Cool News For Scrappers

It's been a really long time ... A lot has happened in the world ... Even more in our personal lfe ... But I just had to share this for any readers who scrap:

You know when people look at your scrap book pages and then comment on how they would "love a copy" of that photo that's been glued/adhered down?

Now at Archivers (check their website for your nearest location) you can get full sized 12 inch copies ... Yes you can get a copy of the entire page! You can even get it shrunk down to a smaller 8 inch size if you want to make a sort of "souvenir" album.

I called my local store and they said that copies start at $3.49 a sheet ... I would assume (but I could very well be wrong) that to shrink it might cost a tad more.

I can see where this would come in handy for weddings - one main album for the bride/groom, and copies for the parents and the people who stood up - maybe even the officiate if they are a personal friend ...

Maybe that favorite aunt who couldn't make it ...
One for each of the kids later in your life ...
Or grandiose ...

How about baby books? Make the main one for your family and copies for each set of grandparents ...
Ones for the Godparents ...

What about bridal/ baby showers? Same thing ... Main one for mom/dad/baby ... Some for the grandparents .... Maybe a book that not only has pictures of things like baby's sonogram but also photos of mom &dad as kids thru the years for comparison ... What a precious gift this would be! Just make copies of the parents baby pictures so that the grandparents can get their photos back ... Most grandparents will have them either loose, in some of those albums where the photos just slide in, or in one of those albums that had the tiny sticky dot pages ...

HINT: if you do have photos on those old photo books with the sticky dots,be very careful removing them ... after being there for 20-30 years we found that they will be PERMENATELY stck and maybe damaged while trying to remove them from the page.

Check at Archivers (sorry but they are the experts on this one) and see if they have a product to dissolve the glue without damaging the photos.

I mean I know there is something out there - it's like Goop-Off or lighter fluid ( BUT DON'T USE THOSE) but it's a liquid that comes in a nozzle bottle that you squeeze on and it will gently eat the glue but the photo has minimum damage to it.

Any how ...

Just wanted to share about the copies ...

I think it's a wonderful idea ... Even if it is expensive - you are probably only to need/want this type of service so price will be a smaller factor in the long run.

Be-Czar

okay so I have been gathering info .... yeah this is another 'political' post, but it is going to condemn the system not any particular party or action - well kind of.

We have all heard the terms "Drug Czar", "Car Czar" etc. it seems to have been in our political vocabulary for generations (I remember it in the 80's) and have had this thought of ''okay, there's one guy at the top watching over all this stuff and he's responsible for great strides'' (or blame for failure) ...

but THAT'S NOT TRUE ... not exactly

truly what a 'Czar' does is outside of the law ... they do not report to anyone but the President....

there's no supervisors, no one making sure they aren't wasting our tax dollars, no one to make sure they are actually DOING their jobs....

but worst of all it screws with the "Checks & Balances" of our country ... you might remember this from high school government, although I recall learning it in elementary school ....

No single branch of government is allowed to have too much power, each gets to check on the others work .... Legislative (congress - senate & house), Executive (president), and Judicial (law enforcers such as courts & US Supreme Court) .... its a good idea in most cases --- yes things can bog down but its better than having one agenda being crammed down our throats [let it pass, ginger]

Well Czars put a bit more power into the executive branch ... gives them more 'reach' if you will ... most Presidents only have a few of them (like the Drug Czar) ... but for some reason there has been a total EXPLOSION of Czars under Obama's administration.

Czar's used to be called "Dictators" in FDRs days ... which really gives you a better sense of what the position is ... "Czar" dresses it up too much -- but its the SAME THING. It was Nixon I guess who switched the term over [I'm surprised they are still using it]

They get APPOINTED by the President ... they don't have to go thru any sort of Confirmation hearings, no election process, just a simple vetting or background check - which we have seen in the last couple of decades SUCK -- no one has a say but the President who gets to sit on these very very powerful political seats.

no one.

not even the VP can stop him.

So he could fill them with a bunch of lackies -- lap dogs who will do exactly what the President wants (no matter who the President is) and pretty much force thru whatever regulations POTUS wants even if Congress or the Courts say otherwise.

This is really bad in this respect. Especially in the political field we have today ....

who many times has a person been elected in for taking one stance, but then once they got into office it seemed like they had a whole different agenda that they had kept quiet about? Or how mnay officials have been elected and then switched parties lately? or how many officials have been elected and then seem to have gone nuts -- or out for their own interests instead of the the people who elected them?

And most of the Czar's really don't need a special position - they could easily operate within the regular scope of existing Departments of Government .... I found one site that seemed to have a very good list of Czar titles -- I do not know which ones are purely Obama-created posts and which have been around but here it is: 16 in all at last count.

1. Energy Czar (created under Nixon)
2. Urban Affairs Czar
3. Infotech Czar
4. Paith-based Czar
5. Health Reform Czar
6. New TARP Czar
7. Stimulas Accountability Czar
8. Non-Prolifereation Czar
9. Terrorism Czar
10. Regulatory Czar
11. Drug Czar
12. Guantanamor Closure Czar
13. Great Lakes Czar (budget $475 Million to study sucker fish)
14. Economic Czar
15. Government Performance Czar
16. Intelligence Czar (oversees the FBI, CIA, and other agencies)

Oh look --- a new way to pay back political favors without regulation ... after all, there's a Government Performance Czar & Regularatory Czar to say its 'okay'

Hmmmm .... where did our government lose its way? Anyone?

Ginger's Teas: New Recipe

I have a new recipe for Sinus Tea on my google pages site:

Ginger's Teas

Nothing wonky or special, no 'strange' ingredients ... just something that seems to work for my kids, and they like to ask for more - and when they get a cold they seem to ask for it first before cough drops these days!

In fact you could probably get what you need for it right in your grocery store tea aisle and mix up a couple of different teabags from there to come up with something simular.

New Page

Okay I have found Google Pages as well. So I started a tea recipe page there.
I'm not exactly sure what the difference between 'Pages' and "Blogger" are but I figured I would use Pages to keep my recipes and other stuff on just to keep everything a tad more organized.

So the first page is photos, but the second page is tea blends.

So here is the link to Ginger's Tea
First recipe is Clairvoyance Tea.

See "Things to Ponder"

See "Things to Ponder" on your Google homepage »

I like:
If you throw your cat out the car window, does it then become Kitty Litter?

Things to Ponder

Okay a great widget for iGoogle (if you haven't signed up for an acct. you really should)...it gives you some food for thought every day...some just for humor, some for real comtemplation....like this one:

Why are there flotation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes?

I know this reason actually: because (1)most people don't know how to use it or wear them properly(2) people would get sucked into the jet engines on the plane (3)people are less likely to land properly (4)statistically you are more likely to make a water landing and being in the body of the plane will make you more likely to survive by giving you time to think (5) your natural instinct for survival will stop most people from jumping out of a plane--even if their life depended on it.

Review -- TeaLovers Boutique (Free Plug)

Tea Party Essentials : Tea Lover's Boutique, Where Tea Lovers Shop

Okay---for us tea lovers out there---there's a great podcast called "TeaCast" from the Tea Lovers Room/Tea Lover Chick.

If you love tea you will really appreciate this podcast. it isn't "snooty" but it is informative.

But this link isn't for the show---the Tea Lover Chick has tried to take the run-around out of setting up a tea party/gathering by doing the runninf for you...and last year opened her own supply shop.

I love her stuff....probably too much....she has many unique items that I have not been able to find any where else---such as the inside-out heart tea cup sets.
I did see a single cup/saucer being offered online last year for about $30...but she offers a set of 6 cups & 6 saucers in a wonderful storage/gift/display case for $49--well actually she offers two seperate sets.
The first is done in rainbow colors (a more contemporary/'now' look) and the second is in a more traditional pink/cream with gold accents... in fact the entire handle is covered in gold (talk about luxurious!).

She has got everything you could possibly need for a tea party--including the tea.

Remember tea parties aren't just for kids---it was started by adults and we should claim it back. Need some ideas? Check out her selection of tea based books, she even has issues of 'Tea Time Magazine'...if you haven't heard of it, its worth the $5 to check out a copy!

Hogwarts Sock Swap 2

Okay here is a link to the Hogwarts Sock Swap 2 google CACHE....this means that google had one saved in its memory.

Hopefully this will stay up for a while....all the links are clickable and usable so you will be able to get to everyone else's blog sites.

I still haven't heard what happened that they pulled them down but I loved checking in and seeing what was new.

Plus we never heard who won the house cup this year! I got a few answers for the trivia contests and the posting contests....so I'm a tad involved here---or maybe its just the Slytherin in me...lol.

So where's the link???

Digital library exceeds 1 million books - Yahoo! News

Well you can praise the library if you want, but without a URL to take you there the story is pretty mute, im my opinion. What is the point of putting in all these books without giving out the way of accessing them?

One million books--that's impressive...even if they are scanned in....I've made scans of my kids' workbooks for school so I could eliminate the "I forgot it" excuse for not getting thier work done...and let me tell you, I got bored really quick by doing just 15 pages I couldn't imagine doing an entire book!

I wonder too how they deal with the "dead" areas of the spine....if you have ever tried to copy a page in a thick or hard covered book you will find that you can't get the book to lay flat enough without applying pressure to the top of the scanner and putting extra pressure on the scanner's glass--NOT GOOD!--so I wonder what they did to eliminate that?

I can't imagine that they would have taken the books apart and then had them all rebound...especially not with the older books.

*********************************************************

Now if you want a really nice e-library I suggest Project Gutenberg. It is maintaintained by volunteers, and the majority of the works are hand-typed into the system.

ALL texts are in the public-domain and copyright free ....you will find all sorts of classics here--Austen, Orczy, Shakespeare, Sabatini, Dumas, you name it--from Aaron to Zwemer! Books are generally the first ed.s although there are some that are 4th eds...it all depends on what copies are being used---Pride & Prejudice, Scaramouche, Illiad, Scarlet Pimpernel---everything from "Aan de kust van Malabar De Aarde en haar Voken" (in Dutch, btw) to "Zweierfei Denken Ein Beirtrag zar Physilogic des Deskens" (in German).... and that's not even mentioning the texts that use characters that don't fit into the anglo-saxon alphabet!

Need links?? Try these for Project Gutenberg:

General info/intro to the project

the dircet eCard Catalog (search by author or title)

The advance Search feature (when you want to find by Subject matter, collections, language, or even if you are looking for, say, free audio versions of the book)

Oh that reminds me:

Free audio books! I love hearing someone else read while I'm checking out a book that I find a tad difficult to get started on, or one which has a lot of foriegn words that I don't know how to pronounce--like "The Three Musketeers" or "Scarlet Pimpernel" for instance....I have very little knowledge of French--for these times I love the site:

Librivox!

This site is also maintained by volunteers...you can search for completed works or look for one's that currently being recorded or getting ready to be recorded! Some works are recorded by one/solo reader some will have several readers...and some, like "The Importance of Being Ernest" are recorded as a production_see note at end of this post_

Each catalog entry will give you the link to the online version of the book used for the reading...usually a Proj. Gut. text but not always....this means that not only can you take the audio with you but a copy of the book itself on your iPod or PDA. I love this! It was this feature that made it possible for my 4th grader to read and understand Jack London & Sabitini! I'll post more on that later.

The searchable catalog

The Advanced Search {where you can pull-down the Status menu to find which works are In Progress, or those that are waiting for Proof Listening...this is a fun feature. You can also search by language, genre, the month the work was put into the catalog, etc.}

They even have several podcasts. There is one made for the people who do the recordings, there is one that interviews authors....my favorite is the one that gives you the books automatically!

Librivox Book Podcast

I really recommend their podcast--every day you get a new chapter of the current book, every week you get a poetry selection--I love it!

_The Importance of Being Ernest_

Okay here is that note I promised. When it came time to do this work the coordinator had to deal with the issue of the book having been written/published as a play. What to do?

They came up with the ingenious idea...at least I think so...of instead of assigning chapters as is the norm, of assigning characters-just like in a regular play...this also meant that a narrator needed to be assigned to read the stage cues.

Now you might think this is a rather easy thing to do...until you learn that the readers had to do each of their parts on their own without having the benefit of hearing the other readers parts/inflections/voices, etc. The readers were in seperate states, even countries--they had no real idea.

Then the coordinator took the seperate works and peiced them together! They didn't make any money from their hard work. You know this had to take several hours of work too....that is what I call dedication!

Bravo!

Please patronize these sites.

My funny Wish List

WEIRD TOYS: Stupid.com

1. Avenging Unicorn set

2. Choke the Annoying Chicken {this is the best one on the whole page!!}

3. Racing Grannies

4. Quad Cam (no, really I've wanted this since the first time I saw it--it would be perfect for scrapbooking those action shots)

5. the Yodeling Pickle

6. the Nose Pencil Sharpener (well its for my 11yr son...its right up his alley)

7. the Baby Shower---you have to use your imagination for this one....its pretty funny.

Make sure you read the describtions of each toy {especially the potty training teddy bear...lol}

Twinkle Toes update

well I have inc the number of sts needed for my partners foot....actually I'm not doing the Twinkle Toes pattern, just using it as a guideline....but I should have probably inc the number of cast ons to 12 (total) and worked 2 inc rows before moving onto the inc row/k row combination.

Also I waited until I had 32 sts on the two needles before splitting the stitches onto the 4 needles....I found this gave a better base to the sock and helped to prevent the needles from twisting backward--I actually got stitching and found that one of the needles had twisted around making a very ugly pucker...had I been working a cable st it would have been different, but it would have been very uncomfortable on the bottom of the foot....or on the top of the foot for that matter.

These are going to be some very interesting socks--not only am I using different tachniques for each of them....I did decide to use different needle sizes. This means that one sock will be just that much bulkier than the other...but hopefully not so much as to cause a real problem...I really like the concept.

The only thing the socks will have in common is the yarn, but even it will be slightly different due to pooling effects. I loved the way it ringed around the toe area! I wish it would do the same all the way up, but it has already gone to the single row of a single color...although it does change a little sooner than before so I'm hoping it will start to swirl around.

Now to prevent having to over frog I have inserted a peice of emb floss thru the stitches/loops of the last reg row for the toe---just incase I go on and find that I do not have enough stitches I will be able to stop the unraveling and easily find the stitches to simply pick them up and replace them onto the needles.

If I do not need to frog then I can simply pull the floss out later without having to pick it out--just so long as I did not split the floss at any point without realizing it.

I will more than likely do this every few rounds just to save myself some work--by doing a little more work now---should a problem arise like a dropped needle, a dropped stitch, a picked up stitch, etc.

This technique will come especially handy when I get to the heel flap/gusset.

Because I have never done a toe-up sock before I am anticipating a lot of issues with the "wrap, turns" on the short rows. I will check out knittinghelp.com as well for a video of the procedure but I want a stand by just in case as well.

If I run into too many troubles I can always contact one of these sock groups on Yahoo groups that I belong to:

T_Socks_KAL:Townsend Current Knit A Long
TownsendSocksKnitAlong:T-Knit A Long (I love the current group photo!!)

If you aren't familiar with Jeannie Townsend, that's okay...I didn't know about her until I started looking for sock groups either...if you decide to join check out the groups files---she offers tons of free patterns there, all of her own design! Some of the members have posted their own patterns up there as well. She is very talented, I don't know why she hasn't sold any of her patterns...although she did say once that the purposes of the group was to build internet buddies not make money....so its probably because she just has a really big heart!!

If you are interested she also has a blog:

Just Jeannie

Au Natural??

So I get this email from MaryMaxim.com about the new yarns they have from Bernat...they are called "Natural Blends"...okay I'll bite. Bernat makes great yarn, I love it, so the idea of them making some natural yarns sounds like a great idea....natural yarn that is affordable--not $25 a hank, I can live with that.

At least it sounded like a good deal....what it did was raise the question in my mind of what exactly defines "natural" in a blended yarn?

In my mind, in order to qualify enough to use the term "Natural" in my mind the yarn should contain no less than 60% natural fibre....why so much? Because it is enough to allow the addition of synthetic threads to increase the wear and tensile strength of the fibre yet still allow a person to enjoy the texture/weight/sense of the natural component with out it being over powered by the non-natural.

So what did I find when I pulled up the Bernat Pages???

Bernat Alpaca---70% acrylic, 30% Alpaca
Bernat Cashmere--65% acrylic, 30% nylon, 5% Cashmere
Bernat Soy--50% acrylic, 50% soy

Bernat Bamboo--89% bamboo, 11% acrylic
Bernat Felting-- 100% wool
Bernat Organic Cotton--100% organic cotton (funny, I thought all cotton was organic by nature)

So as you can see, only half the yarn would qualify by my standards and I think at least 2 of them would make people wonder about the honesty of calling them "natural" at all!

I understand that they are trying to give us a product they can keep low priced, but why use the word "natural" at all? Why not simply give it a snappy name...like "Billie" since Cashmere comes from goats or maybe "Kashmir" since that's the breed of goat it comes from.

This would remove the stigma of "natural" yet still tote the fibre content with out being misleading. How many people do you think are going to buy the Alpaca and be disappointed when they find that they paid $5/skein for only $1.50 worth of actual Alpaca!! Or worse, if they got the Cashmere....where they paid $5/skein and only got $0.25 worth of Cashmere!!

How did I get these numbers you might wonder....MaryMaxim has the skeins for $4.99, which I divided by 100 to find out what 1% of the cost was, this I multiplied by the %age of the fibre in the yarn (5% cashmere, 30% Alpaca).

This would be quite the surprise for any one who has a sensitivity to acrylics like my sock partner does. I know when my son was young he was real sensitive to wool (don't see it so much anymore), so sensitive in fact that he had 3 bouts of bronchitis and 2 of pnuenomia before we discovered that the carpet in the living room, while acrylic had an old wool carpet being used as padding underneath...we also discovered that one of the toys he got from his grandparents (an old one of his father's) was made of wool as well.

I would rather they had kept the name more generic making people look at the content...I'm waiting for the first complaint of "false" advertising...which I at least feel it is skirting.

This Program could save your life!!

WeatherBug

Not everyone knows of this great program for your systems tray. You put in the local zipcode (US only) and it gives you the local weather plus any severe storm/weather warnings while you are online. The basic program is completely free and I highly recommend it for everyone.

If you haven't heard of it, check it out...if you have heard of it I would love to hear how often you find yourself using it.

I use mine everyday...and nights like tonight when we have two major storms converging you can bet we will be paying close attention to it!!!