Monday, April 28, 2014

Been A long While

      Do you ever get that thought when your scrap booking I need a particular look for the base paper.  I was in that dark place where no matter where I looked nothing was rolling my socks up and down.  No amount of wine cooler was going to do it either. So instead of scrapping I let it sit , what I wanted to work on was my trip in January to NEW YORK!! For my Christmas surprise my daughters had booked the three of us a trip plus accommodations to New York we at 40th and 5th Ave. Right in the heart of the city!!  And how they pulled this off is Christmas day we at my oldest daughters house everyone had opened up their presents, I was last to get mine it was a basket with small travel size products and I asked is my breath bad, do I need deodorant?  They laughed and said no, the oldest one ran back to another room and appeared with the board with the  $ 20,000 Holiday Game. So I am thinking what are we doing, my youngest one started giving me the clues, have not seen this game on TV in like forever so was a little rusty, first question she askes is "Things to do with the  girls?"
So I'm doing the bachelorette party ,  shower, baby bridal , the answers was girls night out then the final clues were, Empire State Building , Statue of Liberty, Times Square and about that time I started to cry and said things you see in NEW YORK!!! Which of course was brilliant and correct.  They had planned the trip since June for my birthday which is in January it was a big one hit one of the Something OHHHS.   So we got to go on January the 22nd. took tons of pictures, and was coming up with nothing cool to scrap them on tired of doing the color paper with the coordinating color behind it...blah blah blah....So long (Extremely) long story to get to here could not find anything for the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island which we were so grateful to be able to go on.   Went to Jo-Anns struck out  went to one of  local shops which is just about the only one here and got 4 sheets of paper for another trip I wanted to scrap, ended up at Hobby lobby bought a pile of paper but still nothing for the NEW YORK trip.   So Sat here thinking I knew what I wanted just could not buy it so, decided to surf the web for pics of immigrants from back in the day the great migration from there country of origin to the  great New York, long voyage and enduring the tight quarters to come to this free land.  Found one that I thought would be great ,went to this website that sets up you pics so you can  print them poster size you just have to stick them together.  Not a big problem when you scrap book you have adhesives out the  whaaazooo!! Here is the link it is called block posters, the pic I used was nto the best of quality and looked a little pixelated but not that important it made the paper I wanted and could not buy.  After you load up the picture from your files you it  shows you how it will it will be  printed on how many pages , you can change the orientation of the paper from portrait to landscape and it show you in real time how many pieces it will take to print it and how  big it will be.   
One of my other pages needed a back
round for was Wall Street so found a picture of big bills, after you upload teh pic you want as back round it go to Slice your image, this is where you do the landscape paper or the portrait and hit letter size and you see the lines showing how it will print., them it makes a pdf for you to print usually about 12 pages , it will be approx. 2.9 x 2.2 inches big enough to make 2 12x 12 pieces. 
So here is what I did had to take pictures of money so I could get a better picture to poster size. (maybe not a word but you get it)  they think the more pixalization the better but not in all cases.  Anyway laid out some cash on a piece of canvas had laying in my scrap room took a couple of shots and then came into print.  You need to keep the photos under 1 mg ir will not load on the site if too big.  So of course had to crop it down ended up with 886 kg which was fine.  Then went to the website to create my new back round page.
So here is the pic will not let me upload the poster version which is a pdf this time I paid more attention to the pages and saw I did not want to print page 9-12 those were tiny edges which were not important to the overall page.  So with them printed will go back and put them together. This is the fun part a giant puzzle with nothing to really look at but the pic you took so I did that, also marked the edges I did not want to keep.  Starting on the left row one called the 1st one 1 a then the next page marked the left side margin with X that meant cut off so go through, marking the side your keeping and the one that is going you need 1 margin in between each piece so there is something to attach the next page too.  At the end the outside edge is going to be gone so mark that with X also you need to trim before you glue or tape them together.  After you get them laid out the way you want, start removing the edges and tape or glue away.

This picture is the back of those 8 pages hooked together I am now going to cut my pages I need so flipped it over to work form the back used a piece of 12 x 12 to trace only need to do 2 sides.  Then took my exacto knife and but along the line of the tow sides and cut away then used my large machete cutter and cut the other 2 sides and I was done. 12 x 12 custom paper for my needs!!! Got the finished pages loaded so you can see how the paper work I think it looks great.  Hope you enjoy the new idea I may have given you , has gotten my brain whirling for more pages to create.


Saturday, July 27, 2013

Legos and Crochet!

Inkscape pattern idea
 About a month ago I saw someone on Pinterest had crated a Lego Afghan., it was really cute but I knew I could either find the  pattern or  dope it out  one way shape form...finally found this  pattern from  from Eva Ferrebee the Lego Block.   I new this would make a great afghan for my youngest daughter she is now married and was my Lego kid..I still have her 5 gallon bucket full of them base and all.  I started out with the measurement of the  block it is approximately 3" x 5"  I had laid it out in Inkscape, place using the block colors of red, yellow, blue, black and white. This let me lay out the pattern of the colors so I could see how it would look in the end.  After I figured out a what size of  afghan I began to figure how many blocks of each color.  It ended up at first 50 blocks 10 of each then I ended up making more another 50.
Started working got the blocks set up in rows in the color sequence started sewing the rows together with the paddy green.  Used the crochet stitch for joining that creates a ridge on top of the blocks as you can see in the pictures.  I would attach two rows then attach those two to the next two thought that would make it more manageable to work with.  The entire project took over a month and half.. Could not wait to finish it.  Thinking back I wish I had done the squares in groups of 10 wide by 5 rows, those I would have blocked and bordered it in the green also but it may have been easier to work on.  Less cumbersome not quite a mile a minute which that may have been easy too, long strips edged with the green and then stitched together and swa- la done deal.  

.
Can't measure it now daughter came down and took it home got one more thing off my work table.  Will tackle another project soon moving back to my car project....got new window switch going to let you know how that went. cya then.


Pinterest Hack Not Really

Someone  had posted out  there this cute idea for a  scarf hanger.  This whole thing was made from 2 7 hook wall hangers and the flat black velvet like hanger the main info is posted on Dollar Store's website 
It is a great idea but we have no Dollar Stores here they have all turned into Dollar Tree, not the same.....have looked in at least 3 and not seen a single wall hook hanger,.  Well anyway we went Thrift store shopping like every Saturday and we ended up at a flea market we have not been to in a while.  Found a booth with their version of Dollar Store this box a $ and up is more like it but  I at leas found some hooks that can hang.  The were over the door.  They are a little larger and have 6 hooks still used the zip ties to secure them to my hanger I already had and for $2.00 I created my own camisole hanger those things take up way to much room.
 The only thing I had to do was to cut the over the door hanging part off they were over the last hook on each end.  Used my small bolt cutters for that you would never believe how handy those suckers come in.  I used them last week to cut down a piece of that wire closet shelving stuff you get at home depot, or me got at the thrift store fore less and $3.00 for 2 pieces one of which got cut down last week to make a new earring hanger....will post that in a few.  Anyway back to this project,

 Had the hanger and 3 zip ties one on either end taking in both hangers and the main hanger the one in the center to make sure this was secure for hanging the camisoles which you see below I have room for  more on back will amend that after getting it back in closet. One hanger and 12 camisoles could double up the hooks but for now this works for me hopefully it will work for you.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Monday, May 20, 2013

So easy and it is crazy good!!

You ever get in the mood for  breakfast but at dinner time, well since our kids are grow and out of the house we cook what we want anytime  We did cook what we wanted when they were young now they pretty much eat anything, not afraid of new or different.  We are big on mushrooms, onions and garlic,.  No Vamps living in my neighborhood, we pretty much IV it around here if it is not minced it is powdered or salt.  Well as usual I have digressed from the wonderful upgraded at least for us Week-End Biscuit Egg Casserole, I found it on pinterest of course and it has been eaten here 2 times already.  We will now let you know our version if you are an  onion, garlic and mushroom kinda eater, you will enjoy this spin on it.  If not that is okay too that is why it is called a recipe and you do with it as you will to suit yourself.
The recipe is as follows with my additions and changes,
1st we did use the grands biscuits from the can
mashed them into the 8x8, but tonight we used a 10 x 8 pan because the first time we made it, it looked like it was going to come on out.  Well this pan worked well so this will be the pan of the future.
next we not only used turkey sausage (Jimmy Dean cooked and crumbled)  best sausage flavor yet in a sausage made from the bird...  Had Jenny O one time and the that was it not enough spice sort of bland.
! medium onion chopped and a small can of mushrooms chopped while I was browning the onion, also lest we forget the garlic 1 tablespoon of minced, we cheated tonight and used the kind in the jar.  Anyway still no vamps in my neighborhood.   We used 5 eggs beaten with 1/4 milk
preheat oven to 425 egress and set timer for 30 minutes
1. biscuits mashed in to bottom of pan no seams allowed which is really hard to do just like any refrigerator biscuit there is some special thing about them that makes them not join together in a seamless manner.
2. sausage 1 lb cooked crumbled and cooled (since mine comes from freezer usually heat it a bit so not to slow down biscuit rising part
3.  Cooked med onion and small can mushrooms with garlic (what amount you like or not) thrown in for good measure...
4  5 eggs with  1/4 cup milk scrambled

Assembly biscuits in bottom, sausage mixture of onions, garlic, mushrooms, then pour eggs over all this.  According to the original recipe Lindsay had used 1 cup of Mozzarella and 1 cup cheddar which we do not not big on cheeses breakfast or with biscuits.  BUT WE DO LOVE SAUSAGE GRAVY.......Not the kind that takes time to make but Pioneer in a bag from the mix area of the grocery store 2 cups of water them mix and your cooking like Hardies but without having to get in your car and drive over.    After baking let it stand for 5 minutes this lets the eggs firm up and gets everything to meld.  Cut it into what  I call biscuit size chunks and devour.  Gravy of course spooned over and you get that rib sticking morning thing or that evening dinner thing that makes you glad you have an oven.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Hells Bells and other annoying things!!

Days like today is when TECHNOLOGY SUCKS!  I am sitting here with a phone that works but will not send mesages or phone calls because some how the service provider has screwed up my automated payment on my phone and i have no FUNDS to do anything with.  Will have to wait till my husbnd comes home to use his phone so they can do something to fix the problem and active the phone how do they do theat when u are a new subscriber and u have the only phone on the plan sounds like someone can not figure out where the on button is!!  I have approximately 27 messages from them telling me I have no funds, but yet they can waste my non funds on sending me messages!! I do not understand. It all started when my voice recognition went on the fritz end of the week  earlier that week had sent a photo or rather tried to when we received a new camera for our endoscope and it was a neon green thank god horses are color blind or they would need sunglasses to look a this thing anyway went to send it noticed a red circle on it with an x and low and behold the thing did not send so that is when it started but did not  know what to make of it...The worst thing about not having service is that if I was out and about and did not know this had happened I would be virtually stranded.  That sounds a little scary to me at this point.  Sometime when I am working I must go out and meet docs somewhere out range is pretty large and I could have to go miles like 30-40 to met them to bring out piece of equipment, since a lot of times I use the GPS and it is great but what if it went out when I was out there and had no idea of where to go from wherever....not a position I want to be in.  I have reactivated it 4 times today 2 times earlier and just a few ago....and still no phone.  I ask what did we do before we came so dependent on these little wonders who when they work are so wonder ful and fun but when they do not u wish you had never seen them in you life.  Oh well my husband should be home soon so WE can get with THEM and get this issue squared away.    Wil be back soon working on some rain boots dying to get started on and see what comes of the designs I have in mind for them....nothing to do with pray glue or fabric.....hint though they are now red all over sort of like the newspaper but in color......

Sunday, February 10, 2013

More Pimping my car!!

# 1
#2
Tools you will need:
1. Spray glue I used loc tite available at Joann's had to use that coupon!
2. Exacto knife
3. Material of your choice if you had done door panels or are going to about 2 yards seemed to do the trick you could also measure.
4. Really important waxed paper, you probably could use freezer paper but I do not know it, will work as easily as the waxed paper
5. Scissors for cutting material, around my house there are paper scissors and material do not mix them up!
6.  Glue like Liquid Nail, E -600 , something that you can squirt around the visor edges to hold the piece after you re-fold it  back to visor.
7.  clips to hold both sides together after gluing on material, since you and I do not especially own a industrial sewing machine that could sew this shut again.
8.  The flat tool like a putty knife or something a little smaller, the thing I used was some gift for attending a Tupperware Party back in the day think it was something for dealing with oranges and their peels.
funny tool
 So here is the first part you remove the visor from the vehicle.  I then used a Exacto knife to cut the thread that binds the visor together through the material and internal cardboard as can be seen in this pic # 2.   Be careful not to cut cardbard do not want to mess that up, my thread seemed somewhat dry rotted so was not a difficult task cutting it.   After removing the material flattened it out as best I could it had that foamy backing on it and was a little fragile so be careful with it you do not want to destroy your pattern.  I used a sharpy marker to trace around the old visor pattern to make the new replacement.  Since this is the rightside (side of material that is shown to world, brighter print) of the visor I also placed it on the material's right-side as seen in pic # 4
#3
#4
So using good scissors cut out your material so you can get the new look you have been so patiently waiting for.  
in #5 you see all the excess is cut away except where the mirror this is the tricky part. you need it out but do not cut out too much this can be slid under the mirror once you get it on the card board.  Make sure to mark the places around your pattern where u need to cut it to fit this is where the curves and other openings are.  Now make sure your work surface is covered with newspaper since this is spray glue and it does get in place you will probably not want it. I just sprayed the material this time instead of both pieces since we are working with cardboard and material instead of plastic.  Before you spray if your working alone get your two sheets of waxed paper ready to use, once you have sprayed your glue on the material on the wrong side ( the color or print looks faded on wrong side) get the waxed paper and place it long wise on one half of the material and then the other piece on the other half of the visor material.  I wish I had taken a picture of this step, the reason you used the waxed paper is that it will grab the card board and of course it will be where you do not want it to be, then you will swear a blue streak....and your day will go down hill from there and you still have one more visor to to finish.   So here is were you take one of the sheets of waxed paper off, eye ball where you want to place the visor right side out on the glue sprayed piece of material, then lay it down gently and then flip it over ( you may want to have the material down and then lay the visor on top it is what your comfort level is.  You now need to smooth out wrinkles and make sure your curves are going to the inside of the visor.  When you are ready you can remove other sheet of paper and smooth the other side out also using the tool and possibly the Exacto to get the material under the vanity mirror on the other half of the visor.  During this process you must also put the excess material to the inside of the visor so you have a nice finished edge no cardboard showing
#6

#5
 Now after you have gotten
all the material smoothed out you want to get the tube glue out and go along the inside edge of the visor, use a medium size bead of glue because this is all that is going to hold that visor together unless again you have an industrial sewing machine laying around and have nothing else to do.  After Glue is applied get you clamps or clothespins and go all along the edge like in pic # 7  and # 8 let this dry for about an hour or two according to how well your weather is working for you.   Then remove the clamps and hang your new beautiful new visor in your car.  Now time to get to work on the other one.
#7
#8

 I am sure it is as sad as the first, this one will be easier since you have done one already.    I worked the passenger side first in case I ran out of time or whatever.  I do love showing off my visors and door panels to anyone who will look it has energized me and my car!!   I smile every time now that I get in the next project is getting it painted. same color but just new paint. Have fun Pimping your car!! I hope you enjoy doing your visors as much as I did.
#9