these are all sitting out on my bench,

waiting to be made into wonderful things.

and they will be,

just as soon as i return from my trip.

i leave tomorrow for a new england vacation! i will be seeing three felice brothers shows and also visiting a dear old friend. i can hardly contain my excitement. i cannot wait to relax and hear wonderful music and see beautiful sights... and once again come back relaxed and refreshed and ready to dive into my busy season. hope you all are well!

p.s. i told hazel that i would tell you that she is working on a new blog post. should be published tonight if you'd like to view it here.

(she just looks like a floating head, but in reality, olive is riding in my basket. this makes me really happy.)

and i cannot stop listening to this song.

THANK YOU, emily!

i love them.

as you may have noticed, i haven't been working much. today i was feeling very stressed out and behind. i realized that i haven't really been able to work for about a month now. first the girls were sick, june ended up with pneumonia, and i didn't work for about two weeks. then i got sick, then i unexpectedly flew to indiana to be with dommie. then i got home and spent any available time in my shop crying and making pansies. then it was spring break and i wanted to spend time with glenn and the girls. now i have a few days to catch up on orders and then we are going to denver this weekend to be with my mom for her birthday. two days after we return i leave for my new england trip (more on that later!)

so, after THAT, i really have to get busy. i've got three retailers waiting on new pieces. wedding band season has begun and i've got to get going on those. orders from dogids.com are piling up. plus, i need to start building inventory for the telluride farmer's market again and other upcoming shows. i am reminding myself that this is actually a good thing, having too much work and not enough time. i need to be grateful for the demand and figure out the time. soon. right now i am trying to relax and be with my family, and even get a few days break from everything.

hope everyone is enjoying spring!

spring break

we had a wonderful spring break this last week.

we camped in the desert,

and hiked in the valley of the gods.

hazel is showing off her mexican hat dance.

and june is showing off something else...

olive had a blast!

so did glenn.

i have been very curious about whether or not olive would be a water dog. turns out she absolutely is. as soon as she saw the river she got in and started swimming.

(see june's shoe floating away?)

we truly love the camper.

toward the end it got pretty windy and we were so glad to have it to hide in.

yes, i got a nook.

i resisted for a long time, but, i have to say, i LOVE it.

i hid some eggs for the girls in the campground.

and then we did the town easter egg hunt when we got home.

and, of course, easter baskets too.

remembering Dommie

Dorothy Kentzel

march 26, 1917 - march 29, 2012

my incredible grandmother passed away last week, 3 days after her 95th birthday. she was a truly remarkable woman in every way. (for details on her life, you can read her obituary here if you'd like.) i was able to fly to indiana to be with her at the end, which was amazing; i've never had an experience like that.

she was a huge influence on my life and i will miss her more than i can possibly say. i am so so so incredibly lucky to have had her in my life as long as i did. she was always there for me. when i had a difficult decision to make, she was the one i would call to help me make it. she was loving and strong and caring and kind and compassionate. i am not very good at this; i cannot say what i am trying to say about her.

dommie's favorite flower was the pansy. she really loved pansies. as a tribute to her, and as catharsis for me, i have been making these pansy necklaces for the women in my family.

the idea started because i realized i could create the flower out of four hearts, the larger one to represent dommie, and the three smaller ones to represent her three daughters.

one of the reasons she loved pansies so much is because of the image of an angel inside.

i tried to portray that.

this is the one that i made for myself. the star is a bead from a necklace that she gave me for my wedding.

the ship (with her birthstone on the sail) is because of this:

what is dying?

a ship sails and i stand watching until she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says "she is gone." gone where? gone from my sight, that is all; she is just as large as when i saw her. the diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her. and just at that moment, when someone at my side says "she is gone," there are others who are watching her coming, and other voices that take up a glad shout, "here she comes!" and that is dying.

dommie asked us to read this to her over and over again in hospice. it brought her so much peace. she and i talked about who was waiting for her, and how happy they were that she was coming. and, she told me that she would be waiting for me when i came.

(dorothy, her name, is my middle name. when i was little i never liked it; people made wizard of oz jokes. now i feel so honored.)

before i left, my aunt asked me if there was anything i wanted to take. i took a sweater and a scarf of hers to wear on the plane, and a wonderful amish doll that she had made. i also took this necklace. it was the very first bezel set necklace that i ever made, half my life ago, and i sent it to her.

this world will never be the same now that the matriarch of our family is no longer here. and although i know that she had a very long and incredible life, there is no way i can describe how much i will miss her.

wild geese

the fabulous erin at rag and stone sent this poem to me a while back when i was really struggling. (funny, i just went to her blog to link it and she has a post about mary oliver there now.) the idea for this necklace has been brewing for a while now, and the with the arrival of all of those tinies, it became a reality.

wild geese

you do not have to be good.

you do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

you only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

tell me about despair, yours, and i will tell you mine.

meanwhile the world goes on.

meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

~ mary oliver ~

this poem speaks directly to my soul, on so many levels. it is such a perfect piece, such a fabulous expression of pain and hopefulness and connection, puts things into excellent perspective.

the sweetest wild goose, in flight, with tourmaline, iolite, kyanite, london blue topaz, and apatite stones set on top and apatite, kyanite, amazonite, austrian crystal, chalcedony, and iolite beads wire-wrapped into the chain.

my favorite part of the poem is this:

you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

(hazel took this photo.)

and you know what? i have been working so hard on that. the past couple of years of my life i have been really honing in on the things that bring me joy and embracing them and loving them and experiencing them whenever i can... quality time with my girls, the touch of my man, playing music and singing with him too, skiing and hiking and biking and moving my body, enriched time in my shop, live music (especially the felice brothers), traveling, long drives by myself, walking with olive and my ipod, getting into bed early with a good book, (or better yet, the bathtub), sleeping under the stars, hanging out at the local brewery with family and friends, MUSIC...

what does the soft animal of your body love?

are you loving it?

without darkness, chrysoprase

with the girls both sick last week and june home this week with pneumonia (so scary!) , i have not been out in the shop at all. june is doing much better now and today glenn came home early so i could work a bit. i finished this:

without darkness...

with chrysoprase, london blue topaz, peridot, kyanite, apatite, and turquoise

this beautiful trillion cut faceted chrysoprase is the last of my amazing chrysoprase pieces that patty brought back for me from tucson last year. and a teeny little faceted london blue topaz sits in the center of the flower.

as you know, one of my favorite quotes

i took a few photos of the process for you today.

also, i got an amazing new stone shipment in. all tinies:

...garnet, emerald, chrysoprase, prehnite, smoky quartz, rhodochrosite, tourmaline, peridot, rainbow moonstone, iolite, sapphire, kyanite, london blue topaz, apatite, aquamarine, amethyst, onyx, amber, carnelian, labradorite... my goodness...