Mama Sylvia’s Blog

I have officially switched my attempt at blogging over here. My dear programmer hubby found this blogging software that not only allows me to write but allows readers to add their own comments, so enjoy!

3/24/2008: I’m sure none of you EVER have this problem, but I’ve let too many Quilt Pati projects turn into UFOs. <hanging head> I’ve now dug them out and they are sitting on my desk to remind me to finish them. First will be a reversible Little Bag as a present for my sister (fortunately she doesn’t read blogs), then a Star of Bethlehem using Quilt Pati diamonds, and then I can get back to my scrappy GFG which will (eventually) be a bed quilt. Stay tuned, I’ll add photos when they are done! (If you’ve never seen this great way to hand-piece challenging figures like the Grandmother’s Flower Garden, click here to check out my tutorial.)

3/22/2008: If you’ve ever thought about keeping an emergency stock of food for “just in case,” such as in a motor home or camper, let me tell you about one item NOT to include if you live in a climate that freezes: canned potatoes. We’re cleaning out our motor home to sell and using up the food that was stored in it.  Anything in there has been there over a year, including in temps down to at least -10 F.  Sealed items like sugar were fine; so were unopened items like pasta.  But oh, those canned potatoes did NOT survive in edible condition.  I opened a can today to make a potato casserole, and they were the exact consistency of jellyfish that had been left in the sun and then rained on.  Blech!  Straight into the trash.  (The canned milk wasn’t in great shape either.)

3/21/2008: Click here to see MamaSylvia’s Stuff, my new online store. I finally got most of the customization done, so you can find specific products and order them, and see my store name. I’ll be adding options to pay by check or money order soon!

2/19/2008: After years of running my little online store via static HTML, I’m trying a free online store program, ZenCart. It has a steep learning curve but lots of neat capabilities. I’m still fighting to get ZenCart installed and somewhat customized. I’m not trying at this point to redesign pages or even set a different color scheme. But I’d really like to get rid of the “Sales Message Goes Here” blurb and the “Zen Cart” page description that appears on the top blue line of Netscape. There are some people on the ZenCart forum trying to help me, but I feel like they are giving me programmer answers when what I need is “pick up the blue duckie and put it on the sofa” simple directions. So far, every time I’ve changed something, the store has disappeared. I’m sure glad I do know enough to reinstall the original file so it reappears, even though it is still with the “Sales Message” message!

The basic idea of the evolutionary theory, grossly oversimplified, is that traits that promote survival enabled their possessor to survive long enough to reproduce.