The Muse

Bottle cap work. 

Resin work.

Sketch in the book kept by the TV.

I think that maybe my muse has returned in the form of the ten zillion projects I have going in the studio. I am working like mad on things for June's Bead and Button show but I really feel like painting, knitting and embroidering. The sunshine we have had on and off ( mostly off ) since Friday has given me a burst of energy! Thank heavens, I was seriously getting worried about myself! Creativity is all around me and if I do not partake of it, I feel dry like a desert, lost like old hubcaps along a roadway.  So, even though a regular person might look at my mess and think I can not get order out of it, I see the potential of things being finished! I am having fun! I think I was missing the sun. Me,  who lives for gray and rainy days and lusts for long, cold, dark nights - was missing the light of the sun. Amazing!

p.s. I can never figure out how to add my pictures in where I want them unless I write the blog backwards and my brain just can not fathom that concept! So please excuse the order and if you have a hint for me - please let me know!

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

New Work!

Sacred Heart and reverse side, Madonna & Christ child. 

Our Lady of the Highway and Saint Christopher.
This is perfect to hang around your rear view mirror for a safe journey. 

A close up of Saint Christopher showing lots of detail !

These are a few pieces recently cast in Britanium for the upcoming Bead & Button show. I have so many new things cast in new metals for that show! Whooooeeee!

Sunday, Sunday - Taking Part in Nature

We spent Easter Sunday taking a few hours off to do something outdoors. Rain had headed into Port Townsend but up here in Brinnon, the sky was sunny and spring scents definitely filled the air with promises of more sunny days to come. These are falls that are hidden in behind the water service on the outskirts of Brinnon. They were enormous due to all the rain from this winter and the air was filled with water droplets. Gorgeous. exciting. Wild.

Then there is the moss to talk about! I could not stop feeling it with first my hands, then my face. Thick

and luxurious, you could imagine napping in it as a warm breeze wafts over you in an early summer afternoon.
 

Happy Almost Easter!

Here it is almost Easter and it is my favorite almost holiday in the year. When I was growing up, Easter was a bigger holiday than Christmas or Thanksgiving. The whole family gathered at my grandparents for the beginning of spring dinners featuring potato salad, deviled eggs, sweet gherkin pickles and ham. The kids ate in the Sunday school rooms of my grandfather's house and the adults ate in the huge kitchen/ dining room. There was no dishwasher so everyone had a hand in cleaning up. We were all dressed up in brand new Easter clothes and shoes. Mom took us to the hairdressers usually the Saturday before the big day and we had stylish new 'dos. The morning began with a basket of candy from the bunny and then off to church. We all went except my dad who usually did some " guy " thing and then joined us at mid afternoon Easter lunch at grandmom and grandpop's. Those were enchanting afternoons. I loved all my cousins, the flowering plant we received in Sunday school, the special lunch that marked that beginning of summer eating and the time spent with the grown ups. There was a piano in every room and we spent hours running around playing on them and pretending we were musicians. The older cousins wanted nothing to do with us - the dreaded younger cousins. The weather was usually good so after lunch we ran outside to play with admonishments of staying clean. It was hard to play in my new shiny mary janes! Times were innocent for me and I miss them. I hope, as a parent, I gave good memories to my own boys. I know I kept some of my family's traditions. Easter lily on the table, potato salad and deviled eggs, a basket of candy. All this marks the beginning of spring and today as I left for work, I felt like spring! The weather even co operated! Happy Easter! Happy Spring! Happy life! 

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money. Cree proverb



So this is Earth Day 2011. I remember my first Earth Day in the 1970's when I was in Unami Junior High in Pennsylvania. I still have my original Earth day button given to us at the afternoon assembly in the auditorium. I remember being sad then when I thought of the pollution and destruction we had heaped upon our lovely mother earth. Would things change as I grew up? Would there even be a place for me in the world that was not polluted and ruined? I think I was in 7th grade and even now, all these years later, when things have been cleaned up some with a long way to go, I wonder if the same questions remain to be answered? 


What will the future hold for our children, your grandchildren, the earth itself? God bless and keep us from destroying our home, our mother. 

Around a Sunny Town

Point Hudson Marina

I thought that for an entry today on my blog, while carrots and onions are steaming for dinner, I would add pictures I took around Port Townsend on this sunny day. We, who live in this beautiful place grow accustomed to seeing the scenery everyday and almost become immune to it. I never get tired of looking and seeing all that makes this place so special. A discovery has been made by me too, although I love the gray and rain ( and my, we have had a LOT this winter ) a sunny day infuses me with energy and creativity! I never thought that I needed sun, some sun at least before!

Cormorants drying their wings on a WWII sub " catcher ".

Restored dock at Point Hudson.

Tsunami warning system. If this baby sounds, run like hell!

Dock and beach at the new Maritime Center in downtown.

Bluffs at Fort Worden State Park.

Wind swept trees right by the beach. They take the brunt of our wind storms.

Rhododendrons or rhodies, our state flower.

This color on this Rhody is yelling " spring! "