The Louisiana Squirrel Refuge

I'm calling our backyard the Louisiana Squirrel Refuge now. LOL We've been feeding the squirrels for a few months now, and one is really getting comfortable with us.

She even eats out of my hand now. It took a little while for her to get comfortable with us. She now will look into the sliding glass door to the kitchen to see if we're coming out to feed her peanuts. We buy the unshelled ones from the feed store for her. One time I actually saw her staring in from the Orange tree cause I wasn't paying attention to the fence. LOL

And I swear, if she could have knocked on the door today, she would have.

It's fun to watch them, and I know we're helping them out. A few of the squirrels that have come in are really skinny and malnourished. One was losing some of its fur in places. But I've noticed since we've been feeding them, their fur has been growing back.

Hence the squirrel refuge. LOL

Irritated

Is anyone else feeling a bit irritated today? I just am feeling a bit irritable today, not sure why. I'm avoiding the phone today cause I don't want to snip at anyone unprovoked.

Do you ever just feel grumpy?

Happy Monday!

Sorry it's been a few days since my last post. With the Easter Holiday things were a bit crazy for a few days. Saturday was the Ohlone Flea Market, so I spent 2 days trying to get things together for that. We didn't do as well as we normally do, I think people were away for the holiday weekend. Have to remember that next year. ;)

And yesterday we had Phil's family over for Easter. We usually spend the holidays with my family, so it was a different experience for me and my dad. :)

I've been taking photos of the kittens. They were hanging out in our yard for awhile, I haven't been able to find them at all yesterday and today. Hopefully they are ok. The mom and dad cats haven't been around much either. So hopefully they found someplace safe to be since we had a couple of kids and a dog running around our backyard yesterday.

This light grey kitty is so cute. I was calling them grey and greyer yesterday cause one is darker than this one. LOL Phil started calling them Grey and Little Grey (from Grey's Anatomy). But finally I started calling this one Al cause it protects his food when he eats like Phil's nephew. LOL
Here's a pic of all of them on the window. I was cracking up because I've always wondered how they get pictures of kittens all lined up. I really thought it was staged. But they really do sit all lined up together.

And I love this orange kitty. we're pretty much calling her orange kitty. LOL Ashley wants it if we can ever catch it. Not sure Alex's family will like it much when she moves in with them.

Anyway, that was my weekend. Hope you all had a Happy Easter yesterday. I'm still recouping. Think I'll take some aspirin, and grab a cup of tea.

Loaded Mashed potatoes

Phil made loaded mashed potatoes yesterday. What is that you may ask? Well, after Phil mashes the potatoes, he will sometimes bake them in the oven covered with cheese and bacon bits.

He'll actually fry bacon, cut it up into pieces, then put 8 small pads of butter onto the top of the mashed potatoes. He'll put the butter on top, then sprinkle grated cheddar cheese on the top with the bacon bits.

he bakes it in the oven on a low temp (because the potatoes are still hot).

OMG, they are SO good! He doesn't like the onions or sour cream, so I put those on top afterwards. It's really easy and so yummy!

Patches and kittens

So, my new thing is making patches. I have been designing patches for the company Phil works for, and for the Softball team he helps to coach. We're going with the purple outlined patch cause it's a girl's team, and girls should wear purple. LOL I'm so glad their new colors are purple and grey!! It's getting easier to digitize. My first try on the Rockets logo took about 2 hours, the second try is now 20 minutes! It's another logo I drew from scratch. I think it turned out pretty cute.
And here's a new photo of the mom cat with her kittens. I just LOVE watching them in the daytime. And they're always climbing on her. I have noticed that the light grey one is the more timid one of the bunch. And the darker grey one is the little instigator. LOL They're so cute when they're jumping all over each other and playing.

Karl as Bones

Can you tell, I cannot wait till next month. The new Star Trek movie comes out!! YAY! And of course if it wasn't a Star Trek Movie, I'd still have to see it cause Karl is in it.

Heroes

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OMG, I just LOVE this. :)

Kittens!

Today we were in the yard, and these adorable kittens came out to play. I wish we could keep them, but we can't. So we have to find either new homes for them or for someone to take them in to care for them till they're adopted. I really wish I could foster them, but Velcro doesn't like any other cats. And I don't want them to get attacked by her.

So I'll keep checking around to see if anyone can take them in. Cause they're awfully cute. :)

CD stand

We've been using these wine boxes for different things around the house, and Phil thought it would be a great idea to make them into CD stands. Mainly because I have way too many CD's around the house.

I think they look really great. And I could stain them or paint them if I want, but I think I'll just leave it like that for awhile. They are just too cool!

Embroidery Library

I've been doing a lot of research on the net for machine embroidery. And the site that has helped me out the most has been the Embroidery Library.

Lots of great videos, tips, hints, and projects. And he'll explain how to embroider onto different fabrics. A lifesaver really!

Check out his site, it's really worth looking into when you're a beginning embroiderer.

Nice weekend...

Hope that everyone had a nice weekend. I got a few projects started and finished. One that I've been working on was the pillows for the front room. Phil's always wanted to use the window as a window seat. So I've been making pillows for it. There was some material from the bags we didn't make cause they were too thick, so I made them into pillows. I actually reused some pillows that we had in the house that were pretty flat. You just open them up and refluff the stuffing and you have pillows. :)
All weekend I've been working on the computer or in the sewing room. So the cats have been following me everywhere. This is the closest they've been to sitting next to each other in a long time. Velcro (the grey one) doesn't like Oreo very much. So this was a treat to see them so close to each other.


And of course, you can't do laundry without the cat sleeping in the laundry basket. I guess you can't leave the laundry alone for too long, or Velcro will sleep in it.

I'll post some other projects I've started when I'm finished with them. :) A bunch of embroidery stuff is coming up for me, so I'll keep you posted when I'm done.

Name Patches

I just finished a bunch of name patches. These are going to be used on football gear bags. It was my first real try at making patches, and they turned out pretty good I must say. LOL

I wondered how to make the borders on the patches, because we haven't had much real success at it looking really professional. And after getting told that I had to buy a $2,885 machine called a Merrow MG-3U, I thought there must be another way.

After searching the internet, I found this video on the Embroidery Library Projects site. It was the most helpful video ever! Check out their site for other free videos on how to make different embroidered projects.

And since we have the embroidery software, it was really easy to figure out how to do it. I'm finding that most sites won't give you info for free, but there are a few that will. It takes time to search for them, but in the end it's so very helpful!!

And my friend Kay had a great idea, she said it would be fun to put inspirational sayings on them too. I'll have to do that. :)

FGSA Logo

So I stitched out the FGSA logo. I am so happy cause it's my first logo that I created from Scratch. It's so much fun creating something and actually seeing it in the flesh. It is one of my favorite things about mechanical drawing. I loved it when the parts would come back from the manufacturers and we could actually hold it in our hands.

Last year's logo was the same, but the softball in the middle was white, not yellow. How can you have a girl's softball logo with a white ball?? :) Hopefully it will be good enough to put on the jackets. Still have to get the OK from Mr. Prez.

She liked it!

The skirt is a big hit! Alex really liked it, and it fit! Debi's going to do some hemming on it, I hope they take a picture of Alex in it. I can't wait to see her in it.

LOL Cat

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This is just SO me! LOL

Reuse Jeans skirt

Today I spent the morning making a Skirt from an old pair of Ashley's jeans. They were hand-me-downs (or since she's younger, hand-me-ups?). Anyway, Debi G. told me that Alex needed a skirt, and she is just about my size. So I thought I'd make a skirt for her out of the pair of jeans. Above is the front of the skirt, below is the back.
I found the idea from a book called "Sew Subversive: Down and Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista" by Rannels, Alvarado, & Meng. It's a really cool book with lots of ideas on how to make your old clothes into something new and fashionable.

There's supposed to be a ruffle on the bottom, but since Alex is totally not a girlie girl, I thought I'd leave it off unless she decides she wants it on there.

What you would do is to cut the skirt to whatever length you wish, rip the inside seams open and sew down the flaps on the front. This pair of jeans had a hole in the front, so I didn't have much of a flap. Then you pretty much cut a piece of material to fit in the middle section, and sew it up.

You'd then sew a ruffle on the bottom. And the book has more detailed instructions than I am giving you. and I wanted to do more embellishing on the front. But I think I'll find another pair of jeans and do that to those.

Funny story

I wish I had taken photos of this. LOL

Today I looked outside of our sliding glass door and saw the coolest hawk sitting on the fence. I called Phil to come over to see the hawk, when he starts running to the door. Yep RUNNING to the door.

Why you may ask? Well, just a few minutes before this, we were feeding our squirrel friend peanuts. And he realized that the squirrel was still in the backyard, so he ran to the door trying to scare it off. Yep, really. And yes, he even said, "My squirrel!!"

Well, before he could scare the hawk away, the squirrel takes a flying leap towards the hawk to scare it away. I couldn't believe it. A little squirrel chasing off a hawk. But then I figure, if I was a bird or cat, and I saw a rodent flying towards me, I think I'd run too. LOL

We're not so worried about the squirrel anymore. ;)

Banana Bread

Many years ago I bought a book called "Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook" And in it was this Banana bread recipe.

Although I do not eat the banana bread, cause I really don't like bananas, I have been told that this recipe is really very good. (From those who have ate the bread that I've baked).

Favorite Banana Bread

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas)

2 eggs

2-1/4 cups flour

1-1/2 tsp. CALUMET Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup chopped PLANTERS Walnut Pieces

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese, butter and sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add bananas and eggs; mix well. Add combined dry ingredients; mix just until moistened. Stir in walnuts.

POUR into greased and floured 9x5-inch loaf pan.

BAKE 1 hour 10 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 min.; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely before slicing to serve. Store any leftover bread in refrigerator.

We had some bananas that were going bad, so I decided to make the bread. Sad thing is that I don't eat it, and Phil's on a diet so he's not going to eat it. But I hate seeing bananas go to waste. LOL So I think I'll make a trip over to my mom's and drop it off to her. :)

Simon's Cat

I just love this video. One of my cousins sent it to me awhile back. It was so funny, I told Tina yesterday when we were selling things at the Flea Market that my cats don't do this to me. They wait patiently for me to get up to feed them.



Boy, was I ever wrong! This morning at 5:30 am, Velcro started kneeding my neck really really hard and purring really really loud. I think it's because I got up that early the day before to go to the flea market, so she thought she'd get fed that early again. Um no! LOL. I kept thinking if I ignored her she'd go away...

NOT.

It so reminded me of the cat in the cartoon. :)

This morning I watched the BBC version of Emma. And I must say that I loved this version WAY more than the movie with Gwyeneth Paltrow. This version showed more of the relationship between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax. I could never understand how she couldn't have been upset with him while he was pretending to like Emma. And they showed more of that in the movie.

And there weren't any of the additional scenes that the movie had added to the story. I am glad that Miss Smith and Emma both found happiness at the same time, where the movie had Miss Smith being very sad because Mr. Knightly was going to marry Emma.

And I just loved how Kate Beckinsale portrayed Emma in this version. She just seemed like she was more elite than Gwyeneth's version.

So, again, if you haven't seen this one go out and see it! :)

Anime and Comcast

So, I just discovered that Comcast on Demand has 2 anime channels on it! OMG, I LOVE anime. And it's so cool that I can watch something other than InuYasha or Ghost in the shell. I wasn't a big fan of the Comcast when we first got it. But now that I've been exploring the On Demand channel, OMG, there is so much on there to watch.

I hope they'll show the second season of School Rumble. That one is really cute.

Creative Zen

My friend Kay opened up her own etsy store, CreativeZen. I blogged about her beautiful crochet flowers last week. She does such awesome crochet work, everything I've seen her do has come out so beautiful!

Check out her etsy store. I know she'll be adding lots of other great stuff too!

My Daemon

After watching the Golden Compass, I would tell Phil that I wanted to have a Daemon following me around. And he told me that I did, his name is Oreo. LOL And yep, he spends the day following me around the house. When I'm on the computer, I find him always sleeping on the floor. So, I guess I'd better make him a pillow to lay on. :)

Andagi (Japanese Donuts)

Today I made Andagi or Malasadas or Japanese Donuts. LOL When we were kids, my mom used to make these, especially when company would come over. We really loved it when she made these! I've made them before and they were ok, but with the deep fryer, they turn out really good cause you can regulate the oil temperature. (Boy, that sounded really geeky. LOL)Here are the Andagi frying in the fryer. for some reason, some of them would explode. Not sure why. Made them look a bit funky, but they still tasted good. :)

Here's a whole plate of them. I put them in a bag with sugar and shake shake shake them till they are covered in sugar. This works best when there is not a hole at the bottom of the bag. LOL I think I have to use sturdier bags next time, not lunch bags. ;)

Here's the recipe in case you're interested:

Andagi (Sweet Okinawan Doughnut)

Yield: 1/2 to 3 dozen doughnuts

oil for deep frying
3 cup flour
1 cup sugar
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk

Heat oil to 375 F. Sift dry ingredients together. Combine eggs and
milk; add to dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonfuls
into heated oil. Cook about 2 minutes or until golden brown. Drain
on paper towels. Serve warm.

Can you believe it weighs this much?

OMG, we weighed one of the really large oranges, and this one weighed over 1 pound! we couldn't believe it. We were in Safeway the other day and saw that oranges were $0.98 per pound, so this one is over a dollar!! LOL

Orange picking

Today we decided to pick some of the oranges off the tree in the backyard. Ok, Phil did the picking, I did the, "EWWW, there are ants on this orange." and the ever-loving, "OMG! That was a spider!!" LOL Every year the oranges on the tree get bigger and bigger. The ones on the top of the tree were the size of grapefruits.

Here's Phil depositing the oranges on the counter in the backyard.

These things are huge!! We weighed one, and one of the larger ones was over 1 pound in weight! It is amazing that they got so big. We still have about half a tree to finish picking before they all start falling off the tree. California Sunshine. ;)

It's just the techie in me...

I've been having a hard time with drawing graphics on the computer. And I think it's just the techie in me. I have been mechanical drawing since I was in High school. Yes, with pencil and a straight-edge. I took drafting classes in college, all pre-AutoCAD. We used pencil and a drafting machine and in special cases, mylar and ink.

When AutoCAD came out oh too many years ago, it was just too way cool for me. I could draw on the computer. And of course the drawings we were doing were precise. Meaning we had tolerances of +/- .00005 when I worked for the measurement equipment company. And more lax tolerances of +/- .005. LOL

So when it comes to making drawings, it's been really tough for me. I'm so used to making the endpoints of lines snap to the ends of others. And if I want to make a straight line, the dog-gone line is straight!

So I've been having a REAL hard time adjusting to, "OH, let's just put the line here, and maybe it will come out straight, maybe not, but it looks good." What is up with that? LOL

I found a solution for me. AutoCAD will export drawings to .bmp files....YAY! And it will import .jpg files so I can draw over them. OMG, if it wasn't for that, I'd have a REAL hard time making a drawing. LOL I'm so much faster with AutoCAD than with paintshop. It's too funny.

Today I worked on this logo, and I actually made it from scratch! Amazing. LOL It is really fun getting to know the Palette software. I watched a video from Jenny's Sewing Studio and it was very helpful. And since watching the video, I've been able to figure out a couple of other things. I was a bit frustrated because I couldn't figure out how to make the red lines in the ball. But after finding out how to make the lines different thicknesses, I also figured out how to change colors on only some of the lines. Pretty neat!

My first big embroidery

This is my first draft of my first large embroidery. The hoop we have embroiders an area of 5" x 7". The embroidery Christoph wants to have done is way bigger than that. LOL So I had to split the embroidery up into 3 pieces.

Boy, was that a chore to figure out how to split the embroidery. I am using the Palette 7 Software for the Babylock ellure machine. And luckily it is a pretty simply shape to embroider.

It was a bit tough to piece together from the instructions just how to embroider a large piece. I tried using the extra-large hoop that comes with the machine. That hoop is only a few inches larger, and requires you to divide the design into 3 parts. Since my design was still larger than that, I decided to use the regular hoop and only divide the design 3 times instead of 4.

On my first attempt I designed the logo to use the extra-large hoop, not thinking that I had to split the design in that hoop 3 times. So when you write it to the card, then put the card in the sewing machine, it says it will not work.

The way to go about it is to size your custom design page first, then choose the hoop you want to use. This way it will show dashed red lines where your hoop space will be.

Then you import your .pes file into that window.

In the Tutorial section of the software, there is a great photo tutorial of how this works.

I'll post more tomorrow on my trials of hooping this. I hope that it will work out well! :)

Two of my friends' blogs...

My friend Kay is making these beautiful Crocheted flowers, and she's using them in different projects. Her blog is called Finding My Way Check out her blog, she's a very talented woman!



Another friend of mine, Kristen, also has a blog called Kristen's Paper Crafts. She has posted many of the cards that she makes, very beautiful cards I may add. Above is one of her many cards. Check out her blog for some really great card ideas. :)

They're both very talented ladies that I'm very lucky to have in my life. Keep creating, ladies!!

Getting inspired...

Today I spent with my two friends, Joanne and Debi. We have been going out to lunch at least twice a year to celebrate our birthdays for a few years now. We go to a store called Only the Best to meet. Then drive to Pedro's for lunch and for a little walk downtown.

I always get inspired to create new things when I go to lunch with them. We see such really interesting things at the stores we venture into. I always find so many things that we could easily make ourselves. So now, I just need to go and create something fun and fabulous!

I did notice today that there were a lot of purses made from window screen. Yep, you read correctly, window screen. It was really cool how they put them together and used different pieces of hardware for the straps. Now why didn't we think of that!

I've got to get to some embroidery this week, and hopefully some fun thoughts will pop into my head for other things to make. :)

Decorated pegboard

Here is what the pegboard looks like. I put cards around the edges to make it a little more colorful. As I find more cards, I'll change them out and put new ones up. It's so fun to see cards that my friends have made decorating the edges.

I really want more pegboard in the room. Maybe the entire wall?? LOL Wouldn't that be so fun. Then it would be like a mini-store. ;)

Still Awake.

For all of you experiencing the spring forward of the clock, how has the time change effected you? I'm finding as I'm getting older that it is really effecting me bad. Well, and having the family over yesterday probably didn't help. LOL It was a lot of fun, but man, I stayed up too late. :)

Good thing I wasn't supposed to meet anyone or do anything, cause I was exhausted today. I just caught up on computer stuff. :) Ok, I spent too much time trying to win power orbs on zOMG too. LOL I have WAY too much fun playing that game. I'm up to Gold Beach now. At least I'm not getting dazed every two seconds anymore. LOL that was really sad. I ventured into the Otami Ruins. Didn't get too far though. I'll try the Old Aqueduct again when I reach a CL of 7. And I'm almost there!!

Watched Big Love and Desperate Housewives. I love those shows. Wonder what is going to happen with Nicki??

Hope you all will have a great week. :)

Deep Fried Apple Pies

Yesterday Phil made Deep Fried Apple Pies. And oh man, they are yummy.

The ingredients you'll need to make them:

Uncooked (raw) Tortillas

Cinnamon

Powdered Sugar (for dusting)

Pretty simple ingredients. We found Uncooked tortillas in the refridgerator section of Costco. These aren't the ones that are packaged on the shelf in the grocery store. They are the not cooked dough. If you can't find those, you could use Wonton wrappers or even Egg Roll wrappers.

You take a tortilla, place a bit of the pie filling inside. Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on it. Then wrap it like a burrito. Make sure you use either water or egg wash to seal the edges of the dough.

Then fry them up. We used our deep fryer, but we've also used a frying pan with about 1-2" of oil in it.

When they're a light golden brown on each side, take them out and place on a paper towel so that the excess oil will drip off of it. Then dust with powdered sugar and drizzle caramel sauce on them if you wish.

We've also used cooked tortillas. They're a bit tough, but they'll do. LOL We used the flour tortillas, not the corn ones.

Enjoy!

Took a long break...

Hello Everyone! Sorry that it's been awhile since the last time I was on the internet. Lots of things happening on our end of the net. First and most importantly, our Ashley is engaged! It was a surprise to us, but we're glad that she's found a really nice guy. His name is Alex and they are both pictured here: Aren't they cute?

So we are having Phil's family over for a "Let's get to know Alex better" lunch. LOL Which means that I've been mega cleaning to get it all done. Well, I was cleaning anyway since Philip moved out, but have been working on it a ton more to get things organized faster.

Our front room sure looks a lot different than it used to. :)

And we changed internet service. So, since we were doing that, we were without internet for 6 whole days! OMG, I was going crazy! Since I'm home now, the internet is pretty much my lifeline to what is going on in the world. It's keeping me in touch with family and friends. And pretty much keeping me from being a couch potato. So when it was cut off, it really was like going through withdrawls!! Especially since it happened during the weekend. And of course the two busiest days at the library.

The library has been a savior for me the past few months. I love the fact that I can go there to find books, CD's, DVD's and now I can use the internet for free! Granted, you don't want to do anything too personal there, hence the not wanting to blog while I'm there. But at least it kept me kind of connected.

I did get a lot done, not having to check facebook every 20 minutes or so. LOL The house looks so nice now, and I can almost get into my craftroom. When it's all done I'll post photos for you. The pegboard has even undergone a transformation of sorts. :)

Keep creating everyone!!

My Pegboard...

So, here's what the pegboard looked like before we could put anything on it. I had just finished painting it white. It looked so blank to me:


After putting some tools on it, it started to look more full. So I'm thinking I don't need to decorate it. I might put some cards around it or something. Just to give it a little decoration.

I'm having fun trying to figure out how to put my tools on it so I can have everything I need close. And did you know, each hardware store has different pegboard items? I found a lot of great deals at some of the stores. The bottom drawers were under $4 each! I was so excited. They give me a little storage space plus a little shelf. ;)

Peg board is up!

The Peg board in my sewing room is up! I have finished painting it white. Now what? LOL

Do I rubberstamp the edges? My fear on that is that I'll get tired of what it looks like after awhile and want to change it.

Do I decopage the edges? Again same fear of getting tired of it.

Or I could paint swirlies? Or sponge paint? I don't want it to look cheesy.

Right now it's just a big white board. in the center of the wall. Maybe decorate the edges with cards that my friends have made? Hmm, that sounds like an idea!

Will have to sleep on it and get back to you....

Organizing my craft rooms...

Yes, craft rooms. Plural. More than one. LOL One is technically the sewing room, and the other is the storage room, but I now am admitting their true names...Craft rooms. LOL I am planning on one space being one that I can work in, and the other is going to be storage. We're trying to figure out how to make more storage in the rooms.

I don't do just one type of crafting, and I can't see getting rid of some things just because I am not in painting mode or scrapbooking mode. I've already gotten rid of some things that now I wished I had kept. But I can say that candle making mode is truly gone for now. Really, it is. But most of the other ones are so related to each other that I don't want to get rid of anything yet.

We've decided to use peg board in the sewing room. I can put my tools on pegs and hang up stuff like ribbons and such. In the craft room is where stuff like storage shelves would work. So we're trying to figure out how that is going to work in the rooms.

I am so excited that I'll finally be organized and have a space to work in, instead of in the kitchen. (and Phil is very excited too!)

Will post photos when we're done. :)

Cats and squirrels

Yesterday my squirrel friend was waiting for me. I thought he was so cute, so I had to take the photo. :) He did an unusual thing. He was barking on the fence, like there was a cat in the yard, then ran down off the fence when I went to check it out. Like I'm his protector or something. It was really funny.

And this is Velcro. She loves sleeping under the blanket. Just like a furry person. I thought she was really cute too, so of course out came the camera.

Working on my workspace...

I'm working on my sewing room today. Philip moved out this weekend, so I have a whole new room to play in. We're going to move the sewing machine in his room, and move all my crafting stuff out of the spare room. I haven't even touched the craftroom yet. But once we get everything all set up, I'll post a picture or two. :)

I also went to help my folks on their garage yesterday, in the pouring rain. LOL That was fun. Should have waited till today when it's dry. Oh well. I have so much fun tossing stuff in the dumpster! LOL

Old Pattern in Japanese...

In my parents' basement, we found a bunch of old books. And there was this one notebook that had drawings of clothes with numbers. So I'm guessing it's patterns for clothes or aprons. I don't know exactly because I can't read Japanese. It's sad that I can't read it, I tried learning Japanese in high school, but after so many years of Spanish, everytime I was supposed to translate something, I could think of it in Spanish, not Japanese. LOL

Anyway, I thought I'd post a couple of the drawings, I'm going to scan all the pages just because I don't want to lose them. Maybe someone could use the measurements??

Happy Valentine's Day!

I still have an hour left to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day! Did you all have a nice one?

Today was a day of change and release for me. My boyfriend's son is moving out, kind of on his own. He's 25, and has been living with us for about 12 years now. So he's finally taken wings and is flying. It's good because he needs the responsibility. I really thought that he'd be living with us forever. So, it's a good change for all of us.

And today I also went to help my folks clean out their basement. OMG, there is about 40+ years of stuff in there! And there was one room of stuff that was from their landlord. He has been gone for quite a few years now, and it was kind of cool to see what was in that section of the basement. I'll take photos and post tomorrow.

I also found a couple of boxes of mine down there, filled with old school papers and magazines. So it was time for me to release them to the dumpster. Well, some of them anyway. The boxes I found were from college, and it was so cool to see my mechanical drawings from that time. No computer back when we took classes, just pencil and paper. Or in the ones that I found, ink and mylar. I also found an old report where we had to type and draw things. It was so cool to find that. So I had to save that as well.

So, the next week will be for us here to move things around cause we'll have an extra room! I'll now have a sewing room, a craft room, and a guest room! YAY! LOL And I'll be cleaning up stuff from my past. It's fun to see how much life has changed for me. Photos will be coming soon!!

Almost Valentine's Day!

It's almost Valentine's day. The first one without being at the store. Kind of a sad one for me because I loved being at the store for Valentine's day. It was my favorite holiday for the store. I loved helping the guys pick out gifts for their significant others. You'd see the same guys every year, they'd come in the same day every year. And need help to pick out gifts.

It was fun to help the boys in the neighborhood that you've watched grow up to find a gift for their first girlfriends. The husbands who come in 3 times a year for Valentines, Birthdays, and Christmas. I'll miss the gentleman who would come in every year to buy his wife one or two precious moments and 2 or 3 italian charms. And he'd be amazed that we could remember which ones he purchased.

The guys that would come in for balloon bouquets, the dads who came in to buy gifts not only for their wives, but for their little girls too.

It was always so much fun!

This week

This week, with the help of Jenny's Sewing Studio, I was able to figure out how to do basic embroidery design with our Palette software. I'm so glad they had lessons online because I was very clueless as to how to use the design center part of the software. Now I don't feel helpless, and I actually re-created a logo for Pacific Water Trucks. They're the broker for Phil's nephew.

Once I fix it, I'll post a picture of their logo.

I've also sewed 14 patches on a vest for Philip. He chose a thick quilted jacket that of course, I didn't feel comfortable in using our machine to do, cause the material is so thick. So I sewed them all on by hand. And man, are my fingers sore. LOL The sewing actually took 2 days! And as I was sewing, I thought, "OMG, the flag was sewn this way originally." I thought 14 patches were hard, can you imagine sewing a whole flag by hand? ;)


I also have been sewing hearts for Valentine's Day. I don't know why, I just saw some online and thought they were really cute. :) I'll post a photo when I make a few more of them. :)

I would really like to figure out how to make patches. Will have to do some research soon.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Domo-izing

We're Domo-izing the house! Well, ok, not really. But we really love Domo and I'm starting to make him for other things now. Ok, well, only one thing so far but more is on the way! LOL

Above is a picture I caught the other day of Oreo "Talking" to Domo. He always has to smell everything, and I guess Domo was just so interesting to him. LOL

I also made a barrel cover for Philip's Paintball gun. I guess during the game, if you get shot "dead" by a paintball, you're supposed to put a cover on it and walk back to base. The cover is to keep you from accidentally releasing a paintball from the gun while you're walking back, and it lets people know that you've already been hit.

Philip had the idea to make his into a Domo, so I just covered one of his generic barrel covers with a polar fleece domo. They reinforce the covers normally, and a polar fleece domo would probably tear if a paintball got shot out of it.

I thought it turned out pretty cute. Now I have to make more. :)

Super Bowl and Commercials

Did you all enjoy the Super Bowl today? It was really fun to watch. Normally I just watch it for the commercials, but the end was so very exciting. I'm glad that we watched the entire game.

Well, Christoph and I did anyway. LOL Phil and Philip went out to the store to get some goodies for us to eat, 2 hours later they were back with lots of goodies for us. We had Chili on top of cream cheese, deviled egg salad, tuna salad, cheese and salami, and chips and dip. All very yummy finger foods. ;)

I wished I would have took a photo of it. LOL

My favorite commercial was of course the Heroes Football Commercial


I am VERY excited about the new Star Trek movie, of course it doesn't hurt that Karl Urban is Dr. McCoy....


Am excited to see the new Witch Mountain trailer


There are so many great movies coming up, and there were so many funny videos. I still think it's funny that it's the only time we all will really look forward to watching the commercials is during the Super Bowl.