That other ABA

Tonight, the Asian Business Association (not the dredded American Bar Association) held its annual banquet honoring business leaders in the Asian business community. We were in attendance to support Mr. Blog's colleges who were recieving an award!
I'll spare you the details, suffice it to say it was a typical (meaning "dry") business award banquet, but... a brilliant member of the planning committee booked KABA Modern to perform (I was surprised because if I had to find entertainment for 300 middle aged Asian business people I probably would not have booked a street dancing crew)! I LOVE KABA MODERN! *LOVE* They are amazing live too; they did their gunshot and Michael Jackson routines! (I made Mr. Blog sneak up next to the stage to take pictures)
(For you non-MTV junkies, KABA Modern placed second on the first season of America's Best Dance Crew; this is a clip from the show - dancing starts about 1 minute in)

Oh and check out what Toyota (the evening's sponsor) provided for us:
Portable chopsticks! Now I'm ready to eat anywhere! All in all, a good night! Congratulations Mr. Blog and Company!

Conversations

or "Why I love Mr. Blog: Part 1 of many"
#1: Last night, on our sofa, with Mr. Blog:
This is fresh off yesterday's post about never finishing anything...

Me: I'm thinking about making a Halloween costume.
Mr. Blog: Why?
Me: To save money. I swear I'll finish this one...
Mr. Blog: What are you going to make?
Me: A detective outfit like the one we found online.
Mr. Blog: How much is it online?
Me: $20
Mr. Blog: Um...
Mr. Blog: [type, type, type] It's been ordered. Go finish your other projects so we can hang out.


#2: This morning, in my office with the Oriental Trading customer service rep.
I checked my order status and discover that our costumes will arrive on November 3rd, despite a guarantee (included below to prove I'm right) that it would arrive by Halloween...

Me: Hello, I ordered a costume from your website and my confirmation says it be here November 3rd.
Rep: Yes.
Me: Your company's e-mail said it was guaranteed to arrive by Halloween if I ordered by the 26th.
Rep: We never making shipping guarantees.
Me: [staring at the message from Oriental Trading] Do you have e-mail? I can forward you the message.
Rep: No.
Me: Well it says that if I order by the 26th, my costume will be here by Halloween.
Rep: Yes, if you chose express shipping. Would you like to upgrade for 4oo million dollars?
Me: No! [continues to rant about the various guarantees in the email]
Rep: So, do you want to upgrade shipping?
Me: NO!!!


#3: Later this morning, in my office via e-mail with Mr. Blog

Me: [whine, whine, whine] ... November... guarantee... meanies... [whine, whine]
Mr. Blog: I'll call them.

[5 minutes later]

Mr. Blog: The costumes will be here Monday.

*amazing*

Works in progress

A knitted flower, destined to be one of several on a branch inspired scarf. This is supposed to be a Christmas present, but I've hit a snag with this project because I can't decide how the branch scarf part should look. Also, I can't remember how I made this flower because I didn't write my stitch counts down. Oops.

DIY articles from Teen Vogue waiting to be part of a mini-book of inspiration.

I know I'm too old to subscribe to any magazines with the word "teen" in the title, but Teen Vogue warrants an exception (even if they did employ Lauren Conrad as an intern; seriously, why is that girl famous?!) - it's just as fashionable as big Vogue but offers more affordable options. And the DIY articles are fab. Designers I love - Alex Wang, Erin Featherston, the team from Marchesa - create simple DIY projects to enhance any wardrobe. I clip them every month and now I have almost three years of ideas cluttering up my desk. It needs to be in a book ASAP.

Sketches in preparation for a Hollywood themed centerpiece. Another Christmas project (for the holiday party I'm planning), but this one I'm actually making progress on. Samples have been ordered and I have more meetings next week. Yay!

I'm off to finish one of these projects, hopefully.

Or, I'll start on a Halloween costume... =P

Last political jab...

I swear...

From last night's Family Guy (photo via NY Post):Thank goodness Fox News is balanced out by Fox cartoons.

Watch the clip here.

Watch the full episode here (pay attention around 18:50).

I make.

I made a card for this week's 2 Sketches 4 You challenge, based on Kazan's Sketch 11. I really like the different elements of this design - the borders and the circle and the little frill next to it! The placement is great too!

Here's my card with a sweet little piglet on it:
It's completely cardstock and construction paper. This card wasn't so much about supplies, but "technique" (that's in quotations because I didn't do anything complex or special). I stamped the hills with two different 4-leaf clovers and I think it's adorable (even though you can't really see it!). The pig, barn, fence, sun and white frame are all pieced together with individual pieces of cardstock that I cut (of my own design).
Here's a close up of the pig: she's 14 pieces of paper glued together - boy, I am so glad I have a circle cutter!
On an unrelated note, I also made this lasagna...and this caprese salad.Mr. Blog added a bottle of petite sirah and some tiramisu and we had a lovely little meal. Mm mm.

Thank you for looking!

*Swoon*

I'm having a good day.

A very good day.

Because this came for me in the mail:

I was gushing over this adorable "Are we there yet?" card made by sweet Miss Lauren and she generously offered to send it to me (and OMG, it's even cuter in person! Lauren is ridiculous - go to her blog right now and check out all her beautiful cards!!); and she sent me a whole package of goodies! How lucky am I?! I'm beyond thrilled! Thank you so so so much, Lauren!
I'm off to be creative right now!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Sewing!

Remember back in the day when I went to the Emmys?

Yeah, that's all... I just wanted to throw it out there again.

No, I'm kidding; it's actually relevant! So remember when I blogged about it and had a challenge for my sweet readers to identify the celebrities I saw? And then I mailed out prizes? Well, all my packages have safely reached their destinations (one set lives with Saucy and Loopy now!), so I thought I'd post the project here.

I made monogrammed shoebags in this cute pink and green fabric that I'm obsessed with.
They are lined, scented and have seperate compartments for each shoe. They were a blast to make!I have some extra fabric, so I can wipe up a few more of these babies if anyone would like to buy one or just swap. Lemme know, we can work something out!

Project Beer

Following the success of Project Cheese, Mr. Blog and I bring you Project Beer (warning, picture heavy post!).

A little back story: Once upon a time, around December 2007, Mr. Blog received the Mr. Beer Premium Edition Beer Kit (it's the really big box under the tree).

Step 1: Studying the instructions. I didn't want a repeat of Step 4.5 from Project Cheese. We also watched Alton Brown's Good Eats beer episode for extra information.

Step 2: Cleaning everything! The instructions included a number of ominous warnings about bacteria making the beer taste like farts, so we took great care in the sanitation process. The kit comes with a special sanitizer for the keg, the measuring cups and the utensils, but Mr. Blog and I took the extra pre-caution of sanitizing ourselves as well.














Here are our supplies ready to go!Step 3: Cooking the booster. The booklet in the kit said that "booster" is designed to enhance the flavor of the beer. I had never heard of "booster" and Alton Brown didn't mention it so I assumed it was a secret Mr. Beer product.
Turns out, it's just dehydrated corn syrup solids so we were just making a big pot of corn syrup.
Step 4: Adding the mix. This is where Mr. Beer hides the real beer ingredients like hops and other grains.
As you can see, we're making West Coast Pale Ale. Step 5: Putting it all together. Look at Mr. Blog's fine pouring form! I give it a 9.8.Here, he's stirring in the yeast.
Alton Brown suggested that we use bottled water and who are we to disagree?
Mr. Blog and his baby beer! Step 6: Fermentation. The young beer has to ferment for 7 - 10 days to let the yeast convert the sugars into alcohol. Mr. Blog wrapped our baby up to protect it from harm and...














... kept the room at exactly 72 degrees.Step 6.5: Tasting the young beer. What? We couldn't help it!














It was pretty good considering it was warm and un-carbonated.

Step 7: Bottling and carbonation. Mr. Beer carbonates its beer in the bottle (by adding sugar to each bottle for a second fermentation). Again, we start by sanitizing everything.

... adding sugar... ... filling the bottles...Fermentation, round 2. We somehow ended up with more beer than would fit in the bottles that came with the kit, hence the bottle that doesn't belong.
Step 8: Aging. Who knew beer had to age? And that it's done in the fridge (we gave up food for a while so there would be room for the bottles in there)?
Step 9: Enjoying! Here's Mr. Blog taking our finished product out.
... opening...
... pouring...
... admiring... (these pilsner glasses were also part of Mr. Blog's Christmas present from that year... I etched a whole set and they spell out his name; yay me!)
... drinking...
*YUM* I really like how the beer turned out. It's light and crisp and really refreshing. Mr. Blog and I definitely plan on giving Mr. Beer another go (but this time being creative with the mix) before trying grains, hops and yeast on their own.

This batch made two gallons of beer so we have plenty; come by and have some!

Score!

I missed the last Caardvarks challenge, but I got my act together for this one!

Caardvarks Challenge #35: Score! challenged us to make a card using a creative scoring technique. The prize is a mini-Scor-It Board!! This thing creates the perfect fold everytime and the scoring tool is attached to the board so I can't ever lose it! I so need one!!

My card is to celebrate the engagement of a good friend of mine. For my special "scoring" technique, I decided to make an endless wedding knot from a long strip of cardstock. There was a lot (lot) of measuring and angular scoring and a little weaving involved. This is actually my second knot because I mis-scored the first knot! I really could have used that Scor-It Board (*hint*hint* Caardvarks team!).

The front:

Close up: Thanks for looking!