I'll be back

There's no place like home...but I need a break from it. I'm going to see my sweet 3 year old grandson for a couple of days in Napa. I'll have the house to myself most of the day today and tomorrow and then he and his mommy will join me in the evenings. I really need the break from my routine...looking out over vineyards through an entire wall of glass ought to do the trick! So I'll write more later.

Against Nature

Okay, this is how crazy it is to have spring weather in January...my daffodil bulbs are blooming for heavens sake!

It's so bizarre! I didn't even know it was happening since I don't use my back terrace much these days. I heard a murder of crows out back and went to see what was up...but they were just landing in some nearby eucalyptus trees...and taking off...and cawing loudly...over and over and over.


Guess they were just having fun?
Anyway, to get a good look at them I had to go to the corner of my yard near my rock fountain...and that's when I saw the daffodils...gasp! I just couldn't believe it. I mean, this unseasonal weather is weird enough, but it's fooling flowers into blooming! Wow.

To top it off, in my FRONT yard I was tossing some recyclables into the can...and there was this ladybug crawling on my tiki torch. Now if THAT isn't a sign of spring, I don't know what is.

He did not like my picture taking though, he kept moving back and forth with each click. Out of 7 photo's, this was the only one that didn't blur...hahaha, funny.

I'll finish with a snowy egret. These are common around here, although I have to drive a few minutes to get to open country or one of the 2 wildlife reserves.

I just love these birds...pure white and so elegant. I enjoy the prepping they must do in order to fly by making a deep crouch while opening their wings. Really pretty.

Okay, enjoy my sunshine coming your way no matter where you are. Don't let it frustrate you if you are impeded by snow. We've been heading toward drought levels for 3 years now and there is talk of water rationing next year and have been asked that in order to keep that from occurring we all try to cut water use by 10%.

Things are NOT always beautiful in California when the weather appears to be so!

Art Walk

I wanted to blog but didn't have a topic...until I flipped my calendar page to February and there was this amazing orange glass work by Chihuly & I knew I had to blog about art...so let's take a little art walk.

Our weather today in the San Francisco bay area is ridiculously beautiful at 75 degrees. I keep seeing stories in the paper about Kentucky, Missouri and many other states suffering through ice storms, making our completely unexpected summer weather here even more unbelievable. So to all those of you saying "grrrr...." here is a huge burst of fresh, warm & breezy sea air....whooooosh!" (there's a bunch a love in that whoosh as well.)


Our first art window featues Dale Chihuly's Cadmium Orange with Blue Lips...stunning. My calendar has a photo of a different angle and it looks like a completely different piece of art. I particularly love the range of light to deep orange trimmed by that blue which is nearly purple. Great way to start the art walk.

"And now for something completely different!" You MUST visit Claudia Lynch's website to experience this Corset Shoe and many others. She produces fabulous art prints of the most clever shoes with stories to go with them in a mood Mickey Spillane created in his mystery detective stories.

The story for this shoe starts out with "I' already spent days boning up on her case" (...bones...corsets, get it?). Another favorite is a checkered boot with a story that starts with "I knew all about her checkered past". You just haven't seen anything like her clever work, please visit her by clicking her name above.

And now, a natural work of art, Marilyn Monroe. I can't say much more than I just feel good when I see her beauty in a photograph. My nephew is a fan as well and I found him the

best book for Christmas by an early and close friend of Marilyn's who took many photos when she was still Norma Jeane...and yes, he says, there was originally an "e" at the end of Norma Jean....and that gives you a clue as to the intimacy of their relationship.

I finish with two prints from Kees van Citters, a Dutch painter I discovered at the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts a few years back. His large canvasses with brilliant colors, many against black backdrops, are just out of this world.

I mean, LOOK at the stretch he captures in these two dancers...amazing! This concludes our art walk, but I want to tell you I will be featured on the Hot Rocks Glass Jewelry blog in March. The exposure will be much appreciated.

And I'm adding a Hearts theme to my RockerJewlz jewelry line that already features Cupcakes. I thorougly enjoyed
mixing these two together for some of my Valentine jewelry and decided to have heart pieces year round (as well as cupcakes) since there is such a wide variety of components.

Pink heart jewelry will be the most prominent. And Hearts are also now a theme in my MomsArt shop as well. Thank you for joining me on this Sunday art walk...hope you enjoyed losing yourself in some beauty for a while.

A Banner Year

How do you like my new RockerJewlz banner above? Would you believe it was a prize? I worked with Jenn from The Village Peddler on Etsy...it was really fun and fast...she was into it so it was a great experience. I always wanted to see RockerJewlz against a night sky with mulit-colored stars and now I have it!

It sounds like readers of this blog would like me to be even more intimate...can't imagine why, but I know that is a quality I like when I read someone ELSE's blog, so here goes...

I'm coming down off the stress of having a close family member being rushed to the hospital with what she thought was just a flu...but she'd had it for a week and is nearly 80 years old. Doctors discovered she was so dehydrated it almost completely destroyed one kidney. It shrunk to an unusable level and the heart had some permanent damage as well...aye yai yai!



The lesson here is it's easy to NOT know you are dehydrated and that it doesn't take long for it to practically kill you, no matter what your age and that flu viruses affect the elderly in a very intense manner!

Good news is, she pulled through with her amazing children staying with her in the hospital on shifts over all the 24 hours in a day for 10 days and she turned around with incredible improvement each day and gets to return home tomorrow.

My own experience has been interesting. Since I wasn't able to travel the long distance to be there with her I was not involved with the round the clock care. I did that, though, when my mom's life was ending and in hospice in her home.

I discovered this past week that the fear & emotions I experienced over my mother came to me again, but at a much lighter level, and one where it didn't deeply affect me to the point of not being able to physically or mentally get through a day. In other words, it didn't drop me to my knees this time.

Still felt nervous and anxious, like with my mom, but just wouldn't allow myself to enter the deep wells one can easily fall into...and get there before they know what the hell happened. It was wonderful to be able to function quite normally and stay busy enough to work through the anxiety and stress without even consciously telling myself to do it.

Looking back, I think my survival mode said "hey, you've been through ALL of this before and you can let it almost kill you or you can just use your faith, your calming breaths, and your experience to keep it from being like the first time". It's not necessarily easier, but it sure isn't as terrible. When my husband came home after being one of the caregivers, though, a tightening around my heart loosened and relaxed. I didn't even know it had been there. I'd felt it happening early on but breathed my way through it and didn't feel it anymore...well, surprise, surprise it had been there the entire time!

So... was this story enough of a smack in the face & "intimate" enough for some of you?! Don't let me scare you away. Luckily I won't have many stories that intense to share often. I'm surprised that I feel a little weary and just don't want to chat on the phone or text my buddy like I usually do. It just feels tiring. Typing it up on this blog, however, feels just right...doesn't take the same energy it does to verbalize the whole escapade!

Okay...now onto to lighter fare! Bunnies, ducks, girly paper punches (and more) are in MomsArt studios so they'll soon be seen for sale on Etsy as confetti & stickers. That pink heart up there isn't a paper punch, it's just a sweet reminder that Valentine's Day is coming fast, so be prepared! You can find heart & cupcake jewelry at RockerJewlz and paper heart & kisses confetti & stickers at MomsArt to embellish your scrapbooks & note cards & tags for all your sweethearts.