I have a staple gun and I’m not afraid to use it!

Okay, I’ll admit: I totally forgot about posting today.
And I don’t really have anything to say, but as you can see I needed to tell you at least that

No, wait, I can keep it short and interesting by letting you how much fun I had just now:

I learned how to use a staple gun
And as if that’s not big news by itself, I just re-did the upholstery on the chair (yes, at 10 PM) I’m currently keeping my laptop on and typing these very sentences. 

Oh, it felt so good! There’s something about using tools that agrees with me 100%

It totally reminded me of the years we lived in the house with our big garden and the many times my grandfather was building or fixing things. He taught me how to do a lot of things and let me help him all the time, in most everything.
Come to think of it, maybe it was because I don’t have siblings, but who cares? I loved helping him so much!
Even when he was fixing cars!
I was so proud when I learned the names of all the different tools so I could hand them to him and then learn a thing or two about the actual fixing of cars too.

I sometimes miss those days so much… but it’s okay, now I have a staple gun around and I’m not afraid to use it!

 

PS: I found myself looking for other things to staple, so I’ll advise you to watch your words in the comment thread

You never forget your first by Estrella Azul

They say you never forget your first… it’s so true!

I sit here at my notebook now and still remember like it was only minutes ago that I was there, dressed up in a red form fitted shirt, my favorite mini skirt and high heels.

Waiting.

My boss’ sentence “Good luck with your first client and your future working career” rang in my head throughout the weekend before going in to work that day.

I wanted to relax, but felt more nervous with every minute that went past, I looked at my clock numerous times, anxiety was taking over as I thought of what was about to happen for the very first time.

I now know for sure I was compared to other girls, but back then I only thought about how I wouldn’t be able to perform like I wanted, about what it would mean for me, what to expect emotionally and physically, that it may hurt me in ways I haven’t even imagined before.

***

He came in, calmly looked around the space then determinedly looked at me.

My heart beat like crazy in all it’s madness as I saw him come towards me, but he wasn’t nervous.

He already made up his mind and knew exactly what he wanted.

And I wanted him to think that I was good at it, I wanted to meet his standards.

***

This evergreen phrase has been reminded to me countlessly while I was still in training: “Our client is our master.”

I was taught to wear practical clothes that would come off and could be put back on quickly enough in heated situations so the client wouldn’t have to wait for too long, discreet so I won’t attract too much attention, care in revealing things about myself to my co-workers and clients, knowing that my words and behavior will attract different sorts of reactions from them and affect how they treat me in return.

I was afraid about times when a client could be overly infatuated by me, I already thought of how I wouldn’t lead him on and help him see reality before things get out of hand.

It was going to be a totally new experience, but I knew it would be made easier by all the information I got throughout the training period, confidence and also the client’s support.

***

After saying hello to him, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and asked how I could please him.

He looked at me deeply and attentively, and when he started talking everything seemed unreal.
He asked for something incomprehensible to me and I had to think for a second before knowing how to respond, without making him feel unattended.

I still remember his words so clearly in my head:

“Hello. Nice flower shop. I would like to buy a plant for my car!”

Pop Art and Funny Pearl of Wisdom #11

Given that I’m very busy today cleaning up my virtual space, copying/moving things from folder to folder/partition to partition/PC to laptop, analyzing thoroughly what I do or don’t need any more, deleting stuff… I kinda… didn’t prepare a post for today.

Luckily for me, Karen (I must say “Happy Birthday!” to her again with this opportunity) decided to include one of my pop art I made of her photo a while back and also tell the world how much she liked my Halloween short story and something I said/wrote to her in an e-mail.

So here it is, my pop art and personal funny pearl of wisdom over at Karen Schindler’s Miscellaneous Yammering.

Thank you again Karen, especially for being my friend and an amazing role model to look up to!

Kisses and hugs!

Autumn Window Decorations

These past few days I found some great templates for window decorations and made a few autumn themed ones.

They’re pretty easy to make, and all you need is:

How to make – Window decorations

recycled colored paper (or white paper you can color yourself later)
a template or imagination and skills to draw one yourself
carbon paper
and a paper cutter

You start off by choosing your design, print it out/draw it, place the carbon paper on you colored paper, place the template on the two and trace it to transfer the design to the colored paper.
Then use the paper cutter to cut the gaps which give your window decoration shape and the much loved effect on your window.

Here are a few I made (I placed them on a black background so you can see the colors and shape gaps better)

 

I love how cool they look on the window and they’re great cause they can be enjoyed from inside and outside as well.

Carving terrific Jack-o’-lanterns by Estrella Azul

It was his thirtieth Halloween on his own.

He longed for his childhood days especially during this holiday when he remembered his father reading him The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
He always imagined the Headless Horseman with a pumpkin on his shoulders.

Jack always got into the Halloween spirit and heck, he just loved how his name was a part of the word Jack-o’-lantern.

When he was a kid he made them with the help of his father but those were simple pumpkin lanterns with triangle shaped eyes nose and a mouth. As he got older he fancied different patterns.

Since he could almost call himself an artist with the knife each year he was more pleased with his work.

Getting ready for Halloween started a few days earlier for him with picking out the right pumpkin and setting up the work area making sure it was peaceful so no one could bother him.

He wouldn’t have wanted to cut off his fingers by accident.

Carving pumpkins is messy work but making a mess was never so much fun for him as before this special holiday.
He layered down plastic foil to aid with the clean up after the carving was complete, which was never as easy as gathering up the plastic and walking away.

He started with cutting the lid by angling his knife to 45 degrees so he could create a ledge the lid would sit on.

Jack could almost hear his father saying:
“ The key thing to remember is that you need create a ledge to keep the lid from falling into the pumpkin adding a notch to the back of it so that you can easily line up the lid with your pumpkin.”

Gutting the pumpkin was his father’s favorite part, while Jack preferred the actual carving.

But since gutting had to be done before the carving he got to it making sure the insides of the pumpkin were thoroughly cleaned out so that there wasn’t any loose pulp hanging anywhere, the loose pulp would detract from his design.

There isn’t always a need to gut a pumpkin for a pumpkin sculpture. He knew some sculptors out there that never gut their pumpkins.

Jack’s personal opinion however was that adding a light to the inside of a pumpkin sculpture adds a whole new effect. He created a flat surface at the bottom for the light to be placed.

He then carved out the eyes, nose and mouth with extra care, following a creepy template he drew in preparation for tonight.
It didn’t come out exactly as he wanted, but he’d have a whole year during which he could further improve on his skills.

It was much more elaborate and unusual then what he had done when he was a kid.

He took his time cleaning up the insides, leaving no trace behind. His job at the coroner’s office had taught him well.

Jack made a calm phone call while he stood back and admired his work.

Now all he had to do was place his pumpkin in the window, get rid of the body before hearing the sirens and wait.

Wait for next Halloween.

Why you should be alone in these situations

A few weeks ago my fiancé was testing his microphone after installing the Windows Voice Recognition program right in front of me, making me laugh ‘till tears.

Somehow I managed to type the funniest ones, so here they are, hope you have a laugh too!

“wait. don’t laugh. I’m just testing the microphone. I mean never mind, you’re going to laugh anyway… just saw the sentence I have to read out loud.”

“one, two. two! two two two! two already! not to, two!”

“press see. press see as in cat. press c.”

“say enter. oh… enter”

“next. next! start.”

“down. down! scroll down.”

"I love my bunny" (turns to me and says what the pc wrote: "I love my body…")

"love. L L! L as in load. L!" PC constantly writes "nove, N, N"

"insert. send. send! enter"

“inbox.” error so says “close.” program closes the whole window. don’t close that…

"stop listening.” says something to me, turns back to the monitor and find his sentence written “delete that." don’t write delete that… "stop listening! stop listening. cancel" finally…

This definitely is among the reasons you should be alone in situations like this if you don’t want anyone to publish your pearls

Many times, he sounded like Steve Martin in The Pink Panther when learning the famous phrase: “I want to buy a dahmbehrgerr, ehenber, embebber, ömbögarrrr, damburger”

I can’t get enough of this video!

Wordless #2

Budapest, Hungary 2007

Széchenyi Lánchíd (Széchenyi Chain Bridge)

Time at the top

“ With a little luck,
a little bit of faith,
You can change the life you’ve made.
Open up your heart and mind
To the magic you will find
With a little luck.”

With a little luck, Ilona Pál

This is a fragment of a song I heard long ago in a movie, Time at the top, and it stayed with me all these years.

PS: If anyone has this song or video or whatever, please let me know. Leave a comment and I’ll reply to the e-mail address you provide.

Later edit:

It seems like my post didn’t appear on Sunday as I’ve set it, so here it is a bit later.

War plan against the sniffles

We all try to avoid it as much as possible, but the sniffles (with all it’s bacteria and stuff) has it’s own special plans and catching people off-guard is one of it’s best features.

So, aside from avoiding confrontation, we should develop some war plans for when we’re already attacked.

Here are some mostly natural home remedies against the common cold (absolutely perfect for someone with peptic ulcer (any form of it) as they won’t disturb your stomach).

As I’ve read, common colds need common sense, and even though you don’t need to use every single point from this list when you get a cold, there’s still no need to fill your body with anti-biotics when you can cure your cold in a natural way:

• Vitamin C can make the cold symptoms less severe or can shorten the length of a cold from seven days to two or three days with less coughing, sneezing, and other symptoms.
  In fact, overall, Vitamin C works as a scavenger in our body throwing out all toxins, that’s why all doctors urge people to eat fruits and vegetables every day.
  (for example: Orange, Lemon, Kiwi, Broccoli, Cauliflower, etc. you can find a detailed list here)
• In case you don’t have these, you can buy Vitamin C (or Vitamin C with Propolis is even better) from the pharmacy, and since it depends on the mg., take as many as the instructions or your doctor tells you, while you’re healing.
• Take one piece of Propolis, or add 20 drops of Propolis tincture to 1 cube sugar and let it melt in your mouth.
  Propolis is a natural resinous mixture bees make, and it relieves numerous health conditions as it strengthens the immune system.
• Zinc is another wonder thing for cold that can cut colds short. So when you first feel that you may be getting a cold, start eating Zinc rich foods.
  (for example: eggs, various cereal and wheat, fish, yogurt, etc. you can find a detailed list here)
• Eat garlic (as a bonus: this also helps in keeping those pesky vampires away)
• Take a bath with a few drops of cinnamon and/or lavender in the bath water as this can relieve congestion, head aches while it relaxes you.
• Get plenty of rest because that way your immune system is boosted up and it quickens the process of getting better.
• Eat chicken soup. It’s no wonder grandmothers used to make this for us when we were little, it is quite effective in relieving cold symptoms.
• Drink tea 2-3 times a day: Elderberry tea is the best (or at least for me it is), and I’ve read that Ginger, Eucalyptus, Chamomile, Echinacea and Peppermint are also very good for colds.
• Eat honey. Add a teaspoon of honey to your tea.
• For a dry irritated throat mix: a few teaspoons of honey with some lemon juice (if you add 20-30 drops of Propolis too it’s even better) and slowly let it melt in your mouth. Don’t eat anything after this for at least an hour so it will act as is stays on your throat.
• Add 5-10 drops of Eucalyptus or Peppermint, Pine, Lavender, Thyme, Tea Tree oil to a bowl of steaming water.
  Place your nose over the vapors and inhale, covering yourself with a towel and inhale deeply. This will cure your blocked or running nose or will loosen thick mucus.
• Apply VapoRub on your chest or throat right before going to sleep.
• Make a tea by boiling 2 teaspoons of Astragalus root in 1 cup water for 15 minutes and drink. This tea enhances your immunity.
• Nasal drops for dry and stuffy nose can be homemade by adding: 1/4 teaspoon of table salt to about 5 ml lukewarm water.
  Use this solution as a nasal drop, 1 to 2 drops in each nostril about 3 to 4 times daily.
  (You can keep this nasal drop in refrigerator for 2-3 days.)
• In case you’re sensitive to nose drops (shouldn’t use this without prescription as too much of it may cause chemical rhinitis) you can buy nasal gel from your local pharmacy (if you find a herbal based one, even better).
• Fill a glass with warm water and mix in 1 tsp of table salt and gargle several times a day to cure throat soreness.

If you follow this war plan against the sniffles, you won’t have to wave the white flag and immediately take medicine.
My motto is this: if you can avoid getting many toxins and chemicals into your body, why not?

Stay healthy everyone!

I should listen to my better judgment

It’s been cold for over a week now, and I just hate it!

Yes, the leaves now have amazing colors and everything, but I hate the rain, and especially the cold, in case you hadn’t noticed by now.

My better judgment advised me 2 days ago not to go out in the rain.
In fact it advised me to stay inside and in bed for the whole day, possibly until March at least, but stubborn as I am, I didn’t listen.

After walking around downtown for a whole afternoon in pouring rain it wasn’t even an issue to go around all the puddles (way too many/too big to avoid and my shoes were soaking wet after the first 15 minutes anyway).

I didn’t worry too much about catching a cold, but it looks like I definitely have a talent for it.

Right now I’m trying to figure out how to type, sneeze and cough at the same time.
Oh darn, my nose is running, I better go catch it…

If there was anything you wanted to say, leave a message after the sneeze and I’ll get back to you in a few days