Fun time at the Fest!

I thought I would blog a bit about my time at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. Before, I unfortunately found out that I had not ordered enough head pins to finish the two projects I had planned. The first thing was a cha-cha bracelet in my colors so that I could (finally) have something to wear that I made, maybe generating sales. Up to this point, I havent made anything that:
1. I would wear (I am very picky)
2. Is tough enough to stand up to me (I beat the snot out of my jewelry)
3. Is my colors.
The second project is just another cha-cha that I plan on selling. I bit the bullet and finished my bracelet. I even have a picture of it! (crappy picture...but the best I have at the moment.) These cha-cha bracelets have about 400 headpins in each bracelet and mine has ~400 "regular" beads and ~400 seed beads. These are heavy and labor intensive, but I love the way they look!
Anyway, now that I finished my bracelet, I dont have enough pins to finish the one I actually want to sell! Bummer...and I cant afford to buy more until I make a sale!
At the Ren. Fest I had a great time and stayed most of the day! I dressed up a bit in my old choir skirt, my custom made wedding corset (steel boned and a 3 inch waist reduction...believe me when I say you do NOT want to sneeze in that thing!) and my custom made parasol (life saver...very sunny!) I also happened to meet up with my sister-in-law who was dancing that weekend (she is part of a middle eastern dance troupe) and got to watch my little three year old niece for a while. I got a new sheep hat (leather and sheep wool..very cool!) and a DVD by the Zucchini Brothers from their USO trip. I love the Zucchini Brothers, and we got to see Ded Bob again! We missed the Washing Well Wenches AGAIN! Some day we will see them! Ugh!
Anyway...I got asked about my corset and my parasol...but no one asked me about my bracelet...bummer.... Maybe next time?
Oh, I will try to get a picture up of my whole get up. I also wore some mineral make up from MineralMagic, which worked really well. I didnt feel greasy after a whole day at the fair...which is a nice change!

Chocolate Bacon Adventure Conclusion!

Well, my comeuppance has come! I arrived home today to find a package from pudleduk on my front door. As I type this my mouth is waters as I look at the three fudgey treats individually wrapped for my enjoyment. I figured I might as well type this out as I try the first bite..so you all out there can get my raw reaction to my food experiment. I probably should include pictures too!
--Taking Pictures--
chocolate, nothing unexpected about that!There are three bars like the one in my lap that you see. Okay...off to get some scissors to cut it open! Okay, I was lazy and just used my letter opener...It smells like salty The anticipation is killing me... now for the first bite!
Definitely fudgey. The bacon plus the fudge has a strange texture because the bacon is chewer than the fudge. Very sweet fudge too (reminds me of some one of my friends in high school used to make). The saltiness is very subtle in the beginning, but blossoms about half way though the bite because by that time the mastication has started to release the true bacon flavor. Finishes sugary, with only a small hint of saltiness.
Maybe next time a dark chocolate to tone down the hyper sugariness of the fudge, but my over all impression: Yummy! Perhaps a less fudge, more candy bar type chocolate would improve the texture as well. I deem the experiment a success! Now to pass it around to family members to see what they think!

Quick Craft Update

I have been working on some side stuff, which I thought I would talk about and show off. I got some new beads that I have used to make some new earrings that are up in my shop (the purple and green ones). I was going to post these red hippos, but I didnt notice until I was done taking pictures that there was a black fiber on one...and all of the photos were worthless! Oh well. I hope they sell well, I have quite a few pairs...maybe I can trade them :) I havent done much bead embroidery on my fireball necklace, but I have started to work on the "chain" part (the part that will actually go around the neck and have the clasp etc). It is a spiral rope design and I hope it will tie in the black leather and black seed bead boarder I plan on putting on the fireball. The weave is also supposed to be very strong as the black Nymo thread I am using goes though the center beads (the black ones) at like three times. Let me know what you think!!! I love comments!

Chocolate Bacon Adventure Continues

Well, the other day Pudleduk finished my chocolate experiment...and put them up on Etsy for me (but through her other shop Mama's Baked Goods). Three bars of bacon and chocolate naughtiness are on their way to me...muah haha! I will let you know what happens when they get here...if I survive :)

Science Break and a Little Update

I know that this blog is mostly about crafting, but as the school year starts back up I will probably be commenting more on school etc. This is one of those times :) If you want to skip the science type stuff, just scroll down to the next paragraph. Without getting in to much details, my research is on land snails and slugs, specifically how carnivores and herbivores smell the world differently (at least that is what I think I will find). I am examining the olfaction equipment on a whole mess of snails and slugs in a bunch of different ways. Right now I am mainly using transmission electron microscopy (using electrons instead of light in a microscope to see really tiny things). Anyway, I have found a structure that I have no idea what it is. I expected to see one thing, but now I see this. The task at hand now is to search (more) in the literature out there and see if anything I can find looks remotely like what I have found. These unknown structures are about 1 to 2 micrometers in diameter and, in my sections so far, are nearly always perfectly circular with alternating light and dark rings. All of the structures inside these things are aligned radially to the center of the circles. They are not artifacts, but part of the labial palp structure (the area around the mouth) in groups or lines. There isnt a lot of work in the ultrastructure of snail skin/chemoreception so I dont know if I will find anything out there...or even in different organisms. My best guess is that it is some kind of mechanoreceptor, but I need to find something to back that up. I really wish I would have found some definite chemoreceptors though...oh well!
As for crafts, I banged out a neat bracelet last night. It is a bangle type bracelet on a cha-cha steel "frame", and I think it looks nice. Not my favorite colors, but very neat combo, if I may say so myself. I think I am going to call it something along the lines of "Iced Honeysuckle" or "Ice and Honeydew". It took a while to make, used a lot of beads and my hands cramped up pretty bad while I was making it. I will try to get pictures of it tonight, but my wonderful kitty finally broke my light box, so I need to fix it up before I can take decent enough pictures of it.

Great Balls of Fire part 3

Finally an update! I am to the point where I am starting to shade in the red-orange mirrored beads. Other than finding the time to do this, everything is going well for the most part. I think because I am doing such a large piece (and I am handling it more) the Lacy's Stiff Stuff is pilling a little bit. I have been trying to keep my cat out of it (because no one wants cat hair in their jewelry) and the fibers are driving me nuts! I see a fiber and mistake it for a cat hair, and removing it can pull up other fibers. It isn't particularly bad problem, but I don't want it to get any worse. When I do smaller pieces I cant imagine this being problem.

Update

I am going to try my hardest to update my Fire Ball Necklace stuff this weekend. Wish me luck! (I am also going to a Folk Festival and an Artisan's Market...distractions abound!)

Chocolate Bacon!

I have to tell everyone about my weirdness and how it infects others :) This is a long and involved story...but hang in there!
I happen to like bacon with just about any dessert. This does not mean that I put bacon in my ice cream, but it goes like this: After a hard day or a long night (like going to a Korn concert) stop at a place like, lets say, Steak 'n' Shake. Everyone will look at you strange, but trust me it is worth it. With confidence order a chocolate (or other sweet shake) and a side of bacon. When they come (get them at the same time) take a bite of bacon. Savor it! Let the salty goodness wash over your tongue! After you have finished in the bliss that is properly cooked bacon and swallowed it, take a swig of the sweet sweet chocolate shake. The saltiness of the bacon enhances the sugariness of the shake (or other sweet treat you eat, I particularly like the combo of bacon and pecan pie). The flavors just pop! Once you have finished with the swig of shake, go back to the bacon! It will taste even better than the first bite! Believe me on this!
Now, I have only mattered to convince two people in my life that this is a good combo (and they actually have tried it), one of them being my husband. Everyone else looks at me like I have 7 eyes when ever I tell them to try it. Now, last night on the Etsy forums I was shown this! It blew my mind! I had never thought of putting them together! I then got the great idea of seeing if some brave cook on Etsy might want to tackle the challenge and create my version of ambrosia! You can even take a look at the thread HERE. And Pudleduk answered my call! To make it even better, she is going to use her own pigs for farm fresh bacon! I couldn't believe my luck. Now all that I have to do is wait for her to create my wonderful concoction which will be 3 sweet milk chocolate bars with bits of farm fresh salted bacon! I cannot wait!! I will let you know what happens!
Now before you say...eww! Gross! Think about this....Chocolate covered Pretzels. Same concept! Am I really that strange? Who knows, maybe this will be the next deep fried Twinkie!
I am also planning on getting a vanity plate some day that says "BCN N 314"...think about it!

Fire Wall

I haven't had any time to work on my fire ball necklace this week. Sorry guys...but my update is definitely going to be late.

Dream a little Dream...

This is going to be a short and sweet entry tonight, mainly because I just want to dream a little. See, one of my dreams in to own my very own castle. And when I say castle I mean a real castle, built to my specifications from stone and wood! I have been dreaming this dream for so long...but it seems so far off! I dont want 1000 rooms or anything, just 3 bedrooms, a kitchen...the normals stuff...but in castle form. I even know the company I want to hire to build me my dream castle: Castle Magic! They are more affordable than you would think, not much more than building a normal house. It just seems so far away...and if I ever do do this, I wont ever want to move, so I will need a job that isnt going to evaporate. I want my little castle, a pond, and a chicken coop...is that too much to ask?

Great Balls of Fire part 2

I don't think I am going to make it by midnight...but I am trying! I am like a kid.. "One more row, mom!" Anyway, here is my progress up to now. I am trying to blend the colors as much as I can, but I am not exactly fully satisfied with the selection of colors I have. As you can see, the bright yellow and orange are not mirrored like the others (note: the white beads shown are not the same size as the ones I used for my fire ball, but are the same color). I don't know why, but those just don't seem to exist in mirrored form...so I tried translucent. I am not sure if I like it, but I am going with it now! I didn't like the way the solid ones looked...for some reason reds have a nice range, but no ones likes yellows or oranges! I also have added another row on top of the one around the parameter of the cabochon because it started to come off the backing. I also (before I added that row) reglued it with some good old super glue, which seems to be holding very nicely. I guess because my cabochon is so big and heavy, the other glue just couldn't cut it. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the rest of my cabochons (which are much smaller), but I haven't worked with them a lot yet. Maybe heavy handling is a problem?
I will try to update some time in the middle of the week!

Great Balls of Fire part 1

As soon as started getting into jewelry (which wasn't all that long ago) I a have been fascinated by bead embroidery. I just love the way it looks, bold...big...strong! I finally found a little instructional video thing on Fire Mountain Gems' website...and it got my creative juices flowing even more! I bought all of the stuff for it...and now I am ready to start on my next jewelry journey!. I also thought this would be a great thing to put up on my blog...so people could follow along if they wanted! If you have tip and suggestions though out my project, please let me know! Like I said before...this is my first time doing this!
(You can see a lot of my current projects on the picture of my desk...I am a mess!)
The first thing I did was glue some cabachons to my cut outs of Lacy's Stiff Stuff with some E-6000 glue and let it sit over night. I also put a doll face on some Stiff Stuff in a press so that it would adhere to the whole thing...but little did I know it would also adhere to the wood of the press! It just took a little pulling to get it off, but I just about freaked out of a second! I wanted to do them all at the same time because the tips for the glue can only be used once...so I tried to get the most mileage out of one tip as I could! My first idea for bead embroidery (even before I got all of my supplies!) was to make a fire ball necklace, so that is what I am starting with. I am using white Nymo thread and English beading needles..we will see how that works. So far the thread seems strong...unless you nick it...then it becomes a pain in the arse to work with! I am also coating my thread with bee's wax so that it slides though the beads better. I am using a back stitch technique (see the video) which, while I have been cross stitching for years, I have never used with beads! Well...here it is! This is how much of the fire ball I have gotten done as of right now. I like laying the beads down with out a pattern under it because I think it will give it a more natural and organic look. I hope you can see that I am also trying to mix the colors along the way...with a little light yellow in the with white/clear beads. I just wish I hadn't knocked over the yellow seed beads...it look me like 20 minutes to pick 1/8th of the tube out of the carpet! What a pain! The funny thing was I knew I was going to do it! I also am not sure what I am going to back my pieces with...I think leather. Well, I hope to keep you guys in touch with this project, but I am sure it will take me a while to finish it (especially with school starting up again soon).

Very Cool Parasol!

I just thought that I would tell everyone out there in cyberspace the wonders of the parasol! I lean in the gothic direction, so standing out in a crowd doesn't really faze me much. I tend to enjoy staying up late and sleeping in, avoiding direct sunlight most of the time. The main reasons for my disdain of sunlight is:

A) it gets freaking hot! When most of your wardrobe is black...it can be down right dreadful in the summer!
B) I spent a lot of money on my tattoos, I love them, and I don't want them to fade! My husband even knows that when we go out to cover my exposed tattoos with his arms/body (in a natural, I am walking with my love kinda way).
C) I hate tan lines...in fact, I hate tans! I dont like the way they look, but that is just personal preference!

I decided to get a parasol because the two labs that I frequent the most on campus are like a 25 minute walk from each other. I would arrive at one lab dripping in sweat, out of breath, and exhausted because of the heat. I couldn't make the sun go away...so I had to take the shade with me! I am not to fond of hats, so I decided to get a custom parasol made to combat my problem. i did some research in some back issues of Gothic Beauty Magazine and found a parasol maker that I liked and had good write ups. I chose Sara's Parasols to do my custom parasol! It took a while to work out all of the details, but once I found the perfect fabric (black, white and red plaid!) the work began. All in all I got a plaid parasol with a solarweave lining (to block UV rays) with a black braid trim (I am not a lacy kind of gal) and a black handle for 90 bucks. Let me tell you, this week it has been worth every penny! It is still hot, but I am not exhausted and dripping when I walk across campus! If anyone is looking for wonderful customer service (I don't know how many times George and I corresponded) and a great product, look no further! The only thing I think I might change is the removable clasp to keep the parasol closed would have a metal snap instead of Velcro...but that is easy enough to fix!

Thanks for reading and keep out of the sun!

New Listings!

I have loaded up four new things into my shop. It is taking some time because Etsy has been having some buggy problems loading photos lately. It is a bit frustrating, but doable. I hope that people like what I am putting up... Here is a preview!
I am excited to say that I found another graduate student from my university on Etsy tonight...she is even in the same building! What a small world! If you want to check her out, her blog here!

New Guestbook

I downloaded that new guest book you see at the top of the page yesterday. I am glad to see that people have started to sign it. I think it is a great way of advertising. I am sure if I see it on other blogs to put up a picture in it! The only problem I have has so far is the location option when you sign it...it doesn't seem to work very well. I put in East Lansing, MI USA for both of my posts, but it just changes it back to what ever it had in there previously...which is strange. One is close, still in Michigan, but the other is San Fransisco! I don't know how to fix is, so if anyone else is having this problem and knows how to fix it, let me know. I just worry that I will loose all the other signatures if I try and mess with it.