Making Green Mountain Forest Jewelry

I forgot to say we are having a wonderful time hanging out with each other...I've already given Hudson all the meaty attention I've been wanting to give him.

I have also found time to make Forest inspired jewelry!

Lauren Walling gave me old seed pods strung on her grandmother's necklaces, which I combined with some tiny crystals bought in Portsmouth, NH for a Justine creation last summer.

I incorporated pink resin and old brass for a fabulous double-wrap natural and sparkling necklace.

$30!

Is Vermont in America??..a CA perspective!

Hi friends!!

I have been saying to Kim the last few vacation days, "Aren't we in America??" I guess we are...we are just rural!

Monday, the internet guy came out to our house and informed us that there is no room on the satellite for our little connection/house. We aren't getting internet at home right now. We do pass DSL Fairpoint trucks on famously scenic route 100....the proof that infact DSL interenet will be made available to us soon...we won't be able to move here for our experimental 1 year with no web access...this is how Kim would run her SD, CA business from the woods!

While that guy was on our roof, we lost home phone/land line. Kim was on the phone with the satellite people, and the phone went dead. It always comes back, though!

We have no cell phone reception, we've chosen not to pay for voicemail service, and the power went out all last night. We DID catch Top Chef on Bravo last night...but right after it ended, an error message interrupted the screen reading, "Satellite loss due to rain and cloud coverage,"....

We are REMOVED!! However, we are having a restful, fabulous time! Apparently, after some desolate reflection, I needed rest from the dizzy spin I do in SD. And we all know Kim needed rest from a haunting EDD audit this last year and a changing business.

WE visited a Wells College friend of mine yesterday in Plymouth, VT...ten minutes outside Woodstock. Anneke's historical family home is a 200-something year old farmhouse, with authentic basement mud floors and low ceilings! It was so interesting to be inside a real old American house.

I'll post pictures of Anneke. Our meet up was inspired by our sons' need for a playdate...they're both two year old toddlers... Collin even taught my Hud how to say "Mine-s", and his dad, Chris, a professional painter taught Hud how to paint!

I'm in Waitsfield, VT right now at a cafe, Kim walking Hud around before we get groceries and host Angela and Jason for the weekend. We're making blueberry pies with all the picking berries we collected yesterday! And, if the sun comes out again, we'll lay out on our wood deck and then walk the creek! Till the next wifi!

In Vermont...It's Quiet!

Hi friends! Well, we HAVE NO Internet. I'm sitting in Warren, VT, at a scenic sandwich shop's outdoor picnic table next to a raging waterfall...just to get in a VT update! You know we're spending much of this little 2 Week vacation scoping out the territory and really imagining what living in this rural part of the country would be like. I could do it!

I've already had to pray and meditate a lot! I've asked my Higher Power to direct my thinking many times, since alone in the woods with not much to do could lead me down a dark path of self pity. And...it seems to be working. Hudson wants to run around the edges of the waterfall's cliffs, so I have to stop blogging.

Little Makeup Boxes...recycle em!

Jeez, these little makeup boxes make me happy! What is it about these little recyclable Stila boxes and hair-tyes tag that thrill me. I bought some new makeup for Justine's baby shower and our vacation back east...and I almost adore the boxes as much as the new expensive makeup!

Aren't these boxes cute? My plan is to recycle them in slices and use them as tags for future jewelry... I'll take a picture later...

Packing! Vermont Vacation 2 Weeks

We are packing, packing, packing...even just remembered to throw in the keys to our 1999 Grand Cherokee Jeep we stash at a friend's house in Kittery, Maine. Kim would probably contest this and definitely wouldn't want people thinking she doesn't know her stuff....but FOR ME, flying into Boston, MA is still the easiest route to our house in Granville, VT, and there doesn't SEEM to be an easier way. Even if we fly into Burlington, VT, an hour from our home, there are no direct flights, and we end up arriving at midnight, or in the morning, after hanging out with a toddler in JFK airport waiting 3-4 hours for a connection!

It's a trek....but once there...we're HOME! Not in a hotel...home! With crib and conveniences, like washers and dryers and clothes.

So, with this crazy trek ahead of us, I'm already starting the "release and let-go" process. There is no way I can control Hudson on the red-eye flight. I hope the kid can hang at Fanuel Hall in Boston for the day before we get to check in, and I have no idea how we are all going to share our hotel's King Size bed Saturday night, pre-drive up to VT, which KIM booked! I have no concrete stops along the 4 hour drive to let Hudson out to scream and run and eat (and rest his "balls" as we say...they get so sore in the car seat hour after hour.)

This is our 2 week vacation...and now I'm scoping things out for our future "year in VT"....

So, since I can't CONTROL travel in those ways, I'm wrapping up all my jewelry details here in SD, CA....I made the kids' jewelry bracelets and necklaces for my neighbor, with huge turquoise stone balls and faceted aqua glass and little letter beads that read, 'fun', 'cowboy', 'hi', & 'smooch'.

I handed an "adorable" group of summer inventory over to Sue, a private esthetician in North Mission Hills, SD, and a group of the "Shipwrecked" chains and sea glass collection to Marci, who owns Roses Salon on Coronado....

WISH I had taken a picture of all of these....if I get any back I'll post some pics later. I WILL take a picture of some of the creamiest dreamiest most adorable cream tear drop beads I bought and used on a necklace with Ethiopian Metal and a Hill's Tribe Stamped Silver Shell pendant.

Our little house in Vermont...and moving there!?

Hi friends! You're never going to believe it?? Although, after some reflection it makes perfect sense that our little family would want to spend all FOUR SEASONS in our other home on the other side of the country, it does seem CRAZY! We are considering moving for one year to Vermont...the Green Mountain Forest, to be exact. (Our little yellow house is an additional blog attached to this blog, and I'll be posting more pictures and details there...)

I guess after not getting pregnant, Kim and I fell into fantasizing about some other new adventure...so we're thinking about (and I'm already casually planning...like; investigating preschools, selling cars, posting our SD home for rent), moving Spring of 2011...and remaining for ONE YEAR in Granville, Vermont, aka, desolation!

We're discussing ways in which we'll succeed there, like making sure I get around people, perhaps taking a part-time job with super earthy cool bohemians, maybe even selling my really Californian jewelry at their farmer's markets?

We've imagined Kim buying Ultrasound equipment and casually scanning for Vermont doctors and facilities. We feel like two teenagers planning to sneak out at night! Do we really get to do this?

We're scared as hell, but the thrill of a new adventure is appealing! Hudson is 2 and 1/2, will be 3 and 1/2 upon moving....he's our really cool third roomate, and I'm drawn to the idea of counting on each other to survive...which is the exact sentiment that lends itself to the notion that together we're planning a thrilling escape.

I'll write more later about our FEARS...but Hudson just pooped and I already gave him five minutes on the clock without me bugging him to change his diaper!

I didn't get pregnant, but I did birth a Hot New Cow Necklace!

Hi friends!! I took my first Blog Hiatus! :) thank you for staying with me, if some of you did...I was busy trying to get pregnant. I was literally self-centered, and although my focus went inwards and into our home and home-life, specifically, I realized regardless of how much you focus on getting pregnant, or worry about conceiving, it really doesn't actually help you GET pregnant. whew! Run-on sentence, right?!?!

So we didn't get pregnant with Leif's Danish sperm, the same donor we used with Hudson, our two-yr-old. And without judging myself or my feelings, I'll just say it...I was relieved. Kim appears to feel more loss than me, but I am the "host parent" (that's my terminology, not gay slang)...the mommy who would carry, and I was really concerned about donating my body for 2 years and being TIRED! We are a 35 and 46yr old couple. Had we started 10 years ago, we would have tried longer for more kids, I believe. But now, with travel to Denmark for artificial insemination becoming our last option for getting pregnant with a blood sibling of Hudson's...we have decided (for today) that we are done. And now we join the "Only Child" team...can't wait!!!

While I was super busy not getting pregnant, i did make some fabulous jewelry...funky rocker mod cowboy jewelry...here are my favorite summer pieces. I used recycled pukas and shells, as well as re-purposed silver and turquoise belts. Love these understated glamor necklaces. Again, if you have strands of old chains or shells...let me re-purpose them for you, too!