Merry Christmas to All...

...and to all, a good night!  In the midst of decorating our tree, one of Santa's reindeer paid us a special visit from Ireland with goodies from Sanda!  A beautifully hand crafted Christmas card, a jolly Old Saint Nick tag, and hanging from the mysterious reindeer's saddle, a lovely heart and pine cone ornament!

I grabbed my camera before the reindeer flew off and took this quick picture.  Thank you dear friend Sanda for making my Christmas even more special!  And thanks to all my blog friends around the country and the world, you've made this a memorable year with your treasured friendships. A most blessed Christmas and very healthy and Happy New Year to you all!

Calling All Animal Lovers!

Hello all you animal lovers!

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing.

Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

Here's the website! Please pass it along to people you know.  I also added the website to my blog roll so you can click away!

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

You can also click on the other tabs - for instance, giving a free mammogram!

My Latest Obssession...

Last month it was spirals, this month it's trees!  Each Dryad respresents a season, clockwise from the top is Winter, Fall, Summer, and Spring.  I am so enjoying this process of discovery and creativity.  I  realized that I am following Cynthia Thorton's advice from her art book, Enchanted Adornments.  She advises to create art jewelry expressing your passion, to take note of your surroundings such as nature, and transform that passion into wearable art.  Each piece that you create is imbued with your spirit, your essence.  Your passion is embodied in your art, and that is something that defies time and space.

Joseph Campbell also gave us invaluable advice, to be true to yourself,  "to follow your bliss".  Here is an excerpt from an interview:

BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.

I look forward to my life long journey of self discovery and expressing my passions.  My wish for you today is to find your passion and live the life you have dreamed of.  Make yourself a miracle!

A Forest of Dryads

I have a great fondness for trees and desired to express that fondness through my artistic voice.  I am contemplating a series of polymer clay tree pendants representing the characteristics of Dryads.  Dryads are mythological female spirits of nature, nymphs who preside over the groves and forests. Each one is born with a certain tree over which she watches.

Ovid's famous treasury of classical mythology, Metamorphoses, tells the story of Dryope, who was rooted into the ground upon plucking a flower from the Lotis tree.  She slowly began to turn into a black poplar, the bark spreading up her legs from the earth, but just before the woody stiffness finally reached her throat and as her arms began sprouting twigs her husband Andraemon heard her cries and came to her. She had just enough time to warn her husband to take care of their child and make sure that he did not pick flowers.

A dryad either lives in a tree, in which case she is called a hamadryad, or close to it. The lives of the dryads are connected with that of the trees; should the tree perish, then she dies with it. If this is caused by a mortal, the gods will punish him for that deed. The dryads themselves will also punish any thoughtless mortal who would somehow injure, so beware of harming any trees! Perhaps Dryads were the very first "tree huggers" in history!

I created three pendants, an ancient wisdom tree, a young spring sapling, and an abstact tree.  The fourth bead I impressed the limbs into the base bead.  It looks more like Medusa than a tree, I'm afraid, and has since "metamorhised" into a ring!  I am looking forward to researching and creating more Dryad beads!

A Tolkien Birthday

It's the birthday of Christopher Reuel Tolkien (1924) born in Leeds, England. He's the youngest son of J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, and he drew the original maps that appeared in his father's epic fantasy novel. In addition to synthesizing all that complicated information about the imaginary Middle Earth to draw up the illuminating maps, he was also his famous father's test audience.

It took J.R.R. Tolkien 12 years to write Lord of the Rings; during that time, Christopher was a teenager and in his 20s, and he constantly provided feedback for his dad's work in progress. Since his dad's death, he's edited and published a number of his manuscripts, including The Silmarillion in 1977, which he completed after years of sorting through and deciphering his father's handwritten notes. Between 1983 and 1996, Christopher Tolkien published a 12-volume work, The History of Middle-earth. 

Courtesy The Writer's Almanac.  Illustrations by Alan Lee.

Wintry Beads

Believe it or not, it's frosty cold here in Las Vegas with brisk northerly winds blowing around icy grey clouds. Finally, Old Man Winter is here! I created more spiral beads in honor of winter, the grey and white mimic cold winter skies and the caramel and white remind me of autumn leaves skidding across early frost-laden earth, or creme brulee, whichever you prefer! Have a perfect Sunday!

Bittersweet Memories

This poem reminds me so much of my Grandpa who rose early every morning to prepare a hearty breakfast for the family beginning with my favorite grapefruit, which he always sectioned with care.

Grapefruit
by Ted McMahon

My grandfather got up early to section grapefruit.

I know because I got up quietly to watch.

He was tall. His hairless shins stuck out

below his bathrobe, down to leather slippers.

The house was quiet, sun just up, ticking of

the grandfather clock tall in the corner.

The grapefruit were always sectioned just so,

nestled in clear nubbled bowls used

for nothing else, with half a maraschino

centered bleeding slowly into

soft pale triangles of fruit.

It was special grapefruit, Indian River,

not to be had back home.

Doves cooed outside and the last night-breeze

rustled the palms against the eaves.

He turned to see me, pale light flashing

off his glasses

and smiled.

I remember as I work my knife along the

membrane separating sections.

It's dawn. The doves and palms are far away.

I don't use cherries anymore.

The clock is digital

and no one is watching.

"Grapefruit" by Ted McMahon, from The Uses of Imperfection. © Cat ‘n' Dog Production, 2003. Reprinted with permission. Courtesy of The Writer's Almanac

Desert Roses and an Award

Sweet roses are still blooming in my backyard rose garden that Walter planted for me this past spring. One of my favorite morning rituals is inspecting the blooms and marvelling at the translucency of the petals; you can see the sunlight shining through near the pistils.


My lovely and talented friend Sanda bestowed upon me the Kreativ Blogger Award, thank you Sanda! Please visit her blog for a real treat! Here are seven facts that you probably don't know about me:

1. I want to become an opera singer! Wagner rocks.

2. I am a chocoholic. See's Candies is my chocolate of choice.

3. I like to read in bed under the covers while my husband snores.

4. I read all four Twilight novels. Don't tell anyone, especially my students who nagged me for months to read it.

5. I am kept company by a collection of Medieval dragons whilst I blog. No fires yet.

6. I strongly dislike reality shows!!!

7. I secretly desire to reside in Rivendell with the elves, preferably as an opera singing elf.

Here are the seven bloggers I have chosen to receive the Kreativ Blogger Award:

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/

http://sundownbeaddesigns.blogspot.com/

http://vintajia.blogspot.com/

http://lilibulle-illusions.blogspot.com/

http://beimondi-leslie.blogspot.com/

http://judithbdesigns.blogspot.com/

http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/

Now it's your turn to tell us seven secrets about yourselves!

You Are Getting Very Sleepy...

Yes, look into my spirals...My husband thought they were cookies and so did the dogs! These are fresh out of the oven, unsanded and unbuffed. I like the color effects in the large spirals, the smaller ones have less blue and white even though they all came from the same colorway recipe. That's what I love about polymer clay, there are always colorful surprises! These will be in my Etsy shop tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday!

All Saints Day

A Prayer for Saintly Grace

Almighty and Everlasting God,who dost enkindle the flame of Thy love in the hearts of the saints, grant unto us the same faith and power of love; that, as we rejoice in their triumphs we may profit by their examples, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gothic Missal