Home from Portland

Wow! Was it ever hot down in Portland, Oregon! When we left the bead show at 6 pm ( where were all the customers? ); it was 104 degrees! In Portland - in June - for pity's sake! LAst year for the same bead show weekend it was 66 degrees and raining. I thought I would melt! Anyone who knows me, knows I HATE the heat and besides my body is not built for hot weather and I carry my own weather system with me! UGH!

We had a fun time at the bead show and met really great customers. I swear, I never get tired of talking with my customers soon to be friends. I love seeing inspiration fill their eyes as they hold a strand of beads in their hand or the moment that bead lust takes over and the bead MUST be purchased. Ahh -it is a fun way to spend the day!

I have posted a funny picture of a cat that a friend sent me from way too hot Texas and I think his face looks like I felt on Saturday evening!

Okay, I surrender - I want to be done with summer! Now to sleep under the ceiling fan in my too hot bedroom, love, Lois

Love Living Here

I leave tomorrow for The Whole Bead Show in Portland. It is supposed to be a very hot weekend and I jsut hate hot weather so I am hoping that the place will be air conditioned to sub zero!

I am taking great treasures and other fun things for my customers and will be busy the whole weekend planning on what I will be taking to the Puget Sound Bead Festival in a couple of weeks. We have a double booth there on an endcap. Man, that is a lot of selling space!!!

Here is a photo of the beautiful deer that graze their way through my back yard. I love watching these ever so gentle and quiet animals. I don't even mind if they forget themselves and eat plants I really did not want them to eat!

Good night all - Lois

A Weather Anomoly

Today, while working in the shop there came a buzz among the customers and a noise on the street and whispered words of look,clouds, sky, amazing. I went outside and saw an absolutely stunning sight in the sky. A BRILLIANT RAINBOW FLOATING HORIZONTALLY IN WHISPY FLOATING CLOUDS! I have never seen anything like it. People were lined up in the street and on the sidewalks. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and stared at the sky. It was like looking at a glassy, shiny aurora borealis in the daytime sky. I made all my customers leave the shop in the middle of their transactions and go and look at the rainbows. Everyone was so excited!!!

It was a weather anomoly that was caused by 6 sided ice crystals in the clouds that were higher in the sky than they appeared.We were all treated to an amzing sight and rainbow kissed clouds. Wow!!!!!!!

Somedays.....

.... YOU JUST NEED A LITTLE KISS ON TOP OF YOUR HEAD!

Have You Seen These Beads?

I have been selling these totally cool beads now since February of this year. they are made in Brazil from recycled materials like plastics and they are cool!!!! I love the colors in them and that they are so light and pretty and easy to work and design with. This shot is from the display case in my shop with the hands. I also love these bendable hands. I love shaping them to hold beads!

Poor Jacob at the dentist today and I have to say he is much braver and more stoic than I ever was as a kid in dentist land! I did get up at 6 am to leave the house for his 8am appointment one hour from here. I think he liked having me with him.

Gotta run off to the warehouse world of Lois' fabulous collection of beady stuff!! Lois

Whoa! Scared myself ... changed the background color on my blog to a bleechey blue and then couldn't change it back! Oh my! Having to live with a color I do NOT like! Very tired this evening after a busy day at the shop and it was so humid; I am nearly doubly tired. I will write more tomorrow - nightynight - Lois

The Solstice

It is 4:07 or so on the morning of the summer solstice and I am awake while the rest of the house is quiet and gently snoring. I am restless and my mind is spinning with all that is meant to be and all that is happening in my life and the world today. I could recount everything that has me awake but then that is just another way of living it again. Suffice it to say tha I have trust in the universe, the great spirit of God,the people who are with me now and the people who have gone before me. I have trust in my body as it rewires itself at this age in my days and trust in those who love and believe in me.

The moon is incredibly full and bright this early morning and the house does not need a single light on for me to see my way from room to room. I like to walk through the house when it is so quiet and still. The birds outside are just beginning to sing.

Happy summer solstice - may summer be all that you want it to be and may the weather Goddess calm things down where there are floods, tornados and other wild, excessive storms around the country.

I am leaving you with some random photos taken around my shop. I am spending lots of time there these days. Good thing I really enjoy being with customers and in what I call my public playground. ( Unlike my private playground, aka, the STUDIO! )
xxoo, Lois

I am working on creating an Etsy site so that I can post pictures and maybe sell, my one of a kind jewelry pieces. I worked so hard that it made me feel a bit depressed that I could not get it right all at once. I had to break down and call Andrea. Where would I be without her help on my poor, wretched computer skills? Anyhow, she designed this banner for my etsy site from one of my drawings. I think it is a good way to begin. I like feeling like I am basking in the sun's glow and since the sun is promiently featured here; I am thinking this is good!

A very pretty and warm day here so we went to the beach for a quick eat our sandwiches there- break. Very nice if a bit breezy.

The universe is busy testing my people/employee skills in my shops. I have one employee out for a long while with unexpected surgery, another on a long vacation, one thinking of leaving, one with an injury and one that had a " health episode " for lack of a better word.Thank goodness Cathy P could fill in so competently! Sheesh!!! It is a challenge!

I am going to blank out in front of the TV after I make some more earrings tonight!!! NOW!!!! xxoo, Lois

( That which doesn't kill or maim us; makes us stronger! )

Happy father's Day to my husband, Phil and my sweet friend Howard ( Justin ). I also have sent a happy Father's day greeting skyward to my father, my beloved grandfather and my old friend, Bud. I miss you all and I am loving the ones I am with. Lois

Sadness

How prophetic! I did not know that when I printed that little poem a day or so ago, how soon it would become true. My sister's partner of 15 years, a man I did not really know except by his deeds heard about through other family members, died suddenly yesterday while at work. Between customers he had a massive heart attack and passed away behind the counter of his tile store. He was all alone, except for his God, and that makes me very sad. A customer finally came in to find him and called 911. Too late. He was gone. Now I am truly sad. Sad for my sister, who will surely miss the man she loved ( I can not imagine how empty his side of the bed must feel or how quiet the house must be ); sad for my mother who truly enjoyed this man and the loss she will feel because " he did everything for me " and sad for Andy's mother who should not have had to outlive her son. Sad for my sister's children who will surely miss his guidance and sad because if I were in any one of their places, I would not know how to move on.

Hug and kiss the ones you love today for we do not ever know what the next five minutes will hold let alone the rest of our days with your loves. Lois

A Little Poem I Found and Enjoyed

Little things would irk me, and I grow

Impatient with my dear ones, make me know

How in a moment joy can take its flight

And happiness be quenched in endless night.

Keep this thought with me all the livelong day

That I may guard the harsh words I might say

When I would fret and grumble, fiery hot,

At trifles that tomorrow are forgot

Let me remember, Lord, how it would be

If these, my loved ones, were not here with me.

Browsing through the internet I came across this little poem and I liked its' sentiment and the quaint " old fashion-ness " of its' wording. I also would not like to be without my loved ones and today as I sat on the deck steps with Phil while Jacob rode around on his motorbike sounding bicycle; the sun was out and it was a perfect temperature; I thought how lucky and blessed I am! Thank you! Thank you! Lois

A bBit of Sun!

It is late afternoon here in the Pacific Northwest and finally ( ! ) there is some sun out! We have had rain or gray skies since I can remember but now .... SUN! I love the rain and gray. Indeed, I find it very inspiring but I do need to see some sun once in awhile, a little illumination in the sky and soul! Jacob is running around, Jessie is stretched out in the sun on the warm wood deck and I am going to make a tea and join her there! Mmmmm ... sun! Off to enjoy it! Lois

Just Had to smile

Jacob came dashing into the studio this afternoon after spending some time at his friend Steven's house with their great invention. They put a gator aid bottle on their bikes between the wheel and the fender and as Jake said, " it sounds like a motorbike! " I just had to smile and remember my own childhood as he rode around on my Dr. Suess sidewalk making his motorbike noises. I then told him how we used to use a football card and a clothespin to make our bikes sound motorized. I think that surprised him. And surprised him even more when it worked. My funny, sweet boy whose hands and feet are bigger than mine! I'm glad we had a break in the rain so they could bike around the neighborhood. Ah... sweet summers of youth! xxoo, Lois

Just Had to smile

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity - Jog!

This is a picture of Regina doing her happy dog roll that I am home and in the studio! I am happy to be home, too and breathe the fresh, wet tornado free air of Port Townsend. Of course, a thousand things await and my head is swimming with new ideas for my work and the shops. It was a great show, better than last year and I do love seeing all my friends. I had a wonderful time with Heidi and Jodi from Lilly Pilly as my neighbors and a special thanks to he-man, Mike Fantz for helping me with my luggage at the airports! Nudge -nudge, wink wink :) I also enjoyed the dinner with Mike and Andrea and Whit and Judy at the Thai Palace. Mmmm - never heard of warm Saki but the next time I don't think I will fall fast asleep, face first on the restaurant table; I am going to try it. More later on my wonderful show treasures! yippee - yippee - I am home! xxoo,Lois
p.s. If you are reading this Clara, note that the sentences are complete, punctuated correctly and I even think the spelling is perfect!! Ha HA!

Saturday afternoon found me playing hookey from work and escaping with Gina to the wonderful Rose Theatre in PT to watch Indiana Jones' latest adventure. Dang! That man just looks better and better. A great way to spend a Saturday and certainly a way to de-stress a teeny weeney bit before B&B.

The charms are packed but I think that my backpack must weigh 5o pounds. One of these days I am gonna get real tired of schlepping this heavy stuff around.

Maybe more later as I count down to the hour I leave the house for the airport. guess I had better pack some clothes! Lois

Down to the Finish Line!

Tomorrow is the day that I leave for Bead & Button so today in between bouts of crabbiness, even the dog is looking at me warily, I am making jewelry for the show. I just finished a lovely long silver necklace for myself of silver chain, my charms and my rings. I think I will wear it through most of the show.

I also filled some more frames with pictures and resins. There was also this vintage brass piece laying around, a sarcophegeous ( spelling? ) that I turned over, filled it with treasures and poured in the resin. I think it is pretty cool. I have a few extra empty ones so I am taking them to B&B.

I will try to post from B&B but everything may just wait until I get home! See you all soon! Lois

Down to the Finish Line!