The Sun Lights the Moon

I spent two days as a single parent this week. I've never had more respect for those whose parenting is done without a partner: it's mind-blowing.

I found my nights to be the saving grace: the time to connect with my friends 

and the time to be quiet and creative.

I celebrated the moon-rise as much as I always cheer the sun's ascent.

I taught Orion about how the sun and the moon cycle through the sky, about the stars

and the seasons.

Night can be so restorative, so calming. 

I want to tell you about this miraculous moon, about how I nearly nibbled my hand off firing it,

fervently praying I could hold on to the swiftly-passing sugar phase

of fusing because geez would it ever add a layer of incredible realism to the moon...

and it worked. The diligent watching worked. 

There were cartwheels done across the grass to celebrate.

I smiled for days: firing is a such a delicate thing and so full of unexpected gifts and failures

that you just ride this adventurous wave

and see where you end up.

Fiji?

Jersey?

Santa Cruz?

On the back of the necklace is the imprinted texture of a leaf Orion handed to me with

great happiness on one of our neighborhood nature walks. 

There is a magic in his touch that lends itself to such a piece.

My son is just as much a part of my work as he is every other aspect of this life.

It seemed so fitting that the counterbalance to this solitary moon

is the energetic imprint of a living Sun, vibrant and in constant motion.

The sum of a full day, front and back.

this moon necklace holds those warm and centering energies

for you.

In the

Metal Shop

later today.

xoxo,

Sunny

Spring GiftAway. A Healing Collaboration.

Thank you SO much to everyone who entered, we are so excited.

FARM AND FIELD!!! You are my winner!

 the listings will go up tomorrow morning. My apologies for the delay.
Love,
Sunny

The first day of spring growing up in Pittsburgh was mostly symbolic. We'd have one full set of warm days in February wherein every school-aged kid would slip into sandals and shorts and bask in the lengthening days. We'd all be sick by the end of the week but what oh what could be sweeter than the short promise of warmer weather after such a dark and brutal Western Pennsylvania winter?

March would come in like a lion and go out like a lion. The 21st was a marker of hope. The first day of spring pinkie-swore that the crocus in the side garden would pop up through the last warm snow soon. The first day of spring whispered warm and hopeful things in our red wind-whipped ear.

Here in Northern California the first day of spring isn't the same kind of miracle-marker. It's just lovely. It's more of the same lovely that was lovely in early March. Maybe there's rain, maybe there's sun. It's in the 70s or it's in the 60s. 

It's my mother's birthday on the 21st. No matter where I live and what schedule mother nature follows it is my mother's voice in my head saying, "PAY attention" to each little thing. To every blossom and new growth. It drove us crazy as kids. Our youthful impatience didn't nurture that kind of observation; we wanted to get to the day the community pool opened. We wanted jean shorts and watermelon. We didn't recognize miracles in the beautiful violence of a bud bursting: our mojo came from teen magazines and 

corner shop penny candies.

This year's call to attention is for you on this first day of spring, on this my mother's birthday. We have something for you. This year the bloom isn't out there: it's inside. The tender green shoot is your own to tend. 

The incomparable healer Robin Sandomirsky (this isn't my first time singing her praises) and I have come up with a gift that will knock your wooly winter socks off. Robin will provide you with a thirty minute guided healing session and I will craft a piece for you based on the time spent with her. It is a true collaboration, a beautiful marriage of soul and hand.

This is the perfect gift for you, friend: a soulful insight into your journey and a silvery beacon for future travels. Robin is also gifting away a twin package. Please do enter over there, too!

On Tuesday afternoon I will draw a winning name from the comments here. I will also be posting two packages for purchase in my shop that will encompass a tandem offering: a healing session of one hour and a piece that represents that healing work for you. A dainty necklace built from the imagery in your session, Robin's intuition about your path and my maker's magic. 

To enter just leave a comment. You can also share the link for this contest on Twitter or Facebook to procure yourself an extra entry. For each platform from which you shout the good news of this GiftAway please be so kind as to enter another comment so I can count everything! If you don't see your comment quickly, have no fear - I moderate throughout the day.

Little Wings

A sweet and small gesture of beauty comes your way this morning

in triplicate

.

Three densely tooled and painstakingly colored

monarch wings

keychains that provide a lift for your heart

and a dab of color for your most everyday tasks

.

In the 

Leather Shop

now.

xoxo,

Sunny

Color Color Color!!

In the 

Metal Shop

today.

xoxo,

Sunny

The Garden

When Anthony lost his job back in 2008 (two weeks before we got married)

it began a new season in our lives: a season of renting

instead of (or should I say in addition to) being homeowners.

We lived in a little sweet Craftsman in Petaluma

and then fate took another turn, directing us south to the Peninsula.

Nothing looked good to me, oh how we looked.

Then one day a listing popped up for San Jose, further south than we'd hoped to go but promising.

Within a minute of touring the house we currently live in we were

crossing our fingers that we'd be living here.

And so it came to pass

and here we are, four years later

in this cottage.

Every summer I've mooned over the idea of a garden, how lovely it would

be to grow my own veggies

and then the weeks flew into months

and heaven knows I love flirting with my silver-fox-tomato guy at the farmer's market...

So it's not happened

.

This year I feel impassioned. I shared that passion with Anthony and he just got on board in the most wonderful of ways.

We spent a lot of time this weekend digging with a child-sized hoe and 

a big red shovel,

blisters on our hands and clean sweat on our brows

with Orion wandering around the yard

mimicking Daddy's movements

and looking for things to water

with his Dora can.

At first we thought we'd go with raised beds but it's just easier to make a big

rectangle on the ground

and use the semi-shaded raised planters that frame the yard on two sides.

Anthony ripped out the thorniest old dead things you ever did see from a big planter

and we rejoiced at the space that made, the healthy things that will grow there.

.

We'll have little gems lettuce, beets both golden and red, onions, beans, sugar snap peas, three kinds of heirloom tomatoes, two kinds of cukes, sweet musk melons, white strawberries, eggplants, brussels sprouts, rainbow chard, curly kale, tete noir cabbage, marconi peppers and Thai holy basil.

Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise we'll have all of those things.

At the very least we'll have the adventure of growing 

and a way to show Orion the season of summer

that will reinforce all of those 'oh!!'s and wonder that surround him

like a halo.

What's your best gardening story, friends?

What's worked, what's not worked

and what would/do you grow?

xoxoxox,

Sunny

Crystal Feather Flower

Hydrangea posts

and two

single

(as in not sold in pairs but as individual earrings)

Feather Canopy Raw Quartz Crystal earrings

to go with any other Magic Spell earrings

or simply shine

solo

.

In the 

Metal Shop

today.

Sending love and breath your way on this gorgeous

day of clouds and warm sun.

xoxoxox,

Sunny

Spirit of Summer

Composed of sterling Hydrangea Petals and THE most amazing Queensland Agate from Australia

this ring captures the spirit of summer.

It is all warmth and balm and soft blossoming.

Wearing it to take pictures it felt like a proper talisman that could ward of any chill

or protect from any freeze.

Powerful warmth in this one.

In this agate there are bands of ivory and bands of sun,

and a deep charge of cherry-orange flame at one edge of the oval.

The whole of it is quite like a sun with the richest rays of petal

and dewdrops of sterling.

Has the stone melted something hard in you?

It does that.

The band is a richly textured hammered affair and fits a size seven finger.

It will blaze its way into the 

Metal Shop

later today

.

xoxo,

Sunny

Two Whole Years

Oh sweet reason for so much of my being

You are two today

and so is the part of this life where my title is 'mama'

.

I feel like a little salt water fountain

watching you play with small tools that will help make a garden this summer

toys that are not general-infant-cuteness but instead specific 

and just to your liking.

Two years ago you were a little early and just breathtaking in your fresh beauty

and I was lost and besotted and bleeding and confident in my instinct and my fear. 

Two years ago at this time Anthony and I were eating our catered meal at the hospital in a suite with dim lighting and constant comforting care, nurses lighting in and out

like fireflies taking more blood to make sure I was okay,

checking on you and the fluid you were clearing from your earth-side lungs.

The evening was settling over the green hills near the hospital and we were exhausted and responsible and foreign to ourselves and each other.

Hormones were tsunamis and love was the sun and nights were pure dread

with me milk-soaking the sheets if you slept too long

staying awake with all my might to nurse you, wondering at my own fortitude

and then suddenly we are old seasoned pros here, sleeping all three tucked together like we've existed in this entwine since time began

easy as Sunday morning

and twice as comfortable

.

Your Daddy is extra funny

and he loves you so much it's unreal,

how did he exist before you? 

You are one plus one.

You are so capable and yet so hell-bent still on your own destruction in new and funny/terrifying ways.

You've got the furrowed brow down to a science

and a zeal for wrestling and being tickled behind your knees

you loved your cake which I am STILL tired from baking yesterday,

everything from scratch because I am ridiculous.

Crunchy-granola obsessed with your foods being as organic as possible.

You will have an IV drip of corn syrup surely when you wriggle out of my healthy grasp,

but for now your butter is eye-rollingly local and your sugar fair trade.

You are so tall

so strong

so wonderful I can't even bear it.

Last night when Oma and I gave you a bath you said "I'm naked! Oh my GOSH!"

and we laughed like hyenas.

Thank you, little prince, little kind despot.

Thank you for being our boy, for every single second we've been gifted to love you

and introduce you to the wide-open possible world.

Two years of wonder so complete I can scarcely believe I lived before you did.

I'll tell you the stories when you are grown enough, the tales of how I came to be your ever-loving mama, the story of how I found the heart of everything important

on earth in you.

Love,

Mama