Success

I finally scored some of the glue Paul told me about and it is amazing. It sets in 20 seconds and holds like crazy. It is working for the snowflakes and I used it on a couple of other things that needed to be fixed. It was a costly purchase - $11 for 3/4 oz. - but it is some amazing stuff. I will be able to complete the rest of the snowflakes with ease now and that makes me very happy.

We are taking off for the weekend for some fishing and relaxation and will not be taking any computers with us. We are going to just kick back and relax and Max is not going to look for jobs or check emails for any responses. We will be back Monday afternoon/evening, but I will have my cell phone in case anyone NEEDS to get in touch with us. Debby and Kathy are taking care of the dogs.

The birthday present I was working on arrived to the birthday girl today, so now I can post a picture of the item. I have not knitted in many many years and it was a real challenge, but I had fun making it and it seems it will come in handy because they (that being Wanda) got 4 inches of snow last night.

Later . . .

The Weekend

OMGoodness - what a trying weekend. I decided to do some embroidery on another jacket and had tons of trouble with my bobbin. I am at the end of my PS2 Max Payne game and I CANNOT kill Vlad! I have tried the wood balls and the glue and MANY other options for my snowflakes and kept coming up stumped. I ended up fixing the embroidery and finding some styrofoam balls to use for the snowflakes, but still CANNOT kill Vlad! I switched to the Wii and played Zelda instead. Oh I forgot to mention that I am doing some knitting and the end fell off my needle and all my stitches fell off! I managed to salvage that along with everything else. I was beginning to think that everything I touched would turn to disaster.

Paul turned my on to some hobby glue that is compatible with styrofoam (the other glue I tried to use melted the foam) and Elmer's glue worked, but I think this other will be better. Unfortunately, Max and I went to the hobby shop (she had the day off) and they were closed. Nonetheless, I do feel like I have figured out how to put the snowflakes together so I am happy about that. Also I will not have to paint the styrofoam because it is already white and fits right in with the snowflake theme.

Later . . .

More Projects

Like I don't have enough to do! I am determined to learn how to use my Mac efficiently. I really like the machine, but I know that I am missing out on a ton of useful things and I have decided that I am going to master them. I have committed to read the entire book and do it page by page instead of skipping around and "half-ass" doing it. I know that it will be time consuming, but it is something that I really should do. Not that I am going to sit down and do the entire book non stop - NOT! I will just mix it in with all the other stuff I have to do to keep me diversified. No more projects for me for a while!

Later . . .

Busy

I have been busy doing craft things - I finished the birthday present I was working on and after the birthday happens I will post a picture of the finished project. The above is from cutting squares to get ready to put the kids quilts together. I had the pink flannel for the girls, but I have to buy something for Devin's. So once I get the material and then cut the squares they will all be ready to go. The wooden ball with the tooth picks is the prototype for my snowflakes. It seems like it will work well and I have some balls marked and ready for the drill.

Max has been busy looking for a job and sending out lots of resumes - unfortunately the economy sucks and there is not much happening right now. To relieve the stress, we are planning a fishing weekend for a little pleasure and R&R the weekend of the 28th.

Later . . .

The Weekend

The "craft day" went really well. Paul and Max tied flies, Kathy did beading, Debby brought a friend who did some snowflakes with me while Debby played with her computer and Mom and Warren did snowflakes. Everyone had a great time and then we had dinner and dessert. Max's Mom and I continued to make snowflakes after dinner while Max played on her computer. Mom and I continued with the snowflakes on Sunday while Max made us chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. We have not completed the snowflakes because we did not like the way they worked with the cork that was called for in the original instructions. We are going to switch to round wooden balls - hopefully. Each snowflake requires 10 pins and there are a lot of beads and a lot of work that goes into each one and we want something that will hold up and last. Below is a picture of the pieces for a blue snowflake (for Max) and a pink snowflake (for me) that are not put together yet. Max's Mom and I continued to make snowflakes after breakfast on Sunday while Max played on her computer. They really turned out beautiful and I am just hoping they will be as beautiful once they are put together - nonetheless, they were really fun to make and I finally got to use some of my bead stash!


Later . . .

DONE!

Finally! The dogs will be happy to go to bed tonight. I did not completely finish Darci's quilt last night and simply could not give one without the other. I really do like them and they look really cute covering their beds.

I am looking forward to our "family craft day" and I will take some pictures with my camera so I can post.

Later . . .

Slow, but progress

I have the bindings sewn on both the dog quilts (I finished quilting Kodi's quilt yesterday). I made my typical mistake on finishing the binding and had to take Darci's out FOUR times because I had it twisted and Kodi's TWO times. I do not know why I get so confused, but it comes down to when I look at a picture of how to do something nine times out of ten I will screw it up. I just am not good with flat paper instructions. Anyway - I am hoping to get started on tacking the binding tonight and finish them tomorrow. Pictures of the completed projects will follow.

Later . . .

Quilt Update

I have the binding ready for both the dog's quilts along with the labels. I have Kodi's quilt now loaded on my quilting frame. I am hoping to be able to have them both finished by the end of the week. We are having "family craft/play day" this weekend. Paul and Max are going to tie flys, Kathy is going to bead, Max's mom and Warren and I are going to make snowflakes and whatever else we decide and I am not sure what we are going to have Debby doing. The idea is just to all hang out together doing whatever we want to do. We can chat and interact, but still be accomplishing something. I am hoping I will have my binding sewn on by then, but if not I might get a chance to do some of that.

Later . . .

Photo Shoot

Not that I am impressed with the model, but Max wanted to work on her lighting and shadows and stuff - so on Saturday she set up her "stuff" and I was the chosen one. She took a bunch of pictures and this is the one that she emailed me for the blog. I think there were pictures I liked better (perhaps not looking so old and tired). I begged her to "photshop me" but what you see is what I am. Anyway besides pictures we caught up on some TV programs and played some video games and just took it easy for the weekend. Now we have to deal with the time change and I suppose we will be used to it in a week or so.

Kodi seems to be feeling better and that is a welcome sight. He still has meds to finish and I will probably extend the anti-biotics for another week or ten days.

Later . . .

Darci's Quilt

I finished quilting today and I am proud to say it turned out really well. I have no puckers and it really does look good. I took the close up picture to show the actual quilting - you can see the front and the back. I used a variegated brown on the front and a tan that matched the color of the back. I will do the same for the other one (Kodi's quilt). It is still a learning process for me and I know that I made some mistakes, but they are not ones that anyone would notice unless someone was "super snooping". I have the binding cut, but not sewn together. I will probably quilt the other quilt and sew both bindings at the same time (well maybe one after the other).

Later . . .

Quilting

I FINALLY loaded one of the dog's quilts (this one is Darci's) and am getting ready to do the quilting. I have been kind of pre-occupied with other projects for a while - not just video games, but I have been working on something for a birthday present and I cannot put the picture on the blog because "sometimes" that person actually looks at the blog and then the surprise would go straight out the window. I must admit that I have been side tracked with a couple of video games I have downloaded from Big Fish. They are simple, yet fun games and the only thing I can say about them is they keep my mind active.

Like I mentioned before, I plan to finish the dog quilts and then revert back to a practice piece to work on other designs and get a feel for the laser. God knows I have enough fabric to be able to come up with a couple of pieces that I am willing to part with for some practice.

We are dealing with the "loss of job woes" again. Since the whole transition at Max's work things just continue to change and are up in the air. This new change does not look good for her continued employment. Sucks - but she is kind of starting to look for a new job. She can always go back to plumbing (which she really does not want due to the heavy stress on her body), but the overall economy is not looking so good and it is unknown if there are any openings right now anyway. She can plug back into the union and see what happens, but she would prefer to get something else. We are trying to keep a positive attitude and not get too stressed about the whole deal, but it seems like it is going to come to fruition whether we stress/don't stress, plan/don't plan, or want it/not want it to happen.

Later . . .

Escapee

Well so much for someone who is on "restricted activity" (that would be Kodi). My being BAD when I had to unlock the gate for the window people yesterday and forgetting to check that it was at least closed. I am amazed he did not escape sooner, but when he went out this AM he had the opportunity to make the big escape. I have no idea how long he was out and about running amuck, but he is limping more than he was yesterday. I found the breakout when I wanted him to come in and have breakfast so he could take his medication - no Kodi and a gate standing wide open. Luckily I found him just around the corner at the front door of a house that usually has a dog out in the front or in the garage. I was in the back of the house when I heard Darci barking and by the time I got to the front door I saw the neighbor's truck driving off. I was surprised and wondered what he wanted, but I guess it was probably to tell me my dog was at his house! Once again, thank God he was not hit by a car. I do not understand why I cannot remember to ALWAYS check the gate.

Later . . .

THE WEEKEND

Well good news concerning Kodi, he seems to just have an injury to his shoulder and the anti-inflammatory medication seems to be doing the trick. The only problem is to get him to eat and then not throw up his medication. He has only done that once - so that is looking good. Time will be the answer with the anti-biotic medication and his toes/feet.

We had an appointment with our tax accountant on Friday and that was a bit depressing - I knew it was coming, but did not want to deal with it. The final numbers are not in, but it will involve sending money out and not getting any coming in (unless we can qualify for Bush's refund).


Max had a photo shoot with her photography class on Saturday morning. They went to a local park and hiked about taking shots of whatever was available. She got some great shots of some "tiny" mushrooms. The above mushroom was about 1.5 inches. Her 100mm marco lens does some amazing things. She had fun with her class even though she had to get up at 5:00 AM on a Saturday to do the shoot. Of course they wanted to get out there in the good light. Saturday afternoon we went with Paul, Kathy and Michael to REI in Fremont (Michael was looking for a particular bag that he had seen) and then the Red Lobster for dinner. Max and I had not been to a Red Lobster since we have been together. It was really good and we had a fun evening. Sunday was a do nothing day and I mostly played the Wii and the PS2.

The other event for Sunday is that the wind was blowing and unfortunately it made the shattered window crumble! That was a PAIN because we had to deal with all the little pieces of glass and we were out there vacuuming the grass so the dogs would not end up with glass slivers in their paws. The window was replaced this afternoon and it sure would have been nice if it would have lasted until the window repair people showed up. Ahhhhhh well, we have a new window now and the glass mess is gone.

Later . . .