Prenatal #3

Zachary and I met with Mary Ann this morning. We dropped Curtis off at work and made it to Mary Ann’s early for an 8:30 appointment (very proud of ourselves for getting all three out the door on time!!). We talked about...[Read More]

What NOT to do with a broken pickle jar

Our garbage disposal stopped working last week. Wednesday evening, I think. Made noise, no spin. Finally, almost a week later, I started to take it apart. I couldn't get some of the screws, so it had to wait till DH got home. (So we went out to dinner, bummer ;) ). The next day, I took it into the sunshine and managed to pry out the problem. APPARENTLY, you can't put broken glass down the garbage disposal! Who knew?! </sarcasm>

I'm sorry to say that we know exactly who DIDN'T know: DH. It's also how I remember that it quit on Wednesday. See, DH broke a pickle jar that evening. LB was still strapped in his high chair, so we didn't have to worry about him, but apparently we needed to worry about me. I cut my finger on the broken jar. A real macho cut too: tried to take a chunk of skin right off the knuckle of my little finger. Left all manner of blood on the jar, on the floor, and dripping down my leg. So that put me out of commission of helping to clean up. Now, a week after its demise, we see that the pickle jar had two lessons for us: for me, being more careful when cleaning up broken glass; and for DH, DON'T PUT GLASS DOWN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL!! IT'S A ROCK! ROCKS DON'T GO DOWN THE SINK!!!!

I think my finger's healing just fine, btw. I don't really know because I haven't taken off the bandaid since Sunday. My finger hasn't fallen off or anything, so I assume all's well.

New Blog

When I was pregnant with LB I had a pregnancy website where I recorded all the goings-on of the pregnancy: prenatal visits, ultrasound, belly photos, thoughts, etc. So I have one again: baby.humphreyonline.us. I like having everything in one place. I may or may not continue with pregnancy posts here, so that site will be the best place to keep up :)

Monday Morning

(This post was supposed to have been published already. Don't know why it didn't!)

We picked up this folding table and chair (two chairs, actually) for $6 at a garage sale. Love it! It’s susceptible to scissors, so we’ll have to be careful as toddlers turn to preschoolers. I was trying to catch up on dishes this morning after breakfast (our garbage disposal quit. Not happy), and so left LB to his own devices. Fortunately for the both of us, he found something productive to do. If I’d had the camera downstairs, I would have taken video: he was “reading” out loud to himself and pointing to the pictures. And when he’d finished with one book, he dropped it on the floor and started on another one. I think he got through three books before deciding to do something else (namely, hang on my leg). So precious!

Later, when sitting still was no longer appealing, he found the cats to be very entertaining. One escaped to the great outdoors while the other one (who is currently sitting on my lap, making me hot and covering my yellow shirt with black fur) found behind the tv to be a safe haven from the toddler terror.

From fabric to shirt

Here is DH’s shirt! I took the picture with my phone. My phone takes terrible pictures, which is a little disappointing. Anyway, I think I did a pretty good job on this shirt! Straight lines of stitching, I even remembered to zig-zig seams (maybe someday I’ll have a serge machine). Of course, there are little mistakes, and it certainly wouldn’t win any awards (except maybe a thrift award since I eked it out of so little fabric! I even had enough for a pocket!) Speaking of the pocket, let’s take a closer look – are those FEET sticking out underneath?
There’s a hula girl in his pocket! If you scroll back up to the other picture and imagine the shirt without the pocket, you’ll see that there would have been two hula girls in the front. Yeah, not so much. So even if I’d HAD enough fabric to match the pocket, I wouldn’t have! And I couldn’t quite cover her feet because then the pocket would have been too low and might have looked funny. As it is, it’s a little too close to the sleeve. If I use this pattern again (which I probably will), I’ll put the pocket a little closer to the center front. But the vertical placement is good.

DH really likes the shirt, and declared that it is now his favorite Hawaiian shirt. He also couldn’t get over how cool it felt compared to wearing a t-shirt, and so now he understands why my dad wears Hawaiian shirts ALL THE TIME in hot Bakersfield (CA). (Well, and there’s the fact that my dad’s dad was born in Hawaii). So DH and I are now on a mission to pick up Hawaiian fabric wherever we see a good deal so I can fill his closet with them. So now I just have to figure out exactly how much yardage is perfect: 2 yards was almost too little and 2 5/8 is way more than we need.

Hawaiian shirt fabric

Somewhere between moving the computers upstairs and packing up "stuff" that's now stored in the garage, I found a bag of fabric. I have lots of materials and supplies from projects started and finished as well as unfinished projects. But this bag was full of materials for a project never started! The date on the receipt was 4/27/2006. Wow. That's three years ago, and I had completely forgotten about it! Of course as soon as I saw the fabric I remembered: DH and I had been at Walmart and saw this beautiful Hawaiian fabric on the sale shelf. We absolutely couldn't resist the pattern and the price. Not having a pattern, however, (and apparently being unable to walk over to the pattern section) we guessed how much yardage we would need for a shirt and bought 2 yards.

So when I found this fabric (again), I kept it in the back of my mind and realized last week that a great use would be to make a shirt for DH for Father's Day! (My family loves handmade Hawaiian shirts. DH has two from several years ago and I can't tell you how many my dad has. California, you know?). I figured I could put it together during LB's naps while DH was at work and surprise him with it.

Well, I didn't get a chance to even begin working on it until after the wedding. We must have picked up (or my mom gave us) a pattern at some point because there was one in the bag. The only problem is that the pattern called for 2 5/8 yards. I thought maybe I could squeeze the pattern on the fabric. I folded the fabric just so for the back piece to not use any more fabric than absolutely necessary, pinned it in place, then tried laying out the rest of the pieces. Looking at the shirt front on the fabric (and needing 2 of them) and the sleeve (and needing 2 as well), I just didn't see how it could all fit. I told my mom as much (she was on the phone trying to help) and we were both severely disappointed. Since I had purchased the fabric at Walmart, I thought maybe they'd still have it and I could pick up another 1/2 yard or so.

The next day, DH stayed home to work (because his advisor was out of town), so LB and I had the car. I told DH I has "some errands" to run and off we went. We went to 3, THREE!! different Walmarts, NOT including the one we normally frequent. None of them carry fabric anymore. They've all succumbed to the reorganization that took over ours several months ago (this reminds me of the Nothing that eats up Fantasia in The Neverending Story). I was, again, severely disappointed. Although LB and I did not come home empty-handed, it was not the successful shopping trip it was supposed to be.

After lunch I decided I really needed to get fabric or I would have enough time to make the shirt before Father's Day. So I convinced DH that LB would take a long afternoon nap since he had had no nap in the morning, and I took off again. I headed to our closest JoAnn's store: 20 minutes away. They had Hawaiian fabric on 60% off! So I picked up my 2 5/8 yards and came home (and LB was still asleep, bless his heart).

That evening, after LB had gone to bed, I pulled out the (newly purchased) fabric and began laying out the pattern. Again, I folded it just so, pinned the back in place, and laid out the other pieces. Looking at the front (and needing two), it just didn't look like it was going to fit! But I knew I had enough fabric this time. So I unpinned the back, unfolded the fabric, and started with the front piece and sleeves, THEN laid out the back, collar (twice), and pocket. All the pieces fit. They fit so well, in fact, with quite a bit of fabric left over, that I had a funny feeling I didn't really need that 5/8 after all.

So, I went BACK to the fabric from 3 years ago, and realized that I liked it ten times better than the stuff I had just bought. Which gave me motivation to spend the next half hour fiddling with the pattern pieces and trying to squeeze them in. It was so close! I could feel it. I knew it would work, but I didn't want to mess up, since I couldn't get anymore of the fabric. After much deliberation (and I mean MUCH), I decided it worth ruining the surprise to have my engineer's help.

So DH came to my rescue. He understood that I had wanted to surprise him, and he assured me that he still felt very special that I was making a shirt for him (and I think he was a little flattered that I needed his help). It didn't take him but a couple minutes to see that everything would fit, if we just put this here and that there and be sure to cut this out first. And so I did. After I cut out the fronts and back, I realized that I could even get the sleeves facing the right way (I had thouht I would need to cut the sleeves out on the cross-grain), as long as the collar was cut out on the cross-grain. Very cool! I was worried about cutting out the sleeves "sideways" because the pattern would go across the sleeve instead of down (think palm trees growing sideways instead of up and down). So that made me happy. So happy, in fact, that I had to call my mom to tell her that I would be able to use the pretty fabric from three years ago after all! Even though we had talked for three hours the day before, we ended up talking for another hour and didn't get off until I'd cut out all the fabric and we'd booked my flight. (But I'll have to talk about that in a different post. Perhaps it won't be as long as these last two!)

So today I've attached the collar and started pinning the sleeves. Tomorrow I hope to finish the sleeves, which leaves all of Saturday (well, as much time as LB or DH-watching-LB will give me) to put in the buttonholes, buttons, and hem. I think it's doable!

The Wedding

Julie and Scott's wedding was last weekend. It was wonderful!! They put so much thought and effort into planning and organizing it. I'm sure they had help, but it seemed like every detail had been considered. Get this: when we arrived at our hotel, there was a gift basket waiting for us with a selection of local items (candied pecans, blackberry jelly, peach wine), a DVD that was representative of the Deep South (Fried Green Tomatoes), water

bottles with the bride & groom's names and wedding date, a note explaining what was in the basket, and a folder full of brochures for attractions in the area and a schedule of events for the weekend, INCLUDING printed maps/instructions from our hotel to the different venues. Wow. And it was all coordinated: they used the same design & color scheme for their Save-the-Dates, Invitations, the note in the basket, the labels on the water bottles, the bow on the basket, the folder, and the programs at the wedding. Incredible. It was the best job of branding I've ever seen individuals do (you know, branding, like you recognize Coke anywhere because they spend so much money on branding).

The first event was the rehearsal dinner. It was at a very nice restaurant in the downtown area. We were in a private dining area. There were around 50 people at the dinner. It was mostly family and the wedding party, with only a few friends (including us), so we felt very honored to be included. The bride's mom and sister sat at our table, along with one of the groomsmen (who was one of DH's roommates) and one of the bridesmaids, who fell in love with LB. LB behaved admirably throughout the dinner. During the appetizers (which were served buffet style), DH and I refilled his plate with grapes and cheese. He didn't understand why we couldn't get him anymore when they took the appetizers away. He almost lost it, but fortunately the others at the table helped us calm him down. (Oh, dinner was at 6, but we didn't start appetizers til closer to 7, which is LB's bedtime. So we were pushing it a little.) Although "weed salad" is not my favorite (it's supposed to be "gourmet", but I'd rather have romaine or bibb), the salmon was excellent. (I'm not usually a fish lover, but I've been thoroughly enjoying it this pregnancy.) I chose creme brulee for dessert, and it was a little strange. But that's okay. LB ate most of his dinner (which consisted of a side the waitress brought just for him and then whatever appealed to him off mine and DH's plates.) The only time LB really made a scene was right during the groom's father's toast. The gal sitting next to me (the bridesmaid) had given LB a Hall's "candy" to play with. Well, during the toast, he figured out that it could unwrap AND that it was the perfect size to put in his mouth. I had to take it away. He bawled. Right during the speech. It didn't take too long to pacify him with something else though. DH and I left shortly after dessert, since it was long past LB's bedtime. Not before we got to see the bride and groom shower their attendants and mothers and other special individuals with gifts though. They were so generous! I don't know if they got great deals for buying in bulk, or if they've been saving up for this, or if their parents helped, but gave some lovely gifts that night. We were really impressed, again, with how much thought they put into everything.

The next day, LB was up at 7, even though we had had a long day on Saturday. Nevertheless, he was awake and wanted us awake too. DH had a paper he had to work on, so LB and I were on our own until lunch. We decided to go to a park. It was a nice big one, with lots of fun things to do. LB had a ball, and I enjoyed helping him and watching the other people at the playground. It was muggy hot though. Ugh. I don't like muggy hot. At least there was a breeze. We left when a storm rolled in. Got back to the hotel, and by the time we were ready to go get something for lunch, it was POURING. Big, huge raindrops, lots of wind - a sudden, southern thunderstorm. (We've been getting them here too, but they're something completely foreign in CA). We had lunch and then drove around the mall (there are two malls, one indoor and one outdoor. This was at the outdoor one). The maternity store I wanted to go to was closed, it being Sunday and all, but we took advantage of the semi-annual sale at Bath & Body Works to get some of those anti-bacterial moisturizing soaps. (I could probably write a post just about those!). Then we went to the OTHER mall, since it was on the way back to the hotel, and I got to poke through the maternity store there, just real quickly, and then I walked through Sears and found a pair of brown sandals for LB. The ones he has have no traction and he slips and falls on everything. So I was glad to replace those. Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.

The wedding was scheduled to begin at 5, with seating beginning at 4:30. We got there just > about at 5. Our timing was off because LB had falled asleep on the way back to the hotel and he was out cold. We let him sleep as long as we could and it turned out we let him sleep just a little too long. Oh well. We got there and seated in plenty of time for the ceremony. The American ceremony (what we think of as a traditional ceremony) was held in the courtyard of the historic hotel. There were probably 100 guests or so. The officiant and the groom took their places, then the five groomsmen and the five bridesmaids (all individually), then the bride arrived in an antique car (the courtyard was enclosed on three sides by the hotel and by the street on the 4th). The ceremony was performed in both English and Korean, and wasn't very long. Probably one of the shorter ceremonies many of us had attended. They didn't include any extra elements, and they didn't have customized vows. Then they both got in the antique car and drove away (around the corner, really) while the guests moved inside to the location of the Korean ceremony.

DH and I sat next to one of his fellow BMEs from Tulane (pronounced "beemee", it stands for Biomedical Engineer), so they enjoyed catching up and no one took the three seats next to me, so LB had plenty of room all to himself. Our only complaint was that the Korean ceremony took place on the floor and the guests were all in chairs, so only those in the front could see what was taking place. Oh well. The ceremony lasted about as long as the previous one though we had to wait awhile for it to start because the bride and groom had to change into traditional Korean dress.

After the Korean ceremony we all moved back into the lobby/foyer area for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. LB was fascinated by the cake, although I'm not sure he realized it was food - it was decorated in Nintendo Mario designs and even had Mario figurines (which, we found out later, the groom had had to special order from Korea!). It seemed we were "mingling" and drinking (open bar, don't worry, I didn't have any alcohol!) for a very long time before the bride and groom reappeared (back in tux and white dress) for the first dance. Then it was finally time for dinner. I don't remember what time it was by then, but, again, it was much later than LB normally has to wait for dinner! Fortunately we had brought some crackers that he'd been munching on throughout the evening.

Dinner was buffet style, mostly finger foods, and the plates were barely 6 inches in diameter. Who ever heard of 6 inch dinner plates?? Most people filled two (even 3) plates on their first pass and another one or two on a second pass. The hotel did not have a room big enough to accomodate enough tables for all the guests, so tables were spread out on the balcony, in the lobby and hallway, as well as in the ballroom (which was dominated by the dance floor and live band). DH, LB, and I found ourselves at a little 3-person table in the hallway next to two of the groomsmen (both of whom were DH's roommates at Tulane), and the wife of one of them (or was she his fiancee? We never quite got that straight.) Remember the gal at the rehearsal dinner who fell in love with LB? Well, she wasn't the least bit shy this evening either! She held him and introduced him to who knows who while we went through the buffet line, then brought him back in time to eat. He was so wound up though, that he hardly ate. Too many crackers? Perhaps. I think he mostly had fruit. Then he discovered that he could go UNDER the table and a whole new world of fun opened up. Fortunately (for us), the gal at the next table (wife? fiancee?) came to our rescue. She took LB to go get cake (was feeding him cake a good idea? Perhaps not. Were we thinking these things through? Are you kidding?) So he sat on her lab and she fed him cake, then he tried crawling under HER table. Meanwhile, DH and I enjoyed our dinner, all the while wondering where the irresponsible parents of that wild child were. Didn't they realize their child was CRAWLING UNDER TABLES, for heaven's sake? Tsk, tsk.

Then LB's girlfriend showed back up and asked to take him to the dance floor. Off they went! And DH and I enjoyed cake and conversation. When we finally mosied into the ballroom, we quickly located LB on the dancefloor, dancing away. He loved it! Dancing with someone wasn't his favorite thing, but if one of his (many) partners walked off, he ran over and dragged them back. DH took some videos I'll try to get posted on the video blog soon. So DH and I found a couple of chairs and enjoyed the "show" (are we a couple of old fuddy-duddies or what?).

The gal in the colorful dress is the BME, the gal in black & white is the bridesmaid (aka LB's girlfriend), and the bride is behind the BME, talking to LB. Isn't he cute in his little suit? Here's a view from the front:

By this time many guests had left and most of us who remained had gathered in the ballroom. So the bride and groom did the bouquet and garter tosses, and then we had toasts from the two best men (brothers of the groom, how do you choose one to be "best man" and relegate the other to just "groomsman"?), as well as the maid of honor (bride's sister), and the groom himself (who even incorporated some Korean in his speech. We were very impressed). Shortly after that it was time to go. We all gathered in the courtyard with sparklers and the bride and groom got back in the antique car and drove away (around the corner). Then we went back to the hotel.

On the way back to the hotel, LB fell SOUND asleep. Nothing could wake him up. We changed his diaper and put him in pj's and he hardly moved. The next day we were sad to be leaving. You know how it is: you anticipate an event for so long, it finally arrives and it's fun, and then it's over too quickly it seems. So we took our time packing up, drove by one of the city's attractions, and made a detour to another city in the state where DH is applying for a job.

It was such a short vacation, that I didn't have that "I'm glad to be home again!" feeling, lol. We were only gone 2 1/2 days, and it wasn't a very long drive to get there. We've been enjoying talking about everything over and over, analyzing this and that, remembering different details (the third stage of enjoying an event), etc. Writing this post was a fun way to relive the weekend, though I glossed over some details so it wouldn't be TOO long! Thanks for bearing with me :)

Feed Dogs

The title is not in reference to any animals, but to sewing machine parts. Are you with me now? :)

I had a little trouble with my sewing machine this afternoon and called a sewing repair center. The guy made a few suggestions, one of which solved the problem (for now). I had called the repair center because I couldn't find any information online regarding my problem. So after I solved it, I wanted to share my experience with others who have the same machine. However, there doesn't seem to be an easily-found forum or other place to share my knowledge, so I figured I'd blog about it instead and hopefully others can find the information (if they need it) through the search engines.

About 4 years ago my mom bought me a fabulous sewing machine. I could list all its wonderful features, but I won't. It's a Bernette 80e for Bernina. I've been very happy with it. This afternoon I was sewing on buttons (not by hand!) which required dropping the feed dogs. So I dropped the feed dogs, sewed on the buttons, all was fine, until I was done and ready to put the machine away. The lever that dropped the feed dogs did not bring them back up. It moved back and forth like it's supposed to, but it felt like it wasn't attached to the mechanism anymore. I took off the faceplate and was greeted with such a collection of lint I figure that was the problem. After an application of pressurized air the feed dogs still would not come back up. So I turned to the internet.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my internet searches were fruitless. I'm not one for making phone calls, but for some reason I decided to call a sewing repair center. I quickly located (the only) one in my city and called them up. The guy who answered wasn't immediately familiar with my particular machine, but it sounded like he'd heard of the problem before. He confirmed my fears that to fix the problem may require taking the machine apart, which meant paying someone to do it. But he had a couple suggestions first. He recommended fiddling with the reverse lever while using the handwheel, since the reverse lever is connected to the feed dogs in some way (it makes them go backwards).

After I hung up, I sat down and gave it a try. And it worked! The feed dogs came right up. Then I decided to tempt fate: I dropped the feed dogs again, and again, the lever did not bring them back up. But I was able to bring them up again just by using the machine in slow motion. So it seems that my feed dogs and lever need a little tweaking. It's something I'll have to be careful of until we have a repair budget. But at least I know how to manage the problem. And I hope my experience can be helpful to someone else.

So to summarize (and this is probably applicable to most machines, not just the Bernette 80e): if the feed dogs are stuck down, just use the machine in slow motion (i.e., use the hand wheel) to bring them back up. If that doesn't work, try fiddling with the reverse level as you continue to turn the handwheel/push the pedal slowly. If THAT doesn't work, the machine probably needs to be taken to someone who knows how to repair it.

Palatable Tap Water

We're supposed to drink eight 8oz glasses of water every day, right? (Okay, there's some evidence out there that we don't need THAT much water, but the experts all agree that you can't overdose on water, as long as you don't hold it all in too long.) Now that I'm expecting, my midwife gave me a rather serious talk (scolding? not quite, but almost) on how important it is to drink plenty of water every day.

So, in theory, lots of water = good. In reality, lots of water = not so easy to accomplish. There are lots of tricks out there, but I wanted to share the one that's been most helpful to me in getting those 64ounces down: put a few slices of cucumber in your water! Be sure to scrub the cucumber first, or you can even peel it if you want to. If you put the water in the fridge with the cucumber, the longer it cools, the more cucumber flavor you'll get.

Enjoy!

Fore more great tips, check out Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

And I thought this would be a short post

I realized this morning that it's been a week since I last posted. Sometimes last Monday feels like ages ago and sometimes it feels like "didn't I just take care of that yesterday??"

I think part of my problem is I write so many blog posts in my head, that I forget none of them are really here. I need a black box hardwired into my brain, so when I start thinking of something I want written down, it will record it and I can retrieve it later. Wouldn't that be helpful? A little weird, and I certainly wouldn't want it connected to the internet or anything, but I bet I could make good use of it.

Some of the topics of those posts I wrote in my head during the week were more beading (I've completed several more projects, I just need to get them up on Etsy), bargain hunting (I had a most successful hunt this past weekend, from craigslist to garage sales to thrift stores. Fun!), Little Bug (have I told you he can open door knobs now? His favorite one is the pantry. Oh, and he's starting biting. And he destroys everything he touches. We're working on "be gentle!" "be kind!" It's slow-going.), home improvement (I installed the gate I got for free all by myself. It only took 3 times longer than it should have and 4 more holes than needed, which still need to be patched), and sewing (since my machine's actually accessible since we rearranged the furniture, I've been actually using it. The quick projects, like mending, are fun, but more complicated things (like quilting. yes, quilting. why am I quilting something? because I was too cheap to buy pre-quilted fabric. No worries, I've learned my lesson) frustrate me and cause me to leave the project draped over the machine for days on end.)

This morning, in addition to getting caught back up after the weekend (weekends were not meant for doing chores. Just because it makes Monday harder is irrelevant), I'm helping DH with a paper he's working on. He gave it to his advisor (Julie) last Monday. She gave it back to him on Friday, saying that it wouldn't take him very long to make the corrections. She'd like it back by Monday (today). (Who doesn't like a boss who holds something for a week and then wants a three-day turnaround? Over a weekend? Yay!) Well, when we pulled it out and looked at it, it was so covered in red ink, I'm not sure there was any original text left.

Two things happened that caused this: first, Julie forgot what conference she wanted this submitted to (yes, that's a preposition at the end. oh well. except now it's not at the end anymore, problem solved!). She claims she didn't, but she did. And each conference has different requirements/specifications. Secondly, and partly as a result of the first, fully 1/3 of the paper needs to be cut out: it's far too long.

Usually when DH gets a paper back, I enter the corrections for him. Are you familiar with the "review" tools in Word? You turn "tracking" on, and Word tracks all the changes you make, so you or anyone else can look back over the document before "accepting" or "rejecting" the changes. It's the electronic equivalent of editing with a red pen. So I enter all the written corrections into the document on the computer, and DH goes back over them later and makes the paper all perfect (sorta, not really). But THIS time, there's more than just the usual corrections, she wants whole pages reduced to a single paragraph, entire sections moved and combined (and reduced), and these sorts of things are not DH's strong suit. As a matter of fact, writing papers really isn't his thing. So I've agreed to help him with the combining and reducing. I may not be as good at coming up with original content, but I can sure take someone else's content and make it sound good. It's kinda fun too. But it's a lot of work, and if you haven't guessed by now, it's entirely possible that the length of this post is in direct proportion to how much I'm trying to procrasinate this paper thing. Although I can't put it off too much longer, LB's only last so long (and if he takes a long one in the morning, my afternoon is shot). And I can't get up from the computer unless I want to take care of some diapers that need washing. So, back to work. Just as soon as I grab a little snack....

Beading

Look what I made yesterday!

It didn’t actually take me very long. It came from a kit that had everything included! Well, except pliers and glue. Glue wasn’t a problem, but my beading pliers are in my beading box, which neither DH nor I had seen in quite a while. I spent some time in the garage (which now noticeably less tidy than it was. I can lift things down, but not back up!) and finally found in a box, along with (I couldn’t believe it) a stack of 7 maternity shirts and 1 bra. The eight items that I have been sorely missing for about the last week. I knew I hadn’t gotten rid of them but couldn’t figure for the life of me where they were! The problem was that I had forgotten there are unsealed boxes in the garage, stacked up to LOOK like they’re all sealed and done, but they’re not. There was all kinds of stuff out there that I’d been kinda wondering where it’d gone! But anyway, back to the beading.

The necklace was a lot of fun to put together. All the materials were right there, and it even had illustrated instructions! (okay, the instructions were ALL illustrations with little to no text, but that’s okay). I’m planning on putting it on Etsy. I paid (get this) $3 for the kit on Walmart clearance (wait, Walmart clearance? Is there really such a thing?? I know! Feels like something out of the Twilight Zone! But our Walmart has been reorganizing and needed to clear out some things, even whole departments, so I’ve been taking advantage of the clearance aisles that won’t last much longer.) So I just need to clear $3 (plus tax) and the rest gets reinvested in the store (where “reinvesting” means I get to buy more materials :) ) So I’m hoping someone buys it.

So remember how my beading box was hidden in the garage? I knew mostly what was in it (pliers, scissors, string and wire, other materials, a bunch of seed beads…), but I had forgotten about some things I had finished that were still in there. Look at these!

I had totally forgotten I had made these! I’m excited to put them in my jewelry box and looking forward to picking outfits solely to match the jewelry so I can wear these pieces! I could put these on Etsy too, but I originally made them for me, and they took considerably more time to make than the necklace I just finished, so I’m going to keep them for now.