My New Tattoos

Today we did the second Thanksgiving of the weekend with Phil's family. It was a quiet one, cause part of the family were out at the races, and the rest of us were at home. So, Phi's grandniece Bella was at the house, which is always fun. And she decided that she needed a tattoo.

Of course we gather whatever pens we could find that weren't permanent, and I started drawing on Bella and Jordana. Well, Bella decided that she needed to give us all tattoos. So the picture above is what my arm looks like. She drew some flowers, a basket, a purse, and a cheerleader monkey. LOL But what you can't see is the big green hot dog that she drew on the other side of my arm.

Well, we used crayola markers that we think will wash off...NOT. LOL the lighter colors wash off very easy, but you see the dark green and blue colors she chose? Well, those aren't coming off so well. Kind of like having your arm stamped at a night club. LOL

So, I figure the stuff will come off in a day or two. Not so bad for me, since I am at home all week. But maybe not so good for Jackie who has to go to work on Monday. LOL Or Jordana and Bella who both go to school on Monday. Live and learn I guess. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving...gobble gobble!

Hope that you all had a Happy Thanksgiving, and a Happy Black Friday! Did you all get stuffed with Turkey then get up really early to go shopping?

This year we cooked the Thanksgiving dinner because my mom's oven broke on Wednesday night. I think we did pretty well for having less then 24 hours to prepare a whole meal. Luckily my mom had already thawed the turkey and had gotten a lot of other things we'd need. Cause to look for stuff the night before is always impossible.

But we did pretty well. Phil of course made a delicious turkey and rib roast. I tried my hand at Cranberry Apple Sauce, and man, did that taste good. (if I must say so myself). We got the recipe for that on The Food Channel after watching the 10 things that people ask about thanksgiving show. We used fresh cranberries instead of dried, and it seemed to work better.

We also tried to make stuffing, that did not turn out so well. And I need to practice more at making gravy, but all in all, it was a really good meal. I also decided to make turkey soup. And man, 4 bowls later, I'm stuffed! LOL

Hope you all have a great Saturday and Sunday! Do we call those black Saturday and Sunday? LOL

Pork Nuggets

For the last three nights we've had beef stew for dinner. Mainly cause you always make such a big pot of it when you make it, and well, since it was just us and Kristen, it really lasts a long long time.

So tonight we decided to make an old staple in our house, the Pork Nuggets. What are pork nuggets you might ask? Well, Phil cuts up chunks of pork, seasons them, and bakes them in the oven. Right before they're done, he'll pour BBQ sauce all over them, then puts them back in the oven to finish cooking. It's all the goodness of BBQ pork, but without having to BBQ out in the cold.


We also served them with these huge ol' potatoes that we got from Costco. Phil wanted me to take a pic of my plate with the ruler so you could see how big the darn potato was on my plate. LOL Yes, that is a normal size Fiesta Plate, and yes, it took about half of it! LOL

Normally we eat this with rice and green veggies, but I made Phil buy a very large bag of carrots because I love carrots. So we're eating this very large bag of carrots in about everything. :)

It's a great, very easy dinner to make. You gotta try it!

Starwarshop.com

So yes, you all know I'm a big Star Wars fan. And being a fan, I get the Star Wars emails from the Star Wars website. (yes, I'm a geek). So, when they had the link for the StarWarsShop.com, of course I had to check it out. And I saw these cool chopsticks and R2D2 glasses. Now R2 is my favorite in the movie. Well, ok, I have lots of favorites in the movie, but R2 is my favorite favorite. So these cups were too cool, and especially when they come with Lightsaber Chopsticks. How cool is that!!
Then I scroll down and see this toaster. OMG, a Star Wars toaster! And better yet, it toasts Darth Vader's helmet on your toast! That's just too cool!! Yeah yeah. I know if I ever got one, it would totally not ever be used and stay in the box, and Phil wouldn't want to have Darth Toast. LOL But it's just too cool that they're even making that stuff. Heck, it could go with our Mickey Mouse waffles. ;)
But to top it all off, is this Tauntaun Sleeping bag. Now, how wrong is that?? OMG, it's so wrong it's funny! Ok, I know all of you must have seen The Empire Strikes Back, and you know that scene where Han is trying to save Luke's life by cutting open the Tauntaun and sticking Luke in there to keep him warm while he builds a shelter for them. So you know that this is just a bit twisted. But what's funny is that inside the pattern is Tauntaun guts. And the zipper pull is a little lightsaber. ROFL!

Check out the other stuff on the site, very cool!!

Friday I'll be Over You

On American Idol this season, Allison Iraheta became one of my favorite performers on the show. I just love her energy and her music style. :) You've been hearing her song on and off on my blog for the past month or so.

So here is her video. I just love it cause it reminds me of the videos I watched in the 80's when we were all saying, "I want my MTV!" Remember those days? I remember sitting in front of the TV watching all those videos by Duran Duran, aha, Bon Jovi, Journey, and the like. My bff Christine and I would go to a ton of concerts to see all these bands too. Man, those were the days. Who else remembers $15 concerts?? LOL We could go to 3 or 4 shows a month.

Anyway, enjoy the video!

Holiday Boutique in Redwood City

Today we had a Holiday boutique at the home in Redwood City. She has a really pretty home near downtown. And graciously opened up her home to us to have a boutique.

Tina is selling some jewelry items, really beautiful pieces from a line called Sweet Romance. I have always loved their jewelry. A lot of it is so antique looking. It was a very popular line at the store. And she is also selling jewelry that she found on her many trips to New York. Tina is always up on the trends, and she finds jewelry in New York that are like 3 seasons ahead of what is happening here in California. I even remember seeing earrings that were similar to what we had one year on Dancing With the Stars!

Jaquie has a lot of Christmas ornaments and other items that her mother had purchased but never used, so she has all of them out for sale. Lots of really cool Santas, snowmen, and other fun pieces.
Tina also has some Joan Baker pieces that she had from the stores. I just love Joan Baker!

And one of the best parts of today, I was able to reconnect with some old friends from grade school. Michelle, Laura, and Sandy. Michelle (in the blue sweatshirt) and Sandy (in the white coat) used to live a few houses away from my Great Uncle and Aunt in San Mateo. We used to play together a lot when we were little kids (I think before kindergarten). They moved to Foster City when we were in kindergarten. And we went to grade school in Foster City together. Laura, Michelle and I were all in the same grade.

I haven't seen Laura since Grade School, and I saw Michelle once or twice since then. So it was really great that Sandy found me on Facebook, and that we all reconnected. Thank goodness for Facebook!!

I hope we'll all keep in touch and keep getting together. It's fun to reconnect with old friends.

Felt Ornaments

I love working with felt. It's just so much fun to sew and make different things. I made these ornaments for a boutique. I've made the gingerbread ones before, but used paint on them this time and beads.
The snowmen are really fun to do, and really easy.

My new one for this year is the cat. I just love kitties. And at some point I'll make different colors, but just doing the white ones for the boutique.

Getting stuff ready...

I've been getting stuff ready to take to the boutique, but I don't think it will be a ton of stuff. Only cause I couldn't get motivated last week. And it's now just a few days away! YIKES!! But I think things have been working out the way they should. I'm not going to stress over it. I'll just do what I can.

Of course that means I'm gonna work like a mad dog the next few days, but no stress! LOL

Will update you with pictures as soon as I can!

Holiday Boutique

I just wanted to post a flyer for a little holiday boutique that we're doing next weekend. It's at a residence in Redwood City. I hear there is going to be some really great stuff! I'll update you with things that we'll have there next weekend, but just wanted you all to know to hopefully put it in your calendar!!

Gruffies

I have just come to realize that I've been away from the world of rubber stamping for way too long. Phil's sister and I have been selling our rubber stamps on ebay, etsy, and shophandmade.com for a couple of months now. And so I've been researching the stamps for their names and such, and I came across these lovely stamps from House Mouse called Gruffies.
I just love the House Mouse stamps. Those are ones that I cannot release, cause they are just too cute!! And I am so glad they've started drawing bears. I love bears! I love beanie bears, grizzly bears, polar bears, panda bears. There are bears all over the place. Ok, the only thing that they could draw that I'd love even more would be dragons, oh yea, and cats. LOL

Their designs are so beautiful. I love the line work, how she makes them look so fluffy. And they are doing such neat things. Like the bike riding and reading. Check out their site, it's very cool!!

Project Runway

So, has everyone been watching Project Runway? I just LOVE it. I love watching the designers create. It would be so hard to have to create such wonderful pieces when you have only one or two days to do it. Especially under such pressure!!

I am happy the final three are in the final three. I love love love Irina's designs. I think out of the three, she should be the winner. I loved her Aspen challenge outfit!! And her paper coat was amazing!! I think she is the most talented out of the three.

Carol Hannah is so cute! Love her personality. And she's done really well the last few challenges. Especially the bob mackie challenge. She might be a little limited in what she makes, but what she makes is totally awesome!

And Althea is not one of my favorite designers personality wise, but I did like a few of her designs. I still think she was inspired by Irina on the challenge before last. I was a bit bummed that Irina didn't win that challenge, but heck, it's tv! LOL

And out of the models, Kalyn is my favorite. I hope that Irina wins so that she wins!! I wish Kojii would have made it to the end, cause I just loved her too. But I'm SO SO SOOOOO glad that Katie didn't make it to Bryant park. Her attitude at the end was just awful!!

Can't wait till the final episode. But then I'll be sad too cause it will be done for the season. :(

Law Abiding Citizen ***Spoilers***

I know the movie has been out for awhile, but today Debi and I went to see Law Abiding Citizen. It was totally not what I expected it to be. I guess I should have paid closer attention to the ratings. It was gory. Normally I can handle movies as this one, but some of the scenes really bothered me. I think they really didn't have to go into such depth on some of them and leave a little to the imagination. I can relate it to watching Seven, the Ghost and the Darkness, or Silence of the Lambs. Mainly because it could really happen. And you just didn't know how to stop what was going on.

It was really on the edge of your seat. You kind of knew that something was going to happen, but you really didn't know what. And the scariest part was that you think that there is an accomplice out there, so even if they sentenced Gerard Butler's character to death, they made you believe that there was another person out there who would continue what he started.

All the time you're thinking, "you know, someone could go this bonkers and actually do some of this stuff."

Anyway, aside from the blood and guts, I really did enjoy going to see this film. Mainly because it made you think. And I really didn't expect the ending. Although there were many things pointing to what the outcome would be during the movie, I really didn't expect it to end the way it did.

I love watching Gerard Butler in his movies, he is a terrific actor, and is very believable. He can be really fun loving and nice, but man, don't make him mad! LOL

Denami Christmas Giveaway!

Just so you all know, Denami Designs is having a great Christmas giveaway! Here is a link to their blog: http://denami.blogspot.com/2009/11/christmas-giveaways.html

Their new Christmas Chickies are too cute!!

Scentsy Candles

My friend Charmaine is selling these really wonderful wickless candles called Scentsy Candles. You plug the warmer in, put a Scentsy fragrance bar on the top, and the bottom part warms the bar and releases the wonderful fragrance. There are a bunch of different scents and designs to please everyone!


One of the things I thought was really neat was that you could design your own warmer. They have these blank warmers that you can use their rub on packs to match your decor. How cool is that!!

Check her site out at: www.girlsgonewickless.com

More embroidered logos

I spent today working on a couple of embroidered logos, two down one more to go. :) This is what they will look like before I've stitched them out, so I'll have some tweaking to do more or less. And I'm not sure how the "Outdoor sports" will stitch out since it's not with the programmed in letters. Hopefully it will work!!

The logo above is for a friend of ours who has opened up his own shop in the central valley. We used his logo from his business card. I'm getting better at scanning in the logos and drawing them out I think. On his logo the words "Outdoor Sports" is located between the "P" and the deer, but since it's hard to embroider letters that little, I hope that having the words under the logo will be ok.
And the tennis logo is for a friend of mine. I'm thinking that I'll have to take out the outline of the black on the racquet. It might not stitch up as well as the computer drawing. Plus the ball needs to be a teeny bit bigger. So we'll see how it will turn out on version two. Plus we're putting names underneath the racquet which looks really cool.

And this week I've been thinking up things to sell at a boutique. I know I'll be in jewelry making mode this weekend, and I want to sew up some stuff. It's just getting motivated. And I'm finding that it takes a lot of time to put stuff up on ebay. So, we'll see how things work out for the boutique. I'll update you all when I get stuff made. And I'll let you know where the boutique will be if you're interested as well, it should be a ton of fun!!

Gumbo

Tonight Phil made Gumbo. Last night he made it at his sister's house. His Brother-in-law is learning how to cook, and he and his friend made Gumbo one night. Phil was over there watching football, and they decided to cook gumbo for dinner. OMG, it was SO good that I had to ask Phil to make it again tonight.

My only experience with anything Gumbo before was listening to a band called Mumbo Gumbo. Yes, last night was the first time I've ever had Gumbo. And I thought that it would be really spicy and have things in it that I didn't eat. Boy, was I wrong.

In Phil's Gumbo, he cut up a Polska Kielbasa and some Hot Links and browned them, then put them in a pot. Then he cut up about 5 stalks of Celery and 4 carrots and sauteed them for a bit, then put that in the pot. He cut up 5 chicken breast pieces and browned them with some garlic, and put that in the pot. He also put in a can of niblets corn, just cause we thought that would go well in it.

He then put in some chicken stock, one of the cartons of chicken stock. And he added some Zatarans Gumbo Seasoning. After a bit he added some corn starch to thicken up the broth. Then let that all simmer for awhile.

Can you say, "Yum-o!" All together now....YUM-O!!

When it was done we served it over some white rice. not sure if you're supposed to put it on something else, but I've gotta put it on white rice. LOL

So easy to make, and so yummy!!

New ebay listings...

I just put up some new listings on ebay, and these are some of the stamps I've had forever that I've either haven't used at all or I really lightly used. I figure I can't possibly use all the stamps I have in my collection, and since my stamping style has changed I'll destash some items. The link to our ebay site is to the right. And I'm also selling stamps on etsy as well.
I just think the little girl who is cutting hearts is so cute!

And I bought that one with the moose to make cards, but never did. And I didn't realize that it was an enesco product, so there's probably a figurine that matches it somewhere.

My cousin is also selling some really cool figurines on her ebay account. Plus some really fun martini glasses. I just LOVE martini glasses, I just don't drink alcohol! lol They are too fun to look at and use though. Her ebay name is: Shaddzz

Do some early Christmas Shopping. :) Very fun stuff!!

October Birthdays

During the month of October, Joanne and I celebrate our birthday together with a trip to Ohana Hawaiian BBQ to get their Volcano Chicken. Volcano Chicken is pretty much Chicken Katsu with a spicy Katsu sauce. It's Joanne's most favorite thing to eat whenever she comes to Fremont. :)

It was so very yummy. It is my favorite dish to eat at this chain of Hawaiian BBQ restaurants. Just love it!

We also had a fun time going to Michael's and to JoAnn's Crafts. They don't have either store on their side of the hill, so it was a treat for Debi and Joanne. I hope Joanne wasn't tired of us asking her about how to make things creative every time we heard that darn commercial on the loudspeaker in the store. LOL

I SO enjoy our get togethers, I do wish I lived closer to them so I could see them more often. :) And Happy Birthday Joanne!

A birthday gift...

I spent tonight making a birthday gift for a very dear friend of mine. I don't know if she'll like it, but I really love how the colors go with the gold color of the bracelet. All the charms are just too much fun. The beads are either swarovski crystals or czech glass. I'll let you know tomorrow if she likes it. :)

Funny Kitten Picture

I was cracking up at this picture of two of the kittens in our yard. It looks like fluff ball is talking back to me while I was taking his picture. Kinda like, "Whatcha doin' lady? Feed me already."

Phil named the orange one Julius (get it, Orange Julius), and I just call the fluffy one, Fluff ball for lack of anything else to call it. They are the friendlier ones out of the bunch so far. The mom is just starting to wean them, so we figure they'll be more friendly in a week or so. It's fun seeing the little furballs outside the kitchen door.