It starts tomorrow at 10 am sharp, the bead shop's annual 30% off everything except books sale! Be there or be bead-less!

Thank you now and forever more to veterans past and present.

Here he is the birthday boy in his crown of golden paper; a gift from Gina. Isn't he lovely?



I look at this picture and want to weep at the sheer beauty of a cleared, absolutely clean office desk! It is the first time, since the last time, no, seriously, the first time in months that I am caught up on my paperwork! The desk is cleared, dusted and ready for the next set of chores. It may not be this clear again for months! See a rainy day coupled with no desire to be in the studio makes me find something to do in the office. Desperate times, desperate measures!

The guys are safely home from Portland where they had a terrific show and did a great job. They were even still relaxed and glad to see me when they got home. Jacob was thrilled because he was able to eat at Jack in the Box multiple times in Portland! Yum! It is one of his favorites and forbidden at home. Of course, we do not even have one of " those " places nearby and that is FINE with me! I am glad to have them home.



The boy/man child of the hour - Jacob sitting behind the display. Phil said he worked really hard and handled sales by himself. He also is a whiz at measuring and calculating chain costs.




Phil at the tables in Portland. I really love this building, the Montgomery Plaza. It's the old Montgomery Wards corporate building and it is all restored and just beautiful, even if it leaked like a sieve over the weekend. I like the glass encased elevators surrounded by plants, artwork and cozy sofas and chairs.



Here is a shot of part of the table display at the show in Portland. I am particularly fond of Phil's display of the cardboard box sitting on the tabletop with a sale sign in it. Now that is pure class!!

A new sign! I had this one made on metal to hang above my shop on the bannisters that separate my shop from the fly shop on the mezzanine level. The burgundy color is rich and when I look up and see the date; established 1992, I feel content and rewarded.








THis sign which I think has the perfect grouping of inspirational words is also now hanging in my shop. It has a great vibrating shadow like effect with the words silkscreened onto wood and then onto a screen layered over the wood. It makes the sign look " buzzy ".

I wanted to post on my blog tonight but realized that I had let the day slip away and not taken a single picture. Nada. Zip. Nothing! I do have this photo I have been saving of a Luna moth. For years when I was growing up in Pennsylvania, I collected and studied butterflies and moths. Always on the lookout for the elusive Luna, I finished growing up, married and left home and moved west where I do not think Lunas even live. I gave up hope of ever seeing one in the wild. Once early in the 1980's or late 70's; I went home for one of my last visits ( while everyone was still alive back there in PA ) and there on a wall in broad daylight in Peddler's Village in Lahaska, PA was my white whale ... the Luna Moth. Glorious in the most subtle shade of barely hinted at mint green. Sleepy in the daylight hours, this beauty I had searched years for, did not even move, not so much as a twitch of feathered antennae. Years later I still remember that moth and my victory in seeing him, a gift from the heavens when I least expected it. What is your Luna story?

I am still smiling to myself tonight because when I showed Michelle ( she owns the children's handcrafted clothing store in my building ) the table I just finished she said, " you could sell those! " I said I used to paint and sell furniture! I am still smiling.....