Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Completely by accident

I created one of the creepiest decorations I have made.

I am sooooo happy :)

Presenting EVIL Pooh

I was working on him and thought.....he needs some black eyes painted on him. Since, he is a toddler doll that only had stitched eyes that disappeared in the creation process. So I blobbed some paint where the eyes should be and on the right eye the paint rand down like black tears!!!

Something out of a nightmare huh?
Too bad it is not my prop. I made it for someone else. :(
Hope she likes it, cause if she don't, it's mine.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

What's in a name

A name like Bucky.

We are working with Portland Center Stage on a fundrasier at the Graveyard to raise money for Promising Playwrights. And that fund raiser happens to be on the opening night of R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE play, which for short, they call "Bucky".

Which is confusing for us Halloween folks because the full size plastic skeleton that the haunt industry uses is named "Bucky" also.

So for us, whenever someone says "Bucky" we think skeleton.

An opening night dinner full of skeletons.

Sounds kinda creepy, right up my alley!

I would have never

named a cat Dorie.
_____________

Driving home.......

Must be from Finding Nemo I thought. Not that I didn't find Finding Nemo funny, but Dorie?

And her brother is Mason.

I don't think there was a Mason in Finding Nemo.

But honestly, who would name a cat "Dorie"? Must have been a five year old.

I hope it was a five year old.

But would a five year old name a cat Mason?
A five year old that also watched Dead Like Me? I doubt it.

I am looking at this small petrified gray kitten in the cage......Dorie? Doorie. Dorrrie, nope, this is not going to work.
______________________________________

How does one come to acquire a cat named Dorie?

Well, it is a sad start to the story, I had a cat named Maddie. ~Wait, Maddie is pretty normal, where did she come from.~ For the record, I wanted to name her Mothra. (Go Godzilla!)

But I lost the vote.

So Maddie was at the vet everyday for about 6 weeks. My house husband took her in and had to sit next to a cage with two very cute kittens in it. Yeah, I would have caved too. :)

So one evening we pick up two kittens. They are named Dorie and Mason.

"You can change their names if you want" they said as we walked out the door.

"No, we will leave them" we said.

What were we thinking!! I can't call a cat Dorie!
_________________________________

Dorie was changed to Door (from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere) before she made it through our door way. (Pun intended :) From that she has been:

Dorabelle - my southern belle kitty (big hoop skirt, mint julep in paw)

Door stop, door way, door knob, and my favorite - door bell. She is a little dingy.

My sister calls her "aDorable" She is pretty cute :)

But her official name is "Dorie what are you doing?" (Usually followed by a loud crashing sound.)

I am not sure if it is because I spent so much time with her when she was a kitten, but she loves me.

And is petrified of husband. To be fair, she is petrified of almost any sound louder than a whisper :)

If I hold her, she will let him pet her, otherwise she makes herself scarce around him.

That has never happened before - all the cats we have had either tolerate both of us or love husband.

They say that animals are a good judge of character, that is why the other cats liked husband better. It is no surprise, everyone knows that he is the nice one in the relationship.

So I guess that makes Dorie a good judge of evil? :)

Monday, September 22, 2008

For the curious

I did, in fact get three new pairs of shoes this weekend. (Actually only two usable ones, the third is for my Halloween costume.)

And, I (we, day job and I) did in fact get a few shiny acyclic awards the other day.

They are in my bosses office - the awards, not the shoes. :)

All the cool, scary stuff happens

in October.

That is good, I love October. Except, I am so busy that I don't often get to go to any cool events because I am doing something for our display.

"Really", you say.

Yeah, last year we went to see Bruce Campbell at Live Wire. My phone rang about 30 minutes into it. I ignored it. Jeff's rang 5 minutes later.

I listen to the frantic message - it sounded as if the end of the world had come; one of the props quit working.

10 minutes later the fog machine quit working.

15 minutes - the power went out.

Then, the whole city of Portland showed up and asked why stuff was not working......

I would have enjoyed Bruce more if I had not spent the whole time thinking that I have to leave the minute he is done.

We went home and got most (yeah, I threw a fit about that, not one of my better moments) of the props working. Jeff and I were not talking to each other at that point. :)

By the next day everything was triple-checked and sure not to fail.

And husband was this close to filing for divorce :)

So as you can imagine. I am not going to the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. :(

I got new book with a lot of his early magazine stories, that will have to do for now.....if I ever make lots of money, I want this book.

Going to try to make it to a few of the Haunts - Sauvie Island Corn Maze, 13th Door, and Scream at the Beach...and if we are really lucky, we can go see a few of the local yard haunts.....but I am not making any promises.

It's all worth it. We have one of the largest yard haunt displays in the country, we are supporting both the Milwaukie High School Dance Team and Portland Center Stage this year, and we reportedly throw one of the best Halloween parties ever! :)

Like I said, I love October :)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

I am not a

cold hearted b@tch.
cat
more animals

Isn't this the sweetest thing you have ever seen? Yes it is!!! The correct answer my friends is "yes it is." He/she feels so bad he/she is giving his/her CHEEZBURGER to his/her obviously related picture mate. I mean, this is as nice as the Frog Queen is going to get!!! What more do you want!!!!

Oh, am I being pushy again? No, I am sweet and nice, look at the picture again. Didn't you feel all warm and fuzzy????? :)

I love LOL cats!!!! :) Still :)

Friday, September 19, 2008

Now that I think about it

It wasn't my fault! Dorie made me shut her brother in the drawer.

It was the morning that our housekeeper comes and I had to go downstairs to get something and saw a small pile (about three pairs) of my shoes sitting in the music/potions room. So I thought, I should put these away, not make Jeff have to do everything for me. (I know, it was early, I was not awake yet.)

I grab them, walk by the bathroom, see another pair, grab them.

Walk through the living room, see two more pairs, grab them.

Tromp up the stairs, arms filled with shoes, open the shoe drawer with my foot and dump them in. It was early, I was just putting them "away" not putting them away in a pair, color coordinated, and by heel size - which is do a few times a year. :)

After I do that I think.....There are some more shoes in the bedroom, I will grab them on the way out and throw them in here too. Be a nice wifey for a change, husband will be so (surprised) happy with me :)

I go back in the bedroom, finish a few things, grab a few more pairs of shoes.

Now, if I would have been paying attention, I would have noticed that - Dorie was a little too anxious to get in the drawer. There she is with her little front paws on the lip of the drawer looking in....I thought she wanted to jump in, so dumped the shoes and closed the drawer.

(In hind sight, she let me pet her. Hummmmmm..... Dorie is like me, not a morning life-form, you cannot pet her until about 10:00 am - she runs off and will have nothing to do with you, unless you have canned cat food.)

Without another thought, I headed downstairs, grabbed my bag and my tea (go juice!) and headed off to work.

Klip, klop, klip, klop....The heels do not like the nylons I was wearing. (Nylons?! You say, yeah my work dress code sucks :) The back strap kept slipping off, and since I had an awards event that day, I thought I really need to get some shoes I can walk in - so I don't trip or something on my way to pick up all the awards that I was sure I would get. :)

Set my stuff down, and back in the house.

Husband asks why I am back, I mumble that I have a shoe malfunction and I need another pair. "Which I am sure I have" I say.

"Yes, honey, you have a lot of shoes" he says.

I would have liked to argue, but the fact that I had just put away about 7 pairs of shoes this morning, well. . . .I hate to say it, but he might be right.

Free advice for all you husband types:

The best-husband-in-the-world answer would have been.

"You need more shoes, I will take you shoe shopping!"

Okay, not as bad as it sounds, because I hate shopping so shoe shopping for me would just require me to log on to Zappos and pick out shoes to be delivered to the house. And he calls me high maintenance!

Anyway, up the stairs.

Now, in normal circumstances I would have walked past the shoe drawer and went right to the heel drawer ,which is in another room entirely. (I have an old house, I guess closets were invented sometime after 1936.)

After walking awkwardly around in that heeled strappy number, I thought it would be safer to pick a low heel -those are in the shoe drawer.

I notice that Dorie is sleeping right in front of the drawer.

She normally sleeps about two feet over, right in the walk way She is the Stair Guardian and you have to say the right password, or bring cat treats to pass by into the Upstairs Realm.

I try to push her away from the drawer

She looks at me as to say "Not really going to happen mom"

Hum, don't you usually run away from me in the morning? Get your gray kitty butt out of the way!


So I move the cat and open the drawer.

Did I just see whiskers? Na, just sleepy.

Dorie is again, sitting with her front paws on the lip of the drawer craning her head. I naively think she wants to jump in the drawer.

Must grab shoes quick! I reach into the drawer of black shoes and grab cute black shoe....with a cat paw attached.

Whoa, "Mason is that you?"

Two eyes peak out from the back of the drawer. Yep, that is Mason.

"Crap, I shut you in the drawer, I am sorry."

"Hey, baby, I shut Mason in the shoe drawer! Poor guy!"

"You did, what? Keep the drawer open when you leave"

"Duh!"

I grab the other shoe, which he is sitting on - and he is out of there!

But Dorie jumps in the way and swats him.

I shut the cat-free drawer and head off to work.

I have the shoes on at work and find they have the same problem. With the nylons they are too slick and the back of my foot pops out of them each time I walk. This is going to look charming when I pick up my awards. Why did I pick these shoes?

Oh, yeah, I was distracted by my cats.......poor Mason :(

Wait a minute!

Dorie didn't stop me from closing the drawer

Dorie was sleeping in front of the drawer to keep me from opening it

Dorie whacked Mason when he tried to leave the drawer

I think she may be out to get her brother...... :)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I believe someone was channeling

Darren from "Slings & Arrows" at Artist Repertory Theater.

To be fair, I love theater and have seen some great plays and ART - just not last night To their defense it was the first night of previews.....maybe they will have this all worked out by opening night - I believe anything is possible. :)

Eurydice was ....bizarre. What where they thinking?!?!?!? I believe they decided against an intermission, because the theater would be empty if they gave anyone the chance for escape!

It was the biggest technical nightmare I have ever seen in a theater, ever. (And this particular theater has a few to choose from.)

Stretchy strings that people have to attach to themselves and sometimes to other strings. Square boxes (some with water) that have to be moved around the stage that the actors walk on. Paper cutouts that pop through paper walls. Projected, mimed and acted scenes (all at the same time.) A lighted space ship type thingy, that had a purpose I am sure, but I couldn't tell you.

I kid you not. A mess. It was hard to even pay attention to what was being said because my brain was trying to process what in the world was happening on stage.

It starts with Cirque de Soleil on a budget.
It is as bad as it sounds. Seriously, only about 3 feet off the ground and we are pretending we are.....my eyes rolled back in my head. If they would have only stayed there, I would have been spared the rest of the play.

Kill me now!!!
The death scene of Eurydice was a painful to watch, not because she died. Because it went on and on and on. Lots of stairs in a video, then a toy doll and some stairs......I get it; she died falling down the stairs. The snake version is shorter.

Oh no, he didn't just build a room out of stretchy string and some clips?!
Apparently dad needed to build a room, and in the process one of the strings....well, didn't have anywhere to attach. Probably because it was supposed to attach to a certain place on one of the moving squares, and the connector ended up on the wrong side! It took about 2 minutes to do this.....seriously, 2 minutes of string connecting! Because??

Crawling the ceiling.
Not only are we hanging things down from this trap door over head, but a poor bloke has to crawl back and forth and hang over the edge to give some dialogue, that might have been important, but again, I was too distracted - what exactly was on his head during the phone call scene?

We are all going down together.
Then, we tie some more of that stretchy string to both Eurydice and Orpheus feet and have them walk around on raised platform squares that we have to move around WHILE THEY ARE WALKING (someone is going to get hurt, and that is not entertaining.) Tell me one good reason for that? Honestly?

The cone of silence
Or maybe the cylinder of silence, or a space ship. I don't know, but if I Jeff would have built something that sloppy for our yard display (which is free, by the way, and this play was not) I would have had to...actually, Jeff would have never done that, for fear of death from the EAD. And, to make it worse. That particular prop is still on stage when the play is finished. Yes, after we are done applauding for the actors (and the fact that we get to go home!) we are still applauding because there are people on stage moving a prop out of the way so the cast can leave. I imagine it was another plot to keep us in the theater.

Water in a box
Remember those boxes that they were walking on, two of them had water in them. Yes, the tops had hinged doors that opened up and inside the unpainted plywood box, was some water. It was supposed to be "the river." Nothing is as attractive as two of your leads taking their bows in outfits that are wet from the waist down. (I am not saying that this is unacceptable all the time....I can see where...oh, I am getting distracted again.)

Usually the bubble machines are behind the DJ.
Oh, and what was up with the bubble machines? And the bubble machine for a water fountain. Okay, that is just ....oh, I should not have to say how ridiculous it was. The prop makers should have said, "I am NOT going to build this.....no one should build this!" Lawrence Welk bubble machine sound effects were an extra added bonus!

I bet the reviews come in and say it was the most "innovative" or something and we come to confirm that I have no idea what I am talking about (again.) I should stick to Halloween decorations I guess.

By the way, this was the first year that we donated to this theater! Holidazed will be brilliant and make up for the whole thing!!! Fingers crossed!

With a kiss

I pass the key.

Not bad! - Holy crap! - I can't believe you did that!

Those are the comments from our friends this weekend on my first attempt at "sculpting" (The real artists out there are laughing their asses off!!! Sculpting, is that what you call it?)

Well, as sculpting as you can with a male wig head, some dry wall mud, Metro gray paint, a bit of wire. a box from the vinyl gloves I was using, masking tape and the Sunday Oregonian business and sports section.

I sculpted a "bust"

http://davishousenews.blogspot.com/2008/09/chris-is-sculpter.html

Not bad, but it was supposed to look like Houdini.



Not even close.....that is why there is going to be a plaque underneath it that has his name and death date. (He died on Halloween you know?)

Maybe by version four, that seems to be about the number of times I have to remake a prop before it doesn't make me cringe :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Much better

New masthead = happy red head girl!

Thanks Julie!!!

Check out her other fine work....she has the best letterhead I have ever seen :)

The Design Ranch

The Spirit Cabinet


WANT! WANT! WANT!

I have the perfect wall for it - across from my Red Shoes subway poster - this is the only thing fabulous enough to be in the same room.

I really, really want this poster. :)

And I can have it too if I want it in 8 sheets that set up to be 160 x 80 - The available wall is about half that size.

So in this day and age of "finding anything" I cannot find this poster any smaller! No where - not a one. Proof once again that the universe is out to get me.

Since I don' have 160 x 80 wall space free, I am going to have to remodel.

Maybe I could have it laminated to the kitchen floor........

Friday, September 12, 2008

A frog on a pumpkin

Finally, my scary (not in a good way) fisheye frog image in my masthead is going away - because the very talented Julie Hill drew me a cool frong on a pumpkin!!! I just need to incorporte it into the masthead.

Just in time for Halloween.

Yeah - I have the best friends!!!




Wednesday, September 10, 2008

'Don't Care' the musical

I was working hard the other day at writing my first musical.

Surprised, not as much as I.

-----------------------------------

You see the other day while I was talking to someone and they were really boring, and then they...kept on being boring.

My brain shut the door and posted a sign "I am not talking to this person."

But, what .....wait, I just can't walk out in the middle of the conversation!!! What do I do?

"I don't care" said the voice in my head. Literally, I heard it, I had to look at the person I was talking to and gauge whether I had said that out loud or not.

Hum, still talking....must have been just in my head.

Good.

The person I was talking to grabbed a file and starting talking about something else.

"don't care, don't care, don't care...." repeated the voice in my head.

But maybe I should care, I mean

"I don't care, don't care, don't care, don't care......."

But I think this might be important....

"don't care"

I gave up, it was easier, and my brain was right...I didn't care.

So, without my being distracted by trying to actually pay attention to this person, I was free to join in!

"DON'T CARE, DON'T CARE, don't care, don't care, don't care...."

Had kind of a ring to it when you say it over and over and over....so I started to add a little melody

"la,la,la,....don't care, don't care.....la, la,la"

"don't care"

"don't"

"CARE!!!" I was now joined by a chorus of voices in head! Wow, that was loud!

They started a little dance number, the voice in my head that had just finished "Attack of the Theater People" was doing Jazz Hands with the biggest smile. Oh, and the Dr. Horrible gang is there too!

I was just about to start designing costumes when

"So what do you think?"

Wow, that was not one of the voices in my head that was from....

Oh, shit

Must not say "don't care", must not say "don't care"

"Great idea!" Big (trying to look like I was paying attention) smile.

"I knew you would like it, thanks for your support"

As I left the meeting I was thinking, what have a gotten myself into...... the chorus in my put me back in perspective with a rousing chours of "DON'T CARE!"

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Glee!

I borrowed that from the other Chris.

It is the perfect word to describe finding out that Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog soundtrack is available on iTunes.

Yep, it is on my iPod, making the work day bearable (well, that might be a stretch, that is a pretty tall order for any thing short of. . . . . . . well, anything actually :)

Glee!

PUMPKINS!!!!

I have a weakness for pumpkins and pumpkin flavored/scented things!

So, it 'tis the season of happiness for the red headed girl. I was at Starbucks and they had pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins!!! If I drank coffee I am sure I would love the pumpkin latte, it sure smells yummy!

When I was shopping this weekend (truly a happening) I found a Pumpkin Pie candle from Colonial Candle - I got the jumbo size :) And a pumpkin diffuser for the times when I am not burning a candle.

I got a pumpkin cake air freshener for the car. How cool is that!

It is the Northwest, so there are probably at least a dozen microbrews that are pumpkin flavored! Unfortunately I feel the same way about beer as I do about coffee. :)

I wonder what it would take to get Lush to start making pumpkin bubble bars?

Off to find more pumpkin stuff!!!!


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