Time for a good revamp!

Gonna revamp the way this looks time for something new and splashy...stay tuned

Childish Chickadees, Immatured

Learned that chant from a friend of mine years ago as a line to tease others playfully when they were doing something off the wall. Have not thought of it in years till i was drawn to figure out making a chickadee out of beads.

So here's my latest creation and addition to the store: http://etherealrhapsody.etsy.com/

What do you think? The trick is if i will be able to make it a sibling....heehee.

Keep Crying

Had a growing experience yesterday when my 3 yr old sprayed sunblock on the left directly into both his eyes on a single spray. Will never forget the panic when my husband and i looked up from our conversation to find him screaming and holding his eyes. I thought the worst had happened in that he had cut or hit his eyes on something when Brian grabbed him off the floor and ran for the kitchen sink, and annouced that it was sunblock.

So began the frantic attempts to wash it out off his eyes. Ever try to get water in a screaming child's eyes? First we tried to pour water into them but of course his eyes were squeezed shut and he was trying to rub them. Then we tried to use a water squirt bottle to spray water into his eyes, then we placed him in the bathtub fully clothed and Brian even got in it with him and tried to get him to place his head in the water and open his eyes. Then we muscled him and filled a brand-new infant nose sucker bulb with water and dripped water into his eyes. Then i held him and told him to weirdly enough to "keep crying, so that your tears will wash it out"
What a scare because during which he told us that he couldn't see. Then we got on the phone with Kaiser and the poison control center. What a lesson to learn! Here are some steps that in hindsight are easy enough but in the moment might be valuable to you.
1. Flush out the eyes. Poison control Dr indicated that the best thing was to sit them in the bathrub and pour water on his head, the water and the combination of that likely to make the child cry will help to clean the eyes
2. Kaiser had us try to check to make sure that his pupils looked the same and that he was able to move his eyes to follow our movements/direction.
3. Check for redness in the eyes, even an abrasion could be expected (of the cornea) which would be bloodshot in the eyes for the next 24-48 hrs and to seek Medical advice if that occurred in that timeframe
4. Sunblock per the Poison Control Dr does not cause blindness, the aftermath will very much be discomfort like getting sand of an eyelash in the eyes
5. Could possibly give the child a tiny bit of Tyenol to ease the discomfort. We did not even need to go to this step
6. Always good to know what the Poison Control number is to get reassurance and to give detailed information such as the child's weight and age to adjust the above
7. You never know when your child might do something so unexpected, best to be doubly aware of all potiential dangers.

It took about an hour after the incident for him to be his normal self again, and i'm pretty sure he was rather scared by our reactions as well, he was seeing fine, eating dinner fine and went to bed his normal self a few hours later. What a day.

Diaper Cake for Violet's sister

So i took it upon myself to make a diaper cake because we needed a centerpiece for our office shower. So i buy the diapers and grossgrain ribbon and figured i'd wing it and see what happens.
Well it was a little tricky than i thought but i managed without a single rubber band.
There was a fair bit of slippin' and sliding till i figured out how to use the ribbon as a much needed "extra hand" I'm even told it was sturdy enough and made it's way to it's new home in her SUV.

Ready to see the cake?

Brillante Weblog: Premio-2008

My fellow EtsyMom Rebecca Maples of http://rebeccasrags.blogspot.com gave me this award. Thanks Rebecca for thinking of my blog. So now per the rules I get to pass it along to seven other worthy recipients. Here are my seven, in no particular order do check these sites out when you get the chance.
Liv'n Good at http://livngoodjewelry.blogspot.com,
Crafty Equine at http://craftyequine.blogspot.com ,
Mallory at http://yesiambakingapie.blogspot.com/ ,
Nakpunar at http://nakpunar.blogspot.com/,
Thumbelinacreations at http://thumbelinabeadedcreations.blogspot.com/,
BabyLyons at http://www.the-giveaway.com/ , and
BeadedSocks at http://beadedsocks.blogspot.com/
So here are the rules for those of you that I have nominated:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

9 Hour Scissorgami

Ok, so i am so not going to take on a paper box project for awhile. 9 hours back to back paper cutting was not my idea of trying to make a deadline. As usual over extended my creative spirit and did not fully anticipate the task for juggling the family and also trying to get my latest project commitment done. I am scissor-gami-ed out. A term coined by a co-worker who saw my antics with the scissors.
Time to drop everything and take care of number 2...my family. No, number 1 is not me. I hope the time spent pays off for my buyer whose wedding is coming up at the end of this week.
I've apples to dehydrate, desserts to make, carpets to clean, laundry to get through, HR block classes to complete, Dad's stuff to ship, Bro's stuff to buy, gather my belonging for the upcoming trip and playtime with my kids! Yeah!

Trivia Answer: 60 Crabby Cream Cheese Wontons

One of my favorite recipe websites is www.allrecipes.com One of the many benefits of the site is you can instantly customize the recipe for the quantity you want to make in a batch, larger or smaller...On there you can find a recipe i first used to make Crabby Cream Cheese Wontons. They were excellent! What is the number of wontons on the "Original recipe yield"?

Congrats to serendipityrose for getting the Crabby Cream Cheese Wontons trivia correct! She will be featured as of 8/15/08

Leavin' on a jet plane

I do hope i'll be back again...i have the plane tickets to at least. Going to visit the little red dot, my country's fond nickname as it is so tiny that it is just big enough for the little red dot to mark its spot without any real landmass on the World Map.

My hubby and i expect great changes in the near future as far as our day jobs and if i don't seize the chance to go now, i will not have the chance to take a good vacation back home. So i'm looking forward to seeing all my friends, gouge myself on Hawker Centre Food, watch the beach and water alittle from the other side of the Pacific.

So i'm counting the days! Making a list of food that i NEED to eat AND we're going to take little Ellie. I thought Nathaniel's record of 1 year and 2 months would not be broken but she going to break it at 11 months. I hope Nathaniel is going to enjoy himself more this time as we'll have more time to look around.

Paper Plus Supplier

Ventured out of my comfort zone this week and wehn into the industrial park that is on the way home from work. Have been seeing their sign about Paper Supplies and given the limited variety in the carft store, i figured now was the time to venture out. Especially since a potential customer wanted boxes in the right "blue" in the UK. ( I also sold something for the first time to a buyer in Rio De janero...woo hoo)
I go in thinking this will be an easy zip in an zip out errand...an hour later, i emerge with in depth knowledge about how the paper mills work, how not every paper in the same sample book is available in the same weight. How to gauge paper weight and how the mill has to start with white and work all the way down the color scale before coming back to white. I also left armed with sample books and a new friend at the paper store.
Am rather happy about my accomplishment, really feels like "i'm in business" So...here's to more paper and scissor-gami!
Click the title header to be directed to the Store i found!

Tomatoes: Before and After

Before: a bowl full of Roma Tomatoes that are starting to over-ripe...what to do?

After: I made sphagetti sauce. Throw in some garlic, parsley, olive oil and onion and voila! they passed the Nathaniel test and so that's always a good sign. If he eats it, it can't be too bad

And...the tomatoes just keep coming...i think i'll sun dry them next....stay tuned for more on Rachel's Roma Tomatoes

What i was doing 4 years ago

Four years ago, i got married yesterday and today would have been my first day of my honeymoon. It all just seems like yesterday though. Can scarely believe that i already have 2 kids and have moved 3 times since then to the home we now live in. Wow...where does the time go. I even have the floorplan of what it all looked like and how it was setup and planned. I have been so blessed with a wonderful husband and a pair of children. Wonder how much more will happen in the next 4 years that i can't fathom at this moment will be in store for the future.

The Lost Picture

So assuming you have a digital camera, have you ever had the most dreadful experience of mistakenly hitting the delete button and not only that the delete all button and even worse hitting the yes, delete all button? I did. This was when we had a regular digital camera that shook the picture with my unsteady hands. Before we got our intelligent digital SLR.

Well the one and worst experience that i had of the above was when i deleted Nathaniel's first christmas pictures...yes all of them. The gravity of my error was compounded many months later because it happened that that would be his grandfather's final Christmas before he passed away the following year. I could not have felt more bad! I even tried to run some sort of card recovery program on the card but was not successful in recovering anything. I assumed the pictures were lost...yes, forever.

Yesterday, my dad, who happened to take the old digital cards without my knowing, ran his program on them and he's retrieved a number of them. Here's the most precious one.

Yes it's blur, yes the background does not make sense but that picture says a great deal to me. We'll never be able to take this picture again. But i hope it will really contribute a great deal in our trying to bring across to Nathaniel who his grandfather was

Letter to Luis

writing a letter to a child i have been sponsoring in Bolvia...Think it would mean so much more to him if i were able to write him a letter in his language...Hoping the translator tools will be of help.

Dear Luis Alfredo,

Am always so happy to receive a handwritten letter from you. Am trying a new program that will allow me to translate my English words into your language. I do not know how this will work out but hope you will understand most of the letter.

I hope you keep warm during the winter. It is summer over here and is very hot. It is nice that you are interested and enjoy sports and basketball and are even on a team. Maybe someday soon, you will get to be on your city's team.

How is your family? I remember that you have a twin brother? I remember this because my husband also has a twin brother. Are you best friends?

I have 2 children now, Elizabeth was born last October and Nathaniel is now 3 years old. I hope you continue to grow strong and healthy and that you will continue to learn about God and His love for all of us.

Take care my friend. May God bless you.
love,

One of my first creations

The paper box. Simple, fundamental paper. I've had the chance to make hundreds of these since i opened Etsy. Did some for school functions but most for weddings. I hope to broaden the design capacities in the near future. Thing is, the more labor intensive they get, the most i will have to charge and right now, i'm pretty happy with the cost-price ratio, and so do my buyers so we'll see what happens...These are the small size.

I am an Alien

If you want to experience a really long application process, then look no further than filing an application with the USCIS aka the US immigration department. It's more complex then itemizing your taxes or taking your calculus exam. With all due respect, all the folks behind the glass have different answers to the exact same question. It's just so not fun, but thankfully everything happens ok in the end...just don't lose your alien number...ever

2 more holes

Do you have a recommendation? Do they offer this service at a clinic? Is there somewhere that you trust that you can go to? These were all our thoughts and questions in trying to find the right place to get Little's E's ears pierced. That was just a short 2 months ago. We ended up settling for Claire's near our house. Brian of course interrogated the poor man, a pretty young fella with at least 5 piercings in one ear. "How many have you done? Have you been doing this for awhile? How many babies' ears have you pierced?"
Well, we definitely wanted them done right and were rather worried about her sensitive skin and how it would react to the piercing. So we finally braced ourselves and with protective big brother Nathaniel by her side, Daddy holding her with apprehension and Mom just hoping it'll work, trying to make sure he pinpointed the exact spots correctly on the ears, Little E began her ear-piercing journey. He fired the first one.
Took about 2 seconds before Little E's face started to crumble. At that point Brian wanted the second one done and over with as soon as possible. We all them heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Thinking about my own ear piercing experience when i was 12, my first pair were sapphire colored earring studs my mom bought me as we went to a jewelery store for my ears. Like injections, i hate it when people try to tell you it "does not hurt" or "it hurts only a little" to try to get you to be less afraid in the anticipation of the procedure. My thought is, if it hurts, tell me it hurts so i'm not alarmed that i'm the only one on that feels a great deal of pain and that something must have gone wrong. I have to admit, after the first earring went through my ear and the stinging began in real earnest i had, at 12, to tell them to hold off for awhile and it took more mental preparation of my 2nd ear. To this day, i only have 1 set of ear holes. I don't think i will want to go through that again.

Caught in a net

For the first time this year, we took the kayak out on the lake by our house. Was lots of fun, got rather soaked and the kids loved going under the fountain on the lake. We saw a small dead fish and that was kinda gross but all in all we had a perfect day with friends. Have a ton of brownies and cupcakes left over though...what will we ever do with them?

Little E and Rachel got some time together staring at each other trying to figure the other out. A 9 month old staring at a 4 month old, it was a hoot. Didn't have batteries in Elefun though so the mommies took turns throwing the "butterflies" in the air and watch our boys squeal and yell, trying to catch them as they came down.

Another terrific day, another terrific memory.

Everybody Clean-Up

Mom loves to sing this song to Nathaniel on her visits with us to get him in the mood to clean up all his toys. Well today, that applied to me...only it wasn't toys but it was all my crafting stuff...yeah they are like toys to me i guess. Found the arbitrary knitting needle in a box that i didn't know i had, stamps galore, tiles, ink, glue, adhesive...i could open up my own craft store! oh wait, i already have...such a occupational hazard to be so prone to pack-ratting.
Brian picked up this huge Styrofoam casing today and asked me if i wanted it. To his shock i said throw it away and he even asked me again saying "C'mon, surely you can turn this into something can't you?"

You have to laugh, it crazy funny, there's no way i'll be able to get through all my supplies anytime soon. Pity is i'm not the type of person as you know that likes to stick to one form of crafting...so i have to take stock of what i have in sections, my sewing section of the room, my baking section, my clay section, my stamp and sticker section, my books section, my jewelry section...i really should go buy one of those funny signs from Etsy that says "i have officially bitten off more than i can chew"

Today is July 4th, America's Independence Day, am so thankful to be in this country, in my home with my family...What a blessing, what a life!

So that's where she got them...moo

I recently did a trade with another seller as she really wanted to taste the taffy. Along with a beautiful trade, she sent me really beautiful mini business cards that were really unique. Today i found them...www.moo.com
Seems like they are based in London and ship globally and have a new approach to business cards in that they are of a smaller unique size and each of the cards in the 100 pack are different. Their logic is to showcase each product by itself.
Having been the recipient of a card, i am really impressed by its quality despite its compact size it does draw the eye to the product. And of course, i cannot resist the cute holders that one can pair with these. Whether in plastic, felt or leather...

15 Random Things from my store

Just to give you a snap shot of 1/7 of my store. Working on more of course.... hehehee

what i want to learn next : amigurumi

Amigurumi means "knitted or crocheted doll" in Japanese. Ami apparently means friend in French
So it's back to crochet for me...let me tell you, i've tried to "start" crocheting many, many times, i'm successful, but i crochet so infrequently it's as though i start from learning step 1 all over again every time! It's pretty amazing what one can make out of yarn. I don't know what i would do with a cupcake doll but look at this!
Anyway, i'm off in search of the perfect pattern,,,wish me luck and if you any clues on where to find patterns for these treasures, please feel free to share.

A new reperci for scaphetti

When i was little, i could never say the word recipe, it always turned out as reperci. Now my son's mix-up word is spaghetti wherein it becomes scaphetti. Isn't it funny how kids twist words, it makes the mundane things so much more fun...
Anyway let get back to crafting...I think it's high time to put more fabric items in my store and as the season changes, knits and things are going to come back into play....hasn't this year just whipped on? It's already July this week! Soon it'll be time for classes again with HR Block...so much to do.
Found some adorable crochet patterns and knitting patterns as well as sewing patterns..now all i need is to find the time

She was genuinely disappointed

Wow, had a big learning experience yesterday when someone told me she was so disappointed with her business card order. She made some valid points that i had not thought of before but i just wondered if she realized and took into account that she wanted something handmade. Of course i'm going to give her a full refund though it's really hard to shake this feeling of being appalled by her reaction. I do want to take it as a challenge though to improve and have taken the business card listings off my store for now. I understand better now that business cards if they are a reflection of the business and are seen in that light by my buyers then i really really have to step it up so this doesn't happen again. How else to get unfadable photo-quality cards without a 2 ply approach? hmmmm....think think think

Arte Y Pico award - Premio Arte Y Pico

Thanks to Priscilla of bijouxdellostregatto for giving me this Arte Y Pico award! It has such an interesting Italian origin!
The rules of this award are:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contrubuites to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico"blog , so all will know the origin of the award.
5) Show these rules.
Here are my 5 picks from Singapore to Sydney:

JulieTeo
Suncatcher
WhitePawCrafts
SimpleArtsPlanet
Katalatabata

Who founded Facebook? Trivia question 3 answer & winner

Who founded Facebook a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004 ?

Answer: Mark Zuckerberg (here he is!)

Like all things with drama, Aaron Greenspan, a Harvard classmate claims that he created the original college social networking system, before either Facebook or ConnectU were founded.

Mr. Greenspan is said to have established a web service that he called houseSYSTEM in 2003, 6 months prior to Facebook launching. houseSYSTEM was used by several thousand Harvard students and provided similar features to what is found today in Facebook; Zuckerberg was a user of houseSYSTEM. Greenspan is also claiming credit for Facebook’s name: he showed the Times an email dated Sept. 19, 2003 describing the newest feature of houseSYSTEM as “the Face Book.” Facebook initially launched under the name and URL of “TheFacebook” in 2004.

Unlike the founders of ConnectU who are suing Zuckerberg (of course, this is the states) for control of Facebook, Greenspan’s claim so far only extends to wanting recognition by others as being the founder of Facebook.

So anyway, the winner is from my Fabulous Artistic Mom team (FAM), Cindy Joy.
She will be featured here on this blog beginning 7/18
kristen from 6/27
craftgirlalli from 7/4
And my simple life 7/11
Don't forget to check out my new question in Gentlemen Start your search Engines!!!

Above Suspicion

Came across this movie today and was surprised by all the ironies of it. This was Christopher Reeve's last film prior to his accident in 1995. In the film he plays a decorated police officer who becomes paralyzed and also finds out about his wife's unfaithfulness with his brother. Just days after it aired, he was paralyzed in real life, more severely than portrayed in the movie. His wife, Dana, also had a small part in the movie. Prior to the accident, he did comment in this regard about the movie he had visited a spinal cord trauma unit in Van Nuys, California, to prepare for this role. He said these prophetic and widely quoted words: "A couple of days spent out at the spinal cord trauma unit and you see how easily it can happen. You think, 'God, it could happen to anybody.'"
After the accident, in 1998, Reeve said that he does not watch Above Suspicion when it is shown, but not for the reason we might expect. "...every time I left that rehab center, I would say, "Thank God that's not me." I was very smug about it and relieved to leave the hospital, and I regret that so much because I was setting myself apart from those people who were suffering without realizing that in a second that could be me.... I'm ashamed about my smugness, my complacency, you know, and it brings back a bad memory, so I don't watch that one."
On the top is a picture from the movie after he is paralyzed, on the bottom is a picture of him in real life after he is paralyzed. I believe to our generation he will always be Superman and though i liked the movie only somewhat and personally think it drags out quite abit, i still find myself rooting for him all the way to the end

Bath Bombs

First saw the un-melting scoops of ice cream looking treats in a downtown store. I was fascinated from the start and am thrilled to fast forward to the day where i found out how to create them. To make a long story short, a lot of quick mixing is required and added to that i've found the amazing properties of Mica Clay to cure these bombs. These are in the grapefruit scent and are available for purchase at my etsy store.
When i used my first store bought one, the owner gave me a tip and that was to take a hammer to these bath bombs to break them down if i was afraid that the bath would prove too strong, that's since been the best way i've found to be able to control how much of the bomb is used without wasting it as once it touches water, there is no going back.

Paid to Picnic !

Had a great time at our company picnic last Thursday. Took some shots and was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out. Nothing like hotdogs, burgers, salad and iced soda, while not having to work on a workday. Paid to picnic...an awesome concept don't cha think? One of my first friends at the job. Her last name is the coolest Nacagilevu...i don't even dare say it really as i can't get it out properly. From Fiji...i just have to take a trip there some day. Can't believe it's been 5 years. So much has happened since then. Am really thankful for a steady job and a good supervisor

Trivia #2 Winner and Answer

Trivia question was...Y.E.S. 93.3FM is a radio station in which country?
The answer is Singapore! Congratulations to "and my simple life" for being the first to answering it correctly. She will be featured on my blog beginning 7/11 (kristien will be featured from 6/27
craftgirlalli will be featured from 7/4). Don't forget to check out my new question in Gentlemen Start your search Engines!!!

Y.E.S. 93.3FM is a radio station of MediaCorp Radio in Singapore. Its target audience are people from 15 to 35 years of age. The station specializes in Chinese popular music, featuring artistes from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. 93.3FM is one of a select few radio stations in Singapore which boast a 24-hour non-stop broadcast with the above 9 DJs. Want to learn more? visit http://yes933.sg/portal/site/yes933

Little Hood: The first baby i showered

Meet REG! Those are this adorable little one's initials. It is too cool that we share the same first name and that i was given the honor of throwing my first baby shower for her mommy. It's a big deal as we do not have any kind of showers of the sort where i grew up in Singapore. Neither do they in China where REG's mom grew up as well. Both of us have officially assimilated the American culture. I often ask Brian, "Isn't it awkard to open a gift in front of the gift-giver?" in my culture it is also considered impolite. Now i recognize it as a self-preserving measure as i remember feeling so self-conscious and worried if i was "gushing" enough to show my appreciation for everyone's thoughtful gifts. I mean seriously how to you react to a situation like that when everyone is so nice but what if you really don't like a gift...you lie? Shocking! But in truth, it was very surprising and overwhelming to see how much your friends and co-workers can band together and give you so much in the most unexpected situations. All in all, it's very exciting to do shower the Americana way.

Sore Throat

Ok, so maybe my Moji is going to have it right today as i do feel gloomy. Things at work are changing, things at church are changing and yeah, they say "Change is good". Well i say good change is good. Think it's also largely in part due to the fact that i'm suffering from a sore throat post weekend in Ventura. My niece-in-law graduated from high school and we were all there to support her. Had never been to a high school graduation before as they don't have these things in Singapore.

Have to say from a design aspect, their choice of colors was very pretty, mint blue and black.

Fun fact: Found out that Hollywood star Kevin Costner attended Buena High School in Ventura.

Think my hubby will get a kick out of that. It was fun to walk the halls with him as he graduated from the same school as we went there for the graduation. We all couldn't believe it has been 14 years since his graduation. It didn't take as long as we feared for 535 students to get to their diplomas...The largest class ever to graduate from Buena High School stretched almost 30 yards down the football field, where they sat for commencement Thursday evening. Congratulations!

My moji has got it all wrong

I'm happy! really i am! My little pet that you see there all the way on the left has yet to get it right. I'm still figuring out what he's tracking on this blog that directs him to think otherwise. Wrote an article for the EtsyMom team and it was published on our e-newsletter. Ok not a big deal to you but i'm excited!
Today i also found a fabulous Etsy Painter who also happens to be a Mom. RebeccaGrantham
Her work brings out the "Ethereal" feel that i had when i thought up the name "EtherealRhapsody". Find out more about her work through MadebyMoms Boutique

Fo-Fo the Beta

Took Fo-Fo to work today so that my co-worker could feed him for me... Put his tank in a box in my car, it slooshed 4 miles to work as of course it was an afterthought. I mean the pet fish does come last in the totem pole in the family. I did unfortunately inadvertently cause the death of Nathaniel's first fish and pet beta "Fishie", a dark blue beta. FoFo aka "Teti" as Nathaniel can't make up his mind which to call the deep red beta will hopefully never find the cover to his tank left off and be with us for a much longer stint.

My First Jar of Pickles

My first little jar of pickles i harvested from my first cucumber plant! Yippee! Today was a great day. I slept in, Brian made breakfast complete with my favorite sausage. We found a small but dream pub table at Cost Plus World Market...who'd have thought?! I had curry and prata for the first time in 2 years! It was all good.

Everything goes in the mouth!

Was just watching Ellie again today and noticed how much she has grown just in the past few weeks. She is 7 and 1/2 months now and everything and anything goes into her mouth. My sunglasses she will grab right off my face, even if i try to drink a glass of water when i'm holding her, she does her utmost best to re-direct its path to her mouth. It all turns gooey from there...she's got two teeth at the bottom and she making the best use of them ever! She's also transitioned from smiling at every stranger to now solemnly studying their faces even though they try their hardest to coo a smile from her. It's such a wonderful thing to see her little character develop.

Trivia Question 1: Answers and Winners

Question was who starred as the tempermental diva named Carlotta in the movie The Phantom of the Opera (2004) and for 6 folks to each name one of the songs from her 2007 album "Seastories" Congratulations and thanks to HauteMommy, abby and kristien for participating and winning. Special thanks to DanaeWinters for her participation on my blog
HauteMommy will be featured from 6/6
abby will be featured from 6/13
DanaeWinters will be featured from 6/20
kristien will be featured from 6/27
craftgirlalli will be featured from 7/4

Can you name my flowers?

My house came with some very nice flowers. They are spread all around my small yards front and back. I think i can name most of them but needed help with the others. Anyone know their scientific names and special tips on how to cut them? I can post more pictures of each kind if you think you might know but need more pictures to verify.

1st row: ? and Gardenia and Calla-Lily (thanks danaewinters)

2nd row: Agapanthus (thanks Rebecca) and I have no idea

3rd row: Don't know but these are sentimental special the one on Right is Geranium

4th row: Hydrangea and rose

5th row: Penstemon (thanks danaewinters) and don't know

Most of my friends do not know that i have a diploma in flower arrangment but i feel like that has just introduced me to the world of botany and i've realised there is so much to learn about each flower.

Some of my latest experiments have included trying to turn my hydrangeas a deep blue or purple. How am i doing in that so far? They are turning a brillant pink so them must be some glitch in my pH theory, more acidic means more blue flowers? perhaps i'm working towards the wrong end of the scale.

The flowers in the 3rd row were given to us by my in-laws and since my father-in-law has passed away, that plant is even more precious to us. It grows easily into a shrub or a hedge-like bush almost. We keep it in a pot and have had it since 2005.

More on my plants very soon...

2 hr Countdown

Such a sweet old lady from Scotland, i really wanted to help her out, she was so interested in my nursing cover for her daughter in law after seeing mine and was leaving the US this Thursday, I had all the materials (of course) in my stash to make it so i had to. Trouble is i've only made this once before and i did not have a pattern, only my own nursing cover. Mad scramble, some unpicking had to be done, poor little E had to cry alittle to make it all work as i only had from 7am to 9am to make this and get myself ready to leave the house.
Two hours later, we had to leave for Sunday School and thankfully this was completed. I even had the presence of mind to snap a picture for future reference. "Not pressed is homemade" my sewing teacher had always disapprovingly ingrained into our minds...oh well, she'll definitely know it's homemade now. It's always nice to try to get away with the fact that something looks professionally made that someone doesn't go "did you make that?"
When i gave it to her though, she was so surprised and pleased, wanted to pay for it, imagine that. Now my husband is urging to add it to my Etsy Store...hmmmm?

Facebook

Ok, so MIRC, ICQ, MSN, Friendster, My Space, Etsy isn't enough, i'm now on Facebook. Look me up under Rachel Elizabeth, my avatar is currently that of a butterfly. (If you are an EtsyMom join the group.) I think i must have signed up for like 10 different web sites and applications in under 2 days. My email is going to be seriously bombed. I need to return to creating...and cleaning up this house.

Bloguzzled

Today i found all kinds of widgets for the blog. I mean someone could be reading this in Japanese if they wished! Anyway, do check the new features out, post a message on my chatbox, put your plug in my plugboard and rate my blog so i can improve and do this all over again. Check out that only one person so far out of 6 possible has won a spot to be feautured. Hooray! wish there were more.
On the home front we took out a stump in our front yard. Took all of 15 mins to earn our $100.They were a really nice, well-deserving landscaping service though, glad for that.

Arsonists strike us again

Fort Natomas was burned down again by unknown perps and their wheelbarrow of flammable fluid. Brian, Nathaniel and I helped rebuild this fantastical playground in 2006 after it was destroyed the 1st time by arsonists. We even hand painted a family tile to commemorate the event and it was embedded into the play structure along with hundreds of families from the community. Memorial Day 2008, Fort Natomas was burnt down again. We were aghast that someone would do this to something that was good and fun for all the families in the area. It will be missed by a large community!
Can't wait to rebuild it though, am encouraged that folks of the community are meeting this Thursday, less than a week after the crime, to discuss our rebuild. Here's to rebuilding it...again!! (should i start singing "We shall not be moved"?)

For more on the Story:
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/966694.html
For the rebuild website: http://www.fortnatomas.org/

Target Achieved

Finished a large project today for a customer! Love the satisfaction of completion and the knowledge that "i can take a break" from the repetitive crafting. I'm in no way complaining mind you but it's like a pure breath of fresh air to be able to take off that weight of responsibility that someone's paid for a project and it's deadline. Now i can take a good look around my craft stash, organize it somewhat and start on a new product just for fun because of course the ideas for new and fun things for the store come at the time when i just cannot put down this one other thing for fear of missing my deadline. Such sweet relief!

Paddling out

So now that i'm getting braver with this blogging business I'm going to start featuring some of the cool sellers on etsy. Do stay tuned and come back to support them! The first will be an EtsyMom from....Rome. If we are connecting so rapidly round the world now one can only imagine what our kids will be doing in time to come!

And now we are 2

Got my hubby into blogging today. Check out his website, Crunching the numbers! Think it'll be a cool little hobby for us as a thing we can squeeze in when the kids give us a second to spare. Am, in the vernacular, stoked!

1 drop in the bucket

This is my first serious blog. It's all so intimidating given the spectacular ones i've seen and given that i am quite the perfectionist. Oh well, we all must start somewhere mustn't we?
So, thanks to those who have been my inspiration to get my feet wet, not only in etsy but in this blogging business. Hopefully those who find themselves here will be in for a pleasant experience.