Skeleton's in the closet...are open for business

I do feel a bit selfish about how often I gobble up skeleton keys when it suits my whimsy. That is because feel that whimsy almost without end. As I write this I am sitting with a pile of about 40 vintage skeleton and door latch keys on my lap. I just poured them out of the Ebay box that some happy soul just sent to me. I am trying to be quiet because my two young sons are sleeping next to me (my husband has been forced out of the bed and anyway, I hear him charging around the kitchen mastering maple syrup-making. He's watching sap boil). But anyway, I AM being quiet.

The keys! The possibilities! I like opening secrets, packages, doors to buldings that are vacant or locked...peering in, you know? It makes me positively giddy to anticipate that unlocking of what I don't know. So when I use keys in my designs I am - I hope - sharing that anticipation http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42108692 . Out of necessity I am also sharing the keys. Because I have too many. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42345438

Some of those designs that have been stirred out of me. You see, I am also trying to distill out my sweetness. How is it to watch me boil?

I feel pretty giddy about buttons, too. You may hear more about that soon.

Feeling the Spring

I have been - for some time now - enraptured with the nest form. Around this time of year when the Northeast (where I live) begins to wake up and become fertile again this interest of mine brings an even deeper poignancy. The cool air starts to have a warm teasing undercurrent and we are tapping both of our freakishly over-producing sugar maples and making caramel-tasting syrup. We also have a small flock of organic laying hens living in our garage-converted-to-a-henhouse. Their laying dwindles to once/week for each of the "ladies" but around the time change the laying picks up. We found a quiet rooster a few months back (we live in what qualifies as a "city" in Vermont - 40,000 people - and roosters are not very welcome) and my ever-fertile husband has started hatching chicks with great success. The one shown is named "Kyrk" after a neighborhood boy with a penchant for dressing in black. My nest jewelry - always popular this time of year with spring, mother's day and Easter - has recently morphed into little baskets. At least I thought I would give it a try. The nests - and now baskets, too - are such treasured reminders of our homes, bounty and family. Rebirth! Awakening! Creativity!