Day in San Francisco

My niece and my sister were here visiting from Ventura this week. They were helping us out with going through some stuff at my parents' house. So we decided to take a break and go to the City on Wednesday.

Our first stop was Free Wednesday at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It was great because we saved $25 each on admission, but there was so many people in there that we all decided that the next time we'll pay the admission fee! LOL

Since Kiana was taking time off from school, we called it her Field Trip. I liked the new set-up of the Aquarium. I wished we could have gone into the rainforest part, but the line was so long we skipped it. We decided to do that another time.
The aquarium is now downstairs. It's neat because there is so much to see, the above photo is from the Philippine Coral Reef. I loved it cause of all the colorful fish. And we could see the guy cleaning the tank, which was pretty cool. Reminded me of Finding Nemo. LOL
This photo is of the California Coast Tank. Love to see all of the fish that we have close to us in the ocean. They pipe in the water for the tanks directly from the ocean. I learned that from watching a show on the building of the new aquarium on Discovery channel.

The one drawback of being downstairs was that there were so many people downstairs, and it made it very warm. If you're claustrophobic, free Wednesday might not be a great idea. Too many people crammed into such a little space. Other than that, it was a great experience.

After going to the aquarium, we decided to walk through the Japanese Tea Garden across the way. I haven't been there in years, I think the last time was with my friend Christine. It was really neat to go back and take a bunch of photos.
Here is Eydie and Kiana on the bridge. The bridge is really cool, really steep though. LOL They had fun trying to climb down.

And here is a picture of the Buddha statue in the garden. It was so cool, there was a finch that kept landing on his hand. I didn't take the picture in time to get it, that would have been a cool pic.
So, of course after going to the tea garden, we had to go to Japantown to go get noodles at Mifune. And of course we had to walk around and shop. My favorite store is of course the Sanrio Store. It's a pretty big one, and they had some really fun San Francisco Kitty items. I just love getting the different city's kittys.
Here's the front of the store:
It was a really great day to play, and I'm glad we got to spend time together.

Super Bowl Fry Day

This past Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. For those of you who aren't from the US, the Super Bowl is the biggest game of the year. It's where the NFC and AFC has their final game of the season to see which is the best team. Either you're watching the game cause you love football, or you're like me, watching the game to see what was the best commercial this year. LOL

This year Phil's family decided that we'd have a Fry Day. Meaning that everything was deep fried, and pretty much finger foods. Yes, warnings went off in my head at the thought of having mainly fried foods. But of course the novelty of it won out, even though I knew I was going to have a stomach ache afterward.

One of our favorite fried foods is Garlic Steaks. Think of a chicken fried steak with a ton of garlic in it, and you have Garlic Steaks. Phil gets Italian bread crumbs and mixes in chopped onions and minced garlic. Then he dips a thin piece of steak in an egg wash, presses that in the bread crumbs, and fries it. OMG, it is so good.

We thought that mini corn dogs would taste really good. So we bought the mini smokies at Costco, dipped them in corndog batter made from Krusteaz and cornmeal. I did a half recipe and it still was way too much. They turned out pretty good.


We also had fried Raviolis. Phil takes frozen raviolis, and he breads them with the same stuff he uses on the garlic steaks. They turned out really yummy.

We also had regular cheese sticks. Those were really easy to make. Since we weren't at home, we had to make due with what was in the house. Al bought string cheese sticks, and we dipped that in the egg wash. We used the Italian bread crumbs to coat, then dipped it back in the egg wash and back into the bread crumbs. Then deep fry. Those really didn't take long at all to fry. And they tasted like any cheese sticks you'd get at a restaurant. I wish I had thought to take a picture of them.


For dessert I made Apple Zeppolis. They're from the recipe that Giada made on her show. I think I didn't squeeze out the juice from the apples enough, cause it made the dough more like a batter. So we pretty much had apple funnel cakes. They were quite good, I must say. LOL

And not pictured are the fried twinkies. We were going to use the traditional fried twinkies recipe, but there was no vinegar in the house. That's one thing about going to someone else's house to cook. I know what I have in my house, and I have pretty much everything I need. And I get a bit frustrated when I'm told to make something, but I don't have what I need. You get used to your tools, you know. Anyway, since we didn't have any vinegar in the house, and since no one was going to go to the store to get any, we used the Zeppoli batter. And you know, it turned out pretty good. Or so I was told. I'm not a big twinkie fan, so when I took a bite, it was too darn sweet for me. But everyone else liked it.

I also made some not fried things. Phil's mom had a few mini bundt cake pans that I inherited. Mainly cause I bake, and no one else does. LOL So I've been making mini bundt cakes lately. These are mocha cakes with mocha glaze and homemade whipped cream. They were really yummy.

I think that was my last fry day party! I hope next year we incorporate some veggies cause man, that was too much fried foods in one day!

Winter Banners...

So before we decided on moving, oh so many months ago, I signed up for a Winter Banner Swap hosted by my friend Debi. What you were to do was to make a 5x7 triangle banner flag out of cloth for each participant so that we all can have a piece of each other's artwork. Turns out the final number was 20 flags.

It's the first time I've ever made a banner flag, and it was a lot of fun. I tried doing it out of this heavy brocade material, but it unraveled too much for me to have unfinished edges. And so I decided on making it out of a cotton material with a heavy stabilizer backing.

I saw the circle felt snowflakes in an issue of CK. So I scraplifted the idea. I just love doing hand embroidery, so I was able to incorporate a teeny bit into the banner.

Then I found this really great mesh material that had glittery snowflakes on it, you can't see it very well cause, it's kind of washed out. But I took a bit of that material, and sewed it to the top half of the banner for a bit of texture.

Then after all was said and done, I sewed on sequins with beads to each banner. I love a bit of sparkly!

I'll take a better picture of it when I get it back. Everyone is doing such beautiful work! I can't wait to see what all the banners will look like. :)

New Shows...

I am loving the new winter season of TV. Mainly because two of my favorites are back, Chuck and Big Love. I love the new Chuck 2.0! You all know that he had the new intersect downloaded into him at the end of last season. And this year it makes him actually do cool things. It's so much more fun to watch him kick butt! And how can you not love that Captain Awesome knows about his being a spy, and now he's sucked into being a spy. And my favorite character is Casey. (KC?) I love Adam Baldwin, and he's just so super awesome in Chuck. Loved him as Jayne in Firefly, but he's so much better here.

Now on Big Love, so many things are happening. I swear I wasn't going to watch that show when it first came out. I mean who wants to watch a show on polygamists? But man, after the second show it just hooked you in. And It's fun seeing what is going to happen next with the Hendricksons. And having Adam Beach on the show this season is super awesome!

This week Burn Notice starts up too. You know, I just love the USA networks shows. I don't know what it is about them, but they are so much better than the TNT shows. Well, except for that Jada Pinkett show, I really like that one too.

Um, do you think I watch too much TV?

And of course, it's so fun that Idol is back! I miss Paula, cause she was always so crazy! I wonder how the show will be without Simon next year. I know people don't like Simon, but I just love how he tells it like it is. He's truthful, and he just wants to make them into better singers.

Anyway, hope you all are having a great week!

Junior Kekuewa Jr Live in Waikiki

Tonight my cousin Junior is going to be opening his show, "Junior Live in Waikiki" at the Sheraton Princess Kailulani Hotel in Waikiki at 9 pm!!

I'm so excited for him because he's worked so very hard to get here. And we're all so proud of him!! I can remember him singing and playing guitar for us all when he'd come to visit us. And I was always so impressed by his singing. I remember him singing "This Masquerade" for us, and I was so totally blown away.

So, if you're in Oahu, go see his show. He has a lot of talented people with him too, and it's gonna be awesome!! I just wish we were all there too.

Love ya cuz!!

Blanket making with Ashley

Every once in awhile, Ashley decides she needs to make a blanket. So while we were in Walmart she saw some fleece material and decided that she needed to make a blanket. The clerk at Walmart told us that she sews the blanket first, then cuts it and ties the edges. She does it for stability. So, we brought the material home, I laid it out on the floor and cut all the edges so they would match. Then I sewed a straight line about 3.5" from the edge all around the edges. And Ashley and Alex cut and tied all the edges of the blanket.

Alex didn't want us taking pictures of him making the blanket, so of course, I had to take one of him, this was right before he pulled the blanket up to hide. I cracked up cause it looks like he's waving HI and he's enjoying himself. LOL A little bit after I took the picture, I guess Alex cut into the back of the blanket by accident. So he was taken off blanket duty. (I think he didn't mind that at all). LOL

Here's Ashley with her finished blanket. The thing is HUGE!! I think it turned out really well, good job!! Now she wants to take the scraps and make some cat toys. Will let you know what they look like when they're done. LOL

Family Crest Embroidery

For my sister I decided to make her an Ehara Family Mon sweatshirt. With hers, I thought to put our name underneath the crest, just for something different. And she liked it! I am never sure whether to make her something, cause I never know if she will like it or not. So I'm glad that she did. Now I have to make them for the rest of the family! :)

Dallas Cowboys Shadow box.

This year I made many of my Christmas gifts. I just wanted to do something different this year. And it was really great cause I didn't have to go shopping at the malls, just at places like JoAnn's and Michael's.

Since my sister's boyfriend is a big Cowboys fan, and he was in their fan magazine, I made him a Dallas Cowboys Shadow frame. I had a lot of fun doing it. My family kept giving him a hard time cause he's not a Niner's fan. LOL But I think it turned out neat.

I matted the cover and the profile on blue paper and it was neat, all you did was use the hook part of some velcro to attach it to the frame. I found a really cool silver helmet that he really loved at the local Shirtique store, and I found a neat Dallas pin too.

I went to my local scrapbook store to get those NFL stickers from Jolees, only to find that they had discontinued making them. Not sure if they lost the license or what. But it really bummed me out. SO, I went online and found their logo letters, and cut out "Cowboys" and matted that. I then found a Star Punch from Fiskars and used that. Luckily I had a 50% off coupon from JoAnn's so it didn't cost that much.

I did leave a little bit of space for him to put his own pin or something next to the star. He really really liked it, which was really cool! I'm glad that he did. :)

Skunk Fight!

So, last night I was awakened at around 1 in the morning by this high pitched animal scream. My first thought was that it was one of the wild animals attacking one of the kittens. So I jump out of bed, run to the window, and I see two skunks fighting. Well, my exact words to Phil were, "There are two skunks killing each other!!!"

There was a larger skunk on top of a smaller skunk trying to bite him while the smaller skunk was squealing. So, here I am knocking on the window hoping that they'd stop fighting. But of course, they don't care that I'm knocking on the window. They're just claiming territory.

I'm scared for the skunks, I know, it's a natural thing. But still, I don't want a dead skunk in our yard. And then I'm scared that they're gonna attack the cats. But I look up, and all 7 are sitting on top of the wood pile. Phil said that it looked like they were highschool kids watching a fight in the school yard. LOL

By the time we got to the kitchen door, they were gone. But then, the smell. OMG, it was awful! You couldn't smell it at first, but then man, it just started spreading through the air, getting stronger and stronger. And of course, it had to be near the bedroom window. So that room got the worst of it.

Velcro was looking at me like, "Come on mom, make it stop!"

I didn't realize skunks would fight like that, and that they sound like little piggies when they squeal. I hope that they will behave tonight!

Latest Embroidery projects

Here are my latest embroidery projects. The one above is a take off from the Wedding infinity embroidery I did for a couple of friends. Since these will be done on towels, the lettering needed to be bigger, so we did a full infinity symbol with the lettering underneath. I think it will come out quite nicely.

And since my friend Sandra gave her tennis towels to her team, I can now post how they came out. I really liked how they turned out, and I think I need to do this on some towels just because.

Post office rant...

I have been spending this Christmas season at the Post office mailing out ebay auctions. And it's funny how impatient people are during this time of year. I mean come on, you have GOT to know that December is the busiest time of year for all shipping companies. I hear that from Philip every time I see him. LOL

So, when you go into the Post Office on the Saturday before Christmas, don't expect the lines to be short. And don't get upset with the postal workers. They want to get through the line as quickly as possible too. Do you think they want all these people angry with them?

It amuses me when people in the lines think that their time is much more important then the person in front of them. So they try to jump ahead of the people in front of them. I guess this is true with any line this time of year. What makes anyone think that their time is much more important then anyone else's time?

My guess is that you should have considered this before going to the post office and adjusting your time accordingly. The person in front of you has just as many things to do in their day as you do. Maybe even more. So disrespecting that person by trying to jump in line, is not cool.

And don't you really think you should get all your forms and even your boxes packed and taped up before you get to the post office. Why should everyone behind you have to wait until you get your boxes taped up while you're at the counter? I think that is one of the reasons why the line is so long. People come unprepared, and try to fill all that stuff out while they are up at the counter instead of before they get there.

And, I know that the post office supplies tape for people who send things priority mail. But do you really have to use almost the whole roll of tape to close your box by wrapping the box around and around and around with tape? Do you realize that we're all actually paying for that tape with higher postage fees? it's kind of like any government service. you actually think that the tape is free, but it's getting paid for by taxes or postage fees. So we're actually paying for it with our tax money or fees.

Can you tell I spend a lot of time lately at the Post office?? LOL

Embroidered Aprons...

My sister requested an embroidered apron for a gift for her boss. I'm thinking that he's not reading my blog, so I thought I could post this now, cause I really like it! I know it's not as complex as the urban threads lady, but I get so happy when a design works, even as simple as they are.

She wanted the saying, "I am going to start my diet tomorrow." Cause that is what he always says to them when there are sweets around. I couldn't find any masculine food material at our local JoAnn's cause, everything they had was too girlie. So I found a premade apron and I figured I can embroider candy on the apron to go along with the saying.

Well, the computer took a dump right before I was going to work on this, so I had to figure something else out cause my AutoCAD program isn't compatible with Windows 7. Took me a few days to realize I could use paint and make chocolate chip cookies. how hard can that be?

So this is the final product.I like how it turned out. I had to make a couple of cookies that were chomped on just cause. LOL I hope they'll be happy with it. :)

Embroidered Towels

Ngoc asked me to embroider towels for her for gifts for Christmas. So here is how they turned out. It's amazing how much more elegant towels look when they're embroidered. She chose the tan color thread, and I just love the color combinations. I keep telling her she needs to be my color guru. Now I want to make these for gifts for everyone! :)

Tsunami Warning Signs

I am just fascinated by these tsunami warning signs. I think mainly because I never even considered that we could actually have tsunamis. I thought that was only for islands in the Pacific, or Japan. LOL Can you say, "Dur dur dur."

So, when taking my dad to the VA hospital in San Francisco, we always drive down the Great Highway. For those of you who aren't from the bay area, the Great highway runs along Ocean Beach on the coast. And one day I saw these tsunami signs. Now I love taking photos, but won't do it when I'm driving with my dad. Cause I know he'd think I'm crazy. LOL

So yesterday I had an opportunity because I had to drop my aunt off to get blood work, and then my dad off to get my eyes checked. So I thought I'd go and get a picture of the signs.


So, if you're in SF, and there is an earthquake, run for high grounds (like the figure in the picture).

Hello!

Happy Tuesday...
Today was our boutique, and it was a lot of fun. I'll post pics tomorrow. But it was so nice to see customers that I hadn't seen in awhile. I really do miss them!! I sold a few pair of earrings, and got a new embroidery job. So it was fun.

I have a few ideas running through my brain for Valentine's day. I'll get them down on paper tomorrow while I'm taking my dad to the eye doc in SF. I'll post some photos tomorrow too on a few projects I was working on, I didn't want to post them until they were given away as gifts. And I have to figure out if I got them downloaded to my external drive before my computer took a tank.

Hope you all have a great Wednesday! i think I'm going to go take a long nap. :)

Shadzz Holiday Shopping

On Tuesday my cousin Tina and I will be at the Homestead Studio suites in San Carlos for a holiday boutique. If you're around stop on by! We'd love to see ya.

It's cold in the Bay Area!

It's been very cold in the bay area the last few days. So we woke up yesterday to snow in the hills! Ok, buy the time I got up and out, most of it had melted. But it looks so pretty! we haven't had snow that far down the hill in such a very long time.

So of course I had to make sure the bed for the outside kitties were nice and warm today. These are two of the kitties that were born in our backyard. Hopefully soon they'll be barn cats at Al's house.

Oh, and these are the purple cupcakes I made for Al. For helping us fix our waterpipes, he wanted Purple Iced cupcakes with cream filling inside. I don't know WHY purple, but you know, everyone in our family is going to now have purple iced something or other cause I have so much of the darn food coloring now. LOL

Found a great recipe online for the icing in the center. And after the cupcakes bake and cool, you're supposed to fill it with some type of injector. Of course I didn't have one, so I took an apple corer, and cored out a hole in the cupcake. I dug out some of the cake, filled it, then put the nub of cupcake top back in the hole and iced it. they turned out pretty well I think.

RIP my computer friend...

Sorry that the last couple of posts are pictureless. I'm in the process of moving stuff over to my boyfriend's computer because mine has died a slow death. The motherboard was overheating, so it would only stay on for maybe 5 minutes before it would shut itself off and then back on. I asked Christoph to take a look at it, and after some exploring that is what we figure is going on. It's a good thing I had backed up most of my files onto my external hardrive. There are a few files still on the hard drive that I have to get off, but I'm going to wait till I get my next computer to do that.

So, the next couple of days will be filled with uploading the computer programs that were my most favorite to use, and to get my life back in gear. It's a pain to have to share the computer, but it will give me time to get some other things done I think.

It's so funny how you get used to having a computer set up the way you like it, with the programs you like, and it working oh just so, and then all of a sudden it crashes, and you have to figure out what to do next. Luckily my sister has a computer for me to use, or I just don't know what we'd do at the moment. I still have to wait a couple of weeks till I get it, but heck, it's better then not having one at all.

What in the world did we do before we had a computer??

Beatles Rock Band

So, tonight was the first time I've seen the Beatles Rock Band for the Wii. OMG, it was the coolest thing, mainly cause it's the Beatles. Cause I just love the Beatles. I think the different graphics are kinda fun. The big guy dressed up as a giant rabbit was a little weird on I am the Walrus.

To me, the funniest thing was watching the group of 15 year old girls play the game. The first song they chose was "Come Together". And if you haven't seen a bunch of teen girls trying to sing this song for the first time, it's a must see. Mainly because when Alex got to the part when they started singing about "Joo joo eyeballs," the look on her face was classic. And as the song progressed, she just stopped and said, "What the heck?" What kind of lyrics are those? LOL I couldn't stop laughing.

Cause really, did we even know what the heck we were singing when that song came out?

So, they got Debi G and Christina to sing because none of the girls knew any of the lyrics...um hello?? I was thinking, didn't your parents listen to this music for you to know the lyrics? Then you come to realize, half of the parents are in their 30's, and many of them didn't listen to the Beatles...WHAT?? LOL ok yes, half of them didn't even know that there is a Yellow Submarine movie with the Beatles in it. And then I said, you never saw them go to the land with all the holes, and Ringo pick up one and put it in his pocket? (ok they started looking at me really funny). Then you tell them, yes, and then at the end of the movie, he pulls out this big black hole from his pocket and says, "I got a 'ole in me pocket" in his british accent.

Boy, did I get funny looks then.

I didn't feel to bad, cause the other half of the parents were my age or a bit older, so they knew all the words to the Beatles songs like we all did. And we were the only ones singing to the game. It was pretty sad too. Thinking that there is this whole generation of kids that only know these songs because of this video game.

What an eye opening evening it has been tonight! ;)

Old Photos and Facebook

I think Facebook is such a wonderful thing! Since joining facebook, I've reconnected with so many people, a lot of old school friends, and a lot of my family too. Most of my family is in Hawaii, so we didn't get to see them very often if at all because we were born on the mainland. So it's really nice to be in contact with some of my cousins.

And a great thing to find out is that my cousin Gary is into photography, so he appreciates all the old photos just as much as I do, if not more! We've been exchanging photos over the internet, and it's fun to see photos of my dad when he was young, and even my grandparents and my great grandparents. I've never seen photos of my dad's Grandma, and I've finally saw one. I thought that was so neat.

I can't wait to see what other photos he'll post.