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Courtney Cox's daughter Coco Arquette in Sentimental Silver

This past week we saw Courtney Cox's daughter Coco Arquette wearing her Sentimental Silver Sparkle Dainty Daisy personalized necklace not once, but twice!

We also received a mention on Celebrity Baby Scoop. Always a nice way to start the week!

I love that little necklace - it's the one I make for most of my daughter's friends for birthday gifts. For Christmas I made one for each girl in her dance class, but added a ballet slipper charm and a small freshwater pearl charm to it (their group is referred to as the Pearls). It's just such a sweet necklace, and it's so fun to see so many of Bella's friends wearing it.

And not just for girls, I have lots of moms, grandmas and a few aunts who wear it as well!

Catching Up

Boy, it's been a while since I've blogged! The holidays are always a whirlwind, so it's time to get caught up!

Unfortunately our holiday season started on a very sad note. We said good-bye to our 15 year old shih-tzu, Elliott, who crossed over the rainbow bridge on December 3rd. While we knew the day was coming, but it certainly doesn't make it any easier when it actually arrives. I remember adopting him when he was three months old, from a shih-tzu rescue organization (he was left at the pound when he was a few days old, with his mom and sister). He was always so amusing and such a big part of our life. We always referred to him as our "little boy trapped in fur" - he always seemed to be so much more then just a dog. He loved squeaky stuffed animals and eating Frosty's from Wendy's. When he ran he would bounce, and loved a good game of tug-of-war. He was SO good when we had Bella, which could not have been easy after ten years of a child-free home. He was also amazingly patient with Milo, the cocker spaniel who joined our family three years ago. I miss Elliott every day, and still think I hear him barking sometimes (or snoring at night - many nights my poor husband got a shove to the shoulder to stop snoring, when it was really Elliott).

So that certainly wasn't the best way to start off the holidays. On the other hand the holidays did provide us with lots of distractions, which was probably really helpful. Bella, who you would never know even had a broken ankle, had two really fun holiday dance performances this December. One was at a tree lighting ceremony at a hospital, and the other was at a nursing home. I really like having these sort of peformances, compared to the competitions. I feel that it's really important for Bella to learn about giving back to her community, and I think these were a nice example of that for her. We talked quite a bit prior to the nursing home show, about what exactly a nursing home is, and how it is really special for the residents to have a show like this. On our way out one resident in a wheelchair stopped Bella to tell her thank you for coming and dancing, and that it really made her happy to see them. Bella really lit up, and I think that quick conversation with that sweet woman really made the "giving back" aspect tangible to Bella. She seemed to feel very proud that her dancing made this person happy. That to me is one of the most important things she can get out of dance.

Every December I experience quite a bit of mommy guilt for being SO busy with work. There are so many orders to be made, and I want to accodate everyone and make sure that all of the orders are out in plenty of time for gift giving. So this year I had planned a trip for us to Disneyland, right after my holiday shipping deadline. We have never visited Disneyland at Christmas time, and it was magical. Just beautiful. Unfortunately it was also cold and raining. No, raining is not the right word. POURING! I felt like we were at Disneyworld, in a hurricane! We had to wear rainboots, two-three jackets each, ponchos and whatever other gear we could get our hands on. Being a Phoenix native, I'm ill equipped for that weather!

But we solidered on, and had a blast. Bella met every character she wanted to meet, and was especially enchanted with Alice (from Wonderland!). There are very few moments in life where Bella is speechless, but Disney manages to create many of those moments! Between meeting the princesses, seeing the castle lit up with icicles and experincing some Disney show, for her I think it truly was the happiest place on earth. Sometimes you just wish you could freeze those moments, and hold on to them forever!

We had a wonderful Christmas, and spent lots of time with our family. I

did lots of baking, soemthing I do every year for Christmas. I find something really sentimental about baking with the recipes my grandmothers used when I was a child, so it's a tradition I always find a way to make time for. Luckily Rick had unused vacation time to burn up, so he was home for the better part of two weeks.

Santa brought Bella a pink guitar - which was a hit. Rick's played guitar almost all his life, and Bella is always trying to play his, but they are just too big for her little hands. Well now she has one of her very own, her size, her color! Santa should have probably passed on the included microphone, as she prefers making feedback sounds to singing. My ears may never be the same!

We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve - just how we like it. We enjoyed a nice dinner with my parents, followed by our first attempt at making fondue at home. It was great and I think everyone had a good time with it. We picked up a little fondue pot at Target, and it worked like a charm - very easy! I think we'll give cheese a try next time. We LOVE LOVE LOVE The Melting Pot, and while this certainly isn't the same, it is a nice little something to tie us over between our visits once or twice a year.

I think that covers most of what we've been up to! I hope that everyone has a healthy and happy 2009!!!!

Holidays here we come...

There's no denying it, the holidays are here! It looks like our holiday ordering deadline will be December 5th with Priority Shipping. Keep in mind this date is to get your order to you before December 24th. If you have an order you need to ship to someone else you receive it, you'll want to order a bit earlier, or have the order shipped directly to it's recipient.

I was recently invited by Distinctive Assets (who are know for their amazing celebrity gift bags for events such as the GRAMMYs) to make personalized necklaces for their "Babes In Toyland" holiday gift bags. I made personalized necklaces for Brooke Shields, Courtney Cox, Debra Messing, Gwen Stefani, Heidi Klum, Jennifer Garner, Marcia Cross, Nicole Ritchie, Naomi Watts, Salma Hayek, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tori Spelling and Victoria Beckham, among others.

It was a really fun project to work on, and Distinctive Assets has been AMAZING to work with. A top notch group of people.

Well it's time to sand some silver, so off I go! :)

Sentimental Silver in Cosmogirl's Holiday GIft Guide

We are very excited to be included in CosmoGirl's Holiday Gift Guide! Sentimental Silver's Sparkle Petite Pendants were selected as one of CosmoGirl's picks for Gift Ideas For Your Sister.

As seen in the

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Happy Veteran's Day

Just thought I'd share a picture that Bella drew for my Dad. She never ceases to amaze me with her drawings. :) Not sure why my scanner cut the picture off, but you can get the idea.

Halloween is Done

It really seems like Halloween was a month long celebration around here. That might be because I start decorating for it insanely early, but it has always been one of my favorite holidays ever since I was a little girl, and Bella seems to feel the same way. We had a really fun few weeks. We didn't get many trick or treaters last night (I have an insane amount of candy left), but we had a good time. We visited both of my parent's houses, then came home and took turns taking Bella trick or treating. We probably only went to a dozen houses, as we spent time visiting with our neighbors. Bella hasn't quite hit the age where she wants to power trick or treat and hit 100 houses, though I'm sure that time will come. Here are some pictures from our night...

Making a Halloween Cake...



Pumpkin Carving...

Princess Bella (who's actually dressed up as Barbie from Barbie & The Diamond Castle)

With her Great Grandparents

With the neighbors...

With Uncle Jordan...

Handing out candy before calling it a night...

Boot free trick or treating...

Bella was able to come out of her boot yesterday. I'm happy, but at the same time so very nervous. Now she has this fragile little ankle with just a tiny brace on it, and is doing who knows what at school. I guess that's a mom's job, to worry. :) She was SOOO happy this morning to hop on a swing when she got to school - I think swinging is her favorite thing on the playground, and not being able to do it has probably been her biggest complaint with the broken ankle. So she was one happy kid this morning.

She's not discharged from her doctor yet, we go back in two more weeks for a final xray, and if that looks good that she can return to gymnastics and dance completely (something I know she's itching to do). I know we'll have to do follow up xrays every few months for the next few years to monitor the growth plate, but hopefully everything will be just fine.

We had quite a bit of Halloween fun around here this past weekend - we hosted a Halloween party for her friends from her dance group and on Sunday we took part in the Trunk or Treat hosted by her former preschool. I think she enjoys the trunk or treat more then the real trick or treating, and I think I do as well. It just has more of a small town community feeling. I think it's always a highlight for all of us.

A few pictures of the weekend fun... Her good buddy Kevin had this adorable shark costume from Pottery Barn. Having just caught an old episode of Saturday Night Live, I could not get the whole Land Shark skit out of my head.

Slow Saturday

We are doing a whole lot of nothing today, which is a nice change from our usually very busy Saturdays. We had a very unexpected visitor this morning...

Now, for most people a frog is probably not all that exciting. But I have literally not seen a frog in Phoenix since I was about eight years old on my grandparents farm. No idea where he came from, but we had Rick fish him out and set him free (Bella's wish to keep him as a pet was flatly ignored). He was here long enough for her to name him Hoppy (original, I know LOL).

It remains a challenge to keep Bella entertained while she's stuck in her boot, but this afternoon dress up seems to be keeping her somewhat amused. She's been a rock star, a geisha, and now a witch. I honestly don't even recall buying a witches costume, but I think it was probably a post Halloween item...



I must say the green (Jalepeno Pepper by Benjamin Moore) we painted our living room works quite well with Halloween decor and I think will be pretty fun with Christmas as well (and no, I did not pick the color just for holiday decorating, and I think Rick actually picked it). I have to give him decorating props on the color, because a few months after he picked it, it showed up as one of Pottery Barn's new colors. Who knew he had such a design vision? :)

Catching Up

Bella has been doing really well with her boot. Maybe even too well, she's constantly jumping, hopping, skipping and leaping on it, and pretty much completely stressing her parents out. I'm happy she's not in any pain, but just worry that she won't heal correctly. But, we went in for xrays on Thursday, and everything looked good. She may be out of the boot by Halloween. We go back on the 27th, and they will xray and decide then.

In the meantime we've been trying to keep her busy. If I ever thought that Bella doing eight hours of dance and gymnastics a week was too much for her, I was wrong. She has SO much energy and need to move, and it's amazing how not being able to get that energy out has affected her behavior in general. We've had quite the challenging and defiant week around here. Sigh...

Her gymnastics coach suggested she come in on Thursday for a modified work out, and it went very well, and it was obvious that she was so happy to be there. On Friday, her former dance teacher invited her to come 'assist' her with two classes. She had such a blast, and it was a nice way to break up a day off from school. I have to admit it made me a little sad to watch the little two year old ballerinas dancing in that room, because it seems like Bella was their size only yesterday.

Our friends and family have been really awesome at trying to cheer Bella up and come up with things for her to do. Our dear friends the Johnson Family sent over the most amazing package filled with a number of things for her to do. Markers, coloring books, a movie and even a build a bear that she had a great time putting together with Rick.

Tomorrow she's back at school, and I can play catch up from her "fall break". It's really amazing how many breaks the schools have. I think she still has three early dismissal days and another day off this month. Normally it would be great, as the weather is faublous (yippie - fall is HERE!) but with the boot we are limited in what we can do. So we've been doing a LOT of fall arts and crafts and Bella has logged probably more time then she should on starfall.com. But we are hopefully halfway through her time in the boot. :) And hey, it beats a cast, so I really can't complain.

Bella and her boot...

She's such a trooper

I've said it before and I'll say it again - that kid of mine is such a trooper.

Fortunately Bella's ankle fracture is what is known as a Salter Harris I fracture. This is extremely good news. The radiologist's report said she had a probable Salter I/Salter III fracture. Salter III's often require surgery, so it was a huge relief to rule that out. Because the fracture is in the growth plate, we will have to monitor it with xrays a few times a year, for a few years. Hopefully there will not be any issues, and her growth will continue as normal. I'm trying not to worry about the long term issues too much, as I will probably drive myself crazy if I do.

Another blessing is that she was not put in a cast, but in a boot. It can only be removed for bathing, but somehow it just seems so much better then a cast. She was able to walk on it right away, and I think she's only complained about it once all day. She did so well that we are letting her return to school tomorrow. I'm nervous about it - because she is not letting the boot slow her down at all, and she probably should take it easy, just a little bit. I've talked to the nurse and her teacher, and I think she'll do fine. I hope that kids are kind to her and nobody makes her feel self concious about it. While she's very tough and outgoing, she's also very sensitive. No idea right now how long she'll have to wear the boot for, we return in a week for them to xray it, and hopefully will have a better idea at that time.

The sense of relief is tremendous. It could have been so much worse. It's been an adrenaline filled few days - in a matter of 48 hours we had to deal with a possible concussion and a broken ankle. I'd like to take the rest of the week off from injuries pretty please! We are trying to come up with some alternate activities for her for the next month - she has every bit as much energy as usual, which is a lot. :)