Ebony's Pearls

Beaners and Shortie
Originally uploaded by nodigio

CNN had a list of shortcuts for everyday tasks. Of the shortcuts, only one might apply to most men. The rest were aimed towards women. Six were for dressing up from work clothes to party clothes; one of which was suitable only for white women. Three were for running errands. One of those would be a good shortcut for most men. One was for social networking. One was a kitchen tip. One was for home decorating.

When I see lists of shortcuts for everyday tasks, they always seem to be written for women. Do men not have daily tasks that could be improved with shortcuts?

I can name a few shortcuts that would be great for both men and women, and I can write them so they don't target women only.

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There's more, but this will do for starters.

And this is yet another reason I don't have a telephone. If I still had a phone, and none of my other reasons for not having one weren't enough, this would be the reason to stop phone service.

Last weekend, I had to go with my sister to Penney's so she could look at curtain rods (well, I didn't have to, I could have sat in the car and waited for her to do her shopping).

I had no interest in curtain rods, but I did wander through looking at the curtains they had hanging up.

One thing they've started doing is something I'd done years ago - strung beads and hung them in front of the sheers. I've hung beads across doorways, and in front of windows, and draped in loops across the tops of the walls for looks.

It was a very "hippy" look, especially when coupled with tie-dye.

Now, it's back in fashion, upscale. They used fancier beads - pearl-like beads, big gold fancy beads, flat plastic and glass beads, strung on sheer gold or white or beige ribbons.

I've decided my sister's house is too boring. Looking at those curtains inspired me with a way I could liven up her house without compromising her dull and boring tastes.

Her walls are all white. Her curtains are all beige or cream colored. Her carpets are white. Her furniture is pale buckskin or white pine. What little color there is tends to be gray or a pale, pale pink, with a bit of fake greenery here and there. That's it. Her whole house is pale and paler.

So. I have cut crystal beads, and white pearl-like beads, and pastel colored sheer ribbons, and fancy gold beads. I am going to string these beads up to hang in front of her white sheers and to loop across her beige swags. They will not compromise her color scheme, but they will add a bit of interest in an otherwise utterly generic and boring house.

There's a company picnic on Saturday that I will be unable to attend because of doing things for Mother's estate.

That doesn't mean I won't be able to send goodies along for my co-workers to share.

I just baked a lot of small flower cakes and decorated them with a glace icing and a sprinkle of colored sugars to make them glisten. They are packed in cup cake papers, then into a cake box with spaced layers.

The cake flavor is a basic yellow cake enhanced with almonds and roses and a dash of cardamom.

The icing is rose and cream.

There are enough cakes for everyone attending the picnic to have at least one, and possibly two. And there are enough for me to bring tomorrow to work so the other co-workers who can't make it to the picnic can at least have one.

They aren't very pretty, but they are yummy.

No pics because I ran out of floppies for the camera and haven't been to the store to buy more.