Hope the bead pix aren't a re-post :) I just want to give you all something to look at and I was down in the dumps last Monday so I wasn't productive at all~ I'll make up for it soon!

I found some missing comments this morning... They never made it to the e-mail notification stage for some reason. Ah well, now they are posted.

It is absolutely beautiful out this morning. A sunny spring day after months of grey and gloomy is so worth the wait. The sky is blue and Mt. Rainier is visible as well as the Cascade Range. I wish I could just sip my coffee and breathe in the fresh scent of morning for a bit. My Grandma Joyce used to take my sister and me to her cabin at White Pass. It was wonderful. We took walks every evening with flashlights and every morning when I would get up she would be out on the porch drinking a coffee. It is probably her love of coffee that rubbed off on me. She used to give me a bit with some cream and sugar mmm... And then there was the swimming pool. We used to beg to go swimming from the time we got up until we got to the pool. Sue and I were relentless about it. Before I learned to swim I would pull myself along the smooth concrete edge hand over hand until my fingers would just about bleed. I was pretty determined to move around in the water somehow. I can't remember the exact moment I started swimming it just happened. I am rambling a bit as usual, no focus or direction :)

Next weekend I am going to Seattle for a mini "Girl Vacation" with my best friend Chelsea and her other friend Tawnie from Spokane. I cannot wait! We are going to have so much fun, just hanging around in the Big City~

A big set of the Mariposa beads. I am thinking about doing some in another color... My new Favorite Spoon Bracelet. Must be the bold look of the spoons on this one ;)
One more I will be adding these to the shop later~
All those plans I had for last Monday kinda went down the tubes with the VT shootings. How senseless and sad. Things like that always put me into a tailspin. I find I suddenly question the quality of the everything, the life I am living to the time I am spending with my family.
I have decided to live my life differently as a result. I went back and re-read this:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." The above speech by Nelson Mandela was orignally written by Marianne Williamson who is the author of other similar material."

Need I say More? :)

Hope I can live up~

Sundays are for sleeping in. At least until 6:45 or so, breakfast with the family and the morning news with some excellent coffee and a splash of yummy cream. They are also for catching up on e-mails and looking around at all of the things you missed during the week. I have been so busy lately with Sam and spring break and all of the birthdays and Easter. I guess life does come at you fast :) I am hoping to get some serious quality bead time in on Monday. Mostly because I deserve it. This work is my play.

Isn't she the cutest baby ever? Some prototype cabinet knobs
Mariposa~
How time slips away~ Random thoughts: I seem to be living under some tiny grey cloud lately no matter how well behaved I am minor things keep happening to mess it up :) Phhh...
I miss my Grandmother, Easter Sunday was the one year anniversary of her death. I wonder whatever happened to "grandmas mustache" She seemed to have one and now that I am nearing forty one I keep checking to see if I am getting one. Hers just seemed to vanish I don't really know what she did about it... Why do people drive like they do? What is really happening to the honey bees in North America? They are disappearing and not even a single tiny little carcass is left behind, just empty hives. Are they gathering up and flying away for freedom? Maybe it is alien abduction? 14 out of 20 pygmy hares released to repopulate the Columbia Basin were killed via predation. Wonder why the population was dwindling in the first place? If an item was shipped to a foreign country and refused will it get shipped back? I guess really I should have said random questions because they are mostly questions.
The Beads I made last week. They are already gone to a good home.

My favorite set this week!
I love these too!
And this one!
Oh and these~
Last but not least more of these~
Okay I admit it I am just a bead ho :) I took the week off to spend spring break with my daughter and try and get some things done. I have not accomplished all that I thought I could, go figure lol...

Sam and I did get a lot of cleaning done yesterday Yay! The donation folks came and picked up some things this morning. I had planned to spend today in my studio making some more beads but I am kind of feeling under the weather what the heck?!!! Sam is going to her Grandmas house this afternoon for a trip to the beauty shop and the book store How fun for her :)

She loves to go to the book store or the library.

We are having family over for Easter Sunday and I am looking forward to it. Cooking a nice dinner and spending some time together is always fun.

I just hope I get out of this funk I am in before then ... shake it baby shake it :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Day~

The muddy muddy backyard
It is coming along nicely :)
A Purple Rose~
The backyard is coming along in spite of all the wild spring weather we are getting. Warm and teasing one minute downpours and hail the next.
No more flaming knees :) Matt is kinda half laid up with the healing process. We have discovered some excellent bandages made especially for burns and they seem to work fairly well.
My friend Chelsea had a birthday bash last night and Matt brought up the fact that he had been on fire. Now we were sitting at the far end of the table and there were six men and two women at our end. Three of those six men had all been on fire!!!! ahem none of the women :) So does that mean that 50% of ALL men have been on fire? Fess up boys we've got your number now. One of them had been on fire more than once (he is a welder) I use a torch to melt glass and haven't caught myself on fire yet... Oh wait I have been on fire once. I used to smoke and I had surgery on on my wrist, it was in a sling. We were just leaving the hospital and I was "dyin' for a smoke" so I lit up and the burning end fell off into the sling and it burned in the strangest way, no flames just hot orange embers around the edges of a quickly growing hole. I remember looking down at it and thinking what the heck??? Then I realized I was on fire, it smelled horrible.
So I guess 50% of all women have been on fire too if we follow my rules :)
The purple rose is made from layered glass pulled into individual petals that are kept preheated to prevent thermal shock as they are applied in the flame. Each petal is meticulously hand-shaped as I add it to the core. I also used a hand-pulled cane to apply the green sepals at the base of the rose.