Stretchy Hair Ties Review

Stretchy hair ties are pre tied in to a loop, that you stretch around your hair and put on like you were using a rubber band. They are, however, better for your hair than rubber bands. I have found them to be gentle on my hair, and they hold up their stretch quite well. I’ve been using mine for quite a few months, and they’re all working well. I have also hand washed some of them with foaming hand soap; which they have also held up well to.

I love seeing some of my artistic designs on my hair ties. It's a fun to enjoy my art. Zazzle is the print on demand company that I work in association with. The ones that you can order from Zazzle.com, come with the print on the outside. The colors appear somewhat lighter on these as the dyes are just printed on the outer layer. If you like fun artistic designs that you won't see elsewhere, then I recommend choosing from the many design options at Zazzle.

This is my favorite design from Zazzle so far. I like all the different colors.

Colorful Abstract Brushstrokes Hair Ties
by CherylsArt

I've ordered a variety of designs from Zazzle now, and really like the colorful ones.

I have found that the darker designs at Zazzle, like black, didn't show up quite as well as the more pastel ones did.

These hair ties are made from elastic ribbon.

Check out more colorful hair ties by CherylsArt at Zazzle.

Want to design your own? Find instructions to Design Your Own Hair Ties at jaquo.com.

Cheryl Paton

Neskla Pedometer Review and Link to Purchase

I had purchased the Neskla Pedometer, and am impressed with what I have seen.

I used to have a non-battery powered pedometer, and it left quite a bit to be desired. The latest pedometers are battery powered and are more accurate, in my opinion.

Pros:

This Neskla Pedometer is on Amazon; it gives a cumulative reading for the steps taken, until you press and hold the reset button to zero it out. When it is reset, it will start again at zero and begin counting once it notices movement.

The unit remains on in sleep mode in between uses. It will start counting once it notices movement, and will display the steps taken once you have taken around 10-13 steps. The initial 10-13 steps are added in with the cumulative count. I reset my pedometer at the start of each new day, or when I take it off at the end of the day.

It comes with a removable clip, and also a lanyard if you want to wear it around your neck. It can also be carried in a purse, and still detect movement.

This unit comes with a long life battery that is good for up to a year.

Cons:

The one con about this unit, is it doesn't count swaying movements, i.e. side to side. So when I am dancing, it will count marching type steps, but not the hip sways that go from side to side. I would like it to count those movements too, as I am moving, so it should count. Anyway, other than that, I like it pretty well. Sometimes I just add some extra steps in for my daily count for the sways!

After I started walking on a more regular basis, I decided to keep a log. Here is a chart I came up with. This monthly walking chart is found in my CherylsArt store on Zazzle.

My Walking Record Step Pedometer Chart
by CherylsArt

There are daily columns for number of steps taken, distance, calories burned, and also one for location. I thought it would also be nice to see if there was a difference in calories burned with a change of terrain, if you are keeping track of that. The column headings can also be customized; you can keep track number of water bottles drank in a day, protein intake for the day, etc.

I'd be interested to know your feedback on the chart design.

Thank you.

Cheryl Paton

Goo Gone - a product review

The bumper sticker on my car was old and very faded. I applied one coating of the Goo Gone and waited a few minutes, per the instructions. After the initial wait, I was able to peel the vinyl like top coating.

A very sticky under layer remained. I applied a second coat of Goo Gone and let it sit for a couple of minutes. It loosened it up quite a bit and I got a good amount of it off.

I applied a third coating of Goo Gone and waited another minute or so, and easily wiped the remaining sticky stuff away. Voila, all the sticky spots and signs of the old bumper sticker were gone.

I had a second smaller bumper sticker that I decided to remove. It hadn't been on the car quite as long, only around a year or two. That one only took two coatings of the Goo Gone for it to be wiped away. I again had to peel the vinyl type layer off first, and then did the second layer. That was all that one needed.

If you have a sticky residue on a hard surface to remove, I would recommend Goo Gone. The previous text link goes to Amazon.

The company recommends not to use it on soft surfaces, faux steel, unpainted dry wall, unfinished wood, and unsealed stone. The label goes into more detail.

Cheryl Paton

I am enjoying our screen away storm door

When it was spring, it had finally warmed up enough that my family was saying it was too warm inside the house. It was too soon to turn on the air conditioner; the temps outside were cooling off in the evening.

When it was the start of autumn, the opposite occurred. The house was too cool in the evening, but comfort returned as long as it was sunny during the day.

All of that changed when we had a screen away storm door installed. Within in few moments, we could make an environmentally friendly adjustment. We could open or close the screen part of the screen away storm door. Ah, welcome warmth of warm air, or welcome cool of cool air, whatever the case may be. It improved the comfort of our home naturally.

The old storm door required unscrewing the screen or window, and installing the opposite at the change of the seasons. Although it helped overall, it wasn't conducive to taking advantage of the change of the daily temperature change during the day or evening.

With our new storm door, that became a thing of the past. No mass changing out the window or screens, just flip the support switch and lower the screen portion, or raise the screen portion to the top position, and flip the support switch in the other direction. Ah, such ease.

We had our first screen away storm door installed in the kitchen. We loved it so much, that we had a second one installed in our living room the following year.

What a welcome relief. I got to open the kitchen and the living room screens on the storm door. Ah yes, the cross breeze blew through and it was pleasantly cooling the rooms off.

The screen away storm door is one of the best purchases that I've made. Larson is the company that made ours.

Update 1: They came in different styles. You can get one with a privacy portion on the bottom. You can view that one on Amazon: Larson Screen Away Storm Door with Privacy Bottom.

We had gotten the full view option. Our cats prefer the full view option.

However, the full view screen away door apparently is no longer an option. They do however show a full window option that you can change out with a full screen. They also offer a pet door option on their website.

Update 2: We purchased a second Larson Screen Away Storm Door for the front of our house. The adjustment mechanisim to lower and raise the screen had changed. The lever on the first door we purchased, Lever 1, worked great; it was easy to operate. The lever on the second door was hard to get back into the lock position to hold the window in the closed (all the way up) position. If you purchase an adjustable screen door from Larson, I recommend asking about the mechanism that raises and lowers the screen and holds the window in place. My preference is the style shown as Lever 1.

Cheryl Paton

Hangman Dry Erase Board from Zazzle Review

My daughter and I like playing hangman, and started playing it on a small dry erase board. We liked the convenience and sturdiness of it, so I decided to make one on Zazzle.com.

I made a hangman design and added the alphabet, and repeated it to be able to play three games before having to erase.

The game is played a little different on the alphabet version, as each letter is crossed off from the alphabet, whether it is used or not, so the players can see the remaining letters left. That part may require a little getting used to, but overall works pretty well.

The hangman figure and the alphabet remain after erasing, which is pretty cool, for playing the game.

The dry erase board itself, from Zazzle, is made of an acrylic which has some thickness to it, and is see through. The print and the hangman design are printed on the card stock that it is attached to. This means, that if you're looking at the design straight on, everything looks good and lined up.

However, if you look at the board from an angle, the lines over the letters that have been crossed off, will appear a bit off set. So the board may need to be repositioned to see clearly which letters remain. Other than that, the game works well.

You can click on the link to see more details, and/or to order if you are interested.

Play the hang man game dry erase board by Cherylsart

It's also fun to play it on Post-It-Notes paper.

Let's play hangman Post it Notes Post-it® Notes by Cherylsart

Cheryl Paton
CherylsArt on Zazzle.com.

Product Review - Pinhole Glasses for Improving Vision

Here you will find how I used pinhole glasses for improving my vision.

On one of my visits to the optometrist, many years ago, the doctor had said that next visit, he thought I should get bifocals. I thought, no way.

I started searching for natural ways to improve my vision. I read books, purchased kits, did eye exercises, and I was on my journey back to better vision naturally.

I have gradually been improving my vision over the years and have used various techniques. So far, the easiest one that I have used is the wearing of pinhole glasses. It's easy, because I just have to put them on. And they provided results. I also went without glasses as much as possible. At first, it was just in restaurants, where I could see a fuzzy person sitting across the table from me; and at home where could more easily see and know what was around me.

That is no longer an issue. I can read store names across the mall, easily and clearly see the people sitting across from me in restaurants, and also at other nearby tables.

I usually wear the pinhole glasses when watching TV. They especially come in handy in not only make the characters more distinct, they immediately improve my ability to read any text, which is especially great for watching shows like, Wheel of Fortune.

The pinhole glasses can take some getting use to. When wearing them, I usually had to adjust my head position and or eye position to see a more clearer picture, especially at first. Overall, I found the adjusting my head well worth it.

You can find pinhole glasses online on Amazon: Pinhole glasses.

Another technique that I usually do is moving my eyes in a wide circular motion, both clockwise and then counter clockwise. It's especially easy to do this while wearing the pinhole glasses, as I just follow around the rim of the frame with my eyes, a few times in each direction, thereby getting in some extra eye exercises while wearing the glasses.

I see much more clearly now than when I first started. Before starting natural vision exercises, one eye was rated as 20/600 and the other 20/650. On last exam, I could see better than 20/200 on a combined measurement without any glasses at all.

In addition to wearing pinhole glasses, I also incorporate eye exercises throughout my day. I drew some diagrams of the eye exercises that I do, like the circling of the eyes in each direction. A relaxing technique for your eyes, is to rub your palms together, and place them over your eyes. You can check these techniques and others out on posters at my CherylsArt store on Zazzle.

Eye vision exercises poster, I give thanks for... Poster
by CherylsArt

Before you go, think of the lyrics - I can see clearly now, and decide to notice the things that you do see clearly.

Cheryl Paton

Armarkat Cat Tower Tree Condo

I had made a Cat Climbing Toy, which I had positioned in front of our dining room window. Since then, the cat that we had passed on, and we got two more rather active cats. I wanted to be able to see them enjoy watching outdoors more. The window in our living room sits higher, and looks out on bushes that borders our neighbors yard. The birds love hanging out there. I knew our new cats would be more intrigued with this view.

After shopping around for awhile, I decided on the Armarkat Cat Tower. It had a pretty substantial base, and if I left off the top tower piece, it would line up perfectly with our living room window. One cat could lay on the top perch and the other could easily lay or sit on the condo part.

When either one is feeling frisky, they also enjoy playing with the yarn balls. The cat tower actually came with five levels, but I only used four; the base and three more levels. It fits better by the window for us, with just the four levels.

The cats love it and couldn't wait for us to get it built. I think they knew it was for them. They were especially excited while I laid out the pieces on the floor.

This is the model that we purchased. We left off the upper post and top bed, as we didn't need or want the extra height.

Amarkat Cat Tree, 57" Cat Tree Ivory, on Amazon

There are other Armarkat Cat Tree models to choose from on Amazon. They come in varying height options, colors, and styles.

Update: The yarn balls have since come off, but the tower still stands sturdy and our cats still use it. I've since purchased little pet pads (kind of like a cover for a pet bed) and laid one on each of the top levels. Then I can easily launder those as needed to keep the unit cleaner and more fur free.

Cheryl Paton