crafts – The Hermits' Rest

Broken Nail? Tea Bags to the Rescue

I wrote up instructions for my group of Color Street nail strip enthusiasts that I thought might be useful for some of my other friends who enjoy medium to long nails. Feel free to share by attribution and link.

I like my nails long, because I have short fingers. I wish I had another set of these strips.

No matter how strong fingernails are, accidents do happen. Sometimes nothing can be done, but more often a nail just breaks a little. Many times, unexpected pressure can cause a little break below the quick that you’d like to have grow out to keep your healthy nail bed covered.

Warning: If you break a fingernail and it bleeds or shows signs of infection, please get it looked at and treat it as a wound, not an inconvenience. Keep it clean and protected so it can heal. Don’t polish an infected nail or cover it with a press-on.

So your nail is healthy but broken and you want to grow it out a bit. That happened to me a couple of months ago (February kidding from the photo below). I looked down, and a straight cut on my left middle finger looked back at me, metaphorically. Of course, all my other nails were looking good. The break was about halfway between the quick and the cuticle, so removing the rest of the nail would have hurt and perhaps damaged my nail.

So, next time I changed my nail color, I protected the break with regular tea bags. You’ll find different kinds of paper holding tea, but they are all little meshes, and those meshes make them strong. They also allow nail polish to soak through them. And one bag lasts months, so you don’t waste tea.

Example

This nail was broken WAY below the quick, as shown above, too) but I’ve managed to grow it out to where it could be clipped. But, once it grew, the tea bags have held like iron. And it’s not very noticeable. The trick has been TWO layers of tea bag.

The poorly drawn arrow shows how far down the break originally was. It has grown out from there.

One layer works fine in many cases, especially on pinkies or if you don’t type and ride horses a lot (me). That’s why I do the following.

Method

2. Tear (do not cut) two pieces of tea bag that will more than cover the break. You don’t want it huge, but large enough to strengthen the broken area. If the break has grown out a bit, one piece should be able to wrap around. The edges will be a little jagged, which seems to help disguise the patch.

2. Put a layer of clear base coat on the nail.

3. Immediately place one of the tea bag pieces centered over the break. Be sure it covers the broken edge, where the patch gets the most pressure.

4. While it’s still wet, press the patch down to make the break area smooth. Yes you’re messing up the base coat, but it gets covered again.

5. Let dry.

6. Add another coat of base coat and place the other layer on it (this should not exactly match the first one, to make it smoother). Press it down. Make sure the tea bag is on smoothly.

You can see the tea bags, but the base coat gives a smooth (ish) surface for your pretty manicure.

7. If the break has grown above the quick, add a bit of base coat under the nail and fold the overlap under and smooth. I press it down with a nail stick. You don’t need much polish, and try to keep it off your finger—not easy.

8. Let it dry.

9. Add one more base layer to smooth the nail.

10. Let it dry.

11. Finally, you can put your strips on or paint your nails.

12. Then add topcoat.

Finished. It helps that it’s black, but honestly I can’t see the repair. This one worked!

Whew. This sounds more complex than it is. And it does take a while to do the drying. But by gosh, that repair sticks. I often find it hard to remove the tea bags when I reapply!

This is last week’s. You can see a little irregularity but only if you look hard.

Hints

I find that when the break is growing out, the repair can loosen, especially for the first few weeks. The break may even get a little bigger. Don’t give up! The layers of mesh and polish usually hold well.

Once past the quick, repairs hold really well. I type for a living, pull weeds, and mess with horses, and I have few problems.

If you have the option, dark or patterned nail colors disguise repairs best.

If a break covers more than half the nail, it’s less likely to successfully repair. Try to buff the area smooth before even trying.

Usually I just grow a break out long enough to trim smoothly, then shorten the rest of my nails, but it’s been fun to grow this one out.

The thumb in this picture is a break I grew out long enough to trim smoothly and cut the other nails down to match.

Additional ideas are welcome; this is just what works for me with fairly strong nails. Repairs are harder on weak nails or ones damaged by gels, dips, lacquers, etc. This I know from experience!

What’s Good?

It’s not totally rosy here at the land of hermits. But it’s never all bad. Today we focused on being a kind and supportive family. That’s good!

Other good stuff? I found more new wildflowers and many blossoms popping up. Such brave and hardy things they are.

And I got to wish my ever-youthful step-sister a happy birthday, only wishing I’d been there to share an old fashioned with her and her family.

Hmm…I must say this blanket project is pretty! That’s my final good thing.

Go hug your loved ones.

Hanging Out

My throat is still annoying and my nose is runny but I didn’t feel too awful today. I was able to go for a pretty good walk this morning and found some new wildflowers have popped up.

I also enjoyed lots of butterflies, even though our fields that are usually covered with a variety of flowers are heavy on the false dandelions.

I enjoyed spotting interesting things on the roadside other than trash that I picked up. There were some bursts of color and hidden beauty.

The horses are searching for green grass, bless their hearts. It’s way early for the soil to start cracking, but it is.

But HA! The skeet shooters didn’t stop the bluebonnets from blooming when they mowed the field. Yay!

Most of the day I relaxed and crocheted (a whole row of the wool blanket!) while chatting with Kathleen. We told stories, watched weird television shows, and spent time talking to the horses. Both our husbands were off working (Lee is in a writing groove upstairs and hasn’t been coming down much), so we filled the afternoon with conversation. It was a pleasant and stress-free interval of hanging out and recuperating! The big thrill was getting into her car and visiting the latest KCC Construction project and enjoying a Dairy Queen treat. That’s the best we could do for excitement, but it was good enough and kept our spirits up.

I’m sure these ladies were jealous of our fun.

My hope is that I’ve built enough strength to get my paid and volunteer work done next week and Kathleen has enough strength for all her doctor visits. It may be a challenging week.

There’s Always Time for a Story or Two

I broke my blogging streak yesterday, but I just didn’t have the brain power to do it. My brain was too feeble to put together even my usual simple sentences. I’m still dealing with this virus today, but I have more energy, so I’m gonna say I’m on the mend. (Yes, I know there’s a new COVID strain, and yes, I will get the booster because I’m at risk due to my advanced age.)

This is my picture from yesterday when I felt sickly.

It’s story time, nature observation time, life update time, or whatever. First, I’m cheered every time I go outside these days, because some of my favorite sounds are back, Barn Swallows and White-eyed Vireos. I’ll be tired of them eventually, but right now, those songs convince me it’s spring.

White eyes! Photo by Brad Imhoff. These guys hide in trees, so I rarely see them.

I’m looking forward to seeing hummingbirds soon, because our red yucca are starting to bloom. These are good signs when all the grass is brown and crunchy.

This stuff is nice and green, but the Bermuda grass beside it should be green, too.

Second is another tale of rural living. Yesterday I didn’t feed the horses their supplements, and neither did Kathleen due to recovering from her recent issue. Today I felt up to it, and marched into the tack room (which smells good because it’s the WOMEN’S room and we can turn on the Scentsy diffuser. I digress.

It came time to give Dusty his two scoops of bran powder, and when I reached into the bin, the bran moved. I guess the lid on this bin needs to be very securely attached. Yep. A mouse. One of the little ones. I tried to scoop it out and that’s when the whole dang bin began to move. More than one mouse. They started to try to fling themselves out, as they do. I did not want them in the tack room!

I did NOT take pictures today, so here’s the henhouse mouse.

So I bravely dragged the bin outside, grateful that the bran stuff isn’t very heavy. I did my best to encourage exiting by angling the bin downward, but of course the rodents tried to climb up or bury themselves in the bran. My goal was for zero mice to crawl up my arms. I succeeded! In the end, SIX mice scampered away. I hope something eats them.

Maybe they went over to chicken world where there is corn.

How did six of them get in the bin? There’s not any mouse poop around since Kathleen cleaned the room. Maybe they were in there when the bran was put in? Mystery. Even AI can’t solve that one. I do assure you, though, that I put the lid back on very tightly.

Lids must stay secure or critters will get in. Stock photo.

Later, Kathleen helpfully offered up the theory that if they’d kept eating the bran they’d have gotten all swollen and died. Eww. Now that’s in my head.

Boom! Note mouse has 3 tails. Quality AI.

So, to change the subject, I want to share how happy I am with a work development. Today I was meeting with a colleague on my new project and we got to talking about our previous lives. And talking. And laughing. And blathering away in geeky grad student language about our original fields of study, linguistics and folklore. At some point we were practically giddy about how much we have in common. And some of it is pretty niche far left cultural stuff that you usually don’t get to talk to random coworkers about.

I didn’t mention crafts to her, but hey, five rows of my blanket!

Then she told me the other woman running the project I’ve been brought in on is secretly a cultural anthropologist. I’d never have guessed.

I’m quite thrilled to have gotten to know someone just as weird as me who speaks the same quasi-intellectual language I used to speak. Sometimes I do miss aspects of my earlier years, and learning is one of them. My new friend and I both admitted we could stay in grad school the rest of our lives. I’d just keep getting Master’s degrees to go with all my interests!

I guess today was not all bad. It was quite interesting and satisfying. Hope yours was, too.

Truly Enjoyable Day

Every so often you get to enjoy a whole day where there’s peace, beauty, fun, humor, and a little accomplishment thrown in. Today was such a day. Why was it so good?

Walking! I didn’t walk all that far today, but I enjoyed it. On my first walk I noticed all the grass and such is already crunchy and brown thanks to scant rain and that freeze a week ago. But there were white evening primroses, which are even more delicate than their normal pink friends.

These are just pale versions of pink evening primroses, not a different species.

Later in the afternoon I went out again with Kathleen, since walking is helping her recuperation. I showed her how big the puffball mushroom in the front field has gotten, and we found a thick patch of verbena next to the rye crop across the road. Apache would sure love that field.

Calves! There are many cow-calf pairs in the field behind us right now. The babies are getting more adventurous and frisky, which is always entertaining. I love the brave and curious ones who try to get the dogs to play. This one with the white spot had a lot of fun with Penney and let me talk to her a while.

Crafts! We watched some television this afternoon and evening, which gave me time to work on my patchwork blanket. I got through all but one square on the fourth row. It looks pretty cute. I have some ideas for it once I join all the squares.

Funny things! I have two funny things to share. First happened yesterday. I went to the birding hut to re-start Merlin after it had been running a while. I wanted to write down the new species in my notebook but I couldn’t open it. That was odd. I finally peeled the pages apart, and I really perturbed a bold jumping spider who had managed to build a web nest in the book in just over an hour! I encouraged her to relocate.

Second story was from today. When we went to feed the poultry, I once again found no eggs in the boxes. You could see someone had been sitting in them. But none were chosen for egg laying.

You may remember that last week Kathleen cleaned the henhouse. New pine shavings were put in the boxes and on the floor.

Before we went to the horses, I got a notion and had Kathleen wait while I checked something. Sure enough, there were four eggs in the old nest boxes we still have up for when we get new hens. I guess Cindy and Cathy don’t like the pine shavings. I’ll have to get them some straw. No photo because (gasp!) I left my phone in the house!

We prefer the little nest boxes, with no nesting material.

Well, okay, Cochins. Lay wherever you want to.

Everything’s Good but the Birds

Poor timing. The backyard bird count is still going on but I’m not seeing many of the usual birds. I’m afraid I know why. The first Barn Swallow showed up today. I’m afraid that means all the winter sparrows skedaddled with yesterday’s blustery front. There are still White-crowned and White-throated, but there’s a distinct lack of Fox, Vesper, Grasshopper, Chipping, Savannah, Harris’s, Swamp, or others. I’ll wait and see how tomorrow goes.

Sorry, Suna. Gotta escape before it gets hot!

And yes, I realize their departure for the Great White North heralds the arrival of buntings and such. Still. Sniff.

Flowers made me feel good. Thanks, Kathleen.

Otherwise it was a fun day in which I indulged in watching educational television, enjoyed looking at my pretty Valentine flowers, and crafted my heart out. I finished another red Danish hat, to replace the one I made that’s going to Canada for a friend, as soon as the Post Office opens again, which I made slightly larger than the pattern called for in DK yarn. Too long sentence, too bad.

I was working on it in the car and realized why the yarn color is called Firecracker Heather. There are tiny bits of blue, green, and yellow fiber in the yarn, like firecrackers! That gave me a chuckle.

I’m done with that yarn, but I have other red, if needed.

Lee surprised me by asking to take me out to dinner and surprised me more by taking me to the bookstore on the way! I’d planned to go to a candidate forum, but spousal requests take precedence. I really had a nice time, though I was tired for no reason I can think of.

I look forward to the books I got, even the self-help book. It seems like I could use some reminding that I can’t control anyone but me.

The deer book is about…deer! I already know how they were primary food sources for humans for thousands of years, but I Look forward to learning details about our two species’ relationships.

As you can see from the cover, the other one’s about the cheerful topic of diseases. I’ll have to let Anita read it next, since she reads about diseases in her work.

On the topic of books, it’s time to finish my current one. Then I can share all about it.

Little Bits

Something I read on social media reminded me of how much I dislike being told to smile. My response to the person writing about it was that I’m not a dog performing tricks on command. I guess that makes me a disobedient bitch. Ha ha.

I ordered Pampered Chef stuff, because my ground beef masher broke and I wanted another baking dish. It helped Kathleen and I got stuff I wanted that will last a long time. My off-brand masher thing only lasted two years. Not good.

I’m enjoying my new afghan’s colors. I’m happy to have numerous projects again.

I’m missing one finished color. Two more to crochet

There had been an old television in my office for a very long time. My son took it away! Space!

I’m still figuring out work stuff, but my great attitude is making it easier. Yes. I have a great attitude. See, I’ve matured.

Not smiling but not getting upset at change.

I still don’t understand the appeal of crotch clutching in musical performances. I accept that the popular culture bus has driven off and left me.

But his heart was in the right place. Wish he’d clutched that.

Super Fail (plus birds)

Cooking is not my favorite activity but I’m usually fairly good at it. Today was probably my worst cooking failure ever. Well, maybe the time I burned hard-boiled eggs was worse.

Anyway, I wanted to make a roast, and Lee had bought me all the things to go with it. I put it in the oven with potatoes and onions to cook slowly in my covered ceramic baking dish. I added some beautiful carrots later.

When I went to see if the food was cooked, the carrots were charred and smoking. The potatoes in the baking dish were also burned.

It appeared I’d cooked it at the wrong temperature.

I took it all out of the oven and pried the carrots out of the oval glass dish they’d blackened. Then I thought I should soak the dish so it would be easier to clean. You can guess what happened.

Pow!

The second water hit it, the glass shattered. It was still too hot. Lucky for me, shards were contained in the sink and none went down the drain.

That’s all the glass after I got it out of the sink.

Well, the food was delicious, if over-cooked. It added the excitement that was missing from the Super Bowl. I’ll spare you any entertainment analysis. There’s enough of that!

Instead you can enjoy the miniature Danish protest hat I made today using fine yarn and small needles. I’m using it as an accessory on my backpack, since I think wool hat weather won’t be around much longer.

Bird News

Ah birds. Sometimes they poop on you or peck at your fingers when you’re trying to fix their water dish (Darryl Junior). But mostly they’re gently entertaining. That’s very true this time of year when they’re getting ready for migrating, nesting, and love.

The first sign of bird love season is the arrival of the Purple Martins. I’d been hoping the ones who were here last year would return, and sure enough, the first scouts arrived last week. After Merlin Bird ID heard them three days in a row, I looked up blog posts by my friend Donna, who always wrote about them for the Master Naturalist group. Yep, hers usually arrive a bit before Valentine’s Day. I’m so happy we have repeat visitors and that our woodpeckers have made nice homes for them.

Another sign is the male songbirds start singing their melodic mating calls. So far I’ve noticed the Carolina Chickadees, Cardinals, and Mockingbirds are trilling away. Oh boy, I can do without the long, extended Mockingbird sonatas.

I’m expressing myself now. No more chirp chirp.

The Mockingbirds are also doing something unusual, and that’s gathering in groups and chasing each other around, complete with scolding and shouting calls. I wonder if they’re pairing off, dividing up territory, or what?

You can’t see them, but the birds were chasing each other through these trees.

I’m used to seeing large groups of Cardinals, especially after fledging time, but not Mockingbirds. I’ll have to investigate!

Challenging day at work tomorrow, so I’m off to sleep. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Strength Takes Energy

I have been working hard the past five years or so to stay strong, see the good in the world around me, and like myself.

Damn. That takes a lot of energy. I had to spend an hour today being my confident, most impressive self. I did very well. But once I was done, I kind of deflated.

Right now I just want to sink into the floor and disappear. I’m feeling so despondent about how the powerful abuse the powerless, how fragile friendships can be, and how hard it is to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

My crafting compulsion kept me company. I have cute little rose gold squares to share.

Tomorrow I have to get up and lead a webinar and be kind but firm as I go over more changes in how to use the software I support. I enjoy helping folks out, a lot. It’s simply difficult to muster the energy to project confidence and be clear as I go over complex topics. Confidence, clarity, complexity. That last “c” makes the first two challenging.

I know I’m not alone in feeling burned out from trying to project hope and confidence. I say we all need to give ourselves permission to rest, recover, and recharge as often as needed. It’s not a sign of weakness!

I’m sure I’ll feel better in the morning and enjoy the presentation. if not, I’ll do it anyway.

Crafting Compulsion

I noticed last night that I was feeling “antsy” when I was watching Deep Space Nine with no project in my hands. I’d finished the red hat and both days of February in the other project. I realized I was using the rhythmic knitting and crochet stitches to self regulate. I guess that’s what I’ve done my whole life, with all my lifetime of anxiety. At least my compulsion occasionally results in something useful (or yet another partial project).

I use this fine afghan stitch coaster daily. Crafts CAN be useful!

Not to worry. I recently got inspired and bought the yarn to make what I think will be a pretty blanket, in a very pleasing wool. I’m so tired of acrylic, though it’s the best choice for the temperature blankets.

There are two different types of squares in the blanket, and they are joined with the white (undyed) yarn while doing the final round. I think it will be a lot of fun, and I’ll enjoy the pretty colors.

My first squares and three of the tonal colors.

I also got a good supply of red wool worsted for more hats, too. I hope to make some for friends. This will ensure, as they used to say, “no idle hands” (title of a book about the history of knitting).

I ordered these before I found some really good red yarn in my stash (with moth damage on one skein).

I’ve always turned to the colors and textures to distract myself. I made soooo many socks in the mid 2000s when my beloved job was going down into the chaotic toilet. And when my mom was dying and my relationship falling apart, I made giant, complicated fair isle and Aran sweaters. It helped.

Inadvertent photo of my emotional state. Muddled.

And hey! I can do handwork AND hang out with birds! Win.