Hardware Store Bracelet

I bought everything I needed (materials wise) for this bracelet at Home Depot for less than $10.

Shopping List:

• Neon Cord - 5/32" Diamond Braid Poly, All-Purpose Cord. I bought blue, but it comes in other colors.
• 1/4" - 20 Hex Nuts or machine nuts.
• 1" S hooks

Tools from home:

• size N crochet hook
• large eye needle
• sturdy pliers

Thread about 20 nuts onto your cord. Start off with a slip knot around your hook, leaving about a 4" tail

Slide 1 nut against the knot and work your chain stitch, the nut should fall onto the "back" of the chain.

Slide 1 nut against work and chain 1. Repeat to desired length. You probably won't need all of the nuts, I only needed about a dozen, but extra is always good.

To add your closure, unravel the outer layer of the cord until about 1" from your work. Cut off the inner core. With your needle, weave the unraveled ends back through your work.

Repeat for other end. Slip S hook into one loop, and squeeze closed with the pliers. Leave the other end open so you have an S clasp.

Haven't given up.

Those of you who follow my other blog, Live Like a Hippy, will have seen me posting like crazy about homemade spa goodies, especially Lip Balm. Have no fear, I haven't stopped crocheting.

I've actually been working on a pattern book! The working title is "Creature Comforts" and it's going to be filled with animal inspired winter gear, for little kids and big kids! So far, I've got a Snuggly Diamond Back scarf, the Shark Attack Hat, a Frog hat, and the Brain Worm Scarf/hat combo.

I'm hoping to come out with roughly a dozen patterns when all is said and done. Also, now that my arm is healed (I fell victim to all the ice in Allentown the other week) I should be able to do a lot more crochet work. I'll gonna finish up the laptop sleeve I'm working on, so I can keep my shiny new Toshiba shiny and new and then dig right back into the Creature patterns.

I've also got a couple of new ideas bouncing around for the Fishin' Buddies booklet. And don't worry, I haven't forgotten that a lot of you are here for the free stuff. I've got a couple ideas in that category too.

Cooking, Cooking, Cooking

Due to the Kitchenless state of my house, I am at my mother's today to borrow the stove (and catch up on some laundry). Been cooking since about noon, here's what's for dinner. So to speak.

• Energy Bark (recipe on Live Like a Hippy)
• Tomato Salad
• Lemon Pepper Tilapia
• Tilapia with Beans and Sweet Corn (great in a Tortilla with shredded cheese)
• Orange Glazed Rosemary Pork Chops
• Breaded Pork Chops
• Chile and Cumin Fried Chicken
• Italian Sausage and Veggies Tossed with Penne Pasta
• Chicken for Chicken Ceasar Wraps
• Middle East- inspired Bulgar Wheat with Toasted Almonds
  

The tomato salad is for the PotLuck at work tomorrow and hopefully the rest of it will hold us over for a few days. Also, I will be leaving a serving or so of most of the dishes behind to thank my mom for use of the kitchen.

It would have helped too, if I had remembered to buy shredded cheese and ceasar dressing.

Looks who's back!

So after all this time, we're finally getting settled back into the house. We've been living in it for almost 3 weeks, but it's only now starting to feel like ours again. All the damage from the fire has been repaired at this point but we haven't started to unpack yet because the bathroom remodel isn't done yet and repairing the living room floor and redoing the kitchen come after that, as well as the touch up painting in the whole house. When things are finished up, I'll post some pictures.

I haven't been totally lazy while I haven't been online, although admittedly, my dislocated kneecap is slowing me down quite a bit. But... I do have a few recipes to get posted over on Live Like a Hippy, including two for awesome salads, both using variations on Good Seasons dressing mix packets, and I've been crocheting for charity, and brainstorming a really cute draft blocker for you all.

I have my follow up with the orthopedic on Thursday, wish me luck.

Falling behind

So, I still need to get the dust bunny pattern formatted and posted. I still need to fix a couple of buggy links over at Tilghman Street and I still need to do about a million other things.

This month seems to have been all about having fun, but at the expense of accomplishing anything. My sincere apologies for all of that and I'm gonna try to get back in to the swing of getting something done, now that I'm over my second sinus infection for October.

On the plus side, I have gotten some time to play with my Knifty KNitter, so from a pure yarn perspective, it hasn't been a total loss.

Also, I've been working on a couple of recipes for the Hippy's Recipe Box over at Live Like a Hippy.

Live Like a Hippy

In order to not bore everyone here with the nitty gritty details of things, I have started a second blog. I know that the point of this blog is to let everyone know what I'm up to when I'm not working on the website, but we've been making efforts toward living a little healthier and maybe a little greener, and I don't want to end up going on and on here about things that many of you probably couldn't care less about.

If you are interested, check out my other blog, Live Like a Hippy: Adventures in Learning to Live Green(er). If anything really funny happens, I'll post here too.