The Night of Random and Semi-Long Posts

I hereby term tonight the Night of Random and Semi-Long Posts. Because I am not sleepy at all.

Provided I don't actually get sleepy (heaven forbid! AH! Sleepy? Never.)

10 things my unicycle has taught me

1.  Riding a unicycle feels like flying.
2. Okay, sometimes it feels more like a bumpy magic carpet ride than simply flying. Particularly when I almost fall.
3. Turning a 360 in a 10 foot driveway is harder than it seems.
4. Riding a unicycle on steep Ozark hills beats lunges and squats, anyday!
5. Riding a unicycle down a steep half mile hill makes your legs very sore afterwards.
6. Random cars and joggers will stop to watch your progress
7. Normally reclusive neighbors will actually come outside and talk to each other. (Believe me, this is quite a miracle)
8. Unicycles are about the coolest things ever.
9. People are very impressed, even if you fall down after only a few feet.
10. Pixar even has an animated short about a unicycle! (This is one thing my unicycle didn't teach me, but reminded me of). It was made in 1987 and although it looks weird, the technology was top-notch at the time.

 

Drowned by arts and crafts!!! (New Blog)

I am a rather spasmodic blogger, aren't I? I'll abandon the blog for weeks on end, and then suddenly post several times in one day...
You may have noticed that I have been bogging down my blog with many posts on artsy crafty things. Thats because I really love artsy craftsy things. :) However, I know that I sometimes bore people to death... And the blog is like a ship being slooooooowly drowned by artsy craftsy things. So! I have taken it into my head to... *drumroll* make another blog!!! This one will be dedicated solely to artsy craftsy things. I can drown it all I want and it shan't care because I made it to get drowned!!!

Here it is, my new prrrrrrrrrrecious!!!

Shaelynn's Faerie Shoppe

Prayers, please!

If you all wouldn't mind remembering us in your prayers, we would appreciate it. Grandpa R. is in the hospitable. He needs a surgery but refuses to get it. There is a possibility of us selling our house soon- a small possibility, but please pray something comes of it! My cousin Hunter is in the hospital in Japan for a few weeks with a bad case of pneumonia. And Dad has a cold.

Thank you! I'll be sure to remember you all in my prayers, too!

My birthday

I can now officially say that my birthday is entirely over. It is rather enjoyable to have a birthday spread out across four or five days... We celebrated as a family a day early. On my actual birthday, I simply took it easy. I had my birthday cereal, read, wrote an essay, did an two hour online Latin 2 class, went to volleyball practice, came home, and played. I stayed up until midnight. :) I even graced the dusty piano keys with my presence for the first time in three months! (without lessons, I can be a very un-motivated piano player. Oh, that I were musical in any way whatsoever...)
My unicycle came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it. :)
I spent most of my birthday money from Grandma and Papa and Aunt Trish and Uncle Sparky (aka, Uncle Nick) on some beautiful Czech glass beads and wire. Perfect for making more Elvish jewelry. The beads are from BrightlingsBeads. They sell the Czech glass beads for a good one to two dollars cheaper than anywhere else, and they had a great Labor Day weekend sale. They arrived yesterday!

A rant, and an attempt to cheer up

I have the strangest feet. Let me reiterate: I have very strange feet.
They are very wide- so wide that most woman's shoes (even specialty ones) don't come in their width. I can't wear most ballet flats because my feet bulge out of the sides.
They are so flat that if I stand on a squishy surface, the part where most people has an arch goes down farther than the rest of my foot.
This combination leads to cramps, blisters, swelling, and twisted ankles. ALOT. (as in, everytime I try to do anything.
We tried to take care of that problem for sports by getting me men's quadruple wide tennis shoes. It solved half the problem (men's shoes do not solve flat feet.)

Okay. *deeeeeeeeeep breath* *sigh*
I guess I really shouldn't be complaining. At least it is only my feet misbehaving (bad, feet, BAD! Go stand in the corner!), not something major. :P Grrr, it still gets me sometimes.

An attempt to cheer up:

(There is a reason I am labeling this an ATTEMPT. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't)

We had two more people come look at our house!!! .... !!!! .... !!!! .... !!!! (those are mixed emotions)

Celebration! A day early but just as great. :)

Today we celebrated my birthday! I know its not until tomorrow, but Dad has to leave for work.
We went out to eat at Steak and Shake, and I got *drumroll* a big shake! Cookies and Cream! And aside from what I shared with everyone (since everyone has to have at least one spoonful of the "fancy shake"), I ate the entire thing! Therefore, I was not very hungry at dinnertime.
After lunch Dad surprised us and took us to Kokomo Joe's for a game of miniature golf! I went for broke on one hole, and I went broke. :) It was a ton of fun though!
Mom and I went shopping. :) I got two pretty shirts.
I have kept up my "tradition"- rather than a birthday cake, we got a pie from A Slice of Pie. This is the second and (*sob*) probably last time we have/will have done this for my birthday.
Grandma and Papa sent me a present- a signed book. The book is alot like Shel Silverstein's, only its main topic seems to be... llamas. Yes, llamas. It is fun, though.
I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL TWO DAYS AFTER MY BIRTHDAY!!! I'm getting my unicycle then. :) Torker CX 24in.
And I spent the birthday money from gma and papa on these awesome beads for Elvish jewelry. We found a great shop for very nice quality beads, and with free shipping- very good for ordering online. http://brightlingsbeads.com/ I'm going to be making more than I could ever use... wonder if there are any craft fairs I can sell some of my creations at.
School again tomorrow. Because of various circumstances I am a few days behind... Mom is letting me use this week as catch up week, but I'm going to challenge myself to catch up by Wednesday... Don't want to be doing school over the summer! 

TEST

Testing new signature at bottom of posts

Elvish style jewlery

So... I have always loved the clothing and jewelry in The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and other movies similar to those. I've always especially loved the Elven style. I fact, I love everything Elvish. I am hoping to make an Elven dress if we can get the supplies. It would be blue and silver... Anyway, I have always wanted Elvish style jewelry. Way back in 5th grade, I got an Evenstar necklace (for $3, when it normally was $10!)




(It's not as nice as this one- this is the "official" $100 diamond one)

I also love "medieval" "fairy" or "Celtic" style jewlery, which I dub as "Elven" since it really looks alot like it. :)

Since it is virtually impossible to find anything like this in Rolla, and even if you did, it would probably be very expensive, I decided I would try to make some for myself. I HATE WAL-MART. Let me say that again: I HATE WAL-MART. They took away 3/4 of their fabric, but their worst transgression is the fact that they have deprived their art section of anything of worth. Once upon a time you could find beads and wire, embroderiy floss, random craft sets, paints of all kinds, etc. Now all you can find are: premade bead necklaces, some scrapbook supplies, cheap kids crafts sets, and wedding decorations. I HATE WAL-MART.

To get to my point: There are no other craft supply/hobby stores in Rolla that I know of. (Unless you count that moldy one downtown). I had to deal with a small Ziplock baggie of leftover beads from old projects and thin floral wire. At a garage sale I found a small spool of thicker wire, but I already use it up in these projects... Dad had a pair of needlenose pliars that are really helpful.

My first attempt that didn't fall apart:

 

I was actually fairly proud of this next creation. I'm calling it an ear cuff. Sounds funny, I know, but what else should I call it?

Here is how it is worn:

(random girly thing- my hair looks curly in that picture! And not super frizzy... :P)
I think you would probably only wear one of these, and you can wear earrings with it, too.

I made these before I made the ear cuff I made "earrings" for Adelynn. She simply loves dress up and has been deploring the fact that her ears aren't peirced (keep delporing for 5 more years, Rosie!)

 

I also made a rock necklace:

This was laying on my desk, and so I just had to take a picture of it. I can't claim credit for this one: Rebecca made it. :)

 

Maybe next time I should lay a piece of white paper underneath when I take the picture...