My Dad, the Engineer

My dad's birthday is today.  My dad is a technical engineer.  My dad is technical.  My dad is logical and purposeful.  My dad loves sports.  My dad loves his kids.  My dad loves his wife.  My dad loves the Lord.  My dad is awesome.

When I first got a dog, my dad saw no logical purpose in having a dog.  He has never been thrilled with animals since our first pet (a cat named, Tigger) was a complete bust.  Even though he didn't like Charlie at the time, my dad built her a fenced in area - in 99 degree heat - in the middle of the summer.  He actually likes Charlie now.  Just last weekend, he unknowingly shared a bed with the dog - and didn't even care.

My dad taught me how to drive a motorcycle.  He is a patient teacher and very good at giving directions.  Though I'm sure he cringed when I almost toppled the bike onto my foot, he still encouraged me to get back on and try again.

5th from the left, middle row

A soccer champion himself, my dad brought sports into our household.  He shared his passion for soccer with us and coached some of our teams.  My dad rarely missed our games, even though he usually had four kids in sports at the same time.  

2nd from the left, back row

He still continues to be a soccer champion.  You should be jealous of his awesome foot skills.  No joke.  He's good.  This is the only picture I have, but his team continues to kick butt every year.

There's a big section of our back yard that we call the field because, well, it's a field.  When we needed some more space to play, Dad plowed and planted part of that field to give us a soccer field.  He built us goals and sometimes he even put huge flood lights back there so we could play well into the night.

My dad taught me how to be handy.  I have a working knowledge of tools and can confidently use a drill, level, stud finder, and tape measure for my own projects.  He has always taken the time to teach me instead of just doing it himself.  He also taught me how to change a tire - that was one of those times when I wish he would have done it himself.  Changing a tire requires a dad amount of strength and was completely exhausting.

My dad is a very patient man.  When you have three loud-mouth daughters and a feisty wife, you have to put up with a lot.  My dad just laughs as we "yank his chain" and then gives it right back to us.  We like to make fun of his idiosyncrasies; like his passion for his flashlight or the 13 coats he owns.  Last week he sent out an APB for a flashlight that had gone missing.  You are free to borrow it whenever you like, but just make sure to put it back exactly where you found it.  Like that time he called me at a friends house because he couldn't find the TV remote.

Cameron loves my dad.  He can't quite say grandpa yet, so it comes out more like "Kapa."  He loves spending time with Dad, especially when they take tractor rides.  Whenever Cam sees Dad he says "Kapa.  Tractor. Kapa. Tractor." in his deep, growly voice.  Char, Cam, and I picked out this shirt for Dad at TJ Maxx earlier that day and every time Cam saw the shirt he said "Kapa" while looking for Dad.

He even had to hold the shirt up just like Dad.   Cam loves his grandpa.

My mom made Dad this quilt for this birthday to use when he is in the recliner.  Obviously, he loved it.

In short, my dad is awesome.  Then end.

This picture says it all. Happy Birthday Dad!

Love,
Ginnapa Pinnapa

Typography

1. the art or process of printing with type.
2. the work of setting and arranging types and of printing from them.
3. the general character or appearance of printed matter.

Typography is my new love and (fingers crossed) my newest project.  I have an 11x15 inch frame that I need to fill.  I don't want to fill it with a photo - I want to fill it with art.  This is easier said than done.  I don't have money in the bank to use on stunning yet expensive art.  Thus, Pinterest and I have been spending a lot of time together in hopes that I would find some beautiful inspiration.  Not surprisingly, I found some stunning typography.

This beautiful work of art was designed by Simon Alander and is everything I want my art to be.  There is not much to say other than that it's just amazing and I am incredibly jealous of his talent.

This beauty was designed by Jessica Hishe.  She is an amazing typographer and (obviously) she is incredibly talented.  I love the simplicity and elegance in this design - something I want to include in my own.





Jessica also designed this cover of my all time favorite book for Barnes and Noble.  I'm proud to say I own this beautiful book.



This is another stunning example of beautiful typography designed by Matt Ottdal.  I love how each word is connected to the rest of the phrase.

Now, I don't mean to give the impression that I am an amazing typographer - nothing could be further from the truth - but I do believe that I can use this inspiration to create something wonderful.  At least, I hope so.

The only thing standing between me and a finished project is finding the right phrase.  I want it to be something fun and crazy like "There's always money in the banana stand."  I want it to be something that makes me laugh/smile every single time I see it.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good emotional quote like everybody else, but I don't want to see that every day.  

Any ideas?

Charlie and The Giraffe

Last weekend we got 3-4 inches of snow.  As I was packing up to head out on my walk, my little girl got up on the bed and began whining.  I hate that she knows when I'm leaving her behind.  It's terrible.

After a little whining, she shuns me altogether.  It's enough to make me feel bad, but I knew she wouldn't last long on our walk.  She loves the snow, but after about 10 minutes her feet get really cold and she starts walking funny.

When I got back from my walk, I had lots of pictures to upload and edit.  I knew she would hang out on the bed so I pulled up the covers and put her pillow pet up there.

I've wanted to get her a pillow pet for a long time; I was super curious about what she would think of it.  At first, she tried to drag it around and destroy it.  Now every time she see it, she chews on the nose a few times - just to make sure the giraffe knows who's the boss around these here parts.

This is the closest they've been in the 10 days we've had the giraffe.

This lasted about 10 minutes and then Charlie was done with cuddle time.  My goal is to get her to like this little pillow pet (I don't know why, but I just want her to like it).  She can be pretty stubborn, though.  She is a terrier after all.

A few years ago, I took Charlie to agility classes (seriously, so much fun).  The place we used to go had a sign that said "Lions and Tigers and Terriers! Oh my!"  Enough said.

Day 7 - Ham and Cheese Turnovers

First off, if you are wondering why this post is a day late, allow me to explain.  I signed up to help with the sports club at my school, so I don't get home until 5pm on Tuesdays.  That means that I am at work from 7am-5pm.  By the time I get home I'm tired, cranky, and need food NOW.  Making dinner was too exhausting that night, so I moved dinner to Wednesday.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled program.

Oh my word, what a disaster! For Day 7 of my challenge, I chose to make ham and cheese turnovers.  This recipe was recommended by my younger sister, Charlotte.  This was one crazy dinner.  I blame it on Char because she picked it.  I'm the middle child, nothing is ever my fault (ask my family, they know).

Actually, I can't really complain.  I made it through six very homemade dinners before failing.

One of the most appealing things about this recipe was the number of ingredients.  Seven very simple ingredients, that should be easy enough right?  Well, it was, except for the pizza dough.  I spent 5 minutes just looking for the dough.

The weirdest thing was that when I was searching all over for the dough, I passed a family and the mom said "let's go get the dough."  Not gonna lie, I actually started semi-following them.  But when they headed toward the other end of the store I thought to myself wrong way, idiots.  When I finally made it to the deli (who knew frozen dough is found in the deli), they were already there picking out their dough.  Dang it, I should have kept following them!

Lesson learned: keep following random people.

Oh my.  Oooooh my.

To thaw the dough, the directions told me to put it in the fridge for 24 hours or leave it at room temp for 4-6 hours.  The latter wasn't an option, so I popped it in the fridge.  When I got home, it definitely had not risen so I called Char for a suggestion.  She has read that you can get dough to rise quickly by heating up water, putting a cookie sheet over it, and placing the dough on top.  So I did just that.

Note to self, don't boil the water.  Too hot!  I don't know much anything diddly squat about dough, but I kinda figured that this color change wasn't supposed to happen.

The next step was rolling out the dough.  I don't own anything big enough to roll the dough on, so I used the counter.  Oh my.  Mistakes: didn't put flour on the counter, didn't put flour on the wine bottle, and definitely didn't put flour on my hands - at least, not until it was too late.  In case you are wondering, I don't own a rolling pin, so the wine bottle was my substitute and it worked really well.

The recipe told me to cut the dough into triangles.  I figured I could just use my pizza cutter.  Mistakes: not having the dough on a cutting surface and not owning a pizza cutter.  Seriously, I know I have one, but I could not find it anywhere.  I'm wondering if I accidentally got rid of it when I rearranged the kitchen a few weeks ago.  My bad.

Needless to say, my triangles were a hot mess.

Oh yeah, mine definitely look as good as the one from the website; mine may even look better.  Just in case you couldn't tell the difference, my turnovers are pictured on the left.  We wouldn't want any confusion about which is which.  Both photos just look so appetizing.  Yes, I'm being sarcastic.  No, contrary to how it looks, I did not have a 2 year old assemble my turnovers.

The recipe said I would be able to make 8 turnovers, but I was only able to make six.  Oops.

I popped them in the oven and then it was time to wait.  Charlie doesn't like the waiting part - she just likes the eating part.

As much as I totally failed, they tasted fine-ish.  I'm pretty sure the dough wasn't cooked all the way, though.

The best of the worst

I cooked them until they were golden and crisp scorched.  They tasted fine, they really did, but it was definitely not my best effort.  I'm proud of myself for getting out of my chicken/rice comfort zone, but this was a hot mess.  When I read the recipe, I wasn't even the least bit intimidated by the dough, but it ended up being the source of all my problems.  

Totals:

1 shopping trip

2 phone calls

0 iPhone searches

75 minutes

$13 

1 dinner

2 lunches

Scales and Stripes

A few weeks ago I purchased this shelf from Ikea to hang above the tv in my bedroom.  Because this shelf actually needs to be sturdy and hold quite a bit, I haven't hung it up yet.  I'm super intimidated by the fact that I want it to be leveled and centered above my dresser.  Leveled and centered?  That's a job for my Dad.

click for link

Anyway, I've started working on the artwork to put on the shelf.   This scaly art inspired me to create some scales of my own.

I have two small 4x6" frames that I got from Ikea for super cheap.  I think it was $2 for the both of them (but don't quote me on that).  I decided to use some leftover circles from when I made my paper chandelier.   After closer inspection, I realized they were a little too bruised and battered to work for this project.

Instead, I used my 1 1/4" punch to create some circles of my own. There wasn't much to choose from, so I dug out some scrap paper and tried to get as many circles as I possibly could out of each piece.   I figured that since you wouldn't be able to see the bottom of the circle, it would be ok if they weren't perfect.  This was and wasn't a mistake - it made it harder to cover up all the white paper underneath, but it worked overall.

Don't look too closely - my scales are not perfectly aligned or evenly spaced.  The darker gray pieces are actually metalic paper; I wanted to add a little glitz to the project.  I wanted it mostly gray with a bit of color, so I added blue and silver as I went along.

For the second frame, I thought I'd do simple stripes.  My sister gave me this miniature electric tape a long time ago and I've finally put it to good use.  I put the tape on diagonally and eyeballed the distance between each stripe.  The ruler is just for you to get a sense of the size of this project.

ps. I used bristol paper as my backing for both projects.

The bristol paper is much larger than what I will actually need for the frame, but I wanted to give myself some wiggle room because I wasn't really sure how I wanted the stripes to appear in the frame.

This blue paint is from my living room; it's the color I painted the walls.  Right after painting the paper - I peeled off the tape.

This didn't go as well as I would have liked.  The tape pulled up a lot of the bristol paper and left lots of messy edges.

Now, normally this would bug the heck out of me and it would have been in the trash .02 seconds after I saw this mess.  But strangely enough, I didn't really care.  This simple project is sort of a place holder until I can find something more interesting to fill the frame.

Besides, from farther away, it doesn't look too bad.  As I look at this, I sort of feel like it needs a little something else.  Hmm...I'll have to think about it.

This 8x10 canvas is another piece that I will be putting on the shelf.  This was a super simple project.  I found an ampersand (&) sign that I liked and then traced it onto card stock.  I cut that out and traced it onto the canvas and then pained it.   The gray paint was from when I painted the inside of the corner bookshelf.

This little coo-coo clock is a project that I finished in early December when I first started getting into embroidery.  I swear I ironed it before I put it into the frame, but it still looks wrinkly.  I think that is because the stitches are pulling on the fabric.  Oh well, I still like it.

This is a Christmas gift from my older sister, Esther.  It's awesome.  Normally, I'm not a fan of these posters.  They have been over done and it's getting old, which is why I pinned this on Pinterest.  But I love this one.  It's just so completely true of me, which makes it perfect.  And it's blue - so it matches my room.

The only thing I have left to do is fill the largest frame I bought (11x15).  I have something completely different that I want to do with that, but I'll tell you about it later.  For now, I'll just work on getting up the guts to hang this shelf myself and that could take months.

I KNEW IT!

Allow me to apologize in advance for what you are about to read.  I do not usually rant and rave on my blog, but this time it cannot be helped.  I love my iPhone, but right now we are not friends.

For the past few months, I've started going crazy over the calendar app on my phone.  I put everything in there.  Any event that I know about is on that calendar, but I never set up alerts.   I check it enough that I don't need the alerts.

But it's been alerting me anyway!  I wake up at 11:50 pm because my alarm is going off!  I set an event for "all-day" and it sets and alert for "10 minutes before" which translates to a rude wake up in the middle of my night.  I started to think that I was going crazy and maybe I really did set the alerts.

The screen shot on the left is the event that I put in my phone a few days ago.  The screen shot on the right is from tonight.  OH MY GOSH!  I KNEW IT!  My phone added the alert on it's own!!!

I put in this event on the same night as my dad's birthday dinner.  Oh would ya look at that - my phone added the alert!  Again...OH MY GOSH!  This is more than frustrating.

How do I turn this off??

So with some help, I headed to my calendar settings to check my default settings.  They are all set to none so how am I still getting automatic alerts??

HELP!