History Lesson: Mood Rings

This is my mood ring.  I received it as a gift about eight years ago and surprisingly it still sort of works.  I had it stashed in a drawer for a while and started to wear it again recently.  Staring at it made me wonder about moods rings so I did a little research.  Very little in fact.

According to an article from About.com: Chemistry, the mood ring was invented by Joshua Reynolds and were popular in the 70’s. They supposedly change color according to your mood, though really they just react to your body temperature.

Thermotropic liquid crystals in mood rings respond to changes in temperature by twisting. This twisting changes their molecular structure, altering the wavelengths of light that are absorbed or reflected.  Those wavelengths thingies determine what color things are, at least that’s how I understand it.

When your body temperature is normal, the crystals are green or maybe blue.  When your temperature rises, they turn violet or blue.  When you’re stressed, blood flow is directed away from your fingers to your organs making the temperature of your finger colder, thus turning the ring yellowish.  And in cold weather, or if the ring is busted, the crystals turn blackish.  Judging by the photo, I might have been under a little stress.

So the colors in a nutshell:

• violet blue - happy go lucky
• blue - calm, relaxed
• green - average, so-so
• yellow/amber - excited
• brown/gray - nervous
• black – freezing or ring is busted

Now you can say you learned something today, or at least that you knew more than I did before.

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Sock Couture

One day, I found this simple tutorial on making a cute doll top or sweater dress using an old sock. I thought it was really cool and wanted to try it out.

So a couple weeks later, here it is.  This doll by the way is a My 2003 Graduation Barbie doll, if it isn’t obvious she was a graduation present. 

She now has a lovely dress made with the cuff of an white sock.  The hem of the sock was folded down and stitched to form a lovely and very open neckline that look fabulous on the doll.

Just add a few choice accessories and it makes a perfect outfit, though perhaps a little too warm for this weather.  It’s not as if these dolls melt, do they?

Since I was still in to mood to play dress up, and I still had plenty of sock scraps, I decided to make something more suited for warmer weather.

The tube top is inspired by a top I used to have and has yellow straps made from embroidery floss that ties in front with a bow.  The skirt is made with another cuff that was turned inside out because I liked the texture on the inside better.  The hat and bag were made sort of by accident while messing around with some scraps.

Add some slides and she’s ready for the sunshine.  I made the shoes years ago with some felt scraps and foam packaging.  I made a pair for one on my nieces at the same time along with some other doll clothes as a gift.  Funny how I’m getting more use out of mine than she is out of hers.

Here’s the updated list:

• baskets
• doll clothes
• foil bracelets
• swatch book
• embellished pins
• Video
• woven tote bag

Two down, five to go.   The next one might take a little longer, mostly due to work. :(

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A Bright and Early Easter

I’ve been having an interesting Easter so far.  Since I’m in choir at church, I had to be there super early to warm up for such a special service.  I set two alarms on my phone, one to wake me up and one to let me know when to leave.  The second one woke me up, so let’s just say I was a little bit rushed this morning.  At least I was only a few a minutes late and Church went well.
On another note, I finished the little baskets from my list.  Just something to get into the spirit of the day.  I used this tutorial from CraftStylish,  only I made mine considerably smaller and didn’t quite follow all the directions.  They still came out okay.  What’s great is that they are made from two old cardboard boxes,  one that held zip lock baggies and one for peanut butter cracker sandwich packs.  They would be great on my desk to organize paperclips or to hold snacks (like the cracker sandwichs), or maybe crammed with little chocolates and given as Easter favors.  The possibilities are endless.
Here’s the updated list:

• baskets
• doll clothes
• foil bracelets
• swatch book
• embellished pins
• Video
• woven tote bag

One down, six to go.  I should have the next one up tomorrow evening, look forward to it.

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Number 5 and Going Strong

Got the new project list ready.  Hopefully I can manage this one around school and work and all.  Especially work, we’re going to get pretty busy since April 15th is just around the corner.  I work as a tax preparer by the way, so yeah of course I’ll be busy this time of year. 

So presenting the newest list:

Craft List #5

• baskets
• doll clothes
• foil bracelets
• swatch book
• embellished pins
• Video
• woven tote bag

I plan on finishing everything  in about a week and a half.  Start the timers running.

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Good Deals from Goodwill

I stopped by Goodwill on the way home from work today on a quest for something I need.  I didn’t find it.

I did find a few craft items that were real scores.  First were these two patterns that were 1/2 off.  They came to about 65 cents total, and they so cute, especially the little girl’s.  I do have a few nieces who would look darling in little dresses and scarves.  Maybe I could make matching ones for all of them.  Then again that might be a little too Sound of Music.

I grabbed one of those baggies full of crafts supplies for about 4 dollars, and boy am I glad on did.  It was full of great stuff. 

Here’s what came in it:

A tomato pincushion (I love these), three packets of hand needles, some safety pins, several threaded bobbins…

This beautiful vintage needle set (it was a promotion item from Kroger)…

Some straight pins and flower pins that I could possibly embellish…

  

And a whole bunch of sewing machine needles…

And more of them…

And some more of them.  Lot’s of different kinds too.  I may never have buy needle again.  Of course I am going to share them with my Mom and sister, they don’t know that yet.

So the moral of this tale of shopping, go thrifting for your supplies and you will be rewarded greatly.  Either by good finds or good conscience, this time it was both.  Happy hunting.

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Kitty Ruffles

There’s a contest over at Ruffles and Stuff for projects that have a ruffled theme.  You can make them with any material, but you have to email photos before tomorrow.  I decided to make a cute little collar ruffle for Midnight.  It has two layered ruffles and little white bows for accent, and it’s made to slide on to her regular collar.

Here’s picture of how cute it looks on her.  Of course she couldn’t care less about that, except that she gets a lot of attention when wearing it.

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