8 Years

In 2001 I was diagnosed with cancer and while it was an incredibly tough time in my life, I was given many gifts to get me through. I was blessed with a Spiritual awakening that rocked my world and the truest and best family and friends a girl could have.  My family and friends helped my husband and I with our then 6 month old and 2 year old.  They also cooked for us, cleaned for us and encouraged us.  Our faith, well, at times I felt like I was literally crawling into Jesus' lap, especially when the fear and nightmares would hit.


As I walked through my cancer journey, I began to think of the healing process I was going through like a long walk down a wooded path. At times it was treacherous but when I was willing to slow down and look at all the little “flowers” that God put along the path, I learned so much about the character of God and his love for me and grew many other ways too. One of the things that helped and encouraged me the most was going through my Bible and highlighting verses that meant a lot to me.  On days that I was having a difficult time, I would read and re-read them.  Sometimes it felt like reading God's promises was the only thing that would get me through.

Because of the joy and encouragement given to me through these verses, I decided to make a beautiful treasure box to put them in. I had several friends who saw my box sitting on my counter and asked about it. When I told them what it was, they asked for one of their own and began ordering them for friends who were going through difficulty too.

One of the first boxes I gave was to a young woman, sister-in-law to a dear friend of mine.  She had 2 tiny children and just found out she had bone cancer.  I related so much to what she must be feeling that I felt compelled to make sure she had one of my these "treasure boxes"  filled with verses of encouragement and love.  She was so thrilled to get it and later I was told that it sat next to her computer and she would flip a new verse each day.

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day.  I know that I am feeling particularly blessed myself today!

Personal Style

(The Casade Mountains and Lava Lands Visitor Center in Bend, Oregon)

I read an article on Etsy yesterday that talked about finding your groove artistically. One of the statements that was made was that it’s important to do what you like. Find your niche by experimenting with the things that you like.


That has given me a lot of pause. The big question is what do I like? What is my style? Well, to start with, I am a pretty casual person. Blue jeans and a giant white, button down shirt or loose fitting sweatshirt are what I’m most comfortable in however, I am definitely girly and love bold colors, high heels and pretty makeup but, I don’t like to be uncomfortable…ever. All that to say, I think that would be a great way describe my style-- comfortable and feminine.

I really appreciate the article’s Etsy puts out. They are very helpful and thought provoking. It’s always so nice to get a new perspective or thought to help you define something that has been a bit indefinable in the past. I will still experiment with everything I can come up with. Enamel is so fun for me right now as is copper, especially this fall. The colors in nature are magnificent and bring out the nature lover in me.

My goal today – get out with my camera and capture some of these terrific colors and sites. I have so much inspiration to work with!

How about you? What’s your personal style?

P.S.  To find some of great articles you can go to Etsy and find the community section.  There is some great reading.

Green & Yellow

What inspires your creativity?

This Autumn, I am finding terrific inspiration from the flowers within the flower.  Okay, so they are called sunflowers.  Have you ever really looked at a sunflower?  The center where the seeds are look like thousands of tiny flowers, the big yellow petals, well, they look like a skirt or maybe saffron dyed silk.  How about the leaves of a giant sunflower?  They seem to support more bug life than anyother plant around.  

I have a neigbor who has sunflowers growing everywhere.  The really cool thing is, she has planted a number of varieties which have leant themselves to much observation on my part.  My favorites are the giant sunflowers.  They are so big and happy looking.  She has also planted some smaller bushier looking plants and even some with burgundy in them. 

The green and yellow of the sunflowers are peaking my interest.  Which leads into the next thought.  Did you know that in Oregon, we have a civil war going.  The U of O Ducks vs. the OSU Beavers.  Coincidentally the Ducks colors are yellow and green.  I have a number of football fan friends who are fanatic about the Ducks.  Since I get to watch their faces get all animated when they talk about the Ducks, maybe I can come up with something as fun/funny as they are.  I have been picturing some yellow and green enameled jewelry. 

I plan to get to the beavers too, since there are equally as many fanatical beaver fans as duck fans, most of them happen to be related to me.  What do you think?  Maybe some black and orange enamel?  It is so fun for me to watch my football fanatic friends, it makes me wish I knew what the heck the rules of the game are so I can jump up and down and get all excited too. 

For now I will leave you with a picture of my newly designed sunflower pendant.  It's about the size of a dime and is, as you have already guessed, inspired by the giant sunflowers down the road.  I made it out of sterling silver and copper.  It can also be seen on my etsy site.  http://www.myred2lips.etsy.com/

May your days be full of jumping up and down with excitement!

Rikki

It was beautiful today. 90 degrees, blue sky and gentle breeze. How can you have a better day on the second day of fall?

Today was spent enjoying some studio time. I have a number of little sunflower pendants and earrings I'm working on at the moment. They are shaping up nicely and I'm excited to see how well they sell in the bazaar in October.

The 2 photos I loaded are of my August Blaze enameled bracelet and my Sparks Lake enameled bracelet.  Both are currently for sale at http://www.myred2lips.etsy.com/

Hope your day is beautiful!
Rikki

In The Beginning

Well, here I go.

A blog.  About creative stuff...  Did I ever think I'd do this?  No, not so much.  However, a number of people have been telling me that it would be interesting to see what I do and the processes I go through to create.  So, I've decided this may be the best platform for me to use.

With that,  here are a couple of pictures of new items in my jewelry line.

These are from my Cascade Collection.  They are the High Lakes Earrings and Bracelet

The colors remind me of the Century Drive Loop that features a number of lakes dotted throughout.  As you can imagine the High Lakes are beautiful.  The blues and greens are varied a million ways and throw in there the tall trees and lava fields.  All the inspiration for this fun bracelet and earring set. 

If you would like to look at more of my jewelry and creations you can see them at http://www.myred2lips.etsy.com/