Korean Vogue

I was cleaning up my craft room, something I don't do nearly enough, and came across some Korean Vogues I had bought years ago. They weigh a ton and have some pretty cool pictures like this guy wearing a partial necklace for lack of a better word made with stitch holders commonly used in knitting. They do come in all sizes and colors and I had never thought to use them this way.

 Then it had a photo spread of designs with a take on the traditional Korean hanbok. I love them!!!

And lo and behold, I found George Clooney in a coffee ad, something I don't think you would ever see here in the U.S.A.

This and That

I had heard about a new shop in downtown White Bear Lake which featured local crafters. I couldn't wait to visit "Truly." It was adorable and I had a blast looking around. I came home with these pot holders made from old cloth calendars. 1960 is the year I was born and 1980 the year I married Rocketman. What a clever idea and just one of the million reasons I love crafters!

The other evening Rocketman was doing the dishes and I looked up to see this spider running around the light fixture above the sink. Yuck!  Time to clean out the lights!

Renaissance Festival - 2014

Last weekend we headed out with family to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee just south of the Twin Cities. It was their opening weekend and the weather was perfect.  

             Ezra didn't particularly like all the attention he received from the oddly dressed participants.

Rocketman got his turkey leg which turned out to be pretty disappointing. It was very tough and grisly. 

                                                But the blue smoothie was perfect!

                                            Except for the brain freeze!  Not fun.

                                         Little Ez was pretty proud of his blue tongue.

                                                   We did a little shopping.

 

                                           There is always a place to rest if you need too.

Ezra entertained us while we waited for the knife throwing show to start. It was a blast and the knife throwers and jugglers were pretty witty on top of it all.

I wondered what he thought about everything he was seeing.  I love that so many visitors dress up too.

                               Judah found some entertainment in his big brother's hair.

                                             He also had fun with Ezra's hair. 

                                                        Noah played a bunch of games.

We passed on this one. It's harder than you think. A lot of people had their rotten tomatoes hit the top of the canopy as they threw. You did better if you threw sidearmed.

 

                                                Noah even tried climbing a wall.

                   He said he got nervous when we he got near the top and saw how high he was.

                   But he managed to sound the horn. He was so proud of himself and so was I.

We had a great time. There were a lot of shops selling all sorts of things. I love to see all the talented craftspeople. There seemed to be a lot of pottery and I wasn't sure if there was more than usual. It's just a good thing we were with the grandkids or I might have done a lot more damage to my pocketbook.

Maedeup Monday!

I received a request from a customer, Lauren, about a month ago asking if I could take this bracelet design which you can find in my Etsy shop and add a couple more of my Korean charms and create two bracelets. Of course, I responded and after she decided on what color combination she wanted for each bracelet I got busy.

She sent me this photo of the finished bracelets. She loved them and so do I!  They were a lot of fun to make.

The Korea trip planning is going great.  Poor Hannah is taking my requests of all we want to do and see, along with the many friends we want to visit and is working on a making an itinerary. It will take some time and tweaking to make it all work out. I also placed an order for two new charms and pendants for my Etsy store: 소원 (hope) and  화이팅 pronounced hwaiting but is similar to fighting in English. You see it said in a lot of Korea dramas. I hope Metal Guy can get them done in time.

Landscaping

I planted these yews some twenty odd years ago. I wanted something there and I thought they were pretty low maintenance.  In case you didn't know, I loath yardscaping or landscape designing. I don't mind watering plants (except when it's hot, humid and the deerflies are biting). But deciding what goes best where is not my thing. Our past winter was brutal and many of our bushes died, which turned out to be a perfect time for a change.  By the way, I did not plant the weeds you see in the photo above:)

Our daughter and son-in-law came out and proceeded to get rid of them. Not an easy task especially with hot and humid weather.

                                                  The yews were replaced with asiatic lilies.

                                               A couple days later they started to bloom.

                                                               I love them, I really do.

         A big thank you to Laura and Brent who did all the work while all I had to do is water them.

2014 Carver County Fair - Waconia, Minnesota

Rocketman was spending Saturday getting his Level One Reiki Certification and since it was on my daughter's side of town, I called her and asked her if I could hang at their place for the day. They were planning on going to the Carver County Fair so I tagged along. We started at a horse demonstration where we watched these really young girls race horses around poles as fast as they could without knocking a pole over.

I have to be honest and the whole thing scared me to pieces. I have an unusual fear of horses and then seeing these girls, some as young as 7 or 8, racing jittery horses was enough to give me a heartache. I was so afraid that one would fall off the horse. They all did really well but few made it through without a pole falling. Noah watched with his daddy.

                                         Little Ez kinda felt like I did about the whole racing thing.

                   But our daughter, who has been a lifelong horse lover and baby Judah loved it.

Then my daughter asked why my camera was taking blue tinged pictures which apparently it did the entire previous weekend. Of course, I had no idea so she took my camera and reset something and now it works properly. She is her father's daughter when it comes to cameras. I'm a point and shoot girl - period.

                                                 Ezra was ready to leave the horse racing.

                                                             And so was Noah!

                                                                 Next came the rides!

We brought one of Laura's friends who had a little girl a week after Judah. I see a wedding in the future:)

                                                                  Noah loved this!

                                                              Time to fill it up with air.

                                                              Zipped and ready to go!

                                                    Standing was easier said than done.

                                                                            He did it!

                                                                          Time to unzip.

                                                                   And crawl out.

                                              Waiting patiently for the ride to start.

             I meant to ride this with Ezra but he told me no but he did allow another grandma to ride:)

                                                                      Let's start already!

                                                                         He is fearless!

                                            One of my favorite games ever! Winner every time!!!

                 I turned around to this. A random sword fight between Noah and another boy.

                                               All too soon, it was time to go home.

                     The spoils Noah came home with from the arcade. He throws a mean dart:)

                                 Flowers at my daughter's house. They are so pretty.

            She also has some huge sunflowers growing in her garden. I love, love, love sunflowers.

She also has this strange bug and it's babies on her zucchinis. They aren't doing any damage but she would really like to know what they are.

I picked Rocketman up from class and he passed with flying colors and really enjoyed the whole experience. He has level two the end of September.