Christmas is over, Time for Valentine's Day

Well for the first time since I opened my etsy shop, I am finally starting to think like a retailer. Part of me feels proud and part of me feels disgusted. We've barely finished up Christmas and New Years and here I am already creating Valentine's Day jewelry! I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day. To read the first blog post I ever wrote (ironically about Valentine's Day) go here. http://rebeccahadley.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-singles-awareness-day.html
It's a made up 'holiday' that allows companies to overcharge for anything "love" related. I know that others really love it though, so I have been creating some fun love related jewelry. Luckily they won't be overpriced. :)

This is just my first round of styles. I have a few more pieces that I'll be sharing a little bit later on once they're finished.

"Love's First Blush" Earrings

"Hearts of Gold" Earrings

"Be Still My Heart" Earrings

I should be able to get these listed in my etsy shop www.jewelsofenchantment.etsy.com tomorrow so stay tuned!

If you are an artist or artisan, have you begun to work on Valentine's Day related items as well?

Hope that you've enjoyed this preview and that you have a wonderful week!
Sending you lots of free love,
Rebecca

Remember Remember the 11th of September

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the September 11th bombings. There were many loved ones lost on that day and many more have been lost since then during the subsequent wars. For Americans, it's a day of reflection. I spent today praying and spending time with my family, while a friend of mine spent the morning honoring the firemen at their local fire station by bringing them donuts, apples and coffee. A small offering to put a smile on the faces of men who risk their lives so many times as they help others. Wasn't that a wonderful gesture?

What I have taken from this tragedy is that we never know when the end will come. Whether it's in a horrific tragedy like this one, or a car accident. We don't know how much time we have with our loved ones and should therefore live each day to the fullest. Life is short. Sometimes too short and we need to spend our time wisely while we are here.

No matter the grief that our country has suffered, our country's citizens are still filled with an amazing capacity for love and compassion. This act of hatred has not managed to take that away. Many countries have suffered similar acts of anger and hatred and I continue to see them rise above it. The world is filled with such suffering, but people's hearts continue to love. This is, in my opinion, the true miracle of humanity.

" The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Broken Hearts and Growing Pains

I recently had to say goodbye to a friend of mine who betrayed my trust. We had been friends for almost 2 yrs.  I’ve been examining my reaction to this separation and trying to discern which part of this experience is causing me the most pain. Obviously the loss of a friend and the overall disappointment is bitter, but I believe that the biggest contributor to the pain is the fact that I’ve had to reconcile the dream reality with the actual reality. In our minds we create a version of the person we are friends with. They are kind, honest, trustworthy, etc. They have faults, but we take the bad with the good. We would gladly come to their defense if they were ever accused of something that went against the person we KNOW them to be. 

Occasionally, there comes a time when we realize that the reality and the dream have little in common. I think that it’s this realization and the reconciling of the two worlds that causes the most pain. Sort of like growing pains as you grow an extra inch. Our heart expands or contracts, as does our vision of the world and it’s inhabitants. Also, much like growing pains, there will come a point where things are a bit awkward as we grow accustomed to this change within ourselves. We will find ourselves in an odd gangly stage,but hopefully as we continue to grow, we'll emerge even stronger and more beautiful than before. The best we can do is to try to not allow our hearts to be hardened by these growing pains and to continue to work towards trusting others and loving with our complete hearts. Even if we continue to be hurt by those we love….

As Alfred Lord Tennyson said “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

 

Stay lovely and have a wonderful day!

Finished Painting- Fairy Kisses

Well after weeks of working on and off, I have finally finished my mother/ daughter painting entitled Fairy Kisses. You first saw initial sketches and the early stages of this painting on my blog post Painting in Progress. It's come a long way since then!

A mother gives her daughter a kiss amongst sweet smelling lavender. I chose lavender because I have been itching to paint it again ever since my trip to England about 4 yrs ago. The color of lavender by itself is almost ordinary, but when you have a field of them the color simply takes your breath away.

                           " Fairy Kisses"  16 x 20 mixed media on wood

                                Detail

Fine quality art prints are already available at Society6 .

 I've already begun sketches for my next projects and am looking forward to sharing those with you next!
Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to see you soon!

Painting in Progress

I leave tomorrow to go to France with my family. I have never been and am excited to immerse myself completely in all that art and culture! I'm also grateful that I've been given this amazing opportunity to be with my family. It will be wonderful to be able to share all of this with them.

I am hoping to be able to keep up with this blog while I'm gone,but as I'm not sure about the internet/computer situation over there, I felt that it would be smart to post something now before I leave. This is the current painting that I am working on. Perhaps it is because of my little sister having a little girl of her own, but I've definitely been finding myself drawn towards the pure, beautiful love that a mother has for her child. Either that or my "biological clock" is finally ticking.... yeah, right! Hahahaha! Anyway, I've been doing a lot of mother/child related sketches in my sketchbook and have finally taken one of them and am bringing it to fruition. I have always wanted to work on wood, but never really gave it a chance. This is my first time working on it and I'm really loving it! It feels so much more natural to me than painting on canvas.

Here are some quick mother/daughter sketches that I have done in my sketchbook.

Here are some images from the painting I am currently working on.

 I'm having a lot of fun with this one and am sort of sad to be going on my trip right now, only because it's inevitably going to effect the momentum that I've worked up with this piece. C'est la vie!

I wish everyone the very best and hope that you have a wonderful June! See you again in two weeks! (sooner if I can.... )

Hate Breeds Hate, Love Breeds Love

I've noticed that no matter how messy or disorganized our homes are, we as humans seem drawn towards organization. Especially when it comes to people. We organize them into groups of sex, color, race, religion, age, etc. Often we make generalizations, labels, categories and subcategories for each of these groups. The danger, of course, is that this can ( and often does ) lead to segregation and prejudices. In my personal opinion there are just people. Human beings. Sometimes these people do good things, sometimes they do bad things.

I have been noticing quite a few organizations trying to help out Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries. They seek to help these people recover from recent natural and war based disasters. When newspapers have sought to promote these acts of kindness they receive an onslaught of readers' comments voicing their opinions. I was shocked to see how many hateful comments people had! Comments essentially saying that these people are murderers and that they should suffer and die. I was so incredibly saddened by this. These are people who are suffering. SOME of them have done bad things, but there are plenty who have not. Every race, culture, sex, age, religion, etc contains individuals capable of great evil as well as great good. In our need to lump people into categories we want to punish an entire culture based on the actions of a few. How can we wish for death and destruction for an entire culture based of the actions of these few?

Atrocious acts have been performed throughout all of history. White people, black people, yellow people, etc. Heck purple, pink and blue people too. No one is exempt from this. This is merely my opinion, but from my small and insignificant existence I have realized this one truth. Hatred will bring hatred and love will bring love.

I vote for propagating love.

Flowers for Frank

Every now and then you meet truly kind, amazing people. Sometimes in the most unlikely of places. My job usually consists of me catering to the whims of extremely entitled, narcissistic and wealthy people. Occasionally I'll meet truly kind and humble people and I see these encounters as blessings from God. These are the people that help me to maintain my faith in humanity. One of these blessings is Frank. He and his partner come in every other Saturday and put a smile on my face each and every time. It started years ago when they discovered through a colleague that I enjoyed Andrew Wyeth's work. They were fortunate enough to be able to see an exhibition in Atlanta and surprised me with a beautiful book of his work. Over the years I have learned more and more about them. Frank is an educator who spends his spare time performing as a clown and ventriloquist at kid's parties. He is also an avid gardener and has often surprised me with gorgeous blooms that he's clipped from his garden. Recently it was discovered that he has cancer. He has endured months of radiation and is now suffering terribly from the aftermath of this treatment. Only time will tell whether this treatment has worked or not. During these months I hadn't seen or heard anything from them and feared the worse. However, after the treatment was completed and Frank was well enough to go out, they came to visit again bearing yet another bloom from their garden. They've always been so kind to me that I have often wondered how I can repay them for their many thoughtful kindnesses. Recently it was brought to my attention that Frank is going to be celebrating his birthday at the end of this upcoming week. It's the perfect excuse for me to give them something and I've finally realized what I can give them. One time Frank had given me a gorgeous day lily and I had taken a million pictures of it as it opened. I've decided to do a painting of it for him. Hopefully it will be a lovely reminder of our friendship as well as a nice way for him to have his garden with him when he's not feeling well enough to go outside.