More keeping the kids busy while dining out or waiting in line

I love these Little Dover books.  At about 4x5 inches, they are small enough that I can keep a few in my purse as a surprise for impromptu meals at a restaurant or waiting in line or even waiting at the doctor's office.  They are hard to find.  I have seen a rack of them at Cracker Barrel.  They are on Amazon for only 1.35! They ship for free with a 25.00 purchase.  Once you are on Amazon look around, there are many titles to choose from.

Making mosaic stepping stones for the garden with kids

My grand plan is to make an entire pathway on the side of our house to meander through a yet to be created flower garden on the side of our house.  I will post before and progress pictures soon.
I love this Flip flop shaped stepping stone kit.  I just ordered one of these for my 6 year old, T.J. and myself to use as soon as we have created our square ones (previous post).  We opened out first kit tonight to get ready for casting tomorrow. You will need a small bucket or large plastic bowl from the dollar store to mix the cement in.
While you are at the dollar store, pick up some extra glass gems for making more stones with the re-usable mold in the kit.  When you have used the cement that comes in the kit, you can purchase a bag of regular old cement (not concrete) to use the mold again and again.
When I taught fourth grade, I made stepping stones with my entire class using donated un-used pizza boxes lined with clear Contact paper.
We used it sticky side up, placing our decorations on the Contact paper and then pouring the cement it over the glass gems.  The kit has you decorate the top of the stepping stone.  I think this will work better than pouring the cement over the top; the cement ended up oozing around the gems and covering them up a little.
Check back tomorrow for pictures of our stepping stone project.

Beading Contests

With all of my excitement last month you would think that I would have gotten my various submissions for upcoming deadlines together, but I haven't. Beyond my original couple of days of planning and creating a few things, I haven't given my Bead Star submissions much thought. I sent an email to Bead Trends with a few submissions for the August 2010 issue only to find that their in-box was full! I guess that is what I get for waiting until the last minute. I am still not sure if they received my submissions, but I would have heard something by now. I managed to sell one of those bracelets on etsy already anyhow.
I have had a very productive month both creation and sales wise. My etsy sales seem to be growing exponentially and I have continued to find more time to create. I have been making more strung and memory wire creations as opposed to my usual charm bracelets. The charm bracelets take much more time, so obviously I am able to produce more product than if I was doing all charm bracelets. A typical JunQue Jules charm bracelet takes at least three hours from starting to select the beads to creating and placing the charms.
I am happy about my recent etsy success because it is sometimes too easy to yearn for my former eBay days when I could easily sell 25 bracelets in one weekend; some going for close to $200, if bidding got intense. I also miss the excitement of watching the bids climb from minute to minute. I am still happier with the pace and community I find at etsy.
Another positive this month has been the creations done by my (almost) three year old son. He has gotten really good at stringing plastic pony beads on leather cord. I am wearing one of his necklaces today. He sits on my lap and beads while I bead. I am loving this, but I am forgetting the beads awaiting me to pick up under my design table right now.

Back in the groove...

Since my little guy was born almost 3 years ago I haven't found as much time for the beads as I would like. Somehow, miraculously, I have found more time than usual lately. At the same time I have also discovered the Bead Star contest. Since discovering it less than a week ago I have decided on 5 of my 9 entries. I am glad that I didn't know about it sooner, as I know I would have second guessed my entries for months.
Along with the extra time to bead my sales seem to be picking up on etsy as well.
To make this a trifecta-We are only a few months away from closing on a new house which will greatly increase my studio space. I will no longer be relegated to a cubby in our library/husband's office/everything else room.
I will post a photo of my current studio as soon as I can put my on going projects away long enough to make it at least appear tidy-one of the side effects of having a toddler-I don't want to spend precious beading time on organizing. I think I need to remind myself how therapeutic sorting can be.
Ahh the good old days before having children-life was very different. I must remember-without my little guy in the house there would be no one to share my love of vintage buttons with. I could never have imagined beading with a toddler on my lap sorting buttons would work-but it does. It has to.