fashioned from hundreds of disposable plastic picnic tablecloths. Larger chambers within the maze house art, photos, and artifacts relating to river culture. The Marvel, a home-made, bicycle-powered raft that Burkhart and several friends navigated from Kansas City to New Orleans in the summer of ’07 is present in two chambers. The raft itself forms a stage for a video installation in one room, while in another, the pedal-powered paddlewheel hangs overhead.

The installation hasn’t reached its complete form as yet, but it’s getting there, and the going is getting pretty weird. Good weird. I’d stopped by yesterday to help hang some more of the plastic river and do whatever else I could do to help get this trippy tribute to “river culture” off the ground, so to speak.

I encourage anyone who has much business to do downtown to stop in and say “hi” and have a look around. If nothing else, it will definitely take you out of your normal world and pleasantly disorient you.

Posted in Adventures, Art Projects & Making Things, Distractions, Utter Silliness, Well I'll Be Darned | No Comments »

Baba Ghanoush Success!

Sep 1st, 2009 by Meetzorp

I have just made the best baba ghanoush I’ve ever made so far in my life. Fresh, fresh, fresh eggplant right out of the garden, grilled over the embers of a backyard bonfire is probably the main reason it turned out so well.

I grilled up two of the eggplants I found the other day, then pureed them in the blender with a tablespoon of tahini, one of olive oil, ditto lemon juice, a finely minced clove of garlic, and about six tablespoons of water. I pureed the eggplants whole, skin and all. I added maybe 1/4 tsp of salt (I think there was still a little salt on the eggplants from the pre-grilling salt treatment, although I did rinse them off before grilling).

The color is pretty “off” since I pureed them skins and all…it is a really horrible greenish-brownish-tan, but the flavor is FAB. Subtle smokiness, a little tartness, that nice toasty sesame from the tahini, and a fresh, slightly grassy eggplant flavor. Because the eggplants were small, it only made about 1 cup of baba ghanoush, but it’s a good one at least.

Next year I am definitely planting WAY more eggplants.

The other night, we had eggplant and zucchini (both home-grown) simmered in a sauce made out of fresh roma tomatoes from the tomato plant we planted in the front terrace. I served it up on rice and it was pretty darn tasty! I seasoned it with half of a yellow onion, oregano, and a spice mix we bought in California on our cross-country trip (Garlic Capital Products “South Of The Border Mix”). This stuff has a pretty good heat to it, so you have to use it sparingly, as we learned early on in our trip!

I’m about to make another batch of tomato sauce, and I will be using a bit of it in tonight’s dinner, which is going to be veggie fajitas made with some of the banana peppers from the garden, as well as a couple of bell peppers in the fridge that need to be used before they go off.