Old vintage classic car in lot in Ocala Florida

In and around Ocala, Florida there are  

 many old vintage cars driving around. Once a year these cars are showcased to vintage car enthusiasts.  

here is one great car 

Travel USA campaign part III

This is part three of my stimulus idea for small town rural America to start a Travel USA campaign in the spirit of the "made in America series".   Manufacturing jobs are slowly coming back to America but not fast enough and unfortunately not in all of the original products created here.  

America is becoming more of a service oriented business society, meaning that many jobs are being created in industries that can't be sent abroad such as restaurants, shops, car repair and health care.  Many of these jobs are low paying because of the supply of out of work Americans. 

Americans need to create their own small businesses, the creation of independent business owners opening in their towns is what is needed to create economic growth.  There has to be less bureaucracy for small business owners and inventors to create, apply for patents and manufacture their own new products for job creation in America.  

Immigration reform is one way this economy can be repaired, many of the immigrants already in the US are working in an under ground economy, and are  not paying taxes.  These 11 million illegal immigrants are contributing to the US economy in their purchase of goods, housing and payment of utilities; many have children born in the US that have become dreamers, college educated citizens and current college students that have never known any other home than the US.  These dreamers can not come out of the shadow for fear of deportation.   The anti immigrant crowd in America does not realize that by doing nothing, these 11 million are being granted amnesty now; they can't come out of the shadows like all Americans but they can still continue to work,  and live in America in these underground local economies.  The more delay if fixing broken immigration system; the more opportunity for illegal immigration to continue to grow and the less opportunity to protect the border. 



These are some issues that could repair our US economy if these issues were resolved.  Mean while, Americans have to create their own opportunities since a broken Congress will not do anything to fix our problems domestically and internationally.  Boehner was seen on you tube playing with a mechanical monkey and this is what the House speaker of Congress does with his vacation time.  Congress took a five week vacation and came back on September 6th, they are slated to remain in Washington DC for another two weeks and than they go again on vacation until the after the election 0f 2014.  These folks get paid over 174,000 and take more vacation than the President, you wouldn't know according Fox news.  



Because of Congress inaction, local towns need to create their own jobs by opening small unique business that will attract from all over the US or other countries.   On MSNBC on  a Sunday show called your small business there was a woman who opened her small business quilting and teaching classes, she began holding you tube classes and she attracted so many visitors to her town seeking her instruction in quilting that the main street of the town started to open a hotel, restaurants, shops in order  to accommodate the influx of tourists from the US and around the world.  The town before her business was deserted in Michigan, and she single handedly brought back the town economy just by one unique business playing on You tube and creating huge fan base for her product and her individual teaching style of quilting.  The show is always on Sunday mornings at 7:30 in the mornings, the show has a site with episodes of the show and great tips for small business growth geared towards small rural towns at https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/yourbusinesstv/ . 



Some ideas for a small business niche are



a mobile hair stylist that brings the salon to home bound clients,

mobile upholstery service that recovers small furniture

lawn service that includes vegetable/flower bed weeding

scrap metal collector that brings unwanted appliances and all metals to recyclers

an estate sales coordinator that performs the estate sales for the client

a cleaning service that performs house foreclosure cleanings where residents leave lots of garbage.

an errand personal shopper for the homebound or elderly

a companion that drives elderly or disabled  to medical appointments

up cycling old furniture to create new pieces an example an old dresser chest could become a new bathroom vanity.

Create personalized customized crafts such as wood doll houses, miniatures, embroidery and hand crafts

Make a family recipe into a food product and sell at local bakeries or flea markets

Wash windows and screens for homes

power wash homes and sheds

become a blogger for a local business in area

Become a social media advertising guru, if you know how to drive traffic to local business sites.

Local food grocery  delivery service



These are a few ideas on unique  opportunities that are considered niche jobs.   There are options for small towns to find a method of creating jobs without the aid of government or state.   Only an idea, and an amazing You tube video to get your startup going.

Recycle linen blind slats into a fullsize head board cover

how to create a linen blind headboard cover




I made a headboard cover from clean linen vertical blind slats. These blind slats were from windows that were sill length. These blind slats are being used directly over the old wooden head board to create a beautiful contemporary cover.




The items needed are the following;




A stapler, and used old vertical linen fabric blind slats. The size of the blind slats used in this project was from a 57 inches x 63 inch length window. These linen vertical blind slats were folded; about twenty were used for a full size head board. The first step is to prepare the vertical blinds, the ends of both blind slats have metal pieces that have to be removed. The only object remaining should be the linen blinds; take one end of one blind and staple the two ends together to make a long length blind. Create eight long blinds for the horizontal length of rectangular head board




The first long blind piece should be placed around the head board with the two ends meeting , staple the two ends of the blind together behind the headboard. The second long blind should be placed around the head board directly under the first blind and the two ends should be stapled together horizontally.




The next step is to take another blind and place it vertically over the head board creating a basket weave by placing one end of the blind in between the two horizontal blind slats, continue to weave the remaining length and secure with safety pins. Continue to add a blind slat next to the first vertical slat and weave the blind in between the two and continue the fill the top of head board. There should be 16 linen blind slats vertically and two long blind slats horizontally. once all blind slats are secured and tight; staple them securely




The next step is to take a long blind slat and create a horizontal third row and to weave it into the vertical slats than secure it with a safety pin. Continue to do the same with the last row; there should be four rows.




This headboard cover is designed to be temporary; it is a contemporary way to reuse linen vertical blinds in a creative inventive way awhile covering an old wood head board that has seen better days.