Month five check in

The novelty has certainly worn off; I'm getting used to having sore muscles, and I'm starting to get grumpy about it. At first, I was sort of excited about it; I have muscles, who knew? The fact that they were sore meant that I was getting stronger, and what's a little pain compared to that? After all, I have a mantra: no hurt, no mini-skirt.

Well, that worked for the first couple of months.

Not so much, anymore. There is, of course, the very real possibility that I'm overtraining just a little bit; I tend to overdo most things, so it wouldn't really be a surprise. I've decided to stay at the weights I'm using now until I can do the exercises fairly easily; I'll sacrifice a bit of muscle growth this month in favor of feeling less pain. I don't like to admit it, but I'm not a kid anymore. I just don't recover quite as quickly as I used to.

I'm determined not to get discouraged, however; I'm not giving up. I'm getting close to my goal, and it's more important to make this something I can live with than it is to get there fast. Of course, I'd like to have both of those things happen, but I'm very aware that if I don't slow down, I will eventually talk myself into giving it up, and I certainly won't get there without it! So, slow down, I will.

Can you tell that I don't like having to slow down?

Just for fun

Today, I decided to decorate some earring backings. I love the feathers in my hair, but they're fairly subtle, and sometimes I want to be a bit wilder.

But not every day.

So, instead of putting these larger, brighter feathers into my hair, I attached them to some butterfly earring backings. As long as you can crimp (and, for some reason, today was not a good crimping day for me, I ruined several crimps before I got them right) you can make these fun earring backings, which can be worn with any of your post earrings.

1. String a crimp bead on one end of your beading wire, and add one or two feathers under the crimp so that feathers are going down, and the beading wire going up. Crimp. Trim off any excess feathers or beading wire. If you're a neat freak, or a bad crimper (like me!) add a crimp cover.

2. String on an accent bead, and as many seedies as you like to get the length you want. I might go longer next time.

3. String a crimp bead, and go through one of the little curls on the earring backing. Leaving the beading wire loose enough for movement, go back through the crimp bead and several of the seedies. Crimp and trim off the excess beading wire.

4. Wear!

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to decorating earring backs; attach chain with a jump ring, make beaded fringe or string beads to match your favorite earrings. The wilder the better, I think.

If you decide to make some, I'd love to see your photos! Please share them with me on my Jewelry Tales Facebook page. If you're not already a fan of my page, you will need to "like" it before you can add a photo.