Living without Cable TV

Wow! It has been a month without cable TV. We've had cable TV forever. As I sit here, I recall a time in my childhood when cable was new. There were only 9 stations to watch on TV and it had been the same 9 stations for decades. Then cable TV came in and brought MTV, Movies and everything you could ever want to watch.  Sadly, it seems that now cable is a lot of re-runs.

You may be asking why I'm living without cable TV.  In September our cable company raised our bill from $70.00 to $90.00. Then we received a notice in December that the cable company was raising there prices yet again. This time from $90.00 to $110.00. We decided that cable TV is a luxury. We are living on a budget and $110.00 a month to watch re-runs was a bit too much. We decided to use the money towards the ever increasing electric bill and extra food we may need. So, here I am living without cable.

In case your wondering if I miss it... I don't! I thought I would but I really don't!

We have been watching the new programs like NCIS, House, Greys Antomny or any other new program that is on TV from the internet sites for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. We video stream it from our computer laptops directly to the HDTV. We can rewind, fast forward or watch them as many times as we want. Unfortunately, we have not escaped the commercials even with the internet. =(

The other thing we've been doing is watching all of the VHS and DVD movies we have collected over the years. What I have found interesting is that most of the movies that we own are the same movies that they are currently running as re-runs on cable TV. Some of them had price tags of $2.99 to watch in 24 hours.

We've been looking into buying antennas and splitters for the each TV in the house. The antenna will bring in the basic channels ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS and a couple of others. Then for our movie needs we are looking into Netflix video streaming. Netflix has a lot of the new movies releases like cable stations HBO, Movie Channel, or Stars. The only difference is Netflix is unlimited movie viewing for $8.00 a month versus $110.00. We are also looking into using Hulu.com as a possible site for our video needs.

The cost for an antenna and spitter will run us anywhere from $10.00 to $50.00 depending on the antenna we want to purchase for each TV.  This is a one time purchase.

My question is if we pay a one time purchase price of $20.00 for an antenna and spitter and $8.00 a month for NetFlix then what exactly is the cable company using $110.00 a month for?

The other positive about living without cable is that I seem to be getting a lot more work done without it. My stores may get more items shortly introduced into both of the stores.
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Snow Day In Portland

What is that over There?  More Snow!!!

Did someone say "Bone" or "Snow"?

Done Playing!!! Lets go in now!

Purses in Process for Mischyf Couture

Purple Milk Protein

I found a new love two years ago. My new love is spinning yarn. I came across a store that sold a beginning spinners kit that consisted of a bottom whorl spindle and this really ugly wool. I think the wool was ends of other projects. Everyone I spoke to at the time said that spinning wool is the easiest to learn on because it has a short draft.  

Drafting is when you pull the fibers apart to the width you would like it before the fibers break completely apart. Wool has a 3-4 inch draft. Personally, I found it rather difficult. I prefer the longer 6-7 inch draft that silk provides.



Purple Mulberry Silk Brick

I came across a store  Zebisisdesigns that sells hand dyed mulberry silk slivers and bricks. Slivers are usually around 2-3ozs with a slight carding to it to make it easier to spin. There is less of a prep time to a sliver than a brick. A brick is about 4.4ozs and it is usually hand wide with no carding to it all. 

Zebisisdesigns has wonderful selection of hand made spindles and fibers for sale. I love her stone spindles, they are so beautiful. I personally have 10 of her top whorl spindles. Her fibers are just simply amazing. She makes these wonderful colorways with wool, silk, bamboo, milk proteins and many many other fibers.  Now that I've been spinning for a while the wools and alpaca are becoming a favored item of mine too.

Drafted Mulberry Silk and Spindle

I've found that I enjoy the drafting part of spinning more relaxing to me then the actual spinning itself. I will sit late at night and just draft out strips of silk to be spun the next day. I'm the type of person that likes the soft luxurious feel on my hands, running through my fingers relaxing and mulberry silk has that in aces.

Since I have started spinning yarn I have accumulate 13 top whorl spindles, 4 bottom whorl spindles, 1 Mother Marion and 2 rather large boxes of fiber. I can't spin fast enough to out way my buying.  Isn't that always the way with a hobby?

Sock Loom with Pink Mulberry Silk

I started making scarves for myself and family until I recently bought a sock loom. Well, Needless to say, I am NOT making socks, which is why I bought it. LOL!  I am working on opening my other shop Mischyf Couture (shop isn't open yet!) which will have designer purse and clothes, by me.

I'm wanting to do a limited edition, one of a kind line of evening clutches and wristlet. The evening purses will be hand dyed, hand spun, hand loomed and hand made for my shop. They will have wonderful linings and handles. I will be decorating the purses with crystals and other luxurious or glamorous items. All of the pictures provided are some of the purses currently being worked on. 

Green Loomed Mulberry Silk Ready to be Sewn into a Clutch

When these purses are ready to be added to the store I will blog about them. =) Until then please visit my other stores Forget Me Knot Treasure and MischyfPaws .

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Jane Austen Fans

I found this Quiz while out blog reading today. Sorry, I don't remember whose blog I found it on. I thought it was fun to see which character I might be in a Jane Austen novel. It's funny who I ended up being, Elizabeth Bennet. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite movies, the 2001 BBC version with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. I've been watching it for two days now. It is about 7 hours long. Back to work on my shop today. Take the Quiz if you like. Link is below. =)

Take the Quiz here!

The Art of Capturing Snow Collection

The Art of Capturing Snow

Curated By: ForgetMeKnotT...

ArtFire.com

Fine Art Photography