She's Crafty! AKA: Duck... Duck... Duct Tape Wallet!

Hey! I just made a wallet… a duct tape wallet!

Here’s the back story: Rob’s wallet was looking gnarly, REALLY gnarly and he’s needed a new one for quite some time. So something made me say, “Hey honey, I’m gonna make you a duct tape wallet!” I was really just joking, but Rob thought it was a good idea but decided to make it himself because he had “ideas”. We went to Michael’s on Saturday to get the supplies. When we got home, I started looking up directions for it but didn’t find anything that was really good. On Sunday, Rob attempted to bring his ideas to fruition. He hit some snags and needed to go to work so he gave up on it.

Today, when we got home from going to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf after work, I decided that I wanted to take a stab at making a wallet. So I told Rob that I was going to do it and he mentioned a cool video on YouTube that he saw. He said it was the best tutorial that he’s seen so far so I decided to check it out. Well, it was pretty nifty! So I decided to use that as the basis for my wallet but of course, I made some adjustments.

Here are pics of my wallet, well, Rob’s wallet. He loves it! I was already in the middle of working on the pockets before I decided that I should’ve taken step by step pics for a blog post, but oh well. I think the few pics that I do have are awesome! 

...well, as awesome as they can be using a camera phone and not having the most optimum lighting conditions. 

This is the front.

This is the back... which pretty much looks like the front.

Ooh! Fancy innards!

Rob had this plastic photo thing in the old wallet that he wanted put in the new one. Voila! I attached it like a BOSS! Eventually, once I find my clear tape, I'm gonna patch that sucker up!

This is Rob, taking his stuff out of his old, bajankity wallet and putting it in his awesome, new, duct tape wallet!

Tears Of A Clown

Today was very odd. I didn’t feel well most of the day but I knew I had to buck it up because I had to get a biopsy (in my breast) today. Thankfully, I felt a little better after a late breakfast.  

So to get to the meat of the story: I was in the hospital gown waiting to be called for the biopsy and I found myself crying. The odd bit was that I wasn’t crying about having to have the procedure. What happened was, the place where I had to wait was a narrow hallway and I had to scoot my feet back a bit so no one would trip over them and it tweaked my knee enough to hurt a bit. This got me to thinking about how bad my quality of life has been since I had the accident around 10 years ago and how it sucked that I was never able to see a doctor about it to get my knees seen to.  And now it’s too late because all doctors see my knee pain as is a weight issue but I’m like, 

“No, I injured them. There must be something that can be done.”

“Lose some weight and things should get better.”

“Well, I did lose some weight, quite a bit in fact, and there was absolutely no change in my knees.”

Actually, that last sentence, I haven’t had the chance to say to any doctor yet. But I don’t feel hopeful that it’ll make any difference. I really wish I had been taken to the emergency room even if I had no money to pay for it. I would gladly be up to my eyeballs in debt right now if it meant that walking, sitting and generally anything knee-related didn't hurt like a motherfucker.

So yeah, that’s why I was crying at my biopsy appointment. I had to tell the nurse why I was crying so that she didn't think she had a hysterical, needle-fearing patient who was freaked out about possibly having cancer.

The biopsy itself went rather well… well, on my end because I didn’t have any pain at all except for in my arm for having to hold it up for so long. The doctor did have to go pretty deep with a long thick needle that made weird sounds and an even weirder thumping. Even now, I feel okay though they said I might have some pain and bruising and that I’ll have to take it easy for a couple of days.

I think I can manage that.

P.S. I know it's been a horribly long time since I've made any blog posts. I guess I'll talk more about that later. Maybe. 

Day Eighty-Nine -- Saturday In The Park

Today was pretty nice. Rob and I have started a new tradition of having Saturday breakfast in the park. It’s usually soup (or chili) and bread and orange juice. Also, it’s usually after 12 pm when we do it. All the prep and getting ready and shopping for the food takes up much of the morning. Rob usually brings along his tablet and his shinai. I usually bring a big purse filled with at least one book, at least one notebook, pens and a beading project so I have plenty of activity to choose from.

After spending an hour or two at the park, we then go to either Starbucks or The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for coffee, or as I had today, tea. There I usually do beadwork and Rob plays games or reads on his tablet. There might be an errand or two run, but we usually stay at the coffeehouse for the rest of the afternoon. Today, we went home a bit earlier than usual because we wanted to catch the earlier, east coast feed showing of Doctor Who.

We’ve been so excited waiting for this episode! Unfortunately, I calculated wrong and we got home in time to see that the early feed was already half way through. We decided not to watch it because we wanted to see the whole thing in sequence. Luckily, on the west coast feed, they were playing the last few episodes from before the break. We watched the last half of one then had to change the channel because I couldn’t bear to watch the final Amy and Rory episode. It was so sad and I loved those characters. During that time, I decided to check out Orphan Black. It was pretty suspenseful but I’m not too sure I really vibed with it. I might give it one more episode before deciding whether I’ll keep watching it or not.

Afterwards, we started watching the Christmas special which was terrific and the second episode that had the new companion in it, before actually being a companion, and towards the end, the channel started getting all wonky. It was glitching up mad like and we were hoping that it would right itself before the new episode. It didn’t. ARGGGGGHHHHH! Luckily, they were replaying it again on the eastern feed channel so we were able to see it unglitched. Of course, it was after I cursed the TV like you wouldn’t believe.

Tonight’s episode was SO fantastic and I was very right about a few things including the identity of the villain. That didn’t dampen my enjoyment of the episode one bit because there was still a whole load of the unexpected! That’s all I’ll say about the episode since it’s possible that this will be read by people who haven’t seen it yet. 

Day Eighty-Eight -- Last Night's WEC Meeting

Tonight we went to the WEC (Writer's Emporium Club)  meeting and it was so fun, I laughed so hard that I thought I would die from an embarrassing fart. Thankfully, no passing of gas happened. One thing I wrote last night that I’m really proud of was this exercise where Rob gave everyone a quote off of his Nexus 7 tablet and we would write a story or what have you from that. This is what I wrote. The quote, by Elizabeth I is in bold:

I know I am but mortal and so there wilst prepare myself for death whensoever it shall please god to send it.

And it is this I tell myself every time I don my armor and prepare for battle. As god decides when to deal my death, Goddess guides my hand in battle. Each time I lay my hand upon my sword, I feel her hand atop mine. It is she who gives me strength as I cut through flesh. Her fury blazes through my eyes and I am baptized by each drop of blod that splatters my face. The hot sweet blood of my adversaries rains upon my land, washing away the scourge they have placed upon it.

God may someday send death my way, but my Goddess will ensure that my body will rest atop a mountain of my slain enemies.

*   *   *

Even thought that was short, I really like how it turned out. I think I'll probably post some more things that I have written from past WEC meetings. It's too late right now and I'm so sleepy, so unfortunately, there's no fancy song lyrics/title in the title. Maybe next time...

Day Eighty-Seven -- CoolWay Flat Iron Review

7 am: I didn’t end up flat ironing my hair yesterday. I’m going to try to get that in. I really need to do something with my hair. It’s starting to look bajankety. I really want to get braids in but I don’t really have the time or the money at the moment (though I have something currently in the works towards making that happen).  I didn’t do a blog post yesterday either because what I did was either mind-numbingly boring or something that I can’t talk about just yet. Rob and I met up with some friends for a sort of planning meeting. That’s all I’ll say about that.  Oh, and about the “time stamp” at the beginning of this, I’m doing things a bit different today. I’m starting this blog in the morning and when things happen later on today, I’ll time stamp it as I write about it. We’ve got Writer’s Emporium Club tonight and so I’ll probably be home pretty late. Hmm, I don’t think I ever explained what that is before… that’s something to do for later today. I gotta go now because I have stuff to do.

Later, around 4-ish: So it took almost all day for me to flat iron my hair. Oh, and I washed it using my new ColorProof shampoo and Conditioner. I didn't use the leave in, because I wanted to see my results using the cream and spray that came with the flat iron. The new Coolway flat iron wasn’t quite hot enough for my extra course hair. I think what I’ll end up doing is using it for smoothing after pressing. I also need to try it out with more oil in my hair. Using just the shine oil, which is more like silicone than an actual oil, leaves my hair puffy and not as straight as good ol’ “grease”.  Here are some pictures:

This was taken after I dried my hair with the hair dryer. There was a cream and spray that came with the flat iron that's supposed to prime your hair for ironing with low heat. I didn't like the results, it made my hair feel dry and crispy. Even though this is often the case when I blow dry my hair, I was hoping that with this stuff it wouldn't be. Next time, I may use the spray but I'll also use a leave in conditioner of some sort. Also, I'm thinking I may do what I've been doing recently which is just twisting or braiding my hair to stretch it out and just let it dry on its own  how ever long it takes or overnight

. 

This one is after I flat ironed it. As you can see, my hair isn't as straight as it could be. I've just resigned myself to the fact that my hair is just too coarse and that if I want my hair to look sleek and straight, I'm going to need high heat. I might continue to use the Coolway flat iron for smoothing after using a pressing comb, or for styling. 

This is another view of my hair after using the flat iron. here you can really see that it doesn't really smooth my hair at all and all the shine oil treatment in the world couldn't make it look shiny in this case. 

 This is my hair after using the pressing comb. I couldn't find the hair grease so that it is not as silky straight as I'd like. And by this time, I had been working all day on my hair and frankly, I was pretty sick of it. I will probably go back over it with a quick comb tomorrow or Saturday, depending on how I feel. 

This last one is a pic of me once I had gone outside under better light. We were on our way to my eye exam appointment. Rob likes that it's so pink. I prefer a richer red.  That may be neither here nor there though because I got my mom to agree to do my hair for my birthday! I'm getting braids thankfully. I think my hair needs a rest. I think I'll keep them in at least a year. By that, I don't mean the same braids but as soon as I take one set out, I'll put another in. Nothing helps me keep my length more than putting it up in braids. It also helps getting ready to go out be much quicker. Now I just gotta decide how long I want the braids to be. At the same time, I'm thinking about researching different styles and maybe get something different this time.

Day Eighty-Five -- Too Bootylicious For Ya Babe...

So I haven’t posted in a few weeks huh?

I was ill for a while but then when I was feeling well enough to write, I felt daunted by a duty to properly recap all the time I had missed. Of course, the more I put that off, the more I had to catch up on. I never had a very good memory, so the longer I put it off, the harder I knew it would become.

So today I decided to say “screw all of that” and just write about today. Today I went to see a taping of The Talk with my mother-in-law. It was a pretty good show. Wayne Brady sat in as a cohost for the entire show and he was pretty funny. The guests were Angela Bassett, Diane Ladd, and some guy from some gossip show/site who spent his whole segment talking about Tiger Woods… meh.

The really cool part was at the end. We wound up there during a day they were showcasing beauty products. Of course, that means we got a load of free stuff! We got a $100 gift certificate to a place that makes personalized products (this was actually not a part of the beauty segment but for Easter baskets they showed earlier in the show). We got a two-season subscription to fabfitfun.com (at least $200 worth of stuff), also a Coolway flat iron starter kit that is worth about $130 (with shipping and tax I’d have to pay, worth over $150). That was awesome because the last flat iron I bought was probably 20 bucks. I know it was less than 30.  I can’t wait to use it. Maybe I will tomorrow…

Here’s a list of the other products we got:

Hair care products from ColorProof: Shampoo, conditioner, leave-in smoothing treatment and shine treatment oil estimated at about $100 for the set, maybe more, I’m just guessing from what I saw on Amazon. The retail price is probably more.

Murad Advanced Active Radiance Serum $89

StriVectin-AR Advanced Retinol Night Treatment $109

Oil Free Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 30 | PA+++  $32

Too Faced Products:

Boudoir Eyes Shadow Collection $36

Sun Bunny Natural Bronzer $30

3*Way Lash Lining Tool $22 (this stuff is awesome)

Shadow Insurance Anti-Crease Eye Shadow Primer $20

All in all, that adds up to more than $888 worth of stuff just for sitting through a talk show. That’s pretty awesome. On the one hand, I’m glad the guys didn’t come because they would’ve been disappointed in getting nothing but girly stuff, but on the other hand, that would’ve meant double stuff for the ladies, like the last time we went.

Don't whine about my wine lips

The rest of the day wasn’t so hot. I’m having um, monthly issues that have me feeling drained and a little blah. So Rob took me out to Starbucks for iced tea with a quick stop at CVS for some medicine, i.e. chocolate and a lip gloss to make me feel pretty. Just kidding, I bought it because I *needed* it. Seriously, I did. I needed a wine colored lip gloss because I only have red, nude and fuchsia. That reminds me, I need a pink one now.

So there you have it. That was today. I’ll get back to my daily posts now. Maybe on days that I don’t have much to talk about, I’ll try to remember some of the days I didn’t get to talk about, like the time we went to go see Rachel Maddow speak. That was an awesome night!

Day Sixty-Four -- Come Again Some Other Day...

Well, hmm, yesterday there was no blog. I was pretty much sick all day… nausea, headache, toothache, pretty much the whole ball of wax. And despite all that, I managed to make a very lovely bracelet that I had posted pictures on Instagram and Facebook. I’ve used pantone colors again, this time, African Violet, Linen and Tender Shoots on a bed of matte white. I fixed the coloring in GIMP so it looks much better here than it did on Instagram. 

Today, I did more bead organization.  I still need more room for everything. Just having a big table alone would be a BIG help. Actually, I might be able to finagle space for my smaller black table from my booth in the room by moving a couple things over a bit and just placing it over the bookshelf that’s at the other end of the wall where I have all my stuff. I just don’t know if that would make everything feel kinda crowded. Also, I can’t spare it from use in by booth right now. Even though the booth is only once a month (hopefully twice, as I am looking into another location that has a monthly craft fair) if I got too comfortable, it would be very cumbersome to get all the stuff off of it every time I need it for the booth. I’ll figure something out. But man, I would love to have a dedicated studio. One day…

While I feel like today was pretty productive, and I did feel MUCH better than I did yesterday. I still wish I could have done more; only because the night seemed to go by so fast. I got my nails done today. Hmm, strange way to put that considering I did them myself. I believe this is one of the colors I got from Stephanie. I almost didn’t wear it but I’m glad I did because the color puts me in a good mood. I need to redo two fingers though because I decided to get busy a lot sooner than I should’ve.

Tonight I started working on a bow necklace. I’m going to make a few for sale on Saturday… which reminds me: Saturday I’ll be in Silver Lake again selling my wares. It looks like it might rain this weekend, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s just very overcast.