The Newlyweds

Um.... We're married!

What a crazy mad blur it was. We walked down the aisle to the song"excuses" by the morning benders. He came wandering out at the beginning of the song, when it sounds like a lot of searching and waiting, and then, the drums! so many drums. When the strings come in, is when I come out of hiding and start walking down the aisle.  It was the song we listened to when we were falling in love. and from now on, whenever I hear this song, I'll get nervous butterflies in my stomach:

Franklin's best friend Justin got ordained online to marry us (he's the one in the picture above). He wrote the ceremony for us, and it was AWESOME (and of the secular variety). My sister was my maid of honor, and she did a reading for us in the middle of the ceremony. We wanted something kinda quirky and different? We searched for weeks, and finally found the perfect reading. It's a science fiction love poem called "Scientific Love" written by livejournal user Tim_Pratt (which is utterly perfect, because Franklin & I met on livejournal, and it's played a pretty huge role in our relationship). Click here for the poem. The part about zombies nearly made me cry, haha. Seriously.

 We had Justin end the ceremony with a quote from the book Big Sur, by Jack Kerouac. We really wanted to work Kerouac in there somewhere, haha. and it fit so perfectly.

“On soft Spring nights I'll stand in the yard under the stars - Something good will come out of all things yet - And it will be golden and eternal just like that - There's no need to say another word.”
― Jack Kerouac, Big Sur
As he was reading, the music kicked in again. It was "Untitled" by Neutral Milk Hotel. A great buzzing, building up behind the words of Kerouac, and when the bagpipes start up, we kiss. Ahhhh....  like some sort of a ghostly & magical dream:


And that's all for now! More wedding posts to come, though! with all the pictures of the details and decorations. So much to go over, I couldn't fit it all in one post!

-Elizabeth

Wedding Planning is crazy stuff!

Hello, world! We haven't really made anything lately 'cause all our time and money has been going to planning our wedding which is coming up really fast. The end of April! So much to do before then, ahhh!!!

I figured, just because we're consumed by this wedding planning stuff, doesn't mean we should COMPLETELY neglect our blog! So I'm gonna start updating more regularly, only, pretty much ALL of my posts from now until mid-May are going to be wedding related, most likely. After that, we should be back on track. Working on music & fixing up our bikes and possibly maybe finding a new place to live - this place was HUGE when we didn't have any furniture, haha. Now it's starting to feel a little cramped :/

Anyway, onto wedding stuff!

I made invitations to send out to the people that haven't RSVP'd already, and people that we don't keep in contact with regularly enough to relay all those important tidbits of information to, like what TIME it's at! haha. I had almost forgotten. So anyway, with the invitations, I repeated elements that were in the save the dates I made a few months ago, and I really wanted them to be shaped like Washington. They were printed on cardstock, scored, folded & hand-cut by yours truly. What a pain in the neck!

Do you like my fancy blur-out-the-detail skills? I just get paranoid sometimes, is all! haha. Now I just have to remember to drop them in the mailbox tomorrow. Such a small step, but so crucial! I wish I wasn't so horrible at putting things in the mailbox, haha.

More wedding planning junk to follow soon,
-Elizabeth

New Song #2

So we've been watching this documentary on netflix called "Ancient Aliens"
So we wrote a song about them.

It's called "White Blue Super Giant"



Elizabeth:
Singing Stuff
Glockenspiel

Franklin:
Ukulele
Drum Stuff

Click here for the lyrics


-Franklin

Get Cookin': Katsu Don!

Sorry about the long stretch without any updates, everyone! We keep starting projects that we don't finish, so we haven't had anything new to post. We have a couple songs in the making right now, though, so keep an eye out! We just need to polish them up a bit and make videos for 'em now.

I just had my birthday last Sunday, and it was met with the worst news ever: My favorite Japanese restaurant (which was only a ten minute drive from my house) had closed for good just a few days before. This saddened me greatly. Where would I get my katsu-don fix?! Even though I grew up in Japan, I've always been really intimidated to even try my hand at Japanese Cuisine, because it seemed so easy to mess up. Fortunately for me, Franklin is all about diving into new cooking adventures head-on, and that night, he made me katsu-don. Man oh man oh man. It was perfect. It tasted just like it does in Japan. Sigh! and I've made him make it every night since, haha.

Here's the recipe he used:

KATSU DON: (2 servings)
Ingredients:
2 pork cutlets
panko
flour (mixed with a little salt & pepper to your liking)
1 medium onion
3 eggs
2 tbsp each of soy sauce, mirin & sake (you can use white cooking wine in place of sake)
A few tbsp of canola oil for pan frying the cutlets (He added a little sesame oil to lighten the taste a bit)
Cooked rice

Directions:
-Dredge pork cutlets in flour. Beat 1 egg. Dip flour-coated pork cutlets in egg, and then coat with panko breading. Heat oil in skillet, and fry those pork cutlets on medium heat until cooked thoroughly! (when finished, set aside on a plate with a couple paper towels to soak up that extra grease)
-Chop onion into strips. Heat soy sauce, mirin & sake in skillet. Add the chopped up onions and cook until they're nice & soft.
-Place the breaded pork cutlets on top of the onions as they simmer with the sauce. Lightly beat the remaining two eggs, and pour on top of the cutlets. Immediately cover with lid, and continue simmering on medium low until the eggs are cooked thoroughly.
-Fill your bowls with rice, and scoop up the cutlet with onions underneath, and lay it atop the rice. Don't forget to add that simmering sauce to your rice for extra awesomeness! oh, yum :)

Sigh! just thinking about it is making me hungry again! Ahhh, I'm gonna get so fat.
Anyway, yes! If you've never had katsu don, you're missing out. So try it!!! Oh! also, you can add (and should!) add finely chopped green onions to this, but we didn't have any handy so we went without.

-Elizabeth

Lapel Pins, Galore!

For the past few months, my free time has been consumed by perfecting my lapel pins. I went through so many different processes and materials before I finally found one that worked, and made me go "ahhh, yes. THIS IS IT!" It took me long enough.

S & P is for Stoic & Pariah! .... and salt & pepper, too, I guess. Lucky coincidence.

I'm still making more, but I figured an Etsy shop with 8 listings was a decent start. Check it out, and bookmark it, so you can buy stuff when you're stumped and don't know what to buy your best friend for her birthday! haha.

Oh, I almost forgot... HERE'S THE LINK: http://www.etsy.com/shop/stoicandpariah !!!

 -Elizabeth

Crafty 101: Retro Ornaments

This is Stoic & Pariah's first ever tutorial. Yes! In all honesty, I made these decorations for a Hanukkah party, but I figured they're versatile enough that you guys could make 'em for New Year's, too! or, whatever else you wanna make them for. I'm thinking of leaving these up all winter, 'cause they make me so happy, haha.

Onward, to the tutorial!

you will need:
   - sheets of cardstock in the color(s) of your choice. one sheet = one ornament
   - a ruler
   - scissors
   - stapler

Okay. so first, you'll wanna cut your sheet into seven strips.
Each strip measures 1 inch wide, and you'll need to
cut them into the following lengths:

11 inches (x2)
9 inches (x2)
7 inches (x2)
6 inches (x1)

That 6-inch strip is going to be the center strip of your ornament.
Which brings me to the next step!

Next step, arrange the strips into the following order:
11 - 9 - 7 - 6 - 7 - 9 -11

Then, stack them up, one on top of the other,
keeping them aligned at the bottom edge.

With one hand, pinch the aligned ends together so they don't get jostled. With your free hand, staple those suckers together! You'll want the staple to go in about 1/3 of an inch away from the edge, but you can staple it further in if you like it more pointy at the top!

After that first staple, you'll want to align the edges on the other side. Kind of a tricky endeavor, but you'll get the hang of it. Then staple that side too. and, you're done!

SO EASY TO MAKE, and super cheap, too! I personally like the ornaments to keep a sort of monochromatic color scheme, but you can switch up the colors of the strips within each ornament. I've seen some that use those decorative sheets of scrapbook paper, and it turns out pretty sweet. You can also vary the sizes. Just make sure the largest strip is two inches bigger than the second largest strip, which is 2 inches bigger than the next size down, which is one inch bigger than the middle strip. Uhh... you might need to read that sentence about ten times before it makes any sense, haha.

The most fun part, I think, is hanging them all from the ceiling with fishing line!
Anyway, yes. Have fun with this!

-Elizabeth

Laundry Day

This will be our first video game ever.  It will (tentatively) be called "Laundry Day".  It will be about, yep, you guessed it, doing laundry.  Exciting I know.

 

But check out the video footage of what we have so far.  Elizabeth did all of the artwork, I did some of the game scripting, and we both did the music.

Keep in mind, we JUST started on this, so it is nowhere near complete.  Just what we have so far.

Enjoy!

-Franklin