Well, THAT was some birthday..

It was my birthday yesterday. Started by waking before 6 to get the trash out before the truck comes, and get the laundry in from the rain. Halfway through that, get a call from my sister that a tsunami is coming. Halfway through that, the sirens go off. Next 3.5 hours, load the car with essentials to possibly survive a week of disaster and no home. Camp at my sister's for a couple hours. Go home when nothing happens. Pass out on the bed from the stress. Whee.

Oh, yeah, and on top of it, it was a very special day for us in celebration of God, which involves juice fasting, just adding to it all, and then the party/celebration for it got cancelled cause of the tsunami.

Today is do over day. :p

The pic? How I had PLANNED for my day to go. :D

Hope you all had a better day of it! :p

Credit: Alicia Bock via the Kindred Site

Dancing coconuts..

Architecture in Helsinki - Like It Or Not from helsinkids on Vimeo.

This is one of my favorite songs, and then I saw the vid, and it's even better. :p

So..I'm studying it, to work out how it's made. My theory is the individual elements were embroidered, and then someone skilled in Flash animation strung them all together. Any thoughts on that? (I am terrible about dissecting things like that, lol.)

Sad eyed zombies..

I saw the paintings of Jaime Best ages and ages ago, and am only just now getting around to posting them..


I adore the colors, and the curvy lines..


I love the bleeding red trees, and the sad zombie denizens of her worlds..


I love the random details that make no sense, like the octopus a couple above, and the flying paper cranes scattered through out.


She shares her Etsy, under the name BestArtStudios2, with her husband, Mike Best. I think I would love a small print, to put in my own space in the house, my sewing room. Wouldn't YOU feel inspired looking at one? :p

Credits: Jaime Best

Change me..

So I have a wallet. I like my wallet. It works perfectly for me. But, the change zipper pocket just broke recently, and I am over fishing up a handful of change combined with lint, old receipts, and stray cookie crumbs from the cookie one of the kids stuck in my purse and didn't tell me about, when I need to pay for something.

So, I decided I needed a cute change purse. I saw a tutorial in one of the emails Craft Stylish sends out (not sure why I am subscribed to it..I am sure I had a reason at some point!), for a coin purse, and remembered I had a coin purse frame in my stuff that I hauled over from Australia. Obviously, it was a sign. :p

The outside is a Kona Cotton print (I think), a stylized Asian parasol pattern, and the inside is an Amy Butler Lotus print that a friend gifted me at one point, for doing up my house. So far, the colors of it aren't working in the house, but it sure looks cute inside my coin purse, don't it?? :D

I basically followed the directions of the tut, which works up really quickly, drawing my own shape that I wanted rather than what they showed, but I am not 100% sure I am going to leave it at that. The frame I have is not one that you sew into, and the tut has you just glue the fabric in in those kinds; but I have also seen instructions where you crimp the frame around the fabric, with some kind of special tool. I don't have the special tool, of course, but I think I am going to give it a go with a well padded pair of pliers, and a little verrry gentle pressure. Wish me luck! :P

PS Never mind my crap photog skills...this is the second batch I have taken, on different days, and they still suck. I refuse to wait til more daylight to try again.

Bring the story to life..

My SIL sent me to Indie Quarter, where I saw this. Cooooool....

Fire rainbow...

Fire rainbows....how could I resist?

The proper, scientific name, circumhorizontal arc, just doesn't carry quite the same ring, does it? :p



Credits:
1. Rudy Malmquist
2. Ratestogo
3. Hubpages

Fireflies..

I haven't lived in a place with fireflies in over 20 years..I miss them. There's nothing else like that magic in the air.


Credit: Le Divan Fumoir Bohemian

J-pop..

My dd has become Japan-obsessed. She loves all things Japanese...she is teaching herself Japanese, both speaking and reading and writing.. is perfecting her Origami shurikens.. is trying to convince me that Hakuna Matata, in Japanese, is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the original (When hell freezes over!!)..etc etc.

So when she desperately needed a new carry bag, anime inspired print was the obvious choice. :p



She is also cow obsessed, so the lining, while seeming bizarrely unrelated, was actually perfect. And seeing as we are in Hawaii, and she has a whacked sense of humor (no idea where she gets that from), the MooMoo was perfectly acceptable. :p



The whole shebang went over VERY well. :D

Pattern, my own; a magnetic snap closure, lined with very stiff interfacing, and self made piping bordering the edges.

Big surf..

The best part? They were 30 feet. We were standing on a 40-50 foot cliff, and were practically staring them in the face on their way past. If you feel like playing eye-spy, and maybe straining your eyes a little, you can click and enlarge the third pic, and try to spot the surfers on the other side of Waimea Bay.

(The Quiksilver tent was there for the Eddie Aikau memorial big surf comp. You can click through for more professional pics, and a better perspective of just how stomach-dropping those waves were. I recommend it.)

Happy New Year..

Well. Apparently, it's been almost exactly two months since I last posted. How the heck did THAT happen?

Here's hoping 2010 is a bit better!! :D

Good news is, since I wasn't blogging, I was actually MAKING stuff..when I wasn't collapsed facedown on the bed from all the madness in my life nowadays. So I actually have a few posts backed up...they should hold me for at least a LITTLE while, lol.

Happy New Year to everyone!! Make it a good one!!

(The images are of a totally random family I sat down next to on the beach last month..they just seemed appropriate for this moment, for some reason. I think maybe the New Year's firework smoke is getting to me. *cough*)

Tap tap tap..

I can play guitar. A little. All the basic chords, and few of the more exotic ones. But all the practice in the world, and I still don't think I would ever sound like this guy. :p

Jeremy..

My friend wrote and sang the song..her 16yo son shot the vid..her nephew played the music. I love it.

Insanity..

I had a special occasion to go to, and needed something special to make, but super easy.

I had flour. Butter. All I needed was a can of condensed milk, and wa-la...caramel tarts. They are so freaking yummy...but it's insane to eat more than one. Maybe one and a half. But not two. Ask me how I know. :p


If you want to try these yourself, here ya go:


Caramel Tarts


1.5 c flour
1/2 c butter
a couple tablespoons water
generous pinch fine sea salt

1 can condensed milk


Take a medium pot, fill it to the top with water, and put it to boil. Remove the label off the condensed milk, lay it on it's side UNOPENED in the water, and bring it all to a boil. (DISCLAIMER: This is the way I do it. But it's been known to pop, so I've heard, so I do it when I am not planning on being in the kitchen while it cooks, and with a lid. I have no idea what is supposed to happen if it pops, cause I've never seen it happen, any of the times I've done it, or any of the times any of my friends have done it. Proceed at your own risk.)

Once it boils, turn it to a simmer, and let it simmer for a couple hours. Add more water as it boils down, to keep the can covered. Turn off, take out of the water, and let it cool. Or, do this all the night before, and just turn the burner off and let it call cool itself without having to ever touch it, like I like to do. When you open it, you will have thick, creamy caramel. This stuff is unreal to dip apple slices in.

Crust:

Rub the butter into the flour and salt, til all rubbed in and greasy. Sprinkle in a couple tablespoons water in, and just mix JUST enough to get it mixed, and the dough pulls together. Add a little smidge more if you need.

Preheat the oven to moderate (350* F or 180* C). Press a 1 inch ball of dough into the bottom of the cups of a muffin tin, and press it all on the bottom and up the sides by about a 1/2 inch. Or else use those little patty pans, and go all the way to the top. Bake approx 10 min or so, til lightly golden. Pull out and cool. Pop the little pastry shells out of the pans, scoop a dollop of caramel into each one, and restrain yourself from eating way too many cause they look like little harmless mouthfuls.

Sunset..

Sometimes, it is nice to stand in the middle of a travel poster...

Messy, messy housekeeping..

Ok..so, in my quest for the elusive 3-column template, I have managed to wipe..well, pretty much everything except the actual post content. So bear with me, folks...things are gonna be strange around here for a bit! :p

Oh, BTW, I managed to wipe my blogroll. Anyone want to remind me who is supposed to be on it?


Credit: Plan59

Superhero dreams..

My dh showed me this vid, and I couldn't stop thinking, this person is as good as Julian Beever! And then I looked it up...:p

Post-it love...

SO. CUTE. :p

Found via ..I love love.

Hot hot hot...

It's hot and steamy and just generally slightly uncomfortable here...







I think these breezy, light, cool clothes by PlumPrettySugar are just what I need.

Credits:
PlumPrettySugar

The Butterfly Circus..

Completely, totally worth the twenty minutes spent.

ETA If for some reason, it's not working for you, try click here: The Butterfly Circus

Blue and Green..

I was sitting there, staring up, and the tree above was practically glowing against the aqua sky, backlit by the sinking sun. It was MAGIC.


Unfortunately, my crapola camera couldn't quite capture it. That's it...I am going to make the trek to pick up my FIXED CAMERA tomorrow. I can't take any more of this!