Sniffling, sneezing and stinky feet?

I woke up this morning with the beginnings of a cold. That cheeses me off because when I get sick, I 1) want to eat more and 2) want to move less which is the opposite of what I want to be doing now. On the way to work I stopped off at CVS and bought generic Cold-Eze.

A coworker saw the lozenges and told me about a trick that works for him. When he gets ill, he rubs Vicks Vapo-rub on the bottoms of his feet and puts socks on them before bed. When he wakes up, he feels better.

I raised an eyebrow, but a quick Google search shows that people are doing this, and while nobody says it’s 100% effective, it’s working for a quite a few of them. So I’ll stop at CVS (again) on my way home and pick some up. We’ll see tonight and I’ll let you all know tomorrow!

**
Otherwise, things are uneventful at best here at Chez Gypsy. I made two bracelets on Sunday, but one is too large and falls off of my hand, and the other has mismatched toggle pieces, so it won’t close.

Closing up shop and heading back to work in a few. (I’m home for lunch.) Work is awesome, by the way. It’s good to like what you do.

Posted at: 2:25 pm in Beadiness, General, Work | Permanent Link | 2 Comments - add yours! »
Tags: beading, health

Saturday Beadxtravaganza

In a moment of softness, I though that perhaps just a gift card to Hollister might not be enough for the confirmation girl tomorrow. I decided to add a personal touch and make a necklace as well.

I wanted something age appropriate, so I went looking on Google for a youthful style. I saw a cute necklace on a popular young teen starlet and decided to completely knock it off.

Presenting the “Smiley Virus:”

It’s double stranded with size 8 beads in dark topaz and light pink, and 6mm rose quartz accents. The toggle clasp is sterling silver because it’s not nice to give a gift that’ll rot.

Enough about her, what about me? A few weeks back I found a neat eBay store that sells genuine gemstone bead for even cheaper than the bead stores near me. So I bought a strand of 6mm x 4mm flat turquoise oval beads. Today I strung them with black seed beads and black “E” beads, a black pendant and a non-silver hook clasp (I don’t care if my own stuff rots).

So I give you…”Sorta Southwest”:

I made earrings to match with 24 gauge metal wire.

My jewelry photography leaves much to be desired. Most of the professional stuff I see isn’t photographed on top of a Netflix envelope or a plain white table. I really like the turquoise necklace, so it deserves something more special than a boring background. The photo needs some real southwestern flair. I don’t have a cactus and my dogs don’t resemble coyotes, so I had to make the best with what I had here.

Last night I made my first macramé hemp bracelet from a kit. It looks okay but is really scratchy and I don’t like the wood beads it came with. I’m going to do another one sometime soon with a few glass beads I have in my bead box.

**
By the way…this is day 8 without Mountain Dew. My morning cup of coffee has helped a LOT with keeping the caffeine-withdrawal headaches at bay. And I think I’m on a diet. I’m eating very sensibly for breakfast and lunches, having vegetables and fruit for snacks, and having half of whatever I’d normally eat for dinner. And yesterday I did an 18-minute yoga routine before work. I didn’t weigh myself at the beginning so all I’m looking for is go from a snug (pant size that I am now) to a loose (2 pant sizes down). So we’ll see how this goes.

Posted at: 10:39 pm in Beadiness, General, Play, YAD - Yet Another Diet | Permanent Link | Comments Off
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Baubles, bangles and beads (mostly beads)

I noted not long ago in my Twitter feed that when I get into beading, the blogging stops. When I get into my blog again, beading grinds to a halt. I’m trying to find a bit of moderation with both…so let’s blog about beading!

I think there are few things worse than to be hooked on something that you’re not very good at. Yes, I produce finished stuff. But it takes me a LONG time, plus I screw every piece up at least once. Somehow. You may not see it, but I do.

This post is picture heavy, so I’m going to make it jump to its own page. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted at: 6:19 pm in Beadiness, General, Play | Permanent Link | Comments Off
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Stupid Beading Tricks: “Vintage” bracelet

A few months ago I idly sketched a bracelet idea on a sheet of paper. The next day, I happily started it, but completely screwed up the first crimps, so I threw away the sketch and abandoned the idea entirely. Other than a few pair of earrings here and there, I haven’t been able to bead anything since. I even went to Bead Binge to try and break my beader’s block.

Last night I had a dream in which a Penn Jillette-like voice told me to do the darn bracelet already. So I did.

(Beowulf is in the Netflix envelope. Haven’t watched it yet.)

I used:

• silver lined crystal delicas (DB0041)
• 4mm swarovski black bicone crystals
• silver-esque spacers and toggle

Strands 1 and 3 have this pattern repeated 5 times:
spacer | 10 delicas | crystal | 10 delicas

Strand 2 has this pattern repeated 4 times:
spacer | 4 delicas | crystal | 10 delicas| crystal | 4 delicas

It ended up 7 3/4″ long, and I’m pretty proud of it. Strand 2 is a little saggy between the last 2 spacers (I didn’t pull the strand taught enough before I crimped) but you can’t tell when it’s on me. Maybe NOW I’ll be able to use up some of the heaps of beads I’ve been accumulating.

Posted at: 1:38 pm in Beadiness, General, Play | Permanent Link | Comments Off
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