Of the original planting of my tea jar terrarium, I had three varieties survive. It was looking rather sparse, so I added succulents from another pot we had hanging in a window.
I’ve increased the artificial light from 9 hours to 12 to see if that makes the cactus happier.
Sometimes, not very often, when I’m wrapping presents the paper pattern and the box size coincide and the fold at the back is a perfect continuation of the pattern. Ah.
I’ve cast on a new pair of spiral socks. This time I’m trying a 3×3 offset rib. The yarn I purchased years ago, tried to make a sweater, but frogged the whole project, so am now using the yarn for socks.
I do think it is an interesting phenomenon that the spiral rib presents the garter stitch, while a straight rib shows the stockinette as predominant.
I wanted a pair of star earrings to wear to chorus events. I started looking at preassembled sets and was dismayed at materials and pricing, so I ordered parts from Fire Mountain Gems and assembled them myself. Since buying in bulk makes the individual item less expensive, I ordered enough for my whole chorus.
I picked a simple star charm and an open loop ear wire so assembly was a just matter of using needle nose pliers to open the wire loop, put in the charm, and close the loop again. Here is a tip for opening wire loops, either on ear wires or for jump rings: twist, don’t pull. Rather than pulling the ends of the loop apart and widening the loop, if you twist them, one side forward, one side back, they are much easier to twist back closed.
The thing that took the longest time was getting the cards with earrings into the little 2×3” bag. The sets, with shipping, cost less than $1 per pair plus time. The components are silver-plated, which is fine for costume jewelry. The assembly is simple enough that if someone does have a nickel allergy, the charm can easily be transferred to a pair of titanium or niobium ear wires instead. (Those are just considerably more expensive.)
In October of 2015 there was a pumpkin display at the school library. The pumpkins couldn’t be carved because of the smell and mess, but could be painted or decorated. My youngest was very into Splat the Cat, so I crocheted a cover.
To get the fur, once the crocheted form was done, I brushed it with a boar bristle brush to raise the fibers. It worked quite well. The ears are also crocheted then brushed, with pink felt glued inside. The eyes are ping pong ball halves with green doll safety eyes installed. The nose is a safety nose on gray felt with an embroidered mouth, and hot glued inside place.
The best part is that the cover can be removed and reused.
Critters and Craft 