Tuesday July 20th ~ 2010

It has been a busy week since I got back from Tacoma. Classes at the Puget Sound Bead Festival were fantastic, the show was fun and I had the worlds best booth neighbor, Jeannette Cook. When we made Facebook plans for a good dinner out for oysters and salmon we had no idea that we would be spending the entire weekend side by side, laughing and people watching. I could not have asked for a better neighbor and I have to say that our entire aisle of vendors was fun and helpful and there was a great deal of frivolity and the sharing of potato chips.

My drive back was wonderful. I ran out of the convention center on Sunday evening as quickly as possible (exactly 22 minutes after the show closed) and drove south to Salem OR to have dinner and spend the night over at my friend Michele Goldstein's house. We hung out as the sun set drinking beers and grilling steak. What a lovely way to unwind after a whirlwind 4 days of teaching and shows.

I drove for 16 hours on Monday and missed the exit I was aiming for and did not realize it for over 20 plus miles, having no desire to turn around I ended up in this mom-n-pop hotel in the middle of nowhere Ludlow CA about 60 miles from the AZ border. To check in you had to go to the gas station across the street and I have to say it felt a little bit Norman Bates… but I woke safe and sound and was on the road by 6am the next morning. The temperature at 6am was already 85º.

I got home and I have to say that I crashed for the next 36 hours and I have now been cramming my brain and getting ready for my submissions for next year. I have have about a month to planning all of 2011 and seeing what I can add to buff out the schedule. I am also getting my house set up and unpacked. I am loving my new studio space.

The house is going to be totally excellent for classes. I can't wait to get some dates up and posted.

Life here in Albuquerque is settling down nicely and a rhythm to life is emerging. Life is good and I am happy.

Wednesday July 7th / Thursday July 8th ~ 2010

I have spent the last 2 days driving 1800 plus miles to get to Tacoma, Washington for some teaching and some selling. It was a long drive and I got in too late this evening to get to my classroom to set up so tomorrow morning is going to SUCK.

This was a new drive for me this year, now that I am living in New Mexico I no longer have to drive through the LA basin or go over the Grapevine ever again. Never having to make that portion of the drive was totally worth the move alone.

I do love the driving but I have not truly recovered from the move, Bead & Button, un-packing and then repacking. I am tired and I need a few days off after this whole thing.

This image was the best part of my drive today… gives a new definition to hitchhiking  don't you think?

Monday July 5th ~ 2010

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July. I am not used to being able to buy fire works in the local grocery store. It blew my mind to see an entire aisle of packaged explosives down the center of the frozen food section with a fire extinguisher shoved underneath said explosives, totally out of reach should the need to use it arise. New Mexico has been exciting for sure. 

I am getting ready to head out in the morning for the Puget Sound Bead Festival in Tacoma WA. I have a long 2 day drive ahead of me but am looking forward to a very full class of Low Tech Metalsmithing™ on Thursday.

Today has been a crazy day of
~Packing,
Getting any last minute work done,
~More packing.
Printing,
~Even more parking,
A workout at the gym
~And even more packing
Clothes washing
~And have I mentioned … Packing?

The amazing part of this is that I had packed up the classroom tools and my display days ago..

As you can see it has been a day of repetitive progress but I am pretty much done and am off to get as good a night sleep as I can. I am hoping to get as close to Santa Nella, CA  tomorrow so my drive up to Tacoma on Wednesday won't be so nasty because I truly need to get my classroom set up for Thursdays class with enough time to get a good rest on Wednesday night!

Sunday July 4th ~ 2010 Happy 4th of July

On July 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed by a bunch of guys who would have been guilty of treason if our desire for independence had not worked out on their favor.

The words are beautiful and speak to our desire to be a nation that believes in freedoms that we are all willing to defend to the end. I know that we all have differing opinions as to how these freedoms are to be insured but I truly believe that   we can all agree that these freedoms are essential to the core values and foundation of this nation.

Today; remember in your thoughts the men and women of our nation that have chosen to defend our freedoms and place themselves far away from their families and friends. Give them our thanks as we fire up the grills, crack open the beers and get ready end the day with fireworks.

The following is opening text of the Declaration of Independence with the original spelling and capitalization left in place.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

Saturday July 3rd ~ 2010 ~ A New Beginning!

I have needed to take a break for these last few weeks. I have been going through a great many adjustments over the last months. As well as having one of the busiest traveling years that I have had in a decade with way too much driving, I have been finding the desired time at my bench way lacking. Creatively, I have been craving some uninterrupted time with all of my tools and toys within reach and it has not been happening and that fact has been driving me just a little crazy.

Ultimately, all of the life changes that I have embraced over these past several years have culminated with my choice to leave Tucson. Since January, I had been working towards making the move to Albuquerque the end of August but the discovery that I could save thousands of dollars if I hunkered down, got all of my belonging in a POD and moved the very same moment I departed Tucson for Bead & Button was too much to ignore. It was a massive month of insanity, getting up at 5am, packing up stuff for a few hours and then shifting gears to getting things prepared for Bead & Button, then at the end of the day packing up a few more boxes.

That final morning, the movers arrived to pack up the remaining large and heavy stuff and I was finishing packing up the car. I tucked my girls in their carrier and placed them onto the front seat and I drove out of Tucson. There was this release and a weight that left my shoulders as I drove east on the I-10 that was amazing to me. In the end it was one of the easiest choices that I have ever made and one that I am sure was the right one.

To say that I arrived in Milwaukee a bit drained and totally bruised was an understatement. I did get 2 days of rest in Albuquerque before starting the long drive to Milwaukee and that was so very essential. Most importantly, I had to get my two grey girls settled with Terri taking care of them while I was teaching. I could not have asked for a better caretaker, making them feel loved, spoiled, well groomed and totally at ease within hours of their arrival.

As hard as it was to choose to leave Tucson it was just as easy. I miss my amazing creative group of friends and my Bri but I have just been anxious and unsettled and the desire to follow my heart had been growing more intense for over a year.

I am getting settled in a  great new house, setting up my studio and I am looking forward to scheduling classes and workshops in most excellent new classroom space.

I am happy and at ease. I am feeling that the choices I have made, the path that I have trodden, the way that my life is moving forward is a positive one that has given me new depth and new clarity.