Makin' Chainmail

As you may already know, I make beaded jewelry for kids. (Big kids too!) I've been trying to branch out into other things as well. Earrings, keychains, and bracelets have been added to my line. So now I am trying chainmail. It's not particularly difficult but it is very time consuming. I started with an extremely simple piece:

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And now I am trying this piece. I'm about halfway done. It still isn't difficult. However, I have to stop every time I switch rings so I can make sure the other things are facing the correct way and I'm not accidentally linking rings together twice.

My friend, Heidianna, makes some lovely pieces that she sells in her etsy shop, In The Spice Rack. I even own a pair of her earrings. One day, I hope to make pieces as nice as hers.

I'll try to post pictures of the new necklace as soon as they are finished. Keep an eye on my Instagram for more pics!

Pinterest makes me collect crap

I am a crafter. I make tons of things and I have tons of supplies in various piles around my house. While the jewelry I make gets sold online and at craft shows, the things I make specifically for my daughter usually don't go any farther than her room. For example, I made her a Catbug (from The Bravest Warriors) plushie based on this pattern:

I've also tried getting photos transferred onto wood blocks. I think it would make an awesome present. But, for some reason, I just can't get it to work properly. I think I need more patience.

And I'm also learning how to make chainmail. It isn't very difficult. It is very time consuming though. I have faith that I'll get faster with more practice.

To all the crafters out there, what are some of your favorite Pinterest projects? Maybe I'll give them a try too!

Sodastream

Over the past few days, 20 inches of snow fell on my little town. As a result, we have been stuck in the house for about two and a half days. Of course, we had to stock up on food, snacks, and drinks. I normally drink quite a bit of Coke. In an attempt to save a little bit of money, my husband and I bought a SodaStream a few months ago. And we love it. For those of you that don't know, SodaStream is a machine that lets you make your own carbonated beverages. We bought the Genesis soda maker, which came with the machine, a carbonator (a CO2 tank), a bottle, and a sample pack of flavors. Once you put the carbonator into the machine, you use the bottle (filled with regular water) to make carbonated water. Then you add in your favorite flavor. I am very fond of their Cola flavor. But SodaStream makes a lot of other flavors: Pink Grapefruit, Kool-Aid Cherry, Dr Pete (the Dr Pepper knock-off), Orange Soda...the list goes on. You can mess around with how much carbonation you add to water and how much flavoring you add to the carbonated water until you find a combination you like. (We prefer 5 "buzzes" of carbonation and a full cap of flavoring for the cola.)

However, you don't NEED to stick to SodaStream's flavors. There are some recipes out there for making your own soda syrup or you can buy them from someplace like Pittsburgh Soda Pop. We haven't tried them out yet but I am really looking forward to buying some new flavors, specifically the black cherry flavor.

I know I should stop drinking soda. But I think this is a 'healthy' alternative to store bought Coke or Pepsi. I love my SodaStream.

Mental Floss

As I've said before, I watch a lot of videos on YouTube. One of my favorite channels is Mental Floss. The show usually features author John Green talking about the topic of the week. I think my favorite is 48 Names for Things You Didn't Know Had Names. Once in awhile, someone other than Green hosts the show. For example, Hannah Hart from My Drunk Kitchen hosted a show about alcohol. Grace Helbig, formerly Daily Grace, has also hosted an episode.

While I'm not always fascinated by the topics on the Mental Floss channel, I am always entertained. This is a new way for useless information to squirrel away in my brain. I hope it finds a warm place in there. There is a lot of snow on the way.

Good Mythical Morning

Yes, the weather here still sucks. An ice storm rolled Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, which made everything much more awesome. A lot of places, including my workplace, has no power. Luckily, our house has not lost power. But it means that I haven't really left my house all week. The only time I left my house was when I had to take my daughter to dance class Tuesday night. (Before the ice came, of course.) It's a little good and a little bad.

On one hand, I haven't had to put up with my normal morning hour-long commute. But it's also pretty frustrating that I can't actually get any work done. I like working from home but this may be a little too much. Since my work phone is forwarded to my home phone, I'm still tied to my desk so there isn't much I can accomplish at home either. It's like the worst of both worlds.

At least I still have YouTube to keep me company. Here is Good Mythical Morning, one of my favorite YouTube shows.

Time to Pay the Taxes

Since I haven't posted anything in a really long time, I've decided to give you a list of free things you can get today, Tax Day. Arby's Arby's Facebook page has details on how to get free curly fries or potato cakes.

Boston Market At Boston Market, you can get 2 rib meals for $10.40 with no coupon!

Carvel Carvel's Facebook page will give you a coupon for an 18-pack of Oreo Lil' Rounders for $10.40 (if you like them).

Cinnabon 2 Free Cinnabon Bites! See their Facebook page for more info.

HydroMassage Get a coupon for a free HydroMassage on their website.

Sonic Drive-in Half price drinks and slushies all day!

This is probably the only good thing about tax day!

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

Every Labor Day weekend is Children's Weekend at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. We try to go every year and this year was no different. The cast members at the PA Ren Faire are awesome. Not only are they super friendly but they seem to genuinely love playing with the children. While my daughter and her friend were in line to get their Pirate Booty prizes from the treasure hunt, the actor playing Richard Burbage (Richard Furin) had a mini-marshmallow fight with some of the children. The kids loved it and he did as well. (Though he did have to run away when the children started to seriously outnumber him.) At the "Cake with the Queen" event, the children not only get cupcakes, they also get a chance to talk with Queen Elizabeth herself! (Well, as played by Jess Eppler, anyway.) She sits under a tree with a few members of her court and gives the children as much individual time as she can. She is a very busy Queen, after all.

But my favorite part of the Faire are the entertainers. Fool Hearty are our favorites. They perform three different shows - Fool School, a magic show, and an untrained dog show. Absolutely all of them are worth watching as often as possible. Giacomo the Jester was also very funny. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to see his knife show as it was scheduled against the end of the treasure hunt. We also didn't get a chance to see the big joust this year but it is usually very good.

And, if enjoying a Ren Faire isn't good enough for you, there is also a winery and brew pub on-site. They even have a wine tasting weekend, if that is your thing.

I heartily recommend that you check out the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire if you happen to be in the area during the show season. You absolutely will not regret it. As proof, here is a picture of my husband with Fool Hearty during their Fool School show.

Summer fun

I went tubing with my daughter, my husband, my sister, her boyfriend, and two of my cousins on the Schuylkill River on Tuesday. Despite not liking water-based activities, we had a good time. My daughter, my husband, and I had a raft, while everyone else had inner tubes. It took us about three hours to float down the river. During that time, we saw two turtles, a ton of fish, a Great Blue Heron, and some hawks. There was also tons of junk from humans too. Every time we floated over an old tire, my sister would yell out "TIRE!" It turned into a bit of a game for everyone.

Not being much of a water person, I had to go buy a new bathing suit for the excursion. Luckily, I managed to find one that I adore. It's really a swim dress but it doesn't look like it belongs on a grandmother. It's pretty darn cute. I also picked up a new pair of sunglasses. While I wish I could afford a pair of Tom Ford Sunglasses, mine are just cheapo $20 Walmart sunglasses. That way I won't feel awful if they get lost or broken.

Anyway, tubing can be a great day of fun if you're with the right people. I'm not sure how popular it is outside of Pennsylvania but if you get a chance to try it, go!

Aluratek Cinepal

I was planning on waiting a few days to talk about this...but I just can't. On Friday, I received my Aluratek Cinepal multimedia player. After charging it and loading up a few jdorama episodes, it was ready to go for my daughter's Saturday morning swim class. I expected it to do "OK." It did a lot better than that. It blew my expectations away. For my first viewing, I used the earbuds that are included in the box. They are rather uncomfortable, but so are most packaged earbuds. The sound still came through nicely. There was no fuzziness, even when I had to turn the volume up to overcome a very loud swim instructor. Acceptable but not preferable.

The video, however, was beautiful. Absolutely no artifacting or slowness at all. It even handled the subtitles well. My one complaint here is that it auto-plays the next video if you have more than one uploaded. I had the first and second episodes of Tsuki no Koibito ready to go. Once the first episode ended, the second immediately started. I would prefer to make that selection on my own. But that really is a minor complaint that is more of a preference anyway.

Today, I used the device's speakers to listen to the second episode. They aren't anything amazing but they are adequate. No fuzziness or tinniness or anything distracting. Just don't expect to be amazed by them. However, I would suggest using the speakers over the earbuds. The speakers sound better and it will eliminate the uncomfortableness of the earbuds.

I can't believe how awesome this 8.9" media player is. It doesn't play video games, like an iPad, but it will play mp3s, be an eReader, and be a photo album. If you're looking to pick one up, I got mine at Newegg. Hopefully you will be as happy as I am.

Samsung Epic

For my birthday, my husband upgraded my cell phone (an LG Lotus) to a Samsung Epic. While the phone got rave reviews, I wasn't sure if it was for me. Personally, I prefer flip phones...even though they are a dying breed in the US. Despite my dislike of smart phones, I am finding myself warming up to it. I like being able to watch YouTube videos or play Hangman while my daughter is at swim class. (My husband has an app on his HTC phone for a barcode scanner, which is neat but I don't know that I would ever use it.) The camera/camcorder is also much better than the one on the Lotus. The one downfall is that it just isn't pretty. I'm planning on looking around for a case for it...but out of the box, it's just plain and boring and blah. At least my Lotus was a cute purple with flower designs. I know that comes off as very girly but, in reality, I enjoy having things that look different from everyone else. No one I knew had a purple phone or a Lotus (which also comes in red or black) in general. But that is something that is easily fixable.

Overall, I really do like my Epic. My favorite part is the slide-out Qwerty keyboard. I don't like the touchscreen keyboard so it's nice to have the option to use a "real" keyboard if I want. If it is within your budget (it is a rather expensive phone), I highly recommend it.