Marketfest 2010 - Last One

Who did we see this last night of Marketfest?? Why, it's the Executive Chef of Donatelli's, our favorite restaurant. She's a little camera shy.


But a good sport anyway.


They have a section where antique cars are displayed.

I'm always looking for a 1970 Red Ford Maverick which was my first car but I'm always disappointed. When I ask Rocketman why there is never one there, he asks, "Why do you think?" Hmm.

Also saw this Mohawk dude. I wanted to ask him how long it took him to style his hair in the morning. I heard Pauly D say that it takes him a half hour to style his hair. I'm sad it's the end but it will be back again next year.

Indulgence

Is there anything better than The Cheesecake Factory? My sister needed to go to a particular store in a Western suburb of Minneapolis that just happens to have a Cheesecake Factory. How could I not ride along. We braved traffic and lots of construction to get from White Bear Lake to Edina, MN.

Shopping concluded just as the restaurant was opening. We timed it perfectly. We had been there before but the wait was always long and I do hate to wait to eat even for cheesecake that I end up taking home anyway.

The menu is huge and more like a book than a menu. I also think I will try something else but when one finds perfection in food, one sticks with it, the Grilled Shrimp and Bacon Club. I don't know what they put into that secret sauce but it leaves me wanting more.

My sister ordered this burrito. She took most of it home. My sandwich made it home in my stomach thank you very much.

We never leave without cheesecake and again, I always order the same, Vanilla Bean. I brought Rocketman Banana Cream. I wish there was a Cheescake Factory closer.

Maedeup Monday!

This Fall I will be again teaching maedeup classes at the White Bear Center for the Arts. I am adding two new knots: saengjjok and garakji maedeup. Since these are more complicated, the entire class will be learning to master the knots. The photo above is the saengjjok maedeup.

This is a photo of the garakji maedeup. Both these knots require the use of an awl. Rocketman is going to South Korea next month and I'm comprising a list of things for him to pick up at the maedeup shop. I will be selling awls and loop turners in my Etsy shop very soon.


The Fall schedule hasn't been released yet but here are the classes I will be teaching:

Maedeup
(Korean knotting)
Becky Meverden

Maedeup uses cording to create simple to elaborate
knots that can be used in jewelry, accessories, home
décor or just about anything you can imagine. This
instructor lived in South Korea for two years learning
this ancient art. In these classes, students will be
learning four of the most basic maedeup knots:
hapjong, dorae, saengjjok, and garakji. Each class can be taken
independently of the other. Students will complete a
bracelet during the class. No experience necessary.

Becky is also the author of “Elegant Knotted Jewelry -
Techniques and Projects Using Maedeup.” This is her
9th book and she has also appeared regularly on HGTV’s
The Carol Duvall Show.

✪ Bring to class: ruler, small sharp pair of scissors two
sets of jewelry needle nose pliers (optional)

Hapjong
Date/Time: Wednesday, September 22, 1:30-3:30 PM
Age/Level: Adults, Teens 16+, Beginner
Tuition: $16 Member/$21 Non-Member
Material fee: $10 payable to instructor
Location: WBCA

Dorae
Date/Time: Wednesday, 29, 1:30-3:30 PM
Age/Level: Adults, Teens 16+, Beginner
Tuition: $16 Member/$21 Non-Member
Material fee: $10 payable to instructor
Location: WBCA


Bring to class for the following classes : Awl, (Instructor will also have awls available for $5.00) Small sharp pair of scissors

Saengjjok (Ginger Knot)
Date/Time: Sunday, October 17, 1:30-3:30 PM
Age/Level: Adults, Teens 16+, Beginner
Tuition: $16 Member/$21 Non-Member
Material fee: $5 payable to instructor
Location: WBCA

Garakji (Ring Knot)
Date/Time: Sunday, November 14, 1:30-3:30 PM
Age/Level: Adults, Teens 16+, Beginner
Tuition: $16 Member/$21 Non-Member
Material fee: $5 payable to instructor
Location: WBCA

Crafting with Noah

I try to have some crafty projects to do when our grandson, Noah, visits. He loves to craft like his grandma. This time we were making notecards. I had a Fiskar's heart cutter that was easy to use and I had Noah cut a bunch of hearts out of scrapbook paper. He LOVED it. He didn't want to stop but finally his hands got a little sore.


He did a great job.


Next I had him color some notecards that I had precut and folded out of cardstock. He only made two cards and got bored so he went on to play.

I made these cards. I used a 2" contrasting strip of cardstock. I used foam tape to adhere the hearts and give it some dimension. The cream card with purple trim has some Korean hanji paper glued to it. The pink card I added panda stickers that I had bought in South Korea. I swear South Korea is the capital of stickers. A fun day.

Marketfest 2010 - 7/22/10

Only one more week left of Marketfest and we were lucky to have our grandson, Noah, to take along with us this week.


Rocketman and Noah making their way to Marketfest.

Noah really want to do the bungee jumping. I asked and they said that he was old enough so Rocketman paid the fee and up Noah went. He loved it.

Noah also made a new friend, a 16 month old great dane. It was the largest dog I had ever seen and he drew quite a crowd.

Noah also had to check out the backside.

Cake on a stick!

Someone was selling puppets and Noah picked this one out. We had a blast as usual and hate to see it end next week. Summer is going way too fast!

New Quilt

Shortly before we left for South Korea, I bought a quilt kit. I made the quilt while living in South Korea. I was a little nervous the first time I turned my sewing machine on as it was plugged into a transformer due to the voltage difference. But my sewing machine survived and worked just fine.


This is the back of the quilt. I have a gal who has a long-arm quilting business and she does all the quilting for me. I could never do anything like this with my sewing machine. I'll be using this quilt to keep me warm during the long Minnesota winters.

Rocketman is back to normal and back to work. He took it easy all weekend although he did mow the lawn. He now is seeing pretty good out of the left eye. This is the one he had surgery on last Thursday. His prescription for is glasses is so messed up now that he popped the lens out of his left eye. I wonder if anyone will notice that at work. He can get new glasses in two weeks if there are no complications.

He is so anxious to do this but knows he has to wait. I feel so bad for him. He hasn't had normal or good sight now for 13 months. He's a real trooper.

Maedeup Monday!

This Maedeup Monday eye candy is brought to you by Rocketman. His unfortunate hospital stay allowed me to get a lot of maedeup done. I always have a bag of pre-cut cording and pendants sitting in a Zip Lock bag just waiting for an opportunity. It seems like there is never enough time to just sit and maedeup.

This was one of the necklaces I made while Rocketman had his cataract surgery on Thursday. It went pretty fast and I finished it before we left the surgery center.

This necklace I made in the Emergency Room at the hospital while Rocketman was off getting tests.

I finished it when he got admitted and was put into a room.

Thanks to an oversight by nurse Larry, Rocketman wasn't released at 8 am. as the paperwork dictated but at 2:00pm when Larry the nurse decided to open Rocketman's binder. "So sorry" he repeatedly said while chuckling.

This pendant is one of the first I made in chilbo (Korean enameling) class while living in South Korea. So I'm excited now to be able to wear it with maedeup.

Doing the maedeup really did help to calm me down while Rocketman was in the hospital. Although, I forgot how to do a few knots during the most stressful times, they did come back to me. So if you have a loved one going in for surgery and you don't want to read book while you wait, bring a maedeup project. The time really flies and you can leave with a new beautiful necklace made by yourself.

Rocketman Down!

Thursday was the day of Rocketman's cataract surgery. This was his 5th eye surgery in the last year so we were relaxed and ready to get it over with. His surgery was for 8:00am and we were to arrive at 7:00am.

They took him back and I got out my maedeup to do while he was in surgery. He said that they didn't wheel him into surgery until 8:30. He noticed his heart rate was 48 which is on the low side. He was a little irritated and anxious for it to be over.

This time they gave him a new drop just before surgery that really stung. The surgery took about 10 minutes and he was back in recovery sitting up and eating a cookie with some cranberry juice.

When I came back to see him, he looked great and was finishing his food. They gave us the post-surgical instructions and we walked out the clinic to our car. Rocketman was acting totally normal and everything was fine.

We got about halfway home when he started to complain he was getting really nauseous. I had the air conditioning on (it was in the 90's) and I asked him if we should open the windows and maybe the blowing air would help.

He never responded and when I looked at him, he was unconscious and twitching. I didn't see him breathing but I had only looked at him about 3-5 seconds. Totally panicked, I pulled over in the left hand turn lane of the major highway(Highway 61) we were on. Traffic was horrible since it was down to one lane due to road construction.

My purse was in the backseat. I jumped out of the car, tears spilling all over the place, and dug into my purse trying to find my cell phone. I found it and dialed 9-1-1. The dispatcher got on and I told her my husband wasn't breathing. She asked where I was and I could on get out that I was on Highway 61. She wanted to know what type of car I was driving. I couldn't think, I couldn't seem to process anything she was asking.

She told me to calm down and I told her I couldn't. I finally was able to tell her the cross street ( Country Road E). I was sitting in the driver's seat seeing Rocketman in what I thought at the time was a seizure. The police arrived and Rocketman woke up wondering what was going on. He had no idea what had happened. He threw up on himself and out the door where a police officer stood.

I told him with tears streaming down my face what had happened. He was surprised but felt fine and wanted to go home. The ambulance came and the paramedic told him that he should go to the hospital. He was able to walk to the ambulance and the paramedic told me to drive to the hospital and wait for them.

I got to the hospital and called my mom and my sisters telling them what had happened. It was about 10 minutes before the ambulance got there and I went around to meet it at the ambulance entrance. I knew if I walked into the emergency room entrance, I would have to fill out paperwork and who knew when I could get into the ER.

The ambulance driver wasn't too thrilled to see me there but I didn't care. The paramedic told me that they had had to stop for a bit because Rocketman had become so sick. They wheeled him into the same emergency room where he had had his kidney stones years before and put him into a room.

Tears still streaming down my face, someone came and asked me to come with them to fill out some forms. I was brought to the emergency room entrance and given a form to fill out. I don't know what happened to my mind. I couldn't fill out anything. They asked his name, I couldn't spell our last name. What was wrong? I couldn't spell seizure. I ended up giving them our insurance card and they were able to get the information they needed. I was escorted back into the emergency room to Rocketman.


He was hooked up to monitors and had an IV of saline solution going. They took him to CT to get his head scanned. The ER doctor came in and I told him what had happened. He called the clinic to see what they had given Rocketman for anesthesia. The ER doctor ordered blood workup and said that he would probably be admitted overnight for observation.

He was put into a room pretty quickly and by now it was lunchtime. He was hungry and they brought him a lunch. He was more worried about me than himself during this whole fiasco. They ordered more tests: EEG and an echo cardiogram.

We were visited by a neurologist who asked a ton of questions and thought that Rocketman had had a vasovagal episode but he would wait for the test results to confirm. He said the tensing and twitching I saw was his body reacting to the drop in heart rate and blood pressure. I had seen people faint before but I had never seen the clenching that Rocketman had done.


My best friend, Lynn, who is also a nurse, got off of work early and came to check on us. We were suppose to go out that night but then this had happened. Rocketman convinced her to get me out of there and so I followed Lynn to her house. I spend a few hours trying to understand what had happened and why I had become so hysterical. I had never reacted that way in all the trips to the ER with our kids over the years. I think it was because I thought his heart had stopped. It also didn't help that I was on a major highway in a construction zone.

We learned a new word while at the hospital: Hospitalist. They told us that doctors don't like to do hospital rounds these days so the hospitalist is in place of your primary doctor who used to do hospital rounds. He then contacts your primary doctor.

We had a wonderful nurse, not! He didn't make a lot of sense and English wasn't his first language. Rocketman spent the night being woken every 2 hours for vitals and was ready to leave in the morning. I got there about 8 am and it was funny that we were left alone pretty much the whole morning.

Lunch came and Rocketman ate. Then about 1:30 pm, Larry would had also been Rocketman's second shift nurse came in and said that Rocketman's orders to be released had come in at 8:00am and that he hadn't looked in Rocketman's binder. So sorry. He brought this up several times and thought it was funny.

We finally got out of there at 2:00 pm and we were glad the ordeal was over. The consensus is that the stinging eye drop they gave Rocketman was the beginning, the low heart rate contributed along with the surgery. It was also determined that the clinic let him go way too soon after surgery. Then the car ride home where the nausea set it was the final straw and out he went.

I'm glad Rocketman is going to be ok and we even got this souvenir from the ambulance ride. It's a cool barf bag. I hope this is the end of the adventures for a while. Rocketman has been through enough!

We were able to make his 1 day post op appointment where he had the surgery. The doctor was pretty angry that they had let us go so soon too.

Interview with a 4 Year Old

I had to pleasure of watching our grandson, Noah, this weekend and we had a blast.


We did some naughty things like eating chocolate chip cookie dough and jumping on the bed. I also had a chance to ask him some questions to see how a 4 year old thinks.

Interview with Noah:

1. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Noah: A policeman

2. Why?

Noah: Because I love policemen. They take bad guys to jail.

3. How old will you be when you get married?

Noah: 26

4. How many kids do you want?

Noah: 2

5. What's your favorite food?

Noah: mac and cheese (only Kraft's)

6. What food don't you like?

Noah: You mean yucky?

Yes, yucky.

Noah: Momma's pasta

7. Do you know what spoiled means?

Noah: You mean spoiled rotten

Yes

Noah: It means you are lucky.

Maedeup Monday!

This is a necklace my maedeup teacher was wearing during one of my maedeup classes while living in South Korea. I thought it was so beautiful and I thought I would never be able to make something like it ever. She took it off so I could take a picture of it. My teacher strongly disagreed with me and she was right. I've come a long way from those classes.

I miss Su-Mi (my maedeup teacher) a lot and wish I still had her coming over every week for private lessons. I'm hoping when her baby is a little older I'll be able to have some lessons when I visit South Korea in the future. She was always so patient with me and made sure I understood what I was doing. Sometimes I would try to tighten in a different way and she would always correct me. Now, I know why in that it is easier to do it her way. I still have so much to learn.

Marketfest 2010 - White Bear Lake

I found some cake on a stick at this week's Marketfest. We were going to try to get there a little early since the crowds have been steadily growing each week but Rocketman fell asleep and I got distracted (easily done). We got there just before it officially opens at 6 pm. We had to park farther than usual but walking is good especially after mini donuts.

The mini donuts stand had a "For Sale" sign on it. I thought it would be a good investment. We could make our own mini donuts whenever we want. I also told Rocketman he could retire and we could take it on the road. He just shook his head at me and off we went eating our bag of mini donuts.


This guy does amazing things with wood.

He makes these beautiful flowers. How's that for widdling.

We also saw the Cat in the Hat!

I don't know if we will be going next Thursday. Rocketman is having cataract surgery on his left eye. We may have to skip it. He is having a lot of trouble with that eye and can't see at all out of it.

Funky Rings

I bought these rings a few months ago from a vendor on Etsy called SouZou Creations. They have the funkiest rings I've seen in a long time.


Their prices are really reasonable too. They come from Japan and remind me of the food I ate in South Korea. I'm always on the hunt for something different.

I've been busy working on a book proposal. They are really time consuming and you have to do your best because you won't get a book deal without a good proposal.

The new sprinkler system is working like a charm but Rocketman and I both have nagging thoughts when we hear it going about having to run out and move sprinklers. It's so nice to not have that worry anymore.

Maedeup Monday!

This hot Minnesota day reminds me dragonflies. They seem to love the heat even when we lived in South Korea. Our apartment was on the 10th floor and I would see them buzzing outside our window on the hot Korean days. Dragonfly in Korean is jamjari and these are jamjari maedeup. They are created with three different maedeup knots: yeonbong, nalgae and dorae. You can find the instructions in my book "Elegant Knotted Jewelry."

Stay cool my friends!

Marketfest 2010 - White Bear Lake

Is there anything that Minnesota can not put on a stick?


Don't get between Rocketman and his food!


My folks were up and they enjoyed Marketfest too.

Poor Rocketman has been spending the week fixing a computer problem I accidentally created. I have had my own laptop for about half a year and am now actively using it for my crafting. I've been working on a book proposal and thought I should activate an antivirus program. The computer came loaded with Norton's but Rocketman liked Zone Alarm and we have that on our other computer. So I thought I could handle downloading Zone Alarm without Rocketman's help (I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar playing in the background).

The downloading went fine and I was really proud as a peacock. I started working and Norton's kept popping up to install. So I figured out how to uninstall Norton's and still impressed with myself I dug into my proposal again. Suddenly a blue screen came up and the computer shut down and rebooted. This happened every 5 to 10 minutes. I lost a lot of well thoughtout (at least I thought so) words. Many I still can't recall. I started to save after a few sentences. This went on all day until Rocketman came home from work.

I sadly explained what I had did and how I thought I could install an antivirus software program myself (apparently not). He spend the rest of the week up until today fixing the mess I made. It turns out that Zone Alarm is not compatible with Windows 7 although they won't admit that. Rocketman had to clean my computer out and rebuild the whole thing. He was chatting with Zone Alarm for hours. But as of a few minutes ago, my computer is back to where it was.

Don't you just love computers? I don't!