Winner of 'Commitment' Giveaway Announced

Thank you for those who came to my blog and read my newest ABS (ART BEAD SCENE) post on Commitments and left a comment. As announced in the post I was having a drawing for these earrings for anyone that left a comment to this post.


I was supposed to make the drawing yesterday but we had a small break in this horrible hot weather we've been having and after a pretty bad storm passed through we took a drive to a new Lake I've discovered and spent the evening until sundown there having our picnic dinner under a young apple tree right on the shore. I'll share more pictures tomorrow.

Now for the winner......................................

Patty Lankinsmith! congratulations Patty, send me your snail mail and I'll get these right out to you! Patty makes Gorgeous lamp-worked beads, a must see at her shop on etsy.

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Need Some Color?

Been really busy but thought I might post a really great mosaic of Color for you of a treasury one of my OrganicOdysseys pieces is featured in . Poppy Fields Forever.



I love poppies and used to live near a whole field of them. I miss seeing them at this time of year. I'm not a great fan of red, but this is just beautiful and I hope it perks you up if you need a lift!

It was made by Xaosart who has a beautiful Fine Jewelry and Glass art shop on etsy. I love the colors of this handpainted glass she makes and then encases in her own metal work.


Thank you also to all those who have featured me this past week:

opened-a-dictionary-hoary-meaning by DiggerBren
bastille-day-en-rose by hoganfe
natures-bounty by phofun
slow-buds-the-pink-dawn-like-a-rose by Silvia66
the-heirloom-garden A bounty of Summer goodness! by MySelvagedLife
sweet-summer-corn by divinedepth
love-is-everywhere by drndesigns
animal-antics by hoganfe
coffee the-elixir-of-life Deep Dark Coffee Browns by OklahomaMama
sky-blue-sky by JennyNdesign
sew-i-think-i-love-you by HeatherKent

Many of these have some cool looking beads or bead work!
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Hope you're Keeping Cool!

'Hey! You Splashed me!'


Click for larger view.

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June Winner of Mystery Monday Announced

We didn't have that many entries this month and that is understandable, so I am taking a vacation from it for the rest of the summer. I know we are all so busy in the summer months so we will resume in September.

Here is a reminder of all the mystery photos posted for June. I couldn't get the one to upload properly for me so it is all by itself, but the dates are printed on each photo.


I tried to give you an eclectic mix this month, hoping to stir up more interest. These are what the Photos were of:

June 7 - A Van Gogh painting titled: Draw bridge with carriage, This Mystery photo was a close-up of the brickwork with the Arles Sunshine reflecting the water below. This is on a very cool vintage tin I've had for over a decade or more. There is another painting on the other side. I just love his use of color in this one.

June 14 - That one was a close up of the center of one of my Challah bread loaves, back when I could eat it, before I got Celiac Disease. Here is the loaf in full. I love how the camera captured the braids in a glowing way that reminds me of mist between the mountains very early before the crack of dawn.




June 21 - This photo was a close up of the Native American Pottery featured on a this stamp from the 1970's - Folk Art Series. I used it in a brooch/pendant I made with polymer clay and copper wire. It took me forever to drill those holes to weave the wire through, I wish I'd have thought to do this before I baked it!





June 28 - Very close up of the foot of my resident (one of them, we have a pair now) hawk. He was sitting only 12 feet from my patio door for over an hour one day and I took the opportunity to snap some photos of him while he watched me and about a dozen squirrels and chipmunks frolicking in the yard. Here he is perched on the framework of the roof of our tent gazebo, we haven't put the top or sides on yet and the birds love to perch there.


And of the entries we had, most which were on the last photo, where tallied together and this is the winner drawn: Cindee! I will be emailing you shortly about your prize! thanks to all who played this month, I know it's been very busy! See you all in September with a new Mystery Monday Photo!


I did take the time to stop and smell the roses as promised here in my Commitments post, Friday evening and have posted some pics here for you to enjoy if you aren't near a rose garden. I also got some excellent ideas for future organic beads for Heart of Eden Beads so look for those, coming soon I hope!


The end of last week was so beautiful I spent most of it outside enjoying the temperatures in the 70's with clear blue skies and low humidity. At times I even had to pull on a sweatshirt to stay warm! Oh how I loved that. But On Saturday it took a turn, the mercury started climbing, yet was still bearable. But yesterday when I woke up I could feel the humidity creeping in. Saturday night my feet had swollen to almost half size, very uncomfortable! They went down and for that I am grateful but this coming week it is promising to be downright awful! High humidity and in the highest 90's into the 100's! I don't think I will be going out anywhere this week, nor firing any beads in the studio, there's enough high to combat with our two air-conditioners. I really can't go anywhere anyway as hubby's car died and I am left without one till we find another. But I will be working on some sketches for those beads, and will finish up some other projects that don't require much heat.


Yesterday was very hot but we went over to the park to watch the fireworks (the first time in 10 years I've been able to do this and it is only because Jazmine died last August, as we always had to stay home with her because she got so upset it would cause her to go into a seizure.) They were pretty good, we had great seats by the river and it was so cool there, and the sky was clear so I got to take for the first time with my digital camera some shots of fireworks. I love the ones that look like dandelions in the moonlight, I shall have to make some more dandelion beads.

Hope you had a great 4th! Stay cool this week!

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Commitments......................

This is part of a project I've committed to do.

Hopefully I will be showing you in it's completeness soon.

Commitment: means to show loyalty, duty or pledge to something or someone.


I am an INFJ. An INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments.

And that is just a hint at my complicated life.
We also place a very high regard on truth and keeping ones word, but we are also very generous at the same time and that can lead to problems, mainly regarding commitment. Or rather over committing oneself.

Have you ever been to the circus or an event that has one of those special jugglers? The kind that twirl multiple plates on long sticks high up in the air? And some even have 3 or more going in each hand. Most days I feel like that and sometimes even like this photo below that I found on Flickr. You've heard the adage 'you've bitten off more than you can chew' or 'I have a full plate, or too much on my plate right now'? Well that is what life is like for me.

I want to do so much, for so many, yet there seems to always be so little time and I can't always depend on having the time as my medical condition doesn't allow for this on a day to day basis. The spirit is so willing but the body doesn't always cooperate. So I get to feeling like this photo, not only juggling too many plates but doing it while standing on my head whilst the blood rushes down and I can't think any longer. My creativity is cut off and I can't function.

Plate twirling acrobats
Originally uploaded by yewenyi

Some people have trouble making commitments (more-so men than women), but there are also those of the creative vein that have trouble with OVER commitment. That is were I fall and that is where I need to retrain myself to reach a happy medium. Being an INFJ, as you have seen, makes me of the type that always feels I could do better, could do more, and that is a very powerful drive. But in doing that I never get the chance to enjoy the accomplishments of the commitments I've made.


I have taken to rectifying that. I have a list of things that I've promised to do for individuals or groups and I am evaluating them one by one, and purposing to complete these obligations and promises while striving each day to cross at least one thing off that list. And I have promised myself to not add any more to that list until that has been accomplished.


Then I have promised myself, made a commitment to myself, because I need to find myself worthy of making a commitment to, to sit down after this has been done and to evaluate what direction I want to go in. To write a plan and stick to it, to learn to say 'no', to narrow my vision to excel in a few areas instead of trying to have so many plates spinning. I will only put on my plate (one plate) that which I find the most reward in. And at this point in the artistic side of my life I believe it to be in my bead work. I have always loved little treasures and I also love helping others to grow their creativity since being a Art counselor at my fathers summer camp so long ago. So I see this year ahead as being more dedicated to my making all the little treasures that lay in my designing book in my head and in my sketch book on paper into a reality with my Art Beads.

I have to tell you as I write this it is early morning of a crisp unusually beautiful Summers day. I am outside on my porch enjoying the peace and quite and the sounds of the birds singing, they too are enjoying this respite from the awful hot and humid weather we've had. I see Squirrels feeding in my backyard, baby Blue Jays being fed by their mamas, a wood thrush bopping around hoping to find a tasty bug. Our 'BIG bunny' who has just hopped out from the edge of the woods nibbles on grass and wild strawberries. A baby dove pecks in a flower planter as I listen to the bubbler on the small pond on my patio. Purple Finches singing to me from only 8 feet away on the feeder.


I am easily distracted these days to little joys like this, slowing down I guess from all the rush, learning to take time, no, make time to STOP and smell the roses. Which reminds me........... the Rose Garden only a few miles away from me is in full bloom right now. I think I'll take a drive over there tomorrow evening when the dew starts falling and enhancing the heady fragrance.
This is a commitment I make to myself, and I'm sure that more bead inspiration from this will materialize.

This is another commitment I can cross off my list.
I will write you in more detail about it later.

Here is a pair of earrings I made recently and they will belong to the one whose name I draw on July 25th. Just leave a comment on this post to be entered into the drawing. Thanks for taking time to read!



Have a JOY Filled and Creative Day!







Photo mosaics are of completed commitments meant this past month. More about them later. :)

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