song, bracelet, maiming incident

Did you ever get lost in a song? For me, such a thing as that started with Me and Bobby McGee as sung by Janice Joplin. That was my first record. A single. Got it when I was in fifth grade. Used to play that song over and over for hours, literally, working myself into some kind of Bobby McGee trance. Something about Janice's gravely voice and those lyrics just spoke to me. I can't explain it.

     Next, it was So Far Away, by Carol King when we had to move from Pennsylvania to Florida in the middle of sixth grade with only two weeks notice. This time, I bought the whole album: Tapestry. Even now, I get the song thing now from time to time. A few years ago, I discovered Flightless Bird by Iron and Wine. Sometimes I just need to hear that song a few dozen times. My daughter, Kelly, made me a CD of their music. For several days, I've been searching for the CD. It is, tragically, missing. Thank the Lord for YouTube. I'm now listening. Aaaah.

     I know I promised the bracelet craft for yesterday. I am late, but I can 'splain. Here's what happened. I subbed for a pre-K class yesterday. So adorable. So tiring. Then crossing guard in the suddenly summer Texas heat. After a quick dinner, QG and I head to the gym for elliptical then a grueling yoga class. I fell asleep in corpse pose for the first time ever. Meant to come home, then blog. Came home, showered, lay down for a sec. Next thing I know, it's this morning. Hello, world!

     So for this craft, I am going to reveal one of my thrifting secrets. I realize this will give me more competition for the item in question, as some local true friends read my blog. It's okay. That's how much I love you guys.

     This is about leather. You can buy a 4x4 inch square of it for six bucks at the craft store. On the other hand, you can buy a whole coat to cut up for five bucks at Goodwill. You decide. For this craft, get your coat. Cut it up into the largest sections you can. Use a rotary cutter and cut thin strips: a fourth to an eighth inch wide. Get some big old 4 hole buttons you have laying around.

     For option one, take 2 strips. Fold in half. Leave a loop big enough to pass the button through, then knot beside the loop.

You will have 4 strands streaming down (number 1-4 from left to right for our purposes). Pin the knot in place so you can work the weave.

 ++Take each outside strand and loop it under the one beside it.

Now take the new strand 2 and pass it over strand 3, so that they have now switched places.

Repeat from ++ to here until it is the length to fit your arm with the button added. You will need enough length on the ends to knot them. You may need to taper the leather ends here to feed into button holes. Feed the leather ends into the button holes.

Knot each end, using a tiny crochet hook if it makes it easier for you to pull the ends through the knot. Boom. Done. Easy.

     Another even easier option is to get a 2 hole button, slide the strip through, matching up ends. Knot below button and every inch or so, using the last knot-to-knot span as the loop over the button.

     Option 3 is to loop 2 strands through a 2 or 4 hole button, then do the braid thing explained in option 1, then either knot and leave a span and knot again at the end for the button slot, or make a loop with another piece, and knot this into the end knot so that the loop can be used as a clasp.

     Final note, this also makes a nice bookmark if you don't want to make a bracelet out out it. You can fool around with these ideas and come up with even cooler designs, I'm sure. This makes a great gift option, and it is nice to clump a bunch of these together.

          Lastly, on a horrible note, I maimed my dog today. I didn't mean to, I promise. I was trimming a bunch of trees, weeding, etc. before it got too hot this morning, so I decided to have a pet spa day. I gave Jamie a bath in the backyard with the hose, and proceeded to trim her extremely long nails. Didn't think anything of it. An hour or so later, we both headed into the house. I looked down and saw that her back left paw was all bloody. I kind of freaked out. I've never nipped her before in 11 years of trimming. Don't know how it happened. Had to cleanse it, pet her for an hour or so, give her lots of snacks, like lunch meat and ice cream (I know those aren't good for her, but they made her happy, and once in a while won't kill her), apologize a billion times, and wrap the paw in a sock after liberal Neosporin applications. I am happy to report that the patient is zipping around like nothing ever happened. She is not even mad at me. Dogs are the best.