Recent Jewelry Productions

After somewhat of an artistic dead period, I am back to beading. I am currently working on a piece destined for the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads contest next year, I hope. I've picked out and redone more on this piece than my other pieces combined! And of course it's already heading into a different direction than I had sort of half envisioned my head. The colors are similar to the ones I used for my own demo model, some of them at any rate. An iridescent blue iris is the focal color, and it's what I started with and pulled my other colors from. As for more details or a photo glimpse, I'm keeping that under wraps for now. (So Christy, you'll have to come down here to see it!) During what I call my recent dead period, I did work on a bunch of special birthday cards, thinking of you cards, and Mother's Days cards, some of which still need finishing for upcoming May events. (Like my oldest son, Dan, will be 25 on 5-2!) I don't know what it is about 'playing with paper' that I find so relaxing and addicting, but I have my good friend Christy to thank for turning me onto this one! My younger son just turned 14, and I made him the most deluxe hand-done Bronco emblem for the card front that I could envision. started by embossing the horse on heavy white parchment (a heavy vellum). I then colored the horse with oil pencils on the reverse side, in orange and blue, exactly like the current logo, and mounted it on blue paper, and framed it with orange. And it was a big hit! On Tuesday, May 2nd, Hillsboro, Oregon is having an Artwalk from 6-8 pm, and I will be joining the event this time. Each artist is matched with a particular store, and I will be in the toy store. This will give me an opportunity to sell my smaller items like cards and earrings, and even some small photos perhaps. With Mother's Day coming up, perhaps some of my Mother's Day cards and heart earrings will sell. It will also give me an opportunity to hand out my 'artist cards'. They're bigger than a business card, and they give folks my Etsy store and blog addresses, only, with a piece of my Copper Collection jewelry as a very light background behind the text. I hope to see all of you locals at the May Artwalk in Hillsboro!

I've got new flowers!

I'm so excited I could just bust! Last year I planted two bleeding hearts in the back yard, one a dwarf variety, the other is the classic one that we're all familiar with. I planted them under what my Mom now calls "the famous filbert tree". The dwarf guy is under a rhodie, next to a Japanese lantern to the left of our waterfall and pond. The big guy is to the right of the pond, near a huge fern, a Japanese gong, and surrounded by lots of astilbe. And as I looked outside just a few moments ago, I spied what my wacky eyes thought might be flower buds. So I raced outside, wearing my inside-only slippers, and sure enough the big guy is loaded with buds. Then I went and checked the little guy. He has more foliage right now, but fewer flower buds. And the little guy has much lacier and more delicate foliage. And I'm just excited that they made it through their first winter so gracefully, especially since it was such a long cold one! They will make wonderful additions to my shady back yard landscape, under my almost famous filbert tree

Palm Sunday at Henry Hagg Lake with the dogs

Palm Sunday here was just gorgeous; it was sunny and warm, and the sky was blue, blue, blue. So my hubby and I decided to take Shadow and Stuie to nearby dog-friendly Henry Hagg Lake. It had been ages since we took the boys out anywhere, so we packed them into the truck, stopped at Subway for sandwiches on our way out of civilization, and off we went. The walk from the truck through the woods and down to the 14 mile long path around the lake was so pretty with the wild flowers in bloom everywhere. Dainty bits of yellow, purple and white decorated the forest floor.

When we got to the path with the dogs, Stuie jumped into the lead and headed out at warp speed, simply following his nose. The little guy pays almost no attention to where he's going; he's a total ditz brain in that regard. I think he would have gone on forever, but Shadow and I have to be realistic about how much our arthritic joints can take. After the walk, we settled in at a picnic table in dappled shade at the edge of the woods, with a great view of the lake. The dogs had their bones, we had our subs, we spread out blankies on the ground... Every once in a while a group would start to settle in at a nearby picnic table, and then they would get a good look at Shadow, and next thing you know they'd be gone!

Henry Hagg Lake is stocked with fish, so a lot of folks go there to just to fish, either at the edge of the lake, or out on the lake. Half of the lake is a 'no wake zone' for the fishermen, and the other half of the lake is for jet skis, motor boats, water skiing, and other noisy water sports. It was really nice just sitting in the sun with the dogs, watching folks out on the lake. We even had a good view of the loading dock, and it's amazing how fast an experienced boater can load his boat onto the trailer.

This park can get crazy busy in the summer, but at this time of year, it was only moderately busy. We'll have to get back there again soon with the dogs!