A Hemp-Filled Sun Day

So I've started using the new draft.blogger dashboard stuff and I think it's pretty sweet! It's basically the same get-up with a new snazzy twist! I like the formatting buttons on the post page [I clicked on Trebuchet font--one of my favourites--is it different than what I've been using? Because I want everything uniform, thank you]; the "Link" and "Image" buttons have text so you don't have to hover to insert stuff; but where's the "Video" link? There was one, wasn't there? I don't really plan on using video on here much--if at all--but if that's a difference between the older version and the Draft version and a blogger uses the video uplinks [is that even the right word to be using?] frequently, he or she is going to be pretty upset! I suppose said blogger would be smart enough to insert the proper HTML coding in the "Edit HTML" section [which I frequent often and use before I'd ever use the "Image" or "Link" buttons]. And I also just realized there's no "Spell Check" in the new editor. Definitely not okay in my perfectionist eyes.

So today, Sunday, was the first of my two days off in a row. Tomorrow is the free concert in Ballard[?] and then I work for a billion days in a row because my manager is on vacation. Not looking forward to being as full-time as you can get, but I'm sure it'll be pretty stress-free with the stressing manager being in another country [Bienvenidos a Mexico!]. It was the epitome of "sun"days with temperatures in the mid 70s all day long and not a cloud in the sky. Andrew and I slept in until about noon or so, ate some eggs and toast while watching another episode of Six Feet Under [1.5: "An Open Book" where David comes out to his brother Nate, where we are introduced to both Brenda's crazy brother, Billy, and her "mind-fucking" psychologist parents, Bernard and Margaret, and where we see David's relationship with Keith diminish when he accepts the role of Deacon at his mother's closed-minded-conservative (aka not-Gay-friendly) church], and then we both took our hobbies to the yard in the blindingly bright weather. He worked on his dune-buggy project [welding in the hot weather!!] while I made some hemp jewelry.

The first thing I made was a bracelet for Andrew. I used one of the long, dark beads with divots in the middle with two dark round beads for accents. Of course, it was too long and I need to shorten it up a bit [re-do is more like it so I can practice getting the right length of hemp without wasting so much! I wasted 2 yards on the last bracelet I made! 2-yards!!!], but here's what it ended up as:


As you can probably see, I used the alternating square knot to have a flat bracelet, utilizing the knotting every so often for half-inch sections. I put knots on the sides of each of the beads, with two knots on each side of the main bead so that even while rotating, the main part is left visible:


Somehow, the divots in the wood came together in the divoting process and formed a heart. I think I mentioned it in a previous blog, but I saved it specially for Andrew's piece.

The other piece I made was an anklet for Sam. She told me to make something that I would wear, so I did. I gave it to her [fit great!], came home, and made one for myself. I really need to work on measuring right, because the one I made for myself is absolutely gigantic! I'll maybe save it for when I have fat ankles or something. But this is what both hers and mine look like [mine shown]:


I used the square knot repeating so that the hemp pattern came out as a spiral. I didn't use sectional knotting because it looks weird with the spiral.


I used small metal beads [that got hot hot HOT in the sun when I was beading!] and a cylinder metal bead for the clasp. I looped the first part and had the bead at the second part. When I connected them, it looked like it would fall off fairly easily, so I utilized a looping strategy I found on this website to make a slider to tighten the loop when it's around the bead.


Everyone around me is sleeping as I type this. Ashley's napping after a long day at work, Jet is napping at the top of the couch next to her, Spartacus is napping in the corner of the other couch closest to us, Moses is napping in front of the chair in the other corner of the room, and Murphy is napping with his nose on my outer thigh on the couch between Ashley and me. Am I supposed to take this as a hint and nap myself? I slept in a lot this morning and seens how it's only 8:00, I don't think I'll nap quite yet. What I should do is make something yummy to eat; something like Betty Crocker's Suddenly Pasta Salad. I have a box of the Classic in the cupboard waiting to be made and devoured. I've tried all three flavours. I'm not a huge fan of the Ranch & Bacon flavour, but it's still pretty good! I should also make some of my favourite noodles [penne rigate] with warmed up red sauce. I should also make some of that Banana Bread Quick Mix because that has to be just plain amazing! I'm making myself hungry. Let's see what the kitchen leads me to make...