New Nancy Drew Game: Ransom of the Seven Ships

I've never mentioned this before, but I am a major fan of the Nancy Drew adventure games. Their latest game was released earlier this week and I just received mine in the mail today. I've been doing what I can to get through my to-do list so I can focus on the game guilt-free.

I've spent all day working at my computer and taking care of my son. We went to the park for longer than usual so that he gets enough attention and use enough energy. We've taken our baths and are ready for bed.

I've also gathered together a few things I like to have when I'm playing a Nancy Drew game for the first time. I have a pen and paper (it makes things so much easier), sustenance (homemade pepperoni pizza and what's left of my chocolate covered blueberries, and my all time essential need, Barqs root beer.

I'm ready for some sleuthing! Hopefully this game is as good as the last couple have been!

Christmas In July Sale!!!!

It's time for the second annual Christmas In July Sale on Etsy. A TON of sellers are participating this year including yours truly! The sale runs from July 8-24.

There are a lot of good deals out there. Sellers are using different ways to give you a good deal; some are giving free shipping, gift with purchase or reduced prices. You'll need to hurry before all the good deals are snatched up!

Everyone has tagged their items with 'cij' or 'christmasinjuly'. All you have to do is search for those terms on etsy.com.

As for my shop, I took 20% off of ALL my prices. I have a few toys that were already marked down and I took another 20% off. Also, some of my toys are made from nice woods that are not cheap and I have marked those down!

I consider this toy an especially good deal. He is made from really nice and exotic zebrawood. Zebrawood is also a little picky to work with so a lot of effort went into him. His picture is also at the beginning of this post.

I've been adding a lot of new toys lately, so check in frequently because these are new AND on sale!

Yesterday afternoon, I came in from doing work on my scroll saw and this is what I saw.

Usually, when I go to work with my scroll saw, I have to leave my son inside on his own. I'll put away anything he shouldn't play with and turn on a movie. I try to coordinate his naps with my work, but he likes to take naps at the sunniest and hottest part of the days. That doesn't work so well when I have to work outside under a hot sun.

Anyways, this time I left him watching Baby Einstein Colors. I just bought it for him yesterday. The music is a lot more mellow than the other DVDs and I guess it was enough to put him to sleep.

That chair he fell asleep on is the one I use for my computer and I needed to do some work. I just carried my son and the chair into his room so he could sleep and found another chair to use.

I had to share this because I thought it was so cute the way my son slept on the chair and it was really something to come in and see him that way.

Featured In A Blog!

I've just been featured in the UtahEtsy Street Team's blog! Hooray!
Read about it here along with other handmade Easter goodies made by Utahns!

Toy Tutorial Part 1: Designing And Making The Template

I'm doing a tutorial on how to make animal pull toys. I've broken it down into a few parts. Today, I'll be covering designing and making a template.

You will need paper, scissors, a pencil, an sharpie, a ruler, quilting plastic, pictures of what you want your toy to be (I'm doing an otter) and the piece of wood you'll be using.

Draw a rectangle the same size as your wood onto your paper, make a note of the grain. You will want the longest side of your toy to run along the grain.

Do a few preliminary sketches to decide how you want your animal to look. It's okay if some of your sketches look silly, you can do as many as you need to until you get what you want. Remember the purpose of this part is to get a clear picture in your head of what you want your toy to look like. Refer to your pictures if you need to.

Draw your animal inside the rectangle you drew earlier. The more you can fill the space, the better. The extra space is just wasted wood. Also, the closer your template is to the edge, the easier and more efficient it is to cut out. You can see a lot of space in mine, I actually have a smaller template that will fit in that space so I can get two toys out of this piece.
Work out the drawing until you get what you want, you can see that I've done a lot of adjusting.
You will then need to clean up the lines to make tracing easier.

Now we need to decide where to put the wheels. We will be drilling holes through the toy later for the axles. The axles need to be far enough away from the edge that the wood won't break. Mine will be 1/4 inch from the edge. Draw a line parallel to the edge of the wood. I drew vertical lines approximately where I want the wheels.

The wheels I will be using are 1 inch in diameter. This means the wheel will have to be at least 1/2 inch away from the front and back of the toy.

The wheels will also need to be at least an inch away from each other. You really need to watch for this if you are doing a tall, thin toy like a giraffe.
When you know where you want your wheels, make an "L" shaped mark.

Also, if you are using a softwood and you have an appendage like a tail or horns, having the grain run along the appendage will make that part of the toy stronger. I drew a line directly down the center to help me align the wood.

When you finally have everything mapped out, trace the drawing onto a sheet of plastic with a sharpie. You can use tracing paper, but I like plastic because it is more durable and reusable.

Cut the template out with a pair of scissors. You can trace the template onto another sheet of paper to make sure it was cut out the way you want it. This may be useful if you have detailed parts. After that, your done!

Pictures From The Past Week

I came in from cutting out toys and my son and husband were napping together. Isn't this sweet?

Here are the vegetable I'm trying to grow. The large container has peas and carrots which have been doing a lot of growing since I took this picture. The green container has cilantro and the green house has lettuce, tomatoes, spinach and eggplant. I'm surprised by how well the eggplant is doing! Recently, I added lavender and strawberries to my collection.

Last Saturday, my dad and I were cleaning out one of the sheds on the property I'm renting. Besides leaving a lot of junk and garbage behind, the previous tenants left to new racquets for racquetball!

I finally got a picture of a stray cat we recently adopted. My husband named her Momo (mo is pronounced like Moe). In China, that's like naming a cat Fluffy or a dog Fido, it's a generic silly name. She's really timid so I feed her outside and she likes to hang out under the two pine trees at the top of the hill and soak up sun.

Here is the first rabbit I made for Easter. This one has a tulip on it and I'm really pleased how the overall shape and colors turned out. Does it remind you of the Trojan Rabbit from Monty Python? (Pssst, it's for sale!)

Here is Smoky Bandit the raccoon. His stripes were made by burning the wood (get it?).


Here is my second Easter rabbit, this time, I put an orchid on her side. Isn't that frickin' awesome? The colors also exceeded my expectations on this one.

I took this this morning. Xiao Fei Xiang loves to climb into the mushroom chair in his room. This time he grabbed one of the books I keep next to the chair and was looking at it. He did have it held up like you would when reading but I wasn't quick enough with my camera.

Here is a look into my next toy! I wanted to do this one step by step for a tutorial and I just took off. Yesterday, I cut out the first bird (supposed to be a black-capped chickadee). I realized that the tail is too sharp so I will be making adjustments today (hopefully list it tomorrow!). When making toys, you always have to be mindful of safety!

What's For Lunch (With Recipes)

Today for lunch (brunch, really), I had chicken nuggets (dinosaur shaped) with sweet and sour sauce and bread with leftover spinach dip from last night. The sweet and sour sauce is based on one I got from a cookbook and the spinach dip is a combination of Easy Hot Spinach Dip and Spinach Dip.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
2/3 cup Water
2 Tbs. Cornstarch
2 Tbs. Plum Sauce*

1. Cook sugar, vinegar, water and cornstarch until thickened, stirring constantly.
2. Remove from heat and add plum sauce.

*The original recipe called for ketchup, which was good. Fruit preserves or juice will work, you might need to alter the amount of juice. Apricot and pineapple are popular flavors. Plum sauce can also be bought at most grocery stores and includes garlic, soy sauce and spices.


Hot Spinach Dip

9-12 oz. Frozen Spinach
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 tsp. Salt
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 Tbs. Lemon Juice
1/4 cup Parsley, chopped
Occasionaly, I'll throw in some grated Parmesan

Cook the spinach according to package directions, with the garlic. Drain thoroughly.

Add the rest of the ingredients. Cook over low heat until heated through.

Serve hot with bread or crackers.

Xiao Fei Xiang: Blog Nickname For My Son

Many blogging mothers use a nickname for their kids on their blogs to protect them. Of the nicknames I've seen, all are fairly simple. I've been trying to come up with a name for my son. The two I've come up with are Little Bear (which would work well) and Xiao Fei Xiang.

Xiao Fei Xiang (or Little Fei Xiang) doesn't work as well. Most of my readers, I believe, don't speak Mandarin. That name might be a little confusing. The story behind that name is much more clever and has more substance than Little Bear, which is based on one occasion when my son wore his snowsuit.

Fei Xiang, English name Kris Phillips, is a Taiwan-born American-Taiwanese performer. The above video is a performance of one of the songs that made him a star on the Mainland (Handful Of Fire In Winter). One of my husband's friends made a joke about my son being a Xiao Fei Xiang and my husband thought it was so hilarious that it has stuck. I think the reference was because my son is a Chinese-American and is really sensitive to music. It's also fun when you have songs like the one above. Fei Xiang has some seriously crazy moves!

Anyways, the video is for your enjoyment, so...enjoy! My Little Fei Xiang surely will!

Cookin' With Jerry

Here's a little video my sister showed me. Her friends made it and it's pretty funny. Here are a few notes I have on the video.

Jerry is pretty funny, I think he could probably beef up some of his comments when he's cutting food.

At about 5:20, there is some awesome acting from one of the audience members.

I've heard they are planning another with a barbecue. Hopefully that comes through and is just as well done if not better.

Some Inspiration: Toy Ideas From Museums

Since I've been making pull toys, I've been looking for animals to use for toys. I found inspiration in an unexpected place, which is usually how inspiration works.


On Family Night, we went to the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. My family used to go there frequently to look at the stuffed animals when I was growing up. I had to do the same for my son.



While going through, I would see animals and think of how cool that would be as a toy. A beaver chewing on a tree inspired me for the beaver pull toy that I'm about to unveil (before the end of the week, hopefully).


Every time we go, I leave with another list of animals. I can't even keep up with my ideas!


Recently, my family went to Cabela's and saw all the stuffed animals they have there. Besides all the woodland animals, they had a section with African animals. I have an idea to divide up the animals into regions and introduce each line separately. Maybe I will have to do the African animals during the summer.