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Projects

May 14, 2009 in cats, creating, drafting, family, fashion, Musings | 1 comment

Eric’s ordination is coming up quickly. Less than a month, now. The stole is finished!

Now I’m thinking about sewing for myself. Since a lot of Eric’s family will be in town for the event, we’re going to take some family photos. I’ve asked everyone to wear a white shirt and denim or khaki bottoms to a party being hosted on Saturday evening. Ordination is on Sunday. Since my denim skirt is all but sewn, I’ve got bottoms and am thinking I might be able to make a top out of this Italian shirting I bought a while back. I’m debating if it is has too much color, but since I made the photo “rules” up, I can break them, right?

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Here’s my sketch. I’m still undecided on sleeves. and how tight this will be–i.e. if it will slip over my head or need a closure.

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I hope to knock this out this weekend so I can get started on the dress I will wear next week. Here’s the material I hope to use on the dress. The lace is from Paris! I’ve been hanging onto it to use on something special. It was 50-100 Euro a meter! My mom and I picked it out when I was there in 2003.

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Sake decided to sit on the fabric this morning. Lovely, and such smugness. I gently removed her and draped the fabric over the chair. The last thing I need is a snag caused by cat toe-nails.

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Scotch wanted his photo taken too. It is only fair, right? He is enjoying the gorgeous day and our opened door.  I’m still working on ideas for the dress. I may use the lace as an accent or as a sheer top over the dress. We’ll see. Here’s where my sketching has taken me so far. I’m not really loving anything, but know it is a start.

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In other news, I picked up the most recent edition of Stitch. It is not as good as the first edition. The dress patterns they share are okay at best and one photo/dress looks downright awful in the magazine styling. Ew!

I’m still feeling off today, but have heard the 24-hour flu is making its rounds at our school. Yippee. I don’t feel THAT bad, just off. I think my three-hour afternoon nap today is helping head in the right direction.

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!

Soaking Up Saturday

March 28, 2009 in cooking, creating, drafting, family, running | No comments

Eric has practice weekend for his triathlon. Which left me car-less and home alone for the weekend. Friday afternoon, I set up a pedicure date with a friend. A few more people decided to come and then we went browsing at the local Home Goods/TJ Maxx. It was a lot of fun. I got home and worked on ripping up some thrifted T-shirts. It only took a year, but I’m finally delving into my Alabama Stitch book projects! That and I am overdue on several baby gifts. Pun not intended, but then lefted left because it is pretty cute. :) As in I have ten babies to get something too!! Thankfully, three are due in May or after. But five of them are from seminary friends, and I’d like to get those wrapped up before we head up to St. Louis!!

I’m also trying to get that darned denim skirt finished. Which I am super excited about, but I always get wrapped up in the next project before finishing the first one. Can any of you relate?? Lastly, I’m working on Eric’s stole for his ordination. I think it is a bit odd that I work on multiple things at once, but realize I do that in a lot of areas–books I read, projects for work, etc.

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Here are some stole examples from the church,
and my material laid out.

So in keeping up with my multiple project routine, I’ve been working on other things this morning too, like Finny and Donk’s Craft-a-long. I’ve never participated before, but was very interested in finding a good pizza dough recipe. I’ve tried one other recipe and it was not good.

100_0645Here’s my dough rising.

Since I was in the kitchen anyways and had tomatoes that were rapidly expiring, I also decided to try my hand at this tomato sauce. I switched it up a bit by roasting onions too, and adding minced garlic to the tomato tops. I didn’t have any basil either, but it was still REALLY good.

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Roasting in the oven.

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The sauce mixed. I improvised with a blender.
Makes me wonder how much food dye is in the sauces I buy!

So after a bit of waiting for the dough to finish rising, here’s my pizza cooking. I added some frozen veggies–I love the Hodge Podge mix from Trader Joe’s and a bit of shaved parmesan and fat free feta in addition to some cheddar jack cheese.

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All finished and out of the oven!

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Finally dished up! The crust was so crunchy compared to our usual pizza dough. Very good indeed!

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This was only a quarter of the dough. So I froze half and am saving the other quarter for post-church pizza tomorrow!

In other news, I went to run club yesterday morning. I was supposed to meet a friend there, but she had to cancel last minute because her daughter kept her up most of the night. We ran 2 miles, did drills mostly involving sprints for about 20 minutes and ran back. My legs started to feel it last night. That continued into today. I was going to get up and walk to the gym (a mere 2 miles each way) for a 7:30 am Group Power class, but because of Scotch’s night time antics and my legs feeling like they might fall off, I skipped out. Do you have any weight lifting resources that you like to use? I like the Group Power class, but the timing is so inconvenient for me.

Here are my gorgeous flowers, still happily blooming even after Scotch’s loving.

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Peace!

Catching Up

March 15, 2009 in family | 1 comment

Hold on to your seats, this is going to be one long post.

Since I last wrote a lot has been going on. First thing is I interviewed for a summer camp position teaching Fashion Design. It was my second interview with this organization. It was also a group interview. Let’s just say I had lots of clammy palm filled flash-backs to my bombed Teach for America interview over 3 years ago. With the Teach for America gig, I guess most people don’t have near the problem I did with French pronunciation. And you can only rhyme so many French words with Pierre Cardin. If I’d show up on fire, the interview would have gone better.

Back to my most recent endeavor. The interview part was first and I thought it was awesome. Next I had the teaching portion. Apparently it wasn’t a “competition” interview, but since there were three of us with Fashion Design experience for the one position, it was hard not to believe that. I taught some brief info on fashion sketching. I thought the whole thing went well, but when I went up to the person in charge afterwards to ask a few questions, she gave off the vibe that they were not interested. I’m pretty sure that the fact I could attend only one of the two training days didn’t play into my favor. But I was not about to miss Eric’s ordination day for anything. We’ve been in school for this for almost 5 years now!! **Sigh** Needless to say I got a, “No Thank You,” note 3 days into my two-week notification window. **sigh**

I will be teaching an art curriculum at the school I aide at for part of the summer, and have the freedom to create and teach any other class I want. So, I need to find the discipline to sit down and work on that. But, so far that discipline is fleeting. I know I can wrangle it up somehow.

Next up, my parents came to visit. It was a lot of fun. Here are some goofy pictures of the weekend.

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Here we are with our goofy hard hats on the Behind the Scenes tour of the Winchester Mystery House. I loved it, my dad loved it, and my mom couldn’t get over how creepy it was.

On Saturday we wandered south down the 101. Our first stop was Mission San Juan Bautista. It was so tranquil. We walked across town and enjoyed a few treats at the town bakery!

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I managed to be pretty good. I’m still working on those pesky 10 pounds the doctor told me to lose in October! I’m down about 5, but it was definitely difficult to resist all that sugar!

After San Juan Bautista we continued south to Pebble Beach. We drove around the 17-mile drive then ate a late lunch in the clubhouse overlooking the 18th green. Here are my parents enjoying the gorgeousness that is Pebble Beach.

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The rest of the trip went by way too quickly. We played quite a few rounds of cribbage, I knitted a bit with my mom. The cats were especially cute too. Scotch always camped out on my dad’s lap at night, and Sake made out with two hand-knitted toy worms from my mom.

The school-week flew by. On Friday, I “subbed” for the third grade teacher. She was in and out, but I was in charge for most of the day. I think I lucked out a bit because there were 5 kids out!! We’ve never had 5 kids out in a day, but it definitely is easier to manage 17 kiddos, rather than 22 solo.

The reason the main teacher was out was she was getting ready for Round Ball Weekend. Our school hosts a junior high boys basketball and cheerleading tournament. The main teacher is the cheerleading coach. So we spent a lot of the weekend cheering on our teams. Our boys fought hard, but didn’t place in the tournament. The girls were able to successfully defend their cheerleading championship! It was so high-energy to watch. It was lots of fun.

I suppose that catches you up. Much love and have an awesome week!

Peace,

Katy ^_^

Testing Out Tofu

February 24, 2009 in cooking, drafting, family, food, sewing | 1 comment

I didn’t realize how cheap tofu is! I think it was around $1.25 for all this tofu! Crazy. I really wanted to make this recipe, but I couldn’t find coconut at Trader Joe’s. So I asked around and was too impatient for a response and made it my way. I dried the tofu between some paper towels and coated it in Soy Vey Very Very Teriyaki.

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Here’s the Teriyaki bottle. Yum, it is local to San Francisco too.

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I popped them in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Thank God, I read the part about putting Pam on the cookie sheet.

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Um, yeah. It is as bad as it looks. Thankfully, the tofu came up fine and tasted okay, but the cookie sheet is nasty. I’m hoping the dishwashing fairies have pity on me and that soaking this in water and dish soap will loosen up everything. We’ll see.

Sarai, sent me this tofu suggestion. I definitely plan on trying this out.

In other news, I’ve been devouring Shane Claiborne’s books. I read Irresistible Revolution last week and finished it yesterday. I started Jesus for President, but haven’t gotten too far. I’ve made it to the gym two afternoons in a row, and been heading to bed earlier because of it.

I’m also determined to get moving on some of my UFOs (unfinished objects). There are too many to count. Here is the lay out for the denim skirt muslin. Yay!

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Not much to look at, but closer to a skirt! Also, my parents are finally coming to visit in March. They had tickets to come in December, but my grandfather’s stroke happened. I’m excited to introduce my dad to my new home and work on further home decorating with my mom. There is also the obligatory visit to the Winchester Mystery House. Eric has already opted out of this. He says it is all just too mysterious. I love it. What a fun, crazy, silly story and weird house to go with it.

Since I started knitting socks on the unplanned trip to Texas in December, I figured I needed to get them at least to the point where I can work on the heel with my mom in town. She’s a pro–having made 2 or 3 pairs already. I got out my knitting for the first time since I’ve been back tonight. I’ve never knitted at home. I’m quickly realizing why. There is nary a moment when the yarn isn’t flossing Scotch’s teeth, or he’s using a knitting needle like a toothpick. What a nut. It is too cute, but not conducive to knitting. Here’s how far I’ve come so far.

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I’m relieved that I remembered how to knit/purl okay. I’ll just have to figure out how to knit without Scotch’s “help.”

I’m enjoying a glass of wine, but not the hiccups I’ve had for the past thirty minutes. I haven’t given something up for lent in a long time. This year, I plan to forgo alcohol and sodas. Should be interesting–It always is.

Peace,

Katy ^_^

Tour of California

February 21, 2009 in family | No comments

Here is a very excited Eric. The camera strap is from my parents camera they bought in the seventies. Eric loves it.

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Here is a photo of all of the jersey-winners.

100_0531We were that close! It was fun to hear the commentators, they were in the tent next to ours. Also there was a live feed on two tvs in our tent. There was so much information on the screen: topography, speed–they got up to 56 mph on the decents! the spread of the field, etc. We were spoiled to have some finger foods and drinks too. A friend from high school that is a Ewings Sarcoma survivor, works for the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and was able to be at all the legs of the race. She was able to find some VIP passes for us. We had a great time talking to other survivors, especially a lady that battled breast cancer from Texas, reconnecting with my high school friend, watching the riders come in, and enjoying the festivities of the day. Hopefully next year we can go to more than one leg of the tour!

Peace,

Katy

Some of My Favorite Things

January 22, 2009 in cats, family, Musings | No comments

100_0478I took a photo of some of things I’m loving right now. One is coffee. I’ve really come to enjoy making a half-pot of coffee, decaf in the afternoons, and keeping warm with it. I love my iPod touch. I was using Pandora, online radio, on it. Such fun! Most of my songs are Sister Hazel. I have loved them ever sense their song “All For You” came out. The framed image, is actually really thin wood, with wood-burnt etching. My dad traveled to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in the fall. Somehow, my mom didn’t claim this gift, like she did the sundress I was supposed to get, and it was opened Christmas morning. We got my parents a webcam and were able to get it set up in time for us to open presents pre-church. It was nice, except our router kept crashing.

Here’s another photo.

100_0480It is a heart shaped paper-weight. My dad got it for me. I have no clue where–maybe Russia. I have this fun collection of hearts and other trinkets from my dad. I think my favorite is when we did the melty beads together. He used a square shaped form and made a shape of interlocking hearts in black and red. I’ll share a photo later. I was definitely impressed, and I still have it and display it!

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Lastly here’s my kitty love for the past few weeks. Sake fencing.

Here is Scotch snoring/purring.

I was excited to get to watch some of the inauguration festivities at school. Though, third graders were being third graders and really weren’t that interested. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Michelle Obama’s clothes. I loved her inauguration day wardrobe, and the clothes of her children. Too cute, and it is nice that J. Crew is fairly accessible to most people.

Peace,

Katy

Catching Up

January 2, 2009 in creating, family, Musings | No comments

So I unpacked our final box today. Yes, we’ve been in our place since August. We had two boxes of books, journals, and albums left. That and my wedding gown and wetsuit were laying out on empty boxes in the garage–thankfully the gown was in a garment bag.

Here is a small selection of some of the journals I’ve used.

These are all full of my musings. I’m looking forward to getting into the habit of writing more regularly again.

Here’s a sketch from high school. A shirt design for a friend. I made it half-way and never finished. It was pretty stinking cool. I’d done all the hard work as far as sewing–just had some hemming left to do. Here’s to doing, not just saying and thinking; here’s to finishing, not just planning or starting; here’s to persevering, not just coming up with an excuse or way out.

Here’s me getting ready to prep my screen for silk screening. I got a screen printing kit for my birthday, yes in October, from Eric. An expert, and dear friend suggested I seal the wood so it’ll last longer. That and seal a small edge around the silk, too. This will keep ink from squishing out at the edges and ruining a design. I’m using “old faithful” Modge Podge. I love this glue/glaze/product. It works for many different projects.

One coat down. I’ll let it dry and see if it needs another.

In other exciting news, I found a posting on craigslist for free, non-credit classes at a community college up in the city. Looks like I’ve found a new way to spend my Saturday afternoons! The first class I’m looking at–lingerie sewing. This’ll help me knock a few things off the ‘ole resolution list!

Peace,

Katy ^_^

Christmas

December 31, 2008 in family | No comments

Our Christmas celebration started with a skype session with my parents. Our gift to them was a web cam and once we were able to set it all up, they were able to watch us unwrap gifts. Our router kept crashing–at least ten times. But other than that it was BIG fun to “feel” like they were there with us. I even got to give my dad a tour of our “new” place. They were supposed to come out and visit, but no one expected my grandfather would get sick and what-not.

Then Eric helped with his first “working” Christmas Day service. Next we headed off to San Jose to be with Eric’s mom, dad, brother, aunt, uncle, and grandparents. It was our first time celebrating Christmas all together for me. It had been several (probably more than 10) years for them.

Here’s some photos of the unwrapping extravaganza.

Grandpa was using the back scratcher on the dog. Smart dog!!

Eric sporting a new polo. He must have gotten 6 or 8 polo shirts! Polos and jeans are his work uniform and everyone of the parents was encouraging his “dressing up.”

I hope y’all enjoyed your families and time with them and friends this holiday!

Peace,

Katy ^_^

Home

December 18, 2008 in family, Musings | No comments

I’ve been home just under 24 hours. It is good to be reunited with Eric–even though he’s still under the pressure of Christmas season. My kitties are silly and annoying as usual. I “missed” the popping of our heater in middle of the night. I am so glad to have more than the two pairs of pants that I alternated between daily in Texas. It was nice to fall back into the rhythm of school and hyper-active third graders dreaming about presents under their trees.

This also means that I get up and get going before Eric wakes up or gets out of bed. Lucky me. Here’s a video–I can’t see the image that well on my monitor–but the sound is dead-on.

I hope you are enjoying the holidays with those you love.

Peace,

Katy ^_^

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