Beaded Ornaments

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new experience from the week.

You may be thinking, “What?! Another craft post?!” I know, I know. We have very limited content on our blog this week. What can I say? That’s what we’ve been up to and we’re having a blast.

Today we tackled some beaded ornaments inspired by a recent Kids Craft Weekly, an email newsletter that features simple, creative and fun projects for kids. (If you’re interested in crafts, you should subscribe. I always smile when I see a Kids Craft Weekly sitting in my email inbox.)

For over a year now my daughter has loved to string things, but until this week we mostly focused on building her hand dexterity and self-confidence by stringing larger objects, such as these fantastic Plan Toy Geo-Beads and the MoMA Modern Shapes Lacing Cards.

At our local craft resale shop I recently found a giant bag of brightly colored (mostly) wooden beads in large and small sizes and had a “we must buy this!” moment (not hard when it was a steal at $3 and supports our town’s senior center).

We started stringing the beads on pipe-cleaners, an easy first step for toddlers. We made simple wreath ornaments and jingly bracelets (with bells!).

(Yes, we’ve been cooking up potato pancakes! We’ve been crafting, cooking and celebrating nonstop. You should see the pile of dishes in the sink.)

My daughter loved beading. She found delight in trying something one way and then taking the beads off to do something else. With the alphabet beads, she liked trying to spell words (such as her name) and giggled as she laced individual letters saying, “S, for [her friend] Sadie! D, for Daddy!”

I enjoyed watching her work and seeing the evolution of her color, shape and size combinations. I found her work always interesting, quite creative and certainly full of beauty. A very special day.

The Craft House

You guessed it.

We’re still working on holiday projects.

Every surface is covered.

Every surface is a mess.

Above: Miss Leyba learning to sew! She always wants to do what Mommy’s working on. So far, so good! Somehow I’m teaching her and supervising her while working on a million other things. Mom’s are so good at multitasking. Or at least pretending that we’re good at it. ;)

We’re having a blast!

Now please excuse me as I have half a dozen birds to embroider, stars to finish, stockings to stitch, pine cones to paint, craft stick stars to mod podge, presents to wrap, presents to order… and we’re busy celebrating Hanukkah too. That’s right, I have some potato pancakes to fry and candles to light too.

December is super-wonderful-exhausting-crazy-fun-busy and we love it.

Feeling Grateful

I feel grateful for so much this Thanksgiving day.

Grateful for my best friend who I met eight years ago today (yep, at a Thanksgiving dinner!)!

For my happy, brilliant, independent daughter who brings such joy to our lives!

For our dear friends and their wonderful children (too many to show photos of them all here!)!



For our supportive and loving families!

For our health!

For so very much. (I feel humbled and moved by how lucky we are!)

These days I’m also really appreciating the everyday things:

The plentiful array of local organic food available here in Northern California.

My daily cup (or three!) of decaf English Breakfast tea.

Great thrift stores that benefit a worthy cause and allow us to budget and be more environmentally friendly.

A cozy warm bed that fits us all, even when our daughter decides to sleep horizontally between us!

A fantastic library system that provides us with books, music and movies.

A plentiful garden in which we’ve toiled, learned and shared together what it means to grow our own food.

This blog that has been a tremendous joy in my life, through which we’ve documented our daughter growing up!

You, dear readers, for following along with us and adding your voice in the comments! We feel truly grateful to share our lives with you.

Hope you have a meaningful, tasty Thanksgiving day.

Now please excuse me as I’ve got some cooking to do!

And the Cooking Begins…

Here we go! We’re gearing up for Thanksgiving.

Each year I so enjoy the ritual of cooking for Thanksgiving: refining the menu, making the master shopping list, doing the shopping, starting the cooking, realizing we’re missing ingredients (it’s only gotten worse with age!), heading to the store, cooking some more, savoring the time spent cooking together as a family and the delicious meal we create and share.



So, we’ve planned the menu and shopped.

We’re now ready to start cooking. First up, making stock and cornbread for tomorrows stuffing.

Here’s my little helper, excited to help and dressed to cook:

Miss Leyba loves wearing fun costumes. After already getting dressed for the day, she decided she needed to wear a swimsuit on top. Why not?! I think it makes the outfit.

Excuse us, we’ve got some cooking to do.