Mommy, why are you..

all dressed up?

So I have to say that it was a bit of a shock when my children wouldn't stop commenting/noticing that I put on a bit of make up, jewelry and some high heels.

It was like Santa Claus had landed on the drive way.

Or the Apple fairy put ipads under everyone's pillow.

But no, it was just little old me slightly dressed up for a tea party.  I mean really, no need to stop traffic :)

Yes, this is my second tea party of the week, but in my world there is never to much tea or little finger sandwiches or scones or great conversation.

And all of the above were had in spades.

I had the pleasure of taking tea at The Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano.  It is on the cutest street, with some quaint shops and lots of atmosphere.

Entry way

 

Walk to the front door

 We sat on the front porch and enjoyed a view over Los Rios Street.  It was very charming.

The gang

The food was ok, nothing really special.  Well I take that back, the coconut pecan cake was special - that's what I got for dessert.  Unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of it because I had to get it to go.  Why you ask?

current scone with jam and cream

finger sandwiches and fruit

Because the darn school let the kids out early.

Which is why I ended up riding my bike to school pick up in heels, make up and jewelry.

Which in turn led to the "Mommy, why are you all dressed up?" questions -

and why I don't have a picture of the luscious Coconut Pecan Cake :)

Happy Wednesday!

Square peg..

..in a round hole.

In Adventure Maidens, Daughter and I frequently earn beads for attending events.

Problem is that our necklaces are strung on plastic lacing, which is pretty thick, and most of the pretty beads have very small holes.

Enter my adventure maiden bead adaptor :)

Pink sparkly bead that Daughter selected

The secret weapon in my arsonel is a head pin. They sell head pins at both Michaels and Joanne's in the beading section. Head pins come in different lengths and some also have a loop at the end for adding a dangling bead.

head pins, a cheap solution

The bead I am using here has a horizontal hole, so I just bent the head pin so that the bead would hang down.

Head pin inserted through hole

bent head pin

Once I have the head pin in I added some additional beads to fancy it up.

These particular beads are for our Mother-Daughter Tea Party.

fancy beads in place

Once the bead is complete, I use a pair of pliers to twist up the extra length on the head pin and turn it into a loop. I'm sure that there are nicer ways of doing this, but when you are making 30 of them, corners will be cut :)

bending the head pin to create a loop

loop close up, not too bad

finished bead

The completed beads along with a purchased patch is all ready for our tea party.

Mmmmm, scones, tea, little sandwiches, a flower headdress and a wand... Can anything be more fun?