Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

On July 22, 2014 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Daily Blog, Etsy, Health, Hobby5 Comments

I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in 2007 after 20 years of crocheting started to take its toll on my hands. I didn’t just have it in one hand, I have it in both hands. I was given wrist splints to wear at night when I went to bed. I was told I didn’t have to wear them during the day, that they should help me when I sleep. Okay, no problem. I’ve worn them every night since then up until last year when I stopped using my bipap machine for my sleep apnea because I didn’t need it anymore because I had lost 70lbs. Wearing the bipap mask became uncomfortable because suddenly the pressure was too high.

I wore these wrist splints faithfully for 6 years from 2007 to 2013. They did help and last year I started making keychains and opened an Etsy shop. Since then I have added dangle, hoop and stud earrings and hemp and friendship bracelets. I received an order for 8 tassels for a company who makes purses, then they placed another order for 34 tassels and that took a huge toll on my hands. Someone else ordered 60 rainbow keychains. I made 36 of those and had to stop because it was hurting too much. She wanted them for her June wedding which apparently has been pushed back to November. That gives me more time to finish the rest of them, but I’m not quite sure they will follow through with buying them from me. I’ve had several people place a custom order and then not pay for it.

I’ve been working day and night making friendship bracelets over the last week. I really love making things. I don’t know if it is a gift or a curse. A gift that I can make something wonderful out of raw material with just my hands, but a curse that something I love to do can cause so much pain.

The pain is just too much on my hands. I wake up every morning with painfully numb hands and this morning my right hand was still numb for an hour after I woke up, and it was extremely painful. I put my wrist splint on and the pain and numbness eventually went away, but I am going to continue wearing the wrist splint for the rest of the day and perhaps wear it every day and night while I take a rest. I hope that helps.

Here are just a few things that I’ve been making. I am very proud of the hard work that have been doing that is ruining my hands lol.

I had all these plans for the camouflage bracelets. I bought the different colors to make a red version and a blue version. I also had planned on buying the different shades of brown to make a brown one. People have suggested I go with a complete rainbow and make orange, yellow and purple camouflage bracelets. I can’t see that happening now.

The rainbow braid bracelet on the bottom is actually a bracelet I wanted to make for a very long time for a specific person. I actually wanted to make 2 of them, and I made this yesterday and last night I started a second one. I listed it just because it was very easy to make and if someone ordered it, well I could make another one. But now I’m not so sure about that. I do still plan on giving this one and the other one away to the specific people just because I like to give people gifts.

Well, that’s all for now I guess. Today is the first day of my new vacation from crafting. I love what I do, so I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to stay away from it. It’s addicting for sure lol. I will try though, because my hands are more important to me than making something that no one will appreciate or even buy even though they asked for it.

New Toys/Tools

On March 18, 2014 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Etsy, JewelryLeave a comment

rainbow friendship bracelet

I have been making keychains for my Etsy shop for nearly a year now. I have many different types of jewelry for sale, like stud earrings, hoop earrings, heart-shaped hoop earrings, hemp bracelets, hemp chokers, beaded necklaces and then the many different styles of lanyard keychains.

The one thing that I have wanted to make is something that I learned when I was 17 years old when I was homeless believe it or not. I was actually staying with a friend and her family and my friend’s sister taught me how to make these. I bought a few skeins of the embroidery floss, which by the way I still have. Unfortunately, this style you see in the picture was the only thing that I learned to make oh so many years ago.

This style isn’t what I will be making for my Etsy shop, perhaps it will be many months before I even list anything because I want to learn to make the bracelets so they look a bit more professional than something I threw together. If I’m going to ask people to pay me money for them, I want them to get their moneys worth.

I bought the “My Friendship Bracelet Maker” and the “My Lanyard Maker” from MyFBM.com.

Okay so these are just a few of the patterns that I want to make and sell on Etsy. “Just a few.”

I have already started making bracelets. It is a huge learning process and takes lots of patience and practice, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Here are just a few of the things I have made so far.

The pink one on the left is the zipper pattern which I made with the My Lanyard Maker. That is the main reason I bought that one. I know how to make the keychains without the toy, and perhaps I may make keychains with it in the future, but I personally feel it’s a lot faster to make them by hand. I mainly wanted to use that one for making the lanyards that are like necklaces as well as bracelets. It is difficult to do those by hand because if you let go of it once, it will unravel. You have to keep making it until it’s finished if you do it by hand which I can’t do with my carpal tunnel syndrome. I have to constantly put the project down and shake my hands out because they get numb. I do love the zipper pattern and I used the gimp that is more like spaghetti noodles rather than the flat, but I was asked to make that pattern using the flat kind, so I will find out if that even works.

The one in the middle which is still on the “My Friendship Bracelet Maker” is a work in progress, but nearly finished. I made the one next to it that is missing the purple first because this thing only has 10 slots and if I used all 6 colors, I would need 12 slots. Well, it looks okay, but I’d rather have all 6 colors. I am still going to give the one that is missing the purple away as a gift though. But you can see how loose that is compared to the one with the purple in it, and the reason for that is that I wasn’t making them tight enough. I was doing the knots, but I wasn’t trying to be perfect, I was just trying to make it. That one took me 2 hours to make, the one I am currently working on has taken twice as long and it’s not even halfway done. I think perfection takes longer lol. I do like it to be as tight as it can be.

The one on the far right is the BFF Mini Heart pattern. I chose that pattern because it was in the beginners patterns and I loved how it looked. I failed miserably in the beginning stages, you can’t see it but the first 3 hearts are a mangled mess because I didn’t quite understand the directions, but once I figured it out, it got better. It was as loose as the rainbow one that was missing the purple up until the middle when I started paying more attention to how tight I was making it. I would love to make another one to see if I can make a better one, but I’m thinking one with pink and black instead. I think that would look cool.

Anyway, like I said, it may take months before I list anything because I want to learn as much as I can. I have a bucket filled with beads which I can use to with these bracelets. I also have a LOT, and I mean a lot of embroidery floss that I can use to make these bracelets with. I’ve held onto all that floss just in case the day ever came that I might want to use them, and that day has finally come.

Friendship Bracelets and Lanyards

On March 10, 2014 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, EtsyLeave a comment

ClipBoard_FrontPage1 LanyardMaker_FrontPage1

I am very excited right now because I just bought 2 cool tools that I have wished to own for a long time but never could afford to buy them. I bought them at the website TheFriendshipFactory.com. The Friendship Bracelet Maker Clip Board was only $14.99 and the Lanyard Maker was $29.99, but I used the coupon code BFF and saved 20% off my order of $40 or more and saved $9. With shipping, my total was $39.97.

I have been making keychains for my Etsy Store and there are a couple of patterns people have asked me to make that I just couldn’t make and now I can with the lanyard maker. I could literally make them now, but it is so much easier with this tool. Okay so the one thing in particular people are asking for is a lanyard that wraps around your neck like a necklace for holding an ID badge or bus pass, but more specifically an electronic cigarette. The patterns that I am going to learn will also make bracelets, so I can literally make more than a few things that people want me to make, not just the few things I am currently capable of making.

The My Lanyard Maker will also make it easier to pull the strands tight when making a keychain. I have been pulling them way too tight which I think looks good, but that’s my opinion and I’m sure it would look just as good if it weren’t so tight, and perhaps it will take me less time to make them if I am not trying to pull them too tight.

So here are the few patterns that I can make as lanyards and/or bracelets with the My Lanyard Maker.

zipper chain link corkscrew ridgeback square knot twisted chain link

These use the tubular material, I think they are called noodle, but I am going to try using what I have, but if what I have doesn’t work then I guess I will have to add to my collection of supplies lol. I would prefer not to spend any more money though lol. I like all of these, so I look forward to what they will look like.

I learned to make friendship bracelets when I was homeless at 17 and was couching it at a friends parents house. Well, I don’t know the technical term, I was sleeping on someone’s couch, hence the term couching it lol. Anyway, we tied the embroidery floss to a safety-pin that we pinned onto the knee of our pants and went from there, but it always tore a hole in my jeans at the knee so that is why I stopped doing it. You could use a clipboard, but does a clipboard have slots for you to rest your floss in numbered slots? I think not! I guess you could improvise, but screw it, I want this gadget.

Stripe_Thumb This is the basic pattern that I learned and the only pattern that I was ever interested in making because all the rest were beyond my brain capacity.

The website MyFBN has so many more interesting patterns that I would much rather make, and they have full written instructions as well as video instructions for some of their patterns. Who wants a plain old stripe pattern when you can wow your friends with hearts for Valentine’s Day, or Ghosts, Bats and pumpkins for Halloween as well as turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas trees for Christmas? Yes, you can literally make a cool bracelet for every occasion.

I have been making the keychains nonstop for nearly a year now and it is time to switch gears to give my fingers a rest because they are literally cracking and splitting because this work dries my fingers out so much you wouldn’t even believe. I have to slather Vaseline on my hands at bedtime to put moisture back into my hands and heal those cracks. It’s unpleasant to say the least. I’m going to start wearing leather gloves to protect them when I work.

So anyway, look forward to some new items in my Etsy store in the coming months.

My Keychain and Earring Colors

On December 6, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Etsy, Hobby, Jewelry2 Comments

I will accept any custom orders for keychains, keychain dangle earrings and stud earrings and here are the colors that I have.

Notes:

The gold that I have isn’t shiny like the gold you see in the picture.
The patriotic has 2 sides, one side the red on the top is bright, but the other side it is dark so for studs there are 2 choices, dark or bright.
The Neon Orange is kind of translucent.
I am out of Rose, but more is on the way.

Brands:

Creatology Bought at Michael’s: Red, Neon Orange, Goldenrod, Neon Green, Neon Blue, Royal Blue, Neon Purple, White, Clear
Pepperell Rexlace Bought at KwikCrafts.com: Neon Red, Orange, Neon Orange, Neon Yellow, Apple Green, Kelly Green, Baby Blue, Lavender, Neon Purple, Rose, Pink, Hot Pink, Gold, Tie Dye, Glow in the Dark, Silver Sparkles, Black

Here is an image of all of these colors in their spools.

Here is an example of some of the colors that I have worked with. Here is the rainbow keychain with red, neon orange, goldenrod, neon green, baby blue, purple and clear, black or white in the middle and clear on the outside. Here is also the matching dangle earrings with the same colors.

I have also made the rainbow earrings with white and black in the DNA style.

Here is the Red, White and Blue patriotic stud earrings so you can see how that looks, you can also see that I have the ability to make them with plastic studs or stainless steel which are both hypoallergenic.

Finally here is what the Tie Dye looks like with Glow in the Dark in the middle. Of course you can’t actually see it glow in this picture, and the glow in the dark is from an old roll that I bought many years ago, it’s not the new glow in the dark that I have not yet gotten. Of course this one is not for sale, but if someone did want me to make one to buy, I could make the color in the middle any color you wanted. I cut the fringe really short with this one because it curled up way too much. I made this one in the crinkle cut fry style because I wanted to be able to see the it glow and I wasn’t sure it would be as visible in the DNA style.

Lego Maniac

On August 19, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

Lego’s were my babysitter when I was a child. You could literally put me in a room with a bunch of Lego’s and leave for a couple of hours and come back and I would still be in the same spot building with my plastic bricks. I have such an emotional connection with Lego’s so it’s no surprise that when they came out with video games, even as an adult I was attracted to them.

I can remember when I first discovered the Lego video games. We were in a Game Stop at the mall and I was going through their games looking for a new game and I found Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. The clerk told me that in June that year, which was 2008, Lego was coming out with a new game called Lego Indiana Jones. Naturally I had to pre-order it. When I did get it, it came with a free t-shirt which I wore all the time. I wore it so much that it is a bit faded and it has many holes in it. It’s been retired and is hanging in my closet.

The next game was Lego Batman, which I naturally pre-ordered and it was released in September of the same year. I got a Robin keychain.

Lego Indiana Jones 2 came out in 2009, but I didn’t buy it. Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 came out in 2010 and I did pre-order it and bought it, but I don’t recall getting something for free. Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars came out in 2011, but I didn’t buy it, but in May 2011 Lego Pirates of the Caribbean came out and I did pre-order and buy that one. Finally Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 came out in November 2011 but I did not buy it.

My reasons for not buying some of the Lego games weren’t because I didn’t want to play with them, but more because I couldn’t afford to keep buying new games at their high prices. I figured I would wait for them to go down in price, or until I had a gift card.

I have been doing surveys with e-rewards.com for many years and have gotten a lot of games for my PSP with Game Stop gift cards from e-rewards. In fact, 90% of the games that I do own are from doing surveys. Surveys have helped keep me gaming for many years, but for some reason they stopped coming, and when they did come again, I wasn’t interested in doing them anymore out of boredom.

Recently I decided to do some new surveys and realized I had $60 in my e-rewards account which was more than enough to get a new gift card for Game Stop. Unfortunately they raised the cost of the reward from $50 to $75 for a $25 gift card. I’ve been doing surveys every day since then so I could have $75 in my account so I could get my gift card and I finally did.

We went to the Game Stop at the Valley Plaza yesterday and unfortunately, they don’t carry PSP games anymore. The guy said that if I wanted PSP games, I would have to visit their Rosedale store or the East Hills mall. Bollocks!

I recently got a $35 gift card from Amazon for advertising on my blog so I decided to buy Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. I decided to go to GameStop.com with my $25 Game Stop gift card and I bought the 2 remaining Lego games that I was missing. When those come, I will have all 8 Lego games for the PSP. I got free shipping with my order of $25 or more, and it was more. With taxes it came to $30.07 so all I had to pay out-of-pocket (or out of debit card lol) was 5.07.

I have been playing Lego Star Wars III and I do love it. I believe I am 10% in the game now.

I love the Lego games and I can’t wait to play the new ones.

Earrings for Men

On July 17, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Etsy, Hobby, NoomLeave a comment

I’ve been so focused on making the keychains and keychain style earrings for women that I totally forgot that I actually wanted to make earrings for men so I could make some for myself. I finally figured out how to make the studs out of the plastic lanyard “gimp” by only making a couple of stitches before gluing them and sticking them to plastic studs.

This is the pair that I made for myself, I made another pair to sell. When I was a kid, my parents bought me a pair of Vans with the black and white checkered pattern and for some reason I’ve been a fan of the checkered pattern ever since. I made one in every color, except for orange because when I mix the orange with black, the orange is translucent so it turns brown. It’s not pretty. So I have red, yellow, green, blue, purple and white with black. I made them in all those colors to sell, but I will be making myself one in each color.

I also have a pair in silver and a pair in gold. The silver is a solid silver ribbon with a mirror finish in clear gimp. The gold is different though in the sense that it looks gold, but it’s sparkly. When you look at it and tilt it, you see the little color spots seem to change color with the lighting. I honestly don’t know how else to explain it. I would have liked to have bought some solid gold like the solid silver with the mirror finish, but they didn’t have any. They had the same type of silver as the gold, but I wanted solid silver.

These studs aren’t just for the studs, ladies can wear them too, of course. I also have the Breast Cancer Awareness pink color in solid pink, pink and white and pink and black. Anyone can wear those actually. You don’t have to be a woman to wear them, you can be a man who wears them in solidarity, or whatever reason you have for wanting to wear them.

I am quite proud of my ability to make these earrings. I have listed them on Etsy for a mere $3 a pair. I didn’t want to ask too much for these earrings because I am not a professional, these are just a hobby and the only reason I am selling them is to help pay for a new bicycle so I can start losing more weight with Noom. Which reminds me, I’m going to make some solid green earrings for myself for when I start riding my future bike.

So to respond to the men who have asked for earrings, here you go. If you would like a specific color combination, there is a link in every pair of earrings listed for requesting a custom color. Just tell me know which two colors you would like and I will make them.

Help Me Exercise

On July 9, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Exercise, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

I have been riding my bicycle for years for exercise because I have a bad back which causes excruciating pain when I walk. It’s just easier on my back to sit down. I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease in my lower spine, but since then the pain has gone higher, near the top of my spine. I have recently had new x-rays on my back and those x-rays will tell the doctor whether I need to have another MRI done or not so that I can finally get something done about it. I have already lost 70lbs with diet alone, but I feel that by not exercising because I don’t have a bicycle to exercise with, I am probably not just losing fat, but also muscle tissue and I don’t want that to happen, so that’s why exercise is crucial to helping me in my weight loss journey with Noom.

Since I had my accident a few months ago that resulted in a broken arm, I haven’t been able to ride my bike. It’s not because of the accident, but because of my back tire. See, it was constantly going flat even though there wasn’t a hole in the tube, so I bought a no mor flat hard rubber tube for it and I couldn’t install it and I think trying to install it I might have made things worse. The damage that no mor flat tube caused will end up costing me $30 for a new tire and $30 for a new rim, or more. Well, my bike was only $60 to begin with and I have sunk far too much money into it and it’s old now so I would rather just start fresh with a new bike.

The bike that I want to buy (image above) is from Target.com for $125, although that is a temporary price reduction, by the time I have the money saved it will go up to $140, so that is why I am asking for help to pay for it. I’m not asking for a handout, but simply asking if people bought a keychain or a pair of earrings on my Etsy store. Whatever I make on Etsy will help me buy a new bicycle. I already have half of the money, I just need the other half.

Below are my keychains and earrings and I am making more everyday. The earrings are only $5 and the keychains are only $3.50 because I don’t feel right about asking for any more than that. I always feel bad about asking for money, so that’s why I am selling these so cheap. They literally take a couple of hours to make, so I am working hard for the few dollars I am asking for and also risking damage to my hands because I have carpal tunnel syndrome.

So if you find something that you like, please help me out and if you would like a specific color combination let me know and I will make it. I have the following colors available. Red, translucent orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, clear, translucent blue and translucent pink. Thank you for reading.

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.

I’m not a one trick pony after all

On May 2, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I have been playing around with my lanyard (or gimp) material a lot over the last week. I thought there were only 2 styles, the square and the round. Well, a friend told me on Facebook to try the triangle pattern which uses 3 colors. I never even knew it was possible to use not just 3 colors, but only 3 strands. She sent me to “Laneyards” on YouTube and I’ve been watching a lot of his videos and have discovered so many different patterns that I never even knew existed until now.

So I put all of the images on my crafts page in the Lanyard Keychains section. I made some keychains with the Mega Lace, I made a pretzel, I made a long wall stitch with the Mega Lace, there are some imperfections in it because I had to add more of the clear gimp because I didn’t have enough, but it doesn’t matter because it was just for practice. Then today I just added the ones you see in this post. The one on the bottom is the brick stitch in a circular pattern and the one above that is the wall stitch in a circular pattern. Of course they were just practice. They are small because I used scrap gimp to make them. I’m out of all of my gimp now so if I want to make more, I’ll have to take a trip to Michael’s, which I will do tomorrow.

I never knew I had it in me. I really think these are so cool. Of course, I don’t know what I’m going to do with any of them lol. My next trick will be a rainbow wall in a circular pattern. I honestly don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but I’m going to try it anyway.

I am also going to make many awareness ribbons for many causes that I support. There are too many to list, and most likely I will have a keychain of only cause ribbons that I won’t be able to keep on my keychain, because if I did, they’d never fit in my pocket lol. Of course I can put one on my keychain at a time during that awareness month. Either way, I’m going to be very busy making lots of ribbons with the simple circular stitch, bending it to make a circle, then attaching it to the other side to make it into a ribbon, then continuing with a few more stitches to finish it off.

My hands seem to be doing fine with the stretching and pulling of the gimp. I had to stop crocheting after 20+ years because of my carpal tunnel syndrome, so perhaps if I can make these keychains, I might be able to crochet again. Maybe… we’ll see.

Mega Lace Lanyard

On April 29, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Noom2 Comments

I recently blogged about the lanyard keychains that I’ve been making out of boredom, and I also mentioned the thicker lace. I said I didn’t make anything out of the thicker lace because it was too difficult to work with, but yesterday I decided to give it a shot and I actually love working with it more than the regular gimp if you can believe that.

So I have 4 different colors. There are the 3 you see in the image above, the orange with black patterned, the green with spots and the solid black behind it all. The black was already cut up to make a keychain and not wound up. There is a 4th color, but I don’t have a roll of it, instead what you see is what I used in the keychain in the picture above between the 2 rolls.

I couldn’t start with a key ring, but I knew that once I was finished, I could slip a key ring into the bottom. I just started making the keychain the same way I would make it with the regular gimp and it turned out great. I decided to make a green and black one, but I went a bit overboard and made it really long. My partner told me that he didn’t like the orange because he sees it as fluorescent and he hates fluorescent colors, so I gave him the green and black, but it was too long for him.

As we were driving home from the doctor’s office today, it was hanging from his car keys which were in the ignition, and the end of the keychain was tickling his leg lol. I made him a smaller one so it doesn’t do that. I didn’t make it as long as the orange and blue one because I didn’t want to make it too long, but it’s nearly the same length, but short enough that it won’t bother him while he’s driving. I hope…

I really like how they look. They aren’t too thin like the regular lace, or gimp. They actually fit in the palm of my hand and is comfortable enough to hold my keys from the keychain instead of just holding the keys in my hand. Not that it would matter how I hold my keys, but it just feels good holding. I just like how they look in general.

Of course I am using the long green and black, green for Noom. What will I do with the orange and blue one? Well, I guess it will go with the rest of the keychains that I am making for no reason lol.

Making these is really fun and I’m glad that I am finally using something that I bought many years ago instead of letting it collect dust in a drawer. I just wish that I knew how cool the mega lace was when I bought them instead of thinking that they were a waste of money. Better late than never, eh?

Xanapus` Lair

Tag: keychain

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

New Toys/Tools

Friendship Bracelets and Lanyards

My Keychain and Earring Colors

Lego Maniac

Earrings for Men

Help Me Exercise

Earrings and Keychains Galore

I’m not a one trick pony after all

Mega Lace Lanyard

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