April BJP and May Sale

I've been looking at this month's bjp and haven't been able to see anything else to add to it, so I guess I'll declare it finished.
The face and blue leaves represent both flower and sun this month....the three birds are freedom and wildness....my hand is reaching for the freedom the birds have in living moment to moment without thought for tomorrow or next year....I'm trying very hard to do the same....enjoy and celebrate the joys of each day without too much dwelling on tomorrow.

Also decided to have a 25% off Mother's Day Sale of all the items in my Etsy shop....the link to it is on the left sidebar. The sale runs from this friday, the 1st through Mother's Day which is the 10th this year.

The Good News...

Well, the good news is that I actually made something this week...a box (with feet!) and a book, actually, at a class at our yearly paper arts festival. The instructor, Pat Grass is wonderful, very calm and easy to follow and her kits are awesome....only her extremely excellent kits make it possible to make both a book and a box in a little less than 6 hours....that was a good thing, because at about the five hour mark my back started hurting and I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the box in class, but I did! I still have some work to do on the book, so I won't show it yet.
And I couldn't resist these two photos of sumi and oliver...very typical poses for both of them as ollie is a little contortionist and sumi can be very serious while she's trying to establish herself as the top cat in the house...

Spring

We're in the middle of several sunny warm days so we went out and I took a few photos...one of some kind of fruit tree (I think) and of a ground squirrel who lives in the rocks on the south jetty here in newport....hope wherever you are you're also enjoying the spring weather.

Hey!

Sorry to be so long between posts but I've been doing more reading than beading lately, so don't have much to show here.
I have been playing with wire and pearls and made a couple of dragonflies that I'm hoping to put on next month's bjp, and I made a couple of birthday cards for friends using my landscape photos, but that's about it.
Here's my sumi, who has been keeping me company lately...I'm afraid to open my keyboard, I bet there are millions of cat hairs stuck in there, lol!

Found It

As soon as I found the abalone birds, I knew what the overall design was going to be....and with so much going on in the background fabric, I decided a simple hand would work much better than one with it's own pattern. Not quite done yet, but close...

It seems hard to believe we're already 2/3 of the way through this year's bjp!

Seeking Inspiration

After an early start, I'm finding myself at pretty much of a standstill. So I thought I'd look through some older, unfinished pieces and see if I could get moving...I found these two hands from a couple of years back and they seem a good metaphor for my life right now as I'm reaching for peace and good health and more sun and most of all, for more time. Neither one will do for this month's bjp so I'll have to find the right fabric and make another one for now...