Etsy: Avocado Pit Necklaces

So I've added hemp lanyards and beads to a few of my avocado pit pendants to change them into real necklaces and put them up on Etsy. I decided that it would be nice to make them a little fancier and make them ready to wear. They look awesome! Credit goes to my husband who came up with the idea in the first place. 

Swirling Full Avocado Pit Necklace

Chunky Abstract Avocado Pit Necklace

Secret Beating Heart Necklace

Bohemian Avocado Pit Necklace

Nap time is the best time!

Max, Smokey, Ara and Binx are all passed out on the bed, which we never make because the kitties prefer sleeping on comforter mountains. They always go into dream time in the afternoon, right about the time I want to curl up into bed with them, the meanies! The most we've ever had on the bed at once is seven, and that was a bed full of cuddles!

Glasses and Sailor Dresses

So this morning... er... afternoon... I was reading reddit and one of the questions was..

What medical condition do you have that you thought was absolutely normal?

One of the answers was something to the effect of "I never knew my vision was bad when I was a kid until I got my first pair of glasses and was like, woah, trees have leaves!"

It reminded me of when I got my first pair of glasses and everything I've been through with my poor, poor vision.

I've had glasses since I was 5 or so. My first pair of glasses were these god awful pair of red plastic frames big enough to be classified as "owl frames" that my mom said brought out the red glow in my cheeks and landed me endless teasing.

I have this picture of myself in these owl frames and I'm in this sailor dress. I remember the photo shoot. It was one of those old Kodak photo studios where they put you in some dark room with a little stage with a generic grey painted background and you sit on some pillows and they take your picture. Every child had these pictures taken, it seemed.

This time the photographer creeped me out. I hated him. I just got this nasty vibe from him and I was too young to really know why. He had me smile and complimented me and I just felt sick. My dress was itchy wool and I hated the sailor dress. It had this stupid little white fabric patch over the front or it'd be low cut and he made some creepy comments about it when it came undone and I felt like his voice was slippery. I didn't want to smile. He told me if I didn't, he'd hang me by my ankles and tickle my knees until I laughed.

I remember that comment so well. I remember fake smiling and thinking that if he hung me by my ankles my dress would fall over my head and then the picture would be ruined and he'd see more than I'd ever want him to see. The mental image was burned into my brain. Me, hanging by my ankles with my dress over my head, him laughing and trying to get a good photo... He was really creepy and I didn't like him.

I don't remember much else about that photo shoot, to be honest. I think the pictures turned out ok. I still remember that comment. It still makes me shudder. Why would a photographer suggest to hang a kid by their ankles and tickle their knees?

I hated that sailor dress and I hated those glasses. I never wanted to see that dress again.

But, I was stuck with the glasses. Lucky for me, I had my vision change so much as a kid I had new frames a year or two later when my prescription changed again. The next time I got frames, I got smaller ones because I was tired of being teased for having owl eyes. Now days I still prefer smaller frames. I always marvel that I can see the leaves on the trees with my glasses on, without them, trees are just a blobby mess of green and brown. I can't imagine not having my glasses.

Origami: Diamond Flower

Another design I came up with after fiddling around with the kusudama flower idea. Five sheets, glued together. Since kusudama petals do use glue, I felt a little more free to have a simple design for each petal, as a result, the flower is very open. From the side, it looks a lot like a diamond, hence the name. If anyone wants directions, I'll put them up. In the meantime, I've got a sheet with the folds and quick instructions, but that's it. I need to stop using red origami paper.

Origami: Kusudama Flower Petal Base - Geometric Style!

How to make this!

On Reddit it was asked for a different kind of kusadama petal base for these kinds of flowers, and I fiddled around until I came up with one I liked. Here it is for your own use.

Start with the fruit base:

Fold one of the flaps over to expose the colored side:

And fold it down as shown so it is flush with the the bits that were squash folded to get to the fruit base:

 We'll call the little white triangles the Triangle Bits.

Go to the next colored triangle and repeat: 

So you get this. Two Triangle Bits:

Take one of the sections that folds inwards to the left of one of the Triangle Bits and unfold it as shown:

Lift up the Triangle Bit and tuck that extra paper under it: 

Then fold the Triangle Bit back down:

Repeat with the other Triangle Bit:

Now we go to the other two flaps that haven't been dealt with yet. Unfold them so they stick out. This picture shows the back one still folded and the front one all unfolded:

Both unfolded like bunny ears:

Fold them back in, but fold them to the left and around, with valley folds as shown:

So the colored triangles poke out of the top when both the parts folded before are flat:

Now take those extra flaps and fold them over the top on the inside. This is identical to what you do for the other Kusadama flowers:

There you go!

Completed one unit!

Now just do five more and glue them together. Completed flower is below. A full ball would require a few more of these flowers, glued together and so on and so forth.

Mind you, as a large ball of flowers, each flower will have to be attached with minimal contact to the next, unlike the normal ball, because of the shortened length of the petals. Make sure to plan ahead and make all the flower units before hand and paper clip the units together to see how they fit together before gluing so you have all the glue spots correct and you have enough flower units made.