Antonia's Adornment number two.

I finished my mom's Antonia's Adornment.

Antonia's Adornment.

This piece is from Cynthia Rutledge's latest workshop, which she calls Antonia's Adornment. She gives a little history about the inspiration behind the piece as well:

The year was 1770. The Archduchess of Austria, Maria Antonia, stepped off of the royal barge to begin her new life in France. Her new name from this day forward will be Marie Antoinette.

Most people today remember Marie Antoinette’s demise, but otherwise know very little about her. For instance, she never said, “If they have no bread, then let them eat cake”. That remark was by another Queen of France, the wife of Louis XIV, not Louis XVI. A 100-year difference in time!

Known to family and friends as “Antonia”, she was renowned at court for her marvelous taste in clothing, adornments and decorating. She raised the bar of style to a new level, from jewel-encrusted garments, to beautiful garden designs. In a time when the Nobility and Gentry of Europe vied with each other for every luxury and extravagance, the Court Jewelers and Embroiderer’s were kept busy with the desires of the wealthy.

Antonia’s Adornment is reminiscent of the glorious gem encrusted trims that were handmade to adorn men’s waistcoats, frock coats and ladies gowns.

Most of the time I purchase kits from Cynthia because we have similar tastes in color palettes. I think the colors in this particular kit are perfect for the time period.

It was great fun to work on. I'm trying to decide if I want to do another one in my own colors. The kit was just for the bracelet, but I had enough materials left over to create a pair of earrings.

My mom and my cousin Amy both made this also. I'll try to get photos of theirs to share. They both have different colors than mine. My mom also bought a kit in other colors and I'm working on that one right now for her.

Coming up daisies.

I love daisies. They're so fresh and summery.

I found these wonderful earrings in the Clementine shop on Etsy and snatched them right up. I really like the combination of sterling with a copper flower in these.

In that same vein, a while ago I bought a pair of earrings from Metal Garden Factory that also have a combination of sterling and copper.

Both of these artists were so nice and very talented. Check out their shops when you have some time.

Amulet bag.

This is a piece from my mom's collection. My cousin Amy beaded this piece from a pattern. Sorry, I don't know who the artist is behind the design. I can probably find out if you would like to know (Mom, if you know, please leave a comment.).

The piece is done in peyote stitch. The two panels were sewn together to create an amulet bag. As you can see, Amy also did a fair amount of work on the strap.

Each panel is about the size of the My Sweet Rose piece I showed you earlier.

It's a large piece and a lot of work went into it. It's very lovely and I was sad to give it back to my mom when I was finished taking pictures of it.

Don't you think she should let me keep it?

Sometimes my husband is crazy.

Mark is a marathon runner, which is fantastic. He's in shape and loves to run and I am so proud of him. But sometimes, he signs himself up for things that are a little...er, extreme. Like doing adventure races that involve finding his way around in a forest preserve at night (this one worries me because sometimes he can't find his car in a parking lot during the day!) or signing up for the Muddy Buddy.

The Muddy Buddy is an obstacle course type of race that takes place on a huge farm and involves lots and lots of mud. This year's race was this past Sunday. After the thunderstorm we had Saturday night, it was even muddier than planned.

One of the reasons my nephew spent the night on Saturday was because N. and J. were supposed to run in the kid's Muddy Buddy race. Unfortunately, by the time we had everything sorted out, the race was full.

I thought I'd share a few pictures of N. in last year's Muddy Buddy race so you can see what it's like. This is the very end of the course; a huge mud pit.

The small kids are allowed to stand and lift up the ropes, but when the adults finish their race in this mud pit they have to lay down on their stomachs and wriggle under the ropes. I've heard stories of onlookers throwing handfuls of mud at participants who didn't get on their stomachs in the mud pit. That's worrisome.

Racing for the finish line. Notice how muddy the track is.

Proud of his medal. Daddy looked pretty proud, too. I know he was disappointed that N. couldn't run in it this year.

This year Mark again did the race with his friend Michael. I think I forgot to mention that the race is done by a two-person team.

Mark is on the right. I don't know who that fella in the middle is.

Another sort of cupcake.

Baking cupcakes this weekend reminded me of my Kim Miles cupcake bead/charm/pendant. The photo below is Kim's photo that was on her website when I purchased it.

She makes all sorts of fun, charming cupcake beads. I liked that this one was sort of plain with a bit of sparkle. Check out her site for her latest work; she's making some really fabulous heart beads and Troll Bracelet beads lately. I believe her next bead sale day is tomorrow, Tuesday.

Weekend fun.

This weekend my nephew J. stayed overnight. J. and N. are the same age and have a great time when they're together.

It was hot out, so they spent most of Saturday outside.

They made projects with Floam. It was squishy and weird feeling. It dries hard, so you can cover things with or just make pictures. The two of them asked me to videotape them working on their projects and they pretended they were doing a craft television show.

They did a lot of "underwater swimming."

And generally acting silly.

As for me, I feel like all I did was cook and bake! They asked for chocolate cupcakes and I went all out and made them from scratch. I think I did it because Andrea told me about her homemade cupcakes she made for her daughter's birthday party and they sounded so good I had to make some!

I made the recipe that was on the Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa can. I made the Grand Fudge Cake recipe into cupcakes. Oh, was that batter ever delicious! I also used the frosting recipe on the can. The cupcakes were fantastic.

This morning we caught some frogs and found a painted turtle in our front yard that we brought over to the wetlands. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the turtle! I picked him up to show the boys and he was not happy. He hissed when Mark picked him up to walk him over to the pond! I didn't know turtles could hiss.

Later when Mark, N., and I were on our way to dinner, we saw a snapping turtle in the grassy area on the side of the road! It was fairly large. We turned around and drove a little closer to get a better look, but this time I opted not to pick the turtle up (we all stayed in the car). I like having all my fingers.

Beaded button.

This is from a Cynthia Rutledge class I took a year or two ago. The class was for making beaded buttons. I bought one of her kits and there were several buttons in it. This is the only one I've made!

I like how you can see the iridescent colors of the glass button in this photo. I have no idea what to do with this button, so for now it's just a decoration in my house. I had grand plans of making all sorts of beaded buttons. That hasn't exactly worked out. I think there are still four or five in the kit waiting to be made.

A few more things from Minnesota.

One of the stores I really wanted to visit was Art & Architecture, an architectural antique store. It was fun to poke around in there. I found this awesome lampshade that is flat on top...

... so I can flip it over and display it as a bowl.

I found this felt toadstool at Danish Bohemia by Lisbet Franca, a very cute store in St. Paul. The toadstool itself is by Én Gry & Sif.

Sort of goes along with my ceramic toadstools from Serendipity Farm in Waterford, WI that I have outside my front door.

Our thoughts are with those affected by the collapsed bridge in Minneapolis. Luckily my friend Andrea and her family were all safe and sound at home when it happened.

Minnesota.

While I was in Minnesota, Andrea and I did a lot of chatting, shopping, and eating out. I love looking at little independent shops in new cities and Andrea had lots of them lined up.

One of the stores we visited was the The Red Balloon Bookshop, which is a wonderful children's book store. We were both sad to learn we had just missed author Kate DiCamillo; however, we both purchased signed copies of her book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

We also visited several antique stores. At one of them I found this wonderful silver ring box with a crown on it. I love crowns. Maybe it's because of all the historical fiction I read.

At Patina I found the cutest owl magnets! And a very sweet cherry wallet.

I was also able to squeeze in a little bead shopping! We went to The Bead Monkey, which is a really nice bead shop in St. Paul. I bought two lampwork beads made by Spotted Moon Designs.

On my last night there we ate at Corner Table. It was so good. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Minneapolis. Other great places we ate were Maverick's, Muffuletta, and Cupcake. We also drank a whole lot of iced tea from Dunn Bros.

I have a few more things to show you in my next post.