Art on Vacation

Earlier this summer Jeremy and I took the girls on a trip to Sayulita, Mexico, with his parents and brother's family to celebrate my in-law's 40th anniversary. It was a wonderful trip filled with lots of fun experiences. As we explored this beautiful, small town, with cobblestone streets, I was struck by the art I found everywhere! From shop signs, to painted menus, mosaics at the fish shop, to murals on the walls, we were surrounded by art!

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

-Pablo Picasso

The work of the artist is to lift up people's hearts and help them endure.

-William Faulkner

Art is the signature of civilizations.

-Beverly Sills

Friday Freebie - on vacation

"Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else." — Lawrence Block

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." -- Mark Twain

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

(vintage travel postcards--right click to save to you computer)

Enjoy your summer travels, wherever they may take you. Soon enough we will be back to school, back to work, and back to the rhythms of the year. I can't wait!

Lost and Found

Do you remember losing your favorite mitten in elementary school? Maybe it was your lunchbox or your boots. There was always that place where the "lost and found" items would pile up and you could dig through and find what you were looking for.

Where do we go now? We are all grown up, and our playground is much larger than it used to be. We just returned from our family vacation to Kauai and realized that one of our cameras didn't make the trip back with us. After several calls to the rental car company and to the hotel, we have had no luck. What a shame to lose a camera! Fortunately, we had another, this was the older camera we were letting the girls use to record their vacation memories. How do you find a camera that could be lost on an island?

Hopefully my calls will yield some result. Each member of our family thinks that it was left in the rental car. Perhaps the people who took the car we used, after we did, will find it and be kind enough to return it. Until then, I will post it on a blog called I Found Your Camera. I heard about this website several months ago, and thought nothing of it. Maybe someone will be able to help us out. And if you happened to be in Kauai last week and found our camera, please email me.

What about losing other things? While we were gone we received a call from a service called FindToto.com. This was a new one to me. It is a nationwide web service to help find missing, stolen or lost pet. It kind of works like an "Amber Alert" and your neighbors can receive an automated phone call alerting them to look for your missing pet. In fact, in recent weeks, in our small town, there were two pets (one cat, one dog, different owners) reported lost through this service and found after the calls were put out.

So I guess we do still have access to "Lost and Found." Virtual Lost and Found websites can be found for colleges and churches and even across Europe. What a good idea!

In Spite of It All...

Summertime is crazy! It has been a whirlwind of art camps and trying to escape the heat. With four kids (combined) at our respective homes; Kerry and I have little time left for ourselves, much less our business. Summer perhaps should be our busy business time, but it is in fact, our busy family time.

In spite of it all we have managed to keep our Amazon storefront and our Etsy storefront updated.
We have still found time to make more jewelry, plan our fall line (you will love it!), and clean out the studio. (Check out our etsy store for great craft items!)
Next month we will launch our participation in a fundraiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. A worthy cause, indeed. Stay tuned for our special jewerly that will help to raise money for research.

Mundane is Beautiful

It's Wednesday morning. I am listening to the (joyful) sounds of the kids eating their breakfast. Today they go back to school after a week and a half long spring break. (My spring breaks were only one week long, but I guess that's the topic of another blog)

We had a good time over spring break: a quick road trip to Utah, a fabric shopping spree, our annual trip to Casa Bonita (a real treat! also a topic of another blog), gardening, jumping on the trampoline, visits to the park, and play dates with friends.

Perhaps the busyness of vacation shows us how wonderful our everyday lives really can be. Sometimes mundane is beautiful! Now I am ready for ROUTINE! I want to get back to work, to create, to walk, to talk with adults, to do all the things I normally do. So, on this lovely spring morning, I want to share this daffodil from my garden.