Knot Sew Crafty

It's A Red Halloween

Today is Halloween, holiday of orange pumpkins and black witches, white cobwebs and green ghoblins, but I find myself hypnotized and overwhelmed by the red leaves of our Japanese Maple tree.

 

Happy Halloween from the Knot Sew Crafties!

A Little Office Joy for Halloween

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you for your viewing pleasure, Subtle Sexuality:

I Was Wrong

...THIS is the worst Beatle's cover ever...

"From Hungary, a choir of ventriloquistic monstrosity." 

via presurfer.blogspot.com

(via Boing Boing)

via presurfer.blogspot.com

I Want To Go To There

I don't know who made this, but it took a special kind of brilliance.  Enjoy!

via Ze Frank

And a little more Ze:

On Perfection

~~~~~~~~~~

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything,

That's how the light gets in.

~Leonard Cohen

If you have a moment, go visit Amy of A Commonplace Life and read these two lovely posts about perfection as it relates to blogging.  I wish I had Amy's gift for expressing my feelings so clearly and beautifully.

Tasty or Tedious?

Tasty

--I want it! from chez-sucre-chez

--FREE Printable chore chart from ModEco Kids

--Lots of Bean Recipes from Cheap Healthy Good

Tedious

--Christmas music playing at Target.  I actually quite like Christmas music--at Christmastime, but I'm afraid I really must draw the line at "Silver Bells" before Halloween.

--Gallstones.  Yup, I've got 'em, and a lovely surgeon is going to take out my gallbladder in a few weeks.  Aside from the fact that I have to have surgery, the most alarming thing is that I cannot eat ANY fat at all until then!  I'm trying to imagine how I will get through Halloween without even one little tiny Reese's Peanut Butter Cup...  

If you have any beloved non-fat recipes of any kind, please send them along, and let me know what's tasty or tedious for you this week!

Tasty or Tedious?

Tasty:

--Willa discovering the joys of photography and taking cute pictures of her sister:

--Getting your picture taken with Taylor Swift and discovering that Daniel Craig was lurking in the background: (via Vulture)

 

--Calendars galore at Decor 8

--People doing good work.  My college friend Janet runs a program in Oregon that is doing amazing things for kids and families.  If you happen to have extra money lying around, you might consider giving them a donation, or if you live in the area, maybe you could volunteer...

--William Kamkwamba

Tedious:

--Waking up Monday morning with a headache--and not even because you had a wild weekend!

--People using their children and rescue resources to get themselves on TV.  I think Mom-101 said it best.

--Brrrr!  Having to turn the heat on in October.  Maybe we'll join the Crunchy Chicken and Freeze Our Buns this year...

One-Worded Scoop

via Pip. 

1. Where is your mobile phone? purse
2. Your hair? unkempt
3. Your mother? oma
4. Your father? tall
5. Your favourite food? apples
6. Your dream last night? forgot
7. Your favourite drink? seltzer
8. Your dream/goal? security
9. What room are you in? bed
10. Your hobby? fretting
11. Your fear? impairment
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? healthy
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. Something that you aren’t? perky
15. Muffins? warm
16. Wish list item? Yudu
17. Where did you grow up? Larchmont
18. Last thing you did? soup
19. What are you wearing? sweater
20. Your TV? beloved
21. Your pet? kids
22. Friends? scattered
23. Your life? disorganized
24. Your mood? mellow
25. Missing someone? Mutti
26. Vehicle? minivan
27. Something you’re not wearing? Chanel
28. Your favorite store? etsy
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? yesterday
32. Your best friend? CMR
33. One place that I go to over and over? Target
34. One person who emails me regularly? Jen

35. Favorite place to eat? Home

And I'd like to add:

36. Ears?  pierced

37. Which soup? chowder

38. Why do you blog? share

39. Skill you wish you had? photography

40. Favorite trait in others? kindness

Play along, if you like!

Neologisms

Via Frogdancer

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

The Washington Post’s Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are more winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.

And the pick of the literature:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who’s both stupid and an arsehole.

J. Mole, Is That You?

Joanna Goddard of A Cup of Jo linked to a very beautiful and inspiring blog by an artist named M. Dash, who presents a project by two photographers Eamon Lane and Carlo Nicora, called A Thousand Portraits.  I clicked over and was surprised to find a picture of our dear friend J. Maizlish Mole--or was it?

He'd be the one on the left, if it's him...

Here's a picture of Mole with his band, Marseilles Figs:

What do you think?  I was pretty convinced that it was him, except that I've never known Mole to have that much hair and I don't think he'd wear those glasses.

It turns out that it's not Mole at all, but I think that the mystery fellow must certainly be an identical cousin.  What do you say, Maiz?

By the way, Mole's band, Marseilles Figs, has a new CD out, and it is fun and super-cool and old-fashioned and modern and wacky and lovely.  I think someone out there should use the songs in a movie soundtrack...

It is conveniently available on iTunes...