I did take my walk on the beach today..what a joy. It put me in mind of a poem I noted in my Journal by an unknown poet. "The tide recedes but leaves behind, bright seashells on the sand. The sun goes down but gentle warmth still lingers on the land. The music stops, and yet it echoes on in sweet refrains. For every joy that passes, something beautiful remains." For me that something beautiful, is memories.....(.for the boys. )

Ok, third try. I had a small update on my float that I am working on, but could not find the picture to upload. I think I might have found it this time....I hope! What a beautiful day we are having. I might just have to go walk on the beach today. Who knows what treasures I might find to add to my project. I added tiny fish in the background and put a slight green wash over my bubbles to tone them down just a little. Looks better to me now.

I took a break while waiting for the paint to dry on my Drift project, and took a walk out on the Spit. The sun is out today and there was no wind so it made for a beautiful walk. This is a shot of the Mountains across the Bay looking at them across "Mud" Bay. The snow is off of the bike path all the way out now, so I can take my walks again. Hooray!! It seems like its been winter forever.

For the moment I think I've painted enough of a background. Part of this will be covered up with the sandy grout anyway. At least I feel better that I have gotten a good start.

These are the sea horses that I plan to attach to the float, hopefully. I made these out of fimo clay. I plan to embed them into the grout along with sea treasures.

I am using acrylic paint to paint in a background for the embellishments I want to attach to the float.

Starting on the second Float today, I have to wait for the air dry clay to completely cure on my other one before I go any further on that one. This second float is an orange plastic ball shape. I am hoping that it will take grout mixed with glue.

Since Chris got his bag, his brother Ryan ask..what are you going to bead for me? Well, Ryan has always been our "Raven". He had such a glow in his eyes when he was a baby, we always wondered ..what can he be thinking..he always looked like he wanted to break out laughing..hmmm, maybe he really did. Maybe he thought we were all pretty funny to look at. Ryan is such a wonderful young man, we are so proud of him. I hope he knows that. Anyway, the Raven is such a character, full of mischief and fun and thats our Ryan.

In 2001 Christopher shot his first Elk. So to celebrate his skill as a hunter, I made him this "Possible"s bag. He was such a lover of hunting, fishing, all things outdoors. We miss him so very very much.

This is a tiny knife and scabbard that I made for Jack for his Birthday or Christmas, can't remember now. He kept saying I needed to bead him a scabbard, so....I still haven't beaded him a full size one. Its on my list to do one day.

This is the Beaded Carousel Horse Lamp that I made for our local Bead show, and tried to enter it into the "500 Beaded Objects" challenge. However, after paying to have it professionally photographed and put onto a disc..when they received the disc they were unable to "open" it. So, I went back and had it done again, and emailed to them. However, it did not get there on time...so...Anyway, it took me 485 hours to complete. The body of the horse is two layers of beads. I wasn't happy with the first layer..too flat..so I added the second. He is quite a charmer if I do say so myself.

This was a cloth wall hanging that I made and submitted to a "Beading on Cloth" challenge. It was not accepted, the general concensus was that there was not 50% beads and that my painting in the background overwhelmed the beading. However, my friend Bea insisted that it was hers no matter what the outcome....so she is now the owner.

I was looking through my notebook I keep on the beadwork that I have completed and decided to include some of them here in my Journal. These photos are of the Hat, Evening bag and Gloves that were accepted and published in "Salon" A Wearable Arts Magazine. What a thrill that was. Origanally I just beaded the bag and hat, but my husband insisted that the set needed some long black gloves. Great fun.

Step two, I first made my mermaid out of fimo clay..I must say she turned out really cute but I took her out of the oven too soon, thinking I needed to let her slump around the buoy,....wrong...what was I thinking, its just foam after all..she fell apart and melted my buoys in places...so typical of my "doing". So I turned to homemade air dry clay...it flattend out a little more than I wanted so I re-did the clay and made her face over..the body will be covered with beads so I am not concerned about the flatness there...at least for now....anyway, I hope it all works out. I'll keep at it.

More snow!!!! It's really getting old now. Such a dark and gloomy day. But...a good day for the bead room and some quiet music. I am also working on a new project..called "DRIFT" Buoys around the Bay, A flotsam and Jetsam Art Tour. This is being put on by the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. They collected stray buoys from around Alaskan beaches as part of their clean-up program. So, why not use them in Art? Homer is a very Art heavy... Art community, so it just evolved naturally. You could choose up to 10 buoys...which seemed very daunting to me, so I chose two. I studied them for several days before I decided which one to start on. I already had an idea for one, and now the second one is in the "thinking it through" stage.(Did I actually say I was ..thinking it through? When have I ever done that...successfully?) They will of course, involve BEADS. I am going to post step by step photos of them as I progress. I've started on the first one...TWICE! The first attempt was a disaster, but , using air dry clay it seems to be going better...at least it seems to be. They have to be able to be put outside, so I will have to use a heavy duty marine varnish on the clay pieces. The finished pieces will be installed around our little "hamlet by the sea" for a period of time, and then they will be auctioned off at the 2010 Coastwalk Kick-Off Event in June.

I wanted to include the photo I took of the Volcano this evening. Its a little hard to see but its there if you look hard right in the center of the photo. The water was so smooth and glassy, just beautiful.

Well, hard to believe, but we celebrated our 40th anniversary today. Time flies by so fast. We went out to dinner last night and had a great meal at Cafe Cups. I hope we make it to 50. Thats my goal, and I hope we get there with Jacks health holding steady. It was such a pretty day today, although we drove up to the top of Baycrest and looked out over the Inlet and Augustine Volcano was putting out a pretty serious plume that went straight up. Nothing on the observatory website about it yet. I am including a view of Bishops Beach and the sun on the Mountains across the Bay. Beautiful..no wind..cool but nice.

The Journal page for our Nephew Ryan is a Butterfly. The Butterfly is a symbol of transformation or moving from one form into a new form. Ryan left behind the cancer and frail body, and moved on into a whole new unblemished spiritual body. I think of Ryan daily, and always see his beautiful "bashful" smile.

Today I finished my two "pages" for March. The Journal page for my Grandson Chris, is a Dragonfly. The Dragonfly represents loss, and change. I see the Dragonfly as a reminder that Chris's spirit is always with us. The Dragonfly is a reminder also to embrace the spiritual light within ourselves. I had hoped by now that it would be getting easier..not so. Its still so hard knowing that he is lost to us here on earth. I know we will be together on a greater plane, at some time in the future.