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I am sure you are familiar with how it goes: vacation, unpacking, laundry, getting back to routine (which includes doing the laundry), driving kids to sports (which creates more laundry), holiday shopping and cooking/baking while puppy has accidents all over the house thereby creating more, you guessed it, laundry!

You would think we would have clean socks in my house from all that laundry, but alas, yesterday, I had to go out and buy my girls socks because they did not seem to have any that were not in the dirty clothes bin.  Yes, I know, laundry is a lame excuse for not blogging for a couple of weeks.  But, in truth,  I was on vacation over Thanksgiving and needed a little catch up time before getting back to "work".

I know that I disappointed many of you by not providing any guidance on the Black Friday sales.  I was bummed to miss them too, and I spent a lot of time lamenting the fact that I was missing getting up early to fight crazy crowds for overhyped deals as I sipped my cocktail at noon on a beach in the Bahamas...

But never fear, I am back to the frigid cold and ready to help you with your winter wardrobe and holiday shopping.

Today, I am blogging about some great handmade bracelets that make great gifts and also a terrific accessory for yourself.  Last week, I was at Shoe Fly (in Highland Park, Illinois) checking out snow boots (future post) in anticipation of the snow we had this week.  At Shoe Fly, some handmade bracelets by Strung on Hope caught my eye.  As fate would have it, I was fortunate enough to meet the co-owners of Strung on Hope selling bracelets at my school district Winter Boutique this past Saturday.  I saw the full selection of their bracelets, and they are awesome!!!

Here are the two I selected, but it was a hard decision, and I will definitely be back for more.

As you can see, I went with a skull and a Buddha.  You know me, I am finally embracing that skull trend.

The co-owners and designers of Strung on Hope are Sydney and Drew, two best friends from a local high school.  Not only are they both very likable and talented individuals, but the premise of their business is to give 10% of their profit to a different cancer organization each month.  How great is that? Their mission statement is "fighting cancer one bead at a time."  You are not only buying a beautiful piece of jewelry from two young entrepreneurs, but you are donating to a worthwhile cause at the same time.

I wish I had snapped some pictures of their amazing bracelets at the boutique, but you can check out their website (strungonhope.com) where you can view the bracelets and purchase online as well.  They are very reasonably priced from about $14.00 to $36.00.  You can wear them individually, with other pieces, or stacked in groups.  I like two or three stacked together, and Sydney and Drew were very helpful color coordinating the bracelets together.

You can also find Strung on Hope on Facebook, Instagram, Wanelo and Pinterest.