Flying Time

This is where my time in flying to: it's soaring through the air and 

putting inches and pounds and smarts on this guy.

He's tall and charming and funny and fair

and SO wordy.

We are teaching each other magic spells on the daily.

We are playing and talking and sharing the secrets of early summer wonder:

a big burly green garden

mud puddles (his MumMum is helping him out of one below!)

seeds blown about on the wind

hothouse tomatoes

sugar snap peas (would you believe Joseph loves them the most?)

later sunsets

cheek smooches

Days pass in a fog of being in love. Being away from him last weekend was superb for both of us.

When I picked him up at 5 am (after getting home around 11 pm) to pull him half-awake into the big bed he wrapped his arm around my neck and sleepily patted my cheek, falling asleep just like that.

He had a great weekend with his Daddy and Oma and Opa and I had the most amazing time

with my Dove and BC. I found my place in the pack.

I also found a few puzzle pieces I needed to seek out, places where I re-caught the rhythm of my own life without the mama part. Sometimes I even felt young and well-rested.

 I saw parents with toddlers and it hurt right in the center of my chest.

I felt guided and cradled and raw.

This week I taught my first leather tooling class:

seven students in the beautiful home of a wonderful woman I met through a dear friend and the 

Monterey Metalsmith Guild.

I trust there will be opportunities to teach again because I can scarcely believe 

how much it fit right into a little divot in my soul - "Aha!" Right where it always belonged.

As I write this my parents are here and we are getting in lots of grandparent time,

making lots of important memories. They are seeing the fullness of O, the emerging little boy with his happy shrieks and beautiful sense of play.

We are all so smitten we can barely stand ourselves.

I have a few incredibly warm and sweet pieces to share with you later this week,

likely Friday. 

In the meanwhile the studio is filled with all manner of magic

knitting itself into prayers for the right heart.

These are the odds and ends of my life right now:

motherhood

adventure

connection

and craft.

In bright light,

Sunny

The Slow Letting Go

This weekend I am traveling....

I am traveling alone

for the first time in well over two years

.

It's a really important trip to see one of my dearest friends and I've been 

yearning to take it for quite some time. I knew that I would not be packing up the babe 

for this adventure and as the flight comes closer

I acknowledge another wave goodbye,

another first in the my life as a mother: a night (or two) away

from my boy.

Just writing those words fills the center of my heart with hurt.

Just writing those words lifts the beautiful possibility of my singular (and too frequently ignored)

experience to my eyes like a cup

to someone dying of thirst.

Two years and nearly two months of service.

Over eight hundred nights of doing whatever it takes.

Where I am going my people acknowledge space for rest and processing.

I plan on buying a brand new sketch book tomorrow.

It feels almost giddy: a fresh new sketch book.

I think I am going to buy four magazines at the airport and read them 

lazily on the plane with my iPod pouring loud music right into my brain.

There will be no needs to meet but mine,

no magic face in which to see all the wonders of an eternal morning.

It is both the finest of fantasies and the most aching place.

Orion has been with me on my last seven round trip flights

and so I've been sweaty, nervous and overpacked.

Not this weekend

I can get tipsy. I can let go.

I can plump the too-skinny parts of my head and heart that have

really and honestly forgotten solitude. That have forgotten the art of getting lost in deep

and nourishing conversation without having a secondary stream of thoughts

that constantly fret over voice volume

and eyes that wander over to the baby monitor just to check and see if he's good.

Orion will have Guy Time with his handsome Daddy

and snuggles from Oma.

They'll go on adventures and do things that mama won't allow,

watch lots of videos maybe,

stay up too late.

There'll be plastic easter eggs filled with goodies

and trips to see tiny airplanes

and naps together.

I cannot wait to see him when I come home,

to show him a version of me 

that is at once refreshed and light and grounded

greedy for kisses

thirsty for every single word

he could ever say

.

I cannot wait to gently throw my arms around my girlfriend

and snuggle pups

and have brunch

and catch up

and slip into the rhythm of understanding

that happens among the most kindred of souls.

I know I'll look back at this night's internal dichotomy someday

when I've said a thousand 'goodbye's to Orion

and see the beauty and gentle rawness of it

That I love a boy so much I have begun to forget how to be without him

That I love myself so much and am so loved by my tribe

that room is made for me to be 

alone and not alone

aching some for the babe I am only borrowing

practicing awkwardly at first the expansive motion of

opening my arms

as one releases a kept bird

and

letting him 

find

his

place

in

this 

world

.

xoxo,

Sunny

SALE

The 

Metal Shop is on sale!

everything is 20% off in the next 24 hours.

Enter coupon code SUNNYSPRING at checkout.

After that everything may simply disappear, pumpkin-style.

Happy Shopping, Beautiful Soul!

xoxox,

A

Mighty Might Growing Things Series

Big Diggins Agate Root System Earring, Singular Magic

.

Maple leaf imprint against your tender ear

.

Peach Blossom #2 Earrings. Sterling Silver.

Riveted Florida Fern and Jacaranda Seed Earrings. Raw Crystal. Brass. Sterling Silver.

Precious Larimar Root System Earring. Singular Magic.

Symbiosis Earrings. Sterling Silver.

All of these magical bits and bobs will find their way to the 

Metal Shop 

today

with a lot of love tucked in the molecules

.

xoxo,

Sunny

Delicate and Tender Valentine

My mind is on gardening so much these days.

Orion and I are in the back yard (the poor three-summer-ignored backyard)

for hours at a time,

digging and talking and having our own version of fun,

both of us introverts at some level.

We are quiet there there just as much as we are boisterous.

I have never had my own garden before where I started seeds in the actual dirt:

I've previously bought hearty seedlings.

This new adventure feels much more intimate

and a little more...attached.

I've practically given each tender green shoot a name, a problem of mine since childhood:

it's a miracle I eat anything with this humanizing streak I have long been on.

I wanted to build jewelry that echoes this squiggly

beautiful journey of a young seedling

and after experimenting with a few different materials I found the perfect

gauge of shining sterling and perfect stones

for a valentine.

Amazonite

turquoise

carnelian

white shell

peach aventurine

These Seedling Earrings capture the fresh new sprouts

and the rain and the flowering and the season.

My signature draped chain

and dots of gemstone color

infuse this pair with lots of movement

and organic grace.

A carved mother-of-pearl pikake flower

indicates that the next chapter of the growth process

is afoot.

These will kiss your shoulder and your neck

and remind you that everything strives to grow and 

stretch into its most realized form.

May you find yours just as the tender shoots do in the rich soil of my garden.

In the

Metal Shop

later this afternoon.

xoxo,

Sunny

Joyful Joyful

Ear Candy Bliss Magic Spell Earrings in Fern

My world is lit with bliss this week.

Tired tired bliss, but once that spark flies it cannot be dimmed,

no matter the shadows under your eyes. 

This kind of deep happiness acts like those magic paint brush coloring books we had as kids,

where a blank white page is replaced with washes of color with a single watery pass.

It seeps into everything, this wave of color.

Into my cooking.

Into my mothering.

Into my work.

My sister came to visit from Minneapolis last week

and she refilled empty wells and just having her here to witness

Orion's life and our little family's haven

was enough.

We ran and shopped and laughed and talked frankly about cycles of life and death and the unlikely way we turned out being practically twins after a childhood that saw us being so different we were practically polar opposites.

Will wonders never cease!

When she leaves California the void of her absence is so strong, like a mental gravity.

This time instead of sinking sad-ward for days I wiped the tears as I drove from the airport

and went straight to the gym for an epic leg day.

Peach Blossom Earrings with Vintage Coral and Sterling Blooms

I just couldn't shake the tremendous love that Julie gifted us.

Couldn't feel sorry for myself that she had to go home.

Still can't.

In some weird and wonderful way she's still here.

So here I am with a candled chalice for a heart,

the weariest I've ever been and surely the most rewarded.

.

Singular Magic Spell Earring in Drusy, chrysoprase and coral. Sterling Hydrangea Petal.

I relished every second of working in the studio this week

and dug into a good rhythm quickly,

remembering to stop and step into the garden

to watch the plants' progress,

to take breaks and be kind.

.

While the plants grow, tender green and tiny, the squirrels are enjoying them, too.

I fear I may not have much of a garden left when they've had their fill

and I am looking into humane ways to discourage them.

Orion and I are out there a whole lot, 'diggin' in da DUT!' as he would say

enthusiastically.

We love to walk the perimeter of the big back yard and notice what's changed, smell the flowers

and watch the potato bugs cross the pavement.

Things are blooming.

Boys are growing.

One boy in particular is growing tall and tender and strong.

He hugs us now, and kisses cheeks

and gives love so generously.

He is the center from which all the spokes of my life spin these days.

.

I worship this season, this experience of

tantrums

tears

dark circles

laughter

belly tickles

sharing

baking

snuggling

reading

repeating

hugging

reassuring

exploring

playing

and

finding my heart wrapped around a dimpled finger

with all my mighty might.

The sweet fruits of this Wonder Week will be in the 

Metal Shop

tomorrow.

With love,

Sunny