Tomorrow is the day that I am leaving for what will hopefully be warm and sunny Tucson. The house sitter is here, the laundry all done and Jacob is anxiously waiting for me to leave so that he can " party ". I think that means to him that he can turn his music up LOUD and I will not complain. Poor house sitter - they are in for it!
I have managed to pack four knitting projects, my new journal of handmade paper and a bead embroidery project in my suitcase. Plus the Oprah book club novel I have been meaning to read for years. You see I am planning some quiet time in soft, sunny spots to read and craft and draw. Sounds enchanting to me.   My trusty laptop is staying home so I will be at the mercy of a hotel computer but I am thinking that not being on my computer will give me more time to create. I won't really be posting pictures until I get home either. Maybe no one will look over my shoulder as I sit in some isolated corner spot and knit while daydreaming. Slow down Lois on this trip and enjoy everything. Life is short and sweet with that lesson hammered home today. Love to all, goodnight.

A painted red heart on raw canvas. Not quite finished
but bursting with red. 

Some things new...

I am running on empty right now and ready to just sit and mindlessly watch something on television while sewing the buttons back on my gray corduroy jacket. Amazingly, ever since the snow fell last week, I have been in the mood to sew and mend things. Jacob is calling to me to mend the cut on his finger and I think I will either have to sew it ( yuck ) or he is going to need a stitch. Jacob's solution to all aches and pains is to " run it under cold water " so we will see what needs to be done. I just don't think that tonight's mending should extend to his finger!

Anyhow, here are some pictures of new charm designs just cast in bronze that I will be taking to Tucson.

I am of course, in love with the bird!

The seasons in the circle pendant are cool too.

A flower, I love drawing them.

I also visited with Regina at her new shop space uptown. I think this home for THE PERFECT SEASON will be a great location for her. It was also fun to hang out with Juliette today and laugh over the stories we shared with each other. I love this town for the people I run into and the people I can share moments of my day with. What better friends and times these?

This picture I like best of Regina.

Just before dinner I also painted red hearts on some raw painter's canvas so that tomorrow I can put Valentine's Day decorations in my display windows. I love painting on un-gessoed canvas and it was hard to stop at just the hearts and not continue on with layer upon layer of color! Sigh - next time. For now, I'll say goodnight.

Ready, Set.....

Things are packed and in boxes. The last of the new charm designs arrived yesterday and I spent this evening pricing them for Tucson. There are so many new designs on my table this year I feel as if I am a new artist showing my work for the first time. I am bringing some of my sterling silver charms and some of the other silver jewelry I have made, even some of my cuffs and bangles. I am going to miss my buddies from previous years' shows as they have moved on to another Tucson venue. Other friends have decided not to return at all after last years' slower sales. This makes me a teensy bit sad but it also feels as if doors are opening and change is in the air. I am looking forward to seeing my brother, Bob and his wife Barb. I love my east coast friends coming in to do the shows both as shoppers and vendors. Janet is coming just to hang out. Fun! I am going to work in my journals and sketchbooks while I am there and finish a knitting project or two. A drive to Bisbee where we are going to look at commercial properties for sale should be fun, too. Who knows what tomorrow holds? All I know for certain, is we did get a fabulous deal on airfare, hotel and car rental. My best friend, aka my husband and I will be having some fun in the sun!

This is a real bird with real blue feet. How cool!

Tribal pearls.

Toggles in bronzes.

Affirmation charm.

Little House

One of my favorite house links used in a necklace by Lorelai Eurto. I love how the piece was used and the mix of other findings and charms is very nice. See her blog here: http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com/

Peaceful Day

Wednesday afternoon. Winter is here and white, clean snow is all about. The entire area sleeps under this blanket. Schools are all closed, businesses too. City Halls are not open region wide. We are resting, waiting to get back to the busyness of life in a day, maybe two. Walking to the studio, just behind the house is dangerous as ice coats the sidewalk beneath the snow. Getting down the five big steps to the warehouse is even more difficult. I might as well be descending Mount Rainier. Still, no complaints will issue from these lips. I have needed a day of rest, I bet most people have. Once again, the universe has answered and we in the Pacific Northwest have taken the advice of our overly excited newscasters and stayed home. Hot tea and freshly made cookies. An afternoon to curl up with a now sleeping dog or two. 

Snow Day

Finally, after wishing for and hoping for and feeling a starving need for snow - it is here and we are in the midst of a small snow squall. I don't know how long it will last but I am thoroughly enjoying it while it is here. I am going to slowly walk my way out to the studio and begin my Tucson work but in the meantime, here are a few photos. xo

Crazxy Busy

The days are flying by at an ever more quickening pace as I get ready for my big show in Tucson. Things will be shipping soon, in just a couple of days, and I do not feel the least bit ready. If I sit down to work, I am easily distracted by making things for the store or finishing a drawing or housework or playing with Daisy or making dinner or..... endless. Life inspires me and conspires to slow me down in what must be accomplished. Will I see you in Tucson? More than any amount of business I will do down there, I want to see friends, meet old and new customers and feel an inclusion in the incredibly magical world of beads!

Desk view, assembling my toggles.

Toggles in yellow & white bronzes.

Believe. An inspiring word for me as a toggle in white bronze.

Astonishingly

We are having warm days with sunny afternoons generously sprinkled about this winter season. I can not believe that I could be outside without a coat, play with Daisy and pull weeds and feel like it is  a spring day. What is it with this weather? No matter, I am enjoying it and so are these flowers in a clay pot at the edge of my porch.

A Story for You

Solid copper caps.

Several years ago an older gentleman walked into my shop to sell me glass feathers he had made. He was dressed in a carhart overalls and was quiet spoken. I said I did not need the feathers and that they were not something that I felt I could sell. He said what would you like and I replied, what can you make? After a few more moments we agreed that he would make deer antler buttons for my yarn shop. He returned a couple of weeks later with lots of carefully crafted buttons and explained that he had never made them before. I bought a nice sack full. Soon he returned with more buttons and again, I bought his buttons. The next few times he returned, I did not need buttons as my little drawers were full so he brought in deer antlers for me to display with. The following weekend he came, looked around my shop and said he would return with more things he would make that he thought I could use and would like.  Each time he stopped in, I was told a bit more of his story.
Turns out that he lives about 40 minutes from here, is retired and has cancer. He has been making and selling things to help pay for his chemotherapy and his trips to Seattle for treatment. He says he could not do any of this without the love of his wife. I like to think that being in my shop opened a window of creativity for him as all through his illness, the loss of his hair, the tiredness etched in his face, he kept making things for me and I kept buying them.
Just before Christmas he asked what I would like to have made and I said shapes in copper. He had made a few things last year -  I made jewelry from them and took several loose pieces to sell in Tucson. Customers loved his work. I asked him to make a bunch more and I would buy them to sell again at the gem shows. He confided in me that his cancer had returned and he had elected not to undergo anymore torturous treatments. I am saddened by this but he kept his word and made a bunch of things for me. Copper and brass buttons, copper caps, earring shapes, drilled wheat pennies and pendants. I bought nearly everything when we sat in the yarn shop to look at his work. It was the most I had ever seen him make. At the end of our business deal, as I realized his hearing was not working and his energy seemed depleted, he reached out to hug me and wish me a Merry Christmas. I like to think that he will be around for a long time in his little work space, crafting things in copper and brass, bone and other found materials and that he will still stop in to sell me his work from time to time but I know that soon this will all stop. I like to think I have helped him and I know that I have learned lessons from him about finding a passion and keeping busy in the face of illness. Odd how at times like this, with found friendships like ours, that I remember how much we can mean to one another.

Pictures from out of Time.

Nothing much to post this evening and nothing really much to say except that the energy around people and places seems very intense. I don't mean to be all new age like on you but so much seems to be going on in the world and with people that I feel as if I am in a time warp and things are moving ahead and around me as I stand still and say, " whaaaat? ". Weird. The clouds are different. The weather is different. I am not. I feel a change coming and I am almost sensing the direction it is coming from but I have not fully turned in its' direction. My path is seeming clearer as to what I want to do with the creative energy that flows through me. There is a direction I want to take but that first step is awesomely scary. Do you feel it too?

Resin hearts, an experiment with UV curing resin.

Handmade charms in patina free copper.

The pepper for our salad with seeds forming a perfect heart.

Our pretty dinner salad.

The New Year

So begins another chapter, a fresh start, a clean slate, a journey that begins without completion in sight. Happy New Year all. I have not made any firm resolutions. In the abstract sense, I am still thinking of what I would like to accomplish. I have much to be grateful for and many things that I feel are blessings in my life. I am not going to list them here but trust me, this next year promises some exploration into uncharted territory on my part and a nesting with family as we approach a few milestones in 2012.

"I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind."
Neil Gaiman

Jake and his energy drink in a fancy glass.

Thinking of all of you and wishing for you all that you dream and hope for in the coming year! xo