Time machine

I was wishing my energy lasted at least a couple of hours after the kids went to bed.  I had a sink full of dishes to do, a dishwasher full to unload, and after all that boring but required work I was hoping to still feel energized to work on some photographs that I was going to stitch on.
I read them a story, kissed them goodnight and left the room.  But I kept hearing their little voices, their little feet stomping around in their room.  What in the world could they be doing?
They were building a Time Machine!!!!
Lets check it out.
Two staircases (came from a doll house).  A spinner (from a lego racing game), that Patrick called the clock; an important piece of a time machine.  A stuffed snake, curled on a tin platform (the box from the lego racing game).  A part of a barn toy.  Some race cars.

A lego superhero robot on the left (he's got a name but I can't remember it)

A pink sand bucket.  Some doll house furniture.  Staircase.

A horse.  Really?  On top of a doll house armoire?  I wonder what his role is?  Some chairs and cabinets on the right (from the dollhouse)

A toy baking dish (must be important).  A lego race car.  Some cards.  The snake again.

So you wanna travel?
I am going to bed.
PS. No the dishes didn't get done.  And I didn't stitch any photographs.

Bone brew!

I am back in Halloween mode.  I was trying to figure out what to do with a skeleton stamp I got.  He/she was kind of tall for an ATC.  As I was chopping it in pieces I ended up with a lot of bones and body parts and it occurred to me that I can bag the parts and make tea bags. 

Some wax paper from the kitchen did the trick.  And after over a month I am back on my sewing machine.  Enjoy some bone brew!

My son shaved my arms

I've had an interesting week with my son.  He needed a haircut.  I've been cutting his hair for the last 3 years, but it has never been a pleasant experience.  He hates getting his haircut.  He squirms, and cries, and moves and I always end up yelling at him in frustration.  I wasn't looking to cut his hear this time but he needed it.  In my attempt to get him comfortable and unafraid of the shaver I let him hold it, turn it on and off, and somehow I found myself offering him to shave my arm hair (not arm pits, arms).  I needed an arm shave anyway, ha ha.

Then on Tuesday, his school called us to tell us that during recess he decided to pull his pants down and pee on a tree in the playground.  He was singing the alphabet song, the teacher said, and when she called him, he looked at her and waived.
That evening when I got home from work, he told me himself that he peed in the playground at school.  'Sorry mom', he said, 'I be a good boy tomorrow'.
And we had a talk about bathroom and restroom.  He told me that Restroom is at school, Bathroom is at home.
It's Friday and the school week is over.  He is sitting next to me drawing angry birds.  I feel happy that he makes my life interesting.


 
 

Sno cone

Oh please, can I have a sno cone?!


 Red!!!

Can I taste it?
Yes.  Here you go.

Ridiculous pictures of the foreign kid

A kind hearted co-worker recently shaved her head as part of a fundraiser for childhood cancer.  Her hair has grown an inch or two since then.  When I see her I am reminded of a time when I too had very short hair.  My co-worker wanted to see some pictures, and I finally dug them out.
Some of you may recognize me, others will never believe this short hair kid is me.  This was 16-17 years, when I was 16 or 17.  I was an exchange student in Virgina, and as a joke sometime I was called the foreign kid.
In this picture below, a hair coloring accident made my hair black.  Luckily I used to get it cut every month, so my dark hair stage was short lived.







But my short hair stage lasted several years.  I am trying to remember the real reason that I decided to grow it long:
1. Moving to Nebraska in the middle of winter with short hair, brrrr it was cold.
2. Being mistaken for a little boy occasionally.
3. Needed a change.

Xeriscape

A mile from my house, just across the street from one of my favorite local parks and pool, The Arrowhead Park, there is a little corner of land dedicated to conservation, education and desert landscaping.  It's called Xeriscape.  Some years ago David and I found a geocache there.  It's been a long time since I've walked through it, but I pass by it with my car all the time.
I took Maggie there after she started the day with a Dora the Explorer on her mind.  We went exploring the xeriscape.

There is a giant waterdrop artwork and I took some pictures of it.


And some artwork details below.


And my little bird Maggie.

ATC

ATC = artist trading cards.  But at my paid job ATC = air traffic control.  I am giving some collage/mixed media a try, and ATC seemed like a good start.  Small, quick to make and mistakes are not easily recognizable.  I've been thinking about Halloween.  I saw some cool decorations at the craft stores, but even with their advertised 40% off, I still can't afford them.  I will be making my own in the coming weeks.

The Angry Birds castles

Patrick:  I know what we are going to do today Maggie.  We are going to build an Angry Birds castle.

And in no time castles went up, and castles went down. 

Giving life to trash

I was making envelopes from old road maps and some ledger paper I found at the thrift store.  Maggie was excited.  I was teaching her to write letters and send them in the mail.  Not many people do that today.  I think it can be very rewarding for both, the person that writes it, and the person that receives it.

Then I came across these little cardboard boxes from a 4x5 film that my husband occasionally uses.  They were going in the recycling bin.  The shape and the thickness of them intrigued me, I tried to fit the envelopes that I had made few days ago.  Perfect fit!!! 

So I made some stationary boxes for the envelopes to go in.

September 1st and it's still summer

We went to cool off today at the waterpark on Knox street.

Chris Konstantino

When I was 21, I was dating my husband and he took me to New York City for St. Patrick's Day.  On the evening of St. Patrick we went to a bar on Times Square, I think it was called Smith's.  We were going to have a drink and people-watch and possibly meet interesting Irish characters.  My husband spotted an old man, sitting alone, having a drink and he was sure the old man was Irish.  But he wasn't.  He was actually a Greek/Macedonian, he was from the same parts as my grandpa and was about the same age as my grandpa.  Chris and I became good friends, exchanged addresses and telephone numbers and spoke a couple of times during the year.  The next year before St. Patrick's day I sent Chris a letter telling him to meet us at the same bar on the night of St. Patrick.  And we met again. We had a drink or two that night.  We spoke once or twice on the phone during 2002.  After that we exchanged Christmas cards and I just found one as I was going through some shoe boxes of cards.  There is no date on it, and I can't quite remember when it was sent.  Maybe 2005 or so.  I can't remember the last time I heard from Chris, but it has been several years at least.
This morning I decided to call the number I used to have for him.

Me: Hi I am looking for Chris Konstantino.
Voice (in an East Asian, middle east accent): Who?  What's the name?
Me: Chris Konstantino.  He used to live there in unit number....hm....
Voice: Oh my Gosh!  Chris Konstantino!!!!  He's been gone, long time, maybe 10 years ago.
Me: 10 years, couldn't be.
Voice: Yes, he checked out, long time.  His health wasn't good, he couldn't breathe, he was on oxygen.  He had to go, you know.....
Me: Are you saying he just moved out, or he is gone as in he passed away?
Voice: No he moved, but I tell you he was sick so I don't know.  He may be in a nursing home, but that was long time ago.  He was sick.  You are a relative you need to find him.
Me: I am not related, no.  He was a friend.  He was where my grandpa was from, and he was about the same age. I didn't think he had family so I used to write him sometime, you know for Christmas and such.
Voice: oh yeah, yeah.  I don't mean to break your heart, but he may be gone.  His health, I tell you when he left......yeah it wasn't good.  If you find him let me know OK.
Me: I will, thank you. Bye.

So how do you find someone that you only have a name for and an address that is no longer current?  I am not sure of exact age, 70+ I think.  White Pages or 411.com didn't give me much.  I have a scribble in my address book of a friend he had in Colorado with a phone number.  I called the number but it's been disconnected. 

60/40

60/40 is a type of solder that I like a whole lot better than 50/50.  From a chemical standpoint these two differ in the proportion of tin/lead they each contain.  From my standpoint 60/40 flows better, sets in quicker and shinier.
50/50 is cheaper, so I started with that because I needed practice and didn't want to spend a whole lot of money.  I struggled with it a bit and kept thinking I am doing something wrong, until I met again with my friend Josie, who taught me how to solder in the first place.  I discovered that it's my solder and not me doing something wrong.
And here I am working on some stuff for a crafty party this Saturday.  The theme of the party is 'Wish you were here' so I used an old airplane paper ticket to embellish these charms.  They are ready to be soldered in the picture below.

Disappointed amateur mechanic

That was me today, a disappointed amateur mechanic.  My car has been sitting on my driveway for the last two months.  It was overheating at first.  When that problem disappeared on its own, one day I noticed bunch of wire looking stuff hanging from the bottom of my car near the front passenger tire.  I thought I picked up something during driving, but it didn't take long to discover that it was my serpentine belt.  My car died as I parked one night coming home from work. That was two months ago.  Since then my car hasn't moved, my battery dead, unable to recharge itself without the missing belt.

My dad usually comes to my rescue in situations like this one, but this time for various reasons it hasn't worked out that way.  After trying to get a schedule worked out with one of my neighbors who offered to help, today we got the belt on with the help of my other neighbor.  I had oil and grease under my nails when it was all done.  I felt good!!!  I left to go to work using my husband's car, while the battery was plugged in and charging on my car.  I was happy, I was looking forward to having my own car again. 
But all that was short lived.  My husband informed me that he tried to start the car while I was at work and it was smoking.

Coffee machine

Here is something that melts my heart and makes me look forward to a time when my son is old enough to build real things that are functional.  He had noticed that I drink coffee in the morning (just a cup a day) and he made me a coffee machine out of legos.  Sweet, no?!

Maggie's vehicles

She's been drawing again, my little artist daughter has been drawing cars.  They look more like campers than cars, but she calls them cars.

Maggie, the Dark Knight and two American citizens

The above things have this incommon:
1.  On the day that Maggie was born we went to the movies to see The Dark Knight.  That was 4 years ago.  She was born few hours after we left the movies.
2.  Maggie and I became citizens on the same day, 4 years ago.  Me in the morning by naturalization, her in the evening by being born in this land.
3.  We are going to see the Dark Knight Rising later this afternoon.

We had to add something a bit lighter than the Dark Knight in this mix.  Soooooo she chose to have Hello Kitty cupcakes for her birthday, with Angry Birds candles.
Happy Birthday my little bird!!!

Wizard of OZ, just for practice

I keep practicing soldering, and I keep having issues.  Too hot, solder's running and dripping, escaping from my iron like it was mercury and not tin and lead.  Or too cold, creating this 'pointy mountains' as I call them.  I am not sure who to blame: the rheostat, the iron, the solder or my inexperience.
Here are some new ones I worked on last night.  I found this cool Wizard of OZ paper at Archiver's, a store a mere mile from my brother's house in Omaha.


I stamped the backs, but couldn't quite fit the words in one line.