blogging: california volunteers californiavolunteers.org emergency contacts emergency kit family disaster plan fire season maria shriver we prepare
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WE Prepare
It’s fire season again. Today it was 105 and the wind was blowing like crazy up in Rancho Cucamonga. That means it was blowing even crazier in places like Fontana. My husband’s coworkers had a bike ride planned tomorrow, but the park they were going to ride through was on fire today.
Fire scares the crap out of me. So I’m prepared.
Anyone can go to the California Volunteers WE Prepare website and prepare a family disaster plan. I did the whole thing. It’s really cool - especially for people with kids. You fill in all the info and then you can save the .pdf, email it to family members (close and far) - it even has sample letters for your friends and family, particularly those you decide are your long-distance emergency contacts. Then you can print little wallet-sized copies of your plan so you can always carry it with you.
Now, lets just hope I never need to use them!
There’s also a printable book to help explain the emergency to your kids.
Bottom line, it’s nice to have a little peace of mind. You never know which way the wind is going to carry an ember or if the big earthquake is going to happen, but you can have your papers in order, right?
Oh yeah, I also got a super awesome emergency kit through them. It’s got these cool little packs of drinking water, baby wipes, crazy super-food bars that will keep you alive for weeks, bandages, a crank radio, flashlight, extra batteries and a lot more. All in a cool backpack.
Resources for your family:
On www.CaliforniaVolunteers.org you’ll be able to:
• Determine your family’s risks by using the Web site’s Risk Assessment Tool
• Customize your Family Disaster Plan
• Personalize and download your own Children’s Story
• Print out wallet-size Emergency Contact Cards
• View and download First Lady Maria Shriver’s 10 Ways WE Prepare for Disasters
addictions blabbery fabric: budgeting fabric joanns fabric oprah riverside sewing singer stash busters
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new sewing finds
Guess how I found that awesome neighborhood in Historic Riverside. I was looking for a Singer Sewing shop. And I found it - in a nice lady’s garage in my favorite new neighborhood. I guess she owned a Singer repair and sales shop for a long time and retired, but kept selling from her converted garage, where she has an awesome Gammill long arm machine. It’s a really nice setup. Anyway, she was super helpful. I got a walking foot (finally), extra needles, and the all-important little key to open my bobbin case for cleaning.
Her shop was a great find. The next closest Singer shop is over an hour away. They’re both pretty far, but this one is a little closer, and it a much more awesome neighborhood.
Then I headed over to Joann’s and found a bunch of cool fabric, fun notions (like denim rivets and fancy buttons) and a ton of good white and black cotton pieces in the remnant bins.
Which brings me to my real topic. Budgeting. David and I are going to follow the budgeting and planning advice of the money management lady on Oprah - we’re going to each get an allotment of cash each month and that’s all we can spend.
I guess I’m going to have to join a stash-busters group online, because I won’t be buying any fabric for a while. Unless it’s in the budget, of course ;)
smart cars
You know, we’re always looking at new stuff around here. I’m noticing that this is a real trend in my blog posts. Today, on our adventures, we passed a Smart Car dealership and a few Smart Cars on the freeway. I saw one that was a convertible! Very cool. And it must have been driving about 80, so they can go fast. For some reason, I thought they were like golf carts or something - but that’s dumb, right?
Anyway, we were talking about how our neighbor should get one because she’s a surgical nurse in LA, and her commute is horrendous, and she drives some kind of sedan - like a chrysler or something. I was wishing we could get something like that, but it doesn’t even have a back seat. No room for a car seat. Pros: great gas mileage, super cool, fits into any space. I’m not one for spoilers, but it sure doesn’t seem very aerodynamic. But then, it’s not a jet, right?
shopping: anthropologie hand crafted inspiration ontario sewing shopping victoria gardens
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anthropologie
During our home shopping expedition, we stopped at Victoria Gardens mall. Its one of these new all-outside malls with mostly upscale shops. It would have been more fun if it hadn’t been 106 degrees outside, but we did manage to stop at Thomas Station - an all Thomas the train store, and Anthropologie. That place is an inspiration wonderland for sewing. There is so much cool stuff in there. We saw these fun vases, coasters and picture frames made from magazine pages rolled tightly into thin strips and glued together. First of all, great recycling. Second, I just know that those were made by some women using what they have to create something cool and how awesome that it’s being sold in this fancy store where t-shirts are $70!
There was a bird cage made of fabric and wire that seemed so simple to make, but was really lovely. It was selling for $108! I’m sure I could make something similar. Lord knows I’ve got enough jewelry wire and fabric floating around my house. I tried to find a picture to show, but I guess they only have them in the stores, not online. Although, searching “anthropologie” on flickr yields some pretty awesome images.
blabbery: kb homes martha stewart north carolina perris southern california
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more martha
I have to say, too, that the Martha Stewart communities are in too few locations. We looked it up and they’re really only in about 10 places, none of which we are really in a position to move to. One thing I did notice was that the two communities in North Carolina are way more expensive than the communities in Southern California! That was very surprising. I wonder how much other stuff costs there - like gas or groceries or NC health insurance. I would think that we have the highest home prices in the nation - even in a desert area like Perris.
addictions: historic riverside home restoration kb homes martha stewart model homes
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my new favorite neighborhood
We’ve had a big weekend of house shopping. Well, window shopping for houses. Meaning that, as usual, we really have no intention of buying a house. BUT I found my dream neighborhood yesterday. Historic Riverside. I LOVE the houses. Today, I dragged my husband there - it’s a pretty good drive - and we saw one house for sale that was built in 1904. It was so gorgeous. I needed a lot of work, but wouldn’t that be fun? You know, if you had unlimited funds and perhaps some architectural and interior design expertise :) We have none, of course. The dreamy part about this neighborhood is really the trees. Just imagine, the trees have been growing in that neighborhood for 100 years also! I just love it. There’s even a kind of creepy cemetery right in the middle of the downtown area. It’s awesome.
Then, in the opposite extreme, we found a KB Home Martha Stewart community in Perris. Suprisingly, Perris is one of the most undesirable areas around here. (No offense, Perris.) It’s just not that great to us. It certainly doesn’t scream Martha Stewart. But the houses are really nice. They’re pretty standard KB homes, but the models were all furnished with Martha furniture, the walls were painted a pale Martha blue, the kitchens were pristine. I loved them. I even loved the plasma tv mount. I would buy a Martha model house in the dismal town of Perris if it came as is!
Barack Obama Democrats hillary clinton John Edwards politics presidential candidates: Barack Obama democratic nomination edwards endorsement edwards endorses obama hillary clinton jonh edwards politics US presidential election
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Edwards endorses Obama!
Hooray! That’s all I wanted to say about that. Here’s a link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_el_pr/obama_edwards
blogging Crafts quilting sewing: betty ninja blogs common threads craft blogs dontcallmebecky.com lady havertine quilting bee quilting blogs sewing blogs virtual quilting bee
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joy is…
A blog full of awesomely-talented crafters! Some of my favorite craft/sewing bloggers and some that are new to me (hooray - new treasure!) have teamed up and created a virtual quilting bee.
They’re calling themselves Common Threads, and there are links to their individual blogs as well as the chronicling of their bee projects, which are just getting started. I can’t wait to see what these girls cook up.
Keep the pictures coming, girls!
blabbery This American Life: alex bloomberg global money pool Ira Glass mortgage brokers mortgage crisis explained national public radio nina loan NPR PRI public radio international real estate sub prime mortgage This American Life
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mortgage woes explained. finally.
As renters, my husband and I have been a little unclear on what all the hubbub is with the mortgage crisis. The other day, we saw a headline on the paper that said, “Crisis seeps into prime mortgages”…I took that to mean even people with 30-year fixed mortgages at reasonable interest rates were defaulting on their loans. Is this accurate? I don’t know, but my husband believed me :)
Our landlord owns a few other properties. One of them went vacant and he cleaned it and listed it on Craigslist on a Friday. He was telling me that he had 60 people show up to see it that Saturday. He spoke of how he felt terrible for the people because many of them were in foreclosure situations and desperate for an affordable place to live.
My husband and I were talking about how it must be difficult for a landlord to be in that position - do you rent your property to someone who has shown credit-unworthiness? Even if it was in unfair circumstances?
Well, the question of credit-unworthiness is really the clincher, isn’t it? Are the 4 MILLION Americans who are at risk of losing their homes all somehow delinquent or poor money managers. Surely not. But, as someone who has no first hand knowledge of the home-buying process, I made quite a few assumptions. Most of them based on television.
For example, I remember an episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show (her sitcom, not her talk show) where she was trying to buy a house. The prospective lender made her account for every late payment she had ever made in her whole life. It was a very serious and elaborate vetting. Basically, I assumed everyone that has a house went through a similar seemingly-painful and very thorough examination before they were granted a mortgage.
Then I learned about NINA loans. NINA stands for No Income, No Asset - meaning the hopeful homebuyer did not have to state any income or any asset, and could be approved for a mortgage. Regardless of employment status or past credit history!!! Who would do such a thing? Thousands of mortgage brokers across the country.
Here is a very enlightening podcast - every one should listen to it. This week’s This American Life podcast follows the trail of mortgages from homeowner to global money pool. Listen and learn. I love This American Life. If you don’t have any desire to listen to it on the computer, you can download it for free on iTunes, but get it now, because free TAL podcasts disappear after a week. You can purchase them later, but they’re only free for their week of publication.
Other 2008 TAL programs I highly recommend:
- 353: The Audacity of Government
- 324: My Brilliant Plan, specifically, Act Two.
- 358: Leaving the Fold - the very interesting story of Jerry Springer.
blabbery blessings family: family family photos grandmothers moms mothers
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Here’s to the Mothers!
A small photo salute to some of the mommies in my life…
Here’s to my pretty mama, who I miss every day. That’s my awesome sister in the photo - who’s a heck of a mom also.
Here’s to my super wonderful step-mom, Sandy. She puts up with my dad, and for that, she deserves a medal! Even better, she loves me. I’m a lucky girl.
Here’s to Luchy, my lovely mother-in-law, who I’ve come to know and love and be supremely grateful for.
Here’s to my Grandma Jo, the sweetest, most wonderful grandma on the planet.
Here’s to my Grandma Grace, who died far too young and I’ve always missed knowing.
Here’s to my dad’s mom, my Nana Petters who was my kindred spirit. She taught me a great love for matching shoes and handbags and Esther Williams movies. I never met my Great Grandmother Adelaide, but I know she was well loved.
Here’s to Mama, David’s grandmother, who is feisty and funny and too far away.
There are, of course, a ton of other mothers in my life. But I don’t have all day - my husband took my son to the park! I’ve got a quilt store to go to! I just wanted to take a minute and share the special women in my life with the blogosphere. I miss you, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!
(p.s., this post has been a disaster. I just couldn’t get the photos and their captions laid out the way I wanted. I put in code and wordpress takes it out. So, sorry you probably don’t know who’s in what picture. The important thing is to tell the world how great they all are, right?)
