Contrariwise ramblings

...And wakes me up!

I woke up to the feel of my bed shaking, the windows, rattling, and the house creaking. At first I thought someone was playing a joke and trying to wake me up. Then I realized no one else was in the room and I thought to myself...EARTHQUAKE!!!


The clock said 5:39. It only lasted for about 15 seconds. I stayed in bed a bit to see if there was going to be more.

I ran around the house to see if anyone else heard it. My husband was downstairs and he said that the doors in the house had been moving back and forth about 6 inches. It woke my older daughter up my younger daughter was still asleep.

I turned on the TV and and immediately saw "Breaking NEWS" accross the bottom. or anything about the incident.

Then we got the info:

A 5.4 earthquake centered in West Salem, IL shook the area early Friday morning. The quake happened at 4:37 a.m.

Reports of feeling the quake are coming far east Illinois and far west and southern Missouri.

It was definitely felt here in Indiana.

A beautiful day! The bushes in the woods are always the first plants to show their green buds. And every year I look forward to that first time when I spy them budding. I've been watching them for weeks, hoping. And they finally did it!

Now the woods have taken on a slight green haze. And when we got home today, we noticed that daffodils had sprung next to the birdhouse that's been sitting on our front porch all winter. As if to welcome some winged visitors!

My daughter, Emma, is 12. She's been doing gymnastics for about 4 yrs and has been competing for the past 3. At this point, she practises about 18 hours a week.

We should have known that she had a talent for gymnastics right from the start . When she was still a toddler, Emma used to like to sneak out of her crib and play in her room when she should have been sleeping. I remember trying to catch her out of her bed. I would tiptoe into her room trying to sneak up on her, but she she would always hear me and make a run for her crib, grab the rails, and do a flip over them onto her mattress!

It was really jaw-dropping.

Just the other weekend, she competed at the State gymnastics tournament.

In gymnastics competitions, there are 4 events. And everyone has a favorite.

1. Vault. (If your daughters like running full force at a stationary object, this is the event for her.)


2. Bars. (If she likes peeling off pieces of skin from blisters the size of quarters off her hands, and getting rips on her rips, then this is the event for her.)


3. Beam. (If she likes falling off a 4 inch wide piece of wood - or worse, onto it - while doing flips and jumps, then this has got to be the event for her.)


4. Floor. (If she likes to parade around in a leotard getting wedgies, doing dorky choreography, and falling on her butt, face, and pride, then this is definitely the event for her!!! )

Emma likes them all. And the past weekendk she won gold medal for her floor routine, and silver for her beam. Best of all, she got gold for All Around!

Now mom has to share. Here's a short video of Emma from the meet:



(A big thank you to my husband for the photography and editing.)

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A few days ago I wrote about the baubles I got at a recent bead show and the jewelry that they inspired. One of these was a yet unfinished necklace with a kyanite pendant flanked by sterling. (You can see how it started out,on the right.)

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Crafts, tutorials...

Bezel setting stones
I recently learned how to bezel set and had been thinking about setting some sea glass that I've been saving for this very purpose- but I'm not very experienced yet. So when I found this amazing tutorial that Barb Macy from Accent Yourself Handcrafted Jewelry had created, I was so greatful. It shows you step-by-step how to bezel-set a piece of sea glass.

(BTW, Accent Yourself has sea glass and other wonderful jewelry in her Etsy shop.

This has got to be one of the best and most complete tutorials I've ever seen. I can't believe the details and the photos that she used to create it.

Now all I've got to do is convince my husband that I can be trusted with a propane torch!

Wire-wrapping

If you've ever wanted to learn how to make a wire-wrapped ring, here's a great tutorial with good photos.

Impress your friends! When people ask where you got it, you can say, "I made it!" and everyone will gasp in amazement!

The most important think you will need is a ring-making mandrel. Most online suppliers carry them. I got mine at Thunderbird supply. That's what I used to make these rings you see here. (I suggest you get a metal mandrel rather than the cheaper plastic model. Its more durable and will let you use a mallet when necessary.




...and more!

Breakfast cereals that would disturb today's youth

In the golden age of breakfast cereal, manufacturers weren't wasting their time promoting health benefits or movie-marketing tie-ins.

Back then, it was all about combining sugar, grain, fructose syrup, and corn, and topping it all with a little powdered sugar. Basically, breakfast cereal was the most delicious mini-meth lab you could find in a cardboard box.

Add a few psychedelic monsters on the front with some purple marshmallows inside, and you had the recipe for a sweet breakfast addiction. I have fond memories of some of these cereals... At least the memories that weren't lost in the glucose haze.


Click here for the top 20 craziest cereals.

(And, yes, you're not imagining it. Mr Wonderful's cereal balls do have a creamy filling. )







Cuteness overload

Warning: three minutes of almost unbearable cuteness. (And make sure you havet the volume on to hear the rumble of this little kitty's purring.)

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2 weekends ago I went to a bead show. I was like a kid in a candy shop. (Ooooo. All those bright shiny things! Did I need them? Probably not. Did I want them? What do you think. )

I added quite a few things to my stash of beads as you can see on the right.

I thnk I must have an infatuation with iridescence, because I bought a lot of labradorite, kyanite, and abalone. I really love the way they pick up the light. Unfortunately, they don't photograph too well, which is always a trial when I'm trying to take pictures of them for my online shop.

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in a few new pieces that I've made from these recent purchases.

The first thing I made was this ring. I'm not really sure what the bead is made of. (Anyone know? I think it may be little pieces of abalone assembled into a mosaic.) I love the way the little mosaic pieces glow with different shades of blue. And when the light hits them just right, you can see flashes of pink.

As soon as I saw these beads, I knew they would look great as the centerpiece of a ring. I couldn't wait to get home and make one!

On the left is the finished ring. I already got a commision to make a ring in a larger size. It's also listed in my online shop.

I only bought 3 of these beads because they were pretty expensive. Now I want to kick myself because I didn't get more.

Next, the kyanite. (You can see them in the lower left corner in my stash photo, above.)

My local bead shop sells this stone, but the price is OUTRAGEOUS. I love the look of it. It reminds me of ancient Roman glass. The kind that's been in the ground for centuries and, after it's dug up, is weathered and has a wonderful almost rainbow-like iridescence.

The long, teardrop-shaped beads would be perfect for earrings and for pendants. I made a couple of versions of earrings. I thought these beads would look good in a simple contemporary style which would focus attention to them. So I made earring that had a single long drop hung from a silver earwire. No wire wrapping. They looked OK, but I wasn't that enamored with them.

Then I tried wire-wrapping the kyanite beads and pairing them with some faceted moonstones that I had. The kyanite has a slightly rustic look to it, which I thought would be enhanced if I oxidized the sterling. Plus, oxidized silver would make the moonstones pop.

You can see these earrings on the right.

Look! Look! I even managed to pick up the blue iridescence of the moonstones in this photo! (Sorry, I had to brag. It's so hard to capture it. For each photo that captures some glimmer, they are 50 that are rejects.)

I like the way the blue flashes of the moonstones complement the blue of the kyanite.

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When you are just starting out with a business and money is tight, sometimes you have to make do with what you have. Even though a lot of inexpensive printing options are available, maybe you can't afford to get pretty business cards printed yet. Or maybe you haven't met many people, so you only need a few cards for right now.

If you have Microsoft Office, you can easily create your own custom business cards. (Although the steps may not be obvious.) Printing your own business cards can be an pretty affordable - of course you have to figure in the costs of the cardstock or labels, and the cost of color cartridges.

This is how I created my business cards. (It may seem like a lot of instructions, but it's really not hard at all.)


1. Open a blank document in Word. On the Tools menu, point to Letters and Mailings, and then click Envelopes and Labels.




2. You'll see a dialog box, like the one below, open. Click on the labels tab and then on the options button




3. Next the Label Options dialog box will open. Make sure the drop-down says Avery Standard and then scroll the Product Number down to 5371. Click OK.







4. Back in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box, make sure under Print, it says full page of the Same Label. Then click New Document.

A table appears with a bunch of 2 inch x 3.5 inch cells:




5. Now you can start setting up your first business card.


To add your logo or a picture, choose InsertPictureFrom File. Find your logo file on your hard drive and insert it.

(BTW, I created the "C" using PowerPoint.)


6. Add your contact information on the card. If you want to add a tab to move some text over within the table cell, press Ctrl+Tab. (Just pressing tab by itself moves you to the next cell.)





7. Once you have one card set up the way you like it, click and drag to highlight it. Press Ctrl+C to copy it. Then move to the next cell and press Ctrl+V to paste it in.



8. If you have the perforated Avery stock, all you have to do is run it through your printer and tear them apart. If you don't have the prefab stuff, or you don't want to use it, you can still do cards on plain old (cheapie) card stock and cut them yourself.

If you want to print them on card stock (like I did), it's a lot easier to cut them out if you put a very light border on the table.



Choose TableSelect Table:


And then choose FormatBorders and Shading:


In the Borders tab, click Grid. In the color drop-down choose Gray-25%:


In the Width drop-down change it to 1/4 point:


After you print it out, get out your X-acto knife or scissors or use a paper cutter and start cutting on the lines.

There you have it! Quick and easy business cards right from Microsoft Word.

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I just took my first jewelry class the other week. It was a silversmithing course to make a silver pendant with a stone.

It was SO MUCH FUN! Lookie at what I made!

I bezel-set the stone, using a propane torch to solder it to the sterling back, which I cut freehand, using a pair of scissors.

The teacher is a former silversmithing teacher at a local university who knows a great deal about how to use inexpensive techniques. He told us stories of using an coffee can, some foil and an old skillet to do some fancy work. He's quite a character, let me tell you.

I had brought a stone that I wanted to set as a pendant, but the instructor didn't think it would be the best for the project - the back of it wasn't flat. But he had brought a bunch of stones that he cut and polished himself for us to pick from. So I went through his pile and finally settled this red one that you see above.

I asked him what kind of stone it was.

He looked at the stone. Then he looked at me. The he gave out a long drawn out sigh and coughed a few time.

After he got everyone's attention it was time for a story.

It seems that he had been out in Arizona a while ago, looking for fossils to bring back as specimans for his classroom.

Well, not fossils, exactly. Coprolites.

One of his old friends had a dinosaur on his property that he had been digging out for quite a while. As the story goes, it was a raptor, and whatever had killed it, must have scared it sh%tless because there was a big pile of dinosaur poo at the base of his tale.

Well he dug up this prize speciman and displayed it in his classroom for a number of years. He also cut and polished chunks of it.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my pendant is fosilized dinosaur crap.

Nice color, isn't it.

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A few crafty links.

Bottle cap necklace.
Here's a craft I found on the HGTV website: how to make a personalized bottle cap necklace.

I think this would be fun to make and would even be a great craft to do with an older child. (Mommy daughter bonding opportunity!)

I did a little googling and found out this HGTV tutorial was created by an etsy seller, Reillybelle! She creates jewelry out of every day objects like buttons, bottle caps, nuts from the hard ware store, and legos for children and adults. She also has a website. (Let me tell you, I am so impressed with her photography - you should visit her site for inspiration.)

Hammered Silver Cuff.
Loose Wire Studio posted a tutorial on how to make a hammered silver cuff.

I just took a class on metal working this week (Yes, I'll be posting about it sometimes soon) and this tutorial just makes me want to go out and try it!

Loose Wire Studio also has an Etsy shop here.

This is from her profile:

"How it began: A few years ago, some friends began to join together in the spirit of crafts. At the time I was doing woodworking, but this was hard to bring to a dining room table of crafters, so I began the pursuit of beading. This led to working with wire and recently metalwork.

Each piece includes the wisdom from the one before. Each bead find or natural inspiration finds its way into my work, or at least my notes.">

Just for fun:

GQ interview with Keith Richards.
Do I even need to say it's rambling?

(BTW, I hope the picture on the right didn't scare you away. It really was the least scary recent photo I could find. Here's a much scarier one. But remember, you were warned.)

Q: You should sell your body on eBay.
A: Yeah, I think so. Apparently, I do have an incredible immune system. I had hepatitis C and cured it by myself.

Q: How?
A: Just by being me.

Q: Do you regret not moisturizing your face?
A: No. I leave that up to other people.

Q: Ever think about getting Botox?
A: No one's ever talked me into doing that. You're lucky if you walk out of there alive. God bless you.


Q: Are you still cutting your own hair? You've done that all your life, right?
A: Yes. I did this bit here yesterday. [holds up a few strands on the side of his head] Also, I'm letting the dye grow out, since I'm not on the road. If the wife likes it, I'll keep it.


Awwwwwwww:

After that interview, and picture, I thought you would need some eye bleach. Here's a sweet story about a kangaroo and dog.

Four-month old kangaroo was in his mother’s pouch when she was killed by a car in Torquay, Victoria, Australia. The unharmed joey would normally have died, but Rex the mixed-breed dog took the roo to his owner, Leonie Allan. “I’d taken Rex for a walk and we’d gone past the dead kangaroo that morning, and later I was working out the front and he started pointing,” Ms Allan said. “I was worried he’d found a snake and called him back, but when he returned he dropped the joey at my feet. “He obviously sensed the baby roo was still alive in the pouch and somehow had gently grabbed it by the neck, gently retrieved it and brought it to me.” The kangaroo was calm and even snuggled up with Rex. Now named Rex Jr, the joey is under the care of the Jirrahlinga Wildlife Sanctuary, and will be released at 18 months of age.

Life explained:

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Computers are just getting smarter all the time.
(All hail google!)

via

Yesterday I started the story about a recent commission I got to make 8 Prayer Bracelets for a friend of mine, my first Etsy customer.

Luckily, I have a pretty large collection of glass beads that I've collected over the years, so finding pretty glass beads would not be an issue. The most important thing was finding prayer box charms.

I checked my local beadstores; only one of them carried prayer box charms - but the store only had 2 and I needed 8! So it was off to the online shops.

I think I must have checked half a dozen online suppliers. In most of them the nice sterling prayer boxes were pretty pricey - about $20 and up! (With the recent increase in silver prices, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.) My friend and I were considering going to silver-plate because of this. But then I finally found some reasonably priced ones at Thunderbird Supply. My friend chose the ones she liked - actually not the typical charms I've seen on Prayer Bracelets at online shops - and I ordered them.

At this point I had 8 days left to make the bracelets.

From my experience, I usually get my supplies from Thunderbird in 5 days. Yes, I was cheap and didn't get the expedited delivery. And, yes, you guessed it, they didn't arrive within 5 days.

I had all 8 bracelets ready and waiting to add the charms.

Then I waited.

And waited.

I got worried and began thinking up contingiency plans if I didn't get the prayer box charms on time: The wedding aniversary party was going to be in another state. Could I FedEx finished bracelets there when I got the boxes?

I didn't tell my friend because she's a worrier. I kept hoping the package from Thunderbird Supplies would arrive before had to leave.

Finally, on the evening before I was supposed to deliver the bracelets to my friend, I found the long-awaited cardboard box containing the supplies waiting on my doorstep! So I spent most of the evening adding the prayer boxes to the bracelets.

The next day I brought the bracelets to work to deliver them to my friend. It would be the first time she saw them. Would she like them? Would she be disappointed?



The bracelets were individually boxed up in gift boxes. She opened them oh so slowly and admired each individually before going to the next box.

She said it was just like Christmas morning. She must have spent half an hour trying them on and deciding which of them she wanted for herself. (It ended up that she couldn't decide. She was leaning toward the blue one. But she still had a few days to make a final decision.)

I was so happy that she was pleased with them. And I can't wait to hear about the 50th wedding anniversary party - and who ended up with which bracelet.

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I haven't been posting as much in this blog for the last couple weeks. Between work, spring break, and a new commission I got, I've been pretty busy.

The commission I received came from the very first customer from my Etsy shop! Yes she helped start my business. She's an old friend of mine. Her parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with a small party and she wanted to give prayer bracelets to the eight ladies at the celebration.

I had never heard of prayer bracelets before. So I had to do a little research on the internet. I found out that these bracelets always have a little box on them that contains a prayer. And while you wear the bracelet, it reminds you of the prayer and God's blessings to you. Here are the boxes that are often used in these bracelets:
Most of the bracelets available on the internet seemed to have a similar style, which I thought my friend would expect. The bracelets usually were made of swarovski crystals or round beads with spacers. So I sent her some typical examples from the internet, thinking she could pick out the style/beads and then I could make something similar.

Well she didn't like any of them very much.

Uh oh.

Apparently her idea of a prayer bracelet was not what was typical on the internet So I then sent her photos of all kinds of styles of bracelets, examples of styles from the internet as well as some of my own creations, all of which could be used as a prayer bracelet by simply adding a prayer bos.

It turned out that she liked my work better than any of the others!

On the left is a picture of the bracelet she liked.

Now I had about 10 days to make eight bracelets for her, including getting supplies.

My suggestion was to make them all similar, using identical prayer boxes, clasps, and silver spacers for each. But then make them unique by using different types and colors of glass beads for each.


Luckily, I have a pretty large collection of glass beads that I've collected over the years, so this would not be an issue. The most important thing was finding the prayer boxes and finishing the bracelets on time.

Tomorrow I'll write about my search for the prayer boxes and tell you about how this commission turned out!

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