Storms

I know tomorrow is supposed to be the first day of spring but you can not tell it by the strong winds blowing outside tonight. Nor could you feel spring yesterday when we drove to Olympia in first snow, then sleet, then hail. I am ready for a little more sun. Not a lot and I am certainly not asking for heat but a spot of sun here and there would feel good and uplifting.

Yesterday, we took the day off and drove down the Hood Canal to Olympia. I love that drive especially coming up and over Mount Walker where the tree line meets the road and the snow in the trees looks almost dreamlike.

Even Jake and his side kick Ben, went with us on the promise that Jake could drive through the business park and practice parking.

Right now, since I need to work again tomorrow on my day off, I am calling it a night and heading off to dreamland but first some pictures from around the canal.

Snow!

Yesterday & Before

It seems like just yesterday that I sat down early in the evening and posted on my blog but of course, it was long before that. I have wanted to post but the blank page on this laptop can be just as intimidating as the blank paper was in school. It has been cold and gray here and although I have heard rumors of sunshine in Seattle and Sequim, I have yet to see it here. The grayness can slow down my clock so that when I am home after a day in the shop or out in the studio and dinner is through and cleaned up, I just want to close my eyes and sleep. Hibernate until bedtime, then sleep some more until morning. Slow everything down -  gently, quietly, completely and sleep.

Before I let my eyes close for the ending of this really awesome, I saw a big owl in the tree on the way home day; I 'll post a few pictures of some of my Tucson treasures.

Say a Little Prayer for me, for you

I do not think that there is a woman out there that does not like to have her home, whatever it may be, to herself. It's not to say that you do not love your partner and kids or the big dog that lays around the living room but it is ever so nice to be by yourself in your own space. No one to answer to, no one needs anything or asks for anything, you don't need to cook or run the laundry. In the quiet of your own home you can just be there. Read, sew, knit, water plants, have a cup of hot chocolate, relax. Ah, the sweet company of one's self! Today, I had those hours in my home. Solitude in a space, a place, I wanted to be. Sweet.

So in my contemplative mood, in the loving solitude of my own home, I made rosaries today. I had new centers and crosses just cast in britanium and some new matted Czech glass beads that combined to make  pretty, yet unusual rosaries.

I love making rosaries. I love the meditation that comes over me as I turn bead after bead. The silence involved in the repetitive turning of loops, the silent counting of the beads in groups of ten, then three. I am not Catholic but I can appreciate prayer beads. There is prayer in making them. There is comfort in the turning and linking, the handling, the drape of the finished piece in your hands. The solace of a tangible connection to prayer. The technique is not complicated nor does it require any real skill but the intangible felt when beads are handled in prayerful thought, make the process a religious one.

While at the hospital with Phil today waiting for his surgery to be completed, I sat in a quiet waiting room with large windows that looked out over a lush green garden filled with native plants. The wind was really blowing but this garden was sheltered by several walls of the hospital. Flanked with iron gates made by a Port Townsend artist, I was able to find some peace from the anxieties that raced through my mind.

We have a small local hospital with views of the water from nearly every patient's room. It is quiet and clean and filled with local artwork. We were greeted by the staff, many of whom we knew from the shop and around town. What could have been a very unpleasant experience just wasn't. I sat and waited, looking at the garden and knitted, lost in my own revelry and grateful for the love I felt from my community. Grateful also for the care my husband was receiving and will continue to receive as he works his way through his recovery. Tonight, I feel blessed to have been a small part of something that works in my town.

Now, if we could all have medical insurance at an affordable rate so that we could get the care we need and not be consumed with worry. Fortunately, Phil is eligible for medicare and he has supplemental insurance. If I had needed to be in the hospital, I would be thinking of costs, bills and not thinking of healing.

Anyhow, I am so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers for Phil today. I am truly a blessed woman!

I spent a bit of time this morning adding more color to my blog header painting. I like the way it pops right now with the addition of the purple and intense blue. However, I can not seem to get it to be THE picture for my blog. I am working on this but geez, could Blogger not make things more simple? I will keep trying but until then, you have an advance peek!

So tonight

We have been in the hospital emergency room. Phil has a huge, really huge kidney stone that is causing him pain akin to childbirth. His urologist ( as a kid growing up, did you ever, EVER think you would have a urologist on your instant dial? ) is out of town so unless we want to go to a strange hospital over an hour away, instead of our little everyone knows everyone hospital, they doped him up and sent him home until Tuesday morning. Unless, the pain returns with relentless force and then we head back to the ER. This stone is 10 mm big! If you know anything about beads, you know that 10mm is a decent size and one that is extraordinarily painful in your little ureter tubes. So we sit at home tonight, no fluids for him, we do not want this stone to move, and I watch him sleep, toss, moan and wish that the pain would go away. Jacob is also sick tonight and has a fever. Poor boy is alternately sleeping and eating dry cheerios. My boys are definitely under the weather.

Two things I realized tonight. Little lessons learned in unexpected places: one, everyone knew me at the hospital as the bead lady and even as Phil was having an IV inserted, the nurse was telling me how much she liked my shop. That is why I like living in this town. I was worried and the staff made me feel known, comforted. Two, nothing matters but my family. Not bead shows, not how much money the shop took in today, not how much work was done in the studio or office, nothing matters but my family. I would be lost without them. Sometimes, the universe just needs to slap me up against the head to remind me of this. In the scheme and plans of life everything is small stuff, not worth worrying about but your family - now there is something that matters.

Waiting for our flight home from Tucson. 

This little window on the world opened up yesterday morning over the Olympic Mountains. This is the view I see from my side deck. The mountains make me feel strong, refreshed and clear my head as I look at them. It is not often during the month of February that the mountains lift their cloud skirts and let us see them in all their glory.

This has been my corner in the ballroom at the Windmill Inn at the Tucson Whole Bead Show. I think I have been in this spot for sixteen years? Maybe more. Now, a change has come and I will be moving myself to the True Bead True Blue show at the Doubletree Hotel at Reid Park in Tucson. This was a choice I did not want to make as I liked the show I was in but the promotor decided to move the event to a different hotel in a different part of downtown. Gone would be the light, bright venue that I was used to. I like doing Tucson and showing my charms and jewelry down there but a new show had to be found. I will make new friends there, ( I already know many of the vendors ) and I will be in a hotel that is beautiful, clean and bright. Lots of parking, a big park across the street, restaurants nearby,  and in a part of town that is just plan pretty. I will get used to new show rules, a new group of potential customers  and a new attitude. Energy will be revitalized and already, months away from the dates in 2013, I feel excited to be making a change.

Change is good even when it was not expected. I have always been a person that believes if a door closes, a window opens. I am a person who also believes that if you are unhappy in a situation or someone makes your life unhappy be it for a few days or longer, you can make a change. March to your own drummer, do what you love, send out your energies to those that appreciate them. In short, be the change you are wishing and hoping for! With love on this gray, wet Saturday night - Lois