SparklyTurtle Creations (and Ramblings)

… didn’t quite happen.

I planned to get a slice of pizza. They didn’t have it. Ended up eating an entire Tombstone pizza. I did add mushrooms for added protein.

Due to being behind at work, I planned on working from home. With my pizza, I never left the couch. I did catch up on this week’s The Voice.

I’ve been trying to get to bed around 10. I got distracted, and now it’s almost 11:30.

Oh well, guess I’m not going to finish Bloodlines tonight either. It is a good book though. I enjoy Richelle Mead as an author.

Zoey is still cute, so I guess I’ll just cuddle up and go to bed.

Night!

Started playing tonight with the new app Montage Pro on my iPad. Initially I downloaded the iPhone version, but then found out about the iPad version. It is kind of cool of the options for adjusting photos with shapes, borders, shading, levels and colors.

The photos were taken on an outing to the Shedd Aquarium. I love the graceful movement of them, although I felt kind of bad for the tangled strands coming off of them.

Ok, so I have had these photos since 2009. It’s time. So I took the photos and a line from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to complete this two page layout. I decided to keep it simple. I think it works, and it also got done this way.

I have more plans on using this We Are Memory Keepers Hybrid Album set up. I may even get around to the digital pages I have planned for some day. Until then, I have this start.

This actually has been a great week off. I feel I have been pretty productive, which is awesome when you can feel that way while still feeling relaxed.

1. Cleaned up my room a bit, still has more to go, but so much better.
2. Loaded up all my sellable wares onto my etsy store and have set up a coupon (BIRTHDAY) for 20% off for the month of October. It would so rock to have some sales and move some items through and out to make room for new stuff and get a little cash in the meantime.
3. Worked in my Smash book a bit. I keep making the idea more complicated in my head. It was a post on Dear Lizzy that reminded me that it doesn’t need to be that big. It can be a simple couple of pictures of something and a list (or something like that).
4. Finished up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies also The Search
5. Downloaded A Dance With Dragons onto my Kindle to start reading that next. I am loving my new 5-button Kindle. It is small enough to fit into my purse, and the text really is easier to read than off my iPad. (Going to use my iPad for many other things, but start to leave the reading to the Kindle – Plus, Overdrive has made downloading Kindle books from your library so easy. Hoping, though, that if I disconnect from wireless, it won’t be able to pull the books off my K in case I can’t read Dragons in 2 weeks.)
6. Did some bead stitching and knotting, which was nice.
7. Laundry – an inevitable evil, and not exactly finished.
8. Lastly, spent some unhappy time at the vet. Zoey is being funky. She has peed on my roommates bed twice, but no where else in the apartment. The meds that could help here with a suspected bladder that gets a bit too relaxed, seemed to throw her back into the tummy troubles we just solved. So, still more to work on that. Cannot figure out why she only has peed in the one spot though. The first time may just have been excitement, but peeing the second time while lying down … that’s just not right.

Still have a belly dance performance and the last of the weekend to go. Feels good, but I don’t really want to go back to work yet. Guess that was inevitable. 🙂

-just because.

A bit of cheap sparkle – knotted bracelet, a photo by Sparkleyturtle on Flickr.

I finished this up Friday night. It is such a nice piece for inexpensive flair. I used the easy-knotter between each bead and closed it off with a sliding knot to be able to pull the cords tight. That was the true experiment. I just hope that knot holds.

While I need more practice on my knotting, I am pretty happy with this piece.

Joined up with the crop tonight at Craft Fancy. It was a good time. Actually got some cards made, which is nice. Used some new Stamping Bella stamps and did a first for me – actually stitched on my cards. I used the Sew Easy tool to create my lines, then went on to hand stitch them. It wasn’t as hard as I was thinking it was going to be, so I may collect more roller heads for a further variety of stitches. It just creates a nice texture and feeling to the cards. They still need a statement or might be left blank. Also, I need to decide if I am going to make the envelopes or use premade. Guess that depends on how soon they are used. 🙂

Guess that’s it for tonight.
Later!

You know how they say to be careful not to over saturate your paper when using Modge Podge? Yeah, this was one of those moments. I had this great coloring down from the glimmer mists, but I think when I was trying to put down the Hatter and seal it all up, my paper got too moist. Then it started to bubble, and as I was trying to get the bubbles out, my roller grabbed and removed my oh-so-pretty paper.

Yup, I was bummed. Therefore, I did not touch the other box I was going to work on. Why ruin two in a night? Instead, I pulled out some simple earrings I wanted to build.

These turned out much better. I wish kidney wire came in more than just the one color, but I am not fighting it. It works for now.

So I took this great class at Caravan Beads tonight in Chicago and learned to make this bracelet. It is really cool and feels very natural and easy. It even has little charms that hang from it. I think the only thing that I had issue with is the waxed linen cord. Wow- sticky. Kept trying to rub the wax residue from my hands off onto my jeans. I think for future attempts on this one (there will be many), I am going to find another stringing method.