We made a quick trip to Fresno this weekend to help my father-in-law celebrate his 70th birthday. I brought all my jewelry stuff and worked every spare moment. OK, I slept until 9:30 on Saturday, so that was a treat!

Here is Papa blowing out his candles.

Steve hamming it up with some yummy cake.

David was on the MOVE the whole time. He cruised from room to room barely holding on except to the walls. So exciting!

It was such a delight to see the boys interacting with Nana and Papa. They are such a blessing to us!
Happy 70th Dad!

I’m grouping items leftover from my last Open House and marking them down. I figure, you have to buy Christmas gifts and this is easy for me! Email me if you’re interested. Also, leave a comment and let me know if there is any specific item you’d like to see in bulk and I’ll try to do another post next week.

1. 5 pairs of earrings for SOLD. A mix of sterling and gold-filled. So fun!!

2. Sterling tag bracelet 7 1/4″ ‘Happy’ and two keyrings. Very sweet! SOLD
3. Three stamped necklaces as pictured. SOLD. What a deal!
4. Two wood pendants with vintage pics sealed on top. One ‘dear friend’ sterling disc with freshwater pearl. All strung on 18″ leather cord. $75
5. One necklace on 24″ gold-filled chain with french pendant, one brass necklace (20″)with vintage tooled pendant. One chunky bracelet with vintage locket. SOLD

Or should I call it a big girl’s necklace? This is sweet Gracie modeling her new pretty. It’s a variation of the Single Tag Necklace, but I used my tiny stamps and adjustable link chain. These are $40. Thanks for the great pic, Linds! Check out Lindsey’s creative blog.

So I wrote up a little blurp for our meeting and thought I’d share it with you. What a blessing he is! And we are so blessed by his teachers, assistants, doctors and therapists!!

November 13, 2007
An update on David…

David turned five on the fourth of July. We had a Sneetches birthday party at the park to celebrate. David is part of our family and loves to play at the park, eat chocolate chip pancakes (soften by lots of syrup, of course) and cruise around the house exploring. We are so pleased with his progress this year.

David walks around by holding onto furniture. He is increasingly confident and will let go for 10-15 seconds at a time. When there is nothing to hold onto, David eases himself on the ground and scoots to the next area he wants to explore. We have been thrilled by increased independence and zest for checking out new situations.

David continues to eat a wide variety of food, mostly blended. He still does not chew consistently, so we avoid giving him anything too tough. He has made wonderful progress with bringing the spoon from his bowl to his mouth. It’s messy, but productive. He needs help returning the spoon to the bowl.

David communicates through body language and vocal noises. We have notice a marked increase in his deliberate communication. For example, when hungry, he will go over to his highchair, stand up and tug on it while fussing. He is also increasingly responsive to his family and friends. When he sees his brother, he lights up and gets very silly.

Speaking of silly, David is a fun loving, silly guy much of time. He loves to be tickled and kissed. He is a great snuggler and an expert mess-maker. His friends at school, church and home are very accepting of David and his differences. They often bring him toys and make sure to give him hugs. He sleeps well at night and naps about an hour each afternoon.

We are concerned by David’s sensitive immune system and dread ‘the sniffles’, which sometimes turn into bronchitis or pneumonia. We consistently give him breathing treatments and try to keep his hands germ-free.

We are so blessed by wonderful teachers, assistants, doctors and therapists. We cannot overstate the positive impact they have had on his life and how grateful we are! We look forward to another year of great strides and silliness.

Warmly, Stephen and Lisa Leonard

We had planned to meet Chrissie and the girls at the zoo Monday, but decided to head down Sunday night to get away and have some focused family time. It was soooo good!

Here are the boys, post-bath and ready for bed with their matching monkey jammies. This is David’s tired face, sucking on his finger and rubbing his head. Of course, he played in his crib for a good two hours after this pic.

We had breakfast at Jacks. Eggs, pancakes and bacon. And they have a great outdoor play area.

It was so fun to see the kids together again and feeling more comfortable. The weather was perfect and the zoo was a blast.

David got very silly on the train ride. Love that toothy grin!

The kids played on the playground. Here is Matty is hatching out of a dinosaur egg.>
If you’ve emailed me in the last 24 hours I’ll get back to you soon. I’ll be returning emails and making jewelry well into the early hours of the morning. Hope you had a good weekend, too!

today i was part of a holiday boutique up in templeton–complete with christmas trees, holiday music and gift wrapping. i’m not sure which was more fun, seeing people get excited about my jewelry or trading goods with other vendors. i made out like a bandit! i’ll try to post some pics later this week of some fun, different pieces.

yesterday i made about 30 necklaces and today after the boutique i hammered out a few more. so far i am staying on top of the orders. tomorrow will be a day to relax and play. do you have anything fun planned?

i traded jewelry for a night’s stay at treebones in big sur. it’s such a fun place where you sleep in yurts (wood framed tents) that are stocked with very comfortable beds and wood floors. it’s sort of like camping in luxury accomodations. perfect for me! steve got home from work and we headed up there last night. we arrived about 7pm and had dinner in the lodge (ribs-yum!) we went back to our room and read. we got a GREAT night’s sleep, rolled out of bed and headed back to the lodge for make-your-own waffles. afterwards we hung out on the deck and took in the ocean. it was a short, but very nice getaway. now, back to work!

Steve and I are getting away for the night. So excited! I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about holiday orders and wanted to give you all an update. I usually get about 40-50 orders a week which is just so exciting! This week I have gotten over 150 orders! Holy MOLY! So I am busy, busy, busy. I want to be able to fill all the orders in a timely manner and make sure all your holiday wishes come true so…
*I’ll be taking custom orders until 12/5. After that, I can’t guarantee you’ll have it before Christmas.
*Some items may go out of stock and be on backorder, so the sooner you place your orders the better!
* I am running about 2 weeks for turn-around time. Please be patient if your order takes a bit longer than ususal.
*Thanks so much for supporting my business. I seriously appreciate you!!!

Before I was a mommy I thought I would never let anyone else hold my baby. Then once the baby came, I craved a break and would gladly give him up to loving, capable arms. The busyness of life creeps in and there always seems to be some place to be. So this is a friendly reminder to myself to take time to listen better, cuddle a little longer, build one more puzzle, give a few more kisses and laugh off little accidents. The time goes quickly, I don’t want to rush it.

for the Chistmas rush. I’ve got quite a few open houses coming up. I thought I’d also share some new things with my blog friends! Email me if you’re interested in something.

Hammered heart with small silver key. So sweet and simple! SOLD

Love well on hammered oval. A little funky and very fun! Sold, but I can make more!

Vintage key with stamped tag ‘family’ and olive green teardrop. Strung on 18″ ball chain. Love this one! SOLD

Always in my heart pendant measures about 1″. Strung with vintage key and crystal bead on handmade brass chain. J-clasps in front. 20″ in length. $56

Vintage brass leaf is strung on 18″ gold-filled chain with olive green swarovski crystal cluster. Such a great vintage feel! SOLD