My Korean Quilt

It's finally done. I had bought a bunch of Korean satin when we lived in South Korea with the intention of making a quilt. I made the quilt for the bed in our guest room which happens to be the Korean room since there are so many Korean things in it.


The pictures don't really portray how bold and beautiful the colors are.

This stripe looks like I sewed all the stripes together but if you are Korean you may know what it is. It's material they use for the sleeves of a hanbok and it comes striped. I used the material in the border of the quilt. I want to buy more of this next time I'm in Seoul.


I hired a gal with a long arm to quilt the piece for me. I could never make it look so nice just using my sewing machine. I'm just thrilled with how it turned out.

Maedeup Monday!

All the maedeup knots used in this necklace can be found in my book "Elegant Knotted Jewelry." The pendant sadly is from Dongdaemum in Seoul, South Korea. I need to get back there and do some major shopping.


It's suppose to be a scorcher today, high in the 90's before a cool from comes through tonight. Stay cool everyone!

Why You Don't Want to Mow the Grass When It's Wet

I thought I was being terribly clever this morning. I woke up and decided to mow the grass this morning before those 90's arrived. The grass was really long and I didn't want it to go another day and besides it's suppose to be in the 90's tomorrow too. I also thought it would be nice to bag the grass so I got out the new paper bags that we are allowed to use for yard waste. No more black plastic bags.

I started at about 8:30am and I was surprised at how long the grass was. It had only been a few days since I had mowed but it is summer. The grass catcher on the mower quickly filled and I went to dump the grass into the paper bag. The grass catcher is larger than the paper bag and when I turned it to dump it into the paper bag, grass went everywhere with very little getting the bag.

I went back to mowing thinking I just have to adjust how I empty the grass catcher and so the next time which was only 3 or 4 lengths of the lawn, I tipped the grass catcher gently into the bag and nothing came out. The grass was so damp (or should I say wet) that it wouldn't move unless the grass catcher was upside down and I was shaking it. So again, grass all over the place.

Enough of that and I put the plug back into the mower and mowed without catching the grass. It was in the 80's and humid and I was sweating like crazy. The grass was really wet and I should have waited but it's hard for me to mow when it's in the 90's. I get dizzy and have to take a lot of breaks for water.

I got most of the lawn done and only on the last couple rows where the grass was for some reason unusually long did the mower sputter. I finished the lawn and swept up all the mess I had made. I came into the house and went straight for the sink for a glass of water. It's when I finished the glass that I looked down and saw my shoes which you can see in the above photo.

That is also when I looked around my kitchen to see grass clippings all over the place. I removed my shoes and threw them on the deck. I swept up all the grass that I had brought into the house and noticed that even though the grass was gone, there were green stains on my floor. So even though I wasn't going to wash the floors this week, that's what I'm looking forward to.

Now I do understand when Rocketman says to wait until the grass in completely dry before you mow. Sometimes I don't listen to him and need to learn on my own. Time to hit Zappos for a new pair of tennis shoes, these will be used for only mowing the lawn.

Viv-isms

My mom's name is Vivian and most call her Viv. I was home a few weeks ago and one of the things we like to do is to go to Lino's. Now there is something you need to know about Leno's. They are NOT open for lunch and they have an early bird special that begins at 4:30. So we got there early because that's what you have to do even though we had reservations.

I was surprised to see people lined up to go in. I was also surprised to see that most of people were well into their 70's. They know a good deal when they see one. We got into line and the door opened promptly at 4:30pm. Everyone seemed to have reservations but we were quickly taken to our seats.


This is their famous special salad. It is delicious and my nephew can eat tons of it.


My mom's favorite Early Bird Special is their cod dinner. You get a salad, fish, choice of potato or spaghetti, ice cream and soft drink all for the price of $8.50. This photo is my mom's choice.


I choice the fried cod. It was so much food that I ended up taking most of the fish home.

This was one of the sides they offered.

During my stay, I helped my mom get organized for a garage sale. That didn't include going through drawers but that didn't stop me. I opened one drawer to find it jammed with pencils. I asked my mom why she had so many pencils and she said, "They were on sale and so I always pick some up when I see them on sale." She would put them in this drawer and never really looked to see how many she had. She was surprised as well. We gave them to my sister for her kids.

These figurines have been in my parent's bathroom since the early 70's. I garbage picked them out of a neighbor's garbage around 1972. Those were the days before black plastic garbage bags. Back then you could see what people were throwing away.

I also found a cabinet filled with sympathy and get well cards. Lots of cards. I asked my mom why she had soooo many and she said, "Becky, when you get to be my age, you send out lots of those kind of cards and besides there was a good sale."

I call her little explanations 'Viv-isms." Welcome to my future!

One Man's Junk...

While visiting the folks a few weeks ago, I was helping my mom clean out some areas for a garage sale she was having. I found this little gem. I remember playing it with my sisters back in the early 70's.


I brought it home to see what I could get on Ebay for it. Would you believe it sold for 43 dollars and some change! The money is going to the folks for a nice dinner out.

I had to take a picture of these guys for a few giggles.

This guy was styling.

This was the guy we all wanted.

But sometimes we ended up with him. We called him the dud.

This guy is hilarious. I wonder what the dates would look like if they made a 2010 Edition?

Korean Food!

A great piece by ZenKimchi on Korean food. It made me homesick for Korean food and all those little "mom and pop" shops we ate in while we lived there.

Maedeup Monday!

This necklace is using one of my chilbo (Korean enameling) pendants. I also used some of the premade garakji that I bought from the maedeup shop in Seoul. I love working in black and I always buy more when I'm in Korea.

I'm taking the Sonata back to Hyundai for some work so I'll be bringing some maedeup along to work on while I am waiting. I'm getting a light fixed and also the bumper repainted. Last time I was there a few weeks ago for an oil change they noticed part of the bumper sticking out so they glued it and taped it in place. When I removed the tape the next day, it also took off the paint. So we'll see what they are going to do about that.

It's always something.