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Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Fashion and Costumery. Please leave any comments there.
There is a fine line between retro and lookin’ like something grammy wears because full-coverage support trumps aesthetics. Sonia Rykiel, your H&M collection is treading it very, very closely. I shall have to pass, though will happily forward screenshots to my mother, who has been waiting for the look to come back for decades…
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Fashion and Costumery. Please leave any comments there.
Right. So a few of you may know that I got my start in costuming with an oddly coincidental yet completely unrelated series of short films. Much of this was owed to my design school counselors trying to find me gigs that would suit my interest in period pieces, and the fact that many period pieces produced by film schools lately seem to focus on racial issues. Whatever the case was, my first few projects as a designer ended up consisting of — and I call them by these names fondly, because I did learn a ton from every single experience — the Slavery film, the KKK film, and the Nazi film. At which point, many people looking through my portfolio were probably scratching their heads and wondering if I was one of those people with a secret psycho stash of sharp weaponry hidden behind the feather boas and tutus in my closet.
So it was with great pleasure that I was able to give an old costume a new lease on life very recently. A quick dye job done on location in school bathroom sinks, a night of artwork with the gold fabric paint pens, and the aid of three very special costumers later, Billy Joe Bob’s nightgown began its new life adorning the mother of God. As one person said, we’re either going straight to Hell or getting a pat on the back from the guys with the harps, depending on how you look at it.
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Fashion and Costumery. Please leave any comments there.
Just tried a sample of Thierry Mugler’s _Angel_ that came in the mail with my previous Sephora order. Mostly because I thought it’d be amusing — if it was any good — to have a bottle of perfume on my dresser that had my name (well, I’d have to Sharpie in an additional letter, but nothing’s perfect) on it.
Unfortunately, I went reeling backward after one small spritz on the arm and then bolted to the sink to scrub it off with liberal dollops of strongly-scented antibacterial soap, endeavoring to erase the olfactory menace burning itself into my skin. Remember those five-year-old Christmas candles that you see in bulk clearance at Big Lots, a dozen tapers for $1? Yeah, that’s about what this stuff reminded me of.
It’s calling itself an “oriental gourmand” scent, which I guess explains the patchouli (and confused me as to whether it was actually a mens’ cologne on first sniff). Other than that, I can’t really classify anything else in the ingredients as distinctly “oriental” — at least in the sense that I’d find a representation in my parents’ kitchen. Oh, confusion. The list of participants includes chemical-created aromas helional and hedione (contributing to the cloying nature, I’m sure), western baking favorites such as vanilla, chocolate and caramel and smatterings of “honey, dewberry and red berries” that were far too overpowered by the other ingredients to even be recognizable. I’m guessing this one’s meant strictly to attract dudes, in that way where it’s strong enough for them to notice and makes them hungry enough to consider whether or not you’d be a candidate to bake for them over the holidays. Then again, you’d get the same sort of scent combination on a visit to grandma’s place, and I’m not sure I’d want any date-potential candidate calling memories of that place “sensual and passionate”…
Anyway, I ended up spraying the rest of it in the storage room, figuring it’d at least be good at scaring off moths. I’m nothing if not an optimist.
Originally published at The Velvet Kerfuffle. Please leave any comments there.
Your postal carrier has had more botox done than most of the entertainment-types you see on a normal basis.
*shudder*
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Fashion and Costumery. Please leave any comments there.
Just got off the phone with an actor who claims he does not own a single pair of jeans.
No, really, WTF? Usually jeans are just about the one thing they *do* wear. And they have, like, 60 pairs of them. I am mentally incapable of imagining a jean-prohibiting actor. I mean, wouldn’t you at least have a basic pair for the sake of closet variety, even if it’s not a staple?
I kinda almost hope that he’s just trying to pull a fast one on me in the hopes of getting to keep wardrobe after the project. Which, of course, won’t happen.
Sigh.
Originally published at The Velvet Kerfuffle. Please leave any comments there.
So I’ve had several people ask since they know that I don’t watch television shows on the TV (we have cable, but the timing is rarely right and I’m too cheap to get a TiVo).
I’m sort of ambivalent about posting this, because nowadays one should be very careful with where and what they download for various safety and legal reasons. I wouldn’t want to send my friends off on the road to crashing their puters… then again, I suspect some of them might end up doing a worse job of it if I don’t help, so…
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Kitchen and Garden. Please leave any comments there.
There’s a certain hierarchy of breakfast restaurants.
On the bottom, in great profusion, you have the mediocre chain pancake places that serve dependable-if-slightly-rubbery plates of fried batter coated in flavored corn syrup. You don’t feel bad about going to these in your dumpiest t-shirt and PJ bottoms because — let’s face it — if you’re there, it’s either an ungodly hour when nothing else is open or you’re desperately hungry with nothing else edible in the fridge and the laundry’s probably not been done either. Kind of the same reason you’d be at a McDonald’s, come to think of it. My friends and I mostly found ourselves at these places during finals week, for example. These places serve their purpose, but never venture off the breakfast menu unless you want reheated, reconstituted pain on a plate.
Somewhere in the middle, you’ve got independent waffle houses. These are great for going to with a group of friends, usually to celebrate the end of finals and the return of laundered clothing. They are fewer in population but you’ve probably passed a few in your locality, if you just stop and think about it. It’s worth the small drive to find a place that can poach eggs without delivering you a fresh bowl of salmonella.
Then, on the top of the heap, you’ve got the glorious omelette parlor. This is a destination breakfast. People go to omelette parlors for Sunday brunches, often wearing pretty little chiffon tops that bespeak a weekend free of cares. They are usually decorated with homey, rustic touches like metal pitchers and crafted wooden roosters. They usually offer you free coffee if you have to wait for a table. I have only come across three omelette parlors in my wanderings across California, and had to do a fairly extensive Google to turn up the one we now frequent. It requires a 20 minute drive and the occasional pileup in the waiting room, but neither we nor the sometimes large groups queueing to be seated are there because there’s only year-old mustard left in the fridge. You only take people you genuinely like and enjoy the company of to an omelette parlor.
This is the Costa Mesa Omelette Parlor. You wouldn’t know it from the outside, though, because it’s got a giant sign across the top saying “Chester Drawers Inn” thanks to the now-closed bar it shares a lobby with. You have to stop and look closer to see the colorful lettering in the windows that point you towards one-stop breakfasty goodness. They apparently never felt the need to put up bigger signs or otherwise advertise because they’ve already got as much business as they can handle from word of mouth, thankyouverymuch. And with friendly service, generous plates, and reasonable prices, you can kind of see why they’ve been around since the early 80’s being as inconspicuous as they are.
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Kitchen and Garden. Please leave any comments there.
Another West Coast favorite is the star of today’s column — the Dungeness crab. These guys are in season starting mid-November and running to summer, and that’s when they’re cheapest and fattest as well. Of course, the market I shop at has them year-round because that’s just the sort of place they are. Dungeness are great because they’re highly meaty, heavy crabs that will amply reward anybody who takes the time to crack those shells.
The best crabs are cooked right after being caught, since they will still be fat and feisty. Crabs that have sat around too long get waterlogged and sluggish. Check that they have hard shells and fight back, that’s the sign of a yummy dinner. For instance, note what happens when I bring the tongs near the little critters in my sink here.
Before:
After:
I’m just going to steam these guys in the simplest way possible, since the meat is delicate and best eaten just the way it is. I’ve added a twist to the broccoli rice to help augment that flavor and make it a nicely complementary side dish.
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Fashion and Costumery. Please leave any comments there.
Added a few more pics from last month’s shoot because they turned out so adorable 
The girls have a MySpace page and the album should be out in the next few months!
Originally published at The Velvet Kerfuffle. Please leave any comments there.
My mother has discovered how to use the forward button on her email. Given her tendency to believe everything she reads, this horrifies me to no end. I might have to create a whole new mailbox filter just to preserve my sanity. o.O
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Kitchen and Garden. Please leave any comments there.
So the topic of desserts came up a while back and the boy did me the grave injustice of not remembering all the different cookies I had made over the course of our time together. Given, my baking output has slacked a bit recently due to calorie-watching, warm weather, and less spare time, but the fact remains — I bake a mean batch of cookies. And lots of them. So it only seems right that I make sure this blog reflects that as well.
Today, another classic: the peanut butter cookie. I typically use a tweaked version of this Allrecipes favorite and mix the whole thing up in the bread machine to save my arms the trouble.
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Kitchen and Garden. Please leave any comments there.
One thing about growing up in an Asian household — we’re not squeamish about meeting our dinners before they’re on the plate. The fresher the better, my mom would always lecture, and you don’t get much fresher than when your meal is trying to crawl its way out of the kitchen sink. Surprisingly few of my friends (including the boy, who still prefers to not be around the kitchen until everything is good and dead) have had experience in the handling of live foods, though, so for them I present a brand new VK column — Food That Moves!
We begin with an old favorite of many west coasters, the California Spot Prawn. When our family went out to Asian seafood restaurants on special occasions, there would almost always be a tank full of these guys on display, and these critters were always first on the list for ordering. They’ve got this sweet, lobster-like meat which is as different from regular white shrimp as chocolate truffles from a Hershey bar. In fact, this is the shrimp regularly used in the western US for amaebi “sweet shrimp” sushi because of its excellent texture and flavor.
Before:
After:
Based on my mom’s very simple recipe, and one of the most common ways to prepare these shrimp. Before we begin, though, please note that these particular shrimp must be prepared live out of necessity — there is a chemical in the head that starts excreting upon death which renders the meat mushy and inedible. So really, the only way to guarantee the best meat is to get them as feisty as possible and keep them that way up until they hit the skillet. So read on for an examination of a few local suppliers for these prawns and the cooking pictorial.
Originally published at The Velvet Kerfuffle. Please leave any comments there.
The boy’s little sister invented a new game for our kitten while she was visiting with us this summer. Since Coco is more aerodynamically sound than the rotund Misu, she decided to test feline flight potential by getting her to repeatedly fetch a certain favorite mouse toy. These are the results:
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Kitchen and Garden. Please leave any comments there.
We here at Casa Kerfuffle are rather fond of princess cakes. (Sponge cake layered with jam and cream in trifle format and covered with marzipan, of Scandinavian origin.) Usually we buy them from the Viktor Benês bakery inside the local Gelson’s, since they’ve always made the freshest ones in the vicinity. So when the boy’s family was out here this summer, we thought we’d grab a cake to celebrate their visit. This is what the cake usually looks like:
Alas, they were all out of the traditional cakes. They didn’t even have the ones with the pink fondant that I’m rather particular to. What they DID have was this:
Yeah, I might have been a little horrified. Not only by the bizarreness of having a turtle cake, but at the prospect of having to chop off that smiley little turtle head at dinner that evening. Being a former owner of a very lovely pet turtle (cover her eyes, Keva!), it was also disturbing on that level. Imagine a cake in the shape of your favorite pet cat or dog, and think on that for a while.
So anyway, after the initial shock, the family had a bit of fun dismembering our poor green marzipan-y friend. I thought I’d share because, well, I’m giving like that 
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Fashion and Costumery. Please leave any comments there.
Just updated the galleries to include my latest photo shoot. It had a Tokyo street style flavor and considering the short notice, we managed to make something fairly fun out of it!
Originally published at The Velvet Kerfuffle. Please leave any comments there.
This time, it’s Misu that’s doing the licking while Coco tries to sleep. Strangely enough, the licking looks sort of like she’s trying to suck the kitten’s brains out through her ear…
Originally published at The Velvet Kerfuffle. Please leave any comments there.
As I’ve mentioned before, we live next to a large park where waterfowl of all kind like to hang out. Being a quiet, closed community with lots of water features, our feathered neighbors decide to take family vacations here pretty often. Last week, this mother duck and her brood of 12 showed up splashing about in the little creek that runs by our patio. We were watching them through the window from only a few feet away, and I actually went out to feed her some bread after taking these videos. Socute.
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Kitchen and Garden. Please leave any comments there.
So I was cruising the market one day and saw that they were having this amazing deal on Kiwi mussels. In my continuing bid to expose the boy to as many forms of non-fish seafood as possible, I brought two boxes home with me that very day. This is what I did with them.
Based on Patti’s Mussels a la Mariniere because its ingredients list most fit what I had on hand.
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Fashion and Costumery. Please leave any comments there.
Because before we were anything else, we were fans. And there’s no replacement for passion and enthusiasm in the creative process. Cosplay forever, man.
The Commissions Gallery.
Originally published at Velvet Kerfuffle Kitchen and Garden. Please leave any comments there.
Good ol’ comfort food of the sort that my mom used to make when we were sick. With a few additions, because I have a tendency to overpopulate my soups when the refrigerator needs cleaning out.
Based on… well, just memory, really. Sometimes, you just want to leave the measuring cups behind.
