Hemp Paper

When I make my hemp jewelry, I always have bits and pieces of hemp scraps left over. I would always save the scraps in a bag because I couldn’t just throw it away. There had to be some use for it. I don’t remember how it came to me, but it did. Hemp Paper! Hemp is a fiber, so why not. I did a bit of online research, but all I could find was making paper from the actual hemp plant. Nothing about using scrap hemp cord. So I decided to do an experiment with my scrap hemp pieces. This is what I came up with.

I think is funny how the scraps that I used were all different colors, and the paper came out a grey-ish green color. You can see some colors. I see mostly green, red, and purple fibers throughout the pages. They are roughly 3 1/2” wide by 5 1/2” long.

I don’t know too much about paper making, but I think they came out ok. Some are thick and some are thin. I doodled on one to see if the ink would run or feather out. With the pen and marker I used, there was little to none feathering. These are made out of only hemp, no other fiber or paper was added.

I don’t know what I am going to do with them yet. I have 8 pages, and some more pulp to make about 3 to 4 more.

This is my little way of being green and recycling.

I made the paper last week, but haven't had time to take pics and blog about it.

Think Before You Speak, Please

Just don’t say it. And if you hear others saying it, let them know that it’s not right.

Thanks

-Mike

I Love My Car, But Sometimes It Can Be A Pain.

I had a great week spending time with mom. Most of the time spent was shopping and eating out, haha. I took her back home on Sunday. On our way, we were going to stop at Sonic to get something to drink. That's when I found out that my window would not roll down. Great, something else I need to get fixed. When we get to mom's house, I don't even want to think about it and leave it until Monday.

On Monday, I call my brother, who knows more than I do about cars, to see if he can check up on it. He did fix the window on my mom's car, so I thought maybe he could help me. I wanted to get it fixed before going back to San Antonio. I did not want another incident at the BP checkpoint.

He comes by with all his tools. By this time, I had already removed the door panel.

He found out that it was the motor and not any loose wires or switches that was not working. So I do some internet research and find the motor I need and easy instructions on how to change it. The motor only cost me $53. This is a lot better than taking it to a service center and paying $250+ for it.

I went and bought the motor and went to start taking the old motor out. Sounds easy right? Of course not.

The motor is behind a fiberglass panel. In the picture above, the yellow area shows were the motor is, behind the fiberglass panel. The red areas are the small areas where you have to stick your hands in to reach the motor.

Wait, that is not the worst part!

The people who changed it out the last time, did not do a very good job with the screws and bolts. In short, we had to grind off the screws. I’m glad my brother had a dremel with him.

Anyways, we got the old one out, put the new one in, and my car door is back together again with a working window.

Time to show off a bit! Hey, it’s my blog and I can if I want to!

Something New

I hope everyone had a great and safe St Patty's Day.

I have ventured into something that I did not think I would ever do. Non hemp bracelets. When I made my last bead order, I also ordered some stones and beads that might be to small for hemp. I got them because they were a really good price. A price that I could not give up, haha. That's my problem with sales, but I'll save that for another blog.

When I received my order, yup, some of the stones and beads had small holes that hemp would not just fit through. So I went an bought some beading wire.

It took me a couple of tries to get it right, but I ended up with these three bracelets.

My mom, who is still visiting, liked the top left bracelet so she is keeping that one. I liked the black bracelet, the top right one, so I am keeping that one. The rainbow bracelet is one I made with some left over Czech glass beads.

Once I made these, I kind of liked it and started making some more. I ended up making 5 more bracelets. Here are some pics. The last picture has the rainbow bracelet included.

I think they came out ok. I don’t know yet if I will list them in my Etsy Shop.

I will however be listing more hemp bracelets soon, so be on the lookout for new hemp bracelets!!!

Hope everyone is having a great day!!!!!

-Mike

The Back of The Cupboard

First off, Happy St. Pattie's Day!!!!The green background is only for today, so I don't want to hear it! Get in the mood, haha.

Ok, I love food. I love cooking it just as much as I love eating it. What I also love doing is reading food blogs.

My bestest bestest bff (Hi Kris) just started a food blog. There are only a few of posts right now, but they are are really yummy and interesting posts.

I know all of you will go and check out her delish blog and follow as there are more delish posts to come. I am definitely going to try some of her recipes out.

Thats it for today. Have a Happy and Safe St. Pattie's Day!




New Spider Hemp Choker

What's Up With That ?

First, sorry about the no blogging for 3 or so days. Second, why did my Lazy Blog get more comments than my usual blogs, haha.

So there is this site called DIY OnlineMag.com. I signed up for and won one of their contests. When I was notified, I was so happy because I haven't really won any type of contest before. My prize was my choice of tee shirt from SnorgTees.com. Being the nerd that I am, I chose this shirt. Cool, right! Don't forget to check out the awesome stuff on DIY OnlineMag.com, and make sure you subscribe to their new article alerts

My local news stations started giving out grocery gift cards to viewers. I was up early one day and saw the number to call. You have to be the 12th caller to win. They had many chances to call throughout the morning broadcast. I called and called and called, and nothing. Eh, whatever, it was worth trying. Then I try again on Thursday. I call a couple of times, and nothing. Then I get through, but I am the seventh caller. I try one more time and Congrats you are the 12th caller and winner. Yay me! I won a $150 gift card to a local grocery store. How cool is that. That will help me out a lot. Anyone for T-Bone steaks......j/k

With all this winning going on, I am going to have to start playing the lottery. You never know, I just might win something, even if its $1, haha.


My mom has a week off for spring break (she is a teacher), and guess where she will be spending it. But it's ok. I love spending time with mom. We always have fun together. Shopping, going out to eat, shopping, resting, shopping, and maybe a movie in between, haha. I made sure my apartment was spotless because she will still tell me something if I have a messy apartment, haha, a mom is always a mom, right.

Our shopping goes kind of like this.

Check out the rest of Stevie's YouTube Videos

Time to plug the shop:
Here are some of my new stuff. Click and enjoy!!!!

LAZY Blog

So what do you think of the new background, better than the black or not????

Hope everyone is having a great day. Hopefully a more interesting blog tomorrow or some time after....haha



Ehh, What-Ever, Get Over It..........

My Addiction

Some of you may already know and some of you may not know, but I have an addiction. I am not afraid to admit it. I LOVE beads. It seems that every time I go to a crafts store, even if it is just to browse, I end up buying beads.

I was recently referred to an online bead store. Not a good idea. I spent the last of my PayPal funds on beautiful and colorful glass beads as well as metal pendants. I am pretty sure that I will be buying more as soon as I get more dinero into my PayPal account.

I also attended a bead and jewelry show. I have never been to anything like this or even know this was going on. I only found out about it because of a TV commercial. It is The Bead Market. Click on the link for all the info about upcoming shows. Now because I had just received my online order of beads, and because I was out of money, I did go only to browse. I was in heaven! So many types, colors, and shapes of beads anybody could ever want. There were some beads that were pricey, but there were also a lot of bargains.

To tell you the truth, I almost did crack and buy some beads, but thanks to my friend, who went with me and saved me from spending my money, haha. Now that I know when the next show will be in town, I will make sure to save enough money to let me go a bit crazy at the show, haha.

Here is something that I made. It will be listed on Etsy soon. This is a hemp choker with a bear paw pendant. Great for all you bears out there or bear lovers. Rawr!!!

Playing With Beeswax

I made it safe and sound to my hometown. It's usually a 2.5 hour drive, but I did it in 4 hours, haha. Lunch hour rush traffic in San Antonio, and stopping to eat in Castroville contributed to that.

OK, on to the point of this blog.

If you follow me on Twitter, which all of you should be, then you know that I from time to time post a twitpic of something that I have created using beeswax. Now you may be asking yourself, Self, why in the world is Mike playing with beeswax. Well, first off, I have beeswax around because I sometimes use it to soften rougher feeling hemp. When I get bored, which is more and more often now a days, I just started playing with the beeswax and molding it into different things. This wax is very pliable and fun to play with, haha. Anyways, if you haven't seen any of my pics, here they are. Now the pics are not that good, because I take them with my cellular phone and send them to twitpic. Enjoy!

Sea Creature


A Spiral......Something?


A Flower


Mr. Snowman

And if you don't follow me on Twitter, shame on you!!!! Just kidding, I still love you all. Just follow me from now on.

Dear Diary

It would be nice if I could write a blog everyday, but right now, my life is so boring. There really is not too much to blog about. I don't want to blog about my etsy shop everyday because that just gets annoying fast.

So this is what has been going on in my life......

I started going to physical therapy last Thursday. It's kind of what I expected. Electro -muscular stimulation, different types of stretches, and lite exercise.

I got my second steroid injection on Monday. I noticed the effects almost immediately. I go for hopefully my last one in two more weeks.

I will be going on a short road trip tomorrow to my hometown. I will be there for a few days visiting family and friends.

So Spring Break is starting soon. What are your plans? Remember not to go to Mexico, too much drug cartel violence. My mom is going to be visiting me during her spring break which starts on the 16th. So most of my time will be spent chauffeuring her around the city. I don't mind, it will be fun.

I added some more pics to my Flickr page. The first five pics are of those that I have not yet listed in my etsy shop.

Anyways,

Did you see Survivor today. They voted off that poor viejita Sandy. I was hoping that they would vote off the "eye candy" girl Sierra, but oh well.

And what's up with the Spurs?