random

9.25.2009

how a sewing machine works

why no blog, jog?

9.01.2009

My initials are JOG. I'm mostly just glad it's not another vowel in the middle. O's are pretty innocuous. But enough about the initials. You might be wondering why I haven't blogged much lately. Yeah, I don't know either. There's a lot to blog about, actually. I just haven't had the gumption to blog about it. I've started, cursed at, and finished a couple of knitting projects, sewing projects and have finally painted that YACK (yet another chalkboard kitchen) wall. I've also found a couple of places I'm considering having the wedding reception at in LA. Multitudes of wedding ideas and all this other stuff, that if you stick with me, I'll eventually blog about.

So if you want those blog posts, you gotta talk to the powers that be (otherwise known as the editors and reviewers at Nature Neuroscience) to just go ahead and print my journal article so that I can go back to harassing the internet for more hours than my boss should know about.

me gusta

8.20.2009

Go check out some of the other china settings. Do you see where the bride' and groom's names are in each of them?

pip pip, cheerio.

8.13.2009

cute etsy pouch for everyone's inner nerd

8.12.2009

somebody finally used felting needles....

7.20.2009

more to come...

soap sweater

6.27.2009

Jukki came to visit and we felted some soap sweaters! Fun, quick and easy!

zai jian zao

6.18.2009

Just to stick with the Asian food theme, Jukki (who is visiting from LA) and I had lunch at Zao's Noodle at U Village. Though I've lived near a Zao's since college, I've never (I think... maybe once in Vegas...) gone in. And now that I've been, I'll never go again. Food sucked.

So maybe I should change the title of this post since zai jian means 'until I see you again' because I ain't ever going back. So... sayonara Zao.

ooh... need to be home on tuesday...

6.17.2009

Marination Mobile

rice cooker

6.16.2009

Speaking of Asian food, I just had to rave about having the bestest rice cooker ever. One of many craigslist finds in SF bay area, this sucker cost me a whopping $100. Some may sneer and gag at the thought of spending that much money on a rice cooker, but really, it makes any crappy rice found at 99 Ranch Market edible and yummy. Thank goodness for japanese businessmen who win prizes at golf tournaments and then proceed to sell their winnings on craigslist.

rocking wok

Seattle, for all its Asian population, has terrible Chinese food. Those in the know usually go over to Bellevue for good Chinese food. So it was nice to find that the new owners of Rocking Wok haven't screwed the pooch. I had this craving for 皮蛋瘦肉粥 and while Rocking Wok's wasn't the most spectacular, nor the most authentic, it was decently flavored and not bad for $4.75. It's nice that it's walking distance from home, too.

new seattle sugar

5.28.2009

curio confections
the yellow leaf cupcake company
(via daily candy)

kyuto!

Mairuru's handsew-it-all blog!

wedding bands

5.26.2009

Though I still love the idea of mokume gane, making our own wedding bands sound kinda cool, too. GE and I learned of this from a woman at Fusion Beads. We were taking a silver fusing class (once my camera gets back from its trip to Vancouver, I'll post pictures of the hammered bracelet I made) and the woman in the know was sitting beside me :)

say it ain't so...

5.20.2009


Has it really been that long since I've written here? I blame it all on graduate school. I'll be better soon... really.

To prove I haven't been slacking in the crafts dept, though, here's a sweater and matching booties I made for LN and SN's new baby, May. And may I say, FINALLY, one of my friends has a female baby. Let the pink fluff flow forth from my needles and the flowers be crocheted! Next up: sweater for GL' and JL's similarly aged little girl.

**and I have no idea why blogger's decided to cut off the picture where it does...

if i had time

4.27.2009

i'd go geek it out!

tatting

4.08.2009

One of the reasons I wanted to learn to crochet is to be able to tat (this is a verb, tatting:knitting) beautiful items like this (butterfly from digital leaf studio). There's a tatting group on Ravelry that has quite a few wonderful finished objects to gawk at.

fiance asked me...

4.07.2009

... whether I would want his brother to be a bridesmaid. Though funny, I doubt MG's bro would shave his pits for a strapless bridesmaid dress. So, probably not, MG. Probably not.

tacky weddings
(via weddingbee)

procession songs

4.01.2009

  1. Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suite in G Major (if only I could get Yoyo Ma...)
  2. Wagner's Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral. Here's a drum corps version. There's also a couple of solo piano versions on the internet (here's a sample, yes that is Hitler).
  3. Forrest Gump theme for piano. Heck, I know three people off the top of my head that can play this well on the piano.
  4. Kissin's Pictures at an Exhibition, for a weightier entrance.
  5. (Darkhorse) Gustav Holst's Mars would kinda be fun, too. Though the subtitle "Bringer of War!!!" isn't really conducive to weddings, I guess.
  6. That one song in high school that we played but whose name escapes me. I might have to go back to the band classroom to look it up in the library.
So all you instrument-playing friends of mine, get yo arses ready to be put to work. Unless all you can play is Canon in D. Then you're already fired. Because the world doesn't need another wedding with someone playing that song. Speaking of which:

Pretty Songs Nixed Due to Overplay
  1. Canon. Though this song always reminds me of My Sassy Girl, it seems everyone and their mother plays this song at their wedding.
  2. Appalachian Spring. Lovely, but also gets around like Paris Hilton.
  3. Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. I loved playing this song on the oboe, way back when.
  4. Ave Maria. Unless someone can write "Ave Fert"

want...

... an illusion vase. Or any of illusion products at Uncommon Goods.
... and ice orb.

pug portrait

3.31.2009

So last night, MG and I attended a charity silent auction for Pawsitive Alliance. And I bid on a custom pet portrait. Lo and behold, we won. Our downstairs neighbor (who is on Pawsitive Alliance's board) joked that the artist would have to draw a pug and then smear it every which way since Hemi never holds still. And then my coworkers joked that I'm becoming one of those crazy pug people. I told him that the sanity train left the station a while back.

engagement story

3.25.2009

Since there was a contest on engagement stories, I quickly entered ours:

MG and I got engaged last September. He had been carrying the ring around since May of that year and was waiting for the right moment to pop the question. And after waiting five months in vain for said moment, he decided to make one.

MG had told me early that day that we were invited to watch Super Troopers (his favorite movie) at his recently-singled friend's place. Little did I know that he was going to propose at Gasworks Park (Seattle) and had made reservations at a fancy restaurant. Thus, when we were getting ready to leave, I put on some sweats and flip flops in preparation. I was a little surprised when MG commented on how casual my outfit was. I do believe my response was, "Dude, we're going over to ***'s. He doesn't even have dishes, just piles of used paper plates covering the counters." He looked quizzical for a moment before responding, "Fair enough."

When we got into the car, he concocted another story about having to pick up some friends from "a wine bar across the street from Gasworks" (which if you know the area around Gasworks is a statement akin to *I'm going to Nebraska for good Chinese food*). He lured me into the park area by saying that the friends were probably walking drunkenly in the park and that we should go find them. It wasn't long before my flip-flopped feet started getting muddy and gross (as Seattle will do on any month except July) and MG said that we’d turn back for the car after he tied his shoelaces. While he bent over, I started turned to look at the city across the water and when I turned around, he had the ring out.

Later, while we were at the fancy restaurant, he mentioned how nervous he had been because there had been so many holes in his story. He kept thinking that any moment, I would realize how ludicrous half of his assertions were. And in looking back, I wonder the same thing considering that I’ve bought all his shoes since we started dating and all of them were slip-ons.

baroness beret

3.24.2009

Just finished the flower. It's for someone that has a one biological child, a crapload of non-biological children and three jobs. For those days that there's absolutely no time to brush or shampoo.

lemon candle

3.23.2009

I had a dying champagne Illuminations candle. We also had fish for dinner last week that required only half a lemon. And when these two worlds collided, that leftover lemon and the leftover wax became a Martha project.

wavelength

3.19.2009

I've started a crochet project! I've been meaning to learn how to crochet so when I saw the wavelength pattern, I just had to try.

lv luv pug

3.18.2009


I made Hemi a jacket with fabric I found in Hong Kong a long time ago. It's reversible with a really happy pink and orange striped fabric on the other side. The velcro and trim are from Pacific Fabrics. I used one of his other jackets as a template and wish I knew how to properly trim sewing stuff. I'm going to have to redo that ugly buckle on the back one of these days. But isn't he an adorapug?

how does one say "whine" in german?

3.15.2009


A certain skipper was complaining about having all the posts be about wedding shiznit and stuff, so to appease that bugger, here's a picture from our Christmas Eastern Europe trip. Yep, MG and I found the Google offices in Munich. It was relatively close to a bunch of hofbrauhauses.

endpaper mitts

Finally finished after hibernating my Endpaper Mitts for around five months. What finally motivated me to finish? Toronto Craft Alert's giveaway to inspire people to finish their projects. And my, are these babies warm! Perfect for the typical March in Seattle.

all unfinished projects

3.14.2009

So many... unfinished... projects! thank goodness I've accumulated a bunch to be able to enter this contest. The Toronto Craft Alert is to be hailed as the great craft-hurry-and--finally-finish-it idols. My brief list:

Next week, I swear, I will make headway into these projects.

inspiration board

3.12.2009

There's a contest over at weddingbee to make an inspiration board with a Kathlin Argiro bridesmaid dress. Since the grand prize consists of five custom bridesmaid dresses, I had to give it a go. So I spent a good amount of last night (i.e. submitted at 3am) putting together this board of stuff I would love to have were I to win the lotto. Whaddya think?

mokume gane

3.03.2009


MG got me a beautiful engagement ring with clean lines and a very sparkly bauble. To complement it, I think I'm leaning towards this kind of wedding band. The woodgrain design is made with traditional Japanese metallurgy techniques, mokume gane. I like the idea of having more a more structural design without any stones to compete with the main sparkly.

everyone and their mother



So when Mike and I got engaged, we were sandwiched by quite a few friends getting engaged. In fact, there was an engagement every week three weeks prior and one week after (for a total of five weeks in a row). And it's been great! So many people to talk to about wedding crap! And now I have another person to harass! Notmartha! Congratulations, M!

Why do it yourself?

2.26.2009

When someone's already made all these inspiration boards for you?

wedding dresses...

2.13.2009




Gotta start thinking about planning stuff. So here's a couple of styles of wedding dressed I've come across today. Three drastically different silhouettes but each dress has its plusses and minuses.

OMG, TGIF

2.11.2009

That "F" in TGIF stands for funding. The stimulus passed with the Specter-Durbin (Republicans!) Amendment intact. We might not need to deport the non-US citizen post-docs that are in my lab :) And people will be funded to find the cure for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's!

back in the saddle again

2.09.2009

Yarn dominance. These two words are going to be the end of me. Halfway through the second Endpaper Mitt, I've realized that I've been holding the wrong yarn in the dominant position. So the balance of green on white has been disturbed. There may be a frogging of four inches worth of mitt in the near future. Sadness.

yes my friends,

2.06.2009



It's been a while. Life's gone a bit gaga with trying to get a (scientific) paper together, Christmas in Europe, a conference in Colorado and this whole thing about keeping my place from looking like a pig sty. But I promise to start blogging again. Really.

But I have been doing some craftiness... witness the hats we're wearing in the picture above. I made those! Because it was friggin' cold in Vienna after we ran out of glühwein for the fourth time.

And another place to learn to cook from in Seattle:
Culinary Communion

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