Amazon prime and Netflix and roku as gift

Recap - This started because a close friend got Netflix as a Christmas gift from her sons several years ago.

Before Netflix she had garage saled movies on VHS and watched for years. She likes something to keep her company at night while she does handwork, she lives alone.

That is what gave me the idea. However I did it in a way that did not cost anything extra.

We moved a Roku, we already had, to my mother's and then set it up to give her access to our accounts. So she has Netflix and amazon prime thru the Roku.

And she also has PBS thru the Roku which she uses a lot. PBS  posts current shows for a short time.  So it is only certain shows for a limited time, it is not every show, and it is not the same as just tuning into pbs on TV.

There are a few other things on the Roku too like the history channel I think.



Now - I keep adding/putting things on the watch lists for all of these systems. And then I send her a note.

So I get notice from PBS or Netflix or amazon prime about something that is now available. For the shows she would like, I take a screen shot of the notice, so she can see what it looks like, and email it to her with a note that I added it to the watch list.

Every once in a while she has trouble finding something and I take pictures with my phone of what the tv screen looks like (we have two more Rokus at our house) and send them to her as a step by step tutorial. I do the pictures so she can find it again later (rather than me running over and doing it, she learns). This does not happen often, but when it does, it is always about finding additional seasons on amazon prime. (Netflix has all the seasons one right after the other. So Netflix is actually easier for her to use than amazon. But there have been a lot of things on amazon prime she has really liked that were not on Netflix)

So she can immerse herself in something, which is now an old concept to us, but totally new to her.

For example she watched Downton Abby and the related behind the scenes specials (one on costumes and one on manners and I think two on castles) and then she read two books on the making of the show. And then she watched the whole series again.

She has a DVD recorder on her tv cable box. So she is able to watch what she wants, when she wants, all the way around her systems.

Oldest does not have network tv at all. He uses Netflix and amazon prime and free online things. He has lived this way since he started grad school in 2012. 

Oldest has his own amazon prime account. The rest of us are on mine. I do not know how many of us can be on at the same time. So far it has not been a problem.

We are all on one Netflix account that allows four tv's no matter where they are located (we are in three different states now) at the same time. We are all on the same account because it is cheaper to do four on one, than multiple separate accounts. Six of us do fine sharing four accesses.





I wrote about this a short time ago

https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2016/12/it-wasnt-even-xmas-present-it-was-extra.html?m=1


My mother is 76. My other friend whose sons started this is 70. But if I did not know how use all this, it would be a great gift for me, at age 55. And it was youngest who physically set up my mother's Roku and all the access. It was very easy/fast for her. (So I am good at using, but not so great at set up.)

Looking for a mystery book series please.

I have read and loved
Agatha Christie
Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series
Margaret Truman's Capitol Crimes books.
Those were the first three that came to mind.

I do not like gore. Nor spooky.

I have read some John Grisham and Scott Turow.
I am looking to see if there are more by these two that I have missed.

I like an author with a large selection so I can settle into their style for a while.

I do audible books. But you do not have to check that before making suggestions.

If you have a sharp eye you might have noticed I started a "books read" list on my side bar for 2017. I have been listening in the car and around the house. I was surprised how quickly I now go through a book (with no one home). So I need to put together a really good list.

It is easier/cheaper to buy new knit shirts/dresses/skirts to cut up and use as fabric, than it is to buy knit fabric.

These are doll clothes.
A modern girls' T-shirt dress.
And a modern girls' pair of leggings.
They are not meant to be worn together.
I sewed and photographed them together.

These started out as size 2X mens' knit shirts.
So, lots of fabric.

I took advantage of the hems that were already in the garments.
I cut my pieces so the original hem is now the doll garment hem.

I was able to get an identical doll dress out of the striped fabric as well as a couple shirts.
I used as little of the legging fabric as possible so I can use it for other things.

Very large size knit clothes end up on clearance racks for a couple dollars quite often.

Knit fabric at the store is $12+ per yard.

Knits in clothing are often much cuter than knits on the bolt.

And there is the advantage of the already sewn hem in the garments.

Baby/toddler clothes and doll clothes can easily be made (if you sew) from Xl, XXL, XXXL mens' knit shirts. I use a stretch stitch on knit fabric.

I am keeping my island nearly empty and that makes a big difference

The crab on the island is made from spoons and forks. I am attached to him. The bowl on the table holds card games and decks of cards. The tablet under the kleenex box is for score keeping. There are some epic games on those pages. 

Six pillows, a pair for each kid.

These are all bed pillow size. There are three pairs, each pair in a different fabric. They originally had velcro closures which are now sort of a lint/thread mess.






The first two (turtles) redo's are done and going in the mail to oldest today.

These were the original pillows, blue turtles on white background.

Even after washing in hot water, spots from years of use.

Luckily the reverse side of the fabric was also usable. I picked all the stitching out of the pillow cases and then remade them using the blue background side and also putting in zippers (no velcro).

The zipper is under the flap. I had to teach myself how to make a flap, it was not hard, that is a standard zipper, not a special one.

I cleaned off my bulletin board and organized my thread

My bobbin holders have always been organized by color. But until this weekend, I had not thought to organize the spools also. They are not deeply organized, but they are generally organized with like colors together.

The bulletin board used to be mostly covered. A lot of costume necklaces (Hawaiian lays and shells necklaces) went in my closet on an underused peg strip. All the Mardi Gras (2/28/17) necklaces went to preschool with middle for her kids.  And after the girls checked them, all the lanyards went to goodwill. I didn't count, but I am guessing 50+ necklaces were hanging on the bottom pegs of my thread racks. Maybe closer to 100 items as I think about it. There is a collection of lacings and ties on the far left peg that I am saving.

Computer room clean out 2016

This after picture is from a 2010 Computer Room Clean Out. I got rid of major piles and was quite pleased with myself.

Here is a wider angle of the whole room. After picture from 2010 also.

I did another clean out the day before New Year's Eve 2016. 

I did not think to take a before picture. But it was stacked. All kinds of odds and ends. 

These first two pictures (below) are my GO piles. The first one is a box full of dictionaries. And yes there is a religious book on top. Youngest has to go thru this box before it GOES. There is a tutoring center in town for English as a second language and I am going to see if they want the dictionaries. I kept one in case we have a no internet life again. I also kept the grammar type books. I have some very good children's ones. They were moved to the living room book shelves.

This is a GO basket that both girls have to check in case I got rid of something vital without knowing it. It is a very small basket, not a laundry basket. The main thing in this basket is weird mechanical pencils and odd pens. The kleenex box is full of them. There is a gallon size zip lock bag full too. So many.

This Chair is in the GO pile. It is cheap. It rolls too easily. The fabric is covered with a very slippery plastic and I have nearly slid out while I was also falling out, several times. It is a broken tail bone waiting to happen and it is going to goodwill.

I did a rethink on the counters as I cleaned this time.

I got rid of the file sorter and the bookshelf that were on the counter. This might seem obvious, but because they had always been there, and were needed originally, I had not considered eliminating them.

Originally I had a file for every kid and one for myself and one for parking lot and one for receipts and one for checkbook in that file holder. For many years those files reduced clutter and kept things organized. But all those times are now gone. I went through those files and cleaned out a lot. Checkbook went in a cubby. My file went in a file drawer.

A lot of maps went in paper recycling.



AFTERS 2016

The off white chair was originally my husband's father's. This is one of the things that came home in the truck after my husband's mother died in 2010. It is old. But sort of beloved. Yes, an odd shape for a counter, but it got it out of my husband's upstairs office. There are 4-6 chairs currently in that office.  (I have a bulls-eye on that office. I am chipping away at it, bit by bit.)



I cleaned the cupboards in the computer room a year or so ago.

A month or two ago, I put all the computer games in a box and put them in the top shelf of the cupboard after realizing all three kids (especially youngest) thought I should hang on to them. So the gecko on the wall is now empty, but I am leaving him there.

Middle and I cleaned all the cubbies (above the checkered bulletin board) on New Year's Eve Day 2016. Every single thing came out and was reorganized. I purged a lot. Post it notes that no longer stick went in the paper recycling bin. A box of things went to my mom's. Things went in the Goodwill box. Etc.