Focus on LIfe Week 29 & 30

I was bad...I forgot all about last week.  AND, I almost forgot about this week.
Old age creeping in???

Last week was routine.  My day to day life is a total routine.  Every day I get up, make coffee, check my email to see if I had any sales over night that I need to get ready to mail.  I empty the kiln of all the beads I made the day before, clean and photograph them then get busy getting it all up on facebook and in my etsy shop.  Somewhere inbetween I grab a bowl of cereal.  When that is done I finish packing anything that needs to go to the post office, grab the 2 dogs and we are off for a long walk after the post office run.  I come home, make a bite to eat for lunch and spend the rest of the day in the studio working until about 5.  Every day, even weekends. 

The ending result of my daily routine is this:  BEADS.

 

 

Week 30, Catch The Sun

 

Took the dogs for an evening run last night and all I had was my cell phone so bear with the pics.  We had a cold front move through in the afternoon and rain squalls were frequent but inbetween the sun came out and played.  First was the rainbow.

 

 

Then the sun came back out fleetingly.

 

Had loads of problems with blogger loading pics this morning.  I hope they get it fixed soon and no one else is having troubles. 

 

Have a good week! 



Focus on Life: Week 28 ~ Patterns

When I was a young girl (gosh, now that is a long long time ago), I used to hunt for agates.  As a family, I grew up vacationing in the northwoods of Wisconsin.  We stayed at a lovely resort with rustic cabins every summer for a couple weeks.  Such wondrful memories I have of fun filled summer days there.  Seeing old friends every summer from far away places like Chicago and Milwaukee.  Which really aren't that far but when you're a little girl it seems like worlds away. 

Some of my free time I spent looking for agates each morning in the lake water.  Agates often have wonderful patterns of banding.  Each one is different, like a fingerprint.  The sun would shine and the agates were often a translucent red and I could find oddles of them.  My pockets I'd fill and bring them to the steps of the cabin to show my Mom and Dad.  It was a wonderful time of my life and to this day I still look for that shiney red color when I am in a lake or river.

But no agates for this post.  :(

Everyday I load up my 2 dogs and we go to a local park that has empty fields and paved trails.  We spend an hour or two there every day.  Even in the winter.  At the end of the paved trail is a lake and the dogs love to swim there.  Every day they are so excited and happy happy pups.

Last Saturday morning as I was walking back to the truck I noticed some lovely shadows of leaf patterns on the pavement.  I always carry my cell phone (so please excuse the quality of these pics) and had a delightful time photographing them.  I love love leaves so this was quite fun for me.  I really need to go back with one of my good camera's and re-take some of these.  Please click to enlarge them.

 

 

 

Well, shucks, a couple are rotated the wrong way and I can't fix that.  :(

 

Then I noticed this morning the lovely pattern of black specks on my Asiatic Lily.  I took this yesterday with my phone as I was running out the door to go shopping with a friend.

 

 

And lastly, we stopped at a garden center on our way home yesterday and I was captivated with the Koi pond.  I loved the water plants. 

 

 

Again, I am unable to rotate the photo properly so you'll have to use your imagination.

 

Have a good weekend and upcoming week.  It's going to be a hot and muggy one here.  

Focus On Life Week 27: Texture

Who doens't love texture?  As an artist I think about it every day.  Working or not, it's always in the back of my mind, whether it's something I'm making or something I see when out with my camera. 

Texture is like a close friend, it's always there for you.  :)

The first 2 photo's show some of my tools and what I make.

 

 

This photo shows some beads I made using some of those tools.

 

 

I have to add one of The Rose, I love love the texture of her "hair".  She is a Bichon, they have hair not fur.  In the winter I let her hair grow out somehwhat and it is full of little ringlets.

 

 

 

Even as they close their petals in their eventual demise, my roses are still beautiful and full of texture.

 

 

Opps, don't know how that happened, but oh well!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed visiting.