andrew thornton's september reader's challenge

when i saw this month's challenge i knew i had to participate. lavender is my absolute favoritest color in the whole wide world. and twilight, andrew's inspiration, is my favorite time of day. perfection! and i'm keeping this one for me.:)

it also has some of my favorite bead artist's; c-koop enamel, humblebeads polymer, and swoondimples polymer. so much candy goodness!

as soon as i got the kit, i sat down and sketched. it took a couple tries but i got it hammered out. i'm really pleased with this design. i hope you like it, too.

twilight garden-ey goodness!

for the complete list of participant's, visit andrew's blog.

you are beautiful

for the bead soup blog party go here
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so i wrote a poem the other night for my nieces. thought i'd share.

you are beautiful

you are like a perfect pearl,
started from a bit of dust.
and then God lavished upon you luminous layers,
polishing you until you stood before us,
so amazing in your beauty.
you take my breath away with your beauty.

so when someone tells you
you're not pretty enough or smart
enough or whatever enough,
remember,
God built you cell by cell
millimeter by millimeter.
and sweetheart,
you can tell by nature's beauty
that God does beauty like nobody else.

you are beauty personified,
honey-child.

bead soup blog party reveal day!

i am so so so thrilled to be participating in lori anderson's bead soup party for the very first time! this is my second challenge ev-er, but i'm not a newbie to beading. i got my first beads in sixth grade from my dear mama. she was garage saleing in coos bay, oregon and came across a box of beads and brought them home to me. why me and not my sister? i was into crafts and she wasn't. all my life i've tried to get my sisterinto beading, and it never took till eight years ago when she was put on bed rest for the last trimester of her first pregnancy. i was in alaska and she was in seattle and i went down to keep her company and brought along some of my beads. we're both readers but there's only so much reading you can do before it starts to pale. so she tried the beads... and loved it! yay! my favorite person in the whole wide world joined me in my love and now we own our own business selling our jewelry in fairbanks, alaska. you can visit her here. she is also in the party.

so now that you have a little history on my beading, let me introduce my soup partner, cassie donlen. she is a dear woman who is fabulously talented. she is a lampworker and metalsmith who has been published and who's site is here. her main store is here and her little store on etsy is here. she sent me these beads. aren't they completely a-maz-ing?!? she made the lampwork, the toggle, and the focal. the rest of the soup are all vintage czech. the cones are pewter.

without further ado here is what i made---

i just love how they turned out!

this was so much fun! lori worked so hard and made this a wonderful experience. i hope i'll get to do it again.

to visit the rest of the blogs visit lori anderson's blog here. have fun perusing everyone's blogs!

keys and birds--yummm

i love keys. there's something magical and mysterious about them. what will they unlock? will it alter my life forever? and skeleton keys are the best. just the name of them! fab-u-lous.

i don't believe i've spoken about my obsession with birds. i've mentioned my owl thing. but not the bird thing. it's hard to put into words. but birds... birds mean freedom. they stand for the soul. they are perfection. wings... i just adore wings. they are the epitomy of everything that is good and right in the world. i have a phoenix on my left breast. it was my second tattoo. it is my heart and my soul.

the shibuichi bird in this necklace is a green girl piece. you know how obsessed i am with green girl studios. the patinated chain in both pieces are miss ficklemedia, as is the toggle in the key necklace. the box clasp in the bird piece is a nina designs. the circle link is from dragonfly findings. the stones are aquamarine, crystal, agate, freshwater pearl, turquoise, peruvian opal, beach glass, gaea ceramic, and mother-of-pearl.

end of summer dragonflies

i took this photo at farmers market and then altered it on my phone in photoshop express, which is a terrifically fun app. totally recommend it.

gidget

we lost our girl today. she was sick with fatty liver disease and so in pain from her arthritis. she was a good kitty.

flooding

nancy schindler of round rabbit studio is in the flooded area of the midwest. i feel so bad for her! i've slowly been collecting her work and have always loved the pieces i see. she makes gorgeous porcelain pendants. i know i'm far away and can't really do anything for her but i'm praying for her.

what i should have said to my ob/gyn

so what you're saying is that the nausea/vomiting is related to the happy, horrible stabbing cramping pain? it's all connected. why didn't i think of this?

adam young

if you've never heard of him, you're in a very sad place. owl city has got to be my new favorite. i don't know how to embed video, so you must travel to youtube and type in 'owl city'. start with fireflies and just keep going. then head on over to amazon and buy some albums and read his bio. and cry because life just got better.