Quizzy

Taking joy in life is a women's best cosmetic. Rosalind Russell

Joy can be found anywhere. Lately I've been listening to owls at night, 4 of them They hoot back and forth usually around 9. I am hoping they are nesting, not that I could find the nest, but it'd be nice to have a pair settle into our area. We have a abundance of rabbits and I'd like to think they'd help keep that population down.

Quizzy is a new owl just listed in my etsy.

Strange Happenings

Intuition is a spiritual faculty, and does not explain, but simply points the way. Florence Shinn

Odd occurrences happening here this morning. When I went out to feed the boys breakfast I found Redman in Eazy's field with him. The gate was done up, and none of the fence appeared disturbed. As much as Redman loves to play I doubt he jumped the fence. It's not unusual for me to be stumped in the morning, I'm not a morning person and often stumble about looking half stunned. But this stopped me in my tracks, made me blink, then blink again.

Redman was buddied up beside Eazy, wait for it.........

Standing on Cruizes grave.

My heart broke, again.

Apparently I am not the only one having a hard time adjusting to the changes we've had over the last year.

I'll admit I cried, again.

Opened the gate and called Redman and he came happily over to his side of the field and started eating his breakfast.

I still wonder how he got on the other side of the fence?

Eternal Beige

O world invisible, we view thee

O world intangible, we touch thee

O world unknowable, we know thee

Francis Thompson

Touch is a sense I think we take for granted. I love the earth, dirt, digging, mucking. Spending time in the garden is almost as therapeutic as a massage for me.

I'm drawn to earth tones as you can see from the above photo. Eternal Beige a random set of disks I've listed in my etsy.

Acrylics

With stammering lips and insufficient sounds, I strive and struggle to deliver right, the music of my nature, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

I took a painting class last weekend, acrylics and it was so much fun! Jennifer Zizman taught it, her websites not up and running yet or I'd have included a link. She was a wealth of information, but kept it fun, simple yet still very creative.

I think I'm hooked and will take two more of her classes. Something about moving paint around, making depth and movement where there once was nothing. It an amazing feeling.

A much larger scale than I am used to working with, so much room to roam and create on!

Purple Moss and a sale!

I am in love with this color combo, can you tell I've been playing with it for weeks! Purple Moss, an earring pair in my Etsy that are just really cool beads! I'm also having a Mothers Day sale, in fact it's a SATEAM sale so search SATEAM on etsy for lots of great deals!

I already offer FREE SHIPPING to US and canada!! For this sale 10% off orders over 20.00 and a free gift for orders over 50.00

Clouds

Nothing can cure the soul like the senses, just as nothing can cure the sense but the soul. Oscar Wilde

Today I found myself tired, some days just start out that way. First thing this morning while stumbling around in my morning stupor feeding horses I noticed a large black rain cloud. I am not a morning person, anyone who's spent more than 5 min with me in the morning can figure that out. But this morning the black cloud caused me to stop and smell deeply. The smell of on coming rain is so fresh, crisp and clean. It perked me up, odd that a dark cloud can warm you and get you moving.

That got my morning off to a decent start, then I lagged mid day as I often find myself doing. I need some sort of mid day pick me up, maybe a walk?

Got some new bead ideas in the kiln, can't wait to see what comes out tomorrow!

Hot bath

There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know any of them. Sylvia Plath

With a storm coming in tonight this is a fitting quote. I love baths, I love bath oils, bubbles, scrubs, salts, anything that smells good! Relaxing in the tub with a good book is one of my favorite evening things to do. Often I've got a chill from evening chores and a bath with some wonderful scent helps warm me up. I do wish someone would invent a book stand for the bathtub!

Renewal

Spring is a time for renewal, all the flowers and greenery poking it's head up from a long winter. It's a wonderful time of year, but is coming a bit early here this year. I noticed a pair of barn swallows flitting about last night and I don't remember ever seeing them this early before.

I've got my vegetable garden all ready for planting and it all mapped out. I'm hoping to get some early seeds planted this week. I'm thrilled with my new (used) rain barrel!

Frosted

The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy. Yves Saint Laurent.

Part of staying positive for me is being happy with myself and often that means putting on something lovely that makes me smile. I have four new scarfs that I love, in bright colors that really make me feel good.

These beads, Frosted go perfect with a purple scarf I have. I made myself a pair of earrings out of similar beads and they always make me feel great!

Fresh air and sunshine

The body is shaped, disciplined, honored and in time, trusted. Martha Graham

In this wonderful weather I'm going to start walking again. Who can help but want to get outside in all this lovely spring air. While feeding the horses tonight I noticed how warm it was, the birds flitting about, just a wonderful day. I always feel better after catching some fresh air!

Yesterday I spent a good portion of my day torching. Longer than normal but it felt great! Rolling Hills came out of that beadmaking session and I love the depth they have.

Cloud Nine

Self love is the only weightloss aid that really works in the long run. Jenny Craig

I find it interesting that the Simple Abundance quotes often mirror what's going on in my life.

I've been eating a lot of sugar these last few days, I think easter started it. Then I found my favorite treat of all time, sweet tarts! But boy does my energy reflect it. I've been a bit tired and I'm sure it has to do with all the sugar!

Clearly I am not on cloud nine, at the moment I am coming down from a sugar high! BUT these beads are Cloud Nine!

Perhaps too much of everything is as bad as too little. Edna Ferber

Interesting quote on today's Simple Abundance journal. Considering I just ate an entire roll of sweet tarts. Anyone who knows me knows I have a weakness for candy, and a bigger weakness for sweet tarts. I've also been off sugar for a couple years now. So, eating a whole roll, bad idea!

And I start

Today was one of those days, things felt slightly out of whack all day. I felt like I didn't fit, like I didn't belong. From the moment I got up, which was hard as the cat was happily perched on my chest drooling, I felt like the day just wasn't right.

But I plunged forward, forgetting about the spaces in between. Couldn't find a place I was looking for. Didn't fit in at a group meeting. Got stopped by every stop light between Nanimo and home, was late feeding my horses, then, I stopped.

Indy who is constantly on a diet, and was very upset dinner was late made me stop. He kicked the gate, ran about, fussed, grumped, moan and groaned. He is pretty vocal when he's upset. When I went in with his supper (which by the way has herbs in it he is NOT fond of) he bolted a mouth full of grain, and stopped.

Chewed his grain, slopped a bit on my shoulder, and rested his head. One big sigh from him reminded me my goal is to try once a day to stop. To let the spaces in between to happen.

And so I stopped. Listened to my good friend enjoy his supper, listened to a frog croak to someone, watched a hawk float on a breeze.

Then, Redman let out a beller and reminded me he too was waiting on supper. But that small moment where the space in between slipped in was wonderful.

The space between

Stefanie Travers is an old friend, well she herself is not old. I've known her for a long time, she used to shoe my horses. Now she's moved up north to live a lot of people's dream, breaking and training horses. I've been a fan of her blog for a while now, interestingly enough it motivates me art wise. It makes me think, makes me smile, sometimes it hits something and makes me cry.

Her blog post about the spaces between really made me think. She talks about meditation, which I desperately would like to tackle but just can't seem to. I've got a meditation idol picked out, a wonderful creature from Pipyr. Sadly I've had it for over a year now, it sits on my kitchen window ledge, waiting, for me to utilize it's energy. And it does have energy, with horse hair additions it really speaks to me. Yet I still don't meditate.

Stefanie talks about the "spaces in between". The small moments between what we want, need and work to make happen are where the little moments in between happen. Where things just happen, where we learn peace, acceptance and grace.

It's hard to let the universe in when you are stuck, working hard, plugging forward. It's incredibly hard to just be, to listen, to be at peace for just a moment. The spaces in between are my goal for this year. I didn't know it when I started the year out, but reading Stephanie's blog post made me realize I need to try and step back, for at least a moment a day and just be. To let the universe in, to learn peace, acceptance and grace. It may be one of the hardest things I do, but the universe is out there, waiting for me, why not let it in? Will I learnt to meditate? Well we shall see, my question at the moment is where do I start?

Japanese Plum

Beauty is all together in the eye of the beholder. Margaret Hungerford

Have I mentioned how much I love Cleo the new Double Helix glass? The bead above was made using it and some silver wire from my etsy shop. I use 32 gauge wire in my beads, I find the dots it leaves are smaller and less likely to pop off. It also have wonderful reactions with the Cleo glass.

Spring Creativity

Good taste shouldn't have to cost anything extra. Micky Drexler

This weather is making it hard for me to focus. It's currently blowing a good wind and hailing. Today was sunny? I can't seem to decide if I'm coming or going? Spring, winter, summer, what season is it?

Instead of treating myself to my typical Dark Cherry Mocha while I was out running errands today I decided to treat myself to some spring creativity. I got my errands done in record time and got home to torch up a ton!

I picked one (well actually 3) bright spring colors, along with my Cleo obsession and just played. All in all not a terrible day, I got some not so good news half way through, normally I would have quit for the day. I think the bright colors helped me push on and finish my day.

What are you doing to help your spring creativity?

Diamond Blue

Sorry for the lack of posting I've been a bit swamped. I'll get back at it soon! In the mean time Diamond Blue, new beads in my etsy!

The artist inside all of us

Learn the craft of knowing how to open your heart and to turn on your creativity. There's a light inside of you. Judith Jamieson

I really like this quote. I think everyone can be creative, there is a artist in all of us! Granted some artists are hard to find, they hide, are often shy and don't like crowds but if you nurture them they'll always come out.

Spring is a time for trying new things, let your artist come out. Try a weekend class, Coast Collective has some wonderful classes! I teach, beginner jewelry making, byzantine and viking knit there. They have painted, mosaic's, stained glass and the list goes on and on. It's a wonderful setting, try one!

I've got a fun set of pandora / troll beads in my etsy. They were fun to make I may do more of these in different colors!

Newport Blue