Sha Sha Sha Shakin'

What is that? Is that the result of an earthquake?

How about this one? What is it?

Those are just cracks in my backyard cement. I was looking for something clever to blog about the BIG ONE of 1989. Today is the 19th anniversary of our big 6.9 earthquake. Let me just tell you-those who are unfamiliar with earthquakes-this one was not any fun at all. I was in college, on the 10th floor of my dorm building in San Francisco. That building was never lived in again after the earthquake-lots of asbestos (spelling?). It was later imploded. That was pretty cool though! Anyway, the aftermath of that earthquake was the scariest time of my life. I couldn't reach my family. I had lost my car keys in the quake and I was stuck. A bunch of us spent the night on the floor at a friend's house. There were aftershocks all night long, and the fires from the Marina were horrible. I spent most of the remainder of that semester living in a study room. My one friend lived at the house of one of her professors. All of the residents of that building were farmed out to anyone willing to house any of us. The staff of the college was great-many opened their own homes. My two friends and I lived in a study room, on cots. It was horrible, but also really great. People really pulled together to help one another, and that was very comforting.

That said, I still would rather live through an earthquake, which is completely random, than a tornado or hurricane to which there is a "season" every year. I'll take my chances, and many say that will be here soon enough, as I guess we are just about overdue-at least on the Hayward Fault. I'll cross that bridge when/if I get to it.

I'm wishing good thoughts to those who lost loved ones during that earthquake, and those who were injured. I hope we all learned something about life and being prepared.

Gratitude Swap

I participated in a swap at One Crafty Mumma. It was a gratitude swap. The idea was to create something to keep stationary items in, to send to your swap partner. My partner was Floss, from New Zealand. Here's what she sent me!

Here's a picture of everything in the package. There's chocolate (from New Zealand), the wrap with the stationary inside it, stickers for my students, lotion for me (Manuka honey), and a beatiful pin made of lace and vintage buttons, and a very sweet card. I wish you could have smelled the package as well-the whole thing smelled like the lotion, which has a really nice, sweet scent.

Here is the wrap opened up. How cute is all that? There are handmade cards as well as stationary, envelopes, thank you cards, and some other assorted cards, oh, and a pen! The whole thing folds up and ties. Cute huh?

These are the handmade cards! Cute huh? They are made with vintage pictures of girls doing crafty things! So cute! I love the colors too!

Here's the wrap all closed up. Look at how sweet that girl is! I just love her! She's all stitched! Her dress matches the material inside. Clever!

This one is a picture of what I sent to Floss. It's a clear paint can that I filled with stationary, post-its and erasers. I didn't trust my limited sewing skills, so I used the talents I have with paper.

Pumpkin Land-The Orangiest Place on Earth

We headed out to Livermore today, to visit Joan's Farm. Our local farm is taking a break from pumpkins this year, so we were forced to find another pumpkin patch to purchase our pumpkins. We googled "bay area pumpkin patches," and Joan's Farm in Livermore, came up. It was very nice-crowded, but nice. In addition to pumpkins, they have a little "ghost town," an area where you can feed goats and even some donkeys, lots of fake figures and those wood picture places where you put your head in the hole. There were mazes, and even a museum and a little gift shop.

Here's all 3 boys sitting on tractor seats for a photo. I think Quinn is driving. He's always doing something in our pictures.

The view of the pumpkin patch-from one direction.

Quinn and a little pumpkin which was "so cute." We didn't get this one-lots of trades until we settled on our final pumpkins.

How "corny" is this? It's Rileycorn!
Here are the boys with their pumpkins, just outside the entrance. They had a lot of fun. I think we may go back next year, even if our local patch has pumpkins.

Etsy and Japan

While browsing etsy the other night, I came across a cool shop. There were some really cute things, all very Japanese (this shop is in Japan), all very cool. I wanted everything.

Look at how cute that material is! I really love matryoshkas, so this fabric was a no-brainer. That little box set of matryoshkas are stamps. Too cute.

A closer look.

I also ordered this Japanese quilt book. It's little, but full of little patterns for smaller quilt pieces (and some not so small ones as well). The pictures are great! I don't have to be able to read Japanese to understand it. Beautiful pictures.

Look at what she included-a cute bookmark! Even her "thank you" tag is cute!! Cute, cute, cute! Oh, and the bonus is that I literally ordered these earlier this week, and I got them today!

I Smell Better Now

I am a victim of advertising. In the mail last week, I got a mailer from Macy's. Inside that mailer? A little paper sample of Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers Fragrance. I could not resist the cute bottles! The bonus was that I liked the perfume as well. There are 5 bottles (or 5 heads of solid perfume) available. I liked two of them, "G" and "Love." I purchased "G."

The box.

Look at how cute that bottle is!! It reminds me of Japanese kokeshi dolls-except for the arms, oh, and also of Alice in Wonderland (another thing I'm fascinated with). The fragrance is very summery, very coconut. Quinn thinks it smells like the air freshener in my friend's car. It kinda does, but I like it.

Here's my cute bottle with my kokeshi doll. This kokeshi is of me as a toddler. We lived in Japan when I was little-my dad was in the Navy.

This picture is just random. It's of the boys tuned in to the debut of The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network on Friday. They got to stay up late to watch it-I got to watch too! They loved it and can't wait until THIS Friday.

Talk to the Blurry Hand

I know it's Thursday, but here's my entry for the Friday Foto Fiesta Finish at Candid Carries.

Quinn came home with this guy on his hand. I'm sorry for the blur-the light, the shaky camera manager and the shaky kid. Sorry.
He said he wanted to put it on his hand. Said "it's a small version of me." Glasses and all. Indeed it is.

I won't worry unless he starts chanting "red rum red rum."

Pumpkins All Around

I have a pumpkin collection. I'm not sure when I started collecting, but I have well over a hundred of them. I just love them! Every year, I search for more. It's kinda getting silly, but I can't stop. I love them so.

See that Mickey pumpkin? Cute huh? I bought him at Disneyland. I left him out long after Halloween that year because I wasn't finished looking at him.

This is the right side of my fireplace mantel. They are mostly wood or metal or ceramic.

The top of my fireplace mantel. This is where I put my most favorite pumpkins.

This is the left side of my fireplace. It has all of my soft pumpkins. I should try to make one myself. Couldn't be that hard, they're just round (and orange).

See these three? They are my most favorite pumpkins! I just love them. They are stripey and sparkly and happy. I'm happy too.