This was mean’t to be a “smoky-eye”, not, “I got beat up by a sparkly drag-queen”.

The backstory: Rick’s been listening to these “soft-spoken” make-up role-play videos before bed to help him relax. Apparently there’s this whole subculture on YouTube of “soft-spoken”, “whisper” and “relaxing” videos, of which role-playing is a further subculture. It sounds a little spooky and weird on the surface, but it’s actually harmless from what I can tell and listening to them in the evening really does seem to help Rick relax and has become an integral part of his pre-bedtime routine.

Now, since he found these make-up focused videos, he’s gotten it into his head that he knows about make-up. He even knows the names of the different brushes and stuff, so I figured it would be fun to let him have a go at doing my make-up. He was all into it too, and if nothing else it would be a cute way to bond and probably have a good laugh over.

And laugh we did. I tried my best to keep a straight face, but as soon as I felt that big fat brush smearing across the bottom of my eye I knew that Rick was in trouble. The panicked look on his face only reinforced my fears, but he was a trooper and insisted on continuing until my cheeks were highlighted and my teeth caked with lipstick. And while I did have to remove most of it before our friends came over, I was shocked to discover that the upper eye liner was actually pretty much fine.

So no, Rick hasn’t found his true calling, but we did have a good time and a very good laugh.

Comfort Cat by Marjji, porcelain squirrels by Michiko Shimada.

Rémi, Ta-Ta & Morgan keep watch over the bed.

The beautiful, infamous print that Brendan gave us in Vancouver that we had to lug home in a suitcase (with minimal damage ).

For all you fellow Sherlock addicts. WARNING: Contains many spoilers, so if you aren’t caught up on Series 2, wait until you are.

Rick also had great success with his dish, the Chicken and Mushrooms in Garlic White Wine Sauce. He was a little intimidated by taking on three dishes at once, so I helped out with the noodles, but I’m pretty sure in the future he’ll have no trouble at all. His confidence in the kitchen is soaring and he’s becoming quite the little chef.

We didn’t get to the tacos or the pork chops due to a minor meltdown near the end of the week, so I threw the pork chops onto this week’s plan and we’ll take a rain-check on the tacos.

Monday: Vegan Lettuce Wraps
Tuesday: Pad See-Ew – Rick’s Day to Cook
Wednesday: One Pot Rice and Pork Chops
Thursday: Simple Salmon Curry with Steamed Rice & Spinach
Friday: Vegan Chili (with this as a template)

A little smile on a chilly Friday.

Made by: Marcus and Hannes Knutsson.

Regular readers of GamerWife might remember that modular system for creating wall sized pixel art I posted a few months ago called Ixxi. While undoubtedly cool, my one issue with the system was that it seemed a little fiddly with all those brackets and whatnot, as well as the fact that once the picture was in place, that was sort of it, unless you wanted to start wrestling with widgets again.

Then, I saw competing system Pixels XL, which replaces the proprietary brackets with a surface coating system (basically a type of magnetic primer), that allows you to place and replace their coloured magnetic tiles as many times as you like. The tiles come in two sizes, 5×5 cm and 10×10 cm, allowing for increased design creativity. You can even choose from project Bags which contain all the tiles needed for a particular pattern, mix and match colours, or download a PDF with instructions on how to design your own Pixel art from an existing image using Photoshop.

Super neat! They’re adding new colours to their roster all the time, so I’m definitely keeping my eye on this one.

Full disclosure, I actually know the lady behind this awesome art tumblr, but I wanted to bring her to the attention of the rest of you unfamiliar with her work, not to mention exclaim how excited I am that Battle Kittens will soon become a 150 page graphic novel! I can’t wait!

My other note is that leaving out the parmesan from the Rigatoni with Sweet Potato and Oregano meant that it was really missing something. I’ve been racking my brain for something “nutty” to add to add dimension, but for now a liberal dose of salt & pepper seems to do the trick.

Monday: Vegetable Chow Mein (I’ll probably toss in some sautéed tofu as well)

Tuesday: Chicken and Mushrooms in a Garlic White Wine Sauce, served with roasted zucchini & “buttered” egg noodles -Rick’s day to cook

Wednesday: Panko-Crusted Salmon with Green Beans and Smashed Potatoes

Thursday: Smoky Guacamole & Spiced Black Bean Tacos

Friday: One Pot Rice & Pork Chops – An old classic I haven’t made in forever

Gatsby, watching our recent snowstorm.