Sunday, March 16, 2008

the Easter bunny makes an early visit... or does he?

it's not even Easter yet ... although it seems we've had a visitor who left his mark ... could it be? Looks like someone's been busy coloring eggs ... but wooden eggs? Perhaps he couldn't find a chicken!



behind a bowl of tulips I spy a possible suspect! But, Easter's still a week away? What's he doing here?



still... the tulips seem to know something's up! Just look at them! They seem to think spring has sprung...



ahhhh... what's that! ... there's the culprit ... in a flash of green!



a basket of eggs....



cherubs?



spring grasses? Wait! That's no Easter rabbit!



but my own Mr. R. ....the Easter Parrot, no less! Wishing us all a blessed week filled with a dazzle of spring flowers and basketfulls of colored eggs and treasure hunts in dewy green meadows...



can anything come close to a basketful of pastel-painted eggs? A few things... like this sweet little spring necklace with periwinkle, freshwater pearls and glistening citrine, just might!



thanks for dropping by!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!!

~L

Saturday, March 8, 2008

more than a load of abalone



recently a friend asked me to make a memory piece using her deceased husband's St. Christopher ... something fun and reminiscent of the sea and surf, since he'd been a surfer in his youth. My friend appeared truly pleased with my final creation, which is always a treat for me! But ... during my search for special beads for this sentimental project, I was reintroduced to that most beautiful of all shellfish shells, in my opinion, abalone. I always buy some whenever I find it at bead stores and fairs, and have since made other sea-themed pieces, including the one pictured above, which is a simple, small pendant combined with freshwater pearls.

it seems to me abalone used to be easily obtained and I even remember my Aunt kept one beautiful specimen as an ashtray, no less! I've never eaten abalone, but I've been told it's heavenly. Over the years, it seems abalone has been over fished. You just don't see it anymore except on the menus of some very high class restaurants. How sad we humans can't seem to leave a good thing alone.

i remember an aquaintance who came to visit me in San Francisco in the early 80's when I lived with a houseful of roommates out on the avenues. This aquaintance was not a close friend, or friend at all, really, but rather the friend of a friend. Still, I met her for dinner. She was on vacation with her boyfriend ... they'd been abalone diving up and down the California coast, which to me, at the time, seemed terribly exotic. I don't remember much of that particular dinner party except that the "aquaintance" fell asleep at the table, mid-sentence, cigarette in hand, while I looked on in disbelief. Apparently, diving is a good work out!

tomorrow's my birthday, and I recall the days my mother always baked a cake for such occassions. Us kids were rarely satisfied with one piece of course and were always clamoring, dish in hand, for seconds. My mother used to say, "You're eating that stuff like it's going out of style! Tomorrow's another day!" Sage advice! The truth is, we can always make more cake. But abalone?

~L