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New Release Day!

If you come here often, you know that Saturday is New Release Day. New Release Day makes me happy because it means I get to show you yet another beautiful kit. This week's new release is called Sunday Morning. Years ago, I used to travel to San Francisco a lot on business. It seemed the whole city turned out at their local coffee shops to sit a while, drink coffee, chat with their neighbors, read the Sunday paper, and generally just start the day off slow. It was this memory that was running through my mind when I created this kit. What does YOUR Sunday morning look like?

Sunday Morning is available exclusively in the HotFlashDesigns store at A Cherry on Top. You can find it here. It is 30% off during its introductory period.

We also have elements, papers and alphas available separately. Same location, same special price.

Also on special, I also have some beautiful Frame Clusters and Stacked Papers.

And, finally, to make your scrapping experience a breeze, give our templates a try. They are available in both .psd and .tif format and are on special, just like the rest of our new releases. Remember you can rotate, flip or modify templates to suit your photos....

Karla used the templates (rotated to fit her photos) to show us a very special Sunday morning in her life. The Sunday Morning when her son was dedicated.

What a beautiful way to preserve a memory!

Don't forget, the free alpha that coordinates with last week's release, Top Speed, is still available.

You can find it here: http://www.4shared.com/zip/Jldf5diP/HFD_TS_AlphaFreebie.html

Also, available for just a little while longer, the free mini kit that coordinates with my Mother's Day kit, A Mother's Love. If you are a fan of HotFlashDesigns on Facebook, just click on the "exclusive" tab on our home page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/HotFlashDesigns/117807308235442

If you are not a fan yet on Facebook, just "like" our page and this beautiful free mini kit is yours.

Happy Scrappin', y'all!

A Treat for me..........

So here I sit with a big jar of sweet tea in front of me. The instant coffee I have been buying for my mocha frappuccinos comes in these really cute squared off jars. And today I made iced tea. I couldn't tell you how long it's been since I made iced tea--certainly long enough for me to have forgotten how I used to make it and to turn the process into an experiment.

I was raised in the south where "sweet tea" is a tradition. Though Joe was raised in the south as well, he arrived as a young teen whereas I arrived as a child of 6. Somehow, the whole "sweet tea" thing never quite took with him. Instead, after spending 30-some years in California he made "sun tea". Pardon my honesty here, but I think sun tea is for wimps. At least it was the way Joe made it. I drank his version of tea on occasion but not often. Whole pitchers of tea would be made and consumed and I got none. Partly that was my choice and partly that was because of how fast he sucked it up, LOL.

MY sweet tea is truly sweet and truly strong. Strong enough to stand up to a LOT of ice for what good is sweet tea without a lot of ice? I used to joke about it being iced tea "concentrate". Anyway, I figure I can make sweet tea a lot cheaper than I can make homemade frappuccinos. I'm going to have to start saving money somewhere if I'm going to be able to buy the vacuum cleaner you've been hearing me pine for for days! I didn't think there was anything left in the budget to cut. I've reduced the amount I pay for homeowner's insurance. I've raised the thermostat on the A/C significantly and bundled myself against the cold in the winter. I've eaten more pasta than any Italian you know, LOL. But, I am going to try replacing that afternoon frappuccino with tea. We'll celebrate somewhat lower calories and higher anti oxidants and ignore the loss of calcium which I'm none too sure my body can absorb anyway because of the thyroid meds.

Now back to sipping my tea..........

 

Adrenaline..........

I need some. Got any to spare? I am having a hard time getting it revved up this morning........

I didn't do a whole lot yesterday, but I figure I did enough. The kitchen looks reasonable. One box has been finished off and carried from the sorting center in the dining room to the "junk" room for longterm storage. There's another clean sq ft of carpet in the dining room. All the trash got carried to the curb. I succeeded in overloading the trash can by my desk before the trash went out--mucho junk sorted through and pitched or filed. And I cleared the top three shelves and part of the 4th on that bookcase in the living room. The bad news about that is that a whole lot of paper moved to my desk to be sorted........ugh! But, wonder of wonders, I think I found copies of my college transcripts. You know, those things I needed for a job application months ago? Doesn't everyone keep them mixed in with a foot of paper on a bookshelf in the living room? I know I didn't put them there. That leaves either the dogs or Joe.......... you figure it out.

Today, this room is headquarters, alternating off with kitchen tasks and other areas. There is never a day when this room doesn't need dusting and/or vacuuming. But, for today, the job is still the desk. I have the desk of a mad woman and it is going to take many days work to really get it all straightened up, particularly since I've made it worse with this pile of paper (about 5 inches high) found on the living room shelves.........

In the living room, I have 1.5 shelves to go. These shelves (now that I've drug this pile of paper to the office) are filled with toys for the grandchildren. However, I think they are largely non-functional toys--puzzles without pieces and things like that. So, I need to start digging through that stuff and trashing what is of no value.

Hall--Laundry, laundry, laundry

"Junk" room--back in the rotation, must iron starting with valances for the office windows.

Master Bedroom--Still facing a mountain of stuff on the dresser

Master Bath--swish the toilet, just because, smile, and move on.

Kitchen--I still have one shelf in the fridge to deal with and I need to do the floor.

Dining Room--More sorting of books from the garage. Praise God, the pile of unsorted books is dwindling just a little.....

Will I get through all that? I seriously doubt it. I also need to vacuum. Though no dogs are allowed in the Master Bedroom, dog hair still gets in there. That is my vacuuming target for today. And sometime today I need to run through the house with the feather duster before the dust builds up.

I am still working on the kit with the Mommy's Day colors. I think I am close to being done. I hope so. I finished up journalers this morning. I need to step back and try to figure out what's not in the elements file. Still need to fix that preview before the upload this weekend. And check to make sure all the details are done.

This morning, the IRS has announced that it is closing 43 small offices nationwide. They call this a "permanent" change, a cost-cutting measure. Here is the hilarious thing about that. The IRS has tried this before, but people aren't stupid. Those who are going to cheat are going to cheat. But the facts have proven over the 40 year history that I'm aware of that where small local offices exist, people are less likely to cheat or at least they cheat smaller. And, when those small local offices are closed, the number of audits called for in those areas by the system used to randomly choose returns for audits goes up. If people drive by or walk by an office with "IRS" on the door or front window on the way to the drugstore or their local post office, that alone appears to be a deterrent. AND, when these small offices are closed, and the audits pop up in these areas, it simply means the IRS has to pay its agents to drive further--hours of paid time spent on the road and reimbursement for the use of personal automobiles to make the drive. They can tout their savings on rent THIS year, but let's take a look at their travel costs NEXT year before we celebrate this particular cost-cutting measure. And, let's take a look at the revenue lost simply because people feel freer to do a little manipulation here and there on their tax returns........

Well, it's time for eye candy. As a designer, one of the things that is really fun is just seeing all the different ways my CT uses a kit. So far, we've seen a page with a baby dedication, two vintage pages, a page with bazillion doodled flowers and a sleeping kitty. We've seen a blue and brown themed page, a neutral and orange themed page. What next?

Lori has worked with all the colors of the kit to create this masterpiece. The first thing I noticed about this page was the photo. And that is just the effect you want because the photo, after all, should be the center of attention. That orange frame just works beautifully for that. The layered papers behind that photo also help draw the eye. And, for embellishment and balance, that large cluster of flowers does the trick! Beautifully done. You can leave Lori some love here.

I need to get moving. I haven't found any spare adrenaline, but I have found some caffeine. It'll do in a pinch, LOL. YOU be BLESSED today!

The good news and the bad news........

The good news is I've had worse. The bad news is that I've got a headache. Someday I will have medical insurance and a continuous relationship with a doctor and maybe, just maybe, this headache when it goes up and headache when it goes down thing associated with my blood pressure will stop!

The good news is the bathtub is draining a little bit better than it was yesterday at this time. The bad news is that I suspect repeated applications of this organic drain cleaner stuff may be called for before it actually drains like it should. The good news is that I bought a big bottle of the stuff so I'm ready!

The good news is that I finally puzzled my way through the instructions to get one of the three new phones (the one with the answering machine do-jiggy attached. It is plugged in and God bless Panasonic--they even included rechargeable AAA batteries. The batteries are charging as we speak and in theory will be fully charged by around 7PM Pacific Daylight Time tonight. The bad news is that there are two more to install and one of them has to be hooked up behind the credenza. This will be a challenge!

The good news is that there is one more sq ft of carpet that is clean. The bad news is why it needed to be cleaned......

I am going to go get something to eat and take some ibuprofen and a bp pill........That is the good news!

Monday, Monday.........

I can't believe today is Monday. I don't like it one bit. My body is still set to "weekend". To make matters worse, we are headed for a high of 104 today..... Ugh, I hate that! I will be hiding in the air conditioning today! It's already 84 at 9AM!

Well, I am waffling on the vacuum cleaner. Last night I announced I was going to buy it. And one of my reasons for buying it now stunk. Yeah, stunk. I decided that adding $100 a month to the credit card would be okay because I pay more than $100 a month to principal and that would mean that I wasn't increasing my credit card debt with the purchase. Well, I've decided that is a batch of hooey. Rationality tells me that at the end of the year, my credit card balance will still be $600 higher than it would be if I did not make the purchase. I have to be rational about this and I have to be true to my promise to God. Unless I am willing to pay cash for this thing, I can't have it. So, I will need to rethink all this. You cannot possibly know how much I want that thing. I'm not sure if it's a NEED, but it's one overwhelming WANT. The possibility of finally besting the dog hair and dust that plague me every single day is a big deal. More praying is called for, I guess. I still have 10 days to take advantage of the deal so I don't have to hurry. But, since I vacuum some part of the house nearly every day, what a relief it would be to do it with ease and in a minimum amount of time and still feel like it's clean, no doubt cleaner that it would be with my current 17-year-old vac.

Today, in the house, there are three things that are priorities. I need to headquarter in the dining room and deal with the boxes. I also need to rinse the two new carpet spots I cleaned yesterday.

I also need to continue on in the kitchen. I'll alternate kitchen/dining room/some other area all day long.

AND, I have to drag all the trash to the curb before nightfall. Tomorrow is trash day and I don't know if it's crack o' dawn day or not. So, I'll just have to get it out there tonight.

For the "other areas" in the rotation:

Office--desk time again. I need to do some filing. LOTS of filing.

Living Room--sorting through crap on those shelves.

Hall--Laundry

Master Bedroom--vacuum and dresser

Master Bathroom--smile and smile. It's clean as a whistle.

Before tax season overran all my good intentions and best efforts, I was working on clearing out ironing in the junk room. I think I'm going to add that back into the rotation. For one thing, those valances from the office that I washed need to be ironed before they can go back up. So.......... since no one is going to do that but me, I guess I'll be ironing.

I tried something last night and I want to check and see if it's helped at all. I bought some organic drain cleaner and poured some of it in the drain for the bath tub in the Hall bath. That drain isn't completely clogged, but you wouldn't believe how slowly it drains. I have no doubt it is full of hair, skin cells, and junk from the soap Joe used. When I bought this place, nearly 20 years ago, there was a nonfunctional water softener in the garage. It's still there and it's still nonfunctional. The sad part about that is that we have VERY hard water here. And, hard water and crappy soap don't mix well, particularly when you add in some other ingredients like hair and skin cells. They just all work together to clog drains and that's where we are. This could have been helped if I'd known about it sooner or if there'd been more funds available. But Joe didn't tell me about it until he got tired of standing in water that wouldn't drain properly from the tub. I want to avoid using highly acidic or caustic chemicals if I can, so I'm going to give this organic stuff a chance to shine. We shall see.......

The current kit that is in the works now has about 60 elements. But, I still need more. For example, there are 3 really strong colors in the color palette, 2 pastels, and white. I have frames in all 3 of the strong colors but I think I need one in white in case the strong-colored frames scare folks! Maybe today I can finish that up. I also have to do advertising stuff and make a change to the preview of the kit I will upload to the CT this weekend before I forget I need to do that!

So, somewhere in all that is my day. If I don't get to it all, that's okay, but I do want to make progress!

Let's do eye candy. I'm ready for a change of pace!

This page was created by SarahWhithers (aka Jennifer). She thought maybe she got a little carried away with the flowers. I actually love this. It makes me think of a cat sleeping in the sunshine in a bed full of brightly blooming flowers. That's kind of a pretty visual image to stir up. Please leave some love here.

Okay, I'm off to terrorize the dust bunnies in this house. YOU be BLESSED.

Progress........

Well, the kitchen is looking pretty good. And I've cleaned another couple of square feet of the carpet. And, the desk doesn't look much better, but I've just finished paying the last of the monthly bills. So, that's taken care of anyway. And I've bundled up a bunch of trash for Tuesday's pickup so all I have to do tomorrow is haul it out of here.

The current kit now has about 50 elements. I still have holes that need filled. I've posted the bits and pieces of this week's kit to Pinterest and Facebook along with the layouts I showcased here.

I think I've made a decision about the vacuum cleaner. I spent some time last night researching it. I can't find much at all in the way of negative comments on it. Everything is overwhelmingly positive. In addition, I've found out the QVC offer is better than I thought. First, it contains some attachments that are not part of the item offered at Amazon or other sites. Second, it is free shipping. That puts the cost on equal footing with Amazon. And, third, it is 6 payments billed to the credit card, not 5. That means about $100 a month going on the credit card, and since the amount I pay to principal is more than that each month, it is doable without increasing my debt. The research partially swayed me toward this decision. The rest came from cleaning those two more spots on the carpet. The little Bissell is bringing up so much dog hair out of the carpet. The carpet actually seems to look worse when I clean these spots because the spots are clean and the rest is not. But, mostly, I am removing doghair from the spots that are cleaned. Dog hair I can't seem to remove any other way. I was concerned about whether or not there was a brush/beater bar in the Dyson. I found out there is, one which automatically works when it is on carpet and automatically retracts on hard floors. And several people have mentioned that they've owned their Dyson for years with no additional costs over and above the original cost--no belts or filters or bags to buy. The offer is good through 5/31, so I have a few more days to think about it, pray about it, etc. We shall see......

It's getting late and I would still like to do some filing and so forth, so I'm quitting for today. Goodnight.

Amazing God.........

I have an amazing team at HotFlashDesigns. I am the designer and Advertising manager and God is the Sales Manager. I keep putting together kits and letting people know about them as best I can and it's up to God to bring in the sales. And He, in turn, "blesses the work of my hands", as stated in Deuteronomy 28, so that I put out better and better kits.

One of the things the Creative Team (part of the advertising team) and I are concentrating on right now is trying to get the word out to more people that there IS a HotFlashDesigns and that HotFlashDesigns does wonderful work. I'm not walking around with my thumbs in my vest because my inspiration comes from Him. It's pretty amazing when your Sales Manager really has His finger on the pulse on the market and knows what will appeal. HotFlashDesigns has had a Facebook page for months and months. But, it sat there dormant because I didn't really know what to do with it or how to do it. So I had to do what my deceased husband used to call "hide and watch". I had to figure out how other designers were using it and then figure out how to do the same.

On Facebook, we are always looking for "fans". "Fans" is really shorthand for a target market. These are people who like our stuff. We offer freebies, special coupons, etc to "fans". What our fans may not know is that the moment they become "fans", they join the advertising team and that is fabulous. As they come to grab whatever our special offer of the moment is, they post things to their own facebook page. THEIR friends are now aware of HotFlashDesigns because of the post to their facebook page.

I have believed for a while now that Facebook has great potential to grow my customer base. And that is exactly what I need! Folks who love my designs LOVE my designs. I actually get "fan" mail. That's great and it feels SO good, but unless there is a way for that "fan mail" to be shared with others, my customer base won't grow. In the business world, the theory is that every satisfied customer has the potential to send you 16 more.

I have believed that the possibility for exponential growth exists through Facebook. So, the first few "fans" are the hardest. After that, it just kind of multiplies because of the exposure those "fans" bring to the table. Before Facebook, I was advertising in the traditional ways. I had a newsletter, I posted goodies here on the blog, and I was sending out ads to be posted in various scrapbooking groups. After Joe's death, I let the newsletter lapse. After all, you kind of want your newsletter to be upbeat. I wasn't feeling very upbeat and I didn't want to spread that to my newsletter mailing list. But, both the newsletter and the blog were kind of limited as advertising media. The only people who would have seen a newsletter were those who had signed up. And the blog was only visited by a large group of people when there was a blog train (because of the blog train's advertising). But Facebook is a whole nother animal! Because friends of fans see our advertising, it grows! and grows! and grows!

I said all that to report something wonderful. On Friday morning, HotFlashDesigns had 205 fans. That's not many. I am praying for 5000. (Yes, I pray that God will send 5000 fans. I also pray that God will bless every one of those 5000 fans.) So, 205 is a drop in the bucket. However, I woke up this morning to 224 fans. What did I do in the meantime? I sent out a reminder that our freebie was still available and posted about it here on the blog and at A Cherry on Top. Not a lot of time invested to garner 20 additional fans. In short I LOVE FACEBOOK. And I love my Sales Manager. He has promised me He has plans to give me hope and a future, and I'm counting on Him.

So yesterday was a reasonably successful day. I am finished in the Master Bath for now. It has undergone a major clean up action and come out looking shiny. I did a decent job of cleaning up after myself in the kitchen even though that messy cook was at it again. I even managed to tackle the second shelf in the fridge. I finished the dusting in the office that needed done and managed to vacuum in here. And, I dusted in the living room. I used the mop, dry, on part of the wall on the other side of the room--I'm amazed that I can see the difference from here--and I got those cobwebs! Yeah! So, what shall I do today?

Well, today, I'm going to headquarter in the kitchen. I figured out that I can put something on the floor, a folded towel or something, and manage that third shelf that way, kneeling, without all the bending. There are some things that need put away; the dishwasher needs emptied. Some counter tops still need a good wipe down. And the floor needs attention. I can stay busy in the kitchen for a fair amount of time.

Dining room--I have hope that I might actually be able to make a dent in the supply of boxes!This will entail carrying in books from the boxes in the garage and sorting through them to see if they should be kept or donated.

Office--My time out here is going to be spent on my desk!

Living Room--I've been wanting to deal with the stuff piled on the bookshelf for some time. Today I just might get there!

Hall--Still dealing with laundry.........clean laundry, dirty laundry, laundry that needs put away.

Master Bedroom--The pile of stuff on the dresser is still calling my name. Also, it just might be time to use that feather duster in there. And, I think I need to run the vacuum cleaner in there today.

Master Bath--Put away a few things that ended up on the countertop when I cleared the floor to wash it.

That's the full circuit. If I have extra energy, I can attack the cobwebs outside in the entryway.

As to design, I am still plodding along on the kit made with the colors from my Mommy's Day flowers. I started on layered flowers Friday night and was so tired and brain dead I got nowhere with those, but I got a few done yesterday and I'm on a roll with those now. I am feeling in the mood to finish up this kit and get started on some really summery stuff.

So, that's the plan for today. Sounds good to me.

Eye candy? You betcha. When I designed the new kit for this week, I never gave it a thought that it could be used for vintage style layouts. I regard the kit as pretty avant garde. However, I'm actually going to show you two vintage-style layouts today, done with Sunday Morning.

This page was created by Laurie. The adults in the photo are her great grandparents. Her grandfather is the little 6 year old boy. I found it interesting that Laurie comments that her great grandfather had tuberculosis at the time. The family found the original photo and in comparing it to this one, this one has been touched up to make him look less gaunt. I can't help but wonder at the process of altering a photo in that way in the days before Photoshop. I would assume it had to be done by hand with a brush and paints..... I really like that cluster of flowers below the photo. Isn't this a fantastic page? You can leave Laurie some praise here.

This next page I first saw on Facebook. I am a high contrast kind of girl. I love to play with bright colors. This layout made me stop and catch my breath when I first saw it.

The high contrast of that orange frame against the neutral background really pops the photo. Christy did this page for me. She used one of our frame clusters and remarked that once she had the frame cluster, the page just kind of grew from there. The photo is of Christy's grandmother, taken, she believes, during her grandmother's late teen years. The page is beautiful and I love that she used one of our frame clusters to create it. Please leave Christy some praise here.

I need to get moving. Lots to do today, like every day. I am hoping to get a lot of it done so I need to get started. YOU be BLESSED today. Don't forget that this is the Lord's day........

 

 

Not impossible after all.......

Well, the impossible pie has been made and I've eaten some of it and it's not impossible after all, LOL. It was quite tasty though I think it had a bit much onion in it. I dug and dug for my pyrex pie plate and it is nowhere to be found. Perhaps it was broken during one of Joe's kitchen clean up and hidden from me as several other things were. In any case, I'll have to search the thrift stores and see if I can find another. Apparently, I no longer have any sort of deep pie plate. That will never do.

I haven't done badly so far, though I would have hoped to be farther along by now. I did, however, cook and clean up after that messy cook who sometimes visits here. I've washed the floor in the bathroom and vacuumed here in the office. I also go that little bit of dusting done in here. Next up will be trying to get the dusting finished in the living room. I started it but about then dinner was ready.

So, shortly, I'll go in and work on dusting the living room. I still have one shelf to clean in the fridge but it happens to be the lowest shelf. And today I'm having muscle symptoms. At one point while I was sitting here, my right bicep spasmed. So odd to sit here and watch my muscle twitch all on its own. My back has been achy today as well, hence, I don't want to be bent over trying to clean that bottom shelf of the fridge. At least that feather duster has a fairly good length and I can reach most of what I need to without bending.

I'm off now, for the night. Goodnight.

 

Oh, my frazzled nerves.........

The neighbor is outside IN HIS OWN YARD, doing something with a chain/power saw. I don't know what he is doing, maybe trimming some of his trees. In any case, the sound of the saw is making Punky crazy. She is convinced it does NOT belong in HER NEIGHBORHOOD. And the sound of Punky's barking is making me wish I could take a quick trip to someplace where they eat dogs....... Let me clarify that I would never eat a dog and I wish no one in the whole wide world ever ate dog, but it sure would be quiet there...... I didn't have enough sleep last night for this. And, it is a constant concern that one of these days one of my neighbors is going to throw something nasty over the block wall to rid the neighborhood of that noise........

Was 1943 a good year?

I don't know. That was before my time. But, after deleting about 60 e-mails this morning while I was uploading the new kit to the store, that's how many I have left. I keep unsubscribing to stuff but it doesn't seem to help. Oh Lord, another one just arrived....... I can't keep up with the current stuff much less clean out the old stuff......

Well, I am still debating the vacuum cleaner question. I had a prayer session last night, asking the good Lord for the Wisdom He has promised us if we will just ask. Well, I asked. Sadly, I don't feel any wiser yet but I'm sure it will come. I guess I need to tell Him I need it in the next 36 hours. That Dyson becomes the Today's Special Value at QVC in 14 hours........... And, if I decide to order from Amazon to save the shipping cost, they have only 2 left in stock...... The comments to last night's post contain an extremely positive testimonial on the Dyson Animal (an older model) from one of my regular blog readers (Hey, PeeJay. Thank you so much for your input!). Her comments largely match all the good things I've heard about that vacuum.

So, I need a plan for today. Then I'll have to pray for the self discipline, good health, and energy to work the plan........

Master Bathroom--Yes, I still need to do the floor in there. I'm afraid a lot of my Master Bathroom time yesterday went into vacuum cleaner maintenance and lemon pound cake baking.

Kitchen--Well, I did actually pick up after myself pretty well last night. I alternated kitchen clean up and vacuum cleaner repairs. I need to run the dishwasher, though, and wipe up the counters. Someone in this house is a very messy cook. And, now that I've defrosted the chicken I'd better get that Impossible Pie baked today!

Dining Room--I really hate this. I really do. Max has created two more spots to clean on the carpet. I swear, I really will have cleaned this carpet one square foot at a time if this keeps up. If only I could catch him at it, but he is SO sneaky (German Shepherd personality trait). Of all the times he's done this, I've only caught him once. This means I will be cleaning another couple of square feet of carpet in the dining room rather than dealing with those boxes. It's always something.......

Office--I did not get to dusting that last little bit in here. It's just three bookcases that are almost totally empty because all the books are packed somewhere, either in the garage or in the "junk" room, awaiting the financial miracle that will get me a new floor of some sort, or in the van, awaiting a trip to my favorite charity's donation center. Shouldn't take long. This room is next up for vacuuming, Lord help me........

Living Room--I still need to dust in there. I DID get it vacuumed, as best I could, yesterday. That's not to say it doesn't need another going over today, but it's not going to get it.

Hall--Clean clothes in the dryer and clean clothes to put away. I didn't get near this yesterday.

Master Bedroom--Why do I put so many things on my to do list anyway? It just makes it look like I've done nothing all day. No, I didn't get to that dresser yesterday. So, if by some chance I should spend less than 2 hours vacuuming the office, maybe I can do that today. Fat chance.......

Ugh! I didn't work on this desk yesterday either.

I have two corners of the room I have not been able to reach to clear cobwebs. To extend my reach around furniture, I've been thinking I was going to have to move the ladder into place and CLIMB and then dust. It just occurred to me, I own a mop! A really nice FlyLady mop. That'll get the job done. I don't quite understand why it takes me so long to think up these things.......

On the design front, I would feel particularly blessed if I could finish up the elements on the latest kit. I really need to be done with that one and move on. Before tax season hit, I had a nice inventory of kits built up, ready to go into the store. It's pretty badly depleted now. That bothers me.......

Okay, that's it for now. I need to get rolling on the day. And, I only had about 5 hours of sleep last night so I know I'll be taking refuge from the heat--nap time--sometime today.......

Eat dessert first........

Well, I had all sorts of plans to make that chicken and broccoli impossible pie. Somehow it morphed into a lemon pound cake with lemon glaze. I ate dessert first!

I am having a pistol of a time with the vacuum cleaner. I hope the poor old thing isn't going to give up the ghost on me. It keeps accumulating mountains of dog hair in the bottom, as if the suction isn't sufficient to pull it up into the bag or as if the hose leading to the bag is clogged. I think I am now certifiable as a vacuum cleaner repair person, if one can be certified by having the vacuum cleaner in pieces all over the office floor and subsequently reassembled. I've done everything I can do to clean it out. Yes, down to unscrewing various bits and pieces so that I could get to the hose and try to clean it out. I couldn't get that off; or maybe I could have but I was afraid to try. I think to get that off, you have to take the entire back off the machine. That seemed a little iffy for me to try on my own. In any case, having done all that and having dug out more mountains of hair built up around the beater bar with a screw driver, it still is not picking up right. Honestly, I'm spending more time taking the thing apart and clearing pet hair out of it than I am able to spend vacuuming. And when I look back over where I've vacuumed in good light, I can see little clumps of dog hair left behind. It doesn't help that QVC's Special Value for tomorrow is a Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner.

I read the reviews on QVC on the previous model of the Dyson Animal. Out of 281 reviews received from customers, over 250 of them would recommend this vacuum cleaner to a friend. Over 240 rated it either 4 stars or 5 stars. The only criticism I could find was that the extension hose for the on board tools was difficult for some folks to manipulate. Someone else complained that the 35' cord was too long. Holy moley, that person has to be nutso. A longer cord is a dream in my opinion.Oh, and those are the reviews on the PREVIOUS model; the one on special is supposed to be even better.......

QVC has it for $599 with 5 payments and the cheapest shipping is $20. Amazon has the same model with one payment and free shipping with Amazon Prime. I cannot tell you how much I don't want to spend that kind of money. I can dig it up from one seaport or another, but if the van breaks down or anything like that, I will be in big trouble. I have been struggling so hard to pay off some of this debt. I am just so depressed at the idea of adding more. Yet, I don't know what to do. It is obvious that without an immediate miracle from God, I am going to be stuck with this holey carpet for a good while longer. There is no way a cheap vacuum could handle the volume of dog hair with which I am faced and the dust. So, buying something for $100 or $150 is just a waste of money. I'd be buying another one for the same price within a year.

The other thing that is worrisome is the age of my current vacuum. It is actually a 1995 model. I bought it off E-bay about 9 years ago for a real bargain price. It supposedly had gotten buried in the back of a warehouse and was supposedly new when I bought it. I am wondering how much longer than 9 years I can actually expect from a vacuum cleaner, given the abuse my vacuum cleaner faces on a daily basis. I could try taking the current vacuum in for service. But, the last time I did that it was over $100 and if I did that, I'd still be the proud owner of a 17 year old model..........Another question is how much longer I will be able to get parts for a vacuum cleaner that is already 17 years old.

The only other factor to take into consideration is bags. The Dyson Animal doesn't require them. If I didn't stop to clean out the tubes in my vac with my finger every few feet, I'd be using at least two bags every time I run the vacuum cleaner in the main parts of this house. That would mean about $2-$4 every 3 days. I literally keep a grocery bag on the back of the vacuum cleaner to hold all the crap I clean out of the tubes. If I had to go get a trash can to put that stuff in every time, I'd never get all the rooms vacuumed.

So, it is a total quandry. I do not know what to do. Do I struggle on with the current vacuum, having to stop 2 or 3 times in each room to take the plate off the bottom and dig out mounds of dog hair; having to stop 2 or 3 times in each room to take hands full of doghair out of the tube up at the top where it is supposed to fill up the bag; having to spend $2-$4 a week on vacuum cleaner bags? Do I take this thing in to the repair shop and risk having to spend $100-$150 to have it worked on? Or do I buy the Dyson? I just don't know. I do know if the Dyson is as good as everyone says it is, my allergies would most likely be a whole lot better.

Oh well, I'm going to have to pray about this. I promised God I wouldn't take on any more debt til this mountain of debt I've been left with was somehow taken care of. What do I do about that? I guess that means that if I buy the Dyson, I have to find cash to pay it off immediately, using the credit card only as a convenience to buy the thing.

I have to do more vacuuming. I have made small mountains of dust/dirt where I took the thing apart. Guess I'd better get busy before that is all over the house. I think this is it for today. Pray for me as I try to decide what to do....... Goodnight.