Taking a step...

"Then give to the world the best you have, 

And the best will come back to you." 

Madeline Bridges, poet

A year ago I said, "Why don't we have the NIADA Conference in Denver!!??"  and this year has been such a great learning experience on how to put together not only a conference but a dollmaking school preceding it.

 

I truly believe that great challenges give you an understanding of who you are and a strength that you didn't know you had.

So for the next two weeks I will be now in the midst of all this hard work and planning...it will be so very interesting to see what life this conference will take on. 

I am so thankful for my local volunteers and for the two NIADA artists, Mary Ellen Frank and Chris Chomick, for being my beacon of light through this process.

My hope is that the care and attention to detail will make a comfortable environment for all to thoroughly enjoy themselves...and yes, I will work very hard at taking a deep breath and not be the helicopter mom that I am known to be...let it live its life...let it bloom and evolve into what it is suppose to be... 

So until then, please keep me in your thoughts and I will return Friday September 2nd!

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole 

that adds balance to your steps 

as you walk the tightrope of life.

 
~William Arthur Ward ~

Mrs. Suzuki-san

Yesterday,  Mark, Issy and I packed up and away we went to drop me off at my studio where I had left my car overnight. But as traffic was heavy, we took a pitstop at the Health Department for Mark to drop off an important (600 page) document he had just finished! (Yikes and I think my job is hard)...anyway Issy and I waited in the car.

While I sat there, I was just spacing out and my eyes landed on the Russell Stover Candy store across the street...

as I sat there...I thought, isn't it amazing in the busy world that there still is that free-standing store selling candies...which took me further thinking I wonder how much longer it will be there...kind of made me sad. You can pop online and find oodles of candy stores with oodles of a selection, that will be happy to ship to you- with oodles of shipping options. Not to say that I don't take advantage of that, it is just a different time now. This is my observation.

It is a time that has gone- the candy store, the shoe store, the hat store...the fabric store...gone. But also gone is that specialness, the process of going to the one store in town to buy your one- two- maybe three pieces of chocolate or ribbons or that hat you have been saving for. Gone is the appreciation for the anticipation of the special place, that one special thing...not by all people but in today's world, few have that understanding for the truly unique- one of a kind.

That is why when Mrs. Suzuki gifted me with two of her hand-made necklaces, I was beyond words- thrilled at the unexpected and moment of seeing the specialness in her gift to me. Created with such tenderness- so beautiful is the process of such great care taken in each bead, the center stone, the color of the chain.

I feel it is important for us to take a breath in this harried world and find one special moment a day ...a week...and be in that moment so as to realize that uniqueness...and realize how wonderful it is to relish our own uniqueness- our own originality!

We are all born originals - 

why is it so many of us die copies?

- Edward Young

NIADA Conference

This last few weeks have been pretty much all consuming 

in the final details of the NIADA Conference!

Here are the Events that are Open to the Public!

My hope is that I actually will have a chance to make some pieces for the show- ouch!

I have a new design that I am very excited to create and share at the Conference. 

Keep  your fingers crossed and send good (more time) thoughts my way!!