Get a Grip!

I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror this morning, applying my makeup, when I happened to glance down and saw a spot of red on my front at around waist level.  My heart gave a jolt and the first thought that popped into my head was "Aaargh!  I'm bleeding.  Something is hemorrhaging!"

Well, after I fumbled for my glasses and stuck them on, I looked closer and discovered that I had accidentally buttoned my bathrobe to my pajama top.  (I'm not the brightest bulb when I first get out of bed. Apparently I'm not even the brightest bulb after I've been up for awhile.)

"Get a grip," I thought.  And just like that, my mind was off and racing on to the topic of getting a grip on difficult things to open.  Are you finding it harder to open jars these days?  Maybe they're no problem for you, but I'm having to resort to a variety of tools to get many jars and cans open as I get older.

One of my favorite tools is this little red number called a "JarKey."  I got mine at Bed, Bath, and Beyond several years ago.  It works like a dream on jars that have sealed lids.  You just hook it under the lid and lift until you hear the vacuum seal "pop."  Then you can easily twist the lid off.  

The yellow "splat" in the upper right of the picture is a rubber gripper.  You'll often get these as promotional freebies at trade shows, etc.  Sometimes that is all I'll need to open a jar if I just need a little more traction than my slippery hands.

This bottle cap opener is one I got from Pampered Chef.  It's been hanging on the side of our refrigerator for several years thanks to a handy magnet on the other side of it.  You can use one end to open bottles.  The other end with the round circle can fit over some 2-liter bottles and then you can twist the tops off (although I'm finding that some of the more recent Coke and Pepsi bottle tops are now too big to fit into this circle).  One of the handiest features is the slotted end by the circle.  You fit that over a bottle tab and lift.  It works great to open pop can tabs and spares your fingernails.  Yay!

The Commander likes this tool (also from Pampered Chef) that has a "V" shape gripper.  You put the jar lid into the "V" until it won't slide into it any further and then you twist.  I can't ever get it to work but it seems to work for him.

If all else fails, I resort to my mom's old tried and true method.  I grab a knife and whack it all around the top edge of the jar lid.  Then I try to open it.  If it still won't open, I repeat the procedure but this time I grab the jar and whack the top edge of the lid on the counter.  That is usually enough to loosen it up so that I can twist it off.  If it is still being stubborn, I go find the Commander and say, "Honey, can you open this for me?"

Well, now that I know I'm not bleeding to death, I think I'll open up a jar of peanut butter, make myself a PBJ sandwich for lunch and keep plugging away at a book I'm trying to finish in time for our Mystery Book Club meeting on Wednesday evening.  Bon appetit!

You Know You Want One

Well, once again I was perusing my latest issue of iPad and iPhone User Magazine and came across some nifty gadgets that I just HAD to share with you all.  This particular issue (issue 57) was their Gear Guide and it was loaded with lots of goodies.  I have no affiliation with any of these products.  Hmmm, in fact, I'm not even sure I'd want to be affiliated with them but I digress.

1.  The Hoodie Buddie  - I present to you the "Hoodie Buddie."  This ingenious hoodie sweatshirt has earbuds that are threaded through the hoodie and double as drawstring pulls.  The idea is that you wear the sweatshirt and stick the drawstring earbuds into your ears (I guess the hood can be up or down) and then you can listen away while out and about looking fashionably casual.  My fear would be that I'd forget I had the things stuck in my ears and go to pull the drawstrings and wham, out they'd fly.  If you want your own "Buddie", you can get one at  http://amzn.to/yZ3Gm4 and they come in assorted colors.

2.  The iMusic Hat - Closely associated with the concept of "wearable music accessories" is the iMusic Hat.  If you rock the knit cap look, you can wear one with embedded speakers in the ear areas and then listen to your music player without wearing earbuds.  Don't get too excited though.  The Amazon UK store is sold out of them and so is this site.  Apparently they are pretty popular.  Who knew?

3.  Eternal Fire App - Who doesn't love cozying up to a lovely fire in the fireplace especially now when the weather outside is frightful?  Hey, if you don't have a fireplace or even one of those nice electric fake ones, don't despair.  If you have an Apple smartphone, you can head on over to the iTunes store and get the "Eternal Fire" app for free and then sit and watch those crackling logs on your phone screen when the mood strikes.  Prop it up on the floor, uncork a bottle, snuggle up to your sweetie and I predict good times ahead. Let's just hope that you have a full charge.

4.  Mobile Phone Hoodie  - Speaking of smartphones, as much as we love our phones, have you ever thought to provide them with their own wardrobe?  No?  Shame on you!  Forget expensive cases.  Now you can dress your phone up in its own hoodie.    You can find one here.  If you're a sewer, you might already be thinking of alternative outfits for your right-hand gadget ("might" being the operative word).

I'm sure there are more indispensable gadgets out there and trust me, I'll be sure to find them.  What are you waiting for?  Go ahead....you know you want one.

Boys and Their Toys

It's so much fun having a brother who is as obsessive-compulsive as I am.  I just never know what new thing or project will have captured his attention when we touch base.  Case in point:

My brother and a friend of his recently purchased some hunting land up in northern Michigan.  Since then he has "had" to purchase a 3-wheeler to get around the property and various other toys for their hunting estate.

Now I use the term "estate" loosely because with their 20+ acres, they inherited a small, rusting trailer, a fire pit, an outhouse that was falling apart, and piles of rubbish scattered about the property.  Oh, and they have apparently also inherited swarms of mosquitoes and some fresh swamps after the recent heavy rains they've had in the area.

But the item which has given me the most chuckles has been the "Loveable Loo."  My brother was attempting to explain it to me the other day.

"So you basically go to the bathroom in this bucket, right?" I asked.

"Well, yeah, but it's a really neat set-up," he replied.

"And what do you do when the bucket's full," I asked.

"You dump it in the mulcher," he responded.

"I don't know, John," I said.  "That sounds an awful lot like the old slop bucket we used to use on the farm at night that we'd just dump in the woods in the morning."

"No, no, the waste from this turns into 'humanure' which you can then use in your garden.  It takes about a year," he explained.

"Heck, they were using 'humanure' in Morocco when we lived there back in the '80's but it didn't take a year.  They just squatted in the fields and had instant fertilizer.  Remember how we always had to wash our vegetables extra good," I asked.

"No, listen, this is a proven system and it's perfectly safe but you have to mulch it first.  It's ingenious, really.  And the best part is that there is no smell at all from the Loveable Loo," he maintained.

"So how's it working," I asked him.

"Well, we used it a lot this past weekend when we were up there but we had a bit of an odor problem," he replied.  "I think we were using the wrong kind of sawdust."

"Yeah," he continued, "We had some guys over building a storage shed for us and they wanted to use our outhouse but we didn't let them.  It was just too smelly."

"What did you have them do," I asked.

"I told them to just go out in the woods," he laughed.

"Shoulda had a slop bucket," I chuckled.

The Loveable Loo.....I'll let you decide.

The Queen of Gadgets

I LOVE gadgets.  Can't get enough of them, in fact.  So when I find gadgets that are really handy and useful, besides being all cute and clever, that makes it a win-win situation.  Let me tell you about two of my favorite sewing gadgets.

This morning I sat down to sew up the hem of a knit jacket I own.  Is it just me, or are you also finding that many garments these days have hems that seem to come loose after just a few wearings and/or washings?  That's just an aside, but it's twice in a week now that I've discovered a drooping hem on a fairly new outfit.  Anyway, back to my gadgets.....

Clover makes a little needle threader that is just the neatest little thing.  It's the brown gizmo on the left.  I've included a link as this is still available.  On the right is a holder for two spools of thread that is made by June Tailor.
  

It has a little dowel on top of one end for a thimble, a slot on the other end to put a seam ripper, a magnet attached to the other end for needles, and then two dowels that can hold spools of your most frequently used thread.  I always keep a black and a white spool on there for quick mending jobs.  I picked up both of these items at a local sewing shop several years ago.  I'm not sure if the mini-spool holder is still available anywhere but if you happen across one, I'd highly recommend it.

The needle threader has a slot where you put your needle in (eye first).  Then you lay your thread across a little groove area to the left of the needle slot.  Once you've put the thread into this groove, you press down on a little lever.

It never fails to amaze me how easily the needle is threaded when you do this.  The gadget doesn't exactly thread the needle completely at this point, however. 

It pops part of the thread through the eye of the needle....just enough for you to grab and pull the thread through.  Then, once you have enough thread on your needle, you just put the thread through the cutter groove on the threader and give it a little tug and the thread is cut.  You don't even need scissors.  How handy is that?



Keep your eyes open for one of these threaders, if you are like me and hate struggling with threading needles, especially as our eyes get older more demanding.  Happy sewing/mending!

On Bug Patrol

Photo from Baltimore Sun (Jerry Jackson)

They're coming soon, if they haven't already made it to your place.  I'm talking about the Asian Stink Bugs.  Ugh!  A recent newspaper article reported that we could expect to see them in record numbers invading our homes.  So far, there is no known predator to take them out.  The best they could suggest we do was to vacuum them up and release them outdoors.  Some help, huh?

I've run across these little "cuties" before.  Let me just go on the record to say that I hate them.  They are ugly, they fly, and they tend to land on you indiscriminately no matter how loudly you shriek.  They also release a pungent odor if you crush them.  I'm not really sure how to describe the smell.  It's not really a horrible smell.....more like a cross between pine needles and disinfectant but once you've smelled it, you know to start looking for a carcass when you smell that smell.

I have NO intention of vacuuming them up.  I plan to zap them!  Yes sir, I have my handy dandy bug zapper racket in hand and I'm ready to do battle with those things, should I come across one.  It's "swat" and "stir fry" for them.  Now my hubby is much more lenient.  He tries to gather them up in a tissue and flush them down the toilet.  Personally, I'd rather not take a chance on them crawling back out of the loo as I'm sitting on the throne doing my Yahtzee game.

So we'll see how the old zapper does with these critters this fall.  My daughter reports that these bugs are all over her house down in Maryland.  So far (knock on wood) we've been pretty lucky and I've not seen more than a few in the area.  However the article did say that the peak times of infestation would be in October-December.  Double Ugh!  So, until then, it's racket at the ready, Freddie!