I want to make a homemade (knitted) baby blanket for someone special. I am struggling with a couple things. 1) if the weave is too loose, will little toes and fingers get caught or something? 2) do people really use hand knitted blankets over flannel ones or fleece ones? 3) if I were to make one, what size is ideal? I would love for this to be a loved item for years to come, not just used once in a while while the baby was tiny (yes, I know that is sort of up to the parents and the child...but I would love it if both would love this blanket so much that it might become their "go to" item.) so with that in mind, what are your thoughts on the subject? thanks for your input on this.

I just spoke to my brother, who checked with his IT guy and he suggested that I get a gmail email account and close down the AOL account. He said AOL is so old that the security isn't want it needs to be compared to the hackers out there now and that I was an easy target. So, I am making a list of all of the people, websites and accounts that I will need to contact in order to make this change. I also have emails that I want to keep, so I need to find out how to move those over. SIGH...this is going to be a HUGE job I fear.

I did find in my settings that I can block everything that doesn't come from a person in my contact list...so I might try that...unless someone here thinks that isn't a good idea for some reason.

that is a fantastic idea!!!

I thought about your plan too....but there will be NO way I would be able to periodically look at my old mail and see if I missed anything as it would literally be buried in thousands of spam emails....and now that I think about it...the forwarding thing won't work as it would also forward all of the spam....UGH! This is a disaster. I am so discouraged. sigh!!!

yeah, this is me....and I am also thinking I am going to have to create a new email....but my current one I have had literally since I got email back in 1997 or something....(it's still AOL....if you even know what that is).....but I can't even imagine how many places I am going to have to contact to have my email changed. Do you know, is there a way to do something like a "forwarding address" like you do when you move? That way things still get to you, and then you can make the changes as you get contacts.

Last Thursday I noticed that in my email inbox I had something like 50 weird emails. By weird, I mean from unknown companies and many in a variety of foreign languages. I then checked my spam folder and it was literally full of over 1000 emails just like the ones in my in box. I changed my password, thinking it would help... but here I am over a week later it's not better at all. I Googled it... and discovered it's called spam bombing, but I can't really find any ideas on what to do. Does anyone here know? It's really annoying. Thanks

This is for my SIL. Age 61.... this is for her birthday. She is sickly, doesn't get out much. She has just about everything she needs/ wants. She is so sick most of the time (we really don't know what she has...doctors can't figure it out...symptoms..IBS like symptoms, and migraines are her worst).... that she is basically homebound. She has a wonderful husband who takes great care of her, but he works long hours to help pay her medical bills. She loves cats, but many people have given her cat related gifts. She also has a lot of lotion type items too. We don't need to spend a lot of money.... so just a small token. I am thinking maybe one of those daily calendars where you tear the days of one by one... Unless you guys help me find a better idea. Thanks.

yeah, but not for the number of bills I have...and I really didn't want to trade in the ones for bigger bills

yeah, but not $400 worth of one dollar bills....it would take me until next Christmas to do that. lol

2 years ago I started an experiment. I started (secretly) saving all of the one dollar bills that came across my purse (wallet). I didn't purposefully exchange bigger bills for 1's....and I have saved over $400. I wanted to put my dollar bills under the tree for my boys and husband to use to go skiing with (assuming there is snow in northern Michigan over Christmas). But I didn't just want to wrap up the bundles. So I am looking for some ideas to wrap all of these ones that would be fun and interesting. If you have any thoughts, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

Yeah...I thought about that.

If only there were children.... and if they didn't live 12 hours away... 😞

So, do you give your children anniversary gifts? And if so, what do you gift them? Our daughter and her husband are celebrating their 2nd anniversary December 31st... so last year was sort of obvious...#1. But we can decide if it's appropriate to continue. Thanks.

I am looking for a couple dry mix recipes for soups (or other meals) that will require little to no extra prep work on the part of the consumer. I found a chicken soup recipe and a potato soup recipe (that uses potato flakes)....but I was wondering if there are any others out there that I can quickly put together for my MIL. I don't want bean ones because that requires extra work and care....but might there be some other ones. She can dump in veggies or milk...that kind of thing...but the easier the better. Oh, my FIL will not eat pasta if it's the main part of a dish...I have a great hamburger helper recipe but I know he won't eat it. Thanks so much!!!!

You guys are great. Your ideas are keepers....many for my mom or my MIL too... this is what we decided on: a pair of "grandpa" socks and a "grandpa" t-shirt (world's best grandpa kind of thing) and then I am going to make a variety of snack mixes for him...some sweet and some savory. He doesn't have any doctor imposed diet...although my MIL doesn't want him to eat too many sweets (although he eats ice cream every night) lol. thanks again for all of your help!!!

so sorry to hear about your dad. I lost my dad 1 1/2 years ago and my father in law is probably not far behind. Thanks for these ideas.

So, I am trying to come up with an idea for my 95 year old father-in-law. He basically doesn't do anything anymore....he and (my MIL) are basically shut-in except for doctor's appointments and maybe church. He sleeps a lot. But we don't want to go visit with nothing in hand and we have gifts for my MIL. His daughter bought him several pairs of PJ's (he rarely gets dressed anymore....because he sleeps so much). We toyed with one of those digital picture frames, but they don't have wi-fi and realistically nobody will periodically reload it with new pictures. We looked at subscription boxes but there is nothing there for him....and they are expensive. He only read the paper (if that) and watches a few sports on TV...but only if the game is on when he is awake. We could get gift cards to restaurants as they still go out to eat...but we do that a lot as a "last resort" gift... Please help us. Just for frame of reference....we got a monthly flowered to be delivered to my MIL, as well as a few books to read and some puzzle books. So we aren't looking for huge things...just something. Thanks for your ideas.

yeah...that would be fun....funny....clever.....interesting.....it would freak my in-laws out to receive pictures of people they don't know...but in the right setting....very fun!

interesting. The reason we are thinking about this is because my in-laws, in their 90's love seeing pictures of the grand kids and great grands. He used to have a tablet and was getting pictures that way....and he loved that. But the tablet was causing him issues and he no longer wants to use it. (it ran off cell towers, so that is why they didn't need wi-fi). So we were thinking this might replace their love of seeing pictures....and if we could all send pictures to it from our homes (we live 1000 miles away) that would be amazing. thanks for your perspective. I do appreciate it.

so, I have a question about the Aura (the one we are looking at)....if the frame isn't connected to wi-fi 24/7, can we still send pictures to the app and when the frame is connected will new pictures be loaded....or does it not work that way?

We wanted to give my in-laws one of those digital picture frames, but they don't have wi-fi in their home. Do all digital pictures require wi-fi in order to load pictures? What do you guys know about that?

I do LOVE the pictures Arcadia posted....beautiful....striking and elegant. Thanks.

must be the colors of my tablecloths because mine are more browns (so a cream or an off white might look better? Or maybe I need to get new tablecloths.

Those are beautiful. But they have a colored plate or something under the white....but I can see that it would be equally nice just the plate on the table....what about a patterned tablecloth?