Whenever I travel, I like to 1. explore a new city’s independent coffee shops and 2. keep my hands busy creating.

This week my family and I have been in Spokane, Washington. While here, we discovered a fun shop downtown the kids love called Boo-Radleys.

It’s next door neighbor Atticus Finch is equally as cool and has a great cafe where we planted ourselves for a bit. (LOVE the To Kill a Mocking Bird theme!)

While the kids read their books, I pulled out some African Christmas beads and elastic thread I bought a few years ago in Seattle.

I have made several African Christmas Bead Necklace/bracelets as gifts in the past and they seem to be well received. (My sister in law was wearing hers from a few years ago when we left Spokane!)

They are really easy to make! All I do is cut a piece of Elastic Thread necklace length and tie a loose knot at the end to keep the beads from rolling off. I then thread as many beads as I want for my necklace/bracelet. When I have threaded all the beads, I untie the loose knot at one end and tie the two elastic threads together securing with several knots. This thread is slick and the knots like to come undone. To prevent this, I cut the threads close to the knots then dab a small amount of superglue on the knot and allow to dry.  Within 30 minutes, I have a colorful and fun necklace/bracelet!