grouchy frog

Whew

2006-02-13T21:30:00.000-10:00

A few weeks ago I managed to get off my lazy behind and jump into this swap:

Ohhhhh, fun cyberlove from other crafty gals!!! Racy. Today was the deadline to send out the package and I juuuuuust made it. Pretty lame of me because I work IN THE POST OFFICE BUILDING (not to yell or anything). I just hope Susan likes what I picked out. It should be making its way around the world to Kuwait, hope it doesn't take too too long.

By the way, happy uncommercial Valentine's Day! No actually I like the commercialness but only in the form of the fun candy and cookies and other special foods. The pricey flowers I can do without.

Postcard love

2006-02-06T21:30:00.000-10:00

What a super surprise! Even though I was too late to sign up for the swap, Myra sent some postcard love my way--too sweet! Can't wait to see the rest of the wicked awesome postcards when they're...posted.

Blackberry daifuku

2006-01-24T20:15:00.000-10:00

Before

After

My semi-failed experiment. I originally intended to attempt to make ichigo daifuku or strawberry rice cake (strawberry surrounded by an (sweet red bean paste) covered with sweetened mochi (rice cake)) but when I went to the supermarket blackberries were on sale--strawberry, blackberry, same same. Riiiiiiiiiight. Anyhoo, it was a very messy process thanks to the an and the sticky mochi. I didn't post pictures of the an covered blackberry balls because they were just too ugly (rhymes with loo). By the time I finished wrapping all the blackberries in the sticky mochi I ended up with only about three presentable ones. Awesome. We tasted tested them--survey says: sour. And I'm not a fan of the hard little blackberry seeds. Oh well. Maybe I should have tried the blueberries that were also on sale.

Look at the super fantastic stamps that are on sale at the Post Office! I'm not very familiar with Maisy and Olivia but the others--favorites! And I thought the Muppet* stamps were the bee's knees.

*Side note--old news but looks like there's a Dark Crystal sequel in the works. I think the original is a frickin' scary movie for little kids but maybe that's just me (it still creeps me out).

Midseason Hiatus

2006-01-24T20:14:00.000-10:00

Super belated holiday greetings! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season--we're still enjoying it with our undying tinsel Christmas tree (which oddly sheds its "needles"). On a side note, why do manufacturers make the top branch of a fake tree so disproportionately long? Weird.

The only crafting I've done this season are two sweater ornaments from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Initially I'd hoped to make a bunch of sweaters as little gifts but I started them too late (I finished these two after Christmas) and almost killed my left ring finger in the process. Something about the way I hold the needles, thought the numbness in my finger would never go away.

As a present to myself I "accidentally" bought this piece of art right before Christmas. I got caught up in the excitement of the Amy Ruppel sale and I ended up getting Collision. This isn't the first time I got caught up in a money spending frenzy (the last time involved a tipsy me, ebay, and some pretty turquoise stones). But I'm so glad I bought it, it makes me happy even though it's tucked away until I can find it a proper home. Such a sweet chubby little bird.

Cookies

2005-12-12T22:33:00.000-10:00

I jumped on the Christmas cookie bandwagon so spent this past Saturday baking and decorating some gingerbread babies! Actually I was supposed to help my mom bake and decorate but she was feeling under the weather so I decided to bake them for her. After I decided to do it I realized that the only Christmas cookie cutters I have are a couple of star ones circles and a tree...great. I did have a santa one but didn't feel like decorating Mr. Claus. Ended up making mostly snowflakes and trees, I like the trees because of the little star tree topper.

The boy's sister mentioned how she hates baking cookies and I can see why she feels that way. I haven't made cut-out cookies in FOREVER...probably because it feels like it takes FOREVER to roll and cut them out. In the end I figured out that rolling them thicker and a bit chewier was way easier than making gingersnaps.

Spherey

2005-12-06T20:25:00.000-10:00

Hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving--we did! Fun times in sunny (and semi-chilly) SoCal--the OC to be exact. Got to visit the super cuddly, super adorable, super spit-uppy nephew!!! My favorite was when he spit up, rubbed his face in it and laughed--how did he know?!

As part of our thank you to our wonderful welcoming hosts (nephew and parents) I made Spherey from Jess Hutch's cute and kooky knitted toy book. Finally! A finished knitted thing other than a scarf, not that I don't love me a nice long scarfy knit. But there's something fun and so happy about a knitted toy...especially one that makes noise.

I wanted to put a squeaky thing in Spherey and crinkle stuff in the arms and legs but I couldn't figure out the crinkle stuff (stiff cellophane might have worked but that doesn't seem very baby safe). Plus I couldn't find a squeaky thing (does anyone know where to find noisemakers?) so I ended up taking apart another toy to get to its lemon sized tinkly noisemaker and stuffing it Spherey--hope it didn't hurt!

Spherey likes to hang out with his jabong friends--he almost blends in.

He's a little wonky and not at all symmetrical--just like his mama! If you look not that carefully you'll notice the scar on his forehead--he got it when he was running around the house and slipped on a comic book his mama told him to put away.

Guess there's a reason we're supposed to listen to our moms.

Wasting time

2005-11-16T21:48:00.000-10:00

Last week at class the only thing I managed to finish was this pair of earrings--and just the wire part. How lame! It didn't take very long, I'm not sure what I'm doing the rest of the time. I added the beads when I came home. They might be a present but I'm not sure if she'd wear it. We'll see if I get more done tomorrow night.

Thought I'd throw in a random picture--this is what I would see on my walk to and from my work parking lot if I looked up more often. I just noticed the hole in the flag, kind of ratty tatty. The picture was taken during summer--the sky isn't so purdy now, recently it's been dark and overcasty when we go home.

Practicing for Thanksgiving...sort of

2005-11-14T20:10:00.000-10:00

Recently I've been carving up some lino/rubber/silicon block thingamabobbers to make my own stamps. It's like taking a ride on an emotional kiddie rollercoaster--ridiculous, but that's me. Starting out I'm giddy, so full of hope and then those feelings come tumbling down when I realize--I carved too much here, there, everywhere. NUTS! Mostly I'm referring to the bird in the tree. The bird's eyeball is too far back, like an alien, and then I forgot to leave a wing somewhere on the bird. Ah well. The boy said the smaller stamps looks like Hieroglyphics but I'm guessing he meant just the bird one. The car and key not so much.

Even though it took me an absurd amount of time coming up with these images and I'm running out of ideas (and carving material), I'm really liking this carving thing (we'll see if I'm still into it after I nick myself).

McElligot's Pool

2005-11-03T07:22:00.000-10:00

This is a children's book I bought at a library sale a few weeks ago--McElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss. I'd never seen or heard of this book before but I liked the story: young kid fishing in a tiny trash pond thinking that maybe he'll catch something really neat (even though some Debbie Downer farmer tells him to give it up).

I started to read the book...

When--what the f?!--a bunch of pages were torn out of the book! Oh, you cannot believe how p.o.'ed I was--I'm still miffed!

So I guess now I'm going to have to buy another book--I need to know what's on those missing pages! I could just borrow one from the library...but I'm really into the book so I'd like my own copy. It's a good book (from what I can read of it).

On a tanget...I don't think Niecy received my package yet but here's the finished scarf from the Kool Aid dyed yarn:

It's a bit short, I should have gotten a third skein...

Breaking up the pink

2005-11-01T22:54:00.000-10:00

Just a little something to break up all the pink/red tones I've been posting recently. It's like a glass flower cameo bead thing I got on Maui. I debated what to do with it and thought about a pendant but that was a little boring, so was setting on a ring the long way. Turns out it looks like a platter on my finger when I put it on.

Finally sent out the package of winning goods to Myra, I'd post one of the items but it's pink and would contradict this post :)

The winning pumpkin

2005-10-31T20:44:00.000-10:00

Cool! We carved a pumpkin for the boy's office pumpkin carving contest and won! I didn't think we actually had a chance since we used a shhhhh....stencil. But apparently there were others who carved the pumpkin at work using stencils and...power tools! Cheaters. We can smell our own. Although we just used the stencils--we didn't have the power tools. Just those crappy little safety saws that come with the carving kit, the saw version of those kiddie safety scissors. But they did their job so I shouldn't rag on them. The boy thinks it won because of the gimmicky white pumpkin and super cool color changing light (that came with the carving kit--hehe).

I thought he should have done his first idea--he wanted to make it look like a baseball (using red yarn for the stitches) since it's World Series season. In my mind I added the carved words World Series or Red Sox after they won. Maybe next year.

So I finally caved and went running tonight but mostly I was hoping that some nice person would see me struggling and give me some sympathy candy--I need energy dammit! That actually did happen to my friend and I one Halloween--and we weren't even running. We were walking...around a flat neighborhood. Good times.

Hope everyone had a fun night--lots of candy and not too much traffic.

Birthday twins

2005-10-26T22:55:00.000-10:00

Happy happy birthday to my mom and the boy and my punk brother!!! The birthday twins are my mom and the boy (crazy eh?), my brother is born a few days before. So weird, my good pal and I are also born on the same day.

Tried to trick my dad into taking us all out for dinner tonight but that didn't work out so I took the boy out to dinner...totally overate--everything was so tasty. And he got a birthday brulee, bonus! The family birthday dinner is on Friday. Food fest redeux, I can't wait!

Anyway, just wanted to wish them all an awesome day (even though it's over) and an even better year. Kisses!!!

And the winner is....

2005-10-24T18:25:00.000-10:00

Myra! Woo-hoo, way to name that quote! I don't get tired of watching Steel Magnolias (and Shawshank Redemption, I can totally watch cable tv's back to back showings of it). The boy is oddly tolerant of it too.

Today was a short day at work, I got off early today to get my hair lopped off--hello bangs and thinner hair! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it before I ran into the shower. So when I'd get a haircut as a kid my mom would have me shower when I got home. I was all for it, sharp little pieces of cut hair sticking every which way out of my shirt, constantly poking, poking, poking--was enough to drive the rotten little monster that I was even more crazy. Anyway, I still run to the shower as soon as I get home from a haircut. A waste of styling money but I haven't gotten much better at tolerating the itchy bits of hair in my clothes. Not only that but hair bits stuck to my face. Bah! So it's always shower time after a haircut. I guess I could take a picture of it now except it's all wangoes.

Poor neglected blog

2005-10-24T18:23:00.000-10:00

I'm such a bad blog mama, if this were a kid or a dog I'd be in buckets of trouble! Maybe that's why I'm not allowed pets...buggah. And for all the weeks I've been away I haven't really got anything to show for it except slightly elevated blood pressure (thanks wedding planning!) and some pieces of jewelry and knitting.

The main vendors for the wedding are booked, the only problem I had (blood pressure rising just thinking about it) was booking the stylist--at first she said she was available so I quickly sent her a deposit but a few days later she said she wouldn't be available. Mostly I was miffed (okay, more than miffed, I was like the Hulk--scary) because she didn't tell me right away but eh, I booked another gal so it's okay (blood pressure returning to normal, green color fading, raggy clothes...still raggy). One of my past times is working myself into a tizzy--it's one of the things I do really really well--especially at work.

So I did manage to squeeze my way into the fall jewelry class and here's the first piece I finished (actually it's the piece I was supposed to be working way back at the beginning of summer but I didn't have the stones). I sewed a little draw string baggie for it--sending it in a plastic baggie did not appeal to me.

The ring looks familiar, eh? Similar to this ring but with different stones. My friend's sister-in-law asked if I'd make her a similar ring with her and her daughters' birthstones. I couldn't get the actual birthstones so they're all the same stone, just different colors. Shuckies.

Back in September I spent a whole lot of time scouring the Internet for the perfect light pink yarn for a birthday scarf. Couldn't find the color/softness/thick-thinness, it's like waiting for the stars to align or something. I finally found some natural colored yarn from ArtFibers and decided to dye it using the Kool-Aid method. It was really easy, it just smelled weird (lemonade and wet alpaca/wool does not smell like roses). I wanted the yarn to be a nice even color but it turned out to be ...not even. And brighter than I wanted. I used this neat scarf pattern from Sheep in the City. It's finished, I just need to weave in the ends. The boy said he doesn't think he'd like the scarf as much if it were a solid pink, he likes the variegation. It's not for him though (heehee, pink's not his color), I hope the birthday girl likes it...when she gets it.

Looking at this whole post, "my colors are blush and bashful"..."her colors are pink and pink."* I really like pink and all but I feel the need to branch out and throw in some other colors, break up the monotony.

*First to guess the movie and I'll send you a little somethin' somethin', just 'cause :)

Summer (class) is over

2005-08-29T21:53:00.000-10:00

Spent the last summer jewelry class eating and finishing up some little projects. So sad, no more marathon Sunday sessions but at least I get my full weekend back. Hehe, lounging is a nice alternative to class (although not a very productive one).
Here's a ring I put together in the last few minutes of class--two former sticky wax rings plus a former sticky wax birdie. Wanted to do something non-charmy with the little bird and thought the "organic" rings would make nice branches. The rings aren't connected so when taken apart the ring with the bird kind of looks like a bird tiara.

Here's a soft focus picture of me wearing the impractical birdie ring, the chubby bird makes me smile. Soft focus rocks--reminds me of the Elizabeth Taylor commercial for Whiiiiiite Diiiiamond.

This other ring was cast (same time as the bird and other rings), also not very practical but not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. Makes me think of the Flintstones.

Hopefully I'll start up fall classes in a week or two--fingers crossed! I haven't signed up yet and am pretty certain the class is already full. If they haven't changed their policy I can sneak in the class because I'm a returning student, if I can't sneak in--THEY SUCK! Hahaha, I keed! I'll just be really bummed.

When the schnecken beckons...*

2005-08-24T20:55:00.001-10:00

...I come a bakin'. I went on a cinnamon bun tear this past weekend making two different cinnamon bun recipes, both from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. The first was for Norwegian cinnamon buns (forgot to take snaps of them), the results leaning toward the dry side (dry as in not ooey and gooey) and not looking at all like the picture in the book. The cut sides of the buns didn't have the sharp, defined edges of the book's buns (hehe), my dough was very very loose and sticky, but the end bread product had a nice light texture (maybe it's not supposed to be light and fluffy but I liked it).

The book shows a picture of the Norwegian cinnamon buns but not the schneckens, I wonder if it's because seeing them all at once is a bit gross eh? Anyway, the schnecken is so deliciously gooey and UNdry thanks to the syrup that's produced when baking the buns. The presyrup is a mixture of A LOT of butter, sugar, maple syrup and corn syrup divided between 12 muffin tins. The cinnamon buns are placed, one in each muffin tin and baked--butter mixture melting, producing the syrup and overflowing onto the oven floor. Greeeeeeeeeat. Stinky burning butter. That's my own fault, I'm not so smart more often than not.
Anyhoo, I was very happy with the cinnamony, gooey result of the schnecken. I think it could have handled more kneading but I was impatient.

A fruit of my labor.

I'd write the recipes but I'm sure if it violates copyright, I live in fear of copyright violations--sort of.

*What movie was this from? It's an easy one--ah hahahahahahaha!!!

Crazy coconuts

2005-08-15T23:40:00.000-10:00

Felt like making something tonight...something I could decorate, nothing hard. Decided to zhuzz up a box of yellow cake mix. Was thinking at first of Watergate pistacio cupcakes but went with coconut cupcakes with seven minute frosting. I wasn't sure if I liked the cupcakes better with or without the shredded coconut topping but I decided to do all of them with the flakes since they kind of looked bald without the coconut.

Hehe, I don't think all the sugar dissolved in the frosting but I didn't figure this out until I finished icing all the cupcakes and dumped out the extra frosting in the sink. Ohh, gritty. Nice, adds texture. Hahaha.

I just followed the recipe on the box--3 eggs, 1/3 c. oil and instead of 1 1/4 c. of water I substituted 3/4 c of unsweetened coconut milk and 1/2 c water. And about 1 c of sweetened shredded coconut. Bake as directed. I think it can go a little bit more coconutty, use a little more milk and less water. Since this was a test I erred on the safe side, didn't want it to taste like tanning oil. Ew. We'll see if my co-workers eat it--the boy seemed to like it, he already ate two unfrosted. (I'm afraid that the frosting will be too overwhelming but too late now!)

5 Things Meme:

2005-08-14T22:57:00.000-10:00

5 albums on your iPod--don't have one of these new fangled devices (I don't even have my own computer, how's that?! hehe!) so I'll just put what's playing in my head:

Love.Music.Angel.Baby (Cool)--Gwen Stefani
American Idiot (Wake me up when September ends)--Green Day
These words--Natasha Bedingfield
Can't think of any other songs/albums right now...if anyone's noticed these are the videos playing on VH1 in the morning before we go to work.

5 movies you've seen recently (taken off our Netflix queue):

A Very Long Engagement--I liked it, it was like a bloody Amelie but I didn't catch everything, I'll have to read the book or something.
Million Dollar Baby--I didn't want to see this movie but what I saw of it was okay (I had already read about the ending so I skipped that part).
Miss Congeniality 2--eh.
Dear Frankie--not bad, I really liked the kid in this movie.
Bride and Prejudice--my first Bollywood film, I have to say I skipped over a lot of the singing.

5 nice things that happened to you lately:

My guy making making me a thermos of tea for work (I'm cheating, he does it everyday)
My guy buying me Andy Capp hot fries--woo hoo! Regional junk food that has finally made its way to our lil' island (even though I had some in Maui, how'd they get it before us?!).
Receiving yummy biscotti and sweet card in the mail from DP--chocolate and nuts, I'm super digging it!
A sweet friend was willing to starve a little so that we could keep our lunch date.
All the wonderful compliments on the ring!

5 MP3s on your playlist--none so I'm going with magazines:

Martha Stewart
Food
ReadyMade
Real Simple
Celebrity gossip (my lil' guilty pleasure, I'm cheating, it's more a whole bunch of trashy mags but I mainly like makeover/before/after article/pictures)

A coworker asked me what my interests are...I'm still trying to figure that out. Doesn't seem to be movies or music from what I listed. I think I spend too much time watching tv, and not even good stuff--infomercials! They're hypnotic...especially that stupid alumaloy infomercial.

Tagged, I'm it!

2005-08-11T22:04:00.000-10:00

Myra tagged me with 5 Things Meme--sweet! But now I have to reveal to the world how unhep I am. Hehe, like it's a secret...but yeah, I'm going to have to tweek the list a bit since I have no iPod and have no MP3 playlist (well, I have no updated playlist, my list is at least three years old--I haven't added to it since).

A pal today mentioned that she was waffling between getting hot dog on a stick or a won ton soup for lunch. Why the indecision?! Hot dog on a stick man! Always. I wonder if I can persuade the boy to take me to the mall to get some for dinner tomorrow night. And while we're there we can check out the pets while we're at the mall. Yay!

Whoa, I just read the Hot dog on a Stick website and they cater! Hello deep fried wedding reception! Would go well with the cotton candy machine the boy wants at the reception.

The extent of my craftiness

2005-08-10T23:02:00.000-10:00

Slackersville, population me. I haven't been doing much crafting before and since we've been back from our vacation--a month ago! The only time I get anything done is in class and that's only jewelry. I wanted to sign up for a printmaking class for the fall semester but the only one available during the evenings is a monoprint class. I thought the point of printmaking was to be able to reproduce a piece...I'm probably wrong but for me if I put any time into an image I'd like to get more than one print out of it. End of gripe.

Made these two little bags for birthday rings, took me a lot longer than I thought it would be eh, whatever. I used little pearls for the buttons cause I don't have any cute little buttons, the ghetto button holes I have no excuse for. As you can see I need to practice sewing but I was happy with them.

The ring on the left was cast from a sticky wax mold. When I first cast it I was horrified at how ugly it came out but after hammering it into a ring shape, sanding and polishing it it grew on me and now I like it. The ring on the ~~left~~ right was forged and has a ruby set in it. I'm still in the really really early stages of learning to set stones in that manner.

Then I got sick of setting those stones (I'd already done four, I kind of needed a breather) so I finished this ring. I was originally going to use the pearl as an earring (I have a sort of matching pink pearl) but decided it would be better in this ring. Guess that means that I can make another ring link this...or maybe something else.

Haunted mango

2005-08-10T22:59:00.000-10:00

Not a mango that's haunting someone but a ghost haunting a mango. I wonder if there's such a thing.

So across the street from our work parking lot is a really old church/cemetery (for Hawaii anyway, I'm guessing about late 1800's but I'm just guessing). The headstones and grave markers are laid pretty willy nilly and among the graves are a few large mango and plumeria trees. Whenever mangos are in season (they're ripening now) I drool over the fruit in the cemetery and my guy and I always laugh that if we ever picked the cemetery fruit we'd be haunted by ghosts. Plus how creepy is that? Eating fruit that could have possibly gotten its nutrients from dead people--okay, I know I'm a dingbat for thinking that there might be any nutrients left from, you know, the cemetery's residents--but just the thought...

Anyhoo the other day we couldn't believe it--a hobo bum guy was climbing a headstone to knock some mangos off the tree. Ohhhhhhhhhh....HAUNTED! I mean come on, I know the guy must be hungry but there are a lot of other places to get free mangos--like the side of the freeway for example. A few weeks ago we saw some crazies stopped on the freeway shoulder lane picking mangos from an overhanging tree! DANGER, DANGER! Saftey is obviously not a major concern of these people. But back to the hobo...I wonder if he got a stomach ache after he ate the mangos. I mean that's the least I would do if I haunted a mango someone happened to eat.

Expos

2005-07-31T22:21:00.000-10:00

This weekend marks the second in a row that I've been to a expo at the Blaisdell. Last weekend was the vintage/antique show and I tricked my sister into buying this vintage dress and bag of circle fabric things. I tried on the dress and it makes me look pregnant and very broad. It looks cute off though. If we weren't so camera shy I'd post a picture of me and my guy in our orange 70's outfits (he's got an orange 70's-esque aloha shirt).

I'm trying to figure out another use for these round fabric things, the lady selling them said they used to make rugs and maybe even quilts with them.

This past weekend we went to the wedding expo. Wow. I wanted to fly through the whole thing but halfway through I figured out (it took me that long to figure out) that I'd better get my money's worth and actually stop and look at things instead of just picking up brochures. So we went back and looked at a bunch of photographers' albums--I have to say I was most sucked in by people who had the gimmicky albums. I'm a sucker for gimmicks, the album I was intrigued with was almost like a popup book (pages with foldout panels) but no fun turning wheel things or pull tabs. I think that'd be even better. That's about it, lots of photographers, oh and we really liked the local winery so I think we might make our own wine for the wedding. Way to stay in budget.

Hodgepodge

2005-07-31T21:50:00.000-10:00

Too lazy to go write a separate post for everything so BLAM! Some shots of the goods I bought on the trip, didn't get to upload everything--thanks Flickr! There are also some jewelry pieces I've done so far this summer. The two rings are going to my July birthday pals, the birdie pendant was an experiment--I've been wanted to combine fiber and metal into pieces, I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about the experiment. Dumdum that I am I've misplaced the pendant--d'oh!

I've been really into summer fruit this year so when I saw plums and nectarines on sale for super cheap I picked up a silly 2lb+ of each despite crazy looks from my guy (he does the face so often it's lost its meaning--teach him to use it so much!). Found a recipe for a tart at Frog Hollow Farm. It turned out not bad--I added cinnamon to the crust and divided the crust into 9 x 9 inch sq and six muffin tins. Had to make one and a half times the filling, guess I could have just done the square pan.

Curse you Flickr!!!!

2005-07-26T23:16:00.000-10:00

Thought I'd be super smart and post all my trip purchases on Flickr. Stinkin' thing only allows for 20mb of uploading per month--what's that about?!!! Uploaded about 16 shots and I already reached my limit. Hehe, I guess I could have used a lower resolution for the pictures...and read the whole 20mb thing before I started uploading. Curses! Oh well.

This is a baby blanket I finished for for our new nephew--it took me fricking forever to sew two pieces of fabric together and add binding. WHY?!! Probably because of the super soft minkee fabric, it's oh so lovely, so soft and cuddly. But a stinker to work with. I remember promising myself not to use it again after finishing a quilt for a friend but my memory isn't that good and I forgot my promise to myself. Stupid. Well it's finished and not super hideous. Babies don't care right?

I also wanted to make him a silver baby spoon. I dragged my guy to Tiffany's to check out their baby spoons and saw that they have images on the handles--cute! Who'd have thunk it? Hehe, apparently not silly me. I liked this one but I'd rather have a motorcycle or Kikaida on the handle (the dad was/is a Kikaida fan and likes to ride/race motorcycles). I'll take a stab at a motorcycle spoon but when I think about it, what's the point of a silver baby spoon? So odd.

Vacation break

2005-07-18T22:47:00.000-10:00

Haven't taken any shots of my booty yet...hehe, not that kind of booty, this is NOT that kind of blog! I have taken a bunch of not so good shots of a couple rings I made last week in class. How exciting, I just learned a new stone setting technique so guess how many same-same-ish rings I've since last week? Four. I'm kind of sick of making them but practice practice, and believe me I need the practice.

These two (same rings, different poses) are sapphires, the one on the right is light green set in a square-ish ring, the other is blue/violet set in a round ring. Hard to tell though.

Is it me or do the ring poses remind anyone of these guys. The pose, the almost identical look (okay, not identical but you know, the shirts, the smile, two eyes, a nose and hair, they could be third or fourth cousins at least!)...hmmmm, I shouldn't make fun, they might kick me off of Blogger and revoke my email account.

The Great Northwest

2005-07-14T22:12:00.000-10:00

After a sweltering good time in Chicago we headed home via Seattle/Vancouver/Portland. Ah lovely reliable overcast-cool weather, how I miss it! It was actually gorgeous on July 4th in Seattle--sunny and hot--the rest of the time it was typical northwest weather. Gray (not a bad thing to me since I actually didn't mind the gloom when I was at UW).

I gotta say we had just as much good food and fun in the northwest as we did in Chicago, maybe even more since we were in such good company! Big ol' hugs, kisses and thanks to all our fanstastical hosts--housing, dinner, bbq, tour guide--you guys rocked our world--WICKED AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately, being the lame-o picture taker I am, I missed out on a whole lot of potentially wacky shots with friends--HEH?! Yeah, I super suck. Some of the silly pictures I did manage to sneak in during our NW tour:

I've been wanting to try this candy for a while--ever since I saw it on Food TV, that show that Double Dare's host hosts...Mark Summers? Anyhoo, have I mentioned that I love regional snacks?! I tried to buy it when I was in Houston earlier this year but they only sold it in a big expensive pack of nostalgic candy so I passed. Found this at a rest stop right before the Canadian border. Oh, and fyi, if you're ever driving to Vancouver from Seattle I highly recommend the truck crossing border route, it was so quick and has a nice Duty Free shop coming back into the US--unlike the main border which can take longer to cross and I hear Duty Free is literally a shack/trailer.

Whoa, got a wee bit sidetracked...I only took one bite but it was enough. I'm not a super big fan of marshmallows to begin with (I'm dumb, I knew it was a marshmallow candy but I wanted to try it anyway), the marshmallow was on the firmer side, don't know if that's a good or bad thing. The grated coconut didn't do anything for me and I'm thinking there might have been a base of some sort but I can't really remember. Eh, it was okay, I can check it off my list, my life can go on now. Side note--are the eyes on the wrapper creepy or what? Reminds me of these eyes.

This shot I took in a convenient store in downtown Portland, I laughed out loud when I saw it. Didn't try it though, the free Monster energy drink they were handing out in Chicago put me off of energy drinks--tasted too much like my cough medicine. The boy on the other hand couldn't get enough of it, said it tasted like bubble gum. He even drank the diet version of Monster....daring!

Hehe, here's a requested picture--the mini doughnut machine at Pike's Place Market. We had to make a stop at Daily Dozen. How can anyone resist the allure of a fresh doughnut?! Actually I'm just as in love with the doughnut machine as I am with their doughnuts--I'm not saying they're the bestest ever cause I've had some duds from here (when I un-lucked out and got cold doughnuts, they should through people in jail for serving cold doughnuts!) but when doughnuts are fresh...watch out!!! We bought a bag of cinnamon sugar ones, my personal favorite but I guess there are only so many doughnuts (even fresh ones) a person can eat before feeling...blah. My limit was three or four, sad huh? The boy didn't think they were as good as they were before (I just stare at him crazy-like--can't say anything cause my mouth is stuffed with cinnamony cake doughnut goodness) so he didn't eat as many as I think he could have :) We had left over--ACK! The horror! All those doughy balls of heaven wasted...those are the times I wish I were a camel, store doughnuts in my fat hump and not look weird (poor camel, wonder what happened to its hump).

Starts with a "C" ends with an "o" and has "hicaaahg" in the middle

2005-07-12T22:36:00.000-10:00

So part of the reason that I've been absent from posting is because we've been on vacation for the past two weeks....or rather I've been on vacation for the past two weeks, the boy was in a conference for a week and on vacation for a week. The conference was in Chicago--whipeee!!! LOVE that town, could they GIVE more food at restaurants? Hmmm....see where my priorities are.

Some of my favorite (and only) pictures taken in Chicago, what's wrong with me?!

Chocolate moussey raspberry deliciousness from Sweet Thang in Bucktown. In general I'm not down with the cakey bottom part--this was no different. But everything else above the cakey bottom--GET IN MY BELLEH! It was our pre-dinner dessert or our backwards dinner. Dessert first, dinner later.

On our way back to our hotel from the Taste of Chicago (giant bbq turkey leg, more bbq that you can shake a giant turkey leg at, and other lip smacking goodnesses) are these large fountain thingies in Millenium Park. So neat that the water shoots out of these electronic-y screen things. They change pictures but luckily I caught the man spitting on people just before it changed. Am I weird?--it grosses me out that people play in fountains but I guess in the people's defense it was really hot and mugcity when we were there.

I'm not sure when I took this, or where (I guess at Harry's Velvet Room--duh) but I thought it was purdy. It was probably on our way back to the hotel from the El.

Can't wait to go back next year (I'm sure my guy is itching to go too--right, I don't think he has such fond memories of Chicago being stuck in all those super fun seminars and all)--the food, the shopping, the art, what's not to like?!

Busted!

2005-07-12T21:55:00.000-10:00

I was supposed to post this about a month ago but it slipped my mind....this is the original post:

So the other day I got a word lashing from my pal DP for posting about books instead of more interesting news--I'm engaged! Technically we've been engaged for almost a month now but the boy requested that I keep my big pie hole shut and not say anything until he finished taking his big exam (he'd been studying since the end of last year for this certification exam). He took that exam two weeks ago but I still had to sit on it until this weekend when we told our families the news. GAAAAAD! It was killing me at first--I LOVE gossip!

Anyhoo everyone asks how he asked--it wasn't a surprise because he told me in February that he was looking at rings. We picked it out together in late April and I bugged him to let me wear it around the house. It was too big (the ring, not the rock, the rock can never be too big :) kidding, it can, eight carats is just too big, six is doable though) so we got it resized (it's still too big but I'll live with it for now) and he asked me in early-mid May. In the kitchen. In front of the refrigerator. In our ratty home clothes. He asked, I said yes and we high fived! Woo-hoo!!!!

So it's been a month since we've told family and friends, the glow is wearing off and the crappy reality of planning a wedding is settling in!!! I figure I'll be one of the extremes--psycho bridezilla or unconcerned lazy bones. Makes me want to take the boy up on his original idea--lunch time wedding at city hall, whoever can get off is free to come, we'd maybe even spring for bentos in the park...maybe :)

Moochos gracias

2005-06-16T23:16:00.000-10:00

Been sucking down these cookies from Big Island Candies I received as a thank you for helping my pal KK move. Mmmm...buttery macadamia nut shortbread and chocolate....more like thank you KK!

Speaking of Big Island Candies, these olive oil cookies have intrigued me for a long time and I've been trying to find a recipe that'll produce the same light, crispy cookie...not that I've ever had one but don't they look light and crisp? Either that or they're doing a darn good job at brainwashing me. I have tried their peanut butter bars and almond wafer crunch bars--mui deliciouso! My very generous supervisor brings them in once in a while...I inhale and they're gone!

On an unrelated note, I'm trying to be a more frequent poster. My goal was to post more often after this past weekend but it doesn't seem to be happening--curses!

Secondhand books

2005-06-13T20:33:00.000-10:00

For the past few months I've been on a book buying freeze--blah!!! It sucks but it's saved me from buying some crappy books I pick out at the bookstore. When we get home from the bookstore I take my booklist and check the reviews online and then reserve them (if available) at library. I try to read them but recently I've chosen some real stinkers and snoozers. BO-RING!

Anyhoo the freeze was lifted for these two books--the only reason being that they're used. SWEET! I found this Lotta book at the Japanese store in the mall. Too bad I can't read Japanese (three years of Japanese school in grade school and four years of high school Japanese--time well spent huh?). There are some passages in English (although it's a little odd sometimes), I wish the captions were also translated into English.

I love her designs! Lotta describes her work as "organic, free and elegant." True that! Evident in her sketches, interior decor, etc. Sigh...

I picked up the second book in a Maui "junktique" shop this past weekend. I got a kick out of some of the recipes: prune whip (a delicious confection of prunes, egg whites and sugar served baked or unbaked), ham loaf (just like ma's meat loaf except with ground smoked ham and pork!) Mmmmm...mouthwatering....
My favorite part so far is the advice on keeping coffee hot--"keep it hot on an asbestos pad over very low heat..." WHOA. In 1958 it was common to have an asbestos pad at home?! Eh, I guess if you were building a house with asbestos floor and ceiling tiles a pad wasn't a big stretch.

Actually there are a some recipes that could be okay. Mostly I bought it for entertainment purposes. So clever how each illustration uses only one color and they're fun and sometimes creepy (check out those potato eyes). Reminds me of our kiddie books (we had a bunch of hand me down books from what seems like the 50's-70's).

Not much doing

2005-05-31T23:32:00.000-10:00

Thanks to the Law and Order SVU marathons and my overall laziness I haven't been keeping up with the blog. Darn that SVU, I'm hooked! Darn that sleep, I'm hooked! Between naps and the SVU marathon this weekend I'm surprised I got anything done--hehe, I only really ran a couple of errands on Saturday....the rest of the weekend flew by in a haze of grogginess and tv.

Preceding the weekend of lounge was the week of unproductiveness...just some baking here and there, nothing that's really inneresting. Baked (or overbaked to be honest) some sconey/shortcake things. Eh, it's like toast, you just scrape off the dark parts. It's just a little burnt, it's still good, it's still good!

Tonight I attempted Clotilde's Blueberry Coffee Cake, somehow it just doesn't look the same. Looks pretty dry compared to the moist deliciousness of the original. I did leave it in the pan longer than 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven....nuts. Oh well, the folks at work tomorrow will be the guinea pigs--as usual :)

Today's theme is....round

2005-05-23T19:47:00.000-10:00

Mail goodies from Niecy! Sparkly beads and a mirror compact that reminded her of me! Makes me laff, she knows me so well :) I'm still figuring out how I should use the beads but I have a couple of ideas. Thank you, thank you Niecy!!!!

So last week I found directions at Martha Stewart on how to crochet a ball and I was intrigued, especially after seeing all the super awesome softies (scroll down) that Camilla makes. Thought a ball would be an easy-ish project to ease my way into 3-d crocheting goodness.

Behold! Crocheted boobolas! Maybe not boobolas, but boobola holders, and not very symmetric ones at that. Oh well.

As you can see below I didn't stuff the ball enough...it's quite lumpy and not very ball like. Hehe, I can actually mush it into something resembling a suppository. I guess if I had blocked it it might have had a better chance of looking like a ball...although how do you block something like this? And it's huge (in keeping with the suppository theme)! Okay, not HUGE (not even that big--about the size of a cantaloupe) but a lot bigger than I expected--I was thinking softball size or something.

I have some left over yarn so I'd like to try making a smaller ball...maybe I could make a lime or something.

Silly rant

2005-05-19T22:57:00.000-10:00

So the other day we decide to finally restock items we usually get from the health food store--things like vanilla*, granola, steel cut oats, etc. Usually the boy makes us oatmeal in the morning, prepared this way as seen on Good Eats but we ran out of steel cut oats a few weeks back. Anyhoo when we get to the health food store and head over to the bin food the boy notices that they've run out of steel cut oats. So we ask the stock clerk what's up. He said that morning the bin was full, after Oprah aired it was cleaned out! What the f man?! They were even out of stock of the prepackaged bin steel cut oats. The only things left were a few boxes and one tin. So we had to settle--I don't know why we think bin is better than boxed or tin...oh I just remembered, bin is cheaper!

My only hope is that those Oprah lovers who bought the oats will find it too time consuming to make. Then again, it doesn't sound as if they're pressed for time if they're watching Oprah during the middle of the day...CRAP!!! That Oprah really does have mind control over consumers--remember the beef thing?

I have to say though, those steel cut oats are pretty good, the way the boy cooks them gives them a nice nutty flavor. Yum! Plus they have a nice texture/bite to them...I find the rolled oatmeal to be too mushy now. And steel cut has more fiber than rolled oats. Go go Gadget fiber!!! End of steel cut plug :)

*Bah! The health food store was out of stock of the vanilla extract I wanted....what a disappointing health run.

Wire twist tutorial

2005-05-17T20:36:00.000-10:00

Here's my attempt at a tutorial--strange, I create "how to's" at work but usually I'm using screen shots and simple computer instructions...this is a little different.

Start off with a length of thin gauge wire (I'd say 26 or 28 gauge is good to work with but then again, I'm not much of a wire twister) and some beads. I'm sure there are formulas on how long the wire should be (length of finished piece, how tight the twists are, etc) but I don't know any--eep! I just used about 12 inches of 30 gauge fine silver wire* and some small pearls.

This is a fakey shot of the beginning so the "stem" is shorter than the original. Determine how long the stem will be, create a loop and wrap the longer piece of wire around the stem (tight or loose, whichever you prefer) as far down as you want the first "branch".

String a bead on the longer piece of wire and stop at a point where you're happy with the branch length.

Bend the longer wire and start wrapping it towards the stem. The picture below doesn't show it well but if you hold the longer wire and branch between two fingers (of say your left hand) and twist the bead with your right hand it's goes pretty fast. You don't have to try to wrap the whole long piece of wire around the little branch.

When you get to the base of the branch wrap the longer wire around the stem to the point where you want a new branch.

Start a new branch, same as the first branch.

Pretty soon you'll have a bunch of branches, smaller branches shooting off of bigger branches...
Think about ending before you run out of the longer wire--I didn't and ended up with a long stem and short wire. Whoops!

I ended it by cutting off the excess ex-longer wire (or what turned out to be the shorter wire) and stringing my last bead on the stem and twisting the stem wire back up itself. Apologies if that doesn't make sense, maybe a closer look at the last bead would help...maybe not.

Ta-da! String on a chain for a necklace, attach to earwires, make a pin, anything. Hehe, looks better from far away.

Wow, this "how to" was a lot harder than the ones I create for work. I don't think I'm very good at 'splainin' this...it's a lot easier when all you have to say is "click next, right click here, select this...." If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to clarify my mumbo-jumbo :)

*For most pieces I use sterling silver which is 92.5% silver (as opposed to fine silver which is 99% silver) . Fine silver is softer than sterling and can wear out more easily (on the plus side it doesn't tarnish like sterling) but sometimes I can't find thin gauge wire in sterling so I'll go with fine--I used 30 gauge because I ran out of 28.

Nothing new

2005-05-13T20:26:00.000-10:00

These little flowers make me think of Lotta Jansdotter (I love her organic images)--I think they'd make fun fabric/stationary.

Just a shot of me wearing the branchy necklace...pretty boring stuff.

Postcard gallery!

2005-05-12T21:57:00.000-10:00

Thanks again to Myra for setting up the postcard swap! Here's the gallery of all the purdy cards everyone created--wicked awesome!!! Them gals are really tah-lahn-ted. I aspire!!!

So I wanted to put up a mini tutorial for the wire twist necklace but I was TRICKED into going running today, thus ending my six month exercise strike (actually I did play tennis once and participate in a fundraising walk during the past six months but that's it, oh and that walk around our neighborhood). I was actually striking against running in particular--I've heard what it can do to your knee joints...make them sore. And I will NOT stand for that soreness. Anyhoo, to be fair I wasn't tricked into running, more like we were going to walk the route but the camera ran low on batteries so I got mad and said nuts to this, let's just run the darn route. MISTAKE! Mostly I'm just tired now so no tutorial....

Making the bed made me think of these prints--I LOVE Kerry Cassill's collection of bedding. The cotton is so soft and for thinnish quilts they're pretty warm. The boy bought me a king size quilt for Christmas, I adore it. It's not on the site anymore but it was my favorite. It's a good thing he bought the king size (the only big size available) because even when I burrito myself up, he can still have some blanket. He'd disagree though, he still needs to keep an emergency blanket near by.

Glass and beads

2005-05-11T23:36:00.000-10:00

These Curious George jelly glasses from Welch's remind me of the "glasses" we had when we were little....except they're cuter. My parents used furikake containers as glasses for us when we were little--they're the perfect size for little hands and sturdy. We laugh about it now but I gotta give them snaps for reusing/recycling!

This is the necklace I made tonight out of beads gifted from Niecy--kisses! It was inspired by this necklace (and others) via Holly. The clasp/toggle at the top is off center but i think i kind of like it being a bit skewed. I'll know for sure if I ever wear it.

Baubles

2005-05-09T23:18:00.000-10:00

The top ring may be going to a friend of a friend...if she approves. I was messing around with the other ring, it's not really finished, the color combination may change. The pink against the green looks brownish so I'll probably change it. I was also thinking purple-ish beads but then I already made a purple ring.

Swappola

2005-05-08T22:06:00.001-10:00

Happy Scrappy! Along with all the wicked postcards I've been receiving I got some fabric and other goodies from a swap in the mail the other day. Fun retro fabric, ribbon/trim and beautiful mother of pearl buttons from Hillary! I can get used to this swapping thing since I'm supposed to be on a spending freeze--eep!

For Mother's day I made this bracelet...it's pretty chacha but that's my ma, she likes chacha jewelry. It's funny, after I took this picture I was fooling around with the bracelet and busted the middle strand! RAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! I'm like the Hulk or something. Hehe. Actually I think it was too tight so I made sure when I restrung the middle strand it had enough give. The only thing about it is that the clasp is lighter than the beads so it kind of flips to the top (outer wrist)...does that make sense? It's a little annoying (it's one of my pet peeves when making bracelets).

Sam's Club vs Costco

2005-05-08T22:06:00.000-10:00

We used to shop at Sam's Club because it was closest to our house--that was about 10 years ago. At the time I soooooo wanted to shop at Costco but it wasn't close so we weren't members. Now we shop at Costco because it's closer--haven't been to Sam's Club in forever. A Sam's Club has opened recently down the street and we've been trying to figure out which one to shop at. Hmmm....dilemma. Which one to choose? The boy found the answer to our problem:

SAMSTCO Discount Store

I think we have a winner. And the area looks SOOOOOOOOOO safe--BONUS!

Mail call!

2005-05-04T19:37:00.000-10:00

The first five postcards from the swap--YAY!!! I can't believe these gals made these beautiful postcards--too talented!!!

It's my first time using Photoshop so apologies if you can't see who made which postcard--starting from top left corner going clockwise:

Hanna--loving the collage action! I love the quote she used, the whole card it so wonderful! She also drew the sweetest little frog on the back, sooooooo better than any of my frog attempts :)
Myra--go go gadget Gocco! Totally makes me want one. The boy's reaction "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!" translation "more crafting things that you won't use!" He might be right, that's kind of my MO...and there's the fact that I can't draw.
Tania--leaves and dots design is so sweet! The back is super fly too--an army of little birdies. I love birds, especially when they're pink (which they are)!
Kerstin--wish I had some mad photography skills like Kerstin! And I love the stitching (one of the ideas I was toying with but thought the post office would reject me--guess not!)--the silver thread is genius!
Holly--I'm in love with the design and pearliness of the card. The glitter accents--BONUS!!! I'm wondering how she printed the card...

Dishes are done!

2005-05-02T23:09:00.000-10:00

Finished and mailed the postcards on Saturday. Whew, thought I had missed the postman so I had my sister drive me to the post office. I'm not entirely happy with how they turned out...I mucked them up with my crappy water-coloring skills (read it--zero skills). They're all different color schemes but basically the same plain design. Used jewelry stamps for the letters and "hearts". Some cards are hearts falling apart, a few others are hearts coming together. This one shows both. My favorite part is the spider...it's like Where's Waldo but easier.

I've already started receiving amazing postcards!!! These gals are soooooo talented! I feel like a sham but I'm hoping to redeem myself later...secret :) I'm gonna post some of the cards later this week.

Habuteru

2005-05-02T22:16:00.000-10:00

Habuteru, I know it and use it to mean "pout" or "to pout" in Japanese. This Nara piece cracks me up--I imagine I used to look like this when I didn't get my way when I was little. Some would say I still make this face...

Ever since Myra mentioned the Yoshimoto Nara exhibit I've been wanting to check it out. So on Saturday my sister and I headed on over to the Contemporary Museum to see the exhibit--WOW! Hehe, I'm ashamed to say that it's one of the few exhibits I've really really enjoyed there (the museum has some exhibits at a bank downtown and currently there's a fiber exhibit I'm really digging too).

Some of the Nara pieces are on huge plates (dinner plates but over three feet in diameter)--I wish they had a set of smaller dishes in the gift store, I would've bought them but no dice. I ended up buying postcards (these pictures are just two of the 30 postcards in the pack) and some pins. The major score was the free brochure that doubles as a poster--Myra has a great picture of it. My sister and I took a whole bunch of brochures--a Nara shrine might be erected on someone's office wall (and since I live in cubicalville, it isn't me).

This piece is one of my favorites--the name of the piece at the museum is different from the one on the back of the postcard. The postcard is named "missing in action" the piece in the museum is named "knife behind back". I like the second name better :) Since I could not justify buying an expensive t-shirt at the gift shop I'm wondering if I could maybe embroider/applique this one on a tank or something....pipe dreams eh? Especially considering my embroidery skills (and non-existent applique skills)....

Check it--two samplers...the only stitches I can do are the ones below and the French knot technique (stitch I used for the bubble pillow cases). Hmmm...I think it would take me FOREVER to get an even slightly decent embroidered image of "knife behind back"....sigh.

I'm hoping to visit the exhibit one more time before it leaves...maybe I'll get the t-shirt and ditch the embroidery/applique idea.

Disappointment

2005-04-28T22:49:00.002-10:00

The last Jewelry Thursday of the semester and all I have to show for it is these two crappy casts I did. Teach me to not rush things...tiny bubbles....on my cast....makes me unhappy, makes me feel like an ass. Hahaha. Doesn't rhyme well but it's accurate. It's okay though, I'll just melt these down and try again. Notice the tiny hearts didn't even come out--well one almost did. At least I got to try out the new equipment, I'm not as scared this time. That's cool.

I got the little sapphires from my friend the other day and I'm kind of excited--I have an idea of what I want to do with them. I'll work on that when class starts in July. I tried to pick out the greeny ones but it looks as though I only got one green one and three blue/green ones. The picture sucks (I was too lazy to take another one) but I wanted to show scale.

Other things I've been up to this week--baking up a storm for today's farewell to my co-worker. Two batches of butter mochi and a pineapple cheesecake--not the fakey ones that are regular cheesecake with fruit topping, this one has pineapple in it. I'd never made it before (the boy recommended it, his co-worker made it once) and I guess it turned out okay, I haven't tried it. Cutting up the butter mochi made my finger tingle, I think I mashed a nerve using the knife but look at the fun results--my own little army of butter mochi!

What's wrong with this picture?

2005-04-25T22:32:00.000-10:00

Another stroll in my ghetto neighborhood reveals this picture (actually I took the picture in February)--I haven't done anything to the picture other than crop a lady out. At first I thought it was an index finger but then I looked more closely...Funny huh?

Hehe, I cropped it even more and sent it out as my Valentine's day card. Not that I have anything against Valentine's day. My pal inspired the card--she loves/dreads this day.

I think they've fixed it...or I just don't notice it anymore. Boo!

Shiny happy jewelry

2005-04-21T22:02:00.000-10:00

Jewelry Thursday reveals repolished piece from the stash that I gave my sister. I really did work on some newer pieces (one being the triple threat heart ring mentioned earlier, another having to do with an experiment for the postcard swap) but they'll be finished next week.

This is a bracelet I made during a workshop I took a few years back, it has always remined me of horns (or a bull ring). Anyhoo, it's hollow and slightly denty in some places. I had fun making it but boy was it loud. All that hammering--I think I got Popeye forearms from this little thing! Still kinda have them (didn't help that I took another hammer-intensive class after). Haggaggaggah!

These little guys actually started out as one piece of wax (technically they all do....) but I thought it was too big so I sawed off a sliver and ta da! I wasn't thinking from the start that I'd make two but I couldn't let the little sliver go to waste. If I ever end up doing another skinny minny ring I think I'll carve something on the side. The triple threat heart ring will look really really really similar to this flower ring--what can I say, I'm lay-zee.

Randomness--I think this dish set is cute, but why is it so freaking expensive, even on sale? Kind of reminds me of some animal fabric that I have waiting to be made into a baby blanket.

IQ test

2005-04-20T22:28:00.000-10:00

Here's a little IQ game if you have time to spare. Click on the big round button to start the game. The rules are as follows:

Only 2 people on the raft at a time.

The father can not stay with any of the daughters without their mother's presence.

The mother can not stay with any of the sons without their father's presence.

The thief (striped shirt) can not stay with any family member if the Policeman is not there.

Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operate the raft.

To move the people click on them. To move the raft click on the pole on the opposite side of the river.

Have fun...this should actually be in an email but eh, whatever.

What the...?!

2005-04-20T20:48:00.000-10:00

The boy showed me this robot camel jockey from CNN:

Whaaaaa....?! Robot....camel...jockey. The reason for them is noble.

Eh, not as neat as the robots Hillary makes (scroll down to see the robots).

Idea crusher

2005-04-19T21:54:00.000-10:00

So I went to the post office today to mail a package and to get a few answers. I called them FAQs but the post guy called them FTAQs--first time asked questions (to him anyway)--regarding postcards. The answers were either "No" or "You shouldn't." Discouraging answers to the ideas I had in mind.

Q: Can there be any moving parts?
A: No (I should have known this one but I still had to ask)

Q: Can I cut out a piece and sew it back on?
A: No (this was not so much a rule but for the benefit of the receiver--the part might fall off in transit)

Q: Can the edges be pinked?
A: You shouldn't...No.

After I left I came up with more Qs: Does the postcard have to be made of cardstock? Can it be hardened fabric? Would that end up being too heavy? Can the card be laminated?

In the event that the answers are a big fat NO I have the postcards that I managed to buy from the art store, after a discouraging stop at the craft store. When I asked the sales lady if they had postcard stock she said no, but I could try cutting the card stock in half. Thanks. But then who knows, I might not even end up using the postcard stock I bought.

uh oh...

2005-04-15T21:42:00.000-10:00

Am I in over my head? Just checked my email and Myra has sent the list for the post card swap. My very first swap, I'm so excited but as I visit the sites on my list, I'm so intimidated! They're all so crafty! Reality has set in....I'm so 2-D challenged what was I thinking? What to make? WHAT TO MAKE?! Ideas, I need ideas!!! I'm freaking out here!!!

Okay, I may have a vague idea of what I'm gonna do...may...or may not. EEEEEE!!!

Pet peeves and bonehead (I have, I am)

2005-04-14T23:36:00.000-10:00

So one of my biggest pet peeves is when I introduce myself and whoever I introduce myself to instantly mispronounces my name. Grrrrr!!!!!! This mostly happens on the phone with tech support ("Can I get your name?" "Susanne (pronounced Suzanne)" "Okay Susan, how may I help you?") although it has happened when I'm face to face with someone. Aaaaaaargh!!!

Bonehead moment: I'm in the elevator tonight with my neighbor friend who knows the other person in the elevator (who happens to be my upstairs neighbor I've never met). My upstairs neighbor introduces himself "Hi, I'm JJ" I say "Hi, I'm Susanne." I'm pretty much out of small talk at this point (good thing I'm on a low floor) what kind of quickie small talk can you make in an elevator ("I can hear when you drop marbles on the floor")? Anyhoo, when I get off the elevator JJ says "Bye Susanne." I say "Nice meeting you Jay." D'OH! I AM my own pet peeve.

Resolve to PAY ATTENTION bonehead!

TMI (too much information)?

2005-04-14T22:37:00.000-10:00

Thanks everyone for the get well wishes! S' sweet :) Feeling better today, enough to go to work and to jewelry class...which is where I work on my pieces. I got into jewerly making in college (my cousin was an art/jewelry making major, I saw her working with all the paraphenalia and I was hooked!). I wasn't an art major so I didn't have the prereqs to take it at the U (boo!) but luckily one of the community colleges offered it as a noncredit course. When I came back home I found out that the Academy offered adult art courses, jewelry making being one of them. That was about 5 years ago, I've pretty much been taking the class every semester since then...and I have very little to show for it (I spend a lot of time being Chatty Cathy).

Here's a little ring I'm wanting to cast (I haven't cast a lot, just a few rings, nothing in gold yet!)--carved it out of wax, those little shapey things are supposed to be hearts but I think I'm going to try to make them a little nicer. I also need to sand the whole thing smoother.

Nothing else to do...

2005-04-13T13:43:00.000-10:00

Been under the weather the past couple days but can't rest because the workmen outside are making such a racket! Since I can't rest I thought I'd post a couple of pieces I made a while back.

Bracelet...I think I just started making these irregular shaped links and it turned into this.

This is one big honkin' ring, I think you could knock someone out with it. It's too big for me but I wear it anyway.

I think the workers stopped, maybe I can get some sleep now.

Saturday walk

2005-04-11T23:20:00.000-10:00

This lazy bear has come out of hibernation after a looooooong winter of sloth. I actually suggested we take a walk around our neighborhood (note walk, not run--lazy bear isn't ready for that yet...ever). We walked the route we used to run--I'd been wanting to take some snaps on our run...the photogs below are in the order that we "walked into" them.

The cross street is Stitches--ha ha, I'm kidding, it's not. Mostly I took this picture for the bird you can hardly see.

I don't know the name of this viney thing but the flowers have intrigued me for a long time. I used want to do a jewelry piece inspired by this but an idea has never come together in m'brain.

I like the veininess of this weed...is it creepy?

Chameleons I like, geckos I don't.

The boy spotted these leaf "fossils" in the sidewalk by our place. The whole corner sidewalk is covered with these modern fossils!!

Score!

2005-04-09T15:37:00.000-10:00

Free mag! Nabbed the recent Budget Living magazine from our downstairs area where people leave unwanted mags. Apples were the feature in the decorating section and thanks to Tania I think I've found a new obsession...

Apple pillow

Apple wall decals

New favorite site thanks to BL: notNeutral and blik. Drool worthy but pricey. Blik has a lot of fun decals for kids (robots, cars, planes, animals, etc), their other grpahic decals are really nice too.

Looking at all these apple things makes me want to try apple stamping... hmmmm.....but I don't think the seeds would show up and I'm really liking that part.

ta...da

2005-04-08T07:09:00.000-10:00

Oh my g-ness, my 2003 Christmas present to my pal, Niecy, is finally finished. She's such a sweetie for waiting....and waiting....and waiting. This is what happens when I rush--d'oh! I guess I sort of learned my lesson--I didn't rush (as much) making this ring.
The original (which looked pretty much the same as this one) had four stones in varying shades of pink. Because I rushed to finish it I didn't do such a hot job at setting the stones and when I gave the ring to her one of the stones fell out! How embarrassing. I took it back to fix it and while I was doing that I broke the stone and then in my attempt to fix the "fix" I undid the setting from the ring. Double d'oh! I trashed the whole thing and started a new ring....or had plans to. By this time I was so shell shocked by my cavemanishness that I put it off making a new one (sorry Niecy)....until now. Funny, when I actually sat down to do the ring it didn't take as long as I was dreading. The setting still isn't the prettiest but them stones'll stay in if I have to glue them in! :)

SVH

2005-04-05T22:29:00.000-10:00

I bought the new issue of Bust this past weekend because of two articles: "Don't quit your day job" (balancing work and craftiness, or how to keep creativity alive while working for the man) and "Return to Sweet Valley High" (an interview with its creator).

I was never really into "SVH" but I did have/read a lot of Sweet Valley Twins (and even Kids, odd how I went backward, not forward). Good times. Secret--she didn't write the books (except for the first one or something like that), she provided the plots and characters and writers did the rest. Hehe, didn't realize that but duh, how could someone write that many books?

Aside: There was a board game (I didn't have it) but I'm thinking it was a dream date rip off. I could be wrong though.

In semi-crafty news I saw these little stuffies in the Dec/Jan issue of Bust--so cute and ohhhhh, I have stipey socks. How conveeeenient. I tried to make one out of my old socks but I couldn't figure out the instructions so I never attempted with the pretty socks. Bah, another backburner craft project.

Fluffiness

2005-04-04T23:32:00.000-10:00

Finished...two scarves made out of mohair and angora. Good thing I finished them because it's fricking freezing here...in Hawaii! Riiiiiiiiight. I'm a space-case for knitting and crocheting scarves (scarves! why would anyone need a scarf here?!) out of some of the most unfavorable-to-Hawaii-weather yarn. Mostly I like the fact that if you mess up, can't really tell through all the fuzz. Sweeeeet.

The blue scarf is my first non-stockinette item (besides ribbing). I modified the Opera Scarf pattern--I think I must be the tightest knitter because I added extra stitches and used size 13 needles to get what looks like the same width. I used 2 balls of GGH Soft Kid in I can't tell what color--blue gray? It's abot 72 inches long, I think I'm going to add fringe to hide the ugly ends. Blocking might help but eh, perfectionist I am not...lazy I am. I'll block when I make a sweater.

Hanging on the towel hooks.

Folded on a pillow.

Closeup shot.

This yellow/cream angora scarf is from a Thanksgiving issue of Martha Stewart, probably about four or five years back. This has got to be the most expensive starter scarf ever--angora is not cheap my friends! I don't know how many balls I used and then I added the cream edging because the granny squares by themselves looked so flimsy. Not at all like the gorgeous one the girl in mag had on. I wonder if blocking would have helped. Oh well!

The color difference in real life isn't as striking, it's more like the picture below.

Look, the edge is waving at you!

Note to self: must resist fuzzy animal yarns (it's so hard!), the fiber flies all over the place and makes self sneeze :(

Fruits are in...

2005-03-31T22:51:00.000-10:00

...according to Lucky--purses, jewelry, etc. I'm either super ahead of the trends or really behind but I'm thinking the latter. I made these earrings a few years ago probably right after the last fruit trend. My friend asked if I wanted her to sell some things at a small craft fair so I gave her a few earrings, this included--it didn't sell. Oh well, at least it's back in style...for now anyway.

Japanese produce

2005-03-29T22:38:00.002-10:00

When we were younger my sibs and I went to Japanese summer school, the only thing I remember about it was that we did a bunch of crafts. I got stuck working on a huge bunka shishu (Japanese needle punch embroidery) of a puppy. How do you figure that an 8 or 9 year old kid would have the patience to finish something as intricate and big as a 12 x 24 inch (I may be exaggerating but it was huge) piece of embroidery? I have to admit that I did chose the pattern, mainly because it was a puppy! Never finished the piece--surprise surprise.

Anyway my sister got to make these tiny felt fruits and veggies (I don't think I was offered this option). I recognize most of the veggies but some are a mystery to me--the red one next to the grapes and the orange thing next to the onion. She did a good job! My favorite might be the pea pod--I love the shape.

Anyone have chapstick?...

2005-03-28T23:25:00.000-10:00

"My lips hurt real bad!" Ha ha, thanks to Kimber for sharing her chapstick with me! Makes me laff everytime I think about it.

I can't remember who's blog I saw this on but this site also cracked me up.

I don't know why but I was thinking about how to turn a t-shirt into underware today. I found this site a while back and have been meaning to try it but never found the right shirt to use. All I have are local political shirts but somehow I don't they'd be appropriate. Just creepy.

Easter prize

2005-03-27T22:55:00.000-10:00

Thanks to MO and her family for throwing a kick-buns Easter party! So much good food and good times--it always amazes me how they put together such an extravaganza. Egg hunt for the kiddies, fruit/veggie hunt for the adults, games (2 shifts), and two auctions at the end. Not to mention all the food!

MUCH to my surprise I won the egg decorating contest. Taped the egg so that they kind of looked like flowers (tulips and tried to do a couple of roses) and then attached a chopstick as a stem and floral taped it. Very primative and I was worried that the eggs would fall off the chopsick but they held up pretty well with tape and glue gun glue.

Too bad I didn't get a picture before they broke but I don't mind, by that time they'd done their job! And check out the super cute prize--some kitchen things, stuffed duck thing, bear apron (I'm too scared to use it, don't want to get it mussed up) and a silkscreened turtle tea towel. Loving it!

Hope everyone's Easter was just as fun!

Bermuda shorts...the return of cutoffs

2005-03-23T22:05:00.000-10:00

Been seeing those Old Navy commercials for Bermuda shorts (and subsequently have been singing the Fame! song in my head at work). They look suspiciously like denim cutoffs...especially since the edges of the demin ones the girl is wearing looks like its fraying. Just cuff 'em and they're good to go! I keed, I keed! I'm horrified but I have a feeling I'll succumb and eventually covet a pair. The clock is ticking...TNF (thoughts 'n feelings)?

Bubbles

2005-03-23T19:49:00.000-10:00

Curse Martha and her tempting crafts! Read a Martha article a few years back on embroidery and I was intrigued so in the usual me fashion I ran out to the craft store to buy embroidery paraphernalia and started this bubble pattern on a couple of pillow cases. Two years later they're done! Sometime during the second pillow I got bored or discouraged or something and put it aside and found it two years later.

I blame Martha's crafts for sucking me into crocheting, knitting, embroidery. I took a crafting/personality test once and the results were that I have a short attention span and these are the worst crafts for me. I'll show that test!!!

Crappy close-up--the circles are actually crooked (I freehanded them), it's not just the non-flat fabric.

This hideous metal mouth is the inside of that felt pouch. Isn't it creepy? And you don't have to look closely to see that the edge stitching sucks. I was trying to go for a satin stitch edge but I couldn't figure it out on the sewing ma-chine and I was getting fidgety. I could have read the manual but that'd just be too easy, no?

Gorillazilla

2005-03-22T20:22:00.000-10:00

GORILLAZILLA!!!!! With nuclear fire breath--WICKED! Cracks me up everytime I look at it. Too bad my co-worker who drew this didn't draw buildings to create scale. So what's with the scary blank eyes? Ask my co-worker.

Update on the Fruit Stripes tattoos or other "tattoos"--use hand lotion, works like a charm (although I don't know any kid who carries around hand lotion). It also looks like I'll have to buy more gum to "collect all 10" tattoos. What a con...wait, that's called marketing...what a con.

Fabric, nonsense and an energy block

2005-03-21T22:54:00.000-10:00

Fun fabric I got at the Houston Ikea, a shout out to DP for taking us there! Everything else we did was delicious gravy...and I mean delicious (Texas BBQ, I heart you)! I think the middle fabric is going to turn into some part of an apron--one day.

My first felt...thing. I didn't have velcro or a zipper so I ended up sewing 5 snaps for the closure--I'd show a picture of the inside if it weren't so disturbing. Hot pink felt + snaps = creepy. Looks like tiny metal teeth in a gummy mouth. Yaaaaaaahhh!!!!

I used to make energy bars almost every week or it seemed in college. I think the recipient and I got sick of them after a while so I stopped...years later there seems to be a resurgence of this treat in my life lately and since I love anything that reminds me of my prework life* I decided to make some. Unfortunately I didn't have peanuts or raisins so I had to substitute dried strawberries and toasted almond slices. Eh, good enough (my life's motto except for strange little things that I get AR about).

*The smell of Neiman Marcus also reminds me of my prework life--I love it!

Old stuff

2005-03-14T22:00:00.000-10:00

A necklace I made for an auction two years ago (it was a set, I made earrings too)...terrible picture. Looks like someone didn't read the manual!

Waiting...

2005-03-14T21:45:00.000-10:00

I was bored waiting in the car so I found this little guy and practiced taking closeups. He has a pink ninja friend probably on the floor somewhere.

P.E. stretches

2005-03-14T21:33:00.000-10:00

Am I so out of shape that a few "picking pineapples" and jumping jacks cripples me? Yes. Should I do these warm ups late at night? Why not? It's not like I'm stomping around like an elephant trying to dig a hole...but I think the apartment below us would disagree.

Yipes, Stripes!

2005-03-12T22:14:00.000-10:00

Ahhh, sweet gum of my past--why do you lose flavor so quickly? Rondolo tried applying the "Yipes in Action" tattoos on his chest (he tried twice, one on each side) and it ended up looking like Eve's claw tattoos....if Eve's claw tattoos looked like blue blobs.