Flaky Eye Comma Glass Etching

There are two past blog entries that have got our blog quite a bit of traffic. Whether from google searches or from links from other sites, we notice that these two posts get lots of hits on our statcounter.

Which ones, you ask?

This one and this one

I guess there's lots of people out there with similar problems that Mark had. Or need a quick Super Saturday craft idea for their church meetings.

While our blog entries won't give much to help to those suffering similar eye problems, I have made my Nativity pattern available online for my crafty readers.

The pattern and instructions are available on Etsy*! Along with your purchase, you get unlimited email access to me! For your questions about the glass etching process, silly. No question is a dumb question.

FAQs:
-Won't the X-Acto knife scratch up the glass? Nope, it doesn't harm it one bit. If you try to press down hard on the X-Acto knife you'll probably break the knife tip first.
-Won't there be a horrible scratching noise when you cut on the glass/mirror? Nope, in fact you'll find that if you're not using a steady hand you could actually slip the knife and cut where you don't want to cut on the vinyl. Its quite smooth.

If you're interested in making a large purchase for a group of holiday crafters, please email me at careesespieces(at)gmail(dot)com, and I'd be happy to give you a nice group discount.

I used to sell the kits for this project locally in VA, but now that we're in Japan, the materials aren't so easily found or at a good price (hense my sadness over being miles and miles away from the nearest Michael's craft store). So I'm selling just the pattern now.

*If you want to just buy directly from me, instead of through Etsy, send me an email at careesespieces(at)gmail(dot)com, letting me know how many patterns you would be interested in, and I will email you a Paypal invoice, where you can securely make your purchase online with Paypal. Once that has gone through, I will email you the pattern and instructions! Really, its that simple! I love ecommerce.

**IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE: With your purchase, you receive the right to use this image for your own personal crafts. You may not sell the sheet or image, use them in mass production, put them on any website without permission, or forward them to anyone else.

***X-Acto and Avery are copyrighted brands, and are wonderful products, but I am not affiliated with these companies. Although, I wouldn't mind free stuff for pushing their products! wink. wink.

...to a new place.

Ok so we're only moving virtually. And yes, Shelese, we would be moving our site to Utah, you can visit us on Research Way in Orem, home of Bluehost. :P

Just thought it'd be a good change of scenery -- not to mention a good way to brush up on our mad web programming skillz - it has been a while, indeed! And a lot has changed in five years. What's Web 2.0? Isn't AJAX a bleach? I thought JSON was my old roommate?!

It's still a work in progress, so we haven't completely migrated over, but we'll let you know when we do.

For those of you who did not see the obvious link attached to the period on the previous post, please do so now :)

For those who cannot see the obvious period link, please click here.

We're Moving!

Stay tuned.

Hairclip Making Machine

I'm finally nearing the end of a huge order from a lady from here on base for hairclips for her 8 granddaughters. She ordered 26 pairs! I'm so excited for her granddaughters! But I've already ran out of some supplies, so it was good timing that I had a trip to Seattle recently to make a run to Michaels to get more. I made sure to stock up this time.
I miss Michaels. There's a couple craft stores nearby, but the prices just don't compare. Plus, crafting here in Japan leans more towards beading, felting, knitting/crocheting, and sewing. I'm finding lots more cute fabrics and felt colors and yarn textures than in the US. So, maybe my crafting habit will have to take a new direction soon.
Here's two if stores I frequent that have websites: (viewed with google translate, so the english maybe butchered)
Yuzawaya
Odakaya
The funny thing about the larger craft stores here is that they sell lingerie there too. Not to make yourself, but to buy. I guess they figure their customers are usually women who need lingerie while they're looking for buttons.

Happy Candy Day!

halloween 08

Careese turns ONE?!

We're back! Sorry its been a long while. I just got back from Seattle with Careese. I was asked by my best friend I've known since elementary school to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. She's been waiting, I have too, for a long while for her man to propose, and he finally popped the question last Christmas. I couldn't be happier for her. So being part of her wedding was a big part of why I was in Seattle. And I haven't seen my family in a while, and they haven't seen Careese since she was 2 months old, and I miss them.
Careese turned the big O-N-E over the trip. And I feel bad that Mark and Evan missed it. They stayed behind, because Mark had a conference to prep for in Malaysia, and Evan couldn't miss that much school, and I was scared to make a trip out to Seattle with two kids on my own. Mark's mom was kind enough to come in town just as I was going to be out of town to take care of Evan for me. Big Thank You!
My brother and sister flew up from Provo to see me over the weekend too. So it was a nice little family reunion in the Thong household. I'm glad they could come up. We went shopping, just the three of us, and it was like stepping back in time, because the last time we ever did that was when we'd go Christmas shopping when we were kids!

As (almost) always, my mom and I do some sewing/crafty project when I'm home. This time, we were sewing a Hawaiian dress for me to wear to my friend's wedding. I searched online for modest and cute dresses, but they're hard to find. I found a pattern for one I liked in a Japanese fabric store, and me and my mom figured out how to make it just from the pictures, cause we don't read Japanese.

Oct 2008 Seattle|Careese 1st Birthday|Bridesmaid Bev

Here's the pics. I thought I was invinsible against jetlag, but it's catching up to me now... I'll have to write more about Seattle later. A picture says a thousand words right?

Bend it Like Evan

Evan seems to be in limbo between needing a daily nap or not. And some days he drives me crazy with his jumping off the furniture and wanting to go outside at the worst times. So I thought we should at least channel some of this energy into something constructive.
I signed Evan up for soccer on base with the 3-5 yr olds. He did quite well for his first day. I think he has a hard time keeping focused the whole hour, because he kept wanting to do his own thing with the soccer ball. But then again, maybe it was wearing him out, just as planned?
I was surprised to see some of the kids with full on shin guards and cleats cause they're just 3-5 yr olds! and this program only runs 4 weeks, once a week! I might just cave and go get him shin guards, at least to keep him from getting hurt by everyone else's cleats.

On a quick side note: The other day when we were driving home from something, Evan was looking out the window, and then pointed out to me that he didn't want to go to our house, he wanted to go to our old house. I didn't think he'd remember anything of our old house, let alone cared. I asked him, what old house? what did it look like? what color? He couldn't nail down the color for me but he told me about how there was a triangle on top of the door! That's amazing! Because there was a "triangle" shaped moulding over the front door! He did remember! I explained to him that he was right, and that was our old house, but now we're in our new house, and we would see our old house again one day. He seem satisfied with my answer. I think I don't give him enough credit for how sharp he is sometimes.

From weeks before Japan