What I Love and Hate about Fall

I love my red maple. The leaves turn a beautiful shade of red. My favorite tree is a sugar maple
and when we built our house we planted two and they both died. There must be something wrong with our soil because our neighbors down the street have two beautiful sugar maples in their front yard.


I love my hydrangea bush and the beautiful colors it turns in the fall. I love that I don't have to mow every few days when Rocketman is out of town. I love watching the squirrels working busily gathering up nuts for the long Minnesota winter. I don't like that they sometimes choose my deck railing to crack open the nuts. I love the crisp feel of the fall air as I go on my daily walks. I love the leaves as they rain down on me as I walk.

But I hate the box elder bugs. Our house faces north so the southern sides gets invaded by tons of these little buggers. They even manage to find a way into the house especially the basement. I have a shop vac ready to suck them up.

But the ones that get into the upstairs have Louie to contend with. He loves to play with them and then eat them. I don't watch because at that moment I do feel bad for the box elder bug.

New Korean Drama Starts Soon!

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Korean dramas and especially Korean dramas starring Rain. "Fugitive Plan B" stars Rain and Daniel Henney who I loved in "My Name is Sam Soon." Here is the teaser for the series which starts this week. Sadly, I'll have to watch it from my computer but I can't wait!

Rain has also postponed his military service. The law is that you must begin your service before your 28th birthday which in his case was June 25th. Rain stated that he got a deferment because he was completing his degree and that he had no intention of trying to get out of his military duty. He was also contractually obligated to this drama. He requested a year deferment and was granted it so he will be entering the military in 2011.

Maedeup Monday!

This week it's all about rings! I bought some ring blanks from Rings n Things and added a gukhwa maedeup along with some charms and buttons. They turned out great! I added them to my Etsy store if you are interested in purchasing any of them.

Here is a close up of each one. The ring is adjustable so it will fit most ring sizes.

I may become addicted to these rings. They were so fun to make and it's always fun to find a new way to use maedeup.

Turkey Trot

I found the turkeys again when I went out on my daily walk. They are really getting big now. They still scatter when I try to come near.

The leaves are quickly changing and falling off the trees up here. Lots of folks like to go up to northern Minnesota in September to see the colors and our weatherman even tracks the changes so you know when and where in Minnesota to go. We had a day of rain that caused a lot of flooding in southern Minnesota. We were on the north end of the system so we didn't get hit too hard. The days of mowing the lawn are also spreading out and I won't miss that. One good thing about having a short growing season.

There are a lot of craft shows in October in my area so I'll be checking those out to see what is hot. It wasn't that many years ago when I would be participating myself.

The big news if you haven't been on Facebook is that we going to be grandparents again! Noah called us to tell us his mommy has a tiny baby in her stomach. It was too cute. Due date is looking to be around the first of June. We can't wait!

And The Winner Is!

True Random Number Generator

Result:
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And the winner of my book is: Kristine!!!

Email me your address and I'll get the book out to you right away!!

Congratulations!!

Promotion!

Rocketman was given a promotion last month. It was something that he had worked very hard for but with the tough times in the economy, it didn't look like it would ever be. He's now officially a T5. I'm not really sure what that means but his title is different and he's suppose to get his own office. The only problem is that there are no offices available right now so he is on a wait list. He was a little bummed about the office situation but I told him that just being recognized for all your hard work is pretty wonderful in itself. And besides, he's in Asia a lot anyway.

Tradition calls for you to bring in donuts or bagels for promotions. Rocketman has been working at this company for 30 years and it's always been that way. But you know I don't always like to go with tradition so I got it into my head that I would make an assortment of our favorite treats. Now you know that I'm not known for being the best cook but I have made these recipes zillions of times so I was very confident and excited to do this.

That is until he told me that it would have feed over 100 people. That set me back a little trying to decide how many different kinds of treats to make and figuring how much people would eat. Did I ever tell you that I'm bad at math too. But I figured if it's chocolate and sugar, it would all go.

So I settled on the following and I doubled the recipes:


Fantasy fudge and not the one on the jar of the Marshmallow Fluff. They changed the recipe but I found the old one online.

These are my favorite cookies and also my daughter's. They are called Oatmeal Rounds and you can find the recipe in your Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. Although mine never are round but they still are delicious.

Next was a new recipe from the Internet. I had made these peanut butter cup cookies once before and everyone had loved them especially Rocketman. He told me to never make them again meaning that "I can't stop eating them."

I forgot to take a picture of the Special K Bars, another longtime family favorite. The hardest part about these bar is cutting them. It wears me out and I have to take a rest. Here is that recipe:

Special K Bars

6 cups Special K cereal

1 cup Karo white syrup

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

1/2 package of butterscotch chips

1/2 package of chocolate chips or 1 small bag

Place Special K in large bowl. Set aside. Bring syrup and sugar to a full boil; remove from heat and add peanut butter. Mix well and pour over Special K. Mix together and pat out into a small
jelly roll pan (9" x 13" x 1/2"). Cover the mixture with a sheet of wax paper to help even out. Use a rolling pin to make even.

Melt butterscotch chips and chocolate chips in a double boiler. When melted, spread over mixture. Put into refrigerator to harden. To cut, remove from refrigerator and let it get to room temperature.

I also made my Salted Nut Rolls. These are time intensive but taste just like the real thing and is one of Rocketman's favorites.

Salted Nut Rolls

1 7 oz. jar of marshmallow creme
17 ounces caramels ( I use Kraft)
1 pound salted peanuts, chopped
2 ¼ cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons water

Knead marshmallow creme and powdered sugar together until smooth and pliable. Shape into small fingers. Place on wax paper on a cookie sheet and freeze. Melt caramels with the water until smooth. Dip frozen marshmallow fingers into caramel and roll into chopped peanuts using a fork. Wrap in saran wrap individually and refrigerate.

As you can see I was very busy for a few days and forgot to take pictures of everything. I had everything done and wrapped up when Rocketman said, "Didn't I tell you that I need to put treats in THREE different areas." WHAT!!! So I ran out to the Dollar Store to get serving trays and divided everything evenly into three's. He felt pretty bad for not telling me about that. But it all turned out great in the end.

He brought everything to work the next day and set it up in the three different areas. He said everyone was so surprised to have treats instead of donuts. It went over really well and he even heard that one of the big wigs said that he should promote Curt more often. But one of the biggest compliments to me was when several co-workers asked for recipes. I loved that but even more than that I loved the appreciation in Rocketman's eyes.

Maedeup Monday!

Today I'm going to teach you how to add these premade garakji maedeups to your jewelry. It is so easy and so much fun. The garakji comes in three different sizes and I will have them available in my Etsy shop.

First, you need a loop turner. You can buy one at your local fabric store like JoAnn's and I also have them in my Etsy shop.

The premade garakji maedeup comes attached and just use your scissors cut them apart. Take one garakji and thread it onto the loop turner.

Take the end of the cording and place it into the hook part of the loop turner. The latch on the loop turner must be pulled open.

Use your finger to close the latch which will trap the cord.

Pull the loop turner through the garakji.

Finished. Now, wasn't that easy?

Here is what the premade garakji maedeup looks like in a bracelet. All the supplies are available in my Etsy shop.

One Year Ago...

my wonderful maedeup book came out. My only regret that it was written while we were living in South Korea and I had to curtail a lot of exploring of Korea to write the book. But I'm so proud of how it turned out and the response I have received on it. It has touched many people and I hope it continues to do so.

In celebration of it's first anniversary, I'm giving away a free copy. To enter is easy, just leave a comment here on my blog. I'll choose a winner Friday, Sept. 24th and 6:00pm CST. Good luck everybody!

Turkey Time

The last couple of weeks during my daily walk I've run into a flock of turkeys. They are very skittish and take off when I come near. I brought my camera hoping to catch a picture of them but by the time I got the camera out they had already gotten pretty far away. They still are pretty impressive.

I love, love, love FT Island's new song "Love, Love, Love." Here they are performing it live and take that Justin Bieber, they do not lipsinc. I was also sad to see the lead singer has dropped his golden locks for brunette:

Maedeup Monday!

A very dear friend of mine wanted a maedeup necklace for his granddaughter. Her favorite color is purple and this is the finished project.


I added a dragonfly charm which in Korea means so many things like good luck and prosperity. It was fun do make and I decided to try my limited photography skills outside using this rock in our yard as the background.

The rock has a story all in its own. It came from the St. Croix River which is about 10 miles from our house. The rock is pretty large and I would guess to say it weights between 50 and 75 pounds. My son brought the rock home while we were living in South Korea to help him with his weight training. He told me that he would walk around the yard carrying the rock for exercise. I can only imagine what our neighbors might have thought. Of course, our son has moved out and forgotten his rock so it sits under our deck. I was happy for find a use for it.

Korean Food American Style

This week I've been down with a nasty flu bug. I came down with it Labor Day and have spent most of the week in bed. I'm finally starting to feel better but it sure did hang on for the longest time. To make matters worse, Rocketman had the week off.

But last week I got a craving for kimbap so I decided to make some. I had never made it before but my Korean girlfriend, Hannah, taught me once when we lived in South Korea. You start with some sticky rice which you add some rice vinegar and sugar to.


These are the ingredients I used. Also one of my favorite Korean kimbap is with SPAM. Our favorite place to get kimbap in Korea is a chain called School Food. We also try to hit it when we are visiting.

This is the roll I made for myself. I like cheese in it too but a lot of people don't. You can make it with just about anything.

This is what it looked like after I rolled it. Rocketman was surprised to come home from work to a Korean meal.

I also found this ramyeon in our local Cub grocery store and was so excited. The checkout lady said her teenagers were mad for it and she bought it by the case. She said it was too spicy for her. I only bought a couple in case we didn't like it but it was just like we would get in Korea. So I'm stocking up on it. We had it with our kimbap.

Here is the video of Hannah teaching me how to make real Korean kimbap:

Maedeup Monday!

I found this Tinkerbell pendant while living in South Korea and it was just too cute to pass up. If you couldn't tell, lavender and purple are my favorite colors. Maybe that's because I was born in February.


A closer view and Tinkerbell was not cooperating thus the sideways view. All the knots I used in this necklace can be found in my maedeup book "Elegant Knotted Jewelry."

Next week I will teach you how to add these premade garakji maedeups. It's very simple but adds so much to the jewelry.

The flea market turned out to be a bust. Last minute both my daughter and son-in-law came down with the flu so we went and picked up Noah to watch overnight. Wouldn't you know it, 12:30am that night the vomiting began and we were up most of the night cleaning him up and doing laundry. Everyone is feeling better now but Grandma and Grandpa are still recuperating. It's been a long time since we were up with a sick child.

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Rocketman is taking this week off to work on his ever growing "Honey Do" list. I still can't figure out why it never goes down.

Toadily!

While mowing the lawn the last few times, the grass has been jumping with baby toads. They as so cute and I certainly don't want to run any over. They hear me coming and jump out of the way. But if they jump close to the mower, I stop mowing, try to catch them and put them out of harm's way. It may take me longer to mow but that's the way it is.

The cool front came through and today I'm wearing a sweatshirt. It's cold and blistery with the forecast saying we won't be out of the 50's today.

Tomorrow I'm hitting a flea market in Elco with my daughter. Rocketman is hoping I won't find any treasures.

Minnesota State Fair - Part 4- The People

We found tons of people at the Minnesota State Fair.

We love to get above the fair and look around. It's a fun ride except when it stops in midair. It doesn't help that I'm not fond of heights.

I loved this sign: NOT as seen on TV.

We met some pitchmen. They are always fun to watch. I miss Billy Mays.

The Shamm-Wow guy was there.

And then there was the fudge guy.

We ran into an old friend, Jeff Loven. He's amazing and do you know he turned down the opportunity to audition for Guns n' Roses? True story.

He played at our daughter's wedding.

We saw people flying through the air.

And on a float in a parade.

We saw a flamingo bike.

And a rooster bike. Sister 3 collects roosters and I bet she would have loved to add this to her collection.

I waited in line to get my picture taken with my favorite news anchors from WCCO television. This is Mike Max, a sports reporter.

This is Amelia Santaniello, half of the husband and wife anchor on WCCO. She and hubby, Frank, arrived late due to the record traffic so she wasn't able to be at the photo op.

But as luck would have it, the camera broke when it was my turn and as Mike Max and I were waiting for it to be repaired, Frank popped in. Mike asked me if I knew Frank Vascellaro and I was shocked to turn and there he was!!

We got to talk a long time and then he saw that Sister 2 was taking pictures so he called her over.

We took the picture in true Korean style. They were such good sports. I left and I don't know if they ever did get the camera working but it sure worked out for me.