Mood:  happy
Topic: Happy Kat!

I feel very smugly proud of myself today.  Remember that goldstone heart that I wanted to turn into a necklace but couldn't due to the fact it had no hole for stringing?  The I decided to wrap it in wire but couldn't because I had no idea how to do it?  And how I tried five hundred different things and still nothing worked? Well, at the festival I got  brochure on wire wrapping lessons complete with pictures and after studying the picture carefully I tried to copy it and GUESS WHAT????? I did it!  I now have a perfectly AWESOME wire wrapped heart pendant.

And there it is, half finished. I'm going to add a few more elements to this, and I'll make matching earrings and a bracelet.  The whole set will be finished by this evening.  I hope.

We got the curtains hung in mom's place and they look quite nice.  So that's all done.  Next will be wallpapering the stairs.  They have a couple showings next week starting on Saturday. They get their new place on the 15th of December and they have a bridge mortgage in place so they don't have to move so close to Christmas, instead they can do a few needed repairs on the new place.  Like ripping out candy floss pink carpeting.

Dave got in touch with the good people of samsung bestbuy samsung bestbuy and then once again samsung.  Samsung will be sending a repair person to our house to fix the television within the next few days.  It's under warranty and it shouldn't cost us a penny. I miss the big television.

The roofer is painting all the metal work for our roof and the shingles are there. The paint has to dry and cure. Things are progressing. 

Dan and heather are coming over on Sunday for a very belated Thanksgiving dinner. I'm going to prepare a duck, veggie risotto, spaghetti squash, and roasted potatoes, garlic and sweet onions. Yummy!  Then follow that with a gluten free desert of chocolate sponge pudding.  That's the where you make the cake on the bottom, sprinkle sugar and cocoa over it, pour hot water over everything and after baking you get a cake on top and gooey chocolate sauce underneath.  Yummy times two.

So everything is going swimmingly.  I'm really thrilled with my newly wrapped heart pendant.  That's the best thing all week, considering that it's been giving no end of trouble.

Later!

I HAVE A NEW CAMERA!
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Happy Kat!

I got a new Digital Camera.  I was looking at the Fuji Finepix ultra zoom (but secretly wishing for the Canon Powershot Ultra Zoom) The Fuji was far less expensive, the Canon I really wanted was over 500$ at Best Buy.  So we went off to the mall and checked out WalMart.  The fuji was 50$ less than at Best Buy.  We then went to Radio Shack, now called The Source.  (where's Darkseid when you need him?) They were discontinuing the Canon powershot and it was clearance priced, almost 200$ less than Best Buy. 

Needless to say, I am now the very happy owner of a Canon PowerShot Ultrazoom.  This camera does everything!  And then some.  it has special modes for shooting sunsets, beaches, fireworks -you can adjust the aperture, shutter speed, ISO -it has both manual and auto focus -macro and super macro -and it will automatically stitch together ultra wide angle panoramic pictures.  I can set the picture size to 4x6 8x10 or 12x16 so I'm not posting huge 14MB photos on my blog.  The 4x6 is nice because I can put almost a thousand pictures on the memory card. 8x10 is best because you get more detail when shrunk down to 4x6, and I can still take almost 500 pictures.  Now I am in the process of registering the camera and installing the image viewer printer. This camera comes with yet ~*ANOTHER*~ image editing program. sigh.  I have four already, but this one is *integrated* with the actual camera itself!

Also, Ben has been moaning about his old MP3 player.  The database updater was freezing and it was filled with all sorts of crap files and folders.  I told him to go to the hardware website and search for help.  He didn't, it was all hopeless and he needed a new one, an RCA like his last one. So we got him a new RCA MP3 player and he gave me his old defective one.  So I went to the hardware website.  I checked the KB for the freeze issue.  i followed the instructions, updated the firmware, ran the disk check and disk repair utility, and then changed the USB mode as instructed and reset the player. TA DAA!  all the crap is gone, the known database bug is gone and it's now got a clean and tidy list of songs.  Later today I will put my music on it and get rid of Ben's stuff.

Now Dave and Ben are off getting Ben a new health card.  Ben is lacking one piece of ID, a credit card or student card or some piece of plastic with a signature. The world is really stacked against anyone who doesn't have a driver's licence, credit card and three other forms of photo ID.  But to get the proper ID cards you need at least three pieces of photo ID, but you can't get the cards unless you have photo ID but to get the ID you need to have them already.  You know what was funny/sad? A hospital administrator giving a mom a hard time because her 2 year old no longer looked like the newborn on her photo health card. 

Let Dave deal with that nightmare, I spent enough time over the years with stupid ignorant bureaucrats while the kids were in school.

So the camera software is installed, the camera is registered with Canon and now I can spend the next two hours learning how to use all the cool features of the camera.  I'm sure that at first everything will be done on "auto"  but I hope to be able to soon use all the special features.

And here's my first picture, this is the spider I'm looking after for the summer, Rachel the Spider. She resides in our dining room on a cabinet where we usually place the sugar and salt and extra placemats.

The picture isn't the greatest, I was attempting to use the macro for the first time and I set the flash wrong and the ISO wrong. 

Oh yes, There is now a Coach store in Fairview mall.  If I ever feel the need to spend minimum 300$ on a wallet or minimum 500+ on a purse I now know where to go.  As nice as they are, I find them horrifyingly overpriced. After the sticker shock of 350$ for a wallet and 650 for a clutch bag, the camera seemed like a bargain.

So that's all for today.  Ben read what i wrote and now he wants his old MP3 player back and I can have the new one.  Tough tits, kid. four day until we leave for the beach!  Later

The beads are calling me by name!
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: New Order and Joy Division
Topic: Happy Kat!

My bead muse refuses to leave me alone.  Yesterday I laid out all my bead tools, my design board and design mat, a tray of findings and some of my recent bead purchases.  Usually this array is enough to induce a creative block and I run from the table screaming "Bead overload!  No F*****G clue what to do with all of them!"  And then I can't decide what to do with them and I put them away. 

No such luck this time, instead I gaze at the array of stones, crystals, chains, wires and other assorted stuff and my mind is all "I can make earrings with that!" and I can thread these on wires and interlace them for a bracelet!" and WOW! I can make a matching set of bracelet earrings and necklace with THIS" and then promptly began to work and then proceeded to completely loose track of time.

So i have the start of the heart of stars piece, I have a pair of earrings made with an ammolite shell fossil bisected down the middle showing the interior chambers, I have a bracelet of jasper and i have a really cool four piece set made dyed shells cut into tooth like shapes.

I also took a bunch of feathers and turned them into usable jewelry components.  Feathers are fiends when it comes to using them in jewelry.  There are many methods of incorporating them into the piece, most of the methods suck.  Over the years I have bought feathered jewelry to see how others have done it, and they suffer the same way I do.  Feathers can be wrapped in wire, but that's bulky and thin wire can cut the feathers.  Feathers can be jammed into the holes of beads and then glued in place, but then the bead's hole is useless and filled with glue.  There are feather cones, but they limit the design options. You can jam the feathers into a crimp bead and then the wire/fireline/nymo thread/tigertail/whatever into the other end of the crimp bead and then crimp the crap out of it, but jamming all that into a crimp bead is almost impossible as everything tries to fall out while working on it.  I finally discovered a way to handle the feathered fiends.

I use fold over crimps with a hole in the top, a dab of tacky glue, and two pairs of pliers.  A dab of glue goes into the crimp, the feathers are laid in place where the glue holds them, the sides are folded over and voilà!  Feathers have become workable jewelry components with no limitations in their use. 

Fold over crimps are usually sold as cord ends or cord tips and used with thicker leather, linen, silk, or cotton cording.  As I have found out, they can also be used for feathers.  Here's the Fire Mountain Gem's web page with these fold over: http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H201949FN 

I think these feathers will look great with some of the natural tumbled and polished stones I have.  I enjoy working with real stones and they make such a fascinating contrast to the rich sparkle of swarovski crystals.  Adding the warmth of real feathers gives the pieces and extra textural dimension and adds a touch of softness to the designs.  The feathers can be a focal point or an accent, depending on the size of the feather.

Which reminds me, when it warms up i need to go to the park to collect more feathers.  A molting duck is a great source for lots of feathers, and there are more than enough ducks at Waterloo Park.  One afternoon gives me enough duck feathers to last a looooooong time. 

That's all for today. 

I Can Haz Pizza! OmNomNomNom
Topic: Happy Kat!
I had Gluten Free pizza at Pizza Pizza.  It was three hours ago and so far so good.  I really enjoyed my pizza.  I hope it doesn't make me sick.  the guy at the place checked the list of toppings and helped me pick the wheat free ones and made sure that it was baked in the special place in the special oven.  It was a flat, cracker-ish crust and quite good. If I don't have problems then I have somewhere to go to no matter where I am because their gluten free pizza is supposed to be chain wide.  YAY!

Topic: Happy Kat!

Happy Happy Joy Joy!  According to the menu page, Pizza Pizza is now serving pizza made with a Gluten Free Crust.  I Kan Haz Pizza!!!  Here is the menu page from their website, and it says that the gluten free crust is chain wide.  Now I can have pizza when we go to Toronto as there is a Pizza Pizza on almost every freaking corner, right beside the TenBux coffee place.

The weekend was nice.  It rained on Saturday, like it always does.  On Sunday we packed up the van and went off to Goderich.  The drive was quite nice, albeit a little slow all the way to Stratford.  The drive takes us through farm country and the summer of rain has turned the countryside a rich lush deep green.  The forests are all deep green Mirkwoods, with the tree tops so dense that the forest floors are in perpetual dark with little other than the occasional wildflower as a beacon in the dark.  The fields were green and gold, no failed crops, no bare earth, a surprisingly little storm damage.

The beach was quite nice.  We prefer the beach that's beside the salt mine and the channel to the harbour.  If we are really lucky we can see one of the big great lake freighters come in for salt.  Guess what? We were lucky!  A 200+meter behemoth came into the channel and stopped for a load of salt.   It was one of the big Algoma Central ships for Sault Ste Marie. It wasn't as big as the Edmund Fitzgerald, the ship of legend and song.  Yes, I did see the Edmund while it was sailing.

It was when i was a kid, and we were in Sault Ste Marie to visit relatives.   We always made one trip to the locks to see the ships pass through.  This day the US locks, the ones that handle the biggest ships; were closed for construction.  The lock master said a big ship was due to arrive in half and hour and it was worth the wait, one of the largest on the lakes.  We waited and were rewarded with a ship named Edmund Fitzgerald, a ship almost too big for the smaller Canadian side locks.  It scraped the sides and it filled to lock end to end.  It passed from Huron to Superior, meaning it began at the bottom of the lock and it rose up to the top.  Then it went off into the river and many years later into history and song.

The ship first appeared as a huge black blob, it's forecastle appearing over the horizon before the rest of the ship.  It was big enough far away and soon the pier along the channel was filled with people.  We watched in come int the channel with two tug boats pushing it into place.  It's quite impressive and if you want to see some pictures I posted then all on facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5293&l=1f9b1&id=1076626334

I wanted to take pictures of the family, instead I took more pictures of the ship! We all had a good time, we all got a little bit sun kissed and we all got a little bit of beach sand in places where we didn't want sand.  the water was as warm as Lake Huron can get and my new bikini bathing suit worked well.  No one ran screaming from the beach.  In all honesty, i don't know why i worry, there were plenty of women far larger than me in far skimpier suits.

Yesterday Dan was tied up with homework.  He's still officially enrolled in college and he has to prepare frequent co-op internship reports with his professors and he's a bit behind, so yesterday gave him a chance to catch up. Me, Dave and Ben went off to a few places to look for some fresh picked in the morning corn on the cob.  We went to a place on Erb Street, it was at one time someone's garage, then it was a small stand in front of the house, now it's a big store with a website, which you can see here:  http://www.herrles.com/index.htm   it's much bigger now and smells like pies fresh from the oven.  We got some special extra sugar enhanced super sweet with a whole bunch of small letters behind the hybrid name bi colour corn with a minimum 50% sugar content.  None of that stuff matters, all I know is that it was the sweetest corn I have ever tasted!  And as a bonus, it keeps its sugar content for over a week before it turns to starch. Wow!  It was also quite expensive, 5$ a dozen, but well worth it.

And that's all for now.  I have nothing to do today, and most of the day to do it in.  That's cool, and doesn't happen very often.  So I'll get out my art stuff and spend the day painting.  Later!

Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Happy Kat!

Wow!  What a busy weekend!  Friday was decorate the house and start the shopping day.  i went out with Ben and Mike and we got a bit done, which was nice.  Dave, Ben andI went out in the early evening to Canadian Tire and got a few more things. As we were walking in the parking lot I saw a man that looked so much like Paul from long long ago that I almost went up to him and said Hi Paul!  Same hair style, same glasses, same style of clothes, but he was wearing a coat that looked identical to my Pervy McPerv vintage London Fog coat.  So much so it was borderline creepy!  But Paul would be fifty now, he wouldn't still be holding onto the eighties,  and there's really no reason why he would be in Waterloo at the Weber street Canadian Tire.  He lives in the deepest darkest depths of suburbia north of TO. 

Still; it made me think -if it was him, I said hello and he said hello, then what would I say?  Where would I begin?  Probably something like: "hello Paul.  It's been such a long time, and I have a few things that I desperately need to say.  Long ago I was deceived about you; I was told things that turned out to be not true.  I regret not fighting more for what I knew in my heart was true, and I regret giving into things that turned out to be lies.  I should insert an I'm sorry here, but I'm not sure an apology is needed because  I think that you were told things about me that also weren't true. I think we need to sort out the lies from the truth, I think we both have issues with the past and maybe it's time to deal with these issues.  I don't care about the people who told the lies, they mean little.  Right now it's time for this to be between you and I and not them. I don't want to waste this time slamming others, it won't help make anyone feel better.   It's not for revenge on anyone; it's not about going back in time, not for going back to where we were and picking up the strands of what was once torn aways from us, It's about finding a way to go forward free from the burdens of the past."  And then let the conversation either go on from there, or end there.

Saturday...I think we spent maybe four hours at home all day.  We were out from morning to evening.  I didn't see anyone who looked like anyone else, fortunately. We also finished the tree.  The house looks a bit more christmassy. 

Yesterday...oh yes, the boshart family party that wasn't.  By ten it was obvious there was far too much snow, with still more snow on the way.  awe didn't go anywhere, other than to dig out.  The guys are still outside digging out this morning. 

Spring storms are freight trains.  You hear them come before they arrive.  They are loud and big and they make noise and you know to get out of their way and they soon pass.  Summer storms are quick,  they rise up from the ground in swirls and eddies and whirls of warm moist air, they churn across the sky and they explode quickly and violently, then they are over and followed by sweet sunlight and starry nights.  Autumn storms come in and take off their shoes and roar and bellow and complain loudly and then leave. All three you know there's something terrible happening, you stay out of their way, or try to get by without too much distress.

But winter storms are quiet, winter storms lull you to sleep, they muffle the noise, they make everything soft and fluffy and white.  They come in on silent footsteps, they look so nice, they cover anything that's grey or dirty, they make everything clean and pristine.  It's not until they are over that you feel like you have waken from a dream and then you see the destruction.  Snow piled into six feet drifts.  Cars upside down on the highways.  Silent and peaceful destruction.  Beautiful and terrible.  Cold and hard.

Today there's more snow shoveling.  The silent storm was a doozy!  It started early sunday morning and it's still flurrying.  The party was canceled by the country club and they will help to reschedule it in the first week of January at their expense.  So that will be fun. I worked so hard on that outfit and the jewelry so I'll wear it there.  I'm also wearing it on christmas eve.

As we get closer to Christmas, lets remember other traditions, such as the pagan traditions that our modern christmas draws inspiration from.  But mostly, lets remember Festivus!  A Holiday for the rest of us!  In wisconsin a priest is trying to get a festivus pole in as part of the town's christmas display.  This is such an excellent idea; I myself have been training all year for the feats of strength.  Every year I join a seinfeld internet chat group and every year me and George Costanza challenge each other and each year I win.  Like so many, I find tinsel distracting.

And now for today's end of the year list: the fifteen coolest gadgets from cool gadgets dot com.  I've seen the banana case in stores...and that newborn pillow looks like a great idea.  Babies sleep best in mom's arms; but sometimes mom needs to do other things...like go to the bathroom. I think I would like to give my CSI addicted hubby the crime scene towel.  what could be better for a guy who happily watches every CSI marathon on Spike?  And for Dan...the transparent toaster...that kid is always burning toast!

I made Portal Of Evil!  Not this site...but one of my submissions made it to the main page and main forum!  Yay!  Fifteen more minutes of internet fame.  I submitted this a while ago, almost nine months ago; and it finally made the front page. I think it's perfect for their "People Insane" category.  I leave it for everyone to figure out which Portal of Evil main page submission was mine. And I think everyone can find portal of evil on their own.

Toninght's the final episode of Project Runway Canada.  Lucien?  Bidell?  MG?  Hmmm, according to the fashion week website, the choice was quite easy for the judges.  We shall see, won't we?

And that's all for now.  We have more shopping to do, I need to get dressed and wrap my knee up.  I hope the malls aren't too busy today.  if they are...oh well!  Later!

Happy Kat Has Found Free Skinny Jeans Sewing Pattern!
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Happy Kat!

This is totally cool!  Up on Burdastyle.com; Burda's free pattern site; they have just posted a pattern for the latest and greatest SKINNY JEANS as a free download.  Imagine!  Free!  Skinny jeans!  And look at the detailing!  Wow! Here's the pattern page...click these pretty letters!  Needless to say, These are now in my PDF folder! And soon, after a trip to Len's to get some stretch denim in metallic, they will be in my closet!

Today Dan is home.  It's the week before exams and he has three tons of homework, but he decided to take a bit of time this afternoon to go out with me to Zeller's plaza for a bit of exercise.  He also needs winter boots, so a trip to the shoe store in in the plan, as is a trip to M&M's.  I haven't seen much of Dan over the last couple weeks.  his head is usually buried in his schoolwork, or he's at school, or he's tutoring first year students.  He's going to appreciate his christmas vacation. 

Wow.  it's december already!  This year went fast.  The end of the year lists are starting already.  Yesterday we were subjected to Stephen King's list of his favourite albums.  There's a reason why he's an author and not a music critic. Pitchfork will be out with their list of albums no one's ever heard of or bought, because if you heard them or bought them then Pitchfork wouldn't like them.  For those who think the Onion AV club isn't quite elitist or snobby enough, there will always be Pitchfork Media.  Soon will also be the year's most overused words, and then the word of the year. 

This year, you can vote for Mirriam-Webster's word of the year.  Last year was truthiness, and this year there's a collection of stellar nominees.  My vote is for Vanity Sizing, what with being so concerned with fashion.  Here's the list of Nominees, and you too can vote!  My second choice was W00T!

How to make a 3-d Paper snowflake.  This isn't you typical kindergarten snowflake. This is the deluxe super complicated one.  I think we have enough real snowflakes around here that we don't need a paper one! From the 77 design gifts for under 77$ website.  I need a barbie doll feather duster!  And remember, everyone out there needs their own personal CLOCKY!  The alarm clock that rings then runs away!

I have to go now.  Dan needs to do some homework.  he showed me the marks for one of his classes.  He's got an average on 115.  Out of 100.  Not bad!

Later!

 

Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Happy Kat!

I am having a terrible run of luck with my sewing things!  First my iron dies, and now the light in my Babylock burns out.  Normally this isn't a big deal, take the light out and replace it.  But the light in the babylock is in such a ridiculously awkward place that I need thin triple jointed fingers to get it out, which i don't have.  I got it to work without the light, some machines won't work at all with a burnt out light but i found a way to make it work. I will need to take it to the shop to get the light replaced.

And then I was sewing some lining into a skirt and I was wondering why i was having no end of trouble with the thread and the stitches...then I remembered DUH!  I was using a leather needle!  I took out the leather needle and replaced it with a non leather needle, a more appropriate 80 and then the stitches were fine.  The lining now just need to be hemmed.

In good news, i got something I've always wanted: a brain shaped jello mold.  Now I can make jello salads shaped like brains.  I have a whole bunch of old fashioned jello mold recipes, including one that looks like grey brains and one that looks like pink brains.  The box says to stick gummy worms in the jello as it sets so you can have worm infected green brains.  I like that idea!  I think I'll make that for Dan's birthday.  And then we can have maggot cheese too!

I got it in Waterloo at the Goth shop, Delirium.  The sign in the window says "sorry we are open"  Ben got a skull mug for himself.  I think Dan is planning on getting a couple things for his girlfriend there.  They have adorable cat skeleton purses and all types of adorable dead things.  There's also an amazing selection of Goth clothing, including a sweater that I would love to own and a couple tops that I would love to have.  Or am I too old for goth?  Nah!  You're never too old for Goth.

Tonight's the night that Sara leaves CSI in the TV show.  There are a couple intriguing spoilers and previews out there...and I'm trying not to watch them.  The actress has left hints that she could come back, and the producers have left it wide open for her to return, which is good.  Last niggt's CSI:NY was okay, a C grade at best.  I knew the boyfriend wasn't a boyfriend right away.  The jellyfish...meh.  Notice how the show is become more and more about detective Flack?  Is it because the fan boards are filled with so many "OMG he's so hott!" postings? He's one of those guys who is getting hotter as he gets older.  Not that I pay attention to that sort of thing...

Every once in a while I get perplexing e-mails with strange links in them.  Some I enjoy, such as the LOLinator, some I don't quite get until I explore them further.  This one was a bit of a puzzler, and it wasn't until I began looking at the different pages that I figured out why I would to quote, "find a gold mine of funny" It's website for retail buyers to show all the latest and greatest toys one can import from the land of toxic toys.  If they aren't toxic, then they are unlicensed rip-offs.  If they aren't either, then they have some of the strangest descriptions, some are typical alta vista literal word for word translations, while others are mystifying as to why anyone thought the product was a good idea in the first place.

Such as the icecream sticky ball which boasts the ability to:  And I quote: Especially the sticky egg, you can see the same cooking progress (spreading the pan then suddenly return to the original intact shape, very magical, cool 3) Also called venting balls
4) Suitable as stress relief squeeze ball both for adults or children
5) Also have another shapes: Tomato, pineapple, orange, pumpkin, strawberry, lemon, egg ect.
6) It also can put jelly or water inside  the Product is found here: http://www.made-in-china.com/china-products/productviewFoxELbiPsGWt/Ice-cream-Sticky-Ball.html

There's also this little item, a saving bank,  which carries the description: 3)Lock up the heart love precious and small thing, not be being walked by the pet or kid take to play in disorder.
4) Super card the jelly color department, the different color is fit to give you different of feel.
http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/dreamstone03/product-detailwqSnFZhdiTWb/China-Saving-Bank-DSTV-STSY01-.html

 I can also buy a buzz magnet olive.  What is a buzz magnet olive.  I have no idea, but I think it might be for pedo pervs, based on the description: You throw a pair of BUZZ MAGNET respectively into the sky at the same time, and they will together with each other when falling down because of the power magnetic. And it will bring a wonderful voice. They suit to all kinds of people including children and old men. Now we have kinds of shape and size.
Shape: Round, Olive, tube, heart and star and so on.
http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/jdciyi/product-detailKoVEkYHDbGcv/China-Buzz-Magnetic-Olive-CYT00001-60x18-.html  Okay, I've seen these little things, they are made of magnetic stone, the same as those bracelets in the health food store and they are quite neat. Nothing like the description, but a cute novelty nonetheless.

I have not the slightest idea of what this is, what it does, or why its shocking.  It looks like a piece of metal stamped with a strange design.  let's read the description, shall we? This toys is funny, you can play it with your friend, four people put two fingers on fly plate, later press bell of fly plate, the red light of fly plate will run, someone will be shocked when the red light stop on someone's fingers  http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/liuzhongya/product-detailUesmjcCxgEpH/China-Shocking-Toys-Fly-Plate.html 

Here's the site, it's to link buyers and seller together so the world can be flooded with junk.  There's far more than just toys, there's almost anything and everything, not just funny toys.  After looking around I found plenty of interesting things.  If i ever want a bunch of home sewing machines where I can stick on my own metal name plate and sell them as my own, this is the place to find them.   This page has all sorts of links perfect for sewing and fashion:  http://www.made-in-china.com/products/catlist/listsubcat/138/00/mic/Textile.html  I'm not sure what purfle is and how it relates to lace, but I assume letheroid is actually "pleather" I seriously don't want hand made voile lace with bread, unless it's wheat free bread.  Why would one need bread with one's voile?

This "jaki" sewing machine defies description as the description shows: Eaer to operare put the dress material on the machinestart pedal it can complete with nease change the ln ob postition at the right side of thr machine head it will realiz the change of stitch both upper and down Adopting design of bearded needle it is unnecessary to thread the needle hst put the thread in the bearded meedl e feeding material in same step both upper and down sewing becomes moreeasy cloth material won't be cr eased length of stitch distance will keep same wide working platfrom it is convenient and flexible when sewi ng. Adopt effective electronic postioning motor it is more convenient ad with more efficency when turning or h ooking thread.  See it here: http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/stanley770826/product-detaillMoxrvOJgEDc/China-Super-Hand-stitch-Machine-Series-JR-791-.html

And that's all for today!  And watch the stores, soon you will find my line of "happy sewing hours of life pleasure" sewing machines with the lincatz metal plate on them.  Later!

Picture Day!
Mood:  bright
Topic: Happy Kat!

Good monday morning!  It's the first of October and still summer seems to be hanging around!  Yesterday was warm and sunny and the whole week is supposed to be warm and sunny.  When is it going to turn cold a rainy?  My moneys on the morning of the Oktoberfest Parade.  There's a law that states the weather must suck for the parade.  Watch for The real estate company float, Schneider's and the Hans' Haus float, those are my son's girlfriend's floats.

Dan just finished designing and programming a shoot em up style game for a contest.  He did everything from scratch, he didn't use a game engine, he didn't use legacy code (whatever that is) everything is new and designed and coded by him.  I hope he does okay, it's his first entry in one of these contests, so just finishing it on time and submitting it is cool.  Checked the site, there were more drop outs than submitted entries!  I guess Dan did pretty good!

Now for me.  I made a skirt on Friday and Saturday.  I'll post a pic when i have the buttons on it.  I had to re-format the memory card in the camera, that was a pain and a half. I've also dropped out of all fashion and sewing places; all the posts are for halloween costumes and most of them are like; I've never sewn before and I have some fabric I think it's blue can i make it into a civil war era hoop dress would that be hard can you tell me step by step how to do it without buying a pattern?  NO!  No hoop dress! Not Yours!  Never!

I do have a couple pictures to share.  Once I got the card re-formatted it works quite well again. The colours are a bit dark, the lighting wasn't quite right and I forgot to turn on the flash!  oops!

This is an embroidery that I did.  When I was walking through the park I saw a garden of roses.  There were stiff and proper hybrid tea roses, some deep wine floribundas and some fragrant wild roses.  I sketched them out and decided that instead of painting them, I would embroider them in a style reminiscent of each rose.  The prim and proper hybrid tea roses I rendered in a very prim and proper padded satin stitch.  Hybrids are not quite natural looking, and the padded satin stitch gave them a very stiff, formal  and not quite natural look.  The floribundas were a favourite of the victorian era, so I did them in a long and short victorian art needlework style.  They look more natural and quite artistic.  The wild roses i wanted to be as natural as possible, so I used classic thread painting with a single strand of floss and attempted to make the blooms look as realistic as possible.  The leaves are done in satin stitch.

This is the painting I'm working on at the moment.  It's a variety of roses pained using gouache.  It's nowhere near finished, it's barely started!  I'll be working on this one for a while!

And that's all for today!  Later!

Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Happy Kat!

Tripod was giving me no end of grief yesterday, but it seems to be working today.  Bug zapper pages, blank pages...at one time while I was attempting to write a blog entry the screen went blank and replaced itself with a blank screen with a free smileys ad disguised as the MSN messenger box.  Turns out it was bad ad code.  I see more and more sites with bad ad code, the ad loads at the top of the screen then the rest of the page is blank.  Or the page loads, the ad begins, then the security program blocks a third party cookie and then the page goes blank.  This drives me crazy!

So all the bugs are out of tripod now.  I have page logs again.  I have site meter and page counters working again.  And with any luck, blog entries will post again.  There's been no end of problems for a few weeks, I was getting visitors to the site, but no way to see who, where or what they were doing.

In other news, we are having a september heat wave, hot hazy humid...with a smoggy orange sky.  Add to that the fact that three streets in the neighborhood are being ripped to shreds, which means gravel sand and dust everywhere...It's far safer on the lungs to stay inside.  And cleaner.  I went out for fifteen minutes and my poor little feet were filthy when i got home.  Guelph street is now ripped up, Moore street is ripped up and showing no sings of ever being finished, and Duke street has been a dirt pile since June.  They did Waterloo Street three years ago.  It's one of the oldest streets in the city, dating back to a path in the forests used by traders and natives, much like Queen, King, and the old Huron Road. That why Waterloo street twists and turns, it follows a very old and long gone creek bed. Waterloo street turned into an archaeological dig as they found terra cotta pipes that went nowhere, old coal gas pipes that led up to the cement foundations for light posts that no longer existed, Water and sewer pipes that were disconnected but never removed, gas lines that were forgotten about, road bricks, hard packed dirt, and some odd square timber pipes lined with asphalt and/or coal tar.  The neighborhood at one time had a community septic service and those were the waste pipes, some of the still-empty lots were at one time community weeping beds before the modern sewer systems were put in place. Fascinating yet still mindlessly boring if you don't live in the neighborhood.

I forgot to mention something really cool at Sauble Beach!  Until a couple years ago, Milkweeds were considered a dangerous and obnoxious weed in Bruce County, they were ruthlessly hunted and yanked from the sand dunes of the beach because cows that eat milkweed give bitter and mildly toxic milk.  Never mind the fact cows don't graze on the dunes, the rule stood as it was.  The rule was recently changed to milkweeds that are near cattle farms, so the dunes were allowed to return to their natural wild state, including milkweeds.  With the return of the milkweeds something else returned: Monarch Butterflies by the hundreds!  They use the shore of Lake Huron to guide them in their migration south and now the Sauble Dunes are a stop on their long migration.  There were butterflies everywhere this year.  It was quite nice to see.

We also saw a few hummingbirds. the ruby throated ones, they buzz around like dragon flies and a few times I though the one was a dragon fly.  Since pesticides and weed killers are banned there's an amazing variety of plants and insect life returning.  Remember the purple loosestrife scare of ten years ago?  How this invader was going to choke out native ditch and creek plants?  Not happening.  The native plants are more vigorous and aggressive than ever, choking out the loosestrife.  The jewel weeds were taller than Ben in a few places.  There were small ladies tress orchids growing along the side of second ave, not many but a few.  it's considered one of the rarest and most threatened of our native orchids, growing only in small areas along Lake Huron.  There's a field of thousands  near Chief's Point and Lonely Island, which is no longer an island but a peninsula.  The lake looks like the lower levels are permanent and will never ever return to where they were, which is good because there are cottages being built where the lake used to be when I was a kid.

So That's about all for today. I need to finish an important job, I'm going to devote the weekend to it and then I can start some other projects that have been rattling around in the back of my mind.  I have some black rib knit, some cotton lace and some sew on black not-rea-rhinestones and I have a cool idea for putting them together.  I'll have a sketch soon.  Mr Anderson and my babylock are going to get a real workout. So's the old machine. 

You know, when you get right down to it, I feel happiest when I'm sitting at my sewing machines sewing away.   Really, I enjoy it that much! So I'm off to do a bunch of sewing and stuff!

I've got a real winner in the "we have no life but we have a website" website contest.  This site keeps track of illegal billboards and signs in the GTA.  They post pictures of the offending signs, sign permits, cease and desist orders, measurements proving that signs are three centimeters too close to an existing sign...They may be helping urban clutter but they are contributing to the internet clutter! I gust they took that old hippy song by five man electric band waaaayyy to seriously!

So my kid is pestering me to get off so he can play overlord or somesuch nonsense!