Tea! Just what the Doctor ordered.

Basically, I’m such a big nerd that I accidentally stayed up until about 4:30 yesterday morning making tea blends based on the first eight Doctors.  Thus:

The First Doctor tea starts off a classic Granddaddy assam, tempered with chestnut and cream, making a surprisingly lovable blend.

The Second Doctor tastes like a safety cling: sweet, whimsical, and a little bit sexy.  Warm and comforting chai spice and vanilla, then packs a little extra ginger punch for good measure.

The Third Doctor, velvet and aikido.  Bright, flamboyant and flirty flavours of cherry, hibiscus, and orange.

The Fourth Doctor would like to know if you’d like a jelly baby.  Raspberry, currant, and pomegranate are evocative of The One With The Scarf’s favourite sweet, foregrounded by serious business black tea.
The Fifth Doctor is precious and understated and just a little bit sassy.  A suitably beige blend of caramel and almond cream tea that pairs wonderfully with celery.
The Sixth Doctor is bold and brilliant, brash and clever secretly a big bowl of snuggles.  Bold chai spice, with undercurrents of surprisingly cuddly hazelnut and vanilla.
The Seventh Doctor is a big bowl of mystery with a special relationship to the letter R.  Dark, roasty yerba mate and rooibos are a little bit nutty, with brighter, warm notes of vanilla and honey.

The Eighth Doctor is sweet and full of love, elicits vast amounts of feels, and is prone to amnesia.  This blend of cherry and almond with a little apricot won’t actually restore your memory, but you’ll feel warm and happy, and as a bonus, you won’t turn you into Zagreus.

If you don't think this is awesome, I don't think we can be friends.

Seriously.  I'm stupidly, ridiculously excited to be taking on this project.  I'm going to knit a Six coat cardigan.  Squee!

For the uninitiated, Six looks like this:



Whoops, how did that picture get there?  What I meant to post was that Six looks like THIS:



And here he is with his long-suffering wife:



And here's the yarn I've ordered from Purl:









And here's the pattern I'm adapting:



Basically, this is the best decision I have ever made.

Not Only Do I Own a Pair of Braces, I've Also Read Piaget

If the title of this post hasn't already made it abundantly clear, I've decided that I really ought to figure out how to pursue becoming a children's television presenter. I'm strange and brightly coloured, and if my one-month-old nephew is any indication, kids think I'm completely awesome. Add to that my slightly comedic-vagabond sense of personal style and the fact that I very nearly minored in psychology, some of which was developmental, and you've got a winning combination, really.

But where, you may well ask, does this all stem from? And if you are asking, my answer would be: the 1970s. Namely, a little program called Vision On, which ran from 1964 to 1976, and is undeniably groovy. Originally conceived as a program geared towards deaf children, it consequently relies very little on spoken dialogue, and only occasionally are spoken words or signs used. Instead, the show is very heavily visual, sometimes incorporating written gags, and employing live action as well as several different animated segments. And claymation.

Those of you who remember the hurricane on the east coast last summer may also remember that I spent hurricane day cooped up indoors with my girlfriend at the time, producing this animated classic:



Admittedly, however, what drew me to the awesomeness of Vision On in the first place was the fact that it starred, among others, a young (and moustachioed!) Sylvester McCoy, who would go on to become the Seventh Doctor. Just look at his little face.



If it were possible, I'd probably bingewatch every episode ever made, but at least there's 9 minutes of it on youtube:

Fourth Friday, Woop!

This past Friday - which was also my birthday, hooray for 28 years of Sami Kelsh - I was invited to participate in downtown Guelph's regular Fourth Friday festivities. The idea behind the event is to host many different cultural happenings in various locations around the city centre. As for me, I was blessed with the opportunity to set up a little art show at the Casual Gourmet on Carden Street. If you're in town, do check them out. They've got some gorgeous kitchen stuff going on, and seriously excellent taste in cheese and crusty bread, nom nom nom.






A friend of mine also asked me to make a video for my birthday. Funny, asking someone to do more work on their special day, but suffice it to say it was a labour of love, with a musical score from the classic Doctor Who serial Tomb Of The Cybermen.



(If it's strange that I just have various musical scores from classic Doctor Who serials on my ipod, I don't want to be normal!)

The really exciting news is that my art is available for viewing at the Casual Gourmet until about the end of June, but if you can't make it in person, there's always prints available on etsy and my website.

My Birthday Is Nearly Upon Us: Suggestions, Hint Hint

If there's one time of year where I suppose one can indulge in a bit more than the usual amount of socially-sanctioned selfishness, it's your birthday, right? As such, since I'm turning 28 in one week's time, here are some things I'd really really really really like. Not that I'm soliciting people to buy me gifts or anything, but you know, if you wanted to gift me all of the things, I probably wouldn't protest too much. Thus:


These sexy wee beasties from bakeallthethings are cake batter blondies with rainbow sprinkles, which combines so many of my favourite things: cake batter (which I confess to sometimes liking more than cake itself); blondies (all the texturey goodness of brownies, but sometimes it just feels really good to do away with chocolate and enjoy something more... pure), and RAINBOW SPRINKLES. Love.


I don't even know if I suit wearing bow ties, but who cares? This one from newtonstreetvintage is so adorable that I'm sure I'll find some way of incorporating it into my wardrobe.


And then there's this laser cat tote bag from daintylibrarian which is, frankly, amazing. Given that I'm as enamoured as I am of science-fiction special effects of decades past, it should come as no surprise that I'd fall in love with a bag that looks like something out of 1980s Doctor Who, or possibly the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation, only vastly improved by the presence of cats.


Speaking of laser cats, there's also this amazeballs print by medusawolf.

It's a unicorn, and it's also a USB drive. Given my love for both mythical creatures AND data storage devices, I clearly kind of need this lovely creature from hemingwayfun to live. It is a thing of beauty.


Frazer Hines. Yep, I'd like Frazer Hines for my birthday. He's a handsome and clever chap. We could drink gin and watch videos, it would be a nice birthday party.

And my world just went and got a little bit nerdier.

Those of you who have had the questionable fortune of speaking to me for more than ten minutes are probably more than aware that I have an unnaturally intense love for: a) Doctor Who; and b) knitting. As such, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to discover that Lalla Ward, who played the lovely companion Romana II for some time during Tom Baker's tenure as the Doctor, went on to write two ridiculously adorable knitting books, which I may or may not have ordered from Amazon for like four dollars today. The first, Fowl Knits, features an array of bird-themed jumpers, some of which are also modelled by fellow Doctor Who actress Louise Jameson:

I wonder what Leela would have thought of that dodo number? It's a far cry from what she was wearing in the TARDIS, to be sure:

I haven't seen anything but the cover of the second book, Beastly Knits, but the sheer whimsical kitsch of the cat jumper has convinced me that it will be worth the $4 I spent for these books on Amazon:

I do, after all, enjoy cat jumpers. Remember that time I bought this from prettysnake?
And it's basically the sexiest thing I own.