Maedeup Monday!

We decided to visit South Korea during the fall this year and we left October 1st and returned October 17th. I always try to bring lots to do on the flight because it's a long one, around 30 hours in the air (round trip). I have a special purse for this occasion where I fill it with maedeup projects, a book to read, a journal and all sorts of things to keep my mind busy. These were the bracelets I worked on and completed during our trip. I'd love to say I can sleep on a plane but alas I'm not one of those who can.

 I'm a weird girl with lots of phobias, especially where planes are involved. One of my biggest fears is that the bathrooms are occupied and I have to go really, really bad. Guess what? The flight to Korea was pretty good with little to no turbulence and the bathrooms available when I needed them. But the flight back was a total nightmare. This light was on almost the entire flight with people lined up waiting at most times. Wouldn't you know that when this situation happens, my body overreacts and I feel like I have to go all the time. The sign alone freaked me out most of the trip. I have never seen the bathrooms so occupied so constantly, and I've flown quite a bit.

I also have this weird thing that after 10 or 12 hours in the air, the last two hours are the hardest and seem to take the longest. I get really anxious and restless. I don't know what it is but it happens to me every time. I try not to look at the flight data information but I just can't help myself.

And since I'm sharing my weirdness, another thing I freak out about is getting our carry-on luggage into the overheads. We usually get seats in the exit row that also has the flight attendants jump seats. These seats have huge leg room but nowhere to place anything under the seats in front of you, and there are no overheads nearby because the galley and bulkhead are there. So I'm always anxious to preboard so that my luggage gets into an overhead bin. It is only an issue when we go to Korea because I have presents in my carry-on with breakable items. The return flight, my carry-on contains hanji which I don't want to check. Ya, it's fun to fly with me.

Rocketman had some fun during preboarding on our flight from Detroit to Incheon. The Korean flight attendant wasn't very tall and was having a hard time closing the bins, so Rocketman helped her out. She loved it and he helped out quite a bit. Being tall can come in handy.

Upon our return I last week I was spent. I think we did so much walking and stairclimbing and traveling around Korea that when we returned I just crashed. I was exhausted the entire week. I'm finally feeling back to my old self but it was brutal there for awhile.

I will be sharing our trip and all the good, bad and amazing things that happened.

Maedeup Monday! The Day I Met a Korean Maedeup Master

While living in South Korea, Su-Mi my maedeup teacher, showed me a book from maedeup master, Kim Eun-Young. I asked her to order one for me and she did. Hellena, my Korean friend happened to be visiting our apartment when I received my book and I told her how I wish I could meet Kim Eun-Young.  Hellena, always being the optimist said that I could and immediately got on her phone to make calls.

It was after about a half hour of phone calls, Hellena had Kim Eun-Young's phone number and was calling her. She was very interested in meeting me and we set up a time. She and her husband live in Seoul. I was really nervous to meet her but Hellena was with me so that helped tremendously. She lived in a beautiful home and was so gracious.

We talked for awhile and she shared rice cakes and tea with us. Her husband is also famous as a painter and she had paintings of his all over. We talked about maedeup and our great love for the art form. She was very interested in sharing maedeup with the U.S. and the rest of the world. Her English was excellent.

I would love to meet her again but I fear that it may even be more difficult to find her. Here is an article about her. She is an Intangible Asset of Korea and there are not many in Korea. It is very difficult to become one.

This is the book that I brought for her to autograph.

I will treasure it forever.

Maedeup Monday!

The infrequency of my blog postings is due to many things. I've been spending my days quilting which is a time consuming endeavor and I'm loving every minute of it. I'm pretty active on Facebook and Instagram. As far as the status of my blog, it will ebb and flow along with my life.

The photo above is some garakji maedeup I was working on while spending time in the Emergency Room with Rocketman. Maedeup is still the greatest thing to take away nervous energy if you ever end up like myself waiting in the ER. I always have something ready to grab at a moment's notice.

Now the reason I was sitting in the emergency room. Rocketman had been having some lower back pain all week that would come and go. Nothing sharp or long lasting but it became more worrisome as the weekend came. I made an appointment with our doctor for Monday (today) to get to the bottom of it.

But by Saturday evening it became apparent he couldn't wait until Monday. So we went to the Emergency Room. We were happy to find it pretty empty and the wait was pretty short. It's funny we both noticed that the beds in the ER are not much longer than the ones we encountered in the emergency rooms in Korea.

 

We told them we suspected a kidney stone and that this wasn't our first rodeo. They gave him some pain medication and he had a CT which showed a 4 x 5 x 6mm kidney stone right next to the bladder. The physician consulted with Rocketman's urologist and we were sent home with pain medication and to follow up with the urologist.

We arrived around 6:30pm and were released around 12:30 am. Rocketman's pain level when we arrived was an 8 and a 0 when we left. We found a nearby 24 hour Walgreens to get the script filled and arrived home after 1 am.

I would like to say Rocketman took it easy on Sunday but the opposite was true. He worked in the yard with 100 degree heat index. We went out to lunch, then to Home Depot and finally to Sears where he bought a large tool chest (almost taller than me). Then he had to make a second trip back to Sears to pick up the second tool chest box. He spent the rest of the afternoon putting the chest together in our horribly humid garage.

It was after 10 pm and I was already in bed reading when he came out of the bathroom saying, "I think I passed the stone." Just like that. I jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom to see it in the strainer the hospital sent us home with. It passed with no pain. Thank goodness.

Now he just has to visit his urologist with the stone to make sure everything is really okay.  And that was our weekend. How as yours?

Maedeup Monday!

I always have portable craft projects ready to go at a moments notice. If I'm going on a trip, the first thing I pack is craft projects. It's the way I've always been. Even if I know I probably will be too busy to craft, I have something with me for just in case. But when I stayed at my mom's a few months ago to help with her surgical recovery, I completed all the maedeup projects I had prepared. Originally, many of these were projects that I had brought to and from our last trip to Korea. Fourteen hours in an airplane can really freak me out if I think about it for long. So I took the time a few days ago to make more maedeup projects to fill my crafting bag. When the bracelets are finished I'll be adding them to my Etsy site.

Last weekend was Mother's Day and although Sunday was rainy, Saturday was beautiful. This is a photo of my Mother's Day present from 15 or so years ago, a crabapple tree. It's in the perfect spot for me to see when I look out my kitchen window and it has even grown over the deck to provide wonderful shade. The tree explodes with beautiful blossoms in the Spring and in the Winter I can watch the birds eating the rotten crabapples.

          I took out my camera to snap a few photos before the rain took a lot of the blossoms away.

 

Maedeup Monday!

This blog has been pretty quite because I am deep in quilt making mode. I have four quilts lined up and have finished two which are ready for my long arm girl to finish. She is booked into June so I have time to finish all four. The first quilt is for the new grandbaby which is due November 9th, the second for my niece, the third for my new daughter-in-law and the fourth for a dear friend.

I haven't sewn a quilt for quite a few years and it felt great to dust off the sewing machine and my rotary cutter. In the meantime, I had been concentrating on everything but from Korean crafts to watercolor painting to sumi-e painting. If you would have told me a few months ago that I would be working on four quilts, I would have thought you were crazy. But this is one of the things I love about my life including my crafting life, I never know what tomorrow will bring.

You can find these maedeup bracelets along with a lot of other wonderful things in my Etsy shop. Did you know Mother's Day is just a few weeks away? That's why I am offering 20% off everything in my shop until May 2nd. There are a lot of goodies that would make a wonderful Mother's Day gift.
Use the coupon code MOTHER to get your discount.

Maedeup Monday!

I made a lot of maedeup bracelets and necklaces while taking care of my mom. I have a lot of them listed for sale in my Etsy Shop. It just doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day to get all the things done I want to do. Right now I am working on some bojagi (Korean quilting) projects and I'll share that in another post.

On the new deck front, the only contractor to come out and bid gave us a great bid. It was a lot lower than Rocketman thought we would have to pay so we are going to go with him. I never heard back from the other contractors and now I don't care. We are not sure about when it will happen. The contractor mentioned he is booked out to June but we really aren't concerned about when just that we want it done this year.

April is going to be a busy month for me. I signed up for painting classes at White Bear Center for the Arts. I can't wait!

Maedeup Monday!

I spent a lot of time on at my mom's working on maedeup projects. Before a trip anywhere, I sketch out ideas for necklaces and bracelets, cut the cording I need with findings and place it all into Ziplock sandwich bags. At any one time, I can have 10-50 bags ready to go. My belief is to always be prepared with crafting projects. They go everywhere with me from babysitting the grandkids (I can craft only when they are sleeping) to trips. Books are also something I bring everywhere and always too many. My daughter and my grandson have also inherited this book trait.

These are some bracelet that I just listed in my Etsy Shop. I'll share more in the coming weeks as I get them photographed and listed.

My son also got engaged to a lovely girl this week. A fall wedding is tentatively planned and I want to make them a quilt, so I've been pouring over quilt patterns and asking Amber what she likes. She will be choosing the pattern and color scheme. The only quilting I've been doing lately is Korean bojagi which is all hand-stitched, whereas my American quilting will be machine quilted.

Maedeup Monday!

Hi Everyone! I've been pretty silent the past month because of how busy life became. My mom was in the hospital a few weeks ago for spinal surgery and I went down to Illinois to help her in her recovery and to help around the house. In preparation for this extended stay, I gathered a bunch of craft projects to work on. I had baggies full of maedeup projects that I had never completed and some knitting projects. The photo above is some of the maedeup jewelry I was able to complete while at my folks' house. I will be adding much of it to my Etsy store soon.

My mom was told originally that she would spend 5-7 days in the hospital so I brought lots of things to do while in the hospital with her. We were shocked that the day after her surgery, they sent her home. I'm not sure now looking back that it was a wise decision but we made it through. It was quite an adventure we went through and my next post will be on my stay. But for now, I'm busy catching up on many things. It's amazing what you really get accomplished when you have no internet but I was excited to be back on line.

While at my folk's home, I found and bought these malted milk balls while shopping at their local market to while picking up a few things for my mom. It was a huge mistake!!! All three of us became addicted. We couldn't stop. They were hands down the best malted milk balls we had ever eaten. I'm so glad they are not available near my home. The cravings continue.

Maedeup Monday!

Can you guess what this pile of maedeup cording will be?  Bracelets! For some reason, I love to cut cording for lots of projects. I think it comes from always having something to do with my hands hence why I love to craft since it gives my hands something to do. I'll be sure to share in upcoming "Maedeup Mondays!" the finished bracelets.

I took this photo from my craft table which is covered by a huge piece of glass from my polymer clay days. I do get out my clay once in a while especially when Noah is over, he loves it. If you are wondering who that is in the photo, it's Rain (Bi).

Maedeup Monday!

I recently got a request for maedeup bracelets from our favorite chef, Rita, at Donatelli's. She wasn't picky at all except when it came to the colors. Can you guess why these bracelets are shades of purple and yellow (gold)?

                                                        She's a huge Minnesota Vikings fan!

                    No matter if they win or lose although she prefers that they win, she's a fan for life.

I am also offering 20% off everything in my Etsy shop until Sunday. Use coupon code: HOLIDAY2014 to get your discount.

We headed down to Illinois for Thanksgiving and had a great time with family. Grandson Noah developed a high fever and is still sick. Then his little brothers caught the bug. Little Ez, shown above with his dad, today has a fever of 104.7F. Baby Judah is also sick. Noah is feeling better but still not well enough to go to school. I returned home with a nasty cold but it was worth all the cuddles with the grandkids. We are just hoping my sister and her family don't catch it.

Maedeup Monday!

I did manage to drop by my maedeup shop when we were in South Korea. The store seems to shrink before my very eyes each time I visit. When I first went in 2008, there was plenty of room to roam around and they even had a small kitchen table and chairs for people to sit and learn the knots. But as the years have gone by, the table and chairs left and more bookcases full of supplies came in. Now, it's hard to move around, the aisles are narrow and they are filled to the brim. It's a good thing!

 

I only wanted to pick up a few colors I needed but when I saw some beautiful colors in a thicker diameter I had to pick up a few colors. I wasn't there very long and I was surprised that when we returned home Rocketman hadn't taken any photos of the shop. But there always is next time. 

The main owner wasn't there but his lovely wife was and when I saw these ceramic pendants I picked up a few. They are so beautiful.

One of our favorite bookstores in Korea is Seoul Selection and we both are like a kid in a candy store. It's very small in the basement of a building but if you love all things Korean and in English, it is a must visit. These are the books I bought.

I am so glad I picked this book up. It is a large book and weighs a lot but it was well worth it. I highly recommend it. It is stories of many different kinds of Korean women from all walks of life. I found it fascinating and I love that it includes so many photos of these amazing women.

I've included a few excerpts from the book.

I'm not sure at this point outside of Seoul Selection where you can get this book but you won't be disappointed.

 

Maedeup Monday!

The nasty bug I've been fighting for the last four weeks finally won and I went to my doctor for help. The last time I was this ill for this long was when I received a swine flu shot in 1976 while I was working at a nursing home. It was required at the time for all health care workers and I was one who had a horrible reaction to it. I was sick for about 10 days then.

I had a really hard time staying vertical at my doctor's office and for the first time in a long time, he was running on time so I was put in a room quickly. I had just seen him two weeks prior for a med check and had lost 10 pounds by eating better. I was down an additional 5 pounds due to lack of appetite and food just evacuating when upright for any period of time. When my doctor entered the room, I was prone on the table in a ball with my mandatory mask flipped up over my eyes. I have always had a problem with wearing masks of any kind.

He was clearly worried with my condition and additional weight loss. He listened to all my symptoms and agreed that the flu shot I had received had definitely played a role in my illness. He thinks I had something brewing unbeknownst to me and the flu shot weakened my immune system enough for it to take over. He sent me home with a script for a strong antibiotic.

It will be a week on Wednesday since I saw him and I was hoping that I would be totally recovered but that hasn't been the case. But I am doing better and I will take that. Before this nasty bug took over, I made a bunch of Korean garakji maedeup necklaces. I showed my sister, Heidi, and she wanted a couple so I was happy to send them to her. The rest you can find for sale in my Etsy shop.

 I told Rocketman I needed some kimchi to help cure me. Did you know that kimchi can cure cancer? I'm not sure that is true but I've been told that when we were living in Korea. At this point, I was willing to try anything. I had heard about this Korean restaurant in the back of a food store that had pretty good reviews on Yelp so I thought we could give it a try. It is located in Columbia Heights, MN which is about 30 miles from us. I was just hoping my body would agree and I could venture out for a little adventure.

 The restaurant opened at 11 am. and we arrived just at that time to find a line already. Always a good sign as far as I'm concerned. They had a pretty big menu to choose from.

 I chose kimchi jjigae and Rocketman chose spicy pork stir fry. We also ordered some mandu (dumplings). I saw that the offered a pajeon but it was seafood so I asked if they had a kimchi jeon and she said no. Oh well.

          They told you a number and the numbers were called as the orders were finished.

 Orders were not complete, but trickled out. We got the mandu first. It wasn't like Korean mandu at all but I thought it was pretty good.

                Then came the banchan (side dishes) and my kimchi jjigae. It smelled soooo good.

                                                            Close up of the deliciousness.

      The kimchi was pretty good!

                                                    Along with the other banchan.

Rocketman's dish did not taste Korean and was not very good. I really liked the kimchi jjigae but couldn't eat much because I wasn't feeling very well. A funny story, we had two Hmong women sitting next to us and they spoke mostly in Hmong except to comment to us about the food. One asked us if we thought the food was not spicy enough and I told her I thought it wasn't quite as spicy as in Korea but that we had encountered that a lot with U.S. Korean restaurants. She told us that she had been in Korea and the food is much better there. We smiled and agreed.

 

I definitely want to go back when I feel better and really enjoy my food. I was hoping the kimchi would kill the bug I have but it didn't. But I am feeling so much better and for now that's a good thing.