"Girls' Night Out"

or "Trying Something New From Pinterest"

The last time we had our little family reunion, all the girls went to the pottery place together and made something.  That was so much fun, we decided to do a "girls only" activity again.  It was adapted just a bit due to schedule conflicts (so you'll see some guys in the photo), but it was still a lot of fun.  The shopping for supplies was the "girls only" part, then we worked on our projects at home.

Here was the inspiration from Pinterest:

 

It didn't turn out quite like we had expected, but we still had a lot of fun together.  You must make sure that your bead openings are big enough to go around the wire's curves.

 

And then you also need to find the correct kind of wire.  We tried the aluminum wire from the craft store.  It didn't hold its shape extremely well.

So, when I got home I got some steel wire from Home Depot and tried again.  It was still a little floppy, but it works.  So, now we each have an Abacus Bead Advent (or Christmas Countdown, which is the more correct term). 

I'm leaving it on "day 13" because I like the symmetry.  Michelle can fix it when she comes home if she wants.

We also tried one other project - Firefly Christmas Lights:

This one turned out much better.  Just tie pieces of tulle (we got the 6" wide spool and cut them into about 8-9" lengths) on both sides of the light bulb in a string of lights.  Michelle did one and set it on the windowsill of her dorm room.  You'll have to ask her for a picture of the finished project.

Next time we'll have to spend a bit more time planning our activity, but I'm already looking forward to the next one!