Yesterday, my BFF sent me a picture of a pair of dragonfly earrings, along with the comment, "You can do that."

My response:  "Jewelry production temporarily suspended.  Moved on to the sewing machine."

At the time, I was digging through the buffet cabinet in the sewing room (which once was the dining room) where I'd stored the fabric that survived The Great Purge of 2022.  To my delight, I found two sets of embroidered placemats and a table runner/napkin set that I'd made several years ago for my booth in the antique mall.  They are fall/holiday colors.  They will go to the booth I will set up in September at the charity benefit.  

I spent most of the day working on dumpling bags. Found the right size pattern, which took a while.  Cut out one using nice fabric, sewed it up without any hitches.  Today I am going to choose the fabrics for a few more bags and have them ready to sew when we get back from our trip to Mountain View.  

Got It - August 26, 2026

Yesterday morning, I decided to get up off my lazy duff and plant the baptista australis seedling that my sweet niece brought me.  I decided to plant it on the gravely bank along the driveway, where digging is hard.  The bank is covered with some kind of creeping yew, and also English ivy, mixed in with iris and lavender and daylilies, and I had to hack out a place to put the new plant.  While I was hacking, a wasp got after me, and I realized that I was close to a wasp nest hidden under all the brush.  I put some distance between me and the nest, but the wasp came after me, and four or five of his wing men took to the air.  I fought the attacker off with my trowel.  He gave up, eventually, and when he did, I went for the can of jet spray wasp killer and went back and dosed everything that was flying around where I was trying to dig.  When things settled down, I jumped back in, planted the plant, and got out of there.

About this time, Son #2 drove up in my Wrangler, which he had borrowed the previous day.  It was his day off; he'd just come home from having driven the Little Rotten Baby to kindergarten.  (She had insisted on riding to school with the top down, he said, but he'd already put the top back up.)

I said, "While you're here . . . follow me," and took him to the back yard, where the mole trap had been sprung.  

I was not sure that there was actually a mole in it.  It's a brand new (but cheap) scissor-type trap that had given me fits trying to set it.  It once popped itself plumb out of the ground when I turned my back on it.  Anyway . . .

There was a mole in the trap, probably the biggest, fattest mole I have ever seen.  His pink paddle feet were the size of quarters.  

If there is a trick to getting a mole our of a scissor-type trap, I don't know it.  I handed it to The Son, who had the good sense to look for a release mechanism, but there wasn't one.  When he finally got the scissors open, the mole was stuck to one of the blades and wouldn't just fall out of the trap.  I raked it off with a stick and flung it down the gulley.  Something will eat it.

I need to get out there today and check for new digging and re-set the trap.  

Chiggers will get me when I do.

Maybe I'll do some sewing, instead.

* * * * * * * * 

It's not that I am bored with making jewelry (the force is strong); I just need something besides jewelry to populate the booth that I am setting up at a charity benefit in mid-September.

I didn't tell you about that?

Ok, well, when the booth at the local October festival fell through, friends suggested some alternatives.  The benefit happening next month is at a local church.  Over 1,000 people usually attend.  I will probably know a lot of them.  There's another event coming up in October at a local high school.  I probably won't know many of those folks.  I am not sure whether displaying my craft in front of people I know is more scary or less scary than showing it to strangers.  

Anyway, I've got two weeks to prepare.  

As I said a few posts ago, I have made enough jewelry to set up a moderately full display.  But I want to make some other things, too - useful things.  During the past week or so, I've crocheted 3 cloche hats (and started a 4th) at night while watching TV, and there's enough yarn in my stash for several more.  In a couple of days, we're doing a road trip to Mountain View, Arkansas, and since I don't get car-sick, I'll whip out a couple more hats while we're on the road and at night in the cabin.

I also wanted to make a few "dumpling bags," little half-moon-shaped purses for cosmetics and such.  I made one for myself years ago; it goes on all my trips.  Monday, I decided to make some out of some yardage already in my stash.  Naturally, the original template for the original bag was nowhere to be found.  There was a smaller version for free on the internet, so I downloaded one and made it, and realized that it was W-A-Y too small.  I enlarged the template with the copy machine and cut out six more bags using the enlarged template.  Before sewing the first one, I embroidered local school logos on them.  These bags are made of unbleached canvas and are lined with vinyl shower curtain material.  The bulk of the seams takes up too much room in the bag.  Zipped up, my "enlarged version" might hold a small orange.  I was shooting for something long enough to hold a toothbrush or a pencil or paintbrush.  

Back to the drawing board to draft a USEFUL bag.  

The experiments were not a total waste of time.  Sewing the canvas fabric convinced me to use some other fabric for the final bags.  There are some lovely fabrics in my stash that ought to be used for something.  Once I finally get the size correct, I'll use the pretty stuff.  The two tiny experiment bags are lined with vinyl shower curtain material.  I'm on the fence about using it on the pretty bags.  

Still, I have six little bags pieces already cut out, too small to make into bags but on which there is useful embroidery.  Maybe I can cut out the logos and applique them onto something else., like a tote bag.

* * * * * * * 

Mole Madness - August 24, 2026

For the past month or so, new mole hills have popped up in our backyard almost every day.  These are not your standard mole trails; these are mole MOUNTAINS, foot-high piles of loose dirt.  I've been setting traps to no avail.  

Yesterday afternoon, as I sat here looking out at the backyard, something in my brain snapped.  I went to the shed, got a shovel, and started digging.  When I finally dug down to where I could see an actual hole, I channeled my father-in-law and went to get the water hoses.  These mole hills are at least 150 feet from the nearest outdoor hydrant.  It took FOUR 50-ft hoses to reach them all.  I was about worn out by the time I strung all the hoses together and turned on the water, but I was determined.

I jabbed the end of the hose into every hill and tunnel I could find and filled them until they either backed up or sprung a leak in a tunnel downstream.  By the time I was done, the whole area was soup.  I lost my crocs in it a time or two as I tried to stomp down all the tunnels.  The exercise must have taken two hours.  I never did see a mole surface, gasping for breath.  I hoped I had drowned them all in their lairs.  

This morning, I took a stroll to check for new digging, and there were places where one or more moles had re-opened a tunnel.  I set traps in them.  

If I don't catch a mole today, I may consider dynamite.

She Who Hesitates . . . August 22, 2026

Well . . . shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

Around 4:00 yesterday afternoon, I finally decided to commit to do a booth at the town festival coming up in October.  I really wanted a companion for the enterprise, someone who also makes stuff to sell, and was willing to foot the whole rental fee just for the company.  Last night I posted the call for help on my social media page.

This morning, someone associated with the festival replied to my post; the booths were all spoken for by the end of June.

I hesitated too long.

Now what am I going to do with all this crap?

* * * * * * * * 

A night or two ago, The Husband came to me with a leather bracelet he bought for himself a while back.  He wanted to know if I could change the metal closure, complaining that it digs into his wrist when he lays his arm flat.  He wanted a sliding knot closure like one of his other bracelets uses.

In my opinion (which I shared with him), changing the closure would be a mistake.  The closure was flat and smooth and not very thick.  But he wanted me to try, anyway. 

And so I did.

I tried everything in my arsenal: a sliding knot, a barrel knot, and a hook/loop.  The problem is that his wrist is small - the ends almost meet without any closure at all - and every type of closure I constructed made the bracelet too large.  

Good thing we saved the originals.  

Ima let him put them back on.  ;)

* * * * * * * * 

  

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,