aloha... from taos

Freezing cold? Need a vacation? Rather surf than ice skate down your driveway?
Our friends, Jerry and Janine Sprout are the authors of several wonderful Hawaii travel guide books, and now they have a gorgeous photo blog.

Take your eyes on vacation, and maybe the rest of you will think it's there too...
Hawaii Photo Bank - Adventures Deposited Daily

happy birthday danny and lauren

I haven't been here much, and I'm sorry about that. Really. I love my blog, and those who read it. I'm just insanely busy this week... and last... I'm doing some crazy website updates, and creating a really nice slide show on Ethiopia, with captions and continuity in one tidy package. It's taking much longer than I expected. Ha! Expectations! We all know where those get us!

But I need to pop in here quickly to wish my darling babies Happy Birthdays. Danny and Lauren both have their birthdays this week, and true to over-worked-mom form, I'm having them share the birthday spotlight one more time. They hated doing that when they were little, and most of the time I managed to pull off two happy parties with only one day in between. But this year, sorry kids, you get all my love and good wishes in one big pile here, and you have to share the best you can! Happy Birthday to my beautiful, all-grown-up children! I'm so proud of who you are, and that I got to be the one to get you here. Mmmmmwwwwaaah! Big Kiss!

OK then. Back to work, and I'll get back here soon. I hope.

happy

Who's happy? You, I hope! Man, I know I am! I'm still floating on an Obama High, and I'm thrilled to see how many people feel the same way. Back a few months, when I had the gall to publicly support Obama on my own blog, the response was so darn ugly in some cases, I wondered (briefly) if I'd be smarter to just shut up about that I think, and switch to something safer, like shoes or favorite recipes.

As it turns out, I did lose a couple of customers over it, but I gained many, many more. And not only people who agreed with me politically - some didn't - but certainly open-minded, big-hearted people who know that we've come to a place where we need to speak our minds as well as our hearts, and work together for the common good, despite our differences. Those are the people I want to surround myself with, in my business, and in my life. I think some of the ones who left me might begin to change their minds now. That would be lovely on so many levels, especially for them, since they cut themselves off from the beads they love, hoping to teach me a lesson. In a way, they did teach me something - that it's best to be honest and real about who we are and what we stand for, and that I was right to speak up. I'm grateful, and I promise, if they come back around this playground, I will not neener-neener them. I'll give 'em a big smooch and say Welcome! We all missed you! Let's get together, yeah, yeah, yeah!

And now here we are, beginning again, full of hope and energy and a sense of community I haven't felt in a very long time. On this cold January day, it warms me to my very toes to see the proof all around me that as a nation, we're better than we thought we were, and together, we've got the stuff to keep on proving it, to ourselves, and to the world. Happy? That word doesn't begin to touch it.

happy inauguration day!

I was wide awake long before the sun came up this morning, as excited as I remember being as a kid on Christmas. An hour later, I'm not only awake, I'm showered and dressed and ready to go to D&T's for an Inauguration-watching Breakfast. I'm so excited I can hardly sit still here, so I'll make it quick.

Today is such a big day, not only for our country, but for the world. I'm so darn proud of us for electing Obama. And for the first time in many years, I'm proud to be an American. I'm also intensely grateful to be alive at this point in time, to be here to see all this, and to feel an optimism and sense of hope the world hasn't had in a long, long time.

I even made Obama Marbles yesterday. They aren't very good, but I just needed to pour some of my creative happiness into some glass. Today is a day of big celebration. But tomorrow there's work to be done. No matter what side of the fence we were on back in November, the gates are all open now, and we're all in this together. We're playing for all the marbles, and I have faith that along with our wonderful new president, we'll do a terrific job.

Welcome President Obama!
Weeeee!!!!!!!

finding my marbles

I was the Marble Queen in school when I was a kid. Every day I'd set off for school with my big green MJB coffee can, filled with my precious collection. Mom was into making those over-sized bunches of resin grapes, so I had a "boulder" that was about the size of a tennis ball. I whooped poor Billy Halstrom on a regular basis...

I don't know what ever happened to my marble collection, same as I don't know what happened to my Barbies or my Screaming Yellow Zonkers Circus Poster. But a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at making marbles. It's similar to making beads, but since there's no mandrel involved, the finishing touches can be a tricky little balancing act. Some of my marbles come out more like eggs, but I'm getting better the more I practice. Not sure what I'll do with them, but they're fun to just have sitting there, collecting sunlight in a bowl on the kitchen table. My Work Ethic says Sell 'em, while my Inner Marble Queen says, Maybe you can fill another coffee can... just for fun.

happy

I heard Marianne Williamson say something yesterday that really caught my attention. I don't have the exact quote, but it was something like, "We're not unhappy because of what we're not getting. We're unhappy because of what we're not giving." I could expand on that, but I think it might be better if we each dig into it on our own.

Unhappy? Take a close look at the real reasons.
Happy? Look even closer, and pay attention!
Whatever we're doing in either case can be repeated.

knitting my way to ethiopia

It has been suggested to me that the best way to help my beloved friends in Ethiopia might not be to send them money, but to send them myself, to help them learn to earn their own money. Hmmm... It kind of makes sense, doesn't it? My Felted Bag Project is not leaping off the ground, even though the bags are beautiful and lots of people love them. I know... the stinkin' economy, blah, blah, blah... But anyway, here's what I think I'll do. Rather than make a cash donation to Project Mercy for each bag sold, I'm going to stash the money in an account tagged for Travel To Ethiopia. We hope to go again next fall, and fundraising has to start early. One way or another, I'm going to find an excuse to knit - if I need one. This way I'll be "knitting my way to Ethiopia". That's gonna take a lot of yarn... Want a bag? Visit my Shop. I've just reduced the prices a bit too. I want to sell these babies!



And something cool I heard about yesterday - Wayne Dyer has a new movie out, called Ambition To Meaning. You can buy it by clicking the link, or watch it for FREE, today only. I'm going to see if I can get it to load on my laptop while I make beads later. I love Wayne Dyer's accessible spirituality. Not too woo-woo. Not religious. Just a lot of good, thoughtful stuff we can all use. Make yourself some popcorn and do a little personal growth at the same time!

well ok then

Have I said it out loud yet? It looks like we're staying in Taos for a while...

You know how it is. We're all in the same leaky little boat, bailing as fast as we can. (Anybody out there on a yacht? Please go to my website and buy some beads!) The good news, I guess, is that we're going to refinance the house, and it should go through with no trouble. The other side of that coin is, by refinancing, we're committing to staying in this house, and Taos, for at least a couple more years. So we took it off the market, but of course it's still unofficially for sale. You can still see is here, at least for now. But we're aren't desperate, and won't "dump" it in this crummy market, so we'll likely sit here with it until things improve, and then raise the price like crazy. We've been getting used to the idea for a while now, so it's not feeling like a total defeat. What we've learned is there's just not much use in making plans. Might as well just daydream and hope for the best. And really... there are worse places to be stuck.



Good news today - Rick got a job. He's working at the lovely Sagebrush Inn, doing.... we don't really know yet. They had him drive down to Albuquerque last night to scoop up some guests at the airport. He loves to drive, which is a good thing because they sent him back again this morning. I think they're going to have him do all sorts of things, so he can fill in where he's needed. That will suit him fine. And good help is so hard to find in Taos, these folks must be happy-dancing all over the place, wondering how they got so lucky. They are lucky to have him. He's awesome.



So here we are, again, still. OK. I can do this. At least we still have a house. Oregon will wait, or maybe we're supposed to do something else completely. Still can't see any farther than I can see... know what I mean?

who gives a knit?

It's shaping up to be a busy Monday, so I won't keep you long...
I have a ton of stuff to do today, but all the while, I'll be looking forward to the evening, when I can relax by the fire with my boyfriend (he's much too dreamy to call him a husband), and knit. I finished a lovely felted bag last night. Pink with little black Caviar Beads knitted in. It's drying in the bathtub at this very moment. So now I have the happy chore of choosing the next colors and design, and look forward to casting on those first stitches. It's an adventure, knitting is. And not just for little old ladies in rocking chairs. Knitting is sexy. Knitting is hip. Knitting rocks without a chair to help it.

So my question today is...

Who knits? Come on. Admit it. You're among friends. Look - you can even join the Facebook group called Knitting Is Sexy. I'm there, of course.