over the weekend

annual school art night: the girls got to showcase their many forms of art. It is always so enjoyable to walk through the halls and see what the kids have been working on all year.



project: I made this for my friends sister (she came up with the phrase) and then took photos of said sister Saturday. Enjoyable afternoon.



Soccer game: spent a windy morning at the park watching Megan. With comments like, is the game over yet, I'm thinking she's mentally come to the end of her season even though she still has one game left. She did get her first goal though.

handmade + giveaway

Jewelry. Jewelry was the focus of my handmade gifts this year. It was something I played with earlier in the year, remember, and something i wanted to learn more about. My friend Amy knew this so she took me to her friends bead shop in Logan and while I've been to bead shops in the passed and actually had a game plan (idea) about what I wanted to get, I simply was not prepared for the amount of beads I'd have to choose from. The moment I walked in all was forgotten--I was completely overwhelmed.

Although i had a rough start, I am pleased to report I did make it through the experience and at least an hour into it I was able to find my groove and get the beads I was looking for. I have decided though, that maybe I am a better online bead shopper.


Here are a few of the pieces I made (I made a few more earring sets not shown her, but they were earrings much like what I made over the summer so I thought i would just focus on these. Here's one to give you an idea).

Since I had learned your basic jewelry making skills I was itching to learn something new so I started to play with chainmail. The bracelet in the top right I made for Adam's mom and it's the Byzantine design weaved with 4mm jump rings. Although tedious it was a lot of fun to put together.



The other thing I've been itching to learn is stamped jewelry. I went back and forth for months trying to decide whether or not it was worth spending the money on the supplies, they are not inexpensive, but I figured Christmas was the perfect opportunity. So like most things I do I bought the stuff and went for it. I only wrecked one blank which surprised me (i bought extra in case) and created a few other pieces just for practice--like this one for myself above.

Since I bought a few extra and have a blank left over like the "hope" charm in the bottom right picture I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway to start out the year. So if you are interested in having a name, initials, or your 2011 word stamped in metal make a comment and I'll draw for a winner Saturday January 8th at 8pm MST. After looking at the example above I think I could easily get 5 letters maybe 6 on the blank. So be thinking.

Have a great weekend!!


P.S. if you're not the winner but are interested in getting a hand stamped charm for yourself email me.

missed headlines

What a weird week. I can't say that I'm sad to see it end, though I am looking forward to today so much. I'm so glad the comments on the photos from my last post were seen as being happy because that's exactly what it felt like....happy and joyful. And then something happened. Perhaps it was the full moon, I don't know, but my emotions heightened and I had a few rough, what I like to term, crazy days that followed. Oh wretched hormones please pass quickly...

I was busy which was one of the reasons why I didn't blog and was staying off the internet, but my state of mind led me to believe it was the best thing for everyone. So here are a few of this weeks highlights I think I would have posted about had I had my wits about me:

01. saturday morning


This is what I woke up to last Saturday morning. The four of them singing along to some song on the internet. They were so content in the moment being together I just took a picture and left them to their business and headed back to bed to read. Not a bad start to the day. Today Jill is waking up to my girls and I hope she is given the same amount of peace, though I have a feeling there has already been a lot of asking for food.

02. game night


And I can't talk about the girls having a sleepover without mentioning the reason it came about in the first place. After what seemed like all summer long we are back...game nights have resumed. I didn't realize how much I missed our nights together, laughing, bantering back and forth, winning or loosing in my case until we started up again. Plus it's fun to see how excited the girls are when they know their going to hang out with cousins.

03. smell of rain


It rained this week. A most delicious rain. Megan had a friend over at the time and they went outside to play in it. As I heard their giggles and ran to get my camera I heard Meg say to her friend, "I love the smell of rain it's so...fresh."

04. create wednesday | week 2


My friend Amy called me Thursday and the first thing out of her mouth was, "what did you do for creative wednesday?" It took me a moment to compose myself thinking, oh man did i do something... I was happy to report that I did, in fact, use my time being creative. I made another pair of earrings for my giveaway, I made 1 earring from 2 different earring sets (couldn't decide which one I liked better), I made raspberry freezer jam, and re-covered two long over do chairs. I still have two to go, but I ran out of staples. It's good to know that someone is keeping me accountable for my time, thanks Amy. Did you do something creative this week?

Have a great Saturday!
xo, amy