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Here is where I am going: http://foxeni.blogspot.com/

It's not going to be a journal but a practice area for me.

May your days be blessed.

Different Direction

Life is a maze and when one path is blocked, we must choose another. Our choices determine our path but not our fate.
I will probably not return to this blog very often, if ever. I will be working on another blog whose name is TBD.

I will post at least one more time with the link to that blog so you can follow me if you so choose.

Stress

I apologize for my absence. Many things going on. Will try to keep up with this better. For this morning's thought provoking article, please read this:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/05/07/rs.managing.stress/

I personally never thought the human body was meant to move at the pace of today's society. Some people thrive on it while it destroys others. There should be a place for everyone but there doesn't seem to be.

So Many Ideas, So Little Time

I wish my mind would get out of high gear for a little while. I have SO many ideas for things but this darn day job keeps getting in the way! ;)
Besides ideas for new projects, I have projects in progress that I would like to get back to. And other things around the house that should be done: put all the remaining old photos on albums so they don't get damaged, clean out my closets of things that I will never use/wear/look at again, and just try to simplify my life to the point that I CAN get back to my projects.

Wish me luck.

Rest In Peace Esme

Great Blog and DVD

Ran across this yesterday. It's great (and timely)

http://www.greatdepressioncooking.com/Depression_Cooking/DVD.html

You can check out the blog but below is the link to a clip from the upcoming DVD.

Reuse idea

I am probably not the first one to come up with this idea but I had never considered it before so, for the moment, this is original.

I have been in a constant thought process of how I can reuse and repurpose different items around the house. While I was was remaking my bed after an emergency laundering of the sheets and mattress pad due to one of the cats having a vomiting accident (yuk) I began to think about getting a new mattress pad because mine appears to be shrinking. It's still in good shape (and now clean again). Then it occurred to me, instead of buying new batting for a quilt, I could use an old (but not nasty) mattress pad. I've seen a few at thrift stores that weren't in bad shape at all. People get rid of things like that for many non-disgusting reasons such as changing a bed size, shrinkage, getting a better quality one or even cleaning out a relatives house that has passed on. If the people in that reason were anything like my mother, they would've had tons of things that were barely used. (she would buy things, forget she had bought them, then get more.

Anyhow, a nice side effect of using a quilted mattress pad is that it won't shift or bunch in the quilt when it's washed. Not to mention it can be cheaper than batting.

So, that's my green idea for the day.

New Items in Etsy

Although this isn't the main category of item I intend to sell out on Etsy, it's a little something I've been thinking about. In fact, I found the idea in a sketch book of mine from about 10 years ago. I think it was a pretty good idea at that:



Crocheted Kitchen Towel Hangers that let you use your own towel!! How about that!

Click on the photo above to go to my Etsy booth.

Thanks for looking!

President's Day

It's sunny but cold out. Not mind and finger-numbing cold but cold enough. I actually got my computer desk cleaned up yesterday! Now I have to vacuum. Ugh.
Today's President Day will consist of getting an oil change, getting hair cuts for me and my daughter, and scoping out the new Joann Fabrics that opened in Mason last week. They will have their grand opening next weekend and I want to make up a list of items I would like. I have 50% off coupons for the GO so I will wait.

The pre-teen is still asleep but if she doesn't get up on her own by 10am, I will throw a cat on her. (no, really). Works every time.

Anyhow. Hope everyone has a great day.

My New Dress Form finally got here

On my quest to start my home business designing and creating plus size clothing that fits AND looks good, I've had to purchase tools that will help me in this endeavor. The dress form came Wednesday.
I got it at Target.com . It's not quite as sturdy as I thought it would be but it's still pretty good. I was looking for a bargain and I found it. I know it's a size Medium but I plan to use padding in creative ways to build it up to the sizes I need for the clothing I will make.

Speaking of sizes, I went to the Dr yesterday and weighed in (among other things) and I've lost 4 lbs!!! I am happy about that.

Need to get back to it. Still juggling the day job WHILE I work on getting my business up and running. Toodles.

Boots are fixed

I finally dug everything out to fix my boots. If you recall, I mentioned that I'd bought new boots but I discovered that while wearing them the zipper falls down and I nearly walk out of them. Not to mention they pull my socks down because of it.
Well, I fixed that.
I added a button with a neck to either side of the top of the boot where the zipper comes up and stretched a thick hair elastic around them both. Voila! The zipper doesn't slip any more!

BEFORE:





AFTER:







Now, if you're thinking the buttons don't match the boots, well they don't. But I have boot cut pants I wear all the time that will cover it. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can always go buy matching buttons or salvage them from an old coat or something. These happened to be in my button box and I had 4 that matched each other.

Someday....

I've said "Someday" long enough. If I don't forge ahead, "someday" is never going to come. I know it will be good for me but I feel so frazzled at having to juggle so many things at once. I know that after juggling for a while, I will eventually be able to put the non-productive things down that I despise to do and stick with the things I love. Then the juggling will no longer be work but will be fun and natural to my being. Right now, what I do, doesn't come naturally. I got into the information technology field as a way to support myself and my daughter. I liked the hardware end of it: taking apart computers, fixing them and putting them back together, but it seems like after the market flooded with pimply right-out-of-school geeky boys (and girls) the pay for that type of work went down. So I moved on to software support. Software support is getting outsourced at an exponential rate so I moved on to System Administration. Except system administration is really nothing more than a really technical secretary.

Now, I have nothing against secretaries; I've been one on more than one occasion, however I thought with all the schooling and training I had put myself through, I'd left the days of being a secretary behind. Obviously not. I am tired of babysitting adults who don't have the common sense of a rock. Doing this as a contractor makes it worse: not knowing if I will really have a job the next day, week, month, year. They tell me I will but I don't believe them. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. I just want out of this rat race altogether.

I am an artist. Plain and simple. Starving or not, I need to get back to what I am good at.

My Bonanzle site will still have all kinds of odds and ends on it but my Etsy site will have small paintings and clothing I've designed to fill the need of beautiful plus size clothing.

I have my first human to experiment on MWAHAHAHAHAH but she was a voluntary volunteer. She gets to keep the prototypes too. What the heck. She gets free clothes, I get someone to practice fitting clothing too and I get feedback on what she likes and doesn't like.

There is so much to do: work on my sites, work on my blog, I've signed up for Squidoo to promote my blog which in turn will promote my stores. I still don't have everything set up! Argh! This takes so much time and I wish I could devote an entire day to it but alas, I have to actually pay the bills some of the time so I guess I will drag my butt into work now and then.

An upcoming project of mine (which I will post pictures of as soon as I get it done) is to do some boot modification. I bought a pair of winter boots on clearance at a going-out-of-business sale. They are decent and they fit....for the most part. The one thing that bothers me is apparently my calves are too big for the boot when I stand up. The boots zip up the front. They won't stay zipped when I stand up. *SIGH* But, not to worry. I have a solution: stitch a button with a neck on each side of the top of the boot, then take a thick hair elastic and hook it around both buttons. This keeps the top together and, in theory, the zipper shouldn't fall down any more. We'll see.


Let me leave you with a recipe I developed myself:

Wendy’s Hearty Homemade Veggie Soup Recipe

1 can Progresso French Onion Soup 18.5 oz
1 can chicken broth
1 large Baking Potato, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ medium to large yellow onion (sweet or not), chopped into eighths
3 large carrots, sliced
2 long celery stalks, chopped pretty small (use leaves too)
1 tomato (medium diced)
¼ of a head of fresh cabbage chopped into approx 1” x 2” strips
4 bouillon cubes (chicken or beef)
½ tsp black pepper (NO SALT – salty taste comes from bouillon)
½ tsp garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
½ tsp bay leaves (crushed) (optional)
1 tsp parsley
½ mini pasta shells (or brown rice)

(other alternatives to potatoes include: sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips….pretty much any root veggie will work)


In a large pot (like a Dutch oven) add the can of French Onion soup and the can of chicken broth. Measure out four more soup cans of water and add that to the pot. Set on high heat.
Add bouillon. Stir. While this is heating up, clean, peel and slice carrots. By the time you have all three carrots ready it will be time to add them. Then chop and add celery. Heat until boiling, then lower heat to medium high for 20 minutes.
Add pepper, garlic powder, parsley, cabbage and bay leaves. Stir.
Turn heat down to medium then add the onion and potato.
HINT: Chop potato up ahead of time. Leave skin on. Put in a large bowl, cover with cold water and add 8 – 10 drops of lemon juice to keep the potato from turning dark. Cook for 10 minutes.
Now add pasta or rice and tomatoes. Set to simmer with no lid for 30 minutes or until liquid appears to have reduced by half. (Longer simmering is ok up to an hour but no more).
Total prep time: 15 minutes
Total cook time: 1 hour to 1:30
Servings: 10 – 12

This concoction is totally freezable for future use. Put in containers that protect against freezer burn and use within 40 days.

Optional: add other ingredients to taste or to use up leftovers

It's really not green, just the way the photo turned out.

Still Learning How This Works

I managed to get my Bonanzle booth widget in my blog layout but every time I try to get my Etsy
shop, I end up botching the HTML! Things move all over the place and I have big gaps between the pieces of my layout. I'll get it figured out eventually.

Wish I had a bigger place to set up shop in. But I guess this is a test. If I can make it work AND make money in this small little condo, then I can save towards something bigger.
Not to mention, the cats will probably be happy with me (having much more room to roam).

Pretty tired. The rat race wore me out today. Going to go curl up with the cats and snooze.

Nite All!

So many places are closing and laying off. The news is depressing but it's also motivating. It gives me reason to try even harder to make my online presence known and to work to make my online businesses sucessful. An online shop can sit and wait on it's customers, for a while, without worrying how to pay the building rent.

Also I've been reading a book called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki about how the rich get rich and how the poor stay poor. Aside from sounding like an infomercial at times, it does make some valid points. The way most of us are raised is to: go to school, get a good education, find a good job with benefits, work hard and put money away to retire. This book shows you that even though that's a valid path, you will never be considered weathy if you follow that path. Most of the suggestions to get out of that rat race can be beyond the typical American employee but not all. With the plethora of online investment opportunities that allow a person to buy partial shares of stock for $4 a pop (more or less), it puts investing within reach of most people.

"Why would you buy stock at a time like this?" you ask. Actually, with a little research and a little care, this is the BEST time to buy it. The stock market can still go down but the government does have the option of freezing it so the bottom doesn't drop out like in 1929 so that provides a little comfort. Eventually, the economy will turn around and start to get better and with it, the markets will perform better and the value of investments will rise.

So, while I work to keep the bills paid, and work to get the online businesses going, I am also going to research what I want to invest in and begin investing in it.

My advice for the day: "Don't ever pass up the chance to pick up a penny from the sidewalk, you never know when it will make a difference"

In The Beginning....

I had great dreams when I was a teen: I wanted to be this or that or something else. I never dreamed I would be where I am today: a Mom stuck in a never ending rat race with none of my dreams realized (other than that of becoming a Mom).

Please come with me on my trip to change this and make the rest of my life the one I was hoping for to begin with.