I had a very nice Christmas and I hope that you did as well. I have really enjoyed having Ethan here for the holidays. We haven’t done much, other than just enjoy each other’s company. It has been wonderful. I expect I’ll be pretty sad when he flies out tomorrow.
We have done a few things though. Right after he got here I went in for my first ultrasound to date my pregnancy. The baby was fun to watch, it was pretty active. I had a second ultrasound on Monday. That one made me a bit nervous. The second ultra sound was to establish my risk for a downs baby and a few other things. The ultra sound tech took the measurements and disappeared to get the Dr. When the Dr came in she told me that she wanted to measure again to be sure the numbers were right, and then she asked when my next appointment with my OB was. I wanted to cry, instead I replied “that doesn’t sound very good at all” She immediately apologized and told me that my numbers were great. She was only asking so she knew how long she had to fax the results. Whew! I wish they wouldn’t unnecessarily stress their patients out! When I went in I had a 1 in two hundred something risk, when I came out I had a 1 in 5 thousand 4 hundred something risk. We are both really pleased with those numbers.
We decided that Wednesday we would just spend the day together and go on a date. I chose the SunDance resort outside of Provo Utah. It is one of my favorite places to go. I feel very lucky that I live close enough to make a quick trip out there. I have always been a fan of the SunDance Catalog. I think that they sell some of the neatest jewelry. The catalog was inspired by the General Store at the resort. I love to drive out and take a peek at their jewelry, because they tend to have stuff that is not in the catalog. It is a very small little store, but that is one of the things that I love most about it, it just couldn’t get any more charming!
We prefer to make the drive out to the resort via the American Fork Canyon. Unfortunately, this time of year the canyon is closed. Instead we took the road that most people take and drove down Provo Canyon.
I was able to snag a photo of the Bridal Veil Waterfall as we drove by. It was looking a bit chilly! I have to give it to Utah. If nothing else, the state is just gorgeous.
The entire drive through the canyon was beautiful.
The General Store was looking just as frosty. We went in, and I fell in love with a necklace. I have never heard of this particular designer before, so I had to have the clerk write it down for me.
I love this necklace. There is almost always at least once necklace that just calls out to me. As an added bonus, I felt that it was very reasonably priced. I know I am a sucker for jewelry though, so I decided to think about it.
Ethan and I headed in to the Foundry Grill for an awesome lunch. I think that it only took me two or three minutes of thinking about it before I decided that I really wanted the necklace. So after lunch we headed back in. I even wore it home. It was only $145 and I thought that was a pretty decent price. The sales clerk told me that the company that makes the necklace is called Avindy. I have never heard of them before but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of their necklaces.
We had a wonderful date. After buying the necklace we walked over to the Art Shack to check out the hand blown glass. We hung out for a bit and watched the guys making glass tiles.
We also checked out the globe exhibit. I believe all of the globes are made out of recycled materials. Ethan’s favorite was the one made out of cut up bottle caps. It was a very enjoyable day.
We tried to round it out with a trip up to Snowbird. He really wants me to ride the tram up to Hidden Peak so that I can see the mountain covered in snow. I was anticipating taking snowboard lessons this year, so he got me a season pass. Unfortunately my Dr has nixed the snowboarding lessons for this year, but we thought that I could still take the Tram up to the top of the mountain and ride it back down. On just about any other day I could do that, but the winds were high and the tram was running on a trip by trip basis. They were not allowing foot traffic to go up. My best guess is that if they decided it was the last tram up for the day, they would want you to be able to ride yourself back down. We’ll probably try again in March when Ethan returns from China.
Star Ornaments
So I was attempting to make the beaded Star Ornament in the center of the photo. These are out of the:
“Beaded Ornament Book” by Leisure Arts.
However, I had a hard time finding the 16mm jump ring for the center of the ornament. The pipe cleaner and the10mm jump rings were easy enough to find. I also tried to make the other two star ornaments but they just didn’t turn out tidy enough for me to use.
My Star
So this is how my star ornament turned out. Instead of using the 16mm jump ring for the center of the ornament, I found a larger silver plated ring down at my favorite local bead shop. It measures just about 1.25 inches across. I think it gives the star a much different look. I think If I decide to make any more, I will forgo the pipe cleaner and just try making it with regular wire. I purchased the beads at my local JoAnn’s store.
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- Easiest Snowflakes of all
This is just a quick post about the absolutely easiest way to make snowflake ornaments. Buy Snowflake Forms. If you really want to make them yourself you can, but I don’t think it is worth the time or effort to do it. If you are really in to hand made things you can trim three pieces of wire and solder them together. I still have yet to get my soldering iron out. The other ways are to either wrap three pieces of wire the same way that I did with the pipe cleaners, or you can wrap them together.
Instructions for wrapping the wires together can be found here.
If you want to purchase the frames, I found mine at Craft Warehouse in Oregon. I’ve also seen them at 1 of the three bead shops that I frequent here in Utah. If you want to order them online you can find them for sale on EBay. Some of them look like they are quite a bit more expensive than others, check the sizes. They come in a wide variety.
A few words of safety about working with the snowflake forms.
1: Wear Safety Goggles: When I first used them I was under the impression that you were supposed to make a small loop in the end of the wire. The wire is very hard. The first couple of ornaments I made put so much pressure on the glass beads that they shattered. Aside from being out the cost of the beads, it is also pretty dangerous. If you decide that you want to make loops on the end, please wear safety goggles. Also, while trying to do it this way, several of my forms had spokes break off.
2: Use A Thimble: I decided to use plastic backings for earrings. They work wonderfully. They keep the beads snuggly on the wire. I just nip the extra wire off at the end of the ear backing. BUT, and this is another big but, be very,very careful sliding them on. I cant count how many times I have punctured the end of my finger with the wire and it isn’t comfortable. I was able to grasp the it on the edges and slide it down, but I really recommend that you use a thimble.
Those are my two safety warnings for using ready made forms.
I like to do a mix of seed beads, crystals, silver beads and craft beads. I know, I know, but those silly little paddle beads really make them look like snowflakes. So many of the snowflake ornaments that I see are just straight spokes with small beads. Be creative! To hang them I just tie a thin string around the wire just below the earring back.
These are some of the ones that I have made.
My Favorite
Close up of earring back
variation #4
Variation #5
This is the last of the pipe cleaner ornaments! I’m so glad. You can not imagine how much space in my dining area is taken up by craft supplies. I have a few more frames to make for my daughter’s class and then I am packing it all up. I plan to keep out the wire, seed beads, pearls and crystals but everything else is going to be stowed for next year. There are still a few ornaments that I would like to make, but they are made with regular beading supplies instead of craft supplies.
As a bonus. I got a check in the mail today so I will be placing a bead order tonight. 🙂 Although, maybe I should wait until after I open my new books on Christmas….. OR, I could just place another order then! 🙂 I just love the holidays!
This is the easiest way to make frames out of pipe cleaners for snowflake ornaments.
pipe cleaners
You will need 3 6 inch lengths of pipe cleaner. I like to use the metallic silver. If you want your snowflake to be a bit larger I don’t see why you can’t use longer lengths of pipe cleaners.
Give em' a twist
Twist two of the pipe cleaners together to form an “x”
Add the last pipe cleaner
Take the last pipe cleaner and wrap it around the center of the “x”. Take some pliers and give the center of the frame a little squeeze to snug everything up.
Ta Da!
At this point you have a basic frame. You could also do this with regular wire. I don’t like to use this particular frame *as is* because I don’t think the beads are always evenly distributed. I like my snowflakes to have a neat orderly appearance. So, I froo froo mine up a bit.
Add a little sparkle!
The first time I did this I tried to use regular tacky glue and it did not work at all. This requires the use of a glue gun. I keep mine on a low setting with the hopes that I won’t burn myself. I used pliers to hold my little crystals and I put glue on the back of two of them. Then I sandwiched them over the center if the frame. It is important to get it centered or your ornament will look funky.
Add your beads
Since I already had the glue gun out, I thought it might be fun to add a few more pieces of pipe cleaner to the ends of my spoke. I decided that I didn’t like it and I went back and trimmed it off. I’m showing it to you though because it might be someone else’s cup of tea. I think a lot of projects are a process. I know they are for me. One of the great things about beads is that if you don’t like something, generally it is pretty easy to change it. Unless you are me.
Useless
Lesson learned. The funny thing is that about 4 hours before I made this ornament, I was telling my son’s teacher to remind the kids not to do this. How ironic. :p I was happily trimming off the excess pipe cleaners and I accidently went all the way around. If I had been paying attention I would have left a little bit on one of the ends to make a loop. So now I can’t actually hang my pretty little snowflake. I really like this snowflake though. If you are using craft beads to make your snowflake and you can find them…. the large iridescent bicones really look nice. This snowflake has a very simple pattern. 1 bicone, 1 round, 1 paddle bead and then one more bicone. I am going to see if I can pull one of the end beads off and super glue a piece of fishing line. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
