here it is!

so, this is the "old" shop, when it was first completed in october 2008. (please note the unfinished drywall, the funky window and the raw cedar post legs on the bench.)

and here it is now...

the walls are plastered and painted, there's a new window that actually opens, the bench has new legs and the top has been sanded and painted.

plus two custom-built benches that fit perfectly along the walls...

this will be the future home of my new wood stove. jim said that he could not reinstall the old one in good conscience; it was not safe. also, check out the table to the right...

my mom had her furniture-maker friend custom build this table for me (for beading) for christmas a few years ago. i didn't really have anywhere to put it so i haven't been using it. now it is absolutely perfect for organizing my cabs!

and here is miss isobel, laying on the nice new concrete floor. (it used to be just dirt.) she went and turned into a teenager kitty while i was away. look how big she is!

and although it is VERY hot out there, i am absolutely, 100%, totally and completely in LOVE with my new studio! it is just perfect and fabulous and amazing. if i didn't know i would miss glenn, i would probably want to sleep out there.

and now i will leave you with this. this is a lovely video of the felice brothers singing "her eyes dart round", one of my favorites (and the song i am currently learning on guitar). it is beautiful...

our journey, part six: newton~nashville~home!

when we left newton we drove through the night to get to chattanooga to meet my brother, scott, his wife martha, and their two boys, jay and andrew (and one more on the way!). we met them at the chattanooga aquarium; it was very cool.

(this time i discovered the "aquarium" setting in time...)

it was great to see you, scott and martha! thanks so much!

the really cool thing is that on this trip, hazel and june got to see every one of their cousins, every one of their aunts and uncles, all four of their grandparents, and their only living great-grandmother.

from chattanooga, we went to nashville. glenn has always wanted to go there and we had a blast!

we went to the country music hall of fame. it was cool.

okay. i know this is weird and kind of gross, but hank williams shot these squirrels and then took them to a taxidermist and had them made into a band...

downtown nashville was great! glenn actually stayed out until 2:30 in the morning, honky tonkin'...

we were total tourists. we even did the carriage ride through downtown bit.

we stopped at what is allegedly the only freshwater pearl farm of its kind in the united states in tennessee. it was awesome, and i got some beautiful pearls to use in my upcoming ocean-inspired pieces!

our next stop was memphis. and it was seriously so hot and humid that we didn't leave our ($59 hotwire special hyatt) hotel room, except to venture to the lukewarm pool. nope, we did not go to graceland. remember how excited i was about all of the moisture in the air in contrast to my own dry climate? well, i had my share, that's for sure.

i cannot express how incredible the girls were on this trip! of course there were times when we thought we were crazy and wondered how we would make it for a month without a portable dvd player, but they were truly amazing.

we tried to stop as often as possible at parks and such, but they definitely had to spend very MANY hours in the car. they were great!

and glenn, glenn was the best. he took care of all of us and did most of the driving and was just all around fantastic. it was so wonderful to have so much time with him because he will be gone all next week for a conference and the week after that he is back to work full-time. with his new position, he is going to be very busy and we may not see him much.

and old rusty here was very very happy to get back to dolores. according to mapquest, we drove 5106.96 miles. it is so very very great to be home! and my shop is so amazing! i will share photos with you tomorrow.

our journey, part five: jersey

glenn's parents live in a beautiful part of new jersey called newton. it is rural and lovely, lots of farmland. this was the longest stop on our trip; including our side trips to the beach and lancaster, we stayed there for ten days.

kendra, june, eddie, hazel.

the cousins get along so well; it's really sweet. here they are at dairy queen.

glenn got his skills from his dad.

their property is regularly visited by bears, deer, and bunnies.

this is sweet little baby nora, kerry's (glenn's sister) youngest. i am entirely smitten with her.

this is the entire smith clan, minus scott's (glenn's brother) wife, tiff.

at the end of our visit, glenn and i left the girls with his parents (poppy & apple) overnight and went to lancaster, pennsylvania to see the felice brothers. (thanks for everything, guys!)

we drove through amish country, with towns with names like hecktown, intercourse, virginville, buttzville (sorry, i feel like a middle school boy sharing this with you, but it was pretty funny.)

it was a free show in a huge park.

and yes, i made a pick for ian, the singer. he was so sweet.

maybe you think i am too old to be following bands around the country and making gifts for them. i hope not. (remember this and this?) the truth is, music is an enormous part of who i am. it always has been. it has nothing to do with being any kind of groupy of course. (in fact, i always say something like "my husband says they take some getting used to" if glenn himself is not with me so they do not think i am coming on to them.) it has everything to do with wanting to somehow show my appreciation to the musicians whose music means so very much to me, the music that is the soundtrack of my life. you already know that the music that i love is a huge inspiration in my work. i wouldn't be me without my music and i love to make a tiny connection with the folks who make it. does that make sense?

it was a great show! what i really loved about them was that they are very raw and very real. (it is said that their first album was recorded in a chicken coop.) they were traveling in a rusty old winnebago that did not look like it would run. ian's guitar looked like he got it from a pawn shop, and jimmy's accordion was missing keys. their stage presence is not polished and rehearsed. but they were so dang incredible; they have so much soul.

we are now on the last leg of our journey. we did stick to our original plan and went the southern route. i will share photos with you very soon. we have had such an amazing time and there will definitely be a bit of sadness upon returning home. but at the same time, i am simply dying to get out to my brand new studio and make some of the pieces that i have been sketching in my book throughout this whole excursion! and i can't wait to see the animals, and our friends that we have been missing...

our journey, part four: the beach!

sadly, due to a miscalculation on my part, we had to cancel the maine portion of our trip. we would have driven 14 hours out of the way to spend two nights and one day. after spending so much time in the car, i just couldn't justify doing that to the girls. so, instead we spent an extra night in stowe and then headed down to jersey. my new jersey post will be in two parts; this part is the beach portion of our visit. on the 4th of july, we went to island beach state park with glenn's parents, glenn's sister, kerry, and her family, and glenn's brother, scott.

we watched an incredible fireworks display on the beach

after playing around with many different settings on my camera, i opted for a long exposure time in order to get these photos

then, when it was all said and done, i discovered the "fireworks" setting...

on our first morning at the beach, some dolphins came to visit, since we had come all the way from colorado.

eddie, poppy, hazel, and kendra working on a sand castle

all of the smith grandchildren: june, hazel, heather (holding sweet baby nora), eddie, kendra

we watched a glorious sunset on the pier

many folks on the pier were crabbing. this bucket belonged to a girl and her father. i pitied the poor crabs. had the girl not been so excited, running around saying "fourteen! fourteen! we got fourteen!", i probably would have gently knocked the basket over, liberating them back into the sea where they belonged.

hunting for seashells was a serious full-time job for these guys.

you might think that glenn is never without someone on his back. you might be right.

these sweet little ocean ducks were all over; they made me think of penguins.

this is a standard size coffee table, just to give you an idea of how many shells were collected. the girls had to pick only a few of their favorites and the rest got returned to the beach.

hazel and her uncle scott

on our last morning there, hazel and i got up very early to watch the sun rise over the ocean.

it was very spectacular.

we have had a very amazing time so far. however, it has been three weeks since we left home and i am starting to feel a bit homesick. we are reconsidering the last portion of our trip, trying to decide what's best. and, i spoke to trevor yesterday. he said all was well back home, and that isobel was so big i may not recognize her when i get back. i miss her so very much. and molly, and simon, and jasper. and, drum roll here, he said that my shop was so beautiful he doesn't think i should work in there because i will get it dirty... i simply CANNOT WAIT to see it!