My new "Mommy Blog"

I decided to keep this blog strictly for beading, but wanted an outlet for a little more creative and personal writing.

Please join me on my new "mommy blog," at: http://somedaysijustworkhere.blogspot.com/

:) I will be migrating some of the non-beading posts over from this blog to the new one.

Thanks for sticking around!

5 of My Favorite Things

Since my kids are 9 years apart, a lot of my friends are asking what kinds of baby gear they should get. I am a sucker for anything that could make my kids happier or more socially/academically developed, so I've tried most of the gimmicky stuff out there.

Here are the 5 things we use for my daughter which I wish I had for my son:

Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo: When my son was an infant, the "experts" were all warning against baby walkers, so all "safety conscious" parents got Exersaucers. Honestly, I don't know of a single baby who really sat in those things for more than 10 minutes. OH MY GOODNESS, my daughter STILL plays with this thing even though she's been walking for months.

Baby carriers: Ok, so this one is actually a centuries old idea. But a decade ago, you pretty much only had the Baby Bjorn or the Kelty, and both were back-packy type carriers which were impossible to use after the baby weighed more than 12 pounds. Now, there's a wide variety of more ergonomic carriers. We are still using our Hotsling for running errands and Baby Hawk for around the house. Trust me, when Daddy's deployed, even toddlers get clingy.

Toy and Stroller Bag Loops: Whomever thought of sewing loops and plastic links to all toys is an fing genius.

Snack Trap: Really cute cup with handles and a nifty spill proof top for self-feeders. Perfect for cheerios and gold fish. Attach to one of those handy dandy loops and you don't have to stop every 5 seconds in the grocery store to divvy out another cheerio.

Starry Lanyard

It's amazing what happens when you clean up your "creative space." The dust and clutter was piling up so I decided to take the Fly Lady's advice and spent a few minutes on the kitchen island, which is a "hot spot." For anyone who feels overwhelmed by the mounds of cr@p to do around the house and/or suffers from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) then you need to take a quick peek at the Fly Lady website. It's free, and I promise, completely do-able.

Now, getting back to the beads. I've had beader's block for a couple of months and decided to start putting away the crafting stuff so I could dust the kitchen island. Lo and behold, the ideas started coming together again! This lanyard is actually made of stuff I bought when looking at different ideas for wedding accessories. When I switched from a champagne colored dress to diamond white at the last minute, these beautiful beads got pushed to the wayside. They're gorgeous though. Instead of using the typical S-ring I've been using on my other lanyards, I used a simple "embellishment ring." (The kind used for making cluster rings.) It has a more delicate look, don't you think?