and extra socks

That last one says "A map of space."

Andy in the Window

Uncle Brian on Grimm (and my fan art!)

Doug's brother Brian, who lives in Portland, got to be an extra on Grimm about two months ago. The episode ("Cat and Mouse") aired this last week.  Doug has been watching with me--it's like our Friday-night date after Kate goes to bed. 



We knew which scene he was in but couldn't pick him out at all. Fortunately Brian was able to identify himself. You can see his teeny-tiny head in the background for about half a second.



He said he could tell that the white sign would block him, so he scooted back a couple of feet. But then he's blocked by David Giuntoli's leg for most of the shot anyway. Still, it's kind of fun to be able to say, "Hey, that blurry little head there is Brian! Cool!"

 The scene was shot at Union Station at 1:00 AM (probably not many trains coming through at that time of night).  Brian had to get up at 6:00 the next morning, so the timing was not great for him, but he said it was fun getting paid to sit around waiting and eating snacks.



After seeing some other people's creations I tried my own hand at some Grimm fan art a few weeks ago--Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe (everyone's favorite Big Bad Wolf) in charcoal.  I don't think I've done anything with charcoal since high school art classes, but this seemed like a good one to try it out with.  The actual drawing itself went a lot faster than my pencil drawings do, but then I spent another two days futzing around with it.  I will have to try some more charcoal later, once I decide how durable it is.  (I haven't tried spraying it with fixative yet... I'm just nervous about that!  I need to do a small test drawing or something.)
 

I had the drawing taped to my board and propped up on a kitchen chair for a while, so I could see it every time I walked by.  I decided this one actually looks better from an angle. I don't think I've ever had that happen before.

(Used a screen shot from "Game Ogre."  I also found this animated gif from the same scene.)

I am really enjoying this show. On one level it's about a police detective who can see creatures that no one else sees. On another level it's about a guy who finds himself revealed as the ancestral boogeyman of a certain portion of the population, and how he deals with it and how they deal with it. I just get a kick out of the twist on the whole monster-hunter thing and how they handle the concept of other, from both sides. And I adore the characters and their interaction.

(I can tell that my imagination loves this show, since the way my brain has been playing with it is completely different from what it usually does with shows that I like. Which makes Grimm unique in my experience.)

Pink Dress

I finally got some pictures of Kate in her pink dress.  (Not what I wanted, with the harsh sunlight, but it's something!)



The bodice turned out a bit too long.  When I was making it I was almost done with the front and decided it was too short, so I ripped out the top and added on a couple more inches.  Then when I got the whole thing put together, I thought, "Oh, I guess I should have left it the way it was."  I wasn't really going for the drop-waist look.  (Maybe it'll fit better next year!)



All in all I think it worked pretty well. I may try making some more along the same lines.

Egg Hunting

We had a Saturday-morning Easter egg hunt with some friends from church.  Four families, ten kids, good fun. It was really sunny, so I almost didn't take my camera, but I was glad I did. 







"I see one!"



Daddy helps out.




Kate's haul.



Kate lined up her eggs to count them.  Andy thought this was very cool.



After all the eggs were collected, the kids had to go through the stash.




Zoe looks very serious (I think she had a good time!)

Happy Easter!

Design Dabblings

I've been messing around with a few design projects this week.  I put this ad together for a friend-of-a-friend. (Kind of a rush job, but he was happy with it.)



And this business card for my sister Barb, who is starting her machine quilting business.



I also created this banner, to use on Facebook when I get switched over to Timeline. I made everything here except for the Korean font.  I like the painterly effect with the watercolor splotches.  (The paper leaves are for a set that I started a while back and haven't finished yet.)

Spring Break at the zoo

Kate was off for the week. (Doug was off the week before that, but since he gets home early, we still managed to get out a few times for some family fun.) We spent Wednesday afternoon at the zoo, along with crowds of other people out enjoying the sunshine.



The nice thing about having a zoo membership is that we don't have to worry about getting our money's worth every time we go, so if the kids want to spend most of the time on the playground that's just fine.






Everyone loves the otter slide!







These are so cool to watch.  They're like underwater venus flytraps.  (The sign said they were nudibranches, but it looks like that's not right.  Not sure what they are!)





We are happy to finally have some nice weather! Kate has been playing outside with the neighborhood kids a lot.  Andy isn't so much into hanging out near the house--he likes to take off around the bike path.  I get to follow him while he runs, and then try to steer him back toward home again.

Tree!

What I've been doing today (in Photoshop).

amphibian dragon facts

Kate modifies her homework.

fishy fishy fish bread

I tried out the fish-shaped hot cake pan that I got for my birthday. I can see it's going to take some practice, getting the right amount of batter and filling, and the right cooking time and temperature. I ended up with some pretty misshapen fish.



I used this recipe for the batter. The traditional filling is red bean paste (팥). I thought I'd try strawberries.

Warm up the pan on the stove, add batter, add filling, more batter on top, close the pan--



Cook on both sides--



Ta da! Fish!



(We had eaten some of the uglier ones by this point.)  They tasted pretty good, though the texture wasn't quite like the Korean version.



"Hey Andy, want a fish?"



Andy is intrigued. Kate decided she doesn't like cooked strawberries, but she liked the tail part.

In other news, we are not doing so well with the time change.  Andy was up and bouncing off the walls till 1:00 in the morning, and then Kate woke up at about 2:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.  Oy.  Long night.  

Letter Fun

Andy's obsession with the alphabet continues.  He has a couple of sets of Melissa and Doug letters that he likes to line up in interesting places.  Like on the kitchen floor, with one letter in the middle of each tile (and then when he runs out of room he starts a second row on top).  We think this is pretty clever, but it's better if he does it when we aren't trying to cook or do something else in the kitchen.  He does get underfoot. 



He recently discovered that the piping on the edge of the couch cushions also makes a good ledge for letter display.  (Resourceful!)



Kate made this for her letter-loving brother at school.  I thought it was very sweet.  Particularly because I think this is the first thing she has made for him, ever. 

Andy is starting to talk a little more--he has a lot of words and phrases that he has memorized and frequently repeats them to himself, but it's still more like he's practicing talking than actually using them to communicate.  He is reading up a storm, though.  Loves reading.  When I let him play with my kindle he types words that he knows.  The other day he typed APPLE BOY CAT DOG... and then tried to do ELEPHANT but that was a bit beyond him. 

My birthday--jjigae and a fish pan.

I like to try to get a picture with the kids on my birthday. This doesn't always work so well, but these turned out pretty cute.



Awwww!

We went down to O Bok Jip in Lakewood for dinner, and I got some kimchi jjigae. It was not the best jjigae I've had, but it was okay. But there was quite a lot of it so I ended up taking the rest of it home and having the leftovers for lunch the next day, and it was suddenly fabulous. That's the beauty of jjigae--it's better the next day. I was familiar with the phenomenon, but was somewhat surprised at the magnitude of improvement.



Here's my post-birthday lunch! Day-old kimchi jjigae, (new) rice, and kim. Andy was excited about the rice and kim. I gave him a few dribbles of jjigae broth on his rice, too.



Andy sneaks some kim.  He would just eat the whole package plain if I let him.



I got this pan for my birthday. It's for making goldfish-shaped waffle-cakes. (Korean boong-o bbang.) Amanda got one, and when I saw it I said, "I must have one of those!" (Got mine from Amazon. Amazon thinks it's Japanese, even though it's got Korean all over it. Funny.)



I still haven't tried it but I will post pictures when I do!