Friday, April 25, 2008

  • March of Dimes

    For every year since 1999, I've participated somehow in the March of Dimes walk (formerly WalkAmerica, now March for Babies).  This year, I'll be walking at this event to raise money for the prevention of birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. 

    This event means a lot to me not just because I've been participating for so long (9th year, baby!), but because I was a premature baby as well.  Go babies!!

    Help me in my cause by sponsoring me as a walker!  In past years I've collected dimes and dollar bills -- every bit counts, so don't be shy to even just donate a dollar or two. :)

    http://www.marchforbabies.com/npc


    Thanks everyone!!

    Kim.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

  • Mini-Pies!

    I saw mini-pies on Craftster.org recently and decided that I MUST make them.  We made them last night and they were sooo fun, easy to make and super delicious.  We bought all of the food materials, so the only thing we really had to do was cut out the dough, put the filling in, and bake!  Nothing beats freshly baked pies.

    Prep Time: About 15 minutes
    Bake Time: 20 minutes for each sheet
    Materials:  1 pack of frozen 9-inch roll-out pie crust, 2 cans of pie filling [apple and peach],  2 cupcake pans, toaster oven

     
    Putting the pie filling into  the crusts [apple pies]



    Starting to ake the covers for the peach pies


    Have fun with it!


    Apple pies right out of the oven


    Enjoy!!


    Things I would do different next time: egg wash on the dough to give it a nicer color and have the caps of the pies stay on better.

Friday, March 28, 2008

  • Camera Bag

    I've been on a real bag kick lately.  Here's the original bag I made for my camera, the night before I found the awesome tutorial for yesterday's bag.  No pattern for this one, I just kind of winged it along the way... It still came out pretty good, though, if I do say so myself.  And I do!

    Time: 1 hour
    Materials: Fusible lightweight interfacing, 1/2 yard main fabric, 1/4 yard lining fabric.


    The bag in all its glory.  I added a ribbon to take away from the plainness.


    Handle detail.  It may not seem like it, but I've gotten a LOT better at sewing.  It might actually be time to graduate to a more sophisticated sewing machine.


    Lining
    I really love this green fabric color.  It's so nice and simple. 
    Sadly, I'm almost out, and they don't have this shade at joann's anymore :(


    Drawstring bag:

    Last night I made two more drawstring bags!  This time with longer handles.  One of them is in that lovely pear and apple print -- unfortunately, the print is a little too big for the purse, so it didn't look as awesome as I thought it would, but I'm definitely going to try making a larger weekend bag with that print!  I'm going bag-crazy! :)


Thursday, March 27, 2008

  • Drawstring Bag

    Yesterday, Craftzine posted a blog for Oh, Fransson's Vintage Pillowcase Lunch Box tutorial, and the second I saw it, I knew I had to make it.  It was gorgeous!!!  I don't need a lunch box, but I recently bought a camera, and have been looking for a tutorial for a camera bag.  This wasn't a camera bag, but since it's a lunch box, it had instructions for padding on the inside, too!  Perfect.

    I'm planning to make a whole bunch more, since it whipped up so quick (about two hours in between commercial breaks while watching American Idol and Top Chef).  So easy, and it takes about 1/2 a yard of fabric only for the outside, so I can buy really nice expensive ones and not feel guilty!

    Next time, I'm going to lengthen the handles [currently you can only hold them in your hand, I like to be able to sling bags over my shoulder], and probably add a pocket to the lining.

    Time: 2 hours
    Materials: fabric, heavy-duty interfacing, fusible fleece, sewing machine, iron


    Front view of one side


    Front view of the other side


    The drawstring enclosure


    Lining.  The lining was kind of a mess [I made it slightly too large, so it buckles] but this was my first time quilting fabric, so I was pretty proud of that. :)






    I bought this TO DIE FORRR fabric yesterday on impulse at Joann's, so I'm totally going to be making a bag out of this fabric.  ITS SO FRICKIN CUTE [but expensive :( $8.99 a yard!]


Wednesday, March 26, 2008

  • The Aquarium

    As another part of my birthday celebration, a few of us went to the Long Beach Aquarium together to look at the fishies.  Things I learned: I don't like sea slugs, bass are very disapproving, and eels look like weiners.


    Photos courtesy of Cang.

    Me, grossed out by the sea slug



    The gross, moving, gyrating, nasty, disgusting slimy sea slug




    I have an amazing capacity to make really really stupid faces



    This eel looked like a weiner that was hanging from the wall.



Tuesday, March 25, 2008

  • Color Me Mine

    Went to Color Me Mine as one of my birthday activities, and here's what came out of it!

    Color Me Mine is a store where you buy blank ceramics and they provide paints and materials for you to decorate the items however you want.  Afterwards, they fire the item for you and a week later you get it back looking like a professional item!    I'd have to say it's one of my favorite activities [even though it's kind of pricey] because I looove the fact that I can use them again and again~




    I made a teapot/cup combo



    It's us!


    Inside messages [I painted them green so it looks like i'm drinking green tea even if I'm drinking water!



    Brent made this awesome ninja bowl for me






    Here they are together




    I love color me mine!  The one thing I regret is that we only had about two and a half hours there because we had to go to the aquarium -- you would think that that was enough time, but we were RUSHING to get our pieces done...  Learned our lesson this time, though!


    (ha, if you look at the post below, you can spot the teapot sitting on my desk)

Monday, March 24, 2008

  • My workplace

    Thought I would post some photos of my office, since I'm always talkin' about it. :)


    My humble desk, where I spend most of my days




    The indoor basketball court



    The foosball table next to the indoor basketball court [where daily battles are waged]



    The conference table behind the foosball table



    The beautiful view of San Clemente from our conference table




    A close up of the view of the world's largest miliatary laser -- also viewable from our conference table area

    What are things that you love about your office?

Thursday, March 20, 2008

  • Turning 25

    For those of you who didn't know, I turned 25 over the past weekend.  I've been meaning to write the obligatory quarter of a century post, but haven't had the motivation to do it.  So, in an effort to make an effort, I leave you with a repost of my 22nd birthday post.  It pretty much says it all.




    Memories:

    Since turning 22 (25, now!) is kind of a boring topic, and I really don't have any idea of what is in store for me (apparently becoming mormon and engaged at 25). I decided to write about what I DO know. -- Things I will miss and/or remember about turning 21.

    Five things I will remember about being 21:

    1. My first strip club experience at Crazy Horse II in Vegas!



    2. Using the excuse, "I didn't know I couldn't do that, I just turned 21."



    3. Feeling powerful when I could buy things for my underaged friends.



    4. Gambling for the first time in Vegas.



    5. Pulling my ID card out to show people even when they don't ask, screaming "I'M 21!!!"



    Ah, those days.  I was so young... and had so many less crafts to do.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

  • An open letter to my bowels.

    Dear Bowels,

    I don't generally make it a habit to write letters to my body parts, but you, my friend, are very special.  You're important to me.  You were pretty lazy in the past, up until the last few years, you would only work about once a week or every two weeks.  However, lately, you've been pretty good to me... And I've been pretty good to you, with all that brown rice I've been eating as of late.

    So, I wanted to ask you: what changed? 

    After a day of excruciating pain and nausea, followed by bouts of explosive diarrhea I finally figured out that the cause of my pain, nausea, etc. in the beginning of the week was probably caused by fecal impaction.  Again.  This is the second time in less than a year.  WTF, bowels, do your job... It's not THAT difficult.  Billions of other people's bowels do it just fine every day. That's not an exaggeration, either.

    The doctor's advice last time (after she decided to stick her fingers up my anus, which wasn't pleasant for either of us, was it?) was to just take laxatives for a while until you get used to pooping again, that's what I've been doing.

    Yet, still (STILL) you plague me. 

    Now I have back pain, and the need to go at least twice a day... Which is good, I guess.  But PLEASE stop letting go, every time I go pee, making it so that there's only enough to make it a full wiping session, but never enough to even reach the bowl. Ugh. What a waste of toilet paper.

    Anyways, we're in this for the long haul, and I know that.  I just want to ask you to be a bit kinder to me, and in return I'll eat as many vegetables and brown rice as you want.  I mean it this time.

    Very truly yours,
    Kim.


    Side note: I read online about causes of fecal impaction and one of them was taking laxatives.  Which worries me, because the doctor prescribed laxatives to cure the impaction.  WTF?


    What body part do you have the most problems with?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

  • The best diet: Conflicting Feelings

    After all this time of keeping myself from eating too much, I found out that the best diet is the flu, bronchitis, and some weird throwing up problem in close succession to each other.

    I've lost 5 lbs.  I'm not sure if I'm happy about it or not.

    Conflicting Feelings

    It's kind of like this picture from Cute Overload.  It's super cute, but then I wonder, where's the mama duck???




    What are some situations in which you're confused about how you're supposed to feel?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

  • Tired of being sick and tired.

    So last week I was out of work the entire week due to bronchitis.  I'm shocked I don't have any brain damage because I had a 100+ fever for 4 days straight.  Anyways, I fought back with some antibiotics and codine cough meds, and now I'm somewhat good.

    The good news is, I lost some weight.  Not from being sick, but for some reason I was throwing up all of yesterday.  Yep.  Something else is wrong with me.  WHAT THE HEEZY?

    Girls Next Door
    A guilty pleasure.

    Anyhow, on a brighter note -- I bought the first season of "Girls Next Door".  It was only $20 bucks per season, and I'm probably going to go buy the rest of them.  I'd have to say that GND is one of my many guilty pleasures.  They're so pretty, and I get to see them naked! And they do such fun things.  It's a really great show, and aside from the nudity, I find it to be fairly innocuous as far as moral issues go.

    On the other hand, shows like the Moment of Truth make me cringe.  I can't watch that show at ALL.  It makes me so sick to my stomach.  A lot of people seem to tune into it though, and I'd really like to know why.

    What do you find harder to watch?  And... am I alone here in disliking Moment of Truth because of the ick factor?

Friday, February 29, 2008

Thursday, February 28, 2008

  • Name Change

    Who knew getting married would involve so many different things?  Mostly, I tend to worry about the wedding celebration/ceremonies themselves, but that's because that's the fun part.  However, there have been several other things weighing on my mind -- things like sharing a household (moving?!), joint bank accounts, and... DUN DUN DUN~ changing my name.

    Brent has already told me he doesn't really care either way, so the decision is now wholly on me... Which in some ways, makes things feel a lot more difficult.

    One of the cool parts about changing my name, though, is that I can finally make "Kim" part of my legal name -- which would be pretty cool.

    My Options:

    Keeping my name the way it is
    While this sounds nice, I kind of feel like it's a cop-out.  As much as I'm freaking out about losing my original identity, I really think I should change something, once I become part of a "we".

    Hyphenating
    Kim Lien (or Khanh Quoc) Nguyen-DeVera
    Kim Lien (or Khanh Quoc) DeVera-Nguyen
    How would I even choose?  Plus, my signature would be horrendously long.

    Making my last name my middle name
    Kim Lien (or Khanh Quoc) Nguyen DeVera
    Um, it's pretty long.  But at least I'd just be signing Kim DeVera (or Khanh DeVera)

    Getting rid of my middle name and adding something cool
    Kim Awesome DeVera
    So I can literally say my middle name is "Awesome"



    What do you guys think?  Is it good to change my name? And if so, which route should I take?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

  • Tokidoki jewelry

    As ya'll know, I love tokidoki stuff.. But I've never been able to bring myself to buy their jewelry, even though I think it's way adorable!  I'm just not a huge fan of spending money on costume jewelry.

    Anyhow, that didn't stop me from taking a hand at making my own tokidoki jewlery out of shrinkydink!!   If I do say so myself, they came out pretty darn cute! :)

    Total cost: about $5.00
    Materials: ink-jet shrinkydink, metal chain, metal hoops, clasps, bits of ribbon
    Tools: Pliers, scissors, printer, adobe photoshop, google
    Time: about 2 hours


    Charm bracelet


    Ribbon bracelet



    View two




    Ribbon bracelet 2




    Necklace


     

    Lariat


    =] I can't wait to find a situation in which i can wear these!! 



Thursday, February 21, 2008

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Friday, February 08, 2008