Archive for the ‘Fun Stuff’ Category

A Desert Drive. The Mammoths have returned.

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

                  Sculpture by Ricardo Breceda

( Please Click on the images to get a larger view)

     Today my Husband and I took a drive to the Desert.  T he Flowers are blooming now, but what caught our eye where some large sculptures that had been plopped down in the middle of this stark landscape.   These sculptures are in  Borrego Springs, CA.  I was able to check them out on the internet and  found that they where made by an artist named Ricardo Breceda.  The sculptures are spread out in a area called Galleta Meadow Estates , http://www.galletameadows.com/ .

      Our dog found these creatures to be very suspicious.   He likes to growl at larges animals from the safety of our car.  Cows, horses, deer and turkeys don’t have a clue to the rage that is lurking in our car as we drive by.  As we drove down the dirt road to get a close up of the sculptures we heard a  subtle growl and  mild phoofing (phoofing is like barking, but softer and starts with a “F” sound) coming from the back seat.  Once parked, I told my furry son he could get out of the car.  He immediately ran over to the smallest mammoth with hackles up and in full phoofing mode.  You can see in the image above that my boy is trying to smell the butt of this animal.

Sculpture by Ricardo Breceda

  Our boy continued to circle this horrible beast until he was satisfied that the Mammoth wasn’t carrying a knife or gun.

Sculpture by Ricardo Breceda

If your scared, you can always dig.  This is the basic principle our dog lives by.  And, just so you know, we don’t have any holes in our yard.  He saves his digging for exploration time and please don’t let that creepy animal eat me time.

                Sculpture by Ricardo Breceda

Sculpture by Ricardo Breceda

 This view helps to demonstrate the odd sight  we found in the desert.

There are many more sculptures located at Galleta Meadows Estate.  It’s great to see them at their website,  http://www.galletameadows.com/ ,  but  photo’s can’t convey the feelings of seeing these animals up close.

I need your help with two old costumes.

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

For twenty years I have held on to two vintage children’s costumes.  I bought them at a street fair in my town.  The lady told me she got them somewhere in the south, meaning the American South.  She said they where old but didn’t know how old.  To me they feel like they’re from the 1940’s.  They are dance or pageant costumes, not Halloween costumes.  They fit a very small child, like a 3 year old.  They are in mint condition.   I am showing you only one costume and will post the other one tomorrow.

Here is what I want to know,  how old are they?  What were they for?  Are they valuable (I purchased them at least 20 years ago for about $18.00 each)?  Part of me wants to sell them, but part of me loves them.  So, how should I display them.  I am not a big time house cleaner so I don’t want to have to dust them. 

Complete Costume

Bottoms, front

Bottoms, back

Top, front

Top, inside

Arm pieces

Detail, with tulle and sequins

Head piece

It’s hard to tell , but the head piece is, when worn, looks like a head scarf with fake oranges the dangle from the top.  Attached to the head piece are two metal rings (middle, left in photo) that when the head piece is worn look like hoop earrings. Plain satin pieces hang in the back and are meant to be tied to give the head piece a scarf effect.

Octo-Bunny! April’s Free Embroidery Pattern

Friday, March 26th, 2010

  The Octo-Bunny.  With so many request for bunny and octopus patterns could you blame my brain for wanting to meld the two creatures together?   So now the unholy combination exists!  For you crafting enjoyment I present the Octo-Bunny.

Click on the Octo-Bunny for the full size pattern.

Ok Go. I don’t know if I have ever posted about a music video before.

Monday, March 8th, 2010

   I don’t think that I have ever posted a blog about a music group or their videos, but I discovered these videos last Friday. 

I think everyone knows the group Ok Go, their song Here it Goes Again, with the video of the group dancing on treadmills.  Well, they have a new song and two videos to go with it.  The song is called This Too Shall Pass.  I love this song! 

The videos for This Too Shall Pass are amazing!  You should really take the time to watch them.  I mean REALLY take the time!  You will not be disappointed.

Here is the first video for Ok Go’s new song:

http://bit.ly/ajAws7

Cool Right! Here is the second video (which l love even more than the first video) :

http://bit.ly/apZqYZ

Hart’s Fabric, best fabric store ever!

Monday, February 1st, 2010

   I love Santa Cruz, CA.  There is so much about that town that I  like.  I love Logo’s used book store.  I love Harbor Cafe.  I love all the old houses and the extra funky people.  But, what I love most, and what I save up most of my craft money for, is Hart’s Fabrics.

 The first time I went to Hart’s, I told my husband, “Look, this is going to get ugly.  Money, and I mean lots of it, is going to be spent today.  I just wanted to prepare you.” Being that my Husband is very understanding, and he has his own issues with buying computer books, he said he’d just sit in the car, read a computer book and let me have at it. 

  I get totally overwhelmed by  Hart’s  huge selection.  Here are a couple tricks I use to decide which fabric to purchase for my stash.  I visually pass over all of the fabric about 3 times.  I try not to think too hard.  I just let it soak in.  By the 3 pass certain fabrics start calling to me.  That’s when I start pulling the fabic bolts and setting them aside.  

Another trick I do to supply my stash is to pick out a rainbow’s worth of fabric. By this I mean I make sure to pick out fabric in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, etc…  And, don’t forget black, grey, white, salmon, purple,,,,,  You get the idea.  If I didn’t aim for a rainbows worth I’d come home with nothing but pink fabric.

  These two fine ladies helped me out.  I had a big mound of fabric which took them quite a while to get through. They where very cheerful at their task.  And before long I was out the door with my huge bag, wondering if maybe I should have gotten more teal fabric.

Here is Hart’s info:

Hart’s Fabric, 1620 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz, CA,

831-423-5434

Website: http://www.hartsfabric.com/index.html

Blog: http://blogs.hartsfabric.com/

February’s Embroidery Pattern

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

 Free pattern time!  How many of you guessed that this Be Mine was February’s free pattern? (see previous article)  Due to extreme laziness I wasn’t about to do two Valentine patterns so I got double useage from this design.

As always, click on the pattern below to get the full size image.

 

 

Transfer-Eze, a new product for embroidery.

Friday, January 29th, 2010

   I was reading the magazine Quilt Mania and I came across a new embroidery product called Transfer Eze.  With Transfer Eze you can put a sheet into your computer (like a normal sheet of paper) and print your embroidery pattern.  Once this is done you peel that backing material off then stick the film, with the image, onto your fabric. When you finish stitching your design you use cold water to get rid of the film, leaving just your stitching and fabric. 

   Here is my step by step on using Transfer Eze and the results.

  Using my regular, cheap HP printer I printed my design onto the Transfer Eze.

 

  I peeled off the backing paper and stuck the image on 100 % cotton muslin fabric.  The Transfer Eze was easy to apply. As you can see I didn’t iron my fabric and the film adhered very nicely.

 

  Printing on the Transfer Eze was very easy and left a nice, dark and clear pattern.  Transfer Eze feels like a paper fabric.

 

  No problem putting the fabric and the Trans. Eze into my hoop.  The Trans. Eze feels like having your fabric applied to a stabilizer.

 

  Very little trouble with stitching.  There is some extra resistance  but probably not much different than using a stabilizer.  I have major carpel tunnel and stitching with Trans. Eze didn’t bother me a bit.

 

  You can see the texture of the Trans. Eze in this photo.   I tend to manhandle my work so I was glad to find that I had no lifting or releasing of the Trans. Eze while stitching.

 

  Completed stitched design with Trans. Eze still attached to fabric.

 

 

After stitching, peel and cut away extra Trans. Eze. 

  

  Lastly, after clipping the extra Trans. Eze off I soaked my fabric in cold water.  The directions states that it takes 5 to 10 minutes to remove the film, but it dissolved much faster on my project.

The only problem I had with Transfer Eze is that Trans. Eze film was like having a very thin spacer between the stitching and fabric. When I removed the film my stitches weren’t as tight as I would like to be.  I believe I could improve the tension of my stitches with practice.   Maybe this tension problem happens with stabilizers too?  I just don’t know. 

Remember, if you try Transfer Eze practice on a sample first.  The results I had may not be the same for everyone and every fabric.

The only place I could find Transfer Eze was at Original Creations Quilt Shop.  Here is their info.:

Original Creations Quilt Shop, 16863 Highline Blvd., Cut and Shoot, TX, 77306

phone: 956-491-5650

Email;   jerry@originalcreationsquiltshop.com

Website: http://www.originalcreationsquiltshop.com/home.htm  ,  Their website is a little hard to use.  If you click on Transfer Eze it doesn’t take you anywhere. 

 

What I did last night and a update on bra issues.

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

  In this photo, from left to right , is Mike Nelson,  Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy of RiffTrax.  Formally, they are all from Mystery Science Theater 3000.  You might actually know them as Mike as, well, Mike, Bill as Tom Servo, and Kevin as Crow T. Robot.  They came to our town last night and performed a Christmas show. 

    They brought with them a bunch of Christmas shorts.  Shorts are animations and short films.  Apparently, Christmas can bring out the weird in some animators and film makers.

  Guess who showed up?  Weird Al was there to help the guys riff on a film about pork, yes pork.  This whole show was broadcast live to Theaters all over the place. 

Okay, on to bras. 

   I had a disturbing reply to my bra blog.  I was excited because many of you could relate to playing hide and go seek with you bras.  Then, a certain someone wrote this, “So good to hear that I am not the only one who does this.  When mine get totally lost that usually means it’s in the backseat of my car!”  Ah, okay.  This statement begs for many questions.  

The bra issue has also spurred on my Husband ’s creativity and he is now designing a bra rack.  I stated to him, “Wouldn’t that be just like a hat rack?”.  He gave me a angry look and just kept on drawing.  He hates it when I take the wind out of his sails.