The silence here is the result of all my conversations I have had while standing in the yard in the rain while a sweet, sweet guy named Sam dug a French drain around the house. I had tried filling the holes with a cement repair kit but the water kept coming in. Sam came by to look at the problem and for some unknown reason, dropped his other job and started digging. He kept working even as more rain fell just to get the pipes laid and flood stopped. Today the studio floor is the driest it has been in weeks.

The fish lures arrived on Wednesday and last night I did the one I had sold at the Festival of Trees and plan to mail it off when I go to town to see Vicki. She has some guy who does lapidary work who wants to sell to members of our bead group. Am eager to get off the computer and over to see what he has.

For the past several weeks I had been promising myself to take the time and the energy to track down the leak into the studio as soon as I got the craft shows all done. So that was yesterday, Friday, and today I moved shelves around until I could see this mess.

I had feared the leak was coming up through a crack in the floor (we had several small earthquakes this year) but I see the problem is on the wall. That should be easier to fix but I still have no idea exactly what I can do.

My solution is glue but this is all too wet for that and another storm is already moving in. I tried to dig away the soil on the outside of the hole but it soon filled with water coming down the side of the mountain on its way to the sea. Our house was built directly over a previous stream bed and though they moved earth all around, the earth remembers where it once had a small river and tries to maintain it, even if it means burbling over my cement floor.

The river had even populated itself. I noticed the last time I cleaned the studio that there were less spiders. I figured my attempts to poison ants had given the arachnids stomach aches and they left. Not so. On the bottom shelf of the rack, in a lovely basket was the fattest alligator lizard I have ever seen. He was torpid from sleeping so close above the concrete so it was easy to carry him outdoors. I am hoping that when all the fuss about the waterway is over that he will move back in.

On Friday I went to Point Arena to add to my display the items left over from the Festival of Trees. Anthony Rees and Kirsten Tanner were gallery sitting so while I hooked hooks on to the net we had a great talk about films. I had just seen "The Man who Went up a Hill and Came down a Mountain" which was shot in south Wales - near where Anthony had lived. That's Anthony making his wire Celtic designs while Kirsten rang up sales.

We were having such a good time I forgot to take a photo of my display.

I definitely feel I should keep beading. The messages are coming through loud and clear. I got a call from Harriat who does the inventory for The Dolphin and she read off the list of items that have sold which was very encouraging. Other years I have sold one or nothing. So that was good. Finally her customers appreciate my work.
Then Susan wrote that she had visited my blog (her first!) and offered that any time I needed a bead-oost, I should let her know. The lady does have a way with words!
Then yesterday afternoon I started my new piece and so far it is going very well and I am very excited about it. I decided to work the double walls simultaneously by doing one length of thread with 8s and when I need to rethread the needle, then I switch to 11s. At this point the whole thing looks like one of those fancy sweepstakes ribbons from county fair days. But it already has the proper curve and the colors I had on hand are perfect.

Last night as I tore up the 4th attempt with the Pendragon cuff, and repackaged all the beads, I imagined what I would blog in here saying I was done with beads and then planning a huge yard sale. However this morning I got such a marvelous letter from Susan Phelps at Fire Mountain thanking me for the beads for the "Circle of Hope" event to raise funds for breast cancer research, that I am rethinking my planned action. She wrote so kindly and made me feel she really liked my work and valued my designs. I hope they give her a pay increase.

Maybe I will try again and not give up so easily with the beads. I was avoiding doing an original design, as that is even more frustrating than following some else's instructions! but now I am thinking maybe my own idea would be interesting enough to carry me over the rough spots when the beads don't fit together.

Yesterday I got by mail from Susan (or someone at Fire Mountain) a copy of Christmas 365 with a really good photo of my last year's entry in the bead contest - the Christmas tree that did not get a prize. I was really touched that they were still finding a use for the image and that it still looked so good. I had gotten the same magazine earlier but I felt the Universe was making sure I got it again so I would not get discouraged with beading. Gotta listen to these messages!

There is no photo for the beading I did yesterday. I finally forced myself to take up the tray and try a beading project I thought I knew - the pendragon cuff.
The first two attempts I had to cut up and recycle. At first I thought the weird spaces were due to uneven tension, (since I am out of practice), but after the second attempt I finally looked at the instructions and the bracelets I had made last spring. Now on my tray is the third attempt trying the rounds next to the square beads instead of plopping the hexes on the squares. I hesitate to show you as even this improvement may not be enough to save my sanity! Hopefully tomorrow will produce something I can show you!

Just got the image of our tree from Sharon Nickoderm. It was her idea and now she has made this great photo. She had seen the basic fake bonsai tree for sale somewhere and ordered it. She did not like the pot it was in so she made this one out of clay herself. She then 'planted' the tree in glue, pebbles, and resin to make it stay upright. It was her idea to paint the trunk gold and spray the branches with snow and glitter. I agreed with her that it otherwise it was too dark, especially since we could figure out a good way to add lights without a welter of wires. She then added the 20 1/8th ounce fishing lures that I embellished along with one of my lizards there in the roots.
All the decorated trees offered at the Festival of Trees sold but ours was the first one to reach its 'buy-now' price and to go to its new home by noon on Friday. It was interesting that all the other trees were offered on stands down the middle of the room, but the bonsai tree had to stand alone in the entry way. All the praise we got was well worth the effort. The tree sold for $200 which was a donation to Gualala Arts.

Thanks, Sharon, it was a delight working with you!