The Return of Rocketman!!

Rocketman spent the last couple of weeks in Asia for work: Japan, China and South Korea.  I had a really hard time knowing he would be in South Korea without me but he did offer to pick up a few things for me.  The few things turned into a little more than he had anticipated.  The first was some hanji things.  I ordered some jewelry boxes with the hardware and some bowls.  The photo above shows you how the hanji comes.

                                      My hanji teacher also enclosed a bunch of patterns.

                                                 And some hanji mirrors for me to complete.

                                                   And these adorable hanji shoes.

And lastly, this booklet of street where all my classes were which is the crafty road next to Hwaseong  Haenggung (Palace).  This is where I went every day to attend my craft classes.  The booklet is wonderful.

                                              It showcases the shops on this street.

Here is my hanji teacher.  Her shop is on a street perpendicular to the craft street.  It you walk from the palace, take the first street on the left and go down a block and a half and she is on the lefthand side of the street.

Young-Soo's noodle shop is also featured.  She also teaches maedeup classes and speaks pretty good English.  Her noodles are delicious too!

Nan-Young, my chilbo teacher, is right next to Young Soo's place.  I'm still working on getting Nan to show her teeth in photos. 

 My bodyguard's wood shop is down from Young-Soo's and Nan Young's shops.  He knows a little English.

To find this magical street is quite easy.  As you are facing the palace, there is a street to the left.  That is the street!

Rocketman also had dinner with some of our Korean friends. Hannah gave him some kits from her company for Noah.

I also asked Rocketman to bring me back some cute covers for my IPhone.  They have the cutest covers in South Korea.

He also picked up some craft books from Japan but it is really hard for him to pick out ones that I would like.  He brought an interesting assortment.

I have an interesting weekend with 8 hours of classes both Saturday and Sunday.  I'm taking classes to become a Reiki healer.  It's a long story but something that I've wanted to do for a long time now.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Frogs, Toads, Ants and Grandkids!

It's been a pretty interesting week around here.  I was on the deck the other day when I saw this little guy.  I'm not sure what he is.  We have toads but they don't have the frog striping on them like this little guy had.  He sure was cute and little did I know he was a sign of the future.

A few days later I was mowing the lawn when I started seeing toads leaping out of the way of the mower blade.  I slowed down immediately because I couldn't imagine one of those cute little toads getting sliced in my mower's blade.  Luckily, it wasn't the entire yard just a small portion and I got the lawn done without any toad carcasses to my knowledge.

As soon as I was done, I put the mower back into the garage, closed the garage door and went inside to shower.  After my shower I decided to run to the grocery store.  I pressed the button to open the garage door and made my way around the car to the driver's side as the door went up.

To my shock I saw a huge fat toad that had been smashed by the gararge door after I mowed the lawn.  It was horrible with toad insides all over the floor of the garage.  It's times like this that I would have gone squealing into the house looking for Rocketman to take care of it.  But he was half a world away and I knew I had to take care of it myself.

I used a shovel to pick up and get rid of what was left of the toad.  Luckily, I hadn't eaten yet and it sure made grocery shopping more difficult.  It was just horrible.

                                                   Here is what was left of the poor toad.

Yesterday I went out to get to mail and saw this on my driveway.  At first, I thought it was dirt but then I saw the dirt was moving.

Looking closer, I saw that it was thousands of ants!!  I have no idea what they were doing there and I went to look a few hours later and they were all gone.

I also think I broke my toe chasing this little guy around my kitchen table.  His favorite blankie is one I made him.  I watched the kids this weekend so my daughter and son-in-law could get some things done around the house.  We had a lot of rain this week and their basement flooded so it's been a busy week for them.

Rocketman comes home on Tuesday and I can't wait.  He was in Japan, China and South Korea.  I was so jealous that he was in South Korea and he even got together with some of our friends.  He also picked up a hanji order for me so I'm excited to get that.

I'm going to put my foot up and put some ice on it again.  It's really throbbing.

Claying with Noah

I haven't touch my polymer clay for, well let's say a long, long time, but it only took an interest from Noah for me to pull out my clay box, dust it off and jump right back in.  I thought I would be rusty but one of the things I love about polymer clay is that it is so forgiving.  We started by making monsters.  Mine is on the right.

Then we made a couple of farm animals from my Leisure Arts booklet "I Can't Believe I'm Sculpting Clay Figures."  I have several of my booklets in my Etsy store for sale right now.

                                                                He loved how they turned out!!!

Then last Wednesday we ventured down to Maureen's and her Center for Creative Arts in Jordan, MN.  She has kid's clay classes every Wednesday and I took Noah as I had his mother and uncle all those years ago.

It's truly a magical place and you can't help but smile as you look around at all the things she has on display.

                                                         Noah was so excited to be there.

 Maureen did a lot of demoing so we would know exactly what to do.  We were making a dragon.

       Finished dragons.  It was so cool to see all the creativity.  I love to see how creative kids can be.

                                                                Noah and Maureen

                                             My dragon which I sent home with Noah.

                                                                         Noah's dragon.

Maureen even had a giveaway at the end of class and Noah was lucky enough to win a copy of one of Maureen's books.  I made sure to have it autographed for him. 

Maureen was my first polymer clay teacher and that was over 20 years ago.  She's been a mentor and friend of mine ever since.  If you ever are in Minnesota, I highly recommend taking a class from her.  It is something you will never forget.  You can see what she has to offer on her website.  Her Wednesday kid's class schedule is here.  You just might see me and Noah.

Noah Days - Part 2

One of the favorite things I would do with Noah's mother, our daughter, was to take her to The Red Balloon in St. Paul.  It's a children's bookstore that is simply magical.  I just had to repeat this with our grandson, Noah.  As you can see, he was so excited to get in.

                                  It looked just the same as it had when I would bring my children.

 Noah couldn't get enough.  He is a booklover just like his mama and his grandparents.

It was hard to tear him away but we left with a bookbag full of books.  Enough to keep him going most of the summer.  Of course, the next day he begged if we could go back.

The next day we went strawberry picking with my mom.  It was a cool morning and we got to hop a ride to the strawberry patch.

                                              Noah loved finding the strawberries...

for about 20 minutes until he realized that we were going to be there until we filled two trays full of strawberries.  Then he wasn't as excited and got a little restless.

It only took us about an hour and a half to do it.  My mom was so surprised at how many people were there.  She was then glad that I insisted we get an early start.  We sent strawberries home with Noah and also gave some to my sister.  That still left plenty for my mom who will make jam out of them and me who hulled and froze them.  Mom wants to do it again next year and I agree.  We'll have to see if Noah is up for it again.

Ezra's 1st Birthday Party

We all gathered at our daughter's house last Sunday for our grandson Ezra's first birthday.  Rocketman got his camera ready to catch all the action and I had mine ready to go as well.  I use a point and shoot camera because I have no idea what an FStop is and I don't care if I shoot in RAW or JPeg.  But Rocketman LOVES his camera and all the books he bought to help him take better pictures.

The birthday boy got a little tired while waiting for all the action to begin.

                     But he perked up when it was present time.  Noah helped him open.

We also did a Korean tol and here is a photo of Ezra's choices:
1. Bowl of rice - he will never be hungry.
2. Computer mouse - he'll be a professional gamer (or computer science major).
3. Korean paintbrush - he'll be an artist.
4. Money - he will be wealthy.
5. Bat - he'll be a professional sports player.
6. String (Maedeup cording) - he'll have a long life.

Of course, when we were ready for him to pick, he wasn't ready and we waited until after cake.  I didn't get any pictures of Ezra eating his cake because I took video of it but Rocketman took pictures which I have no idea where he put them on the computer. 

When he finally starting grabbing from the tol table, we set him in front of it and he grabbed the bat before I could turn my video on.  So a professional sports player he will be. 

I've been removing wallpaper from the kitchen all weekend and boy is that a job.  I never want to wallpaper again.  We are going to paint then add new countertops and tile backsplash.  I'm hoping to talk Rocketman into new appliances too but we will see.

Noah Days

Noah had a few days without daycare so he spent them with his "Korean" grandparents.  I love the position he took to play Legos.  Oh, to be young again.  I always answer "yes" and "no" questions in Korean along with some other simple sentences.  Noah understands a little Korean because of this and can even count to 10 in Korean.

It was also our niece's high school graduation so the folks came up for that and also a visit.  Noah was teaching Old Grandpa (his name for my Dad) all the wonders of the IPad.

My sister surprised us all with a limo ride to the restaurant for the graduation dinner.  It was my parent's first limo ride.  In case you were wondering, it was Noah's 2nd and he is only 6!

Noah got a little bored on the way to the restaurant and wanted to text Grandpa who was at the opposite end of the limo.  How cute is that!

            Noah caught up with his little brother, Ezra and his folks when we arrived.  He was so happy to see them.

                                                        The folks were happy to see Noah too.

We even met a waiter named Ezra who told us in all of his 29 years he had never met another Ezra.  All night the waitstaff would come up to us and ask if it was really true that his name was Ezra.

We did so many things in those couple of days we had Noah that I need to do multiple posts.  Tomorrow's post will be on Ezra's 1st birthday party.