Mary-Heather (RainyDayGoods)  from Ravelry.com linked today to a list on that site, where folks were talking about their simple pleasures. My first thought, a small pleasure for me, was a hot wet washcloth on my face. Then when I posted I got so inspired by other happy thoughts that I did not even include that in my list.

I have posted here before about small things really being the essence of my happy life. I have had some big things before (perhaps the biggest was my 5-week trip to Africa with my friend Altu). However, banking on big things to make life OK, does not work well as a life strategy.

So today I’m going to share with you the list I posted on the Ravelry Thread (if you are a member of Ravelry, which is free, you can read the whole thread… highly recommended).

• Watching my beloved hubby light up when I walk in the room.
• Singing/performing on stage with beloved. It’s more fun than I dreamed when I was a kid.
• Having my 24-yr-old Goddaughter call me and ask for time together.
• Having my 6-yr-old “fairy-Goddaughter” accidentally call me Grandma.
• Hot tea, dark, black and “straight up.”
• Baking something from scratch, with ingredients I’m not allergic to (yesterday, chocolate cake ), and eating it still warm out of the oven.
• Real whipped cream, whipped with brown sugar rather than white.
• Buying produce at the neighborhood (city) market, from the people who grew that food.
• My front porch. Especially naps in the hammock on the porch (in the city, but nobody can see me there).
• Wool, alpaca, kid mohair, any combination of them.
• Two colors next to one another which create more “zing” than one alone. This can stop me in my tracks.
• Running into someone who has made one of my patterns. It still lifts my heart to see that.
• The first day of the year when I can open front/back doors, let the breeze flow through, and wear my favorite African clothing. Bye, bye winter!

What about you? What simple/small things make your heart sing?

Yours may not do it for me (or mine for you), but I think it would be wonderful to get a little inspiration going in the comments here. Or, by all means, run over to Ravelry and join the larger thread.

The photo I wanted to post with this column? Fresh, organic strawberries from the East Lansing Food Co-Op. They were so perfect they looked fake, and they tasted perfect, as well. I made some of that brown-sugar whipped cream to put on the berries. No fancy torte is as good as that combination!

Unfortunately, I’m having a few computer issues which I think are temporary. No photo today. Sorry.

I just found a photo of a card I wrote to a friend a year back. She was leaving her life in Michigan behind and starting over in a far away state.

I airbrushed out her name, but the essential message is there.

“Remember, change brings us closer to our true selves.”

I believed it then, and I still do. My divorce in 1991 was the worst/best thing I’ve ever gone through, but I discovered who I was in the process. I did not call myself an artist before that time.

Losing my father still grieves me. I was 14, he was 40, it’s still a crying shame 30+ years later. However, I learned so much from that… particularly, that people are the riches in our lives… not the stuff. It comes down to who you love, in the end.

And being put on total voice rest for 31 days, being silent and feeling invisible? It gave me empathy and compassion for others who endure those conditions permanently. I am still changed from that month, even though it was 15 years ago.

The failure of my JoyBug’s engine and subsequent choice to replace that engine, has changed my reality overnight. It’s another moment where it feels like life changed the channel on me when I blinked. For at least a year, I will be making conscious choices to rebuild the funds it took to do that.

However, I have been poorer than I am now before. I am happier and richer in friends and lifestyle than ever before. I have resources from which to work. I can do without some things I was enjoying as small luxuries.

I am self-employed. This means I can not be laid off. I may have less business in one place, but I have the freedom to figure out where else I can work. I will not get “rich” in a money sense, but I have never been hungry and do not expect that now. I already am abundantly rich in the things that matter to me.

I am grateful I was able to pull off a new computer and an iPod Touch last year. They will last longer than my austerity period, I believe.

The car’s engine had just short of 150,000 miles on it and now it’s under 80,000 miles, with a 6 month warranty. I had not experienced car payments since 2004.  In a way, we  just bought a “new” car for ourselves, but with the familiar comfort intact. (Comfort to me, anyway… Brian prefers a different sort of car, but only gets in one when we sing together or travel together to visit family.)

(The odometer turned over to 150,000 miles yesterday, in front of my friend’s house, on my street. Here she is at 150,000 miles, on a gorgeous, sunny, crisp spring day!)

I have been giving away clothing already, and I have a lovely stock of yarns from which to design new patterns. We eat relatively frugally already, and the quality of food in this house is premium.

So, I again will remind myself that “Change brings us closer to our true selves.” It has definitely been true for me before. This sort of discovery venture is a good place to be.

Hi, everyone. For someone whose goal is 28 posts a month, I am not hitting my goal right now! This is my post number 2,915 since November 2002, but it is my first one in a week.

Gratitude

My car is now in the shop for 2 weeks and I’m to call them Tuesday for an update. I’m thinking it will be 3 weeks without a car, at least.

However, this has allowed my friends to love me with service. It happens that my furthest commute is to Haslett once a week (ten miles one way, requiring 3 buses). This two weeks happened to be between terms, so I did not have to worry about that. I have been able to ride the bus a lot (and our system is quite reliable).

I did one round-trip to downtown Lansing (not quite 5 miles, total) on my cool old 5 speed Schwinn Suburban. Last year, I did not ride the bike once. It was pleasant to get her back out on the road.

Things are intense but fine here. I am well again, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine. It is spring, and absolutely lovely to look at outdoors.

Friend Rae loaned me her car to go to the doctor last week when I was quite ill with a sinus infection. Friend Altu loaned me her car this week to go back for a checkup. You can not know what a gift it is to have a car for an hour or two, during a week which is otherwise car-less. The first week, I got a few groceries. The second, I went to the bank. Those trips were much easier with a vehicle!

Friends Melinda, Kelley, April, Altu and Kim have offered rides at different times. Mind you, most of the time, the bus works great… but some trips are a lot more hassle than others. Going to Rae’s shop and back is a breeze. Most of my life is lived on the East Side between Rae’s shop, Frandor and Altu’s restaurant. So most of my life is easy to handle by bus.

But you know, in the scheme of things, this is just fine. I do not have a long term illness. I have the prospect of  a vehicle again in a week or two. It is spring here, so waiting for the bus is pleasant. I have knitting in my purse, and can do that while I wait.

Project(s) Update

Since you last heard from me, so much has happened. The Lansing Comfort Bear project is going nuts. There is a nice article on the Lansing State Journal website about our event at Schuler Books. (It was in the Thursday paper with a photo of me teaching, but the online article is missing that photo. I’m fine with that.)

The article does not mention that Berroco Yarns and Rae’s Yarn Boutique donated yarn, Rae’s donated needles, and I donated patterns and teaching expertise for that event. Rae, Anna and Barbara from Rae’s offered teaching assistance, also donated. (Anna took the two photos here, while I was teaching.)

Whitney at Schuler Books did a great job of publicity and hospitality, as well. The project started not long ago thanks to Kristi Garcia, and it’s growing like weeds! It took a team to get this moving, and we are thrilled.

I have created a simplified version of the pattern to be distributed for free as a PDF download. That version can be accessed by clicking this Fast-Finish Bear Free Version link.

For those not inclined to download and print, or those who do not use the Internet, there will also be a photo-enhanced version with instructions for even non-knitters to get started. That one will be printed in color on good paper and in a page protector, for sale at the shops. The price will be my standard $6, but $1 from the sale of each pattern I will donate to EVE (End Violent Encounters). EVE is an organization which has helped two women I know, both with children, get out of a bad living situation and into new, healthy lives.

I am on the brink of an adorable child’s cap pattern (had hoped to release it yesterday but literally fell asleep with computer on my lap). I helped a friend with her taxes, and the Habibi Dancers‘ annual show and workshops are this weekend. (Photos below taken at rehearsal Wednesday.) I am over busy but all is well.

Signing Off, for Now

And with all that distracting me, I didn’t say hello to all of you. I’ll be back with more when I can. Meanwhile, focus on gratitude and let go of those things over which you have no control.

Hugs from Lansing, Michigan.

Hi, friends. I’ve had an amazing jam-packed week. I’m just stopping in to tell you I’m still of this world.

Friday daytime, my car decided it wanted a new engine for its 12th birthday (it was due to turn over 150,000 miles that day). Stopped, and that was that. (The replacement engine is on its way.)

Friday night, we took the bus to perform in the Lil’ Darlin’s Vaudeville show. That was fun… both the bus ride and the show. And dinner afterward at Emil’s Italian Restaurant.

For the record, this longest-family-owned restaurant in Lansing has its kitchen open until midnight, at least on Fridays. A “busload” of us from the show came in at about 11:35 and they greeted us with open arms. It was a class-act welcome.

Since then, I’ve been fighting what I thought was allergies or a cold. I stayed home Sat/Sun. I did little on Monday.

Tuesday I felt well enough to get out and work, doing the Lansing Comfort Bear event at Schuler Books Eastwood. It was INCREDIBLE.

The press was there, TV6 and TV10 plus the Lansing State Journal. We had a great largish crowd of knitters. Two had not knit before, and Rae and Anna helped them while I tended to the larger percentage who were already knitters.

A couple of people finished the back of their bear that night. Loved it.

But now I am not just having allergy symptoms, I am truly sick. That kind of sick where you cough so much you can’t sleep. So your LynnH is trying to lay low.

I almost never get bored, but I am now. Wednesday and Thursday I’ve canceled everything. Friday I have no solid obligations, and may have to postpone a lunch with a friend, we will see.

In the big scheme of things… cars need repairs sometimes. People get sick sometimes. I got both the same week… maybe that is a faster way for me to get past the “hiccups.”

I’m knitting a little, when I am not having coughing fits. That part is good. But I’m already bored of playing Scrabble on the iPod Touch, and that means I’ve been still far too long. One day at a time.

For now, I’m not blogging enough. Please excuse the quiet. I will be back.

I am repeating a portion of a post I made back in December, 2005. That post celebrated a then-new book of poetry: “4 Against the Wall” by Zachary Chartkoff, Sam Mills, Robert Rentschler, and Ruelaine Stokes.

The season outside as I type this is “late winter/early spring” as John Denver once put it. I think we have no snow around at this point, and there are daffodils blooming en masse as of yesterday. It is gray and wet, and chilly. It has been a while since we saw frost, but we are not done with that possibility for another month.

The Gift of Words

My friend, Ruelaine, wrote a poem years back, which can move me to tears. It is about spring, both human/emotional spring as well as the physical, seasonal spring as we are experiencing it now in my city.

When Ruelaine reads a poem, she does not stand still and use merely her voice. Every cell of her body is poised and projecting the feelings inside the words. She sometimes gestures with her hands. Her voice changes pitch and speed.

Ruelaine knows when to stop, and wait, and let silence be part of the rhythm. She is not just a reader, she is an actor in all the good meanings of that word.

Try to imagine in your mind, the slow, expressive voice of my friend. You may not know her, but slow down your cadence, imagine a low and intent voice speaking at a pace which allows full understanding… as the words flow by your ears and your heart.

This is the last half of my 2005 post referenced above. Remember, “The trees will buy new dresses…” It is spring.
================================

My favorite poetry performer of all time is Lynne Ruelaine Stokes. She can read her own poetry, or anyone else’s (I love it when she reads Rumi), and make it take on such life that it almost has a flavor.

Here is my very favorite poem. Ever. Of any time, any writer. I can not read the poem without choking up and/or shedding a tear. I have lived the spirit of this poem, though I did not write it.

I am not the only person who has been deeply moved by this poem. Several years ago, I purchased an artpiece from Freshteh Parvizi which includes fragments of text, excerpts from this very poem.

The poem is on page 75 of the, wonderful, fabulous, incredible gem of a book. (Included here with permission.) Written by none other than my friend Lynne Ruelaine Stokes… poet, photographer, artist.

from the “book” of common prayer
wash my heart & call me clean
a hard time is over

yesterday I listened to the grass grow wild
green under the snow

& now I see the water fall
from your eyes

let it rain
let it rain down on me

forgiveness is mine/listen to your lover

the trees will buy new dresses
the birds will flower

I called it a hard time, lord
but it’s over

tea is on the table, honey in the pot
bread and butter
even the radio wants
to be my friend

that hard time, lord
it’s over

My friend April picked up knitting when she had a very small child. It turned out quickly, that the child wished to grab at the needles no matter if they were on a table or in Mommy’s hands. Mommy stopped knitting.

Five years later, the kiddo is in school. Mommy is missing kid. Mommy has time to herself for the first time in a long while. Mommy wants to knit again.

She found the project she started five years ago. It was actually done except for the working-in of ends. I helped her learn how to do that. I also helped her start a legwarmer project. (We are dancers, legwarmers can ease leg cramps on bad dance days.)

May I present to you, April’s first project? It’s a baby hat, knit off the cuff, one step at a time given to hear verbally by me. It helped that she lived across the street at the time. (Sigh, those were good days for me.)

I have been contemplating my strengths/weaknesses lately. It seems that the intense parts of me are both my best parts and my most handicapping parts, alternately.

I don’t quit easily. I am loyal. I can be loyal when it is no longer appropriate. I can push toward a goal even when the goal has become unwise.

These are just truths. The longer I live, the longer I understand that these statements describe two sides of the same coin.

For example, tough people can forget to ask for help. Sometimes friends want to help others (including tough folks), it makes them feel great to connect and feel useful. However, in some situations tough and solo is the only way out, no time to get help even if others are willing.

A very small version of a good way my “I don’t quit easily” side works, is illustrated here. Brian bought me flowers. I love carnations. They were very fresh when he got them, and carnations have good longevity for cut flowers anyway.

Three weeks later, they looked like the first photo here. I might have tossed the bunch, but I noticed how happy the one particular flower at bottom left was looking.

I found a small vessel that would welcome the few flowers which were still going strong. About 80% of the flowers were tossed out, as was appropriate. The other flowers lasted almost another week. We had nearly a month of carnations while the snow was still on the ground.

This time, my tendency to stick things out was a plus. Don’t you agree?

My friend Susan Hensel lives in Minneapolis now. She was the one who inspired both my “Fabric of Friendship” feltmaking performance/display, and my knitted Self-Portrait.

I met Susan years ago in Mid-Michigan (does anyone in Lansing remember “Wyrd Sisters” in Okemos?). She and two other partners had an artspace called “The Art Apartment” in East Lansing (where my feltmaking show was hung).

Susan now owns a gallery in Minneapolis, and has continued her shows called “A Reader’s Art” which are incredible, mind-bending art books. This will be her 10th year for the show. If you know anyone near Minneapolis, please let them know about this.

Susan Hensel Gallery presents

Help us celebrate! Opening reception March 12, 7-9pm To see a full list of exhibitors, please visit:susanhenselgallery.com Also don’t miss! A special poetry reading hosted by Georgia Greeley w/ members of the Laurel Poetry Collective: April 16th, 2010. 7 p.m.

Our family just increased by one. I’m now an aunt, again.

The little girl is merely 5 lb 8 oz as of Wednesday. She is a week old today, Saturday. The sweet girl is well and beautiful, and the parents are glowing. (Tired, but glowing.)

I have made a point of not knitting for Brian’s side of the family. There are so many people, and I don’t want anyone to feel left out. I can not possibly knit for everyone and still run a business that has to do with knitting.

But this week I broke my resolve. I know these parents very well and I adore them. The world needs more families of this commitment and caliber.

Here is the result of my weak moment:

(Chippy Socks for Kids. Size Infant-0. Debbie Bliss Rialto and Filatura di Crosa Zara. Size 2 US Brittany Birch needles.)

No, I do not have a photo of the baby. I will have to ask permission to borrow one someone else took before I put up any images. Trust me: she is delicious to look at. I’m in love and I haven’t even met her.

Brian just got a new camera. He was testing it out while I was working, laptop on the couch. He got this photo.

Somehow, only a tiny bit of the real mess and all of the color in my world, got into the photo. This was not staged. Welcome to a good, quiet, working moment… in my pleasant, modest life.

Let’s play that game where kids find things in a drawing:

Cup o’tea in mug gifted to us by Midwest Ukefest/Indianapolis
Hot water bottle for warm feet (hiding)
Bobbins for spinning wheel
Christmas lights
Heftone Bass
Quilted pillow by Sis-in-Love, Jane
Handknit lap blankie by Sis-in-Love, Diana (almost hiding)
Blanket from beloved Mexico
Blanket from beloved Ethiopia

Did I say “Cup o’tea?” Did I say “New laptop which I love?”

Did I say “Beloved hubby who is behind the camera?”

It is really, truly a good life, if you notice the little things. All these little things (and more) add up to a doozy of a satisfying life, for me.

I’m loving the alpaca/wool magenta fabric I’m getting as I knit my current Olympic-season sweater project. This is NOT what I normally knit, not at all. It’s lovely in spite of needing more attention than I typically spend.

It’s funny, but knitting a sock with two colors of yarn in a stranded pattern, would be more comfy for me than this. I am knitting on medium-sized needles. I often work on size 1 and smaller, or size 10.5 and larger, but this is on size 8 US (5mm) for the main part. I am knitting flat, not in the round.

I am doing a chart/pattern, for texture. I see color “hiccups” very easily, and very quickly. Texture mistakes I can miss until I’ve passed the hiccup by a dozen rows.

I’m very glad I’m knitting rather than crocheting, because I can switch a knit to a purl or vice-versa without fully ripping back. (One can run a column down like a nylon stocking, and then re-chain things back up the run to correct the problem. Very cool.)

Overview

It’s a lot like a rib, actually easier in some ways than rib. The right side rows are “knit all stitches.” I love that part. The wrong side is essentially “Purl 4, Knit 1, repeat.” No big deal, mostly. I don’t usually purl much, but as long as it is not 100+ purls in a row, I’m good with that.

However, I am so used to working with socks, which most often have a multiple of 4 stitches for ribbing, that I keep finding myself doing a P3K1 pattern. This requires fixing, but does not require ripping out.

About 20% Finished (Cringe)

This is where “she” stands right now: my percentage finished is not great. The 2-color swatch in the above photo is approximately in the area of the sweater where I will embroider a zigzag/chevron pattern around the sweater once I finish. The small piece on the right will be the back (or front, at this point they are identical).

It is ready for me to work the area of 10 rows or so, where the embroidery will go. I am putting knit stitches where I will do “duplicate stitch” embroidery to add turquoise, later.

Placing an embroidered “knit” stitch over a purl in the fabric is not fun (I tried it on the swatch). So I made myself a bit of a chart just for knitting that short strip of stitches at the bottom, to help me accomplish my hand-sewing easily, later.

I guess I could have just done stockinette for the 10 rows, but I like that the rib won’t be interrupted. It’s costing me a little time but giving me a product I’ll be happy wearing.

I hope this is interesting enough, friends… what can one say with a sweater that is not half done? I’m plugging away, anyway.

A Lovely, Off-Topic Report

In other news, I am enjoying a Facebook thread where folks are registering their contentment with their spouse/partner. Someone went on about “does anyone believe in love anymore” and the answer was definitely YES in my circle of the world. Love that.

I saw the same thing when we sang at Altu’s on Valentine’s weekend. One woman (a knitter) came alone and was her own valentine, having dinner and knitting and sitting in the front row for the show. However, from my view on stage, I could see people I know. And I saw seven couples I know, who are happy together. Happy.

When I was single, I kept a list of happy couples I knew. Often it was folks I knew well. In some cases, I’d note “lady I met on elevator” or “someone in class with me.” Didn’t matter. I wanted to believe it could be real and good. I liked being single just fine, but if I could have a good partnership I wanted to recognize that opportunity.

Let’s hear it for happy relationships. This stuff doesn’t make the news at 10, you know?

My beloved Brian goes on long bike rides whenever he can. He really enjoys being outdoors in this weather. He notices you can see further when trees do not have leaves. Snow does not slow him down (though his winter bike has metal-studded tires).

Since he sometimes goes over 100 miles by bike on his day off, he spends a lot of time on remote roads looking at fields and woodlots. Right now, there is little color out there, it is nearly monochromatic. Again, Brian is able to really appreciate things for exactly what they are. (Photo added 2/18 pm)

Me? I have opinions. I like big cities with skyscrapers, art museums, ethnic diversity, and subways. I collect cities which fit this profile. I especially collect subways/public transit systems. I’ve been on 10 systems, plus Detroit’s people-mover (which does not take anyone to work, so I don’t consider it equal).

I always feel a little let down when we drive 3-4 hours to somewhere for a vacation, and it is rural rather than a bustling metropolis. Walking through a field of knee-high grass is stressful for me, but walking miles on a sidewalk makes me happy. I understand the appeal of “the great outdoors,” but it doesn’t register inside of me.

What is nice, is that Brian can get a full dose of any needs he has for rural Michigan, by riding on his days off. He loves to find good local diners (especially if they have excellent fruit pie). He notices trees… which types grow more in which counties, for example.

He enjoys checking out the small, older towns he can find. He looks to see if there are signs of a mill, if the town is old enough to have been built on a river. Sometimes the mill is no longer there, but he can figure out where it once was.

He notices in railroad-era towns, where the grain elevator is. Usually it is next to the track. Of course this  makes sense, but I never thought about it at all. These days, often the grain elevator location will include a feed store, if it’s still operational.

Right now, the ground here is covered in white snow. On a lot of days, the sky is covered with clouds. The trees have no leaves, though if you look you will see tree bark in many subtle colors from gray, to red, to green. Brian spends long days viewing neutral scenes.

Then he comes home. And he finds his citygrrl wife, with her “retina-damage color” collections. My clothing, my dishes, paint trim inside/outside the house? Color!

This Sunday, he was so struck by the contrast, that he took this photo. It’s just the top of the dresser which functions as our bathroom vanity. This is just how it looked that day. Yes, this is how I really live, there were no attempts to make it anything other than it was at the time.

This makes me giggle. I just don’t notice it when I’m walking by. The photo makes it much more clear.

Yup, that’s me. Good thing Brian appreciates variety in his life!

Once I knew others were happy but I thought I could not have what they had. Now I have such a different life, I am amazed. I did a lot of work on the road here, but the payoffs of that work are tenfold.

Tonight, Saturday, February 13
6:30-8:30
The Fabulous Heftones (Brian and I) sing at the newly expanded/renovated
Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine in East Lansing.

This is truly our home venue in a million ways. We became a better act because of our regular 2-hour performances here.

We were in the What’s On section of the Lansing State Journal this week (page 3, with a photo). There is an online version of that article (with a photo of our friend Frog, who is mentioned later in the same column).

But today, on a day when we are again booked as the “Most Romantic Act in Lansing,” I feel like it is Thanksgiving even more than Valentine’s day.

I wrote a post January 31, 2009 that sums it all up, gratitude for my new life. It’s a short column (for me). Please consider taking the time to read it. I think good news doesn’t usually make it to the masses, and I’m all for spreading the good stuff when I can.

I have a good number of deadlines this week. I’ve accomplished one entirely. I have finished another, other than delivering the final item to its intended owner.

I’m now working on something that probably will take until Friday night. The good news is that I do have things that take me out of the “nose to the grindstone” mode in the middle of all this.

Staying Grounded During Deadline Week
I’m staying with my “Lovely Little Things” awarenesses. We had a lovely subtle sunset today. My husband shoveled not only the sidewalks, but a little path I’d tromped down in the snow (through the yard). I got a wonderful little message from someone I like but don’t interact with enough. I got a note from someone who just bought my Keys & Coins hat, and thanked me for taking the time to make it so clear. My mood can not stay grumpy for long with these things in my life.

Teaching is the best equalizer for my mood, of all. I had one kid today (had 4 last week). K. finished all the knitting and working-in of ends on her netbook cover. She’s ready to felt it, and quite pleased. She’s in elementary school. this pattern required knitting, two sorts of decreases, knowing the right and wrong sides of the fabric, slipping stitches, and making a buttonhole.

She is proud, and she should be. After finishing today, she said “I rock!” and I echoed “You rock!” When K. came to me she knew how to make a knit stitch, but  no purl, no knitting in the round, no decreases, no buttonholes. She is a quite accomplished knitter. She knows more about knitting than I did 20 years after I learned. Go, Kid!

Counting My Blessings
I’m grateful for that break in the middle of the deadlines. I can really get over-focused and grumpy but teaching, particularly children, fixes a lot.

The Rush
Tomorrow I teach adults. I am sort of going wild lately with semi-private lessons. Often this is how we teach beginner knitters, but sometimes folks bring in hiccups they are having on projects. I don’t work with lace, but most other things are fair game for these sessions.

Tuesday I had five folks arrive at different times over a 2-hour period, to get their hour of assistance in. Last Thursday I had five others. I know I have at least four scheduled tomorrow/Thursday. This is incredibly satisfying. And after that, I have the final session of “Fix and Finesse” which is equally exciting to teach.

Tonight’s Plan
But in between, I’ve mostly turned off my computer to stay on task. I’m going to do that right now after I hit “save” on this post.

The photos here are all adult-student works. Hat (my most common beginning-knitter project), Chippy Socks, Buttons/Beads from my “Polymer Clay with Sparkle and Shine” class. You can see why I get energized when I teach.

OK, I’m off to work at the grindstone for a bit longer…