Newest Work in Progress or I Am at the Mercy of my Muses

My newest work in progress is a necklace I started several months ago with hand bent heavy copper wire hammered and wired together.  This weekend the muses were frequenting me quite often, so I just turned on the television, watched a bunch of movies and let them take over.  I find it's best if I kinda blackout while I work, the minute I start over thinking things my mythical friends leave.  They also like wine, so I do my best to appease them. With their help I added amethyst, agate, rose quartz, turquoise, peridot, freshwater pearls, and abalone.  As of right now it is destined to be a very large statement piece.  This piece of the necklace measures 6.5 inches and it's not even done.  Fingers crossed they come back soon, guess I better keep watching movies and drinking wine until they do, just in case.  

Life as the Bionic Woman or Not All Trees Grow Straight

I like to think of my spine as a tree, sometimes like a snake, but mostly a tree.  Most little trees grow straight all on their on own, but some are creative.  They see themselves as artists and there aren't about to follow some age old truth that straight is better without trying out their own way first.  My scoliosis came early and the doctors and my parents spent years watching my spine twist and contort itself.  I was more preoccupied with my ever growing Barbie population and the ever shrinking Ken population going on in the basement.  My sister was always dismembering the ken dolls.  I wanted to climb trees, eat dirt, catch pollywogs and do science experiments on snails.  Snails don't like broccoli,  if you were wondering.  My back crossed my mind when the headaches came or P.E. teachers expected me to anything more athletic than sitting in left field talking to the flowers.   I just learned to carry advil and cry whenever we had to run the mile. 

Junior High came and because it's just not quite awkward enough being 5 feet 8 inches tall, gangly, and hormonal the doctors decided it would be the perfect time to put me in a brace.  Remember the brace Lisa Kudrow's character in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion wore?  It was basically an updated version of that.  I was going to post a picture of one, but I got nauseous looking at google images of them.  So use your imagination.  I only lasted about a year in that when I unhappily agreed to let them turn me into the bionic girl.  We waited till I was officially done growing and I was put under, cut open, and rebuilt.                     

Side view x-ray of the bars and screws that hold me together.

This is the happy part of the story.  The surgery went great, they were able to stretch out my spine enough to give me an extra inch of height.  I was now 5'10", but strangely disappointed I wasn't 6 feet.   I recovered, got sent back for the last semester of my senior year of  high school, which I spent most of sleeping in my car instead of going to class.  Somehow I drove on pain meds, but sitting in class was too hard.  I think my teachers and the administration pity graduated me.  My headaches became less frequent and eventually the 17 inch scar started to fade.  After a few years I stopped feeling like my back functioned as a meteorologist and I sounded less like someone in my eighties predicting storms according my pain levels. 

This all came back to me today as I took out my x-rays to show the physical therapist.  The very first physical therapist I ever remember seeing.  It's been a decade since they first filled me with titanium.  I can honestly say I'm glad they did.  I still have pain, but it's livable.  My crooked spine will never be straight, but then again I wouldn't want them to take all the creativity out of me.      

My Fluffy Assistant

Was taking pictures of a this necklace this afternoon so I can get it listed and got more than I anticipated.  My not so helpful assistant LunaBelle made it in the picture too.  She's more trouble than help in the office, she loves to knock stuff over and thinks every spool of ribbon is just asking to be unraveled. On the positive side she gives great cuddles and kisses, so we keep her on staff as emotional support.

Newest Copper Healing Pendants

These are two pendants I've been working on today.  They aren't finished yet, but I'm hoping to have them completed, named, and listed in the shop by next week.  They are made with hammered copper and then wrapped with freshwater pearls, amethyst, rose quartz, agates, and turquoise.  If only one ends up in the shop it's because I've decided to keep one.  I'm always a sucker for wearing amethyst and rose quartz close to my heart.  Who couldn't use a little more stability and love?

Roses & Pearls Bracelet

This is my newest bracelet, made with cream colored freshwater pearls and rose quartz.  The inspiration came from a set of bridesmaids jewelry I just completed for a girlfriend's wedding.  Since then, I have been dreaming and creating in creamy whites, pale pinks, and little splashes of glamorous crystals.  It's all pulled together with a silver toggle, which bares my favorite ancient symbol. 

Rose quartz  is the stone of unconditional love and helps align the heart chakra.  It will not not only help with heart healing and self love, but it will draw more love to you.  If you are already in a relationship it will encourage harmony and unconditional love.  This stone is perfectly complimented by the pearls which also encourage self acceptance.  Pearls invoke a feeling of beauty, calm, and dignity.  They are a perfect example of transformation; a ragged, rough grain of sand growing into a object of great value and beauty.  There is something very raw and yet feminine about this delicately textured piece.  It brings us back to the simplest and purest thing in life, love.     

September Garden Update

 It's the first day of fall.  I would love to write an amazing post about what that means astrologically, spiritually, and historically from a mythological perspective....but I just don't want to.  I'm in a mood and basically I'm just trying not to crawl in bed or open the bottle of wine that's been calling to me all day from the kitchen.  I have a good reason for feeling this way, but I don't want to talk about that either....so let's talk about the garden.  

I'm really started to notice how certain plants are starting to die back while others are at their height.  The beans, which only produced 5 lousy pods, are dying back.  Still scratching my head about why they were so unhappy.  The corn has also finished and I've cut down nearly all the stocks.  I've got two tall ones left standing and I'm having a hard time parting with them.  They just seem so regal standing guard over the garden, it feels wrong to cut them down even though I know its time.  Some of the squash are dying back, which is probably a good thing, since the leaves are so dense it takes me forever to even find the fruits and veggies hiding out underneath.

On the other end of the spectrum the cantaloupe is doing great.  We already had our first one.  The roommates and I all sat down and ate it together.  You would have thought I had brought some strange fruit home from another country the way everyone oohhed and aahhed over it.  It was the very first melon I've ever grown so I am pretty proud of myself.  There are quite a few more out there ripening up as we speak.  Also, we have watermelons that are close to being ready.  My fingers are crossed that they turn out to be the sweet deliciousness I have been dreaming about for the last few months.


The tomatoes and peppers are also doing better, although not quite the turnout I had hoped for the heirloom tomatoes.  I've been picking the tomatoes as soon as they have a lick of color to keep them safe from our furry masked bandits.  Got two small black prince tomatoes the other day.  The more I look at them, the less I want to eat them.  They are such a dark reddish maroon color, they look like coagulated balls of blood .  I told my friend, Dane, last night if any of his body parts turn that color he should go straight to the hospital.  He was in the middle of cooking dinner.  He refused to use those tomatoes and I got exiled from the kitchen.  Lesson learned, don't talk about hospitals or blood around food.

I also discovered recently that these strange little squash I've been picking and complaining about were actually baby pumpkins and butternut squash, both of which I've grown before.  I feel pretty stupid now, but at the time I was really stumped trying to figure out what they were.  Anyway, there are still a few types of squash growing that I'm mystified about, but I'm just ignoring them now to see if they turn into anything recognizable before I throw another fit and embarrass myself again.

Supposedly, it's going to start cooling down this weekend.  I guess I should start thinking about a fall/winter garden.  Maybe this time around I will label stuff so I actually know what I'm growing....but then again that just sounds like it might take the mystery out of it.  Let's be honest, surprising myself is half the fun.    

Jungle Garden

If you want your garden to appear more green and jungle like simply water a lot and stop weeding.  It works for me.  I haven't quite evolved into the kind of gardener who has a picture perfect garden.  Truthfully, I'm not really counting on that ever happening.