We Moved to California

We Moved to California

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Over-looking the beach in Carslbad, California

Over-looking the beach in Carslbad, California

Two months ago, my family and I moved to California. I am working as a patent agent for a cool company called Obalon Therapeutics. Obalon is located in Carlsbad, CA, which is north of San Diego. I’m SO HAPPY to be here!

Obalon makes the coolest product, a swallowable gastric balloon (the Obalon Gastric Balloon or OGB). No surgery is required to implant it, because the OGB is folded up into a little pill that the patient swallows. A small catheter is attached to the OGB, for inflation. After the patient swallows the OGB, the pill opens up and releases it. The doctor then inflates the released OGB and then pulls the catheter back out of their mouth. The inflated balloon makes the patient feel full. How cool is that?

The patient can have up to three OBGs, for up to three months. While the patient has the OBGs in his/her stomach, he/she feels more full and eats a lot less food. As a result, the patient can loose a lot of excess weight. When the treatment time is over, the OGBs are removed from the patient’s stomach using and endoscope.

There is a video from our website.

While the OGB is not currently available in the US, it is available in the Middle East and Europe. Hopefully, the OGB will be available in the US soon. The Obalon Gastric Balloon will be a real help to those who are overweight, but do not qualify for weight-loss surgery. Be alleviating some of their hunger, the OGB gives the patient a little boost in resisting temptation!

I hope to get back to sewing soon. But in the mean time, I’ll leave you with a photo of something I see most mornings on the way to work.

Beautiful San Diego Sky

A Beautiful San Diego Sky

Aug 31, 2015
YouTube Sleeve and Skirt Vent Tutorials

YouTube Sleeve and Skirt Vent Tutorials

Sewing

These days, there are many excellent video tutorials on YouTube. Many are of high quality and very professional. I find them particularly helpful, because it is possible to re-wind the video and watch particular portions repeatedly.

For example, when I wanted to learn how to knit two socks on one circular needle, I watched this tutorial by Staci of Very Pink Knits (here is her YouTube channel). I particularly like the format of Staci’s videos because much is filmed from above her hands, so that you can easily see what she is doing. The video is oriented so that it looks like it would if you were holding the needles. Further, each video is paired with a simple pattern, which allows you to follow along while watching the video.

While learning to knit two socks on one circular needle, I found one step to be particularly confusing. I must have re-watched that step about 15-times, before I understood it. Eventually I got it and now on my way to making many pairs of lovely hand knit socks. No second sock syndrome here!

This morning, my daughter called and asked me how to sew a lined sleeve vent. I thought “why re-invent the wheel?” and sent her links to three excellent tutorials, which you can watch below. I hope that you find the helpful too.

Here is Diane Deziel, with her video tutorial on tailoring a sleeve vent with lining.

Here are two videos by FashionSewingBlogTV.

Happy sewing!

Apr 26, 2015

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