the beauty of macro sunday

seaweed that washed a block up after hurricane irene... and i do not live on ocean avenue by the beach... i live on a bay that is fed by the ocean... 

lori at studiowaterstone had the idea of macro sunday... which interprets in to increased mindfulness... one pays attention a bit more to their surroundings... becomes more engaged by the detail that makes up our lives (when life can so easily distract)... 


and this happens to be a week of a few macro shots that i love... 

buddhas (mine) by barbara bechtel of secondsurf

a robin's nest that i found on my walk this morning and brought home... 

'few are those that see with their own eyes

and feel with their own hearts.'

~ albert einstein

thank you lori, for keeping us on our toes... 

i'm here...

'inspiration exists,

but it has to find us working.'

~ pablo picasso

i have been busy lately getting ready for 3 rather big deadlines that will arrive within a week to 10 days... this is not said to solicit sympathy - i made the choice to go after them all... but the timing is tricky... and the anxiety is building... i have been reading your blogs, though i may not be commenting... am trying to limit my time on the computer... because while i sit here and wonder at times what i will do, picasso is right - the best inspiration can come when we are actually at the task... 

this piece is for a festival that i am in and it is going to be auctioned... i thought that using words like 'imaginative' (there was no word 'imagination' in the dictionary from 1877 that i used for the paper), 'passion', 'create' & 'art' were fitting to the occasion... garnet, pearl, amethyst and raspberry amethyst are used... 

i also did another set of the almond blossom earrings from the abs challenge last month... as i didn't have any more emeralds, this time i used green garnet... 

there is one more in the works - we enter an inventory which is able to be edited... turns out the system went down - ok, yikes... while i know i should have printed it out, i did not... and i now cannot do my tags! but i know there is time until monday - so i have my fingers crossed...

on the home front, we got down to the beach on sunday - i needed that so bad... the sand was warm on our feet and there were piles of sand that have been created to prevent erosion from storms... 

and what is it about the water that pulls at you?

in addition, em is back to posting and has updated her blog... i really like to read what she has to say and how she says it... to see that individual who i have lived with for 18 years standing on her own... and to know that i am a part of it... 

tread lightly

ocean mist no. 5 by mika at pinocean

porcelain sand dollar by erin at EveryHeartCrafts

living by the beach in new jersey, the summer officially begins with memorial day... and things will now change dramatically until labor day... personally i love the beach off season, but i understand why summer draws crowds...

as kids, we were familiar with the summer saying 'benny go home' ... benny being an acronym for the stops on the bay head to new york train - bayonne, elizabeth, newark, new york... it was nothing personal, we were just local kids who noticed the influx of people each year... it had to do with being upset with the irreverent treatment of the beach by some visitors (and locals who are just as guilty and should know better)... vacationers are crucial to our local economy - the beach towns have always counted upon summer business for their survival...

here is the issue i have - and i know that i am not alone in this - please just tread lightly... do not treat our beaches as if they were disposable, as if they don't exist when you aren't here... as if the sea birds and ocean life are not affected by your litter... this applies to our whole planet naturally, but i feel a bit protective of the places nearest to me...

call me a scrooge, but my skin crawls when i hear the small boats & jet skis flying through our bay... i know people love these, and i am sure that they are fun... but we have a bird sanctuary here - egrets, osprey, swans, herons, all kinds of ducks and even eagles who also have their little ones about ... the noise and intrusion scare them... we even have an area where horseshoe crabs - dating back to the prehistoric era - come to mate... where is the concern for these true residents of the bay?

'treat the earth well. we do not inherit it from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' - part of a native american proverb...

so come, enjoy the beaches - there is nothing like the sound of the water pounding on the sand... learning about where to set up when you arrive in the morning if it is low tide- seems like a good idea to sit near the water, right? but then the tide comes in! watching people jump the waves, listening to the sound of laughter and sea gulls screaming... feeling the sun on your skin... finding out that when the water is still cold, there may be crabs in the shallower water... enjoying the wonders of the ecosystem... becoming mesmerized by tiny tide pools on the jetties... holding a sea star... using a seining net, placing your catch in a bucket of cold water & then releasing the life after you look at it... finding hermit crabs on the tide line at low tide... wonder after wonder after wonder...

and then as the sun goes down - walking the boardwalk, playing miniature golf, getting ice cream... & maybe going to the glass blowing studio...

erin's charm and mika's beads make me smile, they both draw inspiration from nature... the work shown reminds me of walking along the beach after a storm, searching for treasures of sea glass, sand dollars and drift wood... they have recreated these things so perfectly - and i thank them for it! mika is currently (and patiently) enduring my requests for custom orders... i already have my charm & when mika's beads arrive, i will anticipate the beads whispering to me...

i can't wait - for the anticipated final design or for the summer fun to begin!