Donated to a good cause.

Many of you are aware, I sell books on line. With the advent of the ebook readers. Paperback sales have dropped off.

I have a large inventory of paperbacks, some left over from my flea market booth last year. Most of these sell for 1¢  on line. Due to postal price increases it does not pay for me to list all of them anymore.

I did a major purge over the last month. 

The St. Columbkille church thrift store, is a charity I enjoy making donations to. The church pays the rent on the store front, it is all volunteer and all proceeds go to help the needy. Items are also given outright to individuals in need. I took over 150 books. These they will sell for $2 and up.

Next, the local Library book sale. I am a member of the friends of the library. Once a year they have a large book sale. Being a volunteer, I know things sell better, when people can find them. Since my donation would be large volume, I took the time to prepare the boxes of books by sorting and alphabetizing.

First, I pulled 1600 of the Harlequin and Silhouette books, then I pulled 1900 regular paperbacks and finally 300 hardback books, a grand total of 3800 books. 

I have more I want to remove from my inventory. 

I took an additional 13 boxes of Harlequin and Silhouette's to Goodwill yesterday. I have made a good start on the reduction in my inventory. With the holidays coming, I will now go into marketing mode, as I hope I can increase my sales. 

Crystal Rhinestone Stretch White Gold Plated Bracelets 

Happy Holidays

Trudy

PS. Don't forget, I sell jewelry also. :D

Halloween Memories

Halloween is fast approaching.

And childhood memories are encroaching...

A tiny old white brick house with narrow doors, sloping ceilings, steep stairs, and thick plaster walls. Outside an old well stood between the house and a dilapidated garage so old, the doors swung out scraping the ground as they opened. Once opened wide, they proved too narrow for a car to fit between.

Now it is a risky business to leave your vehicle outdoors, while ghost and goblins made their way around town. The previous year our car had proved to be to tempting for the tricksters roaming around. The next morning we discovered soaped windows, toilet paper, and old tin cans adorning the car.

The front porch, we prepared for the season. Yarn became spider webs, and old clothes a scarecrow. Other bits and pieces became our costumes, a mob of 5 left out the front door, toting our pillowcases to collect our treats. My brothers running off with their friends, while my younger sisters and I continued on trick or treating. As we approached the third house, we heard a scream. Eerie in the night, especially this night as it filled with screams. 

Around the block we continued, cutting the corner short and though our yard a large ghost appeared from the narrow garage. Loudly screaming, we ran into the house. To find our mother laughing!

Trick or treat, our father tricked, the car windows remained clean, and he safely left for work at 5am the next morning.

I still smile, as I remember, the family tradition begun that evening. The old sheet was used many times and the laughter the next day was fun.  Did you see them run!

Halloween items for sale!

A Week Away from home...

I have been quiet the last little bit. I took a much deserved break from my everyday life to visit my daughter Deborah in Los Angeles. 

While there, I took on a project. Shelving, with the help of her friend, Karl. We salvaged a wooden bookcase and turned it into over the toilet storage. We found the wooden book case on the curb, waiting for the salvage truck.

Of course, I had read several books on storage and cabinet making over the years.

The two bedroom apartment she lives in was built in 1954, and is under 600 square feet. It does have some character, with it's wooden paneling on some walls and exposed beam ceiling. The shortcomings: limited storage, no insulation or sound proofing. Deborah shares the apartment with 2 roommates and they all share the one bathroom. Most of the manufactured over the toilet storage measure 25" wide. 

How did we do this? The books case measured 72"H x 36"W x 13.5"D and the ceiling is 7' 10".  For safety the bottom portion needed to be shortened and altered.  By cutting the curve and splitting a shelf I was able to create two narrow 5.5 inch shelves perfect for the extra rolls and storage jars.  

The only tools we used a hammer, screwdriver drill, and jig saw. 

1. Remove the shelves, toe kick, back and bottom shelf.
2. The attached middle shelf originally used for stabilization became our bottom large shelf.
3. Just below the stabilization is where to begin the curve. How did we obtain the curve? We made a trip to the kitchen, found a large bowl. Marking where we wanted the curve to start and end carefully placed the bowl on the dots and traced the curve. We continued the line down the back for the depth of the bottom unit. (1/2 the original depth) We also shortened it at this point. Our unit is now 60" tall. 
4. Using a piece of paper make a pattern of the shelf adjustment holes, using a screw to punch holes in the paper. Align in the front of cabinet and carefully drill new shelf holes. A piece of tape is a good reminder for how deep to drill the holes.
5. Split one shelf in half, forming 2 bottom shelves. 
6. Screw the new bottom shelf into place.
7. Dry fit back panel, carefully draw a pencil line, remove and shorten.
8. Replace and secure back panel.
9. Attach the old toe kick onto the top back of the unit to aide in hanging.
10. Paint, stain or leave finished as is. We did stain the unit.
11. Now to find studs, I use a hammer and thin nail to locate the studs.
12. Using the remains of the bookcase side I cut two pieces to attach to the wall. Securely screwing them into the stud and in two instances using mollies for added strength. I used 4 screws to support the unit.
13. Lifting the new shelving unit onto the wall cleat, we screwed it into place. 
14. For added stability, screw into ceiling joist and into wall studs.
15. We probably added more screws than necessary, but the back panel was 1/8" thick, and bathroom safety a priority.

The cost, a few hours of labor, some 3" screws, and 1.25" screws and a quart of stain.

The girls then added baskets, to finish the unit.

Navy Fighters and the Santa Catalina Ferry

In the 1950's, young Navy fighter pilots flew out of Miramar California.

Then and Now

Flying high and low, to and fro over land and water. Experiencing the thrill of going supersonic. Above and in the clouds, these young pilots flew formations and combat patterns. Often they would find themselves over Santa Catalina, a favorite place for them to go.

The local Radio broadcast, upon the Santa Catalina Ferry easily picked up in cockpits would play. The broadcaster would entice the young pilots to appear out of the sky. Down they would go to buzz the ferry, dropping out of supersonic as they came down low, over the waves for a little show. And often times a song would play "26 Miles Across The Sea."

As fast they came, they would leave, to the song on the radio.


Many of those young pilots became Air Line Pilots.

Photography Progression

Sept 17, 2011 results of final G+ coaching, a photo I can use.

Photographing jewelry is a relatively new venture for me. Hiring a professional, would require a much larger inventory and a larger price tag.

I have always been a snap shot type of person. While my daughter is a photographer, she lives on the other coast, too far away to snag into doing these photos. She has done a few before while visiting.

Sept 1, 2011 I lost hair this day.

Not having a high end SLR camera, I have had to learn to use my Digital, to capture the images I needed. In the last few weeks, I have taken many many photos, lost a few handfuls of hair, ground my teeth, used a magnifying glass, and threatened to smash the camera against the wall.

Mid July, I Joined Google+.

 

 I admired many of the photographs, I watched on the stream, and knew I needed help.

I gave myself until the end of September. I needed to get these earrings listed for sale. After several frustrating weeks, I finally developed the nerve, to ask for help via the Google+ stream. After all, I am no where near their level of expertise.

Sept 16, 2011 1st Google+ photo

What I had to work with:

• light tent
• lumix dmc-fh20
• Two 3000K 45w Tungsten lamps
• Tripod
• Grey Boiled wool
• Black Granite Tile
• White Bathroom Tile
  

You will note with my daughter's urging, via the telephone, I switched to Macro photography, prior to posting to Google+.

But I needed to learn more, about adjusting the white balance.

Sept 17, 2011 2nd Google+ Photo

I began with the lights pointing directly at the earrings. This caused a harsh reflection.  I changed the lighting method.

Next, the ISO was set to auto, this I first adjusted to 400, then with some urging, dropped to 100. I began using the timer on the camera for each photo, greatly decreasing the blurry images.

Another problem, reflections, I was wearing red shirt one day and a blue the next. A sheet hung over the light tent allowed me to move the camera lower, and prevent reflections.

Finally I managed a usable photo! Perhaps if I ran the photo through Photoshop, I could eliminate the dust on the earrings, and once I get all the earring posted for sale, I need to take the time to learn Photoshop.

 

I received valuable help from Marcel Bankmann, Joe Gastrich, Justin Bond, Ursula Rodgers, David Kaiser, and many others.

To follow me on  Google+ click the link.

 

Friendship

Just spent a couple hours visiting good friends of ours, both of them in their late 80's. Near the end of the visit Jim asked me, if I knew anything about computers. Well I know the Mac. 

Thank Heavens for Friends

They have a Dell. 
First request was, if I would help them send photos of the kitchen to their children.  

Then a trickier question arose, could I scan a proof sheet and send the photos to them. I explained the proof sheet would not scan well. It seems, when they attempted to work with the camera disk, it printed a proof sheet. I asked if he had erased the disk. He said he had it auto delete when he loaded the disk.

Off to the computer the three of us went. First he handed me the battery to load onto the computer. I explained I needed the disk. Next locating the slot, turned out to be on the printer. Crossing my fingers I placed the disk in the slot and up popped up the instructions. Following them I managed to load all 276 photos, including the ones on the proof sheet. I lucked out they now think I am really good.

Selected the photos hit the email button; ah something is not right, the address are not auto filling for the email.

Turns out they do not have an outlook express email account.

On to their Comcast account up load photos, and send.

Then they hand me another camera disk they had from Christmas 2002 another 280 photos. Needless to say they are now, as I type, sending photos to various family members. 

And me I am still chuckling at the fact they had this second disk, and wanted to make sure they could send them also.

The real kicker, they had never emptied their recycling bin. It is now empty.

Me I am smiling. Glad I could help them.

A Challenge To Be Completed

Care to join the Challenge?

This post will be a diversion from my normal posts.

At my last physical my Internist and I discussed my weight and other issues. He suggested I reduce my meat and fish intake He did recommend Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health

This will be a drastic change to my diet, let alone my husbands.

Goals For September:

Remove meat form my diet 3 days a week.

Use Almond milk in place of non fat on my cereal.

Exercise 20 hours this month.

Lose 10 pounds this month.

I began this morning. After a day of preparation for a colonoscopy (which I rescheduled for Monday). 

The day has just begun..

Breakfast

Kashi GOLEAN Crunch! Cereal

Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Milk, Unsweetened Original

Coffee

Shall we see how I do?

Care to join the Challenge?