About Cindy & Sue

Let’s start with Cindy (some of you may know me already)…

First off, I am a wife to my husband of over 20 years (wow!) and mom to three teenage daughters (Teenagers? How did that happen so fast?). I am also an engineer – which means I tend to think a lot and I like to solve problems.

I love finding a “good deal” and I am always on the look for the “right price” – be it new, second hand, or better yet, made at home (DO instead of BUY).

I like DOing stuff – especially hiking, snowshoeing, exploring, reading, playing, crafting, and being with my family. (Teaching my daughters to drive a standard did NOT rate as one of my favorite things to do). While I’m DOing stuff, I take pictures - thousands of pictures. My camera goes almost everywhere I go. Thank goodness for digital – I can delete all the yucky ones.

I don’t like cooking. There, I said it. Cooking and I simply do not get along. Too many of my cookies have been used as shuffleboard rocks, and too many loaves of bread ended up looking like doorstops. Right now, I am limited to about six things I know how to cook and that’s it. (I’m hoping Sue’s ideas will get me going.) Fortunately, I married a guy who likes to cook. And he taught our daughters how to cook. Whew!

I don’t like sewing either. If I can’t fix it with a stapler or a piece of duct tape, I am hooped!

I do like building websites. A lot. In 2001, I joined up with FlyLady and Company, Inc. to help them build and manage their brand new website (FlyLady.net). Yup, I am “the” Cindy. If you decluttered a weird item or sent in a tip to be posted in the website, you sent it to me. “FlyLady, Kelly, and Cindy” – oh my, the crazy things we dreamed up in three bubble baths across three parts of the world (long story LOL) – and we had a blast!

“We were overwhelmed with the development of the website and even though we could not pay her, she was willing to sign on for our cruise. She is our navigator and cruise director. She can handle the details that escape me. Thank you, Cindy, for listening to your God Breezes. Between you, your wonderful husband Barry, and your porch night dates, you have given us many great ideas.”– Sink Reflections, by Marla Cilley the FlyLady.

In 2004, that relationship came to a rather abrupt end. We had a difference of opinion that was never going to change. It was time to part ways.

From there, I built several private websites for various clients plus Cindy’s Porch (CindysPorch.net) – named after the spot in our home where my husband and I spent most of our time talking, sharing, and dreaming up new ideas. This small website was a joy to create. It gave me a place to continue to post ideas, learn new programming skills, and share a few photos – all the while raising a busy family, two dogs, and a rabbit.

Today, it’s time for a change. Those kids of ours are turning into young adults – ready to make their own choices and discover their own paths in this world (a very scary thing for this mom to watch). As a result, they don’t need me as much (sniff sniff) and I have more time on my hands (yikes). My husband announced that now was the time to get off my butt and start a brand new project, a brand new website – one that I have been dreaming and talking about for too many years.

I know me. My background is to think, problem-solve, and brainstorm in teams. I needed a team.  So I went looking for a team and found Sue – a complete stranger.  Sue is a mom and grandma, who likes to be frugal and enjoys simplicity. She loves to cook, knows how to sew without resorting to staplers and glue guns, and best of all, Sue takes killer photos. This could be an interesting combination.

Introducing – Sue!

Picture if you can ……..

The phone rings. I answer. There’s strange female voice on the other end, “You don’t know me but my name is Cindy …” Fifteen minutes later and somehow I am meeting her in a park to discuss an idea she has for a new website??? Am I nuts? Yes. Nuts is good.

I am a DOer and a THINKer, too. Mostly out of necessity because I have never had the pleasure of not having to. Actually, I think I am probably happier this way. Life would be boring if it came with no challenges and languished on a silver platter.

I have two grown kids, a son and a daughter, and three grandsons, one of whom I am very close to. I am in a very committed but long-distance relationship with the most wonderful man in the world. One of these days we’ll get our acts together. He’s a handy guy – does woodworking, is a great cook, and does needlepoint and even sews and does housework.

My mom went back to work when I was 14, not because she wanted to but because we needed the extra income to make ends meet. My older sister and I were supposed to take turns coming straight home from school and getting dinner ready. We were supposed to switch off doing the dishes, too. It turned out she didn’t like cooking and I didn’t like doing dishes, so we each permanently settled into what we liked to do. I am still doing it. She never learned how to cook. I still hate housework.

My kids also are comfy in the kitchen. When my daughter was nine she kicked me out of the kitchen and made a 35-lb Christmas turkey dinner all by herself. I tried not to watch and offer too much help after she told me to leave her alone after the first dozen times I asked. She did just fine. It was memorable. I am still talking about it over 20 years later. She sews, though, with a stapler and duct tape, just like Cindy. My son’s claim to fame is that he learned at a young age how to iron a shirt and properly press a pair of pants. The other kids didn’t know that. He also does a mean BBQ. and hosts big gatherings for friends, family and neighbors.

These days I am cooking for One and an Army. The army part gets portioned into individual dinners and goes into the freezer. “One” is a challenge and, being basically lazy, I don’t want to cook every day for just me, but I do want a good meal. So you’ll find my recipes “family sized” for those who also feed armies. If I bomb, the dawg loves me anyway.

Growing up, my dolls had wonderful clothes made on the family sewing machine, designed by yours truly on old newspaper, tested on paper dolls cut from empty cereal boxes. I got my own sewing machine when I was nine and have been sewing up a storm ever since. I enjoy hand-stitching, and crafts, too, and for a while in my life I was a period costume designer and seamstress. I also designed shoes but gave that up when I got burned by a major shoe manufacturer.

I saved my babysitting money and bought my first camera when I was 14. Birds and weeds and wildflowers are my passions but I have been known to shoot anything that moves and a whole lot that doesn’t. If I get bored, I turn on the kitchen tap and shoot the drips and splashes. I have drowned more than a few strawberries in cream. We won’t hold it against Cindy that her Mom loves her better than me and snagged her a great birder’s lens. Besides, it’s for a Canon and I am a Nikon girl.

I’ve been a lot of things in my years. I have worked as a farmer, a retail salesperson, a waitress, a bank teller, an elected politician (ha!), a photographer’s assistant and model (a bigger ha!), a manager of a garden center, a carpenter, a web designer, a newspaper owner, a graphic designer and an advertising salesperson. I dabble in city planning and architecture. There’s more – life didn’t stand still.

I’m comfy in the skin I’m in and I like to share the fun I have DOing things. My favorite is dropping everything and going on a picnic (with the camera, of course). It’s only March but I have already been out on three. I’ll take you with me next time I go, okay?

And about duct tape … YES! It makes the world a much better place.