I recently had another Dim Sum party which turned out to be a total hoot!  First of all, Dim Sum is a Chinese tradition where you get together and order little appetizers off various carts that they roll around the dining room.  The words Dim Sum literally mean "of the heart."  Dim Sum options can be either steamed sauteed or deep fried.  The portion sizes are small and the waiter pushing the cart marks a card at your table.  At the end of the meal you bring your card up to the register and they tally up how many little appetizers you had.  Ours version isn't exactly traditional in that we will serve some Thai dishes or even Phillipino dishes, but we always have a good time.  I was telling everyone how my dumplings look so much prettier since I watched a you tube video on how to fold them correctly!

This picture makes me laugh because it looks like it should be on a coupon offering a discount at Nancy's Dim Sum Palace or something!

After dinner we went down stairs into my Retro Room to listen to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and drink cocktails!  This is a room I am always working on and one of my ongoing projects.  I have been filling it with memorabilia from the 60's so that you can hang out there, read magazines from the era, play with games from the era and listen to music from the era.  My friend Hannah took all these great photos and they are great!  Thanks, Hannah!!

 Yes, it is a disco ball, I love those things!!

 Hey!  What'll ya have?

Here I am with my Shirley Temple, yeah, I know that's lame. LOL!

 Here's a close up of the bar stools!

 Here's bartender John making some Margaritas!

It was a great time!  We looked at old vacation slides! HA!  Looked at View Master reels and read some old Life magazines!  I will post some brighter pictures of the Retro room a little later!

Como Zoo

I went to the Como Zoo recently with my husband, my son and his girl friend.  They have the most adorable little monkeys with really long white mustaches!  I can't remember what type of monkey they are but they look like they should be in a Dr. Seuss story!  This one in particular was very interested in my son's key chain and everything that hung on it.  We spent a great deal of time just watching him look over these keys over and over again and he was right up against the window too!  They are so adorable, I took a couple pictures, I hope you enjoy them!!

What cute little mustachioed monkeys!!

Beautiful Jewelry

My son came home from College last weekend and I've been so excited to see all that he accomplished.  He was taking classes on how to repair and manufacture fine jewelry.  Although he didn't learn how to cut any gemstones, he did learn how to set them and how to manufacture some of his own designs.  I'm super proud of him but of course he just sees where he needs improvement.  I have a couple pictures of some of the items he made, these are made with Alloy (not gold) and Cubic Zirconia.

 These are close ups, and not very good ones I might add as they are from my cell phone.  Here are some other pictures of the rings.

Here's a set of earrings he made that are really beautiful!

I'm hoping he continues with it and tries to get an Apprenticeship where he can really practice his skills.  I think everything looks amazing and he doesn't think so, he just thinks I say that because I'm his mom!  Well, maybe I am a little biased!

My package came!

I got my package from my yarn swap partner who is not the same person I sent a package to.  I almost feel guilty as I think she went way over the amount she had to spend :/ but everything is wonderful!  The theme of the swap was Steam Punk- which should give you an idea why she sent me what she did.  Here are the pictures!!

She made the gifts and sent a bunch of keys, watch parts and other cool things for me to craft with- I can't wait to make something with them-and sent lots of other items!  Yarn swaps are really fun and a lot of people participate in them. Ravelry.com which is an online community for people who knit, crochet, weave, and spin their own yarn has clubs you can join to get in on these swaps, or to get free patterns, meet new people, etc. it's really great! 

Today I woke up to this!

It's amazingly beautiful, yet I really long for Spring right now.  However, every day I wake up breathing is a blessing.  Jesus referred to Heaven as "Paradise" and I often wonder if it will be like earth at all because there are so many beautiful things about our earth that I will miss when I go.  But, maybe Heaven will be so gloriously wonderful that it won't matter anymore.

I participated in a Yarn Swap on Ravelry.com last month and the theme was Steam Punk!  First of all, Ravelry is an online community of people who knit, spin, crochet, and weave.  You can make friends, get free patterns on the site and you can even keep a record of all your projects!  That way, even when you gift it you have a nice record and picture of it!

The swap moderator matches people together for each swap so you don't know who you will be getting a package from.  Usually you have to include at least 1 skein of yarn and several hand made items based on the theme of the swap and then the rest is up to you.  There is always a dollar amount so that everything is pretty even with other swappers.  It is great fun and kinda like a Secret Santa!  Anyway, I found out that my partner received her swap in the mail the other day!  This is what I made and sent to her!!

Here are the items I made for her!

 The PB&J is a tiny pin I made with Polymer Clay!  I don't know who will be sending a package to me, but I will keep you posted when I do!

I have started weaving on my Rigid Heddle Loom and I will post some pics later this week!

Happy Crafting and God Bless!  OH,  Frankenstein says, "HI!"

Weave me alone!!

So I recently went to the Weavers Guild of Minnesota's Annual Garage Sale!  It is a hoot and you can find all sorts of interesting things there.  They have plenty of yarn, fabric, cross stitch, needle point, notions, and some unfinished projects you can buy and finish yourself!  Best of all, they had tons of books, patterns and magazines on everything crafty you could think of, even basket weaving!

I didn't buy any yarn or fabric as I have a ginormous yarn stash as it is and I didn't really find any fabric that caught my eye.

They did however have a nice Silent Auction that I took part in!  They had lots of sewing machines this year, only 1 spinning wheel and a lot of different kinds of looms.  I saw a nice Rigid Heddle Loom that was table top sized so I put a bid on that.  As I was checking out I asked the cashier when they would contact people who won the bids at the Silent Auction and he told me by 3pm that day.   I waited and waited but didn't get a call, I was admittedly, very disappointed.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from the guild telling me I did in fact win the bid on the loom!  Yippee!!!  Here she is!

She is quite lovely and I am trying my darndest to figure out how to warp the thing and get going on the weaving, it is hard to understand.  I may need to take a basic weaving class after all.

This last winter I found a great little table loom made by Brio.  It is a beginners child loom but big enough to make place mats, table runners, hand towels and other small items.  This item was discontinued and I understand it is very hard to find one of these looms, I still can't believe I bought it at a thrift store for $7.99!  Here she is!

I have a few other small looms that are very basic, one is an antique called the Weave-It!  They came in various sizes and I have the bigger one pictured at the bottom left corner of this picture.

These are used for making coasters and small purses for coins and even patchwork type throws if you have the patience for it!

I will show some more pictures of some other types of looms I have later and my progress with weaving!  God bless!!

Well, it keeps snowing and snowing and snowing!  I know I'm in Minne-snow-tah but I'm kinda sick of it already.  I'm really antsy about working in the yard!  I have an addition to my pond to install this spring and I got a greenhouse for Christmas that I'm dying to put up already!  I may start my own seeds in there and possibly grow and flower garden in the backyard.  I would really love to grow a vegetable garden however something has always managed to eat up everything, especially squash blossoms!  Since it is still winter, I'm forced to work on inside stuff like home improvement, redoing old dressers like these,

sewing new curtains,

and painting the walls.  It keeps me busy and helps me fulfill the urge to create!  I started knitting again and I will likely take up wool processing and spinning again as well.  OH but wait!!  I have my craft room to work on!  Now that we gutted it and tore out the built in bunk beds there is room in there, we need to paint and cover some of the walls with paneling, etc.  So, until I can get outside, I will be working inside.