Our Fun Halloween

Sharene and Kathy indulging in candy before the treaters came. They are dead SeaHawk fans!

Gina, all dressed up with her hair curled and looking lovely!

Gina's son, Calvin and his costume.

Calvin and his friend who was a terrorist. 

Crowd shot of the parade. Huge! SO MANY KIDS of all ages!

Marlene at our fancy lunch out at the fabulous table with a view, FINS restaurant.

And me in the orange shirt Steff sent me with blinking ghost headband.

We all had a fun day and even managed to sell a few beads, too.

Working Together

Step one - put it together in an empty window

Rearrange the window's merchandise.

The completed window from outside.

I had a display case stashed in my classroom that I purchased about seven years ago. It is a terrarium style, almost victorian steampunk in styling and we took to calling it the " Harry Potter case ". Thursday night the spirits moved us and we put it together! Of course, it would have helped to have had an engineering background, but together Phil and I were able to get all the metal just right, the panels of glass in and then.....it was upside down! Argh! I said we need to take it apart to turn it, Phil said no, we can do it with the glass in and with me holding glass from INSIDE the case and Phil turning, we managed to flip it over! Amazing! Amazing that we didn't break anything, scream at each other and that we worked so well together! That case is heavy! Now it rests in my side display window, I will fill it with fabulous jewelry and beads and it fits the time period of my 1889 building. Oooo, spooky, how it all came together!

For Today - A Poem

by e e cummings  One of my favorite poets. His poems charmed me when I was younger in particular because he wrote and published  in all lower case letters. I had never thought of writing like that. Was it allowed? Would I be breaking rules that should not be broken? Who would tell on me? Was I a bad writer? A worse poet?

Deeply Personal

Sometimes as I watch television into the late hours of the night, I randomly write thoughts in my sketchbook. This time I was thinking of my life in blocks of words. This is what that random association ended up saying. 

Thankfulness is not spelled correctly. I know that but I like the way double L's appear together. I am calling it artistic license. 

The shop has new display windows featuring a Halloween theme. I used some of my unpainted concrete crows and new jewelry with some of the best lampwork beads I've ever used from Cave Dweller. The colors are saturated with shades of fall, making autumn seem very fashionable.

One perfect apple survived neglect, deer, insects, boys playing football, bikes, dogs and wind to be picked from the tree yesterday! This summer, I decided the deer could eat the apples and boy, did they ever indulge!

From Haiti

Sacred Heart

I love folk art from countries around the world. I think I may have said that before in this blog but today, after hearing of the cholera outbreak in Haiti ( I mean what else can be heaped upon that country ? ) I am posting a picture of one of the Milagro hearts handmade of old oil drums. I am reminding myself and perhaps you that we need to love each other and take care of each other. The world can be a cold, hard place and love needs to grow in our hearts and spread out to each and all others.

Artist Trading Cards

These are artist trading cards, all done to a very small size. It is as difficult to design small pictures as it is to do larger ones. I like to travel with these cards and work on them in hotel rooms and at shows. In the 1980's and 90's, I did postcard artwork that was sent all over the world and became part of artist postcard shows and exhibits. Now, I am enamored of this little world that these cards provoke.

Overview of the cards against the old wood on the
studio deck. I love the contrast between
paper, paint and silvered wood.

This card reminds me that I need to make most of these designs into charms!

Angels

This is my favorite. Birds, of course.

Angels amid sunflowers.

These cards were all done at the bead show this past weekend. I had far too much time on my hands on Sunday! Have a great day - I am off to my yarn sale at Diva!