Art Journal

Even as the rune for the month predicted blessings & direction, I've been "moved" to return to my roots of art. Way back to the dreams of my childhood...drawing, painting...BEING an artist. I've left some of my techniques by the wayside in order to either make a living or be involved in a project. Some had to do with me, some didn't. But now is the time.

So I'm starting by getting back to my art journals, sketching, watercolor painting, color pencil paintings, etc. There are things I want to capture! Ideas to express that have been moodling in me. Now is the time.

You may be seeing more of this in the future. And hopefully bigger & better works of my heart art!

In this small spread, I started with a sketch of my travelling watercolor kit as a return to my roots. And on the next page, my happiness in the election outcome as an expression of my current joy. I hope to show the energy I see everywhere...in everything. Wow. Big dreams! :) Wish me well!

November BJP

My November BJP was done a little while ago, but I forgot to post it on my blog! Go figure! Life happens!

So...this month's rune is Harvest! Just happens to be a very synchronistic rune with the state of the economy in our country! This rune depicts the abundance of essential grains ready to be harvested. It signifies all kinds of fortune, good luck, and bounty, especially around career or material gain. (Wow! Lessons for me!) Others read this rune as the straw that is cut to make the witch's broom, an earthy object that magically carries the witch across velvety black skies, across space and time and the obstacles that leave her earthbound.

This rune predicts rewards and benefits of the most excellent kind. It brings into your life what is absolutely essential to your well-being, growth & happiness. The blessings the Harvest Rune gives can only expand while nourishing body, soul, & spirit in this time of positive change. (Another synchronicity?) :)

This rune indicates that what you've worked so hard to achieve will finally bear fruit & probably in a bigger way than you expected. Think abundance, increase, and fruitfulness & go on from there. Whatever you begin now will only grow & flourish. Obstacles are being lifted, paving the way toward many of your greatest hopes & dreams!

The secret behind the blessings relies entirely upon how much you are willing to work & generate positive energy in order to manifest these blessings. If you put forth a genuine effort, you can expect fortunate results & some even beyond your wildest dreams!

This is a definite green light rune! But use these positive developments wisely & avoid risks of overspending, mindless thrill seeking & meaningless pleasures. It may also be a time that spiritual seekers meet an important teacher, a sympathetic judge, or a helpful guide that will help you embark on a right course of action through humor or wisdom.

Happier days are ahead for you! You are quite likely to get your wish! (And it's my birthday month! Yahoo!) This is the most positive rune of all! It indicates the spirit of protection & good fortune. You can expect doorways to open, lucky developments, shining achievements, recognition, awards & accolades. Look for unexpected gifts, pleasant surprises, & situations which work out in your favor. This rune always represents gains, expansion, and easy flow as far as your goals are concerned. Look for an opening which sets you on the right path, giving thanks & receiving thanks, expansion as well as excess & exaggeration. Other benefits may have to do with buying & selling property, blazing a new path, carving a niche or corner in the market, as well as all manner of fortunate events! (Here comes our own home!!!)

Now is the time when many of your cherished dreams will finally be realized. Always a good omen! Wow!!! I'm taking this one! :)

The traditional stone for this month is topaz. There are different colors of topaz. I have a blue topaz ring, but wanted to go with a more traditional light yellow topaz for the background. However, the only bead I had that was similar, was a silver lined gold bead! Well, I think that's pretty appropriate considering the meaning of the rune! And I'd picked it before I even read the meaning. I picked a contrasting color that's kinda lapiz lazuli. Gems all the way around! What a great rune!

(Again, this info comes from "A Witch's Runes", by Susan Sheppard)

More Island TV!

OK...I never knew that the news carried "Surf Forecasts" until I came to Hawaii! But it sure is a good idea here!

Also, see those hazy days in the forecast? That's when the tradewinds die down & we all get the vog from Big Island. Ugh. But look at those temps!! Of course, those are Honolulu temps...us on the west side of Kaua'i are just a little warmer!

Beaded Face Swap!

Well, we just finished the Beaded Face Pin Swap! You can see all the entries here.

I received one of bobbi kirk's beautiful pins! She's like one of the Queens of beaded pins! I was so excited! It's just beautiful! I emailed her to ask if I could share it on my blog & she said yes! So here it is! You can also see her other work on her website, or on her blog! She's an incredible artist! I'm so glad I did this swap!!

Holiday Colors

Well, it's that time of year! And I'm wondering if I'll have enough holiday colored beads to make all the projects I have in mind!!! Here's a few I've been working on...now I just have to make them into what they'll become....which I can't say, 'cuz some one who reads my blog may get one of these! :) It's hard to keep secrets!!!

Huckleberry Hut Orders!!!

It's getting close to holiday time, so us crafty elves are really busy! Gotta get those orders ready & those gifts made!
Here's Ron out stirring up another stinky batch of paper! He says, "It smells like money!" Ha! I'm not sure what it smells like, but the end result is beautiful!

And here we are inside making handmade paper book marks, lauhala book marks, lauhala ornaments, etc.! After this order was done, Ron got busy with more ornaments, & book marks, as we know we'll need them soon! Plus he's been coming up with some new designs for the ornaments. Not just stars, fish & birds, but now he's come up with balls, boxes, and...??? We'll see! What a good life we have together!

Harvest Time!

When I first came to Kaua'i, I was amazed at the size of some of the avocados here! And the wonderful buttery taste! I didn't know there were summer avocados & winter avocados. And I didn't know how many recipes there were for using avocados! But I planted one of the pits I got from an avocado a pal gave me, & three years later we had a harvest! And have had every year since then. We weren't sure we'd get as many this year due to the bee problems, but the ones we've had have been great! Here's me getting ready to make some guacamole! Thanks to the best recipe in the world from Josephina in Acapulco! Yummmm! And the avocados from Mother Earth!!!

Birthdays during Holiday Months

I don't know if other bloggers have this problem, but when it's the holidays, or birthdays, there's just certain things I can't blog about until the following month. That was the case in October! One year I was sent this Halloween card by my sister. Not sure you can tell in this picture, but it shows a witch pickin' at her feet with the comment "Where candy corn comes from"! Gross, yes? ;) Well, my girlfriend had her birthday in Oct., so I decided to make her a pair of earrings with this card as my inspiration. One ear a witch, the other a candy corn.

Here's a close up of the witch! I got this free pattern online...and it was harder than I thought it would be! But she likes tiny things, so she liked this!

Happy Birthday, Pal!

Obsession!!!

I can't believe I haven't posted since mid October, but then I've been busy, & obsessed with the elections!!! Both the presidential...woo hooo!!!!!....

And the local...not so woo hoo!

We totally celebrated Obama's win, as you can see in the picture of the champagne above. We didn't vote on the candidates directly above...they were on Oahu. But I thought I'd show you a picture from our TV at home of all the leis that are given to the candidates to wear. Sometimes you can't even see their faces!!

Beaded Face Swap

Boy, I've wanted to be in Sassy Art Goddess's Beaded Face Swap for a couple years now & finally figured out how to do it this year. I know. I'm slow! :) Anyway, she finally listed this years pieces here so you can check out mine & everyone else's. There's some great pieces. (Timaree! You're right next to me!)
Since it was around Halloween time that this happens, I decided to use a glow in the dark face that I molded. Here's a close-up of the beaded piece.

Here I tried to get a pic of it glowing in the dark! :( NOT a great pic, but in person it's more fun!

And here's the final piece...as you can tell, I hope, the face is 'sposed to look like a moon with a bat shape behind it! :) I added a backing and sent it on. Now I just get to wait for my swap pin to arrive!! I wonder which it will be!

October BJP- Scythe

The October Rune is the Scythe. *It is associated with Scorpio & death...dramatic transformations that appear to be final, but wise ones know they aren't. This can signify anything from a separation or divorce to some kind of danger. It's time to get to the bottom of things. Events may shift your focus dramatically, forcing you to change or transform. It's also associated with the paranormal, yep, even ghosts! (Perfect for this time of year!) This rune means to cut away, put an end to something or sever. Maybe changes must occur before reconciliation...coming to terms with something that is hard to accept. A time of passing through difficulties. Walls & blocks may seem insurmountable now, but Scythe implies you have the strength to overcome all difficulties.

The traditional birthstone for this month is rose zircon or pink tourmaline...depending on who you check with...so I just used the closest color to both that I had for the background.

Also, while working on this, I found that 2 "tic tac" containers that are used in storage systems, can fit in my tins! Yahoo! So I can keep them in there ahead of time until I'm ready to use them!

* Information for this, and all further posts on my BJP runes, have come from "A Witch's Runes", by Susan Sheppard.

I LOVE MY DOLL!!!

OK...like a year ago, or so, a couple pals & I decided to do a Round Robin with Bendi dolls. 2 of us on Hawaii, one in New Mexico. So I started out my doll by doing some mud painting on her. (Bogolan fini) I wanted her to have the red dirt from here on Kaua'i blended into her! Then I added her face, hair & heart. Here she is all naked and RTG to the next participant! I gave them lots of info on the Roma, 'cuz I wanted her to be a "gypsy"!

And here she is back home!!! Didn't they do a great job??? I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her!!! She sits in my studio with me every day! She turned out more perfect than I ever thought she could!!

End of Journal Swap

Been doing a journal swap with a pal for over a year! We are just finishing up the last page this month. So I wanted to show some of the pages that I've done in hers & mine. They sure got fat!!!

This was a happy page I did in my journal:

This was a Dottie Doll I made for my pal's journal. We had to keep her on the front. Apparently she complained about being inside a book!

Ya know those free Tibetan paper prayer flags you get in the mail? Well, this is how I used them!

This was a stamp I made from an old Roman coin. The owl is our family totem. The metal piece says "Believe". I know the owl gives me wisdom from learning about it's ways.

This is a popsicle, moveable, just fun page! My journal was mostly themed about Joy; my pal's was mostly about Spirit. All the same, no? ;)

This one I did when I was a little down & trying to cheer myself up!

This was just another fun one! :)

This spread I did to show that darkness cannot hide light! There's a candle in the pocket with the words hidden under the Divine page.

This one was about Fear and Faith...Oneness and Duality...and my sometimes difficulty in understanding.

There's alot more pages I haven't even photographed yet, so I'll add those at another time. Not sure what my pal & I will do after this, but I do know it will be fun!!!

Beading Frenzy!

Wow! Been awhile since I posted! Had my nose to the grindstone (what is that?) & have been getting gifts ready for the holidays & orders ready for the museum. So alot of stuff I can't show!!! Don't want to give away the gift ideas! :) So here's another prayer pocket top. This one was really hard to photograph as I used all shiny Delica beads! Yikes! I'm gonna fill this pocket with lavender when I get it put together.

Also, a fellow beader mentioned in one of my previous posts that I should not only say that these are the same amount of beads, but the same size!!! They are both size 11s. The one on the left is made with Delicas, & the one on the right is made with seed beads. 625 of each, same size, different kind of bead. Amazing, huh?

September BJP Done

Off and running with the new BJP! I've described in a previous post what I'll be doing for the year, so here I'll just describe the first month's rune. It's called Romance & was the perfect one to start the project off! It is about beginnings, the leaping dance of creation, to "spark" a new relationship or new phase, surge of power...it lends strength & passion to works-in-progress and projects just beginning. It's time to embrace this new direction that is somehow related to your innermost passions! How perfect is that???
I've also decided to use one of the traditional birthstone colors as the main background color. In this case it's Sapphire. I used a complimentary color for the symbol. During this year I will try to use as close to the true color as I can, but will have to improvise in some cases since I'm using the beads that I have. So hopefully they will give the essence of the color...which is really hard to tell on a computer screen anyway! But this is for me, so I know what it looks like in hand.
I'm also keeping track of the color/type of bead used so that when I'm done, I will know how light affects each one.

Here's a couple pics in progress:

And here's the finished Rune:

I sure wish it would show up as it truly is!!! Ah, well!

Elf Extraordinaire!

Gotta get going! Got alot to make for the holidays!!! Who knows who will get what! :) But holiday colors are starting to show up all around the house in different projects!

Also, in case anyone was wondering what the difference is in Delicas & regular seed beads, well here's a pic of 2 pieces. The one on the left is 25 Delicas high & 25 Delicas wide. The one on the right is 25 seed beads high & 25 seed beads wide. That's 625 beads in each one...if I did my math right! ;) Someone might want to check! LOL!

The pattern on the right is the finished pocket top I adapted from my Grandma's old filet crochet pattern.

Mom's Surprise Birthday!

OK...my mom had a special birthday coming up (I won't say which one!), & we hadn't seen each other in years!!! My new monitor has a webcam built in, & my niece had a laptop with one built in. So I told my niece about Skype & she got set up so we could surprise my mom! She had no clue.

You can see her here walking in...I snapped this picture from my computer in Kaua'i!

Then my niece brought her over to see something on the computer:

Here she sees it's ME!!!

There go the Italian hands explaining everything! ;)

And there's my mom wishing she could hug the computer!!!

This really makes me think of my Grandma & her arranged marriage back in Italy. She had to come to the states even tho' she didn't want to. She never got to see her family back there again. When I went to Europe as a young person, I brought her back a picture so that she could see her sister who she hadn't seen since she was young! She cried & kissed the picture! Just like my mom wanted to hug the computer. We've come along way, but we still need touch-avision! And smell-avision, so I could smell the wonderful Italian food my niece made for everyone!

Happy Birthday, Mom!