NaBloPoMo Day 19: Paracord!

A few days ago I mentioned that I had ordered paracord and buckles. Today I put them to use.

I ended up going to YouTube for instructions rather than using the tutorial I linked earlier.

From left to right they are:

• Super Easy Paracord Bracelet from tovamos816’s YouTube
• River Bar Bracelet from TyingItAllTogether’s YouTube
• Waterfall Bracelet from Paracord Fusion Ties – Volume: 1 by JD Lenzen, the person behind TyingItAllTogether

Yes, I bought a book. It’s an ebook, though, and it was only $7. I learned how to do a nicer knot for the clasp and I really like that waterfall tie. Here’s an attempted closeup of the knot.

As you may have guessed, the buckles aren’t working. I got glow-in-the-dark ones which are too big and translucent green which are too small. I think the small ones might work for friendship bracelets with embroidery floss and for now my 7-year-old son is using a glow-in-the-dark one to make a belt.

He enjoyed doing it for a bit and took a break for dinner but then came back to it a bit more. It goes pretty quickly so I think he’ll be able to finish it up tomorrow. I’ve already started shopping for new colors. Move over yarn, here comes paracord!

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NaBloPoMo Day 15: new crafts

I missed a day! I even had something to post about yesterday besides food: embroidery. I’m not actually doing any embroidery but I’m thinking about it. Kristi gave me Embroidered Effects for my birthday and I brought it to school yesterday to help me teach the kids in the sewing class how to embroider. I am going to guess that if you look at my blog posts for the past several Novembers you will find me saying that watching the kids embroider really makes me want to. As I told them: you don’t need fancy stitches to make something nice with embroidery. I should pick a project from that book and actually make it. I usually can’t figure out exactly what I’d do with something embroidered and that stops me from making it. I had the Sublime Stitching Stitchable Stationary kit and embroidered that last year, which I really liked doing. I could do more of that too. Every year, though, I talk about it and then the only embroidery I end up doing is on felt holiday decorations.

The other craft I’ve been thinking about is paracord bracelets. I was looking at a book about them in the bead store last week and then found a tutorial on how to make them and an Etsy shop that sells the supplies. So now I have paracord and buckles and I guess I better figure out how they all go together. I was hoping to get my kids interested in working on them. I got some glow in the dark buckles but they have turned out to be enormous so I’m not sure they’ll work. I got a few smaller green ones too. If it happens, I will post pictures.

I can’t resist mentioning a few food things:

• I made a chicken in the slow cooker again. This time I put it in breast down and left it a bit shorter. It was so good and it was magically ready when we got home from getting the kids and going to the library. I may never roast a chicken in the oven again. (I’m lying, I miss the crispy skin.)
• I then started another batch of chicken broth because the last one all got eaten in just a few days. Matzo ball soup will do that.
• I made chocolate cupcakes for my son’s end of season soccer party tomorrow. I meant to make them cookies ‘n creme cupcakes but I forgot to add the cookies. I put them in the frosting instead and used TJ’s peppermint Joe Joes. This might be the best idea ever.

Okay, I’m done talking about food. For now.