Bead on a Wire Blog

My dear husband bought some regular Dawn dish soap the other day. He was hilarious in the retelling of the search for it because apparently there are so many super powered versions of Dawn now that he despaired of finding the good old regular kind.

And so, with Dawn in hand, I set the tumbler to tumbling last night with nothing in it except for the mixed stainless steel shot, water, and a squirt of the Dawn. I had read that it was best to clean the tumbler before using it to actually clean your stuff. Funny.

The tumbler swirled around for about 90 minutes last night while we watched Survivor and I did other things. When I went to bed, I turned it off for fear of the machine “walking” off of the ledge that I have it sitting on (it is quite deep) or leaking of the soapy water onto my craft table. When I emptied out the sudsy water this morning it was the color of urine. Interesting. Yellow was not what I was expecting.

I refilled it with the shot, water, and soap and set it to tumble again before I attempted to tumble anything. A couple of hours later, more yellow water and suds came out. The next refill included my wedding rings - a couple of hours later they came out with less yellow water and suds and super sparkly.

I like this.

Hub said, “I don’t think that’s how they clean it at the jewelers.” To which I replied, “But it’s cheaper than the jewelers.” No further argument.

While the rings tumbled themselves clean, I worked on my sister’s bracelet-key fob. Here is the finished item with which she seemed pleased when she saw the pictures and has already purchased!

It’s funny how things come. For instance, my sister asked me to make a beaded bracelet style key fob for her. We swapped messages so that I could get in my head what she wants - I’ll start work on something tonight for her.

And then yesterday morning when I was dropping my son at my mother’s house for her day to watch him, her good friend (who is in from out of town to visit) mentioned that she has this beaded bracelet key fob that she loves. But it broke and she wondered if I could fix it and have I considered making something like that before?

Isn’t that slightly freaky? That within a day or two I would get two requests for identical things?

So our friend is going to send her broken fob to me to repair and then I think I will make a few to list in my shop since she indicated that there would be interest in them. If not from others, then definitely from her at least - she wants to give them as gifts to friends.

I’ll try to remember to post pictures of the one I make for Jaynee.

We’re now 30 days away from our long awaited vacation and I can’t wait. But I am thinking about future vacations, too. Where do we want to go? Where can we go that is toddler and baby friendly? There are way too many options?

One town that I love is New York City. It’s a city that is rich with culture, so many things to see and do, and it’s not too far from where we live, too. I’m sad that my sister and her family no longer live there - it was very convenient to visit them and have the opportunity to get into the city to play tourist.

But there are other options including New York city sightseeing tours. Family In New York is the next best thing to actually having family in New York, like we used to have. They offer personalized tours, specifically designed for you and your desires. I like that idea. I also like the strict requirements for their tour guides - they require testing of New York history and licensing by the city as well. I’d hate to take a tour with someone who wasn’t legitimate or didn’t know their stuff.

Looking deeper into the website, I see that they offer their services in other cities as well. That’s good to know for when we decide to travel to other locations in the US, too.

Almost.

My new tumbler arrived the other day. My mixed shot arrived over the weekend. Now I just need a small bottle of regular Dawn dish soap and I’m ready to start tumbling all kinds of things.

First up will be my wedding set, which I’m told will clean up well.

I’m excited!

There are some things that I had decided not to make anymore since they weren’t selling - cell phone charms, zipper pulls, and badge lanyards. And then I got a special order for one at my last open house. Go figure.

My customer wanted one that was mostly black. So this is what I came up with:

And then the bonus? Both of the badge lanyards in my shop sold this weekend! Fantastic.

I’m still on the fence about doing new ones to list though. Because they do languish in my shop for a long time and I hate to see that for the time and materials involved.

It was five years ago that a co-worker of mine suffered sudden cardiac arrest while at work. She had been battling the flu and thought she had bronchitis coming on because of this weird cough that developed. She called her husband to let him know she wasn’t feeling well - he advised her to try to get in to see her doctor. She hung up to do that and fell over at her desk, gasping for breath and quickly turning blue.

She didn’t have what are considered to be the classic symptoms of a heart attack, like abnormal heart rhythm or pain in her chest or the tingling in her left arm. It wasn’t until months later, when she woke up in the hospital after a triple bypass, that she even knew what happened.

Fortunately for her, she had her heart attack in the courthouse - we have well trained first responders in every component of the court and they saved her life. The doctors at the hospital said that there is no doubt that the immediate CPR they administered kept her alive long enough for the ambulance, which arrived in 5 minutes (no kidding, they do not mess around when we call). If folks had waited those 5 minutes, she would have died before she reached the hospital.

For those of us around her, it was a wake up call. You see, she was only 38 years old at that time. Sure, she was a heavy smoker and she ate the same junk that we all eat. She had high blood pressure. But even though she was definitely a candidate for heart troubles, we all figured that would set in later. We all did a little more research about heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest in the months while she recuperated.

To find out if you are at risk for SCA, click here for more information. It could save your life or the life of someone you love.

My co-worker recovered quickly thanks to her youth. She was able to return to light duty a month sooner than expected and is hale and healthy today. And grateful.

The batteries in my camera were the rechargeable kind. I had two pair that I would switch out. Both pair finally crapped out this week - they just would not hold a charge anymore.

Yesterday I bought replacements and charged them up overnight. Today, they will not hold a charge. I tried to take a couple dozen product pictures and early on the low battery warning light came on. Then about 50 shots into it, I got the “Change battery pack” message. What?

So I switched them out for the other pair and the same thing happened. What’s especially frustrating is that I never use the flash, it’s not like I’m using a lot of power when I’m using the camera.

I’m thinking it’s the milk that got into the camera a couple of weeks ago. I think it was Easter weekend, actually. I had the camera in the small diaper bag I use anymore, and my son’s sippy cup had a leak in the bag. I noticed there was a bit of milk on the outside of the camera and when I checked the insides (that I could see), everything looked fine. But clearly something is wrong.

*sigh*

I love food. I love everything about food - cooking it and eating it. And I love all kinds of ethnic and regional food - usually I will try anything.

One thing I have never eaten is Cajun crawfish, although I’ve enjoyed all other Cajun food I have eaten over the years, so I am sure I will like crawfish, too. The only hesitation I have is the whole sucking the juice from their heads thing.

And I love other seafood, too - shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, catfish, etc. If it comes from the sea or a river, I will eat it. And Authentic Louisiana Seafood will ship their fresh seafood all over the US - so all of you land-lubbers, pay attention! Imagine it … fresh, tasty seafood delivered straight to your home. The thought is making me drool already.

We might have to go get some catfish one night this week now that I have a hankering for it.

My burning the candle at both ends is finally catching up with me. I’m tired … weary. And badly in need of my vacation in just 36 days. Yes, I’m counting. We haven’t taken a vacation since our honeymoon and that was almost 2.5 years ago!

There’s no motivation to work on anything, including the special orders I have in hand and have been paid for. There’s no motivation, but I’m working none-the-less. Because it’s the right thing to do - you press on and complete the tasks set before you. So I am. And I’ll be glad when they’re complete - to have them off of my plate, but also for the small bit of creative satisfaction that will come when the lovely finished pieces are boxed and sent off to their recipients.

It’s a small thing. But ultimately, it’s a good thing. And it keeps me going when what I really want to do is just sit and rest.

Anyone else get this tired?

My mom made some really lovely window treatments for our living room bay window. We have sheers with a pretty valance. And the whole thing is was jerry-rigged up there with a tension rod. This morning I noticed that the whole thing had come crashing down. No clue when, but I blame the cat stepping on the sheers under some chairs we have in the window area at the moment.

So now I’m thinking of how we can better stabilize that window treatment and it’s clear that what we really need is an actual curtain rod. We have a traditional look, so I’d like something in keeping with our decor and wrought iron curtain rods may be a way to go. I love wrought iron, but there are way too many beautiful choices. I think I’d like to keep it simple with a rod like this one. Then again I like the idea of a shelf above the window to display some things.

Now I’m trouble because I love this wreath hanger for Christmas time. And this sleigh bed. And the classic welcome sign.

I’m going to have to figure out a way to convince Beau that we need some new things. Hee.