Do you think I act like a child?

My 10-year-old niece gave me the best compliment I think I've ever received yesterday. She had spent the night with me and we did a couple crafts the next morning together, as we often do. In between crafting I was gettin' all excited cause I had just started this blog and we were counting the number of page views through the day. I was jumping up and down telling her I felt like the girl in “Legally Blonde,” Reese Witherspoon's sorority sister who is trying on wedding dresses, jumping up and down and screaming about how she's getting married and then she trips and falls on the floor.

Anyway, I was taking my niece back to her mother's for her b-ball game in the afternoon and she said, “Of all the people in your family, you are the most like a kid.” By far the best compliment I have ever received in my life.

Here's what we made yesterday morning. For Christmas I bought my niece this small bead and wire set from Joann's. And I bought her a boatload of safety pins and some elastic cording. I think the bead and wire set might have cost me 6 or 8 bucks, I can't remember. So it might have been a total of $12 at the most for the supplies, which is gonna go a long way toward some more crafts down the road.

I had seen a safety pin bracelet at Joann's and figured a 10-year-old could easily do that herself even if I had to help by tying off the ends of the elastic.

The first one she made was for herself. It's multi-colored and she wears it all the time. Yesterday, she said her best friend wanted one in green and clear beads. So that's what we did.

It's a simple thing but so perfect for girls this age. I counted the number of safety pins on the one at the store, which was 60, and used that number for my niece's bracelet. Her friend is smaller so we modified the number from 60 to 50.

All that's required is opening up a safety pin, stringing some beads on it and closing it up. We mixed it up by doing some pins with all clear beads, some with all green, and some with mixed green and clear beads.

Once all the safety pins are beaded, we cut two long pieces of elastic cord and string one through each end of the safety pins.

I'm sure there is a scientific approach to measuring how long the elastic needs to be for a particular person's wrist. If you read my first blog, you have probably figured out that I prefer to wing it whenever possible. My measuring tool is usually my eyeball.

I just take the ends and tie the elastic off as small as I can given the number of safety pins I have on the string. My niece couldn't wait to give it to her friend.

BTW, when my niece told me I'm the one that's most like a kid in our family, my reply was “Do you mean that I'm the one who has the most fun?” And she said, “Yeah. Like, I didn't mean that you act like a child.” Bless her heart, she gets that sarcasm from her mother.