Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Heroes - Into Asylum

It was a good episode, but not as good as last week's. Plenty of Sylar though, which is a plus!

Nathan & Claire - They are in Mexico and have no money. What I don't get is why Nathan has flying hair and Claire doesn't. Claire sells the necklace that Noah gave her so that they have money to eat. At a bar they see some guys and Nathan tries to win money by out drinking them. He looses and so Claire convinces them to do a re-match with her. She wins all the money back and their money. With her ability she can't get drunk. Nathan tells her that he screwed up majorly and that he wants to try to fix things. So they take off together.

Peter & Angela - They are taking refuge in a church. It's the same church that Angela & Arthur got married in. She tells Peter that she hasn't had a dream for a long time and that sleep needs to be earned. He takes care of her though. But then some agents come and they hide out in the confessional. Angela tells Peter that she was just like him. When she first got her ability she had dreams about the world ending and she tried to stop it. She said it cost her though and ruined her relationship with her sons and husband. Just then the door opens and it's Noah. He tells the agents that "it's all clear!" and leaves Peter and Angela. Later on we see Peter waking Angela up. She said she had a dream and she knows what to do. She tells him they need to find Nathan and Claire and bring the family together and go see her sister.

Sylar & Danko - They are going after a guy and he gets away. Sylar tells Danko that he can help him round them all up but Danko won't listen. Finally Sylar tells him that the guy they're looking for is a shape shifter. The guy runs but they loose him. So Danko decides to listen to Sylar. They go to the shape shifter's apartment and find out that he will be at a bar called Garden of Eden. They get there and see that he has taken the form of Danko and is making out with a girl. Shape shifter sees them and hides. Then we see Danko at the bar and Sylar comes up to him and tells him that they lost him. They begin to exit and Danko shoots Sylar, but it wasn't really Sylar but the shape shifter. Then the real Sylar comes and Danko tells him not to cut the shape shifter's head open but he can take his ability. So they fake Sylar's death and the real Sylar gets a new ability. Noah comes and sees Sylar in a body bag, but he looks skeptical. Then in the car Danko tells Sylar that when they're done he will be the only one left.

Monday, March 30, 2009

How to make window valances

I made some window valances for X's room this weekend. I decided to make a tutorial on how to make some. I have never taken a sewing class (unless you count middle school) and I did not use a pattern. In other words, I am not a professional. Any questions let me know.

The windows I made these for measured at 57" each. For valances you double your width so that makes it 114" for each window, 228" inches total of fabric which comes out to be 6.33 yards of fabric, which I rounded to 6.5 yards of fabric. It's better to have too much than not enough. Plus I cut off about 4" to practice on and get the tension of the thread right on my sewing machine.

So now you have 6.5 yards of fabric, start out by cutting that in half so you have 3.25 yards of fabric. I used pinking shears on each end. So I'll start with the first one, having both ends cut by pinking shears. This will be the side of your valence.

Fold the fabric over so you can make a clean edge. I just eye balled it all the way through, but you can measure. Be sure to iron and if you want to pin it you can, but I didn't. Then sew the edges.



Next fold the fabric in half. I decided I wanted my valances double thick since the material was a little thin. So fold it with the pinking sheared sides on the inside and sew the top as shown below.

So now you basically have a long tube with the sides finished. Next it's time so sew the opening that the window rod will go through. Mine is about 2.75" and you need a little extra room so I decided to make the opening about 3", with 3" sticking up the top. So the top edge that you just sewed is folded over making it 6". I decided to do it this way because this makes it a better length for the window. So I measured 6" and pinned it every few inches.




Sew this about 1/4" in, I just eye balled it again and used the sewing machine foot thing as my guide.


Next measure 3" from the stitching you just did and mark it with a marking pencil. I decided to mark a few inches and the start sewing and mark it as I went.




Once you have finished this, your curtain is done. Be sure to iron it since it probably got wrinkled from handling it. Then do the exact same thing with the other one and hang them. Here is what they look like finished.





If you have any questions be sure to ask me. I have used this same technique to make valances for my living room, dining room, bedroom and bathroom. For the length of the valances it's pretty much up to you on how long you want them. I don't know exactly how long they are, I just eye balled it. For the width, I've found that twice the width gives you about the right amount and the right look.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Heroes - Cold Snap

No Sylar last night, but still a good episode. It looks like Sylar will be in next week's episode quite a bit.

Hiro and Ando are still with baby Matt Parkman. Somehow Hiro thinks it's the Matt Parkman and somehow he's a baby in their time. But then Ando says that he must be his son. Then they figure out that he has a power. He turns electronic things on and off without touching them. Janice comes home and says she called the police. They try to convince her that her son will be taken because he's special, then a knock comes. Some agents come to take the baby away. Somehow he turns on Hiro's power and he's able to stop time. But his power is not permanently turn on because he is unable to teleport himself and Ando out of there. So he gets a wheelbarrow and puts Ando in it and they travel 12 miles. Then he is able to stop the time that was frozen. They need to figure out what they will do with baby Matt.

Noah is talking to Angela. She says that he needs to show Danko that he's loyal and trustworthy by giving him a hero. He suggest her and she says that he needs to give him Rebel. So he tells Danko that they need to let Tracy go and that she will lead them to Rebel. The power goes off in Building 26 and turns off those heated lamps allowing Tracy to free herself. She finds a room with other people laying with IVs and frees Mohinder, then Matt. Matt frees Daphne and takes her. Tracy goes her own way and Mohinder & Matt take Daphne to the hospital.

Matt convinces the doctor to treat her without calling the police. Later we see Daphne wake up and she gets dressed and leaves. Matt follows her to Paris and tells her that he flew there. She isn't fooled and knows that she's dying and that he's inside her head giving her a happy ending. She asks him to fly her to the moon and then we see Matt holding her hand at the hospital while she flat lines.

Noah meets Tracy and tells her that he can either kill her or she can lead him to Rebel. She decides to cooperate with him. Tracy gets some money and a message from an ATM telling her to go to a locker at the bus station. She gets to the bus station and Rebel is none other than Micah (I knew it!!!). She gets upset because he's just a kid and she tells him that she lead them to him. He had a back up plan and gets some alarms to go off so they can escape. They get in a parking garage and she tells him to make the sprinklers go off. She then tells him to stay ahead of the ice. She freezes the whole place including herself. Then Danko comes and shoots her right in the chest. We are made to believe she's dead but then we see her frozen head on the ground blink. So she might not be dead after all.

Also Noah has given Danko, Angela and she knows it. She begins to run from the agents. She goes to and old friend to get money and her friend tries to convince her to give herself up but then give her money. Angela goes into a building and then an elevator. The agents break into the elevator to try to get her down. Right on cue Peter comes (I knew it!!) and flies her away. They end up hiding out in the Statue of Liberty.

Also forgot to mention that Danko gets a gift from someone. I'm assuming that Sylar has given him Doyle, with a tag that says "A Gift to you". So what is Sylar up to?

Monday, March 23, 2009

Argh!

I had a good weekend overall.

Friday night Dan chaperoned a dance at his school so it was just me and the kids. We went to the grocery store (Cub Foods) and the kids each got their free apple. They were very excited about it. I let them watch X's favorite movie, Surf's Up. After they went to bed I watched The Princess Diaries 2, which is a cute movie.

Saturday morning I insisted on going to Target so I could pick up my 3-disc edition of Twilight. They had tons of movies left and I got there around 10am. I decided to start jogging on weekends so I went for a jog while the kids napped. Then we dropped the kids off at ILs so we could go out for dinner. We went to Thistles, which we had never been to and it was pretty good.

Sunday we went to Fleet Farm in the morning. Our rabbit, Rascal is going to be 13 years old this year and he needs a new cage. We've been holding off on buying him one because we thought he would die. Well he has proved us wrong and he's still alive and healthy. So we are buying him a new cage, which they were out of at Fleet Farm! So I have to try to go to the one by my work. The rest of the day we just stayed home, did laundry and I got caught up on shows online (Legend of the Seeker, Grey's Anatomy & Supernatural) while the kids napped. We watched Twilight last night and it was even better than when I saw it in the theater. Dan thought it was okay.

One thing that I hated about this weekend was I found out how much I hate iTunes. My Twilight DVD came with a free iTunes download. So I thought I could download and put it on my MP3 player. Dan thought I could convert the iTunes file so I can play it on my Sansa MP3 player. Nope, iTunes sucks and wouldn't let me convert. I downloaded the Sansa file converter software and it said it couldn't convert it. Anyone know of a way I could convert an iTunes file to play on my MP3 player? So I hate iTunes and apple because they make it impossible to view or listen to any file on iTunes format on any other type of device.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Lost - 03/18

I had my dad over last night and was helping him with a resume and job applications so I had no chance to watch it. So probably no recap from me this week. Sorry to anyone that reads my recaps. It was on and I missed a lot of it. I saw that they showed the plane going down and how the Oceanic Six were able to start working at the Dharma Initiative. I missed a lot. I'll have to watch this weekend.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The New Car

We got a new car on Saturday. It is a 2009 Ford Fusion SE, it is replacing our 2002 Ford Focus. The new car is black and I LOVE it. Here are some pictures of it.
This is from yesterday at my work:

The Kids in the backseat:

O in the backseat:

FIL looking at it:

Our new car:

Monday, March 16, 2009

Twilight Dancers

I was home with the kids on Friday and I had some cleaning to do. So I put in my Twilight CD and captured the kids dancing to the music.

Friday, March 13, 2009

My Purse

I finished my purse on Tuesday. The pattern is pretty simple, just single crochet stitches. I got a good deal on yarn at Michael's. So it's basically 8 squares put together.

Me holding my purse:

The cell phone pocket, my phone fits perfectly:

I added a button, it used to belong to my coat:

Holding up my purse:

The lining, I had this laying around, I used it to make O a pillowcase dress last year:

The strap is both colors of yarn worked together. Makes a sturdy strap:

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Last Night

Lost was not on last night. I can't even remember what we watched on TV. We did end up watching another episode of Legend of the Seeker on hulu though.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Heroes - 03/09

Shades of Gray

I figured it would be a good episode by the name of it. It was a good episode but I was expecting a little more with Sylar's father.

He meets his father and he's on and oxygen tank and pretty much weak. He teaches Sylar about taxidermy. Then Sylar accidentaly cuts his hand and shows his father how he can heal. His father then wants to take the power from Sylar but Sylar of course won't let him. He leaves him there and tells him that he won't let him take his healing power and that he will die a slow painful death.

Danko knows that Nathan has been hiding something. Nathan disarms the bomb that is strapped to Matt. Matt reads someone's mind on how to disarm it. He gets the president to kick Danko off the team. Then Danko exposes Nathan by throwing him out a window and witnesses him flying. So now Danko is in charge again. He also questions Angela and we learn that there was some kind of tragedy that happened in 1993 and that she is surprised Danko survived. Then we see Danko go to his apartment and there waiting for him is a bunny (the one that Sylar killed and stuffed) and also Sylar.

Claire gets a visit from Doyle. He says that Rebel told him that Claire would help him. She refuses because he's evil. He walks away and Claire decides to get a job at the comic book store. She gets hired and after work she ends up helping Doyle. He's still evil but she decided to help others with powers. Then she gets a text that her free pass is up and that agents are coming for her. We see agents go in her house and Claire is outside the window with her father Nathan.

Ando and Hiro go to help Matt Parkman. Well turns out Matt Parkman is Janice's son (Matt's ex-wife). So that really is his son.

Friday, March 06, 2009

Fun at the Zoo

We went to the zoo & conservatory a few weeks ago and got some great pictures. The kids really enjoyed the conservatory and it was so nice and warm.

Giraffe:

Zebra:

Sloth:

Some pretty flowers:

The kids taking a break:

The kids and me in front of a fountain:

The kids overlooking some fish in the water:

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Lost - 03/04

We start off the episode with Horace (who we've seen before) trying to blow things up. Some Dharma men say they have to go get Mr. LaFleur. They knock on his door and it's Sawyer!! He goes to Horace's house and he's talking to a woman and she's pregnant. She goes into labor. Then we flash to 3 years earlier and it's right after Charlotte died. Daniel is messed up because they flashed and she was gone. Then they come across a woman having a bag put over her head and a Dharma man being shot. So Sawyer decides to interfere and asks Daniel what they should do. Daniel says that where ever and whenever they are that's where they'll stay so what will happen has happened and it doesn't matter what they do. So Sawyer shoots the two men and helps the woman. That woman is the same one that we saw going into labor. They get her to bring them to her camp. They get to the fence and Juliet tells her to disarm it. She says she does and she goes in first and as soon as they walk in they go on conscious. She was wearing earplugs.

Sawyer wakes up and there is Horace. He asks him who he is. He tells him his name is James LaFleur and that he is captain of a salvage ship and that they were going to Tahiti and got shipwrecked on the island. He says they have more survivors they were looking for. Horace tells him a sub will bring them to Tahiti and they will send their friends along later. He goes and talks to Juliet, Miles, Jin & Daniel. He tells them what is going on. Then Daniel sees Charlotte as a little girl. Suddenly sirens turn on and everyone heads inside. They look out the window and there is Richard.

Horace goes and talks to Richard. He says that they had a truce and that the Dharma people broke the truce by killing two of his men. So Sawyer asks to talk to him. He goes to Richard and calls him by his name then tells him that he knows him and then tells him about Locke and asks if they buried the Jughead. So then Richard believes that he's not Dharma and that he's the one that killed the men. Richard wants the woman's husband to bring back with them and that's what they do. Horace also tells Sawyer he will give him two weeks to get on the sub.

Then we go 3 years later and Sawyer goes to find Juliet. She's under a van working on it. He tells her he needs her help to deliver a baby. She helps her give birth. Sawyer comes home and Juliet is there cooking dinner. They hug and kiss. Then at the end of the episode he is laying in bed with Juliet and the phone rings. It's Jin and Sawyer quickly leaves. He gets to a meeting point and out of the van comes Hurley, Jack and Kate!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Last Week's Snow

We got a bunch of snow last week. This gave the kids some opportunity to play outside. Of course I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures.
O in the front and X in the back with a little shovel:

X with a little shovel in our front yard:

The kids playing under a bush:

X all bundled up:

O under the bush all bundled up:

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Heroes - 03/02

I thought last night's episode was better than last week's. Actually any episode with Sylar (he's awesome!!) is a good episode.

Sylar is traveling with Luke still. They talk about why he wants to find his father and Luke insists that parents suck! They find an old diner that is boarded up and Sylar remembers it. He remembers being there as a little kid with his dad. He was playing with a hot wheels car and dropped it in the paneling. He opens up the paneling and finds it. Then he remembers his dad getting some money from a man and then being left. He runs into the parking lot and sees his dad slice his mom's head open and drive away. He slices her head open the same way that Sylar does. He then decides he needs to find his father so he can kill him because he left him and killed his mother. Luke says that they should just head to Canada but Sylar pins him to the wall. He then decided to not kill him and leaves him at the diner.

Matt & Peter are trying to go after Daphne. They get a message from Rebel. I have a theory that Rebel is Noah. Anyhow it says that she is in a building in Washington DC and so they head there. Once there Peter takes Matt's power and tells him they'll be more powerful if they both have the same power and work together. They use their minds to get into the building. This reminds me of Jedi mind tricks. Anyhow once inside they find out Daphne was moved to a medical facility. Rebel shows them a file containing video of when they were loaded onto a plane. Peter happens to have a thumb drive with him and puts it on there.

Nathan is with Danko and Noah. They find out Peter is with Matt and Danko wants them killed on site. Nathan doesn't want Peter to die and tells Danko to follow his orders. Danko tells him that he is following someone else's orders. They see Peter and Matt in the room and try to get to them. Noah says to pull the fire alarms to disrupt Matt & Peter's powers. It works and Matt & Peter try to escape. Peter runs off but Matt gets captured.

Peter then contacts Nathan and says that he wants Daphne and Matt in exchange for him not releasing the video to the media. Nathan agrees but Danko doesn't and sets a trap for Peter. At the rendez vous point Noah uses his mind to try to tell Peter it's a trap but Peter gets shot in the shoulder. He falls off a building but Nathan flies him off. Then he is with Angela and Nathan and he has his arm in a sling. Nathan tries to convince him to have him help him and they hug and Peter steals his power and flies away.

Danko sees the painting that Matt did with explosives strapped to himself. So he drugs him and makes the painting come true and drops him off in Washington DC.

Claire is still hiding Alex in her closet. It looks like they like each other. Her mom comes up to her room and Mr Muggles finds a sandwich under the bed. Her mom then opens her closet and finds Alex. Claire explains to her that he has a power and she is trying to help him. Sandra is upset that Claire lied to her. Agents come to their house and they hide Alex in a secret space that Noah hid things in. The agents come and search the house but do not find them. Sandra says that they won't give up easily. She helps Alex with a fake ID. Then Sandra tricks the agents into following her while Claire and Alex run out back. He gets away and goes to the bus station. Then later Claire is home with her mom and she goes downstairs to get popcorn and Doyle is there (the puppet master guy). He has a text from Rebel "Claire will help you".

Monday, March 02, 2009

Birthday Weekend

I had a nice and busy weekend.

Friday at lunch I went to Applebee's with some friends. Once of my friends got me a homemade necklace, which I wore on Saturday. The other got me a punch to use with scrapbooking. Friday night my in-laws and dad came over. The in-laws brought some Chinese food and cake for me. I love Chinese food, especially Lui's Chow Mein. In-laws got me an arbor to put in my garden. My dad got me some money.

Then Saturday Dan and the kids gave me their gift. I got an MP3 player, it's 4GB so I can fit tons of songs on it and it has a display. I had an ipod Shuffle, like the first ones that came out that were long and skinny and it is nowhere near 1GB and I couldn't fit many CDs on it. I also got Hoobastank's newest CD For(n)ever and it's really good. Then Saturday night we went bowling. It's also Dan's grandpa's birthday so mother-in-law had a bowling party. I got Eragon & Eldest and also Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen and more money.

Sunday we decided to go to IKEA and MOA. We also went to Target and I got Evanescence Fallen CD, which is now on my MP3 player. I still have some money and I'm not sure what I'll buy. I'm saving some to buy Twilight DVD when it comes out on the 21st.

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