lo and behold

Even in summer, we barely have a wide open weekend day with nothing going on.  But lo and behold, we found ourselves in just such a situation this weekend.  We did some internet searching, hopped in the car, and headed out on a day trip adventure to someplace we’d never been before.  When the kids asked us questions, I loved saying, “I don’t know. I’ve never been there.  We’re going  to find out together.  Maybe it will be great.  And maybe it won’t.”  Not being the most easygoing person in the world, this is not a comfortable or common string of sentences to flow past my lips.

Our destination:  Horseneck Beach State Reservation

What a sweet and lovely place on a slightly overcast day with a slight breeze.  And some blue sky as in the photo below.  

It met all my criteria for a perfect beach day trip (once we got upwind of the guy smoking a cigar.) A 2-hour drive. No traffic.  No boardwalk. A picnic in a cooler.  One small concession stand. Soft sand. Bay waters that were warm in a New England kind of way.  Gentle waves (kids could have even handled them a little bigger.)  I love the beach, but I’m not a sit-on-the-beach-for-a-week kind of vacationer.   A day here and there, though, in the presence of ocean water and shells, goes a long way for the good of my soul. 

I’ve been practicing stringer control and these little lovelies are going into my next Beads of Courage donation. I’m quite proud of them!

I love this organization:  Beads of Courage.  They describe themselves this way

Beads of Courage helps children RECORD, TELL and OWN their stories of courage during treatment for cancer and other serious illness. Through the Program children receive different colored beads each which symbolize their unique and challenging treatment journey.

Some of the beads are handmade and donated by glass beadmakers. Others are the simpler, more common beads that children everywhere string by the hundreds, fascinated and delighted that they can decorate themselves with handmade jewels.  The idea behind Beads of Courage is so right:  beauty with meaning; telling stories; marking time; invented ritual; celebrating children; reaching out to those who are most in need; facing our worst fears.

One day I want to help start a Beads of Courage program at my local hospital. 

Right now, Beads of Courage is in the running to win 25K from Pepsi with which they will fund three new sites.  They  need to be voted one of the top ten “great ideas” at this website.  They are currently ranked 13 and voting ends on July 31. Will you please stop by and give them a click?  It would be awesome if they won.  

My husband laments how fast the summer flies by.  Come September, he’s doing all that he can to keep the summertime feeling just a little longer.  Last year, second week after school started, he wanted us to take a family trip down to New York City for the weekend.  I just couldn’t do it.  He took the kids and his parents and they had a great time, while I spent a quiet weekend in the house by myself, recuperating from summer.

I used to like summer, too - and it’s not exactly that I don’t like summer now.  But for him, it’s summertime and the livin’ is easy. . . for me, not so much.  His life pretty much goes on as usual, except actually his work slows down.  He puts in the same hours, pretty much the same schedule, but with less stress.  He hates that he can’t spend more time outdoors, and like me, he misses the way summer felt when we were students and/or teachers, but mostly, he still enjoys summer and it’s a good time for him.

For me, summer is a revolving door of carpools and changing schedules and transitions and keeping the kids busy and listening to them whine when they are not.  And I don’t say that in a bad way, completely.  My kids have great summers, and I’m immensely glad and grateful that they do.  For them, it’s one amazing camp after another:  ballet, cooking, outdoor education, art, and horseback riding. It’s afternoons and weekends at our neighborhood pond or our CSA farm. And that’s before they go off to two weeks of overnight camp and a family vacation or two!

I remember the days when I was a school teacher and summers were a time of tremendous rejuvenation for me.  I would relax, be spontaneous, sleep to my body’s own rhythm, ride my bike, and take adventurous trips.  I think, for me, being a parent has changed my summers more than having a job has changed them for my husband.   

And so, that’s what I’ve been pondering here in the middle of July. I have been on the summer treadmill for about three weeks, following a fantastic trip we took out west.  The kids are old enough now that we are trying to bring them along on some of the kinds of trips we took in the old days, and this year was a big leap in that direction.  Two weeks in Utah and Colorado.  Sleeping in a different place every few nights.  We all had a lot of fun and we felt like we were gone a long time. I had a great plan that I was going to take a photo a day on my iPhone and post it to the blog. Except that I had no idea how little cell service there was in Utah. There was more in Colorado, except where we were staying, so by that time, I just gave it up. 

Later this summer, for the first time, both kids will go to overnight camp, and the summer pace will change again completely.  Hubby and I still have to work, but maybe I won’t cook.  Maybe we’ll go to the movies every night.  Maybe we’ll go out and finally buy ourselves new bikes.  Who knows? 

So, looking back and looking ahead it’s all good.  Tomorrow, another carpool.  Or two, in opposite directions. 

Scenes from the west:

When Rachel was born 8 years ago, I worked a rather intense job in corporate communications and Nikki was our nanny. Rachel called her Ninny and she was a tremendous help to me - calm, even, dependable, patient - during a rather difficult time. She had moved to MA from CO, and after 2 years, she moved back. She hosted us on the first night of our vacation and it was great to see her!

There are no consolation prizes behind my doors 1, 2, and 3.  Each door offers me a wonderful and different present.  Hmmm, let’s see,  I can buy one for my birthday, one for my half-birthday, and one for . . . what I tell my kids is called an “I love you present.”  Just cuz. 

My door #3 is Daisychain Jewellery.  And that’s jewellery rather than jewelry because Jo the metal smith is located in Southampton, UK.  I first “met” Jo when I participated in the first Bead Soup Blog Party hosted by  Lori Anderson.  The second Bead Soup Blog Party is happening right now, and I couldn’t swing it play along this time, but I will definitely be crashing the party once the participants start revealing (next week) what they have made with the “bead soups” they received from another blogger. 

Anywhoo, for her bead soup jewellery piece, Daisychain made this lovely focal pendant with a hollow lampwork bead from Island Girl Insights.  

A week or two later,  she offered a tutorial on how to make it for the drooling commenters like myself who loved what she did. 

Let’s just say that I’ve been hooked ever since. On her blog, Jo is very generous with her experience and knowledge of working with metals, and if it she didn’t live across the pond, I’d sign up for one of her “private tuitions” in a minute.  Or, I’ll  just hop across the pond one day and say hello. 

But in the meantime, if I were to own one of Jo’s pieces for myself, here are a few I’d consider from her online shop. 

As one who is not interested in prissy flowers in the least bit, I’m an utterly enchanted by these. And now I understand why she is called Daisychain Designs.  That cuff – it is unlike anything I own – and I think I would love wearing it. 

And here’s another.  She calls it Dusky Rose, and I could put a different stone in the middle if I wanted. . . . This girl can rock flowers.  (And all the photos belong to the artist.) 

So, each of my doors is really a doorway into a different world.  Don’t be surprised to see photos of me sporting some new jewels before my next birthday . . . And can someone please tell my husband to read my blog?

I found each of the artists I am writing about this week through her blog.  And this person, Beth Hemmila, of Hint Jewelry, routinely stuns me with her beautiful and honest writing. Off the top of my head, I remember a recent post about having an open or closed heart, and another about the “every woman’s complex relationship with food.” Both of these posts articulated challenges that are well known to me. Beth shares openly about her failures, her lifestyle, and her business. 

On her blog, Beth describes her jewelry business this way: 

wild west spirit meets far east design :: handmade silver jewelry connecting people through simple beauty, pure craftsmanship, and common stories

On her Etsy shop, the banner says, Stories in Metal. Primarily, her work is making silver charms, mostly out of PMC, and some also in sterling.  Each carved and cast charm has a picture on it that symbolizes a part of the life force – those are my words, not Beth’s, but I think that’s the idea.  Here are a few of the charms that speak to me. The photos and the descriptive text are borrowed from Beth’s Etsy shop, with her permission. 

Prana, mighty life force and healer, come swim next to me in the borderland. Open my body to spaciousness and touch the places that hurt so as to lead me back to the sound of myself — the feeling that sings without knowing why.

Hummingbirds draw on the essence of flowers, extract sweetness from life, and show us the way to find joy in any situation. They are a symbol for celebrating a life fulfilled as well as losses in the form of loved ones and dreams. Deeply woven into the mythology of the Americas, hummingbirds are often considered tiny messengers between worlds, helping shamans keep the balance between spirit and nature.

A tree of life “to evoke the earth’s healing powers of creation, nourishment, and protection” and matched with wire wrapped gemstones in the colors of the seasons. 

Beth sells the charms individually and also uses them in lovely, luscious pieces of jewelry.  She makes some to sell (like the tree of life above), some on request from customers, and this year, she is building herself an “heirloom memory necklace.” Each month of 2010, she is adding something(s)to a necklace that remind her of that month.  I can’t imagine the time she is investing to write and draw and think about her life so beautifully and intentionally.  This is what her necklace looked like at the end of May 2010.

I can’t wait to see where it goes, and I LOVE reading what Beth writes each month about her process.  

As you might imagine, I am very drawn to this whole idea. Poetry in jewelry – that’s an interesting juxtaposition for me, as I feel that my poet self coming back alive but in a different medium.  I love the idea of making necklaces of this type as gifts.  And for myself, I could make a birthday necklace and add something each year.  Or, I could start a necklace now which I could continue to build until I am 50.  It would be a piece that represented the period of my life between ages 45 – 50 in which I feel I am re-birthing myself, or revising myself, or transforming in some powerful way (I don’t have the words yet – maybe something visual will help.)

If I got myself a birthday present from Hint this year, I think I would start with the Tree of Life.  . . . I would certainly add something glass that I have made, and something beaded.  Fun to think about.

I also want to hold Hint in my mind as a model of business.  I noticed that Beth gives away 10% of her sales to a different “good cause” each month, something that I did when I started my Etsy store.  I also wonder if I will find a way to bring meaning to the beauty that I am learning to create in glass.  I’ve thought about it, and sometimes certain ideas come up.  I think I’m getting closer that that ideal, but I know I will have to stay open to the desire and put the time in to really tease it out.  That’s a very good goal, and Hint is an excellent example. 

I’ve selected three choices for my birthday present to self.  The artist behind Door #1 is from Round Rabbit.  Since I started writing this post a few days ago, she’s put everything in her shop on sale – 25%  off! 

The problem with Round Rabbit is that there is so much gorgeousness that making a choice seems pretty impossible.  I love the patterns, the shapes, the colors. I want pendants and earrings.  I don’t really want bracelets, so I guess that helps.  Here are a few of my favorites: 

OK.  It seems I want circles.  Except that if I had to pick right now, I think I’d pick the crimson tear drop earrings.  She adds new things to the store all the time.   And on her blog, creativity spills out and over and over and over again.  It blows me away. 

See these bead below?  Made of porcelain?   I want to make them out of glass.  I tried, but it didn’t work.  I”ll try again. 

What would you pick from Round Rabbit’s shop if you were buying yourself a present?