Elegant Fundraiser Project for Kids

My daughters' school has a fundraiser every other spring and each class is required to donate one item.   A few parents come up with ideas, then we let the kids choose the one they want to create.  I suggested that we let the students make a chandelier from glass beads, and this was the project that they chose to make.

Surprisingly, the chandelier was easy as pie to make!  First, we bought a vintage-style chandelier on eBay for $60 plus shipping.  Then we purchased large glass seed beads in shades of greens, yellows, golds and clear, and clear crystals in various larger sizes from a local bead shop.   
In preparation, we had pre-cut the desired lengths of 28-gauge wire for the kids to string the beads on in no certain order or pattern....just randomly as each child pleased.  This took the class about two hours to do, and we completed 56 long wire "strings" for the top and 56 short wire "strings" for the bottom.
The rest of the project was completed by the parents.  It involved removing the original plastic "crystals" from the chandelier, and then drilling supplemental holes in its frame so that we could get the amount of wire "strings" that we wanted to fill in the chandelier's shape.  We also added crystal-shaped beaded wires to drop from each lamp's cradle.
I think they did a wonderful job on it and, lucky for me,.....my husband won the auction, and it is now hanging over my kitchen table!

Summer in Nantucket

Summer is just around the corner and I couldn't help but be inspired by the beach!  Luckily, with my mother and sister's help, I have collected quite a few pieces of vintage jewelry that have an ocean theme.  When all the pieces were laid next to each other, they screamed "lobster boils" and "clambakes"....and naturally Nantucket came to mind!  Here's what ensued:

 This necklace could easily be worn to any beach party....just add your favorite new summer dress or your "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"....it matters not!
You can see more of this necklace and others in my Etsy shop.

Happy Mother's Day to All

 A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.     - Cardinal Murmillo

Recently, my aunt sent me pictures of my grandmother and my great aunt when they were young girls.  They were beautiful sisters who always dressed alike and even studied the same subjects in high school and college.  They both went to a state college and got teaching degrees in the early 1930's!
My mother and my aunt were both very close to their mother and aunt, both of whom lived well into their 80's and enjoyed life to its fullest.  I'm confident that my creativity has come from this side of my family.....

 I took those vintage photos and transferred them to fabric to make a collage for my mother for Mother's Day.  Along side the pictures, I added a note that her mother had written of her early childhood memories of her and her sister playing with their dolls.  
I added her signature in the bottom left corner just so others would know who this piece of art was in memory of. 

The photos are decorated with vintage laces and ribbon trims, rhinestone brooches, and vintage silk flowers.  

 I can't wait for the mail to arrive at my mother's home, and for the moment she opens her Mother's Day gift....

                                               ************* 

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back
to normal after you've had a baby..... somebody
doesn't know that once you're a mother,
'normal' is history.
* * *
Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by
instinct... somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.
* * *
Somebody said being a mother is boring ....
somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit.

* * *
Somebody said if you're a 'good' mother,
your child will 'turn out good'....
somebody thinks a child comes with
directions and a guarantee.
* * *
Somebody said you don't need an education to be a
mother....somebody never helped a fourth grader
with his math.
* * *
Somebody said you can't love the second child as
much as you love the first....somebody doesn't
have two children.
* * *
Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother
is labor and delivery....
somebody never watched her 'baby' get on the bus
for the first day of kindergarten...
or on a plane headed for military 'boot camp'.
* * *
Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her
child gets married....somebody doesn't know that
marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a
mother's heartstrings.
* * *
Somebody said a mother's job is done when
her last child leaves home......somebody never had grandchildren.
* * *
Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so
you don't need to tell her....
somebody isn't a mother.


                                   ******************

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!  Even if you are not a mother, I'm sure that you have influenced another's life as a mentor and friend.....that's what being a mother is all about!