The hat pattern from my last post is finally ready! I wasted a lot of time thinking up a name before I realized that there could only have been one name for it, really, so it is named after Guinan. Here is why:

Yeah, I don't really intend to wear it this way, but if other people do, I promise not to judge them to their faces. Otherwise I think it's pretty cute (when worn like a normal person and not Whoopi), and it's dead easy to execute.

Here it is, looking like a cookie:

So, that's done but it's not all. Remember this?

Well, now it has THIS!

Yep, I sewed a liner up in this mother. I am very proud of this, because I had no idea what I was doing when I slapped it together. Oh, and it is slapped indeed. I'll have to remember to post up a status report after a day of carting around my normal purse contents. You know, makeup, wallet, three bottles of water and ten pounds of pennies. Oh, and my car keys. I machine sewed the liner itself and then hand sewed (hence the crapness) it into the bag.

This concludes the craft portion of this post. Coming up: dork portion.

Now see, Washington DC is famous for its cherry blossoms. Every year citizens look forward to the beauty of the flowering trees and the cultural education of the accompanying Cherry Blossom Festival. It is very Japanese and thus cool.

But there is a wild fringe element. These few look forward to dressing up like the only Japanese subject they care about: anime characters. (And maybe having Kanji tattoos. Or more likely just T-shirts written in Japanese.)

That big one totally wants to cut me with his cardboard sword.

Seriously, though one out of every four attendees was dressed like the specimens above, or in really badly tied and styled kimono (complete with inappropriate makeup & hair chopsticks).

Which is fine, for as long as you make me laugh (at you), you are redeemed. But do you have to inflict this on the animals? Won't somebody think of the animals?!