More Jewelry

I think I have most of my Christmas gifts made now. Here are a few more necklaces I created (or completed) this weekend:

My Christmas gift to myself (where this whole stamping idea came from):

To my wonderful friend and co-worker:

My aunt:

Ryan and Carter's Daycare Mom (I think I pictured this one before, but I decided to texture it, so here is the finished product):

Ryan's Preschool Teacher:

Ryan's Preschool Helper:

Kyle's Christmas gift to his Mom:

Another co-worker:

And my Inspector, Ryan, wearing his Dad's reading glasses, so he can "make the jewelry look bigger":

Checking out my handiwork:

Life is Good

In Carter's world, life is good if you have a cup full of milk and a SpongeBob movie playing in your big brother's room! He's loving life in this picture...

Gingerbread Men

Ryan and Carter made gingerbread men at Jill's this week. Ryan's is on top and Carter's is on the bottom. I assume Carter had a little 'assistance' with his!

Ryan's Preschool Christmas Party

Ryan had his preschool Christmas party on the snowiest, worst commute day of the year, but there was still a great turnout! The kids had a blast. Ryan's favorite: the candy walk! Funny story: Ryan could 'shop' for his family in a room full of white elephant gifts, which were donated by the families at FOC. I purchased 4 tickets so he could 'shop' for each of us. He came out about 10 minutes later, beaming from ear to ear with 4 gift bags in hand. One for Dad, Kyle, Carter, and HIMSELF! I laughed and asked him if he forgot anyone and he put his hand on my shoulder and said "sorry, Mom - there was a parachute guy I HAD to have!" :)

Ryan on the candy walk:

Carter coloring:

Carter playing trains:

Eating frosted Christmas cookies:

Santa on Mankato Street

Santa came down Mankato Street on a firetruck again this year. Since we get little advance warning (a police siren about 30 seconds before the firetruck comes through), we were out there without jackets. Brrrr!!!! The boys didn't care, they loved it - an added bonus - the firemen were handing out candy canes!

Stamped Jewelry

My latest craze in jewelry making is stamped sterling. I played around with it a lot this weekend - I made zipper pulls for the kids (plus several for gifts) and many styles of necklaces. I tried polished silver as well as texturing the silver. I really like them both - but textured would be easiest to maintain. Here are a few of my finished products (more pictures coming soon when I can get more natural light).

Reindeer

Santa's Reindeer stopped in on Manakto Street tonight. The boys were able to say hello before they had to leave again. Carter, especially was excited to see them!