I'm such a Diva....HAH!

What I should actually say is "my purse is a Diva Essential Designer Bag"! I finished my first project that I bought in Las Vegas....my Diva Essential Designer Bag.
I just love the print...it's a Japanese floral print in purples (of course), pinks, reds and golds...

It has a really cool and handy zipper that opens the long way....

And, it has lots of pockets...both inside and out. There is a hidden pocket on one side. This pattern was pretty easy...it took me about 3 days from cutting to finishing.

The best thing...I finished it in time for church tomorrow! hee hee...earlier today I made 20+ pounds of potato salad (with Jessie and Hiroko's assistance). It reminded me of the old days when my Dad and Uncles would have the season-end BBQ. What do you put into 20+ pounds of potato salad?

• 20 pounds of potatos
• 30 hard-boiled eggs
• 2 red onion
• 1 head of celery
• lots of mayo, mustard, relish, pepper, and salt

Okay, now I am hungry....night everyone!

Joann's!

After the gym and my pilates class, I met my friend Pam at my FAVORITE store....Joann's! She needed some "creative guidance" for some 1st birthday invites that she is making for a friend...not her baby...just in case someone was wondering. See the stack of foam in front of her? That's what we cut. It was really fast with my rotary cutter.

Since I had my cutting stuff out, I decided to cut out the material and batting for one of the patterns I bought in Las Vegas...I got everything cut out...and most of the lining pieces pinned up...all I have to do is "zip-zip-zip" tomorrow...

Las Vegas Finds!!!

Okay, so my usual strategy is to gamble a little and try to win enough to supply my habit....craft shopping! But, since we had the boys, and it's no fun to gamble by myself...I ended up using my gambling money for my habit. And, boy did I find some stuff!

Unfortunately, my favorite craft and rubber stamp stores, The Quilted Bear and Stamp Oasis, are both closed...but, I did find a great Fabric/Quilt store!

They carry a line of material from Kona Bay...No, I didn't go to Japan, but, Kona Bay does have panels with Japanese motifs, I have been looking for the below panel for a while...it's of Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion. Jeff and I went to see the temple in Kyoto years ago.Fabric Boutique has a large inventory of craft and quilt kits. I picked up these two Santa kits. I gave the one on the left to Jeff's Mom for her birthday, which happens to be today.

Of course, I couldn't pass up the Asian Fat Quarter assortment...the best thing was that it was on closeout...so, it was cheaper than listed on their website. I am going to use a few of these to make some fabric kimonos to quilt next to the Kinkakuji panel above.

They had a huge wall of patterns, mostly quilting patterns, but also quite a few purse/bag patterns. I picked up a few....

On a sad note...I worked on trying to recover my SD card photo images for over 12 hours yesterday...only to find out that (I think) I was scanning the wrong drive....(okay Mr. Collins, let's hear it "USER ERROR")...After I fiddled around with it some more, I found out (after 15 minutes), that all of my images from our Las Vegas / Hoover Dam vacation are on the stick...then I found out that I needed to pay $40 for the license key to "recover" the pictures. Luckily a friend already has the software...and he is going to do this for me....THANK YOU PRESTON!!! I love you!

KA --- at least I have one picture....

Well...we got back from our short hop to Las Vegas. It seemed like we were there for a long time...but, I think it's because we were doing a lot of things...

On Friday, we ran some errands and met one of Jeff's friends, Patty, for lunch at the 4 Kegs. If you are a Triple D (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) fan, you may have seen the 4 Kegs on the show. They are known for the stromboli, but, their hot wings sure smelled good! We liked it so much, we got two to go on Sunday night! We had it for Sunday dinner, Monday breakfast and for a late lunch when we got home! HA HA HA! It was quite yummy!

I also found a GREAT QUILT store! I picked up lots of patterns, wonderful Asian fabric Fat quarters, a few kits and I finally found the Golden Pavillion Panel from Kona Bay that I have been looking for!

Friday night we took the boys to go see KA...a Cirque Du Soleil show. It was different from other shows because it was more like a story. I really liked it...and when you stopped to think about what they were doing, you were amazed! Jeff broke down and bought the above picture. It came in a nicely embossed album with two pictures. This turned out great since, I DELETED ALL MY PICTURES ON MY CAMERA!!!!

Saturday we drove to Hoover Dam. This was a really easy drive and it is amazing to see such a enormous structure! Plus, the dam was completed TWO years ahead of schedule, under budget AND the loan was repaid with interest! AMAZING...great tour for the family...

I have to give kudos to Lori's brother Perry for a tip he gave me years ago. If you forget a phone charger or in my case an iPod charger...check with hotel security. They have boxes of chargers that people leave in their room. YEAH!!! We didn't go iPod-less!!!!

Saturday we also ate at Pinks @ Planet Hollywood! I think they were featured on Triple D as well! Jeff actually had the two hotdogs in a tortilla with chili and cheese....it was quite yummy. And best of all...the dogs snapped!

The boys were up early on Sunday to hit the pool...they enjoyed it for quite a while until they got tired of the heat and rude kids. (Please explain to me why parents think that underwear is proper pool attire...gross...the kid also wore diapers...because I saw the father changing him before the pool opened!) After we showered, we hit Main Street up for a nice buffet and a nice walk!

Monday morning we left for home (and the Sheryl Crow concert @ Wente that night). It was a nice and short vacation...but, school starts tomorrow!!! YEAH!!!!!

If I can recover the pictures...I'll post them...until then...night!

GRRRRR!!!!

Okay, so, I have been a bad blogger lately...I remembered to bring my camera to lunch with Lori and Nick, dinner with Andi and Jeff, and lunch/playdate with Betty and Sandy...but, do I remember to take it out and take a picture...NOOOO!!!!! Do I even take a picture of Jeff's niece who stayed with us dancing to "High School Musical"? Nope...I'm such a slacker! I can't wait until school starts...then, maybe I will get my act together!

Not to mention that I didn't take pictures at the driving range...which would have been handy since this little brat (not mine) almost hit me with a golf ball. He isn't a brat because he almost hit me (actually, he did hit the guy sitting on the bench next to me)...but, he just giggled and didn't say "I'm Sorry"....GRRRR!!!! Not cool...btw: no parents in sight!

My latest GRRRR...is Jeff's iTouch. I am syncing it before "Our Last Hurrah trip". Three things are happening (1) I sync the music, then videos disappear; (2) I sync the videos, (and guess what!) the music disappears! (3) I finally get the music and videos on....then the apps disappear!!! I know it has to do with my settings...but, I am too fried today to figure it out.

Night folks....btw: I'll post when I get back...I am going laptop-less...I hope I don't have withdrawals!

The Ottinger's Housewarming Party

This past Saturday, we drove down to Castroville/Salinas to attend a housewarming party. Jeff's cousin Karen and her husband Jeff (aka: Haku) bought their house earlier this year and opened it up to the family.



Haku, Karen, me and Auntie Joanne (Karen's Mom). Haku likes picking on me. Jeff's great-aunties Marian and Sets with cousin Kimi.

Oh gees...here we go...starting on the left, Tami, Rika, Dylan, Great Auntie Junko, Marika, Bruce, Haku, Megan and in the front Rachel. (Megan and Rachel are Jeff's nieces.)

Here he is eating AGAIN, Tommy and his wife Peggy.

Cousins Richard and Robert kept Jordan entertained all night...


Pamela and Neil pose with Great Grandma Kobayashi.

Starting from the left: Rodney, Bachan (Jeff's grandmother), Auntie Dianne (Auntie Joanne's twin sister), Robert (yes, we have two Roberts, Jeffs, Franks, Georges), Neil, Lisa, Jeff (looking shocked?) and on the top row, Karen, Jeff's mom and our newest family member Marley.

Marley just married into the family in October/November (sorry!). But, Jeff's 2nd cousin Jerry couldn't make it, so Marley came up with Jerry's sister and mother.

Here is Marley, Karen, Jeff's Mom, Lisa and Pamela.

As you can tell, Jeff has a large extended family...Until recently, there were quite a few great-Aunties/Uncles....and now that the cousins (8 of them!) are older, lots of cousin-in-laws...it makes it fun to get together...

SAMURAI --- Asian Art Museum SF

Today we went to the Asian Art Museum with Jeff's Mother and Grandmother. I was a little worried about Grandma, she is 92 years "young", but she did really well!

Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures in the Samurai exhibit, but it was really interesting...we were lucky enough to catch the "Samurai Stories", so that got us in the mood for the exhibit.
I don't know if the boys really appreciated the exhibits, but, they did like the video presentations about Japanese Castles, Zen, Shinto and Tea Houses...(I just checked, they still remembered the topics :) ).
Here are the boys with Grandma. Don't they look good for the end of the day? On the way home, Jordan and Grandma went to sleep. In Jordan's defense, he went walking with Jeff this morning at 6:30 a.m.

This is one of the many "Buddhas" that are on exhibit at the museum. They are from all over Asia...you will notice that some are standing and some are sitting. Jodo Shinshu's Buddha is standing so I took this picture. (Phew! We asked Jordan the other day what sect of Buddhism we are...and he answered "Jodo Shinshu"....Good job Noreen!)
The next time you see Neil, ask him about the screen with the Dog. Can you see the dog in the middle, and all of the samurai on horseback with (egads!) bows and arrows? According to Neil, "The game is, you have to shoot the dog with an arrow. There is something on the end of the arrow, so the dog does not get damaged. They could not hit the dog on its head or back." It still sounds like it would hurt, eh.

This was not in the Samurai exhibit, so, I could take a picture (without my flash, I'll get to this in a second...grrrr).

Isn't this basket gorgeous? I love baskets, and there were BEAUTIFUL hand-woven baskets on display!

Here are my two angels....hee hee...at least they weren't "battling" while in the exhibits...

Okay, about the "no flash photography". It's getting REALLY hard raising two boys, you try to teach them "right from wrong", "good values" etc...then you have some a$$h0)e taking flash photography at a museum when there are signing saying that it is prohibited...plus, the guards told you the rules, plus, NO ONE else is....sigh, once again I had to have the "sometimes people don't want to follow the rules, but that is wrong" conversation with the boys. At least, they knew it was wrong....and I made sure to get us out of there before the guards came, since I had my camera around my neck...and YOU COULD SEE THE FLASH STROBES going off.

Sigh...I'm tired....nite!