A friend of my husband’s  Melissa Ringler is a blacksmith.  She made  my beautiful “leaf” bracelet that I got from the Chickens on Mother’s Day.  We left the Chickens with my mom for a couple of hours and went to Melissa’s blacksmith shop Magic Metals to get my bracelet finished.   It had not been sealed and the colors had not been brought out in the metal yet.  When I first saw some of Melissa’s work I thought she added the colors to the metal with a varnish, I was surprised to find out that the colors already existed in the metal and all she does is heat it up with a propane torch to bring them out.  The different colors are determined by how long you expose it to the heat. She asked if I wanted blues or if I wanted more purples and browns. I, of course, asked for Purple for Maddie.

The bracelet turned out beautiful it’s a pretty wheat color and yes there is some purple in there too. We made the following video to show the process of her finishing it up. It was fascinating to watch her work.  I was even more surprised when she told me that I was going to make an arrow head.  We took a video of that too. Tune in later for Part 2 my first blacksmith lesson.

If you would like more information on Magic Metals please click on the following link Magic Metals LTD.

I had the most wonderful Mother’s Day.  My husband and my Chickens did a really good job.

On Saturday I was hopelessly trying to pump my 3 year old for information on my Mother’s Day  present…  I  would ask him, “What did you get mommy?” He kept  saying ” A leaf”.  I was thinking ok this should be interesting.  He is not above picking up a stick or a leaf and saying, “Mommy here is a present for you.” So I did not know what to expect a box of leaves? He is after all three, but Daddy was involved so I need not worry. Besides any mommy would be thankful for a box of leaves from their three year old right?

We were frantically getting ready for church we are always running late and Ben said he had a surprise for me.  He opened up one side of a wardrobe we have and said I have door number one. He had the cutest card from Mason and Kyra it said that I got to go shopping and I could pick out one bracelet and one necklace.

Then he opened door number two and had laid out some of the prettiest necklaces and bracelets.  He said I got to pick one bracelet and one necklace and as you can see they are leaves. Thank you Chicken!

These are the two that I picked. They are handmade by a local artist who is actually a women blacksmith Magic Metals LTD.