New Dawning

Birds have been calling to me from singing outside my bedroom window early in the morning before the day's light has even begun to break to the fat red breasted robins rustling my grass for insects. Their songs make me smile and bring peace deep into my soul. I love their song and think what hidden messages of beauty and romance and trust and nature must be in their lilting notes. Is it any wonder that tonight's drawing is of a bird, sort of a crow, sort of a starling but deep in his breast is song.

Self Portrait Friday

This week's self portrait is a drawing from my journal. I tend to still draw myself as I think I am, and that is about 34. I like my neck all long and thin but it is not. I still find it interesting to do these self portraits and it is a learning/ acceptance kind of experience. I am not now the way I was but I am now the way I am.

I had the nicest evening last night when Pamela Armas ( Treasures of the Gypsy ) Karen and Mary came for a visit in my studio and we laughed and talked and ate great snacks and were all so happy that Art Fest brought them to town and that great things happen when creative people gather! The other great part of the evening was when Lita called and said she was coming by for a visit! I have not seen her since August and I so love her company! really, I felt surrounded by love, creativity and appreciation! I thoroughly basked in the evening's light!


p.s. Did I take a single picture? Of course not! Argh!

How Charm Designs Begin

I draw and doodle all the time. I can not help it. Whenever I have a moment and a pen in my hand and paper nearby; it is inevitable that they will meet. What most often emerges from this are small designs that sometimes make their way into a charm or a painting or ..... i like it this way, this near always time that my mind is thinking while my hand is drawing. Rather like a stream of consciousness, I am led into a world of my own making.

Self Portrait Friday

Self portrait Fridays are hard! I am the person who hates having her picture taken, who turns away from the camera, who takes pictures of others. I am the one who never wants her image captured on film but something that Nina Bagley said on her blog, about loving yourself, appreciating your wisdom, makes me want to continue this journey of self discovery. I am ..... learning .... to love me ... to know me... to be worthy of myself ... my age is a badge of honor worn with courage and conviction and ... wisdom.

This is the view from above of the lobby area to my shops. I refer to it as the embellishment shop and it is its' own little nest of texture and design and inspiration. I love my shops. Spending time there is not work, it is play and delight and socializing with friends and people soon to become friends. I hope that I make everyone a friend and welcome them to their creativity when they enter my playground.





When I spend my days working in the bead store; everything is up close and personal. Last night looking down from the mezzanine above the shop, everything looked different. A new perspective. I thought you might like my bird's eye view, too.






Last night at the shop we had our annual trunk show in our classroom upstairs from the bead store. All the amazing stones and pearls and silver and glass and other fabulous trinkets were on display that I purchased in Tucson and beyond.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy day of the green and may the luck of the Irish always be with you , may you never know hunger, may you always love and be loved and may you already be in Heaven an hour before the devil knows you're dead! My mom had that last part of a plaque she kept in the kitchen.

p.s. This is my four leaf clover charm.

Kitty Totem

Self Portrait Friday but Posting on Saturday

Another blog that I read frequently, Nina Bagley at Ornamental challenged her readers to post pictures of themselves on Fridays. I am going to try and participate in this activity as maybe it will help me love my body, love myself and be a better person to friends, family and coworkers. It has always been hard to allow pictures of myself to be taken. I always say to the photographer,
" No, don't. I hate the way I photograph. " It is time to stop this and appreciate myself for the person I am, the person who looks back at me in the mirror, the person who knows my yesterdays and looks forward to my tomorrows. The person who appreciates her body, the way it works and moves and sees. The person who needs nurturing from herself. Stay tuned.

This Face

This face belonging to this old dog loves me. She does not care if I am overweight, over stressed or over tired. She would do anything for me. Anything to make me happy. I love her with all my heart and know that her days with me are drawing to a close. The cold rainy weather this morning made her groan in pain with getting up from the floor. Her tail never stops its happy thumping. She understands what I am saying when I speak to her. She will still try to dance with me when I play music for us. She will sleep all day contentedly in front of the heater in the studio while I move about making things. She is a joy to behold, a delight in my life, a laugh when I am troubled. The best friend ever a girl could have!

A Doodle a Day...

I have decided that I need to do a doodle a day to keep myself feeling creative, energized and alive. They may not all become major works of Lois art but they will keep me limber in ways that only another creative person could understand. Viewing doodling as a daily vitamin will keep me healthy in my soul.

Lois Likes to Doodle

I can't be on the phone or watch a TV show or have a piece of paper put in front of me, without doodling on it. From this absent minded doodling or drawing; I get designs for my charms, jewelry, paintings and embroidery pieces. The hand draws what the mind wanders.....

Times they are a changing...

I hate to leave my blog and the writing that it encompasses on a negative, sad note so I am following up my last post with this thought. " I expect to have a bunch of new paintings, drawings and even charms designs that will spring from the loss of this friendship. A better word than loss is of course, a time found for me. Creative time in my studio alone with the changing scenery of friendship. An ending is but a beginning after all ......

The Meaning of Friendship

When I was married to my ex husband ( 19 years from barely an adult to a grown woman ); he would say that you do not have friends, that you have acquaintances. That some of these acquaintances would last longer than others but eventually they all end. So this seems to be happening in a long term friendship of mine. This makes me sad, it feels unwarranted and I need to stop the nervous tic in my eye and move on. But damn! It hurts. Not a word, no explanation, no rationalized, justified cause. Just an ending. I am trying to be the Phoenix here who rises again from smoking ashes into something new, better, stronger. We will see and maybe as time passes; things will begin again. Until then, I am left looking for strength, wondering why and feeling ultimately wounded and angry. Sigh, sometimes we are doomed to repeat the same life lessons over and over. I suppose this is our journey on earth and rewards are small and daily with a better reward lying beyond. I will survive, I am strong.

Spring Images from Around Home

New BEADS in the shop!

I have actually been hoarding these lovelies for a bit now but since new ones have arrived; I am going to let some of them go. These are the new daggers made in the Czech Republic with dichroic glass. The Czechs tell me it is one of the most expensive and time consuming glass bead techniques they do and brand new, too. I think they are just wonderful and certainly stir the imagination! Dragonfly wings? Fringe? Hoop earrings? Stitch work? Embroidery? Stringing? You could do ANYTHING but mainly have fun with these beads! I am in love and bead lust... again!

It is getting on late in the evening and soon I will be heading into the black velvet of what will hopefully be a very sound sleep. My mind is spinning and having difficulty wrapping itself around the huge earthquake that Chili has experienced. The astonishing speed at which ones' life can change in the blink of an eye, the fragility of the life we make here on earth, the tenuous connection, the barest whisper of a thread that keeps us in day to day life.I am saddened for the families, the businesses, the country for the experience they have had and will continue to have for the years to come. I am powerless to effect a change here, we are all powerless in the face of mother nature. Nature can nurture us and yet still cause such devastation as to bring us to our knees.

So before I head into the sleep I am longing for, I will have a prayer upon my lips for Chili along with the prayers I whisper every night for family, friends and Haiti.