Japanfest!

My friend Maggie had two extra tickets to Japanfest, and offered them to us! (She's nice AND smart-- she had the tickets off the Japanese Consulate, which gave them to her because she has a Fulbright to go to Japan in October!)

Here's Chris in front of one of the banners:





We headed inside to get something to eat. Here's a picture of one of the food lines:





I stood in THREE of them, only to be told at each one that there were no vegetarian options! I finally bought a chocolate croissant in desperation (yes, it DID seem WRONG somehow that I couldn't get anything vegetarian at an Asian event-- usually they come through for us).

Here are some lucky non-vegetarians enjoying their lunches:





After that we went to a Japanese archery demonstration:



It was very cool. If I had any discipline at all, I'd really enjoy learning that.

Then it was off to see some Okinawan dancing. I don't have any photos of that, OR of the kendo demonstration that followed because it was just too dark. But, I do have this:




Aren't they cute as buttons? :) I'm just loving those sneakers!


We were going to stay for a drumming exhibit, but I was fading fast due to lack of food (and increasing discomfort with large crowds-- ssshhhhh! Don't tell anyone, but I really, REALLY don't like being in indoor spaces with tons of people). Sweetie Chris took me to lunch at a place close to home where I could get miso and udon, since he knew I'd been looking forward to it. Awwwww :)

When we got home I worked some more on assembling my rodent army, and then packed up my work baskets until I have a chance to do some more. I think that bats are next. I want to hang cutouts inside of our lampshades :) It's all in the details, people, all in the details.

Thanks for stopping by!
Kimberley

So you want to build a rodent army...

Good thing I'm here to help, then! :)

Our theme for this year's Halloween party is "Nightmares & Fairy Tales", and I've decided to go for the decaying mansion look (it'll be no easy task in our tiny, 1949 Cape Cod, but hey! I'm counting on the magic of Halloween... and gloomy candlelight-- that'll help!) The colour scheme will be black and white-- not even orange pumpkins, maybe, as I'm thinking of painting them white and attaching black ribbons. That idea is still brewing so stay tuned.

On to the rodents! This year's Martha Stewart Halloween issue was a great help in pulling this theme together, due in no small part to the mouse templates. First I downloaded them and then cut them out (pssst! Check out the glass dome I got for practically no money yesterday) :





Then I traced them onto black construction paper, stacked three sheets deep:





And, once I finished cutting, voila! Instant Rodent Army!




I still have more mice to trace and cut out, and then I'll cut out some mouse holes. I also plan to have spiders of various sizes crawling up walls all over the house and plenty of artfully draped spider webbing. More on that later, as well as info about dyeing cheesecloth to make creepy, moth-eaten-looking curtains. Oh, yes, we are all about Halloween here at Tallulah House :) I will really miss having my Halloween rubber duckies out this year, but they hardly belong in a decaying mansion!

One other project I finished today was stringing a banner for the dining room:




Have a look at my little workspace at the dining room table:




(Please note that that candy is not for me! I plan to put it into jars and attach creepy labels. I just like having it out for inspiration)


Here's a better picture of my spooky companions:





Can you tell that I've been having fun? :)


Hope you had a great Saturday!
Kimberley

I'd wear it every day, if I could...

Hi, everybody! It was another tiring and busy (but good!) week at work, and I really missed blogging. But now it's Friday! To celebrate, I decided to share pictures of this dress. No, I didn't make it. The Valaar did not imbue me with that talent, unfortunately. Rather, I found it on E-bay, source of myriad goodness!





Surprisingly to those who know me, this dress ISN'T for Halloween! Nope, it's for a wedding. In November, I'll be officiating the ceremony for our friends, Julie and Brian. I'm ordained through the Universal Life Church, and this will be the second ceremony I've performed. The first was back in June and, oddly, was also outside and I also wore black. Hmmmm... :)

Julie and Brian are into Renn faires and such (they also play MMO's, like World of Warcraft, and that's how we know them), and their wedding will have a bit of a medieval feel. I wanted to dress appropriately of course (my eagerness had NOTHING to do with the fact that I love these sorts of dresses and look lovely in them-- ha!), and when I found this one, I fell in love with it. Julie approved, and now I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival. I'm going to have to wear my tallest boots with it, and it will STILL be a bit long, but that's nothing new when you're 5 ft., 2 1/2 inches tall and refuse to take everything to the tailor :)

In other news, I found a great little glass dome at the Salvation Army shop today! I've been wanting one of these for a while, but refused to pay full price. My plan had been to etch the word "patisserie" on it, but then I decided that I would just stencil on something appropriate for Halloween and then wash it off afterwards. I need something gory to go under it, perhaps some eyeball candy and an olive fork...

Oh, last Sunday we hosted our first Sunday Night Supper, and it was a hit! We had about 15 guests, the food was delicious, and some of us played a fun game called "Apples to Apples". I meant to take pictures of the table, but wasn't feeling very well and then was too busy having fun! You'll have to take my word for it that everything looked warm and inviting, and that I was as stunning as usual ;)

When I got home today, I sat down and worked for a bit on Halloween decorations. My camera battery is charging right now, but I plan to post a few pictures tomorrow. If you need inspiration NOW, though, I suggest you hurry on over to Artsy Mama's blog and see this! I got so excited that I almost needed to reach for an inhaler-- and I don't even HAVE asthma!

Happy Friday!
Kimberley

Little Chef

Hi, everybody! It's been a rough week at work (I know, I know, I give all appearances of being an indolent sloth, but even *I* have to put forth some effort some time ;), and I've had no time for my blogging fix! I've been reading, though, oh, yes, checking in all of my favourites just to see what everyone's up to!

Continuing the Teapot of the Day series, here's a favourite of mine: the Little Chef. We got the Little Chef on the same trip to the UK as when my mom bought this one, though under entirely different circumstances.

We toured around Scotland and England for three weeks and were trying to be thrify in our meals, so we were glad to discover the Little Chef restaurants. They were tasty. They were inexpensive. They were EVERYWHERE!!

I became quite enamoured with the teapots, cute, sturdy, little things that they were, and one day my mom asked our waitress if she could buy one for me. Our waitress went to ask the manageress, who came over and said, "You just take it, as a wee present from me to you." (Yes, she really did say "wee"!) I was as thrilled as a teapot-loving teenager could be, and promised to take good care of it. I remember being VERY concerned with packing it in a carry-on bag, wrapped in a bunch of clothes :) 17 years later, it's still going strong, safe and sound, and I'm as enamoured as ever.

Dear Manageress of the Little Chef somewhere off one of the main highways somewhere in England: Thank you. Your gift of kindness, every bit as much and even moreso than the teapot itself, has stayed with me. Whenever I see it or use it, I think of you :)

Kimberley

Teapots and Halloween

Isn't this a lovely teapot? With its cute size, shape, flowers and, of course, butterfly, it has everything going for it :) This is another of my mom's teapots, and it originally belonged to HER mother. I just love things with family history and age. I like the idea of using the same things that earlier generations did, and of caretaking them for the future.

In other news, you (all three readers out there, lol) may have noticed that I was gone for a few days. Well, I blame it on HALLOWEEN!!!! I tried to not get swept up in it lest that be all of which I'm capable of blogging, but I think it's too late! My "Country Living" was a wee bit disappointing in its Halloween offerings-- the one article was good and I did get some ideas, but, like the crazed little sugar junkies that will soon be ringing doorbells, I NEEDED MORE!!!! :)

So, on Friday after work I stopped off at Borders and got Mary Englebreight's "Home Companion" magazine and the Martha Stewart Halloween issue.



(from ME's "Home Companion")


(Duh, Martha Stewart!)

I played "World of Warcraft" Friday night because I am determined to hit 70... well, soon. I've taken a ridiculous amount of time to do it. So it wasn't until Saturday morning that I sat down with my honey toast and tea to completely indulge in Halloweeny goodness. ME's "HC" had some VERY nice stuff in it, including a 20% off your total purchase coupon for Michael's!! (The coupon is good through 30 November, so I plan to hold onto it until the Halloween stuff is on sale). However, the best was Martha.
(Ahh, Martha. How conflicted I am about you. You don't seem like a very nice person, but you had so much to do with bringing about respect and admiration for the art of homekeeping. I don't care much for "Martha Stewart Living", with it's insanely time-intensive recipes, hard-to-do crafts, and articles that don't have much to do with my life, but oh! Your holiday issues are wonderful, and none moreso than the Halloween ones! )

Yes, the MS Halloween issue is WONDERFUL! I got lots of good ideas from it, and am just itching to begin decorating :) After years of refusing friends' offers of help with party prep, I am actually going to take people up on it. I love decorating for and hosting this party every year, but usually I'm so frazzled by the night of that I don't have much fun. So, this year, I'm recruiting left and right! I sat down with my calendar yesterday and figured out when we need to do what and I'm feeling more in control already! ... We'll see how long that lasts ;)

I'll continue with the fun "Teapot of the Day" feature, but I'm just warning you to prepare yourself for lots of Halloween talk! Also, I would love to hear about your decorating ideas! Fair warning: if they're fabulous I'll most likely steal them for Tallulah House ;)

Hope you have a great day doing something you enjoy,
Kimberley

Halloween!

Dear reader:

I interrupt your regularly scheduled "Teapot of the Day" post, in order to say...

IT'S HERE!!!

Yes, the Halloween issue of "Country Living" arrived today :) (I'm not excited at all. Really.) I actually look forward to this issue like you wouldn't believe. "Country Living" is my favourite magazine, though "Home Companion" is a close second, and it can always be trusted to do right by my favourite holiday.

You have to understand: I don't really save magazines. They're for enjoying for a while, and then for passing on to others, or for recycling. The Halloween editions, however, are special. I save them. Period. It's always a lot of fun for me to settle in on a weekend in mid September and get out all of my Halloween magazines, a fresh legal pad, and a stack of my favourite pens, and begin planning for Tallulah's annual Halloween party. Ooo, I can't forget this book, also great for getting me in the Halloween spirit, and also a "Country Living" publication:

As I'm sure some of you can relate, those planning sessions are half of the fun for me. Yes, I am incredibly nerdy. If you're just now catching on to that fact, then you MUST be a new reader ;)

Anyhoo, I'll be back tomorrow with your teapot of the day. For now, I'm off to make a pot of tea and settle in with my new "Country Living". Oh, and this weekend, with its rainy forecast, is looking like the perfect time to begin planning :)

Kimberley

Okay. So it's hideous.

I freely acknowledge it. Oh, not the shape of it, which is quirky and fun. It's the rotten, blotchy paint job. But my mom loves it. You'd think that offspring would eventually grow out of the I'm-going-to-give-a-hideous- handmade-gift-that-I-think-is- lovely phase, and that parents would grow out of thinking that these pitiful efforts are works of sheer genius.

A-hem.

I made this for my mom when I was 25 *cringe* I was looking for a Mother's Day gift, but, being recently out of graduate school, I had very little money. There was a pottery painting place in the town where I lived and once I saw the teapot I thought that I'd hit up on the perfect idea. After all (in case you've not yet figured it out) my mom loves teapots-- even though all of her other teapots have now been cruelly abandoned in favour of the Chamomile Teapot.

In all fairness to myself, I thought it was going to turn out well. I liked the way I'd done the swirly pattern and the dots. It wasn't until after it was fired that the blotchiness showed up, but by then it was too late to back out as I was getting on a plane the next day. I reluctantly handed it over, and my mom seemed to genuinely like it. Of course, that COULD be because she wasn't wearing her glasses... :)

In any event, I call it the Madhatter Teapot, and it lives with all of my mom's other teapots. I hope that you've enjoyed gazing upon it's endearing ugliness :)

Kimberley

I remember...

Today my workplace held an assembly to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the deaths of those who died on September 11th. Several of us were asked to share our memories of that day, based on the prompt "I remember". Here's mine:

I was working as a librarian at a university in North Carolina in 2001. On the morning of September 11th, one of my colleagues told me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and that authorities thought that it was a terrorist attack. I remember so clearly saying, “What? How ridiculous. It’s tragic enough as it is, why would people SAY that?”

About a half an hour later, CNN’s website reported the second plane crash, and the fact that it was deliberate was obvious. I remember calling my parents, just wanting to hear their voices. I remember doing what I always do when something bad happens: finding ways to distract myself from the sheer horror of it all. I asked my boss for permission to set up televisions throughout the library so that our community could keep informed. All of the big news websites were crashing under so much traffic, and I sought out alternative sites that had begun posting updates, and I sent these to faculty.

I remember at the end of the day how I wanted a mocha, and I remember thinking, “How can I possibly want a mocha? How shallow am I? What is wrong with me?” It wouldn’t be until months later that I’d realize that it hadn’t been the mocha I’d wanted at all: what I’d wanted was to do something normal and mundane. I’d wanted to be around people, not alone in my apartment with CNN.

Finally, though, I WAS alone in my apartment, watching the towers crash over and over, listening to the sounds of screams and sirens, and I started to cry. I cried until I threw up, until the only thing left inside of me was grief.

I share this with you not because I think it's particularly well-written, but because I want to mark this grim date here on my blog, which has become important to me. I want to actively remember those who have died and continually remember their families.

This is not a political blog and I don't intend to make it so. I honestly don't even like discussing politics because I'm on the other side of the fence from too many people that I love, and I don't like arguing with them. I just wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and feelings.

Thanks for reading,
Kimberley

The Chamomile Teapot

So my mom's addicted to chamomile tisane. Yes, it's true. Anyone have the number for Herbals Anonymous?? :) The poor woman brews up several dozen pots a day (ok, maybe that's a SLIGHT exaggeration) and seems to have forgotten that she has any other kind of tea in her cabinet. All of mom's other teapots seem to have been forgotten, as well, in favour of this cheerful little thing. I swear this is the teapot shape upon which the Disney animators based Mrs. Potts-- doesn't the top look like a mob cap??

The pattern is pink "blue willow". My mom and I are both crazy about blue blue willow and we both use it as our everyday dishes. Mom happened to see this piece of pink blue willow and knew it would go well with her strawberry plate. Their permanent home is the kitchen counter near the window, where the teapot holds all of the chamomile tisane that one tiny woman can drink (and that's a lot!).

Here's to you, little pink willow teapot! You help make my mama happy, so you're alright by me ;)

Kimberley

Wishes not granted!

Don't bother rubbing it 'cause no genie lives here. It's not a lamp, and it's not even Middle Eastern :) It is, in fact, from China. Welcome to the second feature of the "Teapot of the Day" series.

I spent fall semester of my senior year of college in China. It was an amazing experience, and at the end of three months I came back to the U.S. with some Chinese language skills, an intestinal parasite whom I would eventually name Irwin, and a dozen teapots. Oh, there were various other souvenirs in my bags, but the teapots were the biggies. I bought them all on one trip to Yi Xing and paid MAYBE $15.00 for the lot of them. On my first trip to Teavana I spotted a Yi Xing teapot for sale and almost keeled over at the price tag, which was around $50.00!

I remember spending the day in the dusty, hot market with my face twisted up in a wince from the way the vendors would bang the teapots and cups together to show how strong the vessels were. I also remember learning about one of the most fascinating characteristics of Yi Xing pots: if you use the same tea in them for several decades, eventually you don't have to add leaves, just hot water. Something about the property of the clay causes it to retain the essence of the tea. It's fascinating tidbits of information like this that get me through the day sometimes, honestly; they help me remember that this world really is magical, no matter how rotten it seems.

Anyhoo, I kept three of the Yi Xing teapots for myself, gave two to my mom, and gave the rest to family and friends. This one was one of my favourites, and it was nice to see it again. I hope that you've enjoyed seeing it, too :)

Kimberley

Announcing the "Teapot of the Day" series

After all of the excitement of last night's dinner party (details below), I was drowsing over my morning tea when I was inspired to begin a new series called "Teapot of the Day". My mom and I both have extensive collections, and since I know that there are a lot of tea freaks out there, I thought y'all would enjoy it. TEA FREAKS! I KNOW THAT YOU'RE OUT THERE! THIS IS FOR YOU! :)

I'm starting with my mom's collection, and this particular pot is one that she bought the last time we were in England. It is one of my favourites: everything about it, the shape, the colours, the proportions of handle, spout, and body are just lovely. It's the one I use when visiting, and it always makes me start the day with a smile-- hey, I never said that I was complicated :)

Friday afternoon I drove up to visit my parents' for the weekend; it was my dad's birthday-- happy 69th again, Daddy! (Note: yes, I am 33 years old and I still call my paternal unit "Daddy". I am from the South. This is completely normal here, so don't adjust your monitor ;) ). As part of the festivities, we had dinner at my aunt and uncle's house Saturday night, chomping down on a gi-normous pan of my uncle's amazing veggie lasagna. It's one of my favourite dishes and Paul kindly loaded me up with a couple of huge containers to take home. Paul is officially one of my favourite people, not only because he is so respectful of my vegetarianism, but because he firmly believes that I deserve the lion's share of the leftovers :) And that isn't because he thinks I'm a bad cook... or is it??

In addition to all of the good food and catching up with family, one of the best things about family gatherings on my mom's side is the dogs. We all love dogs, we all have dogs. We like to take our dogs places, and dress them in snappy outfits with appropriate accessories. Whenever there's a family gathering, there will be dogs, who are, after all, family. On Saturday night, we had five canine people in attendence (due to the vagaries of Friday afternoon Atlanta traffic, I wasn't able to bring Lucy and Kira, or the count would have been seven!). These canine people were: Bailey, the half chihuahua/half daschund; Annabelle, the teacup chihuahua; Elford, the pug; Mandy, the boxer; and Daisy, the half boxer/ half who-knows-what. Each of them spent some time in my lap that night-- yes, even the boxers :)

I was happily reunited with my own hounds a couple of hours ago, and after bestowing tons of affection and apologies for leaving them, they kindly gave me permission to work on plans for the upcoming gatherings on Tallulah's social calendar. Those gatherings are: the inaugural Sunday Night Supper, an autumn tea party, and the annual Halloween party.

Sunday Night Suppers
I actually had this idea last year, but just never got around to making it happen. Here's the how and why of this idea: This is Atlanta. It is rare to meet anyone who is actually from Atlanta. Most of us have no family and no roots here. I believe that roots and family are important, so I had the idea to have a once-a-month potluck here at Tallulah House where we could share some good food and conversation, and maybe play some board games (don't tell Chris-- he hates board games). In the process, I thought, maybe we could all put down some roots and build an extended family. The first SNS is at the end of this month, and I'll be sure to post some pics and tell you how it went.

Autumn Tea Party
Remember my recent trip to the tea room? If you do, then you may recall the beautiful rock sugar that I brought home. I was inspired by its colour to begin planning an outdoor tea party, where I could use my Hull pottery and autumnal linens. Bear in mind, though, that in Georgia it could be November before it's cool enough to have tea outside, so who knows when this will happen ;)

Halloween Party
This is an annual tradition at Tallulah House, and this year's theme is Nightmares & Fairy Tales (I mentioned it to Chris as a possibility early on, and he got stuck on it so there ya go!). Detailed planning has begun in earnest, though I haven't yet decided on my costume. It's so weird that I love dressing up so much, and yet my Halloween costume is usually a last-minute thing. More details on this annual event to follow.

And so ends this rambling missive. Clearly, I shouldn't go so long between posts :)

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by,
Kimberley

We work hard...

guarding the living room...













... the bedroom...













... the deck...


























... and the living room...

(sometimes we wear special helmets-- I hate my mommy)




Raaaaaawwwrrrrrr!