Noah's 7th Birthday Party!

Noah's Ninja Birthday Party!

 Last Saturday, Rocketman and me celebrated Noah's 7th birthday with a ninja themed party put on by his Mom and Dad.  Invited were his entire 1st grade class and some neighbors.  But because it was a holiday week a lot of kids were on vacation and the party ended up with 8 or so kids.  The kids had so much fun from checking out the baby chicks to playing Just Dance.

                                        Rocketman spent time keeping little Ez occupied.

We also did a clay project. We made a little polymer clay ninja. Here are the instructions so you can make your own ninja.

 

Polymer Clay Ninja

 

Materials:

Polymer clay: black, beige (flesh) and apple green

 

Instructions:

1. Sword - Roll a 1/4" green ball into a 1 1/2" long tapered log. Bake according to manufacturer's instructions and let cool.

2. Body - Roll a 7/8" black ball into a cone.

3. Arms - Roll two 3/8" black balls into tapered logs and press onto each side of the body. Hands - Roll two 3/16" beige balls into teardrops and press onto each arm.

4. Head - Roll a 11/16" black ball. Face - Flatten a 1/4" beige ball into an oval and press onto head. Eyes - Roll two 1/16" black balls and press onto face. Press head onto body.

5.  Press sword into the hands and position.

6. Bake according to manufacturer's instructions.

 





Here are their creations which I baked during the party.  They cooled in time to send home with each child. It was a fantastic time.

Maedeup Monday!

This "Maedeup Monday!" is about one of my favorite knots, the garakji maedeup (ring knot).  There may be times when you want to add a garakji maedeup to your jewelry design.  This is the way to string a garakji maedeup to any project you are working on.

Take a piece of scrap cording (I usually use 2mm cording but 1.5 is fine too) and build the garakji maedeup around the cording.  Tighten to the cording which will leave a hole on each end when you cut them apart.  I usually do a row of them like you see above.  Cut them apart and place a drop of white glue to keep from fraying. 

I then use my loop turner to add the garakji to my project. 

That is how I made this bracelet that was featured in my book, "Elegant Knotted Jewelry." This bracelet is also available for purchase in my Etsy shop. 

Poor Rocketman!  I went back to my doctor today because although my elbow is feeling better, it is still causing me a lot of pain.  He took more x-rays and confirmed that it is still fractured but is starting to heal.  He said it could take up to 6 months to be back to normal and to keep it in a sling and to continue taking it easy.  Rocketman has been doing the ironing and cleaning of the house.  I do the dusting but with my left hand, it takes me forever.  Grocery shopping has been a nightmare but I've gone to going more often and buying less each time. Sweet Rocketman  has not complained once and is just worried that I am doing too much. 

It's not that I don't use it, but it gets really sore.  The doctor sent me home with more painkillers to take as needed.  It's so hard to not be able to use my dominant (right) arm.  It's been a month now and we'll just take each day as it comes.  It is getting better, I just wish it was faster.

Road Trip with the Grandkids

Last Thursday, I packed up the grandkids and hit the road to visit my folks and to stay with my sister and her family.  I didn't let a fractured elbow stop me but I was grateful to have help loading and unloading the car.  I had a text from my son-in-law when I arrived in Rockford, IL letting me know that he had forgotten to put Noah's suitcase into my car.

 

Our first stop was my parent's house.  I left Noah with my Dad and my Mom, Ezra and I went off to Kohl's to get Noah clothes for the weekend.  When we returned, my Mom wanted to wash the clothes so we hung out waiting for Noah's new clothes to dry.  We got to my sister's house a few hours later.

 

On Friday, we piled all the kids into the car and went off to the Discovery Center Museum.  It is an interactive museum full of hands on experiences for the kids.  The kids had a blast!

After lunch, it was time to check out the chickens.  Noah had his own camera and took pictures of my sister's chickens.  Ezra just loved being around his big brother.

                        My brother-in-law took the kids on a tractor ride.  They LOVED it.

                                                       The kids colored Easter eggs.

                                                                   Ezra loves his Madison.

                                                                   Sunday Easter egg hunt.

Ezra had trouble sleeping.  I would put him down around 8:00pm only to have him awake around 12am. I would put him in bed with me and he would sleep until 5:30 am. I didn't sleep because I was afraid I would roll over on him.  I tried once to put him back into the Pack n Play only to have him wake up.  This went on for three nights until I told my daughter about it.

She asked about the ball.  They  had send a plastic ball with him which my sister's dog had broken the first day. I thought is was just something to play with.  She said that he likes to sleep with a ball.  My sister ran out Easter day to get him one and wouldn't you know it, he slept all night.  I just wish I would have told her after the first night.  I was one tired Grandma when we got home.

The weekend was a blast and it was so fun to see my grandkids with my family.  Everyone had a great time. Rocketman stayed home because he had work obligations.  He just got a new job in his company and he starts May 1st. 

Fracture and Hanging in There

 

Last week was a very bad week in the "Constant Crafter" house.  Since I'm home most of the time, I do most of the snow blowing.  Last Thursday, we had received about 4 to 5 inches of snow overnight.  Rocketman usually would have snowblowed for me before he went to work but he would have needed to get up earlier to have done that.  I really don't mind snowblowing.

 

I had just finished the driveway and had put the snowblower away when Rocketman came out to leave for work.  There is a well known three inch thick patch of ice and I had been careful to walk around it until that moment.  I was talking to Rocketman and next thing I knew I was flat on my back with my elbow throbbing.  I had landed on my elbow and wrist.  My fingers were numb and tinkling.  I lay on my back crying at the shock and pain of it all.

 

Rocketman dropped everything and came to help me up.  He told me that we needed to go to the Emergency Room while I was busy crying and telling him "no."  When we got inside and I couldn't get my coat off easily, I agreed to go to the Emergency Room.  We arrived at the hospital at 9 am and it was pretty empty at that point.  Forms were filled out and we didn't have to wait too long before we were in a room and seeing a "provider." 

 

That's right, we were told a "provider" would be taking my case which meant it could be a doctor, a physician's assistant or a nurse.  I thought provider in a hospital situation meant insurance but things have changes.  They took x-rays and we waited for the results and the "provider." 

 

The "provider" turned out to be a physician after all.  He said it didn't look like I had a break or fracture at that time but that it still could be fractured. He said if it still was painful after 3 days to see my regular doctor.  We were out of there around 11:30 am which is a record for us with my arm in a sling.  The staff had told us that I was the 9th elbow of the day.  As we walked out of the ER, we noticed the waiting room was packed with people.

 

The weekend brought more pain and though the hospital gave me Oxycontin, it did nothing for the pain and gave me one heck of an upset stomach.  So Monday morning I saw my regular doctor who also took x-rays. It came back that it was definitely fractured and he even called Rockeman to the room to show him the x-rays.  He gave me a different medication and sent me home with the sling and the promise to rest it for a few weeks. 

 

Today, it has been a week and a day and I'm still in a lot of pain.  It was also my right elbow which keeps me from doing most things.  If I put any pressure on that side even holding a glass of water, I get a tremendous amount of pain so I've been taking it easy.  Poor Rocketman has been doing everything from laundry to picking up.  He's going to tackle the house this weekend.  It's so hard when you can't use your dominate hand.

 

This one handed Grandma wasn't going to let this deter her from a babysitting commitment I had with Ezra.  He came over Tuesday for the day and we had a blast.  He loves Louie's cat toy.

This is the look I got every time I put a bite of food in his mouth.  He's a cutie.

We have a trip to South Korea coming up and I'm going to make sure I'm 100% ready for it.

Memories...Like the Corner of My Mind...

I am still in my scrapbooking mode and I really can't believe things that I have saved over the decades. I'm so grateful I did because I have these wonderful memories to fill my scrapbooks with.  This is from my very first appearance on HGTV's The Carol Duvall Show. The photo above is of designated your changing room.  You usually shared it with a couple of guests.

This was from my producer, Holly, regarding my very first appearance.  I was doing two segments: a business interview and making a polymer clay sock monkey. You would get this in a mail packet from your producer along with instructions on where the hotel was and directions to the studio.  Holly is still a dear friend to me after all these years and she was the best producer.

This is the "pitch" to the HGTV Network.  It was a synopsis of the segments.  I managed to keep a few of these from some of my segments.

I also was able to get my hands of some of the scripts from my segments.  I wish I had the scripts from all of my segments.  This was for Carol and the staff.  The guests didn't use scripts.  I always felt like I was showing Carol how to make whatever it was at the time and I blocked everything else out like the 50 people watching everything I was doing.  If I had stopped to really think about that, I would have been a nervous wreck.  But Carol made me forget everything that was going on around us.  She is amazing and she taught me so much.

Back to reality and today our postman shoved this box into our mailbox to the point I could not get it out.  I took this picture from our front porch.  And yes, we have a lot of snow although half of it has already melted but don't worry there is more coming tonight, Friday and again on Monday.

Rocketman to the rescue!  I let him know ahead of time that I had a box stuck in the mailbox and he tried from the car to get the box out to no avail.  He pulled the car forward, got out and was able to rip the box out of our mailbox. 

This is what the box looked like when we got it inside. I've just been so frustrated with our postal carriers.  We had a great one for probably 10 years until they changed the routes.  It's been bad for a few years now.  We were getting our mail anywhere from 5 pm to 7 pm and let me tell you, it's not fun going out at night in the winter to get the mail.

 

Then a few months ago, the mail started coming at 11 am.  Hallelujah!!!  It was wonderful!  But alas, it wasn't meant to last.  We are now averaging mail delivery after 6pm.  Oh well.

Thankful Thursday!

Leaving it to Trader Joe's to come up with cubed crushed garlic.  If you know me, cooking is challenging to say the least.  I would have garlic stinking up the cupboard until it was rotten and I had to throw it out.

Thanks to Trader Joe's, I always have garlic ready to pop into my recipes.  I LOVE it!!! Most of my recipes have garlic in them and I always found it a pain to have to peel and mince my own garlic. I miss the days of Korea where they sell garlic pre-peeled and ready to go by the bagful.

Stacked Button Rings

I have soooo many buttons and I thought it was time to do something fun with them and that's where these stacked button rings came from.  They were so much fun to make and so very easy.

Materials needed: buttons in different sizes, an adjustable ring blank and E6000 adhesive.

Instructions:
1. Stack the rings from largest to smallest.  Line them up in order.
2. Put a dab of E6000 on the ring blank and press the largest button, centering as you press onto the ring blank.
3. Continue with the next button until all the buttons are on the ring.
4. Place the ring with the button stack resting on a flat surface and let dry.

If anyone is interested in buying one of the rings, email me at beckymeverden at gmail.com. 

Enjoy!