Green Gardens on my mind

Inspiration. We all need it, and sometimes we cannot find it. But when we do find it, inspiration can lead to marvelous things.

Lately, I have been working on my garden. Yes, I own a business. Yes, I should be focused on business things, bit I have been leaving early (er) and coming in late (again, er) to play in the garden. Now before you get any grand ideas (see photo of Lingering Garden), I have a garden the size of a postage stamp ( one of those big, oversize ones) and more of a chartreuse thumb. However, after doing some work on the outside of my house last year, I found I had a horseshoe shaped patio and the perfect beginnings of a small L-shaped garden.

So this year has been spent building walls (luckily, I had a lot of practice at my brother's house when his sewer pipe collapsed last year and we had to tear down & then rebuild his front yard and garden), ammending soil and adding plants. Those are the real, live, green things with pretty flowers & heady smells. I promise pictures will follow, but for now my inspiration has lead me to planning a Plant Swap & Sale here at the shop.

Join us Saturday, June 28th from 10am-6pm for fun, flowers & food. We'll have lots of starts, veggies, and other blooming goodies to trade & sell. Have seeds, bring 'em. We'll meet in the back garden and have a planting party! If you have any questions, just contact the shop, 360.405.4341.

Wednesday Hump Day

Yup, another Wednesday. A local radio station back in Maine (where I grew up) always called it Hump Day, and I always thought they were being a bit naughty until someone filled me in about it being the middle of the week hump that we needed to get over to start the slide toward the weekend. Huh, guess you can tell where my mind was (actually it was my brother who gave the erroneous info). But it is indeed another hump day and I am finding this particular Wednesday to be quite an uphill slog. You see, I've been working on our website. Yes, fun & games for some, but a bit like a trip to the dentist for me. I just haven't mastered this whole html thing. Here's the problem...when I was in high school computers were just beginning to be used by average folks (and actually, it wasn't average folks because even the little computer we got from TIME cost a bundle and all it did was run baseball). We didn't have computer classes per se, we had glorified typing. Yes, we "wrote programs" but they consisted of pick a number between 1 and 10. RUN. Exciting, I know. Mostly what we did was turn up the sound on our monitors and annoy the teacher with the metallic hum (sorta like teasing the substitute, but I was in high school after all). When I got to college computers were starting to be standard, but again all you got was word processing and Tetris. But I do remember the "internet". Now in those days the internet was a dark screen with writing on, BUT, writing from someone on Spain! My friend Ruey & I would stay up late and practice our Spanish with guys from Spain or Guatemala. The internet was cool, but no interactive websites with real time video feeds and dancing babies. So, I missed the learning curve. By the time I was a year out of school, the internet had exploded and I knew nothing about how it worked, or how to use it, or how the relate at all. Sure I could make a mean spreadsheet and graph (remember cricket?!) but I was lost with all this html language. I took spanish in college to be worldly and able to relate to the growing global-ness of the planet, no one said I needed to learn hypertext markup language. So that's my dilemma. Soon I will have the new site up complete with online e-commerce and all that jazz, but I need a few more days of hair pulling and cussing...I'll keep you posted.

Artwalk this Friday!

Things are happening too quickly for me, and I don't think I can blame it on jet lag anymore (it's been three weeks since we got back from China, and I think this excuse is wearing a bit thin).

Just to be obnoxious, here is another photo of China to delight!

This is a view across the street from the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, also known as the Bird's Nest. This whole complex is called the Minority Village and has representative structures from the 40 plus minorities that make up China's population. We were not able to explore the Olympic area (it is still very much under construction) but we did drive by the Bird's Nest and Ice Cube. The whole city of Beijing ( and indeed the whole country) is really excited about the upcoming games, there are countdown clocks in the major parks & squares and statues of Olympic events on the street medians. The only "bad press" we saw while we were in Beijing were protests in Tianamen Square the day the torch was lit in Athens. We stayed far away (we were traveling by invitation of the Chinese government, and it would be bad form to get arrested during our sponsored visit). I am very excited for the Olympics this year (honestly, I am every year) just because I will be able to relate to the area so much. We'll see how it all plays out.

The real reason for this post is to let everyone know I will be at the Downtown Branch of the Bremerton Library for this Friday's Artwalk. We'll be demo-ing basic metalsmithing techniques and showcasing some new "retro" jewelry & accessories (Beth has been busy in the studio!).

Join us Friday between 4 and 8pm. For more information, just contact me, or follow the library link.http://www.krl.org/index.php/KRL-Branches/Downtown-Bremerton.html

Thanks, see you Friday!

back from China & still jetlagged (or maybe just really behind)

Yes, I'm back from China and I won't lie, it was wonderful!!!

This shot is from Tiger Hill and the famous leaning pagoda. Though I've never been to the leaning tower of Piza, I think this would probably give Piza a run for its money. The gardens surrounding the tower are beautiful.

Spring was definitely the time to go to China, everything was blooming and fresh, and remarkably, my allergies were not too bad. I was amazed at how clean everything was (I had heard horror stories) and how well used the public gardens and temples and "touristy sites" were frequented by the chinese folks. Open spaces were full of people practicing Tai-Chi or dancing, and others were gathered in groups playing cards or mah jong, or just enjoying the day by singing, reading or playing with the kids.

I really enjoyed the trip, and Pixie has finally forgiven me for leaving her (again) and not letting her stay in doggie jail in Purdy this time (they were full). More pics of China and the goodies we brought home soon!

Welcome to the (new) echo artworks blog

Hello again, or maybe for the first time?! If you are confused, so am I so we'll just go with it until things seem to sort themselves out. This is the new (and probably, hopefully, to be) improved blog for echo artworks bead shop & gallery located in Bremerton, Washington. We have just started this blog here after a move from blogging on our website, www.echoartworks.com and hope this will be easier for folks to find, comment on & generally have fun than having the blog elsewhere. I plan to post a couple of times a week (ahh, the best laid plans...) with posts on bead news, tips & techniques and bead & jewelry business related stuff for your pleasure, education &/or procrastination. Also, I will get pictures loading as soon as I can as I know everyone is still waiting for Pixie's official coming out! Thanks for tolerating our move and if this is your first time with us, WELCOME! More to come!