Olymic Crafting: Team USA Stretch Bracelets

Last night, I looked around at all of the clutter that surrounds me in my tiny apartment, and got fed up. I ended up staying awake until 4 o'clock in the morning; moving light furniture, cleaning out boxes that hadn't been unpacked since we moved a year ago, and throwing away scraps of things that I had been keeping "just in case." Let me tell you, there has only been one time that I've been thankful that I hung on to something so I could use it in another project. Most of the time, I never do use the scraps. All those scraps do is take up space and keep me from finding things that I actually have plans for.

Anyway, I'm sure you know what I mean! I can't be the only person who feels that way from time to time.

While I was organizing, I found some blister packs of beads that a friend had given me a long time ago. (And I do mean a long time ago.... At least 4 years ago!) Beading was probably the first hobby I took up, and I've been doing it since I was about 8 years old. I don't do a lot of the fancy projects that you'll find in Bead and Button, but I do like stringing some beads onto elastic and calling it a day. It's the kind of instant-gratification project that's just perfect for any schedule.

One of the blister packs was this pretty pearlescent glass bead assortment:

 

I knew I wanted to make something for the Olympic Games, so I took inventory of the rest of my beads to see what I could make. Originally, I wanted to use the 5 colors in the Olympic rings, but I just didn't have the right colors for it. Looking again, I decided that I should focus on supporting Team USA, so I made some stretch bracelets using the red, white, and dark blue pearlescent beads.

This isn't a great picture of them, but when you take pictures in an artificially lit room they don't always look very good. I made two different styles of bracelet: two in red, white, and blue, changing colors frequently, and three done in blocks of red, white, and blue.

Want to participate in the fun? Here's the details for my bracelets so you can make your own.

Materials

• Seed beads in red, white, and blue ( The bead size is, unfortunately, not labeled, but my best guess is that that they might be around 8/0)
• Stretch Magic bead and jewelry cord, 1mm in diameter, 5 meter spool.
• Scissors

Since the shape of the bead is not consistent, the amount of beads needed per bracelet for me varied between 72 and 81 beads (I have a 6-inch wrist, and don't like my bracelets to have a lot of slack.) Each blister supposedly contains 5 grams of beads, and I still have enough beads for another bracelet, so you won't need a large packet of beads for this project.

Assembly

• Cut about 12 inches of stretchy cord from the spool. If needed, knot one end of the cord so that the beads won't fall off while you string them.
• For the alternating color bracelet, string beads in red, white, blue, red, white, blue, etc., until you have reached the desired length for your wrist.
• For the color block bracelet, take your wrist measurement and divide by 3. This will give you an idea of how many inches each color needs to be. For instance, my measurement of 6 inches divided by 3 tells me that I need to string just slightly over 2 inches of each color in order to get something that will fit comfortably on my wrist.
• Once you have enough beads on the cord to fit appropriately on your wrist, tie the ends of the cord together in a double knot (or more knots if you wish), trim the ends, and wear proudly!

Go Team USA! I'll be on vacation until Tuesday and even though I'll have internet access, I might not be able to post until I get back. I have another Olympic-themed jewelry craft idea, so hopefully I can get that posted soon after I get back!

Dungeons of Dredmor

Dungeons of Dredmor is a dungeon crawler by Gaslamp Games. The appearance of the game reminds me of 90s-era Square Enix, when they were making such memorable games as Chrono Trigger (yes, I know they were called just Square back then.)

The way you play is similar to NetHack, by which I mean you explore the dungeon floors, loot chests, and fight monsters - but be careful! Those monsters can kill you.

Of course, there is always the option to turn off perma-death so you can reload your character and continue on your merry way.

The above picture shows the male character you can create, but there is also a female version with fiery Merida-like hair (and giant eyebrows, just like the male version.) When naming them, it's best not to give them a name that you might get attached to, because s/he will die. A lot. Even with perma-death turned off, it can be frustrating.

Dungeons of Dredmor doesn't have classes, per se, but they do offer 39 skills, of which you can choose 7 for your character. Mark likes to create combinations that synergize well with each other. I like to click the random button and get to hackin'-and -slashin'.

While I love this game as a quick time-filler, for some reason it really eats up the resources on our computers to boot it up. Why does a pixelated sprite need so many resources? Regardless, once it's running then it's fine, but I found that aspect to be somewhat annoying.

Mark originally bought this game for himself, but I hijacked it from him during work because I was bored. He bought it on Steam while the Summer Sale was going on, but unfortunately the sale ended on the 22nd. The good news is that the game is only $5.00 regularly, and for an additional $2.49 you can get Dungeons of Dredmor and its expansion, Relm of the Diggle Gods. This is why I love indie games - you can't beat those prices.

That One Guy

Surely I'm not the only one who has experienced this? The one guy who, when you see that you two are scheduled for the same shift, makes you groan to yourself. He (or she) probably doesn't ruin your life, or even your day, but that brief period at work is less enjoyable just because that person is around.

That One Guy is might be someone who always has a problem that no one could ever understand and there's no solution to it, so don't even try to be rational because she doesn't want to hear it. Or That One Guy might be the rude person who keeps making jokes at the expense of others and doesn't realize he is the only one laughing. That One Guy might even be a sort of "holier than thou" kind of guy: the only one who knows how to do anything around here and is always "doing you a favor."

Yeah. Being rude to me is really doing me a favor.

Fortunately for me, this is the kind of guy I can forget pretty easily between shifts. I couldn't at first, as my husband will tell you, but eventually I got to where I could get over him like I get over colds: with lots of rest and relaxation. (Occasionally a stiff drink was needed in the beginning also.)

Tonight was my last night of work for good - or at least until well after the baby is born. It was a pretty ordinary night, save the fact that I had to work with That One Guy. But you know what? I don't have to do that ever again. And that, my friends, is awesome.

Letter to the Baby, part 2

Dear Baby,

Last night at work was really painful. I don't know how much was you and how much was me pushing myself to get my walk done, but let's both take it easy tonight, okay?

You want to see The Dark Knight Rises tomorrow afternoon? Maybe have a piece of pizza? I think that sounds like fun.

Love,
Mommy

Eisley in St. Louis

On July12th, my husband and I jumped in the car to head to a dumpy little bar in Saint Louis to watch one of my favorite bands, Eisley.

What I love most about this group is their sound. It's a very whimsical, unique sound that you won't find in mainstream music. What's also unique about this group is a sort of Carter-family-esque appeal...yes, all of the musicians are related to each other. In fact, they're brother and sisters, with the bassist being the odd cousin out. Because the girls are sisters and singers, they have an incredible blend that is tough to match by other popular music groups out right now. It's incredible how much their albums sound just like their real sound. No boxes necessary. I adore that about them.

Most of their set consisted of songs from their third album, The Valley, sprinkled in with a few selections from their first album (Room Noises) and the new EP Deep Space. The third album is definitely my favorite album yet, so I was ecstatic to hear all of my favorite songs.


The only bad thing about the show was that part of the sound board started to cut in and out, which meant that there were times that you couldn't hear Sherri (far right) or Stacy (middle) singing at all. Not good when they are the lead singers. Like I said, the bar was definitely not in the best shape, so I imagine if the venue is patching the ceiling with plastic tarps, they probably can't afford to put any money in the sound board either. It obviously aggravated Sherri, who was acting as the front woman, and honestly it should have. When you work so hard on a concert and then the vocals don't work, that is unacceptable. At the same time I think she was just going to be unhappy anyway, as she made borderline rude comments throughout the concert directed at both the venue and the audience.  I think she meant to be funny, but instead the jokes fell flat.


I would definitely see them again if they happen to tour near me. I still love their sound - even when it's cutting out, even when some of them are short on sleep - and I hope that I do get to hear them live again.