In order to consolidate 1900 photos into something manageable the trusty husband put together a video montage of some of the images. What’s missing? Chinglish. Lots and lots of Chinglish.
If it doesn’t play for you that’s because it’s hosted at my facebook account and if I’m not friends with you on facebook that’s too bad for you.
This week my shiny new copy of Adobe Design Standard CS5 arrived. This time the church paid for it so it is even better. I wrote previously about how I was so looking forward to it because of the new content aware feature. Tonight I spent some time photoshopping stuff. Just for fun. I tried to pick images that I could erase things from. Here are 3 before and afters for you.
The first is of a ferry boat on Puget Sound at sunset. There were lens flares and other stuff obstructing the image…
so I took them out.
The next is the obligatory St. Basil’s shot of Kathou & Paypay. Everyone who has ever been to Red Square will tell you it is impossible to get a photo in front of St. Basil’s without hoards of people in the background.
Now with the magic of Photoshop CS5 you can be the only ones there.
The last picture isn’t very exciting. I grabbed a random image to show the trusty husband what the program can do.
As it turns out, it can make a relatively crappy photo pretty darn good.
A few months ago the trusty husband sent me an IM that had a link to the announcement that Adobe was coming out with Creative Suite 5 (for the non in-the-know this is the group of programs that is Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, inDesign. The programs I use to well… live). I read a few bits about it and thought meh. I have CS4 so no biggie. The big hype was that Photoshop was going to be 64 bit (better graphics) for Mac. I work on a PC and already have 64 bit Photoshop (neener, neener, neener) so I didn’t care. Then the trusty husband IMs me a like yesterday for a video. A video that totally changed my mind about wanting CS5. A video that made me hug my laptop just a little bit, right before I threw it out the window because it is so damn slow and takes 45 minutes just to open Safari (stupid laptop).
Needless to say, I want CS5. Why, because all that time I spend photoshopping myself so I don’t look old will only take like 2 seconds. Then I can get on to the more important part of my day like drinking coffee and looking at shiny objects.
Ohh Look!
So you all know my sewing machine died right? If you weren’t paying attention… it did. My very expensive, fairly new sewing machine. I broke it. It is currently being fixed and I am without a sewing machine. I haven’t been without one in many many years and it is like having an arm cut off.
I had a conversation about this with my trusty MIL and she mentioned something about letting me borrow Bunny’s* old Singer. She brought back 1 or 2 sewing machines when Bunny moved out here and she thought the Singer was accessible.
Monday afternoon we had lunch with the trusty in-laws and I thought I’d ask again for the Singer before we left. We found it in a closet and I was a little stunned when she pulled out the box. I knew it was Bunny’s “old” machine, but I didn’t know it was circa 1964. Yes, my sewing and crafty friends, I now am the proud borrower of a 1964 Singer Featherweight 221 sewing machine. The machine is complete with accessory box and needles still in their original packaging (costing $.30).
This morning I pulled the machine out of the case just to see what condition it was in. Bunny took impeccable care of everything she owned, but this machine hadn’t been used in a very long time. To my surprise it was in perfect condition. The belt is a little dry and I’m not sure it will take much use so I ordered a new one, but other than that everything is in perfect working order.
I have never sewn on a machine that sews so perfectly. Even my very nice and expensive Viking is not this perfect. There is nary a plastic piece on this machine save a few knob covers. It is small and will not likely do some of the major stuff I do, but it will finish the silk skirt I started and the gift I have for Kathou’s little girl.
The only problem with the machine is that I will have to give it back. I’ve sewn one line with it and I’m totally in love.
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*Bunny is the Trusty Husband’s grandmother who passed away shortly after we brought the boy home.
I decided to join the quilters group at church. The median age of the quilters group is about 82. I do it because I like old church ladies and the quilts go to a good cause. Old church ladies make the best snacks.
A few weeks ago I was working with one of the ladies and another woman came over asking if I had any use for a serger. I always have use for sewing equipment. I asked how much the person wanted for the serger and this woman was pretty sure the lady was giving it away (it was coming from this lady’s neighbor). Hells yes I’ll take a free serger. I’ll take a free anything (by the way, does anyone have a free refrigerator? The Sweet Hope one died last week and I have to make truffles the first two weeks of February). I agree to the free serger and last Monday the quilter lady showed up with the thing. Sweet!
Last Wednesday I busted it out to give it a shot. 45 minutes of trying to thread the thing and I was cooking with gas. I needed something to sew so I decided to make the dog a new sweater (don’t ask). I get to sewing and all of a sudden my new serger comes to a grinding halt. Ok, it was more of a long drawn out squeaky halt. I do what any other sane and handy person would do, I first oiled the snot out of it and then took it apart and then I read the directions. The directions that say the machine is made from oil impregnated metal and shouldn’t need to be oiled because it makes a linty mess and the lint acts like a giant oil sponge and could clog things up. And also when I took the back off of it the motor was kinda hot and sparky when I ran the machine. Hello, linty.
So then I started looking for a new motor. Because honestly those sewing machine repair guys are a bunch of rip-off artists (kinda like a certain locksmith).
I let the serger sit for a while and when the trusty husband got home I told him the saga of my FREE machine. I then proceeded to show him my bunk serger and damn if that thing didn’t work properly. I hate it when my free shit works like it is supposed to. How else am I going to find stuff to complain about?
Then Friday I had the day to myself so I went to the fabric store for new serger thread that wasn’t blue or red and while I was at it I thought I’d get new needles for it. I’m sure the thing could stand to have a needle change. I carefully wrote down the type of needle I needed. I’m not a complete idiot.
I poured over the types of needles and settled on an 11/75 universal. I get home, spend the next hour rethreading and rethreading and moving needles and rethreading and moving needles and rethreading this darn machine. The needle would not catch the other threads. I was stumped. I then pulled the old needle out of the trash to find out that they are totally different lengths and the ones I bought would not work. And by this time I’d used the machine so much trying to get stuff to work that it was doing it’s squeaky hot burny thing and well, I gave up.
But I got a free serger (that I can only use for 5 minutes at a shot).
