New (temporary) additions to our family

One of the great things about having your own business is that you can juggle tasks as necessary. We foster kittens for Seattle Animal Shelter, and I dashed off this morning, minutes after receiving an email alert, to pick up these 4 munchkins.

They are 3 girls and one boy (the black one is the boy). The two little lynx points have the most brilliant blue eyes. We're working on names for them and will try to get more photos when they have finished sleeping off the excitement of the last 24 hours of their wee lives. Oh, there is nothing like a new little kitten to make for a happy day...

Early Spring in Seattle's Japanese Garden

Two days ago, Emma, Eric and I visited Seattle's Japanese Garden. It is one of my favorite places in Seattle. I always come away feeling rested, relaxed, rejuvenated. Beauty, calm, serenity, quiet, enough. Those are my synonyms for this garden.

It was a little early for the full flower show, so we will have to return in a few weeks. But here is some of what we saw a couple of days ago.

This camelia below.....

Inspired the creation of these earrings...

Vintage Button Love

Look at these!

And these!

And these!

All were a surprise present from my friend Cathy. I'm in heaven. They are perched on my desk like little works of art, providing me with inspiration and delight through the day. Friends and vintage buttons... does it get any better!?!

Cupcake Giveaway

Help us celebrate 150 years of cupcakes in Seattle (see this post). Win this Sweet Seattle cupcake necklace!

Bumbershoot Designs is sponsoring a giveaway of this necklace over at Glamorous WAHM. Head on over, see the giveaway, play if you want!

Al's Plum Blossoms

I really miss Al. He was our neighbor across the street and he passed on just over 2 years ago. Al was a presence in our lives in a number of subtle ways. When we first began homeschooling, Emma and I did a unit on the American homefront in WWII. As part of the unit, we went over to have a talk with Al, who was a WWII vet and who kept a diary of his missions, right after D-Day. We got to read his diary and see his flight jacket, with “Thelma” (his wife's name) stenciled over the heart. Frequently when we were working in our yard, we’d get a visit from Al, and often received great bags of Italian plums from the other plum tree in his back yard. They made up into great jam, which we returned to him, along with other treats, every Christmas Eve. Al had several strokes over the years, and had back issues, but rarely complained and remained vigorous. We even saw him up on the roof of his house not too many years back. He is our role model for growing older.


I think of Al a lot this time of year because his plum trees are in full bloom and they are spectacular. He planted 3 thundercloud plum trees in front of his house many years ago “because Thelma wanted them”. The picture above was taken 2 days ago. We now have the blossom snow and wafting fragrance that these trees bless us with each year. Thanks to Al.

Al’s Plum Blossoms. Vintage Flowerdrop Earrings (below)

Etsy Bumbershoot Designs shop Sale Friday Apr 3

Tomorrow, Friday Apr 3, you can find some of my featured items, including this ever-so-popular cupcake necklace, in Etsy's Spring Showcase. You can link to the Spring Showcase from the top right of the main Etsy page. For fun, there will be free shipping, not just on the featured items, but on all items in the shop. And purchases are sent in the loveliest spring-y packaging imaginable. Complete with raindrops!

I will remove shipping fees tonight around 8 or 9 pm Pacific time and they will stay off for 24 hours. Enjoy!

Shop update and we are now on Artfire

Well, it's been busy since I posted last week.

1. Six new designs are in the Etsy shop, a total of 62 items currently, and remember to check the sold items too, since many of these are available, just not yet relisted.

2. I've photographed and written descriptions for over 100 items for the supply store, bumbershootsupplies.etsy.com. I expect it will open this weekend. There really are some lovely items - I am so thrilled to be a channel for these gorgeous vintage materials. I have learned it takes some time to get items loaded into an online shop, so keep watching over time, there's lots of neat stuff!

3. I scored a Spring Showcase spot on Etsy on April 3, so Bumbershoot Designs will be featured that day, have a look! Look for the "Showcases" at the top of the Etsy main page.

4. We've just opened our second storefront on Artfire.com, http://www.bumbershootdesigns.artfire.com/, and I'm slowly loading items into that store. We will be hosting designs and supplies shops in both places, Etsy and Artfire. Artfire is an up-and-coming handcrafted, vintage and supply marketplace and we're glad to be a part of it. The one big advantage to Artfire that I can see for our customers is that you don't have to open an account or register to purchase. As all the shops open, you'll see them as direct links on the side of the blog. Also, Artfire will link selected items from the store directly to the blog, so I will be able to feature items directly here. Nifty!

Say it on your wrist

Come on let it rain, let it rain down on me
Let the rain touch my hands, let the rain set me free.

Since finding them, these words from Melissa Etherbridge have really resonated for me. When I took another class this week at Fusion Beads, I knew these would be the words I’d use.

The “Say It on Your Wrist” class with instructor Lindsay (thanks Lindsay!) creates a stamped sterling cuff bracelet. I love using words in my art and I’ve stamped into metal for some time now, separate from jewelry making purposes. It was interesting to apply this technique in a different way, and I learned much, about the character of really, really thick silver wire, antiquing, neat tools for punching holes and for bending metal. Silver is such a beautiful metal to work with. I could totally see wearing a whole stack of these bracelets, each stamped with a different quote, a child’s name, favourite words, inspiration. It was a fun class, and one that Fusion Beads offers regularly, if you are interested.

The lure of molten metal

I took a class last week in something I've always been interested in trying - soldering. Yes, soldering. There's just something about molten metal... Perhaps it began those long evenings decades ago, in the summer job spent partly in the foundry at General Motors.... Liquid, silvery metal, running like a river.

Well. Here's what I ended up with.

The metal really does melt and run silvery. Very cool. Also rather hard to control. I have a lot of respect for artists who incorporate this technique into their work. I don't think you will be seeing soldered items in Bumbershoot Designs too soon, since it would require technique development and right now we are focussed on continuing to load inventory into Designs and to get our Supplies shop open.

However it was a good evening out at Fusion Beads, with a great bunch of folks and fine teacher, thanks Sam! I've been so busy with Bumbershoot Designs, I had almost forgotten how good it is to take an evening off and do something just for fun!

So much fun, I'm going back for another class tonight. More on that later...

Quote the rain

I've located a fair number of quotes about rain, mentioning rain, or otherwise to do with rain. I'm going to post them at the top of the Bumbershoot Designs Etsy shop, and occasionally here. Let me know what you think. If you have any quotes you'd like to share, leave a comment.

Here's number 1:

Come on let it rain, let it rain down on me.
Let the rain touch my hands, let the rain set me free. ~Melissa Etheridge

And below: Natural Rain. It'll be posted in the shop Monday. And by the way, it's raining here in Seattle today....