Monday, August 25, 2008

Mail love

On Saturday my daughter and I received our prints from The Black Apple, I've been wanting this one for some time. So cute and I love the color red. I'm not sure, but I think Angela received the Smiths Girl Print. She left yesterday and I forget so quickly.



Tea for Two

I have been rummaging around in my huge plastic bin of scraps. I think in my haste to clean my sewing room to paint a few months back, which now I think it will just be a guest room, I tossed in some unfinished projects. This one was supposed to be a set of four placemats, since long forgotten and now I don't want patchwork placemats. I did such neat work and I think I can recycle (or is it repurpose?) them into something else. Here they are, you can tell by the fabric it must have been late 80's or maybe 90's. I know, almost vintage.



I'll try to check in tomorrow. Have a good one!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Pillow talk

I finished a pillow today, actually I started it yesterday and low and behold all I needed to do was hand stitch the opening closed. That's pretty good for me, I usually start something and not finish it until months later. I'm just using up this fabric and wanting the give the rick-rack edge another try. It seemed difficult last time I made a pillow, but after reading oh fransson's tutorial on rick-rack, I thought I would give it another go. Wow, how easy was that! It came together nicely, I know, it's just a pillow. Her tutorial was applying rick-rack to quilt blocks, but it was a big help on my pillow. This one is going in the shop. Oh, her quilt blocks are lovely, by the way.


Here's another photo from Cotton Time, a request from Nanette. Thanks for asking! I hope you can see the quilt a little better, this time I scanned it. I was lazy, but busy yesterday and just snapped away instead of scanning. If you click on the photo, you can really see the details.

These quilt projects are lovely. I may have to start quilting again, as long as it's not a big project.

See ya tomorrow!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Some really cute stuff

As promised, here are few images from Cotton Time, Sept. 2008. Enjoy!

Sorry, I have to run, I have lots to do before this day is over. See ya tomorrow!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Mitsuwa!

Today I met my daughter Angela at Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Diego. If you're not familiar it's a big Japanese market with many stores within, we could have spent days in there. I have been wanting to go there for weeks, I don't know why I treat San Diego like a foreign city, it's only about 30 or 40 minutes from where we live. Anyway, first, we made headway to the bookstore because I'm in love with Japanese craft and sewing magazines. I was able to get the latest issue of Cotton Time and I can't wait until I sit down, relax and go through this wonderful magazine.

There was a gift store with alot of cute stuff, I think mostly for children, but they did have an assortment of appliances. So many rice cookers everywhere, I almost was about to buy one, but wait I already have one! Then we went into another shop that had dishes, teapots and other home decorative items. Oh, I fell in love with a Kokeshi doll. We definately have to go back. The main part of the market is groceries, produce, etc. and then there is a foodcourt, which was pretty crowded. Instead we had lunch at a Japanese restaurant nearby. I'm not really a big fan of sushi, but Angela insisted on ordering sushi. I also had tempura, California rolls and miso soup. My lunch was good, but I suddenly wasn't as hungry as I was when we got there, I wonder if it's the miso soup that filled me up. I didn't finish my meal, I guess it's a good thing, because I'm usually a piglet. Maybe it just was too much excitement for one day.

I'm going to head over to the couch, watch the olympics and look at my new magazine (and a glass a wine!). I'll post photos tomorrow.

Have a great evening and thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Fabric shopping

Yesterday I didn't want to stick around this house, so I went shopping.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

wip done!

I finished a small totebag today, it's for one of my kidlets at work. She is such a great help and whenever I need someone to do a favor for me she is right there and no long face, she is happy to help out. Plus since I only work the morning shift, she fills me in on what happened in the afternoon. I know terrible of me to ask, but sometimes I like to know, and some children are happy to spill the beans! Actually, it's been a joy to work with everyone, but some are leaving back to there own school and I won't be working directly with them until next break. This is our last week with many of the children and this young girl I will miss! Next week is our last week of the summer program, school starts on Aug. 25th, and then it will be like starting all over again with new Kindergartners. Yikes!

Okay, sorry, here's my latest mail call. I can't leave you without a food note. I love Food Network's Barefoot Contessa so I ordered Vol. I (I already have Vol. II). I love to cook, but I don't cook as much as I use to, so I live through Ina's cooking.

Oh, and more exciting news about another craft that I don't usually talk about. I love scrapbooking, but it's a little overwhelming to me with all the photos, supplies, etc. I've been dabbling in "digi scrap", so I've purchased tickets to the SD Scrapbook Expo and I'll be taking a class Sat. morning on digital scrapbooking. Whoo, I'm excited! I've bought an extra ticket for my daughter in hopes that she will be able to go with me.

Have a nice evening and I'll see ya tomorrow!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Fried Rice

Ooops, and again I forgot to take a photo, but I guess you all know what fried rice looks like. It was nice to cook with the children, they help me put the ingredients together and watch with anticipation. It gives me a chance to just sit and talk with them about other things, as well.

Cooking the Chinese Way by Ling Yu. This is a great book to share with children and has some simple recipes that can be easily prepared and shared. It also had a little bit of info about cultural festivities, history, the land, cooking techniques, ingredients, and even low-fat variations.

I think since this week was such a success, we may be intergrating cooking some how into next week's theme, "Friendships". We are winding down are summer program as school starts in two weeks.

Okay, I'll stop with the food! I promise my next post will be something crafty.

Have a great Friday!

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

My crepe experience

Well, after making a dozen crepes yesterday, I went to the library and then to Von's Market to buy the premade ones, which I looked all over and then had to ask a staff member where they were. They were a square shape in a package near the fresh fruit (of course!), but I didn't expect a square crepe. I ended up buying only one package of 10, because it was 4.99 per package! I need at least 30 or 40 crepes! So I went back home whipped up two more batches. I was literally sweating over a hot stove! But it was well worth it, I don't know how many crepes I made but it was at least 3 dozen, plus the store bought ones. The children enjoyed them, some had them with strawberry jam, some had them with Nutella, and then some just wanted it plain with powedered sugar sprinkled on top. I also read the story "Crepes by Suzette" by Monica Wellington. It's a very cute story about a young girl who is a crepe street vendor. This book also include a recipe and French words for the children to learn.


I also shared the book "Cooking the French Way". This is in a great series of books for children I found at the library, I also checked out "Cooking the Chinese Way". I'll be making fried rice on Friday. I don't need a cookbook for that, but I like the children to see the different types of food around the world. It has great color photos. This has been a fun week at work.

I forgot to take a snap of the finished product this morning, but I know I'll be making these again. I'm going to make Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom Crepes for dinner tomorrow because I still have those pre-made ones. I have know idea how they taste, I hope as good as my homemade ones.

Have a lovely evening (or day).

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Sunday Market

I don't have much to write about today, I'm about to go in the kitchen and make a stack of crepes. So I'll leave you with some photos of our (my cousin and I) booth at the arts and crafts fair on Sunday. Actually, the vendors are selling a variety of goods, it's not really all arts and crafts.


A little bit vintage, a little bit shabby chic and arts and crafts spread through out. Even though we make very little, at least it's a fun day, the weather is beautiful, we meet nice people and it's our chance to spend time together as we live miles apart.

Okay, now I'm going to make crepes for the children. Our theme this week is "International", so the staff are making or bringing in different types of international foods throughout the week. I'm bringing crepes and fruit in the morning. So I need to dust off my crepe pan and get busy, it's been awhile since I made them. I'll probably run to the market later and get pre-made ones, as well. I'm not going to go crazy about it.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 01, 2008

A Wedding

My neice in England is getting married on Friday, you know 8/8/08, and of course I'm running around at the last minute to send a gift. I know, I'm bad. So today I was off to Macy's and found a few random things that I can ship tomorrow morning, but in the meantime I'm trying to workout on ordering from her bridal registry at Debenham's in the UK and have something sent to her that she really wants. Not sure if I can use my debit card, so I'm waiting to hear from customer service. In the meantime, I was looking through the website and feeling depressed that everything is twice as much as it would cost here, not something I quite understand. It's sad that the American dollar is not worth much overseas, we would love to travel again but right now it's not possible. Yeah, otherwise we would be attending the wedding that I'm sure my in-laws would absolutely love.

I'm back cross-stitching

  Well, not yet, but real soon because my daughter found a Halloween cross-stitch booklet that I thought I lost forever. So my plans are to ...