Take some time over the Holidays to review the way you are putting together articles in your online newsletters, print newsletters and blog posts.   Headlines get the attention of potential readers and urges them to read on.

Great headlines can even help you overcome some of the other “issues” there may be with layouts or formats.  We’ll get there in the next month but for now check this out courtesy of eHow.com:

How to Write Newsletter Headlines | eHow.com.

Everybody needs a couple of hours of sleep. It is recommended by physicians that a person has 8 hours of sleep. We are now on the process of understanding the benefits of sleep. Doctors are now linking sleep to over health and well-being. Sleep helps with learning and memory. A person with enough sleep has better retention and comprehension. The reason is still not clearly established but in studies, sleep has been shown to help the brain in storing new information and committing it to memory.

Sleep also helps with a person’s metabolism. This means the lack of sleep, contrary to what most people believe, actually leads to weight gain. Sleep deprivation affects how our bodies store and process carbohydrates thereby altering the level of hormones that affect our appetite. Sleep deprivation has also been linked to cardiovascular problems such as hypertension, and irregular heart beat. It also changes a person’s immunity because when your body is sleep deficient, it experiences a state of stress.

Sleep is necessary not only for physiological reasons. The lack of sleep greatly affects a person’s mood. People who lack sleep are irritable, moody, impatient, and have difficulty concentrating. It is also linked to accidents because the lapses that are a result of the lack of sleep often lead to mishaps. Without adequate rest, a person’s ability to function deteriorates. The brain also goes through a compromised decision-making abilities phase. Depression has also been associated to sleep deprivation.

So how does one ensure the right number and quality of a night’s sleep?

Make sure that your room is conducive to sleeping, relax. Try breathing exercises before sleeping. Avoid drinking too much coffee. Live a healthy lifestyle and eat healthy.

Come home in time for dinner. Find out how.

My family and I are spending Christmas and New Year’s in the province, ironically, away from everyone else. It gets kind of boring at times since you have less people to talk to. So, I’ve compiled a list of things  you can do during the Holidays. Whether you’re in spending it in snow or not, here are surefire ways to lift your spirits and spend the most special days of the year.

(photo via)

+Don’t be a grinch! Just because you’re not in the mood yet, it’s not an excuse to bitch out on everyone else. No, you’re not purposefully being left out by your family and friends, you just don’t feel it yet. I suggest the best way to do this is to lift your sad soul yourself. No one’s going to do this for you anyway, so better do it on your own.

+Read. That long list of books-to-read is no more this season! With all the free time that you have in your hands, you’ll be cutting that list to bits with new stories to pore and ponder on.

(photo via)

+Help in the kitchen. It’s common Filipino tradition for families to get together and help prepare for the Holidays. Earlier today, I did the exact same thing and helped my dad prepare some of the meals we are to have for Noche Buena. I don’t normally help with Christmas preparations but it was great because I was able to catch up with family members. And always, always, the food do taste better after working hard for it.

(photo via)

Whether your out of town or not, still, I think, the best way to spend the Holidays is to be with the persons you love the most. Jesus was born on Christmas, He came to the world to be with the people he loves, us.

 Yesterday was the first official day of winter.  And we had frost on the ground. 

FROST!

Do you realize that frost in Georgia is like international panic?  You can forget going to the grocery store…all the eggs, milk and bread will be gone.  (which is totally weird unless you are planning on making a whole lotta french toast as you wait out the frost-storm).  And the wait at the gas station is at least thirty minutes.  Which is also strange because people are completely scared to death of driving if condensation gets cold here.  Either that or they completely forget all drivers ed training and are scarier on the road than a lifesize photo of me without my maternity spanx. 

Anyhoo.  There was frost.  And as I scurried from my car into the warm house, I thanked my lucky stars that we had taken a little time out of our busy weekend to begin weatherizing our home.  What is weatherizing?  Well, simply put, it is preparing your home for winter.  or summer.  and it’s done by sealing all the cracks (heehee) so that you can keep the cold air out (or in if it’s summertime).     

The fine folks over at DAP sent us some indoor/outdoor sealant to give a try and I couldn’t wait to share with you the results of our weatherization project.  It began with a little research.  First we read up on how we can make our home more energy efficient by sealing up windows and doors.  Then we decided to tackle the very closest door to our fireplace.  We could actually feel a little draft from the area surrounding the door.  And that’s really really really bad considering our gas fireplace is right next to it.  Like my dad used to say ‘let’s not heat the entire neighborhood, ok?’. 

Before our door trim had a pretty big gap next to the siding.  But after we clipped the top of the sealant tube and loaded it into the gun, our gaps were squirt-filled and ready to keep our home sweet home a few degrees sweeter.  After you fill the gaps, a quick swipe of the finger is all you need (middle finger is allowed in this situation since you are simply flippin off theives of your energy efficiency).  It’s also pretty smart to have a rag on hand to wipe the excess.   

The product that we used was the DAP Dynaflex which is actually safe for pregnant women like me to use in a well ventilated area.  I even got in on the sealant wiping action and felt perfectly at ease knowing that it was low-VOC formula.  Granted, I was a little bummed that I wasn’t strong enough to pull the trigger…but knowing that the end result is gonna keep the cold and little bugs out and that the dried sealant is PAINTABLE, well, that was enough to make me hand over the man-gun to my boyfriend in a jiffy. 

Not that I didn’t want to pose with it and give one more futile tug on the trigger

So that’s how we did a little something in the right direction towards sealing up our home tighter than a lawyers lips.  We are pleased as punch…or should I say cocoa because when we stepped inside our deck door – we could notice that we were no longer draftier than fantasy football.  It was actually nice to be able to enjoy our fireplace.  For the one second before we were off to see what else we could weatherize  

Have you taken any steps toward getting your home more energy efficient?  Maybe you were one of those smarty pants who took advantage of the window/door tax refund in the US this year?  Or maybe you just bought those door cozies – you know the kind.  It looks like Santa but with two long legs that do the splits in order for you to eliminate the draft.  Poor guy.  It must be so uncomfortable for him.  I mean he has to be freezin his you-know-whats off.  And yes, I know that it is basically a stuffed doll.  But seeing as how I have a male baby growin inside of me, I can’t help but feel for the male plight.  Wow.  I am totally off subject.   Let’s chat some more about weatherization.  Be like Santa – JUST DO IT

Perhaps one of the most used features of PHP5 for me are the great new in-built iterators, more specifically the DirectoryIterator and RecursiveDirectoryIterator functions. Using these saves a lot of time hand-coding the logic behind listing files in a directory on the local machine as these new iterator functions handle all that legwork themselves.

For those of you who are unsure as to what an iterator is, its basically an object that is able to ‘cycle’ through occurrences of other objects. It doesn’t matter if we are cycling through a bunch of letters, numbers or files in a directory, iteration is a key programming concept that is a fundamental building block of most programs.

You may have seen the usage of a numeric iterator before (say $i):

<?php
$i = 0;

for($i=0;$i<=10;$i++){echo “Number is equal to: “ . $i}

?>

Processing A Single Level Directory:

A simple example of the use of the (much simpler) DirectoryIterator function can be seen below:

<?php
$it = new DirectoryIterator("/tmp/mystuff");
foreach( as ) {
  if (!->isDot())     {
      echo . "\n";
    }
  }
?>

Processing A Multi-Level Directory (Nested):

<?php
$it = new RecursiveDirectoryIterator("/tmp");
foreach(new RecursiveIteratorIterator() as ) {
  echo . "\n";
}
?>

In this case, the output should now include a list of all the files and directories under the starting directory (very handy for when you want to quickly print and dig down into multiple levels of a directory tree!

hey everyone its Maddie

I would just like to say that this blog is new and we are just starting off so giving us as many views and comments as possible would be very helpful. Any tips on how to start off our blog would be great. Any topics that you would want to be discussed, just tell us. We also have a youtube account — check it out www.youtube.com/user/twinsieglam .. check it chicks!heckk yes:D
lol thanks.
leave stuff.
love you
xoxo.
maddie!!

Anybody can show you a house for sale, where to purchase, etc… but the ability to negotiate is what matters most. An effective real estate professional should be adept in negotiating because this is what the buyers and the sellers need. The following simple tips may somehow lead you to a successful negotiation:

Personally present your offer

It pays to see your buyers in person because you will get to know them better and meet whatever expectation you may have in the real time.

Background checking

Check your buyer’s financial capabilities to the extent of substantiating it with a bank statement. This assurance will add power to your presentation.

First offer comes from your buyer and in writing

Ask your buyer his buying price because your purpose is to get the seller’s price in mind. Remember, it’s hard to make a second time offering once the seller is no longer interested if the price offered is cynically low. Offers should best be in writing in order to get the nod of the seller and be assured that the offer is legitimate. It would be an added attraction if you will present a market analysis to support the price offered.

Meeting of minds

Recommend your buyer to make his counter-offer slightly higher between the original offer and the counter offer. This will make the negotiation easier to close than making more offers which will eventually exhaust not only you but also the buyer and the seller.

No matter how hard and unreasonable the situation may seem during the negotiation, remember to maintain composure at all times to reach your goal.

When installing Windows 7, the install asks what language you speak like any other operating system install. However depending on what language you choose Windows 7 will make available a certain theme based on your country. If you choose English-US then you will get a US theme with a bunch of US wallpaper scenes. However if you want to see what the other country’s themes, all you have to do is go to “C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT ” then you will see a folder listing like the picture below.

Double-click any of the folders and then double-click on the Theme folder and then double-click the file that is that folder. This will install the theme onto your computer. Once you have gone into each of the folders then you will have 4 new themes to choose from. Just right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize and you will be presented with a window similar to the one below.

Emerger or Damsel Pattern (Wrapped Marabou Body w/ Tail) SB

So many fly tying materials bring a special something to fly tying..be it peacock, ostrich, hare’s mask, partridge etc. One such material is marabou . It provides the suggestion of life whether you think to impart motion or not through your presentations. In the above photo, you can see that I pinched off a dozen fibers (more or less) from the plume’s stem. I had already tied in a burnished copper rib. I tied in the tail over the hook barb (my frequent tie in reference point). It is important to tightly secure that tail with minimal thread wraps. Because once it is secured the remaining material (marabou fibers) are wrapped up the shank toward the eye to form the abdomen of the fly. If the tail is not secured then as you begin to wrap the remaining marabou up the shank, the torque of the initial wraps will cause the tail to rotate away from you out of alignment.

Once the body is tied off up near the thorax region, the wire ribbing is wrapped up to form a segmented body/abdomen. Can you see how the marabou provides a suggestion of gills that are typical of some mayfly nymphs? (Ostrich does this as well) A small thorax was dubbed on using a synthetic dubbing material with copper highlights. This pattern is suggestive of mayfly nymphs, emergers (fished high) and could be a small damsel fly. As you look at these patterns, and the simplicity is in your face, it is possible to discount the pattern as not sophisticated or complex enough. Seriously, simple is better more often than not. More complex patterns are ok for the tier that requires more challenge in tying and creativity. For the fish, refusals may not be due to simplicity but more than likely to your presentation. Make it more complex if you must….but, you will come back to where you started sooner or later….simplicity.

With 2010 coming you want to look fresh and ready for a new start. So say goodbye to last years smoky eyes and orange lips, and get ready for the new looks of the future!

Strong brows.

This picture shows strong brows perfectly, and it even shows metalic eyes too!

Over plucked brows are just so blah! The look now? Think and framing.  To get perfect brows take a pencil and line it up with were your eyes stop, that is were your brow should end. Then look straight forward and line a pencil up to the end of your pupil, that is were your brow should curve. After that just fade out to a tip. Always remember to only pick stray hairs on the bottom of your brow, never the top.

Metalic eyes.

You don't have to make your metalic eyes this crazy to have them be fabulous.

The cuttest new look for eyes right now is all in the metal. If you have darker skin choose a  deep gold or copper, but if you have a lighter skin tone go for silver or light  gold. One look that I like to use is a light silver on my lids and a deep gold on my crease. It makes my eyes pop!

Plum lips.

Plum lips are just oh so glamorous!

Say goodbye to boring nude and pink lips, because plum is the new thing. It’s so suprpising and flattering that it will turn heads (don’t worry, I mean in a good way!). If your afraid to try it out wear it to a party first. After you see everyones reactions you can decide if you want to wear your purple lipstick again, or not.

Bronzed cheeks.

Rihanna looks healthy, and beautiful with her bronzed cheeks.

Bronzed, sun-kissed cheeks are all the rage with winter. Choose a shimmery one 2 shades darker then your natural skin tone to keep from looking like a clown. To apply it right sweep it up from the side of your nose up to the sides of your cheek bones.

So look absolutly stunning this new year, with these fabulous new looks.

I know this is gonna burst your bubble.

But our front door:

ya know, the one that I wanted to replace the hardware on:

Yeah.  That one.  It’s gonna need a full-blown door replacement. 

The inside panels are coming apart.  Basically it is a crumbly mess and it’s leaking worse than pregnant girls when they sneeze.  It has to be doing a number on our gas bill. 

I assumed that if you put enough coats of paint on the sucker, it would act like a fusible bonding agent…but now the layers are starting to crack.  And crack is whack.  I just can’t say that enough

Anyhoo.  So when it came to our DIY Blog Squad projects – team Bower was one project short.  We no longer could  replace the exterior hardware without a full-blown door reno which would be a little out of our 2009 budget.  And just putting on new hardware would be like putting lipstick on Tiger Woods…enter scandalous and inappropriate jokes here.

But with that DIY moolah curtesy of those kissable folks over at True Value that would have gone towards a shmancy new doorhandle and deadbolt, we knew that we had a slot to fill on our TO-DO list and an allowance to help us get there.  So we walked around the house jotting down all the projects that would fit the bill.  And with hardware on the brain, both my boyfriend and I were 100% sure what to tackle when we saw this:  

What is it?  Well, it’s the hallway opening up to our kitchen.  But the thing that got our attention was the complete and utter mismatchiness of the doorknobs.  And when we payed a little closer attention, we noticed that on the first floor, we had only three doors….with three different types of doorknobs.  And if you sit at the kitchen counter, you can see them all at the same time.  It’s ghastly. 

Especially this one: 

That’s the redheaded stepchild of the bunch.  Or should I say goldheaded?

Either way – it needed to go away. and fast.  

So we quickly hopped in the car and made our way to our local True Value store to pick up three packages of matching doorhandles. 

And now we are back with a little doorhandle switcheroo how-to. 

1.  REMOVE YOUR OLD DOORKNOB

Most doorknobs are three different parts – two handles and an inner latch mechanism.  There are two different types of handles – male & female.   One has a couple prongs (male) and one has a couple holes (female).  I know you all are expecting an anatomy joke now but seriously.  I am way too mature for that.  Now back to the unscrewing

Using a screwdriver, remove all the pieces of the existing door handle and the inner latch.  It should look a little somethin’ like this:

Don’t forget to remove the lock plate that is located on your doorjam.  It usually comes right off after removing the two little screws.

2.  SCREW IN THE NEW STUFF

In the package, the easist thing to recognize is the new latch plate.  I went ahead and put mine on first.  I had to make sure that it lined up correctly with where the old latch plate was because sometimes the new is slightly different in size or the hole is a little different.  Just remember that if your new doorhandle doesn’t latch correctly, you might want to readjust this plate.

Secondly, you want to slide the latch mechanism into the door. 

The latch can have a circular head:

Or a square one:

The package should contain both variations so be sure to snag the replacement one that is like the existing version.

Then you are gonna slide the ‘male’ handle through the latch mechanism.  The prongs should easily slide through and be visible on the other side.  Then holding the male handle in place, slide the female handle so that the holes line up with the prongs.  Insert the provided screws through the face of the female plate and into the male prongs.  You can snicker if you want  

I also used a screw driver to make sure that the screws were nice and tight.

3.  SLIDE ON THE DECORATIVE PLATE

Every doorknob kit is different.  So yours might not have a decorative plate.  But ours did.  It covers up the screwheads. And it just popped into place.

4.  FASTEN THE DECORATIVE DOORHANDLE

The kits that have decorative plates can also have decorative handles.  They slide over the basic lock ’stem’ of the female lever and have a small little twisty tool to fasten it into place.

5.  CELEBRATE YOUR SUCCESS

Time to celebrate your fancy new doorhandles (or just giggle at all the innuendos).  Either way, changing hardware is one ridiculously easy project and oh-so-effective at making any door look a heck of a lot better as well as getting that cohesive appearance (even if your doors are totally different).  Plus, it is a switcheroo that anyone can do with the help of a screwdriver.   One hundred points for easy to-do projects! 

So now it’s your turn to talk for a bit – tell me….have you switched hardware lately?  Wasn’t it the easiest fix ever?  Did you go for the curvy lever style like me or the traditional round knob style?  Or how bout color?  We installed the brushed nickel version but I drooled all over the oil-rubbed bronze finish.  Or maybe you like the goldheaded stepchild….they need love too   Go ahead and tell me your door hardware story…just remember to end it with ‘happily ever after’!    

“I was one of five bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program and my DIY project as well as my posts about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.”

When doing research for your National History Day project you will encounter many primary sources.  These sources are essential to your project.  They give you first hand accounts about your topic.  Considering there are varied amounts of primary sources you can use each one in a way that will give your project the “wow” factor.

Here are some  examples of primary sources and how you can use them to their greatest advantages.  Personal records such as letters, diaries, photo albums, and scrapbooks could help you learn about values, attitudes, first-hand accounts of historical events, uses of technology, and more.  These resources are probably located at local historical societies. Records from organizations and businesses such as inventories, cemetery records, travel brochures, school records, yearbooks, and union records are all great primary sources. They all show different types of history such as economic and educational.  Public organizations such as schools, business, and historical societies would be where you can find these sources.

Paintings, drawings, blueprints, photographs, and other visual records are great primary sources especially if you are doing a documentary or an exhibit.  It allows you to get a realistic view into the time period in which you are studying.  Art museums and historical societies would a great place to look for these sources.  Newspaper and magazines can help you gain information about an event or historical era from writers who may have witnessed the event.  Many libraries and historical societies contain copies of old newspapers.

Interviews are a great primary source.  They give first-hand accounts of important people or events.  You can conduct your own interviews or some maybe pre-recorded and found at your local historical societies.

Now to my personal favorite primary sources, (I know how cool am I that I have a favorite primary source) pop culture sources.  These sources consist of music, advertisements, old TV shows, magazines, and books.  These sources show the values of a certain time period.  These sources can also be found in historical societies and libraries.

Government records such as trade agreements, treaties, census data, and court proceedings allow you to see how the government dealt with various issues.  Local government information is found in local historical societies, while government records are found at the National Archives.  Maps, genealogies, doctoral dissertations, or other academic sources can be full with useful data.  Libraries and historical societies would be the best place to find these sources.  Now go out and go find yourself some amazing primary sources!

-Ali, Delaware Historical Society Intern

Hey everyone,

I just posted a new video to the reseller wiki.  This is Auto Attendant Programming 101, and I highly recommend it for any installers or techs out there who are a bit fuzzy on exactly how to design and program an Auto Attendant in trixbox Pro or PBXtra.

Here’s the link:  http://help.fonality.com/Resellers/Reseller_Video_Tutorials/Auto_Attendant_Programming_101

Topics covered include:

• Proper Auto Attendant design
• Creating a to-do list for your Auto Attendant
• Tips for programming (design forward, program in reverse)
• Group voicemail box creation
• Queue creation
• Voice prompt creation
• Blast group creation
• Schedule creation
• Inputting DID’s
• Creating/modifying submenus

The AA design below is what I actually program in the video, and I do the whole thing from start to finish in under an hour.  If you are a Fonality reseller, but don’t have access to this document, request access by emailing salesengineer@fonality.com.

Bower Household News Flash:  THE NUMBERS ARE IN.

We got the quote to get the basement laundry room drywalled & mudded…and Wayne The Mudman, is our new best friend. forever. for all of time. for infinity and beyond.  name that toy for one hundred and four points.  

Wayne was the one that mudded our basement.  We hate mudding.  We always end up almost dead.  So obviously Wayne is our hero.  Our lungs hero, our fingers hero, and our bank account hero.  And seeing as how I am the one that would do most of the laundry room joint compound, and I am all crazy with an inhabited uterus….my sweet boyfriend voted that I stay outta the dust and we hire Wayne one more time.   Sometime in the next month I should have the play-by-play  

And due to mud on the brain – I thought I would share with you some of the other work Wayne did for us a while back.  When he was here finishing up the basement, he also helped us with some mudding issues we had in our kitchen and our living room….FOR FREE.  And he was super-nice when I drilled him with questions about the how-tos of professional mudding.   

Here’s how it went:

Our kitchen originally had this wall of cabinets that separated it from the den.

So we ripped it out. 

But when the cabinets came down – so did part of the ceiling. 

So my handy hunky boyfriend attached a new piece of drywall and I attempted to mud over it.

But I could never get the texture of the stippled ceiling just right. 

ENTER WAYNE THE MUDMAN.

So Wayne fixed it by first sanding it down,

And then used a stipple brush to create the little ’stars’ texture that was all over our ceiling.

He told me it takes months to make these stipple brushes.  That you have to soak a round brush and then clamp it down to a piece of wood.  Then you have to redo that over and over.  And sometimes, you have to put the joint compound on the brush and then clamp it.  A well-done stipple brush can run over $100.  My question is “why am I not in the stipple brush business?”

Anyhoo – after he applies a thin layer of mud, he taps the brush on the ceiling to get the ’stars’ to appear (no free gift totes or paparazzi needed). 

Our living room was a little different.  We had some imperfections along the joint of where the wall met the ceiling. 

So he used a small knife to cut in some quick-dry compound. 

Ten minutes later, he used a roller to apply a very thin layer of mud to the ceiling. 

And then he used that stipple brush again to create the correct texture.

Overall, I was pleased as punch when he finished.  Fruit punch to be exact. 

And after picking apart his mud-lovin brain, I learned a thing or two about how the pros do crack and holes.  (Confession:  I just thought that was dirty and it ‘cracked’ me up to type that…Jesus, please forgive me).  So here is what I gleaned from the master:

1.  THIN YOUR JOINT COMPOUND

The first layer on any seam or hole should be a joint compound that has been thinned with water to the point of being the consistency of a thin mayo.  A quick-dry joint compound is preferable.  And apply it with a small to medium knife. 

2.  TAPE WITH PAPER AND SHMEAR AGAIN

After you swipe on the mayo..err…mayo-like-mud, use paper tape on the big seams.  Then do another layer of mayo-mud on top.  The pros use a tape-gun…but you can buy a roll of paper for drywall at your local hardware store and just cut it to length.  After gently pushing the tape on the wet seam, use your small to medium knife to do another swipe of mud on top.   

3.  SAND

Using a fine sandpaper, smooth out the edges of your joint compound. 

4.  MUD LIKE BUTTAH

The final layer of mud should be a little thicker than the first two – more like a shmear of softened butter.  Using a large joint compound knife, apply that last layer and attempt to feather the edges.  If you have issues with consistency, add a little more water and blend well. 

5.  REPEAT STEP #3

Pretty easy, huh?  Yeah.  Just be aware that if you are working on a large surface, the sanding can get rather invasive.  As in your lungs can shut down because they hate you.  But if you are working on a small area – let’s say, filling holes from picture frames or fixing a wall where your kid rams their toy trucks or you just extended a wall, these tips will help you finish the task quickly and easily. 

Anyone else out there with a quick tip on drywall?  Do drop that sucka in the comments.  Anyone hate sanding drywall as much as I do?  Or how bout anyone excited for me that I will soon have a laundry room with walls?   ME ME ME! (waving hand frantically.)

VideoPress is an upgrade that makes it easy to upload, embed, and share video on your WordPress blog or any site around the world, even in full HD.

via VideoPress — Quick and easy HD video sharing for WordPress.

Remember how we had that list of DIY TO-DO tasks?  And remember how we were oh-so-grateful-thanking-our-lucky-stars for being chosen to be on the True Value DIY Blog Squad?  Yeah.  We still can’t believe it either.

Well, do you happen to remember the very first thing on our list?

No cheating.

Okay.  You can cheat.

It was exterior clean up.  Well cheaters cheaters Tiger beaters, we began with finishing our yard renovation but there were more things to do.  One major project was paint removal.

You see, when we bought our house, it had these giant bushes that blocked the view of where the brick met our siding. 

And being rookie first-time home buyers, we only had stars in our eyes about the fact that the previous owners recently painted the house.  It didn’t come to our attention that they oversprayed the exterior paint all over the roof, gutters, and brick foundation.  That is, until we ripped out all the plants – MAJOR BUMMER DUDE.

So for a while now, the house has sat like this…

…with gray/white faux finished brick.

It’s like the 80’s are back with their sponge-painting and their crazy bangles and crimped hair. 

(Confession: I still like to crimp my hair.)

Anyhoo, so when it came to removing the paint from the brick we did a little research and came up with a plan.  And here is the play by play just in case you wanna do it at home (or you just want to celebrate our success with us…which is totally cool by the way because nobody likes to party alone). 

1.  BUY SUPPLIES AT TRUE VALUE

First thing we bought was a bunch of muriatic acid.   DANGER WILL SMITH…THIS STUFF IS CAUSTIC.

And we bought a garden sprayer.  You know the type.  With the pump handle and the little sprayer rod thingie. 

And we also looked into renting a pressure washer.  We didn’t know this prior to walking in the doors but some True Value’s rent tools…really cool tools like log splitters and pressure washers and chainsaws.  Boy toys.  At really reasonable prices too.  Although we ended up borrowing a family member’s pressure washer, this would have been our next place to stop to get the right thing for the job.

Lastly we picked up a stiff bristle scrub brush and some safety gloves and goggles.  You will also need a mask for this job and some rubber boots…and a water source with a hose to hook up your pressure washer. 

2.  PREP THE AREA

We only had to drape a few tarps over our newly planted bushes to prep our area.  We heard that sometimes the muriatic acid can splash up onto the plants so if you care about your leafy friends, this step takes two seconds. 

Don’t be a fool, coverings are cool

3.  POUR YOUR ACID INTO THE GARDEN SPRAYER

We made sure that Jeremy was wearing a mask, rubber gloves, splash googles and was fully clothed before attempting to do this step.  He poured the muriatic acid into the garden sprayer and diluted it 3 to 1.  On the back of the container, it stated to do 4 to 1 but we are rebels.

4.  SPRAY A SELECT FEW BRICKS WITH MURIATIC ACID SOLUTION 

Using the garden sprayer, apply the muriatic acid solution to a small section of the bricks.  The first time we attempted to spray the bricks, I sprayed a huge section with only a small amount of solution.  It would dry almost before we could go on.  So we decided that less bricks-more acid would be the better route.  We were right.

You can see that when we focused on a smaller zone, that the solution would actually bubble and drip some of the paint right off.  Plus it gave us more time for the next step.

5.  SCRUB THE BRICK WITH A STIFF BRISTLE BRUSH

This is the part that I was glad I had a strong man in my life.  After I sprayed the brick with the solution, Jeremy went to town scrubbing the bricks one by one until the paint started breaking up. 

He said that his key to success was to brush the brick longways – extending the stroke over both ends with a lot of elbow grease. 

6.  PRESSURE WASH THE BRICK

Using the maximum pressure setting, Jeremy used the pressure washer to remove any leftover paint and residue.  If there was paint that was still not loosened enough to come off, then we would go back and repeat steps 4, 5 and 6.

Basically that’s how it is done. 

And since we had the borrowed pressure washer, we decided that it was high time to clean our front porch and steps. 

We honestly didn’t realize how gross they were until after they were cleaned.  It was like a cow-patty porch.  in a dumpster.  on Planet Disgusting. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So now that I got you in the before & after mood…do you wanna see some more? 

Specifically brick that looks shiny and new?

Minus the shiny?

Well, ok.  You don’t have to beg like Rosie O does for work. 

Here’s the white-washed before:

And the fabulous after:

And one little corner before:

And one little corner AFTER:

In the end, the paint removal on our brick was well worth the effort.  Now we just need to pray for hail damage to our roof   Kidding.  Sortof. 

So what about you guys?  Do you have one of these strange brick foundations/siding all around kinda houses too?  Have you ever had overspray issues?  Or ever attempt to remove paint from brick before?  I have heard good things about different methods of removal…never tried them though.  Any “Peel Away” product users out there?  Or how bout anyone try the cooking oil method?  I have heard the way we chose was the most dangerous…which scared us a bit…but then we felt like it was good to go straight for the gold.  We also loved, LOVED with a capital L, the pressure washer.  It was so instantaneously gratituitous.  If only I could use it on the bathrooms

“I was one of five bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program and my DIY project as well as my posts about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.”

Looking for a great gift or stocking stuffer for girls?  This is a fun and quick project that you can complete in  a few minutes.  Clips work great for little girls, but these can also be attached to bobby pins or even to pin-backs for brooches.

Supplies:

• Poly Satin fabric scraps (you can also use organza or other fabric, just make sure it’s a polyester fabric)
• coordinating ribbon
• hair clips
• tweezers, pinch-type clothespin, or an extra hair clip (for holding fabric over flame)
• candle and lighter
• needle and embroidery floss or strong thread
• small glass beads or pearls
• scrap of felt
• hot glue gun
• water (to dunk fabric in, in case of fire)
• Sizzix with circle die or small circles to trace and cut out from fabric

How To:

Cut fabric circles of various sizes using Sizzix. I used two or three circles of each size on mine.  I used a total of three colors.

Wrap hair clip with ribbon, gluing as you go. Use the following pictures for guidance.

Holding fabric circle with tweezers, clothes pin, or extra clip, CAREFULLY and SLOWLY lower towards flame until the edges begin to singe and curl.  DO NOT ALLOW FABRIC TO TOUCH FLAME! Turn fabric circle until the entire edge is singed.  KEEP WATER CLOSE BY TO DOUSE ANY ACCIDENTAL FLAMES!

Layer fabric circles together until you like the way they look and place felt circle on the back.

Tie a knot in floss and pull a stitch up through the felt and all the fabric layers.

Flip flower over and add beads.

Stitch back through the flower and tie off floss.

Use hot glue gun to attach flower to clip. The felt backing sticks better with the glue than the fabric does.

Let the glue cool and it’s ready to wear!

Fonality’s HUD application is definitely the jewel of the industry. It does more, faster, and is more user-friendly than any other app I’ve used in conjunction with a phone system. It’s who we are. HUD defines us. I go so far as to say that HUD is what we sell – the phone system is an accessory.

HUD brought me to Fonality. I was on the Cisco career path when I found Fonality’s advertisement 2+ years ago on Craigslist (of all places – these guys know how to dig!). When I was invited to come to LA for an interview, they showed me HUD in the demo room. My mind = blown. You can do that with a desktop application?! I couldn’t imagine a world that involved touching a phone ever again. The rest is history.

I walk around the office every day with a GN9350 wireless headset connected to my Polycom 550. I can’t carry the phone, but I do carry my laptop everywhere. HUD allows me to answer incoming calls from anywhere in the office. I get to see who’s calling, and from the caller’s information I can mostly guess why. Much better than just saying “hello?” are greetings like “hey George, I’m pretty sure you’re calling me to follow up on that email you sent 15 minutes ago right?” Things get done this way – fast.

HUD is absolutely the most user-friendly application I could have dreamed. However, we do tend to out-engineer ourselves. One of the best features about HUD is the on-demand help function. Click on any window within the HUD application and press the F1 key on your keyboard. Viola! A web browser opens (if you didn’t already have one open) and the knowledge base article corresponding to that particular window displays within seconds (depending on your Internet connection of course). Most of the windows in HUD have videos demonstrating various uses of the features within that window. On-demand user-training. Who’da thunk it?

This brings me to the topic of training – something I find myself doing all too often with new customers. HUD is the easiest application in the world to teach. Trouble is – we forget to tell people about this function when we’re selling!

Here’s my lecture in it’s entirety:

“See this app? It controls your phone. It’s magic – the computer gnomes do all the work – little people, small hands. I know that you don’t understand how to use it right now, but I have a solution. See this window? Click it. Now press F1. See the video? Watch that. If you need to – watch it again. Now rinse and repeat for each of the windows. See ya.”

Not a single user has ever called me back asking for more help. The videos do their job, HUD does it’s job, and the engineers found a way to bridge the user with the technology through a single keystroke. Brilliant.

Tyler
I put the Selling in Sales Engineer