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Beads I View by Pat – goal: friendship, education and promotion of my beautiful bead crafted items

Archive for the ‘trikes’ Category

Garage Sale – DIY – My Waterbed?

Posted by Pat J on July 14, 2009

Welcome! Ole! Guten Tag!

Here’s my thought…

I sometimes buy the strangest things at a garage sale.  At least that’s the the way it seems to my husband sometimes.  But he knows me and we agreed a long time ago, “never buy anything at a  garage sale (or a craft fair) unless we know where it’s going to go.  So, with this in mind, we set out on our bikes (trike for me) to just take an early Saturday morning ride and maybe hit a few of the neighborhood sales.  We had stopped at a couple of sales on our tour when unbeknownst to me (he usually follows me in the bike lane) he turned off to follow a sign that I hadn’t noticed.  Riding onward,  I noticed that he wasn’t following  (if he really needed me he’d call me, cell phones mandatory on a trip like this).  I saw a sign for a sale just 2  blocks  before  our original starting point, and followed it into one of the mazes that flanks the circle around the lakes where we live.  ”And what to my ‘wandering’ eyes should appear?”  A “waterbed” (water not included) …complete with shelved headboard and 6 under the bed drawers.  It was made of pine and had a few stickers, kid’s stuff, on it, and about a quarter inch of dust and grime.  It had potential!  The kicker was that they were asking just $15.00!  Now, I had been trying to think of how to better organize my bead repository, my bead room, and this seemed like the perfect solution.  The parts to the bed were laying un-neatly stacked by the side of the driveway and my mind was working overtime putting it together in my head and justify the  buy.  It consisted of headboard, two sets of 3 drawer base side rails, two long trim boards, and a header and footer board.  It also included the plywood pieces (2) upon which the waterbed form was meant to rest.   I thought it was a fair price, so I didn’t even dicker on the price with the soon to be former owners, and it was mine.  My next thought, call Denny!  And speak of the devil… he came riding up the street.  It was a good thing, too, because I only carry about $10.00 and I needed a few more from him to actually complete the transaction.

 

Did he question my why and where concerning the purchase?  No, but I volunteered it.  Storage!  We only had to ride the short distance back to our house and get the RAV4 to take it home.  

The pieces sat in the garage for a week and a half before I had a chance to clean them up. I used very mild soap and water and a good hard spray from hose, couldn’t hurt it! I then destickered it, let dry in the AZ sun.  Further assessment of the finish, told me it had solid pine drawer fronts, all handles secure, drawer glides in good condition, with a little white grease powder lubricant, they functioned very well.  The finish was in good shape so that I only gave it a good coating of Scots Liquid Gold.  Beauty!  

How did it get repurposed?  Just like I pictured with a little adjustment in thought about the use of the side boards.  This is how it went together.

1.  Need to be raised off of floor. I had 5 styrene bin drawers that had been stacked in the space where the new unit was to go.  Ok, that’s my base.

2.  Need – stabilizer where  1 drawer unit will rest – answer:  use the two finished edge 2 x 10″ side rails, adjust them to proper length so they don’t overhang the sides of the units.  (Denny’s idea) cut off about 8″ of overhang, thank you, sir.

3.  Need – stabilizer between the 2 drawer units – answer: use 1 piece of plywood, with the extra overhang,  between the styreen drawers and that unit. 

4. Need – Top of Entire unit – answer: use 2nd piece of plywood, with the extra overhang, it forms a cubby-like area right next to my printer for my ream of paper and extra supplies.

 

5. Finish off by placing the headboard shelf unit on top of the newly set up drawer unit.  Place my canvas lined baskets on top for extra storage, personalize with a few accessories, fill the drawers in an organized fashion with the “stuff” from the 3 cabinets that it replaced and “Voile’”.    My garage sale water bed find, is now my no nail, stable, super storage space, chest of drawers!  And, I even have one empty drawer…. ummmm,  MORE BEADS!

I realize that a true pro job could have been done with glue and nails and a base of well formed 1 x 2’s, and more, adding to the price and time spent completing of the project.  I may do that in the future.  We’ll see.  In the mean time this is just what I needed for now.  My total time in the project was maybe 4 hours including bringing the original pieces home.  With these things in mind, I am very happy with my Garage Sale – DIY – Waterbed, storage unit.

And this:  

Little Sue was standing in front of her mirror with her eyes closed.
“Why are you standing there with your eyes closed?” asked her sister.
“So I can see what I look like when I’m asleep,” she replied.

Respectfully submitted,

Pat

Beads I View by Pat – store

Purple pressed glass beads with Czech frosted faceted crystal beaded necklace… Use promo code “biv1″ for 10% discount on total order (excluding shipping and handling).

Posted in Beads I View by Pat, Czech crystal beads, bikes, cell phones, garage sale, sales, trikes, waterbed | 2 Comments »

Garage Sale – DIY – My Waterbed?

Posted by Pat J on July 14, 2009

Welcome! Hola! Guten Tag!

Here’s my thought…

I sometimes buy the strangest things at a garage sale.  At least that’s the the way it seems to my husband sometimes.  But he knows me and we agreed a long time ago, “never buy anything at a  garage sale (or a craft fair) unless we know where it’s going to go.  So, with this in mind, we set out on our bikes (trike for me) to just take an early Saturday morning ride and maybe hit a few of the neighborhood sales.  We had stopped at a couple of sales on our tour when unbeknownst to me (he usually follows me in the bike lane) he turned off to follow a sign that I hadn’t noticed.  Riding onward,  I noticed that he wasn’t following  (if he really needed me he’d call me, cell phones mandatory on a trip like this).  I saw a sign for a sale just 2  blocks  before  our original starting point, and followed it into one of the mazes that flanks the circle around the lakes where we live.  ”And what to my ‘wandering’ eyes should appear?”  A “waterbed” (water not included) …complete with shelved headboard and 6 under the bed drawers.  It was made of pine and had a few stickers, kid’s stuff, on it, and about a quarter inch of dust and grime.  It had potential!  The kicker was that they were asking just $15.00!  Now, I had been trying to think of how to better organize my bead repository, my bead room, and this seemed like the perfect solution.  The parts to the bed were laying un-neatly stacked by the side of the driveway and my mind was working overtime putting it together in my head and justify the  buy.  It consisted of headboard, two sets of 3 drawer base side rails, two long trim boards, and a header and footer board.  It also included the plywood pieces (2) upon which the waterbed form was meant to rest.   I thought it was a fair price, so I didn’t even dicker on the price with the soon to be former owners, and it was mine.  My next thought, call Denny!  And speak of the devil… he came riding up the street.  It was a good thing, too, because I only carry about $10.00 and I needed a few more from him to actually complete the transaction.

 

Did he question my why and where concerning the purchase?  No, but I volunteered it.  Storage!  We only had to ride the short distance back to our house and get the RAV4 to take it home.  

The pieces sat in the garage for a week and a half before I had a chance to clean them up. I used very mild soap and water and a good hard spray from hose, couldn’t hurt it! I then destickered it, let dry in the AZ sun.  Further assessment of the finish, told me it had solid pine drawer fronts, all handles secure, drawer glides in good condition, with a little white grease powder lubricant, they functioned very well.  The finish was in good shape so that I only gave it a good coating of Scots Liquid Gold.  Beauty!  

How did it get repurposed?  Just like I pictured with a little adjustment in thought about the use of the side boards.  This is how it went together.

1.  Need to be raised off of floor. I had 5 styrene bin drawers that had been stacked in the space where the new unit was to go.  Ok, that’s my base.

2.  Need – stabilizer where  1 drawer unit will rest – answer:  use the two finished edge 2 x 10″ side rails, adjust them to proper length so they don’t overhang the sides of the units.  (Denny’s idea) cut off about 8″ of overhang, thank you, sir.

3.  Need – stabilizer between the 2 drawer units – answer: use 1 piece of plywood, with the extra overhang,  between the styreen drawers and that unit. 

4. Need – Top of Entire unit – answer: use 2nd piece of plywood, with the extra overhang, it forms a cubby-like area right next to my printer for my ream of paper and extra supplies.

 

5. Finish off by placing the headboard shelf unit on top of the newly set up drawer unit.  Place my canvas lined baskets on top for extra storage, personalize with a few accessories, fill the drawers in an organized fashion with the “stuff” from the 3 cabinets that it replaced and “Voile’”.    My garage sale water bed find, is now my no nail, stable, super storage space, chest of drawers!  And, I even have one empty drawer…. ummmm,  MORE BEADS!

I realize that a true pro job could have been done with glue and nails and a base of well formed 1 x 2’s, and more, adding to the price and time spent completing of the project.  I may do that in the future.  We’ll see.  In the mean time this is just what I needed for now.  My total time in the project was maybe 4 hours including bringing the original pieces home.  With these things in mind, I am very happy with my Garage Sale – DIY – Waterbed, storage unit.

And this:  

Little Sue was standing in front of her mirror with her eyes closed.
“Why are you standing there with your eyes closed?” asked her sister.
“So I can see what I look like when I’m asleep,” she replied.

Respectfully submitted,

Pat

Beads I View by Pat – store

Purple pressed glass beads with Czech frosted faceted crystal beaded necklace… Use promo code “biv1″ for 10% discount on total order (excluding shipping and handling).

Posted in Beads I View by Pat, Czech crystal beads, bikes, cell phones, garage sale, sales, trikes, waterbed | 6 Comments »

Share the road! or Don’t tread on me!!

Posted by Pat J on May 29, 2009

I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but my preferred method of exercise is riding my 24″, 3 speed Desoto tricycle around the lakes of my neighborhood. It’s great because we have a lot of bike lanes and wide sidewalks. I have been triking since last August on a daily basis. Though I’ve had my trike for about 7 years, I’ve just rediscovered it as my form of regular exercise. I ride from 25 to 55 minutes on most days of the week. This is a great form of outdoor exercise for AZ because you can get out on almost every day of the year, even on the occasional rainy days (it doesn’t rain all day long). I’ve always been an active person but hsve not stuck with any one form of excercise for very long until now.

My bike is equipped with a coaster and 1 hand break, rearview mirror, LOUD airbulb style horn, LED magnetic operated front and rear lights (visible even in the day time), an odometer with time, mph, distance traveled, total and trip, fastest mph on any trip and average speed, a front basket for going to get the mail, a rear large basket for taking my sales to the shipping store (we have 2 in the neighborhood), all of this and an orange flag on a pole behind my ‘generous’ sized seat (the trike’s seat, that is!). Hard to miss seeing me, right?

Traffic is usually very respectful of my space and I am very respectful of theirs (they’re bigger that me!). I stay in my lane, I use my hand signals, I set my ipod at a volume so that I can still hear what’s going on around me, especially when a car is approaching from behind. When I’m at a crossing I go with the light. Most cars respect me although I’ve had to do a few panic stops when someone is not following the rules, really the laws, or just not paying attention.

For instance, this morning when I was out at 6:30 am on my ride and I was waiting at my usual light to cross over the 4 lanes to continue, I had a close call with a car. I was on the sidewalk when the pedestrian light turned white that told me I could cross. The car on my left suddenly decided that it was her turn to go and pulled right in front of me to make a right hand turn. I was shocked! I just yelled. Hey! Her window was slightly open on the passenger side and I could see that she was reaching across to her dashboard for something, maybe her radio, and was not paying attention. What a dummy! No, I didn’t give her any gestures of “cheer” with my finger or fingers, but I sure wanted to give her something, a rap along side the head, maybe?

Yes, I continued my ride, got 50 minuits clocked in for today. I was watching, and I will continue to ride my trike for fun and errands and especially exercise! But please! Please! Please! Watch out for the Bikes and Tricycles and don’t tread on me! The life you save may be my own. And for the woman with the short dark hair in the dark green suv, “watch out, I’ll be watching for YOU!”

Respectfully submitted
Pat
Beads I View by Pat

Visit my store and use promo code “biv1″ for 10% discount on total purchase, excluding shipping. (promo good until July 15, 2009)

Posted in beads, cars, laws, trikes | Leave a Comment »

Share the road! or Don’t tread on me!!

Posted by Pat J on May 29, 2009

I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but my preferred method of exercise is riding my 24″, 3 speed Desoto tricycle around the lakes of my neighborhood. It’s great because we have a lot of bike lanes and wide sidewalks. I have been triking since last August on a daily basis. Though I’ve had my trike for about 7 years, I’ve just rediscovered it as my form of regular exercise. I ride from 25 to 55 minutes on most days of the week. This is a great form of outdoor exercise for AZ because you can get out on almost every day of the year, even on the occasional rainy days (it doesn’t rain all day long). I’ve always been an active person but hsve not stuck with any one form of excercise for very long until now.

My bike is equipped with a coaster and 1 hand break, rearview mirror, LOUD airbulb style horn, LED magnetic operated front and rear lights (visible even in the day time), an odometer with time, mph, distance traveled, total and trip, fastest mph on any trip and average speed, a front basket for going to get the mail, a rear large basket for taking my sales to the shipping store (we have 2 in the neighborhood), all of this and an orange flag on a pole behind my ‘generous’ sized seat (the trike’s seat, that is!). Hard to miss seeing me, right?

Traffic is usually very respectful of my space and I am very respectful of theirs (they’re bigger that me!). I stay in my lane, I use my hand signals, I set my ipod at a volume so that I can still hear what’s going on around me, especially when a car is approaching from behind. When I’m at a crossing I go with the light. Most cars respect me although I’ve had to do a few panic stops when someone is not following the rules, really the laws, or just not paying attention.

For instance, this morning when I was out at 6:30 am on my ride and I was waiting at my usual light to cross over the 4 lanes to continue, I had a close call with a car. I was on the sidewalk when the pedestrian light turned white that told me I could cross. The car on my left suddenly decided that it was her turn to go and pulled right in front of me to make a right hand turn. I was shocked! I just yelled. Hey! Her window was slightly open on the passenger side and I could see that she was reaching across to her dashboard for something, maybe her radio, and was not paying attention. What a dummy! No, I didn’t give her any gestures of “cheer” with my finger or fingers, but I sure wanted to give her something, a rap along side the head, maybe?

Yes, I continued my ride, got 50 minuits clocked in for today. I was watching, and I will continue to ride my trike for fun and errands and especially exercise! But please! Please! Please! Watch out for the Bikes and Tricycles and don’t tread on me! The life you save may be my own. And for the woman with the short dark hair in the dark green suv, “watch out, I’ll be watching for YOU!”

Respectfully submitted
Pat
Beads I View by Pat

Visit my store and use promo code “biv1″ for 10% discount on total purchase, excluding shipping. (promo good until July 15, 2009)

Posted in beads, cars, laws, trikes | Leave a Comment »