April 20th, 2009 by Sha
Our current kitchen is small and not suited to our culinary adventures, but until we can build our dream kitchen we have to make due. The biggest problem is the lack of cabinet and counter space, which was somewhat lessened when we brought the steel prep table home from the restaurant we used to own in town. It is three feet deep and four feet long, has a large drawer, and a bottom shelf where we store one of our sets of pots and pans and the deep fryer. The problem with this is that it is open, and we have four indoor cats. So basically whenever we want to use any of the items that are stored on that bottom shelf they have to be washed first. One day I got so tired of having to clean the fryer before we could use it that I decided to make a cover for it. I’m a novice sewer, at best, and am amazed that I made something like that without a pattern. I just looked at the fryer and could see in my head the shapes that I needed to make it work. The fryer cozy made Pete and I laugh because even though it is a useful item it is a bit ridiculous due to the leopard fabric it’s made of. But when you live in B.F.C. you’ve got to use what’s available when domestic silliness happens!
April 16th, 2009 by Sha
Years ago I saw a refrigerator magnet that said “cats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one”. At that point in my life I’d never had a cat, so I didn’t really understand the truth to that statement. Well now I can say without hesitation that it is absolutely true. Since moving to B.F.C. I have rescued ten felines, and kept all but two. I’m starting to think there is a kitty sign post somewhere on the property because a few weeks ago another cat showed up out of nowhere and has been hanging around the house. He’s super friendly, and he’s a big boy – I call him Big Kitty. He was shy at first but now he’s pretty comfortable here, and even came into the loft and slept in the pillow pile the other night for a few hours. I just can’t help myself, they are so sweet and cute and all they want is some love. Isn’t that what we all want?
April 10th, 2009 by Sha
I first saw the cellphone beanbag chair last Christmas in one of the many catalogs that fill our mailbox during the holidays. They were super cute, and I thought they would be a good solution to our cellphone situation here in B.F.C. You see in order to get a signal strong enough to make a call our cellphones need to be propped up against a window in the front of the house, facing the nearest tower. Doing this will get up to four bars of reception, but if you pick up the phone or move it the signal is lost. (We had to sit on the planter wall and lean towards the window without moving in order to have a conversation before we got bluetooth headsets!) The problem was the phones occasionally fell over for one reason or another and as a result they had gotten a few scratches. The other issue was that the window frames we were leaning the phones on were interfering with the signal reception. I was going to buy the mini beanbags for us for Christmas last year but then I saw the price ($9.99 each plus shipping) and thought “I could make that!” Fast forward to yesterday, and voila! One custom leopard print cellphone beanbag chair! I got a free beanbag chair pattern online from Budget101.com that I used as a template to make a scaled down pattern. I used a piece of graph paper (printed from a free template I found at this website) and drew the three pattern shapes in the scale that I wanted, cut them out and proceeded to follow the instructions on the pattern page. The only thing different about the beanbag I made is that there is no zipper, I simply hand stitched the bottom closed after I filled the beanbag with dried chamomile flowers. Yep, mine is stuffed with chamomile flowers. I was going to stuff it with lavender flowers but unfortunately did not have enough. Since I live in B.F.C. I have to be adaptable and use what’s here, hence the chamomile flower stuffing. The total cost of my custom cellphone beanbag chair was about $2 and a few hours of my time. I am very satisfied with how it came out and would have to say that the cellphone beanbag sewing session was a success. I think I’m going to make a few more to give as gifts to the people I love. They are so cute, who wouldn’t want one?
April 7th, 2009 by Sha
Just got done creating my profile at LinkedIn, for now anyways. I hate doing resumes, which is basically what it is, and have a difficult time lining up my abilities and experience. This is mostly because it is so varied, as I have had lots of types of jobs in many different industries over the years. I can’t imagine having one job, the same job, my entire life like folks used to do fifty years ago. Having a plethora of experience is far more rewarding, and fun. It makes life interesting and has given me a sense of accomplishment, just like writing a resume. The act of chroniciling every job you have ever held, every task you’ve ever mastered, is empowering. Because of the perfomance of that act I am confident that I can do anything I set my mind to, because it becomes apparent that I always have.
