Collecting shells and sea glass is the favorite pastime for many beachgoers, but what should you do with them? I think that mementos from trips are best served in a place where I can see them all year and be reminded of the good times I had on my vacation, so I try and use the items I collect on the beach. Using a little creativity and imagination, I?ve taken finds collected from the beach and created jewelry for myself and given it out to friends and family members as gifts, among other things.
My favorite way to use sea glass and seashells I?ve collected from the beach is to place them inside of a clear glass lamp with a little sand. It?s a nice beach themed accent in my Florida room and guests regularly comment and ask me where I bought it, which makes me smile when I tell them I made it! If you?re looking for something a little simpler, take a fish bowl and fill it with shells and sea glass? this makes a great centerpiece or conversation piece on your dining room table or coffee table. If you have a lot of beach washups to fill the fish bowl with, you can fill it up and use it as a doorstop.
I made unique necklaces last year for all of my friends after I returned from my vacation by using a craft drill to drill small holes in sea glass and stringing them on hemp or leather cord. My friends love the fact that each of them have a necklace I made but that they?re all different.
Next time you?re prowling the beach for art supplies, think about all of the possibilities there are when you take bits of nature and your own artistic instincts and use them to make found objects into works of art, decorative accents, and one of a kind gifts.
If you?re thinking of bypassing the museums on your next vacation because they?d bore your children or prevent them from enjoying themselves, think again: museums can be a unique experience for children, allowing them to see and experience things they never have before, discovering scientific and historical artifacts and art and other aspects of culture. You shouldn?t cancel out the possibility of visiting museums if you have children, especially if you?d like to go; instead, research and planning beforehand can help you find the most kid friendly methods of touring museums.
Before you go the museum, look around the website and decide what areas of the museum you and your children will explore. There may even be suggestions from the museum staff about what aspects of the museum kids typically like best. Talk to your children about the upcoming visit and get them excited about what they have to look forward to! If they?ll be checking out dinosaur exhibits or retro cars, tell them so? you may even look around the website together and ask them if there are any exhibits that they?d like to make sure you fit in to your trip. Planning ahead will prevent children with short attention spans from becoming impatient and losing interest in the museum visit.
While touring the museum with children in tow, be interactive, asking questions and encouraging children to express their opinions and appreciation for the museum exhibits. Don?t forget that many museums have certain rules about touching artwork, architecture, and other specimens, so make sure you brief your children ahead of time and remind them during the visit that they?re expected to behave in a certain way.
Finally, be careful about overwhelming children by staying too long at the museum. A good rule of thumb is to stay 5 minutes for every year of a child?s age. A first grader will probably breeze right through the artwork and be ready for snacktime, while a teenager will likely stay engaged enough for an hour or two to enjoy the visit. Take cues from your children, and when you start noticing them disengaging, begin tapering off your visit; respecting your children?s gradual ascent into artistic and cultural appreciation will help encourage curious, enthusiastic children who will rally the next time a museum visit is mentioned, not run.
As an up-and-coming fashion designer, I like to think that I know a lot about clothes, but until I signed up for a class on western apparel, I really knew very little. Not only is the history of western apparel fascinating, but the complexity and attention to detail that is involved in the making of things like cowboy boots is quite impressive. I had never given much thought to fashion that was authentically American, as everything I always concentrated on usually originated on the runways of Milan or Paris. I think a lot of designers make the mistake of narrowing their view, and then the next thing you know, we're creating trends that are in one day and out the next.
I just love that there is a timeless style that is uniquely American, not to mention the fact that people all over the world love it. When an aspect of fashion has proliferated across the globe over a long period of time, you just know that it is around to stay. Western wear can take several forms--the utilitarian, function-oriented form; the "rhinestone cowboy," fashion-oriented form; and the form in which one or two aspects of western wear show up in another style altogether. This last form is probably the most common these days, especially in more metropolitan areas. There are, however, many people who still sport the full get-up, either because they like it or because they work in a cowboy-esque profession. After all, western apparel was born of necessity, and when it is made for work purposes, you can bet money it will always be strong, durable, and comfortable.
No matter how you choose to wear western apparel--for fashion or function--or even if you choose not to wear it at all, you can't help but have an appreciation for it. Western wear triggers a sense of nostalgia in many people--conjuring up almost idyllic images of life on the range, wide open spaces, campfires, stories of the trail, and the satisfaction of honest, hard work. I believe that having icons in our present day reality that bring about those visuals reminds us to pay homage to where we came from. Not only is western clothing classy AND fashionable, the most wonderful thing about it is that it truly never gets old.