I love to dance,and any reasonable semblance of it

I just love to dance!! Now bear in mind, I don't even watch "Dancing with the Stars" because it will only zap my joy in the fact that I can't really dance. The kind of dancing I do is "for the sheer joy of it" dance. The kind that just sorts of oozes out of you. The kind I feel when I have a rush of endorphins on the treadmill and suddenly wish I was on a dance floor so I could be dancing to the tune on my ipod rather than running.

I recently made the piece below as a pin or desk art, not so much because I thought it would be the best looking brooch I ever made, but because it is just to fun of an image to not look at.
From the early 1900's this chick is moving to her own unique beat and I just gotta love it! Only goes to show that some things never change. Dancing is here to stay, no matter what your style is.

The joy of dancing takes on all sorts of forms. From the barest stripped down of just merely jumping up and down to the beat, to the most intricate of well thought out steps.

Came across the following antique postcard and have to wonder however, where does one draw the line?? Maybe if I could talk to this woman and find out just what she was feeling. Is this interpretive dance of a spear of asparagus?

I think what makes me want to dance even more is the fact that we are not alone in this world in us wanting to groove to the beat. Please click on the link below napoleon and snowball to read an interesting article on this fact and even better yet check out the video at the top,watch and then smile. And when you are done, you tell me who dances better? And tell me too, could you watch it and sit still in your seat??

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103629651

A spin on real time

So only a mere two months since I have logged into my blog. Not bad for being comatose.

Have no idea where the time went except that it seems as if there is no time these days.

"Summertime and the living AINT easy" is my tune.

Seems like things always speed up a notch or two as soon as we can start opening the windows around here.

Wonder if it would be great if we could somehow control time. Speed it up when things are boring and slow it down when we really want to savor it longer. Put it into warp speed those bad days so we cannot even absorb them. And then bring it to a crawl when the days are so good we never want it to end.

Put just a little spin to life?

Take for instance this antique postcard. These frogs seem to be in a hurry. But then why don't they just get off the snails? But on the other hand maybe they really just want to experience life at a snails pace. What ever the case thought it was a cute enough to share,besides the fact that it was the only I could come up with that would somewhat congeal with the time theme.

Also wanted to share with you this awesome video called Spin which got me thinking about the whole time thing. And somehow inspired me to get myself a little more in the right gear.
You may have seen it already as it seems to have been up on the net for some time. However, I just came across it. And thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope you do too. If only to have the luxury of this little spin on time.

A Leap of Love

I am excited!! I am going to be in a wedding in the UK in July!! Yep,that's right.
Going to be walking down the aisle. Right smack dab in the middle of the brides bouquet. You read right. In the middle of the bouquet.
Had a lovely customer named Emily purchase "My tiny leap for houndkind" pin which is pictured here.

She is getting married in July, and she had this to say,

"I deliberately went for your pin because I have been searching high and low for a whippy item that I could incorporate into our big day & to be honest so many of the other whippy bits and pieces I've seen the dogs are really ugly! I then saw your pin and it reminded me so much of my beautiful boy Bailey that I knew it would be perfect to add to my bouquet so that I could have him close to me on the day.

I got Bailey from whippet rescue and had him for 8 years, he was my pride and joy and the absolute love of my life, he was without a doubt my soul mate. Tragically whilst my mum was looking after him for me for a few days he was hit by a car and killed instantly.

Although this has been the cruelest of blows for me I am slowly learning to remember him and smile and that is exactly what I will be doing on the 4th July this year as I walk up the aisle!I have also named all of our tables after our pets and the top table is called Bailey after my little man."



I really love being a "part" of peoples lives in ways I never would have imagined.
The image of that pin actually is a bit of digitally altered art from, would you believe it, the 14th century! To me its such a timeless piece of art that seems to have such a modern look to it and captures the joy of a hound freely leaping through the wide open spaces. It has such a happy feel to it and I am glad that Emily chose it to remember her Bailey on her special day.

Seems like no matter where we are in the stream of time, that bond we have with our pooches will always be there, as will true love of the human kind.
So while we are on the subject of romantic love, thought I would share a postcard from the late 1800's.
We often hear comments these days of "Where are our youth headed" these days.
Well if this image is depicting anything of life back then, think this pair got quite an early start down the road called "TROUBLE"!

Be afraid, very afraid....

I for one, have never understand the morbid fear of dentists. Whats the big deal?? Not that I have really enjoyed my trips through the years to keep up the pearly whites, but really nothing to stress about. I guess you could compare my attitude to be similar to the woman in the early 1900's toothpaste postcard.

Well, OK probably not that sedate and contemplative. Who knew brushing the teeth could be such a deep moving experience?
I guess being the blind optimist that I am, I figured all of our dental encounters would leave us with fresher breath, whiter whites and stronger healthier teeth. We might even come away with such a positive experience that we would be much like this young woman who went in to have dental surgery and came out smiling even though they stitched her finger to her gums.

But this week has changed everything. All my growling at my husband, who has a phobia about anything medical, "Quit being such a baby, its just the dentist". Or telling friends who faced extractions, "Aw, you'll be fine. That's what they make vicodin for".
Having had all three of my older children as well as myself have wisdom teeth pulled, I was not at all worried about my 18 year old son having his pulled out on Monday. Worst was I was going to have to kill about 2 hours waiting and getting him situated back home. After all, the oral surgeon said they were very easy teeth and it was going to be a piece of cake.

So when they finally called me back ,I waltzed leisurely into the discharge area. There he sat still barely able to open his eyes. I turned my attention to the nurse who began to spill out all the instructions. Along with the tidbit,"Oh,and he swallowed some gauze" without missing a beat. I looked back at my son and observed what to me appeared to be an impression of a drunken pelican trying to swallow a whole fish. I interrupted the nurse and asked "Did the gauze go down? Why is he swallowing like that?".
"Oh, he is just probably really dry" and went on to more instructions, like gauze of all things, and salt water rinses. As she rose to open the exit door, my steady peer at my son fighting to swallow became more apparent. I told her I was not comfortable leaving as it appeared something was wrong.
So she proceeds to try and get him to drink some water which leaves him choking and gasping for air. They take him back to a room,send me back to waiting room and an hour later come back and tell me he is fine now. So I gather up his things and we head home. Granted,he didn't seem to be gulping anymore.

That night at home when we tried to have him eat or drink, it always ended up the same way. After a few sips, he coughed everything up. I did some research on google and seemed to come away that swallowing can be a difficulty after oral surgery and just figured this was what he was dealing with. Stupid me.
In the morning on Tuesday I checked on him very early to find out that it was still happening. Few sips and he would feel it all build up in his chest and he would cough everything out.
Now a frantic call to oral surgeon was placed. Next thing I know we are whisking him to hospital to have an endoscopy. And lo and behold...gauze. Because I am just plain weird I am posting the actual picture of the endoscopy and the offending gauze.

On the upside,the oral surgery went great. No swelling,bruising,and hardly any pain.
Just a near choking death incident. What more could you ask for??

This Blogs for you...or Its a Family affair

I am going to take a step back from the imaginary world I love to live in when I write my blogs or even create my jewelry. Oh,well ok...its just the world I live in all the time. There! I admitted it.

Anyway, my humour always has a way of getting me through things. But I guess I just felt like sharing things from a different angle today.

Have been busy taking care of somethings in relation to one of my grown sons who is schizophrenic. I will spare the details as anyone who is not familiar with mental illness will think that I am back in my imaginary world writing about it.

So let me start out by saying, if you know anyone, I mean anyone, who suffers with mental illness themselves, or has it in their family or group of friends, go hug them. They deserve it and need it. And then go learn all you can about it so you can be a support.

I think its because of all this, I was deeply moved by a little note that a customer wrote on her jewelry order the other day.


She bought the necklace below



And wrote the following little note on her order:

"I love and collect vintage mohair teddy bears~ am expecting my first child, and want this as a celebratory token~"

I can't even tell you how poignant I find that. I often get emails or little notes from my customers about their purchase and they all mean so much to me. But this one...I just feel honored to be a part of this woman's wonderful journey of a new life that will bring her so much joy and happiness.
Maybe I am really giving this silly little necklace that has the tag "believe" on it too much credit, but that's the way it made me feel.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say "Thank you for making my day" to this wonderful customer, and thanks to those of you who are my family. You know who you are. Thanks so much for your support and for helping me to above all things to keep "believing".

Creative cooking of the past

So I have been reading a few cooking blogs lately.

Amazing how hungry you can get reading the web. So many interesting foods to try that weren't readily available years ago. Not to mention the tools and gadgets we have to make our job easier.
Years ago, those who had a passion for cooking truly threw themselves into their work.
Their whole mind, heart and even their body oozed creativity in their cooking.

Take for example Smella and Olga Johansen. Their passion was creating pastry and tasty sweets.
Their speciality was the fruit fillings and frostings they often used in their desserts.

Not only did they spend much time dreaming up the flavors, but when it was time to fill or frost, they put on their special filler frosting suits.

Then they would fill them up to the point of almost bursting, and just throw themselves into their creativity,writhing and rolling on the floor using the tops of the hat like cone to fill the delectable treats. And to think we have it so easy these days. True artists they were in their own time.

They were fortunate enough to have others to encourage them on in their craft. Those who shared their love and passion for creating works of edible art. Their best friend, Smirna who lived down the street was one such person. When she baked a cake, she threw herself in it...literally.

Here she is after having used her body as a beater for blending some cake batter. Notice the precise way she held her fingers for hours at a time. This allowed her to get excellent mixing of ingredients while at the same time looking very exotic.

Truly inspiring woman they were. So much so that they left their mark on their little town, and did much to help those younger then them to realize that indeed, you could follow your dreams and accomplish much.

I often think of these great woman of the past. These woman who used every fiber of their being to throw themselves, mind,body,and heart into their creations. Could they be my distant relatives??

Very often I get a strange feeling come over me. Usually after I have super glued my fingers together while making jewelry. Really makes you wonder.

Ooh,ooh,**waves hand*** pick me pick me

So a short little blurb, and I gotta make it quick. Loads of work on my desk, jewelry to ship out, yada yada. Biggest reason to be fast is I am a great indie procrastinator. Thats right. I proudly independently procrastinate all by myself.
And for that very reason, I almost am not going to make the deadline to write a blog about a great little indie radio station. You know the one I am talking about. Come on. Sure you do.
http://www.blockheadradiolive.com/ Yeah thats the one.

Winning a commercial would be a trip. It says it would be right here.
http://blockheadradio.blogspot.com/2009/01/need-some-free-advertising-you-bet-you.html


And it would also be a trip to wear a jammin frog playing a flute pin while dreamin of jammin while winning the commercial.

So I did it. Made it before the deadline came falling down on me. Now I can go back to being an indie procrastinator. All I have to figure out is what task I want to put off next.