Welcome to Holland

I was reading my email & somebody had this in their signature. Yes, it's really long for a signature. But it amazed me at how fitting it was for me to read this today. Today of all days. In my mind there's a little angel just letting me know that she's thinking of me too and I know that she knows just how much I miss her.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND (By Emily Perl Kingsley)….
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this:
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans: the Coliseum, Michelangelo's David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills – and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy ... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.
But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you many never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.








Hailey Grace Williams 8.20.02 - 4.14.04

Mixed Metals & Pearls

This first pair marries different metals- Sterling, copper & stamped brass. Also a bit of hardware and some Greek ceramic beads. This is a fun pair!

These beautiful white coin pearls have such a beautiful iridescence. Simply added to a long kidney wire, this is simple elegance for everyday wear.

I'm impartial and of course I love them both. Guess which to pick would depend on one's mood at the time.

Same basic shape (Sold)

I'm really enjoying making these earrings. This pair includes some green jasper. I'd like to make another similar pair for myself, this pair already is sold. Will also make a pair in sterling as soon as I can lay my hands on my smaller pliers which I still can't find. (It involves a child & hiding things) I've been using my other pair, but I really do favor the missing ones. Maybe this is just a way of pushing me to get the Lindstrom's that I'd really like to have.
I've spent an inordinate amount of time on a bracelet this week. It's been more wrestling it than any kind of wire wrapping. Causing me many more grey hairs. Seriously it annoys me when a simple piece of metal can get the best of me. I've got some things to do today, then I'm going to twist it into submission, or scrap it & try again another time. I didn't think it would be too difficult when I started....well, ya know how that goes.

Anyway- just wanted to share these beauties with you. Another pair that has a great swing to them.

Adornmentz

For a little while now I've wanted to be a part of a yahoo group dedicated to art jewelry. I'm enjoying putting things together, and the "hunt" in thrift stores for special pieces. I've spent more than I'd care to admit on silver, pearls, gemstones & such. In the last few months I've gotten a few issues of Belle Armoire & have fallen in love with some of the jewelry in there. The jewelry issues are on their way. Anyway- looked around & didn't find what I was looking for. Mixed media Jewelry using some usual & some unusual elements. So- time to start one. I'm in the process of setting up Adornmentz now & will be adding people and sending out invites in the next week. I thought maybe some small scale charm swaps. And a show & tell Tuesday. And a monthly charm lottery for starters.

Found objects and repurposed vintage pieces, metal and paint, resin and vintage papers, clay and gemstones, rusty things and swarovski crystal? If you make beautiful adornments with any of these- then Adornmentz
is a place to check out.

I'd love to have ya & see what you're up to! I hope that this group can grow to b provide as much fun as I'm haing in BookArtz right now. LOL. Currently working on a house shaped & themed skinny book.

Earrings & Update

I seriously love these earrings. And I'm torn between listing them on Etsy and keeping them for myself. And someone else has already expressed an interest in them. LOL. They are antiqued copper with green glass. They have a fabulous swing when I hold them up. And I think I finally took a decent picture. I photographed about 4 different things yesterday before storms rolled in and I lost my good light. So I hope to post more pictures soon.
Website update: I've done some redesigning but haven't uploaded the new stuff yet because (of course) I broke some things while I was doing it. Seems weekends are the only time I can really get some work done so it'll probably be next weekend before anyone but me sees the changes.
Swap update: The house chunky has been announced on BookArtz so I'm starting my pages for it & been wrapping beads here & there for Patti's bead swap. It's all good. ;-)

The last ET Deco

The last Eiffel Tower deco from the RR. Mailed this off today to it's owner, hope she'll be happy with it.

Art time has been scarce lately, but this afternoon I got to work on a couple of things so hoping I'll have more to post soon. Yup- I'm not nearly as prolific as some of my art buddies!

Goodbye Robin..........

I received an email a few hours ago that Robin Whittemore passed away today. Makes me very sad for her family.

Heaven's got another angel today.