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Friday, December 28, 2012

Fleece Duster

I needed some Swiffer duster refill things, but I (sort of) hate the idea of disposable cleaning products. So I made one (so far) out of fleece scraps from my sewing bin! I hand sewed just a few stitches, and it literally took six minutes to complete. The most annoying thing about this project was that my hand got tired cutting all the little flappy things because my paper scissors are dull (big surprise) and I was too lazy to go downstairs to get my fabric scissors. These things don't work as well as the disposable dusters (maybe because I just used regular fleece and not micro-fleece?). However, they do work better than just looking at the dust wishing it wasn't there.

I mostly didn't follow the instructions found at little dear tracks




Monday, December 17, 2012

Homemade Blanket

This crocheted blanket is the only homemade Christmas gift I made this year. It's a good thing I didn't plan on other projects, because I kept messing this one up. The problem with making up my own pattern is fixing what doesn't work. I finally figured out the trick, but not until my fourth do-over. I love how it turned out, and hopefully the person receiving it loves it, too.





Thursday, December 6, 2012

The Feng and the Shui of It

So I've had the same book about feng shui from the library for almost a year. Autocorrect totally thinks it's fang shui, by the way. I initially skimmed the book to see if it was something I could absorb or if it was too far beyond my crazy. Kind of like a test drive. I finally read it, making notes about my house along the way. It had a pretty good questionnaire to help figure our which "houses" need the most work in your life.

It turns out that two of the houses (career and helpful friends) that need work for me fall within my living room. It's really not surprising that there is either negative energy or some sort of chi-suck in this room. Directly north is the back of a building located about 12 feet or so from the house. Across the street to the east is another large building which is painted white. On sunny afternoons there is a terrible glare which shines right into the living room.

The left photo faces north and looks upon the back of a 
neighboring building. The right photo faces east looking out 
the front of our house toward a large white wall.

I've got some ideas* on how to cut or change the negative chi from these two structures. Ideas include planting bamboo, hanging a wind chime, hanging a convex mirror-type thing and devising some sort of visual screen. I will choose only one "cure" and then give it some time. I don't want to go all nutty with the cures and end up with an even bigger problem...tackiness.

*UPDATE (even though I never published this post):
Having the curtains in the center of the front window seems to be enough of a barrier against the big white wall to the east. To the north I placed a small planter of bamboo within view of the side window and placed a convex mirror on the exterior of the house. I'm giving these things some time to work their "magic."







Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Balls

Not Christmas balls, not cheese balls, not basketballs or mothballs. I'm talking about those balls. Testicle balls. And avocados. I'm under the impression that when an avocado grows on a tree, it grows as a pair with one hanging slightly above or slightly below it's brother. I really, really believe that I learned that the word avocado means balls or testicles.

I believe I learned all this sometime between the years 2002 and 2005. I've narrowed it down to that time frame for two reasons: a) I know I was living in California at the time; and 2) I know I was living in California at the time, because I liked watching the PBS program called California's Gold.

I'm pretty sure it was Huell Howser who taught me the true meaning of avocado.

Why am I blogging about this? Well, because I've tried including this random piece of trivia in casual conversations...and NO ONE YET has believed me. Well, a quick google search confirmed that avocado is from "the language of the Aztecs," and it translates to testicle. So there. Also, guacamole translates to avocado sauce. Um...gross.