Sheron Cardin's Input...: March 2007

Question: What do rich folk daydream and visualize about?
Answer: Yeah, whatever they want.

Question: And what do poor folk daydream and visualize about?
Answer: Yeah, whatever they want.

So simple yet so true. I am still wandering with my minds eye closed and this little ditty brings it all back into the focus...the smallest of dreams can become the greatest deterrents to where we want to go if we don't catch them and throw them back into the pond.

Happy and productive dreaming! 

Everywhere I go, I am being showered with golden rain drops here in AR. I feel like I am in the middle of my 15 minutes of fame with my featured gold star in Eco-All-Stars-The Green Scene

To continue to do my part in The Green Scene, I am inviting all my associate stagers, realtor's, mortgage lenders, appraiser's, and all AR members and visitors, over to this group and read up on all the tips and hints that will help you turn up the volume on your green awareness. If each of you could do just one more thing to support our planet, I might feel more worthy of the award.

JaneAnne is working hard to promote Eco Friendly real estate. Let's help her help you and I and get on over there to  read, post, and comment. 

Thank you JaneAnne and all the ECO-ALL-STARS for all that you are doing for us! 

The best look for staged bedroom lamp tables are instant tables with custom table skirts. They are easy to make and so much better than using sheets. No more lugging heavy lamp tables...who needs that headache! 

You can buy 3 legged round tables in 18" to 30" in diameter. I use the smaller sized tables for night stands. I use the 30" tables for sitting areas in master bedrooms in place of heavy dressers. They are also beautiful as a table in a family room or living room for any vignette setting. The legs unscrew and the table lays flat. (The chair cover in this photo is ugly so don't copy that unless your chair is uglier)

Decorator fabric usually comes in 54" widths (2" of these inches are salvage edges). To make a custom table round, measure your tabletop plus drop plus drop. Here is a chart for your fabric:

The diagrams below are not drawn to scale... 

Table skirt for a 30" table with a 30" drop (no topper):

• Solid fabric - 5 yards
  
• Cut your fabric at 90" and then split the remaining fabric in half lengthwise

Sew the split fabric to the sides of the solid piece

• Fold your fabric in half and then half again. The corner without edges is your center - mark it with chalk or a pin, then lay your fabric out flat
• With a 45 inch string, put one end of the string at the center of the wrong side of the fabric and swing your string around in a circle marking your fabric with a chalk.
  
• Cut fabric at the chalk line and now you have a 90 inch circle
• Sew a half inch hem all the way around
• to add trim such as fringe or a large welt you need 8.50 yards.
  
• You can buy ready made 2" welt's in solid fabrics. Just stitch it on per instructions
• For a 3" or 4" fringe, lay it on the edge with the bottom of the fringe hanging at the edge of the skirt and top stitch it on.

Table skirt for a 30" table with a 30" drop and square topper:

• Cut at 2 1/2 yards as seen above
• Then sew them side by side seen below

• Then make your circle with chalk as shown before and cut at the chalk line. The seam will be down the middle of the table skirt but will be hidden with a 52 inch square topper.
• To make a square topper - simply buy 54" of fabric at 54" width and hem.
  

For a 20 inch table with a 24 inch drop in a solid fabric - 3.8 yards - follow either of the cutting and sewing instructions above. The topper for a 20" table will be 36" square.

Now you have instructions how to make your own custom table skirts with toppers, your own headboards, instant beds

Next I will cover how to make your own folding partitions. Happy staging! 

If you watched the Apprentice show last night (3/25) then I would like to hear your interpretation. The Arrow team won but at what cost? 

I think they were bullies. Do bullies win? Apparently. The arrow team is obnoxious, annoying, and immature. I wouldn't do business with that type of company.

The Arrow team was literally getting between the other team and their potential customers and yelling at them "Don't buy from them...buy from us!". Does that sound right to you? Did Trump bother to teach these little boy's a lesson in business? No...he loved them and rewarded them.

Trump has fallen down the ladder in my eyes as a bully himself. Competition can bring out the worst in people...I know it brings out the worst in me so I don't do it. I let being bigger and better go a long time ago because there is such ugliness lurking. That ugliness is what I witnessed last night.

Wanting to be the best at what you do needs pushing, but from withing, not at your competitors. The Apprentice was one of my granddaughters favorite shows and we always watched it together. What the show portrayed last night is something I need to teach her not to do for any reason. Am I alone on this?

Hi everyone. I received this letter from Al Gore just now and he needs more signatures before his Wednesday meeting in front of congress. I am copying his letter and pasting it here so if you have not had a chance to participate please do so now and send a copy to all that you know. Thanks - we all appreciate it!

<!------START EMAIL CONTENT------>

Dear Sheron,

We are now within striking distance of collecting over 500,000 messages to deliver to Congress and have less than 48 hours to get it done in time for the hearings. Ask any friend who wants to end the climate crisis to sign our message to Congress now by visiting: http://algore.com/cards.html

When I emailed you last Friday, 294,374 people had signed our message to Congress demanding immediate action to solve the climate crisis. In that email, I asked you to help meet the goal of delivering 350,000 messages when I testify at Congressional hearings on Wednesday.

Your response was amazing. By Saturday morning - because of you - we exceeded our goal! In fact, as I write this email, our total has risen to 405,758. Thank you!

What that means is that we are now within striking distance of collecting over 500,000 messages - and have less than 48 hours to get it done in time for the Congressional hearings.

Now is the time to reach out to as many people as possible. Ask any friend who wants to end the climate crisis to sign our message to Congress now by visiting:

http://www.algore.com/cards.html

By the way, maybe this goes without saying, but please reach out to Republican and Independent, as well as Democratic friends. One of our goals must be to make this issue one that transcends partisanship. While many of the solutions to the climate crisis will be found within the political system, there should be bipartisan and transpartisan agreement on the basic nature of the crisis and the sense of urgency that is appropriate for us to solve it.

That point was brought home to me again last week when I visited London and met with the leaders of the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. In the UK, both major political parties are completely committed to taking real action to solve the climate crisis. They openly acknowledge this is an unprecedented moral issue and are competing vigorously to see who can propose the most creative and effective solutions to solve this crisis.

Here at home, our objective must be to create a similar sense of urgency in both political parties. That is why your activism leading up to these hearings is so important. We are so close to our new goal of 500,000 messages to Congress. You can help put us over the top.

So please reach out to everyone you know and ask them to sign our message to Congress today - or at least within the next 48 hours by visiting:

http://www.algore.com/cards.html

Thank you,

Al Gore

P.S. On Wednesday both the House and Senate will webcast the hearings live.

My testimony in the House of Representatives begins at 9:30 AM and you can watch the webcast by visiting:

http://www.house.gov/science

My testimony in the Senate begins at 2:30 PM and you can watch the webcast by visiting:

http://epw.senate.gov

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My backyard has turned into an aviary this year for several reasons...here are some sure fire elements if you want to attract birds to your backyard...

• I am building a water feature with a waterfall, bubbler, and a fire pit  aka bird bath!
  

• Birds eat dry dog food as evidence is left behind on the bowl Who knew!

• Patio draperies are perfect for nesting   (Excuse the disheveled panels, we just had a wind storm blow through here and yes, those are x-mas lights I leave on year round...they make great mood lighting in the evenings...better than candle glow.)
  

I love birds and used to spread bird seed in the back half acre just for them but they have moved to the main house for the above reasons. Why not? Everyone is looking for spa bathrooms, 24/7 gourmet buffet dining, and a room with a view!

However, with birds come the bird droppings! I am freaked out about the mess and I want to deter them from hanging out on the tops of the fabric panels. I have shoved rolled up newspaper in the nooks and crannies and have a bowl of pebbles to toss at them, hoping they will consider the patio an unsafe place to raise their children. I have a moratorium on the nest building for the moment but I don't think it is going to hold.

While sitting on the patio today...browsing the Sunday paper, I look up and start watching a skinny little sparrow walk this little ledge above the drape. First he sits in the corner to see if there is enough space to build a nest, looks around and takes a couple of steps and repeats. He is trying to figure out if his sweetheart will fit and be comfy. He quickly darts away to the big tree in back. I can just tell he is going to get his sweetheart to come check out the new digs. Sure enough here they come, land right in the spot he wanted to share with her and they investigate in the same way...sit, look around, then move 2 steps and repeat.

Ah, no...I don't think so! I slip my shoes on, shooed them off and grabbed another piece of the Sunday paper quickly shoving it into the new digs with my handy stick. I return to my chair and watch. 

Here they come. They're looking, checking out the changes, hopping and squatting, investigating the new digs. Do they think I am trying to build them a better location like a developer? Or maybe they are wondering who built a nest so darn fast! Uh-oh, they like it. I run for the sports section of the paper and wad that up adding to the bulk, hoping they won't like that model. I sit back again to observe.

At that moment it occurred to me that birds look for housing just like we do...

• Timing/need
• Location
• Fit

This is worth a post in AR I thought! I am really enjoying this like a scientist. Birds are just like people or is it people are just like birds? Does the word Empty Nestor's ring a bell? I don't know if I am going to win this battle but the moral of the story is: well, I don't know what it is yet...but I am thinking I should make my next patio draperies out of washable tub drapes secured by large rings on a thin rod since I am going to end up using these for their original purpose...canvas drop cloths! Just another day...

This doesn't seem like a very exciting tip but it is one of the most important tips I can ever give to budding decorators. There is a standard that is used by everyone in the industry.

When you are measuring anything, you measure the width first and then the height, and then the depth. 

Example:

Windows - always measure the width first. You will need to know this when you order custom draperies

In a house...always measure a room clockwise.

For bedrooms you start with the master bedroom and then the next room to the right is bedroom #2, then #3, and so on. 

I have made every mistake in the book and measuring wrong is costly.

Hope this comes in handy for you. I will add more industry standards later.

We have been infiltrated by crooks that have been in the news. It is a big scam and not they are contacting us here at Active Rain. Beware...do not respond. This is the letter sent to me today via AR mail.

From Miss Roffina Naina
Abidjan cote D`Ivoire
West Africa.

MY Dear Sheron Cardin,
Please this mail comes to you directly,kindly ready and get back to me,
Good thing to write you. I have a proposal for you,this however is not mandatory nor will I in any manner compel you to honour against your will. Your profile pushed me to send you this mail, I am Roffina Niana,i am 23 years old Girl and the only daugther of my late Father Mr Richard Ehoha Naina.

My Father was a highly reputable business man (a cocoa merchant) who operated in the capital of Ivory coast during his days. It is sad to say that he passed away mysteriously in France during one of his business trips abroad on 12th.August 2005.Though his sudden death was linked or rather suspected to have been master minded by an uncle of his who travelled with him at that time. But God knows the truth!,

Since then my father death took me so special. Before his death in the hospital, he told me about a box he concealed the sum of Ten million, five hundred thousand United State Dollars.(US D$10.5) deposited in one of the security company in Europe, which he disguised and declared the box to contain family valuables belongs to his foriegn bussiness partner instead of Dollars, for security reasons,he do this for selfety of his life best known to him, by this way the company does not know the real content of the box.

The deposit document which I have in my possession carries my late Father's Name as the depositor in the security company,
i Really don't know what to do. This is because I have suffered a lot of set backs as a result of incessant political crisis here in Ivory coast. The death of my Father actually brought sorrow to my life that i will never forget,
Dear, I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistance in this regards. Your suggestions and ideas will be highly regarded.
Now permit me to ask these few questions:-

1. will you honestly help me as your daughter?

2. Can I completely trust you?

3 i hope you will not betray me when this fund get to you?

4. Please, Consider this and get back to me as soon as possible.


Thank you so much
Yours Miss Roffina Naina

I was just talking to an interior designer this morning about getting into the home staging business and you will meet her soon. Her name is Dannett West and as soon as she finishes her profile, I will welcome her so you all can introduce yourselves. She has been reading our posts for awhile and that is how she found me.

The point of this post is for marketing purposes. As we were talking, I mentioned visiting her local RE agencies and setting up appointments for one of their weekly meetings as we have talked about many times here in the rain. What came up was having a drawing for a full complimentary  staging. By having the agents put their name in a bowl, they not only will anticipate the gift but will also pay close attention to the presentation. The agent whose name is drawn will be able to choose any one of their existing listings or the next one they sign on. Envy will reign for the winner and it will be the talk of the office, before the staging and after. The agents will be watching closely to the results and the timely sale.

Bring a beautiful bowl and offer it as the 2nd place winning prize.

Food, prizes, complimentary staging from a professional...make sure there is a flier given to each agent announcing the upcoming meeting. 

Stage it forward! 

PS: If you are a broker or agent in an office who would be interested in a meeting presentation like this, call a local AR stager and set one up. Ask if they would be interested in offering a complimentary staging to get things going.

Your "thinking" or "self talk" enters a creative YES field one hundred percent of the time whether you know it or not. We live in a creative universe and the creative field of the Universe doesn't know a joke from a prayer, It just says YES. You may already know this but let's talk about it again.

If we can just remember that with every thought we have there is a staff of servants ready, willing, and able, to carry that thought out, we would choose our thoughts more carefully, wouldn't we? When we say to ourselves "Oh God, I can't take this anymore", the Universe says "OK!" The Universe then makes sure you cannot take that anymore. It can't change anything for you because you have not asked that anything be changed. If you say "Oh God, I am not going to take this anymore" and then ask "What can I do to change it?", the Universe is happy to show you. Doors will be opened and changes will come, as fast as YOU LET THEM.