Seven

I have a modest wish and that is to keep house unexpected company drop in clean. My house used to be kept in this fashion when I was a newlywed and when the girls were small. Then driving them to and from school and after school activities, plus driving my elderly parents around, seems things got tossed onto the dining room table before I was running out again. I'd end up doing a cleaning frenzy when company was coming, but that left me worn out and junk piled in my bedroom. That was part of the frenzy. Toss stuff in my bedroom and just shut the door. Seemed I couldn't get out of my own way. There was lots of stuff to be done, but it was overwhelming.

Then my friend, D, happened to join a FlyLady group on Facebook. You know, Facebook, enabling the nosy? So I went to check it out. And then bombarded D who has been flying for awhile with a million questions. FlyLady is a small step at time approach to decluttering your home and getting into a routine. FlyLady calls it flying, and I've been fluttering along for a month. Seven things I like about FlyLady

1. You can start slow and take baby step to get yourself out of clutter. I've sent several bags and boxes off to The Big Brother/Big Sister organization (they send a truck around town every month). Getting rid of stuff I haven't been using and don't want feels good.

2. FlyLady's philosophy is set a timer and do a job for 15 min. It's amazing how much you can get done in a small chunk of time.

3. FlyLady has you put things into a notebook so you can easily refer to it to see what's next on the to do list. I use Microsoft OneNote for my notebook on the laptop. No papers, no clutter.

4. FlyLady divides the house into zones. Once a week, each month, cleaning is focused in the zone. Each day, a small chore (15 min) is to be done.

5. I like the schedule of it. I like the fact I'm given an assignment to do each day.

6. I can vary the schedule to suit me. For example, this week the zone was the living room. One of the tasks was to dust the tops of the window and door jambs. I thought as long as I was dusting the tops of the windows, it seemed like a good time to take the curtains down and give them a wash, and to wash the windows since my windows tilt in to clean.

7. I'm finding as I flutter along I have time to not only keep up with the daily grind of things, but I have more time to devote to things I want to do like blogging or getting a new website up and running.

If you're a person who likes schedules, this system will work for you. One of the downsides of the group is several emails a day that have more to do with FlyLady products (which you don't need to buy) or members giving testimonials to the system. It's easy enough to delete the stuff you're not interested in. Check out FlyLady. The group is free to join. Do you fly?

Media Trailer

A sample of a media trailer for Pony Express Graphics. This was so much fun to put together. Though it looks quite clear on the website and fuzzy here. How's it look to you?

The Floor

A week after the floor was started, the sun room is back in order. The floor took longer to put down than Himself anticpated. It was also a lot more difficult to clean the grout grit and haze off than I anticipated. I was able to get the surface dirt off with a mop, but had to scrub each tile individually while on my hands and knees. Pardon me while I raise my wrist to my forehead. I kept wondering what maroon thought textured tile was a good idea. Luckily, we found a radio station 1250 AM WARE that plays real oldies, music from the 50's and 60's. Scrubbing to do-wop made the chore go faster.

I'm so happy to be back out here, and I love the floor. Himself did a great job. Ink is happy to be back on his (my) chair though not happy about having his picture taken.

New Beginnings

Today is John Wayne's birthday. Seems an appropriate date to launch a blog with a Western flavor. April 3rd would have been a better launch date as this was the start date for the Pony Express. I was busy composting (thinking, planning, day dreaming) and missed this date. I'm in the process of reinventing me and what I do.

I've been giving my website a new look, started tweeting on Twitter, and a new blog. A rather odd combination. A little bit old, a little bit new. Calligraphy and computer graphics.

Why Pony Express? First, I love cowboys and Westerns. If you're going to do something, it ought to be what you love. Secondly, coming from Massachusetts, there are lots of Colonial, Pilgrim, Minutemen, Kennedy, and I wanted something different. Brainstormed with a friend. Cowboy, cowpoke, Maverick. That was cool sounding, but all variations were taken on the domain names. Outlaw, Renegade, but those implied something shady even though I liked Outlaw. Pony Express. Dependable, reliable. Ta-dah!

Cool, but why pick a name from a failed venture? There's a bit of irony there between the Pony Express, calligraphy and computers. I didn't consciously think of it, but it's there.

The Pony Express was started in April 1860. It was a dangerous and expensive mail run from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA and it lasted a little over one year. The invention of the telegraph made the Pony Express obsolete and the company folded in 1861. A little like computers and desktop publishing has impacted hand-done calligraphy. Ironic? Yes. Appropriate, yes. The legend and romance of the Pony Express still lives on in Western movies and those of us who love "The Old West". And even though computers have had a big impact on calligraphy, that still lives on, too. People still want their wedding invitations written in a beautiful hand. Some want their wedding vows, a favorite poem or quote turned into a piece of hand done art. Calligraphy is still taught at art museums, adult ed., and craft classes. The art will be passed on and it will still live on.

So stop by from time to time as I ramble on about calligraphy, computers and computer graphics and cowboys.

The graphic is an ATC (artist trading card) done for an exchange with the theme Words to Live By. From She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, John Wayne as Captain Nathan Brittles: Don't apologize. It's a sign of weakness.

Screen capture taken from the movie and then sepeia toned through the magic of Paint Shop Pro X2, walnut ink, gel marker, Rubinato pen on Diploma Parchment dyed with burnt sugar. The Duke's image was mounted with double stick mounting tape to give a 3D look.

Happy Birthday, Duke!

Seven

When the sunroom went up, we put down an inexpensive peel and stick linoleum floor. Temporary until we got more do re mi to invest in good flooring. With the temperature extremes in the sunroom, it didn't take long (about a week) for the peel and stick to lift because the glue melted and the tiles started to shrink. We decided this weekend was the weekend for a new project, tiling the sunroom floor. That is Himself will be doing the tiling. I'll be the "Hey, Dude! Get me..." or just plain staying out of his way. Seven things about this project.

1. Picking out the tile. I wanted slate, but reading about the maintenance of a slate floor put me off. We went to the place where we got the bathroom tile. J. knows his stock. I asked if he had tile that looked like slate. He did. Because we were returning customers, he knocked a bit off the price and suggested a perfect color grout too.

2. Moving the furniture. All of the sunroom is now crammed in the livingroom/diningroom. Funny, how my chair (the chair and a half) weighs a lot more than it looks.

4. I got the shop vac and picked up the dust and dirt.

5. Pulling up the peel and stick went very quickly because the glue was all melty.

6. Too bad the porcelain tile wasn't the same size as the peel and stick because we could clearly see the tile lines.

7. Even though, we could clearly see the center room mark, Himself measured and laid out the tile so he could decide where to put the cuts.

Have you been working on any home improvement or gardening projects?

Starlight Double Delight Cake

I got this recipe from my ma. I'm pretty sure she clipped this recipe from a magazine during the late 50s or early 60s. The cool thing about this recipe is part of the batter becomes the frosting. The cake is very dense.

Ingredients:

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. shortening, softened (I use butter or margarine though I think this refers to something like Crisco*)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. peppermint extract (I'm not crazy about peppermint so I subsitute either orange extract or raspberry extract and I increase the amount to 1 - 3 tsp. depending on taste)

6 c. Confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)

1/4 c. hot water

4 sq. (4 oz) melted chocolate

2 1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 c. shortening (see note about shortening above)

3 eggs

3/4 c. milk

1 tsp.salt

1. Preheat oven to 350o F. and grease and flour 2 nine inch cake pans

2. Cream together cream cheese, 1/2 c. shortening, vanilla and extract flavoring of choice until fluffy.

3. Blend 3 c. confectioner's sugar into the mixture. Add hot water with balance of confectioner's sugar

4. Blend in melted chocolate. Reserve 2 c. of chocolate mixture for frosting for cake

5. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt

6. Combine 1/4 c. shortening and remaining chocolate mixture.

7. Blend in eggs one at a time. Beat for 1 minute.

8. Add milk alternately with dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Begin and end with dry ingredients. Use low speed.

9. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 30 - 35 min. Cake is done when cake tester or toothpick inserted into middle comes out dry.

10. Cool in pans for 15 minues. Remove from pans and cool thoroughly on wire rack.

11. Frost with reserved chocolate mixture.

12. Enjoy!

Wednesday Weigh-In

Back to square one. Himself celebrated his birthday last weekend. I baked a Starlight Double Delight cake, a recipe from Ma. The cake batter makes its own frosting. Birthday cake should be considered free food like carrot sticks and celery.