this is why i'm never gonna be a size 8 again!

i saw this last week on the divinely ingenious miss steph's blog, and i was fascinated--what a neat idea! and the site from which it comes, very good taste is also quite cool. they call this list the omnivore's hundred, and it comprises their own (admittedly subjective) idea of what anyone who'd like to think of themselves as truly well-rounded eater has tried, at least once. and now i will turn it over to the VGT folks' instructions, in case you'd like to play along with this fun survey!


Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (lauren's note: i dunno how to cross out...so i've italicized instead!) (ps: VGT has linked the more obscure items to wikipedia in case we'd like to read about them. ta v much, VGT!)

4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/ linking to your results. (PS. The list has generated a lot of questions, so I’ve created an FAQ for it over here!)


The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile (however, i've had alligator, in new orleans!)

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (DUDE!!!)

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted lassi (i've had LOTS of mango ones, though!)

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar (yuck. on both counts.)

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects (why?! no, seriously. WHY would you eat this?!)

43. Phaal (see #26)

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu (bad idea. although, there is part of me, that kind of likes the *idea* of a fish we have killed to eat at least having a shot a killing us back. there's a weird sense of fairplay there, dontcha think?!)

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst (i must FIND THIS...curry...and wurst...together?! oooh!)

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Q: do ya get bonus points for "all of the above"?! A: no, you get BONUS POUNDS!)

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini (at the russian tea room, thank you very much!)

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost

75. Roadkill (if *I* killed it...and i was starving...and i had just seen the animal in question *BATHING*...and my tires were BRAND NEW...ok, nope....i still wouldn't eat it...sorry)

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse (not knowingly; however, i suspect we have ALL done, unbenownst!)

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

ok, so i'm sorta chubby...but also, vaguely proud: i've tried 61 of the 100, which i think is pretty decent. and there are only 7 that i would absolutely REFUSE TO TRY, ever. if you decide to play, send me a link...i love to nosey other peoples' surveys, as well you know!

in the meantime, anybody wanna go grab some currywurst with me??!

collage fodder: what i save, and how i save it

you can blame miss stephanie for this! but ya know, it is not easy to think up something to write about every single day, and recently she asked me how i go about choosing what images i save for cards and art journaling, which magazines i like best for this, and what i do with said pics until they get used. as i started considering HOW i would answer her...or even if i *could*...it occurred to me that i would need some images to illustrate my point...and as far as i'm concerned when one has generated a bunch of text, and then chosen photos to go with it: by golly, that's a BLOG POST! :)

ok so, what do i save? this is totally subjective and varies from day to day, but i would say it all pretty much comes down to two categories: that which i absolutely LOVE...or...that for which i can immediately see a use.

all of the pics above just happened to be in my stash when i wanted to make a color-spectrum page for paper adventure. now saving the statue of liberty makes perfect sense, and the seahorses are very graphic and appealing, but *WHY* did i save a gigantic picture of corn-on-the-cob?? i have no idea. apparently, on that day, i thought it was cool. (or i was hungry!) on the other hand, IT GOT USED!

oscar mietelski and the cogs-n-gears (which, oddly enough, were from a skin-care ad!) were "impulse saves" from two different times that eventually wound up being used together; the cupcakes and the babies were things i knew instinctively would be good in a birthday context.

basically anything that makes me stop and say, "WOW!" i at least consider tearing it out. it's like buying supplies: every once in a while you see a product that seems utterly impractical, but you just fall under its spell. think about it--the times you've given in to that temptation, you've generally found a way to use the item, right? same thing here: if you love it, you'll either work it in somehow, or be inspired by the colors or pattern or...something...



for the card above and the one below, i came up with the plan for the card when i saw the illustration, and saved them on purpose; i stuck a postie note with the concept and a little sketch right on the page, so that i would remember my brilliant idea! (clippings that already have an idea attached go at the very front of my file, since they tend to be quicker cards to make.) the clownfish were from national geographic; the brain was on the cover of time magazine.


things i tend to "look out for" include: cakes, kids in party hats (for birthday cards); beautiful floral images (for all-occasion cards); bollywood or parisian or new york related stuff (for the place-themed collages i love to make). your list will be different, obviously. if you have a dad who is nuts about golf, or a mom who loves penguins, you might like to save a few golfers and flightless waterfowl, and see if you can think of ways to use them!

what magazines are good for this? potentially *ALL* of 'em !!! ok, that's not very helpful is it? lemme essplain: it's kind of a process i've developed over time. i never go buy magazines to cut up. however, i refuse to save & store the ones to which we subscribe. (the exception being my craft ones & jeff's cooking ones; if we'll use them again, they get to stay.) the rest, after we've read & enjoyed them, get thrown away. ...but... before i toss out 100 pages of glossy illustrated goodness, i have a little flick through, and anything that catches my eye i rip out. the rest gets tossed. (this is a great "dead-time" job--i'll often grab a couple on the way out of the house when jeff is driving.) national geographic has AMAZING photography & is printed on really nice thick paper...the AAA freebie we get every month often has great travel-based or car pictures...fashion mags pay art directors a fortune to generate arresting images...the companies that sell plants and seeds produce catalogs that contain nothing but page after page of glorious flower close-ups...and this lovely lady was on the cover of a fancy clothing catalog:


once you start looking, i think you'll see that there is good stuff all around, and lots of it is free for the taking! my mom almost always has a pile she's throwing away; garage sales are FULL of 50-cents-a-stack periodicals; the local library has a "free" area to swap paperbacks and donate magazines; our chiropractor is innundated on a monthly basis with AT LEAST 2 dozen titles and is usually quite pleased when i offer to take one off his hands!

how do you organize what you've clipped? i use 2-pocket school-style folders, divided into general categories from which i tend to save: travel, flowers, animals, food, and a one called "miscellaneous" that's bigger than all the rest (cause that's the kinda gal i am) !!! there's no need to get fancy, but as with most organizing, i suggest sorting "like with like" in a general way that makes sense to you, so that you can find something specific without having to sort through your entire collection!



i hardly ever cut things to size when i save them, i just roughly trim about an inch around the bits i want. (for one thing, the edges can tend to get a bit wrinkly from handling; for another i don't know if i'll want to trim it exactly, or leave an outline, or mount it first on sturdier paper so it can be "popped up" on foam tape!) another thing to consider when choosing what--and how much--to save, is: generally speaking, what do you intend to make with your goodies? because if you're planning to do inchies, it's not much use cutting out loads of giant two-page landscapes! on the other hand, an 8 by 10 framed collage is going to need at least one decent-sized focal point image. for cards, you have leeway, but if you always make A-2's you'll want to bear in mind how much you can actually fit in that space! (the mortice masks shown above are *ideal* for when you are planning to work at a specific size; you can immediately see how much of your image is going to fit!)

to give you an idea of scale, below is a 12 x 12" collage, with no background. there are 15 different images cut from various sources including (off the top of my head): jewelry and home decor catalogs, a cooking magazine, the metropolitan museum's quarterly bulletin, a couple of old calendars and national geographic!



every so often, i grab a folder that's getting a bit thick and weed stuff out; again i am using my two original (very loose) standards, which i've only just realized are a paraphrase of william morris' famous dictum: "keep nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful" apply that to your stash, too, and i don't think you can go very far wrong!

if anyone has a tip to share on this subject, or questions about anything i haven't covered, please feel free to leave them in the comments; if you've made something great using stuff cut from magazines, be sure to drop a link so we can come and admire it!

workin' for a living

(cue cheesey huey lewis segue!)

(ok...thanks, huey...see ya in another 20 years, ok?)

so i bet you're wondering what the connection is between huey lewis and the new CAARDVARKS challenge, aren't ya?! well, technically speaking, there isn't one. just an overlapping of titles, between said 80's band single and our latest assignment: WORKING FOR A LIVING. yep, in honor of the american labor day weekend just past, you can choose between making a card which relates to an occupation...OR...making a card which incorporates office supplies. there is a rather nice surprise prize from scrapbook express for the winner. (it's actually a $25 gift certificate...some secrets are just too cool to keep, ok?!) and the design team have, as always, worked for their living by creating some rather nice examples to inspire you!

wanna see my card?

(might as well g'head & say yes...b/c you know i'm gonna show you anyway!)

i went with the "office supplies" option, and managed to incorporate quite a few items into my design, including: notebook and ledger paper, a vintage timecard, staples, masking tape, and a really funky old "union dues" card that i found in a box of postcards i bought at a garage sale! (it's the green bit i've used for the leaves.)

(hambly tranparency; creative imaginations lace cardstock; notebook and ledger paper; vintage timecard & union card; autumn leaves & technique tuesday ruberstamps; mambi & jewelcraft gems; michaels epoxy stickers; making memories brads; prima tiny florals; other: zigwriter pen, colorbox inks, staples, masking tape, foam tape)

and now it's your turn! get to work on your own fantabulous creation, and post it to CAARDVARKS by midnight, september 18th for a chance at the goodies!

operation 35: START

ok, this is one of my favorite paper adventure pages ever because:

1. i loved the prompt (make a page about something we've just begun; in this case, my art journal!)

2. i loved MAKING the page (as you know, i will do freeform collage/indian themes at the least excuse!)

3. i love how it came out (what was in my head actually made it ONTO THE PAGE! heaven!)

see?

(lotsa fun vintage/funky bits including: sheet music, bengali newspaper, butterflies & typeface from an old children's book, plus images cut from magazines; journaling card: making memories; chipboard letters: heidi swapp, basic grey; decorative chipboard: maya road, k&co; rub-ons: sassafrass, fancy pants, autumn leaves, mambi; flowers: prima; gems: mambi; other: diamond glaze, colorbox inks, foam tape, uniball pen)

i think i'm gonna love doing this week's page, also. it's called "collections" ...and booooooooooooooy howdy do i have a variety of choices for that one! (can you say "pack rat"?!) yippeeeeeee!

operation 34: TO DO

as you know, it often takes me a week or two to physically make and post my paper adventure pages, but it doesn't mean i am not "working on" them before that. often i'll have the whole concept in my head...down to having written the journaling... (sometimes on the back of an envelope whilst driving to work!) ...and even knowing what products i'll use...from 5 minutes after i have read the prompt. this was one of those times:

(patterned paper: melissa frances, american crafts; journaling card, numbers & velvet letters: making memories; cardstock letter stickers: basic grey; roller stamp: provocraft; other: sharpie & uniball pens; ranger & colorbox inks; teddybear sticker; bits of (clean!) tissue stuck on with gluestick)

this prompt "to do" was from the week before last, whilst i was in the grips of COLDZILLA. i read it whilst i was taking a day off and laying miserably in bed and i thought, "well clearly i am gonna have to pick a different day, since today's agenda is pretty much just 'nap' and 'moan'...and not necessarily in that order!" and then 5 seconds later it hit me: *that* list is WAY BETTER than a regular one! i knew i wanted sickly green tones and specifically those fuzzy green letters, but that was as far as i got until this weekend. i found the loved-to-death teddy in with my stickers; but my favorite bit...the tiny crumpled tissues...were added at the very last minute, and they totally make me laugh!

how to make a photographer HATE YOU

ask them to get you a really good shot of something like this:

(hambly transparency; ki lace cardstock; heidi swapp ghost butterflies & fuzzy rub-ons; martha stewart butterfly punch; doodlebug sparkly cardstock; prima tiny florals; mambi gems; bazzill ink; k&co velvet alphas; basic grey rub-ons; other: foam tape, handmade lace paper, flower pics from a magazine)

yeah.

a card made from a transparency is ALL reflections and shiny bits.

kind of makes you long for three small sugar-fuelled nieces running around at top speed for relative ease of getting a good image, doesn't it?!

but i don't think i could fit said pint-sized pipsqueaks into an envelope for my sister-in-law kath's birthday, so i'm going with the shiny-sparkly-butterfly card afterall. and you will just have to trust me that it looked EVEN BETTER in real life!

if you are wondering about the mechanics of making such a card, lemme just tell you that the lace cardstock IS NOT there for decoration...although fortunately, it *is* quite decorative...but no, it is there to provide a place to stick the bits of foam tape on which the butterflies are perched! the rhinestones ON the butterflies are serving a similar purpose by hiding said adhesive from the other side. the little paper butterfly INSIDE the card is there to give us a place to sign our names! basically, i'd say that construction of a transparency card is approximately 25% design...and 75% engineering... (which is waaaaaay more than i am really qualified for, to be truthful!) ...but pays off with gratifyingly dramatic results!

another one of those questionaire thingies

who writes these??! is somebody actually EMPLOYED to do it or is the very existence of such memes the answer to the question, "whatever happened to rona barrett?"* however, this is quite an interesting one, that i've never seen before, with some thought-provoking questions; mine came via email, but decided to post it here, in case anyone wants to play along. (if you do, leave me a link to your answers...i'd love to read 'em!)

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
first name no, middle name after my aunt judie

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
two weeks ago when my step-dog, missy died. (i did a fair amount of WHINING last week ahout my back, tho!)

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
it gets the job done...& aesthetically...it's growing on me

4. WHAT iS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
liverwurst (which i eat MAYBE twice a year as it's so bad for ya!)

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
nope

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
i dunno...i'm kinda of high maintenance!

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
sarcasm??! MOI??! perish the thought!!!!!!!! ;)

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS ?
ummm...yeah...i think they are around here somewhere...not sure i could find them in a hurry though...

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? HAhahahaHAHAhahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHhahahaHAHAhaHAhahahaHA!!!!!!!
(no)

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
oh wow, there are LOTS...maybe those maple-flavored frosted mini wheats...or captain crunch...

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
not flip-flops!

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
no way--wimp city!

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
there is a graham-cracker-flavored one that a local shop has very VERY rarely! in terms of mass market i would pick haagen-daz "sticky toffee pudding"

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
i s'pose it depends on the person...but i think mostly it's their demeanor; i am always on the lookout for someone i think is going to "be trouble" in some way...especially at work...

15. RED OR PINK?
PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
how long do you have?!?!? :) weight is right at the top of the list, though!

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
wow. that's really hard. probably a tie between my mom-mom and jeff's poppa, leaning towards poppa b/c he lived close to us and we saw him so much and he was jeff's best friend. on the other hand the person for whom i *mourn* the most is my nephew who died of SIDS in 2000; i don't think anyone in my family will ever really get over that.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
sure, anyone who feels like it and has time!

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
i'm still in my pjs, actually! :)

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
an apple w/peanut butter last night (i've only had coffee so far today)

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
the fan in the window next to me

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
i'd be BLACK so i could OUTLINE EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
mmmmmmmmmmmmm...bacon is nice...and chocolate and bread baking... (ok, apparently i AM getting quite hungry for breakfast!)

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
i think it must've been the woman who takes the orders at the mexican restaurant, last night!

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS?
oh yeah!!!!!!!! (it was my friend, diane, whom i've only just re-connected with after a couple of years of losing touch!)

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
none, i'm SO not sporty; i'm probably the only person alive who didn't see ANY of the olympics!

27. HAIR COLOR?
natural=brown with an increasing amount of grey; un-natural=darker brown with blondish highlights...THIS week!!!

28. EYE COLOR?
brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
yeah...i'm too chicken to get LASIK

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
pretty much ALL of them! :0 (see question #16)

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
many of the movies which have happy endings ARE scary to me, in an artistic sense!!! :)

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
harry potter 4, which jeff was watching on tv the other night

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
b&w stripey pajama shirt

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
can i get SPRING?!? ok, EARLY summer, before it gets too hot, when there are still lots of pretty flowers and things!

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
***BOTH!!!!***

36. FAVORITE DESSERT?
ice cream!!!

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
i can never tell. it depends how busy everyone is on the day, i think

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
see #37

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
"eat pray love" by elizabeth gilbert, to whom i owe an apology for thinking her book would be totally self-indulgent and frou-frou! (& it is a BIT...but she has such a good sense of humor you forgive her!)

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
my *MOUSE*, duh!!!!!!!!!! :)

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?
jeff's favorite show: 5 minutes of EVERYTHING!

42. FAVORITE SOUND?
music, i s'pose (of MY choosing!) or jeff on the phone or the nieces when overheard playing & talking to each other

43. Rolling stones or Beatles?
stones, definitely

44. FARTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME?
england

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
i can tell exactly what size tupperware is required for any given amount of leftovers. yeah. heady stuff. but don't worry--it's a gift i've solemnly sworn to use only for good and NEVER for evil! :)

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
abington, PA

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
everybody!!!!!

48. WHAT TIME IS IT NOW?
8am(ish) (i know--what kind of time is this to get up onna SATURDAY?! SHEESH!!)


*rona barrett was an american gossip columnist in the 1960's & 70's and was, i think, one of the first to transition from print to tv. bear in mind this was pre-cable and waaaay before shows like "entertainment tonight" were even around; at one point i think she had a barbara-walters-interview-style of tv show (BEFORE barbara walters was doing such a thing) in which she would ask celebrities the most intricate, random, nosey questions you could possibly imagine.. as a 10 or 12 year old child i was FASCINATED by this phenomenon! (if no one else does, tracy will remember rona barrett!)