01.20.12
Posted in Anything goes, cooking, family stuff, felt projects, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 1:33 am by Administrator
This post is going to be a mixed bag of things. The first item is actually a mixed bag of yarn. Around Christmas time I was doing a search online for sock yarn and came across a link to the Supersock Store. They were advertising a 50% off sale on Cherry Tree Hill yarns. However, there were “rules” to follow to participate in the sale. First of all, the sale would start on New Year’s Eve at 11:30PM eastern standard time. The first 200 customers to place their orders would get a free “goodie bag.” Within one of those 200 goodie bags would be a card that had a saying that would have the initials DBNY. If you got that card then your whole order would be free! Well, just the 50% off sale was an incentive for me. The goodie bag was yet another lure that was reeling me in. And finally the thought that my whole order “might” be free was the clincher. On New Year’s Eve I planted my butt in front of the computer shopping for sock yarn like a looney looking at sock porn. Ha ha! I then chose the skeins I wanted to sample, placed my credit card at the ready, and waited for 11:30PM. . . errr, that is 8:30PM Pacific Standard time (the east coast is three hours ahead of us). Okay, so I didn’t just sit there really, I joined the family feasting on our New Year’s meal. It wasn’t long when 8:30PM arrived, and I ran upstairs to start dumping my order in the “cart”. One of the rules was that you couldn’t add anything to the cart until 11:30PM when the carts would open. In ten minutes I had my order placed and confirmed. Was I one of the first 200 customers? I wondered. . . The next morning I got a confirmation letter from the Supersock Store with the added info that they ran out of goodie bags just before the ball dropped in Times Square. Ah! I must have been one of the 200! Yes! A week later my order arrived. . .
Aren’t they lovely? Ummmmm.
And what’s this? My “goodie bag?”
I got seven balls of novelty yarns, a needle gauge, some sample corn yarn, a few buttons, and several knitting patterns. Ah, I love it! Nothing like a goodie bag!
So what I found out was that the Supersock Store has these sales twice a year. So I decided I’m gonna test out these yarns to see if my boys like the quality. I’ve started to knit up some of the yarn to see if I’ll be participating in the next 50% off sale with goodie bag. This is the first pair of socks in the works.
Not sure how the boys are going to like the colors, but there she be. I’m curious to see how well they hold up.
Now while I’m at it, here’s something else I worked on for Christmas gifts for my crafting buddies.
Here they are completed with the scissors paired up.
I actually didn’t know what I was doing when I was making them and just winged it as I went along. Overall, I’m satisfied with how they came out. Most of all, my crafting buddies seemed to enjoy them. Here’s another view of the completed scissor cases.
Then my sister asked if I would help her out by making cookies for her staff. She wanted me to make some ornaments to tie onto each bag of cookies. Here’s what I came up with.
By this time my camera was starting to die on me. I had to try a million shots to get something that wasn’t over-exposed looking. This was the best I could get. The tie cords I made were done on my spinning wheel.
Here’s what the cookies looked like all bagged up.
There were 20 bags all together of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.
My camera was acting up again, so this picture has a weird coloring. But at least it captures the gist of what the completed cookie bags turned out like. Oh! While I’m sharing goodies, my friends from the Isle of Man sent me a really nice gift basket of fruit cake, pudding, and chocolates. I thought these boxes of chocolates were so cute shaped into their IoM emblem–the three legs, which I was told meant that no matter which way they are thrown, they will stand.
Now those were yummy! This picture is all that’s left of them. . .
Toodles for now!
Marlakins
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11.06.11
Posted in cross stitching, family stuff, hobbies at 10:24 pm by Administrator
Today I went to the Weaving Festival in Torrance. I was able to pick up a new Kromski rigid heddle lap loom, woo hoo! I’ve got it mostly assembled now, but still need to figure out how to put on the warp. So I’ll hold off on pictures of that just yet. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some of the finished stuffs I’ve been working on. First is some three ply yarn. Here’s how it looked in singles on the bobbin. The roving behind is what was left–just over 4 oz.
Here’s the completed 3 plys. I had a little extra teal from the 3 plys, so I plied the rest with brown.
I haven’t knit these up into anything yet, but instead I finished up the cross stitch pillows I wanted to give around Thanksgiving to my family and a few friends who knew Dad for a long time. For a little background, Dad was known for changing in to his PJs as soon as he got home from work. We joked that no one can change in to his PJs faster than Dad. His sister, my aunt, used to be a professional seamstress, and so she used to make him custom PJs. Basically, Dad had lots of PJs. Before Dad passed, mom was clearing out Dad’s old stuff to make way for the new. She gave me a bag of old clothes that she said I could do whatever with. Part of the package had some of Dad’s old PJs. After Dad passed, I decided that I would use one of his PJs as part of a Christmas decoration. Dad’s favorite holiday was Christmas and he loved to decorate. So I thought making Christmas ornaments with one of Dad’s PJs would be a nice memento of Dad each year. Here’s what the ornaments looked like in progress.
I forgot to mention that last year I got a new sewing machine! At the time I wasn’t feeling too good, so I wasn’t able to test it out. Instead I carried the manual around all over to read and look at the diagrams. Well, a year later. . . I finally got around to pulling out the machine only to realize that I didn’t know how to thread it, and I couldn’t figure out what I did with the manual! Ack! Luckily, Brian found a website that showed how to thread it. Now that I know how to do it, it’s crazy that I was stumped, heheheh. It’s a bottom of the line Bernina, but good enough for my tinkering. Course, my sewing skills need a lot of refresher and work. . . Here’s what the Christmas ornament pillows look like completed.
Oh! Another thing I learned how to do is braiding. Well, not the 3-strand braiding , but 8 strands. While looking through craft books I saw one on Japanese and Peruvian braids. I checked the book out at the library and made a cardboard template. Here’s what it looks like.
The braid comes out through the middle. Here’s a pic of the back of the template which has a better view of what the completed braid looks like.
Depending upon how you configure the colors gives the braids a different look. At first I didn’t know what to do with these braids. Then I decided I could I use these braided cords for the pillows. Here’s a closer look at the pillows. I just stitched the cords onto the sides and they serve to hang the pillows.
The cord that’s light green is actually only 4 strands of knitting yarn, but all the rest of the cords are 8 strands of DMC floss. I forgot to take a close up shot of the little heart tags I sewed below the ribbons. It says, “Handmade with Love.” I thought those tags were so cute. Eh, I know I didn’t do such a hot job with lining up the stripes. . . Obviously I need a lot more practice! But at least it’s a lot faster to use a machine that hand stitching the backing. I’m really looking forward to more projects. And now I’ve got my lap loom. . . Oh, and before I forget, the cross stitch patterns were from The Prairie Schooler called Starry Night.
Okay, that’s all for now. Hope I can get that lap loom going soon!
Marlakins
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10.30.11
Posted in Anything goes, Historical Trivia, Playing the Tourist, gardening, hobbies, museums at 9:16 am by Administrator
On Friday my boys and I visited the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu.
Wow, I would love to have a courtyard like that! But alas, only in my dreams, heheheh. Actually, this was my first time back at the Getty Villa since it’s reconstruction. The first time I had gone to the Getty Villa was during my high school days way before the Getty Center opened in Los Angeles. For anyone visiting Los Angeles, this is definitely one of the museums that should be on your list to visit. The Getty Villa was constructed as a replica of the Villa Dei Papiri for the purpose of housing J. Paul Getty’s art collection. The Villa was also intended to give the visitor the feeling of what it was like to walk in the villas back in it’s day and get a feeling of what it must have felt like to be in ancient Italy. It’s really a lovely place to visit full of history and art. Not only is the art collection engaging, but so is the architecture. Our docent told us that the Romans were obsessed with math and right angels and such, so a lot of that is seen in their architecture. This picture is an example.
According to our docent, the Romans were very practical, so all of their construction had dual function. That is, nothing was created solely for aesthetics, but also for functionality or special meaning. The gardens were also designed to grow plenty of herbs as was believed was done back in ancient Italy. The garden is impeccable. I even saw the most perfect pomegranate tree there. Other pomegranate trees I’ve seen have usually been unkempt and wild looking. The one in the Getty garden looked perfectly pruned. The picture doesn’t seem to do it justice. I found it to be very striking in person.
As with all museums, there is even a nice little gift shop. I always get sucked into those, heheheh. I found that the Getty Villa also has live stage performances. I’ll have to look into those and see when they do them and how to get in. I’m not sure, but I was under the impression some were performed in the amphitheater just in front of the villa. For anyone who loves art and architecture, you can easily spend the whole day there. Not only are there art works that you’d normally expect like pottery and sculptures, they had other things like this mummy.
I didn’t realize that the Italians did this back as early as the 1400’s (I think that’s about the date of this). I’ve been to Italy years ago and even visited some of their catacombs, but maybe I wasn’t paying attention if they mentioned these. The ritual was changed from the Egyptians, but there are some similarities, but also some differences like the face painting on the head of the mummy. Apparently, that painting was supposed to be what the deceased looked like.
I’m a sucker for art or most any craft, so I love to get ideas in places like this. For instance, one of my interests have been to learn to tole paint, so these murals caught my eye as I would love to learn how to paint these floral curly cues.
I love the floral vines along the column, pedestal, and below the window. Just before I went to the Philippines, I picked up some paint and paint brushes to try to learn how to do these as well as flowers. Have not gotten back to it since I’ve returned, wah. The other hobby that I’ve wanted to dabble in is mosaics. I purchase a book on this as well as checked some out from the library, so the Getty mosaics were also a great interest to me.
I like the idea of the shells as well. I’m thinking maybe I can try a small scale project like a flower pot for starters. The Getty mosaics definitely serve as a source of inspiration if not only for admiration of Italian creativity and skill, but for aspiring artists. We took a lot more pictures (I just love museums that allow picture taking), but there is just too much to share on a small blog like this. Suffice it to say that I highly recommend visiting the Getty Villa. For art lovers, it would definitely make for a very nice day.
Marlakins
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10.09.11
Posted in family stuff, food and restaurants, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 8:54 pm by Administrator
September is a busy birthday month for our family. Mom, Brian, and Matty are born in September, so to make things easier, we decided to celebrate their birthday together in one day. And since it was hard to get our schedules all in order, we ended up gathering in October for our September babies. We decided to head out to Real Food Daily, our local organic vegetarian restaurant. Here’s a pic of our side of the table. Mom has the pic of the other side of the table (the other half of our gang), on her camera, so only have this one to share.
The birthday cards were funny. I particularly got a kick out of Brian’s, heheheh.
Since both Brian and my brother-in-law are bald, there tends to be bald jokes in our family. . . 
Tee hee!
Before our outing, I was working on using up some of the yarn I spun. Aside from little pouches, I found the yarn was also usable for little knit toys.
The pattern for this mouse is in a book called, Itty Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson. It’s actually supposed to be a Christmas mouse, but I just used the colors I had on hand. I also did a little bit of modification by adding a mouth, heheheh. By the time we went out for dinner, I had two mice made up. They were busy reading the menu when I took this picture.
By the next day, I had three done.
Well, now I know I can probably spin sock yarn since I was able to use my white yarn that I spun together with left over sock yarn. They appear to be the same gauge. I’m currently working of spinning up a 3 ply. I’ve already spun up three hanks, but I’ll save that for another post.
Oh, before I sign off, I should put in a plug for Real Food Daily. They’re an organic vegetarian restaurant here in Los Angeles. My boys always order their burrito supreme, and I tend to always order either the yin yang salad or their stir-it-up with buckwheat noodles. That night I had the stir-it-up.
Ummm, tasty. . . Their cookies are also a nice way to top this off.
Okay, now that our September babies have celebrated, now to prepare for the October babies. . .
Marlakins
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10.05.11
Posted in hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 11:40 am by Administrator
The day after the Popular Mechanics class in September Judith had a presentation on Bison. Originally, the presentation was going to be on Turkish Textiles, but her slides got damaged and wasn’t fixed in time for her talk. So instead, she decided to give a talk on Bison and it’s fiber for us spinners. She brought along some sample yarns as well as some knit garments and a woven rug made of Bison fiber.
The above is the only picture I took that day, but as a point of interest, bison fiber/fleece/hair is normally brown. The above fibers are obviously not brown. Interestingly, although normally brown, Bison fiber takes dyes very well. And also as a point of interest, these yarns were sooo soft! Funny how when I look at bison, they look so rugged that I don’t think of how soft their fur is.
It turns out that Judith has quite a bit of knowledge regarding the bison. She spoke to us about its history in America such as how they were so plentiful during the early days when Indians relied heavily on bison meat for their survival. She talked about how bison were later shot and killed almost to the point of extinction by the newer settlers. Bison were even shot from trains as a sort of way to wipe out the herds. It was understood at the time that for every bison killed, an Indian was killed (Indians can’t last long without food). This practice nearly wiped out the bison population. It’s a sad history, but fortunately, the bison were not completely wiped out and are slowly making a come back.
Other points of interest regarding the bison is that they can move from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds. . . Oh. my!!!! No wonder you don’t hear about bison milk, ha! They’re strong and agile. Yet, they are very protective of their own. Judith mentioned that when a baby bison is born, the whole herd gathers around, and each on comes to muzzle the calf before it goes on it’s way. How cute! And also awesome. There’s so many things from nature that I think God uses for us to learn and enjoy. There must be something to that practice for us.
Judith also had some fun stories to tell including her dealings with how she got into spinning bison fleece, the people she’s met along the way, and the things they’ve said to her. One such story is about how “real” cowboys knit. She said, “Real cowboys get cold feet, so they all know how to knit socks even though you never see the Marlboro Man knit,” ha ha! One cowboy used her bison yarn to knit a pair of socks which accidentally went through the washer and dryer. To his surprise, they came out beautifully, and didn’t shrink a bit. Judith attributed this to how a well-prepared yarn should behave. Basically, after spinning, wash the wool and beat it to an inch of it’s life, heheh. (My paraphrase). That way by the time the yarn is knit up into a garment, it’s done all it’s shrinking and reforming. Wool fibers, like hair, have a memory. When it’s washed, it wants to go back to it’s original shape. So best to do that before the garment is knit up. Makes sense, right? I still have yet to test this out on my own, but she did have some garments as samples that seemed to prove her case.
Okay, I’m just about out of blogging time. Must hit the road to visit Mom. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed Judith’s presence, as both teacher and lecturer. Sweet woman (as evidenced by some of her stories and how I could see she treated all of us). If Judith McKenzie comes back out to teach more classes, I sure hope to be able to join in again.
Marlakins
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09.28.11
Posted in hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 8:19 pm by Administrator
Judith McKenzie’s Popular Wheel Mechanics Class was excellent. I wish I had taken it years ago when I first got my wheel. I learned so much about spinning wheels, spinning fibers, how to prepare them, and even that I’m ambidextrous, ha! Now that was a shocker. I always thought that I was a through and through right hander, but when I was trying to spin using the hands Judith was using I noticed I was doing it flip side. Fortunately, Judith came to each of us, one by one watching our spinning and giving us tips. I voiced my troubles of not being able to hold the fleece in the hand she did, and by asking me a couple questions and watching which foot I put forward first, she advised me that I was a left-hander and that’s why I was drafting with my left hand! Ack! She said that usually people do fine work with their dominant hand, so right -handers would draft with their right hand. She also asked me which hand I use to thread a needle, and sure enough, I use my left. Now that is a weird thing to learn about myself. Now the reason I say I’m ambidextrous is because I write with my right hand, I hand stitch with my right hand, and I ply yarn with my right hand. Very weird, but honestly this is the first time I’ve ever noticed this about me. Oh, but enough about me, let me share a couple pictures of some of the different spinning wheels at the class. The lady sitting right next to me had a cute little Wendy and didn’t mind me taking a pic of it.
One of the fun things about taking these classes is seeing all the different wheels. Here’s one shot showing some of the variety of wheels in the class.
And a few more with Judith standing to the left.
There were quite a few more types of wheels, but I didn’t want to miss out on Judith’s instructions, so I didn’t bother to take a pic of everyone else’s. I did, however, take some pictures of Judith demonstrating how adjusting the scotch tension determines the gauge of yarn that will be spun.
She made it look soooo easy! I had no idea that so many gauges of yarn could be spun on our wheels! Here’s a pic of the different sizes Judith was able to make just by adjusting the scotch tension. Amazing!
These are all two ply. She showed us how to ply 3 and more, explained the differences–i.e. the 2 ply is good for weaving, while 3 or more ply is better for knitting. See this class even helps me with choosing yarn for my knitting projects. She also showed us how to make a few specialty yarns like boucles, and cabled plys.
Here’s a pic of Judith showing us one way to hand-comb fleece and prepare it for spinning.
Now I know there must be a name for the resultant strip of fleece Judith is pulling through here, but I don’t know what it’s called. Roving, maybe? All the roving I’ve seen is much thicker, but it is in a continuous strip like this, too. Actually, this was a first for me to see this procedure. Yeah, I must have missed out on a lot of demos. I have hand carders, but it’s a bit different from this one mounted on the table.
She’s holding a small wooden disk with a hole in the center and pulling the combed fleece through the center. As you can see, it’s coming through in 0ne long continuous strip. Once she finished pulling all the fleece off the comb, she just wound it up and spun directly from it.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that not only were there different types of wheels at the class, there were also a bunch of different Lazy Kates. Here’s one that someone made, which I thought was clever.
Every time I throw out toilet paper spools, I always think they must be useful for something else. Well, here you go! Ha!
As part of the class, Judith provided a variety of spinning fiber. Now that was a treat! Here’s a pic of the yarn I spun with the fibers provided in class. This is in the process of winding off onto my niddy noddy.
And guess what else I learned? I’m supposed to wash the yarn after it’s been spun to help relax the fibers. It seems like people do this in different ways, but from my current understanding, it’s supposed to be done with hot water, then cold, then hot, then cold, then hot, then cold. . . After squeezing out all the water, hang dry. This procedure is supposed to relax the fibers, and the resultant yarn should fluff out about a third in diameter. Ah, now I feel more confident about making my own yarn and knitting it up into a garment. I was always concerned that the yarn I spun would come out in a wongo tongo sweater or something. Something just didn’t seem right, but now knowing about plying and washing afterward, it makes much more sense. And the yarn does look and feel better! Here’s more of my test yarns, which was still not properly prepared, but getting closer!
Since these are only 2 ply, I’ll probably just use them in little projects like more pouches or something. I’m currently working on making 3 ply with some wool and silk blend that I purchased “years” ago! I dug it out of the closet, and thankfully, it’s still in good shape. But I must say that learning more about yarns is making me want to pull out my loom and try to figure that one out. I still need to make more room for it, tho, and that’s partly what’s holding me back from getting the loom out. That might be next, tho! I saw some of Judith’s weaving, and boy do I like woven things! I’ll have to share some of the weaving stuff I saw in the Philippines on my latest trip there. That’ll have to be another post, tho. So basically, that was the gist of the class. It lasted from 8:30AM to 5PM. It’s amazing how fast time flies when you’re having fun! Judith did offer a colors class, but I wasn’t able to join that one. But it’s probably better that I learn how to spin better before getting into the colors thing. I hope Judith comes out again next year, tho. I’ll be sure to join the colors class then.
Marlakins
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09.26.11
Posted in Uncategorized, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 2:42 pm by Administrator
This is going to be the first part of a couple posts or more on my spinning experiences. I actually learned how to spin years ago on a drop spindle and blogged about it a while ago. Here’s a link to that old post. But you know how life has a way of getting in the way of hobbies. . . I took a break for a while then a while later I broke down and bought a spinning wheel. I blogged about that, too, when I first got my wheel. I was so excited. Here’s the link to that post. I had every intention of learning how to use it, but life got in the way again. Then I thought I was going to get back into spinning a little over a year ago, but just as I was starting to get back into it, Dad passed away. I didn’t touch my spinning wheel again until about 2 weeks ago. What happened? Well, after all the year activities and getting accustomed to life with mom without dad, I got back from the Philippines and found that my spinning guild was offering classes taught by Judith McKenzie McCuin!!! Okay, okay. I’m not the most knowledgeable about spinners and the spinning greats, but from the announcement, I knew that this was a class I shouldn’t let pass me by. So I promptly signed up for the class and got the list of things to bring to class on the 23rd September at 8:30AM sharp!
Fortunately, I had everything on the list. The only thing I needed to do aside from get my butt to class on time was make sure that my wheel was in good working order. I pulled it out and dusted it off. It still had yarn on a couple bobbins, so I decided that I should get that yarn off, and at the same time practice some spinning to make sure I could do it still before the class came. I decided to spin enough to make a 2 ply yarn. And am I glad I did that! First of all, I never really knew how to work my wheel properly. So fiddling around with it forced me to learn how to change bobbins and start a fresh bobbin. I also pulled out the Lazy Kate that came with the wheel when I bought it and figured out how it was supposed to be assembled. When, I felt I had spun enough to make a two ply, I tested out my Lazy Kate for the first time. So far so good! I was actually learning something! Here’s the yarn that I got off of the wheel from that exercise. 
While I was able to get these two hanks from the yarn I had sitting on the bobbins, I still had a little bit more, so wanted to spin more singles to get the rest of the yarn off. I dug in my closet and found that I still had some yarn that I was spinning on my drop spindle. I don’t even know how many years it was sitting in there. But I decided why not ply it with the other white I had left on the bobbin? Eh, so I did, and this is what came out. . . ha! 
Ah, yeah, you see why I wanted (needed) to take a proper spinning class? But being the pack rat that I am, I still didn’t want to waste this material, so I decided to try to knit it up and see if it would knit okay. I made a test little piece, then decided that I could make little pouches out of it. I was going to a gathering with some of my mom’s senior citizen friends and I had picked up little trinkets that I planned to give to the ladies. I thought putting them in little pouches would be nice. Here’s what they looked like in progress. 
And here’s a picture of the completed pouches. I sewed little pieces of fabric for the portion with the drawstrings. 
I pretty much taught myself how to spin after only a few minutes in the store where I first bought my drop spindle. So, I never felt very confident that I knew what I was doing. I still wanted to learn, so when I saw the Popular Wheel Mechanics class taught by Judith McKenzie McCuin offered, I knew that was the class I needed. And boy oh boy am I glad I took that class! Judith is a wealth of information, and a lovely, lovely lady to boot! What a knowledgeable woman, and a gentle soul! I liked her very much, but I’ll talk more about that later. Suffice it to say that I learned a LOT in her class (both what I should be doing, and what I’ve been doing wrong, wah) and am now raring to spin! If anyone is interested in spinning, check out anything by Judith McKenzie, you won’t be disappointed. Marlakins
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06.19.11
Posted in cross stitching, family stuff, hobbies at 1:01 pm by Administrator
Last Father’s Day we were at a restaurant with Dad. This year it’s a quiet day. Brian slept in, so that gave us a chance to prepare him breakfast and serve it to him in bed. He enjoys little things like that. I’m so glad I have a low maintenance husband! LOL And now he and Aaron have run off to their Aikido lessons, so I have more quiet time for myself. What to do? Heheheheh, what else but crafts!
The other week I finished off these little ornaments for my nieces and nephews in the Philippines. One of them saw me working on one of these and was happy when I said I’d make one for him. So I figured I better make one for the other little ones in his circle, too. Here’s what they look like.
There are many ways to finish off this little pillows, but for these I decided to use this method that looks clean to me. See the close up picture below. I still want to stitch their names on the back, but I’ll do that later.
After I finished Andrew’s graduation cross stitch, I decided to pull out my old needle punch project and try to finish it off. This was my first go at needle punch, so it’s basically a practice piece. I didn’t know how to finish it off, so I sewed it into a pillow ornament (what else? Ha!) But it turned out messier than I like, so I won’t show any closeups of the edging, heheheh. It did inspire me to try another one and decided to try it using some old jeans. I cut up a piece, and it worked out pretty good! Here’s a pic of the work in progress.
The nice thing about needle punch is it goes pretty fast. Last night I practically finished it up and sewed it into another pillow. I did use some different colors on the second one just for variety. Here are the two side by side. The one on the left is the one done on denim with my ad lib colors, and the other on the right is done with the fabric that came with the kit and their colors. I “think” the fabric from the kit is some kind of cotton, but I’m not sure, it didn’t say. I know their colors look a bit more serious than the more playful colors I chose for the second one.
I have always wanted to try making my own designs, so now that I think Ive got the hang of it, I’m inspired to try my own design. Just a moment ago I watched a video showing how to mount your own needle punch. Now I want to try it! Actually my middle son, Matty, made this drawing years ago that I saved because I liked it and felt it would make a nice craft project one day. While I may not make this exact design, it has inspired me, and I plan to try a series with this flare. Here’s a pic of Matty’s old picture.
I’m jazzed that the old denim seemed to work just fine. Being the pack rat that I am, I have a “lot” of old jeans that I haven’t had the heart to “throw” away. I’ve given away the ones that were in good shape that the boys grew out of, but the old holey ones, I figure there’s so much good material in other spots, I didn’t have the heart to throw it out. So now I have a use for some of it! Woo hoo! I’ve already started cutting more old jean material, and have pulled out a note pad to start some sketches. . . Hope it works out okay. . .
But before I sign off, I might as well share the pics of the little pillows I made for my dad’s year anniversary. We’re gonna have dad’s Babanluksan (year anniversary gathering to mark the end of mourning). The ones I made for Dad’s memorial were all given away, so I had to make more for the gathering coming up in the Philippines. These were actually a tad smaller and simpler.
This time mom wanted me to put on the full dates instead of just the year like the first batch I made. So there’s less cross stitch design on these. Here’s a closer shot of one of them.
I can’t believe it’s almost a year now since dad passed. Time sure does fly. I do still miss him a lot, tho. I guess that’s the way it will always be, tho.
Anyway, that about does it for me right now. I found while uploading these pictures that I have tons of other pictures on my camera that I can share, but I guess I’ve been lazy to do it. Maybe on days when I have nothing to do(ha ha! huh?), I’ll go back to those. Course I still have my book reviews and comments to write, but those are often doom and gloom types of topics, so thought a craft blog would be more pleasant for a change! So, toodles for now!
Marlakins
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06.12.11
Posted in cross stitching, family stuff, food and restaurants, hobbies at 8:09 am by Administrator
Yesterday was a busy day! Andrew officially graduated with his BA! Woo hoo! Congratulations, Baby! The ceremony started at 8AM, so Andrew had to be there by 7AM. We still had to pick up grandma and all, so in order to get there on time we all had to get up at 5AM. I’m not an early bird anymore, so that was early for me, hehehehe. But we all made it there on time regardless. There were so many people there that they had to have a big screen up so that we could see the grads. I managed to get a shot of Andrew coming in, but it’s a small shot. I’ve placed a yellow arrow above his head, tho.
It was nice to see how happy everyone was. I could feel the excitement of the guests. Maybe it was all the flowers, balloons, and gifts they were all carrying that tipped me off, heheheh. I enjoyed looking at all the different flowers and balloons. This was my favorite balloon.
Unfortunately, it rained. Man, can you say “June gloom?” And as you can see, the ceremony was held outdoors. We all tried to hang in there as long as possible, but the ceremony was cut short because everyone was starting to get soaked. Basically, they waited until all the grads collected their certificate holders, and then we all ran out of there. It ended up cutting the ceremony down by a half hour. Before we left campus, we managed to get a shot of us by the history building.
From left to right, Mom, me, Andrew, and Brian.
After we came back from lunch we dropped mom off at her house and took more pictures. After all, this day only comes once! Here’s Andrew and me, .
Later we had a dinner for Andrew at La Petite Greek. Here’s the gang. I missed my dad, tho, and wished he could have been here yesterday. I know he would have been very happy.
After the main meal Andrew opened some of his presents. I thought this card was so cute.
One of the presents I gave him got finished just in time. I picked up the frame just last Friday due to some complications. But it worked out just fine in the end. Here’s the project when I first started it.
I worked it over even weave linen. Here’s another picture of it in progress.
And here’s the finished piece with Andrew holding it last night.
I know it’s hard to see it in this picture, but on the bottom I stitched in Andrew’s name and year and university. So here’s a closer shot of that part of the cross stitch.
Well, that about wraps up yesterday for us! It’s still gloomy this morning, and everyone in this household is still sleeping. So I think I’ll go find something to munch on for a quiet breakfast while they snooze. There’s more activities scheduled for today because my sister’s having a gathering for her birthday in a few hours. It shouldn’t be long before things spring back to life here. But for now. . . a nice quiet breakfast for me.
Marlakins
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09.18.10
Posted in family stuff, felt projects, hobbies at 2:55 pm by Administrator
Today I wanted to share some pics of Mom and Dad when they were younger, but I don’t have those pictures on this computer, so that will have to be another post. So today I’ll just share more about the memorial/reception.
Aside from the slide show at Dad’s memorial, there was also some live music. There was a trio and my uncle who performed at the memorial, but a couple guitarists and my uncle who also sang at the reception. The songs I tended to like the most because it reminded me so much of Dad were the Filipino songs. In particular, my uncle sang “Dahil Sayo,” which translated means, “Because of You.” The rest of the words are, “Because of you, life is worth living.” Such a sweet song. To hear this song, here’s a version of it on YouTube. It has both English and Tagalog. Just click here.
The other song my uncle sang for my mom was, “Hindi Kita Malimot.” Translated it means “I can’t forget you.” I wasn’t able to find a good version to share online at the moment.
For the flower arrangements on the tables, I cross stitched a bunch of little pillows.
They each had different designs, but all had “Marcos 1931-2010.” My first inspiration for designs came from a cross stitch book I checked out from the library called 2001 Cross Stitch Designs. But as usual, I altered them, then later made my own designs by the time I got to the last ones. Here’s what they looked like on the center table flowers.
Each flower arrangement was slightly different.
This is one pillow of my own design and also one of my favorites.
And here’s another of my designs that I liked but got a bit covered up.
Well, I could go on with showing each and every one of them, heheh, but I think you get the gist. The florist made 12 center piece arrangements because we were only expecting 120 people (10 at each table), but I made 14 pillows just for good measure. All the pillows on the tables got taken by the guests. So I plan to make more for the year gathering come July 2011. This time I want to incorporate more embroidery stitches, and Mom wants me to include the full date of Dad’s birth and death. So I’ve got some work to do for a little while.
Today I got to join my knitting group again for the first time since Dad passed. It was nice to see that gals again. Slowly but surely I suppose life should come back. Next Saturday I hope to join my Spinning group again as well. My sister’s and I are still rotating so that at least one of us will be with Mom 24/7. Life is tighter that way, but that’s what family is all about. We’ll just have to adjust our lives this way, and I’ll have to focus on making more good memories.
Marlakins
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