David Eddings...

I just found out today that one of my favorite authors, David Eddings, has passed away. http://www.fictionmatters.com/2009/06/03/david-eddings-dead-at-77/

I started reading his books when they came out in the 80's. My favorite series was of course the Belgariad series. I would reread these books every year when I was younger. I think I'll have to go back and read the series again. Once you pick them up, they're hard to put back down again.

He will be so missed by everyone.

Peanut Butter Cup Krispy Treats

Today Phil made a special flavor of Krispy Treats for the snack shack. He calls it Peanut Butter Cup krispy treats. I don't know his actual recipe cause it's all a secret to me. LOL But he does put in Peanut Butter chips, and I drizzle chocolate on top. They are very delish!

Nights in Rodanthe

So I watched the dvd Nights in Rodanthe finally. OMG, I really liked it a lot. SO much that I decided to read the book.

Now I usually have a really big problem when a book gets made into a movie. And I know that they could never fit everything into what is in a book into a movie, cause the movie would be like 3 or 4 days long. LOL My problem is when they don't put in the things I thought were important, or when they change a ton of things for the movie. So normally I'll try to watch the movie first then read the book.

So the movie and the book have relatively the same plot. But the execution of the main plot of the love story were executed much differently. And for the first time ever, I really liked both versions. Mainly because they left out in the movie Amanda's struggle with her own love story.

I'm not sure if it was because it would have been too Notebook-ish. I have to read another one of his books to see if this is a regular theme with Nicholas Sparks.

But I really did like how the movie changed the way the story was told in the book. Because, really, you couldn't get most of what was going on in the book into a movie version. I was annoyed at first when reading the book, but then really liked how they did the movie, and then really liked how the book was written.

So, if you haven't seen or read either, I'd watch the movie first, and don't even try to compare it to the book. Then read the book as a totally different story. It just made me appreciate both versions that way. :)

Happy Saturday!

Hey all! Wow, the week has passed by so quickly! I've been catching up on a few things. First of all I'm finishing up a book I'm reading called The Magician: The secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. It's really really good. I have to return it by Sunday, so every free moment today I've been trying to finish it up.

Yesterday was softball night. I have been doing double duty on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I start out working at the snack shack until someone can come by to relieve us. I'm glad cause I actually get to see parts of Alex's games. I think I should have stayed in the snack shack Thursday cause it was really sad. They lost. Hopefully next week they'll do much better.

And today I've been catching up on some of the stuff I've been slacking on. I have some shirts to do this weekend, so I'm trying to tweak the software so that it embroiders better. The first logo I did for the Flyers was ok, but now that I know how to use the software more, I'm gonna try for another look. Will keep you updated.

Hope you all have had a great week!

Night at the Museum 2

Today we went to see Night at the Museum 2. It was a really funny movie. I liked the first one better only because you didn't know what to expect from it. I mean, yeah, you knew everything would come alive, but you really didn't know how.

I like Hank Azaria, but his accent was getting a bit on my nerves. I've loved him in everything that he does, but a Pharaoh with a lispy english accent was a bit much for me. I still love Owen Wilson as Jedidiah.

I think the Smithsonian idea was good, there were just too many things in it to actually care about any one thing. Does that make sense? In the first movie they gave you time to get to know each of the characters. In this one i think they tried a little too hard. I would have liked a little more depth.

I liked Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart. I thought she did really well, and you really got to know her character.

Eventhough the first one was my favorite of the two, I would definitely see this one again.

Adventures in Babysitting...

Since Tracy's school is already out, I offered to watch Phil's niece, Jordana, for a few days. I'm home, she's bored. And everyone there could do their own thing for a few days. Cause they won't have to worry about who's going to stay with Jordana.

We've been having fun. She's been keeping me company today while doing some errands. We went to the sporting goods store in Redwood City. And we had pizza, went to Daiso, the Japanese $1.50 store, and even to the library in Union City. LOL And today she helped out at the snack shack.

It's been different for me to have someone around all day again. Phil's kids are all grown up, and they haven't had summer vacation for a long time. I'm so used to doing whatever whenever. Have to retrain myself a bit. It's been a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we'll see what we can do. I have to research what other things we could do around here.

Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras

Today we went to see Sadie sing at the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras. She sang at 10 am, it was good cause it got us there early, and we could look around before it got really crowded. She did really well today, she was singing her country music this time. Loved her singing Heatwave. :)
It was so cool, we saw this pixie lady walking around the festival. what was so cool was that she had feathers on her eyelashes, it made her SO look like a pixie fairy! Her make-up was so awesome. I think she did an excellent job!

This was one of my favorite things that we saw...bat wings! they make the wings for the kids to wear, but the bigger girls like to wear them too. I immediately thought of my friend Kay when I saw these. I really need to learn how to make them!!

Sadie Singing at the Mushroom Mardi Gras

Here's Sadie singing at the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras. It was a lot of fun!

Think I have to go to internet anonymous...

So today, our internet goes out at 11 am. Says there is an outage somewhere like a cable's been cut while doing construction or something. GREEEAAAATTTT. Yes, I'm addicted to the internet. I kept wanting to check the internet or something on the internet. Dumb Comcast.

So, I decided ok, I can catch up on my shows on the DVR. That lasts an hour. I have to check again. And again. I can't even call anyone on the house phone, cause guess what? It's part of the Comcast system too...

Did I say DUMB COMCAST yet??

So we went to the NCAA tournament at Stanford tonight, then to the Cheesecake factory. Got home and it's like 12 hours later. And I still get the same recorded message when I call Comcast customer service. There is an outage in my area....

SO I wait to talk to a representative, he says that he will check my modem for me....hmmm, didn't the recording say that there was an outage in my area??

So he does whatever he does on his end to reset my modem, and OMG it works again. I get phone again and everything...

Hmm, so what about the outage in my area I ask..."Oh, that must have been earlier."

Um No, that is the message I just got like 30 seconds before I started talking to you.

Luckily, I asked them to credit me for the 12 hours that I didn't have service. And they agreed.

This was the reason why we went with DirectTV for TV awhile back.

Happy Thursday!

I'm in Domo mode today. Got a brown domo face done and sewing up his sides. I love it cause I can actually do that while catching up on all the shows I've DVR'd. I thought I had purple fleece, but I don't. so I'll have to go to the store later to find some.

Anyone doing anything exciting for the holiday weekend? I'll be catching up on projects I think.

Oops I did it again...Craig Ferguson style. :)

Time flies...

I can't believe it's Memorial Weekend already. Time is just flying by too fast. There's been so many things to do the past couple of weeks. I haven't even been able to take photos of some of the things I've been up to cause they come in and they're gone. LOL

It was way too hot this weekend to do anything. Do you ever just feel like a blob when it gets hot? Boy, I was in total blob mode. It's good to have the weekend to relax. We did do a little bit of work, got colors picked out for the uniforms. We spent both evenings having dinner with the Gibsons. Can't wait to see what they'll look like. I wish that doing the tackle twill lettering would be more cost effective for us to do, so for now I'll just practice and then maybe next year we can tackle the tackle twill...LOL ok, bad pun.

I want to get back to doing some drawing and little pieces of artwork to translate into embroidery designs. There's so much fun stuff out there, and i know I can do it too.

Oh, and 2 domos are up too. One for Kay for all her Domo adventures. And the other for her sister for graduation. Domos are so much fun to make, I really have to do other shapes. :)

Will definitely post more photos when I get more stuff done!!

Desperate Housewives *SPOILERS*

So, what did you all think about the Season Finale of Desperate Housewives? I really want to know who was at the alter with Mike. Do you think it could be Susan? I'm thinking that it was her and not Katherine. But to make the show more interesting they would probably make it Katherine. LOL

And who didn't see the Karl & Bree thing coming. LOL

And who else out there is annoyed by Lynnette? I really don't like her character on the show, I mean come on. Her husband is trying to better himself by going back to school. And she tries to squash it? I know she changes her mind after he tells her why, but my thoughts were that she should have figured that out. I mean he needs to improve his skills to get a job back in the industry, and she doesn't want him to go to school. She should have figured that out before he had to tell her.

I think it's interesting that Gabby's character is changing a bit. I like how she is trying to teach Carlos' aunt's niece that she needs to be more responsible. She used to annoy me a lot when the show started, but I like her character more this season.

I'm so glad that Dave situation is all done. It was really getting predictable. Although I'm glad that he didn't leave MJ in the car at the end.

I'm glad the time jump this time is only a few months, and not 5 years. I wonder what the storylines will be like next season?

Banana Cranberry Bread

So last night while making banana bread, I thought to myself, I wonder how it would taste with Cranberries in it instead of nuts. I mean I don't eat the bread myself because there are bananas in it...ick. So I thought, "What the heck?"

So I took the banana bread recipe that I normally use, and substituted a cup of dried Cranberries in it.

Phil says it tastes really good. The cranberries kind of cut down the banana taste in the bread. Hmm, still will not make me want to eat banana bread. LOL


Favorite Banana Bread with Cranberries

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 Craisins (dried Cranberries)

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 Cranberries.

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.

Jaypg

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I cracked up at this photo. My new friend in the yard is a blue jay, very much like this one.

Tackle Twill Lettering

So I've been doing some research on how to do tackle twill lettering. For those of you who do not know what that is, it's the lettering on a lot of sports jerseys and even sweatshirts. It's an appliqué process that uses a poly-pro twill for the letters, and you sew them onto whatever garment you want.

I've been looking for websites that have instructions on how to do it. But I don't know if a lot of embroiderers figure that you already know the process, or if they don't want to share secrets unless you buy their tutorials.

Anyway, found a great site that has a wonderful tutorial that I thought I'd share. The site is Quick Artwork Designs. They have awesome step-by-step photos to go along with their instructions.

And I thought I was kind of geeky for doing my designs in AutoCAD. Well, seems that embroidery designs come out better when they're done in vector based files. And some companies do use AutoCAD. YAY! I'm a step ahead there. LOL

The things you learn while doing research. :)

Grey's Anatomy

All I can say about tonight's episode is OMG! That was such a good episode tonight. I'm going to have to sit down and watch it again and again.

I totally didn't expect what happened at the end. What is very sad is that Phil had to tell me who 007 was, he who hardly ever watches the show blurted out, "It's George!!"

Yes, he watches it too, when he's bored and has nothing else to do. But I think he enjoys watching it, even though he doesn't say he enjoys watching it with me. LOL

I knew that TR was leaving, and figured that Katherine was leaving, but OMG, had no clue that they would leave with their characters dying at the end. Who knew that the person lying on the gurney was George?? OMG.

I did like how they handled George's signing up for the army. Kudo's to Arizona for telling Callie that she thought George's signing up was awesome. And that it is heroic and brave to risk your life to give us at home the freedoms we all enjoy. I'm so glad they handled it that way.

I hope that Kevin McKidd's character will stay on for another season. I love him!! :)

Nerf Rocket Bandolier

Philip requested that I make him a Nerf Rocket Bandolier. I guess he uses the Nerf Rockets in his paintball scenario games. So he wanted something to put them on when he's in battle.

We came up with the bandolier. I took 1.5" webbing and made the bandolier. And used 1" webbing to make the tabs to hold the rockets.

I have Philip's done, and now am on to his friend's one. And we have enough to make a spare.

If anyone is interested I can make a tutorial.

The Duchess

Last night I watched The Duchess. I really enjoyed the movie. I do love period pieces. And I really was intrigued by the whole history of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.

I think Keira Knightly did a wonderful job as The Duchess. She is one of my favorite actresses, and she does so well in movies like this. It's really sad how she is so excited to be marrying the Duke of Devonshire, thinking that he loves her and wants to marry her. And not knowing that it's an obligation for him to produce an heir. So he chose her, not out of love, but necessity.

The costumes were beautiful, and the scenery was just beautiful.

Highly recommend seeing this one. :)

Wedding Guest book

Here is the final product. My friend Kay put the embroidery on an oval and then onto a guest book. It looks so beautiful! She did such a great job. She also crocheted the ring pillow and made the cross stitched heart ornament. She's so talented!!

Star Trek

Today Debi and I went to see Star Trek. OMG, if you haven't already gone to see it, you have to drop everything and just go! It was awesome!! I think out of all the Star Trek movies it is my favorite (and no, not just cause Karl is in it).

I think all the actors did such a great job! They all really did the characters really well. Scotty was one of my favorite characters in the show, and he's my favorite in the movie. He is just too too funny!

Zachary Quinto did a great job as Spock. They couldn't have picked a better actor to play him. I thought I loved him as Sylar in Heroes, he does an even better job as Spock. And Chris Pine made a great Kirk as well. I thought some of the things he did and said were too funny.

And of course I loved Karl as McCoy. He totally got his personality down pat. And he was a totally better looking McCoy. :) And when he would say, "Jim" OMG we would crack up cause it was just like how Bones would say it. LOL

Eric Bana was a Romulan, and of course he did a bang up job at being the villain in the movie. I really love everything he's done, and this was no different.

I won't say any more in case you didn't watch it yet. So please, go see it! Well worth going to the theatre to see it. I think it was way better than the Wrath of Khan. (My all time favorite star trek movie).

Sadie singing the National Anthem

I hope this works, this is Sadie singing the National Anthem this weekend. It was so neat to hear her sing it. I really loved it!

Happy Mother's Day!

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I hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day! I actually spent part of it with my mom, well, after our inspection today. I'm glad everything went well, and no stress now! I think I'll go to sleep cause I'm tired from all the happenings of the weekend!

FGSA Opening Day

Today was a really nice day. It was Opening day for the Fremont Girls Softball Association, and it was a lot of fun.
Vicky Galindo was there to throw the opening pitch. It was awesome, she was on the last Olympics team for softball. She also is on a pro team. The girls were very excited to have her there.
Alex got to catch the first pitch, and she was so nervous. And she got to shake her hand, and I think Vicky actually signed her ball.

We did pretty good, we got a couple of jobs out there for our embroidery. So it was a great day for us out there too.

Happy Friday

Hope that you all are going to have a great weekend this weekend! This weekend ended up being a real busy one for us. Tomorrow is Opening Day for the Fremont Girls Softball Association. And Phil helps to coach a team in the 18 & Under division. We moved up from the 14 & Unders.

We're going to have some of our embroidery out there, mainly to show people what we're up to, and to get some new business. We did a few things to sell out there, but we mainly want to send out info to people.

And Sadie Brown is going to sing the National Anthem tomorrow. I've never heard her sing the National Anthem before, so I'm really looking forward to it too.

Phil's never been in one of the team photos before either, so he'll be in this year's one. I'm so excited for him because he really puts in a lot of work for the girls, and he's really excited to go this year.

We're also cleaning up the yard and the house. One of our hot water pipes has been leaking, and the landlady is coming over Sunday to check it out. If it's not one thing it's another. But I'm glad that it's finally going to get fixed!

So, everyone have a great weekend! I'll check in with you all this weekend.

CCCSWA Logo

Here's my newest logo, the Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority. Ashley called today to have me do these. :) I'm glad it was an easy logo to draw up!

The Evolution of an Embroidered Image

I've been working on the logo for the company my sister-in-law works for in Tracy.

All I had to work with was the image that we took a photo from off one of their trucks. It looks really cool, but since it was hand done, the L's were different sizes. And geeky me needs to have that all the same size, cause I just do. LOL

So, this was the first attempt I made at embroidering the logo using just the photo. I really didn't like the way the end "L" came out, and I didn't like the "inc"



So, I of course had to redraw the logo using AutoCAD. Yes, geek that I am. :) And after a couple of artwork changes to account for the stitching, I came up with this:
This is the computer generated stitching version. I had a font that looked really good to me on my computer, so I just used that.

And this is how it turned out on the shirt. Much better. :) The shirt was still a bit damp when I took the photo, cause I was so excited to see the final embroidery. It's the most stitches that I've done so far in an embroidered piece. The next one I'm doing will be more, definitely.

now onto working on that plus the softball stuff for this weekend.

Jordana's first ATC

So today I spent the day with Phil's niece Jordana. We spent a little while doing Webkinz, and I had to get a couple of embroidery things done today. So while we were in my sewing/craft room she was looking at all of my tools. And she really loved my tools. LOL She thought everything in the room was so cool.


She has always liked my ATC books, so after awhile I gave her some paper to draw on. And she started cutting out ATC's. Here is her first ATC.

The inspiration for this one was Phil coming home from work and falling asleep on the couch. As soon as he did that, she said, "I think I need to do something with construction." Then she started cutting these really cute caution cones. :)

I thought it was very creative of her, and I hope that she will keep going with it and create more things. :)

Happy Star Wars Day!

Ok, how can I not post about this day. On twitter I kept seeing "Star Wars Day" on the sidebar. So of course being the Star Wars geek that I am, I had to totally check it out.

Why is it called Star Wars day? Cause of this one pun...."May the fourth be with you."

OMG, when I read that I couldn't stop cracking up. Phil just groaned. He puts up with a lot of my Star Wars craziness. LOL

So, hope you all have a Happy Star Wars day today!

Wedding Infinity Embroidery

This is my second sample of the wedding embroidery. Since the lettering is so small, they ok'd the use of regular embroidery thread for the letttering. The metallic is too delicate for all of those tight stitches.

I think it looks really cool.

Changin' up the blog

I've been playing with my blog a bit, going to do more with colors and a new banner. So please bear with me while I play a little bit.

So I think I like the peachy background. White is sometimes too stark for me. I think I like the colors of the blog at the moment.

Embroidery infinity artwork

I'm working on a design for my friend Kay's friends. It's an infinity design with the couple's names on it and their wedding date. I didn't find an infinity symbol that I liked, so I drew one up really quick.

I then cut a break in the infinity so their names could be put in the infinity symbol. Kay's idea by the way.


Then I digitized it with my Palette software, then added their names and the date with the Palette software.

I don't like how the ends of the infinity symbol look, so I'm going to adjust it a little bit and try it out on the machine with regular thread, then with the metallic. I hope that it will come out well.

Free Comic Book Day

Today is Free Comic Book Day. How cool is that? Even better, watching a video of Hugh Jackman! LOL



And if you haven't seen Wolverine, go out and see it! Alex and I saw it, and it is awesome! I love Gambit, he's always been one of my favorite X-men. And it's cool seeing Cyclops when he was younger.

Ooops.

While playing with my blog today, I accidentally deleted my links. Oops! So I'm trying to figure out what I had there, what I wanted new there. So, if you had a link there, and it's gone, it's not cause I don't like your site, it's cause I can't remember what I put there. LOL

Yes, old age is setting in. :)

I do have a new link, my cousin Tina is going to blog. And since I have her link, I posted it. Again, so I won't forget to do it later. ;) She's Tina the Trend Guru. When she posts her first post I'll definitely let you all know.

You must check out Kay's blog today. OMG, she took her green Domo to JoAnn's with her and took some photos. It is too cute!! I didn't even think to do that. I'm going to make my pink one and take photos too. The travelling domos. ;)

Strawberry tart time

It's Strawberry tart time at Nation's Giant Hamburgers. So of course we had to go get one at our local Nation's. It's a local chain that I'm finding is only in the East Bay Area (and Tracy). There are none on the Peninsula. So when I started working in Newark, oh so many years ago, I got my first taste of Nations. OMG, it is so good. Strawberry Pie time is second only to Apricot Pie time (which is only in the month of March).
I had to take a picture of their new tart container. LOL Before they would wrap the tart in waxed paper for the ride home. This was always really messy when you'd unwrap it leaving the strawberry sauce on the paper and not on the strawberries. And of course, for me, this is the "Eat just the strawberries in the tart and leave the crust behind" kind of pie.

It is just so yummy now in my tummy. The strawberries were really sweet, and they are piled high one on top of the other. As Rachel Ray would say...Yum-O!

If you go to get one, you have to go early. And I suggest that if you see them in the pie case, order them with your meal even if it is to go. Last year Phil said that he'd order it after we ate cause there were 11 of them in the case. By the time we finished they were all gone. He has never heard the end of it from me. ;)

Right Away Redy Mix Logo

We've been putting the Right Away Redy Mix logo on hats for Phil and his co-workers. And they like it so much a few of them have been requesting t-shirts. So here is a sample of the t-shirt.
I like how they turned out. I think I could embroider their name on the other side if they want. Or even underneath the logo if they let me know ahead of time. I wonder what they'll think of next. :)

Happy Tuesday

I'm done with the teensitting. I really love being with Alex and Parker, I did miss being at home. I was so worried about getting Alex to school or up for school that I kept waking up. I was cracking up that I would be so worried about not getting Alex where she needed to be in the morning.

So, when I got home I took a nap, it was a long 3 hour nap. Guess I really needed it. I had no idea how long I had been sleeping till Phil came home. LOL I didn't get anything done that I wanted to get done today, but I did watch Dancing with the Stars on the internet from last night's show. Spent time with the kitties, and just recharged.

It's good to recharge. Going to get to sleep early tonight so I can start back up on all my projects.

I was really disappointed to hear that my cousin isn't on the radio in Hawaii anymore. From the looks of it, they changed the morning show, so 2 of the DJ's (one was my cuz) aren't on anymore. I'm sad because listening to him through the internet was just like being able to hang out with him every morning. Sigh. Will have to keep up with him on facebook and twitter now.

On to new and better things for us all!

Spending the day with Alex

I have been spending the day with Alex. Since I'm teensitting (she's not a baby anymore so I don't want to use Babysitting), we've been watching movies. Phil made us dinner, and we've been just hanging out.

Parker their dog (ok, I like calling him my dog) has been hanging around with us too. He's such a good dog. I'll take photos tomorrow.

VA hospital

I went to the VA Hospital with my dad last week, and I just loved watching the flags in front, so of course I took a picture. :) I just love our flag, I think it's beautiful!

This past Friday, Jackie stopped by with her granddaughter Bella. We're figuring that we haven't seen Bella since she turned 2, she's now almost 4! OOOPS. They live quite a distance from us, so we don't always get to see her when she visits.

So it was a real treat to have her over to our house. She was kind of shy when she came in, but warmed up pretty quickly. I found some toys I had lying around the house for her to play with, and was really glad that I still had the sleeping bags for the Webkinz laying around.

This is Bella and her Daddy, Vic. She loves her dad. :)

And here we are taking a cheezy smile photo. LOL She told her grandma that she wasn't shy anymore. LOL She and I were having a ton of fun together.

Trunk Mat

So today I've finally finished Christoph's Trunk mat for his Porsche. It looks really simple, but it was a lot more labor intensive than I thought it would be. First of all our hoop only does 5x7 sized embroidery. Anything else has to be split and pieced together.

Well, that's easier said than done. It was really easy on a piece of cloth that I could hoop because you know where the hoop is going to go, where when you do hoopless embroidery, it's a bit more of a challenge. Since you can't actually see where the hoop is going, it's a bit tougher on the layout.

I did finally figure it out by a bit of trial and error, and it came out looking ok. :) This logo is Christoph's own design, it's pretty cool. And it's probably the only large logo that I'll be doing. LOL

It was good practice for me.

Green Domo

Here's the first non-brown Domo that I've made. It's really cute. I like the lime green color. Of course it's not for me. I'm sending it to my friend Kay for her birthday. I hope she will like it, he's so cute! I will have to make another one when I have the time. I've got a pink one all cut out, that one is going to be for me! :)

Craig Ferguson's Opening song 4/20

Craig Ferguson is one of my favorites, I don't know why he's on SO late cause he's so funny! I like him way better than Conan. :) Anyway, here's a clip of his opening bit a couple of days ago. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it the other night.

If you don't watch him, OMG, you need to start!! :)

Embroidered Jackets

This is my second job of Nylon Jackets. These ones were a bit of a challenge for me because I've never done jackets that had a mesh lining in them. And I had a lot of trouble hooping it with the large hoop (cause for some reason that is the one that babylock puts in with their machines). The mesh is sewn into the interior of the jacket. And since the top part is actually a flap, you can't hoop just the flap part without taking the whole jacket apart and resewing it. Not something I wanted to do.

We actually saw that on one of Phil's embroidered jacket, they just embroidered the mesh as well. Ok, that solved one problem. Hooping was an issue because of the construction of the jacket, we couldn't hoop it tight enough without capturing one of the seams.

Solution: Purchase the medium size hoop.



We would have needed to purchase it anyway, and it will save us on stabilizer on lots of projects in the long run. Now no hooping problems at all. YAY!

Cake Fight!

Ashley didn't know that when Sadie turned 21 we started a new tradition of a cake fight. LOL When Sadie turned 21 they had a huge cake fight at her party, so they all decided that with the cake leftover they could continue the tradition.


Jackie kept telling Alex that he needed to start the cake fight. And Alex then asked, "Will I be in (with the family) if I throw the cake?" LOL She said yes, and the cake started to fly! Well, of course Jackie told Ashley that she needed to grab a handful of the cake and smush it on Alex, and of course Alex retaliated.

We felt kinda bad cause we didn't realize when this happened that Ashley would have to get ready to go out with her mom for drinks at the bar. And it would take Ashley an hour to just put on her make-up. LOL

It was funny, Alex kept saying, "I'm in!!!" after he threw the cake. LOL OMG, it was too funny.

Ashley Turned 21!

Ashley turned 21 yesterday, and she threw a party to celebrate. I took a bunch of photos, but haven't finished downsizing them for the web yet. These are my faves

Philip, Alex, Ashley, and Phil. Phil is always complaining that I take too many photos, but I told him tonight that when he's old he's going to really appreciate the fact that I took so many photos of them. LOL
Me with Ashley and Jackie (Phil's sister). Jackie and I became friends when I started working at Avocet way too many years ago. Ashley was about 4 when I met her for the first time. I still can't believe she's all grown up sometimes.
Ashley with her bff Heather. They've been through a lot together. I'm so glad that they're both there for each other.
Jackie with Aunty Ann. She's Phil's dad's sister. We all love her so much and should really spend more time with her. Can you imagine, she walks 2 miles every day even in the rain. She could outwalk me, I tell ya!
I don't get to take many pics with Ashley, and we were cracking up cause I had to stand on the stoop to be as tall as her. LOL

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OMG, somedays don't you just feel like that?