HaPpY NeW YeaR!!! Finally, the year that was 2009 is almost over. I say do let the door hit you in the butt on the way out, 2009! It has been a challenging, troubling, rewarding, interesting, never boring year. I learned that I can not control everything, even my health and that is alright. I learned that business never follows a straight, true path to prosperity, that it is like a child that must be nurtured and encouraged. Much like me. I learned that the things that used to bother me, anger me, make me impatient are, as older relatives used to tell me; receding into the background. Family matters. My children matter, even the grown up one. My husband matters. My artwork and jewelry matter in many ways from making a living with me to supporting my family. Lots of little things have fallen by the wayside and that is just where they belong.

I am wishing for you and yours and mine, a year and decade filled with good health, prosperity, peace, family and time to be creative.

May the Blue Moon be a sign of a good year all around to come.

In the studio today, I made samples for the shop from items I currently sell. I am crazy for the Art Girlz charms and I have always had much lust for wool felt.

This jangle of color, charms and noise is a charm bracelet also made with Art Girlz parts. Doll parts do not have to just be for dolls, you know.






This is a beaded and embroidered doll brooch created with wool felt, glass beads, shell flowers and ArtGirlz parts. She is about four inches tall overall. I just need to sew a pin back on her. All through her creation the name Angela kept running through my head so maybe that is her name or I have angels on the brain from Christmas!

Do you want to know something that I love? I love spending the day at home. A full day. No place to go. No place to be but right here. I bounce between the house and the studio. I do a little of this, a lot of that, a few chores. I make dinner. Tonight, comfort food, macaroni and cheese. Homemade with love and care, like my mother used to make and I think of her now. I am feeling at this moment content as I look around at my son, the dogs, my knitting, smelling the wonderful scent of melting cheese in the air. Still the Christmas tree is up and fully decorated and even that makes me feel that all at this moment is well and good and loving and fine.

Christmas day found us at home, a quiet day, just the three of us. Enjoying each other's company, games and a wonderful dinner.


This child of mine without any savings to his name; needed to create Christmas gifts so this is one of three certificates he made up for us. This promises to " work hard ". We just had to laugh. Pretty imaginative!



The joy on a kid's face on Christmas morning reaffirms the love in us all.



Jacob with his framed Seahawks signatures. He had collected them at a bead show while the hawks were coming and going from breakfast. He loves it so much that Phil had them framed for an unexpected gift.


This is the view that greeted us at 7:30 on Christmas morning; a landscape covered in thick white frost. Nature's round about way of blessing us with a white Christmas.

Merry Christmas Eve and with this merry wish, I also ask for the blessings of the season to extend to you and yours. This is my Christmas tree charm, showing the love I believe is in each Christmas day!

This is Beckett Point where I lived for a long time in a very small cabin with my son Michael and when he was home from the sea, my ex husband. I loved my little 400 square foot house right on the beach. Small, cozy, cedar lined interior walls; I loved that place. I let it embrace me even as I lived my days there. I learned to love the wind as it blew year round across the straits and then over the spit. I grew up there, became an adult there. Fell in and out of love there, met my friend Bud there, whom I miss terribly even to this day. I painted, knitted, gardened, fished, chopped wood, read, crafted and wrote about my days there. Even now when I dream of home at night; it is to Beckett Point I return. Do we ever forget our first home away from home, the place we left our childhood?

May this holiday season, which feels gray and lifeless to me, find you nestled in your home in the loving arms of family doing the things that make you happy and content.

This is my Christmas present from my sweet, growing up too fast Jacob boy. He could not wait until Christmas to give it to me. The frame is his masterpiece, a school project that he accented with cats, of course. I just LOVE it!

Phil & I went to town today to meet up with Libby and while we were gone; the spirit of Christmas entered Jacob ( so he says ) and when we walked in the door, he had made a Merry Christmas banner and hung sparkly lights everywhere he could think of. I just love colored lights and how innocent he still seems when he says he " got into the spirit". Long may that spirit live!

Tomorrow is the winter solstice and marks the shortest day of the year and the gradual transition to longer days. I love winter. I revel in it. I like it best when the days are cold and crisp but I will take it however it comes. It is a quiet time for me. The hustle of the shopping season is nearly over, it is not quite time to get ready for the big 2010 shows and I can slow my pace, watch a movie, read a book, think, breathe, be. Happy Winter Solstice!

I could not resist posting this picture of Zip, the young yellow lab that lives across the street with Henry and his family. Zip is full of energy, loves to play, is a tiny bit shy and just loves to escape his yard and head right over here to mooch. I just adore him and he will come into the house or studio if he is invited. He is just curious but is pretty sweet and gentle around things. Of course, all this visiting makes Henry very mad and nothing I can do will make Henry un-mad. Guess he will just have to bite his mad spot and I will just make sure the porch light is off and Henry can't see over here when Zip visits.

The Shop Christmas Party

We had a holiday party at Fiesta Jalisca in Hadlock to tonight for all of us at the Bead and yarn shops. Good food, great fun, wonderful company and now I feel like the holiday season has begun! I loved the gifts everyone gave me, especially the Dove chocolates from Cathy P, which have helpful little lifestyle suggestions from Martha Stewart! Haha - now I can indulge and wonder about improving my Christmas centerpiece through the addition of birch bark! Really, just who was the genius that came up with the combining of Martha's hints and candy wrappers!? The ornaments from Kathy were stunning and I will post pictures of them soon. right now I need to turn Martha's candy wrappers into a quilted table cover! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

New Charm Masters

These are new pieces, some still waiting to have the final finishing touches added to them, that need to be cast. Looks like this next year I will have a jump on new charm designs. All the masters are made in copper and then cast into sterling or white bronze. White bronze has been an interesting material to work with; very similar to silver yet it has a slight yellowish cast to it that reminds me of old ethiopian coin silver. I also like red bronze but do not have much finished work in it yet. Other new pieces not pictured here that are mailing to the caster tomorrow. I should have new designs finished for both Tucson and lots more for Bead & Button in June.

Something to Crow About

... or is it my time to be an old crow? A picture from my birthday party.

These are two shots of our Christmas tree just put up tonight by Jacob and me. We had a technical difficulty at first in that our trusted tree stand leaked like a sieve so we had to dash and get the LAST ONE IN PORT TOWNSEND this afternoon. After a challenging switch, I think we have one of the prettiest trees ever! I was also amazed that the tree cost so much less this year. Must be due to the economy and tree farmers thinking people would not buy one this year.

This year at Christmas I am also remembering my mom and still missing her very much. I just wish I could hear her voice one more time and ask her the things that a daughter asks of a mother. Once again I would listen to her and wish that she would never leave and let me alone be the adult.

There is also the lightest dusting of snow on our porch right now, like sugar on a cookie. Perfect for tree decorating time!

School Christmas Performance

It was a wonderful Christmas event at Jacob's school last night. A potluck followed by a puppet show and the singing of Christmas carols. It was well attended, too with parents and a few grandparents. At Christmas, I think of how it would be nice to have family nearby. The icy cold evening with a clear and starry sky passed quickly in a rollicking good time!


The entire school puppet gang in a performance they wrote themselves. It was actually well performed and funny! Those clever kids!




The mustached puppet is Jacob and he is wearing a shirt and tie!





Jacob's classmates singing Feliz Navidad and shaking their moroccos at last night's school play. Jacob is the tallest kid in school! I was really getting into the singing and rocking out and after the performance one of the other boys said to Jacob, " Is your mom always like that? " Jacob says, " yeah and she sings all the time, too. " I just can't get enough of embarrassing him! HAHA!

New silk cords, handmade and dyed on the San Juan Islands, have arrived in a beautiful array of colors. After I had them tied onto their special hangers, and laid upon a table in the studio; I realized they were a work of art in themselves! A lovely, slightly abstract assemblage.

By the way it is 20 degrees right now in PT. It is 16 degrees below normal! Brrrr... Good night all.....




I meant to post this picture a couple of weeks ago but just never got around to doing it. I am at a loss to explain where all my hours in a day disappear to! Anyhow, this is our quiet family Thanksgiving dinner, just the three of us. A more relaxing and peaceful day would be hard to come by. Phil cooked an amazing and comforting dinner of the usual T-Day foods.

This is our customer Elaine and the beautiful necklace she created in peyote stitch. Elaine has been doing beadwork for sometime and shares her love of beads through teaching her friends and neighbors. Elaine once told me how she uses money won in bingo games to buy her beads! If I ever write a book of stories about my customers; I'll be sure to include her story.

The child in me loves the snow, hopes for it, wishes against all reality that it will snow but that adult in me; knows that it is bad for business and wishes that the snow tires were on the Subaru. The beauty of a winter's night astounds me in all its silent falling snow.




The first quiet snow of winter 2009 arrives and quickly turns night into a soft white with Christmas lights glowing against the deck rails.

CALMNESS IN OUR LIVES

I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr Phil proclaimed, 'The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.'

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.

Pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace


HAHAHAHA!

This picture taken by Tami of the Port Townsend Leader, our one day a week Mis-Leader newspaper, is of the PT harbor in soft gray morning light. Isn't it pretty? I can smell the salt in the air from the water and instantly feel the last dance on my last nerve leave me. This to me is what Port Townsend is; water. salt sea air, boats and tranquility.

This is the boy who woke up early on Thanksgiving morning and began VOLUNTARILY cleaning his room! He said he just felt like it. We thought maybe he needed to see a doctor. Since when do 13 year old boys, who are all about messes, want to clean their rooms? On a holiday? When lots of food is involved? It certainly looks nice in there though. we just sort of shook our bemused heads and went with the flow.






These beautifully arranged shelves are on one side of Jacob's room. He is so pleased with himself!





This is a bookcase that I vanquished from the yarn shop in favor of another spin rack so Jacob inherited it ( at his request ) for his room. See how nice his shelves look? Phil teased him by asking if the DVD's were alphabetized.

These are four sterling cuff bracelets I made while hanging out in Andrea's studio. She has an amazing place to work and we had such fun working together. We both agreed we like having company once in a while when working. Anyhow, my silver cuffs are stamped inside with words and phrases. One says peace, another life is a journey, another love and joy and the last bracelet just has peace signs stamped the length of the bracelet. I have some other ideas to explore with these cuffs but I like where this journey is leading!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have been thinking of thanks giving all week. Not the consuming of vast quantities of food, but the very act of thanksgiving. I am blessed in my life at this moment as deer walk through my darkened back yard and blessed at every moment that I have been granted another day.I am truly grateful, thankful and blessed to have so much and so many in my life. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Dear Mr. President,
Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the "Patriotic Retirement Plan"

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their taxes.

Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto!
You know this idea almost sounds like it would work! HAHAHA!

I promise I will never be unimpressed by the beauty around me!

While gathering a stack of newly finished drawings and paintings to stash in my portfolio; I looked and realized that the pile itself was an art creation, a painting in action!


My birthday has come and gone and along with it, a great evening at the local Italian restaurant with wonderful friends. It was such an enjoyable evening that I think it was mutually decided by all that we should do this more often. I get so wrapped up in accomplishing things for the shop or working at the shops; that I forget to nurture myself as a person! I think it shall become my new goal to remember me. To take care of me as I would a friend or family member. We will see how that journey goes....

The wind is fiercely howling tonight, shaking the house, making strange creaking noises and causing me unnamed anxieties. I do not know what it is about wind and blinking electricity but it puts me on the edge of a near panic state. It must date from the many years I lived on the beach here when I was always worried that the water would come over the bulkhead and try to wash the cabin away ( wait - that did happen - more than once ) or that trees would fall everywhere and block the road and start electrical fires ( wait - that also happened ) or that the wind would blow in a window or push the walls in ( wait - that happened too ).. no wonder the wind causes me anxiety! I have lived it!

I could not resist this handsome fellow who is so politely waiting for lunch or dinner. Anyone who knows me knows of my fascination with bears. Not cute cuddly bear stories or those of the stuffed teddy kind but real life tales of great beardom and behavior. Oh, and although I have never done it; I am equally fascinated with mountain climbing!

What does this have to do with beads? Nothing. It is just another insightful look into Lois' wild, wacky world!

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 ".