Spring Cleaning.

It's been long overdue. I am not by any means a clean freak, but when I was little it was a task that my mother made sure everyone in the house participated in every spring. We'd have to basically purge, dust, and vacuum our butts off. So, around this time of the year, every year, I get that itch that I need to keep that tradition alive. I decided that this weekend would be best since we had an extra day to ourselves and I wouldn't be completely wiped when I returned to work on Monday. I must confess, though, that I had the itch a couple of months ago. But, I ignored it.

My house is practically sparkling from the insane deep cleaning we gave it. And it feels and smells fresh and clean. Love that. We actually didn't touch one hall closet or any of the bedrooms, but I am very, very pleased at the moment. And tired. And sore. :)

A Card.

Just thought I'd quickly post a few pics. This is a card I made last weekend for a baby christening that we went to.


The patterened paper is a beautiful chiyogami paper I found at a paper store that was closing by my office. I bought it thinking it'd be perfect for a baby. The chiyogami paper had flecks stars of gold on it, so the yellowish paper is actually a gold shimmer paper that I had left over from a wedding I helped out on.

This is my first attempt at sewing on a card. I'd read so many horror stories about how sewing on paper broke several people's machines, so needless to say, I was hesitant to try it. It was no big deal. My sister says the secret is using a denim needle and not trying to sew through any adhesive. So, there you go! I also made an envelope for the card with a matching liner but the pics of that came out all blurry.

Here is the gift I wrapped.

I personally think that the wrapping on a gift makes it even more special, so I always take time to wrap gifts. I wanted to make the card a part of the wrapping. I toyed around with the idea of a pocket, but I didn't like the results. So, I literally have it tied down by the ribbon. The idea being that it would bring the color I wanted on the wrapping without using as much paper. In retrospect, I think I would have omitted 2 of the stripes of ribbon. Just looks like a lot to me, but I am pleased with how it turned out.

I am slowly working on getting our pics of Napa put up on our website, but I am having issues getting enough time on Mr. B's computer. So, don't hold your breath. :)

Finally.

Sewing is sometimes the most humbling activity I've ever willingly tried. Next to skiing. I have been working on an apron for a friend for....well, forever. It is from a pattern my grandmother gave me that her mother gave her years ago.

I absolutely love the fabric, but my machine didn't. I basically had to hand feed the needle into the fabric about every other stitch. My right arm looks Popeye's now. I hope she loves it. I think I may cry if she ever uses it. Ha. Some pics.....

(Forgive the bad pics. #1, I don't have a cute area to display anything, and #2, I am still trying to learn my camera.)

The front.


The back.



Close up of the pocket. This probably best represents the actual fabric color. I chose to use a red thread because I thought it would look cute in contrast to the other colors (and to match the outline on the flowers) but I realized pretty quickly it shows all my mistakes.

In other news, I finally bought a rug for the front room!!! I have had my eye on a rug since February of last year. I know this because I checked the email my BIL sent me when I begged him to take pics of it since the only store in the state happened to be a few miles from him. I am pretty excited.

I need to post pics of our trip to San Fran. But, I think I will post those to our new website so I can email the link to family. Stay tuned. I am hoping to find some time to do that this weekend.

Second Chances.

I am so moved by this story on cnn.com. Footage is on www.missiong.com. It is such an amazing story. Love how Gatorade has provided video episodes leading up to the game. At least catch Episode 3 if you get a chance. Love the message this sends out.

A $5.00 Desktop

Mr. Bean and I had a birthday party to go to this afternoon. One of Mr. Bean's coworkers' son turned one. As part of Asian tradition, they asked us to bring an item representing our profession or talent. The baby is set in front of all the items and whichever item he grabs first dictates what he will eventually grow up to be. I remembered this detail of the party, but Mr. Bean forgot. So, at the last minute we decided to build this. Behold, a $5.00 laptop. Never underestimate the power of a pack rat. I had all the supplies we used in my scrap storage. Including the box.




The blue screen read:

A fatal error of type null pointer has occured at 000123xc1183:ADC in VxD DiskTSD(03). The current application will be terminated.

Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to continue. But, it will do nothing.

You must buy a MAC to no longer see this section.

The only complaint we got was that there was no USB port. Maybe next year.

The result? Little Oliver technically touched Mr. B's laptop first, but we were blocked by Oliver's father who threw a golf ball down at the last second. So, naturally Ollie was distracted. But, I think we have a future developer in our hands....

Here's the card I made for the baby. I love the idea of the Envelopments line. So, I made this twist on a traditional red envelope.

I tend to spend hours trying to design something really intricate, then end up with something simple like this. The backside had a note for the baby and then a pocket for our gift.

Enough showing off. Mr. Bean is off playing golf. Miss Fred and I are catching up on some z's, laundry, and cleaning while preparing dinner. Guess who is the one catching up on her z's??

Short post.

All I have for today is this. She cracks me up. Love that pic.

Off to another busy weekend... Getting ready for our trip. Well, thinking about getting ready at least. That counts, right?

Wow.

If you haven't seen this domestic violence PSA Keira Knightley did, check it out. Here is a short article about it.