Drying buds - February 28, 20276

In case you're wondering what caused a lapse in the near-daily reporting of my yawn-worthy doings, don't worry.  I've just been busy making messes, wasting wire and resin, and fuming over failed attempts.  

The Grandson moved in with us a little over a week ago.  Trouble with mom, apparently.  I've been expecting this ever since he graduated from high school and turned 18.  He's a good kid.  I'm glad he turned to us.  He's welcome here.

Son #2 and his family went to Texas over the weekend so that Granddaughter #3 could participate in a gymnastics competition, leaving Roscoe and Duffy (the cat) home alone.  Because I referred to Roscoe as an asshole the last time we were asked to tend to him, they did not ask us to see after him this time, but when I saw the other grandparents tending to the animals, I volunteered us for the job since we live just across the road.  Roscoe was not so much of an asshole this time - we didn't have much trouble getting him to go back inside after his potty breaks - but he did shut himself and Duffy in the laundry room between visits.  We do not know why they were both in the laundry room at the same time, but we know Roscoe was responsible for the door being shut; the room is not very big, and he's got a huge turning radius.  When The Husband went over to check on them, he found them in the laundry room.  There were washing powders all over the floor, and Duffy was on a high shelf above the machines.  I figure he's responsible for spilling the washing powders.  Nothing was amiss when I went over at 7 this morning to let Roscoe out.  Duffy shot out the door when I held it open for Roscoe.  Duffy has all of his claws (he needs them in a house with four dogs) and I worried that he'd shoot up a tree and not come down.  Roscoe wouldn't let him off the porch, though, so I didn't have much trouble catching him and tossing his fat butt back in the house.  While Roscoe did his business, I filled their water and food bowls, and when Roscoe came in and went to his food bowl, I escaped.  He was raising cain about it when I left.  The kids will be home today, so our job is about done.

I am still playing with wire, resin, and clay, intending to make jewelry with it.  I've wasted a lot of materials trying to learn the skills.  About 10% of what I produce comes out mostly right.  And I don't even know what I'll do with it all, except give it away. 

But, hey . . . it keeps me off the streets.  ;)

Tiny blooms are beginning to appear around the yard.  Yesterday, I picked henbit and forsythia and some tiny white blooms I can't name.  I want to dry some to put inside resin.  I'm drying them in silica powder.  This powder had a 2-minute microwave option, and I tried it, but the tiniest things turned to dust, and the forsythia came out ochre instead of yellow.  Ther's another round of the same flowers buried in silica powder in an airtight container.  This method is supposed to take several days to work.  Since the blossoms I used are so small, I will check them tomorrow.

 

UV Resin Adventures - February 10, 2026

See all those lumps?  They're (mostly failed) resin cabochons and pendants that would not cure under my UV lamp, so I brought them out to the porch to soak up some sun.  They've been out here for a couple of days, and some of them still feel a little sticky.  Only a few of them are worthy of becoming jewelry.  I guess the rest could be used for things like decorating outdoor pots (which I will probably never do).  Some of them are a little sunken on the back side, but hot glue might fill the gap enough to stick them to something. 

I am growing frustrated with being unable to achieve the results I want.  

My curing problems likely stem from the things I've used to color the resin - alcohol inks, pigment inks, mica powders, glitter, glitter flakes, etc.  They block the UV light, and the more colorants you add, the less the light gets through.  My pitiful little UV lamp only works for a maximum of 1 minute at a time, which means it must be re-started multiple times to achieve much of a cure, even with un-tinted resin.  I don't know if the short interruptions of light make much difference to the curing process.  

The sun works better.

I have some concern about the resin, itself - all resins, not just the UV stuff.  I am scatter-brained, and at first I did not always remember to put on gloves before messing with the resin.  For a few days, my fingertips wore residue.  The resin instructions do not say to wear a mask, so I haven't been wearing one.  Yesterday, as I was scouring the internet for resin tips, I ran across a UV resin video featuring a myth-buster guy and two resin professionals, and I thought, "Oh, boy!  I'm going to get some real info this time!"  The first thing they did when they prepared to cure some resin was to put on respirators.

Respirators.  Not just masks.

Further research indicates that the fumes from resin while it is curing are toxic.

I may have to re-think the whole idea of resin jewelry.  

But there are 8 full bottles of resin in the "studio," and boxes full of colorants.  Maybe I can use them on the porch before the spring pollen storm.

Break Time - February 6, 2026

Taking a break from reaping what I sowed 10 or 20 years ago, when I decided to dump all of my beads together in one deep box.  I knew it was dumb when I did it, that at some point I'd have to either re-sort the beads or throw them out or give them away.  I did this to make room for supplies for whatever craft craze next caught my eye.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been digging around in the box, refreshing myself as to its contents, sorting by class - bead, finding, wire - into zip bags.  

Reckoning time has arrived.  

Today, I needed two matching beads for a pair of earrings.  I know they're in that box.  Somewhere.

Today, I started the color sort. 

This is going to take a while.

The Thaw - February 3, 2026

It's day 11 of snow/ice.  I've had about enough of it, thank-you.  Warmer temperatures are supposedly on the way.  By the end of the week, we'll be in the 60s, they say.  

Friday of last week was my day to see after Roscoe while his family was away.  I went over at 7 a.m. to let him out.  The temperature was in the teens.  Roscoe did his business and came back inside the house without too much argument.  I did not make him go back in his kennel.  At 12:30, I went back to let him out again.  In my absence, he had helped himself to several single-serving bags of potato chips from a box on the counter.  I let him outside and cleaned up the mess.  He would not come back inside this time.  I spent THREE HOURS trying to lure him back into the house without success.  Dog snacks, Funyums, cheese . . . nothing worked.  Every time I approached him to grab his collar, he would run.  I called The Husband on his way home from work and asked him to stop by to help.  When he arrived, I came home and left them to it.  It took him another 30 minutes to coax the big idiot dog into the house.  We were so glad when Roscoe's family came home Sunday.  

I did very little crafting during the Roscoe duty days.  Just couldn't get my head into it.  Nothing came out like I wanted.  My sewing room table is half covered with failed resin experiments and wobbly wire formations.  My 2nd resin bottle is almost empty, and there's little to show for it.  Yesterday, 8 more bottles arrived.  I'm hoping - nay, expecting - to know what I'm doing by the time I open that last bottle.

This morning, I painted Valentines.  Granddaughter #1, away at college, gets a heart pendant tucked into hers.

The Re-Freeze - January 30, 2026

Yesterday, the high temperature pushed 50 degrees.  This morning (and for the rest of the week), it's well below freezing.  What melted yesterday re-froze last night.  We still have several inches of snow on the ground.  It will be early next week before this stuff disappears.

Son #2 and his family braved the ice and drove to Atlanta so that Granddaughter #3 could participate in a gymnastics competition.  With bad road conditions all over the south, I am surprised the competition wasn't cancelled.  In any case, the kids have gone and have left Roscoe (aka Shithead) home alone.  (The other grandmother has the other three dogs.)  They were going to take Roscoe with them, but he acted a fool in the car, and they turned around and brought him home and asked us to tend to him until they return home Saturday.  The Husband took Roscoe duty Thursday night and yesterday.  Today it's my turn.  I crunched through the snow at 7 this morning to let him out to do his business and stretch his limbs.  When he finally agreed to come inside, I shut all the bedroom doors and left him in the living room.  I'll have to go let him out again in a few hours.  If he has acted a fool in the interim, I will put his ass back in the kennel.  If he will go.  A dog that big you don't MAKE do anything.  

Yesterday was a good day in the craft room.  I ran several UV resin experiments that turned out promising, made three or four pendants that turned out so-so, and learned to make chains for pendants and earrings.  Making chains is, for me, a slow and tedious process, and it uses a lot of wire per inch of chain.  I may tat or macrame hangers for the pendants.

Last night, I discovered resin boogers in my nose.  I have not faithfully worn a mask and gloves when working with resin.  A couple of my fingertips are kind of crusty with resin, but I am pretty sure I never stuck them in my nose while the resin was wet.  Those resin boogers must have formed from inhalation.  However they got there, they pulled out all my nose hair when I pried them out.  I'll be more careful about remembering the mask from now on.

Snowmageddon 2026 - January 27, 2026

Snowmageddon arrived some time after I went to bed Friday night but before I got up Saturday morning at dawn.  Sleet that changed to snow (some of the biggest flakes I've ever seen) then changed to sleet again.  It all froze together in one thick layer than you can walk on without breaking the crust.  Four days later, the main roads are passable, but our country road is still a frozen sheet.  Today, Tuesday, it is sunny and almost 31 degrees.  Water is dripping off our roof.  Whatever thaws today will freeze tonight and stay frozen until early next week.  It's a good thing the craft room is well stocked.

Birds have been finding their way onto the porch.  I opened the screen door and shushed one out yesterday.  Another one was on the porch this morning.  I keep the bird food for the feeder in a plastic bin inside a garbage bag (to catch the spillage) on the back porch.  When I came out, the bird was IN the garbage bag, eating the spillage.  I eased inside and told The Husband, "Put your coat on and come out to the porch; there's a bird IN the feed sack."  (He will catch them with his hand; I won't.)   It didn't work.  The bird heard us coming and flew up to the rafters.  There's a tunnel up there, just below the rafters, where a bird can run three quarters of the way around the porch without ever showing a feather.  I opened the door, and we knocked on the tunnel with a broom, but he wouldn't come out except to fly from one screen to another before going back into the tunnel.  We gave up chasing him when our hands froze.  I hated to leave the door open so that more could come in, so I watched through the kitchen door until the bird finally found his way out.  

I have been trying to make jewelry this week.  Not having great luck.  I'm casting resin cabochons in various shapes and wrapping them with wire.  Only a few have turned out to suit me, but my skills are slowly improving.  Maybe there's hope.

 

Waiting on the Blizzard - January 23, 2026

The bad weather is expected to arrive here around 8 p.m. tonight.  Rain/sleet/snow, most likely.  For the next few days, the roads will be like skating rinks.  My fingers are crossed that this won't be a storm that ices the limbs and power lines and causes power outages.  

We are as prepared as we can be, I reckon.  Yesterday, I made enough soup to last a few days.  The Husband's propane heater has arrived.  Last night, he came home with six 5-gallon water jugs.  (We're going to need a bigger shed to store all this sh*t when this is over.)  Son #2 came over yesterday, gathered up our gas cans, and filled them at the convenience store up the road.  When he brought them back, he tinkered with the generator and had it running in nothing flat.  Let's cross our fingers that we won't have to use it.  It is so freaking loud.  Son #2 and The Husband say that we can use the truck to power the house.  There's a special outlet where we used to charge the camper that will hook to the truck.  #2 started to tell me how it works - "You've got A and B, and when B is open -." 

I just held up my hand and shook my head.  Don't.  Just don't.  I hope it is something I never need to know.

Whether we lose power or not, I foresee him and The Husband plugging the truck in to the house at some point this weekend.  I intend to be at the opposite end of the house when it happens.

If they can't devise enough power to charge up my laptop, I will go apeshit.  

This morning, I have been pouring resin into jewelry pendant molds, trying to learn what colorants work, and how they act when mixed.  If anything turns out nice, I will try to wrap it with wire to turn it into a pendant.