Happy Discardia to you.

For those of you who don't celebrate festivus...I've got a new one for you, well, treehugger.com does...Discardia. Since I've taken a couple of days to sit and veg out this week, I've noticed that every corner in my house is just piled with stuff. And me...I guess I'm just not the kind of person to sit and veg out. So I'm big into preparations for Discardia day. It's not nearly as fun and festive as Christmas - and there's no candy involved. But when the day actually comes, whooh! I feel a lot better. My rule...if I haven't touched it in a year, and it doesn't have huge sentimental value...out it goes! Happy Discardia to you!

Not a fan of blinking snowman earrings?

Yeah, me neither. Which leaves me in a hard spot. I have a little bit of elf blood in me. I'm sure of it because as soon as the Thanksgiving tupperware's put in the fridge I've got the goofiest Christmas grin on my face. But I just can't bring myself to wear blinking snowman earrings for the next month.

So, I had to take things into my own hands. Here's what I do to be Christmassy, without looking like a complete goofball. These Sari Earrings always do it for me. I just love these beads anyway. Since they're a solid color, you can pull them off later in the year too and not look too silly.

I like this lampwork pendant too. I really like the silk cord it's hanging from. You've got to see it in person to see how cool it is. The pictures just don't do it justice.

There - now you can be festive without needing batteries to do it.

Oh momma - these turned out cool!

Ok, fresh off the work bench and I just had to share. How cool are these two pieces? The solder gods were smiling on me for these projects. These are both custom orders. The first one is a montana agate, from, you guessed it, Montana (the banks of the Yellowstone River to be exact). And the second is an Owyhee Picture Jasper from Eastern Oregon. If you want to see the before, these are #2 and #14 on my rock dork page. I can fit in two more custom orders for Christmas, so if this strikes your fancy. Email me quick!

Ok, today I'm a white chocolate goddess!

Mmmm...death by white chocolate today. How's this for divinity: white chocolate irish cream truffle dipped in white chocolate. Yep, I ended up licking the bowl on that one too. These ones actually turned out pretty so I didn't even have to wrap them in foil this time.

Ok, if you're looking for a book to turn you into a chocolate snob, this is the one to do it. There's more that you ever wanted to know about tempering chocolate, and some really cool things to do with it once you've got it tempered (which is the HARDEST thing to do! I think you need to be an industrial chemist to figure that one out).

So, all I've got left now are my osbcene turtles (there is nothing better on the planet than homemade caramel! It's worth the hours and hours of stirring). And a secret for Judy - since I know she's reading I'm not going to spill the beans.

So, did you make out your wishlist to Santa yet?

I Guess if Starbucks is Doing It....

Good lord! When did Starbucks become the herald for the holiday season? It's like it wasn't official around the country until the red cups and gingerbread lattes got pulled out of the back cupboard.

Me? For some reason I keep thinking it's still April. It really can't be November, can it? Thanksgiving's not really next week, right?

Well, gingerbread latte in hand, I put together a new little contest together that should be fun. Tell Santa what you want for Christmas >>

Happy Holidays, I guess. Oh, and twenty bucks says my Christmas cards are going out as Happy New Years cards (happy valentines?) Oh goody.

Stop! no Go!

Perusing my favorite treehugger site again, and I came across this cool little article

Drachten, a small Dutch city with around 50,000 residents has removed almost all of its traffic lights. Major intersections have been converted to roundabouts, smaller intersections just let drivers work make decisions on their own. Basically, it's anarchy. Anarchy that has completely eliminated dangerous crashes and road fatalities and created a surge in bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Read the rest here...

How neat is that? Although, I bet that wouldn't work if you got too much bigger - can you imagine like Paris without any stop lights? I wonder what Portland would be like...

I am a chocolate goddess!!!

No, not in the Ray Nagin sort of way... But I made my first batch of candy of the season. Oh momma! I almost don't want to give them out. I found a truffle recipe called "Death by Chocolate". Now, if there's any way to go out, going by chocolate is the tops. Anyway, the filling in these things is just unreal. I ended up with more filling than I needed...and you know, you just can't let something like this go to waste...so I ended up squirting the remains of my parchment bag of obscenely creamy chocolate directly into my mouth. MMMMMMMM. I felt like I was a little kid with a whipped cream can. Well...actually I think I'm more of a chocolate princess than a chocolate goddess - I still have to work on the presentation - they're still a little swirly on the outside instead of perfectly shiny like I want them. But that's just an excuse to practice more and have more leftovers. Dave gets all excited too 'cause he gets to eat all the broken ones. And Devera...well, you've seen the photos.

I found a good quote...

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

Ok, that's a little better

It's like a kaliedascope for those of you who visit frequently. I think I'll settle down now. I don't promise anything though. At least I'm back to purple and green again.

Dammit - I pressed another button again.

Aack! When am I going to learn. Hold tight while I figure out how to turn this back.

2 Lines I Really Like

2 of them caught my eye (and ear today one was on the radio) We're all just recycled stardust (cool concept - and true if you really think about it). The people who are in control are the people who come out. (Don't just sit there - go out and vote - for ANYTHING!) Ok, there are my random thoughts for today.

More spiders please

Yep, that's certainly my kid. No that's not halloween face paint. It's cupcake frosting. We got halloweeney cupcakes for Dave's birthday on Monday. Devera's had a big black spider in frosting on top. She literally sucked the spider off the top (yes, you could hear slurping sounds and everything). When she was done with the frosting, not having eaten any of the actual cupcake, she looked up at me and said, "More spiders, please." There's an equally entertaining and very technicolor story on the other side of this event. But I won't gross you out. Oh yeah, and after I posted that I'd never have another reese's again, I had 2 more after dinner. I earned them, dammit!

Toby does pennance - goes to aerobics class

As pennance for eating reese's peanut butter cups for breakfast, lunch and dinner last night (note - not "with" breakfast, etc. but FOR breakfast). I decided to go to my first ever aerobics class. Those of you that know me are laughing already. I learned a whole lot of things tonight. In order to be proficient (or even not look like a complete idiot) you need the following skills:

1. Need to know your left from your right (I'm still working on that one - I have to make an L shape with my left hand for verification - hard to do when you're bouncing up and down)
2. Need to have just a little bit of rhythm (SP??) - yeah, don't have that.
3. Need to kinda be able to dance - I got nothin there.
4. Need to be kinda perky - I wonder if they make surly aerobics? I'd probably be good at that one!

I'm just really glad my spot wasn't anywhere close to a mirror. I would have run out crying. I know I looked like Devera when she does the hokey pokey, except that I'm not 2. But then I thought - she throws herself into the hokey pokey with wild abandon. I guess I could just laugh my way through it - it was really comical. I completely gave up on the arms halfway through after I almost hit the poor woman next to me a couple of times. At least I was entertainment for somebody - the little 70 year old ladies were smiling and winking at me. Oh yeah - this was the EASY aerobics class. I will never NEVER eat reeses for breakfast lunch and dinner again!

Good god I've got a lot of rocks!

I'm not just a rock dork - I'm a hording rock dork! While I was updating my site, I decided to redo the custom orders page. So I pulled out all of my rocks to take some photos of, and good god - where did all of those come from? I couldn't even label them from A-Z - I've got too many! Take a look at the cool ones I've got listed here >> There are some great landscapes hiding in a bunch of them. I think my favorites are number 11 & 12. Which one's your favorite?

Aaaah much better

I'm a consumate button pusher. I'm on the verge of getting myself in trouble - since I didn't build this new shopping cart myself, I know just enough to break it really good. I'll have to smack my hand each time I reach and think..."I wonder what would happen if..." I still like this purple.

Fix one thing break 12 others.

Looks a little different here, huh? This new color change was the result of a "Well, what do you think that button does?" Pardon the blue for a couple of days - I'll turn it back to purple shortly. Dave just asked what the big sigh was. The good news is that there's now a new shopping cart on my site with all kinds of cool new bells and whistles. Super exciting, and it's going to save me a ton of time. Bad news is that I broke a bunch of other things while I fixed the cart. I guess that's where all the saved time's going to go. Oh well - hey if you see any funkiness on my site, will you let me know?

Yippee, It's Open Studios Time!

And even bigger yippee - I'm only visiting instead of participating. So, Portland's Open Studio Tour went on this weekend - and it's going on next weekend too - if you have some free time. It's nice not to be a nervous wreck for a weekend, like I've done in years past. It's fun to go see the artists in their natural habitat (picture buffalo grazing on an open plain). We were able to make it to 2 of my favorite aritsts this weekend...

Ryan Birkland

And Pam Greene: Her studio is BEYOND cool! Devera was a true patron of the arts...she was very good at pointing at the pictures instead of mauling them (although I think we gave a weaver a heart attack in her studio). Good old kermit the frog came along on the tour too, and he enjoyed pointing at all the works of art as well. I wonder if Devera will be into arts when she gets older (I wonder if Kermit will too). Anyway, if you're in town and you're looking for something to do next weekend - grab a tour guide from New Seasons markets and go take a tour. It's a lot of fun.

oooh, it's so close I can almost taste it!

I've been working behind the scenes for the past couple of weeks putting together my new site...which looks remarkably (exactly) like my old site, but on steroids. And I'm soooooo close to having it finished. I hate going though and making sure my i's are dotted and my t's are crossed - but the devil is in the details. So if you don't see anything witty being posted here, it's because I'm saving my wit for the bigger site (and there's not that much wit to work with in the first place!) When I do taste it - I hope it tastes like chocolate (and not the child labor kind).

Well, this kind of killed the little chocolate binge I was on.

How sad is this? I just go this in one of my little tree hugger emails: The scariest thing about Halloween this year won't be the costumes... it's the chocolate. Almost half of the world's cocoa is being produced on West African plantations where, according to the UN's International Labor Organization, 284,000 child laborers "are either involved in hazardous work, unprotected, or have been trafficked." Say no to the chocolate industry's ghoulish links to child slavery by buying Fair Trade and organic chocolate. Say it ain't so!

Which one do you think's my kid?

Certainly not the clean one. It's pretty funny scrolling through the photos of her birthday party. She starts of with a tidy little blue goatee and pencil thin mustache, and as the photos keep going she ends up with a good santa beard. Just like her mom. Give me a good cupcake and I'll show you how to make a mess.

Rock dorks united.

Yep, it was a large collection of rock dorks all together at the expo center this weekend. It was pretty funny, the expo center the event was held at was also having girlfest and the roller derby going on at the same time. So door A had a bunch of girl scouts streaming through it, door B had a bunch of hipsters dressed in black, door C, though, had a couple people sitting on their walkers out front, so we knew we were in the right spot. Yep, lots of walkers and rascals at that event. And yeah, I spent waaaaay too much money. But I got a lot of good stuff I can't wait to share.

Yep, I'm a rock dork

This weekend is the Portland Gem & Mineral show - and I'm all over it! It'll be me and a bunch of 85 year old rock hounds in their walkers and rascals. It's kind of sad...lapidary is really a dying (or at least shrinking) hobby. I guess it doesn't hold a candle to xboxes and myspace. Anyway, my primo primo rock guy's going to be there - so hopefully I'll excercise just a little bit of restraint with the credit card. I'll post photos of the goodies I come back with. Rock dorks unite!

It's alive....ALIVE!!!

Farmer Dave's new site, that is >> Check out Dave's new site...tons of cool bead photos...a video of Dave making beads...a new blog (which surprisingly looks like a fall colored version of the page you're reading right now - what a copycat!) Actually, I built the site for him, so there's no reason to reinvent the wheel (call me lazy). I'm going to steal a bunch of his cool little gizmos for my site too. Not to be outdone, my site's going under a major overhaul too. But you won't be able to see most of it, all hiding behind the scenes. I'm putting in a new shopping cart system. Yippee - no more broken links and yucky stuff. And what a concept - I'll be able to spend more time making jewelry. Stay tuned! oh, and go visit Dave's site. Good riddance to neon green and hard to read white text on a black background. Hello streamlined. I'd love to hear your feedback - oh and I'd really like to hear if you found something broken or typo'ed.

Where a kid can be a kid...

It's scary that I even remember that jingle. So, we're leaving the parking lot of Home Depot with a trunkload of pansies to plant in the yard along with the shipment of 18 gazillion tulips that I vaguely remember ordering in the spring...anyway, we're pulling out of the parking lot and completely covered by trees except for maybe his little glossy nose...Devera starts crowing "Chuck E Cheese, Chuck E Cheese!!!!" It sent shivers up my spine. Now, Devera's only been there once (with her Daddy, I "unfortunately" had to miss the outing) and it was like a year ago. But good god, this kid sure knows who good old Chuck is. SHE'S 2!!! I guess Chuck made an appearance at her preschool carnival a couple of months ago, and now he's completely imprinted on her brain. I'm glad they didn't invite the Marlboro Man or she'd have a 2 pack a day habit by now! It's crazy what things stick in their head. She still talks about going to the fair, and that was a month ago.

I was surfing around this afternoon, and came across this product description that made me giggle...

Now that you're four, life is really starting to force responsibility on you, making you begin to work through some tough decisions like "toilet or my pants?," "pet the kitty or bite the kitty?," "Cheerio in my mouth or up my nose?" Thankfully, not all choices are that difficult - take these lovely sky blue Snap Tees for example -all you have to focus on is, "Do I feel like a kitty or a monkey today?" Easy, right?

These shirts are really cute And the site's really well written. There...I've fueled your random surfing for today. Oh, and I go for the cheerio up the nose any day!

Yep that's my kid.

We went to the Oregon state fair yesterday. What fun! We just happened to enter by the livestock section...and Devera got her first up close and personal glimpse of the barnyard animals Old McDonald's always singing about. The cows kind of freaked her out...they look a lot smaller in the picture books. The pigs kind of freaked me out. They're awfully big too. But yes, this is a child after my own heart...we couldn't drag her away from the horse show that was going on. She was just fascinated, and couldn't stop talking about it after we left. In fact it's still a hot topic of conversation.

I hope my customer satisfaction's just a little better...

I found a really interesting map showing Starbucks and McDonald's effects on the world. I think the line that's most interesting is that McDonald's customer satisfaction ranking is below all the major airlines and the IRS. Wow! I didn't think that was possible. These guys have a whole bunch of interesting maps: International Networks Archive

I knew there was I reason we switched...

So, I was reading my favorite site today, and I feel better dishing out that awful lot of money for organic milk. It's has finally been proven--organic milk really is healthier. It looks like the cows that are able to munch on grass have 68% more omega 3 fatty acids in their milk - I guess that makes sense. That's a good consolation for a milk junkie kid and a milk junkie husband.

Gotta get me some!

Ok, I've found something new to drool over. And, yeah, you can laugh at my extreme rock dork side coming out. But check out this new material (well, old material). It's the scrapings from the inside of a car paint booth from an auto factory in Detroit. How cool is that? It's beautiful, if you ask me. And an awesome way to put this stuff to good use. Now I've got to figure out how to get my hands on some!

Oh, what a nice vacation

How'd you like to wake up to this every morning? It's wonderful, let me tell you! We just got back from our week long vacation to Orcas Island and Vancouver. They're a pretty short (4-6 hour) drive from Portland, so it makes for an easy trip with the Munchkin.

I really like Orcas Island - I've been to San Juan Island before, and it was a bit touristy for my taste. Orcas is smaller and more off the beaten path. And, holy cow - they know how to cook there! Great place to unwind.

We also ditched the kid at grandma's house for a couple of days and went up to Vancouver by ourselves. First time we'd spent that long away from her (we'd gone overnight once before, but had such terrible food poisoning that we could barely drag ourselves out of bed!). It was lovely. My mom looked so tired when we picked Devera up. She's definitely a handful! Anyway, back to the grind. At least the little stress muscles in my are all unwound now.

Sfogliatelle

Mmmm...I've been thinking about this line I heard on NPR all day... A dessert so delicious it confirms the existence of God. You can listen too, and giggle with me >>

My favorite site...

Fitting...they used to call me "one of those earth babies" in college. So I guess it makes sense that the site I've ended up surfing a lot these days is called www.treehugger.com Anyway, the real story I want to share is a cool one about organic farming in Cuba. So I guess after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba was cut of from exporting it's main cash crop, sugar cane. That really spread poverty and was causing a lot of famine. So, Castro decided that he wanted his peeps to be self sufficient and created a bunch of small scale organic farms. The results were really impressive. Read the rest of the story here >>

A perfect afternoon...

Want to know the ingredients for a perfect Portland afternoon? Meander your way to the Pearl District. Hop on the streetcar, also known as the choo choo train, to the munchkin in my entourage. The drivers are so nice - they all waved to her and rang their little bell - she couldn't have been happier. Well, until we made our way to the gelato stand on Northwest 23rd. A little sugar boost to get us through the afternoon, and back down to the Pearl to Devera's absolute mostest mostest favorite place in the world, the fountain at Jamison Square. (Just imagine it with about 50 times more kids) There's no way to go there without getting completely soaked, which is fine for Devera - she has no problem changing clothes in front of hundreds of strangers. Me, I just drive home wet. Hope you had a great afternoon too.

Who's your favorite?

Artist, that is... I'll tell you mine - it's a no-brainer.

James Michalopoulos

He's an artist that Dave and I got into while we lived in New Orleans. He channels Van Gogh and does really cool paintings of New Orleans houses. I think I got hooked on him when I saw a painting in his gallery of the little yellow house that I was daydreaming over buying in Uptown. Oh, how I wanted that house soooo bad. It was the sweetest little shotgun shack. And just a happy yellow. It's funny when you look back at things...I'm glad we didn't buy that happy little yellow house. I have my own little happy yellow house here in Portland now. Although it's well on its way to being a happy purple house as we speak. So, who's your favorite artist? I'd love to hear. Expose me to some culture!

Who's your hero?

So, you know, you're stuck in traffic, bored to tears, and you make your lists? The list that occupied me for those 30 minutes was...who are my heroes? Thank god I don't live in LA any more or it would have been 2 hours! Maybe my list would have been longer though - cause I could only really come up with two. I'll give you one today... Maya Angelou Even if you haven't read any of her books, just to look at her face and to hear her voice. I don't know - something about quiet strength. And anyone who could come from being mute, to being a prostitute to one of the first woman streetcar ticket takers to - holy cow - poet laureate. That's pretty damn cool. Her books are a fantastic read too, if you haven't picked one up before. Who are your heroes? I love to hear what inspires and motivates my friends - leave me a comment. And tune in next time...I share hero #2.

The new diet craze??? Let's cross our fingers.

So, you've got the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet...how 'bout the 100 Mile Diet? If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you've probably learned that I'm a nut for organic and sustainable food. I was reading about this concept a couple of days ago and I really hope it catches on. The premise is that your diet only consists of food that came from less than 100 miles from wherever you are. You end up eating fresher food that hasn't been shipped for days to your market. You support your local farmers, and you get a better connection with the place you live. The tradeoffs? Yeah, no tomatoes in February (they taste terrible then anyway). Anyway, if you want to read more, here's someone else's experience. Where does your food come from?

And the winners are...

Thanks to everybody who placed orders during my private sale yesterday. It was great talking to a bunch of you. The winners of the $10 gift certificates are...drumroll please... Eva Alpert Suzanne Taylor Angela Oldham Thanks again - it was a lot of fun.

Oh, isn't this fun.

There's some hard core shopping going on behind the scenes here. I don't know about you but I get in a frenzy when there's a good sale going on. I'm really glad I don't live in Boston - Filene's basement just sends me into coniptions. It's been fun - I get to talk to some of my old customers, and meet some new ones - and some of Dave's too!

Invites are out

If you didn't get yours, email me.

Aack, where's my invite?????

Looks like the invites for the private sale aren't going to go out quite as early as I had hoped. I planned in my little head for them to hit everyone's mailboxes at midnight tonight, but it looks like they'll be sent out some time tomorrow morning. The newsletter has to be approved before it gets sent out (which is pretty cool of my newsletter service, so they don't let spammers weasel their way into it). But I guess all of their approvers actually like to sleep at night, and don't want to stay up till midnight to send off my INCREDIBLY important email. Oh well, hope that doesn't junk up your plans too much. I'll keep the sale open until Saturday morning to make up for the lost shopping time. God forbid you lose precious shopping time! I'll post on my blog once I'm sure the invites went out. Then you can truly say "Aack, where's my invite?!?"

Hmmm...cut it a little more

I'm putting the finishing touches on the private sale as we speak. It's kind of fun. I look at a price...hmmm...I think I'm going to lower it by $10 more. Good thing I'm having the sale tomorrow - if this lasts much longer I'm going to be paying you guys to buy the stuff! So, I'm scheduling the email to go out at midnight tonight (Pacific time, that is) - first come first served. Check your email, and happy shopping. Oh, and I'm sweetening the deal too - 3 lucky orders will get a $10 gift certificate too, along with their cool lampwork keychain. Are you feeling lucky?

I've gotten out my big red pen

Ok, you may not see it now, but I'm frantically marking down a whole slew of goodies for my private sale on Thursday. Let's see - I think the biggest discount so far is $75 off one piece - which one? Well you'll just have to get an invitation to find out! Want another little hint? Start picking out your curliecue necklace. Or maybe some flowers...lots of flowers.

Back from Puerto Rico

Wow, it's taken a while to get my act together from coming back from Puerto Rico. I didn't get to stay nearly long enough, and didn't get to leave the resort grounds - but what the hell - I was in Puerto Rico on someone else's dime. I can't complain too much. By far the coolest thing I saw there were the unbelievably cute little coqui's all around the grounds. They're these teeny little tree frogs that sing their little heart's out once the sun goes down. Listen to this little guy, and imagine thousands of them all singing together. It was by far the neatest thing I'd experienced in a long time. Between the frogs and the hermit crabs, we were knee deep in critters. There were little crabs everywhere! You'd go to the beach to try and collect a couple of shells to bring home with you and...oop's someone's in that one...oh, someone's in that one too...hey - that pretty shell's walking away! One evening before going back to my room, a friend of mine and I were catching frogs (yeah, some little kids just never grow up!) We put our little frogs back in the bushes and looked down it the ground was just crawling with hermit crabs - and we were quite a way from the beach. Having had a very traumatic childhood experience with hermit a hermit crab (those guys hold on for dear life no matter how hard you shake your hand!!!!!) I was a little hesitant to play with the crabs as much. But the frogs were good fun!.

A burger joint with roots

So, a couple of years ago, Dave and I decided that we would only eat free range meat (Read Fast Food Nation and it will sway you too!). That really kills you when you're looking for a fast greasy burger - and some times I really jones for a Western Bacon Cheeseburger all drippy and gooey and yucky. But there's this one fast food joint (or chain rather) here in Oregon called Burgerville that decided, during the whole mad cow escapade to only serve local free range beef. Whoopee! They're pretty cool - they're a total fast food joint but they still only serve seasonal stuff that's locally sourced. So I drove past one of them this morning, and I notice their sign said "Get gardening tools and seeds with every kid's meal purchase". What an awesome idea! Instead of junky little spongebob plastic things that are either going to get choked on or forgotten in 10 minutes, they're teaching munchkins how to plant seeds. I love it. Something tells me Devera would be a big fan of their strawberry shakes! We'll have to find out.

Ok, flower photos as promised

And a cute little petunia in the front.

How sad...

Ok, so this is how sad my life has become. Dave and I went out to the movies for the first time in - yikes - 2 years. (DaVinci Code - we liked it a lot, but I think you would have had to read the book before you watched it). So we're walking to the movie theater and Dave looks over at me with this concerned look on his face - he says - "Are you ok? Your eye looks purple"... Um, yeah - that's called eyeshadow. Obviously poorly applied if it scared my husband. I learned it's a lot harder to do with a squirmy 20 month old kid in your arms who wants to do everything you are doing. Maybe I should warn him first next time. I had to laugh - and Dave was so embarrassed. He'd dug himself a good hole. Oh, and I'd take some garden photos for you if it would stop raining for 2 seconds!

The happiest comment

Hi guys - took a little extended hiatus there. So we got the sweetest comment from someone this evening. Devera, Dave and I were working in our garden this afternoon. One of our neighbors was walking her dog and stopped to introduce herself. She told us that we just had the happiest looking house. Isn't that a cool concept? I have a happy house! I really do. You know our garden is just going bezerk these days. I think I'll take a bunch of photos and share them with you all week. Sounds fun, huh?

Private? Exclusive? Special?

I don't know about you, but I'm a sale junkie. Especially if it's a good one. Well guys, hold onto your hats. I put a countdown on my home page...this is my first ever private sale. It's such a fun concept...I'm actually going to be closing the shop to the general public and only letting newsletter subscribers and previous customers in. All my new designs I've been putting together over the last couple of months will be previewed there as well as a whole bunch of pieces that will be 50% off. I'll give you a sneek preview on my blog of what's going to be on sale as it gets closer. So, mark your calendar and spread the word...June 23rd is the big day. To get your invitation, join my newsletter here >> Sounds like fun, huh?

I've got some updating to do

Here are some remnants of last weekends show. I've got a whole bunch of cool new pieces to add to the site over the next couple of weeks. Oh, and if you didn't notice on my home page - I've got a newsletter signup form I just added. Sign up for it (I promise I won't spam you every week). I'm planning on having a sale just for my newsletter subscribers and previous customers - I'm going to close shop for everyone but you guys and give you some HUGE specials. Sounds fun. So sign up and feel very exclusive.

You thought I was exagerating...

When I said that in a couple of days it's going to be snowing pink around here. This is the view out of my car window this morning...

A rain shower hit right when the cherry tree's flowers were about done - and poof - instant pink snowstorm! If you enlarge this one, you can actually see it snowing. Beautiful, isn't it?

Ok, everything's set

I went over to Tracy's house this evening to set up for the show we're having there this weekend. It looks gorgeous there as usual. There are some really talented craftspeople set up there. I'll take photos when I stop by there tomorrow. I think I've got all my mother's day presents picked out now. Wish us luck! Toby

I love portland in the spring time!

These are my neighbor's trees. It's so cool to go outside these days. In a couple of days it will be snowing pink!

Yippee! New Tools!

Oh, I'm always so excited to get new goodies in the mail. Here's the latest. It's a custom metal stamp I had made to stamp my logo on the back of my pieces. It's teeny tiny - like 1/4". Poor Devera's not going to be able to sleep tonight - she'll keep hearing me "tink tink tink-ing" with my hammer playing with my new toy. I think my next design will be a big sheet of metal with my logo all over it. Talk about self gratification!

Gearing up for the show next weekend!

Hi all, hope you had a great weekend. For any of you local guys who are looking to do something fun next weekend, I just wanted to remind you about the show Dave and I are going to take part in. Here's where it's going down: Moss Street Studio 1938 SW Moss Street Portland Oregon 97219 (503) 327-4899 Here's a map>> I've got to get crackin and finish up some pieces - yikes! You'll see lots of new lampwork pieces from Dave and I, and we're joining up with another talented glass artist, a furniture maker, a paper arts person, and a couple others. I remember the first time I joined these guys I was a little hesitant - you never know if you're joining a group who knit doilies and make toilet paper covers (remember the ones that had the little barbie dolls coming out the top? I think my great grandma had some of those) Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised - this is a REALLY TALENTED group of artist. I'm excited to be a part of them. Anyway, stop by and say hi. Oh, and here's a Sunday Devera picture. We went to the tulip fields yesterday in Woodburn. Beautiful as always. As quickly as we could say, "No, no, Devera" she lops off the first flower she can get her grubby little hands on. And then she's like a shark tasting that first drop of blood. We pretty much had to drag her by her ankles to get her out of the flowers. Here she is holding up her contraband...

Hallelujah - the sun is out!

Portland is so funny when the sun first comes out in the spring. EVERYONE comes out of the woodwork to soak up any ounce of sunshine available. Devera and I went for a walk yesterday afternoon and we saw every one of our neighbors - most of whom we haven't seen since, say, October. And the same thing comes out of everyones mouth, "Isn't it beautiful?!?" It's kind of cool to see an entire neighborhood in a good mood. Here's to more sunny days!

Ok, start hunting!

It's an excuse to surf a bunch of fun sites. It's a way to win a cool box of goodies. Whatever excuse you want to use, the seek indie scavenger hunt has started. Look for one of these... Hiding somewhere on my site and from 4 other sites from this list: http://www.seekindie.com/participants.html and you could win a really cool gift box chock full of fun stuff. HERE'S YOUR HINT: It's good for giving gifts (you know, Mother's Day is coming up!) Happy hunting!

I bet you thought I fell into a well!

Nope, I'm here. Recovering from a flurry of bridal orders. I've got something cool to show you though... It's my teeny tiny trifold that I just got back from the printers. They're really cute - they're a little under 2"x2" and they tell the "magical story of tobyDESIGN" (well, the photos are nice, I'm not much of a copywriter). Best thing is that they're printed on recycled paper. It's really surprising how hard it is to find printers who will do stuff on recycled paper - and it costs like twice as much. Oh well - the price you pay for being green. If you want one, send me an email and I'll send you one. I'll have to find a teeny tiny envelope to mail it in.

I bet you thought I died

Sorry, skipped off to Detroit this weekend to visit some family. I was a little (ok very) leery of hauling that kid through all the airports and strapping her into an airplane seat for hours and hours. But we all did really well. Devera has developed a new found fascination for airplanes, so she thought the whole concept of them was pretty nifty. And all I can say is God Bless Elmo! The secret to happy kids on planes is a portable DVD player. We plugged that kid into Sesame Street as much as we could (she'd watch that for hours if she had the chance) and it made life just so much easier.

I'll be out of commission for a couple of days...here's some eye candy to keep you occupied for a little. A friend of mine and his girlfriend are incredible photographers. This is a photo of Susan Creek here in Oregon. Beautiful, huh?

I don't know 'bout you but this time change is killing me!

It just completely wacks me out for some reason. Between the time change, the extra daylight, the warmer weather, it completely freaks me out, and I just didn't sleep last night. I'm a zombie now, but the cats sure appreciated that there was someone who would scratch their chin at 3 in the morning. I'm going to crash now.

Yoga guru in training

This kid is such a goof ball (yes yes, and I'm perfectly sane - I know you were saying that under your breath). Devera likes to drag out my yoga mat and dance around on it. A couple of weeks ago I wanted to see what she'd do if I started doing some poses - and she's a natural! Can't you tell? I've booked here a trip to India to study with Iyengar next week.

My new favorite coolest toy in the world

I was at Fred Meyer (Portlands grocery/everything store) and say this little goofy metal bin that was on sale for about 500% off. And impulse shopper me put it and 6 other bins into her cart. Who knew how handy this thing would be? I'm always misplacing my tools on my bench. I can loose something faster than you can say, "now where did I put the....." I bought a bunch of plain magnets and now I can stick anything I need to find onto my little green board. Fantastic!!! It was pretty fun walking through Home Depot buying those with Devera. She'd stick them to different parts of the shopping cart and just giggle her little heart out. Now, where did I put my keys?

I'm getting semi prolific these days

This ring turned out pretty nice, didn't it? It's a custom order in a style I do every so often. I love this style- super simple, super comfortable, and a little out of the ordinary. Hope my customer likes it.

Oh, and the center stone is an opal if you're curious.

Drumroll please...

Finally! So, remember way back in the day I showed you guys a photo of a couple of projects that were sitting on my bench? Well here's how the bracelet turned out... Pretty cool, huh? The stone's called a Sunset Jasper and it's from the hills in Eastern Oregon. So I've started making my own chain too - definitely adds that funky flair to the piece. Not so store-bought now. Of course the necklace that goes with it is still sitting on my bench. I'm actually going to take some of the pieces apart - I'm not happy with a couple things. But stay tuned, it will be equally cool. And eventually they'll make it up on my site. If you're interested in them now, shoot me an email.

Stop the presses - Toby stays out past midnight!

And lives to tell the tale (barely!). I counted...it's been like 3 years since we've gone out late - how incredibly sad is that? Anyway, we went to Cirque du Soleil on Saturday to see Varekai. It was really fun - some cool acrobats as usual, but the clowns weren't as endearing as they usually are (note - we've seen every cirque show known to mankind!). Grabbed dinner dinner at Montage, a late night hot spot here in Portland. It's under a bridge in the industrial area of town. The waiters are beyond surly, and they make incredibly elaborate tinfoil sculpture for your doggie bags. Everyone's "uber-hip" there - I think we were the oldest gang there. Pretty funny - parts of it I miss, but then parts of it I don't.

Mmmm Saturday Afternoons

Devera's in her crib, singing herself to sleep. Dave's taking a nap, and I've got the house to myself for a couple of hours. Aaaahhhh. Time to go down and start up some new projects. I've got a ring commission to start up, I need to put together some new stuff for my show in April, and I've got a couple other half-done projects that need looking after. Fun fun. Oh, and tonight we're going to see Cirque du Soleil. I'll report back.

Like to play hide and seek?

Well, I'll have a perfect opportunity for you coming up next month. I've joined the gang over at Seek Indie and I'm going to be in their next contest. It's a pretty fun concept...a whole bunch of sites will have a hidden flower like this hidden somewhere on their site. Find 5 flowers and you're entered to win one of like 20 gift boxes. Here's what will be in the gift box I'm contributing to: Fun stuff, huh? So, April 17th...get ready. (I'll remind you too if you're forgetful like me!)

Complely Off Topic - Starting Early

So I read a really interesting article over lunch and I thought I'd share it. It was talking about early childhood development and its' effects on later success. It was pretty amazing the statistics they were showing. Here's the cruxt of the article:

Researchers who study early brain development say the best time to improve a child's prospects in school and life probably is from birth to age 5, when the brain is rapidly making and losing connections.

In the 1960s, the landmark High/Scope Perry Preschool Study began tracking low-income children who received high-quality, preschool in the 1960s, compared with a control group that received none. Over the next three and a half decades, researchers found that every dollar invested in preschool saved $12.90 in public money.

Multiple studies have found that children who attend high-quality preschool programs do better academically, are more likely to graduate from high school and earn more money. They also are less likely to have babies as teenagers, commit crimes or depend on social welfare.

Here in Portland, they've started handing out "micro grants" for small daycare providers to help pay for books and learning materials to get them away from parking their kids in front of the TV all day. They give out like $500 and the results from what I've read are pretty impressive. What a cool concept and a great way to simply attack a problem on a small scale. Ok...back to the regularly scheduled programming...

Another mediaval torture device?

No, just the coolest tool you could possibly own if you get into this stuff. This is a super cool clamp that attaches to my bench. You can see it's holding a component of the bracelet that I just finished. (I have to post some photos - it turned out awesome!!!) Anyway, it holds things steady while I file them or sand them or various and sundry other things I do to my pieces. It's got a little arm rest -which is completely worthless to me since it's on the right hand side. I wonder if they make a left handed one? The beyond coolest thing is that it comes off my bench completely and I can swap out for another tool - like the little wooden bench block you can kind of see in the background. It's like those little transformer toys for your workbench. It's a bug, no it's a robot, no it's a dinosaur. Whatever it is, it's beyond cool.

Whoopee - we're off to the beach

If you don't hear from me over the next couple of days it's because we've headed out to the beach for the weekend. Our favorite stretch of coast in Oregon is called Nye Beach in Newport. It's this cute little 1930's beach bungalow neighborhood about 2.5 hours from us here in Portland. I can't wait. I promise I'll take lots of pictures for you.

Group Show April 29th & 30th

Just finalizing the details for a group show Dave and I are going to be participating in here in Portland at the end of April. The group calls itself The Moss Street Studios. It's a group of something like 8 super talented artists and craftsmen that get togther to display there work. We did our first shin-dig over Christmas and it was a lot of fun. The host's house is a really nice comfortable place to view work (Tracy is also the fused glass artist), and the quality of work is really nice. When we were invited to do this little group event the first time, I was a little hesitant. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a bunch of people stringing macaroni beads and calling it fine craft...but I was pleasantly surprised. If you'd like more info, shoot me an email and I'll send you a reminder with the times and directions. Hope we see you there.

Here goes nothing - my first magazine ad...

Ok, I'm dipping my little pinky toe in the advertisement pond. Here's my first published piece of anything: I'm on the bottom row, 3rd from the left. Whoopee! So the concept of this is really neat. There's a group of independant designers that I "hang" with online. They're super talented and come from all walks of life. But like me, they're pretty small potatoes. But, pool 40 small potatoes money together and we were able to buy 2 pages of advertising in Bust Magazine. One of the members is a super talented graphic designer and she laid everything out for us and made us all look purty. I'm so impressed with how everything came out. If you want to check out some of the other designers (who are super talented too) check out our Indie Finds site. So, we'll see how my little teeny tiny foray into advertising pays off. Cross your fingers for me.

Sunday little booger photo

Here's this weeks little goofball update. It's another shot from the snow. I think Devera liked looking at it instead of being in it. It sure was pretty. It's gone now, but at least we have photos.

I'm getting the itch to worship the solder gods again

I've had to take about a week away from the bench...between life and working behind the scenes on Dave's site, my projects have just been sitting lonely on my bench waiting for me to play with them. But now, a-ha my other commitments are slowing down, and I can start working again. The good thing about taking time away is it really gets your creative juices flowing. Just because I wasn't sitting at my bench didn't mean I wasn't daydreaming about it. I'm ready to get back into it again. Whoopee.

I thought it was supposed to be Winter Wonderland

Not spring wonderland...it is March, right? We don't get a whole lot of snow here in Portland, but this is the view off the front porch this morning. It's pretty fun for a change. I know this isn't as exciting for all you guys living inMichigan. But it's pretty cool for us.

Will work for coffee

It seems I've gotten into the barter system with my friends these days. I've found out I prefer money to coffee, and that's how I've been getting payment. It works great in the late winter when I can barely drag my butt out of bed. Actually, I'm a huge fan of bartering - I got most of my christmas shopping last year done that way. Dave and I have gotten all kinds of random things from bartering - woodworking, portraits, clothes for Devera, it's really kind of fun - you meet all kinds of interesting people that way. And you feel like you got a deal - 'cause hey, all you had to do was something you like or were good at anyway. What do you have to barter?

Rocks rocks rocks!

Some people have a thing for shoes, some for fancy cars, me, I have a thing for rocks. I just can't help adding more and more to my collection. There's the baggie of petrified wood chunks sitting on my window sill, the way too many picture jaspers I just can't help but add to my collection because the scene in them is too stupendous. Here's the latest addition to my collection: These are called marra mamba tiger iron. They're from Australia (marra mamba would sound great with an australian accent wouldn't it?). And they've got this great sparkly glow. Ah my rock fetish.

Sorry it's been a couple of days. I wrote half of a rant about horrible children tearing toys away from Devera at the book store...and then slept on it and realized that's going to happen all the time. She's even going to be the horrible child doing the ripping some times too. Oh well. I will write about how fun it is to get follow up emails from customers. First of all, they're usually so happy they just had to write. That's a big ego boost right there. And then to learn a little more about everyone besides a name an address and a credit card number. Fun fun!

Something's in the air

It's interesting that February and March are always bridal time for me. I guess everyone's planning a spring or summer wedding. It's fun though - I love working with brides. They're always so happy and excited (ok so a couple of them are stressed out) but they're fun to talk to. I get to see wedding dresses and hair do's and bridesmaids, and learn about all kinds of interesting places. Some of the excitement rubs off on me. Probably the neatest was a bride (actually it was a groom) from Norway that I created some pieces for. It was really fun - he sent me photos of his city and told me about all kinds of neat stuff. If you've got stories to share about where you're fun, I'd love to hear them.

Room with a view.

Let's see if I can find a fun picture for you. There's got to be a contraption photo laying around here somewhere...Oh, here's one: Here's the view out of the window in my studio (can you tell it's in the basement?). It's kind of funny - every so often the neighborhood cats like to come by and see what I'm up to by peeking in the window. It's a great spot for some African violets, except in the summer when they get absolutely fried. That reminds me - I should probably water them before they become crispy critters. The little jar on the right is all of Dave's reject beads. They're fun to look at because they're all so colorful. PS - Happy Mardi Gras. Hope you celebrated like you were in New Orleans! I, myself, gluttoned out on king cake. I'm so ill now!

Happy Sunday

Here's the Sunday Devera photo. It's a couple months old, but still shows the little booger that she truly is. Who knew that the toy basket would make a perfectly lumpy seat?

Packaging Hell - the results show

Well, I got my new boxes in yesterday.....and well.....hopefully they'll grow on me. God knows they better since I've got about 15 bajillion of them now. Here's how it all turned out: What do you think? I guess they're better than what I had before. I was thinking, I can swap out the color of the tissue paper inside the box for like christmas and valentines day - that would be pretty cute. So there are 2 things I'm still hoping to do for these little guys - I'd like to get tags that have my logo on them, so people know where they got this lovely gift from. And, I've got this great idea for little "about me" pamphlets that will fit in the boxes and have lots of big juicy photos. Of course that's all more $$$$, but hey, since I'm not spending 4 grand on a torch now, I've got money to burn, right?

If only I had won the powerball...

So, I've been researching this new technology for torches that's beyond cool. Instead of running on extremely explosive propane, it runs on water. Somehow it splits the water molecule and creates a flame out of the hydrogen and oxygen. Pretty cool huh? I'm not really excited about having a full propane tank in my studio - I don't want to blow the place up. So I was getting really excited about the whole technology and found a model that I liked. Of course they put the prices in the VERY back of the literature - $4 grand! Yikes. Oh well...back to the drawing board. Maybe I should look into acetylene instead of propane. On a completely unrelated note, I found this cool web site last night, The Delocator. Type in your zip code and it shows you a list of all the independant coffee shops within 5 miles of you. I'm a huge fan of little coffee houses (this is Portland, after all) and walk right past Starbucks to go to my favorite one. Devera and I even have a little Sunday routine of going there while Dave is sleeping in for a little hot (well, lukewarm) cocoa. Amazing factoid from the site, there are 53 Starbucks within 5 mile of my house. Ok, I'm going to have to find that out about McDonalds too to compare...check back. Edited to include.....13 McDonalds. Wow, now that's a statistic!

The pickle pot

It's got a cool name, doesn't it?

What on earth is this goofy contraption? I'm sure you're asking yourself that right now. Well, if the solder gods have smiled on my and I haven't melted the shit out of a piece I've labored for hours on, it goes in the pickle pot. The pickle is a strong acid that eats away all the black oxides that form on the metal once you've soldered it. A couple of minutes in the pickle and the piece is shiny and new.

Usually you use really nasty chemicals as your pickle, but I found out that you can use citric acid instead and it works pretty well. It takes longer, but now I'm not breathing in nasty nasty fumes. There are enough nasty chemicals in the world, no need to add more.

Ahhh, Sundays

I'm not really in a silversmithing mood tonight. The solder gods are not smiling on me tonight, so I think I'll post a Devera photo instead.

We're reading Sector 7 by David Wiesner. If you haven't seen his books before, they're awesome. Tuesday is my favorite. Why we don't own that one is beyond me. His books are really fun because they don't have words but really rich pictures, so you can just tell the story as you go along. Devera will even open up the pages and point to things and babble along.

Yesterday was Devera's first trip to the library. You should have seen her eyes light up when we got the children's section. Not because there were so many books to read, but they were on shelves that looked like were all in the wrong order. And only Devera new the correct order they should be in. So she spent a good 30 minutes grabbing a book from the H's and toddling it over to the A's. It was a great game of memory for me...10 seconds to remember what shelf she grabbed the book from and where the hell she put it so I could put it back when she wasn't looking. Ahh, such fun. Hey, she was having a good time though. And we found some good books while we were at it.