I've missed our last two posts, for a good reason. We've just returned from our family trip to Ireland for Christmas. I'll come back later and post about some of our trip later, but for now I'll give you a few pictures of the holidays.
For us, this time of year is not just Christmas and New Years, but it is our anniversary and both of our daughter's birthdays. Suffice it to say that December is a crazy month typically for us. This year we spent Kate's birthday in Dublin, and she and Anne shared a local favorite from a cupcake shop to celebrate. So for my 'togetherness' prompt from Sally I have a birthday celebration in Ireland.
As for saying goodbye, I will say that I am not much for big goodbyes, or send offs. I'd rather think about it as a continuum and what comes next. So as we started the year with the holidays, we end this part of the journey with the holidays. This is a view from the top of a popular shopping center in the heart of Dublin. They really do this time of year in style! But I really don't feel like this is goodbye. We have been on a journey together for a year and I've met many new friends along the way that I hope to continue to blog with in the future. So to you I say Happy New year and see you soon!
Last week I found out that I won a pair of Patti's earrings! I confess, I have been coveting her work for awhile. What's not to love? her metal work is gorgeous! Check out her Etsy site and her blog to see her work.
I saw a pair of her earrings up close a few months back and can tell you they were as beautiful up close as I had imagined. And when these arrived in the mail ... seriously beautiful.
This is exactly the kind of wire work I'd like to do some day. Maybe we can get Patti to teach a class?
Thank you Patti for my new favorite earrings! I put them on and haven't taken them off since. They are fantastic!
We have an annual family tradition of decorating the tree together adding each item and recounting the story behind it. When we travel the one souvenir we all vote on and pick up from each destination is an ornament. Some years we pick up several, other years it might be only one. But there is usually at least one new story to add to the collection each year. I did a pinterest board if anyone is interested in seeing some of the ornaments and the destination they represent.
So far this year we've added only one ... but there is still time, and we're hoping to add just one more. But I'll save that story for a later post.
As we wrap up the year of Sally's Focusing on Life photo hop, my last few pictures to share are of the holidays and family. This time of year is always very special for me. Both my daughters were born during the holidays (one at Thanksgiving time, and the other between Christmas and New Years), and our wedding anniversary is in December.
I need to play a bit of catch up with Sally's hop as I've missed the last two weeks. So let's begin with Giving Thanks, which is an easy one for me. My girls. I cannot imagine, nor would I want to, my life without them. Nothing can prepare you for how much your life will change by being a parent. My life is forever altered in the most amazing way. Something that I am thankful for everyday.
The next prompt was to focus on a little sparkle, which is also an easy one as you can see. Our tree provides plenty of that both literally and figuratively with all the glorious memories of our travels together through life. You can see this one from the Cayman Islands is a bit worse for wear, but still has a wonderful story to tell.
And now for this week; provide a little pop of red. Yep, also easy. This past Wednesday was our 20th Wedding Anniversary, and my travel partner gave me roses. So very sweet of him. I got up crazy early (as I always do) to go into the office. Followed by an important morning meeting, and then back home by lunch to celebrate our special day --- only to see he'd made it out to pick up flowers for me. They are on the pink-red side, but then I've been channeling my inner pink lately as you can see from my post earlier in the week!
A few weeks back I showed you all a bracelet that my friend Christine taught me called "Gallery." It has become a favorite of mine to wear as it is so comfortable and easy to slip on. I have to admit that it surprised me just a bit since pink is simply not my color. But I am finding that I can wear the bracelet with much more than I thought it would match up with.
At the time that Christine showed me how to make the Gallery pattern (a square stitch), she showed me another one called "Something Fine" that uses simple ladder stitch to anchor rows of stringing (right). One more comfy bracelet, and I used exactly the same beads. But this time the dominant color is the multi-brown/ pinkish beads. It gives the look a deep, rich color tone for Fall. The other thing I added was a large vintage pink button, also gifted by Christine. She is bringing out my inner pink I had no idea was there!
Last summer I was shopping around over on BluMudd and came across this cool bracelet bar. It jumped out at me, probably because it has such wonderful Viking tones to the pattern. Yep, total love for this one.
It sat on the bead table for quite a few months simply because I was hording it. But this piece is just too cool to not put it to work.
I did want to create a somewhat rustic looking beaded bracelet, albeit it isn't in brown tones. But who says the Vikings didn't sometimes wear green? The stitch is a square stitch. A sturdy stitch and one you could image used in Medieval times. I wanted to create a belt buckle look to the bracelet, and a little twisting to the edges to create a braided look. The closure wraps around to button in the back with braided hemp finishing with a hammered copper button.
Ok, and now for the fun part. I went looking for some antiquity eye candy and discovered a great blog called Viking Metal. It's written by a woman in the UK who is doing post doctoral research on .... yep, the Vikings. She had a piece posted that probably would have been used at the end of a waist belt to keep the ends from fraying. The time period is likely the late 9th or early 10th century. It is a standard interlace pattern of the time, and reminded me of the bracelet bar from BluMudd.
I've missed our last two posts, for a good reason. We've just returned from our family trip to Ireland for Christmas. I'll come back later and post about some of our trip later, but for now I'll give you a few pictures of the holidays. 
