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!

A Beautiful Day

A beautiful fall day greets me this morning. I have already had an early morning walk with Daisy and Regina and managed to snap these pictures at a foreclosed home in my neighborhood. The house looks lonely, neglected and sad but still among all the overgrowth in the yard and weeds are these little bits of beauty and color. 

Wild Roses - beauty still blooms on a foreclosed home

Red leaves that stood out in a sea of green

The weather is getting ready for a change, already a breeze is blowing in, heralding the coming of rain and gray days. Best to enjoy this day while it is here.

This last picture is the most special one to me. Jake went up to our mailbox, which is in a whole line of mailboxes along our country road and drew symbols on it that he just knew I would like. Hearts and spirals, markings both ancient and new that I consider my personal totems. I just thought it was the sweetest thing!





Tomorrow or even later today, I will post pictures of all the drawing I have been doing lately. Lots of inspiration for bigger paintings and charm designs, too!

Sunrise

sunrise october 18th

Jacob woke me up early this morning and said, " come quick, you have to see the sunrise! " This is what we saw, taken in the order they appear here. Isn't this beautiful and didn't I raise a wonderful son who would wake and share this with me?

Gradually, the color faded and the pink whispered to the sky, " let me go " and just like that all the colors but blue were gone.

Sunset

What could be a more perfect ending to a beautiful day but a gorgeous sunset? A treat for all the soul's senses.

P.S.
Silverdale Bead show this weekend at the Silverdale Hotel from 10 to 6 Saturday and Sunday, with free admission. Come see us and indulge in a fabulous array of beads!

A Loss

Everything affects me. As an artist and crafter I can not help but to feel deeply over everything that happens around me or to me. Such was the case today when I opened our weekly newspaper, The Port Townsend Leader and saw the obituary for a friend. I was stunned. Saddened. Unable to really work today because of the depth of my sadness, my sense of loss. There are words of comfort we offer each other, there are heartfelt meaningful things we say when someone experiences a loss but nothing comforts me, nothing helps me face the void that this person leaving forever has made me feel.

Kathreen was a delightful ball of energy and warmth and caring. She dropped in and out of my life on a whim although she was very involved with her patients and career. She hugged me with gusto, joined in whatever we were doing at the moment she came by, made me richer for having had time with her and far wealthier for just knowing her.

I am at a loss to explain how a woman, so promising in her practice, so rich in personality, so loving to her friends is just gone. I can not find comfort anywhere or answers. This process of grief will take a bit but from this I have learned AGAIN, how short and sweet and precious life is. Way too short to hold grievances. Way too short to not love just being with someone. way too short to not enjoy the friendship offered by someone. I will miss her, can stop looking for her, waiting for her. I can feel blessed and honored to have known her, know that she is in God's graces but still the missing and sadness and grief moves through me for today and tomorrow and maybe even many more tomorrows. Rest in sweet peace my friend, Kathreen Gimbrere. You are loved.

Studio

The work on the beading table from yesterday's full work day in the studio. I feel rather accomplished. I had three sleeping dogs for friendship and the place all to myself!
Another view:

This is a photo of the inside of the studio looking backwards from my beading area to the door. It is organized believe it or not but in these days of being in the shop more; it suffers from " run and hit at it "; I dash in for a bit, work a bit and dash right back out. I never seem to have a pause to clean up between projects. I need a studio fairy!

10/10/10 10:10

IN two minutes it will be a magic hour and date - 10/10/10 10:10. Pretty cool if you are into numbers! I just love things like this!



A surprise when I walked outside one morning this past week; my beautiful purple flowers bloomed! All summer I looked at this plant with its straight, short green leaves and struggled to remember what it would look like later in the summer. Finally, in a burst of late summer energy, it became purple flowers!

Who could not love this face?

Just a Quick Hello

This week has flown by in a whirlwind of activity including one trip to Seattle, a studio day and many days in the shop. Isn't it amazing how fast time moves and seems to move as we get older? I have spent some lovely late evening hours knitting Christmas gifts and watching recorded television shows. I detest the hate and acrimony spewed by all the political commercials on the air so I speed by them and IGNORE them by recording shows. Where has our humanity towards each other gone in recent years? As our country spiraled deeper into recession and begins the agonizing climb up from the pits of economic trials; we seem to get meaner and meaner to each other at all levels. The very people we count on to set good examples for our country's citizens are some of the worst examples of meanness, cruelty and spiteful behavior. We need to expect more of each other and practice everyday kindness to everyone. That is my goal in these coming months and years. Oh, and I am going to continue to ignore the dreadful behavior emerging from our politicians and many of our religious leaders. Thinking with kindness on all of you!

At This Moment....

"You cannot say you've lost a friend. If a friendship is capable of ending, it is because it never existed."


I had been posting friendship quotes on my site from a Blogger application for awhile but since it comes with advertising embedded in it - I am posting quotes on friendship I find myself. Since my most recent experience with a local friend that still smolders and hurts and was unjust; I am posting this message. Reminding myself of it nearly daily. Growing, as a person, is a process that even now takes patience!