All my hats

With the help of Bing images I bring you a small representation of all the hats I feel like I'm wearing right now

There is my full time baker's hat, my nurse maid hat, my housekeepers hat and my chief cook and bottle washer hat.

My photographers hat is missing right now so I don't have any pictures of my own. I'm already looking forward to the holidays being done with and Wade at least past the helpless can't do anything for himself stage.

Quick update

We only spent about 6 hours total at the hospital yesterday. After I got him home I had to go run for his prescriptions then make sure he was all set up and get dinner ready. After I ate I fell asleep on the couch. That means todays post is just a quick update.
His surgery went well and like I said we were only there for a total of about 6 hours. He's naturally hurting and will be for a while. He's on a weight restriction of 2 lbs so that means I pretty much pick up everything for him.
I'm off to work today, hopefully he'll behave himself while I'm gone.

Paper, glass and wood

Yep, still stuck on making paper beads. This time instead of making the bracelets with the metal spacers I tried something different.

On this one I used wood beads in between the paper ones

This one is a bit closer and you can see how shiny the beads are after they've been coated. It's the most obvious on the to p bead.

The picture for this one didn't turn out quite as well but this one I used glass seed beads in between the paper ones. Since blue has always been my favorite color I like the looks of this one.

This morning, so long as nothing changes, Wade will be going in for his surgery. I need to pack a bag of things to do while I wait.

Plan B

The other day I told you that my friend Debbie and I were going to a huge craft show on Saturday. Well after I wrote that post I discovered that the craft show had been cancelled. Debbie found another one that we could go to instead. 

This one was located in the Warner Theater in Erie, Pa. This is a very impressive place. It was built in 1930 and it's an Art Deco and French Renaissance style theater. If you click HERE you can see a picture of the outside of the theater. 

I took a few pictures inside but because of the lighting and only using my cell phone, they aren't very good. It does give you an idea of how impressive this place is though.

This is standing at the top of the steps looking down towards the front lobby

Inside looking back towards the balcony

Looking across, you can see the stage to the left

An impressive light fixture that caught my eye

Did I buy anything? Why yes I did. While Debbie did very well purchasing several Christmas gifts, I bought two things for myself and only one Christmas gift. Maybe tomorrow I'll have pictures of the things I bought.

Christmas bracelets

Tis the season to decorate with red, white and green. While you're decking the halls don't forget to deck your wrist with a pretty Christmas colored bracelet


Red and white

Green and white

and red white and green

A crafty kind of day

Friday I had a leisurely morning of sipping coffee and playing in my craft room. I started by finishing some paper beads for 3 bracelets that I'm giving someone for Christmas

Then I made some name tags to clip to our stockings at work. We had old ones that the names were written right on the stocking and several people have quit. I bought some new stockings (cheap small ones from Dollar Tree) and instead of putting the name on them I'll just clip these on. This way when someone quits I don't have to get a new stocking for the next person coming in.

Then I made some Christmas colored bracelets which I'll save for tomorrow. With some left over beads I made a little bead and wood spool ornament.

I even ended up going out for my weekly grocery trip to Walmart. I went in the afternoon and surprisingly, even though the store was quite busy, the lines were next to nothing.

Today I'll be going out with my friend Debbie to a huge craft show. I hear it's a good one.

Black Friday

Today is the day that I keep my bank account in the black by NOT going out and hitting the stores for all the sales.

While most people would show you a beautifully set Thanksgiving table with happy friends and family gathered around I'm going to show you another side.

I give you the table after everyone is done eating

and the carcass of the poor turkey who gave his life so we could share our feast.

After my daughter and her boyfriend left, Wade retired to the man cave for some football and nap time. I pulled out the new Christmas tree and put it up. Still not decorated but I've got a sneak peek at the branches

This tree wasn't a very expensive one but it's much smaller which is what I wanted. I think I'm going to have way too many ornaments now.

Happy Thanksgiving

Whether you live in the U.S. or somewhere else, take a moment today to think of the many things you have to be thankful for.

 

Go ahead and gobble till you wobble today

In the shadows

When the sun was shining through my sliding glass door the other day I couldn't help notice the shadows on the wall. And then I had to take a picture of it.

scrounging

Yesterday I took a few pictures to use for a blog post. Unfortunately my computer is being difficult so I needed a plan B.
Plan B consists of rambling and using a picture I had on my phone. I took this when we were at the hospital on Saturday. Your typical motivational poster but I liked what it said

 

 Yesterday I spent the morning cleaning and then since the sun was shining and almost all the snow was gone I took a trip to Hobby Lobby to pick up something I needed.

Back to work today and I'm looking forward to the week being over already.

It was bound to happen

It's that time of year and like it or not it's snow season. It was just starting as I was leaving work yesterday.

Snow on my deck

Snow on the doggy gate

snow in the back yard

and snow in the front yard

I'm very happy that I have no place I have to be today.

Late and early

Late = Wade and his hernia problem. He's had a double hernia for far too long and should have had it taken care of a long time ago. Finally he's doing something about it and is scheduled for surgery on the 27th. Yesterday he had to go to the hospital for blood work, chest x-ray and EKG.  

Early = the hospital already having decorations out

The tree in their front lobby

And this in a corner as you're going down one of the halls

Repost

I randomly chose an old post to repost for today. That's just how lazy I'm feeling and how little I have to blog about.

So here it is from May 21, 2011

Hey Ralph, what's that crazy lady doing down there with that flashy box?

I don't know but maybe if we just ignore her she'll go away

 Ralph, where you going? Don't leave me here by myself.

Craving sunshine

It has been cold, overcast, rainy and downright gloomy around here. I took this picture while I was sitting in the drive thru at the bank yesterday so you could see how dreary it looks.

I'm in desperate need of some sunshine

Why choose

I saw this on facebook and thought it was a great idea.




Something tells me that if I were to try it, all the fillings would run together to make one great big disgusting mess.

Of these 4 pies, which one would you choose? I think I' would have to have a piece of each

Ouch

I'm sitting here feeling sorry for myself because it hurts too much to stand. Lately I've had problems with heel pain. Standing for 8 hours a day on hard floors is killing me. When I get home after work I don't want to move because it just hurts too much to walk. I bought some insoles the other day that are supposed to be for heel pain. I wore them to work on Sunday and not only did my heels still hurt but my arches were killing me too.
Everything I've read says to avoid standing for long periods of time. HA HA HA. Ok so what am I supposed to do? Can't quit my job and I don't have the luxury of sitting down on the job. I've also read to try and ice them for 20 minutes, 3 times a day. I can see that going over well at work too. NOT.

To make me feel better I found this cute kitty picture on Snappygoat.com

Q & A

And a few more bracelets. I made these with E beads. I figured these would go as a set of three.

The other day Sharla asked if I was prepping for another show. The answer to that one is that I'm pretty much always prepping for a show since I tend to work at a snails pace some times. If I'm crafting it's for one of two reasons. I'm either making things that I will take to the craft show or I'm making things for a gift.

Yesterday Ginny asked if  I made the arrangement in the picture I posted. The answer to that is that if you consider putting some fake flowers in a pretty little bucket then yes I did. I found that bucket a few years ago at a grocery store. It always looks nice with some fake fall flowers sitting in it.

Grace asked when they started calling it "Black Friday" Well my tired brain got tired while trying to research the answer. It seems that the term has been around for a while but hasn't always been used to refer to the way we know it now.

Finally I have a question for you. Speaking of black Friday,  are you a black Friday shopper? If you are have you ever camped outside a store waiting for it to open so you could get the best deals?

Time flies

Yesterday while standing at the time clock waiting to punch in I was looking at next weeks schedule. I knew that Thanksgiving was getting close but I didn't realize it was just over a week away.

I also noticed that I have the pleasure of working on Thanksgiving day. It will only be till about 11:00 or 11:30 so at least it's not a whole day. Then for the very first time EVER, I have off the Friday after Thanksgiving. Will I go out Black Friday shopping? Not on your life. 

Jack Frost

Yesterday morning started out at a very chilly 16 degrees and when I headed out for my weekly shopping trip my windshield was covered in frost.

I took these from the inside of my vehicle. I hate being cold and there isn't much I like about winter but I will admit that the patterns frost can make on glass are quite pretty.

These might not be exactly how I saw it but in order to bring out the detail in the pictures I had to do a little enhancing which changed some of the colors a bit

Oh and did I mention that it snowed here on FRIDAY? It wasn't a lot and it's gone now but it was enough of a reminder that we'll be seeing more soon

back to paper

Yesterday Sandee asked if I was burnt out on my new craft already. Nope, not yet but I will get there eventually. I always do. I can't be like some people who do one thing and do it really well. Instead I do lots of things, bounce around and never truly perfect my skills.

Oh well, any way, I said the other day that these beads were already made in to a bracelet

And this is it. I thought the orange looked good with the dark wood beads

Then just because I could I made digital bracelet art out of the picture above.

I've got the blues

The blues as in blue beads that were made in to bracelets. You're probably wondering by now if I'm ever going to stop and move on to something else. Yes, I will eventually. I always end up getting bored with whatever I'm working on. Sometimes I get bored quickly and sometimes it takes a while.  Either way though, I won't talk about beads and bracelets for the rest of the life of my blog.

Hey at least these aren't paper beads today. These 4 bracelts were made from 1 cheap pack of blue acrylic beads

From paper to bead

Just for fun (yeah, that's what I'm calling it) I've got pictures of the paper I used and the bead it turned in to

This came from a Christmas collection.

Pink, I needed to try pink

How about this piece of orange Halloween paper that has ghosts on it. You would never know once it's rolled into a bead. These have already been made in to a bracelet. I paired them with some dark colored wood bead.

For lack of something different

I'm going to continue blabbing on about beads and bracelets this week because that's all I've got.

Today is an extremely boring post about the tools I use to make the beads. I've been using up leftover pieces of scrapbook paper that I could never bring myself to throw away. I measure and mark the back side of the paper then cut with scissors.

When it comes to rolling the paper I could buy a bead rolling tool but all over the internet you see people are rolling them with toothpicks or skewers.

I used some bent paper clips and toothpicks

My only problem was the the paper kept slipping so I went online and did some browsing. I found several things showing you how to make your own slotted tool. I have a slotted tool that I used for quilling but it's not long enough to hold the bead papers. I improvised and came up with something on my own using what I had.

I took a very thin dowel rod and sliced it with a box cutter creating a slit in one end. Then to make the other end just a little easier to hold on to I wrapped it with some decorative duct tape.. It's not pretty but it works great.

You might be able to see the slit in the end on the left of the picture. I slide the end of my bead paper in there and it holds the paper while I start to roll.

Paper bead bracelet.

Once I got started I couldn't stop. For now all the beads are one shape but you can make different shaped beads. I think I'll just stick to these though.

I used metal spacer beads in between each of the paper beads.

The left is the scrapbook paper that I used to make the beads. I really like the way this one turned out.

After you're done rolling the bead you glue the end down. Then the bead gets rolled in embossing ink and then covered in embossing powder. It's then heated to melt the embossing powder creating a hard shiny surface on the bead.

I think I've got a new obsession

I can't stop making bracelets

These 4 are glass beads. My favorite it the top left

These are acrylic beads.

These are also acrylic. I like the color of these.

There is also one more that I'll show you tomorrow. I made enough paper beads to make one bracelet.

No use crying over spilled beads

I sat down to make a few more bracelets last night. I finished 3 and on the 4th one I had about 1/2 the beads strung and dropped the end of the cord and beads went rolling all over the place.I figured that was a good place to call it quits. That is after I crawled around on the floor looking for all the stray beads.

I made 2 more with the wood beads then I pulled out a box of glass beads that I had. I finished one with the glass beads and it was when I was working with these blue ones that I had the little accident. I'll try again today to finish it.

Thursday night I decided to make a quick attempt at the paper beads. This was just a quick try and I'm not reall thrilled with the way they look. They also aren't finished since I haven't put the coating on them. I'll need to work on these some more.