Ramblings.....

Again it is far too long since I have written here...  Did I tell you my mother passed?   It is hard, very hard, even now almost 6 months later to write those words.   She was my bead partner, my art critic and my friend.  And so much more...  and thus being the 'responsible daughter' and the only child living within a thousand miles, it fell to me to dispose of her belongings.  The remains of a very creative and absolutely fascinating life.  
I was ruthless at first, the furniture, the clothing, and paraphernalia of the end of life went quickly.  I was fortunate that the Art Institute of Chicago had started a group, the Chicago's Bauhaus Legacy and they accepted all of Mom and Dad's artwork for archiving.  Not that I don't have plenty left.  My house is full of their influence.
And then there are the photographs, slides, negatives of not only a lifetime but of other lifetimes..  I seem to have inherited the collective photographic history of our family.  All in total chaos and disarray.
My goal is to digitize everything.   Catalog it, and create albums of the originals to be dispersed to the younger members of the family so they may be preserved.   Not all in one location and at the mercy of a fire or flood.  Along with each album to be a digitized copy of all the pictures.  So....
, they may never be looked at, never be appreciated, but at least I will have done my duty to the family heritage or some such nonsense.

But maybe, just maybe, someday, someone will look at one of these albums and say "Thank goodness Mia did this, I am so glad to see these photos."
So that is my goal, my mission, my task, my tribute to my parents.  To see the collective photographic history of our family preserved.   I hope they are pleased. 

OH Thank Goodness!  Fall is in the air!  The first few days of September roared in like August!  I thought to myself, "Is this summer ever going to end?"  But finally yesterday, you could tell.  Don't get me wrong, it is still warm, mid 80's and wearing shorts.  But the air has a different quality to it, dryer, friendlier.  Not the blasting humidity of summer in the South!

I spent the day outdoors,  mulching around the new trees we planted to replace the ones that died in the drought of the last two summers. These are Japanese Maples that have languished way too long in pots.   They seem happy in their new home. 

For those of you not familiar with Japanese Maples, they are, in my opinion the perfect 'yard' tree.  Easy to care for, not trashy or prone to dumping TONS of leaves on your lawn, they don't get very big and in the Fall, Oh in the Fall they turn a glorious Red!

But I digress, I dug all the daylilies out of a bed that DH has decided is to become part of the lawn.  He likes grass... 28 pots of daylilies later.   Oh my, and that is just ONE bed. There are 4 more he wants taken out!  My aching back!  And where to put all the pots?

Mediocrity

An online dictionary defines Mediocre as Moderate to inferior in quality; ordinary.  From the French médiocre, from Latin mediocris : medius, middle.

So I am having doubts,  about myself and my work.  My interests are so varied, beads, rocks, lapidary, jewelry, knives, and now purses made from Navajo rugs.

I ask myself, "Am I spreading myself too thin?  Does having many different interests lead to mediocrity?"  And should I be concentrating on just one idea or field?  But how can I?  One thing leads to another and another.  I have spoken before of my Muse, she who must be obeyed!  Hah!  She gets into my head and insists I create new and different designs and items.   I must think about this more....

Thoughts about the West

How many things are there about the West that you just love?  Horses, mountains, deserts, cactus, turquoise, red rock canyons?

The Navajo set up along the roadside selling crafts, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Scottsdale, Arizona!   Hatch Chile's, roasted hatch chile's, roadside chile' roasters, eating a chile fresh out of the roaster with some salt.....oooohhhh heaven.  New Mexico food, green chile not red.

The mountains, the smell of the pine forests, a quick glimpse of a Mule deer or an Elk hightailing it away into the woods.  Columbines in the summer at high altitude.   Making snowballs in July in the brilliant sunshine of a mountain pass.  Pinecones, watching Blue Jays scavenge scraps at a roadside table.  The stillness, the quiet, peacefulness shattered by the scream of a hunting hawk that is only a tiny dot above you.  

 
Roaring muddy rivers cutting canyons thru time.  The pictographs left  by ancient ones on those canyon walls.   Floating silently down thru those canyons on a raft and marveling at it all.   Tiny streams and waterfalls only created by melting snow.  Ancient cabins of homesteaders long dead and forgotten.

National Forests, National Parks and Monuments..  The dark brown paint used on every sign, post and building.  Fading warnings from Smokey the Bear.  Cattle guards, cow pies in the road.  Dirt roads that wander thru ranches to large that you cannot imagine their scope.  Mountain lakes so clear and still you can see the clouds and sky reflected in their surface.  And wildflowers you never saw before or will again, so fleeting is their existence.

Dust devils.  The hazy quivering mirage created by heat and distance that tricks the eye in the blasting heat.   Saguaro, Joshua trees, Pinyons and my favorite the Ponderosa Pine.   Sage brush.... everywhere, grab a handful and crush it, stick you nose in it and breath the scent...   The smell of a thunderstorm.  When the wind is just right and you see the storm in the distance you can smell the rain on the sage.  Smell it coming, this is my favorite smell of all.....

 

Name My New Bead Mix Contest

It has been a Really long time since I had a "Name my bead Mix Contest" And a long time since a name for a new mix did not just pop into my head, so I thought I would do another contest!

Here is a super dusty pink coppery mix for you to enjoy. Send me your name suggestions, via convo or email, to miaoreo [at] yahoo.com. I will choose a winner from the entries and send you a free 50 gram package of these new beads! No Purchase Necessary!

My only rule is leave out the obvious, .... cant use a trademarked name ya know....
And I already have a Vintage Rose, Victorian Rose, Pink Ribbon and Raspberry Cheesecake.

So lets have fun and Name these Beads! Enter as many names as you like.

Oh if you want to buy them, you can do that too.... LOL

see them here;
https://www.etsy.com/listing/128924244/name-my-new-bead-mix-contest-win-a?ref=shop_home_active

Wednesday Update:

Well the Names are coming in Fast and Furious!  And even though no one name has caught my fancy yet, you are all on a good track.  The most common seem to run towards FRUIT, which really surprised me.  Other popular themes run to ocean/beach and dawn or sunrise.  Here is what has been submitted so far, with no particular order, just in case you need some inspiration.  Keep those names coming!
Mia

NAMES ENTERED
 Rainbow sorbet
Pink Grapefruit
 “Sassy Rose”,
'Copper and Cream'
Peach Orchard
"strawberries and cream"
Copper Parfait.
Pink Champagne bubbles
Pre dawn
Beachy Keen
1.  A Rose for Amiee
2. Flesh all a Mesh
3.  Apricot Mousse
4.  Totally Taup-ular
Neapolitan Dream
My Sweetheart's Delight
Tickled Pink?
Sweet Seduction
Rose Quartz
Pink Sands
Conch Shell
Shrimp Cocktail
Strawberry Cream
Strawberry Dream
Strawberry Smoothie
Patch of Pink
Cotton Candy Swirl

I have a muse, you know, that creative voice in your head that tells you what to do sometimes.
My muse is tricky, like well, Tinker Bell.  Do you remember the movie "Hook"?  Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffmann and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell.

At the end of the movie when Peter (Robin Williams) returns home and is lying in the snow, Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) comes to him and says.."You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? ... that's where I will be waiting."

Well, that is mostly where my muse finds me....  half asleep, still remembering a dream and this muse pops into my head and I see an idea, a name, a mix of colors or something I just Have to create. And it wont let me rest until I do...  it whirs around in my head like a zooming fairy until I get up and go create it.

This morning, she popped in to tell me I had named a bead mix wrong, yup, wrong.  Yesterday I made an interesting green mix and named it Emerald Isle,  wrong!  My muse woke me up to tell me that mix should be Irish Spring,  and I needed to make a new darker green mix and call it Emerald Isle.   Can you believe the nerve of that cheeky little muse?

Well there you go, now I am off to make the new bead mix, just thought I would share with you.