Category Archives: Crafts

Quartz Crystal Mining

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My youngest sister came up from Georgia this past May for a short visit. While she was here it was her birthday and she wanted to go dig for quartz crystals. Here in Arkansas there are many places to dig and keep as many crystals as you can load into your car.
I’ve seen a few guys trying to carry a huge boulder size quartz rock to their car. Though with each tiring effort, they managed to put it into their car.

I also noticed a lady, standing near her car with about ten quartz rocks the size of bowling balls, as well as a few buckets full of dirt and rocks. Like I said, if you can manage digging for them and getting them into your car, it’s yours to keep, but for a small fee, which is the admission price for the entire day.
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Some places I’ve found charge $10 or more. One place charges $20. I was lucky to have found one that charged $8, the only problem was the road getting to the place was badly washed out and in some areas the road was sharply inclined that if I were to let off the gas, my car would roll backwards or I wouldn’t be able to continue the climb without backing all the way down the hill and giving it another charging start back up.
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  Once we got up the hill and to the actual digging site, I paid for our admission, found a parking spot, then got our tools and buckets out, and headed towards the digging area, which is a huge red hill of lovely clay mud, mostly dried clay rock. I didn’t care to look for the biggest quartz rock, however, I had set out to find the shiny points to which I planned to use for necklace pendants.
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After twenty minutes of digging, my sister was bored and hot and decided to go sit in the car. Meanwhile, I continued to dig and scavenge as much as I could. I found quite a lot of clear rocks, some small and some half the size of my hand. I was enjoying myself. It’s the archaeologist in me I think. I did get somewhat cover in the red clay, mostly on my shoes, but that wasn’t what bothered me. What bothered me was the eight-legged residents. I made sure not to bother them as much as I could.
I had enjoyed myself so much, that a few weeks later I made another trip back to the same crystal mine and had found more of what I was looking for on that trip than I did on the previous trip.
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If you are interested in purchasing a small clear crystal rock or pendant, I have them listed on my Etsy page.
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Bryant Fall Fest 2013

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This years fall fest went without any issues. The weather was warm and beautiful compared to last years rainy, windy, and cold. Though this year didn’t seem to have as many activity booth’s set up as last year. I’m hoping there will be more next year as there was a HUGE crowd that turned out.

The red and blue things that are behind me in the photo is for laser tag, which is a set up by the Timberland Paintball. They opened a new location here in Bryant, Arkansas.

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I had a booth set up, selling paracord bracelets and paracord keychains, as well as my children’s book Dana’s First Fish. I am happy to say that I sold quite a few books and almost all of my bracelets. I know now to make more smaller bracelets than what I had, as they are more popular with the younger kids than they are with the teenagers and adults. Quite a few people placed special orders, as well as requested that I put them up on my facebook, selling them all year around. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

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Another thing I need to make sure I have next time is my canopy. I sat in direct sunlight, getting a nice sunburn. Actually, sunburns are not really nice at all as my chest is on fire, but you can get the meaning. I had not thought to bring sun screen, nor did I think to bring the canopy. The forecast said it was going to be cloudy. I’m not sure who typed that up, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Still, I shouldn’t have forgotten the sunscreen, right? Though there were a few clouds and quite a bit of wind in the early morning, the sky was clear and the sun was hot from about ten AM on. I also wore a short sleeved v-neck shirt, receiving a sunburn on my arms, neck, and chest; my chest being the worse. In a few days it’ll look a little like a farmers tan.

Another return to fall fest was the pumpkin bling contest. I had entered last year, as did my nephew Hunter, and my daughter. My daughter won first place last year in the children’s category and I had won second place in the adult category. This year I made a Cinderella coach, winning third place in the adult category. My daughter made a black cat, but did not place, and my nephew made a pumpkin eating zombie, coming in second place. It was a tough competition this year as there were so many pumpkins that were beautifully decorated in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

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Cinderella’s coach

I am going to rethink next years pumpkin bling, as well as make a check list so as not to forget anything…like sunscreen and shade. I hope everybody is enjoying the first days of Autumn. Happy Monday everyone!

Easy to make sensory toys

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One of my daughter’s therapist had mentioned making a sensory toy that my daughter could play with. It would be something like a sensory ball and could just as easily help out with her meltdowns. Yesterday, I went to my local Walmart and got a few crafts to make my daughter a few of these sensory toys.

It’s just a water bottle with a few items in it that would catch her attention for a few minutes to however long it would take to calm her. Or it could be used as a regular toy to occupy her for a few minutes or more.

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Some of the things I had here at home, but as you can see from the picture it is nothing more than a few water bottles, confetti (or glitter), beads, acrylic jewels, super glue, vegetable oil, a funnel, and food coloring.

The first bottle is nothing more than confetti, beads, and acrylic jewels. Dump about a fourth of the water out of the bottle. Using a funnel put the confetti, beads, and acrylic jewels in the bottle. You can use a few to however many of these items in your water bottle, but not too much. Imagine making a homemade snow globe, but instead it’s a water bottle with shimmery items in it.

As soon as you put these items into the water bottle, add water up to about an inch from the top so that the child, or you can shake the bottle. Super glue the grooves around the mouth of the bottle and put the cap back on. This seals the cap so that no one can open it and then have a mess to clean up.

The second bottle is also easy to make and one of my favorites. I actually think it’s almost everyone’s favorite. It’s the ocean in a bottle.

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Dump half the water out of the bottle, add a few drops of blue food coloring or any color you wish, then add the vegetable oil. Supposed to be clear oil, but I only had yellow colored oil. It still looks neat though. Again, seal the cap with super glue.