Happy New Year's Everyone

Hope everyone has a bright and cheery New Year's.

We will be off to another Itatani food fest in the morning but all the food has to be Japanese. There is potato salad on the menu so I know that's going to be challenged by everyone as not kosher. :) Since there isn't a lot of desserts in Japanese cooking, we are allowed to bring something non kosher, so maybe potato salad falls in that category for New Year's. We all have to eat at least one piece of mochi (pounded rice) which everyone in my family hates, for good luck. This year I got to cut them up (they go into a soup ozoni, which is the only way we can choke them down) so I made them as small as a could. I wanted to throw out the rest but the head chef caught me in mid swing to the garage can. When I was growing up we use to make mochi the old fashion way, no mochi making machines back then. Rice cooking over a wood burning fire, the cooked rice being pounded in a large stone bowl with a extra large wooden mallets. When the rice was being pounded, someone would have to turn the rice after each thump of the mallet - so timing was very important for perfect mochi and no broken fingers. I didn't like it back then either but the whole process was fun.

Frog Eating Holiday

It's been one long frog eating holiday at our house. For the last 48 hours Doug and I have been moving furniture, boxes and shredding five years of paperwork. We moved Doug's office into the smaller bedroom (better feng shui) which was my former holding tank of scrapbooking supplies - yes I have enough to fill one bedroom. Doug's former office is now (or will be next week) a bigger guest bedroom with (I have my fingers crossed) a red leather sofa. Everything was moved out into the family room as we sort out what would go into Doug's office. It was such a mess Doug thought we would never finish - he hates eating frogs. His office is done and the guest room is at the half way point. Purrcy has claimed to the bed and window ledge as his own personal space. I haven't heard back for Lucy yet. I follow the philosophy "Eat That Frog" by Brain Tracy. Do the worse thing on your to do list first, and the rest of your day will be a breeze.

Planning for 2009

Already I'm "bee-hind" on my list of things to do! Now that I'm on the Bee Guild board, the 2009 calendar is being planned and all the details surrounding that. I'm also in the planning stages (to start in January) the remodeling of my father's bathroom. It hasn't had anything done to it in 45 plus years so it's long over due. Once again I will be working with my favorite contractor Randy, who did all the work on my studio. Since my hubby is home this week, we are switching his office into the other bedroom (which has been a holding tank for all my overflow craft supplies) so we can have a bigger guest room. Hubby is not looking forward to the process at all and is hoping to find a loop hole in the agreement. :) Chad is leaving today to spend New Years in Las Vegas with some of the guys from his squadron, a very scary thought for his base Commander. Evan flew home on Saturday and had a little shock when she got back to her house. It had been broken into over Christmas so her theory that no one would rob them (poor college students) because they had nothing to steal, went out the door. Laptops and cameras where among the things taken. I'm just glad that none of the girls were home at the time. I've been working on getting another set of Valentine day cards ready to ship out to Debbi. With everyone home, my studio has turned into Wii and pizza central for Chad and his buddies so I've have limited time to get any cards done.

Support Our Troops- Valentine's Day Card

I made over 100 Valentine's Day cards on Christmas day with the help from all my Aunts and cousins. I made the cards on the simple side since I knew many hands would be helping putting them together. The mailing date to get cards to Debbi (without an e) so she can get them to the troops in time for them to mail back home, is January 5, 2009. How you put the cards in the envelopes have to be done a certain, way so be sure to check the directions. Here's the link to her blog. http://dddzstmpn.blogspot.com/
I used the Cricut Expression to cut out the die, a punch for the mini envelope that has heart confetti inside. The mini envelope is sealed so it won't make a mess. My take on hugs and kisses.
And yes, I'm up this late or early however you want to look at it - 4:30 a.m. When my hubby puts on only a few pounds he snored like a Moose with head cold. We've been eating non stop for the past week and I think the pounds have caught up to him. With all the kids home there isn't a spare bed or sofa and I can't find my earplugs.

Home for the Holidays

Now that both my children made it home safe and sound I have what I wanted for Christmas. Both had to fly out of Seattle, which was hit by one of the biggest snow storms ever. My daughter is a very experienced traveler and when her flight got canceled (Alaska canceled all their flights for two days) she refused to leave the airport until all the options were exhausted. She finally was able to get on a flight with United through a friend who works for the airline. To add to the stress of the day, her college buddy who was traveling with her got "stripped searched" at the security gate. Good thing both girls run everyday, because they had to sprint to catch the plane. Today every one's plane came in late but didn't have to deal with any bad weather. Chad is home from his fifth deployment a little thinner when I last saw him but with the "Itatani food fest" starting, I think he will fatten up just fine. Good to have all the family home for the holidays.

Know your bee keeper and their honey

Who would have thought you would have to be worried about what goes into your honey? When I talked to people about our honey I do say that we have not treated them with any chemicals or drugs to keep them healthy or pests under control. Little did I know that honey coming out of China (the biggest honey producer in the world) has been "dumping" banned honey (honey contaminate with antibiotics) in other countries so it could be legally imported into the U.S. Here a link for more back ground information. http://www.mannlakeltd.com/news/index.htm For us here in California, there are enough local bee keepers that you can ask about how they handle their bees and protect the quality of their honey. Mr D's Bees and Bee Spit (our labels) are from our own hives which we have never treated with chemicals of any kind. I don't allow Round Up or any pest sprays to be used in my gardens or around the outside of my house.

A bee visiting a Santa Claus Dahlia

Some more bee trivia for everyone. As urban beekeepers we read more about bees and honey than normal. :) I thought I would get the word out (since many will be gathering for the holidays) to call your local bee guild if you spot a bee swarm. Bees are not aggressive when they swarm since they eat as much honey as they can before they swarm and because there is no honey, hive or babies to protect. It's helpful if the guild is called as soon as the swarm is spotted. Don't wait and hope they will go away. The best time to remove a swarm is at sunset, when all the bees are back around the queen. At least for the Santa Clara Valley bee guild, when you call someone on the list, they will ask you a few questions to make sure it's bees and in a location they can get to. Once the bees are boxed up they go directly to waiting hive or are added to a smaller hive the beekeeper has. Swarms are offered to guild members first (who usually have hive ready) then to other bee keepers.

Gift Card Book

Don't you just love it when an idea just comes together? I know for some the creative process is a mystery but if you think of it like cooking, it's not that hard. For this 6X6 gift card book the inspiration came from several ideas that finally gelled into the final product. I'm a bullet point person so here is how this mini book came to be.
1) CJ summer get together - Rocio had a gift card waiting at every store on our itinerary. (cool idea) 2) I did a make-n-take at the local scrapbook store and the project was a gift card holder (took the pattern and enlarged it)
3) Brainstormed with a friend on what to get her very hard to buy for husband. A coupon book idea came up. (giving more than one gift card). So I thought it would be fun to make the gift card project fit into a 6X6 mini album with each page holding a gift card. The theme for the album can be anything and would make a great group gift too. The Christmas one in the picture is for my daughter who is very hard to buy for. Every page has something from some of her favorite stores. I liked how everything turned out so much, I'm going to do a class with a baby shower theme in February, then maybe a Happy Birthday theme. The second photo doesn't show the card holders very well but you get the idea.

Kettle Bells - Not a Paper Craft Item

At Thanksgiving a nephew/cousin (really a second cousin but more like a nephew) did a Kettle Bell demo for us older ladies. He's now a certified KB instructor and I've been bugging him to show us how it works. He laughed the first time I asked and said he would have us try it without the KB first. So we all gave it swing and found out it's very easy to learn. For ladies over 50, he suggested we start out with 20-25 pounds but we would soon out grow it. I do have to warn you not to watch the "You Tube" video about the KB. Most only show the extreme workouts, which will scare you into never wanting to give it a try. You know, it's those guys with big bulky muscles throwing around the KB like a pizza. In the really world, normal people don't do that. The KB works on strengthening the center of your body which in turn will help you with whatever else you want to do. It gets you heart rate going (great in cold weather - really warms you up) and the blue KB matches my blue Bosu ball. You know color matching is so important. :)

Last kid on the block - Cricut Expression

OK, so I'm the last girl on the block to get a Cricut machine. Way back when, I saw the first of these machine at a trade show. It was a nightmare (machine didn't cut well, vendors didn't know how to use them) and I said to myself that I would wait until one company rose to the top with a quality machine. Now several years later, I finally bit the bullet and got one. The last straw for me to buy one is the speed at which I now have to design classes. Instead of weeks, I only have days to get class project designed and samples up for display. For those of you who do classes, you know what I mean, it's not a fast process. No more delays or major design change because I don't have the right punch or nesties, no more hand cutting out hundreds of shapes for my classes or having to worry the paper or product will be discontinue before the class. On the plus side, Hubby was so happy to see it coming through the door. All he said was "Merry Christmas". :) I'm now working on what cartridges I should get. Any suggestions?

How close can your camera get to your cat?

Both Purrcy and Lucy were hanging around my computer this morning when I was blogging about bored crafters. I asked if anyone wanted to pose as a bored cat. I thought it was funny (only a cat person would understand any of this) that neither cat walked away. So I decided to see how close I could get my camera to their faces before they moved. For both Lucy and Purrcy (who I think were playing "chicken" about being the first one to move) let me get so close that the camera len's was touching them. I had to move back a few inches, otherwise all you would see is fur. I don't have a macro lens so these are really close up and personal shots.

Bored Crafters - Are you one too?

I was told during a recession the craft industry booms. People want to do more handmade gifts or craft projects at home. I have to agree with it just from what I saw when I was out holiday shopping. All the craft stores were very busy and had lots of shoppers. The non craft stores were empty even on Black Friday.

I read an article from Creative Leisure News (an online magazine about the craft industry) about what is happening in the craft world. It was so interesting to me, that I thought I would share some of the highlights.

Here's the link if you want to read the whole article.

http://www.clnonline.com/archives/businesswisearchives/2008/businesswise20081201.html

Here's the link to the people that responded to the article which was also interesting.

http://www.clnonline.com/business-wise.html

What's wrong with the big box craft stores sales is that the customers are bored. Gone are the days when you could walk in and get ton of ideas. Gone to are well stocked shelves so you could gather everything up and go home to make the project. The price of the product is now the number one and sometimes the only consideration about what will go on the sales floor. How many times have you walked into any big box craft store just to get inspired for new ideas? Ever ask for help with a project? Maybe I'm a craft snob now and have way too many supplies at home but when I go into the big stores, I walk right past all those aisles and with coupon in hand buy the one thing I came in for. It's a whole different shopping experience when I visit an independent store. I first look at their samples (which always surprises me when they don't have current samples up) and then I shop. If the store has great samples, I'm more likely to buy tons of stuff. So I guess I fall into the bored shopper category. I'm looking for the shop (big or small) that can inspire my creative side before I let my money fly.

Bee Guild - Queen Bee

Our local bee guild had it's end of the year party this past weekend which also means new officers had to be elected. As with all these types of groups, it's hard to find people to sit on the board. Doug and I were asked to be president but our schedules are too busy to take on one more thing and I don't know enough about the day to day running of a hive to do it alone. So, I said I would be the president's "Senior Gofer" and do all the behind the scenes work for him or her to help lightly the load. In true form of rolling with the punches, the guild decided to re-title the vice-president's job to "Senior Gofer". I was a little surprised to find out that I got voted in on the bee guild board officially as "Gofer". :) Really it's a great group of people all with a passion for bee keeping.

Hello Kitty Ornament

My daughter picked the theme for this year's gift exchange my family does at Christmas. During the "Itatani Food Fest" (what you would call Thanksgiving and Christmas) we play cards in between eating and the winner of the first game gets to pick the theme of the gift exchange for the following Christmas. We have 6X6 boxes (we reuse the boxes every year) that the gift must fit in and you get bonus points if it also matches the theme. My cousins are hard core shoppers so I didn't want to buy anything at the million plus Sango specialty stores we have here in the Bay Area. I also couldn't find a rubber Hello Kitty stamp. I finally downloaded a Hello Kitty in a kimono image and printed it out on a transparency to make an ornament. It will fit in the box, matches the theme and I no one of my family will have one like it - so I'm good to go.

Remodeling Again - the making of a third studio

It's not that I've out grown my studio we just finished over the summer but my hubby's "juice" meetings are booking up so much studio time. Every time he has a meeting (which is almost three times a week now) I have to pick everything up and either put it away or move into the kitchen. Which when prepping for classes is really a pain and makes for extra work.
When Michelle Zindorf was out here for her workshops she made the comment, " you don't use your living room space very much do you?" The remodel light bulb finally went on. We are empty nesters so why not change the space into something I can use instead of a room no one sits in. I'm now on the hunt for a 9'-10' long farm table like the one in the photo. I want it to be one piece and prefer the top to also be one slab of wood. They don't really make solid tops anymore so it will have to be vintage table. The one in the photo is solid cedar but it's missing it's drawers and the top is too badly damaged. Once I find the table, I will remodel our living room into another studio space. If you happen to come across one let me know, there is a reward offer. :)

Granny's Squash Rolls

Here's the Smith family squash roll recipe. It's been a family favorite at every holiday. It's one of those recipes were you have to know how to make bread. Everyone in Doug's family has been making it for years so it doesn't list all the steps.

2 Packages of yeast
1/2 Cup warm water

Dissolve first two ingredients.

1/2 Cup cooked (we use acorn squash) squash pulp.

1/2 Cup sugar or honey
1 Tablespoon Salt

1/4 Cup Butter

3 Eggs

6-7 Cups flour

Double in bulk

Heat oven to 475 degrees after 10 minutes turn oven down to 375-400 degrees.
Doug is making a warm up batch for the Bee Guild pot luck on Sunday. He likes to practice making a few batches before Christmas.

Card Swap - Glass Ornaments

Last night my card making buddies "the Cornflakes" got together for our end of the year swap and food fest. For this go around I wanted to do something "green" and use what I already had in my stash. The glass ornaments I've had since 2003 (the receipt was in with the boxes) thinking at some point I was going to do something with them. The transparencies (don't think many people use over head projectors anymore) came from a company getting ready to throw them out and ribbon was pulled from the very back of my ribbon drawer stash. I used both Copics and Sharpies to add the color. I found that the Sharpies worked better. I also had several bags of faux snow packed with my glass ornament balls. So for this whole project everything came out of my stash. I wonder if that means I have way too much stuff???

How much is this photo worth?

How much do you think a photo of you holding a fish (see date stamp) on a day when you told your wife you were going into work is worth? I knew Doug was going fishing but Ray (top photo) didn't make it really clear to his wife that when he was going to check on his boat, he was really planning on fishing the day away. I think a big box of chocolate would keep me quiet.

It was a catch and release fishing trip and they did catch some monster sturgeons. One was so big (over 80") that they couldn't lift it into the boat. I'm not a catch and release type of person. I don't see the point of fishing if you're not going to eat it. :)

SU Free Shipping

It's the end of the quarter for those of us who are Stampin' Up demo gals and the retired list has been posted. I think with all the worries about the economy, SU is going to lose a ton of people. Over the next year (if I had to guess) SU will be offering more specials to help sales. This month they offered free shipping for any order over $70.00. Since I have to meet my quota, I decided to stock up on paper (which weighs a ton) for my classes coming up in 2009. When UPS threw my box up on my doorstep, it totally fell apart. One end was ripped wide open and my paper was just hanging out there. SU should take a few lessons from Bazzill on how to pack paper. :) Luckily my whole order made it to my doorstep without any damage.

Update on the Girls

I have sad news, that it looks like we are losing our original bee hive. Doug has been so busy with work and Mona Vie (remember I'm the Mona Vie widow), he wasn't keeping a close enough eye on the girls. The bee mites have weaken the hive to the point that they can't keep the hive heated or defend the entrance to hive well enough to keep our other bee hive from robbing it of all it's honey. We removed most of the honey last week before other critters get to it. Doug said it's a very slim chance that it will survive the winter.

Bare Foot Santa

Another section of my hand carved Santa collection. The ones in the middle are called "bare foot Santa". This artist would custom make a Santa, so I asked for a baseball Santa (hubby is a big baseball fan) and one hiding a candy bar behind his back, I had two of those made. The other candy hiding Santa was for a friend who would eat candy bars in her pantry, so her husband wouldn't find out. She is an older woman and some chocolate would always get into one of her many wrinkles. To hear her tell the story is too funny.

Paul Bolinger Santa Collection

This is my favorite Santa collection. The larger ones are all hand carved by Paul Bolinger. His wife Camille painted each one with a light wash of color. I found in my search for hand carved pieces, that many artist over paint them to the point you can't see the wood. Paul and Camille did such a great job all around. Early in Paul's carving career, he would sell his originals. I was lucky to be able to buy several original signed works. At some point he realized that he should keep them and have them reproduced instead. The small one on the left is one of those reproduction. Paul has since retired, so I'm patiently waiting for more originals to come on to the open market. There is another Santa collector that has one of Paul's first Santa made (it has one detail that none of his other pieces have) and I'm hoping to someday be able to add it to my collection. I've been told that collection will be donated to a musuem so it's a slim chance I will be able to buy it but I can still hope. :)

Eddie Walker Collection

In the early years of adding to my Christmas collection, I would buy things designed by Eddie Walker. It's only last for a few years before I switched to buying only hand carved originals. I think at some point this collection with go into my booths and be sold off.

Handmade Fabric Santa Collection

Not a lot of card making going on at my house this week. Still working on getting all my Christmas decorations set up. This is a photo of my handmade fabric dolls that survived my summer cleaning purge for the studio remodel. The three in the front were made by Cynthia Baer who used old damaged quilts. The Santa in the back with the curly beard was made by Carol Kennedy who makes some of the best "almost alter" dolls. Here's the link to her new blog site. http://www.carolkennedy.blogspot.com:80/ My sister in law made the cross stitch Santa in the front. The photo ready doesn't show all the detail work on each Santa.

Getting ready for Christmas 2008

It's been a busy week! I finished up the last of my classes for 2008 and started getting all my Christmas decorations out. During the studio remodel, I had to get rid of over half of my Christmas stuff since there would be no garage space for storage. So, instead of taking me a whole week ( I use to have to pack up everything in the house before I could bring in the Christmas stuff) I think it will only take three days. Let's just stay with my hubby out of town - it was a good thing. The studio is filled with XL boxes and there is a mountain of tissue paper that even Purrcy won't try jumping into. Every flat surface in my house is in some stage of sorting out where everything will go.
I'm a Santa collector but I really try and limit how many I buy each year. I usually will only add to my collection if the Santa is handmade or very unique.
I took a photo of some of my more favorite glass Santa ornaments. There is a naked Santa who's long beard is cover all the "parts" and another Santa holding a box of chocolates and in his back pocket is a book called "Romance for Dummies". I will be posting through out the day as I get the different sections of my house done.

Creative Reuse Art

One of my favorite alter artist - Pat Salas is now at Cranberry Hill. I love her use of found objects to make some of the funniest dolls. I really like this doll that I call "Woman of the World" because her head is a world globe. The teapot body and the cake mold skirt(looks like she's doing the twist) are too funny and way too creative! Many of the items I get at the auction houses are for people like Pat, who are always looking for interesting things to turn into something else.

Creative Reuse - Sort Of

In my search for interesting things to stock my booths (Alley Cats Vintage Treasures) I'm also on the look out for new artists doing creative work out side the box.

http://mimikirchner.com/blog/

If you go to this blog, you will see her series of teacup pin cushions. I thought this was a great way to use up all those cups that come in the lots I pick up at the auction houses.

Martha Stewart Punches

Made up a set of quick and easy cards using the Martha Stewart punches I got last week. Memory Box background stamp (this is a stamp I didn't think I would use a lot of) and various A Muse sentiment stamps and Marvy Matchables ink. I may do these cards for the Senior Center next week.

Creative Challenge - Tuesday

It was on one of those days where you are reading different blogs and have no idea how you ended up finding a great creative blog that really inspires you. When I saw this photo, I knew I would want to give it a try! "Cheeky Magpie" did great tutorial on how she made this book/pumpkin. She also talks about how ideas come to her and the trails and errors to get the finished piece http://cheekymagpie.blogspot.com/2008/09/shape-book-tute.html

Sailor of the month

Received a letter today from my son's commanding officer telling us that Chad was selected as sailor of the month for his squadron in October. Not sure what it all means, but I did finally get an updated photo of Chad. :) I blocked out everything but Chad's first name since I never know what information I can post. He will be coming back home from his fifth deployment in a few days. Chad's sister thought he posed for a pin up calendar when I called to tell her about the letter. :)