What I would like to share with you:)

A trip to De Luz Canyon

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:43:00 +0000

Yesterday we went on a trip to De Luz Canyon. It is located between Murrieta and De Luz and is part of the Santa Ana mountain range. It is a canyon but also a gorge, with according to dictionary.com is "a narrow valley between hills or mountains, typically with steep rocky walls and a stream running through it." It was about a 90-minute drive.

Pictures were taken with my iPhone4. I e-mailed them to myself (cause I was too lazy to plug my phone in???) and only sent them as large sizes. Therefore, although pictures are clickable for bigger version, they are not full version unfortunately (~600kb, as opposed to 2+mb).

I'm going to try to put these pictures in some sort of succession. Here is a picture facing backwards:

The road was so windy and bumpy! It's like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, but more spine-rattling and less fun! Kidding... but I will admit it takes some skill to meander dirt roads. I'd more than likely try to floor the whole way which would probably end up badly. GB is a great driver.

We stopped on a turn-around point on the side of the mountain. We were on our way to see some waterfalls, but first, here are some pictures overlooking the valley.

Nice shotgun shells! It doesn't take long for me to remember why people need to be banned from places like this. Look what they do to it. /endrant Of course it would not be fair to punish all due to the actions of a few.

Another view! I think someone took apart a car down there, ANYWHO, aside from that, it's pretty nice!

I wish I knew what body of water that was. It was too square shaped to be anything natural. Here is another view off the edge.

The valley below this area had a lot of fence boards down there. I read that this is a known dumping grounds due to its proximity to a busy road. GB was telling me about how people will take stolen cars there, gut them, take what they want, and leave them.

Brush. I really need to learn how to landscape like this - lots of color with little water!

Now, drumroll please. Here is the waterfall!

As you can see, besides the sun almost completely washing out my picture, the waterfall is looking pretty dry. Actually it just was dry. If you zoom in you can see the water marks (black) so at least you know I'm not fibbing. Luckily, late last night it started raining pretty hard so I'm hoping the waterfall and pond will fill up again soon.

Greenery and rocks.

Here's a shot to the side of the waterfall. Notice the tagging.

I tried to keep that garbage off to the side. Here is one last picture of the mountain. It's been long carved by wind, sand, water, birds, and whatever else. We continued on that way to head off of the mountain. No avalanches either!

I wish I had more commentary. Basically, it was a warm day, and there were a lot of lovely rock formations, greenery, and garbage. Because the waterfall wasn't... there... I'd say the journey was more fun than the destination, but isn't that usually the case? It was really stunning to see how green the mountains were even though it has been so dry. I hope to return in a few months once the rain has filled everything back up.

Attack of the hornworms!

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:48:00 +0000

**This blog is not for the squeamish!**

With tomato plants come hornworms. I've got both kinds, tomato hornworm and the tobacco hornworm. There are also other worms that look very similar but lack the horn. These worms apparently become huge moths - the size of hummingbirds. I don't care much for moths and I certainly don't care much for worms that decimate my plants!

Note: All pictures are clickable for biggy sized worms :)

This first specimen is a tomato hornworm - a huge one at that. I believe this is nearly full grown:

Note the horn, spots, and different sets of legs. Note also the size of the thing compared to my fingers! Granted I have long, piano fingers. ANYWHO... I hate to admit it, but at this size, this guy is actually kind of cute. I can't believe how bright, almost neon his color is. Reminds me of Heimlich from "A Bug's Life."

Now this one is a tobacco hornworm:

NOT AS CUTE AS THE PREVIOUS, in my opinion. He's slightly more offensive to the eyes - lackluster color, hairy, a more wrinkled appearance overall. For comparison, here they are together:

And a final picture of all the worms I found that day, different sizes:

Did you find them? I believe there are 5. I suppose I will conclude with some tips :)

Finding
Search for them when the sun isn't very strong, so either in the morning or in the late afternoon/early evening is best. These guys are delicate and will most likely be on the underside of leaves. The huge ones don't have much of a choice though and tend to hang out wherever.

Hornworms are not the easiest to spot. They are wholly defenseless and therefore blend in nearly perfectly with the plant, so look for them while doing some maintenance (pruning, harvesting, pinching off suckers, etc).

POO IS THE CLUE Their feces look like very dark (brown to black) pebbles, from sand sized to pea sized, depending on the worm. Where there are feces, there are worms, and one worm can make a LOT of feces.

Birds can spot these guys very easily. If you can attract birds to your garden they can help a lot with infestation. Bright flowers, bird seed, and bird baths may be pretty and useful to add to your garden.

Handling
The huge guys have a strong grip and make a strange clicking noise with their mouths when angry/threatened. The tiny guys I pick off with my hands or scrape them gently with scissors or a stick,. The larger ones I remove by cutting the entire leaf or stem. More than likely the leaf has been eaten enough to where it is far too damaged to keep on the plant anyhow.

Disposal
No matter my disgust, they are a living creature and I try to get rid of them in the most humane way possible. I have a tank with frogs and newts so the smaller ones I feed to them. The larger ones are too big for the amphibians to eat (but the frogs do try), so I put them in the bird feeder and let the birds have at them. Otherwise, soapy water will drown them, as will cutting the heads off with sharp scissors (don't ask me how I know about that, and no, I was not the one that did it, and believe me... it was not out of sadistic joy, but for important purposes, but that is another blog).

Prevention
The larva will hide in your soil to hibernate for winter, so till the soil well after harvest and again before new planting. This should kill most of them. Your garden store will carry lady bugs and other beneficial insects which will eat the eggs. Once the worms hatch, hand picking and insecticides are the only way to deal with them. I prefer to stay away from insecticides but there are some natural types that should work.

If your plants are growing healthy and strong then the worms shouldn't do too much damage, but it is still best to control them. Good luck on the worm hunt!

A look at the garden

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:30:00 +0000

I haven't posted in so long and I'm not sure if I've even posted pictures of the garden yet before. Figured I would bring the blog back to life with some... life :). We've had a pretty good harvest so far and even though we lost the grass a lot of the other plants are doing well! Let's see here...

All photos taken with my iPhone4.

I threw a lot of old vegetables into one of the potters and the potatoes ended up growing. The plant itself wasn't very pretty and it had started dying. It was a lot of fun digging them up and this is what we found!

There are a couple banana peppers, a green bell pepper, and also some sort of tomato from the garden in the colander as well. The skin on the potatoes seems much thinner than from the store, and the meat is much smoother when cooked than store bought. Granted they did grow from a store bought potato, I still believe they are much better.

Now onto the plants...

Here are some strawberries, parsley, cilantro, and basil in this strawberry planter. We decided to place it in the larger 2x6 decking planter/bench.

A planter within a planter, redundant, I know! But I think it is a nice look.

A broader look, behind the strawberry planter is a watermelon vine. To the right are 3 tomato plants: heirloom yellow, yellow pear, and either a celebrity or early girl tomato, I forgot which.

The watermelon vine. The bulk of the planter is compost, which was too strong for the plants and I believe "burned" them essentially. A few held on and out of nowhere this watermelon started growing like crazy.

Yellow pear tomato on the left, heirloom yellow on the right.

The tomato plants are supported by a T-shape trellis that we experimented with. I think this is a nice design to support several plants, while keeping the plants at the forefront and the trellis more or less hidden.

The heirloom tomato appeared to die once transplanted into this compost rich soil. It then sprouted leaves, and then a lot of blooms, but unfortunately it is suffering 100% bloom drop, most likely due to an excess of nitrogen. :(

I trim the dead leaves and the dead blooms off. They crack or turn yellow at the last knuckle so I sometimes put them out of their misery before they get to fall off. I'm not sure what to do with this one, perhaps transplant it again? Seems that I will not get any harvest with it this way.

A close-up of some yellow pear tomatoes:

Here are some celebrity tomatoes growing in planters on the ground. We built these small planters to hide the base of the fence posts, which are metal and concrete. This plant is doing alright, the concrete happened to take up a lot of the space and this guy really had to work its roots to find soil!

Here is a celebrity tomato again, planted at the same time as the previous. There was hardly any concrete post blocking this one, look at the difference!

This is IMHO the perfect tomato plant - in terms of foliage to fruit ratio. I tend to grow tomatoes with more leaves than tomatoes, but not this time!

Here is a grape plant that was planted also at the base of a fence post. Grape plants are far more fragile than many other fruit bearing plants. It appeared to be dieing for many months. The existing leaves have all fallen off but all of the vines have a nice clump of growth at the end :). I have hope in this one!

Now here is a cluster of early girl tomatoes. These were planted a bit too close together - 3 plants in this small space. They grew pretty well though but I think there is far more foliage than fruits. These were set in a higher planter and now they tower well over us. We put a trellis in the planter itself, then placed some boards across the fence when those were not high enough.

I think with more time and space, this could turn into a tomato roof! I need a lot of shade due to my polymorphous light eruptions (PMLE) so this may be a new way to grow tomato plants :).

These are pepper plants which are growing in the same planter. The 2 on the left are green bell peppers and the 2 to the right are yellow banana.

Here is a lovely Japanese heirloom eggplant. The leaves are delicate, velvety green and purple. This plant is surprisingly easy to grow and fruitful!

Close-up:

Here are 2 more tomatoes, I believe celebrity's, that are growing in a pine potter in the front yard. This has the same style box trellis, just larger to support both.

These tomatoes had grown quite a bit before we added the trellis. We damaged a few of the stalks - tomatoes are extremely hardy and as long as the stems have a connection to the main stem, they will continue to get enough nutrients. I used some medical silk tape to keep this one together, as you can see the tomatoes are growing just fine.

I have more gardening pictures but will have to save those for another blog. We are blessed to be in San Diego and our growing season is quite long. I've had tomatoes survive a season, the whole year, and then fruit the next summer. I have some other herbs, fruits, and vegetables that I am going to plant and see how far I can keep harvesting.

Til next time :)

Video: Potter Bench out of reclaimed redwood

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Thu, 19 May 2011 02:44:00 +0000

Just a quick video we put together of how we built a potter bench, bench potter. :) It takes some time and skill but I think the end result is pretty nice! Not bad at all, especially considering that most people would have either trashed or burned this wood. Now it's been reborn and will last several years if not much longer.

Some projects :)

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 18 May 2011 03:53:00 +0000

Just decided to compile some pictures of some of the things we have been working on!!

A couple bathroom cabinets, knotty pine

Large garden bed with bench, reclaimed redwood

Bench potters, knotty pine

That's just some of them!! :) Been busy in the garage building planters for others and have been busy in the garden ourselves!! Have eggplant, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, and watermelons growing right now. Hopefully it will be a successful summer season :)

Video: Tomato Trellises

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:40:00 +0000

I have been MIA from this blog for quite some time. I have been busy with some girly things as well as garage things, so it's not a total loss. Been messing around on YouTube and Twitter a lot more than anything else, but did want to update with some projects we have been working on :)

We started a couple months ago on a garden. Mainly vegetables and such, we had everything in plastic pots but they outgrew everything pretty quick! Built some potters with reclaimed wood and now the vegetables are in a suitable home. The tomatoes grew so fast and started falling over so we made these really quick. We will mess around with more intricate designs but for now they will do!

I don't understand the image button anymore on BlogSpot lol...

Raised Garden Bed

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:51:00 +0000

We have been back in the garage. For a long time I have been trying to learn - nailing, measuring, saws, etc. I enjoy learning but I'm not sure I can ever build anything on my own. I am good at a lot of things but to pick up on something new that is so detailed and intricate is daunting, especially with so much room for error. So lately I have been doing a lot of planing. It is fun to see the wood go from garbage to beautiful. It is also very easy to do and I enjoy it! It gives him a chance to focus on the other stuff while I do this.

I have been messing around with video editing and here is what I've come up with.

I filmed and took pictures with my iPhone4. It is crazy how a phone is now a computer, camera, and video recorder. It is so convenient. I edited with Windows Live Movie Maker, which was included with my computer.

Here is a picture of the finished product, in case you do not view the video:

So sad the grass died! But the potter is nice. Still debating on whether to seal it, or to stain and then seal it. It needs a quick sanding before doing any of that, but you get the idea.

And to finish... young Butters harassing Minnie:

This is funny to me because, well this part isn't funny, but Butters was abandoned in a parking lot. And when I say parking lot, I mean abandoned parking lot. I don't know how long he went without seeing his mother or siblings, but about 3 days after getting him his first experience with a 4-legged creature was a dog. He was so interested in Minnie and she is scared to death of him. Now they just simply do not get along, lol. They got into a growling/hissing match once and Minnie scared the hair off of Butters right eyebrow. Well that is just how it is sometimes :)

Cheers

Life lately...

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:56:00 +0000

has been rather difficult. I love posting and reading others' blogs but... I just can't do anything right now.

Here is a picture of Butters as a kitten and I hope to be feeling better and back later on.

Poured Concrete Potter, version 1.0

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:13:00 +0000

This isn't the best picture but here is a small poured concrete potter we made. We stuck some sort of Japanese tree inside it, at least I think it is Japanese? Now those master gardening classes are looking very useful!

I swear we just put in that grass and it died due to flooding! lol, we need to step up our rain gutters.

Anyways, these are different from the previous concrete potters. First of all, it is one solid piece. Secondly, the sides are angled, which I really like. Thirdly, the mixture is different. I'd researched about people adding Perlite, finely ground styrofoam, and peat moss, among other things, as aggragate to the concrete/cement mix. It is simply a way to make it lighter, as standard concrete is really heavy. We had a look at peat moss at the store and it pretty much seemed like dirt to us. I remember watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe a while back where he was driving a truck that picked up roadkill from the freeways. They'd bring the animals :( to their lot, cover them in sawdust, and voila... several months later they were compost.

So... back to the potters. We added sawdust to the mix. We have tons of it from all the planing we've done. The sawdust absorbed a lot of water which made it a bit difficult to mix, but the finished piece is significantly lighter.

We greased up the forms very well using some VERY old cooking oil (circa 2001, amazing what you find deep in the cupboards) but as you can see it did come out rough in a few places. We are going to try sanding the forms first, which we should have done anyway but hindsight is always 20/20. We do like the rough look but there are 2 places where huge chunks came out. Still, the piece has lasted a couple weeks now and is still curing.

We have another kind of plywood with a backing on it that should make the concrete come out ultra smooth, he calls it glass. I am excited to work on those ones :)

Time to get in the garage and finish off that gardening bench! Have to cut some planks for the bottom, finish the tray, and sand sand sand.

I decided I don't get to share my cat Butters often enough, so maybe from now on I'll end with a nice picture of him.

Approx. 10 days old. We found him when his eyes had just opened, a bit crusty in the left one! He still has that pink toy too :)

<3

A Gardening Bench, in processu

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:07:00 +0000

Sometimes I ask myself, *WHY* do you keep posting things before they are done? Well I just get super excited is all, and this thing is about 90% done anyway.

:) It's a gardening table! The bottom is a shelf for whatever, and the top will have a bottom onto it. That's where the soil goes. I remember planting my mom's orchids and we had this tub where we mixed the soil with the bark together. So you pour whatever you want into that big tray, mix it up, then there's this thingamajig that slides across the top of the table. You put the pot there, fill it up, and... ya!

Photos taken with iPhone4

:) It's redwood. He was originally going to nail the bottom in, but I told him we should leave it as planks that sit onto the little railing. That way if it starts getting too muddy you can take em off and hose the whole thing down.

Close-up:

The legs are at 45 degrees. The planks and such are set in with dado cuts. Basically its a saw blade that's extra wide. Actually it was like 5 sawblades stuck together. Well I learned something new!

I'll have the finished one up soon, hopefully today!
:)

Rhinestone headbands @ LA garment district

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:50:00 +0000

I've actually had these for a few months now and finally took some pictures. My mom and aunt bought me these. My aunt started digging through the bins when someone started grabbing ENTIRE BINS of headbands. She bought about $3000 worth. My aunt had to grab whatever she could basically.

These were all taken with my iPhone4. Can't believe how much better this camera is than the other! These pics are between 1.5-2 megabytes each. All pics are clickable so that you may relish in the sparkle.

I believe I had this headband in the last post about shopping. Well here it is again, it's still my favorite :)

A white flower one. This has got some felt wrapped around it. Haven't worn it yet so I'm not sure how that'll wear but it's an interesting touch. Some of the rhinestones are AB - aurora borealis. That's the iridescent shine on them. Apparently it's done with a layer of 24k gold but maybe not all the time :)

Blue butterfly. This one is on a little spring, like those old hair clips all the kids were wearing back when I was in Junior High. It's cool but I'm not sure how I feel about it, it makes a funny sound when I'm wearing it. I didn't know it was springy until I opened it from the plastic. It's still cute though :)

White and black butterfly. I never thought that black rhinestones could be so pretty. They remind me of hematite.

White and blue flowers. This one is more symmetrical than the others, and the decorations lie in the center rather than off to one side. Reminds me of a pixie or of the 60s.

Brown and white flower. I haven't been able to wear this one because I've been so lazy to dye my hair red. It's a strange blond/brown/strawberry color and this headband blends right in.

What girl doesn't love rhinestones? I've done some rhinestone work in the past, mainly with my cell phone and some toy cars. I used to buy them at Michael's craft store for like $2.99 for 20. I found a great site that sold 1,440 (a supergross?) for $30. I ended up getting 2 shades of pink and clear. I should bust them out and find something to bling, like some heels!

I find that gluing rhinestones is easy but filling in the little cracks is the problem. Any area that is exposed will cause the rhinestones to
1) oxidize and/or
2) become clogged with dirt and then
3) fall off

These headbands are really sturdy and the metal that the rhinestones are glued into have little holes for the rhinestones to perfectly sit into. As for storage right now I am keeping them in my underwear drawer. Figure it's the softest drawer I have right now so long as I keep them away from the walls.

<3 Next post, earrings! And maybe some more wood stuff... or a nail blog considering how long my nails have gotten. Sheesh...

PS. Is it the LA garment district or LA fashion district? Just wondering!

A preview... part II

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:16:00 +0000

We've been working on concrete potters. Rather than poured in place (??) he wanted to try blocks that are stuck together. For transport this would be much easier. This is 2nd try and I think we got it. :)

First attempt was only concrete. Second time we added some lime and cement for more plasticity and adhesion. I think? The first ones were 3 inches thick and these are about 2. Even though they are thinner they came out much stronger. Edges remained in tact for the most part too.

I took these shots with the iPhone4 and WITHOUT contact lenses and I believe a dog present made it into the shot. BOO. You can see the grain of the wood that has been left over.

Inside shot:

So we just have another one to put together, its basically done, and he's going to work on the back, finish up the seat, stick it all together and woo!! Should be done soon :) We've been trying to keep busy, especially with the massive amounts of rain in San Diego, lots of roof and drywall damage from our friends and family. It's nice to be able to get back to house projects.

After that we're going to try some poured in place ones as well as some different finishes like stains, salt, etc. It should be fun!

Til next time...

2 newts 1 frog

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:04:00 +0000

Had to snap these quick before they dispersed. Taken with my iPhone4! I love this thing. Except I still had the plastic on it so it was covering the camera lens. Woops :(

They are so cute. I guess it was cold in there :) Time to go to Ross now and hopefully get a case for $5.99 and hopefully my pics will be better!

<3

Mini-Bench for my Mom

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:42:00 +0000

With so much scrap wood we thought it would be a nice idea to build something for my mom. She does a lot of gardening in the back and currently uses one of these:

(photo source http://www.ioffer.com/i/little-tikes-blue-table-chair-set-4-chairs-pu-in-il-170989570)

I am referring to the gray chair. Except her's is blue, and the back legs bend in a little and it's really beat up. So it's time to upgrade! She likes to eat sometimes on the coffee table (low) by the television, so knowing her she'll want to use it inside for that instead.

I got to cut out the pieces using this thingy, a Delta ShopMaster. It's a saw of some sort, not a jig saw, or a band one. Well I forgot which kind it is, so let's just call it a thingy.

It wasn't scary like a table saw. At least that one I remember! Anyway the pieces were cut out with sharp angles. We stuck them all together with some clamps and sanded them (I did). Here are the rounded edges:

These are reclaimed redwood, run through a planer (Delta of course), although there are some striations because we hit some nails along the way. You can see them particularly on the face of the first board. Time to get a new blade! Here are all the pieces separated:

The shape is so there is an indent for your butt?! He thought it was a good idea. It *is* very nice to sit on, I never would have guessed that myself. I don't spend much time looking at chair seats. And the finished product:

Ok so I lied. It's not done. Here it is only rubbed down with mineral spirit, to bring out the grain and get rid of excess sawdust, I think? Anyways there is still some more sanding to do, like between the boards. I don't think I'm going to stain it. As you can see there are some lighter pieces in there, turns out there was some cedar in the mix. But I think it'll still look nice with just some ClearCoat on it :)

Jumping ahead of myself and posting before its done! Well I was just excited is all, it's cute! Til later...

:)

PS: Pictures taken with my iPhone 3G this time. I was too lazy to bust out the real camera. But I get my iPhone 4 in a little over a week. Not sure if that's a good thing. Wish we weren't limited to certain brands just cause of our carrier!

Post-Christmas Presents, cat style

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 03:19:00 +0000

I went back to my old place to give Butters his present. I bought a pack of that cardboard scratching stuff that goes for about $3. The plastic case for it was $12... so I had GB make me one out of some scrap wood. Took him only two seconds to tear at it, and I hadn't even added catnip yet :)

Front view. I love his fluffy winter coat!

Although, BEFORE any of this could happen, I had to step through the front door. The two other cats, Bruce and Twister, left me this :(

Poor little guy :(. Here's Bruce admiring his handiwork. I think he knew I was coming and wanted me to see this. Merry Catmas!

<3 Hope your Catmas's were less mousy.

A preview...

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:44:00 +0000

I didn't know wood could bend.

And we finally got a planer! yay =). Next up: Christmas presents for Butters

How to become an all-round thinking person

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 07:36:00 +0000

Some Christmas shopping at the 99cent store somehow ended me up with this:

I am definitely not responsible for this purchase however I *am* very curious as to how to play it exactly :)

This does not help at all. The pieces and the board have no markings. lol

Any ideas? Who wouldn't want to become an IQ smart puzzle whiz?!?!

:)

Hotel del Coronado, night shots

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:56:00 +0000

We actually went a while ago but I've only gotten to posting some pictures now. As I've stated before, my skin condition keeps me from getting out much during the daytime. I can do a lot with my with my camera apparently, but until I do more reading it'll all be trial and error. Hopefully I'll get back here during the day and get some shots :)

Simply...

The main tower that everyone recognizes, with a bit of the moon peaking behind it, and some palms.

A patio area... it must look nuts during the day.

I like this shot that GB took of the main building, sandwiched betwixt a vending station and something else. He likes how the trashcan matches the roof of the hotel.

I'm realizing that I like the longer setting (panoramic, 16:9) for landscape shots but for vertical shots I'd rather change it back.

Moving on, inside are a bunch of stores and a tribute hall to the hotel. I like the tile.

Marilyn Monroe apparently helped make the Hotel del famous. Here's a cute montage they set up for her:

I love the picture of her on the right. Simple, classic beauty.

Kate Morgan, the famous ghost of the Hotel del... was either murdered or killed in one of the rooms back in 1892. Not sure how I feel about this one.

I didn't know that the station wagon was so cool!

A shot of a nice set-up inside the place. It's nice to see the camerawoman sometimes I think ;), that and I liked the wallpaper.

Sounded like one hell of a party in there.

And the tower once more, more vertical, with the moon! It was really hard trying to cram the whole thing in there and holding still. I was laying down on a bench :), by the beach, with GB keeping my head off the cold wood.

I like these photos smaller but as you blow them up they get grainy. I bounce between the normal setting and the 'auto' settings on my camera (Sony Cyber-shot 7.2mp) which apparently adjust according to light and what not. I really need to do some research on night photography and how the moon, spotlights, and other lights will affect the picture.

Guess I'll just have to mess with it some more... or wear sunscreen.

<3 More projects coming up next!

Woodwork, moving, and ISP Issues

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:21:00 +0000

As seen by the title, I've been a little bit busy doing... something, but I'm back, and thought I'd start sharing again all of the little things here and there that I have been working on.

*Might I add that I none too happy with COX who has had to come here twice since I moved in, which wasn't very long ago. That is what happens when you have services change a couple times and 4 guys come in, all re-doing, re-working, messing up, what the previous guy had done... although I cannot blame them for not 1 but 2 broken modems! $65 for a new one at Walmart, wish they'd make them cheaper than that :)

So GB is a carpenter by trade. Boredom and begging led him to fixing my table, which I inherited from my aunt. According to my mom, it was once lovely but nearly a decade of neglect, sun, and rain has turned it into this:

At this point I had already begun sanding it. I obtained this hunk o' junk before meeting him, worked on it for a solid 3 days, then gave up. Then he came into my life and woopee! Easy road for me (just kidding). I was planning on doing as little work as possible and call it "rustic." But I hadn't realized how much work could have and needed to be put into it, and apparently this is good wood, and I wanted it to look its best.

You can also view the table here, in a video taken by my old roommate with the amazing, handsomest cat in the world, Butters:

Here the BF has began to take it apart:

As you can see, it's two small squares of boards, top and base, connected by a square column. Not exactly proper lingo but you get the idea ;). Here are the 4 boards that compose the base.

I guess he had to take apart the whole thing, re-notch the pieces up top (to get rid of the gaps), and glue and clamp the hell out of it. Also, it came with no chairs. Although I still think a tables a table even without any chairs, I really wanted to eat on the thing. I was going to pick some cheap ones up from Wal-mart or the thrift store but he thought that benches would be a good idea :).

He said the table appeared to be masculine, and thought some masculine looking benches would suit it. I liked the idea especially because the benches can be pushed into and under the table entirely, keeping a very low profile.

So... after several hours of sanding, 2 coats of stain, and about 50 clear-coats later, here is the completed piece. Ta-Da! I love a dark finish, and my catlicious.

And another for good measure:

I'm very happy with the table, even though I couldn't take it with me. Butters loves that table and harasses the fishes from it. I think it is in good hands and will be well taken care of. As for COX, we apparently are VIP now and have a special phone number for every time we have an issue. HURRAY!

<3

Felix the Cat Pumpkin

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:59:00 +0000

Thought that I would share how I carve my Halloween pumpkins. From start to finish this took a little over 2 hours.

Pictures are taken with either my Sony Cyber-Shot 7.2mp or iPhone. I kept switching for some reason :)

Here are the tools I use: chisels, flat-tip screwdrivers, sharpie, and my awesome X-acto knife kit.

Draw your image. I use coloring book pages and found this one by Googling "felix the cat socialist." Just kidding, that's only half true. Felix is an older fella, he's cute and I figured he may offer some nostalgia...

The black marks represent portions that will stay. That includes the lines of the eyes. The body will remain in tact, I just didn't bother to finish coloring it in black since it is cleaner to color it in at the end. I use my sharpie, although I'm sure paint would work so long as you are careful. Sharpie will only stick to the pumpkin skin.

I cut the top off of the pumpkin at an angle (see the knife) so when I replace the top it will not fall through, even if the pumpkin shrinks a little bit. Also, I keep the hole bigger towards the back of the pumpkin so that I have more room for my image at the front.

Now, clean your pumpkin.

Now cut around the areas you want removed with the x-acto.

You can see where I've already cut and removed some of the tongue. Here I am cutting around the eye area.

Now use either a chisel or screwdriver to peel off the skin. I am using a screwdriver since this was the smallest tool I had, the chisels were 1/4" or 1/8" which were too large for this area.

I needed to add a border around Felix so his body would really pop out. After continuing on, I realize one foot is bigger than the other. Re-cut it with the smaller x-acto and am peeling it off with another x-acto here:

Better :)

Almost finished. It needs to be cleaned - dirt, leftover skin removed, and evened out - then sealed. I normally use Vaseline, but WD-40 works. You need to do this because the skin will dry out and shrivel, distorting especially the fine lines.

And now it is finished :), kind of. You need to put a candle in it to see how much needs to be shaven off. The walls are probably too thick for the light to shine through. In the beginning you can just scrape the inside of the pumpkin where the image is. Then you can start putting a candle in and shave in the areas you need to (remove the candle first :P).

I'll take a picture of it lit up tomorrow night for Halloween.

<3

Previous years' Disney pumpkins

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:59:00 +0000

Here are some pumpkins I've done in previous years. I was not in the mood to do a pumpkin like this this year, my wrists are a bit sore from gaming being the main reason. These pumpkins took anywhere from 5-6 hours to draw and cut.

(Sorry, these pictures are from my Myspace account. I would have to dig them from deep within my files to find full res pictures. Anyways, you get the idea).

Bambi

Eric Cartman (South Park)

Lady and the Tramp

Simba and Nala

These pictures were taken with a huge LED flashlight inside. The pumpkins look fine in person with just a candle or two, but for picture purposes I had to use something more powerful. I had a Lilo and Stitch pumpkin but forgot where the pictures are. Anyways, these pumpkins were all made using the same method. This is just the way I do them, hope you have enjoyed.

Thanks for looking :)

Reflections @ Balboa Park

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:13:00 +0000

GB and I decided to drive down to San Diego and visit Balboa Park. I love this place and don't get to go as often as I like now that I live up north and am too lazy to do anything but kill zombies and watch movies on tv. I have probably gone here five times during the day and dozens at night, again due to my PMLE. Although there is much more to see during the day, night has its own charm and creepiness that I love.

We took approximately 600 pictures with my Sony Cyber-shot. I'll probably post them in several blogs. This one is titled reflections because I will focus on the photos of the buildings and scenery as they reflected off of the water, namely the fountain and the reflecting pool.

I do not have much experience taking pictures at night. As many as 1 in every 3 shots was blurry. Some turned out pretty cool though, I'll try to find the manual at my mom's house and learn a bit. Here are some of my favorite shots :)

Reflecting pool, facing outwards from the botanical gardens

The length of the reflecting pool, forgot what building this was :P

Eucalyptus @ the fountain. I wish it was turned on :( damn budget cuts.

Ruben H. Fleet Center, reflecting off fountain :)

Fountain again, San Diego Natural History Museum. Apparently this is a favorite place for people to get married. If you're a dinosaur?

And finally, a shot from the fountain, facing the main roadway... and a little bit of romance <3

Well that's the end of that. We're heading to Coronado in a bit so I'll try to use my new-found night photography skills to use. Except I forgot everything I learned so... ya.

:)

Can you find the bobkitty? BK's very own blog

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:32:00 +0000

Two posts in one day, how can this be? Well we were on a bobkitty hunting adventure and here are some pics that he/she may be in.

Or should I say, he/she is DEFINITELY in the picture just maybe behind a rock or tree or something. So here they are, full res taken with my 7.2megapixels of power. Can you find him?

These were taken on our way back from Palomar Mountain. We decided to take the other route towards Lake Henshaw. Another. He took this and the previous one.

I took this next one, so I'm pretty sure BK isn't in it. I don't think I was even looking in the right direction.

Last one :)

Well we know he is in these pics :). I was really glad that he decided to venture onto the road, otherwise we never would have found this place. I've never seen a place like this, it was so peaceful and beautiful.

If you can find the bobkitty, let me know!

Update 10/24: Spoiler (highlight with your mouse, I've typed it in yellow/beige. Clever, I know).

The bobcat is in the first picture, slightly left and up of center, just between the two middle trees, past that huge stump. He's very, very small, meaning we were very, very far away. Lol :) At least we got a picture of him...

Palomar Mountain Observatory

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:22:00 +0000

The trip today to LA Garment District was canceled due to rain. That's what we get for not googling the weather, but that's fine. :) I had a nice day relaxing in bed. Here are the rest of the pictures from Palomar Mountain and the Palomar Mountain Observatory.

Spacey :) Although I'm pretty sure there is a reason for this, architecturally.

I need to learn how to take pictures inside and through glass! Anyway, this is a shot of a model of the mirror which is what... well I don't know, it's on the website. Something like the telescope points... somewhere... and the light comes from... some place... and bounces off this mirror and... pow!

I'm great with music, psychology, sociology, and biology... but anything physical science related I am terrible with. Anyways, it was the company Pyrex which figured out a way to make this mirror. Apparently it's not easy to melt that much glass and get it to set properly. I believe I read that polishing the thing took a couple decades. Amazeballs!

Again, but with more of the telescope in the background.

Just missed it! Well maybe next time I'll know what I'm talking about :)

A bust of George Ellery Hale, astronomer, innovator, and founder of many observatories like this. What's Gerard Butler doing ruining my shot??

A nice view outside of the observatory, equipped with camera post:

It works! (taken with my iPhone)

Wider shot of the observatory.

There were signs all over telling people not to pick these plants (in both English and Japanese, no less). People must really like ferns. Regardless, they contributed to some nice scenery.

We found a very special wild Dachsund.

And apparently there was also a Miata meet :)

Notice the copper Corvette on the far right? lol

He would look extra big in one of those cute cars.

Not sure what is happening here:

On the way home, hillside. That pool is ridiculously huge.

And then there are a few more pictures from when we took a strange road and he screamed 'SHIT' because he saw a bobcat. We turned around and drove into some leaves and left all of our stuff in the truck and ran around for a while. I didn't catch him except for his legs as he hid into some trees. Bobkitty shall get his own blog, I'll post the pictures full size (this means I'm serious) and maybe someone can find him?

:( Well WE know he's in there. Somewhere.

<3 Hope to make it to garment district soon!

Trip to Palomar Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (MissKrisTV) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:16:00 +0000

I love Fall. My PMLE really limits what I can do during the day, so a day of cloudiness and cold makes me happy. The bf had been wanting to bring me to the Palomar Mountain Observatory, so here are some pictures of the trip. :)

These are taken with my Sony Cyber-shot 7.2mp camera and are as usual, clickable! (Although they may be huge, sorry :P).

Nice and cloudy :)

We liked the pink trees. Plumeria I believe??

Going up the mountain now :). Took a few of these pictures blind (stuck my hand out the window) and luckily some came out nice.

I like the contrast of the road, dead bushes, and greenery. That line is the antenna... had to think about that one for a minute.

Here we are at the top of the mountain, just outside the observatory. I believe this was Gus Park, or was it Gill? A nice picnic sort of area with huge granite and trees. LOTS of shade :)

Shot through the trees :). Didn't mean for the tree to be so dark but I like it looks against the sky. I need to learn how to use this camera. Or cameras in general.

Here are two different species of trees which grew into each other. Team work :)

And here is the observatory. Looks like something out of Atlantis to me :)

I guess I'll stop here for now. :) I'll post the pictures inside the observatory and a few I took afterward in a day or so. It's been a tiring day and tomorrow I'll be going to Los Angeles garment district to hopefully get some accessories! Leaving bright and early to be back in time for piano lessons in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll make it back in time.

<3