NEW DATE for October Craft night!

Tuesday, October 11th is the new date for October's craft to give back night. Please let me know if you can attend!

Craft to give back night--HATS!

We enjoyed another successful craft to give back night this week. Here is a picture of the some of the finished hats so far:


Aren't they super cute?! We did not get off to an auspicious start, as I didn't anticipate the difficulty of showing so many people at one time how to use a loom. However, due to the determination of all involved, there are now many women in this neck of the woods who have caught the loom knitting bug! Several even took home extra yarn to make a few more or finish up their hat from Monday night. We also had some fearless embellishers finishing off some hats that Mike's mom, Dede, knitted for the cause. All in all, it was a fun night full of laughter, a bit of frustration and lots of fun chatting. I am so proud of these ladies and the 30+ super cute and warm hats we are going to donate to Waunakee Neighborhood Connection's free store! I can't wait to get the finished ones back (can't wait to see how cute they look) so that I can drop them off next week!
October and November's craft to give back are going to be making necklaces for the children to pick out as Christmas gifts for their moms. Come learn how to make super cool pendants and attach them to chain! October 27th is the next date for craft to give back. Let me know if you would like to reserve a spot. I will need to know how many women so that I can have enough supplies ready.

Bead Soup REVEAL!!!!

First off, a shout out to my amazing husband, Mike, who is currently putting our kids to bed so that I can blog about this on our 11th anniversary! Seriously, I can't make this stuff up--Happy Anniversary, my love!
Now, down to business, I am s00000 excited to finally share! These are the beads I received from Pam Ferrari. So many fun items!!!

I have been super busy with my crazy life, so I only got 4 pieces made with the incredible soup I received. The cool thing, is some day, I will get a chance to have another cup of soup or two from these beautiful ingredients! I can't wait!!

I had so much fun with these colors. Here is a close-up of the first piece I made with one of Pam's gorgeous focals.
I took one of the headpins with a beautiful blue glass end and put it through the center hole of the focal, up through the back and wrapped it around the top. I attached a silver chain behind the glass ball on the headpin and the center of the focal. This was something I had never tried before and it took a few attempts to get it right. I was a bit nervous, because I did not want to waste a single beautiful headpin! After getting the focal how I wanted it, I knew I wanted to add several of the beads that Pam sent me in my soup. She sent such a variety, so I decided to make it an asymmetrical design. I added some Trinity Brass Company chain and findings to Pam's beautiful beads to finish out the design. This necklace took me quite a while to get the end result that I wanted. I really appreciate the opportunity to try new things, use components I hadn't worked with before and time to try and get it right! Knowing that Pam had spent so much time making each of these amazing glass pieces really added to the pressure! I really wanted to do her work justice--without overworking it and having her art get lost in the piece.


After completing the necklace, I was feeling excited, but a bit exhausted. So, I returned to my comfort zone, making a cute little ring that was more my typical style. I used a C-koop flower, filigree ring and two of the beads from the bead soup. I love this, and it was definitely more my style and comfort zone!


The third piece I made was this leather cuff bracelet, using a few filigree from my stash, a flower that I had patinaed awhile back with my girls, and one of the beautiful glass beads made by Pam. Again, more within my usual style, I really had fun with this one. After gaining back a bit of confidence, I finally felt ready to tackle the felted balls....



For the fourth piece, I used the felted balls and some beads and findings from my own stash, with a toggle from Pam and made this bracelet. The felt balls were too dense to poke wire all the way through, so I poked the wire through the surface and back out (similar to sewing), and then wrapped the wire with a bead. Turned out to be really fun to figure out how to use these balls! I hope you enjoyed my four servings of soup!

I can't wait to take a peek at all the other designer's ingredients and the soup they created! I hope you will, too! Please visit my partner, Pam Ferrari's blog and check out what she did with the soup ingredients I sent! I am dying to see what she came up with!!! Also, Lori Anderson is our fearless leader on this Bead Soup. Click on her name to be connected to the list to blog hop from!

September's Craft to Give Back Night

This month, we are going to be making some winter hats for boys and girls--I know we don't want to admit winter is coming, but it is darn it! So, come join me on Monday, September 26th to knit and embellish winter hats. My mother-in-law is knitting away as well, and will be providing some hats that will need to be decorated (bows, buttons, etc), if you feel like that is more your niche. If you have never knitted, no worries, it is super easy to do with a loom! Perfect opportunity to learn how to make your little ones a fun, boutique hat to perfectly match their coats! We will meet at my house on the evening of the 26th, starting at 7pm. Let me know if you are planning on coming, so that I can make sure I have enough looms and yarn!