beach day

Last week Rick and I took a Wednesday off - unheard of! - and drove over to the coast. There's nothing like a shot of ocean to get the juices flowing. We'd intended it to be an actual day off, and stopped at one of those lovely Oregon beaches with the huge rocks and crashing surf. It was still foggy, but we didn't care. We skipped on down to the beach like six year olds, gulped in the sea air, and waved greetings to the dear Pacific Ocean. It didn't take long before my eyes went to the rocky ground on the beach and started looking for treasures. I'm always on the lookout for treasures, and I usually find them. The huge rocks in the water gave way to smaller ones on the beach, and then even smaller ones, well on their way to becoming sand. And so, being the always-on-call beadist that I am, I sat right down and started sifting through handfuls of tiny pebbles, looking for just the right ones to put inside of beads. Rick helped too. He likes to help. And there was something oddly relaxing about picking over such tiny objects in such a big place, looking for just the right ones, taking only what we needed, and leaving the rest.



After a while, the tide came up and shooed us away, as if to say, Enough work! Go play! So we drove on up the coast, eventually finding sun, crab sandwiches, and beer. Later we walked with the dogs on a long, empty beach, with one little finger of fog clinging to the coast just ahead of us. The way the sun hit it created a pure white rainbow, something I didn't even know existed. We walked and walked, trying to catch up to it and stand in that incredible light. We never did, of course, but we did find even more treasures on that glowing stretch of sand. Rick found a big shell fossil, and I found a fist size rock with a hole all the way through it. A bead! What a fitting gift!







Back home, I got out a glass globe from my stash, and started tucking tiny pebbles inside. I sealed it up with sterling silver, preserving a bit of one beautiful day like a snapshot of time. I didn't keep it. Didn't need to. I have the memory in my head, and enough pebbles to make one or two more beads before I have to go back to the coast and replenish again.

group effort

I just got word from the Toledo Museum of Art about a project they're working on, called The Bead Goes On. It's a community art effort, which I think is just dandy, and it's all about beads, which I find particularly pleasing. They're attempting to round up 10,000 handmade beads of all sorts, which they will assemble into a great big beautiful Bead Curtain. Very cool. I want to play. I hope you will too. The prospectus and full details can be found on the link above. You can send up to five beads, and they can be made of just about anything, so this is a project that really is open to everyone. I like that a lot, and I look forward to a bunch of us here working on it together. Leave a comment here if you send some beads in, and send me a picture too if you want to. I'll see if I can find a way to post them here, so we can all see what we've done. My beads aren't ready to go yet, but soon! OK, go!

love notes

You've probably heard about the woman who has a habit/hobby of finding "smiley faces" in everyday objects. It's pretty adorable, really, and very likely to lift your spirits when you start to see the world smiling back at you. I dabble in this one, but my personal search is for accidental heart shapes. Lots of times they're rocks, like the one below, which I found here in the campground and gave to Rick for Valentine's Day. Other times they might be a cloud in the sky, a patch of moss, or some gnarled tree bark.



Yesterday I spotted a looped piece of hair in the shower, shaped like a heart, reminding me yet again, that love, like smiley faces, can be found in the most unlikely places. All we have to do is look. I think they're like secret love notes from the Universe, and the more we watch for them, the better we are at finding them.

february bead abundance giveaway

We hear it every day - "the economy this, the economy that"... And I hear it every day -"I just don't have any money to buy beads right now"... I hear you! I feel your pain! And I want to help!

It's my belief, and my experience, that when I notice and am grateful for what I have, not only does what I don't have seem less important, the things I need seem to have an easier time finding their way to me. I've been walking around for years saying, "Oh, I don't know... I just live a charmed life!" And know what? I do. True story. I believe in my bones that there's enough of everything for everyone, and I know for sure that I always have everything I need. So my goal here is to share some of my Belief In Abundance with you. To do this, I'm going to do a Bead Abundance Giveaway!

Let's start now. This will be a random drawing, and the prize will be one of my beads. I don't know which one yet, but I promise it will be a good one! You don't have to buy anything to win, and you don't have to be on my mailing list. Just follow a few simple rules to be entered in the drawing...

1. Visit my BeadShop, have a look around, and make a note of your three favorite things in the shop.

2. Come back to my blog, and leave a comment on this post, telling me what your three favorite items in my BeadShop are, and ALSO list three things in your life that make you feel your abundance.

That's it really. Pretty simple. Here's the Fine Print:
Only enter ONCE during the month of February.
Entries must be made as a comment to this post on my blog.
No email entries.
No anonymous entries.
No incomplete entries.
One winner will be chosen by random drawing in early March.
The prize might be one of the winner's favorite picks from my BeadShop, or something else. It's up to me!

So off you go! See you back here!
Here's to all of us living a Charmed Life, filled with Abundance!


(Photo lifted from this lovely blog: How To Experience Abundance Anytime Anywhere)

the next step

Deep breath, beads, fine silver wire...
Start twisting.
Twist and shout. Twisted sister. Twistin' the night away.
Smooth, hammer, oxidize, polish.
Ahhh... yes. This is what I meant...



I love the feel of these, and I love that each one speaks to me differently, telling me just where the wire needs to go next, and next, and next. My fingers are sore, and I can't get enough of these gnarly, elegant rings. I try one on, and then another. I can't choose a favorite, so I wear them all. I've made them all in my size, in case I decide to keep them, or in case nobody wants to buy them. I'll try, I really will, to make some smaller ones. And I'll try to share, but not today. This new love is mine today.

diamonds and dirt

So much energy. So many ideas. So many things to try. Not enough hours in a day. I dashed out to the studio tent yesterday to take some pictures in its lovely glowing light. A million things in my head. A busy day already in the works. Tea cup in tow. Hair still wet. Gravity surge.............



Diamonds and dirt don't mix. At least someone had the good sense to invent tweezers for such occasions. I was instantly required to take a deep breath and slow down and focus. I had to laugh at how the Dear Universe gets our attention sometimes. If we're smart, a gentle tap on the shoulder is all it takes. It's easier to listen here. I'm listening...

Moral of the story: Slow down, pay attention, and eat breakfast... In the midst of manic creativity, mundane, practical things like level blood sugar play a key role. Today, scrambled eggs and cheese.