Silver Lining Handmade

New year, new ideas

2012-01-17T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well I thought this would be a place for me to journal about my random life musings and other such interesting bits. But apparently even fulfilling one of my life's most outlandish dreams - getting married in Disney World - wasn't enough to encourage me to blog regularly. Oh well. New year, new ideas and a new take on blogging.

In the past few months, I've become quite hooked on a new (-ish) site called Pinterest. Those of you net-savvy folks (assuming anyone is still reading this thing) will know what I'm talking about. It's a great site where you create your own virtual pin boards. You can pin any website with an image thereby keeping a little reminder for yourself to go back and look at something cool you saw before. I have found it particularly useful in my quest for quick, delicious and nutritious meals to feed myself and T. I also think it will be useful to get me back into blogging. When all else fails (basically when I have nothing interesting going on) I will be making food. So in between gems of genius brilliance (do I still have any?), you'll be introduced to the variety of recipes I'm trying.

To start things off, we have a heavily modified Indian recipe. I originally had something like this at work. One of the perks of working in a place where someone lives is that you sometimes get to try their food. :) Turning to Google for some variations on this dish, I found that it is called by a wide variety of names in addition to being prepared very differently depending on the origins of the cook.

The noodles used are very similar to the Chinese feng-si or bean floss noodles. They are also sometimes called bean or rice vermicelli. So we'll call this dish

Veggie Vermicelli

Ingredients:
1T butter or ghee (you can use canola oil too)
1t mustard seeds
1.5t cumin seeds
1t ground ginger
1t minced garlic
1/4t turmeric
2t salt
1.5c roasted vermicelli noodles (the Indian variety which are cut to 1" lengths)
2.5 c hot water
1c finely chopped veggies (I used sweet baby peas and baby carrots)

To Make:
1) Heat the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, ginger and garlic.
2) When the mustard seeds begin to pop, add in the turmeric and salt. Saute for about a minute, stirring to make sure the turmeric is evenly distributed.
3) Add in the roasted vermicelli noodles (if you have the non-roasted type, you will need to add in a separate step of roasting them here - basically you will just stir them around in the pot until they turn golden before adding water)
4) Pour in the hot water. Some recipes insisted that the water be boiling, but I haven't found that it makes much of a difference except that it takes a little longer.
5) Stirring occasionally, cook over high or medium high heat until the noodles absorb all the water. When just over half the water is absorbed, add in the veggies - this prevents them getting too soggy and releasing too many of their sugars into the noodles.

Serve at whatever temperature you like. The flavours come together most after the noodles have cooled down, but you could heat them up again if you prefer. I have thought about adding some dry toasted tofu bits or peanuts just for some protein. I'll let you know if I try either.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

2011-10-12T13:22:00.000-04:00

We just returned from our second trip to Disney World this year! T and I have our annual passes from our wedding and wanted to get some more use out of them, so we planned this trip to check out how Disney does Halloween. None of us had ever been there for Halloween, so it was a new experience for everyone. On select nights in September and October, all of the Magic Kingdom becomes a giant Halloween party! There are dance parties, trick or treating for all ages and these are the only opportunities for adults to visit the park in full costumes!

Not to be outdone by anyone, I took on the task of making all of our costumes. That is, a costume for each of the 6 people going; Flea, Flea's bf, Noug, Sneetch, T and myself. Only about a month ago, we finally decided to go as characters from Sleeping Beauty. The decision was made because there were enough non-starring roles for each of us to be something fun. Flea, Sneetch and I were the 3 fairies; Fauna, Merriweather and Flora, respectively. Flea's bf is tall and dark haired, so he was King Stefan, complete with a mascara beard. Noug was the jester/drunk servant character named Lackey. [I personally thought his costume was the best.] T was Prince Phillip and was recognized by a few little girls in the park!

For King Stefan's outfit, I just made a long tunic from costume satin and edged the whole thing with gold bias tape. The crown was quite problematic. I bought a remnant of this awful stretch gold lame stuff for it. I ended up making two strips of it and interfaced it with heavy stabilizer. After that, I traced and cut out the crown shape and hot glued/topstitched the whole thing together. To make the crown more adjustable, I added 2 strips of elastic at the back which could be shortened with safety pins. Stefan contributed the "collar" of his costume by allowing me to cut a sleeve off of a too big red shirt he had - perfect!

Phillip's costume was fairly straightforward because we chose to make his forest outfit. T wore simple tan tunic made of jersey and edged with black bias tape over a black long sleeve shirt and brown pants. The cape was a remnant of brick red canvas, barely wide enough to cover his shoulders. I cut off a 3" section and interfaced it to make the stiff collar and then re-attached it to the rest of the cape after gathering the top edge of the long piece. We just safety pinned the cape to the tunic. The hat was made by looking at many photos of Peter Pan's hat as well as perusing some online tutorials. The boots were the funniest because they're fake and made out of black vinyl with little elastic stirrups at the bottom.

Lackey's costume was really the best because I didn't have any idea how to make balloon sleeves properly. I ended up sewing alternating strips of green fabric together to make tubes. The ends are elastic and I had to add a few pleats to the part that was sewed into the shoulder seam. I was particularly proud of the front because I was exact enough to match up the corners in the center. Plus I added a button at the back because the fabric doesn't stretch. The hat was a simple pill box thing with a $2.50 feather stuck in it. The pantaloons are a pair of T's gym shorts with spent waistband elastic. I put elastic through the bottom hems to tighten around Noug's legs and create the pouf.

The fairy costumes turned out to be significantly easier than I feared. I was able to find a fairly straight forward princess costume pattern and modify it enough to make our fairy costumes. Here's the pattern I used:

Even though the fairies' costumes are long sleeved, I decided to go with sleeveless dresses for simplicity and in case it was hot. I lengthened the bodice pieces by 3" for Flea and my dresses and about 1.5" for Sneetch's. For the satin inset, I just cut a very thin isosceles triangle and sewed it into the center of the skirt. The hats were the most challenging part, but even those only took me about 4 hours to complete all 3 to my satisfaction. In the end, I just hot glued the accent fabric around the cone and hot glued the ties to that.

The best part of our costumes was that we glowed!! You can kind of tell in the photo above (taken with another set of fairies we met in the park). I wasn't about to figure out how to make hoops for each of us, so I sewed the hems of our skirts and the rims of our hats as casings. Once down there, we strung together 5 packs of the $1 glow bracelets from Michael's and threaded them through the casings! It managed to work much better than I thought! We separated the colours so that we each used colours that matched our dresses which only increased the overall wow effect. Finally, I bought us "Knit Lite" light up knitting needles to use as wands.

Married life

2011-09-28T17:46:00.000-04:00

Not much different from living together, sharing finances, spending lots of time with both families and non-married life. But the new school year is well underway, so I thought I should get back to the old blogeroo!

I'm still working at the school, but not with the children this year. I'm only part time and spend it in the office crafting and creating all sorts of fun materials for the classrooms, teachers and everyone else! It's been creative and reasonably exciting thus far.

I spend the rest of my days working on my personal creative pursuits. I am working on my Etsy shoppe and have decided to try to keep it stocked for the first time... ever. I'm also currently working on Halloween costumes.

We're taking a sibling+ trip down to Disney over Columbus Day weekend to participate in our first ever Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! It's sibling plus because it's the four of us sibs along with T and Flea's beau, Mash. I'm working on Sleeping Beauty themed costumes for all of us so we can hopefully find Aurora and get an awesome photo! Photos of those to come. But in the meantime, here's one of my photo studio (set up on our soon to be replaced dining table!).

Married!

2011-05-31T12:41:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday, T and I got married in Disney World! Lots more to come, but for now, here's a photo from our fantastic photographers!

Philadelphia Flower Show

2011-03-15T00:10:00.000-04:00

Click to see more photos from the Philadelphia Flower Show

This weekend, T, Vi and I drove up to Philadelphia to see the Flower show with my grandparents. We got there just in time for a yummy dim sum lunch in Chinatown and then walked over to the Flower Show at the Convention Center. This year's theme was Paris, so many of the exhibits featured classic Parisian landmarks and styling. The show was enormous and beautiful. I took over 100 photos with our good camera, but they really don't do justice to the amazing displays. My favourite might have been the fake trees made up of small plants with a pond below. But the carousel animals were pretty incredible also.

It was a nice, quick weekend getaway, plus we got to spend some quality time with Naboo and Nagong! Sunday was back to real life business. T spent most of the day working and I spent the day doing my very house-wifely activities; laundry, cleaning, cooking, dishes, grocery shopping. Should I go on? Actually I think that's it. We also finally finished our wedding invitations and got them all stamped and sealed. We mailed them off today!

In other news, my new year's resolution to cook twice a week has been going swimmingly! I'll cook something for T and myself Monday or Tuesday, depending on what leftovers we have from the weekend. Thursdays, Mom, Sneetch and Vi come and join us for dinner. It's been working out nicely. Mom helps me to cook and then Sneetch, Vi and T help with the dishes and clean up. I think we're settling into our real life routine quite well. Now, I just need to fit in the gym every now and again!

Year of the rabbit

2011-02-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

Click to see more photos from our CNY dinner celebration

Thursday was Chinese New Year. Usually, being the rather un-Asians we are, we don't celebrate or anything. This year, we decided to change it up and have a little dinner party. It was a sort of last minute thing, but I think we did a pretty good job. T, Tuzi and I were joined by my two sisters, Mom, Feder and my sister's friend. So, we had a total of eight diners; quite auspicious! [Eight is an auspicious number in Chinese superstition.]

I made a very "semi-homemade" meal of nee gao (rice ovalettes with chicken and pea leaves), chicken stir fry (chicken, chicken sausage and baby bok choy; sauce based on this recipe), gai lan (Chinese broccoli), rice and long life noodle soup (lo mein style noodles with baby bok choy and mini dumplings in chicken soup). For dessert, I procured a dozen fresh dan tats (egg custard tartlets) and Mom and Sneetch brought a variety of ice cream mochis.

For other party fun, we had white rabbit candies, calcium fortified lollipops (donno, Mom found them), tangerines with leaves on, and I made each of our guests a hong bao (red envelope) filled with chocolate coins. :)

On the wedding front, no real crafting has yet begun. However, we did receive all the paper products for our invitations this week. The design is complete also, so this week will be invitation production week!

New year and new jobs!

2011-01-30T09:39:00.001-05:00

T & Me on Formal night on the cruise!

This is going to be an exciting year for T and me! We started the year off with our first ever cruise and appropriately, we chose a Disney cruise. :) It was fantastic fun and we made some new friends who were on their honeymoons. (Click the photo to head over to Flickr for some more cruise photos.)

When we got back to chilly Virginia, we both started new jobs! T started at his firm and has already put in some late, late nights. He's really getting a running start which means he's picking up new skills fast! I'm at a new school called Fiore Montessori. It's new to me, and also new to the area. It's a lovely school with a great philosophy. My friend and her husband founded it just last summer and we are having so much fun getting it going.

In the meantime, we are working away on preparations for our wedding! Because the ceremony and initial celebration are going to be in Disney World, we fortunately don't have to do as much as a typical bride and groom. Of course, I still have high hopes for all the crafting projects I've planned. Plus, we are helping my parents to plan a larger at home celebration which will be held the weekend after we're married. So, watch this space for some fun wedding crafts in the upcoming months! Don't worry, I am keeping some as surprises for those of you who will be joining us in Disney. :)

Sorry for the (second) long hiatus

2010-10-25T15:28:00.000-04:00

It's been quite interesting around here recently, which is my excuse for the lack of posting. I have a little 5 minute window now, so I thought I'd stop by for a fly-by post before I run out the door. The picture is my little fuzzy companion. He is sitting right next to me in the foot and half space between a plastic tub (currently being used as a sort of coffee table extension) and the couch; keeping me company. He sits there pretty much every day, keeping his eye on me while semi-snoozing. Such a good companion!

I'm baaack!

2010-08-29T22:01:00.000-04:00

After nine months of blogland silence, I'm back to update you on life here in Silver Lining land. Tomorrow is my first day back to work for the new school year and T's first day back to class. Following our annual tradition, we have devised ourselves a reasonable schedule and daily life activities plan for the year. This year, we (I) dragged out our vacation time to the last possible moment, so we have not yet had adequate time to do a major organization, preparation-for-the-onslaught-of-the-year of our apartment. But, I suppose there's always next weekend (Labor Day), which is the real last minute before my school year begins.

No photo this time, but instead you can enjoy our summer playlist:

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Happy holidays! And other tales of adventure

2009-12-29T00:43:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone has had a fantastic holiday season so far! We have had a pretty good Christmas, with some interesting adventures along the way. As usual, our family spent Christmas in Florida along with my grandparents and cousins. Getting there was quite eventful.
As everyone knows by now, the DC metro area was hit with the biggest blizzard ever this December. With a record breaking 16.4" officially, the "Blisaster" really crippled the nation's capital. The snow started falling Friday the 18th, late at night. It snowed and snowed all day Saturday. We kept the news on all day in the background as we packed and cleaned in preparation for our flight Sunday. [On a side note, isn't it amazing how every year we say that we'll be more prepared for the last week of school before winter break, but every year we seem to be less prepared? Really, must work on that for next year.] Luckily, T and I dragged our sleep-deprived selves around Friday afternoon and evening to get all possible errands done. So we could enjoy the beauty of the snow falling and pack in the warmth of our apartment.
By Sunday, the major roads like the Toll Road and the beltway were cleared, the semi-large arteries like 123 and route 7 had seen a few plows, but no chemicals or salt. The smaller roads were lucky to have seen a plow. Fortunately, our apartment complex had plowed a few times, enough that we were able to get out and onto the Toll Road with little difficulty. We got stuck turning onto Mom and Dad's street, which had not been plowed except by brave (or dumb) SUVs. We "parked" in the street, picked up my grandparents and headed to Reston Town Center to wait for everyone else to make it out in the Navigator.

Arriving at the airport, we were greeted by the effects of a full day's worth of grounded planes; hordes of people. Joining the United Premiere line that looked like a regular day's economy line, we decided to split up. T and I left with my gps to get through the enormous security line to the gate. With 15 minutes to the scheduled take off time, we made it to the gate listed on the ticket only to find that the gate had been changed. We scrambled to find the new gate, in a different midfield terminal, while everyone else was still waiting in line to check bags! By the time we arrived at the correct gate, 5 minutes after the scheduled departure time, Dad was calling to say they were not being allowed to check any bags because the plane had left. We saw no plane at the jetway, but saw an entire flight crew crowded around the gate desk. I talked to a man who turned out to be our pilot and discovered that the plane was not there because the ground crew was trying to clear the jetway, but the snow plow was stuck. The plane would be delayed at least 45 minutes. Fantastic! That should be enough time for Mom, Dad and company to get bags checked, through security and to the right gate! But the data at the front desk listed the plane as already departed. A few phone calls later, including a personal call (which may or may not have helped) from our pilot, Dad calls to say they're on their way. The snow plow is towed away, the plane is delayed another half hour or so, but all 5 bags get checked in, and all 9 of us people get on the plane (gps even get an upgrade to first class!).

A little over 2 hours later, we land in Florida and proceed to the baggage claim area. We split up again, some of us sitting with the carry-on luggage while others go to claim bags. Half an hour later, the bag claimers return with only 1 suitcase. The rest seem to still be in DC. Oh well, United says they'll put the bags on the next flight down and will deliver them to us. Our group of 9 happily proceeds to the Hertz Gold area to find 1 Camry where there should be 2. Nine people, 5 seat belts. Dad goes to inquire. A mistake; the agent thought it was a double booking, would we like a Caddy instead? Sure! And we're off on our way to Naples. Another half hour later, we pay a toll to go to Miami. Miami? Toll? We've never paid a toll before. 20 miles later, we make a giant U turn at the only exit on this one way highway to Miami. At 7:30pm, we finally reach our destination, 11 hours after T and I left our apartment that morning.

And our luggage? It arrived 4 days later, by way of snowy Chicago and who knows where else. But it arrived in time for Christmas, and really, who needs clothes (and tooth brushes) when you have family?

Homemade knifty knitter!

2009-12-03T22:44:00.003-05:00

I just made a Knifty Knitter! Basically an easy to use knitting loom, Knifty Knitters are a great fine motor and concentration activity for children (and adults, too!). Ever since I saw this post on Craftzine, I've been thinking of ways to make knitted wrist warmers with my Lunch Bunchers at school.

Whenever it rains, I bring an indoor project for us to do together. It's gotten to the point that the children actually hope it will rain, and rejoice when it does, so we can do another project together. I will have to post some photos of our past activities. One of the first things we did was finger knitting. Only involving yarn (I chose some variegated acrylic to make things more interesting) and your fingers! The children loved the project, though they only made "bracelets." Since then, they occasionally ask me if I will teach them "real" knitting. I only have an hour in which to teach them a project, start to finish, including clean up time. So, I'm not sure we're quite at the point where I can teach them knitting with real needles. But Knifty Knitter, or loom knitting, we can do! I bought a GIANT skein of fun coloured, variegated yarn and am going to split it into equal balls so the children can make little wrist warmers for themselves. I'm more than halfway into my first one, and could barely stop to write this post! I think they will really enjoy this! Best of all, including the fantastic yarn, this project will cost only $1.25 per child. If you'd like to make your own knitting loom, here's a basic tutorial. I will post photos when I make the rest for the children.

Make your own Knifty Knitter
(for child size wrist warmers)

Materials (to make one loom):
5 Low temp glue gun sticks (the oval kind, about 5" long)
1 pvc pipe "hub" (hunt around at your hardware store, it's with all the elbow shaped sections, only this piece has no screw threads, mine 2.5" in diameter and about 1.5" tall)
duct tape (coloured would be fun!)
scissors
Glue dots (optional, but quite helpful)

Here's what you do:

Cut the glue sticks in half so you have 10 sticks, each about 2.5" long.
If you are using glue dots, evenly space 10 of them along one edge of the pipe. This will be the "top" of your loom.
Stick one glue stick half to each of your glue dots, leaving about 0.5" space at the bottom, so that about 0.75" sticks up beyond the top of your loom. These are the pegs around which you will wrap your yarn, so don't make them too short or your knitting will easily slide off. Of course, don't make them too long either or it will be difficult to actually knit.
Once the sticks are held in place by the glue dots, use the duct tape to hold them on tightly. I pressed in the edges to really prevent any wiggling. Align the edge of the tape with the top edge of the loom. You will only have about 0.5" to wrap under the bottom edge.
Wrap a second piece of duct tape around, this time aligning the edge with the bottom of the glue sticks. This will generate about 2" of tape hanging off of the bottom of your loom. Cut slits in this tape to allow it to fold nicely into the inside of the loom. Stick down each of these "flaps."
Make sure the tape is all stuck down so it won't catch on any of your yarn, and you're DONE!

If you make a loom, I'd love to see it and photos of what you make!

Busy, busy, busy

2009-11-21T12:34:00.003-05:00

T and I have been quite the busy bees lately. Since we got back from our short break, we've been constantly working on stuff! We are preparing for my upcoming craft fair, the Downtown Holiday Market, which is in 3 weeks. Crafting has been going at a fairly steady pace, though it will be slowed significantly when we leave for our Thanksgiving vacation on Tuesday. Meanwhile, I have to prepare for my upcoming Montessori weekend seminar, and T has class all day, every day this weekend. Of course, I've also been working on lessons for the classroom and have plans for little "love leaves" as Thanksgiving goodies for the children.

This week, I created 2 new lessons for the children. A corn painting lesson is on the shelves until Thanksgiving break, and I prepared a special rainy day activity for the Lunch Bunchers on Thursday.
Corn painting involves a printout of a corn image, (with individual kernels), qtips cut in half, a green coloured pencil and a yellow stamp pad. The children use the qtip to stamp little yellow circles into each of the kernels. Then they colour the leaves green. If desired, they can cut out the whole corn shape, which can then be posted on our landscape bulletin boards as though it's growing out of the ground.

For our rainy day activity, I made cinnamon clay for the children to make an aromatic garland for the classroom. I brought letter and leaf shaped cookie cutters and we spelled out "give thanks" with a few leaves for spacers. The children loved the activity (since we no longer have play dough out on the shelves) and it made the classroom smell delicious. Of course, the children took home the extra clay.

Cinnamon Clay Recipe

Ingredients:
2 bottles ground cinnamon
1 bottle white school glue
1 cup applesauce
1 cup flour

In a large bowl, mix the applesauce and as much of the glue as you can dump out of the bottle. In a separate, smaller bowl, combine one and a half bottles of cinnamon with about half the cup of flour. This will help make it easier to mix into the applesauce/glue mixture. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. The cinnamon will cause billowing dusty clouds if you add too much at once. When all the dry ingredients have been mixed in, if it is still sticky, add more flour. Flour a clean surface well and knead the dough. It should be approximately the same consistency as Crayola Model Magic, only heavier. Separate dough into balls for distribution to children and pat flat with the palm of your hand. Use cookie cutters to make shapes.

I made a test batch of letters which were slightly less than 0.25" thick. They were a little brittle, so with the children, we made our shapes 0.25" thick. They are drying over the weekend, hopefully they'll be done by Monday so we can string them up!

Bethany under water

2009-11-13T14:03:00.002-05:00

Puddles!
Originally uploaded by Gwen @ Silver Lining

T and I are spending a long weekend in Bethany thanks to Parent Teacher conferences happening at school. Being on the coast, we are getting an exciting first hand view of tropical storm Ida. Many roads are closed due to flooding, including the major highway, Route 1. Many shops are not open, but there were still quite a few people driving around taking pictures. I couldn't resist the massive lake-like puddles, so we joined in the fun. We attempted to drive to Rehoboth, but found we couldn't due to high water. We observed a man trying to fix a "road closed" sign, nearly up to his waist in water; on the highway!

Aha! moments

2009-11-11T17:41:00.002-05:00

This is my first post from my phone! Fingers crossed that it works well. My little friends and I made some breakthroughs in learning today. There really is nothing better than being part of a child's aha! moments. Well, maybe getting a spontaneous hug and kiss on the cheek from a 4 year old.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

A great day!

2009-11-07T22:38:00.005-05:00

That's what T and I enjoyed for dinner tonight. Real Southern sweet tea, fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits and potato salad! We figured that since we're in the South, we should enjoy as much real Southern food as we can. We haven't had good, smell-it-from-a-mile-away fried chicken since we visited Charlottesville last.

We're in Raleigh because today was the Handmade Market. I have to say it was one of the most well-run fairs I've been in, which made it easy for us to do well. The Handmaidens did a wonderful job of making everything as easy as possible. Also, the fair was held indoors, at the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh so there was a lot of traffic. They must do a fantastic job of marketing, because the people who showed up were also all prepared to buy! They were prepared with cash, too! A very nice Montessori teacher came by my booth and immediately picked up a Cording Star Kit and suggested that I try to get into a conference or catalogue. When I told her I'm currently a Montessori intern, she said she hoped to see me at the Boston conference. How extra exciting to meet a fellow Montessorian!

Raleigh itself is not a bad place to be either. It's about a 5 hour drive from home, but it didn't seem that bad. Our hotel is fantastically nice, and we were upgraded to stay on the Club Level. The area even has quite a nice number of consignment stores with men's and women's clothing! T and I are already looking forward to applying for the Spring Handmade Market. :)

Halloween Crafting

2009-10-28T22:39:00.003-04:00

A peek at what I've been working on this week. Last night, Nicole came over and we worked on making 50 of the little Sculpey pumpkins you see in the dish at the far left. They're actually little pencil toppers, waiting to be popped onto cute Halloween pencils. Those will be our little gifts to the students in the art class we teach together. In the middle are pins backs, waiting to be hot glued to the backs of the wooden pumpkins in the bowl at the right. It was quite difficult to track down enough of those wooden pumpkin shapes at 7 different Michael's stores! I spray painted them orange first, then drew faces and details with paint pens and then finished them off with a coat of (supposedly) reflective spray paint. My hope is that the children in my class will be able to wear them pinned to their costumes for extra visibility and safer trick-or-treating. I've packaged them in little cello bags tied with twine and a tag explaining their purpose.

Also, a quick thank you to my goody goblins (Mom and Sneetch!) for delivering the goody gourds to GHS early this morning. I hear they were received well and enjoyed!

Goody Gourds

2009-10-25T12:35:00.005-04:00

I have been missing my friends (big and small) over at GHS, but haven't had a chance to talk to most of them. So, I decided to make a basket of goody gourds to be surreptitiously delivered to the kitchen as a surprise for all my big friends. Each little goody gourd includes a handmade felt "kind soul" ghostie pin, a packet of sweet tarts and a packet of kisses. T helped enormously in creating the gourds. He did the actual assembly of the entire patch!

Goody Gourds Tutorial

You will need:
Orange cocktail napkins (tissue paper would work also, but rips more easily)
Green pipe cleaners
Goodies for stuffing the pumpkins
Green paper for cutting out leaf tags and hole punch (optional)

To make the pumpkins:

Open up a napkin into a square.
Place your goodies in the center. Pull up the edges and gather them at the top, creating a little sack.
Wrap a green pipe cleaner around the "stem" twice, leaving the ends unwound.
Cut out a green leaf tag, punch a hole in the top and thread it onto the pipe cleaner.
Using a pencil, wrap the loose ends of the pipe cleaner around to create a vine curl on each end.
Distribute to your friends!

School bag

2009-10-19T23:14:00.006-04:00

Quick post to share my latest creation (I have a couple to share actually). I made this bag, cut to finish, all tonight. I started at 7 and just finished, so 4 hours. Not too bad for a perfect, custom-made messenger bag! I didn't even go out and get new fabric. Everything I used was either from previous projects or stuff I bought on a whim. I pretty much followed this tutorial, with ideas taken from all over, plus my own additions (adjustable strap, vinyl bottom).

Here were my criteria:
Washable (although now I'm not sure with the vinyl bottom)
Big enough to fit my laptop
Lots of pockets for all my small things
Pocket for books (for spontaneous story time at school)
Adjustable strap
Wet/yucky stuff proof bottom
Able to stand up on it's own

I actually managed to fulfill all of my own criteria on the very first try!

Hooray!

2009-10-05T17:10:00.002-04:00

I got in! I got in to the Handmade Market. It's a huge craft fair held in Raleigh, NC, twice per year. I'll be in the one this fall, on Saturday the 7th of November. I'm so excited! I have probably enough inventory at this point to take down there, but I am hoping it will be a really successful fair, so I will try to build up more inventory. I was also accepted to the Downtown Holiday Market which will be in December, so I need to get cracking! I hope to have some Montessori materials there as well!

That's exactly how I feel

2009-10-04T20:42:00.004-04:00

Exhausted and on the edge where comfortable meets uncomfortable. This weekend was our first seminar of the school year. That means we had to turn in an album, original lessons, and a paper as well as take a practical exam on Saturday and we had class all day today. This time around it was our Practical Life album, original lessons and paper. I think mine all turned out well. I wasn't unhappy with any of them as we turned them in. Some time I will upload photos of my original lessons. The practical exam was for Sensorial, which also went well. I didn't have to retake either portion!

Our next seminar and due date is in December, so we have some time to breathe. However, I am hoping to have one craft fair in between and I am already signed up for a craft fair the weekend after the seminar. So I will need to plan my afternoons carefully. Besides all that, I have holiday crafting to do! Halloween is approaching fast and I have plans for goodies for the children...

This is the way we wash our hands...

2009-09-16T22:19:00.004-04:00

That's my view about 40% of the time I'm at work. Sometimes it's the boys' bathroom, which is right next door. Because this is my unofficial post, I do a lot of bathrooming related reminding; remember to wash your hands, please turn off the water while you rub your hands, let's sing a hand washing song.

We ask the children to sing a song to themselves while they wash their hands to make sure they are washing their hands for a reasonable amount of time to get most of the germs off. The suggested song has been Happy Birthday, but I think it may confuse the birthday issue, so I prefer this one, sung to the tune of "This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes":

This is the way we wash our hands,
Wash our hands,
Wash our hands,
This is the way we wash our hands,
So they're nice and clean!

In general, the time I do spend in the classroom has been alright. The class is definitely not normalized, which is to be expected. What I didn't expect was how tired I would be! Of course, everyone warns that the first month and possibly first 6 weeks will be tiring as the foundations are set with each individual child and then the group as a whole. The integration of the new children is a slow process, but the reward of a normalized classroom will be well worth the work and wait. I thought that managing my own classroom of 19+ children who were all 3 or 4 years old would have adequately prepared me for this. Was I ever wrong. Maybe the difference is that this year, the room is not "mine" in the sense that I am not the lead teacher. It is not up to me to set the ground rules or organization of the space, physical or interpersonal.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it all really. Being a very sensory person, I think I am more easily over stimulated, by sounds, sights, touches. In an as yet non-normalized Montessori classroom, those things abound. With no breaks in the day, barely a chance to get a sip of tea or ~~run~~ walk quickly to the bathroom, at times I wonder what I'm doing. Besides, I am always thinking about my classes, homework and upcoming exams in the back of my mind. To be honest, I relish those frequent trips to the bathroom hallway for the quiet and time for me to stand still for a few minutes.

Keys

2009-09-10T22:56:00.003-04:00

I feel like I have officially changed schools. I received a pair of keys to get in to MSM yesterday. In honour of the occasion (and also because we have to carry our keys around all the time), I made the key holder pictured. It was pretty simple to make and after testing it today, I think it's also good at serving its purpose. The idea was for a key holder that would be easily accessible even when my hands are fairly full and could be worn unnoticeably even if I don't have pockets. The holder is attached to a belt loop with the snap strap on the back. The keys are attached to a hair tie which is anchored to the holder by being sewn into the seam and also by the little felt stopper at the back. Finally, the holder is lined with felt to silence the keys while they're not in use.

Here we go!

2009-09-08T23:27:00.004-04:00

I guess I took an unannounced vacation from blogging for the summer. I didn't intend to, and it's certainly not because nothing interesting was happening. In fact I think the cause was too much happening and me being too caught up in all the studying, learning, worrying and relaxing.

But now, I'm back. The real world that is the school year is back and I'm stuck with it, even though I don't feel ready. Tomorrow is our first day of school with children (we worked on classrooms all last week and today). Fortunately, McLean only has returning children starting school this week. We don't get all the little newbies until Monday. So for this week, the children will all know more about what is supposed to be happening than me. That's ok; children can be the best teachers.

Many people have been asking me about nerves or if I am feeling anxious. Strangely, I feel less anxious than I expected. In keeping with the theme of unfortunate happenings, my lead teacher is not here for the start of the school year, so I am a bit worried about having to deal with parents' and children's questions. Mostly though, I am concerned about the children liking me and my liking the children. I really loved "my babies" at GHS, and I am afraid I won't be able to feel the same way for these new children. I know this is silly and I am sure that the children will like me and I will like them back. But that's my top worry; not the lessons I'm supposed to be able to give, not the new routine which I barely know anything about, not the fact that I don't know how to give lessons on half the materials in the room. I guess we'll just have to see how I am feeling tomorrow afternoon!
In the meantime, I have been spending evenings trying to motivate myself to work on my Practical Life binder and exam which are due in 3 weeks. I've also been working on things for the classroom. I made fabric murals for our three bulletin boards again. I will have to try to get a photo of it. I've made a number of things for the room to personalise things for the children. I decided the room theme for the year will be bumble bees, so each child has a named bee hanging on the bulletin boards until they do some artwork to put up instead. I'm quite proud of my little bee design.

Long time no post... sorry!

2009-07-01T20:59:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. My Montessori training classes started the Monday right after graduation at GHS.

Quick overview of some interesting happenings over the past... month!

Strawberry picking (2x) - not so great because the weather has been abnormally rainy which is apparently bad for strawberries.
Interesting happenings at GHS - Unfortunate happenings really. Fortunately, I don't look back with any regrets and I don't think I will.
Yard sale of junk from Mom and Dad's house - Everyone except T, Flea and I were at the beach house. So we held a yard sale on our own. It ~~rained~~ poured almost all morning... We did manage to give away some clothes to 2 very nice ladies and their respective families.
Blueberry picking (this past weekend) - AMAZING! It rained Friday night, so when we arrived at 8:30am on Saturday, the bellies were perfectly washed and bug free for us. The bushes were FULL of bellies too! We picked for just over an hour and got almost 14lbs ($31) off of 1 giant bush - though it wasn't totally picked clean.
My Montessori training course has started!

Classes have been going super swimmingly! I’m really enjoying them. I’ve met some wonderful new friends and am learning so much. It’s really fun to find out the reasoning behind the materials – especially the ones I remember from when I was little.

Thus far, we have studied Montessori philosophy, the practical life lessons and we are finishing up our week of sensorial lessons.

Tomorrow evening, T and I are driving out to the beach to meet up with everyone for a mini family reunion. I’m hoping to get in a lot of sun, knitting and general relaxation!

If you want to be somebody else,

2009-05-31T12:28:00.007-04:00

change your mind. It was that kind of a weekend.

On Wednesday, I was told that there is essentially no position for me (to do my internship) at GHS next year. While I've had a hunch that this was the case for months now, it was still a bit of a shock. After taking an afternoon and evening to be angry, hurt and otherwise in a less-than good mood, I started my search for The Silver Lining.

This turn of events has opened the door for me to move to another school guilt free. It comes at a reasonable time in the schedule of my life since I am beginning my Montessori certification. Fortunately, I did go ahead and work out an option for myself whilst believing there would be a spot for me at GHS. That work has paid off with a paid internship position at a school which specializes in Montessori. In fact, this other school has had many interns over the years and has an obvious 'path' for me to follow.

It's less likely that this new school will consume my life, so I will have more opportunities to craft, too. So get ready for some more projects and creations! I'll have more time to prepare for dinners also, so hopefully I'll find some more good recipes to try out. Over the weekend, I had to get some of these sugar snap peas. Other people around the blogosphere have mentioned peas which need to be hulled. I don't think these require hulling, but they look delicious!

Biting the bullet

2009-05-27T11:28:00.004-04:00

This past weekend was a big one for our apartment (affectionately known as TuziLand). Three days of big changes, new developments and big spending.

First, the apartment is back together. Everything (minus all the stuff we recycled, threw away or donated) is unpacked and in its original home or a better home. It was a daunting task, but we managed our way through it and mostly thanks to a lot of work by T, we have a much better living space now. At least we humans think so. Tuz is less than enthusiastic about the new floors. He has ventured out onto the "ice" a couple times, but has only managed to successfully strand himself on another area rug. We've ordered some nice, long runners to put in the hallways which should help.

Second, we made our first GIANT purchase. We bought a car. I think it's a fairly modest car. We can certainly handle it financially, even if it does feel like a big decision.

Third, we finally have some job news. T started his summer job yesterday, which he is already enjoying. They ended their first day with a 2 hour soccer scrimmage! I got some positive news about an internship position for next year, and am anxiously awaiting firm answer.

Looks like things are finally starting to fall into place for the summer and year ahead. There are still some loose threads to tie up, but at least we're on our way! Phewf!

Progress

2009-05-20T14:20:00.003-04:00

Amidst all the things that have not been going quite the way we'd like (T's car generating burning smells, kitchen faucet breaking and flooding the kitchen, AC not working on the one 90 degree day...) the flooring project is going swimmingly well! It looks like they may even be totally finished today! As promised, here are some photos of the progress:
A before picture of our living room. This isn't even a real before photo, because at this point we've already packed up the books from the shelves and sold the papsan chairs which were in the corners on either side of the window.
First, they ripped out all of the deadly carpet, what was left of the padding and pulled up all the carpet tacks.
Then, they had to level the floor. Apparently it is common for older buildings/homes to require this step. Our floors are concrete (fire and sound barrier) so the leveling was fairly easy. There turned out to be more spots to level than they originally anticipated, but that didn't bother them at all. The grey is the wet concrete.
Finally, they laid down an "underlayment" which is an optional layer of padding to give some cushion to the floor. It acts as another sound barrier and also keeps the floors from feeling as cold as if they were laid directly on the concrete. Once the underlayment is in place, they could go ahead and lay the wood. We chose eco-friendly engineered Brazilian cherry in cinnamon. Because it is engineered, they not only use the wood more efficiently to make the planks, but there is also no need for glues or adhesives. The planks are measured, cut and "click" into place which will also allow for more give.

I'm baaack!

2009-05-19T00:10:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. T and I have been working on getting our place all packed up for the new floors. He spent all of last week packing while I was at work and this past weekend we finished up what was left. Sunday we moved into a nearby hotel. We even brought Tuz! He has managed the move very nicely. He didn't stomp once! In fact, he seems as excited as we are, even though we have to confine him to his house (cage) when we are out. That photo up there is of him being happy and binking in the hotel room. I took some photos of the progress in the apt, which I'll upload tonight.

Rainy days = yummy soup!

2009-05-08T14:09:00.004-04:00

The weather around here has been kind of funky. The old "April showers bring May flowers" seems to have extended a week beyond. Besides the weather, we've had a few cases of closed up, sore throat, sniffly nosed blahs. In an attempt to remedy both of these, I decided to make T and myself some French Onion Soup. I read numerous recipes before deciding on my own mash-up way to go about concocting some soup. Fortunately, my research paid off and T even commented that my version was "just like you get in restaurants!"

French Onion Soup Recipe:

You'll need:
1 32oz box beef broth (low sodium is fine)
1 package shredded mozzarella cheese
1 baguette (day old is fine)
1.5-2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 T dried thyme
Worcestershire sauce (phewf that was fun to spell!)
4 oven-safe bowls for serving

How to make it:
1) Chop the onions into 1/4" strips. We bought some great little ones at the Farmer's Market 5 in a ziplock bag for $1.
2) In a medium sized pot, melt the butter and add the thyme to season it as it melts.
3) Set your oven shelf to the lower/middle level and preheat the broiler to low.
4) Add the onion pieces to the pot, stirring regularly until the onions are just about translucent. Meanwhile, slice the baguette into 1/2" slices.
5) Pour in the red wine, a splash of the Worcestershire sauce and the crumbs from the baguette.
6) Add the entire box of beef broth to the onions and let simmer for 20 minutes (a little longer is ok), stir regularly to keep the onions from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
7) Cover a cookie sheet with a SilPat or tinfoil and arrange your four bowls on top.
8) Evenly ladle soup into the bowls. Arrange slices of baguette on top, in one layer. Do not push the slices into the soup to soak them; this will happen in the oven.
9) Sprinkle mozzarella over the bread (and off the sides of the bowls, if you like).
10) Place the whole cookie sheet with bowls on top in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and the pieces on the bowl edges are browned.
11) Serve and enjoy - but be careful - the bowls are super hot!

*Photo from: http://www.displayit-info.com/food/dinner2.html

More Montessori goodness

2009-05-08T12:52:00.000-04:00

I've been getting increasingly excited about my Montessori training program. Classes start in just about one month! I preparation, I've already bought (and started reading) my books. I've also been thinking about lessons and doing a little making. As part of my cleaning and packing up my crafting room process, I've decided that I need to make some things to use up those awkward pieces of fabric. You know, those pieces that you *can't* throw away, but aren't big enough for what you really want to make? I have a lot of those. Many I have already 'gifted' on to other crafty friends. Here are two projects I made recently for my friend Allison's Montessori classroom.
The first is a fabric matching lesson. I found four fabrics of different textures and colours. I cut out small rectangles from each (traced a box of chalk as a pattern). Then, I cut out rectangles of a tan twill fabric and sewed them together by edging with some twill tape. There are 4 pairs of little matching rectangles which can be placed with the tan side up for a simple matching activity.
The second is a plant watering apron. The idea came from Montessori By Hand; a wonderful blog full of Montessori ideas. Her apron is beautiful, but I was concerned it was a little 'girly' for the boys' taste. So mine is hopefully more gender neutral, though it uses the same basic ideas. Each morning, the teacher uses the blue flowers to mark plants who need watering. The flowers have a loop of elastic on the back to fasten them to the green straw 'stems.' When a child chooses the plant watering activity, they put on the apron, (which has velcro closures at both the neck and waist straps) and fill the watering can (not pictured). The apron has slots at the top for red "I've been watered" flowers. When the child has finished watering a plant with a blue flower, he can replace the blue flower with a red one. The blue flower can be placed back in the slot on the front of the apron to leave both hands available for carrying the watering can.

Montessori magic?

2009-05-03T20:56:00.003-04:00

Edison -

I just finished watching this video about a cute little boy named Edison. It's a half hour "day in the life" clip showing how the Montessori method can be used in the home to facilitate and promote independence. Emphasis is placed on incorporating the child into the family routine, as the father states, "not around him."

Sweater woes...

2009-04-30T14:38:00.004-04:00

I have been loving open front cardigans lately. Anthro had a nice array of them, just in time for the indecisive weather we've been having. You can never be sure how the temperature might change while out, and then what the temperature will be like inside wherever you will be. These are great because they are warm, but not too warm, can be worn over almost anything, and are easily stashed away in a purse.
Last week, I found this pattern. Since I have already spent money on buying a few from Anthro, I decided to try my hand at making one. They seem simple enough, right? I bought some wonderful yarn from KnitPicks - a pima cotton and modal blend. Perfect texture and weight for spring/summer. I got the yarn and cast on this past Saturday and had the whole back piece of a size small finished by Tuesday! Yesterday, I started on the left front piece and... DOOM! The pattern all of a sudden gets confusing; lots of "AT THE SAME TIME"s and weird stuff that doesn't seem to match up. So I drew out the instructions, row by row and what do you know? The math doesn't add up. Fortunately, I do have the back piece to use as a guide and I was smart enough to record exactly how many rows I did, where I made increase and decreases. New plan; use the back to make the fronts. Do you think it'll work?

Rain, rain, wash the pollen away!

2009-04-29T13:49:00.003-04:00

Our summer days have been temporarily replaced by rainy, somewhat drear-some weather. The silver lining is a great one; the rain is going to relieve us of the 1600+ ppi pollen count. Phewf! In celebration of the hot weather yesterday (and knowing the forecast for today), T and I decided to have our old favourite summery dinner. We came up with the recipe for this delicious and nutritious tuna pasta in college. It's the perfect, light, cool summer meal; especially when followed by some slices of yummy watermelon. Here's the recipe:

Tuna Pasta (college style)
Makes 6 large servings

Ingredients:
1 box whole wheat twirly pasta (or some other shape that will hold the sauce well)
2 cans tuna, drained and rinsed
1 large bell pepper (any colour) diced
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
2 T dijon mustard
3 T French mustard (the kind that comes in the yellow squeeze bottles)
1/4 c Italian dressing

To Make:
1) Cook the pasta according to box instructions.
2) Meanwhile, drain and rinse the tuna, and dice the pepper.
3) In a large bowl (enough to hold all the ingredientes), mix the 2 mustards with the dressing.
4) Drain and rinse the pasta in cold water, then add all of it to the dressing bowl.
5) Toss to coat and then add the pepper pieces and peas.
6) Serve at room temperature, or chilled. Enjoy!

Is it summer already?

2009-04-27T14:24:00.004-04:00

Not quite, but it certainly feels like it! We had record highs this weekend, and it was great! My "babies" got an extra half hour outside on the playground today, so they are tuckered out. I hope this weather keeps up so that they can keep getting extra play time.

T and I spent a very nice weekend together, getting a lot of errands done in preparation for the Big Project (the new floors - yay!). We checked out a nice, little, year-round farmer's market in Oakton. We got some yummy, local, organic sausage for us, Virginia wine and a head of hydroponically grown lettuce for our shed-ful friend. In fact, I'm hoping to use this tutorial to see if I can keep the lettuce growing!

Yesterday, we packed away our winter clothes, purged some and took a load of items over to our local thrift store. It felt great to pack the car full of things we no longer need! One of the things was T's old stereo from high school. It was great until the volume dial ceased to understand how to lower the volume. We also listed more than 50 books on Amazon. Many of the books are good summer reads - we've already sold 12!

The warmer weather is certainly a nice change. It's starting to spark my creative juices; so be on the look out for some new projects coming soon.

Spring is shedding season

2009-04-22T21:54:00.002-04:00

Sometimes after a difficult day, the best thing to do is to just go home and pet the bunny. Bunnies are good at giving their humans fresh perspective and the petting is really very therapeutic. This evening, Tuzi reminded me that Spring is shedding season. That means he's getting rid of his old coat and getting a shorter, softer, new one. He wants me to get rid of my old, heavy winter worries and move on to sunnier, happier new thoughts. Don't focus on the unknowns and potentially bads, think about all the wonderful things this new season will bring!

Spring is also the season for cleaning, and T and I have begun preparations for a massive, overhaul-style cleaning of our apartment. We got the go-ahead for replacing all of our wall to wall carpeting, throughout the whole place, with beautiful new hardwood flooring! Not only will it be great for my newly developed (and hopefully soon to be going away) asthma and allergies, but it will also vastly increase the attractiveness of our apartment. Sure, the week our apartment is turned upside down and packed away will be crazy (especially since I'll be working still), but it will be SO wonderful to be on the road to long-term continued healthiness. Just in time for summer!

Little things

2009-04-16T13:44:00.007-04:00

Sometimes, when the weather is dreary, you have to focus on the little things to keep away the grouchies. Take this photo for example. This orange thing is a little piece of plastic that you pull off of an ink cartridge before you put it in the printer. Doesn't it look so happy? It's like a little orange guy, so happy to have a function in life; even though he'll probably get tossed in the recycling bin.

In other news, I've started to feel like my crafty mojo is coming back. It got pretty "quashed" for a while there when other things were occupying my time (and mind). Even though the past few days have been rainy, it's been good for crafty ideas. Besides that, T and I bought some really wonderfully scented candles at Anthro over the weekend which have been making our house smell like spring.
Anyway, here's one of the fruits of my newfound craftiness. Sorry for the less than lovely photos; it's naptime so I'm working with less than lovely photographing conditions. A little bunny pouch for storing goodies and keeping bags tidy. I borrowed the tail idea from this great pattern. I made one of those pencil pouches for Madre's birthday last week. It turned out quite well. Unfortunately, the lining of the pouch is pretty small so it doesn't hold a whole lot of pencils. I made another one last night for my friend Emily, and I tried to fix that a little. I made the ears little pockets, with opeinings at the top for storing all important chapstick. :) You get a sneak peek of something else I'm working on too; see it up there in the top right corner? Any guesses?

I made a new ironing board cover for myself last night also. The old one was pretty yucky. Somehow it acquired brown stains which would occasionally transfer themselves to whatever was being ironed. Besides that, the padding was pitifully thin causing the grid underneath to show through with vigorous ironing. The new cover is made completely with thrifted materials; pretty (partially sun faded or bleached?) pink print decorator's fabric and some kind of cotton string. I'll have to get a photo of it tonight.

Finally, as promised many moons ago, here's a link to our photos from Disney. I'm working on grabbing the professional PhotoPass ones from the Disney site.

I'm so excited!

2009-04-07T10:49:00.003-04:00

I received an acceptance letter from the Montessori certification school I applied to for this summer! I didn't send in my final piece - the dreaded Personal Statement - until the Weds. we left for Disney World. But I got a call from the Center Director last Monday hinting that my packet would be in the mail soon. Thursday night, T brought up the mail with my packet in it! I've already ordered all of my books, minus one that is out of print which I am considering just borrowing.
So, I have another full school year of getting "love letters" (and drawings) from little friends! I can't wait to get started making my original lessons and reading everything about Maria Montessori and her genius program. These days, since I've been back to my regular schedule of being with the children in the afternoons, I realise how much I did miss them. Some of them can be a handful at times, but we haven't had any major outbursts (yet... I hope I haven't just jinxed us) and it's so relaxing to watch them napping. The best part is waking them up one by one and seeing each one wake up with a big smile; refreshed and ready to play the afternoon away!

Sunshine and earthworms

2009-03-31T17:31:00.005-04:00

The weather has been quite kind these first couple days back to school. Nice weather always puts the children in a better mood. The big thing on the playground is earthworms. We received a lovely new layer of mulch over the break which holds moisture in its lower layers well; the perfect digging grounds for small hands in search of fat worms. One of our little friends even brought in a tub of worms he'd found at home. I tried to get a picture of a worm in a little hand, but the camera card is still full of Disney photos!

I'm uploading them as we speak, so there will be a nice link to an album full of photos for you at the bottom of the post. In the meantime, tomorrow is already hump day, and I have decided to go back to my Hump Day Goodies making ways. Tomorrow's goody is kettle corn. Ever since I first smelled the delicious salty, buttery popcorn in Disney World, I've been itching to make kettle corn. In fact, I had even planned to make some before our trip for snacking on the plane. Anyway, a nice big bowl is already made and cooling for tomorrow. Tuzi, who seems to dislike the smell of oil and the sound of corn popping is not impressed and even carried his carrot (an offering from the offending MamaTuzi) away to his room. The photo is from before we left. He has taken to napping in a little towel tent on T's office chair, and I managed to capture a few photos. Such the inventive little bun!

Aaaaand we're back!

2009-03-30T13:32:00.004-04:00

We started our last day off right with a Character Breakfast at the Garden Grove in the Swan hotel. The food was delicious as expected and we got to meet Pluto and Goofy, too. After a short rest for digestion, we headed off to the Magic Kingdom to finish off our day and vacation.

My favourite park did not disappoint. We managed to get on every ride we wanted, watched the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade and the castle stage show. We even stayed long enough to catch the SpectroMagic parade again. I definitely can't wait to go back!

For now, the magic has been put on hold as we return to our routine. We were sad to go, but the weather helped usher us out. It stormed overnight on our last night, complete with hail, and didn't let up until sometime just before we took off. Landing at Dulles wasn't too bad since the weather here was a balmy 77F.

Tonight I will spend some time uploading all the photos we took as well as some of the professional PhotoPass ones. I'll link them here when they're all done.

Every Person Comes Out Tired

2009-03-27T23:45:00.006-04:00

Today was EPCOT day. We got up earlier this morning and headed over to the park by ferry. One of the advantages of staying at the Dolphin is the ferry transport to EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. But the ferry to EPCOT is even better because it drops you off at an alternate entrance at the back of the park. So, rather than having to fight the crowds through the main gate, we leisurely entered just between France and Great Britain in the World Showcase.

We headed straight for Test Track, another ride T had never done. The wait was already over an hour (the park had only been open for an hour!) but we got our Fast Passes for later. It seemed everyone was rushing to Test Track and Soarin', so demand wasn't quite as high for Mission: Space. That ride has 2 options; the Green, less intense team training or the Orange more intense training. The Orange line had a wait time of over an hour, so we jumped in the Green line for a 10 minute wait. It was well worth it, and I doubt we missed out on much (other than intense spinning, according to others we spoke with).

Lunch was at "The Land" building which houses Soarin' and some other less in-demand rides. The line for Soarin' was still beyond what we wanted to wait, and Fast Passes were being handed out for the afternoon when we hoped to be at the pool. Since we both had the chance to ride Soarin' in DisneyLand (where it started) we didn't feel the need to ride again, even though it would have been great.
Test Track was a great time. Admittedly, it was slightly less cool than my memory hyped it up to be, but still the Disney genius was on full display. Throughout the wait in line, you walk by exhibits and scenes to get you super excited. They really try to make the wait half the fun.

After being whipped around and generally treated like crash test dummies, we headed "home" for some relaxation by the pool. We were not impressed with the service today, especially compared to yesterday when a waitress asked us almost immediately if she could get us anything. But still, it was nice to take a nap and do some reading while we rested our legs for tonight's Extra Magic Hours.

Future visitors note; it really does pay to stay on Disney property. We've bought goodies in the parks and had them delivered to our hotel; items arrive by 1:00pm the following day. You can get your park ticket "attached" to your hotel key card to reduce the number of little things you have to carry. Transport to and from the parks as well as the other resorts is complimentary and constant. Finally, the Extra Magic Hours are provided exclusively for guests of the Disney resorts. These happen before the parks open and after the parks close to the public. Once the EMH begin, guests are required to show their resort IDs to gain entrance into rides; with little to no wait whatsoever!

Lions, rhinos and giraffes!

2009-03-26T23:11:00.006-04:00

We started our first full day in Animal Kingdom. Needing a good night's rest after yesterday, we slept in a little longer than we liked and ended up hitting the park around 10am instead of 8am. Again, our tardiness didn't seem to have any ill effects. We headed straight for Kilimanjaro Safari to grab some Fast Passes to evade the lines later (the wait was already up to an hour!). Fast Passes in hand, we crossed the park to get to It's Tough to Be a Bug. I'd seen it before, but T had never been. It's a 3D spectacular show with lots of surprising effects. That was a great way to get a jump start on the day and instantly wipe away any lingering sleepiness!

By the time we got out of Flik's ant hill, we were ready to head back in the direction of Kilimanjaro. We stopped for some delicious corn dog nuggets on the way and got a wonderful photo of the tree. (That's on the camera, so I'll have to upload when I get home.) Kilimanjaro is just as good, maybe even better than everyone says it is! We saw real lions, rhinos, giraffes and all kinds of other animals too! We could have ridden over an over if there weren't a wait!

We also rode the Dinosaur ride. A lot scarier than I thought it was going to be! It's one of the rides where they take a photo of you at some point along the way. When we saw the photo of our car, my head is buried in T's shoulder, I obviously don't have my eyes open and I'm looking down anyway. Not recommended for littler friends. Phew!

We managed to get back to the hotel for a nice relaxing nap in the afternoon. We were greeted by a deliciously large fresh fruit plate and Pellegrino in our room when we returned! Thanks Daddy! After a long, exciting morning in the park the fruit was just what we wanted. We saw this cool (magical?) whale cloud while relaxing in the unfortunately rather uncomfortable chairs at the Dolphin Pool.

Finally, we finished up our day at the Magic Kingdom. We went over to see SpectroMagic which had 2 magical showings tonight flanking the nightly Wishes Come True fireworks spectacular. I'm so glad we got to see them both. We also got to sneak in a round at the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. This is definitely a must see! Probably using the same technology as Turtle Talk with Crush, this is an interactive show. The monsters perform an adlib comedy show and incorporate real people from the audience. As we were getting prepped for the show and transfer into Monstropolis, I was starting to have doubts about the hilarity level. But that was quickly resolved as they snapped shots of people as we were filing into our seats and added captions. We're hoping to get to do that one again on Saturday!

Lights, Motors, Action!

2009-03-25T21:33:00.007-04:00

We spent our first day in Disney World at Hollywood Studios (you may know it by its old name, MGM Studios; we haven't discovered why the name was changed yet). We were a little late getting to Dulles, my fault, I never feel like I'm totally ready. We got there about 45 minutes before our flight was due to take off. Luckily, being in the morning in the middle of the week, there weren't many people around. The nice thing was that we didn't have to wait anywhere!

Watched Bugs' Life on the plane; T got it from iTunes since he'd never seen it. It was the perfect length to while away the time. I have to say I quite like JetBlue! It was the first time I'd flown with them. No charge for luggage (unless each passenger has more than one) and they had so many options for snacks and beverages - and also no charge!

Back to the park, T and I were both dragging a little despite all the excitement that comes along with a trip to The Greatest Place on Earth. We didn't sleep much last night getting packed and all. The highlight of the day was "Lights, Motors, Action!" as you may have guessed from the title. Real stunt men perform awesome car stunts twice a day. Though there are claims that park attendance is down 20-30% this year, the stadium was packed. If you think car chases, pyrotechnics and general speed-infused action are cool, you should definitely see this show.

Another highlight of the day was our lunch. We ate at a 50's style restaurant in the park. In true Disney detail, the place was like walking into a 50's house, but with a bar. When your party is called to be seated, the hostess calls you like she's your mom. The delicious food tastes like mom's cooking (if mom made super juicy, deliciously flavourful fried chicken). We both ordered fun drinks - I got a cool Mickey's BeBop, which is basically a Shirley Temple served in a souvenir glittery plastic cup and topped off with an LCD glowing ice cube!

Tomorrow, we're off to Animal Kingdom in the morning. Hopefully we'll be able to pull ourselves away for some pool time in the afternoon and then off to Magic Kingdom in the evening for SpectroMagic!

5 days!

2009-03-20T09:39:00.003-04:00

Today is the last day of Spring Break Camp. Sorry I've been MIA a long time, while the auction took over the world. Let's just say it was rather intense there for at least a week. I had a week to catch up on sleep and get my health back in order before Camp started. A week to plan the camp, which I had only half-planned during the onslaught of auction tasks. But now, on the last day, I'm feeling quite good about it. I had the good sense way back in January to plan for an outside group to come in to entertain the children. After some struggles with my first choice, I found a suitable alternative, which as turned out amazingly well.

We've had a lovely lady come in each morning to entertain the children with hands-on Mad Science. She teaches them real science while keeping them involved and engaged via really cool projects and activities. This is just the way children should be introduced to an academic subject, I think. She has the children so interested in learning, the camp has actually become educational! While she runs her program in the morning, I have plenty of time to get myself organized for the afternoon.

I can't help but want to have equally cool (if not as educational) fun projects for the children on my end. We started the week with a pillow case decorating project. This is the second year I've done this same activity, but learned from last year. Last year I made throw pillow style cases for each of the children, out of very nice (but not see-through) Osnaburg fabric. I bought many, many colours of Sharpies and fabric markers and expected the kids to go wild drawing and decorating their 20" square blank canvases. The whole project took them about 20 minutes. Many of the children just scribbled colours (and these were not our youngest ones!) and declared themselves done.

This year, I made regular, bed style muslin pillowcases and by accident (my fabric wasn't wide enough) had to add on a strip of green quilter's cotton. The green was a lucky, perfectly sized remanant which fairly accurately matches our school's shade of green and the main fabric is the cheapest muslin available. The benefit of the cheap-o muslin is that it's see-through. So I printed simple, generic pictures of animals, dragons (our school mascot) and other child-tracing-friendly images. The children slid the drawings into their pillows and coloured them in, some traced the images first, others just coloured. Both ways, they turned out beautifully. The younger children drew free-hand, their imaginations uninhibited. The oldest children chose more intricate images to trace carefully and then colour in, sometimes complete with shading! The first day, I gave them 20 minutes to work on their pillows which turned out to be way too short. They've been working on them during down time all week long!

What is the purpose of the pillows? Each day, we have "rest & relaxation" time while they watch a movie. The youngest children really need this time because they are keeping up with the older ones all day long. We set out gym mats on the floor, let them take off their shoes and lie down to watch. The pillows provide an obvious boundary so they don't crowd each other, can be sat upon, rested on or used for a clandestine nap.

Buttons, buttons

2009-02-13T15:23:00.006-05:00

We celebrated Valentine's Day at school today. The children were all excited for the special day. I think they were as excited to give out the goodies they'd brought as they were to receive. It was nice to see that. They really were delighted to go around and pass out their little cards, placing each one into someone else's bag.

For my part, I came up with what I wanted to make for the kiddos just 2 days ago... Not the best plan given the rest of my schedule for the week. T very graciously helped me when I was still not done in the wee hours last night, buttoning and snipping loose threads.

The idea came with a bit of an ulterior motive. Few of the children in my class are able to button up their own pants after using the bathroom. I wanted a goodie for them that didn't involve food, and while playdough was going to be it, I decided that was a bit lame, and I'd have to buy some kind of cute containers anyway. So the fact that these Tic Tac Toe boards are totally buttony (including the button closure on the pouch), is really my way of getting them to learn how to button. Hopefully, it's a cute and fun enough way and maybe they'll just enjoy putting them on and taking them off. Since it's usually a 2 player game, it has the added (potential) bonus of getting them some quality time with someone, too.

Big Apple

2009-02-09T23:43:00.005-05:00

We spent a long weekend up in NYC for T to compete in a Moot Court. The weather was great, considering it's early February. It was a little chilly on Friday, but much nicer than our last visit when it rained (poured) and T bought a faulty umbrella. [Longish funny story, email or comment if you're interested.] I was not allowed to attend the Moot Court proceedings, so I had quite a bit of time to myself. Though I'd had my doubts about our travel and hotel arrangements, things turned out reasonably. Our bus was about an hour late leaving DC, which left us standing in the cold, but such things happen I suppose. The hotel made up for it; the Sheraton Manhattan. It's on the very edge of Times Square as you'd picture it in your head. The rooms were a decent size, check in was painless and prompt and best of all, it was clean; no mildewy bathrooms (like at the W we stayed in last trip)!

While T was away, I pounded the pavement around the hotel. I probably walked a good 5 miles, we suspect. I think I saw everything on Madison, Lex, 5th and Ave. of the Americas, plus a lot of the in between streets from 41st all the way up to 68th. I plotted a course to hit Japanese book stores (searching for crafting books) and Japanese groceries which are quite plentiful actually. It was very fun to see all the "real" Japanese goodies as compared to the primarily Korean and Chinese stuff around DC.

I ended up spending a lot on crafting books, as is to be expected. I found a really cool one for Mom with charts for all kinds of different, very intricate and complicated looking knitted patterns. I also found a "find the differences" book for Sneetch which is comprised of pretty difficult pictures in all kinds of illustration styles. I ended up getting 5 for myself. I will get some pictures when my camera is recharged. I think my favourite is one called Make a Box which comes with a CD of .eps files so you can put your own designs and logo on all sorts of printable packaging templates! I have dreams of making something supercute for the babies, since Valentine's Day is upon us. I'll get photos of that too, if it happens.

Sorry about the blurry photo, my camera seems to dislike me more and more each day. T and I have been contemplating splurging on a nice SLR (I still don't know what that means, and haven't had a chance to research it properly). The idea is that if we had a good camera, we would take more photos. At all the craft fairs we go to, we both see photos and other 2D art we like all the time. But, one of us (ok, me) always points out that we could make it ourselves and it wouldn't cost $x00000.00. So, we don't buy the art, but we also don't make the art and our walls are still bare.

Speaking of art, I come to the only other photo I took that came out well; a giant statue of Miffy. She was standing with some other notable kawaii friends; Hello Kitty, Pochacco, Keroppi, amongst a group of skateboarders doing tricks on their pedestals. An interesting joining of cultures.

Snow (&) owls

2009-01-28T12:05:00.004-05:00

We finally got our snow! Yep, snowed almost all day yesterday. We got our first day off. Then it iced and freezing rained last night so we have a second day off today! Snow days are such a nice and unexpected little break from life. Since it was actually quite treacherous driving yesterday (dropped T off at le Metro and then went to get Sneetch from home), we basically stayed in and I got to finish my owly sweater! I suppose snow days are the benefit of living in a place that gets so cold, as opposed to living in Hawaii or somewhere else where it's warm and sunny year round.

Anyway, I finished the sweater! My little owl friends just need button eyes now. I am leaning towards finding some nice little wooden ones. That would look cute and not too scary, right? I also still have a little more than half a skein left. Not sure what to do with it. Since this sweater only used a skein and a half, I'm thinking I might just knit up another and buy another skein. It's quite nice yarn; a little itchy since it is 100% wool, but it's bulky so it knits up quickly. The best part is that it doesn't untwist. I hate it when yarns do that and your needle points get all tangled.

I have decided that my next project is going to be knitting little bear sweaters with all my tiny balls of stash yarns. Then, I'll sew some little bunnies to wear the sweaters. :) I'm starting with this really pretty forest green handspun yarn that has pretty sparkly gold thread spun in it. I got it in a swap on Craftster and haven't been able to come up with the perfect thing to make with it. I think sparkly sweaters for (yet unmade) bunnies will be perfect.

Don Quixote

2009-01-14T14:29:00.002-05:00

Last night, T, Flea and I went to the Kennedy Center to see Don Quixote performed by the Mariinsky Ballet. We had quite good seats (thanks Daddy!), and it was wonderful. We didn't know it, but it was opening night, so it was a full house. The dancers were amazingly beautiful and so precise it was unreal. The orchestra was perfectly in time with the dancers, and the dancers were perfectly synchronized with each other.

Of course, we were not allowed to take photos, (and I forgot my camera anyway), but I was able to find this photo from the San Francisco Gate). Look at that point and arch! Every time I see a ballet on tv or live, I wish I hadn't quit. But then, I was never aiming to become a ballerina anyway. Flea and I have decided to look into taking a ballet class together next year. Now, I am just waiting to see if T and I will have a chance to see Swan Lake performed by the Washington Ballet next month!

2009-01-13T13:51:00.002-05:00

Still no snow. It's been getting progressively colder, and we are supposed to be getting the coldest air of the season this week, but no snow. We're hoping for "flurries" tonight and "possible light dusting on Sunday." But no real snow. Meanwhile other parts of the nation are being buried in snow and can't seem to shake it. Too bad there's no giant blower device that could blow the snow clouds our way.

In other news, T and I invested in a new bed which has been absolutely wonderful. It's got a 3" pillowtop and we bought 2 sets of new, super lovely sheets. Getting into bed is like climbing onto a cloud. Even T agrees that it's worth every penny. Since getting the new bed last week, we have spent 90% of our time at home in it. The other 10% is reserved for showering and occasional cooking. We've gotten hooked on the show NCIS which has only compounded our desire to never get out of bed. The show itself is pretty good, but the fact that we were able to watch almost all of season 6 on Netflix instantly helps a lot. Speaking of tv, we got a new one to go with our new bed. With the bed being taller and all, we needed a bigger tv so we'd actually be able to see it. SO, now we have a new tv to watch from our new bed. And, since we've figured out how to hook up our wireless speakers to the computer which can be connected to the tv, good luck getting us to do anything outside of the bed from now until... until we finish watching every episode of NCIS I guess.

Not to worry, though. I am still being crafty and productive. I finished my awesome mittens using the pattern and beautiful yarn my sister (Flea) gave me for Christmas. One of these days, I will get a decent photo of them for you. I have knitted 2 presents and am working on a third. I have organized my entire yarn stash (minus some leftover pieces I brought home from work yesterday - working on it) and have been cleaning up photos to be uploaded to Etsy any day now. All I need is to be able to continue along in this mode of relative stress-free crafting for about a month and I think I'll have all my crafting loose ends tied up! Cross your fingers...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T11:14:00.002-05:00

We are enjoying the holidays in sunny Florida. We've been watching the Weather Channel each morning, and observing the wrath of Old Man Winter on the rest of the nation. Luckily for us, it's been in the low 80s and mostly sunny here. :)

Sick day

2008-12-09T14:03:00.005-05:00

I'm back in Blogland! Yep, sick again. The same thing I had before, but I went to the doctor earlier this time. Hopefully, that means that I'll get better sooner! Actually, it better mean that I am healthier sooner, because now is not the time to be sick!

I've got 2 parties at work this week, (one of which I am helping to organize), the Downtown Holiday Market and Celebration of Mrs. Wiechelt's Life this weekend. Then next week is the home stretch to Winter Break which means I have to get cracking on the babies' presents! At least I think I have finally decided on what to make for them.

I have had a hard time concentrating recently. I think it has been the excitement for Thanksgiving and now the winter holidays coupled with the overwhelming sadness and unfortunate surprise of Karen's death. It was really a reality check for me; things don't just keep going so that you can go to bed and wake up tomorrow. She always encouraged everyone to enjoy life the way it is and savor every moment (and every bite of chocolate). I need to work on that.

In the meantime, I'll share a recipe I made up all on my own! This dashi based soup is great for the freezing cold days we've been having. It's filling, warm, healthy and delicious! Even T agrees and is willing to have it for lunch the next day. :)

Ingredients:
3 T Dashi soup base (available in most Asian food stores; look for one with no MSG or where MSG is at least towards the end of the ingredient list; this can be substituted with chicken broth)
4-5 cups water (depends on how much soup you want, you can always add more)
1 lb. pea shoots (tou-miao in Mandarin Chinese)
1 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced kamoboko fish cake
1 cup firm tofu
1 lb. somen noodles

1. Wash the pea shoots very throroughly (there are often little teeny bugs). Peel off the leaves and discard the stems.
2. Heat the water on medium high heat, it doesn't need to be boiling and stir in the dashi to dissolve. It will look like miso soup broth.
3. When the water is hot, add the noodles and pea shoot leaves.
4. While the noodles and leaves are softening, slice the tofu and fish cake. I like to cut them small, but still arge enough to be picked up easily with chopsticks.
5. Add the celery, fish cake and tofu.
6. When everything is heated through, serve and enjoy!

For extra deliciousity, T and I enjoyed this "fruit salad" as our dessert after our soup for lunch today:

1 apple, diced
1 pear, diced
1/2 a pomegranate's worth of seeds

A community of love

2008-11-19T13:57:00.003-05:00

I've been feeling intermittently crafty. I always feel like I want to make something, but when I have the time, I'm not sure what to make. I've been working on a new project, which is going well. Hopefully I'll have some photos to post tonight at least. I've also started (finally) on Christmas gifts, which is a good thing.

I'm distracted because the world lost a wonderful person this past weekend. A friend and colleauge, Karen suffered a series of strokes and was unable to recover. Young, vibrant, colourful (and colour coded) and an embodiment of the school's spirit, we're all missing her very much. Knowing that she never wanted to see anyone unhappy or upset, we are trying to take strength in growing through this together and keeping her spirit alive. She was always so proud of my projects, I'm sure I'll think of something good soon. You should have seen that rainbow this weekend. It was a triple decker and the brightest I've ever seen.

Shop updated... finally!

2008-11-11T14:43:00.004-05:00

Yep, it's true. After all of this time, I have finally added new goodies to the shop. Go over and check it out. Speaking of shop(ping), T and I have been working on our Holiday Wishlists, as requested. This year, we are both creating Wists (Wish + List = Wist) over at wists.com. You can see photos of my "wists" scrolling in the side bar over on the left of the page. You should start a Wist - it's quite easy. Let me know if you need help.

In other news, my sewing machine is back in the shop. This time it's in for a good cleaning. So I'll be working on cutting and carving again this week. I'll be able to pick it up on Thursday, but there will be photos of my other adventures until then!

If you're wondering, that's a Hot and Cold Apple up there. I made them Friday night before the fair, and am I glad I did! They were a huge hit. I only have one left. They are cute and compassionate too. You can store them in the freezer for use on bumps and bruises or you can heat them up in the microwave to warm your fingers and soothe sore muscles. I'll be working on a pear pattern once I get my machine back.

Not bad

2008-11-10T22:25:00.003-05:00

This weekend was not bad. It wasn't great, but not much to complain about. My craft fair on Saturday was alright. There wasn't a particularly good flow of shoppers, but that meant that I had time to do other things. I finished up some animals and got to walk around and actually talk with the other vendors. It was a mix of vendors and crafters; probably about 70% to 30%. So I made a point of stopping at the other crafters' tables. I met AggieBag, WoosWoodLG and another lovely lady who has a long arm quilter. In the end, I still ended up reaching my goal profit which is more than enough to pay for my sewing machine getting its much overdue tune up.

After the fair, T suggested that we could stop at my favourite quilt shop, since we were nearby. The place was hoppin'! Turns out that they were part of a quilt shop hop so people were there spending money to collect a unique quilt patch from each store. If you visited all 12 stores in the hop, you were then entered into a drawing for some quite nice prizes. Apparently, few people get to all 12 stores (not many significant others are willing to spend a whole weekend perusing quilt shops I assume) so the chances of winning are high. Even so, I wasn't about to go running around DC, Maryland and Virginia to get a chance to enter into the contest. But I did have fun picking out some more new fabrics! Plus, I think I can cross another person off of my Christmas list.

Sunday, we went to the Green Festival with Madre. We spent several hours perusing and gathering the latest on what's going on the environmentally friendly community. I made a point of only collecting information (handouts, business cards, etc.) from people I genuinely think I might find useful. Now I just have to go through the bag and organise all that info!

T and I enjoyed a nice dinner at La Madeleine and then went for a walk around Reston Town Center. It must have dropped about 10 degrees over the course of our walk and I started to get pretty cold. Fortunately, there's a new Anthropologie there (next door to Paper Source!). I am liking that store more and more every time I visit. I still don't feel brave enough to wear most of the things they sell, but I can almost always find something I must have. This time, I found 2 things; a little birdie on a grapefruit sugar bowl, complete with a little blue spoon, and a toasty, pink wool coat - which was even on sale! See? Not too bad. :)

Carving away my time

2008-11-05T14:22:00.002-05:00

My sewing machine is sad. It's been doing such a lovely job helping me with all my crazy projects. But all of a sudden yesterday, the top thread tension got all out of whack. No matter what stitch I use or which way I turn the tension dial, the top thread is always too tight. As a result, my trusty friend is going to the shop this afternoon, for the first time ever. Fortunately, wonderful Tran has already called the shop to explain that I have a craft fair this Saturday, so I need my machine back as soon as possible. He explained the problem and it seems we should be able to drop it off this afternoon and pick it up tomorrow! How swell!

So, since my friendly machine is out of commission, I needed something else to occupy myself last night. I recently ordered some new Japanese crafting books. One of them is full of hand carved stamp designs. I love those sorts of books for the inspiration! So I spent the evening last night carving some stamps. I carved a happy cloud, an envelope (sealed with love), the little penguin above and a Silver Lining return address stamp. I did the three little ones first to practice and get myself "in the groove." The return address stamp is pretty awesome also, if I do say so myself. But the penguin one saved me money. I saw this little guy on Etsy a while ago, but decided to wait to buy it. Of course, it sold. So last night, when I was feeling like carving, I knew I had to make him.

Wishing I could take a nap

2008-11-03T14:01:00.003-05:00

Phewf! What a weekend. T and I felt like quite the social butterflies with a social engagement each day. It's hard to believe we were ever more social in college! It was wonderful to be able to spend time with friends and re-connect with people we hadn't had a chance to see for a while. Now if we could only get up to NYC...

In other news, I have had some lovely feedback about the goodies I made (with help from T and Sneetch, of course) for the babies. A couple very nice emails and comments in the hallway. How nice it is to know that your hard work is truly appreciated. Here's a picture of the owl bags which caused much glee and excitement on Friday:

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, See Katie Sew is having a fantastic fabric give away. Even though I'm sure very few people are reading this, I said I'd post about it to spread the word and get myself entered in the contest for an extra 5 entries. :D

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T14:44:00.002-04:00

Halloween is actually my least favourite holiday. I dislike all the scary and often disgusting things the stores sell. Halloween as we know it now is so far removed from the way it was originally celebrated generations ago. Perhaps it's because I work with younger children and I worry about them getting truly scared by the stores and the masks and the older children. Or maybe it's just because those things scare me still.

Anyway, I prefer to celebrate Haloween with fun, cute things. So my students are getting little "Boo Boo Bumpkins" in Owl Bags this year. The Bumpkins are just an adapted simple ball pattern with faces, leaves and stems. They're filled with flax seeds and fabric scraps. This way, they can be hot/cold packs. I enclosed a little note inside each owl bag letting the parents know. Also, I wanted them to know that being handmade, the pumpkins should be handled nicely (and not thrown around). I gave away several at the noon time dismissal for the children who would not be staying today, and already heard squeals of excitement. I do love to craft for people who truly appreciate it. :)

Warm wishes

2008-10-30T00:04:00.006-04:00

I've had quilts on the mind recently. A month or so ago, Robin (my friend and co-worker) was telling me about some wonderful glass mosaic classes she's been taking. She even brought one of her works in progress for me to see. I don't think it would be good for me to get into yet another craft. Not only because mosaic-making can get expensive (as with all crafts, I suppose), but because I don't have any more space in my crafting room. So of course, my mind turned to the fabric alternative to glass mosaics; quilts.

I've never made a real quilt before. Mom used to help me construct little "comforters" for my Barbies. They were just little square fabric scraps all sewn together to make something which looked like a mini quilt. But I never did any actual quilting on them; machine or by hand. I suppose that since the weather has been (unseasonably?) cold, I've also been feeling like quilts would be good projects.

Then, an unfortunate but good reason for making a quilt came along. My friend/co-worker/mentor suffered a stroke on Sunday. She has known me since I was 5 or 6. For better or worse, my way of dealing with sad news is to make things. I've been cooking, baking and sewing pretty much all of my free time. I've decide to make her a lap quilt which I think I will try to get all the faculty and staff to sign on the back. I want it to be a reminder to her that we are all thinking of her all the time and miss her very much. I want it to keep her warm while she's recovering and help her to feel more comfortable. I wanted to finish it tonight, but I'm 2-3 hours away from being done, so blogging about it and taking photos will have to do for now.

Pick a peck

2008-10-20T13:58:00.005-04:00

We went apple picking this weekend. It was great to be out in the beautiful October weather. We went to an orchard just about an hour away where they had quite a few different types of apples. We decided to pick just Fujis, which turned out to be a good choice since the Fuji trees were just bursting with apples. The trees are not particularly tall to begin, and with the branches so full of apples, the picking was easy. We picked enough to give a bag to T's family, a bag to my family, a bag for ourselves and a bag for me to bring to school. Sneetch and I were picky about our apples and chose small (cute) ones with no spots at all. T looked for big honkers and didn't care about spots. Turns out the spots easily wash off, so they're all good. And they're certainly crisp, juicy and delicious.

In sewing news, I spent Sunday finishing up the Boo Boo Bumpkins I've been working on for my babies at school. I sewed up their final seams, gave them leaf hair and stems and filled them with flax seeds. Now I just have to make little baggies for them to go into and I'll be all done; two weeks early! Can you believe it? I'll try to get a picture of the lot of them tonight. :)

Finally recovering

2008-10-14T21:24:00.004-04:00

After being sick for over a month with cold/sinus infection/ear infection/bronchitis, I am finally recovering. My doctor insisted I take almost a week off of work and sent me home with a note and instructions: Fluids. Rest. This time, I did actually listen and "rested" at home, spending a lot of time in my crafting room. Fortunately, my sickness backed up against the beautiful Columbus Day weekend!

We spent the weekend in Bethany Beach, where we enjoyed beautiful weather and off-season shopping and exploring in Rehoboth. Who knew there were so many delicious places to eat and interesting little shops! Right on the main entrance to the Rehoboth boardwalk, we found an ice cream shop with what seemed like hundreds of flavors, and a pick and apply your own sprinkles bar!

We biked, walked, ate, I crafted and T worked. All in all a very relaxing and wonderful vacation. Just what the doctor (should have) ordered.

Over the hump!

2008-10-01T13:19:00.003-04:00

Well Crafty Bastards is over. [It was awesome!] And Todd and I are both over big humps at school/work, so we're both feeling like life can return to normal.

Crafty was really a great experience, and we made money on top of it all! Thank you to everyone who came to visit. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to talk to most of you personally. Also, I'm sorry I didn't get out of my booth to go around and visit all the other cool vendors. Both Todd's family and mine came out and went around shopping, so hopefully that makes up for it. :)

I was so excited about Crafty that I signed up for another fair on Monday. It's going to be in November, and it supports the Westfield High School Orchestra. I have a decent amount of inventory left from Crafty, so I can just plug along and not have to sweat shop like crazy. I'll also be able to take my time working on my displays, which is a first. I'm going to start by making these cool milk crate covers: http://lauragunn.typepad.com/theundercovercrate.pdf

Summer bounty

2008-07-27T16:24:00.006-04:00

One of my favourite things about summer is the huge variety of delicious fruits! We've been visiting a couple of farmer's markets weekly, which has been fun; a great way to start the weekend. But even more fun is visiting a pick your own farm. This weekend we visited Butler's Orchard in Maryland. It's a mere half hour drive from us, which seemed almost too close to "civilization" to be a good farm. We were a little skeptical. But once we got out to the gravel and then dirt roads, we knew this place wasn't going to be a little garden plot. It's a very well organised place which uses a collection of signs to direct people to their picking destinations so that the staff can man the shop. We went for the blackberries, but also picked some red raspberries and could have enjoyed blueberries also. I was under the impression that I didn't like blackberries and was originally just going to pick them to use them for dying fabric. But I tried one straight off the vine, and was quickly hooked! The taste is something like a grape, but sweeter, with some little seeds and more fun. Each berry is like a bundle of tiny balloons filled with deliciously sweet (and pretty purply coloured) juice!

For more photos: Berry Picking on Flickr!

Shop mode

2008-07-23T13:39:00.004-04:00

I haven't updated in a while. But that's not because nothing's been going on! There was the end of school (which is always a crazy, hectic time), the start of summer, my agreeing to work an extra 40 hours (plus a little more, as always seems to be the case) and Silver Lining inventory production! Way back in May, I'd made weekly schedules for myself, including 5 solid hours of production time, time for exercise, inspiration, design all that good stuff. But as summer actually began, I have not only lost the sheets of paper I drafted those optimistic plans on, but have also not even attempted to dedicate 5 hours/day to building inventory. All this will come back to bite me on Friday if I get into Crafty Bastards (they let us know on Friday!). But, on the bright side, I will still have a whole week to work like a crazy person before we go on vacation!

For your photo today, a cute one of our little Tuzi playing with a prototype lime green, linen bunny:

New car CD!

2008-05-12T22:37:00.002-04:00

As opposed to N-E car CD. :)

Back into the world of technology!

2008-05-11T11:01:00.003-04:00

So I definitely have not been keeping to my new year's resolution of blogging once a week. My new resolution is to start blogging weekly once school is out and I am officially working on Silver Lining.

Since I last updated, I have returned to the wonderful world of technology. I've finally traded my PC/IBM ways for a shiny, new Macbook Air. I have to say this is pretty much the coolest computer I've had yet. My past computers really didn't have anything particularly cool about them, though. Having my own computer (that can tag along everywhere with me!) is really opening my mind up to more crafty possibilities. This lean, green machine can run both Illustrator and Photoshop at the same time! With this new found power, I've started seriously looking into digital design classes (I even paid the $50 app. fee for GMU!). Plus, I'm learning all about this new OS and finding all kinds of cool ways to personalise my computer and make it really me. All this computer time has definitely pulled me away from sewing, but I'm hoping it'll come full circle. Now that I can have more than one Firefox window/tab open, I can search the way I like, with a million windows open and essentially dipping my fingers into loads of sites and blogs and whatnots.

Today being Mother's Day, I'm working on a little project for my grandma. I got the base cutting and sewing done and have spent the last 2.5 hours (yipes!) "researching" ways to finish it up. In my (clearly not very well focused) search, I came across a super cool blog widget:

Enjoy!

Our family grows!

2008-01-15T21:40:00.000-05:00

On 4 January, our little family grew by one little fluffy bundle of fun. Meet Louis Kablouis the Lapin! He's a Dwarf Hotot rabbit, and is already as big as he's going to get. After lots of research, wanting, calling, wanting, emailing, wanting and waiting, we finally settled on this cute little guy.

He was surrendered to the Humane Society of Fairfax County only a few days before we came to pick him up. His previous family had kept him as their favourite and cherished pet, until it was discovered (or admitted) that someone was just too allergic. Apparently his previous dad was sobbing as he dropped him off with enough supplies to sustain him for at least a month. Melissa, the super nice lady at the Humane Society felt it was important to make sure he found the perfect forever family. I guess we were just right!

Originally, he was named Olee, but he seems more like a Louis to us. A few days after we got him, we noticed a pretty distinct change as he started getting puberty-ful. When we got him, we had to agree that we'd bring him back for his neutering appointment. After the tiny taste of his crazed "burrowing," nipping, circling and biting, we were more than glad to gave made that agreement!

Yesterday, was his appointment date, so I dropped him off with Melissa in the morning and picked him up at the vet in the afternoon. The vet people weren't terribly nice, and didn't seem to want to answer any questions really. But they did read my note about concern over what seemed to be a decent amount of fur loss and poops strung together. Turns out he has a parasite! EEsh! It's something that buns usually have, but he just has a lot of it, so we have to feed him medicine twice a day for 7 days. Today we just barely got by getting him the proper amount. I think we're going to end up having to go for 8 days just to be sure.

Today, 24 hours after his surgery, he's definitely more energetic. He still stretches out his back legs as though he feels stiff and licks his "wound" occasionally. He's eating more though, and is still using his litter box for peepee. A couple poopies didn't make it, but as they are strung together, I think it's not entirely his fault. I mean, he can't help it if he thinks he's going in the box, but they stay stuck to his butt. Right?

Weekend productivity

2007-10-29T20:51:00.000-04:00

This weekend was a fairly productive one, as far as weekends go. We spent the better part of Saturday lounging about and barely getting some tidying done. Sometime in the afternoon we finally got into doing some useful things. We managed to get to Home Depot (third weekend in a row), stop off at my parents' house, buy groceries, visit Michael's, Joann's and get to the Galleria (the upscale half of the mall) all before meeting T's parents for dinner. T bought a nice, brown, courduroy blazer and I got 2 fun but work friendly pairs of pants from Anthropologie. It's amazing; I never can find something that suits me or that's my size in the regularly priced section, but can usually find something I like in the Sale.

Sunday was the day that made the weekend productive. We effectively cleaned out the whole "junk room" by getting rid of the big, uncomfortable queen sized bed and one of the 4 nightstands. Four! Sheesh. We still need to take a lot more of stuff out of there, but T managed to box up all the other junk which we'll take away this coming weekend. We quite easily got rid of the bed by giving it away to a very nice guy from work. He came to load it onto the car and get it around. Meanwhile, I was busy baking cookies. I found a great recipe for sugar cookies online and tweaked it only a little. I ended up baking a few over 4 dozen cookies; moons, pumpkins, witches, a few ghosts and one stegosaurus for T. I'd gotten some cute pumpkin shaped baggies at Joann's. I put 3 cookies in each one and designed some cute little pumpkin leaf tags. I'll tie those on tomorrow night. I was going to do it last night, but something made me think I'd regret it. Some photos, for your viewing pleasure.

Sorry for the somewhat boring post. More interesting ones coming, I hope.

Rain or Shine

2007-10-24T13:34:00.000-04:00

Tonight is the annual Town Halloween Parade. Since I'm now in charge of the coordination for the event, I have to be there, since it's rain or shine. T and I have decided to go as pencils. I made us some dunce-cap style pencil tip hats last night, which I laminated at work today to help them hold up in the rain. Now I just hope that we hold up.

I've also been thinking about the poor people out in California who are just waiting to hear if their homes have been burnt to the ground. I can't imagine what it must be like to have to start all over. I suppose it must really teach you about what is important in life, and that material things are not the most important things. I don't know what I would try to save if I were given 10 minutes to take whatever I wanted with me. My bear, Chocto, my sewing patterns, my sewing machine?

Anyway, here are some photos of my new craft room (so much for not over-valuing material things..). Hopefully after tonight, I'll have some good photos of the parade.

(Click for a larger image.)

New crafting room to go with my new blog!

2007-10-22T21:52:00.001-04:00

This weekend T (the boyfriend) and I went on an adventure to Ikea land. It's been something we've wanted to do for a long time now, and we finally got up the courage, did enough research prior to going and got paid in time to go. I'd already picked out a cool EXPEDIT bookcase to go in my crafting room and we figured there would be other smaller purchases. We went in my Prius (as opposed to borrowing a larger vehicle) to prevent us from making other large purchases.

We spent about 4 hours there total, taking in all the amazing designs and their very small price tags. We started daydreaming about spending a summer in NYC, and all the ingenious furniture possibilities. They even had an NY style, box apartment which we could totally see ourselves living in for 3 months. Right. Tiny space, with virtually no room for big crafting project. The whole space was like 82 square feet or something . We didn't buy anything from that section. We did get 2 floor lamps (which are about 2' shorter than we'd hoped, but they work out quite well in our bedroom), 4 FIRA drawer organizers (which took us the better part of Sunday to put together), some magazine holders and an awesome bean bag chair slip cover that looks like a hedge hog. Instead of buying the $10 air pouf thing that is supposed to go inside (instead of the traditional environmentally un-friendly styrofoam pellets), we brought it home and stuffed it with my fabric scraps. I've been collecting and saving those for a year now. I think I did throw away the ones I'd accumulated in Charlottesville... but I've been collecting them not knowing what I'd do with them, but knowing they'd come in handy one day. Now they fill out my super cute Hedgy MaHog.

SPeaking of Hedgy, I think we spent at least half of our time in the Children's Section. I love the inventive, fun yet practical designs they have for children. I like the small, children sized furniture that seems to me to be in keeping with the Montessori method of allowing children to explore their world on their level. I also like the way the toys and furniture invite imaginative play without bringing in branded characters and cookie cutter story lines. Even as much as I love Disney, I think children should be encouraged to play and create their own imaginary, silly and fun worlds rather than re-enact the situations they watch on tv.

In other only semi-crafting related news, I found out today that I will be in charge of the school's participation in the Town Halloween Parade. I will have to go early, check us in, find our designated staging area and help keep our group corralled as people arrive. All this in costume. A costume I don't have. I don't really like Halloween much. It can be a good excuse to craft, I suppose, but it is so often scary instead of fun, and I don't really like dressing up. Oh well, it might be fun. As long as it doesn't rain.

Well this is it. For now...

2007-10-18T13:43:00.000-04:00

So here's my blog. It's far from perfectly what I envisioned in my head, but it's closer than it was on my many other attempts. Hopefully I'll soon have some fun new crafted projects to share, but for now, here's a link to one of my accomplishments from today; an online photo tutorial on how to make a ship!

Test Post

2007-10-17T09:48:00.000-04:00

I've wanted to start my own crafting blog for a long time. Here's my first attempt. Now I just have to figure out how to make it look "me."