Tell me how many beads there are

In a silver chain

Of evening rain,

Unravelled from the tumbling main...

~Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Lots of new and beautiful beads at Bumbershoot Supplies these days. We're now offering several choices of vintage 1950's West German beads. I'm showing the raindrop shaped ones in this post, but there are more, come on over and check it out!

The theatre, the theatre...

A quick reminder that Seattle Children's Theatre's Summer Season opens tonight with "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". Plays are at 7 pm and 8:15 pm respectively. This is your chance to watch some great theatre for a great price, and even better, theatre featuring very talented youth from the greater Seattle region and beyond. For example, our own Eric, as the King of Hearts, in "Alice in Wonderland".

See you at the theatre! The shows run today through Saturday, same times each day.

Coming next, Emma as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. Stay tuned...

Inspiration at the beach

I took these photos at Carkeek Park, Seattle, at a recent minus tide in June.

Eric loves to see the tiny crabs.


There is all kinds of wild life under the rocks. It's like visiting another planet.

The colors are typical of what you see in Seattle in June. Still lots of grey, but beginning to lighten.

Except sometimes you get a lovely surprise jolt of color, like this wild rose...

...which looks just like these flowers at Bumbershoot Supplies. Amazing...

Shipping: the happy bag

Enroute to you, this is the first step for your purchases from Bumbershoot Designs and Supplies. We call it "the happy bag". Packages and parcels get loaded into this bag for their trip to the post office. Usually, your package is walked to the post office, by Sharon or by Sharon and Eric together. Every day. Since we go to the post office every day, your purchase is enroute to you within 24 hours of receiving your order. Currently, domestic shipments are taking 2-3 business days to arrive from Seattle, and based on the feedback we have received, international shipments seem to be arriving in a timely fashion too. But regardless of where they are going, all purchases from Bumbershoot Designs and Supplies start here, in the happy bag.

Bumbershoot Supplies update: lots of flowers

So, what will I do with the time liberated from caring for our foster kittens? 2 blog posts in one day! This one is an update on some new supplies that have arrived for Bumbershoot Supplies, and I'm pretty excited about them.

First are the vintage 1940's to 1950's glass Japanese flower cabochons. These are such a lovely piece of history just to have and hold, and also of course for use in your mixed media, paper and jewelry arts. All of them are simply gorgeous, with lovely detail and beautiful colors.

The painted ones you see above were originally hand painted (just stop and imagine that for a moment...), but over time have lost varying amounts of their color, for an authentic shabby chic feel. Below are some really unique glass wreaths, and wonderfully, these came with their original tags.

We've also received some new hand painted Japanese plastic flower cabochons, also 1940s-1950's vintage. The ones I'm showing below are vibrant hot pink.

I wasn't sure there was any such color in nature, but then I saw this wild rose on the beach at Carkeek Park in Seattle...

There are many more flowers available at Bumbershoot Supplies - head on over and check it out!

Kitten update

I am happy to report that all of our foster kittens have now been adopted. It's one of the great parts of fostering for me, meeting so many good souls who want to love Seattle Animal Shelter's kittens (or as we call them - Mayor Nichols' cats). So many hours spent caring for, playing with, nurturing and adopting out these wee creatures over the last 2 months. Whatever will we do with all the time we have now.... :)

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do

Do you believe in fairies?

We do! We do!

Our big news last Friday was that Eric has been cast as Michael in Seattle Children's Theatre's holiday musical production of Peter Pan, running November 2009 through January 2010. We spent the weekend celebrating and being happy about this great good fortune for Eric.

Be sure to join us at the theatre this fall! But before then...

Both Emma and Eric are performing in Seattle Children's Theatre's Summer Season, opening in July. This is a wonderful opportunity to see affordable and great theatre featuring talented youth performers. Eric will be performing in Alice in Wonderland, and Emma will be performing in Romeo and Juliet (coming in August). Emma and Eric have been students at Seattle Children's Theatre for many, many years now and we can't say enough good things about this organization and the people that work there. SCT has a piece of our hearts...

The excitement made work on Bumbershoot Designs and Bumbershoot Supplies take a second seat this weekend, but a few things did occur. I'm expecting more shipments of the vintage 1940's - 1950's hand painted Japanese flowers this week, more occupied Japan glass flower cabochons, and look for the following on Bumbershoot Designs over the coming week...

Tiny treasures

I feel really fortunate to have been able to purchase these recently...

The photos show several lots of incredibly tiny 1930's Peking glass on wires. It doesn't get much better than this, except if the wires are wrapped with silk thread like these are... These stamens are amazing! They elevate flower beads to a sublime status. I'm looking forward to sharing these antique tiny treasures in designs for Bumbershoot Designs.

Kittens and pearls and flowers, oh my! part 2...

Time passes, things are the same and yet they change. We are still fostering this litter of kittens, but they have continued to change and grow into even more marvelous kittens...

Pearls continue to be a focus at Bumbershoot Designs, and they are turning into beautiful pieces of jewelry, Marie Antoinette, below, being one example (check out the "vintage pearls" section of the shop)...

And those flower cabochons from 1940's 1950's Japan are turning into all kinds of lovelies. Check it out...

It's a good life around here...

Kittens and pearls and flowers, oh my!

An update on several items...

First, and most importantly, I celebrated 15 years of being a mother on May 13, Emma's 15th birthday. What more can I say?

Second, our kitten foster babies. They are growing like weeds, trying to scale the baby gate blocking them from my office, eating each other's tails, eyes still interesting shades of blue, still completely and totally adorable as only kittens can be! Emma has some GREAT pictures on her blog, the blue sheep knits, here are some links:

Sisters, sisters

Under Pressure, and...

Our one little boy, who is now going by the name Freddie, is so people friendly, he allowed Emma to dress him in a (supposed to be) baby cap she knitted, see his picture here:

The Curse of the Koigu

Third, while I work on preparing my paper arts for prime time, I've introduced to Bumbershoot Designs a new line of jewelry made from vintage faux pearls. Below is a convertible necklace-bracelet, with an optional tie made of vintage French ribbon from - yes it is truly written on the spool- 1943.

Head on over and have a look!

And fourth, flowers. I've just received an order of hand painted, Japanese, acrylic flowers for Bumbershoot Supplies. Vintage 1940's to 1950's. They just don't make 'em like this any more. These will be listed over the coming week, on both Artfire and Etsy, but here's a preview. They are spectacular!

And my current personal favourite, the daisies....