promises

Work was very busy and out of town this week. I took one or two pretty photos and was treated to some awesome food and fascinating people. I wished for my camera several times but took mental shots instead-I figured me snapping candid photos would be annoying and I am resisting the urge to be a foodie photo junkie-is there a name for that?

I have a big project coming up for work and may decide to taper down my extracurricular activities. I think it is funny how in this culture we strive to achieve and do, do, do and do some more. Live to work or work to live, that is a big choice. Sometimes I think we impose that choice on our kids too. I listen to SuperGirl and all the extra things she does. I see a happy well adjusted kid though so I don't worry too much about it. In fact, I try not to worry at all. We are all on unique paths designed to learn and live, laugh and love, and sometimes overcome challenges. Though we may provide support and understanding and love to each other, we truly have to walk it ourselves-carrying those choices.

The word Promise has been appearing in my experiences lately and I feel an urge to pay attention to it. I think of the promises I hold in my life to love and to be present for the ones I love. I think of the promise to work and produce results for my time. Then I think of the promise to myself to be Aware and Appreciate the blessings in my life.

I ask you, what promises have you taken on? And how many extra things burden your path? Here's to keeping promises and lessening our load at the same time so that we can truly enjoy what we have. Love to all.

butterfly flutterby in gray and clutter-bye

I finished a piece I started months ago. I got these stone butterfly wings from a gem source on etsy and held them for a year before attempting to do something with them. I didn't want to set them in a bezel setting and I wanted the butterfly to move. I hadn't tried to make a hinge before but the design is basic and probably thousands of years old. So I drew some pictures and came up with this plan. I started it and hit a few snags on the prongs and let it sit in my studio unfinished. Life moves on so to speak and I eventually picked it back up and "went to town on it" and figured out my snags. The hinge actually works too well so I may need to crimp the hinge to slow it down and keep this guy in flight on a necklace. I won the battle, but prongs still intimidate me sometimes lets just say. May I introduce Butterfly Flutterby in Gray.

We're doing Fall Cleaning at our house and going to have a multi-family yard sale in a couple of weeks. This is just the barn clean-up, more junk to come! Amazing how we accumulate stuff, really do we have time for it all? Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday.

why do girls love horses?

I started drawing horses by the third or fourth grade, before we had an actual art room for art class. Once we had those big wooden square tables with tall stools and freedom to express ourselves in art, I still gravitated to drawing horses, making horse heads, horse figures, whatever I could. I didn't see a ton of the real flesh and blood thing when I was growing up. We boarded an ornery horse when I was a little kid. We weren't allowed too close to him, most likely he was defending himself against four terrorizing kids. I was really young so I barely remember that experience. I remember seeing the movie Black Beauty with that dreamy black stallion running on the beach. My most memorable Christmas gift, was an 8 inch tall Breyer Appaloosa stallion I named Moon (black with a white cresecent mark on his head), and a big fold up poster of 50 kinds of horse breeds that I studied and drew over and over, my first hobby obsession I guess. My grandparents took us to Uncle Ike's horse trail rides in Branson and I remember my horse belched alot and wanted to eat anything green on that rocky Ozark wooded trail. I loved them that was sure.

Today I am lucky enough to see many horses in my country neighborhood, on my drive to work and occasionally even where I work. I don't keep horses, I don't think I am a good candidate to take care of a horse unless it is okay to spoil them like I do my two dogs. I can just see my horse misbehaving and chasing cars while I stand there and yell at it ineffectually to stop! Horses need so much more care than a dog and that intimidates me. I barely have time for my furry friends as it is. Maybe, someday maybe I will get a couple of horses-because of course in my mind, one would be lonely and in need of a companion horse.

Now, I don't know if I have that much influence on Supergirl only being her evil stepmom, but we do go out and say hi to the neighbor horses alot.  I think it is just a truthful cliche` like boys and baseball, girls love horses. This girl still does.

cool things to see, a photo blog

It was a beautiful 78 degrees here in the Ozarks and bright sun on a Sunday. We went to Springfield and took a walk downtown at the Jordan Valley greenway trail and toured a community art building, a flea market and finished the day with a Superhero movie. Hope you had a wonderful day too!

 

This guy met us at the door at home! HUGE.

 

New pieces and the yacht club

We did get Isaac's rain for two solid days! We kept our plans for today and won the weather lottery! Sunny and mid eighties and the river was up about 3 feet. I am ever so thankful for the rain and the fun day today. I took just a few photos of the fun stuff but want to share just this one.

 

SuperGirl and I made some jewelry this weekend. I will be listing them on etsy, except for SuperGirl's as she wants to be paid way too much for her art.

SuperGirl's creation