Pretty Pretty Bang Bang

Look what came in the mail today! A whole treasure of MAC Cosmetics and all for me! Melissa, the counter manager at our MAC counter in Dillard’s, hooked me up with the head make-up artist for the company, Gina. I told her, Gina that is, that I was interested in hearing about the new spring make-up trends since I had heard she’d attended Fashion Week in Paris. She said she’d send me some samples and this is what came today!

These are samples from the current line, “Nocturnelle,” and upcoming lines “Jewelscent” and “Danse.” I’m so excited I don’t even want to use them! I just want to look at them. Guess I know what I’m putting in my mom’s stocking this year.

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away which means it’s time to start planning the menu. Every good hostess knows that the key to a successful holiday meal is a great salad and what better way to start off than with a delicious helping of Fruit En Créme, because everything tastes better if it’s got a French flair to it. This lovely salad looks like the aftermath of a kegger. I don’t know whether to serve it or flush it down the toilet. For some reason, the blending of grapes, pineapple, sour cream and brown sugar is almost as unappealing as combining bananas and bacon. I think it would be best if it were used as a haunted house prop. Again, all we need is to encase it in gelatin and we’ve got ourselves a meal!

Fruit En Créme (or slime covered crap)

I just returned from Chicago where Steve and I saw the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. This trip had been planned for several months and we were really looking forward to the experience. Our friends, Duane and Prudy, went with us. Originally we were going to leave on Friday and stay through Tuesday, but things got changed and we left on Saturday instead. This was going to cut into our shopping, but we were excited about seeing the King Tut exhibit. It was, in a nutshell, disappointing. I’d heard it wasn’t great, but figured I’d make up my own mind once I saw it. The artifacts shown were mostly bits and pieces from the tomb. The most impressive piece, a gold sarcophagus, was that of Tut’s great-grandmother, or so they thought. Thank goodness for the audio tour which was worth the extra money. With it, we heard excerpts from the discovery and additional information about some of the pieces. All in all, it was a nice show, but not worth the $35 per ticket.

Still, the city of Chicago never disappoints. We shopped, we ate, we shopped some more, we had cocktail hour every night. Steve got us rooms at the [Palmer House Hotel](http://www.thepalmerhousehotel.com/index.html) on Monroe which was the perfect location. We were right between State and Michigan streets and very close to Nordstrom Rack, Filene’s Basement and the best Macy’s in town (formerly Marshall Field’s). Unfortunately, there’s never enough time for shopping, but I did score a Coach purse I’d been eyeing all season for 25% off. Not a super bargain, but I love it and will definitely get my money’s worth out of it. Another great score was a new fragrance. Now I really have a collection! The good people at Bloomingdale’s (Bloomies) introduced me to Vera Wang Sheer Veil. A bit sweeter than I thought I’d like, but it warms nicely on my skin. Steve declared it “yummy.” I also found the most delicious shoes on the planet. The Macy’s (Marshall Field’s) has an entire floor of women’s shoes! It’s like Candyland for me. I spotted a deep garnet patent pump with a peep toe and small platform. Delicious! Perfect fit, under $80 and surprisingly comfortable. It’s a match made in heaven.

But the shopping wasn’t all that was good. The food was spectacular. We had pasta at [Coco Pazzo](http://www.cocopazzochicago.com/), brunch at [Ralph Lauren’s restaurant](http://rlrestaurant.polo.com/default.asp) and cocktails every night in the stunningly beautiful lobby bar of the Palmer House Hotel. It was a blast!

Mmmm, another meat massacre on your dinner table. This week, dining takes an international flair with Oven-barbecued Swiss Steak. This saucy little Swiss miss is crowned with onion slices and served swimming in red barbecue goodness. Doesn’t it make for a lovely meal? The only thing this recipe is lacking is some sliced green olives and some gelatin. Just imagine how delightful this would be molded in a loaf pan and served cold!

Oven-Barbecued Swiss Steak

Happy Halloween everyone! This holiday got me thinking about the best costumes I ever had. When I was a kid, I loved dressing up. When I got older, I made some of my costumes. So I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you. When I was 5, I was an angel and my little sister was a devil. My costume was made out of a sheet with gold rick-rack trim and gold cardboard wings. I went trick-or-treating with my best friend, Cindy Garfit who dressed as a goldfish. My sister was really small and kept losing her plastic pitchfork along the way. We had to backtrack to find it.

One year, I decided to dress as a bunch of grapes. I dyed a sheet purple, then cut out cardboard circles, glued wadded up newspaper to the front of them, and covered them with pieces of the purple sheet. All of this was stapled together to form a sandwich board-type costume that rested on my shoulders. Apparently, I thought balloons were too easy.

Then there’s the pumpkin costume my mom made me, again from a dyed sheet. I remember the body was stuffed with newspaper, I wore orange tights and had a green posterboard stem hat. I sense a sheet theme here. Guess all my costumes were really sheet-y! Sorry, couldn’t resist.

When I was a senior in high school we all dressed up and paraded around the gym. I was a gangster. I found an old pinstriped suit of my dad’s, wore a hat, and carried a violin case. Not terribly hard, but it was comfortable. In college I was dracula one year. I got a floor-length cape from the theatre department, wore a white tuxedo shirt, black pants and a red scarf around my waist. My hair was really short so I slicked it back and painted it black with this hairspray paint. It was so messy! It took forever to get that crap out of my hair, ears, clothes, room. Still, it was a great costume.

So, what were your favorite costumes? What are you (or your kids) going as this year?

Ever wondered how to keep a pumpkin from rotting? The best way to keep a beer cold? Or maybe you wondered just how many condoms could be worn at once. Well, wonder no more. The good people at [My Science Project](http://www.myscienceproject.org/) are here to help. Now, get out there and learn something today!

Recently, my friend [Cindy](http://herethereandback.blogspot.com/) was helping her daughter dress for 80s Day at school. Amazingly, Cindy had kept many items of clothing from her high school days, which got me to thinking about the oldest piece of clothing I still had. I try not to keep things forever, but I think the oldest thing I have is a floor length denim coat my mom bought me for Christmas in 1987 (I think). I was working at Town and County, an upscale clothing store, and fell in love with this coat. I wore it until the sleeves were ragged, then kept it thinking I would one day tear it apart and use it for a pattern to make a new one. That’s how much I loved this coat. This morning I found it in one of my storage closets downstairs. For some reason, I just can’t bear to throw it away even though I haven’t worn it for probably 10 years.

So, what’s the oldest piece of clothing in your closet? Shoes count!

Mmmmm, it’s time for another delicious recipe of the week. This week, we pay tribute to ham. Just look at the delicious, glazed ham below, glistening with all that goodness. Let’s not forget our side dishes. The nut-crusted Sweet Potato Balls are more than just a southern porno, they’re a delicious side dish too. Spice Peaches round out our yellow/beige/brown/tan meal with a hint of clove for a spicy sweet finish. Don’t forget to top your ham with a marmalade glaze – just take the syrup from your Spiced Peaches, combine with orange marmalade and you have a sticky mess to pour over your roll of pork and fat. All you need is something with gelatin and you’ve got yourself a party here.

Shown here: Glazed Rolled Ham, Sweet Potato Balls and Spiced Peaches

My investments came out! Hooray! I did learn that I need to knead my plaster longer because I got some air bubbles. So here’s what came out: Below on top (the brown thing) is the wax impression of my fist, on the left is the silver casting of my wrist (with lots of air bubbles that look like warts), next to it is the alginate original (the pinky thing), then the casting of my dimples (fewer bubbles of warts) and the alginate original. Next up, I’m casting a plastic monkey!

Welcome to the latest episode of “In The Studio” starring me, Tammy Kirks, as the metalsmith of the semester. This week’s episode is [Investment Casting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_casting). This takes casting to a whole new level. It’s much more intricate, takes longer, is really messy, but produces very detailed results.

We started by using dental alginate (the strawberry-flavored crap they use for impressions) to make molds of whatever we chose. I molded my dimples (I had to smile for a full minute while it hardened) and my bent wrist. Once the alginate has cured, you dip it in hot injection wax, peel it off and you have a wax model of whatever you want to cast. Then there’s a bunch of other stuff you do (I’ll let you read about it on Wikipedia) to get it ready for the plaster. Investment plaster is interesting. You mix it in a rubber bowl by hand. And by that I mean, with your hands. So you dunk your hands into this cold, creamy mess and mix for about 4 minutes. Once you remove all the air bubbles from the plaster (another intricate method) you pour it around your wax piece that’s in a flask. When it hardens, you fire it in a kiln for 5-8 hours, then it’s ready for casting. I did two molds today and they will be fired tomorrow. I hope to be able to actually cast them before the end of class.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures in casting!