Have You Seen These Beads?

I have been selling these totally cool beads now since February of this year. they are made in Brazil from recycled materials like plastics and they are cool!!!! I love the colors in them and that they are so light and pretty and easy to work and design with. This shot is from the display case in my shop with the hands. I also love these bendable hands. I love shaping them to hold beads!

Poor Jacob at the dentist today and I have to say he is much braver and more stoic than I ever was as a kid in dentist land! I did get up at 6 am to leave the house for his 8am appointment one hour from here. I think he liked having me with him.

Gotta run off to the warehouse world of Lois' fabulous collection of beady stuff!! Lois

Whoa! Scared myself ... changed the background color on my blog to a bleechey blue and then couldn't change it back! Oh my! Having to live with a color I do NOT like! Very tired this evening after a busy day at the shop and it was so humid; I am nearly doubly tired. I will write more tomorrow - nightynight - Lois

The Solstice

It is 4:07 or so on the morning of the summer solstice and I am awake while the rest of the house is quiet and gently snoring. I am restless and my mind is spinning with all that is meant to be and all that is happening in my life and the world today. I could recount everything that has me awake but then that is just another way of living it again. Suffice it to say tha I have trust in the universe, the great spirit of God,the people who are with me now and the people who have gone before me. I have trust in my body as it rewires itself at this age in my days and trust in those who love and believe in me.

The moon is incredibly full and bright this early morning and the house does not need a single light on for me to see my way from room to room. I like to walk through the house when it is so quiet and still. The birds outside are just beginning to sing.

Happy summer solstice - may summer be all that you want it to be and may the weather Goddess calm things down where there are floods, tornados and other wild, excessive storms around the country.

I am leaving you with some random photos taken around my shop. I am spending lots of time there these days. Good thing I really enjoy being with customers and in what I call my public playground. ( Unlike my private playground, aka, the STUDIO! )
xxoo, Lois

I am working on creating an Etsy site so that I can post pictures and maybe sell, my one of a kind jewelry pieces. I worked so hard that it made me feel a bit depressed that I could not get it right all at once. I had to break down and call Andrea. Where would I be without her help on my poor, wretched computer skills? Anyhow, she designed this banner for my etsy site from one of my drawings. I think it is a good way to begin. I like feeling like I am basking in the sun's glow and since the sun is promiently featured here; I am thinking this is good!

A very pretty and warm day here so we went to the beach for a quick eat our sandwiches there- break. Very nice if a bit breezy.

The universe is busy testing my people/employee skills in my shops. I have one employee out for a long while with unexpected surgery, another on a long vacation, one thinking of leaving, one with an injury and one that had a " health episode " for lack of a better word.Thank goodness Cathy P could fill in so competently! Sheesh!!! It is a challenge!

I am going to blank out in front of the TV after I make some more earrings tonight!!! NOW!!!! xxoo, Lois

( That which doesn't kill or maim us; makes us stronger! )

Happy father's Day to my husband, Phil and my sweet friend Howard ( Justin ). I also have sent a happy Father's day greeting skyward to my father, my beloved grandfather and my old friend, Bud. I miss you all and I am loving the ones I am with. Lois

Sadness

How prophetic! I did not know that when I printed that little poem a day or so ago, how soon it would become true. My sister's partner of 15 years, a man I did not really know except by his deeds heard about through other family members, died suddenly yesterday while at work. Between customers he had a massive heart attack and passed away behind the counter of his tile store. He was all alone, except for his God, and that makes me very sad. A customer finally came in to find him and called 911. Too late. He was gone. Now I am truly sad. Sad for my sister, who will surely miss the man she loved ( I can not imagine how empty his side of the bed must feel or how quiet the house must be ); sad for my mother who truly enjoyed this man and the loss she will feel because " he did everything for me " and sad for Andy's mother who should not have had to outlive her son. Sad for my sister's children who will surely miss his guidance and sad because if I were in any one of their places, I would not know how to move on.

Hug and kiss the ones you love today for we do not ever know what the next five minutes will hold let alone the rest of our days with your loves. Lois

A Little Poem I Found and Enjoyed

Little things would irk me, and I grow

Impatient with my dear ones, make me know

How in a moment joy can take its flight

And happiness be quenched in endless night.

Keep this thought with me all the livelong day

That I may guard the harsh words I might say

When I would fret and grumble, fiery hot,

At trifles that tomorrow are forgot

Let me remember, Lord, how it would be

If these, my loved ones, were not here with me.

Browsing through the internet I came across this little poem and I liked its' sentiment and the quaint " old fashion-ness " of its' wording. I also would not like to be without my loved ones and today as I sat on the deck steps with Phil while Jacob rode around on his motorbike sounding bicycle; the sun was out and it was a perfect temperature; I thought how lucky and blessed I am! Thank you! Thank you! Lois