Jewelry for Support

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I knew that there would be many parts of my journey I would need to travel alone.

I remembered that some of my friends had prepared for the birth of their babies with a Blessingway. One part of the Blessingway was for each participant to bring along a bead for the mother to be. The beads would then be strung together to make a very special necklace or bracelet for her to wear.

I shared my desire for something similar to my sister. She collected all the beads for me and strung them together. The bracelet is made up of beads from my family members. The necklace is from friends.

The bracelet in particular became a regular part of what I wore, especially when I went to appointments and even for one of my surgeries. I felt very well supported and it was a nice reminder of that support.

Breast Cancer Support Bracelet

Breast Cancer jewelry

In December 2006, I was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. There are so many, many pink ribbon items out there. Before I had my first surgery, I made a some little pink ribbon dangles for friends and family to think of me.

It was fun and easier than I expected to make jewelry. I made a bunch of different earrings during this time and donated some for sale to the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester.

Birthday Chair Cover

I am not always together when school is ending. So many moms have carefully chosen or created gifts for their teachers. I am generally not one of those moms. The end of the year seems so crazy.

One year I asked the teacher what she might need for her classroom and offered my sewing talents to her. She did say that often they do have more than one birthday to celebrate on a given day and that she only had one special birthday chair cover.

That sounded like a fun project! But the cover she already had, had "Happy Birthday" spelled out in big block letters. I wasn't really interested in cutting many tiny letters, so I thought of other options. Back to JoAnns and I found some cute birthday themed fabric: balloons, candles, and confetti! I wondered how I could incorporate all the neat fabrics. I decided on a quilt like idea. Came together perfectly! I liked it so much, I made one for my family too. What a fun tradition!

Photo Thank You Notes for 2 year old birthday

I always encourage my children to participate in doing thank you notes. Once I had my son paint with watercolors and then once dry, I cut the page into quarters and glued them onto notecards. On the back, I gave him credit with his age.

When my daughter turned two, she received so many lovely gifts and she was more than happy to play with each one for a quick photo. I printed out the pictures, glued them onto card stock and used a ducky rubber stamp on each card to go with our themed ducky party.

I hoped our guests enjoyed seeing their nice gifts again and being thoroughly enjoyed!

Princess and King Portraits

My nieces' birthdays were in the fall and new princess dresses had been requested. One was to be Cinderella and one was Aurora. They were also getting new American Girl Dolls.

My daughter was going to get an American Girl Bitty Baby for Christmas, also from the same grandma.

Grandma's birthday was coming up in March. I thought a cousin portrait would be a fine present and maybe a themed portrait would make it extra fun. And wouldn't it be neat if the dolls could match too?!

I found a great company called My Dress Up Trunk who makes princess dresses for girls, adults and dolls! Perfect! My daughter had received a princess outfit for her doll at Christmas. It was purple. I found a dress for her that matched pretty well at My Dress Up Trunk.

Of course a matching Cinderella dress was easy to find there as well. Aurora was proving to be difficult.

Maybe I could make a doll dress. I studied the picture of Aurora and took a trip to JoAnns. I found satin, roses, and trim that I thought would make the perfect dress. Creating the pattern was a fun challenge and I was very excited about the finished product.

We did get together for a cousin portrait. We had four smiling children, three dolls in matching dresses with their little mommies and a King dressed in velveteen.