April 2009

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Baby Gift Updates…

April 30, 2009 in cats, creating | No comments

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I’m not sure if this has ever happened to you, but I picked out some cute fabric, fubbed up a simple little pattern, trying to convince myself a human being could be this small and then thought about buttons and found some lovely doosies that happened to be the exact colors I needed. I’m sure this will most likely never happen again, but there you have it. Things do work out once in a while. And apparently humans do come in this size, because the adorable two and a half month old I met was actually smaller than this!! Maybe I made the skirt length a bit long, like twice as long, but you never know. Her dad is 6′2″ so she has some long legs to live up to. This marks the first baby gift I passed along to a seminary friend.

I didn’t take photos of the other onesies–I know it is insane the amount of time I spent making those little onesies and didn’t take a picture, but still. Let’s just say St. Louis got the best of me. I frantically sewed on the plane and during our brief respites to actually finish said onesies and dress. And we still managed to make it to no less than 7 food-based met-ups with St. Louis friends in two short days and a night. Whew. It was packed and I needed a vacation to recover from my vacation.

So I’ll leave you with a picture story of the process I use to cut apart old T’s.

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There you have it.

Peace!

Stoles

April 28, 2009 in creating, sewing | No comments

Eric’s stole is almost finished. I put in of the back burner to make one for our artist-friend, Karl. Here’s a website of his work. Also, the picture above our mantel was made by Karl.

I’ll let the images tell the story. Some of the motifs are from Eric’s stole.

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With fusible backing motifs positioned on the stole.

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The peeled of backing in the garbage.

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Fusing them in place.

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Stitching around the appliqued motif

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Close-up of the stitching.

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Happy Karl. The motif is water droplets,
inspired from his Wellwater work.

Peace!

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

April 28, 2009 in food | 1 comment

Wow, so much for my week-long hiatus. Spring Break came and went quickly. We spent most of last week in St. Louis, and here we are almost half-way through this week. Instead of figuring out what to share from the past, I’m going to jump right in with today.

Seeing as it was my turn to cook lunch, and still having Kath’s yummy-looking Calzones last night fresh on my mind, I decided I’d try my hand at my own. Eric and I both abhor fresh spinach–we’ve eatten eaten (will I ever learn to spell?) way to many terribly bland spinach salads of our own making and immediately start gagging at the thought of anything with fresh spinach. Yet, I’m determined to eat my fruits and vegetables so I continue to buy spinach at the store. Here’s a photo journey of our spinach/mushroom calzones. Yummy and easy–especially with pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joe’s!

100_0795Spinach with a glob of minced garlic and some olive oil.

100_0796Dirty mushrooms. They were rinsed thoroughly, especially since
I’ve been to Morgan Hill and smelled what mushrooms grown in–Ew!

100_0797Mild Cheddar and Monterrey Jack and the best cheese
grater ever–from Ikea.

100_0799Perfectly grated cheese.

100_0801Cooked mushrooms, garlic, non-salt spices, and spinach
with marinara. I mixed it all together and heated it some more.

100_0800Dough warming up to room temperature.

100_0802Calzone 1 cut in half.

100_0803Calzone 2 oozing and cooling.

Success. Now we’re off to swim. It has been in the mid-fifties here. While that is a nice temperature, it is awfully cold when exiting an outdoor heated pool onto a windy hilltop!

Peace.

Spring Break

April 14, 2009 in family, how i pass my days | 2 comments

Spring Break is finally here! I’ve been so jealous of everyone else’s break waiting, some times not so patiently, for my own! Day one, we were local tourists up in the city. Our agenda was minimal, check out Britex fabrics–me, and ride a cable car. We were successful!

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Our first stop after getting on the BART and heading up towards Union Square was the basement of Macy’s. I had to pee. This was the first of three stops I made, thank goodness I wasn’t dehydrated! Macy’s had several live floral arrangements throughout the make-up sales areas. I loved these flower balls. They were gorgeous.

Next, I spent several minutes browsing Britex while Eric looked for tri shoe laces and checked out the Virgin Megastore going out of business sale. We both left without purchases. I am trying to find material for this Ralph Rucci Vogue Pattern 1073. Here’s a better view. I’ve settled on a stretch sateen fabric, but have no clue on what color I want. Finding anything stretch, 60″ and of a quality I like is proving quite difficult. I’ve got so many other sewing projects in the works, that I don’t mind shelving this for a bit.

We then rode the cable car down to fisherman’s wharf to eat some clam chowder in a bread bowl. We’d never before ridden a cable car or tasted clam chowder in a breadbowl, so the experience was quite fun for the both of us!

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Our next stop was walking towards the other cable car line to take us back up Powell to where we could catch the BART. We remembered a wine tasting room in the Ghiradelli square area, and checked it out. We decided to split a bottle and people watch. It was a lot of fun and the perfect way to spend such a beautiful afternoon.

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I sure am glad Lent is over so I can imbibe once again–though I must admit I did “cheat” three times. I did stay away from sodas, and plan to continue that. My body definitely is much happier without artificial sweeteners and sodas.

I’m planning on taking a blogging/internet break for the rest of Spring Break week. Enjoy the sunshine and Spring!

Peace!

The Weekend

April 12, 2009 in how i pass my days | No comments

Here’s Scotch “helping” Eric get his camera ready for taking photos at the HUNT. I shot the photos while Eric took video.

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HUNT was awesome, over 4,000 people came! There were so many cute families and kids that taking photos was a breeze. It took me back to one of my college jobs working as an event photographer.

Saturday night we were invited to go out to eat with Eric’s aunt and uncle to celebrate his being done with semniary. He still has to complete his internship, but he’s just about finished!

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They made him a special super-fancy dessert. It says, “Congratulations on finishing Seminary School.”

This morning, I woke up to these!

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Pretty flowers from our yard! Yippee.

Happy Easter!

Peace!

Coming Along

April 10, 2009 in sewing | No comments

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The skirt is serged! Switching the serger to 3-thread took all of 5 minutes. It was ridiculously easy–except I had unwanted help. Poor Scotch, he ended up pouting in the linen closet because I refused to allow him on the table. I’m seriously considering moving my sewing to the outside room–our unofficial guest room. It is smaller, but cat-free! Eric isn’t thrilled about this idea, because it also currently serves as his at home office.

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What is serging without a little mess.

I’ve stocked up on snaps and am working on two more onesies! I also have a request for a sundress instead of a onesie. These combined with Eric’s stole will keep me busy this weekend.

Happy Easter!

Peace!

How I Pass My Days

April 7, 2009 in how i pass my days | No comments

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1. Laughing at my cats. Yes, Sake is completely on top of Scotch giving him some loving.

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2. Sending some mail. I love the cards I made last Saturday!

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3. Baking cookies. This is one of two 5 dozens batches I’ve made for HUNT. There is only one recipe serving left in the  eight-pound bag of chocolate chips I purchased! I hope to get one more batch of chocolate chip cookies and another of batch of snicker doodles before Friday!

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4. Avoiding this. I know it shouldn’t be too difficult to set the serger up with three threads instead of two, but I am just not interested in this right now.

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5. Getting ready for softball. Our season starts tonight with our first game at 9:15 pm. That is REALLY late for me!

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6. I went to a recipe exchange last night. I cooked 5 of the same meal and traded them for 5 different meals! Which means I don’t have to think to hard about dinners these days. Yippee!

7. I’m on a workout roll getting to the gym both Monday and Tuesday of this week! So far, I’ve taken a spin class and weight lifting class. I hope to swim tomorrow if the weather cooperates! Eric and I are seriously considering racing in The Big Kahuna Triathlon! This is a half-ironman race–meaning 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run!

8. Celebrating! Eric passed his certification interview and is done with graduate school!!

Peace!

Blank Canvas

April 6, 2009 in Musings | No comments

I’ve been debating a blog shut-down/re-do for a long while. Not that there is anything I would change or regret posting, I just feel like I’m heading in a different direction that when I first started blogging about a year and a half ago–or almost six years ago if you are considering my live journal blog! And believe me, I love fresh starts. The possibilities that arise out of January 1st, or the first day of school, are just as exciting as starting out a new week–as long as there aren’t too many obligations on the calendar–like this week. Can you relate? What do you suggest?

Hmm..

Enjoy Holy Week.

Peace!

Saturday!

April 4, 2009 in cats, creating | No comments

Today started off by sleeping in. Ah, I love sleeping in. Last night we joined a friend for her birthday bash. We started by bar-b-quing outside of their place. Then we all carpooled up to the city to Mad Pianos (careful the site plays music), a dueling piano bar. It was way too much fun to sing along and enjoy!

Then I was off to where I volunteer to get my kitties’ shots. Lucky Scotch didn’t actually need them and only Sake was stuck with a needle. She was very brave. Scotch, however, continued his shot-getting behavior of being the WCE (Worst Cat Ever).  He hissed at everything and everyone and started up several fights with Sake–they were in the same carrier. Sigh. At least kitten season is starting and I got to check out these babies. That made the trip more enjoyable!

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This mama lost her two other kitties.

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This mama had the prettiest coloring, a Tortie/Siamese mix!

After kitty duty, I made my way to host a Greeting Card Make and Take. It was so much fun. I got to meet a lot of people, and get to know a few others even better.

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Here’s a fancy birthday card.

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All the stamps and what-not scattered around.

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Lovely photographer shadow and stamps on a test page.

Now, I’m sitting down to watch Slumdog Millionaire. We’re also planning on using the leftover pizza dough from last weekend to make some yummy mushroom pizza.

Peace!

Stitch Magazine

April 2, 2009 in creating, sewing | No comments

I got an e-mail a while ago, much longer than I’d like to admit because since it arrived I haven’t been sure how to link to the information contained therein. I have since realized it is as easy as clicking on the link at the top of the e-mail titled, “Click to view this message in your browser window.” So, here is the fun interview with Stitch’s editor.

And, I am look ing forward to the mid-May arrival of the second issue of Stitch magazine. Here’s a brief synopsis of what it is included this time around.

Peace!

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