Sunday, August 26, 2007
I Think I Got the Macro Figured Out
Melody caught a lizard in the shady garden area by the front door. Would I be able to take a photo in which you would be able to identify what she is holding? Or would I be forever macro-challenged?
I think the trick is to make sure the camera's zoom is completely out. That seems to be the reason my previous macro attempts resulted in horrible blurriness. But wait... forget the lizard! Look at Mel's poor thumb! Maybe that's too much detail? 
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Fanta Cat Progress 2
I've been stitching Fantasy Flight off and on for about a month now. Except for a little backstitching, her lower half is finally finished. All that's left is the wing and veil on the right side.
I've been thinking about all the many (way too many) WIPs I've never finished. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, since I don't see myself getting all of them finished. My daughter seems to like cross stitching; maybe some day if she makes the jump to non-Aida evenweaves I'll give her whichever ones she likes.
Which WIPs will I pick up again? For now, I'm thinking of returning to Princess Swan. I still have all the blue threads in a little plastic bag, ready to continue.
Friday, August 3, 2007
An ATC in Progress
I gave some more thought to the 100 Themes Challenge, and decided that I should try to go through the list in numerical order; therefore, I would begin with #1, Introduction. I gave it a bit of thought and decided against having a meeting between two adults. But what if one of them were a newborn? Here is Introduction in progress. 
The background fabric is a little tweaked. This was my second attempt to fuse the fabric to a 3.5x2.5" piece of Peltex II, because the first time I had the iron set too hot which caused one corner of the Peltex to shrink and the plastic backing to fuse to the interfacing so it wouldn't peel off. R-i-i-i-i-i-p. Try it again. Iron. Low heat. Press quickly. The dark pink/purple star fabric was a leftover scrap from the teddy bear quilt I made a few years ago. I drew the baby's head on a piece of muslin with a pigment pen, based on a photograph of my nephew. The mouth didn't turn out quite right; I might fudge it later with a black pen (all my black craft pens seem to have vanished). I machined-sewed the mother with a free-motion presser foot, but there were sections where I undid the thread and resewed it by hand. I also added some more lines with the pigment pen. I should have done the pen first and the sewing second. It's not surprising I ended up doing something the hard way. Afterthought, what would I do without you? The mother's outline is based on a photograph of me holding my nephew when he was a day old. I'm trying to decide if I should add some metallic thread accents, or beads, or simple embroidery to the empty spots. I'm also mulling over putting my initials in the bottom right corner. I don't see many ATCs with a signature on the front.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Something New: Fabric ATCs
I first heard about artist trading cards (or ATCs) about a year ago. It sounded like another fun activity to do, but being the craftaholic that I am, I placed the idea in the "maybe another time" drawer in the back of my brain. Then, a couple of months ago, I was perusing a few quilting blogs when I saw several examples of fabric ATCs which renewed my interest. I think most ATCs are made from paper (think scrapbooking), but I like the idea of using fabric as the main element.
While I was making my regularly scheduled visit to Craftster this past weekend, I decided to hop over to their More Art, Less Craft forum to look at the ATC boards. The 100 Themes Challenge and the 100 Themes Gallery caught my interest. Must ... try ... this. In fabric. As for supplies, I still have plenty of leftover Peltex II (stiff, two-sided fusible interfacing) from my explorations into fabric bowls and boxes last year. I also have lots of scrap fabrics. And, I have two sewing machines -- I was tired of having a machine that couldn't drop the feed dogs, so I got a good deal on the second (via craigslist).
P.S. Yes, I still cross stitch, sew, and knit. I alternate weeks, heh heh heh.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Flowers and Lights
Here are some shots I took with my new camera. I stuck with Canon (like my last camera) since there would be less of a learning curve, plus I like the way Canons display colors better than certain other brands. I tried playing around with the macro function for this photo:
I don't know what kind of flowers they are. They just started growing in our rose bed a few years back. I don't think I have the macro all figured out yet, because I can't get it to always focus correctly.
For the next photo I experimented with the light effects option. I could choose from stars, hearts, and a few other shapes, but for this it was music notes:
Even the street light is sort of a large, blobby music note. Cool.
Only 13 more days until Melody comes home!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Some June Snapshots
My camera, a Canon SD100, has served me faithfully for several years, but it was getting pretty old as far as digital cameras go. These are among the last photos I took with it.
Back in March 2004, when Melody was in the 3rd grade, she attended an event called City of Readers and was given a packet of Red, White & Blue flower seeds for entering a flag coloring contest. She planted them right away, but only the blue flowers grew: morning glories. Here is the plant three years later. These are hardy flowers that are doing a wonderful job of surviving the southern California hot summers.
Now on to our next photo...
Pinky's 5th birthday party was at the end of June. The upcoming year will be very exciting for her, because she is starting Kindergarten next month! Sneaking behind her is Bubby, whose 1st birthday would be a week later.
One of my birthday presents last week was a new pocket camera with some nifty features. I will post a few more snapshots soon!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
I Passed, I Passed, I Passed
I passed the RICA!
I passed the RICA!
Please excuse my excessive joy.
I took this exam on June 16 and used the entire four hours. I didn't quite finish the final case study, but I ran out of steam at the end so I was mostly relieved to have it over. Most of the people in my particular testing room were at or near the end of their credentialing program like myself, but there were a few others who sounded like they were newbies who "just want to see how it is." $130 for a practice exam? It must be nice to be able to afford to take the exam unprepared, and then have to take it again later. Trust me, one time was more than enough.
This site gives you an idea of the topics I needed to learn over the last two terms of school. I tutored two first graders for about 7 weeks each, and that was a tremendous help because of the assessments I did and the teaching strategies I had to come up with to help each student with their particular literacy needs.
Other required exams I had to take were:
- CBEST which I passed in 1997 so I could substitute teach
- CSET which I took Nov. 2005 (and passed all three subtests) as a requirement for entering a California teacher credentialing program.
Now I just need to finish a health and safety course and wrangle an internship to complete my teaching credential.
Monday, June 25, 2007
The After-Reality of an Extreme Makeover
Way back in April 2004, during their first season on ABC, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to San Bernardino, California and did their first ever complete rebuild of a home. For some reason, I don't believe I blogged about this event, although I talked about it in detail on a cross stitch board three years ago. I wish I saved the thread. When I heard the news that the tv show was in Berdoo, I hopped over a few hours before the family was due to return from their vacation, took many photos of Ty Pennington, and watched the spectacle. This new home was for the Imbriani family; Mrs. Imbriani had donated bone marrow that saved a baby girl's life, and I believe the grateful mom nominated the Imbrianis for the show as a result. This is a photo of the front of the finished house, with the family being filmed inside (which is why there is a guy holding the front door):
I remember thinking that the water fountain in front was cool. I also got a good laugh at Preston Sharp's attempts at getting the porch swing to not dump him backwards (which it did) when he sat on it. I did observe that this was a very run-down neighborhood, which probably experiences quite a bit of gang activity. This house looked very out of place when compared to all the other houses on the street. About a block up the street is an old movie theater that was closed down years ago. On the cross street south of the house are both an elementary and a high school. I once substituted for a Kindergarten class at the elementary school, when the school went into lockdown during the kids' recess because of rumors of yet another riot at the high school. Anyway, that sort of gives you an idea of what kind of area surrounds this house.
Here is a screen cap of the house as it appeared on tv during the episode's second telecast:
Unfortunately for me, I did not have a DVR available to me at the time, only a junky VCR and an old tape. The recording was fine up until the crowd scene just before the "unveiling" where the picture became very distorted. This distressed me greatly, because this was my big moment on national tv:
I figured if a DVD ever came out, I'd buy it and have a nice, clear picture of myself to share with everyone. Alas, even though there is now a Season 1 DVD available, the Imbriani family is not on it.
Since the house is not far from a few schools and businesses that I occasionally need to go to, I drive by the house every once in a while. I noticed after the first couple of months that the water fountain was turned off. Then, maybe a few months after that, the house went on sale. It still appears to be on the market, and apparently nobody's buying. Nobody seems to be living in it, or has been for quite a while. The picture below is clickable (Melody took the photo) but it's still not that great of an image. I smudged out the phone number on the sign.
I'm sure the family had valid reasons for needing to sell/move out, and I hear that happens with many of the houses that are redone on the show. I just think of all the volunteers who put their heart and soul into making a magical home for someone in need of a livable shelter, and it makes me sad to see its now-empty shell. Even the swing is gone.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
On the Needles
Actually, I have several items on various needles, but this is one of the fun ones. It's ... another scarf, and here is its history.
About a week ago I heard about a yarn store in my area that opened their doors last year. Of course, I had to check it out. It's called The Yarn Deli, located in Redlands. This past Monday, after going through a little drama over getting Melody to continue at her current middle school for the 7th grade, I felt I needed to treat myself to some yarn therapy and headed to the shop. I was immediately greeted as I walked in the door, and there were several women and one girl about Melody's age working on projects at a back table. When one of the shop owners came over for a friendly chat, I immediately recognized her as the "nice" employee from another yarn shop that I no longer go to. Cool! Most of the yarn in the shop is made of natural fibers -- plenty of cottons, a basket of silks, some Noro Kureyon on sale, and an entire wall of Malabrigo! I've heard so many knitters sing the praises of Malabrigo, so I was eager to see what the fuss was about. I purchased a hank of Stone Blue worsted, which was a color I figured Melody wouldn't wrinkle her nose at. Yes, I limited myself to one since my funds are very meager at this time.
I will return to the shop, be sure of that. One of the women at the back table turned out to be the other shop owner, and she was needle felting a pizza purse. (Hmmm, that brought to mind the infamous bacon and eggs purse!) Everyone insisted that I could drop by the shop at any time they're open and just have a seat and knit, chat and enjoy some tea. Yeah!
When I made it home, I considered making the Malabrigo into a hat and so I asked Melody what she thought of that idea. Oh no, she said. It had to be a scarf. And it had to be in the same drop stitch pattern that I was already using for an alpaca yarn scarf for my sister. Good thing the pattern is easy to memorize.
The Malabrigo is very soft. It feels nicer than Manos del Uruguay, and it's so much softer than scratchy Noro Kureyon.
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