no sales for "Baby Robins Grow Up" but not detouring next endeavor.

I had mailed out 100 postcards with information on "Baby Robins Grow Up" to daycares though out the US. I used a phone app. to look up daycares in each state. Eight postcards were returned unable to deliver.  I have 25 likes on the "Baby Robins Grow Up" Facebook page. I have not paid to "promote" the page.  Not sure how much I want to spend with no return.  I may get likes but that don't mean the book will sell.  I have attempted to get my book reviewed for a preschool educational site. But no return correspondence received. My book was promoted to a lot of romance readers but you have to remember this is a preschool picture book. I was hoping the romance readers had pre-schoolers in their lives.  All I can do at this point is sit back and wait or spend more money. My choice is wait.

I placed a copy of the book in the waiting room of the office that I work at and actually seen a 8 or 9 year old child carry the book to an exam room. That was encouraging for me because the child wanted to finish the book. I placed one at my own Dr's office due to it is a Family practice office and they see pediatric patients as well.   I do have business cards to hand out but have not been in a position yet to do much handing.

I feel "Baby Robins Grow Up" is an excellent introduction to the life cycle of a bird. If only I could get the word out somehow to the people that run daycare's and parents of preschoolers.

I am working on my next endeavor and already working on a rewrite of some of it. It will not be something that will be done it two months. I don't have a lot of spare time for writing. My hopes are to increase time by "taking" it and changing priorities...i.e. TV time, Facebook time etc.  Once I feel I have the story working well I will introduce some of it here.  It will be an adult novel and not a children's book nor categorized as a romance.  

The book has already changed enough from the original idea that the title I had selected does not fit so a new title will need to be chosen.  My current block is deciding on a connection between common events in the book. I will get there but I have to get inside the head of my villain and find that connection.

Happy reading and writing.

It's Been Over A Month Since Publishing.

"Baby Robins Grow Up"was first published a little over a month ago. Sales have not been very active at this point. I've sold some actual copies to co-workers, donated some copies to be placed in patient gathering areas (with a sticker inside instructing where they can purchase their copy) and a very limited number sold online (most to family).  I was not expecting spectacular numbers but thought with the internet there might be one book a week sold. Not so much. I've started a Facebook page describing the book and have put a page, along with a link, on this blog in regards to "Baby Robins Grow Up." I have information cards (business cards) coming to hand out when the subject of the book comes up. I will be mailing out some postcards to daycares in the next week or two to try and get the word out about the book.  I know this is not a get rich endeavor but I would like others to experience and hopefully enjoy the book.  I get positive feed back continually but the music is not matching up with the words. My hopes are the mailing will help but with the cost of postage it will be quite awhile before there will be any profit made.

The Leap Has Been Made.

The spring of 2007 the Lord blessed me with a pair of robins nesting in my hanging spider plant on my front porch. I discovered the nest when I was repotting the plant into a new hanging basket. The nest was partially built. I lifted it out of the plant and set it aside while I repotted the plant. I then placed it back in the plant and rehung the basket. My thought was that due to human tampering the nest would be abandoned and built elsewhere. I was wrong! The pair finished the nest and the next thing I knew the female was sitting. I immediately searched online to determine the length of incubation before hatching. Out came the camera!

I checked the eggs a couple of days before I thought they would hatch (always approached the nest when parents were not there) no evidence of hatching. Checked the next day and the cracks were there. Thankfully it was a Saturday so I was able to take pictures throughout the day as the babies hatched. I mentioned to my youngest brother about the free loaders in my basket and he suggested purchasing some night crawlers from a bait shop to obtain the feeding photos.  I followed through with his suggestion and obtained some great feeding photos.

In 2009 I put some of the pictures together in a flip book for my grandchildren. I had one person at work inquire if I thought of publishing it. I, not knowing how to go about it, just shrugged my shoulders and that was the end of it.

In fall of 2011 my sister-in-law discovered KDP publishing. And has successfully published four books. Not costing her anything but the purchase of her own paperback copies.  She is a talented story teller and has been able to quit her day job as the result of the royalties.

Sooooo.... I have now published "Baby Robins Grow Up." through CreateSpace and KDP.  It is a picture book for the 3-5 year old preschool aged children. And it introduces them to the life cycle of a bird.

I do not believe I will be able to quit my day job but I do enjoy the opportunity to share the once in a lifetime picture series with others and possible supplement to my income as a perk.

Afternoon with the grandkids

After the bouncy ball idea fell flat. I recalled a craft idea that my daughter had pinned on Pinterest.  Found here .  We used knee-high stockings, annual rye grass and potting soil. The change that we did was that we used the see through goody ponytail holders to shape the nose and one, we even made ears.

A chenille stem was used for the mustache and felt for the mouth.  We improvised for our watering container. The heads would sink down into the yogurt cups so we cut holes in the bottom of "carry out" sauce cups and placed them inside the yogurt cup which kept the heads elevated. The water then placed in the bottom of the yogurt cup and the tail of the stocking threaded through the hole of the sauce cup to wick the water up.  Looking forward to  hair cuts.

Where is the bounce in bouncy ball?

Ran across a recipe for a home made "bouncy ball."  Because I had all the ingredients on hand I thought it might be a fun project to do with the grandchildren when they visited.  I read in one post a while back that they did not bounce like a "super ball" does, so my expectations were not that high.

I am of an age that I remember the rubber balls that came with jacks sets prior to the "super" ball.  With the rubber ball if you threw the ball straight down with some force behind it, it would bounce back up waist high which would allow you to catch it without bending over.  Then the "super" ball came on the market and if you thew the ball straight down with some force behind it, it would bounce back up and hit the ceiling and proceed to ricochet around the room while you chased after it.

With the bouncy ball recipe I was expecting the rubber ball results.  The first attempt I used latex gloves to protect my hands from the "sticky" stage. BAD idea, it was sticking all over the gloves.  Second attempt I used my bare hands and it did not take long for the "sticky" stage to disappear.  The recipe stated that when the ball was no longer sticky that you could bounce it. I tried, it hit the floor and bounced up approximately 6 inches and landed with a short roll.  I thought that maybe the product had to set for a few minutes to obtain its bounce.  When I returned there was a flat side to the ball. I quickly rolled it to remove the flat side and attempted to bounce it again. Same result...a return of about 6 inches and landed with a short roll.  Well maybe it needs to set a lot longer. So I place the ball in a plastic grocery bag and hung it on a door knob (to prevent a flat side). The next morning I took the ball out and bounced it on the floor with a return of about 6 inches and landed with a short roll.  With the fact that I am not a chemist and cannot determine if there is a problem with the recipe, the bouncy ball was placed in the garbage and a different project will be chosen to complete with the grandchildren.

fathers love their children too.

There are all sorts of trinkets, necklaces, pins and bracelets in the jewelry world for moms and grandmothers to signify their children or grandchildren. My grandmother had a pin that all the grandchildren and great grandchildren were fascinated with.  It was a gold tree branch that had several little boy and girl heads dangling from it. On one side of the head was the child's first name and on the other side was the child's birthdate. When great grandchildren came along a short piece of gold chain dropped the head down to a second row.  I still vividly remember sitting on grandma's lap and flipping through the heads, first searching for my own then just reading each and everyone.  I myself have a "mother's ring" that has the birthstone of each of my children in it.

Now my question I present to you is...what is there for Fathers? I thought the most logical would be a ring, but there were none to be found. But what else is there that could be done and be "manly?" Men usually do not wear necklaces, if they do they are usually either dog tags or thick gold chains without adornment.

Now what got me pondering this dilemma? I have a nephew that is a good dad but due to divorce does not see his children as often as he would like...which is all the time... I wanted to give him something but what?

Then the idea hit while I was perusing Pinterest... the washer jewelry but a key chain instead.  Nuts instead of beads.

Here is the result of my scheming...

Their names and birthdate on each washer.  Yes he liked it. I also made one for his brother and sister.  Hers had beads though to make it more lady like. 

And yes...I'm scheming again for some other family members...will post when complete. 

Let me introduce you to a Scub.

Hello there!
Let me introduce myself, I’m Byte. I’m a scub. what is a scub you ask? Well you all have heard of fairies, gremlins, leprechauns, sprites, gnomes etc.  They have all been around for years and there are various stories letting you know about them and their way of life.  Well we are another race of magical creatures. You have never heard of us before because our world is still very new, less than 100 years old. It came into existence in 1936 when the first script running computer was developed. We live inside the electronic world. Any device that runs script.  What is script? It is the language of the computer that instructs the computer what to do and how the screen should look.  We are inside looking right back at you as you utilize your computer or device.  We thoroughly enjoy watching you get upset and hearing the colorful language that is used after we have completed our handiwork. You see our race name is derived from our sole purpose in life: S-Script; C-cut; U-undo; B-bug.  You know the times you have been at work printing away and all of the sudden it states "printer not found," or when you try to open a new screen and it just hangs there and goes no where. Yep that is us at work. The only way to correct the problem is to shut the computer or device down and reload the script resulting in lost time. Your face gets red, eyes squint and jaw sets. I feel a joyous warm feeling radiating from deep within. Most of the time I work on my own but occasionally my cousins Mega and Giga come over and we Parrrtyyy! Of course we have to move on to another computer or device when the power goes out but we’re never far away. Some times we travel for awhile and sometimes we quickly return. We're always looking for opportunities to disrupt the day and making sure there is no logic to it.  That is how we survive because if there was logic to it you would figure out how to stop us. So remember me when you are looking for the important work you know you saved and it can't be found anywhere, I'll be grinning ear to ear






 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

diy recipes

I have recently came across several DIY recipes for laundry soap, dishwasher soap etc.   I long ago knew about ammonia and water for a window cleaner but I'm guilty as charged...I don't do windows very often.

There are a myriad of laundry soap recipes but most have the same 3 ingredients  bar soap such as "fels naphtha"  borax and washing soda.  The question, do you want liquid or do you want powder?  I have preferred liquid for years due to not having any clumps of undissolved powder lingering anywhere.  I have tried 2 recipes. The first recipe you were to dilute out to 10 gallon of liquid.  I didn't care for that so I diluted to 5 gallon and used half the amount of liquid.  You do have to shake before use, not a problem but would be nice if you didn't have to.

The second recipe found here is a highly concentrated liquid soap, mayonnaise consistency, one source stated to use 2-3 teaspoons the other source states 1 tablespoon (3-teaspoons) per wash load. With the cost of supplies and using the 1 tablespoon that works out to 1 penny a wash load. I will go ahead and use the 1 tablespoon.  I used a microwave safe glass mixing bowl and melted the grated bar soap in the microwave. I first heated the 4 cups of water on high while I grated the soap into the glass bowl. After mixing the hot water with it I then cooked it for 3minutes on high, stirred it and 2minutes on high and finished stirring until dissolved. The blog using the tablespoon also recommended doing the final mixing right in the quart jar with your blender.  I was using pint jars due to my giving away my quart jars, I also figured it would work better scooping out the soap when you are near the bottom of the jar.  The first two pint jars worked perfect on my blender just as the blog had said. The 3rd pint jar apparently was not that good of a match for the blender bottom. Determined after 3 rubber grommets were chewed up. So the last 2 pint jars I used the alternative method of using a hand mixer.  I will do the hand mixer from now on due to not being sure which jar was not a good fit. I don't want to buy anymore grommets.  Even counting in the cost of the rubber grommets I'm still cheaper than the cost of the large jug of laundry soap that I usually purchase.

I will choose to do the mayonnaise consistency laundry soap due to storage, I don't have to figure out where to store 5-10 gallons of liquid.

I have plans on trying to make my own dishwasher liquid but still have plenty of store bought on hand at this time.  Will let you know how that works out when the time comes.

I'm seeing spots.

About 6 weeks ago I made a necklace for my sister-in-law and made it a very personal gift. The page pendents were made from the books she has written and published.  The 3rd book was not published yet but due to being familiar with the editor I was able to procure a paragraph of the new book (this picture was sent to explain the need for the paragraph.)

The Sunday prior to the release of "Wee William's Woman"  I presented the gift to my sister-in-law. 

The box had a picture of a library that she had posted because she liked the way it looked. And I could not have found a more appropriate card. The publishing date beside the title of each book. 

Now the pendents in the above picture were not the final pendents. I felt they were too flimsy and would tear easy if a grand baby would pull on it. I had used card stock but it wasn't thick enough even though I had glue two layers together. So I cut circles out of poster board and glued the two sides of card stock to it and it is definitely sturdy enough now.  So to make 3 pendents I had to cut out 9 quarter size circles.   

The final pendents with the main characters names of each book on each pendent. The result was... she was delighted. I was expecting her to like it and yes her response was as expected (she cried.)  

My sister-in-law would like more to be able to give to her mother and daughters. That would be a total of 36 circles...yeah I could do that. What?!  you want how many?!  50!!!  Yes she wants some to give to readers.  But that is 150 pendents  which means  450 circles!!!

I will make the pendents but it will take awhile.  I will make the 4 necklaces for the family but the rest I'll just provide the pendents and sister-in-law or her daughters can put the rest of the necklaces together. 

That brings us to today...I have cut out 100 circles today...no I will not get them all done today. I am  scheming for another family member gift that I hope to have done by next Sunday to give at the family gathering.  And that will be a later post. 

Peep Invasion

Every spring as the temp begins to become warmer, heavy coats are traded in for lighter jackets. The stores have baskets, rabbits and plastic eggs by the thousands but yet Easter would not be the same without the extremely sweet PEEP!

Now many of you think of it as JUST a candy. But now for two years in a row it has been a source of drama at the office.  It usually begins when you go into the bathroom and there it is sitting quietly on the picture frame STARING at you no matter where you stand in the room.  Then later the peep would be on a printer or on a lunch bag moving around like Chucky in “Child’s Play.” 

But yesterday tragedy struck!  Someone took a plastic knife to the little guy and he was left on top of the microwave, blood all over. This nurse attempted to help by doctoring with a bandaid. But all that accomplished was to raise serious concerns about my nursing abilities due to choosing to bring a bandaid to doctor such severe wounds.  

Plans were made to test the knife for dna to capture the murderer. But before the sample could be collected all evidence was discarded and due to lack of body charges couldn’t be pressed. 

Now that brings us to today.  Although I personally did not see the peep, I was told that it was sitting on a printer at the front desk and low and behold the peep went missing. Missing posters went up throughout the building. They were very concerned for the safety of the peep, what with a murderer in the building and all.  

There were many options discussed to handle the crisis at hand. One was to contact Adam Walsh, but not knowing the perpetrator “America’s Most Wanted” wouldn’t be much help. Next there was discussion of trying to contact Sherlock Peep...what with his magnifying glass and special thinking cap he may be able to solve the mystery fairly quickly. The person who last seen the peep was demanding an Amber Alert be activated.  No final decisions were made and I’m sure there will be more to the drama before Easter arrives.