Fondant experiments - June 10, 2026

Ive got two birthday cakes to make for this weekend.  The birthday girls chose the flavor; they both want an orange crush cake.  No big deal, I've made this cake for years.  Decorating them is the problem.

Cake-decorating has never been one of my talents.  I'm not very good with a piping bag.  I'm not sure what the consistency of the frosting should be, or what happens to it under varying conditions.  One granddaughter (the gymnast) wants "a fondant cake."  I'm not very good with fondant, either.  

Yes, I just could frost the cakes with cream cheese frosting and be done.  But I won't.  

Yesterday, I decided to try painting a fondant horse and a fondant unicorn with gel food coloring.  It worked.  Kinda.

I rolled out some fondant to about 1/4" thick, maybe thinner, on a silicone mat dusted with baking powder.  I drew a horse on a piece of paper and used it as a pattern to cut out a horse head shape from the fondant, and started painting.  

Painting on fondant is kind of like painting on glass; it's hard (impossible in my experience) to get even coverage.  The gel moistens the fondant a little and changes the texture.  You can stir a mud-hole in it if you're not careful.  Light strokes and repeated coats (with drying time between coats) seem to be the keys.

I had trouble getting a good pink out of the red gel food coloring. 

In any case, there's a fondant horse head (with feathers in its mane) and a colorful, sparkly unicorn head drying on the craft room table as we speak.  They were supposed to be practice pieces, but I'm calling them good enough.  (Despite my measuring, the horse's ears and the unicorn's horn are going to stick off the edge of the cake.  Oh, well.)  However, the party is not until Sunday, and I don't know how to store them.  Should I freeze them, refrigerate them, or leave them out?  Will they dry up if left out?  What will happen to the fondant if frozen then thawed?   

The search engine says to store them at room temperature in an air-tight container.  These are good-sized horse heads, almost covering a 10" cake.  (I wish I'd made them smaller, as adding names is going to be a challenge.  Oh, well.)  I don't own an air-tight container big enough to hold them.  Plastic wrap will have to do.  

Cross your fingers that I don't wreck them while trying to store them!

* * * * * * * * 

Last night, about 10 p.m., I was sitting on the back porch, playing my bedtime game, when I heard the most god-awful SCREECH/squawk/growl I ever heard.  And in the distance, something screeched back.  Just about raised the hair on my neck.  Had Sasquatch returned?

I stuck my head in the house and summoned The Husband.  "Is it the groundhog?" I asked when he came out and heard it.  He thought it might be a bird, and he went inside and got my phone and the big flashlight.  The phone said, instantly, it's a barred owl.  The Husband spotted them with the flashlight.  There were TWO of them, sitting on the big grapevine that hangs like a trapeze in our back yard, and at least one more calling from a distance.  We figure it was a parent and some babies.

We "know" these parent owls from regularly hearing their "hoots."  But this squawking/screeching were calls I'd never heard from the old regulars.  

Kinda cool.  :)

Regrouping - June 9, 2026

Over the next few weeks, two granddaughters, a son, and a BFF will celebrate their birthdays.  I haven't bought any presents, and I've two birthday cakes to make by the weekend.  A few minutes ago, I removed half a garbage bag of petrified stuff from the big freezer to make room for the cake layers. A trip to the grocery store is imminent.  Tomorrow the baking begins.  

I am stressing over cake-decorating ideas.  One birthday girl is a gymnast, but last year's birthday cake used that theme.  She loves horses, but I don''t have the skills to model one from fondant, and I refuse to just plunk a plastic one on top.  Wonder if I could paint one (with food coloring) on white fondant?  Maybe I'll give it a shot before the baking begins....

Yesterday, I spent a good bit of time tying up loose ends in the craft room.  The table is littered with baked polymer clay jewelry components in various stages of usability.  Some were ready to assemble, some needed sanding, or holes drilled, or a touch-up coating of resin.  I got busy doing those things and ended up finishing several pairs of earrings and three or four pendants.  Go me.  

I want to make BFF's birthday present.  I have an idea, but it'll have to wait until the cakes are done and the remaining ready-to-assemble jewelry components turn into actual jewelry.  Her birthday present might be a tad late this year.  ;)

Yardwork Part Deux - June 8, 2026

Backing out of our driveway is borderline dangerous.  There's a blind hill to the left, and a blind curve to the right.  By the time you check both directions, there might be something coming from the first direction you checked.  The trees and bushes add another layer of danger.

Saturday afternoon, I decided to do something about the trees and bushes.  Went to the shed for the loppers.  They wouldn't cut hot butter.  Watched a couple of videos on how to sharpen loppers.  I finally got the tip of the loppers reasonably sharp, but they wouldn't cut anything very thick.  And there were thick things that needed cutting.  

While I was out there sweating my butt off, The Husband was in his recliner, scrolling on his device.  I went back in the house and asked, "Are you able to run the chainsaw for a minute?"  He said he was.  I pointed, he sawed.  

We cleared out a good bit of stuff, then dragged it to the gulley, along with the pile of debris I'd made earlier in the week when I de-vined the forsythia and the rosebush.  I was plumb tuckered when we finished, but the result was worth the sweat.

The past week was moderately productive.  Mid-week, I had lunch with my brother.  Did a lot of cooking and a little cleaning.  Shopped for groceries, the regular stuff.    Made bracelets all day Sunday.  

I did some experiments in the craft room, learning to transfer laser-printed images to unbaked polymer clay using plain old copy paper.  I tried both heat and water to set the images onto the clay.  Using the heat gun was a little scary for fear of over-baking/burning the clay, not to mention the possibility of toxic fumes from either the clay or the laser print.  Also, the heat image came out a little fainter than the water image - maybe I didn't heat it long enough or hot enough.  

It was kind of relaxing to rub the paper off the water image.  However, it is possible to smear the ink if you rub too hard. 

Anyway, now that I know how to transfer images to clay, it's "Katie bar the door."  Much of my artwork has already been scanned to the computer.  Now I can put it on clay, if I want to.    And I think I do want to.  :)

Yardwork - June 2, 2026

Our yard has very little grass in it - at least not the kind people actually want.  What we have is ground cover, every kind of ground cover that exists.  Creeping Charlie.  Henbit.  Clover.  Chickweed.  Name it, and we probably have it.

And poison ivy.  OMG, the poison ivy.  It is everywhere.  I have sprayed it, chopped it, and dug it up, but there is just too much to eliminate it all, and unless you eliminate ALL OF IT, it's coming back.  Between the poison ivy and the English ivy, we may wake up one day to find that they have imprisoned us in the house.

All of these weeds are thriving from the good rains we've had over the past few weeks.  Yesterday afternoon, despite the rain that came in the morning, I decided that mowing the yard was absolutely necessary.  

We keep our riding mower in Nanny's big shed because we mow her yard, too.  Just after lunch, I walked down to Nanny's to get the mower.  Our yard has all sorts of places where the mower can't go - banks, ditches, etc. - so when I finished mowing, I cranked up the weed-eater-on-wheels and attacked the edges of the property, where the poison ivy thrives.  With the ground so wet, it was a battle.  About 4:30, I called it quits.  The yard looked nice.  I came back to the house cool off and drink some water.  While I was resting, it occurred to me that the garbage truck would run the next morning, so I got up to drag the garbage can to the edge of the road.  

I had not viewed the yard from this perspective.  The area at the end of the driveway was still a mess, a tangle of honeysuckle, wild grape vines, and poison ivy.  There's a 30-year-old forsythia bush in that mix, as well as a half-dead 40-year-old rosebush, both of which were entangled with vines.  Sleeping Beauty would've been safe in this corner.  I went back to the house for the weed-eater and the clippers.  It took an hour to cut all those vines out of the forsythia and the rose.  I cut the vines as close to the ground as I could and pruned that rosebush back to a nub.  

The Husband got home about the time I finished.  I told him he'd have to take the lawnmower back because I was too pooped to do it.  

The debris pile from that final assault is still laying by the driveway.  I should deal with it before it gets any hotter.

New Week, Same Stuff - June 1, 2026

It rained almost every day last week.  The moles have been digging so industriously that the yard is like soup, and the grass is getting so tall that it's hard to see the mole tunnels to set traps in them.  I was hoping to mow today, but it rained again this morning.  It is hot and muggy, a good day to work inside.

So I've been making jewelry.  

Last week was "clay week" in the craft room.  I fooled around with the gooey Creative Hands ClayStudio clay all week, trying this and that to stiffen it up enough to use it.  There is not much to show for my efforts.  I intend to use this clay to "stretch" more expensive clay, but I probably won't buy any more of it.  

My sweet niece texted me Friday afternoon to tell me about a hydrangea sale at the botanical garden in the big city.  The flyer that came with the text said that they were selling some macrophylla hydrangeas that I have been wanting.  I picked them up from her Saturday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon I planted it about 4 feet away from an Annabelle growing at the edge of the woods., where we can see them through the living room windows.  These will be the only hydrangea blooms we'll see this year because of the late freeze we got in March.  

Kitchen Duty - May 26, 2026

Yesterday, I spent the whole day either cooking or washing up from cooking.  The refrigerator is now stocked with enough breakfasts-to-go to last the rest of the week and a pork loin for tonight's supper.  And there's a pan of brownies on the counter.  

The kitchen is closed for a few days.

While I was puttering in the kitchen, I decided to fix the #(!*@ screen door between the kitchen and the porch.  The screen in this door has been flapping for a couple of years, ever since Dusty the cat tried to escape the vacuum cleaner.  I don't know what compelled me to take on the job during the middle of the cook-fest, but I did it.  Sent The Husband to the shed for the roll of screen left over from the building of the porch, gathered up my crafting tools, dragged out the stepladder, and got 'er done.  

Not much happened in the craft room yesterday, but between oven buzzers, I watched some craft tutorials and lined up some projects for the coming week.  Some of the projects called for stuff I don't have:  a "steel soap" and a texture sheet with irregular bumps resembling pebbles.  I put a steel soap in my online shopping cart but didn't buy it right away.  (I did not know that steel soaps are an actual thing for handwashing; I thought it was just a craft tool for shaping clay.)  Instead, I decided to try to make my own stuff.

I made the "soap" by rolling out a sheet of clay on the thickest pasta machine setting (2.5 mm on my machine), cutting out a 3" circle, and shaping it over a tennis ball (covered with plastic wrap to keep the clay from sticking to it) to create a domed shape.  Happily, the dome did not collapse while baking, and I used it this morning as a form for shaping a domed pendant.  The raw clay did not stick to the form during baking.

The pebble texture sheet was easy.  I just used some ball tools (various sizes) to press indentions in raw clay, overlapping the indentions.  Of course, using the ball tools made the "pebbles" perfectly round (until overlapped).  The baked form, pressed into raw clay, made a texture that looks more like pearls than pebbles, but this is what I was going for.  If I'd wanted it to look like irregular pebbles, I could've just pressed real pebbles into raw clay.

Now that I've made all this stuff, I have to figure out how to turn it into jewelry.  I need inspiration!

Every morning, I bring my coffee out to the back porch and fire up the laptop.  I work a puzzle, read some news, and check for new craft videos.  

This morning, I came across a video about polymer clay that appeared to have been filmed in a camper.  It gave me a flashback to about 12 years ago, when we were on the longest camping trip we'd ever done - nine days, two or three different campgrounds, best camping trip we'd ever taken.  I took my sewing machine on that trip.  Don't remember now what I was making, maybe a quilt top.  But I remember sitting at the kitchen table, with a view of a lake and squirrels scampering around the campground, thinking that it was a most delightful place to sew.

The video made me think FORWARD a couple of years, after The Husband will have retired.  He says that we're going to get a Class A camper, one that has a motor and a steering wheel, and we're going to drive that sucker all over the country.

It's going to have to be a big one to hold all my crafting stuff.

Creative Hands ClayStudio Polymer Clay - Part 2

A post or two ago, I talked about my first experiment with ClayStudio polymer clay that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  It is very sticky and hard to work with right out of the package.

Yesterday, I tried refrigerating the clay, and this made it a little easier to manage/roll/cut until the clay warmed back up.  

When the clay is warm, my pasta machine eats it up.  It sticks to the rollers, and the sheets don't come out smooth.  I tried rolling it between sheets of printer paper.  This helped, whether using the pasta machine or the roller.

The clay mixed well with white Sculpey Premo.  I added some pearl powder to it, and this stiffened it up a bit, enough to impress designs into it without it sticking to the stamp/cutter.  Cornstarch also helped to stiffen it a bit.  

The purchase may not be a total loss, after all.  I still would not recommend it to someone who just wants to condition a chunk of clay and get down to work.  You gotta baby this stuff.  Outsmart it.

Copper wire trick - May 22, 2026

The Grandson and I went down to the garden this morning to poke 20-gauge pure copper wire through the tomato stems.  It's supposed to keep down fungus.  

It's SUPPOSED to be done when the plant stems are about as big around as a pencil; mine were thicker.  And tough.  There may also have been some window of time (not sure how long, or why) between planting and poking that I missed.  The wire bent like crazy; it was hard to get it in.  But we did it.  I just hope we didn't kill the plants.  

Two of my pepper plants and one of the tomato plants are just gone.  Not even a shriveled stem where they were.

The okra has come up, is about 2-3" tall.  I thinned it and replanted some of it the skips.  The ground around some of them was like . . . chocolate pudding.  I just mushed 'em in with my thumb.  

The Grandson and I washed our crocks off with the waterhose by the back porch.  I noticed that the inside of my left ankle was bright red, angry.  Ants, most likely.  They're all over the place.

Last weekend, I tried an ant-killer recipe of 3 oz. orange oil, 6 oz. Dawn dishwashing liquid, and 1 gallon of water.  Poured a whole gallon straight down into the mound across the road from our house.  Ants came pouring out when the water hit.  I did not hang around long to see what happened.  Yesterday, I poked that mound with a stick.  It's still full of ants. 

On Mother's Day, while we were visiting at Nanny's, I set fire to two ant mounds at the north end of the garden.  Two weeks earlier, I had piled up okra stems and weeds on top of the mounds, just to piss them off.  A third mound, just a few feet away, had popped up during the interim.  I lit the two piles and went back to the porch for a while, and when I went out to check the situation a few minutes later, the ants from the burning mound were moving over to the new mound, entering the mound at ground level, not from the top.  I did not get close enough to get a good look, but it almost looked like the ants on the inside of the mound had knocked out part of the dirt at the base of the mound to welcome the new-comers.  Or maybe the mound defenders were busting out to meet the new-comers and run them off.  

In any case, the experiment tends to prove that roasting an ant hill does not work.

Creative Hands "ClayStudio" Polymer Clay from Hobby Lobby - Review - May 22, 2026

Yesterday, I yielded to temptation and went to Hobby Lobby to get a little more polymer clay, "just a couple of packs" to enable me to make something I'd seen in a tutorial.

I already had a couple of 2-oz packs of Sculpey clay in my basket (at roughly $3.50 per pack) when I noticed another brand of polymer clay - Creative Hands ClayStudio" - hanging above the Sculpey.  There were six 2-ounce packages of clay in each box, and there were four color themes - warm, cool, primary, and neutral colors.  Each box of clay cost $9.99.  My razor-sharp math brain calculated the price of each pack of ClayStudio clay to be a little over a dollar-something per pack.  On top of that, there was a sign that said, "Clay 40% off."  SOLD!  I bought a box of each color theme.

I wasn't sure the 40% discount applied to ALL clay, so when I got to the cashier, I asked if the ClayStudio clay was part of the sale.  The cashier said that the clay sale didn't start until Monday.   I said, "But there's a sign...."  She paged the manager, he checked (and took down the sign), and I got - 24 2-ounce packs of clay for $23.something.  SCORE!  

When I got home, I googled the brand and found only one mention of this clay, a short video made by someone who had bought the brand at Dollar Tree.  The video said that the clay was very soft and sticky, with the consistency of already-been-chewed gum.  

I opened a pack and began to condition it by rolling/folding it in my hands.  It was sticky straight out of the package, and the color was uneven.  I tried rolling it through my pasta machine.  Instead of coming out smooth, it looked . . . leprous.  I was able to get it smooth with an acrylic roller, but it was impossible to lift it off a tile without stretching it, and impossible to get it out of a cutter without mangling it.  

Eventually, I made a pendant and some earrings, all of which were misshapen by the time I took them to the oven.  The package said to bake them at 250 for 15 minutes.  My pieces were about 1/4" thick.  I was afraid that 15 minutes was not long enough, so I baked them for 30 minutes.  Left to cool overnight, when I attempted to sand them, they crumbled.  

This morning, I tried again.  I skipped the whole conditioning process and tried just rolling out the clay with a roller.  It was sticky.  When I tried to cut out a shape, the edges came out ragged.  At this moment, I have a 1/2" thick log of the clay on a tile in the refrigerator to see if cooling the clay will make it easier to handle.  I probably should have made a slab instead of a roll so that I could get straight to the cutting.

We'll see.  

Admittedly, I am not an expert at handling clay, but I cannot give this clay a passing grade.

Rain - May 20, 2026

It is raining cats and dogs this morning, and according to the weather predictors, it's likely to rain every day this week.  We need it!

Yesterday's plan was to sneak down to Nanny's while she was gone to her canasta group and stick copper wire through all of the tomato stems and water the tomatoes.  I got busy doing other things and never got around to those tasks.  Now, I can mark watering off the to-do list.  

What I was doing while I should have been in the garden was experimenting with polymer clay, hoping to create some pretty pieces for jewelry, and today I'm trying to decide whether to invest any more time and money in the craft.  Yesterday's experiments produced some fairly interesting results.  

But I have enough baked and sanded pieces to fill up a quart zip-lock bag.  Is there really a need to make more?  Wouldn't the time be better spent in actually finishing some jewelry?

Copper wire - May 19, 2026

Something growing in/around our yard is producing an absolutely wonderful scent.  We think it's the wild grapes - at least that's what we're calling the vine that grows around the edges of the yard.  It is currently dripping with green clusters, but we never see any actual grapes.  Maybe the critters eat them green.

This scent, almost always in May, reminds me of my mother.  She and my father married in mid-May, 1945.  Once, when we passed a locust tree in full bloom, she said the fragrance always reminded her of her wedding day.  

* * * * * * * * 

Over the weekend, I came across a video about copper wire used on tomatoes as a deterrent of early and late blight.  The instruction was to use a short length - maybe 3 or 4 inches - of 20 gauge pure copper wire, driven through the tomato stem (perpendicular to the ground) about 4 inches from the ground.  The tomato stem needs to be at least as big as a pencil. The video stressed that 20 gauge wire should be used, as anything thicker might damage the plant beyond repair, and anything smaller would be too flimsy to go through the stem.   Since I am making jewelry with pure copper wire, I have plenty of wire around.  I've already cut pieces for all of my plants and will "install" them later today.

Oh, no! - May 17, 2026

"The best laid plans," as they say.

The Husband's birthday was last month.  When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said, "Nothing."

Unacceptable.

I pondered.  One day as I was surfing the internet, I discovered that the comedian Henry Cho was coming to town.  The Husband likes him.  I got two tickets for his birthday present.

The show started at 8 p.m. last night.  We got there about 7:15 and parked in a lot behind a donut shop.  When the show was over, we went to our car, and IT WAS GONE, as was every other car that had parked in that lot.  

OH, SHIT!

There was a wrecker in the parking lot with a truck hitched to it.  I asked the driver some questions.  He told me where the car was but said that there would be nobody there to give us our car back.

While I was talking to the driver, The Husband looked for a "no parking" sign.  We hadn't seen one when we parked.  The sign was about 12 feet up a light pole, not exactly in the line of an average person's vision.  

Miraculously, as we were standing there trying to figure out what to do (Uber the 30 miles home?), we saw a former classmate and her husband walking across the lot.  They live 10 miles or so from us and agreed to take us home.  

Could've been worse, eh?

Anyway, this morning we went back to town to get my car.  Cost us $225 to get it out of hock.

Expensive birthday present.

Mole Battle! - May 16, 2026

The most disgusting thing just happened.

Yesterday afternoon when we came home from our trip, I walked around the yard to stretch and check on my flowers and noticed that a mole had absolutely wrecked our back yard.  It was late in the day, and I didn't want to fool with the mole trap.

But this morning I went outside and stomped down all the mole tunnels.  An hour later, I checked the trail, saw where the mole had raised up what I'd stomped down, and set the trap in the trail. 

Fast forward 4 hours.

I decided to water the thirsty flowers.  In the process, I saw that the mole had dug all around the trap but had not sprung it.  I figured he'd get there, eventually, but just as I was about to turn off the water hose, I decided to poke it down in the mole tunnel to see if I could drown it or at least piss it off.

Behold, a pink nose poked up out of the ground!

I ran over to the compost pile to get the shovel.  It wasn't there, but the pitchfork was, so I grabbed it and stabbed it down in the mole tunnel, and when I lifted it up, there was a fat, squirming mole impaled on one of the tines.

EWWWWW!

The Husband was not here to finish it off, and I wasn't about to chop it in half or brain it.  

So I drowned it in a bucket of water.

And left it for The Husband to deal with when he gets home.  

Home - May 15, 2026

Today, "home" feels like the best word in the English language.

There were about 500 attendees at this morning's final meeting, which was scheduled to end mid-morning.  I shuddered to think about what kind of mess there'd be when the meeting was over with 500 people trying to check out of the hotel at the same time, so I got the jump on them by starting the process as soon as breakfast was over.  Summoned a bellman for our luggage, summoned a valet to bring the truck, and re-parked the truck so that when the meeting was over, we could hit the road.  We made it home about 7 p.m., stopping only to pee and stretch.  

It's good to be home.

Biloxi - May 14, 2026

Hello from sunny, breezy Biloxi.

Can we go home now?

We got here Monday, middle of the afternoon.  Casino hotel.  Noisy.  Crowded.  

The one interesting thing that happened was running into a guy who grew up in my neck of the woods.

Small world.

There is no desk in this room - just a round marble-top table and two chairs that sit so low that my chin is almost on the table.  Hard to type in this position.  See you when I get home.

Yardwork - May 8, 2026

The past couple of days have been busy ones.

I got out Wednesday morning in drizzling rain and went to the grocery store.  While I was within walking distance (not that I walked it) of the hobby store, I had a weak moment and went in.  There always seems to be one more thing that I need.  And, of course, I generally come out with more than that one thing.  

Whatever.  It keeps me off the streets.

Yesterday morning I had breakfast with my sister, and then we both went to visit with our brother.  

Today, I had a haircut appointment at 8 a.m.  While I was there, my brother texted me and said I'd left my cooler at his house.  I wouldn't have bothered going to get it (he lives 30 minutes away) except that this cooler is the one we take on road trips, and we've got another one coming up soon, so I went to get it. 

Drove right past the hobby store, going and coming, and didn't stop.

When I got home, I decided to mow the yard.  (Nanny's yard needs it, too, but I saved that treat for The Husband.)  

Our yard is a b*tch to mow.  It was an especial b*tch today due to a series of storms that left sticks all over the place.  I picked up the big ones and drove down to the shop to get the lawnmower.  It didn't have much gas in it, and the shop gas can was empty, but there was plenty of gas to get home, where I'd fill the tank from our gas can.  It, too, was empty.  I said some colorful words, drove the lawnmower back to Nanny's, put her gas can in my car, came home for our gas can, started up the road to the store.  Got a mile up the road and realized I didn't have my wallet.  Turned around at the cemetery and came back home.

At the gas station, I filled up my car and Nanny's gas can ($51.43 for the record), but I could not get the spout off our gas can.  Went back to Nanny's, filled up the lawnmower, took her gas can to the shop, drove the lawnmower home to mow.

The Husband mowed the yard the last time it was mowed.  He doesn't mow under the low limbs and in the tree line between us and The Neighbor.  I like the tree line mowed to keep down the poison ivy for my grandchildren's sake.  It was a REAL b*tch to mow since it hasn't been mowed in two weeks.  

I must've run through a dozen spider webs under the limbs.  At one point, I saw a spider dangling from my glasses and nearly had a come-apart.

I cussed just about the whole time I was on the lawnmower, for one reason or another.  I cussed the weed-eater, as it, too, ran out of gas (and our gas can being still empty).  

Took the lawnmower back to Nanny's, came home, took a shower and put my dusty, spidery clothes in the washing machine.

I'm pretty sure I blew a spider out of my nose when I got out of the shower.

 

Okra Planted - May 5, 2026

Yesterday I struggled to get my mojo workin'.  The craft room offered no temptation whatsoever.  

Mid-morning, I said to myself, "Get up off your lazy ass and DO SOMETHING."  

I did some laundry.  Emptied the dishwasher. 

It was a beautiful day, so I walked down to the garden to check on the tomatoes and peppers.

Over a week ago, I mixed up a tonic recipe I'd seen on YouTube - one packet of yeast (activated with warm water and syrup), one tablespoon of baking soda, and a gallon of water - and poured it around the tomatoes and peppers.  I'd intended to do an experiment to test the validity of the tonic's claim by leaving half the plants "un-dosed," but I'd dosed them all, instead, hating to deprive half of the plants of a potential boost.  Thus, it's hard to say whether the tonic actually helped, but one of the tomato plants had a couple of tomatoes on it, several more were blooming, and nothing appeared to have suffered for the dosing.  

The baby rabbits were gone from the burrow.  

I turned around and walked back home and spent the afternoon going back and forth between the craft room and the laptop on the back porch.  Finally, around 4:00, I went back to the garden and planted a row of okra.

It's raining today.  Maybe it'll make those seeds pop right up.

Lights Out - May 4, 2026

Our electric power flickered in the middle of the night Thursday night.  We have a sleep number mattress, and when the power is interrupted, the mattress makes a clicking noise loud enough to wake somebody in the next room, both when the power goes out and when it comes back on.  Several times during the night, as the power flickered - CLICK, CLICK.  All of the digital clocks in the house reset themselves every time.  So did the coffee pot, which never reached the 5:45 a.m. turn-on time; I had to wait for the coffee to perk Friday morning.

This flickering continued the next day, and the next.  There had been a storm here while we were gone, and we figured that the storm had created a loose connection somewhere.  But our son's house across the road wasn't flickering.  Finally, on Saturday evening, The Husband called the electric company.  A lineman showed up a little while later.  He checked a few things and said he'd call for a bucket truck to check the pole in our yard.  At about 11 p.m., while the power company guys were monkeying with the meter on the house, the meter sparked.  Uh-oh.  They called an electrician, who worked until after midnight to install a new meter.  

After 3 nights of interrupted sleep, we were tired yesterday.  So was our houseguest, who had traveled here for his cousin's wedding and had spent the night here - or what was left of it by the time the electric workers finished.  The house guest left mid-afternoon.  After that, we had to go to an annual meeting for The Husband's work.  

I went to bed early last night.

And now it's Monday.  The Husband and The Grandson have gone to work, and I am home alone for the first time in almost two weeks.  The yard needs mowing.  The laundry needs doing.  We could use a grocery store run.  The bird feeder needs filling, but we're out of bird food.  I need to work on some jewelry projects.  I need to go to the garden to check the tomatoes and plant some okra.  But I ain't "feeling" any of it.

I need some inspiration.

 

Home - May 2, 2026

We started for home around 8:30 Thursday morning.  Stopped to fill up the truck on the way out of town.  Gas was $4.09 per gallon.  $93.00 to fill up.

Son #1 had asked us to bring him a guitar pick from Cincinnati to add to his collection.  He did not specify where we should get it.  I poked my head in a couple of souvenir shops, but they did not have guitar picks.  I meant to stop by Hard Rock Cafe to see if they had one but never got around to it.  (Besides, he already has Hard Rock Cafe picks.  I checked the HRC online store, but they did not have one for Cincinnati.)  A day or two before we left, it occurred to me that a guitar pick from the Muhlenberg County Music Museum would be a way cooler pick than one from Hard Rock Cafe or any other place along our route home, especially if we could get a John Prine pick.  I called the museum; they had guitar picks.  Score!

The Muhlenberg County Music Museum was a fun stop.  We met a few of the locals, found somebody who knows somebody we know, and just plain had a good time.   I was surprised at how many celebrities have connections to that county.  The back of the museum has a bunch of cool old cars - race cars, the General Lee, some niiice Thunderbirds.  Bought some t-shirts.  

Sadly, the only guitar pick they sold said, "The Everly Brothers."  We bought enough for all the pickers in the family.

Got home around 5:30.  

* * * * * * * * 

I took a box of wire and some tools on the trip, intending to make a bunch of wire components - closures, jump rings, and such - to be used at home on future projects.  I made a few things before I got side-tracking trying to make a chainmaille component called a "Sweet Pea."  Trying to get it right has been driving me crazy for days.  There is some fundamental step that I'm missing.  Watching several different tutorials, each of which is slightly different, probably hasn't helped.  But I shall persist.

I bought a few packages of polymer clay in Cincinnati, opened one of them this morning and played with it a bit.  I am not, NOT, NOT going to go deep down that rabbit hole.  When these few blocks of clay are gone - wasted, most likely - I'm done.  Seriously.

In less than two weeks, we have another 5-day road trip to do.  

Oh, goody.

Cincinnati - April 28, 2026

Greetings from Cincinnati.

We hit the road Saturday morning about 9 o'clock.   Around 1:30, we decided we were hungry and stopped at the next town on the road, which happened to be Center City, Kentucky, home to John Prine as well as the Everly Brothers.  Their statues stood in a little park across the street from the restaurant we chose.  After we ate, we read plaques, took goofy pictures.  We would have liked to tour the county music museum but we had someplace else to be.  We rolled on to Cincinnati without incident, got here about 7.

The hotel had over-booked.  They sent us to the presidential suite for the first night, promising to move us as soon as our room was ready.  I was kind of irked about this.  We had brought a load of stuff with us - my craft stuff, his conference stuff - had so much we had to bring it up on a cart - and couldn't unpack it.  

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast at a place that served goetta - pronounced getta.  We'd never heard of it, so we ordered a side dish of it.  It was basically ground pork sausage mixed with oats (or something), flattened and fried on a griddle, kinda like a hash brown.  It was ... meh.  

We finally got settled in our "real" room around 5 p.m.  I think this one is haunted.

* * * * * * * * 

Yesterday, I got brave and drove myself to the nearest hobby store.  Even though I chose a route that stayed off the interstate, it was a harrowing experience.  

On the way back to the hotel, on a narrow neighborhood street crowded with after school traffic and kids walking home, a cat ran out into the road from my left.  I saw it coming and couldn't do a thing about it except holler "ohNO-ohNOOOO!"

The on-coming car in the opposite lane nipped the cat's rear end with its front left tire.  The cat did a bit of a fishtail before running straight under my car.  It was all so fast - a million thoughts went through my mind, among them a hope that some kid hadn't just witnessed his/her cat being crushed by a pickup truck....  

But I felt no thud under my tires, and glancing out the side window, I saw the cat jet across a front yard and under a porch.  It may have been running on adrenaline, but it was running. 

I kept going.

A bit later, a guy pulled up next to me at a red light, rolled down his window, and told me my truck bed was open.   And I was like, Huh?  I never opened the truck bed.  Was the guy trying to get me to pull over so he could abduct me?  But I said thanks and drove on, looking for a place to pull over.  Before I found a place, another guy pulled alongside and said my truck bed was open.  I pulled over in a parking lot, and sure enough, the truck bed was open.  The Husband later told me that the key fob has a button that puts down the tailgate.  Imagine that.  Anyway . . . .

My nerves were SHOT by the time I got back to the hotel.  I told the valet, "If I ask you to go get this truck again, TELL ME NO!"  

Three drinks at dinner calmed my nerves a bit.  ;)

I slept well last night.  :)

What to pack? - April 24, 2026

This morning, I hear a wild turkey gobbling in the bottom behind the house.  He is really letting it rip.

Instead of sitting here listening to the turkey, I need to be inside, packing for a trip - another of The Husband's work trips.  Cincinnati.  Never been there, as far as I know.  It'll be an all-day drive and several days in a hotel, both of which I dread.  I'm going out later today to see if I can find some sort of rolling art case that will hold my laptop, some drawing supplies, and some wire and tools.  I would lose my mind with nothing to do.

Today is my daughter-in-law's birthday.  I usually give her gift cards, but this time I'm giving her cash and two pendants I made this week.  I hope she likes them, and I hope they hold together!

Some time today, I need to go to the garden.  An online video recommended a tonic for tomatoes (and other things) made from yeast, molasses, baking soda, and water.  I proofed the yeast last night; it'll be ready to apply once I add the other ingredients.  The video recommended watering the plants before applying the tonic.  It's supposed to rain later today.  It might be tough to time the thing just right.

Tomatoes and jalapeno peppers are the only things I've planted in the garden, so far.  The okra will go in next week.  I planted squash in the flower beds around the yard, and it has come up well.  If the critters don't eat it all, we may not need any more in the garden.  One day this week I planted cucumber seeds around the arched trellis.  

* * * * * * * * 

Seven hours later, I've done my errands.  Road-trip snacks.  Birthday present delivered.  Art case bought. Tonic applied to the garden.  Leftover ribs and casserole delivered to Nanny.  Laundry and dishes done.  Suitcase(s) mostly packed.  Coffee pot ready for tomorrow, bed ready for tonight.  

I'd say I got in a good day's work.

  

Yesterday morning, I saw a television commercial about an over-the-counter memory-boosting supplement, claiming to boost all three types of memory - working memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.  I said to The Husband, "It's my short-term memory that needs work."

See my previous post, for example - all that ranting about being unable to find the hole-punch that I could almost remember putting in the drawer with the hammer.  The background story is that this hole-punch had arrived a few days earlier and had laid on the kitchen table ever since.  Friday, when I was straightening up the kitchen, I decided to put the hole punch away until I needed it.  The craft room hammer drawer seemed like the best place to keep it.  As it happened, I needed it later that afternoon and couldn't find it.  Hence the rant.

I found the hole punch about 30 minutes after that post.

It was not in the drawer with the hammer; it was in the drawer ABOVE the drawer with the hammer (which actually is an equally sensible place to keep it since the eyelets and anvils live there).  It seems that in the process of putting away the punch, my brain over-rode my storage decision and changed the plan without telling me.  

Equally disturbing is the fact that I had rummaged through that upper drawer about 5 times during the evening, looking for other things.  The punch was right there the whole time.

...Or was it?

<spooky music and maniacal laughter>

* * * * * * * * 

Friday was a fairly productive day in the jewelry-making department.  Before lunch time, I finished a bracelet and matching earrings, both of which turned out nice.  Later in the afternoon, I fired up the embroidery machine and made two leather bracelets and several sets of earrings.  I did not finish them because I COULD NOT FIND THE FREAKIN' HOLE PUNCH.

The leather bracelets are still unfinished.  They are basically rectangular strips with designs sewn on them.  How to close them?  Snaps are the obvious choice.  I have snaps left over from my purse-making days, but they're the wrong color.  An assortment of snaps is on the way.

Today, I have to buy groceries.

Yuck.

Stalled - April 18, 2026

Well, if this don't just take the damned cake.

I've done a good day's work in jewelry today.  Made a bracelet and matching earrings with wire and beads, and made two leather bracelets and four matching leather earrings on the embroidery machine.  The leather items need eyelets to attach closures and earring wires.  Before I can install those, I have to punch holes.

And I can't find the leather punch.

I JUST HAD IT YESTERDAY.

I can almost REMEMBER putting it in the craft room, in the drawer where I keep the hammer.  

It ain't there.

I even looked in the refrigerator next to the cabinet drawer.

The Trickster is on the loose again.  

Watering - April 16, 2026

It's raining this morning, thank goodness.  Yesterday, I planted 7 more tomatoes and 6 jalapeno peppers but did not water them in, hoping the predicted rain would take care of the job today.   

One of the persistent problems that has hampered my gardening efforts has been watering.  The garden plot is over 100 feet from the nearest water faucet.  A number of years ago, I bought 200 feet of water hose and a hose cart, thinking it would solve the problem.  And it did, for one season.  The following year, when I pulled out the hose cart, the hose was still wound on the cart, but someone had cut the hose where it connects to the cart's water supply.  Strangely, no one confessed to the crime.  

I bought a new hose, thinking it would solve the problem.  When I tried to install the new nose, I discovered that the screw-on ring (from the water hose) was still on the spout, and no amount of elbow grease would loosen it.  I could not attach the new hose to the cart's waterspout.  We made do.  We continued to use the hose cart to haul the hose from the garden shed to the outdoor faucet, but it meant hand-winding the hose back onto the cart every time we watered the garden.  

Every year after that, I'd think about buying a new hose cart, but I never did.

That old cart, with 200 feet of rubber hoses, must weight 100 pounds.  Last week, when we were struggling to get water to the fire ant hills in the garden, I wrestled that *#!@ water hose back onto the reel for the last time.  The next day, I bought 200 feet of flat, lightweight hoses.  The only hose cart in the store was over $100.  Knowing that hose carts could be had for less than that, I didn't buy it and still have not shopped for one elsewhere.  

Over the weekend, it occurred to me that I could just use the hose cart from the front flower bed in our yard.

Yesterday, I un-wound the hose from that cart.  Ants had taken up lodging somewhere among the cart's moving parts.  I hosed them off and took the cart and the new hoses to the outdoor faucet at Nanny's.  It was the devil to get the new hoses screwed onto the cart's water supply, and when I turned on the faucet, intending to water the plants, water spewed around the connection so badly that no water came through the hose.  I un-did the hose and re-installed it but never could get the hose screwed on tight enough that water didn't spew.  

By this time, I'd been digging and raking and planting and fooling with water hoses for nigh on three hours.  I gave up on watering and came home, thinking I'd ask The Husband or The Grandson to have a go at it.  

Mother Nature has taken care of the problem for today.

* * * * * * * * 

Yesterday morning, before I started in the garden, I mixed up a batch of Magic Pour to fill up a mold for a cute little snail planter.  

Fooling with this stuff is a mess.  It is a 3:1 mix of powder and water.  Calculation is necessary, and it's hard to figure the right amount.  Powder goes everywhere.  I mixed up waaaayyyy too much for the mold I'd chosen; there was enough to fill the planter mold and a large jewelry mold with mixture left over.  I dripped it all over the place trying to fill the molds before the mix cured.  And when I un-molded the planter, I didn't notice that the snail's eyes were on thin "stalks," and both of its eyes broke off in the mold.  I glued them back on, but there are visible cracks where they've been re-attached.  Maybe they can be disguised with paint.

I'm going to try the snail planter again, but when all this powder is gone, I probably won't get more, not because the product is faulty (it works fine) but because I'm a natural mess-pot who has no business doing this kind of craft.  

* * * * * * * 

The woodpecker has just informed me that the bird feeder is empty.  He's out there hammering on it, hoping to knock a few more seeds out of the hopper., while the redbird waits nearby, hoping it works.

Garden (maybe) - April 13, 2026

Saturday morning, when I asked The Husband if he had a plan for the day, he said he was going to pull up last year's tomato fence and posts.  The tomato stakes are actually steel t-posts.  We drive them into the ground with the tractor bucket.  They are not easy to pull up.  I went with him to help.

We ended up checking on the tiller (no flat tires, and it fired right up) and cleaning out the garden toolshed.

It looks like we might plant a garden this year, after all.  But only a small one.

I bought three tomato plants today while I was out running errands.  If I change my mind about planting a garden, there's enough room in the yard to accommodate just 3 tomatoes.

The Grandson went to the garden this morning to load up and haul away the landscape fabric we pulled up last week.  While he was walking around, he stepped on a nest of baby rabbits.  There were 5 of them.  He thinks he didn't squish any of them.  

I guess I'll just have to plant around them.

A little of this, a little of that - April 10, 2026

My sister and my niece invited me on an outing today that included a trip to a greenhouse and breakfast.  I kind of wanted to go (greenhouses and breakfasts are two of my favorite things!), but I had some embroidery digitizing work to do for a paying customer, so I declined.  It took nearly half the day, but the digitizing work is now done.  Time to move on to something else.

Earlier this week, the delivery person brought a bucket of some stuff called "Magic Pour."  It's a powder that's mixed with water - (3:1 ratio) - and poured into molds.  It's supposed to be non-toxic and has a 30-minute cure time.  Two days ago, I pried open the bucket and mixed up a batch.  Videos I'd watched said it should have the approximate consistency of pancake batter.  My math was evidently way off, because my turned out more like clay.  I kept adding water until it turned batter-like and poured it into some cabochon molds.  It set okay.  Yesterday, I tried a larger batch.  Again, my math must have been off, for this batch turned out way too thin, more like milk.  I could've added more powder, but I was frustrated with the mess and just poured it into molds to see what would happen. Surprisingly, it set, but the pieces are not as strong as they would have been if my batter had been right.  I'll give it another shot in a few days.

This afternoon, I've been trying to make earrings, ideally two that match. 

"Two that match" is hard.  ;)

Cost of Goods Sold - April 9, 2026

This morning, I've been window-shopping (online) for wire.  

When I decided to have another go at making jewelry, I bought a few spools of wire expecting to "waste" much of it in the process of re-learning the craft.  And that's what happened; when that first round of spools was gone, there were very few finished jewelry pieces to show for it and a bucket full of twisted scraps.   When it was time to replenish the wire supply, I wrote in Sharpie on each spool the cost of the wire per foot.  It's hard to calculate the cost of a thing you had to make three times to get it right.  It turns out that the real cost of making fashion jewelry is not in the materials (unless you're brave enough to use "real" stuff), it's in the time.  

It's hard to put a numerical value on time.

* * * * * * * * 

Last evening before dinner, I reminded The Husband that we needed to deal with the fire ants at Nanny's.  I'd bought mound destroyer earlier in the week.  It was in my car, along with a watering can.  There were probably 10 good-sized mounds around the edges of the yard and in the garden.  We treated most of them last year (and the ten years before); it doesn't eliminate them; it only slows them down.

I went into the garden to survey the situation.  Last year, we'd carpeted the garden with cardboard and landscape fabric and wood chips.  It was just as we'd left it, ant mounds, weeds and all.  

I lifted a corner of some landscape fabric, and it came off in my hand.  All of the fabric was like that - rotten and mostly fused to the ground.  We pulled up what we could.  It will take a whole summer of raking to remove all the tiny bits.  If we decide to plant a garden this year, we will probably just till it into the soil.  Hate to do it, chemicals and all, but what's done is done.

Before we left, I asked Nanny if she would rather we not plant a garden this year.  She didn't much care, one way or the other, but she made it clear that she cannot be expected to help.  I silently thought, Hallelujah!  For years, I've begged her to leave the gardening to me.

Whether we plant anything or not, we've got to do some clean-up - remove the tomato fence, get rid of the cardboard, mow down the weeds.  

This looks like a job for The Grandson.

Easter dinner - April 6, 2026

Friday morning, The Husband asked, "Do we want to do Easter dinner?"

I gave him an honest answer:  "Not really."

I'd been grocery shopping on Thursday but had not bought stuff for a big Easter dinner.  In fact, I hadn't fully realized that Easter Sunday was THIS weekend.  

The Husband shrugged and said, "Okay."

Later that day, I went out to pick up a prescription, and while I was out, I decided to stop by the grocery store for a ham.  We hadn't had ham for a while.  A good-sized ham would provide breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for several days, plus we could share some with Nanny.  

Saturday morning, Nanny called to see if we wanted to do Easter dinner.  I caved, and spent the rest of the weekend cooking.  Made dressing, sweet potato dumplings, green beans with mushrooms, pasta salad, and a pineapple cream cheese pie.  Nanny committed to a corn casserole and three pies.

It was all delicious, if I do say so, myself.  ;)

But I was pissy the whole weekend.  Dinner was not my idea, and I knew who of the "we" would be doing the cooking and cleaning.  And there were other things I wanted to do.  

Dinner came off without a hitch.  We had a good crowd.  There were few left-overs.  

I baked another ham yesterday.

* * * * * * * 

Some of the ginseng I planted is coming up!  

Two of the lantanas I planted last year have come back!

It's time to turn attention to the vegetable garden.  Last year's landscape fabric and cardboard are still on the ground and needs to be taken up, regardless of whether or not I plant a garden.  I should get to that this week.  First, I'll have to deal with the two fire ant mounds in the garden.  The Husband has agreed to help me with that this evening.  I can think of a few more garden chores for him while I have his assistance.

Rudbeckia - April 2, 2026

My sister, my niece, and I share a running three-way text   The topic is mostly gardening-related.  For example, all of us intend to cut back our garden phlox when they are about yay-high, but we always forget about it until they're about ready to bloom, so we skip it.  Yesterday, I took my clippers on my afternoon walk-about and lit into my phlox - not all of them, just the ones in front.  (I'm shooting for a layered effect.)  Remarkably, I also remembered to text the others that I did it so that they would be reminded to prune theirs.

If their phlox don't get cut back this year, it ain't my fault.  😉

Today's exchange included plant offerings.  Sister has phlox to share (I declined), niece has rudbeckia.  I spoke up for the rudbeckia and picked it up on my way back from the grocery store.

Niece works hard on her yard, and it shows.  

I planted the rudbeckia the minute I finished putting the groceries away.  Put some in the "new" sunny bed, started last year when the tree collapsed and let it some light; some went at the edge of the phlox bed. There is no telling how many times I've bought and planted rudbeckia.  Not one has ever come back or made babies, that I know of (I could've pulled them up, thinking they were weeds).  Niece's rudbeckia has come back bigger and stronger than last year.  Maybe this variety can survive here.

When it was time to water the new plants, I decided to hook up the water hoses.  Last year, I made an effort to rig up enough hoses to water everything that needs watering.  Bought new hoses, and a double-barrel diverter.  The hoses where right where we'd left them last fall, still attached to the diverter.  When I finally got everything connected and turned the water on, it blew a piece off the diverter, and water spewed all over me.  I said some nasty words and turned the water off.  

I was about to get a watering can when I realized that it was sprinkling rain.  It's raining slowly now.  Looks like Mother Nature might take care of the plants today.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

The back porch is a fine place to be this morning.  The temperature is perfect, the sun is shining, the birds are singing.  Around sunrise, I heard turkeys gobbling in the bottom behind the house.  

About the time I heard the turkeys, I heard some thrashing around in the leaves at the edge of the gulley.  I got up to look.  The light was so dim I couldn't see very well, but I believe it was Jose, the armadillo.

Jose can thank his lucky stars for my intervention a couple of weeks ago.  The Grandson came hurrying into the house and said he'd just seen the armadillo in the yard, and he asked if he could use the shotgun to off it.  I said, "Well, let's think this through."

It was 8 p.m.  The neighbors are accustomed to hearing gunfire after dark, but only after hearing distant hounds bray in pursuit of a raccoon (at which point some will think, Got 'im!).  Nanny would be dialing our number within seconds of a blast from our yard.

"Plus," I said, "I'm not sure I want Jose offed."  I told him about the fire ant nest built last summer against a stump at the edge of the yard, just down the hill from the shed under which the armadillo resides.  The day after I discovered the nest, I discovered that something had dug into it.  I poked it with a stick and didn't see ants boil out of it and concluded that Jose must've had a midnight snack.  I applauded his work.  I had intended to poison the ants but hated to do it because the stump is just up the hill from the pond where the frogs, turtles, and snakes live.

"So maybe we need to let him hang around.  I'd rather have holes than fire ants in the yard and poison in the pond."  

The Grandson whole-heartedly agreed.  Jose lives on.

But I digress.

After such a pleasant early morning, things went downhill when I tried to pay a bill electronically.  This happens EVERY MONTH, and it is NOT ME; it's the outfit's janky web site.  I'm waiting on a voice call to straighten this out.  

While waiting on that call, I accomplished a "round tuit" task.  The Husband and I have agreed that we need to replace our bathroom tub with a big shower that will accommodate old persons with physical or mental issues.  We're not there yet, but it's coming one day.  There are a million things we'd rather do than live through a renovation, and so we haven't been exactly diligent in pursuit of someone to do the work.  Today, I finally called somebody to come give us an estimate.

Go, me.  

I had planned to go to the grocery store today, and maybe scope out the garden center, but I may have talked myself out of it.  

Might make jewelry, instead.  

I got the info for the local farmers market and fall festival.  I'll have to be deciding soon whether to go for it.  As of today, my inventory is such that if I sold every single piece on display, I might make enough to pay for one hobby store trip.  Better get crackin'.

Recharging - March 30, 2026

Mid-morning Saturday, as The Husband was watching videos in his recliner, I said to him, "You should go crank the lawnmower."  

Our yard was getting plumb scary; I'd resorted to watching for snakes as I moved about.  

Note that I did not say to The Husband, "You need to mow the yard."  I just suggested that he crank the lawnmower."  And went back out to watch videos on the porch.  

A regular reader might remember that last year, I vowed to stay off the lawnmower after being driven crazy by Nanny and running over a mole trap in her yard, the same day I also vowed to stay out of the vegetable garden.

Surprisingly, it wasn't long before The Husband came out and said he was going to crank the lawnmower, which lives in the big workshop at Nanny's.  

Despite my vow, I said, "Well, if it cranks, drive it up here, and I'll mow the yard, if you want me to."   

It cranked.  He mowed our yard and then said he was going went to mow Nanny's yard.  

I said, "Good luck!!"  😁

He came home about two hours later, dropped into a chair on the porch, and said, "I wanted to choke Nanny."  

😁😂😄

And I just laughed and laughed.

* * * * * * * * 

The Grandson and his BFF have volunteered to till the vegetable garden plot at Nanny's.  The BFF reportedly wants to try out the Big Black tiller (who can fathom what goes through 18-year-old boys' minds?); The Husband figures The Grandson wants to drive the tractor.

I gave The Grandson a list of obstacles they would face:

1.  The tiller pull crank broke last year, and although I bought a new one, no one has installed it.  However, it has an electric starter, if they can get some electricity to it; 

2.  There is a buttload of cardboard in the garden, which probably could be tilled into the soil, but also a buttload of landscape fabric which must be taken up before any tilling is done;

3.  The t-posts holding up the tomato fence has to be taken down;

4.  The tiller probably has a flat tire; and

5.  There are probably fire ants in the garden, probably some under the cardboard and the landscape fabric.

The longer I talked, the more his face drooped.  

We'll see if any tilling gets done.

* * * * * * * * 

Last week, I made several nice pieces of jewelry, mostly earrings and bracelets, that I deemed worthy enough to sell.  As I finished each piece, I put a tag on it and priced it, in case I get up the nerve to actually try to sell it.  The collection is growing, and I'm feeling motivated to make more, so this morning I made a call to the local park & rec to inquire about vendor booth space at the Saturday market (I'm waiting on a call back).   My BFF says I am pricing things too low, but her demographic market isn't the same as mine.  

Junk Drawers - March 26, 2026

I'm on the back porch, trying to twist up a tulip poplar leaf using 20 and 26 gauge wire.  

There's something about this activity that opens up a little-used chunk of my brain, where fragments of old home movies are stored.  Today, it showed my 5-year-oldish self, sitting in a chair in front of the kitchen junk drawer, twisting wire.  I hadn't seen that movie in quite some time.  ;)

In my recollection, the junk drawer was about a foot deep and very hard to open, and when it did open, it did so with a monstrous squeak.  (One could not sneak into the junk drawer.)  It must have held all sorts of things, but what I remember most are colored wires and nuts/bolts/washers and wire pliers.  Daddy was always working on something; those things lived in the junk drawer.  There was entertainment value in them - a "matching" game and a "make something" game.  Daddy probably didn't mind me putting bolts and washers onto nuts, but he wasn't particularly happy about having his wire twisted up into primitive sculptures.  

End of movie.  :)

But while it was playing, I did manage to make a passable tulip poplar leaf.  There are things I'll do differently the next time around, but it's not bad for a first try.

Speaking of kitchen junk drawers, in ours I recently found a disposable 35mm camera that was labeled "use by April 2009."   All of the film had been shot.  I'm guessing the pictures were from a cruise I'd gone on with my BFF.  I'd run across that camera before and had always said, "I need to take these to be developed."  I finally did that yesterday.  The drug store film counter guy raised his eyebrows when he saw the label.  I said, "Yeah...I know."

Knotted up - March 24, 2026

Time for a break.

I am trying to make a macrame bracelet with leather cord and hemp string that have lived in my craft stash for upwards of 20 years.  The leather has spent all this time wrapped around a 2" wide cardboard spool, and it is somewhat set in its ways.  The hemp is coming from a ball that came unwound in the drawer and attached itself to a bundle of pipe cleaners; it is somewhat frayed.  I should have cut 2 feet off the end before I started weaving, but I didn't, and I frayed it even more taking stitches out.  But I am pressing on with it and calling it "organic" or "rustic."    Heh..."primitive."

Yesterday, I made two other bracelets (no macrame) out of that leather cord.  They came out rather nice.  I then tried another of a different style, but that one got the better of me.  It uses four 8-inch cords.  The leather wanted to curl, and I could not corral the ends long enough to tie the knots.  I finally just walked away.  It is on the kitchen table, mocking me as I walk by.  Maybe I'll give it another shot tomorrow.

But, regardless, I'm done with this leather cord.  With this macrame bracelet, I have used it all up and have several pieces of jewelry to show for it. Check mark in the "win" column.  

Next, I will tackle the roll of suede leather cord, which will be a whole new ballgame.

@*&!&%! Sweetgum Balls - March 23, 2026

This time of year, our back yard is a wildflower field - henbit, chickweed, dead nettle, wild violets, dandelions, and some unidentified tall yellow things.  We let them grow for a while to feed the bees, until the yard gets too shaggy to stand.  We're almost there.  The blooms are beginning to fade.  Saturday morning, I dragged the wagon around the yard, picking up sticks so we could mow.  We never got to the mowing.

The front yard is a minefield of sweet gum balls.  We'd already raked them up earlier in the spring, but recent storms have littered them again.  After hauling a few loads to the gulley, I gave up and made a burn pile.  Right in the front yard.  As older women are prone to saying these days, "I just don't care" if there's a blackened spot in the yard.  It'll disappear soon. Or not.  I don't care either way.

When I gave out from raking, I cranked the weedeater and chopped down the winter-burned monkey grass and the beebalm stalks I'd left standing for the birds.  Raked leaves off flower beds.  While I was doing around, The Husband showed up to clean off the patio, dispose of a fence panel that had collapsed, and.haul away my weedeating debris.  We worked for several hours, but it doesn't look much different around here.  I'm still waiting on the lawnmower, which The Husband will probably have to boost after it has sat un-cranked all winter.

Not long after we quit the yard, Nanny called to report that her water heater was leaking.  The Husband went to see about it.  They ended up calling a plumber (one that we have not previously used) who said the water heater could not be repaired and we'd have to get a new one.  He said it would be Tuesday before he could install it.  The Husband thought the plumber said it would cost $900, which we thought was a tad high.  Yesterday, Nanny called to say that the water heater was still leaking (well, duh) and that she could not afford $1,900 for a new water heater.  The Husband called the plumber to confirm the price.  Nanny was right.  $1,900.  When I heard this price (I was not privy to the original discussion), I nearly had a stroke.  The big box stores sell them for a fraction of that price.  The Husband told the plumber to hold off on ordering the new heater, planning to check with the local hardware store.  Later that afternoon, when I told Son #1 about the problem, he volunteered to install the water heater.  Son #2 dropped by later and also volunteered his help.  It's good to have folks in the family who know how to do stuff.

Sunday evening, Granddaughters 2 and 3 came over here carrying a formal dress to be altered for Granddaughter #1 who is to attend a black-tie gala this coming weekend.  The neckline of the dress is low and closes with hooks and eyes at the back of the neck, like a halter top.  #1 is rather buxom and is worried about compromising herself at the party.  She wanted me to take off about an inch on either side of the closure.  I did the best I could.  She will be advised to wear her hair down, and hide a couple of safety pins on her person just in case.

While moving around the yard this weekend, I noticed that the wild violets have started to bloom. I picked a few blooms, along with some tiny, unidentified star-shaped white flowers, and put them in silica powder to dry. It'll probably take only a couple of days since they're so tiny. I tried drying some creeping myrtle blooms last week. They turned almost black. I tried another batch and only left them for one day, but they still turned almost black. Some redbud tree blooms turned out nice and are perfect for use in resin jewelry. 

I have not been very ambitious - or at least not very productive - in the jewelry-making department for the past few days. Friday, I tried to do a herringbone weave around a resin cabochon, intending to make a bracelet with it. The "stone" kept slipping around, and I bent the wires all to heck trying to put it back in place. Started over several times, then gave up and moved on to the band part of the bracelet. Made a mess out of that, too. I finally came up with a bracelet that is okay (but not 100% satisfactory to me), but it is not close to what I was hoping to make.

Today, I plan to work on some stalled projects.  I've been trying to transfer laser printer images to air-dry clay, but nothing has worked out well so far.  Some new transfer paper came in the mail last week; I want to see how it works.  And there's a half-finished leather bracelet on the worktable that needs finishing.  Time to get to work!

Yesterday, I spent almost the whole day trying to make a pair of earrings like the one in in the tutorial I was watching.  The whole day.  

When I threw in the towel, I'd assembled ONE PAIR of earrings.  One pair.  And that one resulted from the very first attempt, beginner's luck, I reckon.  

They were wire-twisted earrings - three loops at the top leading to a loose spiral on either side - with a tear-drop dangle at the bottom and a tiny accent bead up near the loops.  I used some "junky" beads since this was just a practice piece.  They came out mostly okay, but I'd scratched the coated wire making the spirals.  I tried again.

Here's the thing about a PAIR of earrings:  they should match.  The goal was to produce two earrings of identical size/shape.

It is very hard.

At the end of the day, I had one scratched-up pair of earrings, and a bowl full of wire loops and spirals, no two of which were the same.

I shall try again.  But maybe not today.

The telephone rang about suppertime last night.  The caller wanted to know if I could draw a catfish standing up, wearing a wig, a bikini top, and a skirt.  "He wants it to look like a hooker," the caller said.

I didn't ask too many questions.

But as soon as I hung up, I grabbed a sketch book and a pencil and started drawing.  

The distinguishing thing about a catfish is its head - the wide, flat shape, the permanent malevolent grin, the lethal whiskers.  Putting a wig on it kind of hides its whole persona.  In the end, it looked like an ugly cartoon mermaid.

Thirty minutes later, I texted the sketch to the caller, with the comment, "She needs big hoop earrings and a tattoo."  

No word yet on what the end "customer" thought about it.  

I do not care.  It was a freebie.  You get what you pay for.  ;)  

Plus, it was kind of fun to pick up a pencil and paper after weeks of pliers and wire.  

And now there's a sketch book and a mug full of colored pencils within reach . . . . 

Maybe I'd rather draw that make earrings.  ;)

Orange Guy - March 18, 2026

High on the east wall of our bathroom is an octagonal window.  A redbird has been flinging himself against this window for the past couple of weeks.  This happened ten years ago, too (though, presumably, not by the same redbird).  It would wake us up at daybreak, fluttering and scratching against the window.  At first, I wondered if the bird could see straight through our bedroom and out the west window and thought he could fly through it, but closing the bathroom door (so he couldn't see straight through) didn't deter him.  

I tried taping scary faces on the window.  Didn't work.

Nothing worked, until Orange Guy took on the job.

Orange Guy was The Grandson's bathtub toy.  I think he came in some "happy meal."  Last week, before we went out of town, I briefly searched the bathroom for Orange Guy but did not find him.  I figured he was in the house, somewhere (for I would never have thrown him away).

When we came home from our trip, there was a rubber snake draped across two small vases that now occupy the sill of the octagonal window.  This snake (one that glows in the dark and will grow to great lengths if you soak it in water for a long time), another bathtub toy, still lives in my tub.  I did not put that snake atop the vases, nor did The Husband.  Only The Grandson, who was home alone while we were gone, could have done it.  

I laughed when I realized what had happened.  While we were gone, The Grandson had heard the noise, investigated, and thought perhaps the snake would scare the bird away.  (It didn't work.)  I've been meaning to ask him about it, but he's been in and out, and I forgot to ask him until last night.

"Yes! That bird nearly drove me crazy," he said.  

His face lit up at the mention of Orange Guy.  When I said that Orange Guy is probably still around, he jumped up and went to the toy closet.  After some rattling and thumping, I heard a shot of joy.  Orange Guy has been found!

The redbird has laid off the window for the past few days (it's been too cold for him to pick fights, I guess) but if he shows up again, Orange Guy will be on the job.

* * * * * * * * 

You'd be proud of me just now if you could've seen what just happened.  I knocked over my coffee cup, and did not try to save the 10% off coupon from a bead store before it got soaked.  This proves my resolve to not buy any more freakin' beads until I use up some of what I already have.

I MEAN IT.

Yesterday, after I came home from the hobby store with a stack of bead boxes (and a few new stands of beads), I forced myself to sit down and sort my beads one last time.  Six boxes, and could use a couple more.  

Now, I have no excuse not to get to work.

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.

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.