Been trying to attend to quite a few projects. When I say projects, I always mean writing. Unless, for instance, I say crafting project. But why would I say that?
I needed a break, though, from the writing/researching/life of the mind, and well, I felt the need to, uh, craft some... scratch-made confection. Confectionary. So I did just that.
Confection in-process. You see, I have this thing about crushed graham cracker. Not so much the whole crackers (too many associations with apple juice and preschool), but mixed with butter and more sugar and baked until brown at the edges, then topped with a bubbling caramel mixture made from dark corn syrup and dark brown sugar and then topped with chocolate chips mixed with evaporated milk - well. I am tweaking the recipe but I have tasted the results. Shoot me. It is not a cookie. It is a confection.
I was aided somewhat by this book:
ZaSu Pitts. I took note of this book at an antique store because I saw this woman in the movie Greed when I took Film Crit at ISU. I read her prefatory comments as I stood over the caramel, stirring. I started to nerd out on her, and this led me to think about another person I nerd out on - Helen Morgan.
This is how my brain works. I investigate what I am interested in, I pay attention, I follow trails of information and lore. The tidbits add up and connect. Things come together. I don't always know when or how. I end up with a project. But I got into Helen Morgan because of Showboat - the musical, the book, the entertainment institution. (Another gift from ISU.) Also, because of Polly Bergen, whose music I don't care for. What INTERESTS me about both Morgan and Pitts, fundamentally, is that they used to be a big deal and now aren't, but I still see their names pop up in the present. And Morgan, at least, has an interesting story. And Pitts had a round kitchen for making candy. So what, you say? Say it all you want. :) I know I'll do something with all of this information, at some point... but it really illustrates how even my late-night cooking adventures come back around to writing, even.
There is always writing. And well, there is always thrifting. I went to SalArmy yesterday. While waiting in front of the dressing room, my roving eye spied this Samsonite bag:
I put it on, and stood in front of the mirror between the dressing rooms, trying to look like I wasn't looking at myself.
Not like this. But I had to get a sense of the bag. There's something about it. It's not precisely my style, but it's so cool to me. And very travel-friendly. Reminds me of being a young teenager and being obsessed with rock-finding, and wishing I had a bag like this. I have some travel in my future. I think this will come with me.
Here, in all my dorkiness - demonstrating, well, how it could perhaps be comfortable to wear this bag and stand, annoyed, in a security line at the airport. ;)
These pictures also demonstrate how while I'd like to think I'm perpetually young, my face is slowly starting to tell a different story:
I totally dreamt last night that I had jowls. This is sort of my worst nightmare. My smile lines are making me have jowls, I swear. Whatever.
Anywho. So I thrifted. The above bag, and an 80's shirt (will show later). I was forced to. :) I bought a dress that I will most likely sell, but it is so lovely I had to hang it up in my closet-room. It reminded me of this picture I have on my vanity:
I want a fur dress. I will find/make one. But here is the dress I bought, with my fur collar I added:
Maybe I will keep it. Though I doubt it. It falls under the category of Garments I Love Aesthetically But Want Someone Else to Own Whom I Know Will Cherish and Wear Even More Than I Would.
It's too... cream. Not enough wackness. Here is another picture, recently in Vogue, that I HAD to tack on my wall:
I can do this. I have variations on this very outfit.
(My "rainforest wear" skirt)
But. I am not getting dressed today, except in the above tube dress. I am getting back to the writing projects. I have to go listen to Bo Diddley, Wilson Pickett, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and others... and write a screenplay.
I lit a candle to get going. Oh - I discovered, yesterday, that Dollar General has $5 candles. I don't know how well they saturate a space with scent, but man - the same size Yankee Candle is something like $25. And I don't think they have Orange Vanilla. :) (And I want to live truly...)
Alright. Back to work. And when I get some pages done, I'm going back to SalArmy, because something I put back on the rack is something I decided I could rock, after all. ;) Stay tuned.
