Celebrating Birthdays at Passionflower

A big ole "Happy 40th Birthday" to

Becky who is Passionflower's ..........

beautiful,

very beautiful,

very creative,

extremely hardworking,

fun loving -

and loving and amazing manager. You make the store a great place to be.
Hope the
next decade gives you all things wonderful.

And because there are so many ways I want to say Happy
Birthday, I thought this cake was perfect. I found it on Letterpaperflower.com

I think it's in Arabic but it perfectly expresses all the things I want to say in the most intelligibe/unintelligible way.

Going to the Big City

Becky & I went on a buying trip to Seattle a few weeks ago. And yes, we do go to stock up on amazing goodies for the store but we also go to, well......just to go....to be somewhere else - to look at things a little differently.

One morning, Becky spied this cute little lamb sign -hmm....

1818 is a long time ago.

We looked up to see that lambikins is the logo for the venerable tailor Brooks Brothers.

Next day we looked in the window.


Gotta love those pincushions that look like tomatoes.
It was a beautiful old time display.




And then Becky gave me a little lesson in tailoring - specifically different techniques for making the collar stiff. I love looking in store windows......especially in the big city. Inspires me to make our front window really amazing too. You never know who might be looking in.l

Visiting Jeweler Susan Goodwin

I always love it when my jewelry reps Thomas & Greta bring me samples of Susan Goodwin to order - like in this picture.

But it's even more fun to visit her studio which I fondly think of as "Susan's Garden of Earthly Delights". Becky & I recently had the pleasure of a visit when we were in Seattle.


It is a working studio and there are bowls of gems and pearls and findings all organized -

And shells and glassware for containers.



Collections of optometrist's tools.



And of course the most beautiful collections of pearls.


Everything has a quality of clarity and brilliance.

And my favorite part of her studio is this wall of women's portraits. They look down upon her big work table that seats four. I imagine Susan is making jewelry for all these types of women - As she is working she's having conversations with each of them.

Then she served us a little cup of Mariage Freres Marco Polo tea -
and put on some Miles Davis music.

And we looked at a book of Alexander Calder jewelry.
They're having a Calder show at the Seattle Art Museum through April this year. I really want to see it.

Susan gave me a little lesson in how pounding metal makes it change shape and move.

So now whenever I see these earrings of Susan's, they will always be inextricably linked with the mobiles of Alexander Calder.

Art is a Great Gift

Long ago and far away, I think it was in January, we had our staff holiday party and I realized what an art loving, crafty bunch we are. Handmade cards and drawings and beads and journals and other goodies were flowing in abundance.

Becky made everyone these little egg cups (at least that's how I think of them) from paper mache.

Mine had a little "J" inside it and the words were all kinds of writing about flowers and mist and dew and lots of ephemeral things like that. I loved it.

And then we did a gift exchange and (lucky me) I got this beautiful miniature book framed in a small shadowbox that Becky made.
Wow did I feel rich. So much art made me want to luxuriate in it and so I decided to redo my mantle.

One of the great things about collecting art is that over the years you end up with a treasure trove of possibilities when it comes to putting together a vignette. So I mined my house for treasures and came up with these paper spoons made by Clare Goddard. They were paper and they were white - like Becky's egg but different so I thought they'd be able to have an interesting conversation together.

Then away with all the holiday goodies and on to the cool, spare, clean lines of the winterscape.
Here's my new winter mantle - Becky's art, Sue Tackmier card, the Clare Goddard spoons, and bare huckleberry branches. I like the objects all clustered together instead of spread out.
They become something greater than the sum of the parts.

Promises of Spring & Valentine's Love to Come

Okay it has been way too seriously long since I've done a post - almost a month and I have been a busy girl. Lots of things to show & tell- trips to Seattle & NY, Valentine's Day, Amazing Art Show at Passionflower etc... - but in the meantime I'll leave you with a photo of some pussywillow from my backyard and a little ditty to go along with it -

To be recited as you gently touch someone's face with a pussywillow bud.

"Close your eyes and do not peek and spring will dance across your cheek'

There is something about softness to learn from the pussywillow.