Friday, October 14, 2011

My Assistive Technology for my painful hands

Dragon annoys  me sometimes, so I usually end up using other "assistive technology" devices. The mouse is the worst for me. I have used two different foot mouses (feet mice?? :). The first one had two large click pedals. The pedals were close together and stiff, so it was hard to use.


Foot Mouse

Then I bought a large slipper type foot mouse, like a giant mouse for the foot, with a large mouse pad, and a separate piece for clicking the buttons. I really like this one, but it doesn't work well with  my new computer. Here is the one I like. I bought it on ebay for much cheaper than the list price:




http://www.bilila.com/foot_mouse_slipper_mouse

Head Mouse

I started using all these about 5 years ago. I've since gotten better, but want to start using them again.

 
                                                               Here is the first model I used.

That was a joke. We made a fake one to spoof my husband's boss. He almost bought it!!



In addition to the foot mouse, I use a head mouse. I have the Smartnav 3. It was expensive, so I asked for it for Christmas.


http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/products/3-at/
You can probably buy the 3 on ebay for way cheaper now.

Here is the Smartnav 4 head mouse, just to see how it's used.
The hat has a reflective strip at the front, you can also stick extra strips onto anything else, like your forehead, earlobe, etc.


Initially I used the head mouse, with a voice  software. Dragon was too slow. Then I used just the voice clicking part. It makes a giant grid with numbers then you say "click 36" to click on that area.

I will say that even with all this, it was slow and frustrating. I usually ended up using my mouse and keyboard.


Trackball Mouse

So, now that I'm better, I limit my typing and computer use to at most 2 hours per day. Best is 1 hour. I use a special mouse that has a giant ball in the middle. A friend lent it to me.




I know this is a lot of information, I just wanted to throw out the other options to make it mouse free.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Update on Butterick B4790 Retro Dress Pattern

Well, I am so glad that I Googled this pattern! I didn't just read all the positive reviews, which is my tendency. I actually read the negative reviews, especially the ones with detailed reasons for disliking it.
I made a muslin from a slippery material I had lying around, which is a whole other topic. I sized the dress to fit my pear shape.

Butterick B4790 Retro Dress Pattern
(Click picture to go to the Butterick site)



Then I put it on.  I had clothes underneath, not a slip, but I was swimming in it. I am 5' 3.5" which makes me petite in height. My hips are about 40," my waist is 30" and my bra size is 36B. I can wear a small top and a large bottom. I'm that pear shaped. And short. So, the volume of fabric in this dress makes it look like a robe on me. It only accentuated my wide hips, did nothing to flatten my belly, and did nothing to enhance my small chest. I looked like a girl playing dress up with her mom's clothes.

So, I scrapped this dress.

I am now onto a Retro Butterick dress pattern that is turning out very nicely. 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

My other kitty Dot!

We adopted Dot on December 1st 2010. Her full name  is now Miss Dot Talk-a-Lot. She lets us know, very loudly, when she wants food, which is all the time. At first she was very scared and lived in her own special room for about a month. Then she slowly came out into the house. Now she only uses the litter box in that room. She eats near Buster, our other kitty, and everything.

Here she is on our little couch. At first I didn't even see Buster hiding in all that clean laundry! Look at her stretching her little paws out at us!! She is adorable!


My kitty Buster!


This is Mr Buster Fluffy Pants. He is about 3 years old now. He loves to play with dum dum lollipops. Isn't he gorgeous?

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Starting to sew Butterick 4790

I ordered an adorable Butterick pattern last year, but never had the energy to make it. A year later, I'm a size larger than the largest size on the pattern, so I am trying to scale the dress up.

I finished cutting out the pattern pieces, now I am cutting out some cheap fabric to make a kind of muslin first.


This is the pattern, isn't it scrumptuous?




http://butterick.mccall.com/b4790-products-6089.php?page_id=371

I'll keep you updated on my progress. Click here for my next entry on this dress.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

I got married!

My long time live in boyfriend and I got married last Saturday!! We got married at the historic Holyoke Merry Go Round. It was magical, and super exhausting. Here are some pics.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Need a font?

Check out http://stephenboss.com/ for all your font needs.


Stephen has been featured in design books and a museum.