Month: May 2013

Voodoo you love…

Aynaria 2 Comments

I love my daughter. We spend a lot of time together. Sometimes it’s hard to believe we’ve been hanging out for over ten years (I’m counting pregnancy time.) But it’s true..

My daughter’s tenth birthday is next week. It’s going to be a small affair celebrated at home. I’ve gotten most of the things for her but yesterday I decided to knit a few additional items. I finally got around to knitting her a pair of slippers. I posted about my first Hopsalot knitted slippers in December 2012.

And while I’d like to say I’ve knitted tons of those knitted slippers since that time, I’ll be honest and say that hasn’t happened. I love the pattern though and will use it whenever I feel the urge to knit some quick slippers. This time around I modified the pattern (OK, I did that that the first time too) and added an extra “cushiony” knitted sole. I’ve felted (aka fullcloth)  the knitted slippers once and will have to felt them a few more times before they shrink to her size. But this just means that the finished product will be super soft knitted slippers. Which will be perfect for her to slip on her feet when the weather is cool! We have hardwood floors and slate tile throughout the house. Which works perfectly with my Hoover twin tank steam mop.

Knitted Voodoo doll; Susan Claudino design
Knitted Voodoo doll; Susan Claudino design

 

Also I’m knitting the above voodoo doll. Isn’t it precious?  The above picture is not something I’ve knitted. That picture is one of  Susan Claudino’s. She’s also the awesome designer of this pattern. Oh by the way, her user name on Ravelry is  NoKnitSherlock. I discovered this via Ravelry. I tell you, lots of  enablers there! Anyway this knitted voodoo pattern made me think of the embroidered zombie doll and zombie bunny I made for my daughter. Since she loves those shirt so much I figured she might like a doll too.

Minecraft-Enderman
Minecraft: Enderman

 

I’m also thinking about sewing my daughter something from Minecraft. Perhaps an Enderman? She loves that game but I’ve never played it, although I’ll occasionally look over her shoulder to see what she’s doing. It looks easy enough to make, doesn’t it? If all else fails, I can always do an online search and see what I find.  Next week is just around the corner! Once the items are finished, I’ll be sure to post pictures.

It’s Here; Hoover Twin Tank Steam Mop

Aynaria 5 Comments

Yesterday My Hoover Twin Tank Steam Mop arrived by postal mail. Yeah!

Jennifer says: May 7, 2013 at 11:11 am (Edit)
I’m very interested in this! Possibly for my kitchen floors! I have been using mops – HATE them! I have used the Magic Eraser push mop thing – don’t really like that either! I have had the best luck getting down on my hands and knees and scrubbing it with the Magic Eraser and towel drying it as I go! BUT…that takes a LONG time…grrrr!
Jennifer recently posted..Several Recipes & Foods From The Weekend!

As I promised Jennifer in my comment section, I’ll be writing a “first impressions” review on the Hoover Steam Mop. I’m hoping to have it completed by this weekend. I’m conducting a few tests and I might even add some video footage of the steam mop in action. I do think this mop is great for someone who’s tired of scrubbing floors. Although I used a mop, I normally found the most effective cleaning was getting on my hands and knees and going to town. Now, I won’t have too unless I’m simply longing to do that and I really don’t think that’s going to happen!
Hoover Twin Tank Steam Mop_1

My daughter loves this steam mop!

When I wrote about purchasing this mop a few days ago, I forgot to mention that mopping would be added  as one of my daughters chores. It’s not something she’ll be doing all the time, but when I don’t have time I’ll ask her to use the mop.  She’s heard me raving about this mop for a few days and she made sure to give me the You’re really crazy, mom look. She just couldn’t see why this was a breakthrough in my normal cleaning routine.

I purposely waited until I picked her up from school to start testing out the Hoover TwinTank Disinfecting Steam Mop. Well, she got really curious seeing all the steam and the ease of use and the obvious fun I was having with the steam mop.  She quickly pushed me to the side and started using it herself. She even redid the large kitchen floor that had already been clean. She told me she really loves the mop. She’s fascinated by all the steam it produces.

In our house we mainly have hardwood floors throughout the house; basement, main floor, and upstairs. However we have granite in the kitchen, dining room and entrance area. We have linoleum in one of the bathrooms.

Frustrated with some online reviews…

One of the frustrations I encountered when searching for reviews, outside of Amazon, were the amount of folks who got this product as a free gift. Apparently Hoover gave away a lot of these mops in exchange for people writing about this steam mop on their personal websites. Most of those reviews were posted on August 16 & 17, 2012.

Giving away products to consumers to review is fine, but If your calling yourself a product reviewer, I’m expecting that reviewer to give a thorough analysis of the product which means I want to hear the things you don’t like about the product. It makes sense to include the negatives also, right?   Since I got tired of wading through the pages of blogs that received this product from Hoover and not reading too much else besides a “glowing review” I went back to the Amazon website since I found thorough reviews there. I liked that many of the Amazon reviewers gave the pros and cons of this product. On a few of my personal sites I do receive products to reviews; not much and only for items that genuinely interest me. However,  I do take my time and write what I hope is a helpful review piece that includes things I dislike and what I wish they’d change.

Needs Improvement list for the Hoover Twin Tank Steam Mop

Regarding the Hoover Twin Tank Steam Mop, I do have a “needs improvement” list for this product and I’ll be sure to include that in my first impressions review, but overall I’m really impressed with this steam mop and I would purchase it again! The fact that I actually look forward to mopping is really saying something, because I really dislike that activity but do it weekly since I like a clean house.

As you can see, from the above picture, the Hoover steam mop doesn’t take up too much space. Which is perfect for us. It now has it’s home in one of our bathrooms.

Question:  Are there any cleaning gadgets you can’t live without?

 

Trying this again; sewing

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This past weekend, the Warre hive shared the list with a few other activities  I was unable to complete.

Brother-PC420 My daughter and I had a lot of fun, but completely forgot to do any sewing  with my Brother PC420. Late Sunday night, we both remembered that we didn’t have our sewing time. Naturally she was disappointed (and so was I.)  This weekend, we’re hoping to make up for that by getting in some much needed sewing time.

One of my daughters favorite items is a lovely spring jacket that she recently received. Today, on the way to school I asked her would she like me to embroider something on the back of the jacket. “Sure mom, but you have to use silver thread so it compliments the design on the front!” I believe I can handle that. Initially I was planning on purchasing some more embroidery thread for this project but then I realized that I have some silver grey embroidery thread! That’s money saved. If I have time this weekend, I’ll design/sew her a new dress! A few months ago,  purchased some lovely fabric. I had her in mind when I bought the fabric.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to sew a dress for her this weekend; with her help.

Adventures in Beekeeping: Warre Hive Assembly

Aynaria 2 Comments

A few weeks ago, my Warre hive arrived (in pieces.)

Warre Hive - Closed observation Window
Unassembled Warre Hive – That’s the observation window you see. Those side slats help keep the board in place when you don’t want to observe the honeybees.

 

I was really impressed with the craftsmanship of the hive but not so thrilled that there weren’t any instructions or screws to assemble the hive. I was able to figure it out on my own. Also I have the tools (screws, drill, and wood glue) needed to complete this project. But, I  couldn’t help but think there might be others not good with these type of things  that were in for an unpleasant surprise once their unassembled hive arrived!

Warre Hive - Unassembled
Unassembled Warre Hive – Open observation window

 

Since my nephew was visiting, I didn’t assemble it on the Saturday that it was received. And although I was planning on putting it together last Saturday, I decided to hold off until later. You see, there were a few things that I needed to do before I started assembling my beehive.

In order to make the honeybees home more “bee friendly” I’ve opted not to paint the hive with ordinary paint. It seems that’s done more for the beekeepers benefit than the bees.  Instead I’ll be “painting” my hive with a combination of Linseed oil and natural bees wax. Linseed oil is a natural preservative and will increase the longevity of the hive.

Efficacy of hot wax dipping
“Robinson and French (1984) indicated that some apiarists found that hot wax dipped treatments lasted in excess of 15 years before retreatment of the material became necessary. Some beekeepers have indicated that well-treated boxes will last for more than 20 years before further treatment is required.

Additionally, the inclusion of beeswax makes the hive more friendly to honeybees since they already know what that smells like, I’m hoping it’ll convince them to stay in their brand-new home.  I thought I had natural beeswax laying around. I use it in soaps, butters, and lip balms but I completely forgot that I gave about three pounds of it away to someone new to making skin care products. No worries, I ordered more. That along with the linseed oil is enough I need to “paint” the hive this weekend. One day next week, I’ll assemble my Warre beehive.

I did find a site that has a  Warre Hive pictorial guide, I found it helpful for a few things I questioned.

 

Resource: How to preserve hives naturally

Adventures in Beekeeping: Trying on the Bee Suit

Aynaria 6 Comments

This past Friday I ordered my Beekeeping suit. It arrived today!

Master-Bee-Suit
Hmm… this beekeeping suit is extremely roomy!

 

I did a lot of research before settling upon the above bee suit. The majority of the advice given supported purchasing a larger sized suit. The reason people gave for ordering a larger size was that there would be more material between the suit and your skin so if a honeybee was to sting the suit your chances of being stung would be decreased. That made sense (to me) so instead of purchasing the size small, like I’d originally planned, I ordered a large beekeeping outfit. If you look closely, you’ll notice that I wear toe rings; four total – two on each foot. I’ve been wearing them for about twelve years. They rarely come off my toes.

Master Bee Suit
My daughter is as bad as my father, taking pictures of me when my eyes are half closed!

 

The beekeeping suit is roomy! I guess it would be since it’s a large and I’m a size small. I’m not complaining since this means that I have plenty of room to wear regular clothes underneath. Which means I have extra padding in case a few honeybees try to test out their stingers. I told my daughter I felt like an astronaut wearing this ensemble. She rambled on about this being more proof the Black beekeepers exist. I corrected her and told her I’m a “soon to be beekeeper.” Of course they exist I’ve ran into a few online and who really cares what color the person is? I know I don’t… But she says she hasn’t seen any pictures of them here in the USA so she was thrilled to take my picture; silly girl!

curls and q says
May 5, 2013 at 12:20 pm (Edit)

Q – Aw, where’s the pic of you in the beekeeper outfit?
curls and q recently posted..Good Advice, Thomas Edison

See Q, I did have pictures taken of me in my beekeeping outfit. I told you I would. You’ll be seeing entirely too many pictures of me throughout my beekeeping adventures. 😉

Edited to add…

I purchased my beekeeping outfit from the Brushy Mountain Beekeeping farm. I selected the Master Beekeeping outfit. The Dome Hood with Half zipper was ordered separately from their site, but it zips perfectly onto my beekeeping outfit.

Time to clean; steam mop

Aynaria 4 Comments

Hoover Twin Action steam mopThings don’t stay dirty in our house for long…

Clothes are washed a few times weekly.  I have daily/weekly household chores and my daughter has some chores also. She’s nine years old, she definitely old enough to have some tasks. Sure I stay busy with everything going on in my life, but I manage to squeeze in general household maintenance also. Items have their place and it’s not on the floor.

For the past few years I’ve casually looked at steam mops for hard floors. I’ve always been fascinated with steam for disinfecting purpose but didn’t get the urge to purchase one until about a week ago.

This morning I ordered the Hoover TwinTank Disinfecting Steam Mop. I ordered it from Amazon, so it should be here quickly. I must say that this will  be a step up from how I normally clean floors; using water as hot as I could stand and a mop to clean my hardwood floors. I like the fact that chemicals aren’t needed to ensure that the floors are sterilized.

If I do use a floor cleaner it’ll be a natural solution that I make myself. I will admit that mopping is one of my least favorite activities but it’s a must since some of the hardwood floors in our house receive a lot of activity. If I can make the mopping experience more enjoyable… well that’s a good thing. Based on the numerous reviews I’ve read about this particular floor steamer I don’t think I’ll be disappointed. Once It gets a full workout from me, I’ll post a review about it on Celebrate Life.

Adventures in Beekeeping; Purchased a Bee Suit and Hive Smoker

Aynaria 7 Comments

Earlier this morning, I (finally) ordered my bee suit.

I’ve seen numerous videos of beekeepers putting their honeybees into their hive without being fully covered, I’ve decided to err on the side of caution and be properly suited when I introduce my honeybees to their brand new hive.

Master Bee suit

The beekeepers aren’t included with the suit. although I admit they might come in handy since I’m a new beekeeper! So… why a bee suit? The package honeybees I’m receiving contains about 10,000 honeybees. Yeah, let that sink in for a bit… as much as I love bees.  Do you really think I want to showing a lot of bare skin if they decide that I’m the enemy? I didn’t think so…

Last Saturday, my Warre hive arrived by postal mail. The hive arrived in pieces and will stay that way until tomorrow when I finally get to assemble the hive. I’m handy with tools, so I really don’t see the project taking too long to complete.

Hive Smoker Jumbo
Jumbo Hive Smoker

Along with the bee suit I ordered a Hive Smoker. After reading the effects that the smoke seems to have on honeybees (causing them to retreat into their hive to protect their queen and honey stores) I’m hoping I don’t have to use it… Well I might use it to place smoke around me to make me look less appealing.

 

In other news…

I ordered a pair of Hiya Hiya size 0 steel circular knitting needles. I purchased them specifically for knitting socks You see… I joined a Hiya Hiya knit along on Ravelry, I love the Hiya Hiya Fairy Wings socks, I’ve purchased several of Qianer’s knitting patterns. She’s one the owners of Hiya Hiya knitting needles. A family business located in Shanghai, China.