Peggy in Paradise

2012-01-18T18:09:00.000-10:00

Happy New Year!

It's my usual resolution - write in my blog more often! I need to put more energy on my own creative projects and manage my time better. Less Zuma and mahjong, more doll-making and beading!

2011 was an interesting year.

1. I quit my "day job" and Peggy in Paradise is in full swing.
2. I got really sick and ended up in the hospital. As a result, I figured out that the anti-acid drug I was on to control my GERD was probably causing 95% of the symptoms I was having - this after 5 years of being sick on an almost daily basis. It's great to feel well!
3. I lost 2 dear friends - my oldest best friend Brenda, and our cat Blackie - within one week of each other. I miss them both. I realized today that I'm still sad. I haven't gotten used to the new pattern yet.
4. I made a lot of fairies last year! And beaded a lot of snowflakes.
5. I started a new garden, which is still not completely planted. Many things intervened. For example, we had to cut down a big palm tree right in the middle of the garden because it was growing into the cess pool. I plan to hang upside-down grow bags from the trunk and grow tomatoes and beans.
6. I learned so much! Social media marketing, more about Quickbooks, how to publish a book, cascading style sheets. SQL programming to come!

I can feel 2012 shaping up to be a great year. There are so many interesting things to do and learn!

Peggy and the Begonia Stalks

2011-09-25T12:23:00.000-10:00

I always water the begonias last, and not as often, because they sit on my old garden bench and I don't want water running out on it. It's plastic, it can't be damaged at this point, but it's a habit to conserve it and a habit to water them last.

As I slowly drip water into the pots, I have a chance to really look at them and they are showy indeed. There is a rex begonia so dark it's almost black, and an angelwing begonia that shines red on the back of it's speckled green leaves. The leaves are serrated and partially turn themselves over when the sun hits them.


4 feet tall and still growing

Angelwings were one of my first houseplants and good friends for many years. Then I didn't have houseplants for a few years, too much bother, I had a big garden outdoors. I have no plants inside my home on Kauai. Many people do, but I find that they usually end up housing ants and the occasional centipede. I'd prefer to have those critters living outdoors where they belong, and there are plenty of plants right outside the screen door.

When the begonias sat on the ground, they were always being munched on by slugs and didn't thrive. Once I moved them to the bench, they put on a growth spurt that has gone on for months. Right plant, right place…

The center stalks grow so straight and tall, like Jack's beanstalk, reaching up and up through the filtered shade. They are full of potential, and hidden jewels.

Secret begonia world

When I look at them through the eyes of a professional gardener, I think "I should top these guys and then they'd bush out and have more flowers, and I could start the tops mixed together in the yellow pot." But then I hear them say quietly "Why? Why limit our upward growth? We have side shoots that will grow out naturally and make us bushier, we already have flower clusters. We are in balance."

Why indeed? Why limit our upward growth?

New Combinations for Linda

2011-08-10T22:50:00.000-10:00

photo courtesy of Amazon.com

When I started cleaning Linda up, her drawers were stained and sad, bloomers that couldn't be salvaged. I have so many lovely books to choose from on just about any subject to do with dolls, embroidery, tassels, or beads. I went to my library and picked out "The Doll's Dressmaker: The Complete Pattern Book," by Venus A. Dodge.

I particularly like this collection of patterns because it includes both old-fashioned patterns for vintage dolls and simple, easily adaptable patterns that can be used with any doll. She also offers 3 sizes of the same patterns and clear instructions about how to make them. Many line drawings inspire variations with tucks, lace, ribbon, and embellishment.

No fine lawn combinations for Miss Linda! No, she wanted fancy gold printed cotton, and red ribbon facings.

What Miss Linda wants, Miss Linda gets! This is the inside-out view.

Finished close-up and beaded edges. I had to put some 24K somewhere!

Now if I can just get her to stop rolling up her skirt and showing off!

I like this casual still life with dish drainer in background and Linda leaning against a roll of paper towels. I simply must get a proper photo area set up. And one day I will! In the meantime, Linda loves her new combis and will not be embarrassed when my nosy friends lift up her skirt to see if she has panties on. They'd best be careful! Linda goes commando without notice.

Cheery New Blog Theme

2011-08-10T21:35:00.000-10:00

I haven't spent much time wandering through the design features until tonight. I chose my last design because it reminded me of the wide open spaces of Eastern Washington, where I was born and grew up. I like this one because it reminds me of crisp spring skirting fabric, and our lovely tidy-bowl blue ocean that surrounds Kauai.

Desks on the Way

2011-08-10T20:53:00.000-10:00


Custom-fit for my plastic tubs and file boxes

Matt has started the first of 3 desks for the beadio. Two will go along the far wall and one on the side under the blue shelves. The two on the far wall will be joined by an 8x3 foot sheet of plywood, forming a seamless top that will be big enough (and sturdy enough) to hold my single futon. They are all pine, so that will be a lot of pine in one room! I love the way they're put together in a honeycomb for stability, and all the cubbies measured to fit my tubs and office file boxes.

Fiddling with Dolls While Norway Burns

2011-07-23T16:10:00.002-10:00


Lolana of Nanakuli

A great disaster happened in Norway yesterday - a young man killed many innocent people, most of them teenagers who had been attending an island retreat just a few minutes by car from where one of my friends lives. The killing is believed to have been politically motivated.

When I first heard the news (on Facebook) I felt horror, shock, dismay, helpless. Then I remembered that we are NEVER helpless in the face of a disaster. We can always send healing energy to help those in need, and strengthen the helpers on the ground.

Serena

Serge Kahili King has written about this on http://huna.org/html/911.html.

"Each time you become aware again of what happened and/or what's being done about it, here are some specific suggestions of what to do:
1. Pray to a higher power to help the helpers (which includes healers and peacemakers).
2. Imagine the helpers being surrounded by healing light and/or being assisted by angels or other spirit helpers.
3. If you know how, do an inner symbolic journey to help the helpers.
4. To the best of your ability, take the time to bring your own spirit to a state of peace by meditating on the beauty and goodness in the world, and practice positive expectation no matter what happens that the work of the helpers will be successful, in this world or another. This may be the most difficult thing of all to do ... and the most beneficial." (bolding mine)

Does suspending our own joy in life help others in any way? No, I don't believe so. Does our joy and happiness increase the "happiness quotient" of the world? I think it does. If we can truly achieve #4 above, then we are free to go about our daily business with joy. My spirit comes to peace most readily when I play with dolls or garden, so that's what I've been doing.

Bless Our Happy Big Island Home

Linda's Make-Over

2011-07-23T15:29:00.001-10:00

Yesterday I went on a "play date" over to another doll-maker's house. I haven't really hooked up with other doll-makers that much in person, but I'd like to. We didn't play dolls as it turned out. I helped her understand her new Mac computer a little better and we got to know each other better, too.

I've been so busy that it was stressful to even figure out what to take to play with. Doll-related? Too complicated. Beading? Always an option, but I didn't think Helen was too interested in beading. I finally picked up Linda, my tried and true friend since I was 5 years old, a cleaning toothbrush, a big book of doll clothes patterns, and my paint pens and sketchbook, just in case.

And then I hauled it all back home and put it away. Except Linda, who got a thorough bath and a bob.


Linda ready for her bath

I got Linda when I was 5 years old. We were visiting relatives in Texas, a world away from the little town in eastern Washington where I grew up. What a beautiful doll she was! Long BLONDE hair, which I cut off almost immediately. Oh my goodness, was my mom ever mad! She told me that now Linda would be bald for the rest of her life, and it was my fault. I'm amazed I wasn't scarred for life, but in fact, I wasn't even that upset. It was worth it, I loved cutting hair.

She was bald for 5 years.The Christmas I was 10, my mom and grandma gave her an entire make-over, including a waist-length brown wig and a new wardrobe. They did this without my knowing a thing in advance, which is pretty incredible. Unfortunately, Linda went through the same fire we did, about 5 years ago.


Waist-length dreadlocks and dirty dirty shoes

Linda's truly bad hair day

She got smoked and superheated and her eyes clouded over. I did give her a washing, but she certainly needed another. Her hair was really nasty, all gummed together.

53 years old, cataracts forming

Her eyes still open and close, but she's lost eyelashes on her left eye, probably because of stress

I took her entirely apart. Her head is stuffed with cotton batting. I did not take it out, I was afraid of disturbing her eye mechanism. I found a salad dressing cap that exactly fit the opening, and then put her head on the bottle out of the way while I washed her limbs. I read on a doll hospital website that Formula 409 works well to clean up old vinyl dolls. It sure does! It strips the gunge right off and doesn't take the paint off.

First they took my legs off and they threw them over there...

Then they pulled my head off and stuck it on a salad dressing bottle

There was no combing out those long dreads, no matter how carefully I went at it with the cat flea comb. She simply had to have a hair cut. Even short, it took almost 2 hours to comb out and trim her hair. And then there was the matter of that bald spot...


Linda's new bob

So happy to be clean

These are her original shoes

Even her eyes came clearer after being swabbed gently with 409.


No longer just a dirty doll

Do all my posts have an underlying Huna moral? Well, maybe so, because Huna is the spiritual philosophy that underlies my daily life. I try to live an intentional life. What does that mean? It means doing things with an intention in mind, holding that intention firmly during whatever it is I'm doing, and believing the energy of that intention will manifest in my life.

As I carefully cleaned her, I held the healing intention of graceful rebirth and positive change for myself and all who need this energy. Linda is a happy dolly today!

Changing Gracefully into Peggy in Paradise

2011-04-09T17:40:00.000-10:00

Change is inevitable - will we go kicking and screaming, or laughing and dancing?

Several months ago I was notified that my long-term position was being terminated. They gave me a lot of notice, and it allowed me the time I needed to process the event and decide what I wanted to do. I'd been working as an employee for 5 years, and gotten many benefits from it - a reasonable salary, community, paid sick and vacation leave, great insurance benefits, an opportunity to learn many new things.

At first, I felt a little miffed and hurt. Did they not appreciate me? Had I somehow not measured up? Ego attachment is often the sticking point that keeps us from getting the full benefit of a prospective change.

Another sticking point is being very comfortable in a path that no longer fits who you are. It was no longer what I truly wanted to do, but I was used to it and the perceived benefits still outweighed the negatives.


Ponytail palm in its new pot

About the same time I started thinking about activating the changes I wanted to make I discovered that one of my favorite plants had completely broken its pot. The roots were so compacted and hard and put so much pressure on the container that it finally broke apart at the back and the roots headed toward the ground, for dirt and nutrients. It had been stressed, its lower leaves browning off, but if we hadn't moved it, we wouldn't have known the pot was broken.

Why would someone (read: me) want to stay in a pot that is too tight for them? Fear is a common reason. Making a leap into the unknown can be frightening, if I imagine that I will suffer in some way as a result. I can create all kinds of really scary scenarios, and then the tight space seems more comfortable and I'll just deal with the stress, thank you. If I choose instead to look at all the positive aspects of a change, and focus on the benefits, then the picture begins to look quite different.

At first I looked for a similar job, one that would pay well and cover all the benefits bases. I interviewed several times and found it stressful (will they like me?) and fun (meeting a lot of new people and getting to see the "insider" areas). It helped the process of figuring out what I wanted to do. Even though focusing on the negative is not usually positive, I first thought about what I didn't want to do and then flipped it around to the positive opposite.

I did not want to get up at 5:30 a.m. and drive through morning traffic, running my aged car every day and using now-expensive gasoline. I did not want to have to buy or wear professional work clothes and eat lunch on someone else's schedule. I did not want constant interruptions. I was really tired of being sick all the time.

I wanted to get up on my own schedule and work from home, or nearby. I wanted to wear whatever I like and take breaks when I need to. I wanted a flexible schedule that allows me to work when I am at my best. I wanted to help people, be well-paid and learn a lot of new things. I wanted to think well of myself and be well in myself.

The ponytail palm responded to being re-potted by putting out 20 new leaves in a bundle at the top. The old leaves at the bottom will eventually brown completely and fall off. This is a natural process.

All I had to do was have faith in myself and Peggy in Paradise and go for what I truly wanted, to expand my own business and work from home. Once I did that, gave notice at the day job and made that commitment, everything started to fall into place. I took the month of March to get completely organized, order a new computer, move my office out to the beadio, and get oriented to my new clients.

There is work to do! I have operated as an independent contractor for the last 12 years, including during the time I was an employee. I offer a full range of business services from start-up to accounting and human resource management. I'm currently focusing on Social Media Marketing and self-publishing.

Like the ponytail palm, I am growing and expanding every day, laughing and dancing towards change.

Intentional Healing Dolls

2011-04-09T15:30:00.000-10:00

Throughout this time of great change, I've still been making intentional healing dolls. Doing healing work and making dolls combines the best of all of my worlds and keeps me grounded and present.


Gracie

What makes a doll (or anything) intentional? There are 2 layers of intention involved.

Holding a healing intention while making the doll - really focusing on the recipient and what they want to manifest - puts an energetic wave into the universal energy pool that starts or amplifies that manifestation. A thought, or a prayer, is only as strong as the focus you put on it. One thought in passing won't influence your world that much. That thought or desire, focused on many times with enthusiasm, and acted upon as well, is much more likely to make a difference.

Each stitch, each action in making an intentional doll, is taken while holding the focus on the intention for it as a symbolic object. Each stitch is like a little drum beat, "heal, heal, heal" or "love, love, love." A certain amount of that energy is transferred to the doll itself and continues to radiate out to the field around it.

The second layer of intention comes from the recipient, who uses the doll as a symbol of the intention they expressed in the beginning. They have homework to do with the doll when it arrives. The first assignment is to find out the name of the doll, by going into focused meditation and asking the name. In this way they establish a relationship and connection with the symbol, and often gain a life-long spirit friend in the process. These dolls are alive!

The new friend serves as a symbol constantly bringing the intention to focus, but no symbol is enough by itself. The next step is to take action toward the goal. No manifestation happens without movement!

Take Gracie the Love Fairy as an example. You can sit on the sofa eating bonbons and reading trashy novels, with your hair up in curlers and goo all over your face, staring at your love fairy - and the perfect lover will probably not show up at the door with the pizza you ordered. Or if he does, the sight of you is not likely to be magnetic.

In addition to holding your focus, you must think carefully about the qualities you want in a mate. What is really important? Why do you want it now? What do you have to give? You must make a space in your heart, and a big space in your calendar, and tell all your friends you're ready, and go out where the men (or women) are.

And then expect the best!

Happy Birthday, Emily!

2011-02-13T14:55:00.000-10:00

You are such a lovely woman, and I feel so lucky to have inherited you as a daughter. 26!

Here is Em's birthday fairy, inspired by the exquisite black glitter paper backing the wings.

Em's Birthday Fairy

The back, with awesome black glitter paper

Fairy Clutter

2011-02-12T11:32:00.000-10:00


More fairy faces

At what point do fairy faces become clutter? When they spill out of the sour cream container I've stuffed them in? I actually threw one away the other day. It just didn't even remotely work. But each one is a little personality, they really become alive.

Change a-comin' - Time to De-Clutter

2011-02-12T11:27:00.010-10:00

Change is inevitable... we can go kicking and screaming or laughing and dancing! I aspire to laughing and dancing, although I'm not immune to the FUDS - fear, unhappiness, doubt, and stress - acronym and concept thanks to Serge Kahili King. What to do, what to do, minge minge minge, whimper. There is always SOMETHING we can do. Some small thing, some action towards change, can make the turning difference.

If nothing else, you probably have a spot on your desk, an area in your purse, maybe even a whole shelf or a ROOM full of stuff that could be sorted out, cleaned up, filed, thrown away, or recycled. Robin Atkins has been writing about this over on Words Paint. and her thoughtful analysis of her resistance has me thinking about my own.

Grey polka dot fairy face, highly brightened. Paper was fragile and dark. Brighter orange spots on eyebrows are soggy and paper dissolved to white.

We all have our own reasons to hold on to stuff. I was the "keeper" in our family and kept a lot of our family treasures and memories. I loved having my grannie's manicure set after she died. She had the most beautiful nails, always beautifully polished and buffed. (I don't have beautiful nails.) I always kept every letter and most greeting cards, almost every gift given me, unless it was so ugly it broke itself immediately. It symbolized family and continuity for me.

At 23, I thought I might be staying in France for a while, maybe permanently, and one of the things I took with me in my carry-on was a specially made (by my brother Mark) wooden box holding a big porcelain darning egg, swaddled in excelsior. It was my great-grandmother's and I can remember my mom actually using it when I was a small kid, to darn my father's huge wool socks. I brought it home 6 weeks later. 23 years later I moved that same wooden box in my carry-on, and 5,000 pounds of other stuff in a big ship, across the ocean to Kaua'i.

I was leaving everyone and everything I knew and loved. Again. For the 2nd time in 2 years. After I'd just furnished a big apartment and had a more or less coordinated "theme" and furniture that actually matched, thanks to my sister Lola and Ikea. I wasn't being dramatic about it, or anything (not ME), but I really felt like I needed a nest I knew.

It all just kind of got out of hand when the shipper guys said I should make an inventory of my stuff and its value. If I couldn't replace it all for $5,000, then it was worth it to ship as much as I wanted, since it would still cost about $3,000 to insure, custom-crate and ship the art and framed tapestry and art supplies and books that I definitely wasn't leaving behind. For another $2,000 I could ship furniture and pretty much anything else I wanted to keep. Not only that, they'd pack it in Seattle, hold it on the dock for 3 weeks, ship it, and unpack it and take away the rubbish afterward in Hawaii.

That would give me the time I needed to find a place to live. I called it "The Princess Plan." I so loved my mover guys on both sides of the water.

My books - just the plum 300 of the 800 I had - valued out at $15,000. The art supplies, about $5,000 on their own, and I'd just spent almost $2,000 on furniture. You see the economics of it. It was grand. I shipped cases of my mom's home-made jelly, each jar bubble-wrapped individually. I may still have some of those jars! There was a lot of wheeling and dealing and giving away. I winnowed it down to 5,000 pounds - $1 per pound! - and arrived with enough furniture and linens to furnish a 2-bedroom condo on the beach, and enough art supplies to last for years.

I just didn't know how smart the whole thing was until I'd lived here for a while. Smart because there are limited shopping options on a small island in the middle of the sea, and sometimes the quality is poor. There is no Ikea. Repeat, there is no Ikea. Everything has to be shipped in, freight added, which is sometimes the same amount as the item. You have to really want something to pay twice the price for it.

There's another tall one like the one on the left, just around the corner in the hallway. The big one has been reinforced with a plywood back and some interior shelves, thanks to Matt. I'm sure this extended its life by many years.

I've been very grateful to have had my big Ikea bookshelves. We are still using them, 12 years later. We sold off many of them after the big fire, and I'm sure they are still in someone's garage in Wailua, doing yoeman duty. I still have about 150 books, and I married a man with books of his own. ("Must read" was an important requirement in a husband, but somehow I forgot to translate that in my mind into "Will have hundreds of books of his own. And papers, too.") We are always trying to winnow them down to "essentials."

Books are our friends, colleagues, and tools. I've always regarded them as such, and felt secure in them. People friends come and go, books endure. In the tropics, they also mold if you don't open them and enjoy their company.

Furniture moves around the island. I've had 3 sofas since I've been here, none of them more than $300 and all in good condition, and re-sold later after we'd used them for a while. I've had several big wooden tables - our current one cost $10 and we got it 2 houses down the street and walked it home.

Home is where the books are. The tall brown shelf on the right was new then, a gift from a client. Empty shelves, what a fleeting luxury.

I don't have a lot of the stuff I came with, including the giant tapestry or my parent's metal bed frame. I do still have a dresser my dad built. And more art supplies than ever, shipped in at great expense, or purchased on the mainland and brought back in luggage.

I like "little things." I live and work in a very small space, and it will never be Zen-like or probably even very clean. I just try to keep the clutter to a minimum, or at least well-organized. I work at little areas of it at a time. I don't judge myself when I just need to play dolls, or bead, instead.

And I ready myself for change when I do it, because making small changes creates ripples that make bigger changes. Clearing the clutter opens the way.

Fairy Faces

2011-01-26T20:43:00.000-10:00

Happy New Year!

I've been drawing fairy faces.

Freshly inspired by the prospect of Elinor Peace Bailey coming to Kauai in March, I ordered a bunch of patterns off her website, including a couple of fairy patterns. They were lovely, but I didn't like the head so much, so I made my own. Then I got out "Creative Cloth Doll Faces," by Patti Medaris Culea and gave myself a little drawing tutorial. This is such an inspirational book. She really details the eyes out, but mine are so small it's difficult to get that much detail. The heads are only 2 inches high by 1.5 inches wide from ear to ear.

I like drawing every day. I think I've improved a bit, although some of these earliest ones still had a lot of personality, big crooked mouths and all. Miss Pink, in the upper left corner is the culmination of a lot of drawing. Her eyes are fairly level, more or less the same size, and her mouth doesn't take up 30% of her head.

I'm having so much fun!

12 new friends

Happy Anniversary - 5 years!

2010-09-18T23:10:00.000-10:00

Our happy day - September 18, 2005

Five very happy and eventful years... 6 weeks after we were married, there was a big fire next to our house which changed our lives, helped us divest ourselves of a lot of "stuff," and understand what was really important in our lives - to be safe, and to have each other - and the cat, of course!

We moved into a tiny studio - the "teacup" - and learned to live small and snug with a tabletop oven and a hot plate. We had a disturbing absentee landlady and noisy neighbors, and ended up breaking our lease and moving out 2 months early.

Our next home was Cloud Rest, a sweet and funky 400 square foot cottage in Moloaa, one large room with a hip wall on one side. We lived there for 3-1/2 happy years, next door to our good friends. It was a sweet property, many fruit trees, and really good energy on the land.

Our current home is small, but has many neat features: storage, closets, a full bathroom, a full kitchen with a stove and full-sized refrigerator, a bedroom with walls and a door that closes. The back door does not enter into the bathroom... Plus room for Matt's woodbench - and now the beadio, too.


Tablecloth spread out on king-sized bed and doubled back

We had a lovely morning, celebrating with breakfast at Ono Family Restaurant, scene of our very first date. Then on to Home Depot for potting soil and lacquer. When we came out of the store, we were addressed by a young man who offered to fix our trailing front bumper and buff out one of the most ragged spots and primer it. He had everything he needed to do the job, and did it well. We thought we'd been blessed by a car angel. When I got home and told Abbie and Jack, the roofer, about it, Jack said that there are a couple guys on island who do that, some of them not so honest or good. This one was good and he did a good job on something we hadn't gotten around to fixing for almost 2 years.

I did some potting in the flowerboxes over at school and then came home to play in my beadio. I got the curtains entirely done! It was sweet sewing in the beadio for the first time - making curtains out of a tablecloth we used for our wedding, on our anniversary.

Matt reflects as Peggy sews

Making curtains

It took most of the afternoon, but they were done and hung right after dinner. I'm not sure what the round light spots are - orbs? Or spots on the lens? Not in any other photos. Will have to examine the curtains themselves in the morning to see if there are actually round spots on them.


They make the window a lot softer

It felt very snug, private and peaceful in there with the curtain closed. And then we went down to town and got cake and ice ceam and sweet rolls for breakfast tomorrow morning. What a great day!

Beadio Before and After - It's All Progress

2010-09-12T13:55:00.000-10:00

At the beginning - light stacked against the dark wall

People always say, "It's all a process." As if that makes it easier to make all the steps! Sometimes it's comforting when that process is taking longer than you'd like it to, but I think I'd rather say, "It's all progress."

It's hard to remember how dark it was in there before the pine went up. At Christmas, it had just been sanded, and the old shelf unit sanded down to bare wood. You can see how beat up the white wall was.


The "winter" scene with a foil lake and train on a siding

We set up a table in the middle of the room and 6 of us celebrated the sacrament of sharing Christmas dinner together. Definitely a cozy meal! I had so much fun looking at the Christmas photos that I just can't resist including these 2, too.

Elf available - will work for cookies and milk

Elf available - will work for chocolate

It's Christmas all year 'round for some of us! It was Christmas again yesterday (and maybe my birthday, too!) when I went to get the final pieces to complete the beadio. A fan is essential, it's so hot in there in the afternoon, and AC is just a fleeting dream. A power strip, for plugging in the sewing machine and the glue guns. A floor lamp, to complement the small bench lamp. They are both "daylight" fixtures and produce a very bright, white light that is perfect for beading. Between the 2 of them, I will have good light and will postpone putting in fluorescent fixtures over the workbench area. And finally, 2 spring-loaded curtain rods for the window.

Whew! That was a lot in one day, even though I had set specific money aside for it, money I earned doing an extra computer job that involved a lot more development time than paid time. I learned a lot, anyway! And I could see that lamp and fan and curtain rods hanging out there like a ripe, juicy carrot on a stick.

I am actively trying to be frugal, although it seems to go against my core nature. When Matt says I was a princess in another life, I think he may just be right! Maybe part of noblesse oblige is not squandering what you have on frivolities, but I doubt it. A princess is obliged to live as well as she can, for the sake of others who can't. My "very well indeed" is pretty humble compared to some of the studios I've seen in magazines, but I know the SECRET OF LIFE.

It may be simple and pieced together (like this photo), but it's a palace to me

It's not the size of the room, it's the aloha there. And 6 coats of fresh paint!

I haven't had to buy a container yet! I am using what I have, which is many, of course. When we moved from Cloud Rest I went out and bought a lot of coordinating plastic tubs, because I wanted some long-term storage. Paper boxes don't work in the tropics. They mold, can't be cleaned, and insects love to eat them. Yum, the glue is particularly tasty. The rectangular tubs on the top shelf are actually the drawers from a flimsy 3-drawer rolling unit that collapsed under the strain of a sewing machine and other things stacked on it for too long. The stucture had no integrity anymore, but the drawers are just fine, and serve to corral my ribbons, and small blue tubs of doll parts and other interesting bits.

I dream about getting 2 rolling tabletop island units with shelves and drawers underneath. They could roll right under the shelf unit, pull out to be used as tables when needed, and store everything I currently have in tubs and cheap plastic drawer units. It's good to dream! In the meantime, I will continue to use what I have.

Fabric sorted and stored in a dark corner

I've had these tall narrow containers with blue lids for years. If I had 8 of them, they would stack up to the beginning of the peg board, and lie fairly flat against the wall in a rainbow of colors. Another simple dream. I sorted all my fabric by color, and this amount doesn't seem unreasonable for 35 years of collecting. I have purged it many times, especially after the fire next door in Wailua. I like having fewer things. I think I still have a lot. It's great to be able to go into a cupboard and find something you stored against a "rainy day," or in my case, a big dinner party.

I love linens, and have kept far more of them than is justified by our lifestyle. Some things are harder to divest than others. French linens call to me and comfort me. I feel happy looking at them, I like to touch them, I like to feel the grandmothers that wove them and embroidered them a century ago.

It makes sense (almost) to have 14 bath towels when we each use a fresh one every day. It doesn't make sense to keep tablecloths that are 10x16 feet, when that is bigger than the largest room in your home, even if they are the most beautiful blue cotton damask ever. We used this particular cloth before the wedding. We set up 2 banquet tables end to end in the garage and covered them with this one humongous table cloth and then laid lace on top of that. It stayed up most of the time and we ate all our meals out there. Only in Hawaii have I ever seen people party in their garages like this.

They will be beautiful blue cotton damask curtains. All those happy memories will radiate into the new space.

Blessing the Beadio - 13 months later

2010-09-01T21:56:00.000-10:00

After the blessing - before the incense burnt a small spot on the newly painted shelf. The doll represented my ancestors - who were doubtless looking on, scoffing and tutting.

It's September 1 already. Pre-Christmas panic usually sets in around now - or at least it used to, when I started making things in July, except that I didn't really, and so by September 1 I'd start to feel just a bit worried. Now I don't even pretend to make all my presents, so I don't have to worry. God Bless AMAZON.

(No, they don't pay me to say that. After reading blogs for a couple of hours, I feel like every one has a disclaimer somewhere. And I wish I was one of those artists who are somehow subsidized by craft companies to play with their resin and stuff.)

The shelf wall with the new oven

Matt photographing the beadio and getting himself in the picture

It was really a happy day on Sunday when we blessed the beadio and I began to move my stuff out of the back closet into my own creative space. I got up at 8 and cleaned it thoroughly and then put on a clean dress for the blessing. Our intentions are for creative energy, new ideas, a space to be alone and a space to be together.

The whole room is 64 square feet. Compact. Still, roomy compared to the 15 square feet of cupboard that has been my studio for the last 18 months - along with my lap, of course.

It has great acoustics. The pine paneling creates an air pocket that makes every voice sweeter. Or maybe we're just sweeter when we're in there because it's such a honey of a room. We go all gaga in there because we put a lot of love into making it, not to mention time and money. I know I am going to spend many happy hours in there.


The sofa bed


Cupboard studio - beads are in bags on cookie sheets and trays

I wanted a sofa bed or something off the floor that my sister or other guests could sleep on. I don't like sleeping on the floor in the tropics, or anywhere else, for that matter. This is a tiny sleeper loveseat, that folds out into a single bed. I will have to take a nap on it before I decide if it's comfy, but we can always put a futon or some feather beds on top of it. It's a comfy loveseat. It has a black plastic "leatherette" - ha - cover, which is washable. It will soon have a quilt over it - I even found one in all my stuff as I was moving it - the perfect thing to make a slipcover out of.

Heresy of heresies, I am thinking of cutting up a quilt I've had for 40 years. Well, parts of it are shredded already. It was my bed quilt for many years and covered other chairs before this sweet little loveseat.

So with the loveseat and the shelf wall, that's about it - the bed folds out to the opposite wall with about 4 inches to spare. I have already started moving stuff in there and there is a lot of it.

So much stuff - what is in all these boxes that I haven't played with in 18 months?!

I unpacked most of the stuff that was in cardboard boxes, because I wanted to get rid of them. They are a prime roach heaven, but there weren't any. They must have all been in the kitchen cupboards. Towards the end, I was just staging boxes on the table, pulled out to the window wall. I still had to get everything else organized, dusted, and back into the "back-of-beyond" closet in the bedroom. I still can't believe we can actually walk back there. Or we could, anyway, before we put Matt's big saw back there!

This weekend we will work on his wood-working space together - it has become the repository for a lot of rubbish and everything I didn't want in the beadio, plus the new lumber for the expanded work bench and wood loft.

I finished up about 9 and was too hyper to relax. At 10:30, I went out for lemon cookies. As soon as I ate them, I was ready to sleep.

This one last picture is probably the best one of the day - one of 2 happy geckoes that live in the room. Matt took this one, and most of the others. When we laid this tile down on the concrete floor, it really became a ROOM.

Stripey walls and a beautiful transom

2009-11-08T22:30:00.005-10:00

Progress on the beadio is all due to this lovely guy, still working on it whenever he gets a chance.

My progress on blogging sort of matches the beadio progress. There is an intention there, but life sort of intervened. I had cataract surgery, Matt had a couple weeks of musical inspiration and had to record, school got busy for both of us, family came to visit.

I've spent hours researching using Facebook, Blogger, and Twitter for complementary internet marketing, another of the hats I wear on a different gig than my day job.

Matt was also inspired to create the preliminary drawings and carving for the pierced and lighted transom above the door. The carving along the bottom reads "Deep Roots Are Not Touched By The Frost."

This is a shot of the left side of the door on the "stripey wall." The dark area that looks sort of like a window is actually an opening into the wall, where a pegboard will hang. Matt hand-picked this pine to create this stripey pattern and it is just spectacular.

All that remains now are the pieces that need to be stripped down smaller, and the trim pieces. Then it's sinking and filling the nails, and on to sanding, sanding, and more sanding.

It's really coming along! It's a sunny, golden, happy space.

Work on the Beadio has Begun!

2009-09-06T12:52:00.005-10:00

Matt next to a big stack of pine... this is a happy man. And I am a very happy and thankful woman at this moment. None of this beadio expansion would have taken place without this guy involved. He made up the spec sheet and figured out how much we'd need, drove the borrowed truck with the manual transmission - a Toyota Tacoma, no less; inspected each one of 36, yes, 36 8-foot long pine planks; moved each one 4 times without complaint; and served up a tasty blueberry gobble (shortcake with cream) for dessert later. Now, THAT is a MAN!

One after my own heart. I am completely gaga about this guy. All I can say - frequently, unreservedly - is thanks, we appreciate it!

Tater keikis

2009-08-08T13:46:00.005-10:00

Baby spuds! Can anything be more exciting than little plants pushing their way up through the soil? So much potential in such a little package. We tried to grow potatoes once before, and nothing at all happened... we waited and waited and finally decided they just weren't going to grow. These little spud starts sat in a plastic bag on the kitchen counter for several weeks before I got them planted. They already had little sprouts forming. I planted 6, so there are still 2 to come.

Discussions on the redecoration of the beadio have ranged from "just paint it and get on with it" to "my ideal beadio? well, cedar paneling would be wonderful." Cedar paneling brings back many scented memories of my childhood clothes closets. My dad Warren was a carpenter, and built most of our houses. They were pretty much standard ranch houses, but had special little details, like cedar-lined closets.

Cedar is a distant memory on Kauai. It can be special-ordered, at GREAT expense. It seems more likely we will enclose the walls with pine planks, which can be done much more reasonably. Although "just paint it and get on with it" has its appeal.

I'm going to have a studio!

2009-07-17T16:20:00.004-10:00

Fun to come in the beadio!

We moved into our new apartment on February 1. At that time, Abbie (the best landlady ever) took pity on us and told us that within 4-6 months, we could have another small room on her side of the fence.

Matt said at the time that it should become my studio, my retreat for beading, my "beadio". And the beadio it became... it was initially full of interesting cartons of stuff, old phonograph records, and pictures. The dryer vents in there, and worked loose from its mooring and covered everything with a fine coating of dryer lint, giving it a true Miss Havisham character.

When school got out for the summer, Abbie turned into a whirliwind of energy and cleaned out her garage, cleaned up the yard, took out 2 palm trees, and emptied out the beadio. The dryer is still venting in there, but firmly ensconced in a lint trapper. It's hot as Pele's fire in there when the dryer is on! Things certainly won't mold. And eventually it will be vented outside.

I took this picture of one corner with my digital camera the other night, came in and downloaded it, and then painted it with different colors to get a feel for the eventual scheme, which is drawn from all the colors in the inset picture in the mid-left. All this boggles my mind, it is so much fun.

I had a feeling that I should go with a soft coral on the walls and accent it with a sharp lime green, or purple. Tropo! But tropo so often morphs into circus, and I want the beadio to be juicy and creative, but also a serene harbor where creativity can blossom. Maybe a steam calliope is too much! But it would solve the problem of what to do with the dryer steam. Permaculture!

Tomorrow afternoon I'll start cleaning it. Abbie has donated several gallons of white paint to use as a primer. My goal is to have it finished by the end of August.

Bead on!

What bloggest - or globbest - thou?

2009-07-08T19:30:00.000-10:00

An apt question, posed to me by my husband Matt as I compose this first post. Yikes! Now I've done it, I've gone and created a blog...after a few false starts.

And why, then? Do I have something unique to share? Well, mebbe not, but mebbe so. Everyone does! I've been greatly inspired and amused by blogs, and touched to the core sometimes. Robin Atkins' blog Beadlust is one of the ones I admire.

My Huna teacher Serge Kahili King has also started a blog, in which he answers questions he receives in email. It's a useful way of sharing knowledge. Maybe I'll be able to share some daily Huna.

Serge has built 2 amazing islands in Second Life and holds Talk Story there once a month. During the last one he told the story of Hakalanileo and Kana, the stretching shaman he found to help him retrieve his wife Hina. I questioned the stretching shaman, what is it? It signifies doing work at a distance, one of the basic shaman skills. Blogging is a little like being a stretching shaman.

Eventually I'll figure out how to insert a picture somewhere other than the top of the page. For now, Barbara the Parking Goddess has top honors. She is my latest finished spirit doll. Her body shape is Robin Atkin's classic spirit doll pattern, and her face was made by Dottie Hoeschen. I was introduced to Barbara by my friend Tami, when we commuted together to Seattle University, in my other life B.K. (before Kauai). We would apply to Barbara to get a good parking space at Mae's or in the parking garage at S.U. She is gracious, and we often got a good spot. This doll is for Tami.

Well, I've spent the whole evening learning to build a blog, and haven't beaded at all. This must not happen too often.