Monthly Archives: May 2012

Why I’m not a “Niche Blogger”

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Hipstercrite had this great entry last week called How To Gain Blog Followers The Fast Way which I found myself nodding along to so vigorously that I think it stopped being a nod and started being something more of a headbanging motion that required playing some Black Sabbath to get out of my system.

In the post she writes:

The biggest thing I’ve learned is that if you want a lot of followers and want to attract advertisers you need to make your blog niche. The more niche the better.

I’d be lying if I said I don’t give a shit about my traffic (most people are lying if they say they don’t care), but I don’t give a crap enough to completely change my blog in hopes of wooing advertisers. Hey, it would be nice to get paid for this thing, but in the long run, I obviously like having my content all over the place. I have the freedom to write whatever I want.

High five! Right on, sister!

Fifteen years under my belt, and I still run my blog on the same philosophy that I always have. I will write whatever I want, whenever I want, and I don’t give a flying rat ass what anyone thinks about it. If you think I’m interesting, you’ll bear with me while I work it out.

AKA I know about half of my readership comes from real life friends who will not give two shits about this post because I’m rambling on about this mythical community that we call the blogosphere… AGAIN. Even though this largely doesn’t apply to them.

I can’t even imagine being a niche blogger. I’d run out of shit to say if I had to post solely on one topic… I tried to start a music blog once (and if you know me, you know I’m pretty fanatical about music) and I quite literally bored myself to tears within two weeks. It wasn’t fun. AT ALL.

I follow a lot of blogs that would be considered niche… Largely because there’s little other choice these days, you just follow and hope someone posts something more interesting than what they wore today or the color of their fingernail polish….

Most of the blogs I seem to be on fall into one of several categories:

1. DIY bloggers with an Etsy store. These folks post tutorials of how to do shit and try to sell you the stuff they’re making. They’re not a bad niche to follow if you like to make stuff… Except for the fact they have a tendency to make themselves look like they fell out of a magazine, and if they have nothing better to post about they just start posting things that they thought were pretty on Pinterest instead of taking a day off. Oh yeah, and they do a lot of giveaways… Usually of other ladies who sell things on Etsy… and well, some of them go a little bit overboard with it.

2. Web designers who make blog layouts for other bloggers. These are the ones that are after my true heart because truth be told they’re the ones who are most like me… Sure, I’m a web developer / themer person for an entirely different type of client. They can usually do no wrong in my book. Too bad I can only find like three of them.

3. Fashion and thrifting blogs. I always end up following these bloggers by accident. Or because I followed a link from somewhere else and decided to follow them because they had a giveaway for some killer shoes and nowadays you need to follow people to get in their little giveaway things. But for the most part? Boring. Boring. Boring. I rarely ever shop and I wear t-shirts that I got for free at tech conferences. I am so not the target demographic. They just seem to get mixed in with those DIY bloggers with Etsy stores a lot (in fact some of them straddle the two genres).

4. Living with intention / life coaching blogs. I like these bloggers a lot, except for the fact that I usually like them too much and then feel bad because I totally wish I could take their class or buy their program or whatever… but I’m just too freaking broke. But they totally give me the feel goods most of the time.

5. Mommy bloggers. I’m seriously of the mind that mommy blogger isn’t a niche, it’s just personal bloggers that have been rebranded after they pushed out some crotchfruit. The trouble with them is every other blogging community targeted at women is specifically for them and if you’re not looking to become pregnant like now…. You’re not going to have that much in common unless they’re really good storytellers.

There are days where I feel a little bit bad because I’m not any of those things… and I don’t think it’s really fair that someone who posts fifty billion pictures of shoes and has a giveaway every other day has a ton of followers because their content is bawhoring…. and then I’m all… “WHY SHOULD I FEEL BAD? I LIKE MY BLOG, GODDAMNIT!”

I suppose at the end of the day, that makes everything okay.

Authentic Experience Has a New Look!

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As I told you a few days ago, I’ve been busy as a bee working on my brand new tried and true baby blue blog layout (Sorry, I got caught up in the rhyming for a minute there). I am so happy with the way it came out and completely stunned that it didn’t take me half as long to do it as I expected. I swear, I should start a business making layouts for all of you because man… After theming massive corporate websites for a living, this totally meshes with my ADHD! (I wonder if anyone would be interested in that sort of service… Hmm… Thoughts to ponder.)

So, I guess there are a few new things that I ought to point out about the new digs…

The link that says shop up in the navigation links. That’s my especially curated for you Amazon shop! It’s full of all sorts of music I love to listen to, books I love, and movies and television I love. You ought to go buy some cool stuff that I have loved that you will love, too. Also, expect more posts about what I’ve added to the shop as I’ve added it (or not… You never know when I’m going to be lazy liar about what I say I’m going to post about.

The link that says sponsorship. Yep. I *totally* want to be one of those people who has all of those cute little buttons to other people’s blogs and shops. Spots are available for $5 for a 250×100 spot and a $3 for a 125×125 spot. I’m currently offering coupon codes for anyone who would like to swap! And honestly, I’d rather swap than have the money, so if you want to do that you should totally hit up my contact form or leave a comment on this post. Or if you want to trade a guest post with each other, that could be really awesome too.

All of the links in the sidebar that have to do with social networking sites and other places to follow this here blog. Those things are fun and you should TOTALLY go follow me on them if you aren’t already, because you KNOW you can’t get enough of me because I’m that totally awesome. Or something like that.

In conclusion, if you find any glaring errors in this brand new blog layout of mine, don’t hesitate to let me know… because to be quite honest, I didn’t check it out in Internet Explorer.

Sunday Confessions #6

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1. I have my new blog layout about half done and I don’t really want to work on it today. I had really hoped that I’d have it done by the end of the day today, but the last thing I really want to do right now is sit on my ass in front of the computer (despite the fact that I probably will do that anyway).

2. I have become one of those people who posts photos of Instagram of their cat because they’re too lazy to take a photo of anything else. Case and point.

3. I often read everyone else’s answers to Sunday Confessions before doing mine because I’m looking for ideas to confess. I totally got the idea for the Instagram confession from Sarah.

4. I went to my first yoga class last Tuesday. And loved it! But I’ve also been shitty about exercising ever since… Oops.

Overthinking It

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When I was in high school and college, I used to change up my blog designs quite frequently. I wasn’t as prolific as some of the other people I followed, but when I felt things were getting stale stylistically (probably somewhere every 2-4 months), I wouldn’t hesitate to head into Photoshop and the stylesheets and switch things up. I was happy to do it. I was excited to do it. It might have taken me a day or two to figure out what I wanted… and there were definitely times I felt like I was butting heads with my vision versus my Photoshop skills but I largely proceeded without fear.

I didn’t know to be afraid in those days. I was just doing what felt like fun.

Then, I graduated from college and became a real paid for my skills web developer and everything changed.

Suddenly, my life went from messing around with Photoshop and CSS to make my blog look pretty to using Photoshop to slice up someone else’s design and using CSS to replicate what was in the picture, usually resulting in a fight with a designer somewhere down the line because something was 1px off or I eyedroppered the wrong shade of blue out of the Photoshop file because no one gave me a colorsheet to work from.

I was working on teams to build small to mid sized websites using Drupal. Things were constantly about collaborating with others to get the job done. My life became about best practices and standards. Everything was always about doing things the right way over the easy way.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing… because it isn’t. It’s the way things have to be to have a large web project run smoothly. However, it had a rather grim downside for me.

Fear and complacency.

It wasn’t very long after I went professional that my blog began to suffer. It was no longer fun to retheme my blog, instead it was a terrifying proposition. My job involved implementing designs that other people made. I had quickly become used to the fact that I was relying on others for the blueprint of everything I did… I’d open Photoshop and sigh and say to myself, “I’m not a real designer,” and then I’d give up.

As if it somehow mattered if I was a “real” designer or not when it came to my blog.

I considered hiring the job out to someone else, but couldn’t bring myself to do it for something that I essentially knew how to do myself… even if I found myself believing that I wasn’t all that capable.

I bring it up because I’ve been unhappy with my current theme for quite some time. While I love how it reflects my New Yorkerness, I’ve been not loving the color scheme so much. It’s so drab. I dread the moments where I have to actually go and look at it.

I’ve been sitting with Photoshop open on my machine for the greater part of the week… Largely feeling at a loss about what to do about my “I hate how my blog looks” predicament. I vented to longtime blogger friend, Aubrey who commiserated with me on the whole feeling fearful and inadequate in regards to design skills and we reminisced about the time when we didn’t care, we just did.

And now… We just spend our overthinking it instead of just doing it.

Which leads me to yesterday evening, with the goal of creating a new layout in my head… I found myself browsing through fonts on the web looking for some inspiration. I downloaded and installed a bunch of new ones, and all of the sudden… The look I wanted came together. No overthinking. Just playing around and seeing where it went… and I think it went somewhere good.

I went to bed this morning with a mockup in hand and a plan… and I couldn’t be happier.

The new theme will probably be up by the end of the week, if not before…. Be on the lookout for it!

Things I’m Grateful For

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Things I’m Grateful For is a gratitude link-up hosted by A DIY Life and Pens & A Camera Lens every Friday.

I have a couple of things that come to mind to be thankful for.

James painted the control room this week. In the quest to make our home a functional recording studio, we’ve started doing some renovations. The control room is moving out of our bedroom and into it’s own room. Out with the scuffed up walls, and in with a fresh coat of paint. Thank you, honey!

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As I was sitting down to write this blog post earlier this evening, James brought me a glass of wine. I totally wasn’t expecting that, but it was much appreciated!

I’m thankful for all of the cooking that James did this week. He made lasagna and a roast this week. So delicious!

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What were you thankful for this week?

Veggie Chili Time!

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SO, the one day that more than 20 people read my blog post because I mention Joss Whedon and vampires and zombies in it, all of you assholes comment on either Facebook or Google+. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

It’s not like I don’t appreciate the feedback wherever I get it, but seriously… it’s like it’s 2004 and we’re still all posting on LiveJournal except for I have a real blog and you don’t, but I still want you to read my shit without having to go elsewhere but you’re SO LAZY that you can’t comment anywhere but LiveJournal.

I seriously didn’t think I’d still be making this rant in 2012.

BUT you do know what’s different about now versus sometime like 2004? I like chili now and I totally didn’t like it then.

Which you know what that means… I made veggie chili in the crockpot for the first time tonight.

Also, did you know that crockpot is a brand and the technical term is slow cooker? Neither did I until I tried to find the link to the one I bought and couldn’t find it using the search term crockpot.

I’m actually quite proud of the way this turned out because I totally improvised my entire way through it.

Here’s the recipe for tonight’s dish:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 chopped medium onion
2 minced cloves of garlic
1 chopped green pepper
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of black beans
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 bag of Morningstar crumble (or if you loathe the idea of being force to eat all veggies, make it ground beef or ground turkey)
2 tsp of chili powder (or to taste)

Slow cooker instructions:
Saute onion, garlic, green pepper and crumble in olive oil in a skillet. While you’re doing that, add the tomatoes and the beans (after you rinse them!) to the slow cooker. Add your sauted mix, and the chili powder to the cooker and set for something like 6 hours… or more, or less… really with chili the secret is the longer you cook it the more mush-like it will be… so really, it’s up to you when you can’t stand it anymore and just have to eat it.

Stove top instructions:
Don’t have a slow cooker? Never to fear you can make it on the stove too. Add olive oil, garlic, green pepper and crumble to pan and saute. Add the rinsed beans. Add the the tomatoes. Add the chili. Presto! Chango! Some amount of time like and hour or two or three or five… CHILI! I have a tendancy to personally cook stove top chili for a shorter amount of time than in the slow cooker just because I’d rather waste electricity than gas and you can leave a slow cooker unattended and it generally won’t burn the house down. However, the longer you leave it on the stove the better and more mushy it will be. Just don’t leave it totally unattended. We wouldn’t want to have to call the fire department.

So, what did you cook for dinner tonight?

Why I Owe Joss Whedon an Apology

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Once upon a time, I had an online friend named Allie.

I guess she still is sort of my online friend, we don’t really talk anymore but we’re Facebook friends… which I think is pretty amazing seeing as the first time I talked to her was in 1995 in a AOL kids chat room because I’m pretty sure we both liked Shania Twain. (Don’t judge me, James! I was 11! I can feel you rolling your eyes through the wall!)

We talked everyday for the better part of two years. We exchanged snail mail addresses. (Do they even still call it snail mail?) We sent each other letters and pictures and things, but none of that lasted all that long because snail mail is slow, and why do slow when you have the Internet?

Now, Allie had a tendency to get obsessed about TV shows and movies. Like, shortly after I met her she decided to make an online club of girls that she talked to and dubbed us all with names from girls from the movies Grease and Grease 2 and called us The Pink Ladies, and sent group emails to everyone about I don’t even remember what.

She made me Rhonda. Which I was kind of pissed about because I didn’t know who Rhonda was because I’d only ever seen the first movie. I didn’t even know there was a second movie. I had wanted to be Frenchy, but I think there was already someone who was a Frenchy… and she might have given me the option of Jan, but I thought if Jan had gone to my high school I totally would have kicked her out of the Pink Ladies after the whole Brush ‘em, Brush ‘em, Brush ‘em dance in the sleepover scene. So, at least I wasn’t Jan.

Allie was Stephanie Zanone from the second movie, whom I suspect she picked because she had a crush on Michelle Pfeiffer but this was before she realized that she was a lesbian. She even changed her screen name for the part, but she spelled her last name wrong and became something like Zanoni12 or whatever. I remember always reading as Zamboni12. She got so into it that she insisted everyone call her Stephanie as if it was her real name.

I know, I know, you’re dying to know what a bunch of little girls playing Grease on the Internet has to do with Joss Whedon… I’m getting to it!

As you may recall, in 1997 there was this show that came out and then ran for god knows how many seasons called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have never really been much of a TV watcher, so I probably would have gone through life not knowing who Buffy the Vampire Slayer was except for the fact that Allie immediately became smitten and it suddenly became the only thing she talked about.

I was not interested in the show. For one, the main character’s name is Buffy which is the kind of dumb name that you give a golden retriever and two, the show has something to do with vampires and I just cannot abide vampires because they are essentially the Fraiser Crane of zombiedom… and everyone knows that zombies are disgusting and to be avoided at all costs.

Note: I’m not actually sure that vampires and zombies have anything to do with each other other than they’ve been pitted against each other in the movie Vampires vs. Zombies, but I seem to recall someone telling me once that vampires were a specific kind of zombie. So, I’m going with vampires are zombies but zombies are not necessarily vampires as the truth. Considering that I hate both vampires and zombies with an irrational furor, I’ve made up my mind this is the truth and cannot be swayed on it. You’re now returned to your scheduled program.

Then, it wasn’t something she just talked about… She started writing about it prolifically. She had discovered Buffy fan fiction and because I was her friend, started sending what she wrote to me. I honestly don’t really remember it other than she obviously wanted to watch Sarah Michelle Geller and Eliza Dushku get it on, which I couldn’t really fault her for because I would have watched that even with the vampires… but she was thirteen years old, and thirteen year olds don’t exactly write good slash fanfiction because they’re kinda fuzzy on the details of what lesbian sex entails other than two girls kissing.

But I told her I liked it… and our friendship just sorta tapered off because eventually I just stopped reading the stuff because quite frankly, I thought it was really weird to take characters that someone else created and then write your own story about them. This was also before I realized that’s essentially all television is… It’s not like entire TV series are written by just the dude/dudette who came up with the idea, there’s a staff of writers. Fan fiction is just people who want to pretend they’re writers for the show.

What didn’t taper off was my secret loathing of Joss Whedon.

I didn’t really realize that I hated Joss Whedon until I was dating the guy who’s now my ex-husband. He and his father were into Firefly or Serenity… I can’t remember which one, same damn difference… They both have that guy who played Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog who’s last name I don’t know how to spell without looking up. He also doesn’t hold twine in pictures. Or so I’m told.
Nathan Whatshisname.

Well, anyway… He told me he was watching one of those shows and I’m like “What’s that?”

And he’s like “It’s this show that Joss Whedon created.”

And I’m like “Who the fuck Joss Whedon?”

And he’s like, “Haven’t you ever heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”

And I’m like, “Fuck Joss Whedon! Fuck Buffy the Vampire Slayer! If he didn’t exist, I would have never have had to know there was fan fiction on the Internet!”

Except for I doubt I actually said that, I probably said, “Oh,” but I’m sure that’s what was running through my mind.

Then Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog came along. I wanted to hate this. I wanted to hate this so bad. But it was like one of those milestone things where they were premiering something on the Internet instead of the TV and then putting it on DVD so I felt like it was kind of like a technological milestone that I needed to participate in.

Plus, Neil Patrick Harris was in it.

And who doesn’t love Neil Patrick Harris?

So, I did the only logical thing you can do when you want to hate something. I watched the first episode, judged it harshly and didn’t finish the series.

I did the same thing to Harry Potter and feel justified.

I would have gotten away with it too, but when my friend Arc moved in with me he kept playing the “My Eyes” song from the second episode and made me learn the girl part so we could sing it together and I kinda fell in love with the song, so I sort of had to watch the rest of it and then I loved it.

Then I met James, and he started making me face things that I’m afraid of and started making me watch one of those shows with the Nathan guy in it, which wasn’t half bad despite the fact I can’t remember the name of it and we only got two episodes in.

So, I feel I owe Joss Whedon an apology for misjudging him based on a thirteen year old girl’s attempt at fan fiction. He just needs to understand that I will not for any reason ever watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I’m sorry, Joss Whedon.

Things I’m (Not So) Afraid To Tell You

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I’ve been seeing all of these blog entries over the past month about authenticity in blogging, and all sorts of wonderful people have been sharing their thoughts on the subject. There’s a big list on Creature Comforts if you want to read more than just mine.

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I’m inexplicably jealous of The Bloggess because she’s not afraid to let her crazy hang out on the Internet. Also, her book is on the New York Times Bestseller List and it’s really funny.

I identified as a Christian between the ages of 17 and 21. I think that has something to do with the previous point.

I left the church after the pastor of my church called me mentally unstable for blogging.

The living room speakers making a popping noise something like every two hours. Honey, why is this happening?!

I unfollowed someone’s blog because they did a sponsored review of Net Nanny and I got offended by it.

I have been officially diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and attention deficit disorder predominantly inattentive type.

Sometimes when I sit up straight for more than like 30 seconds, I get shoot pain in my back. That’s not a good thing to have happening at age 28 is it?

I wear a 34H bra. The H stands for Hu-fucking-mungus.

I think that those elected people who are against the legalization of pot would benefit from smoking a bowl before voting against such things.

I’m irrationally afraid to discuss anything relating to sex, drugs and rock n’ roll for fear of being carted off by the morality police.

I have picked up the New Yorker trait of saying “fucking” in every other sentence and I generally don’t notice this until I’m in a group of people who have never been to New York City.

I have an erratic and strange sleep schedule.

I usually have to get up after initially crawled into bed because I’ve forgotten to pee.

I am addicted to the Internet.

I am trying to quit soda, but I haven’t hit the point where I’m okay with that yet.

I think about sensory processing for fun.

When I listen to music, I see my own private music video in my brain.

I get really sad when I realize that some of the recordings of my favorite songs are kinda sucky recordings.

If I’m not careful, I can spend hours on end just laying in bed daydreaming. Or walking around the house aimlessly. I do that too.

I’ve not quite gotten this whole finances and being a freelancer thing down yet. I don’t really want to talk about it, but let’s just say that tax time causes me to dive into a deep depression.

I don’t have health insurance currently and thinking about the healthcare situation in the United States makes me all stabby-stabby.

I am terrified of the desire to procreate.

I am constantly afraid of being judged harshly and called out for my life choices by well… anyone.

I am constantly at odds with myself because I can’t decide whether I want to be perceived as the good girl or the black sheep.

I was a cam girl for three months. It’s harder than it looks.

I have been known to occasionally blast music that I think my neighbors will not like to prevent them from wanting to hang out in the backyard area and make a lot of noise. Josh Groban has been the most effective.

I’m not inclined to speak very openly about my thoughts and feelings regarding being a loved one of an alcoholic because I don’t feel like I have the energy to deal with questions and judgements that might ensue. Plus, I have other people’s privacy to think of on that point.

I have the inexplicable urge to tell everyone that I’ve been blogging for 15 years whenever people are discussing blogging. As if having my fifteen year chip means I know better than you do. The truth is I don’t. It just means I remember what blogging was like before advertising took over.

I’ve dabbled in non-monogamy / polyamory but largely have decided it’s not for me.

I’m addicted to message boards.

I have fantasies of being neat and organized, but I have trouble applying that to my real life.

I am a person who both thrives on routine and simultaneously hates it.

I think making random lists of stuff is kinda fun blog fodder. I should do this more often.

And an audience participation question! Is there anything on this list you’d be interested in me elaborating on?

Sad Day in Lace Knitting Land

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I’ve been hitting the needles lately knitting on various things, and one of the things that I was super excited to get started on was the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl using Wollemeise Lace-garn in a beautiful variegated green.

I had actually cast on this project sometime in the spring of 2010, but it got abandoned when I forgot what row I was on and sat in a cloth knitting bag totally forgotten. It then got packed into a warehouse storage unit in Brooklyn for a little over a year, then sat in my apartment for awhile…

I ended up frogging it and starting over this week, reknitted the portion that I’d started, and then as I started knitting more something rather curious started happening. My yarn kept breaking! I didn’t think much of it the first couple of times, but it started happening nearly every row.

Bugs! Bugs had gotten into my yarn and eaten it. How could I have been so careless as to forget to put my woolen knits in progress in plastic bags so the bugs couldn’t get to them!? And it had to have been on a Wollemeise project too.. OH THE HUMANITY!

So, I turned to the lovely ladies on the message boards at Ravelry and they suggested I unwind the ball and see how much yarn actually got damaged and see if I can salvage any of it… I haven’t gotten ambitious enough to do that yet… I’m hoping that it’s minimal. Fingers crossed for me please?

In good news, however… I seem to be making pretty good headway on those socks!

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Darning Needles & Crock Pots

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Ever since James got home from Arizona on Monday, he’s had a one track mind. Crock pots. And how we need to have one…. like now.

I just assumed we were going to go around the corner to the hardware store or the dollar store and buy the standard cheap-ass crock pot and be done with it… but no, he wanted to get a good crockpot from a department store and who would I be to discourage that! He had me look up the nearest location for Bed, Bath and Beyond and we decided that Friday would be the day that we got ourselves up and moving in the morning and go buy our crock pot.

It also so happened that I was in need of a darning needle. I had pretty much finished the first of the pair of socks I’ve been working on Wednesday night and they were stuck on the needles until I got a darning needle to finish them off. So, I decided to look up where the nearest yarn store to where we were going was… which happened to be about twenty blocks north of Bed Bath and Beyond. Close enough to go there first, and then walk the rest of the way. It also happened to be across the street from one of the specialty bra stores that happens to sell my size, so I happened to sort of be familiar with what was around the particular subway stop we were going to… but I also really wasn’t thinking about it that hard.

As we were walking to catch the train, all of the sudden I realized… “Oh shit! We don’t have to go to Bed Bath and Beyond at ALL! We can totally do one better… We can go to.. that store… oh what’s it called… the one that starts with a Z and has the deli on the first floor and the kitchen gadgets on the second floor… What the hell is that place called….”

Zabar’s. It’s called Zabar’s. But of course, I didn’t remember that until I was staring at it on the street.

So first, we went to The Yarn Company and endured the experience of buying a $1 item with an overkill point of sale system and sales tax. My total came to $1.04. I paid $1.05, and honestly… I would have been totally happy with walking out the door one less penny, but the woman behind the counter seemed intent on giving me the one cent I was owed and my receipt but for some reason couldn’t get the register to open… which involved her calling over the other woman working there to figure out how to get the damn thing open. Result? Awkwardly long transaction for something that cost a $1.

As soon as we were out of the store, we were laughing about it and I said, “You know, after it was obvious she was intent on making change I sorta couldn’t bring myself to just walk out… I needed to know how long it was going to take.

But otherwise, good shopping experience. I liked their selection.

We then walked down to Zabar’s. I love Zabar’s. I think a large part of it is their housewares department reminds me of the kitchen store that I used to work at in college only it’s about three or four times as large. It’s one of those places that sells kitchen gadgets for things that you didn’t realize you actually needed a specialty kitchen gadget for. We ended up getting a crock pot, a cookie sheet and some wine stoppers.

And of course, without further ado… The pictures.

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James and The Pot of Crockery.

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The sock, featuring James’ hairy leg.