Little Evelina

Yeah!

As little Evelina - my new granddaughter - was born on a Saturday, I didn't have any photos to include in my "bird in the hand" blog post when I mentioned her as she had just literally been born when I wrote the blog post...so a few of you have asked to see her piccies.  So here she is!

I get to see her this week!!!!  Doesn't she look fabulous! So excited, happy, and jiggly in the above photo and so pensive and thoughtful in the one below.

Excuse the indulgence of grandchildren photos two days running, but I think new grandmothers are allowed such things - especially when two grandchildren are born within 11 days of each other. ;-)

Weekly bird in the hand

This week's things I am grateful for - my bird in the hand - is a short list of one.  And that is Maxwell.  He is my new grandson - born to Adam and Alexa.  He was born January 25th, weighing 7lbs and 4 oz. 

He was born 11 days after my granddaughter Evelina.  Two babes in two weeks!  How great is that!  When Adam phoned shortly after Maxwell was born, I could hear little Max making gurgling noises down the phone! Our first hello!  My heart melted right there and then :-D

We fly back to England on Wednesday - so obviously we are going to have a wonderful time over there, cuddling with two new grandchildren!  How lucky are we?

Isn't that just a gorgeous photo! 

New window necklaces

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I needed to do some more stained glass window necklaces for Grace cathedral, so I finished them off today.

Three of them are utilizing the scenes from the St Matthew window in the Chapel of Grace, and the fourth - the largest - is from one of the more contemporary style windows in the nave of the church.

I will take them to the shop at Grace on Sunday when I sing there.

They vary quite a bit in different lights.  I like that aspect as when you wear it, you see different colors and suddenly, the vibrance shines through....but then you turn and it looks different again.

Hope you like them - and I appreciated your comments on the bangles. Thanks for that.

New Window Bangles

My jewelry is selling well at Grace Cathedral and so I made a few new bangles this week.

They were made from the St Matthew Window in the Chapel of Grace.The window was created by Charles Connick and is the first window as you enter the chapel.

Connick's chapel of Grace window designs, like the chapel architecture, were inspired by the famed and still-surviving Sainte-Chapelle - a private chapel attached to the royal palace in Paris. This chapel is considered one of the highest achievements of Gothic architecture - and   is somewhere I would love to visit one day........

The new bangles feature both the full length St Matthew window and also just small vignettes. I like the one shown above on the left as it has bunches of grapes on it...merlot?

 I need to make some more necklaces too, so I'll show you those when I'm done.

Weekly Bird in the Hand

Here is this week's list of things I am grateful for:

Photo by exfordy

• Rain! Finally we have rain. We've probably only had about 3 or 4 days of rain since spring last year - but hopefully we will now get enough - however much that is.
• Hearing news/updates and seeing photos of our lovely new little grand daughter Evelina - a week old today :-D
• Singing.
• Going for a long walk with lunch in the middle - and avoiding most of the rain.  We walked to Kenwood and back today - probably nearly 8 miles.
• Spending a lot of the week at home working on my computer and learning lots of new things.  
• Keeping up with my walking program
• Revisiting a restaurant we hadn't been to in ages and really enjoying it.
• Seeing a covey of nearly 100 quails 
• Watching the ducks on the pond
• Having a week off from making jewelry

I hope you've had a good - and maybe different - week this week.  

Weekly Bird in the hand

This week's bird in the hand - the things I am grateful for - is wonderful news. We just heard this morning that Craig (John's son) and Chui have had a little girl - Evelina!  She was born this morning at around 9.30am (UK time), weighing in at 7lb 4 oz!

They had a long, busy couple of days - but mum, dad and babe are all doing well now and hoping to sleep!

Chui and Evelina will come home from the hospital tommorow.

So now I'm a granny :-D   Exciting times ahead.

Sending all our love to the new family xxxxxxxxxxx

Vibrance and Grace

I took some of my 'stained glass' aluminum jewelry down to Grace Cathedral this week for them to sell in their gift shop.  I was delighted that they wanted to stock it.

The jewelry is all based on the stained glass windows in the cathedral (yes, I have permission to use it).  The colors are so vibrant, which is why I chose to call the series "Vibrance and Grace".

It'll be interesting if I see any of the congregation wearing it when I go down to sing on Sunday.

I heard that they went on sale on Tuesday and two pieces sold straight away!  How encouraging is that.

Now I'm working on some new windows - and it looks like I need to get working!

Weekly Bird in the Hand

Here is this week's Bird in the Hand - the things I am grateful for:

WWI Carrier pigeon

• My nephew Matt.  It was his 17th birthday yesterday.  Seems difficult to believe - but he's still as cute as ever ;-D
• Achieving my 10,000 steps a day goal every day this week - totalling walking more than 40 miles.
• My new walking shoes!
• The fun of learning new things. I'm busy building a new website for my Health Coaching business but as many things have changed since I built my Birdland Creations site, there is quite a learning curve.  I often feel I haven't much to show for a day's work, but I am getting there - and enjoying the challenge of it all.
• All this wonderful sunny weather here in California.  We've had practically no rain at all since the beginning of December - only 1 day I think - and this is supposed to be our rainy season!  I'm thinking it'll all catch up soon enough - but for now, I'm enjoying the 65 degree sunny afternoons and frosty mornings.
• The support of fellow artists and family when I had an unreasonable customer to deal with.
• Getting back to singing after a week off over New Year.
• Time with friends.

I hope you've had a good week too.  What was the highlight for you?

Reflection

For me, January is a time for reflection, evaluation, taking stock and planning. 

Reflection photo by mikebaird

I love this month.  Jewelry sales are typically slow after a busy December so I like to focus on the business side of Birdland Creations - what I've done, what I want to do, where I'm going, strategies, etc - and not on creating and selling jewelry.

To this end, I'll not be blogging much this month, but will be coming up with new ideas.  I'll share these with you soon.

Hope January is a good month for reflecting for you too.