Look at this cute doll that Wendy Kay made with my Skeleton Key fabric!





I'm so excited, this is my first customer picture from the fabrics. Here's hoping there will be many more! Now I just need to get printing....

Forgive me for pulling out a picture from last year, but I promise to snap some new shots soon.

I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely holiday week! We visited both sets of my grandparents and I think I've finally recovered from the birthday & Thanksgiving gorging (both of us had a birthday last week & got to pick a restaurant). This weekend Justin and I were clutching our bellies and crying for salad.

I am *so* ready for Christmas this year, and have already spent a week with Christmas movies. The (tiny) tree is up & decorated, and we are constantly having to keep guard with a water squirt bottle because Indy is obsessed with chewing on the fake tree's needles/leaves. We have this problem every year, but he get's over it after a week or so (or maybe he just learns to chew when we are sleeping?)

I think it has been two weeks since I've gotten any printing done. Partially because I ran out of fabric, and the busy holiday week didn't help, but today I was able to print off some more owls in red on white. I love that printing with the same colors means I don't have to re-photo & edit everything for the Etsy listing, but it does make me sad to not have any new pics to share on here. I do have some new color combos and some new crafts coming up soon though!

So much going on lately, I'm sure I've forgotten something!

Ambigram magazine, where I was recently interviewed, started hosting an ambigram competition a couple of months ago. The "challenge" used to be hosted once a month by Nagfa, a husband & wife ambigram-blogging-team, but with a new baby it got to be too much for them to handle. You can now see them as one of the judges.

The challenge is usually open ended; like 'the holidays', or 'ressurection'; which does not really appeal to me. One word might just work better than another, you know? The last challenge was actually sponsored by a reader who wanted a design of his and his wife's name, and he was offering a prize of $100 for the winning entry (which he would choose). Prize money and two set names was enough to finally motivate me to enter.

My entry ~
"Sadiq" & "Shana" Ambigram


And here are the results.

I did not end up winning, but made it into the top 5 (voted on by the normal judges), which was really my main goal. Of course, I don't mind money either! The judges mentioned picking a different entry as their #1, and one of them said "Tiffany, the judges scored this one higher than the sponsor, and your design was easily at the top of the competition." We could not decide if that meant that mine was their choice for #1, or if they just scored it higher than the sponsor did? I like to think it was the first option!

These first photos are from a few months ago, but I don't think I ever posted them. Now, I know that cat + sink is nothing new, but we have a tiny sink and a gigantic cat. Neither of us could figure out exactly how his girth fit in there.





And here is one from a few days ago; peeking around the curtain at the birds. Such focus!

I haven't been getting a lot of ink pictures lately, but I finally saved up a few to post.

"Kelly" & "Kiefer", "Scott" & "Kiefer" Ambigram Tattoos
From this ambigram and this ambigram.
This set was created to match their last set, seen here.






"Respect" & "Loyalty" Ambigram Tattoo
From this ambigram.




"Joseph" & "Thomas" Ambigram Tattoo
From this ambigram.




"As You Wish" Ambigram Tattoo



Whoops! Looks like I haven't posted the ambigram for this one yet ~
"As You Wish" Ambigram Tattoo

I've done a bit of printing with the black ink recently, which I am dubbing "licorice". I'm trying to go with a food theme for all of the color names, which sound so nice when they are put together (like "dark chocolate" on "biscotti"). I've been pretty successful at naming them, though I wasn't able to come up with anything for the turquoise ink and dyed-gray fabric I used before.



I worked with some gray fabric for this last batch, but this time I decided to call it "smoke". Licorice & smoke sounds pretty nice, but now I'm wondering how that will sound with some of the future food names. Cherry & smoke? Chocolate & smoke? Perhaps I should have stuck with "slate gray"....

This is the kind of package I like to see!



I was already placing an order with J-box.com, so I figured I might as well throw in a few bags of chips & such! Chips are one of my favorite foods, but I get so tired of all the same-ol' flavors. Why do they never come out with new ones? I am seriously tempted to move to Japan for the chips and ramen shops alone. (Of course, there are many other reasons)

I quickly snapped these shots when I opened the box, so forgive the quality. I was eager to rip open a few of those packages! First we have some labels you might recognize...



Most of the text you see on the Doritos bag is spelling out the words in katakana, the alphabet they use for foreign words. At the top you see ドリトス - "Doritosu" (the "u"s can be dropped) and テリヤキ　味 - "Teriyaki" and the kanji for "flavor". (If things are looking weird, you might not have Asian text capability on your computer)

On the Cheetos bag we have チェスター　チーター　の　チートス　ミックス - "Chesuta- Chi-ta- の Chi-tosu Mikkusu", or "Chester Cheetah's Cheetos Mix". At the bottom is ワイルド　ペッパー　ベーコン　味 - "Wailudo Peppa- Be-kon 味" - Wild Pepper Bacon flavor.

But not all of the labels are katakana versions of English...



The first bag reads にんにく, "Garlic" in hiragana (the main alphabet), and マニア - "Mania", which I assume you can figure out on your own! Mmmmm.... Garlic Mania!

Then the second bag reads 牛肉 - Beef, どまん中 - right in the center, 味 - flavor. コーンスナック - "Ko-n Sunakku" - Corn Snack. This one was labeled online as "Beef Bento Box" flavor, and bento (弁当) is mentioned in the line underneath the cows. These are also the only chips I've eaten so far, and man.... they were so good!



Kit Kats - チョコ & ローズ - "Choko & Ro-zu", chocolate & rose flavored (using an abbreviation of チョコレート - "chokore-to", for chocolate) There are soooo many flavors of Kit Kats in Japan.

And we have いかめし - Squid flavored (corn rings).



Now this stack of purple candies are Grape Mochi (a chewy marshmallow-like snack made with sticky rice), and are the real reason I made the order in the first place. These, the Kit Kats above, and a bag of candies I bought earlier from the Asian market, will be my stocking stuffers this year (to give to Justin's family). I don't think anyone reads the blog, so I should be safe to post these. If not, oh well! The candies feel very hard inside the packaging, unlike the soft mochi I'm used to, but I'll have to wait with everyone else to sample them. See the little toothpick inside?



I also grabbed some egg molds (star & heart shaped), Cotton Candy flavored Hi Chew (ハイチュウ - like a chewier Starburst), and some furikake in assorted flavors (seasoning to sprinkle on rice). I think the egg molds were the thing labeled as "toy" on the front of the package. I think kids would disagree, but I'm fine with it!

Feel free to let me know if you enjoy seeing these Japanese products as much as I do, or if you could do without. I realize I'm a bit obsessed and am not a good judge of how interesting they are! (parasitegirl, I apologize! I know you probably get your fill of this stuff already) ;)

Here is the pumpkin I carved and painted this year. I got the idea from a photo in a magazine, but I'm not sure which one (glanced at it in the grocery store). I'm also not sure how close it is to the pumpkin in the magazine, but when I saw those colors together I knew what I wanted to do.



It was a troublesome project though, as the rain kept the first coat of (acrylic) paint from drying until I finally had to bring it inside. Then I could not find a small saw, so those rounded corners were a pain to do, and a pain for my wrist. But I think it was worth it in the end!

Chelsea quickly carved an old-school pumpkin so that we could have something to set out on the porch before the trick-or-treaters came. She is so photogenic!



There really were pumpkins and gourds all over the house. Out on the porch a little pepper plant tried to blend in with all of the orange.



But this was my favorite, the prettiest pumpkin of all!



A few people dressed up in costumes, though most were thrown together from things around the house.





Even the lamp got into the action! (Or else someone is wearing a very convincing lamp costume?)



Justin's dad dressed up as a birthday-boy. Oh wait, .... no, that wasn't a costume!

We spent the weekend at Justin's parents', celebrating Halloween and his dad's birthday. The girls were all excited about making themed foods, and we ended up *way* overcooking. Here are few of my favorites...

These little bat & skull croutons were make with sliced bread and cookie cutters. The bread was brushed with oil & sprinkled with spices, and toasted in the oven.



This is what I was in charge of - making a skeleton out of vegetables. I added in some flames, bats and stars around him. (I'm not taking credit for the hair, which was added later by Justin when he found out that his mom had bought the sprouts specifically for that)



I had no idea what his sister was up to with this until it was cut into slices after baking. Candy corn cheese bread! I'd love to re-do this idea next year as a pizza with shredded cheeses.



And of course there were the traditional mummy dogs, with little sesame seed eyes. (Justin and I also put these together. Everything else was made by his sisters or mother)



Bloody tomato soup with floating eyeballs made of olives and... feta? I'm not sure what kind of cheese it was. Justin stirred the soup thinking the eyes would float up to the top again. They had to be fished back out, rinsed, and set on the top again.



Pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate with almond sliced for finger nails. Justin's dad donated the sleeve of an old dress-shirt to cover the jar they sat in.



This one isn't food, but a little mood lighting...



They only ended up getting three trick-or-treaters this year, after making up about 15-20 treat bags full of candy. It was a very rainy night, though, and I think the city started a downtown event the year before, so I'm sure those two things did not help. All of the siblings gladly took home a few treat bags for themselves.

I have one more set of Halloween pictures, ready to share tomorrow!

We had a little Halloween get-together last night ~ So much fun! I just could not get motivated this year, though, so I skipped out on themed food and creating decorations. We hung up a few things from last year and made brats and cheese fondue. Mmmm...

We also threw together some costumes at the last minute. I was able to find a black & purple wig for about $5, so I tossed on a purple cape (that I have from an after-Halloween sales years ago) over a black dress and played around with make-up. Not sure what I was supposed to 'be', but we added a few purple & black spiders from last year in my hair and I think I became a 'Spider Queen'.



I never got a good shot of Justin, but he was going for something like 'Redneck Slob'. He had these horrible fake teeth and wiped BBQ sauce and mustard all over an undershirt. I think I might have thrown up on him if he tried to give me a hug wearing that! I drew on a mustache and he finished off the look with jeans, work-boots, a leather-work belt, and a Dodge hat with camo on the front, mesh on the back, and a turkey & turkey prints thrown in for good measure.



We can't convince most of our friends to dress up, but these two don't mind at all. This pose is so awesome ~



Here is most of the non-costume crew. Three of them were party-poopers this year, leaving at 6:30! (We started at 2) Granted, most of the reasons were good ones, but we had no idea half of the guests would be leaving so early. Suddenly we had an insane amount of food, without even making the two desserts we'd planned for later, but I suppose Justin and I don't mind having leftovers. ;)



Indy often leaves for another room when big groups are around, but he was quite social this time. He sprawled himself across two of the three remaining laps for some belly rubs.



Next weekend the Halloween festivities continue, along with Justin's dad's birthday, at his parents' house. I can't wait!

The red and black inks have arrived, and printing is going well!



I remembered a few more printing techniques since the dark brown attempts, and the test prints with the red came out nicely. At that point I realized any of the flubs left were actually problems on the screen, and so I sat with a pin in hand, finding the faults in the printed pattern and pricking out the mistakes on the screen. Possibly for hours. But better to fix it on the screen than do touch-ups with a brush on the fabric every single time I print!



That was not the first time I pricked out a mistakes from this screen, and will probably not be the last. I realized that the screen printing shop is not going to be a perfectionist when creating my screen, which is some what understandable, but I expect a little more for $50. And I'd probably end up spending as much time burning my own screen, and making sure every detail is perfectly washed out to begin with, as I do fixing all of these little mistakes. I'm tempted to get some more emulsion.

We tried out this Shrimp Shumai recipe from Martha, and I have to say, I think this was probably the best shumai I have ever eaten! Normally I like a little soy sauce for dipping, but in this case it just covered up that delicious flavor.



I did leave out the peanut oil, because that's not something we really keep on hand, and I think they were just perfect (and plenty moist). Why not cut out a few calories?



The shumai flatted out, as you can see, so I'll have to figure out how to make them stand a little taller next time. The recipe made 22 shumai, which would be perfect for appetizers for a group, but we added a little rice and miso soup and just made a meal out of it! Mmmmm.....

I've been getting all sorts of goodies in the mail lately!

First, I picked out a free magazine subscription from the Coke website. I wanted something with recipes and chose Bon Appetit. I waited a bit... and then three issues arrived all at once! I've only found a few recipes that I'm interested in trying, but that's the case with any cookbook or magazine, isn't it?



Then I received this Cute Yummy Time book from a blog give-away on While She Naps! I'm always so surprised to win these things. I always seem to win when I actually wanted to leave a comment more than I wanted to enter. But it is a very cute book, and I'll be sure to use some of the ideas in the future.



"While She Naps" is one of the first crafting blogs I started reading outside of Live Journal, and I've been keeping up with it for a few years now. Abby is so sweet and also included a few postcards with images of her beautiful bird sculptures and a cute drawing on the envelope.



I also got a copy of Harry Potter in Japanese (eBay), which I have been drooling over for a while now. I had been translating my way through Death Note (an awesome series, if you haven't read it), and I actually got to the point where I could understand what was going on pretty well without having to look anything up because words are repeated *so* frequently in them. But, I wanted a 'real' book...



I definitely wouldn't mind an actual Japanese book, but I believe this was a good choice to start with. It's a story I've read before, but long ago enough that I don't remember all of the details, and it is a book I own in English. Also, I won't have to worry about confusing the Japanese names with each other, or with other words ("Why can't I find this in the dictionary?!?"). And let's face it, it's just fun to own as well!



Another recent arrive, which I don't have a photo of, was the MySims Agents game. I loved MySims and MySims Kingdom, which are almost like lego versions of the normal Sims games, minus all of that daily-life-chore stuff. I was so excited to see a new game coming out, and this time with a crime-solving, puzzle twist. It was an enjoyable game, but very, *very* short (15 hrs for a $50 game?!?), so I've already sold that one and put the money towards screen printing ink.

And I've already got a growing list of DS and Wii games for my birthday/Christmas list. One more month! Any fun games I need to know about? What are you playing? Or have you gotten something fun through the mail too?

I haven't mentioned screen printing in a while, but I have been working on it...

After one failed attempt after another at burning the large screens myself, Justin suggested burning a smaller size again. I was eager to see a screen turn out again, it had been so long! When that one also turned out terrible, I was guessing the emulsion was to blame. But I'd also had *enough*. (For now, at least)

I started looking into having a local screen printing shop burn the screen for me. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than I had expected. This is not a thing that shops normally do, which I knew. Aparently, even though they are capable, they weren't willing to do it. I did fine one shop, though, that said "yes".

The price quote was low, but they didn't have a scoop coater big enough to put the emulsion on the large screen, so she said to bring it in with the emulsion already applied. Not trusting my emulsion, I bought a new scoop coater to bring with the screen! All of this added at least a month to the wait ~ making all of the phone calls, waiting to have money to buy the coater, waiting for the coater in the mail, and waiting for the screen to be burned. But the wait is over!



Having the shop apply the emulsion and create the trasparency bumped the price waaayyy up, but it was still do-able. And so much nicer than trying to do it myself, and having to keep up with all of those supplies as well.

I tested the screen out this weekend, but my ink supply was a little low. I had to do a lot of touch ups on the prints, and cut off some of the print where the ink did not cover well enough. Unfortunately you have to have a *lot* more ink on the screen than you are going to use, so even a half-full bottle was not enough for something this large. Perhaps I can scrape a little more out of the bottle and try again...



I've also got some larger bottles of ink in red and black on their way to me now, so I hope the future prints will turn out better and I can start cranking these things out again! That giant squeegee is a little unwieldy, but I'll hopefully get used to it. And expect to see more colors and more designs in the future.

Last weekend Cartersville held its annual US Disc Dog championship and we finally got a chance to go. The signs boasted that it was an international competition, and we did indeed see tents from different states and even one from Japan! (Though it seemed like too small of an event for anyone to fly across the globe for, I'm not sure what the story was.)

We only got to stay for about an hour before it started raining. In one field they were judging long throws, and there was some event coming up called 'duck herding', which we were sad to miss out on. We spent most of our time watching the free-style routines, which were awesome.



The tents along the back are all for the competing teams. The crowd sat on bleachers on the opposite side.



Here is one of the Japanese competitors ~





And another Japanese lady with her pup ~



Definitely going back next year!

They've been replacing the roofs at our apartments the last few weeks. Our area is mostly cleaned up now, but for a while shingles were raining down all around my workroom.



My desk is between the window and the air conditioner here ~



I wonder if they will think to clean the black marks off of the brick?

And here you can see the awesome view from our living room window... 3 satellite dishes! Luckily they are mostly hidden by the curtains.

Friday we went with the high schoolers on a little after-school field trip to the symphony. It didn't start until 8, so we first stopped off for dinner and a quick trip to the Dunkin Donuts next door.

The kids were enthralled by the assembly line. They cheered whenever two doughnuts accidentally got stacked on top of one another, and rooted for them to make it all the way through the glazer without separating. Ahh, high school...



Walking back to the van, I saw this odd post-it stuck on an empty metal planter. Justin made me go back for a photo, and I think he made the right call.



And then the symphony! A lovely evening indeed.