Nilla Nineteen

This one is for my niece and nephew, Julia and Evan...watch Nilla sit and spin!

Melt With You

Awww...yesterday we finished off the last of the vanilla lemonade. So sad...ice cubes by IKEA, tumbler by NOT NEUTRAL...

Tonight I gotta clean the bathroom. Gotta hurry before the newest episode of PROJECT RUNWAY starts. Ya heard!

Weekend Wind-Down #17

When life gives you lemons...make lemonade. Today, Missy made some tasty VANILLA LEMONADE from scratch, following a recipe she found on the THE BLACK APPLE blog. She made a giant pitcher of this heavenly elixir - Missy doubled the portions in the original recipe - and now it's almost gone. We've been sucking it down like we were junkies...



(apparently, if you knead the lemons first, it makes it easier when you juice it)







Missy cooked up a sugary syrup to add to the lemonade:



WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Going to the movies with Jo and Andre and then having dinner at their house afterwards.
RAOUL - Dinner and a movie with Jo and Andre.

WHAT WAS THE WORST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Finding out about my brother's break-in.
RAOUL - Greg and Christina's house getting broken into.

WORD OR PHRASE OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - "Man Power!"
RAOUL - "Operation Fortify"

FAVORITE MEAL OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Andre's Mediterranean pasta dish
RAOUL - Dinner at Jo and Andre's

JACK NICHOLSON OR HEATH LEDGER?
MISSY - Jack Nicholson.
RAOUL - Heath Ledger.

IF YOU WERE A BATMAN VILLAIN, WHAT WOULD YOUR NAME BE?
MISSY - The Liquidator...cuz everything must go!
RAOUL - The Chocolatier...everything I touch turns to chocolate! (Missy gave me that one...I couldn't think of anything!)

PERSONAL SOUNDTRACK FOR THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - LAKE, LAURA MARLING, THE BLAKE BABIES, SIOUXIE SIOUX
RAOUL - SPANK ROCK, WOLF PARADE, DEATH BY CHOCOLATE, JULIE RUIN, VAMPIRE WEEKEND, 53rd & 3rd "Fun While It Lasted" comp, Whaam! Records "Whaam! Bam! Thank You Dan!" comp, Sub Pop "An Acquired Taste" dvd video comp

Operation Fortify

(one of the Neighborhood Watch pamphlets that our neighbor Ben gave us)

So, HOME SECURITY (not to be confused with Homeland Security) has been on our minds lately. Over the past couple of months, five houses on our street have been broken into. All the houses are up the street from us, on the opposite side. Behind these houses is a little trailer home park...the burgler has been entering the homes from the back. You do the math. The perpetrator is obviously someone from the trailer park - obvious to everyone on our street except the authorities who haven't been of much help. Needless to say, the rash of burglaries has the neighborhood on edge. On top of that, we found out the other night that someone broke into Missy's brother's house. The worse part is that the person broke in while he and his wife were asleep upstairs! Scary.

In response to all the craziness, we've launched OPERATION FORTIFY, in an effort to make our own home a little more "robbery proof"...our backyard is pretty much impenetrable - the fence surrounding our backyard is basically a barbwire fence, minus the sharp barbs on the wires ringing the top of the fence. The previous owners were dog owners and I think the fence was meant to keep the dog from jumping it. When we first bought the house we thought that it was ugly...but boy, are we ever counting our blessings now!

We've been working on our home security, making some improvements inside the house. Yesterday, we ran out to the local LOWE'S and picked up a solar-powered motion-activated floodlight for only $79:



Missy dreams big:



We stopped at TARGET and priced fire-proof safes:



This morning, I installed the solar-powered flood light above one of the craft room windows, which sits in a dark corner of the house:





The light doesn't really fit in with our OPERATION CUTIFY plans, but in this case, we'll take function over form...

Tower Of Tofu

This past week Missy made a bunch of TOFU BABY plush dolls. They're available through her website, MISSYKULIK.COM and they should be available through her ETSY SHOP soon. She's also got these cute-as-fudge, laser-cut wood RECORD PLAYER pins available for purchase:



You can check out Missy's web page HERE or her Etsy shop HERE for more adorableness and info...

Catching Up

Here are some photos from the FOLKLORE show the other night at the 40 Watt...I didn't get a lot of good pictures or video, but I'll share the few that I did. Sadly, I ended up missing FUTURE APE TAPES' set, which I was really looking forward to. It's a rare that a show starts on time or even early here in Athens, and that was why I missed their set. I assumed they would start their set much later than I thought. For this very same reason, some friends of mine ended up missing the Folklore set! anyways, here are a few photos and videos from Tuesday night, starting with a shot of HAM 1 tearing it down:



...and then FOLKLORE. This is like, the third "last ever Folklore show" that we've done, with maaaaybe a chance for one more:

Nilla Eighteen

Feet vs. Paws

Folklore Encore

ELF POWER are back in town having completed the first leg of their tour, and, since Jimmy's back in town, FOLKLORE decided to do an encore performance of our tribute to the KINKS and their concept album, "The Village Green Preservation Society". Show is this Tuesday night at the fabulous 40 WATT here in downtown Athens, Georgia. We'll be performing with HAM 1, who have been touring with Elf Power, and Athens' awesomely left-field hip-hop group FUTURE APE TAPES. Oh Yes. It's gonna be a terrific show. Believe that! So, come have some drinks, hang out with your friends, and come say "good bye" to us one last time.

Weekend Wind-Down #16

Check out these giant TOADSTOOLS that sprang up in our backyard last weekend. The tops were at least 6 to 7 inches wide. A couple of them are still standing, but some have been knocked down by squirrels and birds, and some look like they've just shrunk up from the heat. We didn't spot any gnomes, fairies, or smurfs though...

Since we didn't get to do a Wind-Down last weekend, this weekend's will encompass the past two weeks, I guess. We did finally manage to answer all the questions in Weekend Wind-Down #15, though. I don't think any of us liked seeing a half-assed Wind-Down survey, and actually, it was Missy's parents that got the ball re-rolling on that one. And now, let's get the ball rolling on this one:

FAVORITE MOMENT FROM THE PAST TWO WEEKS?
Missy - Yesterday, working on my new project.
Raoul - The moment we left the Gift Mart, haha.

WORST MOMENT FROM THE PAST TWO WEEKS?
Missy - Giving up a weekend to work.
Raoul - Walking the show endlessly...done hurt my foots!

WORD OR PHRASE FROM THE PAST TWO WEEKS?
Missy - "BAM!"
Raoul - "BAM!"

FAVORITE MEAL FROM THE PAST TWO WEEKS?
Missy - What I had at the Grit last Friday night - mashed potatoes and mac & cheese.
Raoul - Tofu burritos at Willys.

HILTON, HYATT, OR MARRIOTT?
Missy - I'm gonna say The Hyatt.
Raoul - Hyatt.

WHAT CITY DO YOU WISH WORK WOULD SEND US TO?
Missy - Nuremberg, Germany for the Toy Fair. I think it's there?
Raoul - Los Angeles - I'd love a free trip back home to California!

WHAT ARE TWO THINGS ON YOUR TO-DO LIST FOR NEXT WEEK?
Missy - Finish my "top secret" project and cook something with the veggies we bought.
Raoul - Find a place to store all the paint cans and clean the bathroom.

WHAT IS SOMETHING ON YOUR TO-DO LIST THAT DIDN'T GET DONE LAST WEEK?
Missy - Probably cleaning up.
Raoul - Vaccuum the Toot Suite.

WHAT WAS YOUR SOUNDTRACK FOR THE LAST TWO WEEKS?
Missy - Mirah, Laura Marling, Basia Bulat, Of Montreal, Deee-Lite
Raoul - new Wolf Parade, new Beck, Deee-Lite, Saint Etienne, Bungalow Records' "Pop Tics" comp, Orange Twin Records sampler



This is what we'd see if we ate these shrooms (we've been diggin on some old school Deee-Lite lately):

Before During After

Last week we finally finished painting our dining area and most of the kitchen. We also put in a new door and doorway leading to the main bedroom, which connects with the dining room, and we put in a cute new light fixture in the kitchen, replacing the old, boxy, metal shop-style fluorescent light. In total, it probably took us a good five days to complete:







We didn't get too much time to enjoy our new dining room, though. Just as soon as Missy's parents left and we finally put all the furniture back, we had to leave for Atlanta for work. Twice a year we attend the ATLANTA GIFT MART, which is a week-long convention for the gift trade. Our work has a showroom there and florists, gift shop owners, and the like come from all over to buy "balloons and co-ordinating gift items" from us. Yes, it's exactly as exciting as it sounds. So exciting in fact, that the most exciting thing that happened while we were there was this traditional Indian wedding reception that we stumbled upon on our way from our hotel to the mart:



There was a horse and carriage for the bride and groom, and the wedding party, all decked out in colorful robes and saris, danced in the street while a mini van blasted music out the back of it's hatch:









I didn't know that the Running Man, the Cabbage Patch, and the Roger Rabbit were traditional Indian dances...who knew?



We saw these two girls dressed up like bumble bees and assumed that they were headed for the wedding reception:



Soon we were upon the Mart and the familiar sight of the three humongous buildings which are connected together by giant HABITRAILS at various levels:







We stopped by our showroom to see how it looks. Every season our visual team re-decorates it. In summer, most of the showrooms at the Mart push autumn and Christmas items. Our co-worker/friend, Russ, made the giant gingerbread house out of foamcore and spackle:



We saw these toy boxes that Missy had designed and were surprised. We didn't think that they were going to carry them in our collection:





Other showrooms tried to push interesting product, like items made out of elephant poo:









"Building Three" - the "apparel mart" - is tall and cavernous. The cool thing about Building Three is that several of the floors are cash and carry, and you can find some really good deals there, even if some, if not most, of the fashions there are questionable:









We stayed at the Hilton, several blocks away from the Mart. Luckily, the view was much better than the view I had last time I stayed in Atlanta for work. Even luckier, there was a Habitrail in the parking garage across the street from the hotel that connected to a shopping mall that had a Habitrail that led to the Mart. This became especially handy because it rained during most of the Mart, and the covered bridges kept us relatively dry for most of pedestrian commutes: