I wanted to post on my blog tonight but realized that I had let the day slip away and not taken a single picture. Nada. Zip. Nothing! I do have this photo I have been saving of a Luna moth. For years when I was growing up in Pennsylvania, I collected and studied butterflies and moths. Always on the lookout for the elusive Luna, I finished growing up, married and left home and moved west where I do not think Lunas even live. I gave up hope of ever seeing one in the wild. Once early in the 1980's or late 70's; I went home for one of my last visits ( while everyone was still alive back there in PA ) and there on a wall in broad daylight in Peddler's Village in Lahaska, PA was my white whale ... the Luna Moth. Glorious in the most subtle shade of barely hinted at mint green. Sleepy in the daylight hours, this beauty I had searched years for, did not even move, not so much as a twitch of feathered antennae. Years later I still remember that moth and my victory in seeing him, a gift from the heavens when I least expected it. What is your Luna story?

I am still smiling to myself tonight because when I showed Michelle ( she owns the children's handcrafted clothing store in my building ) the table I just finished she said, " you could sell those! " I said I used to paint and sell furniture! I am still smiling.....

If I had turkeys I would have painted them for my November display window but alas, I only had my favorite bird, the CROW! These are all shiny and jet black and ready to go.I also zinged them up with a deep melon felt on their bases so no scratches from them. I still have two more to paint but these babies get heavy. They are concrete!






A mess of drawings! All my most recent drawings and paintings stacked together before being slid into the portfolio to await eventual picture framing. I love the way all the colors and patterns look layered up and facing in different directions. It's a painting unto itself!



The new table that I have finished painting for the shop with Jacob smiling through its middle. I had wooden letters that spelled out " BEADS " so I painted them and added them down the side. A three dimensional effect plus if a customer should forget they are in the bead shop; it is a subtle reminder! HAHA!

The Halloween Photo Collection

Halloween has come and gone and I think it was the first time in decades that I had even a smidge of interest in the day. It makes me miss my Grandpop, my mother's dad. He used to gather and collect things all year long to decorate his enormous front porch. There were lights, pumpkins, life sized scary figures, corn stalks, headless horseman, ghosts and much more. He was very creative and became a big kid again. He served, dressed in a costume, hotdogs and sauerkraut along with candy treats and to the adults, hot coffee and donuts. Halloween in Doylestown was not Halloween with out a stop at " Jim's ". After you passed the ancient cemetery in front of the old Presbyterian church you came upon Grandpop's house. You entered the property by the stone pump house, pass the castle block wall, around the semicircular driveway, under the giant pine and horse chestnut trees ringing the drive. What an extravaganza and only now do I realize just how much work he put into it and what it meant for my community.My face is smiling at the memory but my heart aches mightily for missing him.


Phil's pumpkin. Jacob was too sick to carve and had lost all interest in Halloween so Phil created this work of art. He was quite proud because he asked me to take a picture several times. He ( the pumpkin, surely not Phil ) is a right jolly guy!


The very fabulous Gina in her shrunken skeleton and skull necklace made by yours truly. She looks Mahvelous! Just malevolently mahvelous!

The jolly green, eyes on top of my head, can I get this camera to work Kathy. She was an excellent shade of ghoulie green!

The Crecca Family who came into the building calling very eerily, " Looois...Loooo-is Looooois ". Zombie Joe!

This is Sherman doing his special pet trick as he hopes for another dog bone while his mom shops the bead store. I think he is one of the finest looking customers I have. What a sweet boy!



This is Sherman shopping with his mom at the bead shop.

It is a blissfully quiet morning around the house as I get ready to head into the shop. I though on the is Halloween Eve Eve' I would leave you with some still life photos of my kitchen. Have a great day out there in whatever world you revolve in!

Birds, I love them. To me they are like the beads of the animal world. Tiny jeweled treasures that decorate both sky and earth and sing to embrace the heart. This is a close up of the newest bird in my home,one of the songbirds in my new piece of artwork. I draw birds often and still need to work at capturing them onto paper. Oh, I can make it look like a bird but the life, the song is missing.




This is a full view of the new iron screen that we bought from Gunter Remnitz at his studio during October's open studio weekend in Port Townsend. Even though I would like to have gone to other studios; it just makes me feel so on the spot. I have no idea why I feel this way. Certainly not in my own studio which is my refuge in a harried, crazy, sometimes maddening world. I always march to my own drummer so I guess if my studio became a part of the big open studio weekend... I would feel compromised. Anyhow, it was as always more than terrific to see Gunter's new work and naturally, I forgot my camera. I have shown some of his pieces of crows, owls and roosters on the blog before but this piece is new and is songbirds. He is also working on little 3D songbirds. I love this piece and even though it was a big splurge in the slow economic times; it is a pleaseure to support an artist whose work brings me such joy.