Making a stroke permanent

[kylebellamy]

I created an oval and applied a Dry Brush style stroke to it. There are a bunch of little bits that I would like to clean up from the dry brush look around the outside.

How so I turn that stroke and oval into a permanent object? I have put a white object over one of the squiggles, selected the oval and the white object and tried pathfinder options but it doesn't want to eliminate the stroke parts, just affects the oval.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

http://www.flickr.com/resurfacing

 

[kylebellamy]

Holy Carp! How did I not know about "Expand Appearance"!?!

Just had a co-worker fill me in on it and I now owe him beer and ribs for that valuable bit of help.

http://www.flickr.com/resurfacing