A very new experience for me today, shopping for girls' clothing. Specifically a dress. For a young girl, just barely a teen. In a town where people dress for effect but not to dress up. I only had children of the male type and never found it necessary to shop for a dress for someone else before. The only person I have ever dress shopped for was me and I have not worn an actual real life dress in twenty plus years. It was fun. Did not take long and we had help from other shopkeepers and friends who suggested dresses, stores and held pieces for us. We ended with a beautiful red and black dress with hibiscus flowers on it. I do not have a picture, as we are waiting for the event to get the total picture, but I made her promise, PROMISE to send me a picture.

I also finished a drawing this week and posted it in a few places on line. It is my next mission, and I have chosen to accept it, to figure out how to make my drawings, original artworks, available to collectors, patrons and people who need cool art for their homes.

I would chat more tonight or rather write more but I can feel my eyes swimming in my head already and bed is calling. To write more later....

So I am very tired tonight and I am trying to type this in the near dark of my dining room. I am a terrible typist and at this moment; I have spent as much time backing up in my sentences to correct them as type them to begin with!

I have spent part of this evening posting to my boards on Pinterest and on Instagram. I like Pinterest where I can see a collection of my pictures all together. I would rather have them in a book so I can linger and lust over every single detail in the photos but storing them out in the great cyber universe is okay for now.

Fall needs to come on and get here. I am tired of summer's heat and the withering drying plants around my home. No amount of water seems to make them look lively again. They need fall and cooler temps.

Right now, my brain is crying for rest and maybe even sleep. Off I go. I am reading Vanity Fair magazine tonight. I forget how much I love that 'zine and how comforting it feels to hold it in my hands.

Flowers for Mo.

For her outta here party.

Off from the shop today, I got out to the studio early before it heated up from the summer sun. My laptop called to me but I ignored it. The song of the IPAD was also silenced by me too as I thought of just how warm my sweet place would be this afternoon. I am easily distracted however, by all the siren songs of the beads and glass and metal in the room. It is as if they are all talking to me at one time; wanting me to put my hands to them and create. Reshape. Design. An insulated world not responding to all the outside stimuli. Peace amongst the noise and then bursts of staccato creativity and ideas!

Here is a sneak peak of what I did today.......

Glued bails to some dichroic pendants. All glittery silver finery!

A finished necklace with handmade glass beads and Czech glass.

A closeup!
 

Sterling silver and blue-purple glass are a favorite combination.

Sputnik beads!



I am having blogging issues at the moment and can not figure out how to get my cursor ( CURSES! ) to the other side of the page to add more text so for now I will so long! Have a great evening.

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.

It is ever so softly raining right now and I am enjoying it so much. I like the quietness, the coolness and the feeling of solitude the rain imparts to me. So far this summer, business has been quiet and giving me some time to try new things. I have done one event, one craft show and soon, one big festival. I head up to Sequim this weekend for one of the biggest Lavender Festivals in the US. I was invited to do the show by the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club so my beads and I will hit the road and set up a booth there.

I love the purples of lavender and the scent delights me. I am looking forward to a few days away from the shop, doing something a bit different. Until I return, here are some around the Lois world pictures.

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday. She would have been 87 if only she were still here with us. She has been gone since 2008. In those eight years, I have missed her fiercely. She was my person to call when something exciting happened in my life or some event came along or I won an award or an election or something like that. No one was quite as astounded by my life as my mom. No one gave the kind of advice she gave me.

I should have recorded her voice. I miss that. I should have more pictures. I miss those. I should have been a more attentive daughter. I missed that.

The world is a bit crazy right now. At least the world that exists outside my front door. The flower beds are wild with growth, the fruit trees are full and lush with beautiful green leaves and many, many buds, birds sing loud songs as soon as the dawn approaches and the deer quietly walk through the lavender beds nibbling here and there on everything that is growing.

The daylight lasts long into the evening and I find myself quietly knitting while I wait for sleep to call me into the bedroom. Quiet times beckon me and soothe me, resting me until the next day awakens.

I love spring and dread the heat of summer. I am hoping Mother Nature will be kind and keep the temperatures at a level that makes me really love summer.

 For now, this early evening moment, I am going to be thankful for all the blooms around the neighborhood.