The most beautiful bead EVER

Ellie and I were creating with polymer clay last night and I made a bead that made me exclaim that it is the most beautiful bead EVER!

This is the flipside. Can you guess which one it is (the most beautiful bead EVER)?

Ellie was creating these light switch covers covered with clay.

This is the cane that my "most beautiful bead EVER" was created with.

This is the flipside of the cane. It was created using the Klimt Cane, made using instructions in the book The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques. I made it using my extruder that I pined for so long and finally bought early this summer.

Check out this awesome website Art Lessons for Kids
She has incredible ideas for art classes and I have gotten so much inspiration from her site!

I can't believe it

Family photo at Garden of the Gods (need to lighten it some)

Family photo at Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Family photo at a roadside park in Alamosa, CO, after trekking in the Great Sand Dunes. \

Loved the action in this pic I took of Ellie at church camp (I was a cook for the week she was there)
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Summer is winding down, for my family and I at least. It's been busy. Busier than I expected. Faster too. Our vacation was great. I'm posting a few photos from it here. All of them are on facebook (yes ALL of them) if you're interested in seeing more.Our older two girls will be gone for the next two weeks, home 1.5 days in the middle before leaving again. One of the days/nights they'll be home I will be going to "Mall Night", a Girl Scout overnight event, with Ellie. I can't wait (read this with very sarcastic inflection). It starts at 9 PM and ends at 5 AM. Why did I agree to that???? It will be an experience, that's for sure. Two days after that event I start my new job. I already have butterflies. I'm excited but nervous at the same time.

So many transitions. Not only am I starting a new job, but our oldest is starting her Senior year in high school. Yesterday was her last MAYB tournament. It's not so much that I'll miss the tournaments, but just the ending of things is hard. I've never been good at endings or goodbyes. I'm anticipating more of them, and thinking of sending her off to college in a year is almost more than I can even wrap my mind around. When your kids are little everyone tells you "enjoy these years, they'll be gone in an instant" and when they say it, you think yeah yeah yeah, I'm so busy but I'm enjoying it all I can. And you are. But then all of a sudden, you see that they were right, and the years have flown. And you enjoyed them so much, but you're not ready for them to be over.