Hannah in the House!

Hannah arrived safely from South Korea last Friday. Her suitcase was full of all kinds of Korean delights. She brought lots of Korean food.

And even more Korean things like a couple of hanji books, cute hand lotions, stickers for the grandkids...

                      She also brought lots of beautiful hanji paper which Hellena had bought for me.

                               Beautiful chasu (Korean embroidery) refrigerator magnets.

                                            Aren't these coffee cups - just too cute?

Hannah couldn't wait to get into our kitchen to cook for us. Here she is making a pajeon (vegetable pancake). She also made kimchi jeon too. That afternoon we went over to my friend Lynn's house for a barbecue. We had so much fun.

The next day she was so tired from jetlag and the time change that she slept until 4:30 pm. Our daughter and her family and our son came over to meet her but she slept through lunch and they had to leave. We'll make sure they meet her before she has to leave.  That night she made us budae jjigae (Army stew). 

       She also made an egg side dish.  Everything was so delicious. The next day the shopping began!

     Rocketman has taken the week off and he was happy to handle the carrying of the packages.

      This was the damage from the first day of shopping.  Tomorrow we head out to the Outlet Mall.

                                        This is what Hannah made for dinner tonight.

                                  Here are the side dishes.  We may NEVER let her go home:)

Watercolor Class - Roosters, Chickens and Chicks

I finished up my latest watercolor class a few weeks ago but I'm having computer problems which makes it difficult to do a blog post. My HP computer keeps overheating and then just shuts down. Rocketman is going to take a look at it to hopefully fix this problem.

Back to watercolor class, this class session was on chickens. These are a few paintings done by my teacher.

I decided to do a painting on chicks. I thought it would be the easiest but I still found it quite intimidating.

Here is my finished painting. Not too terrible but I still have a long way to go. I have another sumi-e class in another couple of weeks along with training to become a Reiki Master. I'm so excited about that.

 

Also, we drive to the airport in a few hours to pick up Hannah from Korea. Hellena was suppose to come too but she fainted in Korea and needs to stay for tests. She is pretty bummed but said her next vacation she will come here. She seems to always get ill when she visits Korea and I hope it's nothing serious. She currently lives in Qatar and is a flight attendant.

 

Rocketman is taking the week off although I told him that we will be doing a lot of shopping but he doesn't mind at all.  Have a restful Memorial Day weekend everyone!

This and That

My sumi-e teacher was participating in an art show called Art-A-Whirl which took place last weekend. Her studio is in an old former factory in Northeast Minneapolis. It took a bit of twists and turns to get there but it was well worth it. The building houses six floors of artists and I was in heaven. Rocketman asked which of her paintings I liked the best and then bought it for me for our anniversary. This is what I came home with.

Sometimes my Canon Point and Shoot can be the bane of my existence. It doesn't play well at times with Blogger. I could not turn these pictures so forgive me I did try. Just crink your head to the left and you'll be just fine. I heard about this new book "100 Thimbles in a Box" and just had to order it through Amazon. It is simply a splendid book on Korean crafts.  It's just the book I have always wanted to write.

Beautiful pictures and lots of detail. It is a fantastic book and if you are interested in Korean crafts, I highly recommend it.

Louie is a little out of sorts. He had surgery to the tune of $500 to remove broken and inflamed teeth. They ended up removing 4 teeth. I dropped him off at 8 am and picked him up at 4 pm. He is a little miffed at me right now.

I am getting ready for our Korean friends to arrive. They fly in Friday night and will be here a week. I cannot wait!!!!!!

Hi! My Name is Louie...

Hi everyone! My name is Louie and I'm addicted to the IPad. Mommy found this app from Friskies which has lots of fishes swimming around and my job is to get them. Ever time Mommy has the IPad I run and jump on her lap to play my game. She doesn't always let me, though.

Here's a video she took of me with MY IPad:



Becky here! Louie went to the vet today for the first time in two years. The last time was so traumatic to the both of us I skipped last year. He meowed his ugly, ticked off meow the entire way to the vet.

Then as we waited, he burrowed himself into my coat as much as he could. The reason I'm wearing a sweatshirt plus a jacket was that it was 45 degrees today. He was terrified.

 

Here he is waiting for the doctor. This was just a normal check up so I didn't anticipate any problems but I was very wrong. I had switched him to semi-wet food about two years ago because I had read somewhere that cats don't get enough water and wet food was better. If I gave him a small can of wet food, he would always throw it up but the semi-wet which you can buy in refrigerator units in my grocery stores worked great or so I thought.

I knew something was wrong when the vet started to look at his mouth and teeth. She was shaking her head and grimacing. Then she showed me that three teeth had broken off and he had several painful areas when pressed with a finger by the vet. She asked about his diet and informed me that he really needed some hard food too which would keep this from happening. He's was diagnosed with feline resorptive lesions.

Surgery is the only solution with a price tag of anywhere from $500 - $800. He is having the surgery next Tuesday and then we will introduce him to his new diet when he has recovered. He's worth every penny but just don't tell my mom that. She is still smarting from the $800 bill from his stump removal shortly after he came to live with us. She thought we were crazy to spend that kind of money for a rescue cat but he has paid us back a million fold. I'll let you know how it goes.

Reversible Fitted Pack n Play Sheet

If you are a grandma, chances are that you have one of these in your home. We bought a Pack 'n Play when Noah was born to use when he would visit and needed a nap or when he would stay overnight. We also used it when little Ezra came along. It was and still is so handy when the babies visit and it's easy to pack away when they are not. It is also quite portable so it's great when traveling with babies.

But there has also been one problem with it and that is finding a sheet for the pad. I always just used a crib sheet but it never fit well and you can see how it looks.

I have some of the most creative and talented friends thanks to the industry in which I work. One of them is Gail Ritchey. I met Gail years ago and we became great friends. When I found out that she had solved my Pack 'n Play sheet dilemma, I was thrilled to see what she had created. She sent me one of her Reversible Play Yard Fitted Sheets to try out with our latest grandson, Judah.

The colors were so bright and I loved how soft it felt between my fingers. I also love that it is reversible.

 It was so easy to use. Just slip in the Pack 'n Play mattress and velcro it shut. It is a perfect fit. Then place the mattress into the Pack 'n Play and it's ready to go.

Here is a photo I shot of Judah with the crib sheet. He is not a happy boy.  I quickly removed him and gave him to Rocketman to hold while I changed the sheets.

                                                                    See how great it looks!

          And Judah loved it! Gail is selling them through her Etsy shop which you can find here.

Maedeup Monday!

 

Spring has finally come to Minnesota!!We did have snow in May last year, yuck! Seeing our lawn finally green up got me into the mood to make some Korean jamjari (dragonflies). I made them a little different this time and added a bead to the center. I'm going to turn this into key chains and put them into my Etsy store.

We also went to Grandson Noah's birthday party on Saturday. Fourteen eight year olds with lots of fun going on from playing football to decorating pots.

               My daughter and her friend even made the birthday cake. I was truly impressed.

 

             Rocketman helped out with little Judah. It looks like Rocketman could use a nap too.

Little Ezra's got down the Korean squat. He was watching his daddy fill the pots with flower. After the party, we drove to Mystic Lake Casino to spend the nightwith my best friend and her family. We had no idea what we were doing but luckily my friend and her family were there to help us out. We had a fantastic time.

Sumi-e Class with Susan Frame

 I had another sumi-e class with Susan Frame a few weeks ago and loved every minute of it. This time it was all about flowers which is one of my favorite things.

                                          These are tulips just in case you were wondering:)

This is an iris. I really, really need to practice more. She offers classes in her studio too but I haven't looked into them yet. She teaches about twice a year at the White Bear Center for the Arts which is just a five minute drive from my house.

Rocketman and I even went out on a date, something we haven't done in a long  time. I had seen Jim Gaffigan on Comedy Center last year and was blown away by his talent. He is also one of Rocketman's favorite comedians. I went online and found that he would be in Minneapolis in a few months so I ordered tickets.

He was worth every penny. We both have not laughed so hard and so much in a long time. If you get a chance to catch him on Comedy Central or in person, don't pass it up. Here's a video clip of Jim: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1jxpd_jim-gaffigan-i-m-a-vegetarian_fun.