Bracelets, Round 2

A friend gave me a set of vintage elephants after I admired them in her collection of estate jewelry. (Ok, after I drooled on them . . . ) 
Talk about love at first sight - I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them as soon as I saw them.
 
 A quick trip to French General with an enabler pal and I had enough to finish my Pachyderm Parade, make a flower bracelet that now graces Marie's wrist,
 
and have enough 'must haves' left over to make a few more wrist charmers.
 
Can you say "addicted"? 

Mr. Snail

Leanne and her mommy stopped by unexpectedly last night. 
 
Leanne was adamant that her daycare art project was for MaMa and PaPa (Leanne-speak for me and hubby) and kept insisting on stopping at our house before going home.
 
Leanne helped me put Mr. Snail in a place of honor on the fridge. So cute! (Both Leanne and the snail.) 

Sewist

Leia enjoys machine sewing, so I thought I'd let her try hand-sewing.

  

Yeah. Duck to water.

  

She got the concept right away.

 
I thought she might struggle a bit with keeping the yarn on the needle
 
but it only took the yarn pulling out of the eye one time
  
for her to understand where she needed to hold it.
  
Leia said her first heart was for Auntie Breanne on her birthday.
 
She's still deliberating about who gets the rest.
  
Crossing my fingers that I'm on the short list!

Grand-Ballerina

This extended weekend was Leia's ballet rehearsal and performance. On Wednesday, I had to have her in Thousand Oaks (30 minutes away), in full costume and make-up, for rehearsal by 8:15 AM. That's in the morning.
  
I expected Leia to be in shock when I woke her at 7, but all I had to say was "on stage" and she bounded out of bed with a huge smile on her face.
  
I thought we'd be done and home by 10:30, but the organizers were running waaaaaay behind schedule. Leia's class was supposed to be on stage at 9; they finally got up there just after 10. And hers was the first group of the day. Not a good start.

But you know how they say a bad dress rehearsal makes for a great performance? So true! Saturday night went off without a hitch.
 
Leia and her buddies had fun waiting backstage for their turn to perform, on blankets we supplied (I was 'blanket grand-mom') and entertained with snacks, coloring books and stickers supplied by other moms.
 
And their performance? Sooooo cute.
 
They also performed in the finale, walking on stage for their bow in front of all the other dancers.  Did I mention how cute they were??
 
We finished off the evening in grand style,with a partay at Applebee's where Missy Leia had a brownie and ice cream all to herself.

Video of the performance wasn't allowed, so this is the dress rehearsal. Leia is 4th from the left. Enjoy! 

Bubbly Fourth

The grand girls weren't going to be here on the 4th, so we celebrated earlier this week

 

with festive headbands
 

and bubbles!

 
Leia is an old hand at bubble blowing,

so she grabbed her wand 
  
and went to town,
 
spilling only one bottle of bubble juice on the sidewalk in her excitement. 
  
Note to self: 
 
buying the party-pack was an excellent idea.
 
Leanne, on the other hand, had the basic idea, but her execution was a bit off.
 
She huffed,
 
and puffed,
 
and blew,
 
until she finally got hand, wand and mouth in sync.
  

Sooooooo happy!

 
Happy, happy Independence Day to all!!
 

Addiction

I don't often make more than one of something, but every once in a while a pattern comes along and I just  . . . . 
 
can't . . . .
 
put . . .
  
it down.
 
Love how cheerful these are; how easy to make; how many color possibilities there are. 
 
AND they're useful - or will be when I gift them away. 
 
That's a hard combination to beat. 

Summer Seraphina

Wanted a summer weight, summer size shawl for cool evenings and air conditioned buildings. Ok, and because I love shawls. 
  
Pattern is Seraphina, which I've made before,
  
and yarn is a cotton/acrylic blend I got on sale (40% off!) at my LYS's birthday party.
 
It took less than 3 balls of yarn - just over 300 yards - leaving me 2 balls to add to the stash make another summer something.
 

I can already tell this is going to get lots and lots of wear this summer - if I can get it away from Leanne.

 
(I'm not complaining! I love that she loves shawls as much as I do. Or maybe it's having her picture taken that she loves . . . .)

F.O. - Bracelet Edition

These have been gifted so I can now show them off. 
 
I like making jewelry, but don't do a lot of it. Part of that is lack of time and part is thinking I'm not perfect very practiced. 
 
Gotta get over that, 'cause these are seriously fun to make.
 
Both were from kits I purchased at French General and came with everything except glue and plyers.

 

I'm already planning my next one - which is not from a kit. Just need a few more goodies to finish it off . . . .