There really isn't a lot of how-to in this one. I used a connector that had loops to add at minimum 4 chains, and I used thin wire to string the beads onto the bracelet and secure it to the 1-to-4 connectors on each side. Added some closures to the connectors, and done.
The beads are from jewelry my grandpa made a long time ago. I didn't realize it at first when I started making my own jewelry that I was not the first of my genetic line to do so.
I never was a huge fisher, don't really like how hot it gets in Florida, and wouldn't touch a grapefruit with a ten foot pole. SO it is really nice to have something in common with my grandpa, even if he isn't still around. Someone has to carry stuff like this on.
Breakfast buffets. We definitely had that in common as well.
Anyway I intend on making a lot of Christmas gifts this year be homemade things so this bracelet is already slated to go to a new owner. Which really involves a lot of me banking on people liking the things I make for them without asking them first...ha.
I would like to apologize now for any typos that will likely occur in this. Today was a very long day. I went to visit a friend and drove through super gusty wind to get there. Now the Durango is not the slimmest model out there and she can be a real pain to keep in her lane when the wind picks up. But I got to my friend's house ok and we all watched football and it was a really great time. Her dog did not lick my head this time, so quite frankly I think it was a perfect time!
She noticed that there was another storm front coming through early evening and we both agreed it was probably best if I headed back to beat the storm. I declined her suggestion to take a different route even though I knew there was construction on the one I would take. But I figured traffic wouldn't be too bad at that time of day.
And it wouldn't have been. If there had not been a wreck. I was probably all of 8 cars behind where the wreck happened. It did not occur to me at the time, but if I had left any sooner, I could have been a LOT closer to it than that. Or if I had been speeding a lot. That is always a weird thought to have.
I hope the lady is ok. She was trapped in her vehicle but I don't think it was all that bad because I never saw an ambulance. There were multiple cop cars.
A guy talked a different cop in to blocking off traffic so a lot of us could bust a U in the shoulder and get on a different road. I was game for any ideas at that point. Plus the guy went to all the effort to tell me that he didn't tell all the people back there and that he was just telling us that were really close to it and the rest could figure it out themselves.
I love people! Fair enough, if the others can't figure out what we are doing I was OK with letting them wait too.
So we get on the other road and I quickly figure out that A) it is dark and B) I have not the slightest idea how to get back to the interstate. Thank goodness for cellphones and friends. I called my best friend (the one I had watched football with) and begged her to find a way to get me past the wreck but back on the interstate.
As I am winding through the back roads of Indy, I am minorly panicked because I really don't like not knowing where I am. Usually I really don't care, but Apple just changed their maps from google and I am not used to the new interface and this was not the time I wanted to learn. Thankfully Arielle was willing to be my eyes and map. She's my google.
I turn out this random country road, completely lost by this point, and I guess it really isn't random because it is on the map that Arielle is guiding me with. But it sure seeemed random. And just a short distance in a see movement and two HUGE doe standing on the side of the road.
GREAT. That would be just what I needed right? Hit a deer on the back woods roads of nowhere that I didn't even know existed that close to Indy. Luckily, those deer never budged.
Fast forward a few miles and the road is more narrow and as I am driving I see these flashing lights and I am pondering what they are, guessing a combine, all the while saying all this outloud because I am on the phone with Arielle still because I refused to let her hang up until I was on the Interstate. Which was all great and good except I probably busted her eardrums...
BECAUSE SPINNING TINES O DEATH FROM THIS FARM MACHINERY WERE SUDDENLY COMING AT THE SIDE OF MY CAR OUT OF NOWHERE.
Now, maybe if I had not watched the movie The Crazies that would not have effected me. But I did and it did. Lost. Panicked. Had to pee.
Terrible combination.
But finally, FINALLY, I come upon interstate signs. WOOHOO! Arielle rocked that one. I get back on I drive toward Muncie, the construction area isn't backed up (just like I said it wouldn't be at that time of night haha) and I go about my merry way.
Right up until I catch up with the storm right before the first Muncie exit. Blinding rain, gusting winds, this girl was pulling over. Luckily there's a gas station right off that exit.
So earlier in the day I had seen an Erma Bombeck quote that mentioned that you should sieze the day because there were ladies on the Titanic when it sank that earlier that night had waived off the dessert cart.
After the wreck and the deer and tines O death and blinding rain, this was feeling a little last breath-y to me. So I filled up the Durango and went in and bought myself an iced honey bun (the only kind to eat).
And a cosmic brownie (super sized).
And a pack of red zingers.
Look, if I was going out I was gonna do it full of calories and cholesterol.
Kidding, I only ate the brownie.
The rain lets up and I head to the other exit, drive through town and am suddenly keenly aware of something that I had not had to deal with in Terre Haute for a long time...
I have no idea where this town floods. Normally most people would never think twice about that. But the Durango has a belt that slips if you hit a big puddle and it tends to knock out my ability to steer (my alternator or something, I know nothing about vehicles) and I have to turn it off and back on to get it to work again. I don't know about you, but the middle of a street in a college town is not my idea of a good place for your car to die and lose steering abilities. Well, lose steering and then die actually.
So each time I hit a puddle, I was checking around to see where I could pull off if needed, perched and ready to hit my emergency flashers.
I finally got back to the safety of my garage and strangely enough, here is what I really wonder about today:
I wonder where the homeless people are in this town. Are they dry, will they stay warm as the cold front moves in. I knew where Lighthouse Mission was in the Haute so I had some concept. I don't even really know if Muncie has homeless people, but I don't see how they couldn't.
Wherever they are, I hope they have shelter. It's a pretty yucky night. And no matter how rough my day was, by the grace of God I have an apartment to come back and be in. I have a college to attend, and I have food in my pantry. Others don't and may never have that luxury.
I made this bracelet because it reminds me that people are still watching over me. Even though I am gifting it, I hope it will remind the person that they have people watching over them as well. Years have tarnished the silver, kind of like it tarnishes us. We get so caught up in the hustle and bustle that we forget to just appreciate what we have and cast our worries on God.
And for me this bracelet and the other things I have made reminds me to appreciate what I have, instead of always looking for the next new thing to buy. And mostly, it reminds me that I have a great family. And that even though distance has always separated us, we really are connected in more ways than we can imagine. I find this to be comforting.
I will be glad when grad school is over and I can actually be home for good. But until then I hope to continue to grow, because college has taught me far more out of class than what could have been learned inside four walls.
Road less traveled. All the Difference.
PS...no the grant is still not over. Tuesday, baby. Tuesday.
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