1000 Words

About 4 years ago, we switched to front-loading washer and dryer. We went to Sears, as we always do for appliances, and we asked for the best. Our dryer had not been drying clothes properly for about 2 years, so we were pretty emphatic about wanting something that was really going to dry our clothes. We ended up with a great set.

As I told a friend about our purchase, I learned something that every owner of a front loader needs to know. They get mold inside them. Ew! She told me that even though she has a very large family (like 5 kids, if I remember correctly!), when she isn’t using her washer, or when they go on vacation, she has to make sure the door is left open or the washer will develop mold inside the workings. You can’t see it, but when you open the door, you can sure smell it. Armed with this knowledge, I designated a thick old towel to act as the mold deterrent.
We were judicious about using the towel. I can’t think of a time when the towel wasn’t there if the machine wasn’t used. However, about 6 months ago, our towels started to not smell great after they had been washed. We tried just about everything, but nothing helped.
Why am I telling you this? I’m sharing because I received a sample, a few weeks ago, of a product called Smelly Washer (www.smellywasher.com) that has really improved things. While it didn’t miraculously make our towels smell fresh and new again, it did improve them to the point where I can actually use them now, without being grossed out. I’m happy to say that, after using this product 3 times, our washer smells much better, and so do our towels, after being treated with it.
The product is very simple to use and cost effective as well. Each container will do 24 treatments. You simply put a capful into the washer and run it according to the instructions. You can also do a treatment on your towels. I guess we aren’t the only ones with icky towels.
While it has not completely and absolutely destroyed the problem, which I had hoped it would (always have to have the highest expectations!), Smelly Washer really has made a vast improvement in our towels and washer, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a front loading washer. I think that if you used it from the start, you could avoid the problem completely. I think this product should be sold with every front loading washer, in fact!
If you want to try Smelly Washer yourself, go to www.smellywasher.com and use this promocode to save 10%: 1000words
Enjoy!

This post was written last night. I could not find the photo that I wanted to add, so I am just uploading it now, on Wednesday.

Josh and I just got home from the vet. One of our cats, Eyebrow, (who was well over 12 years old), seems to have had a stroke or a brain tumor or some such. He couldn’t walk properly, or see out of his left eye, or control the left side of his face. We took him to the vet and we’ve had him euthanized.

I’m not a big fan of euthanization, but at the same time, I’m also not a fan of a lifelong friend being in pain. Eyebrow was an awesome cat. In his prime, he weighed 23 pounds. He could take on anyone. LOL He was down to 10 pounds at the vet’s office yesterday. His time had come.

As you can see from the above photo, (he is the one wearing the lovely coat hanger outfit), Eyebrow had a sense of style, a great sense of humor and a true cat’s proclivity toward curiosity. I felt this was the perfect photo for his eulogy, as it really captures his personality. We never had a dull moment with Eyebrow.

When we had guests, Eyebrow would get on the sofa behind them and run a fang in their hair, up and down the back of their skull. Nice, huh? Everyone found it a little unnerving to say the least.  When I would sit, he would crawl up into my hair and purr. He was a great cat. Truly.

We were blessed to have the time we had with Eyebrow. Godspeed, buddy. I’ll miss you… and I’ll always love you and remember you for the loving, faithful friend you were.

Friday night I went to dinner and the movies with my buddy Karen. We had a great time. A glass of sangria and dinner at Aqui, our local margarita and Mexican food hangout. Then, we headed over and saw Duplicity. Really good movie. It was nice to see Julia Roberts in a role that required a bit more than usual. I have always liked her, so it was fun to see her playing a smart woman for a change.

Then, after dinner, Karen treated me to Italian Gelato, one of my very favorite foods from way back when I went to Italy in 1982. While it wasn’t quite as good at the mall as it was in Venice, it was still yummy! While we ate it, we sat at the food court and people watched. I sat us so we could see a booth where they are selling, no joke, “electronic cigarettes.” The more I watched, the more appalled I was, and Karen too! If you look in the photo, (I’m sorry it isn’t clearer, but I took it with my iphone), you can see that the lady working the register (blonde) has a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. There were NO older people looking these things, only teens and young adults. The screen, which isn’t legible in any of the photos I took, flashes photos of people smoking “everywhere”, like restaurants, etc. This booth touts that it is to help people quit smoking, but the goal of all of the videos was how cool smoking is. How these electronic cigarettes can contain 4 different levels of nicotine, and come in 8 flavors. Come on, these are not about quitting…

Anyhow, I was underwhelmed by the booth, and frankly, a little angered by it, because I certainly don’t want my son or anyone else’s teen, for that matter, to think  that smoking is cool. I’ve watched too many friends battle to quit. Smoking is just not a good habit, nor does it make one look cool!

So that’s my rant for today. I’ll try to post about Graphic Design class in the next day or so. I’m done. All done. With my 2nd class. So relieved to have a brief break. Next quarter starts on April 6th. Hmmm, yea, next Monday. LOL A very brief break, indeed.

-Take care and have a great day!

The QuicKutz (QK) Silhouette is easy to use and well worth
the price. It is easy to use and makes great cuts. I bought mine about a month ago, and the same
day it arrived, I made a birthday card for my husband’s Grandmother in about 10
minutes time. The software was easy to install, and the program, while not
entirely intuitive, is easy to use, once you get the hang of it. I found some
great online tutorials at PaperThreads which really helped. I strongly suggest
going through all of their tutorials if you plan on buying a cutter. The
tutorials are written for the Xyron Wishblade which is the exact same machine
with a different price point, different color, and different software.

Speaking of the Wishblade, the Silhouette is made by the same
company that makes the Xyron Wishblade and the CraftRobo. If you are in the
market for a cutter, then you should check out all three and see which suits
your needs best. For me, the Silhouette was the perfect choice. Keep in mind, they all have the same machine features.

 What I Love

I can cut any kind of cardstock. I was worried when I first
got the cutter, because I had heard that it didn’t cut Bazzill well. It cuts it
beautifully, once you make a few very minor adjustments, such as 1) slowing the
machine down some, 2) mounting the cardstock texture side down on the cutting
pad, and 3) using the fuschia colored blade. Problem solved, cardstock cut,
love it!

I can cut things other than paper. I haven’t tried this yet,
but I love all those vinyl decals that you see on cars. I’ve always wanted a
hibiscus for my car—perhaps I’ll make one for myself! 

I can weld words, making really pretty titles without a lot
of fuss. While the machine can’t weld words, the workaround is easy. The
program that was suggested to me is called Inkscape and is downloadable on the
web. You create your word in there, following the tutorial on PaperThreads, and
in just a couple of minutes, you have a design that you can load in the
Silhouette software and cut. Easy and great results!  There are probably other ways to weld words,
but this works well, it’s easy and the software is free.

I can find many designs that work on the web. QK offers a
lot of designs on their website, mostly paid ones, and you get 50 with the
machine, but being a scrapbooker, are there ever enough? No. But that’s okay,
because there are a couple of options. The first option is to make your own.
Using Inkscape and a bit of thought, you can transform almost anything into a
design. I have done some cool letters and a couple of other designs already and
I’ve only had the machine a month. I seriously have not spent a great deal of
time on this, yet. The second choice is the web. Cutter machines that use .gsd
files have been around a while, so there are scads and scads of designs that
are on the web. PaperThreads has a ton but there are also many other sites that
offer designs. 

I can scale designs on the fly. I can
make it up to 8 inches wide and as long as something like 36 inches. I can also
make designs very small, so cardmaking is a snap! 

I can make my own stationery, right down to custom
envelopes! I didn’t even consider this to be something I might want to do,
until I bought the template (remember, you could also make your own template
VERY easily by just taking an envelope apart, but I was LAZY that day!). I made
the most adorable gift card and envelope from a single sheet of cardstock! I
can see A LOT of potential on this one. Cards where the front has a design cut
from it, envelopes with a design cut on the back, small, maybe a monogram. Yup,
I’m lovin’ this machine.

I can make boxes! How cool is that? QK has a number of box
templates on their website, and I’m sure you could also take apart unusual gift
boxes, scan them, then trace them and use them, but I’m too lazy for that.
They’ve done all the work, so why bother. I especially love the pillow boxes,
which I think will be perfect for gift cards or cash gifts. 

I can avoid using my Quickutz hand tool. I seem to be the only person I know who
absolutely loathes the QK hand tool. I can’t use it. It hurts my hands almost
immediately. Mine didn’t “break in” and get easier to use. It’s still the same.
The other folks that I scrap with have no issues, they use theirs over and over
and over. Not me. I don’t like it. I also seem to be challenged when it comes to
making the titles that I used to cut look professional. Mine look like a 5 year
old laid them down, to me. I’m a Virgo, so I’m pickier than the average bear,
but still. My titles should look neat. I have always also been challenged by
getting them glued down. I tried Xyroning before I cut, no dice, because then
it was even MORE difficult to cut. Ok, enough whining. I don’t like the QK hand
tool, and I’m happy to have it on my list of things to sell. I sold off all of my alphabets for it last
year on ebay. Now it’s time to sell the 2 binders full of singlekutz and
doublekutz dies, as well as the 3 Sizzix alphabets and the bazillion Sizzix
dies. I will be gaining a LOT of space in my
studio. Life is good. 

What I Don’t Love

It is on the noisy side. It is not one to quietly sit in the
corner, working away. It is kind of loud and you know it is on when it is on.
But, honestly, this is really a nit. The machine couldn’t possibly be quiet
while cutting through cardstock, could it? The noise doesn’t bother me one bit,
but it is a part of the machine. 

QK is constantly “adding new designs” for the Silhouette.
So, that’s a positive, right? Wrong. The designs that they are calling “new”
are all of the designs that can be cut with the hand tool. Granted, they are
now scalable, but still! 

I can’t cut chipboard. Nope, not going there. If you want to
cut chipboard, there’s a different cutter, that’s about $600 (I think it’s a Klik-n-Kut?), and you can get
that. For me, well, I will just do without. After all, you can get
chipboard anything right now, how much do you really use or need? I use some, but I don’t want every layout to have chipboard on it!

One other downside for me, with my tiny studio, is that the paper needs room to go all the way into the machine, out the back, then all the way out the front every time. Right now, I have it installed on my laptop and I use it on a tv table, which is "okay" but I’ll have to find a solution. Some spot where it has enough space in front and behind it so that it can run "free" without bumping walls. It’s worth it though, I really do like this little dazzler.

Bottom Line

If you are a cardmaker or scrapbooker, enjoy making your own
designs, but hate using the QK handtool, then this is a great choice for you! You
can cut any True Type font. You can make designs on the fly, and you can cut
from just about any kind of paper, as well as a bunch of other materials I
haven’t even explored yet! This machine is every crafter’s dream. While it may
not have the ability to weld words as it comes out of the box, I don’t think that’s
worth $100 or more extra, and the free Inkscape software that makes this
possible is very easy to use. I feel that QK has hit a home run with this
machine, and I’m very happy with my purchase. I’m finding new reasons to cut,
and I’m using up a lot of old cardstock that I bought and don’t use. It’s a win
no matter how you look at it. I’m really glad I bought the Silhouette. If I
were going out today to buy a personal cutter, this is the one I’d buy, again.