1 Dear Target... you're cool!

I saw it here on Apartment Therapy and you can check it out here too.

Target...

you

are

cool.

***

0 fig butter

Yummy, delicious figs.

Fresh, sweet, smooth adriatic figs straight from my in-laws' neighbors' backyard. I've never had fresh figs before. Does Fig Newtons count? HA! Probably not. So when I had the opportunity to try these little jewels, it was a real treat!

The neighbors are on vacation and my in laws are house sitting. There is sooo much fruit, we can only eat so much of it and it would be a sin to let it go to waste. So what do I do when life gives me figs?

I make fig butter.

After some researching and a failed attempt. I finally found the perfect recipe for fig butter.

Tracy from Our Simple Life blog has this wonderful recipe and I tell ya...

this is one recipe I will keep FOREVER. Like all good things, this will take time... about 6-8 hours. You will need a crockpot to slow cook your butter and as much as I want tell you the recipe, I think it's best for the chef, herself to share her treasure.

I made mine over night. Waking up Sunday morning to the glorious smell was heavenly. 3 thumbs up from Mr., Sophie and Lily Moon. As for Stella? 

She gives it a wink.
***

2 WANTED: pattern testers... UPDATE

I just finished creating my latest pattern to sell... the Miss Molly Apron, but before she's in the shop, I have some crafty mamas to test her out.

Interested???

Hurry... I only need a few ladies and it's already fillin' up, so shoot me an email and I'll get you started. Thank you ladies for signing up to help!

Also...

I revised the Miss Jenny Apron pattern for an even better fit. So if you had purchased this beauty in the past (and I know who you are), shoot me an email and I'll send you the new pattern... FREE of charge!

Lastly...

I (finally) created a Flickr Group where you can share your creations from our patterns or tutorials. So please join and share. I'd love to see your awesome creations!!!

I'm off to do my chores...

Have a fabulous weekend!

P.S. The pattern will available in my new shop this fall!

10 Lala's Latt chairs

I found this wonderful tutorial from One More Mushroom via Ikea Hackers and thought I'd give it a go.

The only thing I did was use hot glue at the ends on the legs and intermittently throughout, just to be on the safe side. By the time I got to the third leg of the first chair, I finally figured out a cleaner way to hide the knots (unlike the middle photo). So-so easy to do, even Mr. and Lily Moon joined in.

Okay... so here's Mr. in my dreams...

aaaand here's when I wake.

Yup...

I married the guy.

 I didn't finish the second one and I'm thinking of leaving it as is. Hmmm... what do you think?

Finish or not to finish?

Overall an easy weekend project and inexpensive (Latt table and chair set: $20 and 4 skeins of yarn:$12). So for about $32, I get super stylish kiddo furniture and one happy kid.
***
Next,
the Latt table...

2 coming back

Hey you!

First of all I wanna say, sorry. It has been a looooong while, practically the entire summer since we blogged. With good reason (i think). Hmmm... let's see... well, we finally sold our home and moved twice (God... what a nightmare), my external hard drive went kaput (can we say $$$), and between settling in to our new place and wanting to spend some quality time with the girls, I found finding time for myself next to impossible. Sewing or crafting of any sort was out of the question. It was a very trying period for me both  physically and emotionally.

Earlier in the summer I was reading Kim's post about her personal struggles and thoughts on being a SAHM. It hit home. I have been struggling with this for years...YEARS.  I wanted to just to hug her. I was taught early on that success was based on being financially and professionally set. Get a degree, have a career first and then get married and have a family. Well life didn't quite happened like that for me. I met the man of my dreams right out of high school, tried college and nursing school and it didn't work out, so we got married. He pursued the military, finished school and has a successful career, while I decided to keep the home fire burning and taking care of our beautiful girls. I should be happy. SHOULD... but I'm not. I think I failed myself. Everyone I had talked to thinks I'm crazy. Perhaps. I mean I know I'm a great mom and an amazing wife, but for myself, I want more. 

*sigh*

I want my cake and eat it, but sometimes I feel like I'm settling for a cookie. 

So as I continue on my quest for personal happiness, I will continue to do what I do best...a mother... a wife... sew... create. 

It's good to talk to you again.

I have new things to share with you!

Please come back as I always enjoy your company.

***hugs***

0 Techie Tuesday

Hello Again.

We are continuing this week with the quadcopter build. Today is payday (woohoo!) so I pulled the trigger and purchased all the main components (minus misc stuff like batt. strap and other minor tidbits). Take a look below.

I paid $32 in shipping from Hong Kong. Hopefully this will motivate the little man in the rowboat to row faster :) FWIW- My other 2 orders took about 2wks to arrive with the cheapest shipping option.

Here is a video of the frame

That's it for now.

-no$mike

0 Techie Tuesday

Hello.

I have some projects that have been floating around my head for a while and as of yesterday nailed down 3 that I want to do/chronicle for various reasons. Some of the reasons are:

1. it's easy/cool enough to accomplish in the short amount of time I have between painting/cleaning/moving/eating/sleeping/taking care of the family when I can and ohh yeah, working.

2. relevant to my hobbies.

3. maximizes return on investment (ie. lowest cost for maximum FUNctionality)

4. I hope to put a smile on someone's face and save some of that hard earned coin, who doesn't like that?

For this first project you will follow me on a journey to build a FPV quadcopter.

?????????????????

Let's start with a little explanation. FPV stands for First Person View. Basically you fly your aircraft remotely using a camera mounted to the airframe, seeing what an actual pilot would see. Pretty cool ehhh!

A quadcopter is an airframe (like a helicopter) that uses 4 rotors for movement in either an "X" or "+" configuration. For this exercise we will be in the X config because we will be mounting cameras.

This will be a learning exercise for both of us as the video and maybe even telemetry (checkbook allowing) transmit "Tx"/receive "Rx" is new to me.

Basic rundown of BillOfMaterials is as follows.

Essentials for basic quadcopter (money)

1. airframe
   
2. motors x4
3. ESC or speed controllers x4
4. receiver (OrangeRx R610 which I already have)
5. battery
6. quadcopter controller board
7. transmitter (DX6i which I already have)

FPV components (money money)

1. camera
   
2. GoPro (for recording memories)
3. video Tx
4. separate battery for Tx
5. video Rx
6. Rx antenna
7. display for viewing video (goggles or stand alone display)

This build will be broken into 2 parts. The first will be the build and trimming of a basic quadcopter ensuring proper flight characteristics and working out any bugs. I'll also tweak the design to afford a comfortable load carrying margin for the added weight of the FPV equipment. The second part will be the install of the FPV gear, debugging and finally some flight footage (yeahhhhh).

I'm excited because FPV is uber geeky cool. I feel like capturing some incriminating footage of someone ;) Also, this will be used to video the in-law's house in Guimaras, which was the initial intent of the failed flying footage posted earlier. Round 2 I hope will be better.

Next week I'll detail the build list and cost and hopefully have some parts on order. Most of the electronics will be coming from HobbyKing's international warehouse so 2 weeks transit is the norm.

See you next week.

-no$mike