Heat is on - June 29, 2026

It's hot on the back porch this morning, no breeze, not a leaf moving anywhere.  The ceiling fan is running, and the fan-on-a-stick is blowing right on me.  I worry about The Grandson, who is working as a carpenter's helper this summer.  He's going to have a tough week.

Our weekend was half fun and half worried.  We threw a birthday party for Nanny on Saturday - pizza and birthday cake.  The majority of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were there.  It was fun.  We've got two 5-year-olds, a boy and a girl, who are hilarious to watch as they play together.  Then yesterday, Nanny had a dizzy spell.  The Husband convinced her to go to the hospital to be checked.  Preliminary tests looked fairly normal, but they kept her overnight to do one more test today.  Maybe we'll know the results by the end of the day. 

Last week, the mailman delivered a box of polymer clay - 82 little blocks about the size of a piece of Double Bubble.  There were zero instructions in the box, except for a small sheet showing how to make some characters and such.  I didn't know if it's supposed to be baked and, if so, at what temperature.  It took a good bit of searching before I found the answer.  This is worrisome.  The clay is labeled as "non-toxic" and is supposed to be okay for children to use.  I bought it thinking The Little Rotten Baby might have fun with it when she comes over, but now I'm not so sure I'll show it to her.  

For the past few days, I have been trying to figure out how to make polymer clay bezels for some resin pendants and earrings.  I wanted to encase the resin pieces with clay.  The problem is that the clay must be cured by baking it, and resin is not supposed to be baked.  So this morning, I made some polymer clay pieces using the same molds I used to make the resin pieces, thinking I might use them as forms for the bezels.  Uncured clay (the bezels) is not supposed to stick to cured clay (the baked forms) without the use of some liquid clay.  If I bake the bezels around the clay forms, will I be able to pop the forms out and insert the resin pieces?  To be honest, I don't think it will work, but at least I will get some practice making bezels.