I am sure that many of my customers think that I have all my beads neatly organized in little divided boxes, all stacked comfortably on a shelf or shelves in my studio. Well, here is the big scoop - I do not keep them organized in the traditional beady ways. They are grouped like my brain thinks and designs in a loud song of color and pattern, texture, light and dark, large and small. All shapes and sizes, all colors and patterns. I design like my brain thinks. All at once, creating to the music in my head and the notes that run through my hands.

Last night, around midnight, I turned on the Christmas lights, the pretty blue LED ones and the twinkly white ones, threw on a light jacket and sat out on the porch watching the night stars. Frogs were singing all about. Planes crossed the sky with their blinking lights and the air was cool, sweet, smelling of hot days to come this summer. I saw a shooting star! Feeling enchanted, I sat back and breathed the silent prayer of thanksgiving that many mothers breathe during June as our children graduate school and move on in life. It was with bittersweet sorrow and anticipation that I looked at that night sky and thought of how quickly the days of my son being a little boy had flown past me. I turned, blinked and he is 18. On the precipice of a future that I will not always be a part of. He is leaving me now, a bit at a time, finding his own way in the world. So yes, it is a happy sorrow that surrounds my heart and knocks at the door of my soul.