WTG! Geez now that is what I call exciting.

So do I win anything? Nah, well yeah I do… All you people reading my blog. Thats the winning part.

Okay those curtains are calling me.

So like we have the cave. We have a forest next door. We have lots of mice and chipmunks, skunks, oppossum, raccoons and more. And yes we do have squirrels and we have our dog Maggie. And Maggie loves to kill them all, well she knows to refrain from skunks.

So how do you keep these varments from invading your cave and not chew up wires on newly built cars? Or you have a boat that you store on your property, or do you have a RV that sits dormant?

Irish Spring and Moth Balls is your next best answer to keep them at bay. Well you don’t want to have Irish Spring Soap around cause like in our case, Maggie doesn’t have a potty mouth and well the taste ain’t to great. It kills the palette.

What I’ve been doing the last two years is buying moth balls and flakes. Last year i went to the Dollar Tree and bought some small boxes for showers. Punched holes in the boxes and dropped moth balls in them. Closed them up and put around the cave. This year since the boxes decay, I took Crystal Lite plastic containers punched holes in the upper part of the container and then dropped moth balls in them and put the top on. The plastic holds the smell and doesn’t decay.

Now for the car, what i did was I took fabric, can’t think of the name but used for tutus… yeah i could look it up but heck, I’m blogging I don’t have time to do a google search and by the time i am ready to post this I might have thought of the name. I took and cut a square of the fabric and put either moth balls or flakes in it. Then I bunched up the fabric and tied with thin fishing line. Left enough line to make a loop so that they could hang in the engine compartment and also the cab of the car. After time the flakes dissolve, however is very effective.

Last word, put on a gas mask if you have lots in the small enclosed area. OMG, talk about smell, waves hand and holds nose. Whew what a smell. I mean we could be more than six feet away from that cave and you can smell the moth balls. Let alone you get to the area and open it up, holds on to something before she falls!

When you make these, shall i call them smoke bombs, make sure you wear some disposable gloves, cause your hands will smell for a long time!

So ladies, now you have the upper hand on how to keep those lil critters away from your guys boats, rv’s, classic cars, etc. And just think, they didn’t just have you around for looks!

Just to let you know, Maggie was good and didn’t touch, as we did have a dog that ate them but no harm to them, but still a precaution, keep the boxes hidden so your pet doesn’t get to them. Now I don’t know if they are keeping our visitor the cat from jumping into the jeep and chillin, but we did find lil foot prints on the console and hubby wasn’t too happy.

I decided to make changes from my first ones I made and the thinking process still works. With the changes on these fabric covers on this structure I made it easier to sew up and install.

The last one that I made I had constructed the panels to be held by using straps to hold against the steel rod frames using heavy duty snaps. However with the Chicago winds, the snaps would either open or break loose from the fabric. So instead I used heavy duty adhesive velcro. I applied the velcro to the steel rods and used wire ties to secure the velcro as we all know adhesive tends to wear down with time. I then made my fabric panels in three parts. Yes I reused part of the old cover for this one so I did not have to reconstruct and make new straps for the top attachment to the rods. You can see the different color straps, blue, against the green fabric. With the economy the way it is, I was better off saving money.

In the above photo you can see what the cover looks like closed. And yes it has windows in the front, with a zipper down the middle. The type of zipper I used was a sleeping bag zipper. It was long enough.

In this photo you can see how you can easily roll up the side while working in the structure. On the top I again used the heavy duty adhesive velcro, however I did use industrial glue spray to keep the velcro on both the top and side fabric so that with time it would still hold up. I found that even though it has adhesive on the velcro it would detach from the fabric, thus the spray. 3M has a great adhesive, however costly <thank you Bob for the glue, winks>. On this panel I did sew several straps for added precaution of the winds, however it was not needed when I constructed the second panel, but the straps are nice when you roll up the individual panels.

This is the final photo showing both panels rolled up and opened. Nice easy access to the structure. See the jeep, that is what the guys were building for the last two years. Nice huh. Not bad for a project and when you don’t have a garage to build, next best thing is the “cave”.

Hope you like, now if only we can get the insurance company to get the car insured for its worth, we would be happy. We are still awaiting word, they are currently using the Blue Book Value of the 86 CJ. Uhm so the pictures we gave you.. you can’t tell that its customized, classic and wasn’t bought off a used car lot? Scratches head, something wrong with the picture? Uhm well we can take our business to a company that deals with classic custom cars. And we aren’t your average Joe that buys a custom classic car for big bucks to drive around in saying yeah nice huh and just think I just put money down to look good. Not us we are not that average Joe, we actually bought, built and can go driving around turning heads and say “We built it all from used and new parts”. It was a great learning process and one day our son will teach his son, well his girlfriend wants to build one now…. no son yet.

I haven’t blogged in a long time, but need to get the word out. I not only go to JoAnns for my items, but my daughter is there almost weekly purchasing items for her art projects. I’ve since started taking her to Hobby Lobby as their costs are lower and fits her pocketbook (omg am I old or what) however I usually end up paying cause her college fees are very high and heck what are mothers, parents for? Continue reading…..

Order two special orders for a job that I was hired to do to make window treatments. Purchases were made at Joanns in Darien Illinois, the closest store for me. And I frequent this store a lot and well am considering to drive the extra mileage to the one in Lombard.

First special order – was told 2 rolls needed to be ordered, 8 yards on each roll, to complete my allotment of 11 yards of fabric for windows, unless I wanted to go to Orland Square or Countryside, nope I don’t want to drive! Told me fabric was in warehouse would be in about a week. Fine no problem and I was able to use the 50% off coupon. This order was around 420 bucks regular price, fabric was around 35 bucks a yard, with coupon saved 192 bucks. My customer was satisfied with the great savings!

Second order – new flyer, 50% off all home decor fabric PLUS a coupon for 25% entire order even sale items. Ordered 13 yards, 2 rolls needed. As I worked with the gal she said are you sure? She was trying to have me buy what they had in stock and I don’t think they had 13 yards and she scanned the bar code and only 10 yards. I mean I was just there a week ago. Placed my order, regular price was around 520 bucks, fabric was 40 bucks a yard. My total sale again with the additional 25% off was around 220. My customer was satisfied with the savings I made on this order as well. When I went to pay for my items, fabric, additional supplies and my own purchases, the manager asked me which order did I want to use the 25% coupon for. I told him that the 25% coupon was good for any and all purchases during a 3 day time frame, that I would be using it on all transactions (had to have 3 done – special orders rung up separately). I even read the fine print making sure special orders where allowed. Now him being the manager **HE** should know the sales flyer and coupons – right?!?

First special order came in the day after I placed my second order, went in the following Monday. Was hoping that they could cut the fabric in 2.5 yard panels as I don’t have a proper table to measure and cut fabric. The gal checked with the manager and he said “Corporate Policy” can only make one cut, in this case two rolls, two cuts. Okay fine so I end up cutting on the floor. When I was having the fabric measured, I indicated **several** times that the panels had to be 2.5 yards. When the girl and I were working on the measuring she indicated that the first roll had just under 10 yards however she said it could be 10 yards depending on the area in question. I told her no we will cut part of the order from one roll and the rest from the 2nd roll. Well I ended up having the fabric cut incorrectly because the gal was #1 not listening to my detail of what the length was needed for each panel and i repeated myself several times, #2 she seemed nervous as she had a twitch when working which in return made me nervous and #3 when she measured the fabric on the machine, she did not have it in straight and I was nervous that the fabric would be cut crooked. Oh and it ended up that after she cut the 8 yards I asked her how much was on the remaining roll because I would be interested in purchase to make another item, ends up there was 1 yard 32 inches – just think she continued to say 10 yards, I would have been shorted! Instead of having 7.5 yards on one roll and 3.5 on the other it was cut 8 and 3. I had ordered extra fabric because i had to order to the nearest yard and at the time of ordering i thought i needed 10 yards 8 inches but in fact i could get by with 10. Well I ended up taking the fault as I left the store and got to my car when I realize the error. I said chalk it up.

Just received a call from them today on my special order for 13 yards. They indicated that the fabric is on back order til after Thanksgiving. That is fine with me **HOWEVER** the flagship sunset fabric has a distinct pattern in it. I need exactly 5 panels for two windows. The bigger window will need three panels – one panel will have to be matched up to the other two which can be done, **HOWEVER** JoAnns needs to know that their “”CORPORATE POLICY”" will have to go to the wastebasket in order to provide proper customer service in me making these window treatments. I indicated to the gal who called me that I will have to match up 3 panels in order for the item to look professional, my mom, a seamstress taught me well – she said she understood my concern. I asked her to put on my order “customer needs to be there when fabric is cut as there is a distinct pattern and has to match”. She did not indicate that she would put it on the order just that she would talk to “RALPH”, manager (by the way who interviewed me for a job **TWICE** and I was not hired probably due to my availability when I spoke to the other manager and she said they needed people working the afternoon and I put on my app that I could work afternoon til evening). I indicated to the caller, I would contact the Corporate Headquarters regarding this issue of cutting fabric and indicated if there was an issue I would probably purchase additional fabric to make pillows.

I know this is lengthly but since I’ve been “HIRED” to make these window treatments, I want them to be just right to **MY** Customer’s Satisfaction NOT JoAnn’s. And to think the manager who interviewed me, afterwards checked me out twice after the interview DID NOT recognize me as a potential employee until the 3rd time he checked me out and yesterday stated gee you are here a lot. I responded to him yeah just think you could see me everyday if you hired me. And the kicker on the second interview (I applied twice in a one year time frame) a CUSTOMER came to me asking if I ever made fabric purses and what type of interfacing did I use. As I do make fabric purses, we went to the interfacing and we discussed the different types and I told her she would probably have to use the heavy weight for the product she was making. Do you think, do you think that the manager would put this in perspectives during the interview process as he saw me working with her? NO! And I even indicated to the manager I am always thinking outside the box when I am making items for home. I indicated to the manager that I made something special for my husband to protect his car he built and I had to **create** my own pattern for the project! Geez I would love to apply at a different JoAnn’s and throw it in his face. All the employees at this JoAnns seem to be helpful to a point but it appears that the employees seem “scared” or uncertain, is it the manager causing this uneasiness towards his employees? Maybe a good thing that I am not working there.

Metro has really done great with their website and I noticed that most of the people that commented on my blog about shipping rates – well now Metro indicates that the cost is up to 9.98 and if your order is $250 its free shipping. I believe that the shipping costs are very comparable considering the cost of these spool of threads.  Today I was going to order some white thread from a competitor, however their prices where not as low as Metro. And well if I get my order in today the 17th of June, since they are on vacation, if I order $50 or more I’ll get 12% off the order.

Metro Thread can be used on any embroidery machine as far as I can see. I know people are particular on what they use, but heck I gave them a whirl and well I have 7 or 8 boxes of their big king spools. What more can I say about Metro that many haven’t already said, great thread, wonderful sheen and great service, besides the COST!

If you haven’t already checked out Metro Thread’s website, I think you should take a look and join them on your Facebook if you have an account. Also sign up for their newsletters. I have. You will be notified about special sales. Its worth it! Love how they have were you can post a comment right on the web-site or using your Facebook account. Thumbs up on that!

Max and all the members of Metro – great job!!!

I redid a cover for my husband’s cave and omg it better than the first one I did.  Will blog on it later but the Chicago winds don’t pull the thing apart – YAY!

I started a new shop over at Etsy, its called UnekGifts. Lots of apron sets and new designs. Setting up kids towel sets shortly.

Other than that nothing else is new. Been doing a lot of yard work now that the weather has settled some. New flower bed in the front of the house, curb appeal you know, even though no curb.

I’ll try and post more.

Yup 28 years ago I had my lil Bobby. What a joy he was. I remember the day like it was yesterday…..

My sister-in-law, Sandy and I went to the North Riverside Mall just to do some looking around and maybe last minute shopping. Yeah the 16th was the lil tikes due date, however Sandy and I were at the mall on the 15th checking out the sales and the crafts.

There was one vendor selling leather products and I was really interested in purchasing a belt. The man selling the wears had asked when I was due and I said actually tomorrow. He said your kidding and I said no. As the three of us talked I could feel Robert moving around, now I didn’t know that I was going to have a boy, but the name was already decided. The guy asked if it would be alright if he felt the baby as him and his wife had tried and tried but was never successful. Sandy and I didn’t feel that there would be any harm, as in those days people where uhm normal and you didn’t have to worry. So he felt my tummy and said it was neat. I indicated to him that I especially liked when the baby kicked or you could feel the foot. He said you could actually feel the foot and I said yeah, matter of fact right here is the foot. He put his hand on my side and he felt the foot, he said “wow”. Sandy and I talked a little bit more to the guy, I purchase a belt buckle for my hubby and we continued our walking.

When we got home hubby, Sandy and I were hungry. We decided to order a pizza. Well I really didn’t want to eat pizza as I just had a icky feeling in the pit of my stomach. We went ahead and ordered and then ate. I only ate a couple of pieces and it was stated, the is not normal. Sandy stuck around for a while longer and then off she was to go home down the street. My hubby went to bed and I stayed up for a lil bit longer as I just wasn’t ready for bed and again I just had that weird feeling.

About a couple hours later I was having some pains, but I really didn’t know if they were actually labor pains. It was bad enough that I had two kidney infections and false labor pains in the past I just didn’t know what was going on. I was watching the clock to see how far apart the pains were just to see if they were constant. Hubby was still sleeping and I decided to call the hospital. They indicated that I should come in when the pains were so many minutes apart. Well mine were closer than what the hospital had indicated.

So I went and woke up my hubby. He jumped out of bed and I said take it slow we don’t have to far to go. So as we drove we talked and every once in awhile I would get one of those stabbing pains. Hubby would say you okay, I’d say yeah as I would hold my belly. He drove a lil faster as he wanted to get me to the hospital quick. As he drove he was approaching a railroad track. As he took the track really fast all of a sudden a sharp pain! OMG!!! Hubby said what, I said major pain. He said you gonna be okay, I started laughing and said yeah, just be careful on railroad tracks, please.

Well he got me to the hospital and the pains were like every 8 minutes. They checked me out and said I wasn’t ready. Not ready, please. They said it could go into the morning. WHAT!!! MORNING!!! I am not going to deal with this for a possible 8 hours or longer. So hubby looked and me and I looked at him. I said go home, you have to work in the morning, I’ll call you when the time comes. He said okay, gave me a kiss and left.

It was like as soon as he left I was being wheeled into the hospital room. Yeah it was time about 1/2 hour from since I got there. They didn’t even have time to get my doctor there. Bing Bang Boom, that was fast. Then I hear the baby cry. Then they announced you have a baby boy. I was so happy, I wanted a boy so badly and so did hubby. I was very excited and couldn’t go to sleep. I stayed awake til 6 in the morning so I could start calling everyone! As soon as 6 came I was calling daddy then grandma.

This was the easiest delivery I ever had, not that my daughter’s wasn’t bad, I am just so happy that I didn’t have to go through a long labor! What a cutie he was, this headful of blonde hair, long eyelashes, pretty blue eyes, the lil fingers and toes, such a bundle of joy. To this day he is still that bundle of joy, all 6’3″ of him!

Love Ya Robert…..

Hugs and Kisses

Mom, Dad, Shell and of course Maggie!

Besides making a towel set for Angelica, I would be making a set for our nieces and another special friend. The designs I used are from Retroboulvard, the digitilizer is Ytmar. She has done some real nice work in the past. For the youngest niece I went for a design of a child toweling herself off after a bath. The other 3 girls I would do ballerinas. On the hand towels I either put their names on it or a pair of ballet shoes, which the design was received from a free website years ago.

Before I do towels I always make sure that I pre-wash the items not only for shrinkage, but also to get the extra fluff out of the towel. Once washed I am ready to stitch. I used the all in one hoop, with the exception of the large towel. I don’t like to have the burn mark in the nap of the towel. Once the items were hooped I then placed the wash away stabilizer, WunderStitch on top of the towel. WunderStitch is a water soluble stabilizer that washes out of fabrics when completed. WunderSttitch was great with these towels because the towel was thick and heavy. SewforLess carries this item and is always on sale.It is always important to use a water soluble on top of the towel so that when the design is stitching the thread stays on top of the towel, not sinking into the towel.

Another quick and painless day to stitch, here are the towels… washed a second time and they are still stunning.

The supplies are very simple and if you have temperatures way below 30 degrees you can actually freeze these luminaries outside instead of using the freezer. You can use all types of plastic containers to make your luminaries. If I drank pop from 2 liter containers I would have started saving them up so that I could line my sidewalk, however I am not a pop drinker. Instead I used my food containers for these luminaries and luck would have it, our snow has melted so you do get the full effect of the outcome. Geez do I see a trend of my luck lately with weather??

Here are my basic supplies. Two tall containers, both a square and round one. Then some simple items that were frozen into the ice, tinsel, Christmas ornaments and plastic garland (not shown). The pebbles were used to put in smaller containers (and the crystal light could be used as well to give a deeper depth inside the container to place your candle).  When using items to be frozen into the water, you need to do it in layers so that the items don’t float on top of the water.

Not only could you use everyday plastic containers, but you can use like i stated above 2 liter containers, milk jugs, smooth cans, plastic ice cream containers, the list is endless. And you don’t necessarily need to put decorations into your containers, you can just leave them as a block of ice with a candle in the center.

Basically you put a smaller container inside the bigger container after filling it with water. To keep the smaller container from floating around, place some rocks, pebbles, whatever you have available. This will keep the container to set in place during the freezing process. Once the freezing process is done either through the freezer or outside all you need to do is pop the ice from the containers, outside and inside.

Now like I indicated the rain and warm weather has dampened my opportunity to show what they look like outside in the snow, pout. So instead I merely put them on a plate and took pictures. I can even see this being used as a center piece on the table,]. You can use different size containers grouped together in a round shallow glass pan that has garland wrapped around the luminaries with some decorative Christmas items, like holly or ornaments. You can even use those scented pine cones, thus you are also giving off a nice scent. You will have to make sure that you use some protective item under the glass pan, so that it doesn’t freeze to the table and ruining the furniture, a simple round cork placemat, pot holder or even a folded washcloth.

Not only can you use these as a center piece, to line your sidewalk, driveway, but you can put on your porch, using different sizes, heights placed on a table at the door with your other decorative items. You can even place on on each step up to the house. You don’t have to have clear ice either, put some food coloring into the water to get a nice soft glow effect. What about freezing chunks of ice then breaking the chunks into smaller pieces then placing into another container and then adding cold water to get another effect of your luminary.

Here are the results of my luminaries. If we get some snow, I will be making more to line on our stairs and I will use more than just what I had on hand, milk jugs anyone!

In the beginning of the school year they had to do a drawing in the classroom and she did the window. Like she indicated to me and I informed her brother, the leaves in the drawing are actually growing inside the classroom. I’ve been really surprised at her work, she really has an eye and gets the detail.

The one thing she hasn’t or has problems with, hands, feet and faces. Since she needs to work on those areas, in her life drawing class it was mentioned for her to do a drawing with hands. Thus she did. How did she do, well she tried her best.

Andy Warhol is her favorite artist and there is a exhibition in Milwaukee, Wi that runs until January 3, 2010, The Last Decade. I mentioned to her that we could take a trip up there in a couple of weeks when she is not working. We had spent a day at the Chicago Art Institute a couple of months ago and it was amazing listening to her talk about depth, proportion and other areas pertaining to art. She really has an eye to see these things without realizing it yourself.

She had to write an essay which dealt with the Renaissance Era, her most favorite era. She wrote about Botticelli. She had to compared his work of art, Primavera, to another painter’s work. I was surprised how she was really into the Renaissance Era, talking about the angels and how certain artists drew halos incorrectly, artists did not show the proper proportion in facial features, i.e. a mother and child both the heads were the same size or facial features were almost identical. She even pointed out the issues of them not being able to draw hands, fingers were not properly done.

Every week she would have to provide a drawing to her life drawing class. One of her drawings was when we stayed at a hotel when we went to the Art Institute. One of her classmates indicated that it almost looked like it was drawn from a photo, the teacher agreed. When another student showed her work, she made the remark, oh I thought we were suppose to draw from a photo. The teacher said it appeared that it looked like a life drawing, oh yeah I heard that boiling point, giggles. She did a drawing at Panera’s, a eatery, and the depth and dimension was great.

In one of her classes she would partner up with other students and each one would draw certain aspects of the drawing. I had run into one of these drawings in her portfolio. I had asked her about the drawing and she said to me what are you talking about. She had all her drawings on her puter and I pointed it out. She told me her and another girl had done that work. I was amazed at how well both of them did. She called me a stinker and forgot she had it in the house.

There is another drawing that she had to do from a photo and I am wanting to get my hands on it. It is a girl in a Chicago Bear’s jersey. I love the drawing, she did a great job (as soon as I can get my hands on it, it’ll be on here). She likes it too. That particular drawing was in the college’s art show.

In the beginning of the year she would tell me about the naked models that they had to do. She was funny talking about them, lol. I remember when my sister, Susan was taking art classes at the Art Institute and she would mention to our mom about the nude models. My daughter would mostly say, gawd you should of seen the model we had today, talk about gross, laughter, but then came the day with the cute guy, hahaha.

Next semester she is going to take some more pottery courses. I’ll take some pictures of some of her pottery work from high school and college. One of her pieces from high school went all the way to New York for a possible scholarship. She wants to continue her art overseas, its’ll cost a lot less, but she still needs to check into it.