Welcome back Sun!

The weather is starting to warm up now and thoughts of spring planting are warming up as well.  We completed the basics of landscaping the backyard last summer.  We left some areas unplanted due to the heat and a good thing it was too, as we experienced about a 30% die off of the plants.  I think some of the grasses are simply dormant and may yet come back, but some of the plants are not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.  One result of this was a bare spot under the new pergola.

 

This is one of Tex's most favorite spots to warn off would-be intruders, he takes this job VERY seriously and makes regular security checks all day long.  The butterfly bush I originally planted here didn't stand a chance and was quickly trampled to death.   

After staring at this spot for the thousandth time I was finally struck by inspiration and realized we needed a big, shade tolerant, sturdy feature in this spot.  

• big = tree
• shade tolerant = Japanese maple tree
• sturdy = Japanese maple tree in a giant pot (Tex proof)

And thusly we set off to visit the local nurseries in search of the above item.  After checking out a couple of local nurseries, we settled on a Japanese Maple variety named "Seiryu" which we purchased from the very helpful lady at Sweet Pea Nursery in Vacaville.  Along with the tree we also got what I believe must be the most beautifully packaged dirt and fertilizer ever made.

 

 

I sure hope our new little tree appreciates all the organic goodness we spread around it.

 All together and looking fine in it's new home. Below is what we hope it will look like come Fall.

Friends again

The Queen and I are friends once again.  I made some significant progress on the Africa quilt today.  The front is fully pieced together and the elephant is appliqued to the front.  The acacia tree is definitely going to be a more challenging applique as it has many more and sharper curves.  I'll have to rest and mentally prepare to tackle that fresh tomorrow.  So far, I am very happy with how this is coming together : )

I am looking forward to sketching in and quilting the elephant face.  I think this picture will be a good guide.

An audience with the Queen

We are in the process of re-arranging the living , yet again, and I have become motivated to finish the Africa quilt to hang in the living room. After blowing the dust off the machine and quilting supplies and digging out all the fabric I spent a little time figuring out where I was in the process (too little time as it turns out).  

 

Eager to restart, I carefully pinned the black strip to the colored squares and merrily sewed up the first seam in more than a year.  Well, let me tell you, what a rude surprise I got when I started to iron the seam open and D'OH I sewed the right side of the strip to the wrong side of the colored squares.  Such a rookie mistake!  It's been too long since I spent quality time with Queen Bernina, my lovely sewing machine, and somehow she is extracting her revenge for my neglect by blinding my eyes, because what do you think happened on the VERY NEXT SEAM?  Yup, you guessed it, wrong again, arghh!

So, my  plan for today, Super Bowl Sunday, is to whisper sweet words of praise to the lovely Queen until we are friends once again and can work together to get this Africa quilt completed and up where it belongs on the living room wall.

Gardner on Brilliant Opportunities « Inspiration for your work & life

Gardner on Brilliant Opportunities « Inspiration for your work & life

Voodoo Glove

Christmas is just 2 days away! Craig and I are excitedly waiting for daughter and grandson to arrive tomorrow. The holidays are good for many reasons, but one of the best reasons is family and friends sharing happy times together.

I decided to get a jump start on this year's resolution to henceforth refrain from uttering vile obscenities. I am blessed with a prodigious vocabulary from which I should be able to more creatively shout invectives, engage in character assignation, offer guidance to fellow drivers and reproach miscellaneous poorly guided individuals.

So, last night as I was laying aside my knitting project on the coffee table, I was amazed to realize that, wow, I actually know what each of the many pointy things are and what to do with each one. I have learned a lot over the last couple of years after all.

as I look at this picture all I can think is that is looks like some kind of tortured "Voodoo Glove"

Getting Crafty Again

The weather outside is getting cooler and the urge to nest is growing. We recently splurged on a new flatscreen TV, which necessitated moving all the living room furniture around and re-purposing a shelf unit to hold the TV. One of the attractive features of a flatscreen TV is the clean, streamlined look, which was completely spoiled by the tangled mess of cords we had to hook up to it.

I really like this shelf unit we got from IKEA a while ago, but the see-through shelves did nothing to disguise all those ugly cords, so it was time to get crafty!

We already have a red/black Poang chair (also from IKEA), which has bright red cushions, I wanted a little more red in the room, but didn't want to clash with the existing colors. This book by Alice Hoffman had the perfect combo of colors, so off we went to the fabric store with one of the chair cushions, the book and a little pumpkin for inspiration.

After much deliberation and consultation with an exceedingly patient Craig (who usually totally hates the fabric store), we found several suitable fabrics in the desired colors from JoAnns (I was a little skeptical, as JoAnns doesn't always have the best selection of "upholstery fabric" on hand). Onward we went to Home Depot, where a super friendly clerk helped us select and cut to size a 1/4" piece of plywood to the dimensions of the shelf unit.

Once again, Craig was a trooper and helped me layout the locations of all the shelves on the back plane. We also cut a couple of holes for the cords to poke through from the components to the back. The next step was using spray adhesive to adhere the fabric to the back plane in an alternating pattern of yellow, orange and red.

The spray adhesive seemed a little weak to hold everything together long term, so I used the glue gun to adhere strips of black ribbon to all the areas where the fabric joined. This also has the additional benefit of camouflaging minor misalignment of the fabric edges where they line up with the shelf edges.

Attaching the back plane to the shelf was easy as pie with a staple gun and VOILA, no more ugly cords to detract from the clean lines of the flatscreen.

I'm back from the Land of PMP

whew, well it's been awhile since I updated the blog. I took an extended break from pretty much everything while taking preparation courses and self study to prepare for taking the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam. This has been on my to do list since last November, so I finally got my rear end in gear:

• signed up for a couple on-line preparation courses from Solano Community College
• completed prep courses 1 & 2 simultaneously (nothing like a little procrastination to make you work extra hard at the last minute) on November 6th
• took the exam on the last possible day permissible, November 7th
• and passed, yay!

I learned some interesting project management techniques, including new ways to do financial analysis of alternative investments. The professional certification makes a nice addition to the resume and I actually asked to be assigned to a project at work, and got a big one! So, now I can put all my shiny new tools and techniques to good use.

Now, it relaxation & rejuvenation time. Craig took me out for a very nice, classic American, celebration meal of champagne, steak and lobster. On Sunday, we took a nice little walkabout at the Nimbus fish hatchery, it was pretty quiet as the salmon run hasn't started quite yet. We did see lots of big salmon in the river and quite a few were actually "knocking" at the gate to the fish ladder. We got some great photos and video of the scenery and fish. It's kind of hard to tell from the video, but the adult salmon are HUGE, about 3 feet long and 40 pounds of muscular fish. The trout in the raceways are 8-12 inches long.