Retired. Are you going to? When are you? I hear it now on an almost daily basis. I will be 60 this November and although I do not think I have yet shouted it from the rooftops or written it in spray paint on the sidewalks; everyone seems to know it. Is it the gray hair that is putting out the 60 message? Is it the ever thickening waistline? Hmpf. I don't know but how can anyone ask about my retirement when I have never felt like I was working? I love what I do even on the days I am cranky. I like making stuff and selling the stuff I make. It is all I ever wanted to do when I grew up. I would tell people I would be a movie star or an artist when I grew up and look at me now - I am both. I am the star of my dog and pony show, the entertainment for the customers who walk in my shop door, the laugh of their day, the kindness that greets them in a stage presentation on the sales floor. I am the artist who makes the jewelry, crafts the things that people purchase. I do it all in an art way; from merchandising to display to little decorated tags. Whoever said make a job doing something you love and you'll never work a day in your life was absolutely right! I play. I chat. I smile. I create. I design. I dream. I make stuff. I sell stuff and I love it. Retire? No, I am not thinking of it!

My oldest son and me at the place we began.