Jewelry Making

I decided to take up another type of craft with Ella. I bought a bunch of stuff to make jewelry with Ella. I did a lot of searching on Amazon for good sizes and good prices. I figured I'd share them. Links and descriptions below but at the bottom are pictures that are links.

I had a necklace (bottom left) that was a little long for most shirts so I added a jump ring. It can still be worn at it's original length too.  I timed how long it took me to make one on the right and I was shocked it took a half hour to assemble and deal with the jump rings. 

Best Friends Forever Charms I'm not sure how I need 90 of these but that is what I have.

Children's blank Bracelets These just barely go on my wrist too. But they are 2.0 inches. The next size up seems to be 2.4 inches. Sometimes 2.6 inches is used for women. 2.2 would be better for me. I bought a bracelet once with charms on it and it was 3.0 inches and incredibly large. That's what made me decide to try to make my own jewelry.

Unicorn Necklaces (part of a kit)   Now if you don't want to be making a ton of necklaces you can just buy some unicorn best friend necklaces. These have made great gifts in the past. We are on our second batch of these. Unicorns are apparently a big thing with the kids.

Thin necklace chain  It comes out to less than 40 cents a necklace!  It is too thin for some of the jump rings and some jump rings are too little to go around charms. So I also ordered the 2.0 mm chain instead of just the 1.5 mm chain. It comes with 20 clasps and 30 jump rings. I'd say at a minimum you need 40 jump rings with 20 clasps. At 18" a necklace you'd get 24 necklaces. Most kid necklaces are shorter than 16" so you'd end up needing more clasps too. But you definitely need more jump rings that fit. Some necklaces I was splitting with the infinity symbols so 1 necklace uses 4 jump rings.

Jump Rings (since I ordered, I saw this one with tools) None of these jump rings will fit through the chain of the 1.5 mm chain but they fit around it. They are just a little too thick to go into it.

Infinity Charms
100 Charms
Workout Charms

You will also need needle nose pliers and wire cutters but I already owned both.

Keep in mind how inexpensive the chain is and the clasps and the jump rings but then you have 100 charms or 36 feet of chain so then you have a lot of supplies. It's not worth it for a couple necklaces/bracelets. We will be making these for gifts and for ourselves. But we will probably have a ton of charms leftover but then want different charms too.  I'm still trying to look into some form of nylon for bracelets with string but I haven't done ample research yet.

I still need to figure out nylon for bracelets to use some of the infinity symbols and then make them adjustable. Have you ever made any jewelry yourself?  I used to make jewelry all the time with beads growing up. But I never had charms.


Links are affiliate. Trying something new since people buy stuff after I spend all the research figuring it out.

38 Weeks (March)

Saturday (today) was the first time I noticed my ankles being swollen. They weren't so swollen that I had to loosen my laces on my shoes or anything though.

I had my doctor appointment on Wednesday. Since they knew the baby was head down I didn't get any additional ultrasounds so I didn't get any additional baby weight stats like I got last time.  My blood pressure was 131/68 so they had to redo it. Then after relaxing it was 129/81. The cutoff for redoing BP is 130 so she said the second time was good.  My appointment was with the nurse practitioner because my doctor didn't have available appointments.  Next week is the same thing.  She checked if I was dilated.  She wasn't going to but I mentioned last time how my doctor said she would since I'd be at 37.5 weeks and usually they start checking at 38. She checked since I was already out fo my clothes. I'm like might as well since I had to take these pants and shoes off. I was 1.5 cm dilated and she said he definitely dropped.

So I can't find my normal lens and I spent 30 minutes trying to find it and then my old lenses. All the full body pictures were taken with my old 18-55 lens and they are foggy looking. I need to find my lens I always use. I took it off to put on a 50 mm lens at school and then it was in my bag and who knows what. I swapped lenses Wednesday and feel like it has to be here somewhere. I've checked a bunch of places but I need to better check the car to see if it rolled out of my bag.

This week I noticed I feel more mobile than last week. I mean don't get me wrong I still did almost nothing but moving from the couch to standing or the bed to standing was a little better.

various angles with my 50 mm lens

This week I had PT twice, a dentist appointment, and an OB appointment. I was pretty busy. I also went to preschool 3 times to take individual photos for the yearbook.

Poly likes to try to lie on my belly when I'm sleeping and I have to push her off. She tries to do it again and again. Then I have to get the afghan situated for her and coax her into that spot then pet her so she leaves my belly alone. At least it's only a couple minutes then I'm back to sleep but it's annoying.

I can only gain 1.2 more lbs if I want to have the same ending weight with all 3 pregnancies.

I didn't have good collages for comparison last time so this is what we have.

Size of baby: Celery Bunch, 19.6 inches long from head to heel. My app on my phone says the baby weighs about 6.5-7 pounds.  The baby gains a half a lb a week. 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 40.7 lb gain overall. I gained 3.2 lb  in the past week. 

Maternity Clothes: I still haven't worn maternity pants or shorts yet. My workout pants are starting to ride down and get annoying because the belly is just so low and the "high waisted" workout pants just want more area for the clothing to be. I'm wearing the same few shirts since I know so many are too short.


Movement: There is a decent amount of movement but also times with no movement.  The butt will totally be on my right side then be on my left side a little later.  

Sleep:  Sleep is pretty much awful.

What I miss: Running! lunch meat. Exercise. Being mobile. 

Symptoms: My back gets sore. By night it can really hurt. I basically have ice on my back for 10 hours a day. I strap it on with my pregnancy band. I go to the bathroom a lot.  I am swollen.  I am so tired. It's quite difficult to go from lying to standing. 

Best moment this week: getting the nursery ready. It's basically there but I have to plug in the sound machine.

Looking forward to:  picking a baby name!

Exercise:  I'm not exercising really but am doing back exercises at least 5 days a week. 

Same this time: With Miles I got checked for dilation at 37.5 weeks versus waiting for 38 week appointment too.  I miss the same stuff. I have the same symptoms.  I'm always gaining over the recommended 1 lb a week.`
Different from last time: Last time Ella helped me take pictures so I ended up with a lot. This time Miles helped me take pictures and I had to keep begging him to take more in a different pose.
I have crazy crazy dreams this time and I had them with Ella.  I didn't paint any onesies this time and I did with both Ella and Miles.  Apparently I'm ahead of the game with having the nursery ready. Last time I still had to hang the curtains. With Ella I got it mostly ready this week but wasn't done cleaning out non-baby things from the room.  I can feel the butt well so I think he's not posterior. Miles was posterior and head down. While Ella was butt down and I could feel her head.

38 weeks with Ella
38 weeks with Miles

Shrinky Dinks meetup (2.25.18)

A mom organized a meetup where all the kids got to use Shrinky Dinks.  I had never heard of them before. There were pre-designed things to color and also blank sheets.

I got Miles to sleep and then went and picked Ella up and we went. Dave was home sick (sleeping) so I was able to leave Miles and make it there.   Ella had a blast coloring them.   Then we put them in a toaster oven and saw them shrink. Ella loved it.

Next everyone put them on necklaces or keychains. They used some beads too.

Here is one colored in before it was put in the toaster oven.

We do a decent amount of playdates where we make something like this. I wish I blogged about them more. Sometimes later I forget half the prep that was involved.

Sunglasses

I don't know how many of you out there have issues with finding sunglasses that fit your head.  All these people I know can buy any cute sunglasses they want and they don't squeeze their head and give them a headache. Well apparently I have a wide head and it's very hard to find sunglasses for them.  About 10 years ago I found sunglasses that worked. Then 6 years ago I found a pair. I was trying to find more pairs for the past 6 years and always check anywhere that has sunglasses and this year at Walmart I finally found some that worked. Dave has a very similar wide head issue. (Hmm maybe this is why the doctor told me how wide this new baby's head will be. Really wide compared to everything else.) I tried and tried and found the same ones on Amazon.   (Apparently since I started this post they became unavailable.  They were 14.99 at Walmart but I can't even find them on the Walmart website.) I own 2 pairs now. I wonder if I should order more. I have 1 pair of old sunglasses then 2 new pairs. I feel like when you have kids and they can break things and it takes you 6 years to find something that works maybe I should have another pair.  Dave even tried to buy $200 sunglasses but they were all just too narrow for his head.

The sticker on these ones said flexi-temple and I think that's what made them so nice.   That R stands for Piranha.

How many pairs of sunglasses do you have? Are sunglasses difficult for you to find?

2019 Week 12/52 Photo

Miles wanted a snack and he always wants to help. So he cut the strawberries. He'd work hard to cut the tops off then ask me to put them in the compost. He made a plate of fruit for himself and one for Ella. 

Photo Taken March 24, 2019

Maternity Photos (3.3.19) Part 2

Well I was going to have Part 1 of the pics be of the family mainly and part 2 be me + the 2nd outfit. But then I realized lots of pictures were missing from the album I made. Autobackup failed me and didn't upload everything. Now this post will have so many more pictures than the other one and I'm even trying to be limiting!

 If you notice here you can see Ella is about choking me while Miles is trying to leap off of me.

 This is my favorite maternity dress. It cost me $4.28 if I remember correctly. I bought it in 2013.

 Notice Miles in the background climbing in the dirt.

 Just look at Ella's leg!