Bling Bling... Hello?

Yes, this is my craft. Yes, I've kept it a bit of a secret. No, I'm not worried about losing potential customers. I'm about to reveal the secret of the bling phone.

Here are the stats. It costs about 40 bucks. It lasts about 2 years. It takes 2 hours per side, with 24 hours of drying time between sides. You can consult this website to figure out how many rhinestones you need. I order them from Papi on eBay. Hotfix rhinestones have a little glue on the back for use with an iron. The hotfix iron is not really useful for bedazzling your phone. I was very dissatisfied with the results, and found it to be a waste of money. The real reason you're using hotfix rhinestones is because they are glass, which is less expensive than crystal, and more durable than plastic. You need a rhinestone tool to lift and affix the rhinestones. If you're doing more than one color of rhinestone, get some sort of dish that has sections so that you can easily discern and separate. Turn on the radio and get ready to bedazzle.

Find a comfy place to sit with lots of light. Pour out your rhinestones in a dish. Pour a tablespoon of Gem-Tac into a dish and use the toothpick to spread a little around your phone. I like to start on the edges--it makes the finished product look more perfect. Just spread a little glue, maybe a 1/4 inch square. Take the rhinestone tool and form the beeswax tip into a point. Pick up a rhinestone from the pretty side, and place the flat side down into the glue. If the tool holds onto the rhinestone, just use a toothpick to loosen it onto the surface of the phone. You'll see it takes a very gentle touch. There should be a little glue beading up around the edges of the rhinestone, but not gloppy. It will take practice to get it right. If you don't get at least a little glue around the edges, the rhinestone will pop off easily. Don't worry, it dries very clear, and the overall effect is super shiny. When you have filled your glue puddle with rhinestones, spread a little more glue and repeat.

During the blinging process, your dish of glue might get tacky and thick. Pour a fresh batch out and enjoy. Be careful not to cover holes in your phone, and be cautious of moving parts and buttons. You don't want your rhinestones to get dinged too much. Let one side dry for an entire 24 hours before attempting to finish the second side.

When it's ready for the outside world, you might want to invest in a fabric cell phone holder so that it doesn't get bumped in your bag/purse/backpack. Also, keep all your supplies handy in case you need to do some repairs. It happens.

Now, get ready for people to talk to you every day about your phone! I'm totally serious. You should let them touch it, and then give them my number if they want it done!

Call Me. This Week, Anyway.

When I was a little tyke, I remember spending a lot of time at the car dealership. My dad had what many would consider an addiction to cars. He didn't have a lot of cars at once, he would simply trade each vehicle in after a short year or two. It seemed like we were always at the car dealer, and it was the most boring experience of a young girl's life. If only I'd known how to knit back then. Anyhoo, on one car-trading-in occasion, the dealer asked my dad a trivia question. Which three-letter word contained no vowels? The letter "y" didn't count as a consonant, and it was a word in English. Dad had a week to figure it out, and the guy would give him $100 if he got it right. My boredom was gone. My brain was buzzing the rest of the day. What was that word? Would dad have to read the entire dictionary to get the answer? I don't want to date myself too much, but we were literally decades from internet trivia assistance. How was he going to find that answer?!

Who would spend an entire week on trivia these days? Who would spend more than a few seconds? It's no longer a matter of who is clever and witty. It's now about who can get Wikipedia or IMDB to load faster. Daily trivia challenges are officially losing their fun factor. I'm certainly guilty of the Google quick fix. Fewer and further between exist the late night calls from friends and family, desperate for my specific music knowledge. I love helping someone win a bet over which rock star wore what outfit in which video!

But not this week.

Starting yesterday, I've decided that for one entire week, I won't Google the answer to my trivia challenges. I will look for it in tangible literature or phone a friend. So get ready for the call. I need all of your brains. I'm challenging you to do the same. In turn, I'll be your pop music lifeline. If you hum a bar, or describe a lyric, I can tell you which Men At Work song you're thinking of. So call me!