Ring Sizer

On August 21, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Etsy1 Comment

I have been having fun making keychains and earrings with plastic lacing aka gimp, but I also have fun making bracelets, chokers and rings using hemp. Before making too many rings, I needed to buy a ring sizer so I knew exactly what size the rings were after I made them.

When making a ring using hemp, you have to measure the gimp on something round, like say your finger or a ring sizer, but I have found that the size you start out with, isn’t always the size you end up with. Like take the 2 rings in the image above for example. I started making both of these on the size 12 mark, the thicker hemp ended up being a size 9 and the smaller hemp ended up being a size 9.5. That’s why I wanted a ring sizer.

These rings are specifically made without anything added, they are plain hemp rings. I would like to make the rings with beads, but the problem that I am facing is that the seed beads that I bought are too tiny for the hemp to go through. They are the perfect size on the outside, but their holes are way too small for the hemp. My purpose for wanting to use beads was so I could make rainbow hemp rings with beads.

I am not sure anyone will want to buy plain hemp rings, but I will list them in every size (after I have made them in every size with both thicknesses of course) and see what happens. If they sell then they sell, if they don’t then they don’t. I will keep searching for the right size beads so I can keep trying what I wanted to try in the first place.

The ring sizer mandrel only cost $3 with free shipping from Etsy from DarcusTori. It was a ridiculously low price with free shipping, but I figure I should take advantage while I still can. Supplies end up costing me a lot more money than I am getting in profit, so the less expensive everything is, the better it is for me to be able to continue making things that probably won’t sell lol.

Anyway, I want to see about getting some better beads and I will go from there. I think rings with rainbow colors would look awesome. I’m thinking that I may still get some use out of the beads that I have by beading them alone. Of course I will have to find a good pattern for beading now lol. Ugh so many crafts, so little time.

Earrings and Keychains Galore

On July 5, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Jewelry, Patriotic1 Comment

You know the story of when I first learned how to make keychains right? Do I have to go back down memory lane again? Oh alright, you twisted my arm.

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I could be wrong on the particular age, my parents would buy us kids crafts to keep us busy. We learned latch hook so we would make rugs that would end up on the wall for a very brief moment before they disappeared and nobody ever wondered where they went, or at least I didn’t anyway. I went into the Cub Scouts at age 9 and that was when I learned to make the keychains, but the very simple box one. I couldn’t even make the circular ones yet. I certainly didn’t know how to finish them because we would end up lighting the ends on fire and they would turn black. That was a hazard for a 9 year old to play with fire and to squash the burning plastic with their fingers lol.

I also learned plastic canvas crafts while in the Cub Scouts and I learned how to tie dye a t-shirt at Salvation Army band camp when I was 12. When I was 17 I learned to make friendship bracelets and when I was 18 I learned to crochet, knit and embroider.

Since then my craft has certainly evolved, unfortunately so has the pain which caused carpal tunnel syndrome. I have my good days and bad days, but mainly I just work on the keychains and earrings whenever I get the chance.

I started making the Rainbow DNA plastic lanyard earrings recently based on the actual keychains of which I have even made several different styles and color combinations. I was looking at a keychain and thinking, this would look great on an earring, but on a smaller scale, and here I am now. The 2nd pair of earrings that I made are a bit more patriotic to match the patriotic DNA lanyard keychain that I have made.

So I’m having fun making them and really, isn’t that what life is all about? Doing what you love and having fun doing it. I think it is. I love the keychains, and I just adore the earrings to match and I think you will too. So check them out and let me know how you like them.

The keychains are $3.50, the earrings are $5 and the shipping is $2.00 and .25 cents for each additional item in your order. My Etsy shop is called GayNerd.

My Nook Observations and Irritations

On September 4, 2010 By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gadgets, Nook, Products I LikeLeave a comment

I finally did it! I finally bought a Barnes & Noble Nook last night. It didn’t take me very long to figure out how it works but here are my observations and irritations.

I bought the first Sookie Stackhouse novel and at first I was put off by the fact that swiping the touchscreen wasn’t working but I finally got it to work and now it works all the time. Sometimes I accidentally brush my finger on it and it turns the page lol. Oops.

I was reading this morning and my dog came to me to pick her up so I sat the Nook down on my desk and when I went to pick it up again I couldn’t turn the page. It was frozen. And that happened to me a few times last night but I didn’t understand why.

My observation from that irritation is that instead of setting it down, I’m gonna have to turn it off with that metal power button on the top and watch it go into screen saver mode then lay it down. When I pick it back up it I have to push the power button again.

I was playing with the Sudoku game last night and having fun actually but sometimes if I pushed the arrow button on the touchscreen on the left side it goes to the menu and I’m forced to start a new game or go into the menu. I think that if I just go into the menu then go back to the game it might continue but that wasn’t the case for me. And when the nook shut down completely when I turned it back on, it erased my game completely forcing me to start over. HOW IRRITATING!

I probably won’t be playing it that often because of that very reason.

It seems to freeze on me a lot and at first I started to think that I may have gotten a defective one but what are the odds that I would get a defective one? I always seem to think that an electronic is defective so I return it for another and it shows the same sign of defectiveness. I don’t want to have to go all that way back to B&N just to suffer the same pains especially if that’s normal for the Nook.

When you are in your B&N library you can choose to see the little covers on the bottom to choose a book to read or you can just push the arrows up or down to choose a book. Although it’s faster to choose from the book covers. However, when you have put your own books in the Nook via the USB cable, you don’t get that option. There are no little book covers. I kind of figured that it wouldn’t show them but that’s fine, I don’t care.

I do like being able to highlight a word or type out a note but unfortunately when you go to highlight things, if it’s down at the bottom you have to push that bottom arrow and it can take forever. That’s one thing that impressed me with the Sony that you could use the stylus to tap on the word but unfortunately the touchscreen makes it hard to read books. Typing is a bit of a chore too because my fingers are so fat that I can’t even see if the letter lit up or not when I press it so I’m constantly having to look up at the e-ink to make sure I pressed it lol. I definitely need a stylus.

I also bought the King James version of the Holy Bible because you never know when you’re gonna need it. Unfortunately, navigation is a biotch. When you go to a book it shows links for all the chapters. If you want chapter 1 then perfect, it’s on that same page but if you want chapter 21 then you gotta push the arrow button twenty million times to get all the way down to 21. Ok so twenty million is an exaggeration but you know what I mean.

Once you finally get to your chapter you just have to turn the page to the verse you want. That’s a good time to bookmark it for when you are at church and you are supposed to turn to that page. You can just wake up the Nook and go to your bookmarks.

Highlighting is kind of a bitch if you are highlighting something at the bottom of the page because as with finding the bible chapter you have to press the arrow button many times to get to it before you can start selecting the text. When you do go to select the text you can highlight it and you have the choice of writing a note or just hitting submit.

Unfortunately, and this is an irritation, you can’t look up your highlighted notes from the beginning of the book. The only way you will be able to find that note is by making a bookmark. The Nook for PC software allows you to find all your notes. I don’t know about the Nook software for other devices such as iPhone, iPad, blackberry etc.

Despite my irritations, I’m glad that I bought it because now I can enjoy reading books that I would otherwise have to read on my computer monitor which is not very comfortable on my eyes or my back.

When Playing Becomes Scaring

On January 16, 2009 By Michel McDonaldIn PetsLeave a comment

I have a 3lb Chihuahua. She likes to play. She LOVES to play. I was holding her and blew on her neck, you know like when you blow on a baby’s stomach and it makes a farting sound and it makes them giggle. Well, I can tell when she’s laughing because she starts sneezing and, well, I can tell. And so I kept doing it and she thought it was funny, she was having fun. Then I did it on her side and all of a sudden she got real serious and PEED on me.

I don’t know what’s wrong with her. Whenever I’m playing with her I kiss her and stuff but whenever my face goes anywhere near her side all of a sudden she gives me this look of horror and starts peeing on me. It’s like she’s scared all of a sudden that she thinks I’m gonna just start chowing down on her. As if, she only weighs 3lbs, she barely has any meat on her at all.

We’ve had her for a year, don’t you think that by now if we were going to eat her we would’ve eaten her already? What’s up with that? I mean it’s not like we’re fattening her up to prepare her for Thanksgiving dinner, I mean, Thanksgiving has already passed. LOL. Poor thing. I really love her, she’s so cute and so funny but… I don’t want to eat her.

New Crafts

On December 15, 2008 By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I haven’t been able to do crafts since around November or December 2007 because my hands would get numb and I would even feel some pain when crocheting in my wrists so I was forced to give it up. Not too long after that I was diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome after harping on my doctor every time I went 3 visits in a row. He told me it’s probably carpel tunnel but sent me to a neurologist to get a proper diagnosis.

Ever since then I haven’t been able to do any crafts at all. I’ve had to wear wrist straps every night to bed which helps for some strange reason. Also not doing any crafts helped too. I still type because I don’t feel that I can use voice recognition because when I do talk my voice is carried into the living room so nothing is private.

Since I haven’t been doing ANY form of crafts I’ve been going nuts. Last week I picked up a crochet hook and some yarn and started crocheting. I’ve actually done a good amount of a new blanket. I went looking in my closet to see if I had more of the avocado color but instead I found these embroidery Christmas stockings that were given to me last year that I knew I couldn’t do. I gave 1 a chance and so for the last 2 evenings I’ve been working on it and I have to say it’s not as hard as I thought they would be. I’m actually having fun with it.

My left hand has been getting numb while holding it and my right hand was getting a little bit of pain here and there and so when I get the numbness and pain I stop for a while. This stocking obviously will not be finished within the next week and half so I’m going to just keep working on it at my own pace and hopefully it will be done by next year.

There are 3 stockings (below) and I would eventually like to have them all done but I gotta do baby steps here lol. 1 at a time for now.