Before and After

These were the assembled pieces prior to actual assembly. I like to get all of the elements together. And, for a rosary, I divide the counting beads into 5 piles of 10 and actually put the bead on the wire cutting it into the correct length for each bead before I make loops. This assembly line style makes it super speed to loop and build the chain this piece uses opal, jade and vintage rosary findings with silver wire.

Final assembly.  

I actually posted the after way before but wanted to include the earlier pieces/parts for comparison. Loved the final outcome.

Jewelry Goodness

A friend asked me to make a rosary for a Father's Day present. He picked out the opal and I added the vintage rosary pieces and the carved jade. With the sulfured wire, I love the antique vibe.

This one was a quick "use up the beads" project. I like the long flapper style and the pink against the black steel. Super cute.

Clasp via wire wrapping and s-hook.

Happy Father's Day!

Vacation Dreams

via

The start of summer kicks of the new season of travel yearnings in the house. Rolland is always thrilled <insert sarcasm>. I start rattling off places I'd like to visit, shoot for the moon dreaming might even be a long sabbatical with living abroad potential. The list is mighty but it feels like the right time to write it down and start to make some progress. Put it out there and let if flourish. We have some realistic summer weekend trips planned which are fine with me as Sophy's not ready for international travel. Yet. I'm mostly not ready for international tantrums. But soon, the baby passport will be in hand. In the mean time, dreaming it is....

Travel List
Australia
Bali 
Butterfield & Robinson Trip
Cambodia
China
Croatia
Dubai
Easter Island

Egypt

German Christmas Markets
Greece
Israel
Japan
Iceland's Geothermal Pools
Ireland

Italy - most everywhere in the country
Machu Pichu
Nepal Tea House Trek
New Zealand
Safari Trip
Vietnam

This is a pretty small list since I'd basically like to go everywhere! Ideally, I want to visit a lot of the major sites from the ancient world but given that most of the ancient world is now mostly in conflict countries it's not happening soon.

In the meantime... road trip!

Summer Break

It's been pretty busy around  the house lately but I'm still super excited for summer. Every year I still think I'm going to get out for the summer and decide to over plan when not much really changes with our schedules except less traffic. Not to minimize the importance of less traffic
cause that's awesome!

But we've made some changes around the house that have made it feel a little more special. We've started eating al fresco for all meals at home. This was partially to save our dining room rug from the toddler but we also wanted to enjoy our nice patio. We've cleaned up the yard and all the debris that had accumulated in the nooks and crannies. A small furniture rearrangement has made it seem roomier and the grill area has a space all to itself making it easier to keep Sophy fingers away. I still want to get a little more color via retro styled seating. Similar to these.

I have a long list of recipes I want to work on from Salty Snacks: Make Your Own Chips, Crisps, Crackers, Pretzels, Dips, and Other Savory Bites, Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats Without All the Junk, The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux, and a bunch of other cookbooks I've amassed.

I'm also stock piling these jars. I've currently got a couple in the refrigerator with basil simple syrup and another with lime juice for spontaneous Basil Lime Coolers. My new favorite drink. Sophy's a fan too. 

Super quick recipe is:

1. Simply Syrup: add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water along with 5-6 basil leaves (substitute with mint or any other favorite herb here) and heat until sugar dissolves. Let cool and use immediately or store in a container in the refrigerate.

2. Juice limes: we do an entire bag at a time. Costco or Sam's is your best bet for large inexpensive produce for this. You could also do grapefruit, orange juice, etc. 

3. I also add carbonated water that Rolland carbonates using the soda stream but totally optional.

4. Mix the above into a pitch or in a glass of crushed ice to taste. Sophy and I like tart so I do about 2/3 juice to small amount of syrup and water. Sophy's has about 1/4 juice and 3/4's water with a tiny bit of sugar.

Tasty summer goodness.

Travaasa Austin

I just did a quick getaway to Travaasa Spa and Resort in Austin. It was fantastic! I can't recommend it enough. We were lucky to find a groupon to help offset some expense but full price would be totally worth it. Pricey, but worth it. Girls birthday getaway with lovely ladies.

Dinner at the resort restaurant was incredible as was the patio view. I had breakfast the next morning here as well and the view was even more spectacular.

My room was on the top floor with a private balcony. They also set the air conditioning to arctic so sleeping was heaven.

Sophy packed a friend for me so I didn't get lonely.

Awesome infinity pool and lounging.

The view of countryside. Greatness.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Happy Easter

Grandma made her an Easter dress with a little Easter bunny apron. Adorable. I think she can wear her dress through most of the summer. She's a little shorty, not that that's likely to change, but she's due another growth spurt so then it will be perfect. This year was much different than her first Easter, mostly because she's older than a month! She loved digging through her basket and pulling out the goodies "What's that?" "What's this?" are her new favorite questions. Once you answer her, you then get a long follow up but she's not quite articulating everything yet. Still, she's got a lot to say. We also ventured out to the playground for her first ride in the swings. She was a little cautious but quickly started giggling. The slides? Not so much. She'll have to work up to those. She was constantly putting her breaks on with her tennis shoes. Next year, egg dying and the Easter egg hunt. Can't wait! Hope you had a fantastic holiday.

RZ Overload

My outfit today caused a little more attention than I would've thought. It's making me feel a little like I've been off my game. My dress was a maternity favorite with the stretch tummy. It was great pre baby, during baby and back to post baby. Maybe it was the leopard cardi with the cheetah cuff and owl ring that pushed it over the top?

The best was coming home to this little girl who was beyond excited to see me. The best.

Mind Blown

So Jonathan Adler has a line for JCP called Happy Chic. I knew they were making all the changes to be trendy and down with all the super cool kids but I never expected them to really mean it. I love, love, love Jonathan Adler and tried to justify the $350 elephant lamp for Sophy's room but couldn't really do it.  I also love his partner Simon Doonan who was (is?) the creative director for Barney's and while I hate Barney's as elitist assholes - even more so than Neiman Marcus and that's saying something. He has fantastic style and an amazing spirit. His window displays were incredibly.

Uhm, anyway back to Jonathan Adler. He's got some very cool pieces at pretty reasonable prices with the JCP line and I picked a few favorites as window shopping.

Love this little bird pillow. Super cute for kids or just a whimsical accent.

I will admit that this couch is a fantasy more than anything practical in our house. Those wooden legs seem less than sturdy for all the real life flopping that goes on in our house. Also, it seems un-conducive to partially gnawed on bunny crackers and snot that would get wiped on it. But I love it for my dream house that is cleaned by elves that also stock the pantry and cook dinner.

This vase is also awesome. I love the black and white stripe in nearly all schemes since it screams "I'm fun damn it!" at you regardless of how snooty you may be striving.

This is also causing further decorating angst for my downstairs main living spaces (I won't even acknowledge the upstairs). I've wanted to repaint since we did it and it came out much darker than I liked. Rolland was thrilled since he would love to live in a cave without light at all. I'm still contemplating white to brighten it up and allow for multiple accessory swap outs. This is unlikely since I refuse to ever get to such a pitiful state and I kind of hate to paint.

Sidenote: I just finished watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills followed with a Justified chaser and that's not a TV leap the body should normally make. Although that Andy Cohen smack down to Adrienne Maloof would've been Harlan approved.  I'm going to bed to sleep it off. But, Deputy Marshall Tim is quickly gaining super fans.

Chinese Lantern Festival

I was looking through my camera at the photos for our Seattle trip and found all of these... plus 100 more from New Year's Day. We went with some friends to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Fair Park.
It was amazing! It was also freezing but we bundled that baby up and headed out.

We started off at Angry Dog where I did indeed have said dog. Tasty. Then back in the car to hit the park. A friend had posted the groupon offer on Facebook so we had pre-purchased tickets at half off but honestly, it was so worth it at full price. A few days earlier we had seen the Chiluly exhibit at the arboretum for the evening tour and it was really disappointing. This exceeded my expectations. Highly, highly recommend it.

This dragon is made of dishes. Incredible!

Little cutie mixing her animals here. Last minute Target purchase for a good hat with her panda coat also a Target purchase when she was still in utero. She also had gloves not pictured since this was actually us packing it in not heading out.

He should guard our house. Loved the Foo dogs.

Heading in and a very well bundled baby as promised.

Sophy and Daddy ready to head back home.

Super cute, and mittened, baby waving to her fans.

Warning: adorableness overload with this cutie! Seriously, she is this cute all the time. It makes my heartache.

I took a gazillion photos trying to get just the right shot of the Cotton Bowl. This was my favorite.

I think the longhorns and lotus flowers sort of sum it up.

Fantastic! Honestly, I still rave about it, you know 4 months later so that's a pretty big endorsement.

Next up Seattle! I promise!

Back in the routine

Or at least working on it. We went on a quick trip to Seattle for an early birthday. The weather and the food were fantastic and the Chiluly experience was incredible. It may have been my favorite place on the trip. It deserves its own post for sure.

The downside was missing my little chickadee. Her grump face sums it up. She had an awesome time with Granny and Aunt Anita while Mommy missed her like crazy. I like to think she's been especially snugly.

Dedicated Seattle post soon but I do have to publicly confess to finally watching the final Twilight movie for the plane ride. Solid "not bad" with a side of "coulda been worse". Kind of perfect in flight entertainment.