Old Town Alexandria

whew! just came back from DC a little bit ago. we finally ventured down to Alexandria (after lots and lots of debates over the weather) where i took close to 300 pictures!...but i didn't even get to finish the list of things i needed to shoot!

while we were there we ate at a really fancy Thai Restaurant and at the Torpedo Factory (a building full of art Studios) we were told about Artomatic, which was essentially a giant art show at an unfinished business building in DC. the building had twelve floors and the show starts at the twelfth floor and ends at the fourth floor, while the lobby floor serves as an entertainment (bands and live art). it goes on until June 15th, so make sure you check that out!

at Artomatic, we met a "Gastronaut" named Jason Foodgeek. ("Gastronaut" means food geek) he was super chill and invited us to come and check out Taste of Arlington this Sunday. i think we might go check it out since i still have to finish taking pictures in Alexandria.

anyways, it's been such a long day of walking and i'm tuckered and sore. i'll probably post some pictures from our trip tomorrow, so check back...until then, have a great night!

Seriously?

Mr. Fashionista over here decided to crop his jeans...



i don't get guy's cutoff shorts. really, i don't get it!

Busy Day

i didn't get to sleep in today, but that's alright, because i got to hang out with my mama all day. we even took the kids out to dinner at their favorite Chinese/Japanese buffet place.

sissy enjoying dessert

Meg came over later and i had some left over lasagna and i made us some homemade garlic bread...literally...bread, Italian bread crumbs, butter, garlic powder, and parmesan & mozzarella cheese baked in the toaster oven! it was yummy and fast!

filled in with colored pencils

all of us got together and made this little owl stamp (we took turns carving). how cute? beside it is one of my all time favorite children's book: the Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln by Mike Reiss (he writes for the Simpsons). if you ever come across it, check it out! it's such a funny story with a good message...

anyway, it's getting late. i really just wanted to check in with you since i've been getting lazy with posts lately. here's a cute shot of Remy to brighten your night! sweet dreams!

Momma Mia!!

it's been long overdue...

originally uploaded by pangalang

1. J and i had our family over for a Mother's Day dinner. we had to set up a table in the craft room and buy extra chairs for the event.
   
2. these are why i haven't been keeping up with my blog.
3. "she only gave me a dollar" - my baby sister's first casualty to the Tooth Fairy
4. we also had to purchase more bowls and napkins
5. the set up...i got these little cute little bowls from Target for a dollar each (cute & a steal!)
6. the hydrangea center piece (got the idea from my friend Meg)
7. yummy banana cream pie that i made myself!
   

all in all, our Mother's Day dinner went smoothly. this was the first time i've ever prepared food for nine people (thank you Stouffer's for making party size frozen lasagna. i'm forever grateful!) so i was really stressed, not to mention this was the first time our parents have met since J and i have started dating. i was worried that they wouldn't like each other, but they all got along swimmingly.

today i stayed home from work sick. yuck! nevertheless, it was nice to stay in my pj's all day...i don't mind not be productive on such a dreary day (i'm afraid we might all float away if the rain doesn't stop!). hopefully i'll feel better when i get up tomorrow so i can work on some crafts!

RAIN...

well, if you stepped or looked outside today, you'll know that i probably didn't make it to Alexandria. i woke up early this morning to check the weather report and all signs pointed to precipitation...50 - 60%! we just didn't want to risk driving all the way there and coming back with nothing but gloomy shots. instead, we are postponing it till next tuesday or sunday...if it doesn't rain...

but just because we didn't go to Alexandria doesn't mean today was a bore. we went to Bentley's Bagel for lunch, Skyline for coffee, and then stopped at the Arts Council for a Keighty Crochet plush. walking past, i couldn't resist the urge to go into the gallery and rummage through the basket of plush to find the perfect one for me. i ended up getting this wrestler/bunny/baboon/monster. i absolutely love her stuff! (i'll let you know when she's having a show) how cute is this?


Keighty Crochet's stuffy...i love them!, originally uploaded by pangalang.

oh, and i also tried vegetarian "chicken" nuggets tonight (J made us dinner...chicken nuggets and mac & cheese). we went grocery shopping (one of my fav things to do!) and we bought a few new things to try...i was very skeptical about it, but i must say, the Quorn nuggets were pretty tasty. it tasted like regular chicken nuggets, it looked liked chicken, and it even had the texture...i just don't get it! i even read the label and still didn't get it. how do they make it so real without having any real parts to it?!? i guess i'll never know...

ps - i loaded up some more pictures to my Flickr, so feel free to check that out. night!

Hooray!

well folks, looks like the Lovebirds sent to Meet Me at Mike's finally made it! i was reading through my usual list of blogs and there they were! in the picture, sitting on a park bench with other softies!...just to let you know, most of the softies made for the Softies for Mirabel cause will be auctioned off on the 27th of July on EBay. that means go bid for something! i know i will!

another exciting news (well, for some)...Hillary Clinton came to She-town today! (and ended up being almost an hour late for her own speech!) it seemed like everyone was out and about: several store owners closed their shops to attend the event, students and teachers from the local elementary school came, college kids, infants, dogs, and even a parrot (yes, the one i photographed in March). i took little C with me to the political hoopla and he totally got into it, well, the part where he got to see dogs and other kids. i was able to take some photographs, but couldn't get close enough because the stroller was too big to maneuver through the maze of bodies...sorry.

his parents are for Obama

the lonely Ron Paul supporter

i think it's safe to say that maybe the number of people who supported Obama outnumbered the ones who were there for Clinton

you can see more pictures that i took here. i do have to apologize again for not having better shots. being short wasn't my choice...all i could see was Clinton's forehead and up when the signs weren't blocking it!

anyway, because of all the excitement, little C didn't take his nap until four in the afternoon (his regular napping time is at 12:30!), and i had to work at the restaurant tonight...needless to say i'm feeling pretty exhausted. if it doesn't rain tomorrow we'll be going to Alexandria. i was commissioned to take some pictures of the trails and the historical bits of the town, so i'm really stoked. (how about that?!?) i'm crossing my fingers that the meteorologists predicted wrong. lets hope!

fun fun Tuesday

i spent the day doing girly things with one of my oldest friend, Meg. it's nice to embrace my feminine side and get my nails done or go shopping with a girl every once in a while (don't get me wrong, shopping with J is fun, but sometimes girls have better inputs.) we grabbed a few things while we were out, came home, and watched "P.S I Love You" (pretty good movie) and put this arrangement together...

she loves putting stuff like this together for her house! i liked it so much that i think i'm going to make some too!

while watching the movie (and Meg sleeping) i got to cut some patterns for the birds and made a mini bird to hang in J's car since he likes them so much.

i'm really excited to work with these materials i just got since i mostly make plush out of fleece and felt. at least it will be easier to sew...a couple of layers of fleece or felt can get so thick they break my needles.

anywho, the new issue of Craft magazine is calling my name, so i must bit you all farewell. a thousand ties goodnight folks!

It's Cinco de Mayo!

but i'm not in any mood to celebrate. we just finished watching "An American Crime" (starring Ellen Page) and i just feel so drained and depressed. (it's based on a true incident that happened in Indiana in 1965. you can read more about it here.) don't get me wrong, i think it's a pretty good movie, but i really got into it and i felt so moved, yet disturbed. (i was in tears for most of the movie.) alright, i won't get into anymore details, so on to lighter things...

...i finally got my embroidered tags from ETSY in the mail today. yippee! they're a little bigger than expected (i'm no good with measurements), so i might cut it into a square when i use it. i feel so profresh now! ...but i haven't got anything to put them on just yet.

after work today i stopped by Howard's (a local art supply store and apparently one of the oldest businesses in H-town) and picked up a few things. i went to town as soon as i got home and made some rubber stamps thanks to this tutorial from Weirdbuglady's blog and this book by Lotta Jansdotter. it was pretty easy, when i wasn't carving the small parts, but it took me close to two hours to make these four stamps.

these are the tested images. i chose silver ink so that it would show up better on colored paper.

i don't know where i got all of my energy from, but after the stamps, i moved on to plushies. i sketched and finished this little guy...

i haven't made an owl plush in a while so it was really refreshing when the finishing product kind turns out looking like one. i have an idea for a series of birds i'm doing using these fabrics...
...but i haven't decided on the pattern or the type of bird yet. i started making a prototype with an older sketch and started on it right before i sat down. i think there's going to be pretty cute. hopefully i'll be finished with some of them sometime tomorrow so i'll post some pictures.

well, i'm feeling pretty tired (and so does Remy)...

guess i'll be seeing you again tomorrow. goodnight world.

Finds in Frederick

it was rather refreshing to be out in Frederick for a change. this morning after getting up, we got a chance to walk around Market Street and enjoyed the beautiful weather. we stopped at a place called Bagel Creations (i think!...they also make an awesome pizza with pretzel dough...we were lucky enough to have it the night before) and had a delicious breakfast sandwich made with a freshly baked bagel. i LOVE bagels!

realizing that none of the stores opened till 12, we walked around and saw some interesting things. i guess as a part of the May festival they had yesterday, the sidewalks were decorated with shop logos and other arts.

the most interesting ones were in front of Classic Electric

this was too funny to pass up. someone just stuck these googly eyes on a window in front of this poster.

when the stores finally opened, i felt like a kid at a candy store. "oo, lets go into that store!" we went into Retro Metro where i found these monster jar made by a local artist...

and bought this cute little salt and pepper shaker.

i ended up really liking this store and i can't wait to go back! i can't believe how much Frederick has grown. walking around town and seeing dogs everywhere made us miss Remy, so we headed home to see Kristen and Victor.

they took such good care of Remy! they all went hiking and Kristen even bought her a cute new collar! she's all tuckered out now and has been sleeping since we've been home. thanks guys!

now that we're home, it's back to cleaning and doing laundry...not my favorite things to do in the world but it needed to be done. tomorrow i'll show you the pile of fabrics i got today to start on a new batch of birds. i was going to finish sketching and maybe even get started on them tonight, but we overslept while napping. i hope everyone's had a great day. i know i did! see you tomorrow!

Lazy...

first and foremost, i must apologize for having been so lazy for the past couple of days. work has been really exhausting lately...i would come home, relax on the couch for a bit and fall asleep while attempting to update the blog. yea, i know, not good.

anywho, while strolling with Little C yesterday, i stumbled upon a few interesting things...

• a couple of abandoned snail shells.

• a cute little caterpillar that i rescued from C's grip...he almost made him into a soup!
  

• and a Friday Painter (it's a group of artists who stations themselves around She-town's main street and paints the scenery) i asked him for a picture and he was very excited. he even encouraged me to take more and send it to him. yay! right?

...today i'm spending some time packing up a few things. J and i are going to meet some friends out later and we will be staying the night. spending a night out is not usually an option since Remy will be home alone...in case you didn't know, Remy is our beloved Boston Terrier (she's like my kid!), but tonight she'll be staying with Kristen and Victor and they love her, so it'll be great! they're going to have so much fun! thanks guys!

she's ready to play!