My Kindle, My Friend

If you read my blog, and lets face it no one does, you might know that I am doing a 30 by 30.  The explanation as to what this might be is listed on the page by the same name that can be found up at the top of this page next to home.  I just wanted to share with all of my readers (I snort at this, as I know that I don't have readers) that last week I began to read the Harry Potter books finally.  *Gasp*  I know.  I am a bit behind the times.  It doesn't bother me to not read a book right when it comes out just because everyone else is reading them.  To that I say: eh.  However, once I do begin to read a book series, I tend to do it quickly and with little thought to anything else.  Having explained that I will tell you that I have already finished the first 3 books in the week since I started.  I actually began Prisoner of Azkaban last night about 9:30 and finished it just a bit ago.

Hello.  My name is Christina and I am a nerd.  *support group applauds*

Time to start the next book...

Custom passport stamps

As you read in my previous post, my family is doing a weekly Parks Passport photo book this summer.  To give it more of a passport-y feel, I came up with the idea of designing my own stamps in photoshop.  I have only done the first two parks that we visited so far.

The first is Wilson Park.  I used a photo of the castle that they have at the park for the center.

The second is a park in our nearby town of Johnson.  The park itself does not have a name nor does it have any special feature to make it stand out.  However, the park is right next to the old post office so I made this stamp look like an actual stamp.

I found a tutorial on Youtube about making the stamps.  They are actually not that difficult and I just saved them as brushes in case I needed them again later.  

Hopefully I will remember to post a few update screenshots of the pages that I have done already in the next few days.

Parks Passport

While going through Pinterest looking for fun things to do with my daughter this summer, I discovered this gem.  We have visited two parks so far.  Every Friday is our park day.  Some of our parks are better than others and since the town we live in doesn't have very many parks I am including surrounding towns.  This is the original post that I found on Pinterest.  The photo will link back to the original blog not my Pinterest.

Summer park passport: make a map of all the parks in the area/after you visit the park, mark it on the map/note favorite features in the DIY book/take a picture next to park sign.

I have already began making the photobook that will go along with this project.  This is a screen shot of the cover.

I make all my photobooks using BookSmart.  I have three or four books that need to be printed and about six ongoing books.  I am thankful that I do have these books.  Earlier this year my computer crashed because my hard drive was thrashed!  I lost all the photos that I had taken in 2012 because like an idiot I had not backed them up on disks.  I was very thankful for the fact that I already had the 2012 book done so that at least I will have the memories in the book.  If I hadn't had the book I would have gone completely insane.  Any photo-moms out there can tell you that the photos are almost as special as the children themselves.  My husband was afraid when he called to tell me what had happened to my computer.  He had already arranged to sleep at his mother's house just in case I was so angry that I kicked him out.  He is the tech support guy in our house (and among everyone he knows... right now he is on the couch working on a laptop for someone from his work.) and he knows how I am with my photos.  It did not come to that since he was able to recover my books.  But alas, my photos are gone forever.

Moving on... I designed the cover to look like a real passport.  I am still undecided, but I think that it needs a crest in the middle.  Real U.S. passports have an eagle.  I don't think I want to copy a real passport but it needs something.  

I will post more screen shots as I start working through the book.

Happy creating!!

Sunday Scavenger Hunt

I am so glad that the internet has returned to my home.  I can now begin participating in weekly photo prompts and start writing on the new blog that I started just before the internet disappeared the last time.  This week I am taking part in the Sunday Scavenger Hunt hosted by Ramblings and Photos.  Here is how the topics translated themselves in my family this week.

Dishes

Okay so it is only really one dish.  My sister-in-law's birthday was this week and we all went to lunch together.  Ice tea with lemon... condensation running down the glass.  Beautiful.  Art to a southerner.

Favorite Color

My favorite color is pink which just happens (by no real coincidence) to be the color of my new Knockout Rose bush.  I have yet to keep any plant that I have planted alive.  I am hoping that my knockout rose makes it through.  The day after I planted it the wind decided that it hated the town I live in.  Currently there is a max of two blooms left with petals.

Sunflare

The sunflare is almost not a sunflare but it is the closest that I got.  I was not shooting with the prompts in mind and I have been trying to be mindful of the sun's location while shooting.

Expression

This is my sister-in-law.  This is her "I'm a diva in my new Ray Ban sunglasses" look.  She is a dork.

Sticky

My daughter loves stick on tattoos.  This very pretty tiger was almost impossible to get off her arm.  She tried to wash it off herself and it became very sticky... very.  We ended up using windex to remove it.


.

The internet has returned...

to our house finally.  I feel like I haven't been able to update anything for a year now.  I am not really sure why it has taken quite this long to get internet service back.  I do know that I am glad for its return.

Vinegar and Baking soda... 2 simple products

that when used together can create a chemical reaction used to create science fair volcanos for decades.  But when used apart can make your household chores more cost efficient and your house a little bit cleaner for the effort.  I have only just began to utilize the benefits of these two ingredients and my interest began when I originally saw this post on Pintrest (where else!).

Who knew?? Use baking soda and vinegar to fix funky towels. Over time, and with many washes, your bath towels will build up detergent and fabric softener residue, leaving them both unable to absorb as much water and smelling kinda funky when they do. Rather than give Target another lump sum, run them through the wash once with hot water and a cup of vinegar, then again with hot water and a half-cup of baking soda, as wikiHow suggests. That strips the residue from them, leaves them smelling fresh.

I decided that I would try it on my bath towels.  I knew that it couldn't hurt them and honestly they had become quite funky smelling.  I am not the best with my laundry habits and sometimes things get left in the washer wet for too long.  Also I have cleaned up a few doggie accidents from my carpet with whatever towel is closest.  The result is a towel that it is difficult to dry your face off with because both of these smells stay in the towel for several washes after.  Yeeck!  So, as I said, I knew that it couldn't hurt.  So I did it.  I ran the load of towels through with just the vinegar (although I did use about 1 and 1/2 cups instead of just the 1 cup on the pin) and hot water.  Then with the 1/2 cup of baking soda and hot water.  I don't know about removing the residue and improving the water absorbsion like it says in the pin, but I can say that the smell was completely gone!  Even my liquid laundry detergent couldn't do that!

Another vinegar cleaning miracle that I have already used is to remove potential stains from my fabric couch.  I have a 4 year old and the trail that children leave behind can certainly cause strain on a mother.  My daughter just happened to be coloring with markers... on my couch!  A no no to begin with and a shame on me for not noticing.  Sometimes when they are quiet, you just want to enjoy it while it lasts.  Needless to say I ended up with purple marker on the arm of my couch.  I started to freak out, as is to be expected.  After a few frantic minutes on the internet I found a homemade cleaning solution that I actually had the stuff for and promised to not ruin my sofa.  I have since used it a few times and can honestly say that it does remove both marker and blood... don't ask.  Since you (hopefully) won't need very much of this solution at a time here is the quick make version.  I use a regular coffee cup and put about 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish detergent, and fill up the mug with cool water.  Stir.  Take a dishtowel or a washrag and dip a corner in the solution and blot the spot on the sofa.  DO NOT RUB!  You don't have to soak the spot just blot and then blot with the dry part.  Repeat until the color of the stain stops showing up on the wet part of the rag.  Allow to dry.  Everytime that I have used this the stain came up completely.  I do have a brown couch though so I don't know how well it would work on a lighter color.  BEWARE:  if you do have a darker color couch you will pull up some regular butt dirt (everyday soiling from just sitting on the couch) with the stain.  If you are a cleaning nut, germaphobe, or otherwise perfectionist this could be enough to send you into a cleaning frenzy in which case you will have to make a bigger batch of the couch cleaner.  Good luck.

There are so many more ways to use the vinegar and the baking soda in everyday cleaning.  My next attempt will be cleaning my hallway carpet where those doggie accidents have been.  It still has a bit of a smell in some places.  I have heard that the vinegar will remove the enzymes that cause the smell and deter the dog from using there again.  Surely if the vinegar and baking soda got the smell out of my towels, then they can work on my carpet too.  I will let you all know.

More Summer... Less TV

Today I decided something that seems like it should be obvious.  My daughter doesn't need to watch as much TV as she has been.  Obvious right?  I see her sitting watching cartoons and I wonder if she knows how to use her imagination.  I don't want her to miss out on developing the skills that foster creativity.  As a family we all watch too much.  Problem is, I always just get up in the morning and turn it on for background noise and get on the computer.  That isn't good either.

So I was on Pinterest... (no news there!)... and found a pin for screen free week:  100 kids activity ideas.  Now some of the ideas seem just a little silly to me and some are not doable for our family... but as there are 100 ideas we can surely find a few on the list that we can manage.