The Pregnant Driftwood Belly Dancer! :) PDX to SFO Roadtrippin’

If I’m a stone’s throw to the ocean, you’re gonna be hard-pressed keeping me from going out to greet it! 🙂

Such was the case in Summer ’12, when we finally got to visit my sis and bro-in-law’s cabin on the Northern Oregon Coast!
We wanted to drive home to SFO down the 101 and, luckily, the Beija Flor (Hummingbird) Cabin was available for Dano and I to enjoy a beautiful little respite, with the doggies, before our little addition arrived in Fall. Thanks Sissy & Bro(y)-in-Law! 😉

We arrived later in the evening than expected… so, after a lovely night of GF grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup and a Monopoly game that carried on too long, and therefore ended before a ‘true’ winner was declared… we went to sleep, me giddy about the chance to see a new beach the next morning!

Next Morning :
Despite a bit of a cloudy day,
getting a later start (tide would be starting to come back up),
having a wee bit of a ‘hike’ to get to the rocky beach,
two doggies in tow,
AND me being almost 7mths pregnant…
I MADE Dano take me to the beach!! hee hee 😉

Upon stepping foot on any beach, I am consumed by the powerful energy and love of the waves… the feeling I get in my chest, when at the ocean’s side, is simply amazing! So, I try to bring home all that love and energy with me in little treasures I find along the way… treasures that can be made into jewelry.

I’m a Rock and Shell kinda’ girl… though I do like the look of driftwood, I usually feel that’s it’s  ‘too big’ for my design style.
Surprisingly, once I stepped off the trail onto Cove Beach, I spotted a sweet little piece of driftwood…
‘Why not just bring it back to the cabin and see what it can be!?’  is what I told myself as I put it in my pocket… that was the only piece of driftwood that spoke to me on our walk!

Over an absolutely delicious cup of  Tazo Earl Grey and Amy’s GF Shortbread Cookies, I began to create… I wanted to leave a few gifts for the cabin… a few silver-wrapped beach finds! I started by finishing off a beach stone in silver and Swarovski Crystals. Then focused my attention on the driftwood, turning it in my hands, I couldn’t come up with a ‘vision’ for it… so I just set out with my 18Gauge Square Argentium Silver wire and started wrapping and twisting and turning and adding beads… voila’, All Done!

Then… THEN… I saw it!
That beautiful, sole driftwood that spoke to me on our walk… had been transformed… in my mama-to-be hands…
~ into a stunning little Pregnant Belly Dancer!

I was delighted to see this and was antsy for Dano to wake up from his nap, so I could, also, dance around and share!
Sweetly, I held this lovely little piece that I’d created in my hands just as I held the lovely little being in my belly that Dano and I would meet in a few short months!

It was SOOOOOO difficult for me to leave this beauty in the cabin…
Though, I knew this was a perfect home for it…
As the cabin’s caretaker, my sister, had her own little bundle of love, my sweet niece, born just a few months before our own love!

Wow! What a wonderful life! So much beauty and wonderfully, non-random coincidences! 😉

THANKS for Reading!
E’lan
&
Heylani Jewelry

Happy Birthday to me!! It’s a big one!! We’ve been here 2Yrs!!

We’ve lived here Two Years already…

Two Years!!!

Two Years ago… to think that I was so very sad when we got here… now I’m amazed how my life has changed!

Wow! I am thrilled to be stepping into my 40’s… WHOA… Four Oh!!!
40, That’s me!
Annnndddd…
New Mommy!

In two years, we’ve become parents to the sweetest little babe… a complete doll!

WOW! Lots and Lots to post… but with a babe on my hip, I run out of time and energy! 🙂

I do have some great local posts to make… namely, What and Where did I go for my 40th!
AND some great stuff about being a Mama in the Bay Area… that is all on the way! 😉

…
I promise!! 😉

In the meantime… I, finally, completed AND received Official Selection at Portland Oregon Women’s Film Fest for my Animated Short!
As my gift to you, my readers, for my 40th BDay… Please Enjoy! 🙂

“Fire in the Belly”
(and as posted above)

To grow with Baby! A unique gift for niece-y!

Literally… the minute I heard from my sister that she was having a baby… my Crafty Auntie hat went on!! 🙂

She is the first grandbaby and my first niece from one of my siblings… she is VERY loved!

I had many ideas… and few far-fetched to pull together in time and few ripe for the making!

The first thing I did, when my sis hit 12wks pregnant, was make a ‘start’ from my beautiful Red-Tipped Jade plant.
I took care of this little start as I knew its ultimate life was to be in my niece’s nursury and grow with her!

That was kinda’ the easy part… the difficult part was finding  just the right planter for this precious little bud.
I looked everywhere, in-person and on-line… I found a few good pieces…
then it hit me, one of my sis’s good friends is a potter!

‘Hey!’ I thought… ‘I’ve got to be in touch with her and see what she thinks about making a custom pot for the plant!’
As luck would have it… she was way into the idea!
We collaborated on the colors and theme surrounding the nursury… it turned out lovely!

Check out Sharon’s Pottery at : www.sharongreenwood.com

We decided on a white pot, with an orange interior, and a wee pink heart!
I then purchased a bunch of Fine Point Sharpies in coordinating colors and we had Baby Shower attendees and Family write messages to the little girl on the pot itself!

It was a lovely and fun gift idea! My sister and bro-in-law really enjoyed it!
They wrote their messages to baby directly on the heart itself… I love that!

Stay tuned for the other Cool-As Creative gift I made/gave them! 🙂

Enjoy the pics!

Science is Fun AND Cute!! :) Quantum Levitation!!

Since 5th grade, my hubby has wanted to do an experiment with superconductors.  He’d seen something about them on TV at that time and wanted to see the effects of using them in person. How fun to get to finally achieve this goal… and I got to help support him with it!

Over the course of a few years Dano has accumulated the required items for this Superconductor Levitation experiment!

He picked up most items on eBay and on-line!
Superconductor discs,  really Strong magnets, Plastic tongs, a Container (we now know, styrofoam would be best), Protective eyewear and cryo-clothing…
PLUS, the expensive item, a Nitrogen Dewar!

Lastly, we needed Nitrogen, which we found out was not as spendy as we expected!
Luckily, we live within less than a mile of an AirGas facility where we can purchase nitrogen… before we were close to an hour away from such a facility… so we just never jump in the car with our Dewar to go procure some Nitrogen!

This is a REALLY fun experiment… IF you want to try it at home please be very safe!!

Without much further ado… Please enjoy our little video experiement :

Quantum Levitation & Superconductor experiments!