New for every day

You'll never want to take these off. These great mixed metal nugget necklaces will be in my shop soon.

Silver and gold, or gold and silver?

Smokey gray and fiery purple

Brass and rose

Black and bronze wrap

This is my newest bracelet style - a leather beaded wrap bracelet. It is made from a beautiful metallic bronze leather with black beads. It wraps twice on the wrist and fastens with a sterling silver button.

It dresses up a t-shirt and jeans perfectly!

Redwood wildlife

Besides a chipmunk and this little guy making waves,

this caterpillar was the only wildlife we saw in Muir Woods.

He was in a hurry to get somewhere.

I know, I know. You don't go to a redwood forest to see wildlife.

How lucky are we that this is just about in our backyard!

Fool's gold

Sideways Buddha

You know how when you are trying to write a grant, sustain life, image 8 eyes, make jewelry, and do 3 ERGs, it can be a little stressful?

Well, I can tell, this is TOTALLY going to help.

Blood red silk, sideways Buddha, cute little bow on the back, and it matches my watch perfectly. I can feel the zen already.

Deep breath.

Put a bird on it

As they say in Portlandia, just about anything is improved once you put a bird on it. Just try searching for bird in etsy!

I tried it out, and it worked. I took one of the many sticks that Ronnie and Ben collect, and put a bird on it!

Voila! Art?

This isn't the first time I put a bird on it. I have necklaces with birds, shirts, notebooks, underwear...

Metallic leather

This says it all

These are pretty cool, too.

You can find them in my etsy shop when I reopen in a few weeks.

This face

Can you stand it?

$

I think if you don't have kids, you cannot fully appreciate the absolute joy of going to the dollar store by yourself. It happens maybe once a year, and I never know when the moment might be that the opportunity arises.

I was absolutely in awe of what you can buy at the dollar store. . . for a dollar! An origami dinosaur kit! CUTE striped baby legwarmers! Martinelli apple juice jars, that, once emptied, made the perfect jar for emptying out the liquid in the glow sticks and making lanterns.

I got a whole watermelon. For a dollar! And a pint of locally grown strawberries, and about 20 other things.

Sonoma Coast Beach

Ok, maybe not the best beach for swimming.

Ronnie was happy to do some rock collecting.

And the view up the Pacific coast is breathtaking!

A little clean up

Ronnie, Ben and Lila share a pretty small room. They don't seem to mind, but someday I want a big house where they can each have their own space. Once you throw in a few friends and everyone playing with something different, you get the picture on the left.

After a trip to Ikea and JoAnn, and a little time to clean, everyone got their own personal space. On the right, Lila is reading in her canopy, Ronnie under her tent, and Ben is hiding somewhere behind his curtain.

What I was REALLY eyeing at Ikea was the queen size loft bed. I totally want one!