Enjoy Your Sunny Days.

Finally we are having sunny days and I love it.  Of course as I am writing this, it isn't sunny.  Go figure. 

Anyway, when you get a sunny day, please take advantage of it because they don't always last.  It's the fleeting moment.
. Do you have the thoughts you've been cooped up inside too long?  Winter has a way of doing that to us.  We hibernate as we don't like being out in the cold atmosphere. 

Last week in Vermont we had a few sunny days and I took advantage of the afternoon.  it was actually kind of hot on one of the days and I had to ditch my sweater. 

On that day, I was out finishing my epoxy sticker bottle cap knitting markers.  I had found lots of little pictures of my kids, etc....
. and now when I am knitting, I can have my kids on my knitting while I am working.  Helps out where I don't get very much time with them right now.  Will be fighting it in court as their good mother, I should have a little more time with them so I don't feel so estranged.  Seeing them for one hour tonight and two hours on Sat.  

I'm sure they aren't happy with their father for taking them away from me, however I still wouldn't Pitt them against him ever. 

Then, there is also a silver lining to everything.  Now I've got one of my daughters emails and we send things back n forth.  Plus they grow up and there could be future weekend sleepovers visiting Mom.  Plus someday grandkids. 

Back to sunny days, every day I see my kids is a sunny day no matter what. 

The other sunny day, I was out on my porch with my things.  I spied my old lawn chair that was out back with some junky grills.  I confiscated it back and am using it.  it has some burn holes from someone's cigarettes or rolled up drugs.  Out complex was unfortunately treated to not nice neighbors doing drugs and maybe dealing.  Probably was them putting holes in my chair as someone else would have used an ashtray out of consideration for someone else's property. 

Anyway, still good for sittting in and it was a lovely day.  it was a little chilly though and I ended up getting my shawl I made a while ago and a sweater.  I had my knitting out but ended up hand writing a chapter into my notepad.  I like using a legal pad when writing.

I got in the next chapter to The Glorious Money Tree trilogy.  I stayed out till almost sunset until I finished the chapter.  I loved writing it and it is a heartwarming one of stinky sock boy Ronny listening to his mom tell her memory of meeting a half fairy half mermaid and the mermaid starts crying to find Sally and save her.  Then of course now Ronny is distraught that his friend is going to be in danger. 

I had an awesome time describing the fairymermaid.
. She's going to be really different. 


Anyway, I had to stay out there until I felt the chapter was done. 

Right now, I'm also working on a cool garter stitch and lace blue cotton scarf with green in it.  I was doing a bunch of those knitted dishcloths as my sister n laws mom sent me some pattern booklets for them. 

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted April 9,  2013

I'm the upside down baby on the bottom right

Laptop finally died

Well, I will try to keep up writing here but now its not going to be as easy with the tablet but at least I will try.  I had been at the local library as usual and I was trying to get The Old girl fired up and finally I think it happened She croaked on me. She let's call her perhaps something like Old Betsy or more like Old Bessie or seeing I am mad at the Ex, let's call him Old Mr. Ed because he got Ripped up.  And he retired to other pastures. 

What a hard day yesterday,  I had a hard time looking at my kids pictures.  I miss them.  But the ones of Mr. Ed got ripped up and they hit thedumpster really hard, the old junky pictures cracked and flew to Kingdom Come.

So anyway, old Mr. Ed bit the dust.  I was kind of bummed yet at the sad time relieved.  Don't you hate it when your favorite toy finally does not function the way you wishit would?  Just doesn't want to be your best buddy anymore because the harddrive is telling you it would like to go to Heaven?

Welcome to the world of my withering laptop.  She was clicking for a month telling me she was on her way to that closed door thatwas telling me it was about that time.  BestBuy had told me I had about two to three weeks left to the thing. 

I think I got four or five just about. Whichmeans now I will have to save up for the new laptop.  I'm going to shoot for the middle ones.  Not thinking lower end is going to quite be for me as I take way too many pictures for the really cheap ones to hold all that. 

Anyway, achangeof pace.  Obviously I will not be able to type the novel trilogyfora littlebit however I will still be able To keep the momentum going.  There is always something said for the old fashioned handwriting, alas nobody canever publisha handwritten copy of our novels like in forever.
I had to explain that one to my Dad recently, who in his own right is old fashioned as well. 
And he waslike, "What do you need a computer for?"

"Dad, I'm a novelist?  Think about it. Nobody publishers handwritten novel like sincethe dark Ages!!!  Funny one!"


Well, I think I am donefor this post.  As you can see by the way an HTC tablethas its drawbacks. 

Well I will bewaitimg for "Almost Famously hoping" to be my newtoy.

Jennifer Jo.Fay

Ravelry Site is Addicting

If you are a knitter, you have probably heard about Ravelry.com.  It is a very addicting site to go to and if you love to knit like I do, you will often find yourself there for hours.

All you need to do is sign up and start searching.  You can put some things you want to make in your library, your queue or your favorites.  You can start to talk to other knitters as well.  I haven't really done that yet, but I someday might. 

It's a place where you can share your knitting tips with others, you can buy patterns for a small cost if there's some you really want to make.  And you can leave bookmarks on the ones you would like to try at a later date.

You also can upload your own patterns and try to make some money selling your patterns you design.  I have tried this with a bracelet I made, but haven't explored that too much.  It's pretty easy to do though.  There's a certain section you go into and you can upload your PDFs with the pictures etc...  then you tell how much you want for the pattern and eventually you get sales.  

It probably depends on what it is.  Maybe bracelets aren't a hot thing.  I don't know.  But then I haven't really promoted too much of my knitting.  It's going to be in book form to at some date be published with Kindle.

I love Ravelry for finding lots of free patterns as well.  It's very easy and addicting to find what you want and download the PDFs or go to their site to save them.  All you have to do is to type in the garment you want to make and there is tons of different patterns at your fingertips.

I can't remember how many times I have gone in and saved all kinds of free patterns.  I probably have too many and every knitter knows you can only make so many garments at one time.  Even if you have fast fingers, you still only have so much time to make something.

I love Ravelry.  There are lots of cool patterns out there for just about anything.  And also, the patterns can be lovely as a beginning place for one of your original designs.  We all have to start from something.  

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted April 4, 2013

What to do with Your Junk Mail

Who out there is a catalog junkie?  Do they pile up on your end table, basket by the couch or do they immediately go into the trash bin without another thought?  Or is it the idea you like to look through them and you want to spend some time looking just in case there could be that particular item you may need or want?

Not too many people are immune to receiving these junk mail catalogs.  When they are at the highest stack is on the soon to be arrival of Christmas.  We tend to get way too many of them at that point and many of us wish we wouldn't even be bothered by them.

I'm trying to remember some of the ones I used to always receive in the mail.  I used to get tons of them when I was married and I think I was buying more things in catalogs for the kids and sometimes myself.

We would get Signals, L.L. Bean, Lands End, Entertainment Earth, Ginny's, Country Door, and on and on.

The ones which are probably coming in your mail boxes now are the gardening catalogs.  I'm getting some of those which of course all of them get thrown out immediately as I have no place to garden.  That's the drawback of living in rented places as there's often lots of rules.

L.L. Bean and a few other's I still get.  Most of the time I find myself just throwing them out.  Hey, if you know you don't want to buy anything out of a catalog, why bother to leaf through them.  It's your valuable time wasted and why would you want to sink your money into them?

Once in a great while though you can find your perfect item in a catalog and it's kind of fun to receive something in the mail.  One of my favorite catalogs used to be this Victorian Papers catalog.  That one was pretty neat.  I once had my ex get me this pretty Louisa Alcott reproduction blouse, which finally didn't fit me anymore and I ended up selling it on Ebay.

Lots of people spend lots of time looking through catalogs.  I know I used to be one of those people.  It was kind of fun to leaf through and see the crazy things people might buy.

Ever look through one of those old time treasures catalogs or a joke one?  There was usually some crazy things in there.  Or never mind, I was trying to remember another kind of fun one.  Of course there's all the kids catalogs too for clothing, toys, etc....

Any catalog for any item is out there and you need to be careful because once you get on their mailing list, you will end up getting their catalogs for the next five to ten years in their hopes of sucking you in again.

There's just way too many of them.

You know you are a catalog junkie when you can create your own end table out of them!  There's a crafty idea for someone.  Maybe you could create two stacks on each side and then nail a board to them and you've got your Catalog coffee table.  Something to ponder, huh?

It would take a while for me to do that now as I don't get as many catalogs in the mail now.  Recycle them in with your recycling instead of throwing them into the dumpster.  Save the earth!

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted April 4, 2013

Keeping a Well Organized Kitchen

We all love our kitchens.  Well, many of us do enjoy it and consider our kitchen to be the possible favorite room in the house.  Right?  It's where we prepare our foods that are going to go into that man's stomach and we've all heard the expression that the way to a man's heart is through his belly.  Or something along those lines!

This is why we need a kitchen we can function in and to be able to know where everything is.  Some of us feel that to have a wonderful kitchen, we need to remodel.  Not everyone can afford to do this to the kitchen as it is usually one of the major rooms to remodel and usually costs well into the thousands if you are to have someone do it for you.

That's why millions of families have to make due with what they have.  But also, I will say it doesn't take a lot of cost if you want to remodel your kitchen on a budget.  You don't have to go fullblown into it either.  Maybe it's only going to need a few simple changes to fix up your kitchen.

Perhaps just a simple change of curtains would do it for you.  My Mom used to change her curtains in different rooms a few times out of the year changing in and out with the seasons.  

Or maybe it's a few new appliances you were waiting for and that's also all it is going to take.  I've had an aunt who always wanted to remodel her kitchen and other rooms in the home.  I would say that was her hobby.  It was always gorgeous and it was the envy of lots of other women.  One thing I always remember liking was she had a good sized container that would hold lots of garlic near her window by her sink. 

Keeps the Vampires away!!!  No Edward Cullen there!!!  Maybe I should ditch the garlic as I wouldn't mind Edward Cullen coming in and biting me!!!  Ha ha.

So anyway, you want your kitchen to be functioning.  Meaning, remodeling set aside, you need to have a kitchen you can operate in.

Keeping things organized is always the best place to start.  If your kitchen doesn't have a pantry, try to invent something sort of like one that you can consider your pantry.  Keep up with organizing your food in your cabinets, separating the different types of foods.  I hate it when I open up my food cabinets and I can't find my items.  I often find myself rearranging so I know where everything is.  I like to keep my pasta noodles together, my different flours on a different shelf and lots of my canned food on yet another shelf.  

I usually push to the back the canned food I know I am not going to touch right away.  I am the girl with just about every spice there could possibly be, however there's still a bunch I don't have of course.  I keep lots of them on several shelves and others in a good sized basket on my counter.

You want to keep your counters nice and neat as well.  Meaning get to washing your dishes before they majorly pile up.  That's what drags a kitchen down when company sees you haven't done your dirty dishes in more than days and green mold starts to invade and smell.  Clean them.

I like to have certain items pushed towards the back of my counters, like the popcorn kernels kept in a pretty glass jar with the duck on it.  One back from probably the 70's or 80's.  My Mom had one and so did her downstairs neighbor and once I got married, I found one of the same for me.

Go to yard sales to get the quick fix for your kitchen or Goodwill and there's always Walmart too if you are looking for certain things.  Yard sales are awesome and I can hardly wait for them to come.

I don't like to go to Walmart as much as I used to, but sometimes we really need something there.  I don't like all the crowds and lines that we come to expect when we go there. 

I love to have my Mom's china displayed on my counters, pretty vases, bowls, and other cool knick knacks.  I have one of those J.C. Penney square baskets that I put some things in and some pretty bowls or ceramic pan on top.  I like to rearrange my kitchen often.  It depends on what recipe I am doing and what I need for my food photography when preparing a dish that's going to go into the recipe book I plan to publish later with Kindle Publishing.

Always clean up after you are done cooking and baking.  Have your dishcloths handy always in reach for when you need them. 

Try to have a place for every pan you own, same with your dishes.  Keep it clean and fresh.

I know the one thing I am looking for to remodeling my kitchen is some sort of bookshelf or even better some sort of kitchen storage for one part of my kitchen near my windows.  Once I find it, I plan to store my extra pans and kitchen necessities on it and I'm going to decorate it.  I am also needing the top shelf of it for more good lighting for the food photography.  Which means my top shelf will be getting changed often, depending on my mood.

Keep the appliances or things you do not use on a regular basis in a spot where you don't currently use as much.  Try to always have some good counter space to work with.  I know this is sometimes hard for many as we often don't have enough space for everything.

Look at your counter space on a regular routine as perhaps some things do not need to be there.  Sometimes we want to have everything on our counters but by removing certain items it also frees up space to give us more room to work.

And of course most of us love to keep our cleaning supplies hidden in a cabinet underneath the sink.  Stick all things that should be covered up in one of those spaces.

Many of us love to be in our kitchens, but find it frustrating if we haven't kept up with the organizing.  Keep it fresh, simple as possible and full of abundance of good food to fill your hearth and home.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted April 3, 2013

One of my new blue chenille knitted dish cloths I just listed for sale at Etsy.   For sale at $6 plus shipping.

http://jfaypaperdolls.etsy.com/

I love having a good pile of dish cloths of all sorts in my kitchen.

Socializing on the Web

Just how do you go about socializing on the web or at least keeping up with it all?  We all know there is a vast amount of content out there and we will never ever be able to have it all at our fingertips.  It's just way to much to put on our busy plates that seem to have too much on it that is our things we need to set out to do.

But, we know we also need to keep up with the social life the internet has to offer.  Years ago, we never would have gotten to socialize with others like ourselves on the web.  You know, other bloggers, writers and you name it that these acquaintances have in common with us and many of them live across the world in another continent.

That option was never available twenty to thirty years ago, and now we should be counting our blessings we have friends in England, Canada and Australia just to name a few examples.  It's great to be able to help each other out on commenting on their blogs.  By doing this, we learn new things that others can teach us.

Or perhaps we can understand someone else's view and perception of similar topics we choose to write about.

Also, we have to try and keep up with the socializing.  It's hard to do when we get overwhelmed by all the things we are subscribed to.

We really wish we could respond to everything that is in our emails or on our blog reads we are subscribed to.

Each day we have an inner agenda we set ourselves out to doing and we also fit in what we can to read from others as we know we need to be inspired by them.

How many of you find yourselves deleting emails as well as you just don't have all the time to read them?  I find myself scrolling down and if the title sounds good, I keep it in there until I can be ready to read it. And my favorites almost always get read unless if they have posted more than one and I didn't get time to read it all.

Something I used to do but haven't done it in a long time is to write a list of all the places I should hop myself to each day.  I haven't done this in what seems like forever.  It was usually all the sites I would need to go to do the free advertising of my recent blog posts.  Get too busy sometimes.

And then, I stop to think that maybe if I just get my content out there, that's all that matters.  I don't spend way too much time on the pushing it to get it out there.  I just concentrate on doing quality content and sometimes hope  that alone will suffice.  It can.

If you concentrate on the quality, you will eventually be placed in the high ranks.  Don't stop, however, take your breaks to go read and socialize.

If you can't do all your blog hopping, website checking and email subscriptions in one day, pick the ones that are going to be important to you and go back to them when you can.  Everyone knows you can't ever read every single thing.

Nobody is Super Girl or Wonder Boy even though we wish we could.  Just get to what you can and keep plugging.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted April 2, 2013

Coffee should always be the first thing, and then do everything else!!!
And smell the flowers.

What Happened to Spring?

Yesterday it was so sunny out and it was the beginning of April.  Then, I looked out one of my windows this morning and couldn't believe seeing the snow on top of all the cars.  Hey, give us Spring back.  At least it was the fluffy snow that falls right off with the wipe of the car scraper brush.

Now, I am onto writing posts, checking my ebay listings and so on.  I decided to visit, Etsy this morning and was beginning to favorite a bunch of shops.  I finally may have an order.  I kind of didn't like it when I did a search for paper dolls and for mine, the heads were cut off in the picture.  But when you or who ever is interested, it takes you to the full picture when you click on it.  I'm wondering if they don't like my watermark which appears near the face.

Or perhaps the pictures are too large and the first impression is that it gets cut off.  I may have to go in and try to fix this this week.  Or clean up the pictures.

I've been also knitting some dishcloth patterns lately with some yarn I have which is suitable for them.  My sister n law's mother sent me some cool pattern booklets and I've been trying some.

Next, I'm going to try to do some doll outfits for the smaller dolls and the fashion ones.  And then back to creating my own shrugs for girls and women.  There's only so much you can do at once.

Don't we all wish we had an extra hand or two.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted April 2, 2013