Fall, please!

We always want what we can't have! For me, I'd like a change of the seasons. The girls start back to school on Monday and find it hard to adjust when it still feels like the blazes of the summer sun will never fade. I have forgotten what cool and damp feel like.

School starting means I'm back to work full time. In honor of those who have been patiently waiting for me to open my website back up I'm offering 20% off your Humblebeads.com with discount code Aug09. (Not valid for orders already placed or my etsy shop.) Sale ends on Monday!

I'm off for a day of supply gathering, school supplies that is. Enjoy the weekend! Oh and I'd like to say a little prayer of thanks for school uniforms, they make life so much easier. Blander and uglier, but easier!

See the forest through the trees

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both." —James A. Michener

The cure for the post-travel funk: just get over it and go back to work. It helps that work is so much like play here in the Humblebeads Studio.

I'd thought I'd share my favorite beads with you today. They are my branch disk beads. I always have a little stash of these on hand for my jewelry designs. You'll see them quite a bit in different publications this fall.

I love tree imagery. I think my love for trees started when I was 8 or so. We were walking though the woods on Christmas day with my cousins. Ice was covering the branches in that magical way they do. We came across a small bush covered in ice and snow. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. My cousins started hitting it to knock off the icicles, to which I took immediate offense. That was probably the first time I realized that I saw the world differently. They saw an old bush, I saw a work of art.

Most of my childhood was spent among trees in the woods in west Michigan. We would build forts, take long walks, rule imaginary kingdoms. So my branch beads, each one, whispers of those carefree days in forests that were more magic than real. See, play - work, it's all the same here!

Back on the Saddle

Why is it always so hard to get back in the swing of things after traveling? I ended up taking a few days off. It didn't help, I'm in a slump! I need to sit down and work on an action plan for the fall/winter season, get this ship steering in the right direction again. What do you do to get out of the post-travel funk?

One thing of note, my humblebeads.com site is once again open for orders of all sizes, both retail and wholesale.

The winner of the pendant is Angel.Pearls! Congrats, please email me your address. I enjoyed reading about your hobbies and other creative pursuits. Always fun!

my other love

I'm getting ready for the SCBWI's annual children's book conference next week. I leave on Thursday and will be gone for 6 days. It's always hard to leave my girls for that long. But then time flies when you are having fun and I plan on having my share of fun. The conference is in Los Angeles and I love having the chance to hang out with such a creative group of artists and writers.

I told myself I wouldn't go crazy getting ready for this event. There is a portfolio contest and in case you haven't figured it out, I'm a bit competitive. I can't help myself. So I caved and have been working on new samples for my portfolio - going overboard once again! You can check out my illustration work at Humblearts.com.

I will be gone until the 13th. My etsy shop will close Tuesday morning. Same drill, you'll be able to find my beads at Bello Modo while I'm gone. The free shipping continues until I close the shop, so you can save yourself a few bucks.

What is your other creative love, besides beads? Maybe quilting, gardening, cooking, photography?

Leave me a comment about it and you could win this resin/humblebead pendant. I will pick one random winner on the 13th.

Studio Tour Dreams

1st the winner of the Studio Tour grand prize, (a $50 grab bag) is Sharon from Live Wire Jewelry!

I want to thank everyone who stopped by during my studio tour. I loved reading all of your comments and visited the blogs you shared with me. I didn't get to comment on every one, but I did stop by.

This is the complete layout of my studio, in case you were wondering. I also have a large closet, that is a challenge for another time!

Now that the studio is clean and organized, I've been thinking of how exactly I use this space. How to make it more functional, inviting and inspiring? I was looking at my window, thinking how much I'd love a window seat and them blam. Oh, am I not married to a sculptor who worked in a cabinet factory for years when he was in college? Why yes, yes I am! So I showed Jess my plan last night and he was jazzed.

This will be our project for September. Along with the window seat, I want bookshelves on both sides and window seat to be a long bookshelf for extra storage. (We have a lot of books!) And then I thought, well since we are building things I want to an island/work desk with cabinets underneath for all my storage. So that's the plan.

Dream Studio Layout

I'm off to work on getting ready for a children's book conference in LA next week. My shop will close the 5th - 13th. I know, Humblebeads are a rare bird this summer. So the free shipping will continue until Monday. Have a great weekend!