Thursday, May 29, 2014

Tricks to Lower Your Mortgage Payment: Is It Possible?

I often get asked if there are any tricks to lower your mortgage payment, and the short answer is NO. However, there are a few ways to decrease your monthly mortgage payment, but those options will require a little legwork on the side of the borrower. With the economy in the state that it is currently in, I’m going to focus on 2 main ways that mortgage payments can be reduced.

Refinance Your Primary Mortgage

Flickr Photo: Uploaded on October 20, 2008 by woodleywonderworks Refinancing your mortgage will typically be the best option, as it can save you hundreds of dollars per month if you’re refinancing from a high interest rate to a lower rate. Let’s look at an example, lets figure that I took out a $250,000 mortgage loan 5 years ago with an interest rate of 7.25%. At this loan amount and this interest rate, my monthly payment will have been approximately $1,705.00 per month. As of the time of this post, I’ve seen interest rates for 30 year mortgages as low as 5.75% – the interest rate will depend on your lender, your credit score, payment history, etc. so you’ll have to talk to a mortgage broker prior to getting a firm rate quote, but for the interest of our example, we’re going to figure that we can get a loan at a rate of 5.75%. For simplicity sake, lets compare a $250,000 loan at 5.75%. At this interest rate, our monthly mortgage payment will be approximately $1,459.00. This is a savings of $259 per month. A couple things to remember are that:

In this example, we figured that we’ve had our original loan for 5 years. If that were the case, we wouldn’t still need a $250,000 loan, we’d actually only need a loan for about $235,950 (let’s figure $236,000 for simplicity). Plugging that amount into a payment calculator will yield a monthly payment of $1,377.00 per month, yeilding a savings of $358 per month.

You’ll have to take into account loan processing fees. Typically you’ll be paying processing fees, points, etc. which could end up being a couple thousand dollars. When I refinanced, I wrote a check for all of these fees ($2,900 in my case), however I believe that you can have these fees rolled into the cost of your new payment.

Trying to Refinance to a Lower Interest Rate: My Refinance Was Denied

With interest rates in the high 4-percents to low 5-percents, now is the perfect time to refinance, especially for those of you who may currently have an adjustable rate loan. If you’re looking to get out of your adjustable rate loan, there is no better time than the present to get yourself into a fixed loan. However, the biggest problem with trying to refinance right now is that many homes have dropped in value, so the homeowners equity may not be what it needs to in order to refinance.

Take my case for instance. When I bought my condo 5 years ago, I paid $290K for it, and at the peak of the market, its value approached $475K, but right now, it’s value is only appraising at about $250K. This sucks, because in order to refinance, I can only borrow 80% of my homes equity, or $200K if my home appraised at $250K exactly. The banks don’t take into consideration that I’ve been on time with ever mortgage payment over the last 5 years, and that I’ve even made extra principal payments in some of those years in order to accelerate my mortgage.

If you have enough equity in your house, now is the time to refinance, but if your home value has dropped, as most homes in the Southern California area have over the past year, you just may find yourself in a situation similar to mine – having your home refinance denied. It’s a very unfortunate situation when someone like myself who takes pride in having great credit has a refinance declined because of the current state of the market.

I’m currently looking at a couple other options that will help me get refinanced, and I’ll keep you all posted if I find a way to lower my interest rate.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Wells Fargo Principal Reduction: Is It Possiible?

As with many other California homeowners, I’ve now found myself a bit upside down in my mortgage. I’m still able to pay my monthly payment, but if I wanted to move or sell my house, its just not going to happen. I’ve been reading articles and reports that Bank of America is offering many principal reduction programs in order to keep people in their houses, however I have not heard the same about people stuck in mortgages with Wells Fargo.


Here is some information on how the Bank of America loan modification may work:

Here’s how it will work, according to Bank of America officials: Say you’re deeply underwater on a subprime mortgage you took out from Countrywide Home Loans, which was acquired by Bank of America in 2008. The mortgage balance today is $250,000, but the house is worth only $200,000.

If you meet eligibility requirements, the program could reduce your balance by $50,000 and your new payments would be based on the lowered principal debt and possibly a lower note rate. This would be accomplished by the creation of an interest-free forbearance account covering a five-year period. Assuming you made regular payments at the modified, lower amount during the first year, $10,000 would be forgiven by the bank.

Whatever the case may be, I’m sure that many people are quite a ways in the red and won’t be able to get out of their current home loan situations without the help of their lenders or bankruptcy. It’s an unfortunate situation, but it’s true.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

How I Plan to Pay Down My Mortgage Faster

My mortgage acceleration plan. Since I refinanced in October of 2006, only about $4,500 of my combined monthly payments have gone toward paying down my principal balance on my house. That means that on average, only about $250 out of each $1,500 mortgage payment goes toward the principal balance on my house. I've seen and read about a few different options for paying down your mortgage balance at an accelerated rate. There are programs that offer a software package, and there are other programs that just recommend to make additional principal payments whenever possible. In my journey to pay down my mortgage faster, I'm going to use the latter of the two options.

I read an article awhile back that said if you want to pay down your mortgage in half the time, all you have to do is send in a payment equal to double the principal each month. So lets take my latest payment for instance: On  April first, my payment amount was $1,791.57 - of this amount, $246.57 went to principal, $1,263.20 went to interest (a waste of money in my opinion) and $281.80 went toward my escrow account to pay for my property taxes. Let's say that I wanted to pay my mortgage down in half the time, then I would simply have to double the principal amount from $246.57 to $493.14, bringing my total monthly payment to $2,038.14. Really not that big of a difference. I could simply make up this amount by not going to lunch everyday - figure I spend on average $10/day on lunch over 20 days, there's $200 bucks right there. Almost the full amount that I need to make a double principal payment. Instead of changing my lifestyle though, I'm going to use the income generated from this blog (and some of my other online ventures) to make additional payments to principal.

To start this, I'm going to be sending in a large principal only payment in during the middle of June so that when my July payment is calculated, more of my payment goes toward principal since the interest owed will be calculated on a lower amount. During June, I plan to send in a principal payment in the amount of $2,500 + whatever other income I can pull from this blog during that time. The $2,500 is my 2007 tax return, and since I haven't blown it on anything stupid yet, I figure that I might as well put it to good use.

Stay tuned for updates on my personal mortgage acceleration program as I'll be creating posts once or twice each month detailing the benefits (and the perils) of putting extra money into my mortgage each month.

2nd Mortgages – Second Mortgage Interest Rates and Refinancing 2nd Mortgages

A second mortgage (2nd mortgage) is a loan taken against your home in addition to the primary mortgage. The equity in your home is used as the collateral for the loan in the second mortgage. Second mortgages are often called subordinate loans because they come 2nd to a primary loan, meaning that if a borrower defaults on the loans, the primary loan is to be paid off prior to the balance second mortgage loan. It is for this reason that second mortgages (subordinate loans) are considered riskier for lenders, and therefore typically come with a higher interest rate.

When is a 2nd mortgage right for you?
There could be any number of reasons why a person would consider taking out a second mortgage. If you have a large amount of other high interest debt, such as credit card debt, it may make sense to take out a second home mortgage to payoff this debt. You may want to use the second mortgage to make an investment, whether it be in the stock market or a vacation property. You may just want to live above your means and buy a boat. The use of the second mortgage will in the end, be up to you. When I bought my first condo, I took out a second mortgage loan in order to avoid paying PMI (private mortgage insurance).

Interest Rates for Second Mortgages
As mentioned above, the interest rate on a second mortgage will typically be higher than the interest rate of a primary loan due to the fact that a default, the first loan is paid of prior to the 2nd. The interest rate will also be determined by the amount of the loan – the larger the percentage of home equity that you are borrowing against, the higher you can expect the interest rate to be.

Before applying for a second mortgage, make sure you talk to your broker and understand all of the details of the loan. Remember that no matter what the amount of the 2nd mortgage is, even if it is only a fraction of your primary mortgage, if you default on the 2nd mortgage, you could lose your home. Be sure to do your research and have a solid knowledge of your budget prior to securing a second mortgage.

40 Year Mortgage, 50 Year Mortgage, 60 Year Mortgage… Are You Serious?!?!

At the time I got my home loan about 5 years ago, I have to admit that there were some seriously crazy loan programs being offered. At the time, I could have qualified and purchased a home 2-3 times the price of the condo I bought for $290K. The problem is that many people did just that, they didn't weigh the fact that they really couldn't afford the house that they were buying, they just looked at the loan payment that they would be making initially and didn't even consider the fact that they'd not only have to continue to make that payment, but that that payment would more than likely double or more in some cases. In any case, shortly after I bought my first house, and got my incredible loan (3/6 ARM at 3.125%), I started to hear about 40 year mortgages, 50 year mortgages and even 60 year mortgages. Think about that… a 50 year mortgage. I actually know someone who took out a 50 year mortgage.

Let's just briefly compare a 30 year mortgage to a 50 year mortgage for a $250,000 home loan. On a 30 year loan, you'd be looking at a monthly payment of about $1498.00, and over the life of the loan, you'll be paying $289,595.00 in interest – so even with a 30 year loan, you'll be paying more interest than the original amount borrowed, but now lets look at the 50 year mortgage loan. With a 50 year mortgage, borrowing the same amount, your montly payment will only decrease about $200 per month (not even actually) to $1,316.00, and the total amount of interest paid will skyrocket to $539,607.00. The amount of interest that you pay on a 50 year loan will nearly double!!!

Now lets think about this for a bit. Will saving $180.00 per month on your mortgage payment be worth adding 20 years to your mortgage, and also adding an additional $250,000+ to the amount of interest that you pay over the life of your loan? Let's figure that you invested that extra $180 every month into a savings account or CD. Let's figure for arguments sake, that you find a savings account or money market account that will yield 5% and that you invest the extra $180 every month and let the interest compound. At the end of 50 years (the entire length of your mortgage) you'll have $480,357.00. This will essentially offset the interest that you pay on the 50 year mortgage, making the total amount of mortgage paid equal to about $60,000. Looking at it this way makes the 50 year mortgage look more appealing because it frees up more monthly money to use as an investment, however here are the only problems that I see with this:

  1. Most people probably only consider a 50 year mortgage because of the fact that they're looking for a way to lower their monthly payment. That being said, most people who elect to go with a 50 year mortgage aren't going to be able to put the extra $180 (from our example) into a savings account in each month for the 50 year term.
  2. Life happens, even if a person has an extra $180 to put into their mortgage each month, there are often times going to be months where no money gets put in, whether it be due to:
  1. Holiday expenses
  2. Unexpected auto expenses
  3. Traveling and vacations
  4. Purchase of new vehicles
In my opinion, a 50 year mortgage is a terrible idea, but if you're planning on staying in your home for the rest of your life, if you are discipllined enough to invest monthly and not withdraw, you could actually make the 50 year mortgage more favorable.


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Reactions after Taking and Side Effects of Prednisolone

Side effects prednisolone to metabolism and endocrine system
Prednisone affects to all types of metabolic processes. Under the influence of dissolved proteins and their degradation products are used by the body to produce glucose. With long term use of prednisone in plasma may deficiency of proteins. And as prednisolone steroids in plasma norm is associated with proteins in their deficit appears toxic free progesterone. At deficiency of plasma protein is impaired growth of children and adolescents.

Mineral metabolism is disturbed due to the fact that the organism appears potassium (it reduces the ability Cytotoxic infarction) and calcium (formed osteoporosis is a thinning of the bones). In the body is delayed sodium and water are the causes edema.

On the part of the endocrine system is suppressed function of the hypothalami system. This leads to the violation of the adrenal glands and the formation of Cushing's syndrome, and also to suppress the secretion of the gonadotropins hormones of the pituitary gland, menstrual disorders and infertility in women. Disorders of carbohydrate metabolism cause the development of steroid diabetes, or manifestations previously asymptomatic flowed diabetes.

Side effects prednisolone  -  cardiovascular system
The loss of the body potassium affects the condition of the heart muscle (myocardium). This may result in cardiac arrhythmias, and bradycardia (slow heart rhythms, until the heart stops). The contractile ability of the heart can cause the development of symptoms of heart failure, when the heart is unable to cope with the load and the stagnation of blood in the peripheral blood vessels. The process is aggravated by the fact that the body is delayed sodium and water - it helps to increase the volume of circulating blood and further stagnation.

At the same time under the action of prednisone is a spasm of the blood vessels and increase blood pressure, it creates preconditions for the further stagnation of blood and its increased coagulability, that is the tendency to form blood clots. The coronary thrombosis and blood vessels of the brain - the main cause of heart attacks and strokes. However in patients with acute myocardial infarction in patients receiving prednisolone spreading hearth necrosis (death of tissue) and slowing the formation of scar tissue, which can lead to rupture of the heart muscle.

Prednisone side effects to other organs and systems
On the part of the gastrointestinal tract are possible violations of appetite, nausea, and vomiting, bloating, hiccups. Happen erosive and ulcerative defeat of the gastrointestinal tract and bleeding from this area, inflammation of the esophagus and pancreas, sometimes developed transient disturbances of liver function.

From the side of the loco-motors apparatus can occur osteoporosis (it may be accompanied by fractures), violations of the bone growth in children and adolescents, muscle weakness and a decrease in the amount of muscle (atrophy), the gap tendons, muscles and ligaments (they consist of connective tissue, which reduces its volume under the action of prednisone).

Reactions after Taking Prednisone, on the skin when applied topically prednisolone and injection may appear small hemorrhages, plots increased or decreased pigmentation, thinning of the skin (skin atrophy), stretch (a consequence of the gap collagen fibers), you may receive postural rash and fungal diseases.

Lisinopril side effects contraindications and dosage for use

Lisinopril side effects
  • Decrease blood pressure, arrhythmias, chest pain, not often - orthostatic hypotension, and tachycardia.
  • Side effects to the nervous system: dizziness, headache, high fatigue, drowsiness, muscle twitching limbs and lips, not often - asthenia, Emotional Lability, confusion.
  • On digestive system: nausea, indigestion, loss of appetite, change in taste, abdominal pain, diarrhea, dry mouth.  From the side of hematopoiesis: leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, agranulocytosis, anemia (reduction Hb, Erythrocytopenia).
  • Allergic reactions: angioneurotic swelling, skin rashes, itchy skin. Laboratory parameters: hyperkalemia, hyperuricemia;  increasing the activity of "liver" transaminases, hyperbilirubinemia.  Other: dry cough, decreased potency:  acute renal failure, swollen tongue, lips, and extremities. Other Lisinopril side effects: Developmental disorders of the kidneys of a fetus.

Lisinopril composition
(S)-1-[N2-(1-Carboxy-3-phenylpropyl)-L-lysyl]-L-Proline . Crystalline powder white or almost white, odourless, soluble in water, sparingly soluble in methanol and practically insoluble in ethanol.


Lisinopril interaction with other drugs
gipotenzivny effect reinforce diuretics weakens - indomethacin. When combined with nitrates, propranolol and digoxin were observed clinically significant adverse pharmacokinetic interactions. Increases lithium toxicity. Potassium-sparing diuretics, potassium supplements and kalisodergaszczye means increased risk of hyperkalemia.

Lisinopril indications for use
Various forms of arterial hypertension (raising blood pressure), including renovascular (due sickness of the kidneys). Heart failure (in the complex therapy).

Lisinopril dosage for use
With arterial hypertension (persistent increase in blood pressure) drug is prescribed in the initial dose of 10 mg 1 time per day.  With the lack of expressiveness hypotensive (reducing blood pressure) effects, the dose of the product increase to 20-40 mg (up to 80 mg). In chronic heart failure appointed in the initial dose of 2.5 mg; supporting dose - 5-20 mg. For patients with disorders of water-electrolyte metabolism, renal failure, renovascular hypertension, also receiving diuretics initial dose of lisinopril is 2.5-5 mg. The drug is taken 1 time a day regardless of the meal.

Before treatment should be compensated for the loss of fluid and salts. With the utmost care appoint patients with impaired kidney function, also patients receiving diuretics and antidepressants. When used together with diuretics, vasodilators and beta-blockers effect of the product goes up, which is often used by doctors in the treatment of severe hypertension. With simultaneous use of analgesics anti-inflammatory effect of the product is reduced.

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Health Care Bill Details

The Wall Street Journal has two opinion pieces that highlight hidden details of the House health care bill that may have a major impact. The first article identifies a 69% capital gains tax increase that will hit high income individuals as of January 2011. The second identifies a nod to the trial lawyers that would encourage states to "identify an alternative medical liability law" to ensure a "fair resolution of disputes. However, the passage also states that States only qualify if its new law "does not limit attorney's fees or impose caps on damages."

As I mentioned in my previous posting, any bill in Congress typically has numerous add-on clauses inserted by different members of Congress. That's what causes basic proposals to blossom to thousands of pages. But what I'd be interested in knowing is the source of each of these clauses. Ideally it would be great to know who wrote each passage. I suspect, because I have heard it mentioned, that the language in these clauses is typically written by the special interest group itself who then peddles it to a member of Congress to get it inserted into the bill. These interest groups "write" most of these bills ... and yet the public has no knowledge about the authors. I wonder how many authors there are in this health care bill!!

One way to fix this imperfect information problem might be to require that every passage of a bill have authorship attached. In this way the public who will be affected by the bill would have better information concerning the role of special interests in shaping particular pieces of legislation.

Of course this might be impractical especially when a passage is changed and adjusted by numerous individuals during its development. Nonetheless, each passage should have no more than a handful of "major" authors. Another problem with such a proposal is that many interest groups wouldn't want the public to know that they authored particular clauses (eg the trial lawyers' association). As a result, a requirement to display authorship would quickly lead to diversionary tactics. Interest groups might outsource the writing of bills to independent consulting groups. Or, the true authorship might simply be fabricated.

Alternatively, each clause could be identified with the Congress member who inserted it. Possibly this info is already available. If so it could be helpful to publicize that info and discuss it more widely.

Although, having more of this information, especially for such major legislation as the health care bill or cap-and-trade, would be very revealing, it seems impractical to simply legislate reporting requirements. Thus, the next best alternative in a free society is to encourage more reporters, bloggers and other interested parties, to investigate these details and make it available more widely. The WSJ has done some of that work today. Surely much more of it has been done in other publications.

If you know of some, and have a link, please post it here.

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10 Tips to Save Money This Winter – Prepare Your Home for Cold Weather

With winter coming, most homeowners typically experience higher energy costs. This obviously hinges on the fact that we use more natural gas to heat our homes, and the fact that days are shorter, so we spend more time inside, and while we're inside we're using electricity, watching TV, surfing the internet, etc. Here are ten tips that will help you to save money on your energy costs this winter – 5 of the tips are simple, and can go a long way, the other 5 will require a bit of an investment to start, but will pay off big over time.

5 Simple Tips to Save Money on Energy
  1. Minimize the electricity usage – grab a book! As days in the winter are shorter than days in the summer, we tend to spend more time inside. During this time, make sure that lights are only turned on in rooms that people are in, and rather than turning on the TV, or browsing the internet, grab a book.
  2. Run ceiling fans in reverse. If you have a ceiling fan, look for a switch on the base of it and select the reverse option. Running ceiling fans in reverse will help circulate the warmer air that gathers at ceiling level back down toward your living space.
  3. Don't turn that heater on! Look for other ways to stay warm while inside, if you have a fireplace, start a fire. If you don't have a fireplace, grab a blanket and cozy up on the couch, or grab a sweater.
  4. Stop any cool air drafts. If your windows and doors aren't properly sealed, you can be wasting tons of energy on cooling costs, as your heater pumps away, it is being directly offset by cool air leaking in from underneath doors and around poorly sealed windows. Place weather stripping or rolled up towels at the base of doors, and make sure all windows are properly caulked and sealed.
  5. Turn down your water heater. Many water heaters are set to about 140 F by installers, try lowering this 10 degrees, if you don't notice a difference, try lowering it 10 more. Dropping your water heater from 140 down to 120 can help save 5-10% on heating costs.


5 Timely/Costly Tips to Save Money on Energy
  1. Install Energy Star appliances. Though costly up front, Energy Star appliances can save you from 10-20% on your energy costs.
  2. Install storm doors and dual pane windows. Storm doors are thickly insulated and help keep cool air out and warm air in, likewise, dual pane windows will do the same thing.
  3. Install a programmable thermostat. By installing a programmable thermostat, you can guarantee yourself that you won't forget to turn the heater off. You can set it to 60 degrees from 8am to 6pm (while you're at work). That way, you have a little piece of mind that you didn't leave the heater on while you're at the office.
  4. Re-insulate, and/or add additional insulation in walls and attic. If you've done all of the above and your house still doesn't seem to hold heat, then your house may be improperly insulated. Installing new insulation in the walls and attic can help your house retain heat and save you money on heating costs.
  5. Seal your air ducts. Make sure that all of the ducts that deliver air from your furnace are properly sealed. Any air escaping the ducts will be lost, thus increasing your energy costs.
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Extra Principal Payment - Mortgage Elimination and Lower Interest Expense Through Extra Payments

I've set the date for my first additional principal payment on my mortgage for April 15th. Since my first extra principal payment will be getting funded by my tax refund (which I have already received) I don't see a problem in sending the payment in on April 15th - I just want to make sure that my additional principal payment is sent and received prior to my next automatic mortgage payment.

Some of you may be asking yourselves, "Why would it matter when the additional payment is received, it gets applied either way, right?". It does get applied to my mortgage balance either way, however, the reason that I want to make sure that my additional principal payment is sent in and applied prior to my next automatic mortgage payment is because it will help to decrease the amount of interest that is paid on all of my subsequent mortgage payments. Why is this? Let's say for simplicitys sake that I have a $100K loan at 5% with a monthly payment amount of $536, and I'm going to send in an additional principal payment of $10K. If I don't send my additional principal payment, about $120 will go to principal, and $416 will go to interest. However if I pay my $10K additional principal payment (I realize this is a large extra payment, but it just helps to illustrate a point), then my next regular mortgage payment will have about $375 go to interest, and about $162 go to principal. It basically reduces the amount of interest that you pay in the long run. In this example, I save about $40 on interest in one month, over the course of the year, that will add up to be about $500 saved in interest. It adds up, and obviously, the quicker and more drastically that you can lower your principal balance, the less money you'll be spending on interest every month.

Will this work for everyone? Absolutely not. First, you'll need extra money every month in order to be able to make extra payments. Secondly, there are people of the school of thought that you're quite simply an idiot if you pay off your mortgage early because you'll be losing the tax benefit of being able to write off your interest paid. I think its absolutely retarded to be excited about writing off your interest expense, but that's an entirely different story.

Money Merge Account: Using Money Merge Account Software to Pay Down Your Mortgage

What is a Money Merge Account? There are many options out there for money merge accounts, but one of the primary ones that I found was by a company called UFF. Basically, they explain the money merge account as a means to paying off your mortgage in 1/2 to 1/3 of the time that it would typically take. The money merge account is explained as having three major components:
  1. Your existing mortgage.
  2. A Home Equity Line of Credit (called an ALOC within the money merge account system - Advanced Line of Credit)
  3. Money Merge Account Software
Basically, the way it works is all income that you receive goes toward paying off the balance on your ALOC. Any income that you receive, goes straight into that account. As your you make deposits, the money merge account software tells you when to make payments toward your mortgage, the primary thing that helps you pay down your mortgage in 1/2 the time or less is the payments that the money merge account software tells you to make - it schedules larger than normal monthly payments which lowers your principal balance faster, this in turn, decreases the amount of interest that you'll be paying toward your subsequent mortgage payments. While the ALOC will be charging you interest on your outstanding balance (it must be an open-end interest calculation), the MMA software predicts this and minimizes (or cancels) the amount of interest that you'll be paying on your primary mortgage.

All in all, money merge accounts seem like they can definitely help cut down on the time it takes to pay down a mortgage, however it will require a lot of discipline on the part of the borrower. In the end, it is ultimately up to you, the borrower - are you disciplined enough to put all of your extra money directly into your mortgage? Could you just do this yourself, or is the software necessary?

I don't believe it has been released yet, but I recently read an article that mentioned there may soon be a Credit Card based money merge account option. I

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Garcinia Cambogia Side Effects

Garcinia Cambogia is strange fruits can be used not only to satisfy hunger, but also as nutrition for weight loss. Garcinia cambogia extract had effect to reduce the appetite and that will help some woman/ man to stabilize the weight. Garcinia cambogia is sold as capsules, tea and complex supplement for weight loss.
 no side effect
The best of weight loss supplements containing an extract of Garcinia, without spending time in the gym. Well, maybe not so well, but effect of Garcinia really has, containing multi component with impact to rid of fat.

Garcinia Cambogia Side Effects

When garcinia consumed in proper dosage, then there are no side-effects on health (no reported side effects). However, if these supplements are used in excessive doses, it can decrease blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia). I think it fits with logic; reason garcinia can reduce hunger, which we forget to eat. If you feel sick, hungry, dizzy and weak after taking garcinia supplements, it should stop consume it a few days, or talk to your doctor about the use of diet supplements.

Garcinia cambogia is considered effective supplement for weight loss. Naturally, it is not a "magic wand", which quickly takes you into a desired shape, but its use in a complex of weight loss will allow you to lose weight more effectively, reliably and comfortably.

“Garcinia cambogia for weight lost fastest” just be a slogan, if you do not consume them in accordance with the rules on the label. This supplement is also not a magic mirror that can slim your body in a minute. All supplements will work well when combined with exercise. I guess only be hypoglycemia are the side effects of garcinia cambogia. That's also not including the directly side effects. My advice; first read the product labels every time you buy slimming body supplements.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Simple pattern for pair socks

I choose the name Arizona for this pair of socks as they remind me of the colors of the Painted Desert near Winslow, Arizona. The yarn is Fleece Marino hand painted superwash in colorway Mermaid. It was purchased from Simply Sock Yarn. By the way She provides great customer service and super fast shipping. 2 days from order to arrival! Thanks.... I am please with this yarn no splitting and no pooling. Want to see the results?

 
The ribbing pattern is a simple 2x2 rib for 2 rows followed by 2 rows of knit and repeat. Of course these were knit from the toe up. What do you think of the heel turn? Isn't it pretty. Just a simple short row turn. It's easy to execute and fun to do.

This pair of socks will also be a contender for "Guess Which Socks" contest. It's a silly name but that's the best I can do. I'm not very clever or witty. I'll leave that up to TBC. If you can come up with a better name for the contest please let me know. I can use all the help I can get!

My naked needles are calling me and the only way to silence them is to feed them yarn! Off to knit!

Beautiful soft yarn for socks project - knit and crochet

Oops! I meant Project Spectrum! But it looks like this has turned into a sock-a-thon of knitted gifts. Eight pairs to be exact and one shrug. Each person has a specific color request so it fits perfectly with color exploration. Note: that brilliant blue yarn is really a lavender colorway. Why the camera thinks its blue is beyond me. Attempts to adjust it has failed miserably. Such as life again.
Beautiful soft yarn for socks project - knit and crochet   

This will also be an opportunity to exercise my budding camera skills. I think I'll try to find subjects that feature the color of the month.

My needles will remain bare until Wednesdays kick off for Project Spectrum. Both of my wrists ache and need a rest. I have not knitted since Thursday and the itch to knit is almost overwhelming but I'm resisting the compulsion for now! If I should become cranky TBC will strongly recommend that I should knit something even if its only a swatch. Now I have to find something else to do - I really need help!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Shock Wave knit pattern

Our beloved enabler Sherri, is encouraging sock knitters to shake things up and knit either a Frank or a Martha type of sock. I took that to heart and found some yarn in a color that's not really me. I'm more of a fire-engine red kind of gal, who drives a '79 Black Stingray Corvette with glass T-Tops, if you know what I mean. Yes, I really have one.

I do have a problem with this idea. I just can't decide whether I'm a Frank or a Martha in my socks. I'm very conservative in my lifestyle, thoughts and wardrobe with the exception of my vehicle of choice and my socks, though I'm really a Frank in my personality. So is this a Frank sock for the Martha in me? Or are they a Martha sock for the Frank in me? Somebody help me. I'm so confused:D  What I do know is that I knit these for me. Meet Shock Wave.
free shock wave knit pattern
Please don't email me asking for the pattern because I'm going to give you the seriously abbreviated version. I don't have the patience to write a proper pattern. This is what I call a Burger King pattern - cause you can "Have it your way". Are you ready?

Yarn of your choice and needles to suit your yarn. Aim for 8 stitches per inch - stockinette stitch knit in the round. The pattern creates a bias fabric and is rather stretchy. Be aware!

This is sized for a small or medium sock. If you desire a larger sock add 8 stitches and adjust the pattern accordingly.

Cast on 56 shock wave stitches and knit either a 1x1 rib or a 2x2 rib till it's as long as you like, or until you are sick of it. Whichever comes first. Remember, these are your socks!

Commence stitch pattern.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2:  *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat

Row 3: Knit

Row 4:  *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat

Rows 5: Knit

Row 6:  *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat

Row 7: Knit

Row 8:  *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat

Row 9: Knit

Row 10:  *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat

Row 11: Knit

Row 12:  *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat

Repeat rows 1-12 for as long as you like. Ending on a knit row.

Make sure the pattern is evenly centered over the instep. Knit the heel flap of your choice - stockinette, reinforced, or Eye of Partridge. Knit the heel flap over 28 stitches and end when you have 14 slipped stitches on either side of the flap.

Turn the heel, with whatever heel turn suits you.

For the gusset: Pick up 14 stitches on either side of the heel flap.

Decrease all those annoying gusset stitches until you have 56 stitches again. Keeping "in pattern" on the instep with a minor adjustment to the stitch pattern instep as follows:

Rows 2, 4, 6 *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat. You will end with Knit 4

Rows, 8, 10, 12 *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat. You will end with Knit 2, K2TG

Knit the instep to your desired length. End on a knit row.

Start toe decreases.Knit the toe decreases until you have 16 stitches left. Break yarn and graft the remaining stitches. Weave in all tails. Make another sock.

If your smart you will cast on the for the first sock and knit the cuff then put it down and cast on for the second sock. This will prevent the dreaded SSS, aka The accursed Second Sock Syndrome.

Now off you go and bend some color.
free shock wave knit pattern

Knit a beautiful lace shawl

 With my New Year's resolutions still fresh in my mind, I gathered my courage and knit a lace shawl this past week. I love it. It's a gift for my Mom. Do you think she will like it?
Knit a beautiful lace shawl
The pattern details:
Knit a beautiful lace shawl pattern
Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl - designed for beginners. Prefectly written and she included lots of helpful information to help a novice along.

Yarn: Knit Picks - Elegance, color-way Barn Red. 3 skeins, with some leftover. The yarn is a little splity but has a beautiful sheen and a very soft hand.

Knit in 3 days. Thursday night to Saturday afternoon.

Modifications: I used mirror image decreases. Pure picky-ness on my part. I also employed the Russian Join method for the first time. It worked splendidly.

This is truly a great "first time" pattern for lace. However, it was not until the 7th repeat that things started to gel and it began to make sense to me. (I'm a little slow sometimes.) Then I was off like a rocket. There are a few mistakes which I did manged to hide rather well. Now all I need is a gold shawl pin in the shape of a heart. The search is on.

Pocket Knitting

Dishcloths have rapidly become my favorite portable item to knit - super fast, requires minimal mental acuity and tucks to nicely in my favorite purse. "Pocket Knitting" is what I've dubbed these little gems.

Each week I have the distinct privilege of sitting in the cafeteria at the high school, and watching the little darlings heathens, scarf down their lunch in the most obnoxious manner possible and fly back out the door. During this time I knit dishcloths. It makes the duty almost tolerable. These simple knits permit me to keep my eyes on those delightful teens terrors that I have come to adore:D

Last week I was reading EZ, and I came across the Square Baby Blanket pattern in her book and thought - How would it look in a variegated dishcloth yarn. I gave it a test spin and was pleased with the results.
knitting dishcloths patterns 2
I liked it so much I made 3 more.
knitting dishcloths patterns
The yellow one was presented to a teacher whose birthday was a few days ago and she promptly put in a request for a few more. To which I graciously obliged. Someone please smack me - I'm doing it again.

Though I must admit that I'm rather embarrassed to be knitting dishcloths for all the world to see. They think I'm just a little touched in the head. I would rather be caught knitting something elegant or sophisticated in the public eye:D

For those of you who would like whip up a few I wrote a pattern for you to try. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Knitting on the road ...^^

This morning TBC choose to skip church. Yes, I know we are truly wicked. Instead he suggested a road trip to Prescott. It has a decent mall that has a very large book store that lures us in occasionally. Today was that day. It takes two hours of driving time to get there and my resolve to let my wrists rest crumbled. What else are you suppose to do on a long drive. So I brought my yarn and kit with me. One the way I up I knit the first toe and on the way back the second one was born.
Knitting on the road
I perused the knitting section for quite a long time but found nothing that shouted out "Buy Me". Hoping my luck would improve I went to the magazine rack and picked up the latest Interweave Knits! Next stop for me was a craft store and I found a nice little box for knitting notions. This would be perfect for any future road trips and vacations. Yeah! I also found a crochet sock booklet for a co-worker. She loves the hook and I thought she might like to give socks a go!
learn to crochet socks
RB asked if we could go to WAL-MART. He feels the need to visit every one we can find. Don't ask. It's beyond me. So off we went and as we were leaving I spied this. Good thing I had a camera!

And for those of you who always wanted to know what Arizona really looks like, this ones for you.
Arizona really
Hope your weekend was as fun as mine:)

The power of one woman!

I've been lurking at the Harlots blog with breathless anticipation since the 25th for news. Did she finish the sweater. She just had to finish, after all she started this insanity. Though I did have my doubts after reading her last post on the 25th. I was so worried that our great and inspiring leader of the knitting world would leave without a precious medal. That would be more than my heart could take. But today she calmed my fears and revealed her completed sweater. With a sigh of relief and shouts of joy I chanted "she did it, she did it! Our awe inspiring Queen has completed the course and won a gold!"

Shortly after her idea hit blog land the Knitting Olympics found its way into the newspapers, magazines, web casts and National Public Radio! Over 4,000 knitters caught the vision, dared to dream and created projects to challenge their own creativity. Almost overnight knitting blog teams seemed to form, complete with team captains. Teams of specific projects, countries of every origin could be found including a few multi-cultural teams. It was a glorious thing to behold. Race, creed or color didn't matter. People simply banned together with only one goal in mind. Knit something challenging. So many of chose to knit our projects for charity, others knitted for loved ones and some choose to knit for themselves.

During our own unique Olympics we encountered the pitfalls of life. One member encountered bereavement. For others illness took its toll creating many downed knitters. Some knitters had to completely frog their work due to technical difficulties and sadly left the arena. It broke my heart. Work also took our time. Laundry and housework was lost in the knitting frenzy. Some the took sick days to help the project along. Items were knitted on subways, buses, trains, planes and cars. You could find knitters in strange places like grocery stores, bank lobby's and in kitchens while preparing dinner. Every minute of each 24 hour day you could find someone knitting for the gold. So many of us woke from our slumber with sore wrists, elbows and shoulders. Several of us were tagged by reporters and shared the interviews. We ate more chocolate than normal. We cried. We frogged. We re-wrote patterns. We laughed, lost sleep and encouraged our knitting brothers and sisters along the way. But knit on we did. And we grew and learned much. It's an experience that we will never forget. Some day our great grand children will tell tales of the 2006 Knitting Olympics.

I'm sad to see all the madness end. I found so many new and interesting blogs to read and made a few friends along the way. But what I will miss is watching people of all races unite with a common goal. All of this came from a woman who has a passionate heart. If only others would learn this lesson and do likewise.

About

I've made the switch to a more user friendly blog. Normally, I'm frugal but this is worth it. So what do you thing about my new blog?

Yeah! I found the sock yarn for my pal and a pattern that will complement the yarn. I knitted a sample today and the cadence is enjoyable and will be easy to execute. Now all I have to do is order the yarn and patiently wait for the snail mail treasure to arrive.

Today, I've been working on knitted "toe up designs" and have created the Ballerina toe, the French cross toe, the rounded toe, the star toe and the banded toe. Each toe is a mimick of it's toe down version. These toes were inspired by the book Knitting Vintage Socks from Nancy Bush. My preferance is to knit from the toe up. So I reversed enginered each toe. I'm sure someone has invented all of them. As of this time I have not found anything like them on the web. So they are new to me :0) I will post pictures of each with a working pattern soon.

My Beloved Commander is well again. This is a good thing. To celebrate we will go to Wood's Canyon Lake, after church this Sunday. We'll let the kids fish and sit in the sunlight and read. What a restful day that will be.

On The Home Front

Hello Ladies,

It's good to be back in blog land. This week seemed to fly by and before I knew it was Friday. I like Fridays at 4:00 p.m. I completely enjoy leaving the ringing phone behind and go to the peace of my own home.

Most of this week I practiced knitting technique. (leaving my Ocean Blue Sock sadly sitting on their needles) Primarily the tubular bind-off. I finally have gotten that mastered. Yeah! I generally work toe-up sock and wanted a nice finish for my sock pal. The post man was kind enough to bring my yarn for Holiday Knits. It was ordered from Happy Trails Yarn. Enough for 2 pairs. I can hardly wait to get my fingers and needles into it. It's beautiful. By the way the Ocean Blue socks are done as of 2 p.m. today. Another finished object:)

This Thanksgiving it will be just the 3 of us plus DS best friend. Turkey Scallopinne will adorn our table. A turkey will be too much this year. The Christmas decorations will be brought down from the attic and decorating will begin again. When the house is brought to it's complete Christmas Glory an old holiday movie will play and then I can settle in for some sock knitting. Without massive amounts of family around there will be plenty of knitting for me!

Sock Knitting Patterns - Violet soft yarn

Blue Trails Sock Yarn 
Look at what the wonderful post man brought last week. This is the Happy Trails Sock Yarn. The color way is Violet. And there's enough for two pairs of socks. Lucky me and my sock pal. This yarn is so soft and a pleasure to work with. Not a split in sight. I only hope they wear and wash well.

Sock Knitting Patterns  - Violet soft yarn

Thursday I spent time finding the gauge and deciding on a subtle rib pattern. By Friday morning the socks were started, using my ballerina toe up method. Saturday we went to the Valley (Phoenix) for some shopping and took the kids to the Salt River for a nice walk about. So there was minimal knitting for me. The roads are too twisty for Photo_112705_001_2knitting in the car. But today I’ve turned both heels. I should have these beauties done by Saturday at the latest. I’ve decided on the name for them. But you will have to wait until their finished!
sock knitting patterns
It’s been a great Holiday weekend here. I hope that all of you have had the same. P.S A big thank you to my Beloved Commander for the use of his palm pilot and lap top.