Ribbon-tied Pearl necklaces

This is one of those projects that we get questions on every spring. It seems like a trendy 'that's so last year' thing but then someone walks in with the new issue of InStyle or Glamour and there it is. I think that the feminine bow and shimmer of pearls never goes out of style. You can make this type of necklace with any beads, really. Try it with colored stone beads and a patterned ribbon or with metal beads and a metallic ribbon. The directions are for a 16 inch tied necklace.

You'll need the following materials:
24 glass pearl beads, 20 mm
22" bead stringing material (we like the .024 Softflex)
2 crimp beads
2 sterling toggle rings or soldered jump rings, 12 mm
36" ribbon (we used double-faced 3/4 inch satin but I do recommend a nice organza)

Thread one end of the stringing material with a crimp bead and one toggle end. Thread the stringing material back through the crimp bead and flatten the crimp with your crimping tool. See this link for a how-to on that technique or visit your local bead store.

Thread all glass pearls onto the stringing material. Feed on the remaining crimp and the remaining toggle ring. Thread the stringing material back through the crimp bead and flatten the crimp with your crimping tool.

Trim the ends of your ribbon to 45 degree angles to prevent fraying and thread them through the toggle rings. Loop the necklace over your head and tie to desired length to wear.

Here is a printable PDF of a similar project you can download for free.

Felted play mat fun

It's cold outside and we made the most delicious egg noodle soup today. Cleo mixed the eggs and flour and rolled the noodles out all by herself. She cut them too, which is why we had a big mix of sizes and shapes. While the soup was cooking, we worked on our felted play mats. I have been really inspired by the recent issue of Living Crafts but we made our play mats using the pre-made felt sheets and the Clover needle felting tools.

You can see we did tiny streams, bushes and bridges. Trolls can live under the bridges and we even put a few fish in one of the streams. Cleo did a lot of felting on hers, Nora did too but I took all the needles out of the Clover tool and she just went crazy pressing it into the felt mat, the floor, her sister. She loved it. My husband walked into the room and said "Um, I am pretty sure you did something to that to make it o.k. for my nineteen-month-old to use it on the couch, right?" He's come a long way.

When you felt images like this onto a sheet you use just little bits of the roving. It is very economical. Also, as a good friend told me you just can't make anything ugly with wool. It somehow always looks good when you are done.


































How did we make those fabulous egg noodles? Here's the recipe. No measurements, don't freak out, you just can't mess these up.

beat two eggs until mixed

add enough flour to make a ball of dough (stir it with a big wooden spoon and if you want to be just like Cleo talk a lot about how we don't eat raw eggs but raccoons do)

divide the ball into four equal dough balls, roll in flour

put a dough ball onto a floured table, roll out until it's about 1/4 an inch thick and cut into strips with a table knife

put all the cut noodles into some broth cooked with celery, carrots, corn, spinach, onions and lots of garlic, add salt to taste and cook for 10 minutes

YUM!

NOTE: as of 12/20/2008 we no longer sell these felt sheets. Sorry, they were swell but we had to import them in giant quantities from the Kingdom of Nepal and they just didn't sell very well. We no longer have any in stock. Try sheet felt from high-quality upholstery stores.

the book is DONE

It is finally final. I have a copy in my hands of the 'lasers' of the book. They are laser printed pages that show the book as it will be. Well, as it will be after a few changes. I have the pages so that I can look over them and let the editors know if anything is dramatically wrong. Like jewelry photographed backwards or the wrong picture with the directions, etc.

When I opened the package, I think I hyperventilated. I couldn't tell if I was going to cry or pass out or just pass out, crying. Luckily, I had a couple of lifeguards there to steady me.

So I read and noted the revisions (one piece photoed backwards, other than that it was just me being picky) and got to enjoy the how-to diagrams (which are very nice, the fine work of J'Aimee Allene) and even got to have a weird, out-of-body moment when I realized that I had done all this work. I still don't know which project will appear on the cover. I am voting for the colorful and complex Helen but it may be the enigmatic Golden Shimmer or the sweet Coral Blossom.

As a final bit of work, I had to have my author photograph taken. Generally, I don't mind my photo being taken but that is because I am usually holding Nora or Cleo when that happens and I look pretty relaxed and happy. For some reason I got all freaky about this photo, you know, it's going in a book. I should look sorta professional. That the final photo at the bottom of this post. Thank you to Kurt who showed up at my house on New Year's Eve with about a million pounds of equipment and turned my living room into a studio. The girls ate snack while he got it all set up. He took at least 50 shots until I finally stopped obsessing about my hair and my collection of striped tee shirts and was able to smile. He was in and out of our house in about 60 minutes, I swear, and I look pretty good if I do say so myself. I don't know how he did it. Oh, that's the Barcelona necklace in the shot, but you didn't hear it from me.






















See more of Kurt's work at his flickr page or his website.

Yummy!

This last month we started selling soaps and lotion bars from Moon Dance soaps. They are a local company that you may have seen at the Durham farmer's market or other farmer's markets in the area. I have known Rachel for years and her soaps and lotions are just fabulous. I love the locally sourced ingredients and the fact that she runs a great business (I have a good friend who works for her and loves it!)

The lotion bars are very handy. I call mine a manicure in a tube. You know, you are about to meet a friend (that fancy dressed one that always looks good) and you look down at your hands and find that they were replaced by the hands of a lumberjack. Especially in winter, I am continuously embarrassed by the state of my cuticles. Well, whip out a bar of Rachel's lovely concoction and you'll soon have your own hands back, but better. All those snaggy cuticles and dry spots just disappear. This kind of thing almost makes up for realizing that you are wearing the same exact (kinda dumpy) outfit you were wearing the last time you had lunch with your friend who, amazingly, is wearing an outfit that looks like the cover of Anthropologie or at the very least, Sundance.

We were selling soaps from France but it has really bothered me to think of my soap traveling by air from France to the West coast of the U.S. (where the distribution center is located) and then to Raleigh. I think, gee, how many gallons of jet fuel were burned to get this soap to me? We won't be selling that soap from France any more after our current stock runs out. I am happily luxuriating in my new moisturizing Coconut Cream Goats Milk soap and my Lavender Citrus lotion bar.

Why do we sell soap anyway? I mean, the stores are bead stores, or craft supply stores at the very least. So why soap? Well, I use soap and lotions. I like soaps and lotions and we need to have something in the bathrooms for you to wash your hands with that is NOT Sponge Bob squeezy synthetic soap (now with extra artificial colors and new icky chemical fragrance!) I think it is nice with all the visual and tactile stimulation we provide to have a bit of scent, too.

Plus there is that cuticle thing. We arty types have rough hands. We can't help it.