Leather and thread - August 19, 2026

This blistering heat needs to go away.  It's been 100 degrees (or nearly so) for two weeks.  Enough!  

All day, I have moved back and forth between the porch and the craft room and the kitchen.  My tools and supplies are scattered between the three places.  I've said I need a set of wire-working tools for every workstation, but that would be a useless endeavor because, inevitably, they'd all end up in the same place.  

Last week, when the jewelry display racks came in, I spent several days putting the jewelry I've made onto the racks.  The earring rack is completely full - 64 pairs.  The bracelet rack could hold a few more, but it doesn't look bare.  I've filled up two necklace boards (about 20 pendants) and have two spare boards, one of which will probably be full once I finish the pendants that are "in progress" on the table.  The ring display looks sparse, so yesterday I made about 10 more rings.  

So, you see, I have been somewhat productive.

I am not bored with making jewelry, but I needed a break, so when the internet kept baiting me with sewing and crochet patterns, I took the bait and downloaded a hat pattern.  Yesterday, when I went to the hobby store for some needed supplies, I bought 3 skeins of yarn - ecru, red, and black - to make hats.  Last night, I sat down with the ecru skein and crocheted the top of the hat.  My hands are complaining about it this morning.  You'd think that they'd be toughened-up from all the wire twisting and clay kneading I've done, but I guess the hand motions are different enough that some unused muscle/tendon got a new workout.  When I picked up the crochet this morning, I only lasted about 2 rounds before my left hand started to go numb.  I'll work on it a little more tonight.

I have also been wanting to make some machine-embroidered bracelets.  A few months ago, I made two or three embroidered leather bracelets from leather scraps from the hobby store.  They turned out well, but my machine complained about the leather.  There weren't any leather needles in my stash, but there was a heavy-duty needle that worked well enough to crank out two bracelets.  But I wasn't satisfied with the weight/thickness/size of the leather in the stash.  The few scraps that were large enough to hoop in a 5" x 7" frame were too thick to suit me.  There were plenty scraps big enough for the actual bracelets, but it in order to use them, I had to affix them to tear-away stabilizer, which created a whole 'nother set of problems; either I'd have to pick the stabilizer out of the back of the design or else I'd have to back the bracelets with another piece of leather. which ALSO created more work.  I decided to put off the embroidered leather project until I could find some more suitable leather.

It so happened that the hobby store had a roll of thin leather pigskin on sale.  Half price.  I snatched it up.  This morning, I decided to have another go at the bracelets.  I'd changed the machine needle last week when testing an embroidery design for my online store, but I reasoned that since the leather is so thin, the regular needle might work.  Wrong.  My thread kept breaking. I put the heavy-duty needle back in (remind me to post a tirade about narrow machine throats), but that didn't solve the problem.  A few minutes ago, I ordered some machine needles for leather.  So the leather bracelet project is once again on hold.

The design I was sewing today was one that I'd bought from another designer a long time ago but had never sewn.  I've been very happy with the designs I've bought from this business ("Urban Threads"), but as I sewed (or tried to sew) this design, I realized it's not what I have in mind for my bracelet rack.  So, it looks like I might be digitizing my own bracelets. 

Meanwhile . . . . 

I want to put some of my jewelry in my online store, which means I need to take some pictures.  After abandoning the bracelet project, I tried to set up a camera-worthy shot on my worktable, which was already loaded with stuff.  I cleaned off a spot, draped some fabric over a form, and noticed that the fabric needed ironing.  THERE IS NOWHERE IN MY CRAFT ROOM TO SET UP AN IRONING BOARD.  I could put it in the spot where the t-shirt press usually sits if I could find a spot for the t-shirt press.  Fat chance of that hap - 

Wait...The Husband keeps an iron and ironing board set up in his closet.  

Never mind.

Photography project back on.

I need some elves....

I need some elves.

Just rambling (as usual) - August 17, 2026

The Husband and The Grandson have left for work, and I am sitting here on the porch, looking out over the back yard, wondering why I cannot catch the #@)#! mole that's digging up the yard.  In one area, there are hills - not just trails, but HILLS - of loose dirt 8" high.  I read somewhere that these might be cavities where moles give birth (mole maternity wards?).  If this is true, the whole back yard is going to collapse one day, when all of these babies start digging.  I have set three traps; none of them have been sprung, yet I am not seeing any new raised tunnels (I stomped down all I could find).  

Granddaughter #1 went back to college Friday.  The day before she was supposed to leave, some part of her car broke.  She'd already packed her car with as much of her stuff as it would hold.  Her family was to follow her with more stuff and help her get settled.  The best part was that they intended to take Roscoe with them, and we would not have to babysit his dumb ass.  When the car broke, all of that changed.  Mom and the girls hit the road to the college Friday morning, and Dad stayed behind to fix the car.  Roscoe stayed behind, too.  Fortunately, Dad was able to get the car back on the road by Friday evening, and he headed to college with the rest of #1's stuff.

This will be her last semester of undergraduate school.  She is in the process of applying to veterinary schools.  

This morning, I am hearing a bird call that I *thought* might be a turkey.  It's not the "gobble" sound; it's more like a little dog with a high-pitched bark.  Arf, arf, arf.  I fired up my bird-call app, and it turns out that what I'm hearing is a yellow-bellied cuckoo.  Who'd'a thunk it?

Cooking - August 13, 2026

I am so tired of cooking.  It's not so much the actual cooking as it is planning the meals and getting the ingredients.  

Last night I asked The Husband to think of something for dinner tonight.  "It can be anything," I said.  "I'll go to the grocery store tomorrow."  

He pondered a while and said, "Well, we haven't had Mississippi pot roast in a while."  

Google it if you don't know what it is.  It's good, as far as pot roast goes, but it has a lot of high-sodium packaged seasonings.  

I went to the grocery store this morning and got the stuff to make it, but I also got ingredients for crock pot Cajun chicken penne, which we are having tonight.  The pot roast can wait until Sunday.

* * * * * * * * 

There is what I believe to be a honeybee crawling around on the screens inside the back porch.  One gets in here almost every day.  I send them mental vibes to fly over to the door, where I will let them out.  

There was also a large, hairy spider inside the screen.  I am not so tolerant of spiders when they invade my space.  I got the fly swatter and whacked it, and it dangled down on a web thread.  I whacked it again, and it sailed somewhere.  There is a mountain of stuff on my worktable - multiple bowls of beads, a tin for wire remants, a couple of caddies for tools and paintbrushes and pencils.  The spider could be anywhere, and I don't know if it's dead.  

This is the stuff of nightmares.

* * * * * * * * 

I wish I knew more science about polymer clay.

Recently, I have been sort of fixated on the baking process.  When I first started fooling with polymer clay, I dragged out some old digital thermometers - the kind with a probe on a cord - and set my oven for 275 degrees, with the probe laying on a pan.  When the oven said it had reached 275 degrees, the thermometer said 230.  It never got to 275 in an hour of baking time.  This week, I got a new digital thermometer, again the probe type.  Same deal; WAY below 275 degrees.  Thinking that it was maybe the fault of the thermometer - maybe the cord in the door let the heat out or soaked up cool from the room.  So I ordered another thermometer, the dial kind that sits on a base inside the oven.  Tomorrow, I'll let you know how it did.  

To be honest, I'm not real keen on baking polymer clay in the oven where I bake food.  When I bake clay, I always run the fan over the stove, and after the oven turns off, I open the door a little to let any fumes out.  But I am not comfortable that the clay isn't leaving oven residue that might somehow work its way into our food.  I know that we eat, drink, and breathe plastics every day, but I like to avoid it where I can,

  

Today in the craft room, I said to myself, "Don't make anything else you don't like."

Yesterday, being fresh out of fresh ideas and running low on some supplies, I worked on organizing the ring display and the earring display.  (The bracelet display isn't here yet.)  I hadn't handled some of it for months, and organizing it helped me see it with new eyes.  I thought once again that I wouldn't wear most of that stuff to a cat fight.  It's not that the workmanship is bad; I culled the ones that had flaws.  The colors are pretty.  It's just that most of it is too gaudy for my tastes.

Anyway, today I decided to make something I, personally would wear.

And I did it.  Made a polymer clay pendant and some earrings for myself.  Assuming I don't screw it up somewhere down the road, I will wear them to my class reunion.  They're baking right now and will need finishing.  Lots of pitfalls there.

Speaking of the class reunion, the committee had another meeting yesterday.  Only people who like to talk and socialize will come to a meeting.  This makes it hard to stay on track.  I had to call the class to order a couple of times to get a consensus on the menu and the venue.  Several people are keeping their own count of attendees, and nobody's count matched.  It was a mess.  I think we finally got everything straight until the next meeting after the registration deadline has passed.

Heat Wave Coming - August 11, 2026

Yesterday morning, after I said I wasn't going to rake up the grass clippings in the back yard, I womaned-up and raked up the grass clippings.  Filled up the big yard wagon TWICE, dumped the loads onto the compost pile.  Set the mole trap in the new tunnel that had popped up since I mashed them down with the lawnmower.  

I briefly considered cranking up the weed eater, but it was already seriously hot.  Enough womaning-up for the day.  

According to this morning's weather report, we're in for more serious heat for the next TWO WEEKS.  I had considered taking my jewelry to the local farmer's market this weekend, but . . . nah.

The LRB's first day of kindergarten was a success.  On the way to the gym for after-school pickup, when two little girls behind her toyed with the "charms" on her backpack, she told them, "I don't like people I don't know touching my stuff."  

We never doubted that she'll stand up for herself.  ;)

This afternoon I am going to another class reunion committee meeting.  (50 years.  It doesn't seem possible.)  The reunion is coming up in October, and we still haven't firmly decided on a venue or the menu for the reunion.  Hopefully, we'll straighten that out today.  Registrations are still trickling in, but the deadline happens this week.  

I don't know how I let myself get roped into this thing.

Weekend - August 10, 2025

I'm sitting here on the back porch, looking out at the back yard, which is strewn with glass clippings from the weekend mowing.  Mounds of grass clippings, which is highly unusual considering that we never had much grass in our back yard - only a variety of wild ground coverings, like clover, creeping charlie, henbit, etc.  I believe the bird feeder is to blame for this new grass.

I should have raked the grass clippings after I mowed, but it started to drizzle just as I was starting on the last section of the yard.  The drizzle didn't last long, but by the time I figured out that a drizzle was all we were going to get, I'd already showered and changed clothes and didn't want to expose my clean self to a new barrage of chiggers.  I should rake them and compost them today . . . but I probably won't.  It's going to be hot again.

Yesterday, there was a birthday party across the road for Granddaughter #2, who recently turned 16.  The theme was an Hawaiian luau.  Grass skirts and leis for everybody.  The Husband took his ukulele for the "Happy Birthday" song.  #2 seemed a little mortified.  It was kind of funny.  ;)

Granddaughter #4, formerly known as the Little Rotten Baby, started kindergarten today. The LRB is gung-ho about it.  Her mom is about to have a come-apart as the last chick leaves the nest.  For the first week or two, the moms get to walk the students to their class.  I think my daughter-in-law was relieved - and also a little sad - that the LRB went into the classroom, took a seat, and never looked back.  I'll walk across the road later today to quiz the kid on how her day went.

Last week, I ordered jewelry display items JUST IN CASE I work up the nerve to actually try to sell some of the stuff I've made so far this year.  I got an earring rack with 64 hooks, some necklace displays, a ring display, and a bracelet display.  They came yesterday, and I started filling them.  The earring rack is almost full, as is one of the necklace displays.  And there is a pile of pendants that still need to be strung.  I haven't started on the rings, yet.  Or the bracelets.

The sad part is that I don't *love* any of this stuff.  Wouldn't wear it to a cat fight, as they say.  Not my personal style.  It'll be hard for me to try to sell this stuff with a straight face.

Lunch with The Sibs - August 6, 2026

I had lunch with my brother and sister yesterday.  We met at a local family-style buffet.

I did not eat the salad.  ;)

Kudos to me for not going to the hobby store while I was within spitting distance of it.  However, while I was at Walmart, a little bit of craft stuff fell off the shelf and into my basket.

This morning I did a little bit of crafting with clay and wire.  Made some earring components and pendants.  There's a whole pile of earring components and pendants on one end of my craft table that need to be assembled.  This is where I hit the stump.  Because I have been using cutters and molds, all of these pieces are shaped the same, and I am bored with them.  Maybe it's time I just "do me" and stay out of the molds. 

This afternoon, I've been cooking.  I try to keep breakfasts-to-go for The Husband and The Grandson.  This morning, as The Grandson was wrapping up a blueberry muffin to take with him, he said that he'd shared yesterday's banana nut muffins with his supervisor, who said, "These taste just like my grandmother used to make."

I said, "She must've used the same Martha White muffin mix I used!"  ;)