Honey Extraction Class - June 5, 2011

Doug Smith( Santa Clara Valley Bee Guild Member)will be teaching a hands on honey extraction class on Sunday, June 5, 2011 at the Akiyama Wellness Center in downtown San Jose.A $5.00 donation to the Akiyama Wellness Center(part of the Yu Ai Kai Senior Center)is requested.Call the Wellness Center to sign up.(408)753 -9283
Parking is free on Sunday
Akiyama Wellness Center
110 Jackson Street
(corner of Third and Jackson)
San Jose, CA 95112

Sailor of the Year

The one on the left with the cheeky grin is my son Chad with his Sailor of the year award. Not sure what that is all about but it must be a good thing. :) Had to see it on Facebook and track him down to find out why he was in the picture.  What would us moms do without Facebook?

Fancy Candy Apple



Fancy Candy Apple Someone Gave Me Today

 It's been a stressful week. First on Monday we got the sad news about the Yu Ai Kai and Akiyama Wellness Center's budget shortfalls. Staff hours are being cut back again. One of our big fundraisers Sake San Jose is this Thursday. Since I'm the only staff person at the center (have great volunteer help)I can't leave the building to get my Sake San Jose errands done. By the time I get home and take care of Annie, it way to late to go out. I'm having to leave everything to the last minute when I can close the center down early on Thursday. Now if anyone would like to donate $100,000 to the YAK, that would really help reduce my stress. Not only will I take you out to lunch but I think you get a room at the Wellness Center named after you. So give me a call before Thursday OK? :)

Cookie Monster Balloon

One of the staff members at the Yu Ai Kai is also a balloon artist. Working for a non-profit we all have to have second source of income. Every few days, Debbie comes in with something new for help cheer up the Wellness Center. On Monday is was Cookie Monster. As you can see my cookie plate was empty. A few hours later one of my good buddies, Emily (master cookie maker) came in with her weekly fresh baked cookies for the Coffee Klatch ladies. The word has gotten out that I have Emily's cookies so I get a whole lot more staff visitors. :)

Vintage Coffee Bottle

Since I've gone back to work full time and it's a non-profit (means we all work way over 40 hours) I haven't had the time to sit through all the auctions. On my way to get gas on Saturday there was an estate sale. I usually don't stop at estate sale but this one was different. The people were moving so it was more like a garage sale, just bigger stuff. They had several boxes of old bottles they had pulled down from the rafts in the garage. The bottles have been there for over 50 years, since the first owner of the home. These bottle were so dirty, they were black with dust and grim. I "cherry picked" out the good ones IMO. I have them tagged and ready to go into my booths at Cranberry Hill and Cottage Crafts.

Kimono Card

Another Asian card I will be doing for my card class down at the Wellness Center today. I used my Cuttlebug and embossing folder to make the pattern on the kimono. I then had to hunted down my white craft ink. This was not an easy task since, I don't remember the last time I used it.
I rubbed the white ink over the embossing to give the kimono that Japanese denim look.The rest of the card is basic stamping.

I normally don't make 6x6 cards for my classes since it takes extra postage to mail but there was no way I could make everything fit on a standard A2 card. I was tired and my brain had enough creative thought for one day. :)

Quick Card for Friday

It's been a marathon at work.  Lots to do and not enough time in the day to get everything done. I'm still doing my card class down at the Akiyama Wellness Center, as crazy as my schedule is. I really like chatting with the ladies and it forces me to do something creative from start to finish. I'm doing a lot of program development but it's all in the planning stages and will take months to see they will work out or not. One project that is coming together is the therapeutic massage clinic that will start in June. That has been a request from our seniors and the family support groups for a long time.
When I had to switch over to using Copics, I never work with my regular markers very much. I decided while I was walking Annie, that I should do some old school stamping. This is direct to rubber stamping.

Banana Bread

Ok,I have a hubby who will NOT eat the last of anything.I'm not kidding.He will leave one chip in the bag, one cracker in the box,one tiny piece of steak etc... He use to make fun of his mother for doing the same thing. It must be in his DNA. 
My daughter left some very ripe bananas at our house last weekend. Hubby tried to eat one today and realized you could not eat it as is but instead of throwing out the other two bananas he put them back in the refrigerator. I ask you why? During my weekly clean out of out dated food,I decided to make some banana bread.  I don't bake well so there wasn't anything to lose. The banana bread came out extra dark, I won't say it's burnt but it sure is brown.  Not bad if you use a lot of butter. :)   

Little Present from Squeaker

Both Mr. Purrcy and Squeaker bring home little presents for me.They found out early in life that Mom really doesn't like presents that move,chirp or drip blood. Mr.Purrcy has been known to bring me flowers and now Squeak brings me leaves. This morning she walked in very proudly and drop this leaf by my office door. I'm sure she wanted to jump up on my desk to present it but Annie was on guard duty and nothing was going to get by her without a complete German Shepherd inspection.  I'm also guessing some fur babies want tuna for breakfast.

Old Fashion Book Sale

I know this is very old school with all the new Kindle type formats and i-tunes but I went to my local library's book sale on Saturday.  I wanted to pick up some background music CDs for work. Want surprised me was the hard core online book sellers that were scanning every book like the place was on fire. I watched several people before I asked one what he was doing with his little hand held scanner. He grunted and kept on going.  A nice elderly man told me most of the people at the sale were book dealers and they scan every book to see if they have a buyer for it or if they already have it in their inventory. There weren't too many "hobbist" as he called us in the room. I did manage to get a few music CDs($1.00 each)and a graphic design book for free since someone wrote in it. Now all I need to do is hunt down a better CD player for the center.

Kenji "Horiken" Hori Original Watercolor

When you work for a non-profit lack of money is always an issue. At our last meeting for Sake San Jose, it was decided to auction off the original watercolor use for the event posters since there has been a lot of requests for the poster. I believe it's painted on rice paper and mount to an art board. It is a very nice painting done by tattoo artist Kenji "Horiken" Hori. My job was to find a way to display it so people could see it but not able to touch it but not spend any money in the process. It's a small painting so keeping behind the counter was not a good idea.  
While I was picking up the furniture being donated from  a local bank (see Wednesday's post) I saw this plexiglas box with a big grove cut out on one side. The bank used it to catch their mail.  The bank VP said it was custom made and very $$$.  I walked by it several times thinking I really should take it but what would I use it for. Finally I went over picked it up and turned it upside down (look at a problem from a different angle theory) and then the light bulb went on.  I saw it as a way to protect the watercolor but still have people be able to see the painting up close.  I know it may sound silly now but it was a simply cost saving idea. 
The watercolor is at the Akiyama Wellness Center if you would like to stop by and see it.  The opening silent bid is $250.00, with all the proceeds going to the Yu Ai Kai.  If you would like to make a bid you can come in or call the AWC at (408)753-9283. 

Japan Town Massage Therapy Group



Glenn doing a chair massage demo



One of the projects I've been working on down at the Akiyama Wellness Center is setting up a massage program for the seniors. We ran our test demo this past Thursday and it was a great success! A lot of happy and relaxed people. 

Starting in June every Friday from 9:30 - noon, the AWC is open (due to budget cuts we are closed on every other Friday) the Japan Town Massage Therapy Group will offer free 30 minute massages (donations to the Yu Ai Kai requested)On the Fridays we are closed, the JTMG will have their own private clinic running which is fee based.  An hour massage by trained and certified staff for $45.00. Appoinments are required and Senior club members are given priority for the free clinics.

Yen working on our very own ED Sophie







 



It was a very good day

Today was one of those days where all the stars lined up and good things happened at every turn.  Being a bullet point and list type of person here's my list of what happened today.

1. AWC Wednesday volunteer brings in lunch for everyone and today is was a great ham and bean soup.
2. For the past month I've been trying to find all the sprinkler heads in the back field at the center. I thought they came on at night so I would never see them in action.  This morning our gardener came to check the automatic timer (which was not working, reason why the grass was turning brown) and turned on all the sprinklers.  I ran out with my cans of pink spray paint and he had his helper run through the sprinkler tagging all them.
3. The front landscape has been looking very dry and I thought our system was broken so I would go out in the morning to water everything. Turns out that the system was turned off. I not good at programing those types of things so one of the staff came over from the other building to take care of it.  No more having to hand water everything.
4. When I came back into the building, my volunteer showed me two receipts,(we write receipts for all money/checks that come in)one person made two large donation to both the Yu Ai Kai and Akiyama Center.
5. We have been looking for a guest speaker to talk about sleep disorders for an upcoming health fair with no luck.  Today our ED confirmed the top man in the field (from Stanford's sleep center) as our speaker. That kick up the level of the health fair by 100%.
6. All the fire permits I needed to get for upcoming events got taken care of today.
7. A local bank is closing it's doors and asked if the center would like anything. The ED will get to update her office (which now looks like Goodwill gone bad), AWC will get some very nice chairs and sofa for our in take room, XL large artwork to cover over some holes in the walls and tons of office file cabinets and the support staff will get to replace their 30 plus year old desks. All this without costing the center anything.

This is all good news but tonight the budget committee is meeting.  With the shortfall of funds,some programs and services will have to be cut.  

Michael Strong's Kimono Die

I finally got around to making something with one of Michael Strong's new Kimono die that he released in March. It's not that I didn't love it but time just kept flying by. Michael's iris folding pattern is super simple to follow and the only thing I added was a red ribbon to the belt area. 

Urban Container Gardening Project

One of the new projects I'm working on is "Urban Container Gardening" down at the Akiyama Wellness Center.  This is a pet project for me, so it's all done on my own time. I had a hard time deciding what seedlings I should offer those who adopted a container.  Finally I settled on something very Asian.  Bachan's (grandmother) tsukemono (pickling) vegetables and the Shabu Shabu garden package from Kitazawa Seeds  I also picked something called Hijiki because I've never seen that offered fresh in the stores. The seeds are going to the volunteer who has offered to sprout everything for my project.  If your interested in adopting a tsukemono or shabu shabu container for yourself or one for a senior at the center let me know. Here's a short list of what we will try to grow.  (Click on the link above for the full listing of seeds I've ordered.)

• Japanese Bunching Onion
• Tokinashi All Season Diakon
• Orai All Season Spinach
• Katsura Giant Pickling Melon
• Senryo Ni Gou Eggplant
• Maruba Santoh Chinese cabbage
• Tasty Green Cucumber
• Shungiku Chrysanthemum Green

Random Acts Of Kindness

flowers

post it note  addiction

The Seniors that come into the Akiyama Wellness Center for the most part are very active.  There are a few that need assistance but for the most part, all are active and involved.  Yesterday was a day of random acts of kindness.  One senior heard that I was told not to use so many post-its notes in my efforts to get my office organized. Write everything down in one notebook so I have it all in one place. One of my seniors went out and used her Costco coupon and got me a stack of 20 post-it notes. She told me to go have fun now. :)  Another very frail senior came in with a big boxes of gardenia. One of her neighbors is a grower and even with them not lasting more than a day she thought we would like. These random acts of kindness always bring a smile.  

Stressed Out Puppy

On Saturday I took Annie into the Vet's. She wasn't feeling well and I know German Shepherds have very sensitive tummys. Dr. Ueno took one look at her and asked me what was different at my house. I said I had gone back to work full time. Just by looking at Annie he could tell she was stressed out. It's very common for dogs who have bonded with their owners to become stressed out enough to throw-up and have other related upset tummy issues. Annie doesn't understand why I'm not home with her anymore. I had hopes of being able to bring her to work in the afternoons but with the gas prices so high, it's not cost effect to come home and pick her up. Does this look like a stress puppy?   

Cookie Time

One of the programs at the Akiyama Wellness Center where I'm working this summer is something called "Coffee Klatch".  After an early morning exercise class, the ladies come to the center for coffee and cookies.  I'm not much of a baker but luckily for me, I have some really good friends who are.  I begged one of the best cookies makers around (THANK YOU Emily A.) if she would make a batch of cookies that can also be frozen so I can always have a supply handy. If you in the area stop on by for a cup of coffee and some tasty homemade cookies.