Still Cold - March 17, 2026

I was supposed to go to the grocery store yesterday morning, but it was 32 degrees and the wind was whipping like crazy, and I was warm in my jammies and just plain did not want to go.  So I didn't go, even though the refrigerator was virtually empty.  

It's cold again today, but I bucked up and went out.  

Unfortunately, I also went to the hobby store.

Y'all, it's a sickness.

 I spend way too much money on craft stuff.

Recall that just last week, I went to an honest-to-goodness bead store in Chattanooga and spent too much money.  The entire haul fit into a little bag too small to hold two hamburgers.  To top it off, I went to Michael's and spent some more money.

Today, I did it again - bought a stack of bead storage boxes and re-stocked my wire supply.  

If you hear rumors that I've bought more jewelry-making stuff, shame me publicly.

BRRR! - Monday, March 16, 2026

Following a week or more of 70+ degree temps, a storm came through last night and the temperature dropped like a rock.  This morning, it's in the low 30s, and the wind is blowing like crazy.  I'd planned to go to the grocery store today, but I dunno . . . . 

Earlier in the week, The Husband had a work-related trip to Chattanooga.  I went along for the ride.  While there, I went to a bead store and spent way too much money for a little bag of sparkly things.  When we got home Friday afternoon, I spread my haul out on my worktable and wondered what in the world I was going to do with it.  I'd vowed that I was going to USE UP ALL THIS OLD STUFF I'VE HAD FOREVER; the new stuff didn't really go with anything I already had.  

* * * * * * * * 

I found a tick on my butt yesterday morning.  It had probably been latched on since Saturday, when I'd been out in the yard a good bit.  This morning, there's a hard, itchy knot where the tick was.  

Experments - March 9, 2026

I have developed a burning desire to transfer laser-printed images to air-dry clay.  Yesterday, I spent the whole day trying (without success) to do it.

There are several video tutorials about transferring INKJET-printed images to air-dry clay.  Until about two weeks ago, I had an inkjet printer, but Son #2 came over to print something, I gave him the printer since The Husband bought us a new laser printer.  It is not so easy to transfer a laser printer image to air-dry clay.  

I tried all sorts of transfer agents:  water, alcohol, nail polish remover.  Nothing worked.  I'd even bought some printable vinyl sheets, thinking the image might slip off easier than it would on paper.  Nope.  

Supposedly, laser print will slip off the slick side of address label/sticker paper, but I haven't got any.

Anyway, this morning I took one of the images that I'd printed on a vinyl sheet, and instead of trying to transfer the image to clay, I put it in a backless bezel frame and filled the bezel with UV resin.  We'll see how this works.  It will need to be backed with something.  

* * * * * * * * 

After almost a whole week of crawling around on my hands and knees, shining a flashlight in dark places, and turning furniture upside-down, I finally found my bail pliers:

They were right there, sticking up in plain view the whole time.  

Rerouting - March 5, 2026

Tuesday morning, I found a jewelry tutorial I wanted to try.  It was, essentially, four identical heart-shaped pieces, locked together in a circle with wire wraps and beads to become a pendant.  Here's what I started out to make:  Wire wrapped flower pendant | Beaded wire pendent

Here's what came out:

Look at that janky thing.  I bent the hearts to hell and back while I was trying to wrap them (a common occurrence for me), and the swirls were not uniform.  

Wednesday morning, I started over.  The second attempt was better - I didn't bend the hearts too much - but before I got halfway through it, I knew I'd have to do it over AGAIN.  

I sat down and made a LOAD of the individual heart components, determined to be more precise.  The swirls got better.  The third attempt produced what might turn out to be "a keeper":

Today, I played with that bowl of spiral-y hearts to see what other configurations I could come up with.   If you bend the hearts a little more than 90 degrees, you can connect more than 4 of them for something other than a square.  Five hearts can make a hexagon.  Six can make a circle.  Any of those configurations come out a little "wiggly"/flexible.  

  

I might have gotten more accomplished this week had I not misplaced my bail pliers.  Been looking for them since Monday.  

  

Driving Nanny - March 3, 2026

Saturday afternoon, as I was on the back porch, twisting wire for jewelry, Nanny came sauntering around the corner.  She'd come to ask if I would drive her to her eye doctor appointment on Monday.  I agreed, and we agreed on a departure time.  Yesterday morning, I picked her up at 10:15 for her noon appointment.  It was a long drive.

Nanny doesn't get much opportunity to talk to people, outside of churches, funeral homes, and grocery stores, and she had a fresh story to relate about something that had happened after church the previous day.  She started the story as we started down her driveway on the way to the doctor.

As Nanny and another lady were leaving the building (they and the minister were the last to leave), they encountered an Hispanic lady in the church parking lot.  Her tire had gone flat.  She wasn't very fluent in English.  Grandsons had to be called in to get lug nuts off.  Nanny ended up driving the lady and her tire to a tire repair place.  While they waited for the fix, the lady took Nanny to lunch.    But the lady was able to drive away on a good tire.

We'd been on the road close to an hour by the time Nanny got to the part where she got home.  We'd taken detours up family trees and down gravel roads her father had paved when he worked for the WPA in nineteen and thirty-five.  I learned why the helpful grandson was living with his grandmother, how old he is, and where he works.

I just drove. . . . 

On the heels of that story came news of cousin Duffy, who was in a rehab/nursing home in the same town.  That one was a good ten-minutes leading up to the request:  Could we stop to see about him after the doctor's appointment and after lunch at the all-you-can-eat buffet?  The visit wouldn't take long.

(Lord Jesus . . . .)

Sure, why not.  

My brain was numb by the time I got home, close to four o'clock.

My BFF called about suppertime, just as The Husband got home from work.  I had her on speaker phone as he came out to the porch, telling her about my day with Nanny, and how I learned more than I wanted to know about some townsfolk in a story that was technically about a lady with a flat tire.

My BFF said, "We do the same thing."

I said, "I know."

And The Husband just laughed and laughed.

I am shamelessly planning another craft store run this morning.  Might even hit a dollar store or two for treasures I don't yet know I need.  ;)

I had a few successes in the craft room yesterday, but lost points on one of them late in the day.

Several years ago, The Husband "inherited" a box full of old piano sheet music.  For some reason, there was a trumpet practice book among the sheets.  The pages are yellowed, and there are some interesting terms among them.  I had the idea to make a resin pendant with a treble clef and key signature in it.

I poured a clear, tear-drop shaped cabochon, about 1" x .75".  Poured it almost full and cured it.  Check.

The printed treble clefs were just big enough to fill that space.  Cutting them out to the perfect size/shape was hard.  Since the plan was to make more than one (if I could get the process right), I didn't want to fool with scissors, so I traced around the cabochon, scanned it with the cutting machine, and jimmied around with the size until I got it just right.  Stuck the music to my cutting board, et voila!  

It then occurred to me that I could use that same scan to cut all sorts of things to go under that cabochon.  I forgot about the treble clef for a minute and cut out some glitter vinyl that would fit it.  I added a drop or two of resin to the cured cabochon (still in the mold), put the vinyl on top of it, and filled the mold the rest of the way.  It worked perfectly! 

Had to pour a new cabochon for the treble clef.  Among my resin stash was a small bottle of transparent brown resin.  It's just faintly brown.  I used it for the cabochon.  

The paper treble clef needed to be sealed (two coats, on both sides, with white glue that dries clear) before going in the resin.  The online advice was to let it dry for several hours before putting it in resin.  I might have rushed it, but when it felt dry to me, I used it. 

The experiment came out okay.  Wasn't crazy about the brown resin, but the cabochon is usable as a pendant. 

After that, I moved on to making rings out of wire.  Turned out 3 rings, two of which turned out okay.  

When The Husband came home from work, I took him to the craft room to show him my accomplishments.   

I could not find the treble clef cabochon anywhere.

Hermie's back! 

Gumption - February 24, 2026

It's too cold to be on the porch this morning.  I won't be here long.

Trying to work up the gumption to work on some jewelry today.  I hurt my knee yesterday - just leaned a little sideways to reach for something, and POP!  It's a teenage injury that flares up now and then.  My knee is swollen and "loose," but it doesn't hurt much as long as I keep it moving.  When I get up after sitting a while, those first few steps are a bitch.

The tiny flowers that have been sitting in silica powder since the weekend have dried nicely.  The forsythia maintained its color much better than they did when I used the silica microwave method.  I found a few dandelions this morning, and one little purple bloom (don't know what it is).  The cold snap seems to have made everything hold off blooming for a minute.

Since yesterday, I have made 5 bracelets.  Every one of them has something wrong with it.  :-/

I'm going to keep trying until I get it right.