Nice Day

Today D took pity on me and moved the fan light from the guest bedroom into the sewing room.  The one I had in here was brand spankin' new but only allowed 60w small based bulbs in it.  It was so dark in here I had to use a flashlight to aim at the machines when the threads broke so I could find the ends.   Now I have four 100w CFL bulbs which use only 14w each and it's like daylight.  I'm in love!

Yes, if you have good eyes you can see I'm watching Order of the Phoenix (again).  I'm actually listening to the extra CD with all the goodies on it.  I've already taken a tour with Tonks around the set.  Now we're trying to understand the mysteries of Harry and Voldomort.  Ooooooo....I'm scared.

Check out my cash register.  It's one of the first things I  bought for PAW's Embroidery.  It was built in....nuts, I forgot 1949 or 1950.  Anyway, it weighs about as much as a volkswagon and made of solid oak and steel.  I love it!  Ya gotta push in the buttons for a sale, then wind the handle, a bell rings and the drawer pops out so forceful it could knock you off your feet if you stand to close.  COOL!  

I spent the day working on a couple of Zoobies for a customer in Malaysia.  Yep, I said Malaysia.  She and I worked out using Paypal for the conversion and it actually went very smooth.

E says sometimes you just have to do what the customer wants and this was such a case.  She wanted the name across the back of the Zebra by the tail instead on the tummy.  I tried to explain to her the name would get lost in the stripes but she insisted and decided to have me do it in silver or gray.  I found a silver gray thread but it just didn't look right.

She also wanted the name on the blanket and the silver gray thread looked terrific on the black fleece. It also took much more time than I had anticipated it would.

Li also wanted a Baboon.  She agreed with putting the name in red to match the muzzle of the beast and I suggested white or the bright yellow on the face for the dark brown blanket.  She wanted the same red.  It was okay but didn't make my eyes pop.  Ahhhh....back to, the customer is always right.

Spent the day with E yesterday working on how to edit some names in my digitizing program. She doesn't think she helped much but she really did.  I was in one of those loops where you do the same thing over and over and can't understand why what you're trying to do still doesn't work.  I looked at the command choices a gazillion times and nothing new popped up.  Within a few minutes of opening the program she says, "Merge".  That was the magic word. A whole new world opened up for me.  That alone was worth the trip. Okay..okay...so were the deep fried shrimp at the local dive. Mmmmmm....crunchy, hot and yummy just what I needed.

Ooops...getting off track here.  I worked on Zoobies and stuff today.  I know the Zoobies didn't take all day but I'll be darned if I can remember doing much else.  Tomorrow, I hope with D at work I can digitize the bone font for a customer's name badges.  I'll have to bring out the serger and see if I can give them a merrow edge.  If not, then satin stitch embroidered around the edges will have to do.

Not much else happening today.  I'd better shut up now because my mind keeps wandering and thoughts of the turkey tacos I want to make for dinner keep appearing.  Yep...I think I'll head to the kitchen and start cutting up goodies.

Bye for now!

Nice Birthday

Well, here's my latest digitizing test.  It definitely had a little of everything in it.  The instructions were strange because at times they didn't tell you what color to make the words.  This posed a problem because when you came to the end of the lesson you were suppose to have 9 thread changes.

I had eleven.  At the very end when you have nine colors they tell you to move the black word shadow in behind the purple word shadow.  That changes the stitching sequence so the purple on ups & downs stitches first then black shadow then purple shadow.

I don't know if they're going to like my pointing this error out to them and recommending they move the black shadow to stitch first then ups & downs and purple shadow stitch together.  That at least would have made the thread changes 10 instead of 11.  I know..I know..I just blew up your brains with this boring stuff.

My birthday has been great!  It's stretched out to a week.  Had Dinner with S & S, visited H because she was sick, got spoiled by D, (we'll be going to San Diego to see a terrific line up of country singers in a couple of months), got great hand knitted socks from E, got Victoria Secret smell pretties from mom, had a wonderful long conversation with A on the phone and C took me out and wined and dined me this weekend.  Have one sister MIA and didn't hear a peep from her.  Oh well...life goes on.

I really do love these long extended birthdays.  I think that's the way they're suppose to be. Yep, everyone write Obama and say the first thing he needs to change is birthdays must be a minimum of 5 days long.  And.....you must receive 1 gift per day. 

I'm hoping to get out to see dad tomorrow morning (Monday).  I need to say my goodbyes just in case.  Mom keeps saying he wakes up and talks to her and recognizes her but he's only known who I am once that I can remember in the past year.  It's been really hard being the kid who doesn't exist.  I don't take it personally because it's just one of those things.  Ahhh....too sad so I'll shut up now and move on.

I'm just gonna relive my time with C.  She made me laugh, made me drink and made me eat more than I've eaten in a long time.  I think this was the first time it's been just the two of us going out in 30 years.  Why'd we wait so long?  Hmmmm... 

Luckily I'm in a good mood because I'll be heading out to the kitchen to cut D's hair.  It's not good to have your wife in a down mood when she's got something sharp in her hands.  LOL!

Australia

A few years ago D and I sold mom and dad's 57 Ford Retractable to Pete and Linda in Australia. Getting the car ready for shipping and then driving it to the dock in Oakland was a real adventure.  D had removed all chrome, knobs, lights, etc and locked them in the trunk for safe keeping.  We drove from home to the Port of Oakland in the most illegal fashion possible and didn't get stopped once.  I was a nervous wreck but D just took it in stride.

The car was in nice condition but after Pete got done with it, it was and is in absolutely beautiful shape.  Mom and dad would be so proud of what he's done to the car.

Anyway, Pete and Linda have become family to us.  He's become like a brother to me and keeps me in stitches with his emails and phone calls.  He's got the funniest laugh.  That alone will start me laughing uncontrollably.

Every once in awhile a package will come out of the blue from Australia.  It's always packed with cool stuff from Pete and Linda.  Now, I should know by looking at the package where it's from because as you can see, Pete has absolutely no fear of tape.  He actually never really needs a shipping box, just 10 rolls of tape will do.

Check this box out.  It's another home made version from Pete.  I can't believe I actually had to look at the label to see where it came from.  Wouldn't you think the shape and massive amounts of tape would tell me by now who it's from.  LOL!

Pete knew I've always wanted a boomerang and here one is.  Yep....made in Australia.  I only wish it was nice and warm out so I could take it for a test spin.  Since D has refused to chase after it if it doesn't come back, I've decided I'll take it to the soccer field where it's nice and open and give it a try.  I know...I know...it's going to take lots of practice and I should be patient.

I don't drink tea but I think Pete and Linda have been rooting around in my head.  I've been reading about the health benefits of Jasmine tea and thought I should give it a try.  I haven't bought it yet but guess I'd better because now I have an adorable tea bag holder.  Oh yeah, I also got an apron, and two tea towels with definitions of Aussie sayings.  D got the car magazines Pete sends him.  I think he's already read them cover to cover.

I love these coasters.  The colors are so vibrant and the wood is absolutely beautiful.  They had a little blurb in them from the artist Hugh Symonds saying how much he traveled and then settled in Australia because of the beautiful landscape.

As you know I'm taking a digitizing course recognized by the country of Australia.  It turns out the other day I ran into a word I didn't understand.  They used the term overleaf.  I tried to put it in context of the subject matter and still drew a blank.  A quick email to Pete and I find it means, "next page".

I love talking to Pete and Linda because I learn so much.  Sometimes I have to ask what a word is but for the most part, we communicate very well.  D and I swear we're going to do two things before we die.  The first is a trip to Australia to see Pete, Linda and the kids.  The other is to go to Ireland.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my goodies from Australia.  I have trouble coming up with cool American stuff to send them, so if you've got any ideas, send them my way.

Digitizing Lessons

I bought this horribly expensive digitizing lesson a few weeks ago.  I was disappointed when I received the first lesson because it's in print on a CD.  Which means I have to print up a hard copy before moving on with a lesson.  I got the impression from the description that I'd be following along with someone actually doing the design on video.  I get frustrated when I have to take time out to read the lesson then try and decipher what the heck they're saying.  It takes so much longer for me to get through it that way. 

Anyway, after a couple of hours work, I digitized the above flowers.  They turned out pretty good, especially for a first shot.  The design was a simple clip art cartoon drawing and I converted it to thread then manipulated the thread design in each peddle.

This flower is the actual test.  I take what I've learned from working on the flowers above and use them for this little ditty.  

The book gives me written instructions of what the flower is to look like, then I'm suppose to do it.  This flower turned out so good I'm actually sending in my first sew out to be graded.

The nice thing about grading the project is, they'll tell me what I did wrong and how to fix it if they see something amiss.  

 This is the only official digitizing course recognized and backed by a major country.  So when I finish the lessons, I'll be a certified digitizer by the country of Australia.  That means, if PAW's goes belly up in this economy, I can get a job with pretty much any large digitizing company.  Of course, making money for someone else isn't my cup of tea so the diploma is pretty much for my personal self esteem.

Well, that's it for today.  I think I'll attempt working on the motorcycle patch that's been giving me so much grief.  I can't find anyone to do such a small patch job.  The only guy who says he'd do it didn't do a nice job on the sew outs.  )&(^%((*)_!  That's why I need to become a crack shot digitizer.  OYE!