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.