Super Cool Gal

Thanks to Mick, I just stumbled upon another cool blog called Welcome to Deluxville. Mary Deluxe is the epitome of fifties chic. I love all her clothes and her atomic age bits and pieces. Check out the blog for yourself: http://welcometodeluxeville.blogspot.com I'm definitely going to become a follower.

Neti Pot - Do I Go There? (Disturbing Photo Alert!)

This past weekend, our family converged in Toronto to celebrate our wonderful father's 80th birthday. My brother and his wife drove up from Indiana. Poor Dean. He was an absolute mess of sinus agony. His sinuses were so inflamed that his normally petit nose was heading into Karl Malden territory. Yesterday was my turn. Fortunately, my honker hasn't gone all Jiffy Pop on me, but man does it hurt. If I take just a couple more sinus pills a day, I'll be the doped-up teacher that gets funny looks. Half Nelson anyone?

I'm developing a theory that the Canadian-born side of my immediate family (Mom, Dean, and myself) are cursed with faulty sinuses due to some innate genetic/molecular thingy no doubt related to the frosty climate we were born into. The Australian side (Dad, Lise and Rhonda) all have happy nostrils and contented sinuses. This, I'm sure gets back to the relatively dry, temperate climate of coastal N.S.W. where they were all roughly born. Hey, it's my theory. It almost makes me feel better.

Here's a photo. Sorry.

Anyway, I've had several people swear by the Neti Pot. It's a yogi remedy in which a little pot (that looks like it will grant you a magic wish if you rub it) is filled with a saline solution. You bend over and let the solution flow into one nostril and out the other. Has anyone tried this? I'm scared that I'll feel like I'm drowning or worse - actually drown in my hideous pink bathroom before we get around to renovating it. Let me know if you've given old Neti a try. If I do try it, I promise not to photograph it, nor will I ever run this picture of the happy Neti pot user again.

Cheers, Erin

How to Jazz up Your Blog

I'm so inspired by some of the kids in my class. I teach Grade 5 in a Toronto school and my students are 10-11. I've got a teacher blog and the students have a student blog. In addition, about half of my students have personal blogs. Student interest has become so great that I started the Clairlea Blogger Club. We meet once a week to share ideas and blog. A few kids learned how to create slide shows and they shared it with me. I finally got around to trying it out and boy - it's easy. The slide show will be handy when I've got bucketloads of pictures from yard sales, etc. Here's a sample of what it looks like using photos from our trip to Owen Sound last summer.

You can create all kinds of effects, or just keep it simple. One of my students posted a tutorial on how to create a slide show, upload video from YouTube, and upload photos. I was hoping that some of the blogging teachers at my school would read it and try to jazz up their blogs. Oh well. Here's Nick's tutorial for anyone interested:

Today we talked about making a slideshow from Slide. I did it with Mathew. It was fun. Instructions are on this post.


1. Go to http://images.google.com/


2a. Find pics from the site or pics that are uploaded to your computer.


2b. If getting images from Google Images, Right click the pic and click on "Save As". Name the pic and remember it.

3. Go to http://slide.com/

4. On the top of the page, put your cursor over "Create" and click "Create a Slideshow".

5. Look under "UPLOAD your own images" And click "Browse".

6. Find your pic in the computer or find the name. Then click the "Open" button.

7. If you want more pics in the slideshow, click "Browse" again. If you want to delete a pic, go to the bottom of the page, find the pic and then click "X" on the top right corner of the pic.

8. Look on the right of the screen on the page and find "Preset Designs". Click the one you choose.

9. Under that, find "Customize Your Design". Click on the one you choose. Then once your happy with what you've done, click "Save (get code)".

10. The next page will show the preview of the slideshow. If you like it, click "Save slideshow".

11. Look under the slideshow and find the code. Copy it. Then log into your Blogger account and make a new post. Click "Edit Html" and paste it. Click "PUBLISH POST". Click "View Blog" And find you slideshow post. Now you're done!

Also a special request from Ms. Hawkins, Those who don't know how to upload vids from Youtube and who don't know how to upload pics, here we go.

How to upload vids from Youtube:

1. Go to http://youtube.com/

2. Find the vid and under that click "Embed".

3. Copy and paste the code.

4. Log into your Blogger account and make a new post.

5. Click "Edit Html" and paste the code. Make sure that the code isn't over "640" by "385" That's too big. If you want to change the size, look for four numbers. I'll show you. Look for:

1a: object width="640" height="385"

1b: allowfullscreen="true"width="640" height="385"

6. Click "PUBLISH POST". Then click "View Blog".

7. Then look for the post. Now you're done!

How to upload pics:

1. Look for pics on http://images.google.com or if you have pics on your computer already, go to the next step.

2. Log into your Blogger account, then click on "New Post".

3. Under the title, look for the tool bar.

4. If you can see tiny buttons, look for the 13th button from the left (not including the font button).

5. Click on that, then look for your pic. Then click "Open". Then click "Upload Image". It'll take a while for it to upload.

6. Click "PUBLISH POST" and then "View Blog".

7. Look for the post and now you're done!

Hope all this helps make an awesome blog! bm out.

Here's my song of the week. I've lost count of what number I'm up to - 42? It's "Say Hey" by Michael Franti and Spearhead. I dare you not to find yourself humming this.

Erin

Bad News Dame Thrifts at St. Peter's

We went far afield today: Brimley and Lawrence, which is Scarborough and quite north/east of where we live. Sorry for non-Torontonians for whom this tidbit means nothing. We went to the St. Peter's Anglican Rummage Sale. It was a typical church rummage sale: odds and ends at great prices. A woman saw me looking at this pretty canister set. She told me it was $2.00. I paused wondering if it would be super bulky to carry home.

During my pause she said she'd take $1.00 or .50 for it. I told her I'd take it for $2.00. Here it is with one of those wooden pulley things where the arms and legs go up. Duncan wanted it. I like the leafy seventies-ness of it. I bought the pulley woman along with a new bag of hamster fluff and a bag of gerbil seed (how did she know I needed this stuff?), and some super-old cards, which I'll get to later. I got it all for $5.00.

I don't think these canisters are vintage. Still, I love greens and blues together.

At the church sale I cleaned them out of Perry Mason books. They were a quarter apiece. I was thinking of stripping the covers and framing them, but I began reading one and the writing was so great. Hard boiled fiction - I like it like that.






The church lady threw in The Fauves for free. Thanks!
Here are the vintage flash cards and baseball card game. The flash cards were from 1960, the baseball game was from 1957.

We stumbled upon a huge driveway sale. I didn't realize how nice this part of Scarborough: huge lots with large bungalows, the smell of flowering trees and fresh-cut grass. Yeah, it's suburbia in a Tim Burton sense, but I'd actually rather live in one of those houses than a condo downtown. Above: the fish bowl I've been trying to get my hands on. The lady of the house said it was part of a centrepiece at a wedding. Her daughter won it, but never put a fish in in. I also got a toy castle for Duncan (not pictured), Christmas crafty things, Muck from Bob the Builder, more flash cards and a plant hanger, which I'll dye a bright colour. The whole lot cost $7.00.

That's all for now.

Sick Kitty & Hoping for a Haul

I've been crazy busy at school this week. I always seem to be on the run - but in a good way. In addition, our beloved kitty Spook has been ill. He's had the runs for a couple of weeks and he started spitting up foam. We took him to the animal hospital and had blood work done. It was close to a $300.00 visit, but you love your pets - what are you going to do? The good thing is there's nothing major going on with him in terms of feline diseases. He's on a special diet and taking medication to coat his stomach. He's got a bit of vim back and he's eating like a horse. The down side is that he's got severe gum disease and will require at least $1000.00 worth of dental work (cleaning and extractions). My advice: take your cat in for a check-up before it's too late. If your cat has bad breath, have your cat's teeth checked out.

I'm about to head out to a church rummage sale with Duncan. We've got to trek out to Scarborough. I hope it's worthwhile.

Have a great weekend. I'll be reporting back.

All creatures great and small...

Here's a recent picture of Spook. We adopted him from our local animal hospital around eight years ago. Someone had found him as a kitten wandering along a busy streetcar route. Nobody wanted him and he just got bigger and more blubbery in his adoption cage. The secretary brought him out into the waiting room to raise his profile. I was in to drop off our other cat Kiko for neutering. It was then that I found Spook (whom the staff called "Little Man") and instantly fell in love with him. He's affectionate and I couldn't imagine not having him around.

Milk Glass Carnation Vase & Picnic Plastics

I popped into Value Village at Vic Park and Eglinton on Sunday "looking for a fish bowl." I was really looking, but you can't go in without having a little poke around. Alas no fish bowl, but I did find...

Plastic mugs and plates for a picnic. Do colours get more seventies than this?

I got the whole she-bang for ninety-nine cents. I'm not big on plastics, but for the amount of time we'll actually use them, I don't think it will hurt. Besides, as Value Village like to keep pointing out on their annoying announcements, "You're helping the environment by keeping goods out of the landfill."

Here's a milk glass vase I got for $2.99. I thought it was simple and elegant.
This actually had a vendor's sticker on it from an antique store. I guess somebody changed their mind.