The Butterfly Effect...

Hello friends! I'm just stopping in quickly today to tell you about an amazing project that I have discovered this morning.

Trudi Sissons of Two Dresses Studio is collecting handmade butterflies for the Holocaust Museum in Houston Texas.
1,500,000 children perished during the Holocaust.
It is the intention of the museum to collect and exhibit 1,5000,000 handmade butterflies to remember those children.


Why butterflies??
The project is based on this poem by Auschwitz victim, Pavel Friedman...

Never Saw Another Butterfly
The last, the very last,

So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure
because it wished
to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.

Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Written by Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on Jan. 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942.
Died in Aushchwitz on Sept. 29, 1944.
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For more information on this project, visit Trudi's blog.

I am thinking this would be a lovely project for my Girl Scouts.

Hope you will join us!

The Greening and Cookie Madness..

Hello there! I have been a busy girl lately. I have found my way out of the mile-high stacks of Girl Scout cookies that completely engulfed my house. My days have been filled with sorting, counting, and organizing!

I had a good helper, although she wasn't very good at counting- she really just wanted to have herself a cookie snack.

In the midst of the cookie madness, I have managed to squeak out a few new designs.
I love these new earring creations!




These green ones are my new favorite! They look so old and mysterious!


This beautiful matching necklace and earrings are created with vintage carved bone beads.
The necklace features an old locket.


These designs are now available in my shop.
More new designs are on their way soon!

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Spring is very, VERY slowly headed my way.
Here in Michigan, it takes a little longer for Mother Earth to shake the Winter from her hair.
The cold sinks deeper into her bones and it is harder for her to stretch her limbs and awaken.
The wind is still bitter and the air still crisp,
but...
there are signs of green just beginning to show.


Tiny green sprouts are emerging from a blanket of last fall's brown leaves.


The greening has not yet made a huge impact on the landscape. This field remains unplowed, but in a few months it will be taller than myself with green cornstalks.




We have discovered a fox's den. Soon this will be hidden among the knee deep grasses, but we shall keep a watchful eye to see if any new pups appear.

Arriving home a few days ago, I was greeted with an extra sweet surprise. A package was waiting for me from my dear friend Julie of MermaidenCreations. She makes the most magical soldered jewelry featuring feathers, snakeskin, even Waterhouse paintings (not to mention her witch hats-yes, I will own one someday!)
Last summer I had found this beautiful yellow butterfly wing and mailed it to her for her secret stash.
(Doesn't everyone have a stash of wings, bones, and other treasured oddities?)
Well, she created a pendant from my butterfly wing and sent it to me!
Isn't she sweet?
It is like having my own little piece of Spring to wear and I simply adore it!

I promise not to stay away too long, and will post some pictures of my creations in the works very soon!