Photo shopping update

Update on Shutterfly.

I first ordered matte finish 4X6 with $20 coupon. Was not pleased with clarity. But I was not sure of the quality of the photos, to start, because they were mostly taken by other people. These were photos of seven year old and a lot of them were taken by her family.

Middle ordered a poster for youngest and it had nice clarity.

My husband said perhaps the matte was the problem with the photos.

Middle got another $20 coupon.

I had to order A LOT of photos to hit $20.

I ordered glossy finish this second time. I ordered a lot of the same photos I had ordered in matte. So we could compare side by side.

The clarity of the glossies was better.

I will put a note in comments about this later. My husband is going to compare, photo to photo, later, and he has the best eye.

ADDED LATER - my husband said the matte is better. I was looking at different pictures (ours) than the original order (theirs) when I thought the glossies were better. He said the detail on the matte was actually better, when he compared, picture to picture, with the original order.

I got shutterfly photos for free, both times. I paid shipping, both times. It was much less expensive (total bill) than local shop because of $20 coupons.

I had to wait longer to get them. But the wait did not matter.

We will have to be extremely careful putting them in album so they do not have fingerprints all over them. (They wear white gloves at photo labs.)

I do not know how I feel about matte and glossy in same album.

So if we have a coupon for free prints, maybe Shutterfly does make sense, with coupon. But it is a lot of "if, than and buts". It is not a straight comparison.

So, now we are just looking at cost. If we wait for shutterfly coupon, pictures will be cheaper.

But my husband reminded me of one other thing. The Shutterfly coupons are just for 4X6 and sometimes that does not crop well, depending on picture. Our local shop will still print square or odd sizes (remember we work with a lot of old photos in our albums).

And I just remembered to add - I check every picture on shutterfly orders and adjust cropping. I do not like their auto crop. I upload all the photos, making sure I have enough for my $20 coupon, and then I go thru and adjust cropping.

Finding things I can listen to without looking very much, sewing at my machine, free/hand weight work, Pilates, hand stitching

Netflix has quite a bit of Agatha Christie's Poirot available. Beloved character for me.  That is from Masterpiece/Mystery. David Suchet and Hugh Frasier did such a good job. Philip Jackson and Pauline Moran too. There are 70 of them, I think Netflix has them all.  I read all of them (book form) long ago. I have seen most of them. Perfect for doing something, listening and just looking up every once in a while.

Wiki
"Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet stars as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional Hercule Poirot. Initially produced by LWT, the series was later produced by ITV Studios. In the United States, PBS and A&E have aired it as Poirot.

"At the programme's conclusion, which finished with Curtain, based on the final Poirot novel,[1] every major literary work by Christie that featured the title character had been adapted."

Oldest got us hooked on Shark Tank. It is on CNBC and ABC. Entrepreneurs pitch investment ideas to a panel of business people. So someone has a fledgling business and wants a millionaire to help them with connections, ideas and money. Really clever products and services are featured.  I have quite a few things bookmarked (future gift ideas) on my iPad, that were shown. Actually very interesting show. Some people are so smart. Other people hang in to an idea beyond all reason. It is very interesting to watch. And I have learned if you are every really stuck for a gift idea, go to Bed Bath and Beyond and just wander.

Oldest also got us hooked on Would I Lie to You? Also BBC; we have only been able to find it on Youtube. Really, really funny. I have a link that he sent me to find all of them. As soon as I verify it is a regular link and not tied to our personal accounts, I will put it in comments.

Photo processing hunt

Someone and I were talking about where to have pictures developed.

I just looked, it was JSP, here, in comments.

I am helping my close friend with an album for the seven year old.

It started because Middle had 50 free prints available from Shutterfly.

I was not at all confident of the quality of their prints, so I did not want to order for our albums. (Yes, we are photo snobs).

I wanted to put the 50 freebies to good use. Like a project.

To be honest, our friends have lower photo standards. And I have a lot of pictures of the seven year old in my digital photo files. So I texted my friend asking if seven year old had an album and mentioning the 50 free prints.

She was game. And she ordered 250 Shutterfly prints. Different pictures, same kid, from her phone. We are making an album for seven year old.

Over the weekend I found more pictures of the seven year old.

And it occurred to me it (this album) was a good opportunity to order prints from other stores in my area. To try other, cheaper systems.

My first attempt was Walgreens until I discovered I could only get glossy from my local store. Glossy is a fingerprint nightmare. I only do matte. I did not want to get into mail order at this time. So I rejected Walgreens for now.

Next I tried Walmart. Website said matte was available for in store pick up. I submitted my order online and then refused it at the store (which they let me do). The finish was not glossy, but was also not matte. I had made the online selections that said slow download (most pixels possible and pictures intact) but that was not what the order had. The pixels were very funny and heads were chopped.  The lady at the in store photo lab said the software says one thing and does another. It was not me, it was them. So they are out too. But they also have mail order available which she said was higher quality.

Target and CVS only had glossy available for in store, same day pick up. Both have mail order with higher quality available, I think, it is all sort of running together now.

So, I did not find a printed locally, option that pleased me.

Yes, all these places are cheaper, but they are not doing what I want. So, cheaper doesn't really get me anywhere, but unhappy with their pictures.

If anyone thinks of other larger chains for me to try, I would appreciate a note in comments.

What I want - matte, 4x6, ability to see how the machine will crop and the ability to adjust that cropping, easily. Slow download with the most pixels possible.

Most of the time I would be okay with mail order. But this week, I honestly wanted pictures in my hands, to compare. Mail order experiment involves shipping cost, so a couple to compare is not easily, cheaply done.

Electricity

We have a power strip at each end of our couch in the living room. They are plugged in behind the couch, set so they are peeking out of the corners. They are always there, available. They are in constant use.

There is a two plug socket built/set into the floor in front of the couch. If we had little kids here, it would stay covered. Currently it is uncovered and available for use. It is handy.

I have a power strip next to my bed.

The kids have electrical sockets right next to their night stands.

We have charger cords set in key places all over the house. Middle's boy comes without his phone charger and uses mine, because there are three available. In my car, next to the elephant by the backdoor, in the living room. When our friends stay, they use my husband's charger, always plugged in the same spot in the kitchen.

An extension cord lives in my travel case. If I got somewhere without it, we would have to go buy one.

iPad and phone for me. iPad, phone and lap top for everyone else at my house. If we have 2-3 of us gathered in one space, in the house or traveling, we require a lot of plugs.

We have two TV's, a DVD player and a wide variety of gaming systems all set together in the living room. Cord heaven. Lots of plugs in use.

We have lots of Amish neighbors. Their plug useage is much, much smaller. Cell phone charger and probably a freezer. (I honestly do not know about refrigerators). Maybe a washing machine. All run by generator, not on the grid. (They cook on a wood stove and hang wet laundry on a line and sweep the floor with a broom).

When our power goes out, which very rarely happens, I am at a loss. Everything I go to do requires power. Eventually I find something that can be done and I settle in, maybe with one of the battery lanterns, with cards or a game or cleaning out a drawer. It feels like a lost time, not a found time. I am just marking time until the power returns.

Grid dependent, yes.

Netflix

I rewatched the entire Luther series (BBC) in preparation for the show that appeared on BBC America recently (in the last two weeks I think). I like Idris Elba's character DCI John Luther and Ruth Wilson's character Alice Morgan very much. I have liked a lot of the characters that appeared for a few episodes or a season, I think they are well developed. It is a somewhat gritty show. There is talk that this series will roll into movies. I think that is a good idea. (It sounds like a lot to say I rewatched the whole series, it was something like 12-14 episodes, so not a lot.)

Oldest and I watched the first season of Dark Matter while we were tending youngest last week. It is sci-fi, by some of the same folks who did parts of the Stargate (multiple) series. We think it shows promise. It has been picked up for a second season.

I am now watching George Gently which is BBC and is set in the 1960's. There are seven seasons with the first six on Netflix so far. I believe the show is still in production. The seasons have between 2-4 episodes. So, not a lot of shows, but they are 1 1/2 hours each, which helps. Really enjoying it. Not a gritty show. Plots are good, in my opinion. I like the characters. And I am having fun watching the clothes, hair styles, cars and furnishings. (There is a lot of smoking. A lot.)

My little store

I think I may have mentioned that I cleaned out my closet, when my husband was out of town a couple months ago. It was a big job. I found a lot of things stashed in that closet. A lot. For example, I found Christmas gifts for middle stashed away, most of which I had forgotten were there. All her presents came from what I found.

I also found a lot of other gifts.

I used three cubby units, left over from Middle in college dorms, in the studio, to organize all these gifts.

I think of this as my little store. As in stored goods.

And I am very pleased with it.

It has come in very handy in the last couple weeks.

Example one -
On Friday, middle mentioned she was going to her boy's nephew's baptism today/Sunday. And I knew I had supplies for quiet church bags (post one, post two) in my store. When she looked, there were three canvas bags (from which to chose) and a variety of things to put in them. She customized (a combination of items for) her bag as her gift. It was very cute, very unusual, and very fast. And we would never have been able to put it together in time if I did not already have the items on hand. I (immediately) reordered a few things to replenish the quiet church bag stash. Many times there is not much notice for baptisms. This feels handmade, special.

Example two -
I had four autism T-shirts and flatware on hand as part of middle's graduation gift. I knew I had the flatware stashed. It is my traditional graduation gift for our kids. But I had forgotten I had the autism shirts. They are hard to find. I had found good ones long, long ago. I was very pleased to refind them in my closet.

Example three -
I had bought four really great hats at our church craft show. I picked up three first and then went back and got the fourth so each girl had a choice. When our friends' college girl was here, I let her pick hers first (and take it with her, she wore it to middle's graduation). It was our Christmas gift to her. While we had them out, I let youngest pick one, I wrapped that one and added it to the stash under the tree. That left two. I wrapped the one I thought Middle would like best for Christmas. She opened it and loved it. I showed her the remaining one, the fourth, so she still had a choice. She kept the one I had picked. She had seen the college girl's pick and youngest's pick. Middle liked her own the best. But, honestly, no girl ended up with the one I originally thought they would like. They picked differently than I would have picked, choosing for them. So the four hats for three girls ended up being very smart. The remaining one goes back in the stash. These were handmade, just not by me.

Example four -
Middle and my close friend both used cherry pit bags (links to two posts) for gift giving this year. I made 36 bags between the two of them, 18 each. Two shipments of cherry pits used. Middle used these as thank you gifts for student teaching and as Christmas presents for all her boy's family this year. My friend used them as teacher, therapist, tutor, coach gifts for the seven year old's people. And as gifts for her very hard to buy for sisters, brother in laws and parents. I have a few (of middle's 18) left in my stash for future giving. Again, handmade, which people love.

Example five -
I have (lots of) swaddling blankets and baby books in my stash. We use them, all the time, for baby shower and "congratulations on the birth of your child" gifts. I even shipped three blankets to oldest to use as a new baby gift. People really like homemade. Swaddling blankets are hard to find.

Example six -
I have two toddler towels put away for middle for next year. If all goes well, another one of her boy's siblings will have a new baby by then. Toddler towels will be great Christmas gifts. Huge hooded towels, handmade, for both babies.

Example seven -
My dishwasher was down and out for a couple days. I had a house full. I gifted a 9x13 glass pan out of the stash to myself.





There are many, many more gifts in my stash. A very wide variety. Some I will be very glad to see used/gone. Others I will restock as they are used, like the cherry pit bags, toddler towels, swaddling blankets and quiet church bags.  I always keep a few card games on hand too.

I am pretty sure I have never discarded a cord, in my life

Not a charger cord, not a connection cord.

If it looked like a cord, I kept it, in a big bin in the garage.

Big bin in the bottom of the cupboard with the tools.

The bin was overflowing and a tumbled mess.

I hauled it in the living room.

It was all I could do to lift it. Evidentally cords are very dense.

I dumped the bin.

Oldest said - I guess we're committed now.

I had labels and zip-ties ready.

I detangled.

He identified.

It went very quickly.

It either went in the recycle pile on the floor at his end of the couch, or I coiled/zip-tied/labeled it and it went back in the bin at my end of the couch.

He was helping youngest with her game, so she was there too. Sometimes it took both of them to figure out if we were really ever going to need a cord again.

We found a cord for middle's Apple laptop in there. We found cords for camcorder in there. We found cords for one of the digital cameras in there. We found a lot of other cords and Y connectors and things that he had me keep. And now he knows what is in the box. So if he is on the phone, long distance helping me, he will be able to say - go get the one that says xxxxx, that is what you need.

Probably 80% went in the recycle pile, which my husband boxed and put in the garage. I will take it to the electronics recycling center this week.

There is now enough room left in the bin that when I find stray extension cords or plug in timers or power strips, they can go in there too.

Older kid game ideas in comments

Notes to myself on 8" flannel squares, with fleece as the backing, quilt

I have some type of a glitch with drop box on the new computer right now. Waiting for computer guy.   Will post a picture when I can. BUT if I don't get directions to myself written, in a couple days I will not remember what I did.

So, making notes so I know for next time.


8 rows by 10 rows
approximately 60" x 90"
which is a great size for a nap/lap type quilt


I cut 8x8 flannel squares and sewed them into rows. So 8" cut. 7 1/2" finished.

I had a few cotton pieces and a few interfaced T-shirt squares too. But mostly it was flannel. I alternated light and dark color values so it flows. So it was very much a "scrap" looking quilt. But the eye has a way of knowing where to go with the light and dark diagonal rows. I almost always do this either thru color or light/dark when I make a scrap quilt.

And it truly was scrap. I started with squares I already had cut for the baby quilt project I rejected after trying one quilt (exposed seam allowances which made it too linty for me). I added some prints to the original pieces, but most of it is non baby prints I was planning to use for a series of baby quilts. One big quilt instead of several small ones. I still have squares left for other projects.

I sewed the rows together, attaching to white flannel, quilt as I went, method.

I sewed strips of white flannel together, as I went, as Joanns did not have wide widths.

When I got the whole top together, I serged the outer edges, all the way around.

Then I sewed three more sets of white flannel together to make a big enough piece and added another layer to the back, making sure the white flannel seam allowances did not end up in the same places.

I then quilted through all three layers, on the machine, in the horizontal ditch. Or I should say about 1/8" out of the ditch, reinforcing all those seams, by sewing on the seam allowances.

When I sew rows together or machine quilt, I alternate directions so the quilt stays flat. So I sew right to left one time, the left to right the next. Otherwise the fabric "walks".

Then I sewed around the outside edge again, zigzagging, to hold everything together.

I put fleece on the back. I put a pin in the center, through all the layers, of each 8x8" square. Then I sewed, through all those layers, vertically in the ditch. BECAUSE the stretch of the fleece was horizontal. So I got everything held in place vertically first. (That is why I sewed horizontally through the top and two layers of flannel backing, because the fleece stretch was horizontal. Quilter told me to do that.) Then I went back and sewed in the ditch horizontally and then cross hatched (corner to corner to corner thru all the diagonal rows which makes an X in each square).

The fleece was slippery, but manageable.

I cut my binding at 3" and used a wider seam allowance to sew it to the quilt to hide the serged and zigzagged outer edges. I used a cotton print for the binding. Same cotton as one of the squares in the quilt. I knotted most of my stitches, all the way around that quilt for longevity as it is a thick, heavy quilt and it is going to a guy, who I think will really use it.

Really good weight for winter. It is tactile because of the fleece and flannel.

My quilter had told me I needed two layers of flannel as "batting" to work with the fleece and I think she was right. Just sewing the quilt top to the fleece would not have had a quilt look. The top would have disappeared into the fleece in an odd way. This has a quilt look.

This was a very simple quilt, because the blocks are not pieced. But it still took time because I quilted it myself and there was a lot of fussing around all those layers.

I layed it out, arranging blocks one night. Added a few blocks another night. Sewed into rows one day. Then sewed the rows together and did all the quilting and sewed on the binding in one marathon day. Then I did the handwork of the binding, one side at a time, over four days, to protect my hands. My left thumb is greatly impacted by too much "holding" at one time.

I might have a picture up in a few hours or a week. Not sure when computer guy will get back to me since "Dropbox" is not an emergency.

And I have learned I have to make these notes or a week later I am not sure what I did. I have made so many things over the years that they run together. And you can tell when I write these that there are definite tricks/techniques with each one.

Yeahhhhhhh!

New computer was installed. I can order pictures today or tomorrow and have them Monday.

Computer guy (here, installing computer) wanted encyclopedias. Husband loaded them in the car for him (immediately). They were still stacked in the living room, with me trying to figure out what to do with them (storage wise in the house). Computer guy has an early grade school son who he said would like to read them. So it will be nice for him (the son) to have a set that is not viewed as expensive that he can just have like any other book. Pleased.

We kept the hard drive out of the old computer so if we discover something did not get moved to new computer, he can still retrieve it. He moved music, pictures, genealogy, documents. He set everything like we are used to having it. He put in Word 7, because 8 was terrible, and they are still working the bugs out on 10. I do not know about 9. We have 7 for now and 10 to come later. Keyboard was replaced. And maybe mouse. The new tower is freakishly tiny.

I thought I had a leak in my bathtub handheld tub device. Sighed. Well, I did have leak, but plumber was able to tighten something and it was fine. Very quick visit. He took off panel and looked under tub, no water. Relief. I called Friday morning after they were already busy for the day, but he still came, so I was not worried about it all weekend. I did not beg. I just stated facts. Even though it was a busy day, he came about 4pm on Friday. We have been with them thru two houses and probably nearly 30 years and I always pay bill immediately.

We cranked yesterday, including me, cleaning up stacks in computer room, so there are counters again. I am left with several bins of weird stuff to consider after the holidays, but I am okay with that. The cubbies/pigeon holes need a major clean out this winter.

It was nice enough so my husband washed outside of windows. Not every window, but he got the kitchen and porch, which were (really) bugging me. He also cleaned porch. Major leaves. He asked me what we use to clean front door, so he must have scrubbed that too.

I washed outside of some kitchen cupboards. Murphy Oil Soap kind of washing. Not every cupboard, but got the really dirty ones. Like the end where garbage/recycling sits. That was bad enough so that I wrapped wet rag around pancake turner and scrubbed with that. I mix murphy soap in a (cooking) pan that can then go in dishwasher. Then I do not have to figure out how to clean Murphy out of a bucket. Did not take long. Very pleasing. My husband got skirting/baseboard right where refrigerator and microwave are. I got over by stove. That was really dirty too.

Instead of feeling like I have so much ahead of me, I am feeling like we have done a lot. Still have momentum. Loft is next on my hit list.

We will not be in a panic next week.

Still working on pictures. Our reward for big work, each day,  is sitting down and working on pictures. Different mindset.

Photos, in frames and in albums

I have written about photos many times over the years.

If you remember I once had a huge mess. Negatives, prints, digital, behind in our albums. We set up tables in the kitchen and worked our way through all of it. Big job.

We keep a set of albums for each kid and one for the house. This is now a lot of albums. Probably 5 for each kid and more for the house. So we are talking about 25+ albums.

I have no regrets in keeping an album for each kid. I think that was the right thing to do. Our kids value those albums hugely.

I think the concept of scrapbooks gets many women buried. It is expensive, it tends to never get done. I think it is a negative thing.

I think albums where the pictures simply slip in the pocket are smart. I think a three binder approach is good. Can add or rearrange pages easily. I think it is smart to have full page pockets/page protectors and put big pictures, certificates, etc in there too.

We have an enormous amount of genealogy stuff at our house now.

The genealogy pictures are on, under, around our old kitchen table in my husband's office. So as we have been going through closets and drawers and run across a picture, that is where we put it.

The contemporary albums are in the studio. So as we find contemporary pictures, that is where we put them.

We have never thrown out a negative. They are in sleeves in a binder. We still have prints made from negatives for some photos.

My husband and I cleaned out the living room, big time, a few weeks ago.

One of the clean outs was three shelves of framed photos above the piano. Lots of small frames. Some tiny frames. Probably 50-75 frames. Not likely to get dusted regularly.

We were just going to put framed art on those shelves, but nothing looked right. And everyone wanted family photos back up there.

So we decided to put large frames with family photos on those shelves. Maybe 15 frames that can easily be dusted. We are doing all black frames, some with white matting, so it has a uniform look.

So last night we started looking through albums, deciding on pictures, and looking for original negatives, to have prints made for those frames.

My husband is very good at looking at negatives. He uses the light box. He has found several of the ones we need. A larger print is better quality made from a negatives. The ones where we cannot find a negative, we can have prints made from the pictures in the album. But these will need to be smaller prints. Same size retains quality. Enlarging from prints does not work well.

Big job.

We have run across prints I had made but never got in albums when I lost my album page supplier. I have pages now. So I have been sticking them in albums as we go.

I have never thrown away a picture. Remember the days when you shot a roll of film and every picture was printed? Our photo store did free second set. So we have two of every picture. That is a lot of pictures. I have all of them. I put the "rejects" in a basket with a lid. Those have been very useful over the years. That is where the kids dug for pictures for school projects and bulliten boards, etc. Those pictures can be cut up, glued, given away. We are going through that basket too.

I have digital pictures on the computer that I need to have printed too. Some for the black frames. Some for the albums. But we have no computer. The computer guy is moving old stuff on new computer this week.

My goal is to get to the photography store today with at least our prints order for the ones being made from prints or negatives (for the black frames above the piano).

We bought the frames so we know what size we need for prints. We have maybe 8 frames so far.

We found a few larger pictures bought on tours (like standing in front of a boat) that we need 6x8 black frames.

So it is an involved process. It is complicated.

We used to keep albums on the ledge on the landing of the stairs. That ledge has accumulated a lot of weird stuff. Going through it too.

I am working with intention of finishing, this week, not dragging out indefinitely. It is one of those things where if you walk away, you don't know where you are, what you did. So it is better to just push through and do it.

Qwirkle

At resale shop today, wandering while husband was at library.

What did I see? Qwirkle.

I remember it being in the recommendations.

I asked if I could open it to see if the pieces were all there.

108 tile pieces later, we realized it was intact.

Directions included.

$5.

Sold.

It looks very fun.

Saved collection of game ideas, Jill started it

Here is Jill's post.

Very good list of ideas in her post and in comments.

I added a "card games" label to my blog.

I think I have my previous posts on card games all linked now.

Ordered a new computer

We do not know what year we got the current computer, it might be as much as ten years old.

Dinosaur in computer terms.

And that was our second computer, ever.

So we have made it with two consecutive computers for a very long time.





We refer to this as the house computer.

Keyboard, big monitor, tower, printer/scanner/copier.

I use my iPad 99% of the time. I really love my iPad.

(Apple should come visit me to see what they should be saying in their commercials.)

My husband uses his iPhone and Apple laptop 99% of the time.

But that 1% of the time we use the house computer, we want the cd, scanner, big monitor, keyboard.

All of those things are valuable to us when we do certain functions.






I use the camera on my iPad a lot.

But there are times when I want the scanner on the printer and I want it hooked up to the monitor.

There are functions I cannot do on my iPad.

There are things that are easier on the house computer.

My husband has a lot of music files.

He edits songs.

He listens to all of it.

The house computer is easier for a lot of functions.





So our oldest thinks we too are dinosaurs that we want what we call a house computer.

He thinks there are other options.

But he is not doing any of the functions (in life) that we do on our house computer.

His life is digital.

We are straddling digital and pre digital.

We still have a lot of non digital things.

Like versions on songs on cd.

Hard copy pictures that were taken with film and are in a print form only, a lot of them.

Many generations of them.





The new tower, computer guts, is around $500-600.

That is a small investment for ease in working with pictures and music.

There is a lot to be said for our large monitor set up high so we can see it.

It is very hard for 20 somethings to understand older eyes.

It comes with a new key board.

The symbols are worn off our old key board.

Our fingers know so it still works, but is a little weird.

I like having the computer in its spot, a big counter to spread out things, the scanner right there.

I like having a tethered mouse.

And there is something to be said for doing things the way we are used to doing them.





Our computer room has built in counters.

It has great office chairs.

It has a door that closes.

Those things are valuable to us, but not the way younger generations tend to live.

We find value in a non moveable computer system.

Something that stays where it is and stands ready.





We will have twice the memory.

I have piles of pictures waiting to be scanned.

The computer room is a big heap of waiting stuff right now.

I have been waiting so I can touch it once and be done, organizing and scanning as I go.

Our external hard drive is big enough to back up the new system.

We bought, planning ahead.

It will not have to be replaced.





I have been on computer hold now for months.

Last year, we deleted everything we could spare from the house computer memory.

Major culling.

And then we limped along, waiting for something new to come out this summer.

Then I was sort of waiting for my husband to be motivated.






This week I could not scan a letter to email to oldest.

It was too detailed to take a picture with my iPad.

It need to be scanned.

I had to snail mail it.






Then I could not attach pictures to email to youngest's high school for a senior project.

I was able to move them from house computer pictures to drop box and then email them from my iPad.

But I had to do a lot of messing around to do even that.







The house computer had just ground itself to a halt.

I complained, a lot.







My husband said - call the computer guy.

The computer guy makes house calls.

We have loved him since he was in high school/college.

He is now married and expecting fourth baby.

About half his business is commercial.

The other half is people like us.

I always tip him when I pay the bill.

I appreciate his service hugely.

When he came, I stayed out of the way so my husband was talking to the computer guy.

Next thing I knew, we were get new guts with twice the memory.

It will be here Monday or Tuesday.






PS -

I am not happy with our scanner.

Our computer guy said it might be because it is talking to an old computer.

He said let us replace the computer first and then see about the scanner.

It is an office quality one. It should be working as I want. So he might be right.

Is there a reason to keep bound encyclopedia sets?

Ours is from 1993 or so.

I do not think anyone has touched it in 10-15 years.

I can't think that we will want to use it again.

I can't think where to donate it.

I realize all the historical data in it is still true.

I think I remember something like 80-90% of the information stays valid in encyclopedias, they are just missing all the new stuff.

I just can't imagine anyone looking for data in that printed format with the Internet available. Even Britannica stopped publishing bound sets, a couple years ago, and is now online.

Suggestions?

Sleeping in a normally made bed

I have been out of town a lot in the last several years.

So I have slept in a lot of different beds.

And I have actually been able to sleep.

The trick/method/key for me has been to put a blanket against me, under the covers.

One end of that blanket is folded under my feet.

I think I have mentioned I make sure to go to bed with warm feet. That allows me to fall asleep.

The blanket folded under my feet keeps them warm, makes me feel just tucked enough so I stay asleep.

Until last week I have used a blanket wrapped around the foot of my bed to really feel tucked. This is how our local Amish make a bed. A quilt placed horizontally and ticked firmly in the sides of the bed. That served me well for many years.

Last week I remade my bed with a sweatshirt blanket under the covers against me, two woven blankets, a quilt, another quilt folded at my feet. I tucked the two woven blankets at the foot of the bed. Nothing was tucked at the sides.

So I went from a bed wrapped like a mummy, to a bed only tucked at the end.

And I am sleeping.

This might be the most flexible I have been about being able to sleep in many years.




I take a sweatshirt blanket where ever I go.

I keep one in the car. I take one on a train, bus, plane.

If I have a sweatshirt blanket, I have been able to sleep everywhere/anywhere.

It is the combination of the thickness/weight and also the cotton.

It keeps air from "getting me" because it is snug against me.





I am still sleeping with white noise. I prefer a floor fan. But I can make due with white noise app on my iPad.





I now need circulating air.

I am not sure if I have always needed circulating air or if it is age related.

At home I sleep with the ceiling fan on a low setting. I know I need it, because if someone turns it off and I do not realize it, going to bed in the dark, I am awake and feeling suffocated a few hours later. Good science experiment.

Normal for me is going to sleep and staying asleep, not waking once.

If we are in a hotel room, we simply keep the temperature of the room low and then I am fine.

I think I mentioned, years ago I was asleep in a hotel and oldest was up grading papers. He said as the temperature of the room rose, just before the air conditioning flipped on, I became very restless. He lowered the setting and I slept easily. Good science experiment.




If we have traveled by car, I often take a floor fan with us. I always take one to Mayo. The circulating air, plus the white noise, helps. I sleep better, if someone is prepping for something, it helps them too. Circulating air helps middle with nausea hugely, for example.

In Europe, many hotels had electric fans available through housekeeping. That helped. Fans are inexpensive enough that if we flew somewhere and we're staying for an extended time, I would buy one and then just leave it there.





So that might not all sound very flexible. Dragging a sweatshirt blanket with me, taking a box fan if we can, turning the temperature if rooms down, etc. But this is the most flexible I have been, and sleeping easily, maybe in forever.





My husband thinks using props to help children sleep or relax just teaches the child to be dependent on the prop.

I am sure that is true. But it is worth it, in my opinion, if it works.

If the child is not going to sleep or not going to relax without the prop, then what is the point of with holding a tool that is going to work?

And my dependency is getting better. I have easy tools, doable tools.

As I read posts or talk to people, there are very few who sleep through the night. Very few. In the past year there have been a lot of posts about people sleeping with a monitoring device and realizing just how very bad their sleep is. At best people seem to be up once or twice to use the bathroom.

Yes, I take meds to help me sleep. Remember that. It is important. And I have my tools.

And the result is I sleep through the night pretty much every night. The nights I don't are because someone turned off the ceiling fan or changed the house heat setting unbeknownst to me. That just happens a few times a year. And if I wake, I know it is for a reason. I check the ceiling fan and the thermostat first. It is usually one of those two things.

My expectation and my reality is to not worry about sleep and to be able to go to sleep easily and be able to stay asleep. And no nightmares. It has been years and years since I had one.

I think this is a correlation to my expectations/reality/life with food. I expect food not to be a problem in my own home too.

And stress. I expect my family to live proactively. I expect us to do things as simply as possible. I expect good communication. I expect the house to settle down for the night early.

Hooded Toddler Towels

I use my blog to remember things.

I am not sure any of you sew regularly.

If anyone needs more information, let me know.

I am just posting enough so that I will remember for the next batch I make.

The fabric is 40"+ terry cloth, bought at JoAnn's.
I cut off the selvages. Then I simply square it.
I intend for these to be toddler towels. I think big is good.

I use a large plate to round the corners.
This plate is (just slightly) larger than a dinner plate.
I leave the hood corner pointy,
until I have sewn the hood/towel layers together,
then I cut it all off in a curve.

I cut an  11 1/2" square and fold it in half (diagonally) to form the (triangle) hood. 
That made binding much simpler.
I used the terry fabric as my hood, which means I bought a little extra.
These online directions gave me an idea of the hood size.
I did not follow the rest of her directions. 
I just used the measurements of the hood to give me a general size idea.
(I could not think of a toddler to borrow for sizing. 
But I did use a large, purple stuffed monkey.)

This is the hood in one corner.
It is a square, folded in half on the diagonal.
The edge of the hood is the fold line.
I leave the point on the corner of the towel and the hood.
I mark the curve with a pencil. I sew a zigzag, 
just inside the pencil line to hold the (3) layers together.
Then I cut on the pencil line, through all three layers.
Then I bind this corner as I bind the whole towel.
The hood corner is the same as all the other corners, it is just three layers thick.
I use put extra stitching, during binding, where the hood and towel meet,
because that spot will have more stress then the rest of the towel.

The first one I made, I didn't think about rounding all of the corners.
My miters are perfect, it is a lovely corner, but rounded would be nicer.

It takes two packages of binding for each towel.
I miter the ends together before I start, so it is one long piece and easier to sew.
I sew the binding on the wrong side and flip it to the front to finish.
I machine sew the binding. It is actually stitched four times.
I straight stitch it.
I zigzag to prevent fraying.
I flip it and straight stitch binding closed.
I zigzag over the straight stitch.
It is easier to sew the binding on curved corners because then there is no mitering.

Gift bag world

My mother asked me if I wanted her gift boxes.

I said no, I had plenty of my own.

She was talking about holiday boxes that you buy in sets of three or so. Or used to get from better quality department stores.  They come "flat" and by bending pieces in their corners, they turn into a box.

I have gift boxes I have had for years and years.

My mother did too. When I said I did not want them, she said they were going in recycling. So I don't think she has them any more.

My grandmother probably had gift boxes that were older than I was, at any age.

My mother's reasoning, in getting rid of her gift boxes, is that we now live in a gift bag world.

Never would I have thought of that, but it is probably true.  As my gift bag useage goes up, my gift box useage has plummeted.

I can't actually remember the last time I got out a gift box. I have quite the stash of them, in my closet, in a bin or two. I remember being pleased with that stash, long ago.

Like my mother, I am also cleaning out my gift box stash. In fact I am doing it today. I thought about Goodwill. But I do not think they would survive the donation room. And I am afraid someone there might pitch them in the regular garbage, so I am recycling them too.

I have quite the stash of gift bags.  In fact I just moved that gift bag stash from the cupboard under the stairs to a bin under my bed. Much easier to store and access there.

We use gift bags. When I need to buy them, when nothing in the stash works for a particular gift, I buy very generic, inexpensive gift bags. We save reusable gift bags, given with gifts to us, from other people. Those are usually very nice bags. And that amazes me, because I would not buy expensive ones.





My grandmother saved and then reused wrapping paper, smoothing it and saving in a big box. She had three kids, all married, and seven grandkids. She used a lot of paper. When gifts were opened, she asked us to open carefully, so she could save the paper.

They lived on a farm. No garbage collection (at all). All kitchen scraps went to the animals. Everything that could still be used in any way was reused. Large things were taken to the dump. Small things (like bathroom garbage can waste) were burned. A different life.

It occurs to me that I will still use (not reuse, just use) new wrapping paper, some things come in a box and I will still wrap them as gifts. But I probably use far less paper than I did. I had already, recently noticed that rolls of paper now make it a very long time.

I tried to use the Sunday comics as wrapping paper one holiday. That practice has been rejected. Newspaper ink comes off too easily. I knew that from years of rolling papers with oldest.

My husband has a brother who always uses the comics as wrapping paper. He always sends books as gifts. So when you see comics paper gift under the tree, you know it is from him, and it is a book. He sends great books, almost always signed, and always from a used bookstore. He goes to lots of used bookstores and lots of signings. That, all of that, is actually a great family tradition/memory.





Just this month, after years of hoping, but not pestering, my husband has agreed to stop our newspaper delivery. First I got him from daily to weekend delivery. Now we are stopping all together.

My mother was a huge newspaper person. When her husband went in the nursing home, the paper was delivered to him there. He would read it first, she would take it home with her to read and then put in recycling. That worked really well. When he died, the paper moved back to home delivery. She stopped her subscription a while ago. I am going to ask her if she stopped because of the clutter/recycling issue or if it was to save $. Because if it was to save $, that is what she is getting for Christmas from us, like every year.

If my husband sat down and read the majority of the paper, I would not have cared (as much). But he mostly, honestly, just shuffles it. Piles of papers here there and everywhere. It is a big part of his mess that lives on the kitchen table. He clips coupons like crazy, but then (actually) almost never uses them. He has an iPhone and a laptop which he uses all the time. Coupons are now online. So are ads.
We watch the local and national news. Our local paper is also on line.

I think it was the idea of the paper, not the actual paper for him. I have had things like that too. Where it seemed like something you should do, but never actually did. And I think the day of the printed newspaper is now, naturally, drawing to a close.





We are avid recyclers. Plastic, cardboard,  plastic bags, etc. I save plastic bottle lids for whoever is collecting them to make park benches. Sometimes it is a school or a church. If not, the coop sends them to a center that makes toothbrushes for in-need kids.

We are very careful about recycling paper. Yes, newspaper, but also the paper that comes from the mail, school, receipts, etc. Somethings get saved/filed of course. Many things are generic and can go directly in recycling. Anything that has our name or address, I shred. It does not matter what it is, if it is identifiable to us, in any way, I shred it. We have a quality shredder that lives in the computer room. A tall garbage can is on one side of it, a big brown paper recycling bag is on the other. It takes a very long time to fill that computer room garbage. The recycling bag fills constantly.

The mail thing is an area where I have learned to be proactive. My first big push came the year that we moved. I changed our address on things I cared about receiving. I set up mail forwarding. Those forwarded items were all sales mailing list. I called and got off all those lists. I continue to call and get off lists. It is never ending.

Middle does not have recycling where she lives. That really bothers her. She saves all her recycling in her utility closet. We bring it home with us and put it in our recycling. She sends things home with us to be shredded too.





I also have shipping boxes.

My husband has a thing about saving shipping boxes. He looks at them and sees "sturdy" and "what a great size" and "we might be shipping something" and saves them. I used to do that too. Between the two of us, we had a major stash of boxes.

I now get shipping boxes from the post office. The flat rate shipping boxes. Those are what I use for shipping.

But he still saves.

I cut the tape, on a few of his saves, flattening them. They then fit in my container of flat rate boxes in the garage. The ones he saves, he puts intact, in the attic. I clean his stash out, every once in a while, and take them to the recycling center. If I didn't, we would have an attic full of boxes.




I am in the midst of decluttering as you can see from yesterday's pictures.

The thing about an active house is the declutter process never ends.

And the paper/cardboard part of it, is actually huge.

I have to tell you, once I got going, I loved every minute of actually doing it/the work, big sense of accomplishment

You have probably figured out (by now) that I do not stage/crop/edit pictures. You have seen me in my underwear and naked. You have seen messes, bedhead and my slippers.

I took this first kitchen picture on a normal day.

That was actually a clean kitchen in the sense that everything was clean.

But there were things waiting to go to kids on the table. My husband's stuff/crap is on the table (a never ending source of conversation). The counters had all kinds of appliances on them (food processor, blender, crock pot that doesn't even belong to me, mixer). You can see middle's sharps container on the far right; with it are a box of band-aides and a box of alcohol wipes. I have two each of pump hand soap and pump dish soap. I think there are three rolls of paper towel. I have not one but two plant containers, with no plants in either one of them, sitting on the back ledge by the sharpes container, Etc.

My husband washed the back wall for me, discovering that the plate rack on the far left was hanging by a thread. It would have (surely) taken out all four of the those very heavy plates and my beloved pottery canisters (below). It is now very secure with four sets of drywall attachments.

This second picture is also unedited. This is what my kitchen looked like this morning. Normal day. I decluttered like crazy last week. Things went to GoodWill. A couple things went to the attic. The appliances moved in the pantry, because a full set of dishes moved out of the house, clearing space. I now have nice new soap dispensers (left side of sink), one each for hands and dishes. If you are wondering about the tall kitchen garbage cans to the right of the island, there are actually three sitting there, one for garbage and two for recycling.

The same soap in these containers (above) is now in new containers (below).

ADDED LATER - they did not hold up over time.

Middle had these jars/pumps first. Etsy. They are working great for her.
I am pretty sure ours are 16oz.
We ordered 4, she has been using hers for months, I just got mine going.
Here is the information on my (May 2015) receipt:
Ball Mason Jar FOAMING Hand Soap Dispenser with Stainless Steel Pump -
8oz, 16oz, Regular & Elite - SALE - Buy 3 or More, Get 1
Item# 162506723
Scott Marshall
smarsh5331@yahoo.com

I love these empty, in the sunlight. Think how clutter-y they would be full of stuff. The short, covered candy dish was my (favorite) grandmother's, it lived on her coffee table. The pitcher is from Salvation Army store. The other three are from garage sales. I like groups of 3 or 5. Odd numbers. There are a few more of these types of pieces around the house. I really love them.

***

On to the laundry room. The laundry room was actually my main focus last week. I (honestly) decluttered the kitchen while waiting for loads of wash to finish.

Youngest has had high school respiratory plague for over a week a half now. She is better every day, but it was a slow recovery with a ton of high school and college work. The only place she could sleep was upright in a chair/ottoman in the loft. She never missed class. She was not worried about giving it to anyone else, because everyone else had it. In the midst of looking for things for her, I realized how really terrible the clothes piles were.

As I mentioned, I realized (really sunk in to my brain last week) she had an impossible situation because she simply does not have enough storage. No where for her to put her clean clothes. One tiny dresser with three drawers, one smallish closet. And she is messy, yes, there is that too. She is always loaded with school work. (There is a big difference in work loads depending on the classes kids take. Her high school AP Calc and her college engineering drafting class are very time consuming this semester.) It was not realistic for me to think it was going to get any better or she was going to have a magic solution.

I looked for a permanent, house friendly, solution instead of woulda/shoulda/coulda. It took me about two days of major thinking, to figure out what to do.

It is hard to get pictures of the laundry room because it is long/narrow. The first picture shows the permanent mess that lived on top the dryer (that is just a weird accumulation of stuff). The second pictures shows CLEAN clothes piled in youngest's locker. And three laundry baskets of clean clothes on the floor. The upper sections of those lockers hold youngest's going to college stuff. In these pictures some of middle's going to college stuff was still in the lockers closest to the door (you can see part of a floor lamp). These were the things that did not go to her apartment. They are now in middle's closet.

I mentioned my husband gathered all the remaining, dirty clothes from upstairs and pitched them down the stairwell. I sorted and washed.

I moved the clean clothes from her locker, baskets on the floor, loads I washed/dried, into the living room, and then I had this -

I think there are actually a couple basket in the room that you cannot see in this picture. . .

I bought bins and started organizing, I used masking tape to label each bin.

When I was done, I had this -

School uniforms (black, blue, yellow) are hanging in the far locker. Her school pants (what she is wearing this week) and her uniform fleece are hanging in the near locker.

Upper cubbies still hold youngest's college bound stuff.

The only things on the floor (which you can't actually see in any of the pictures) are a tall(ish) garbage can, a broom and mop, and a tall dirty clothes basket.


I am seriously pleased.

I will add pictures later, this is the post about changing the system instead of trying to make something work that was just never going to be successful