'Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya....

UPDATE: - thank you so much for all your texts, convos, emails and even songs (love it!) and kindness. You are all such amazing women and I get chillbumps every time I think of what I must have done to be so lucky as to know you.

Thank you from the bottom of my skip-a-doodle heart (who will hopefully soon stop her skipping :) )

There has been a lot of interest in the moctezuma necklace, so I will be listing it at 11:30 AM Pacific Time this morning to ensure that everyone has a chance to take her home: I normally do holds but there was too much interest at once and I felt I had to be fair!

...tomorrow - you're only a day awayyyyyy!!!!"

That is a song I used to sing to my Grandpa at his every request.

I write it out now because today was kinda one of those days that feels really really hard.

1. I have PMS

2. When the octogenarian volunteer receptionist at the Hospital (going to pick up some X-ray - I have degenerative disc disease in my neck, a result of my work with leather) told me I was going the wrong way in a rather rude way I turned around and said "You should try being a bit nicer!" waaaay louder than I wanted to and two floors of patients turned to stare.

3. As I walked away I cried and had to ask directions from the Orthopedic receptionist WHILE crying. Hard.

4. I spend the entire hour between 2-3 trying to get home through my small village of Petaluma because there was a Veteran's Day parade that just finished: there is nothing like being five blocks from home but unable to get there to compliment PMS and tears.

5. I have scheduled another session with the Holter Monitor of Doom : my palpitations are back with the whole nervousness of Sonoma County Idol and the prep for Bazaar Bizarre - December 1st they'll strap me in for another 24 hours of fun and I'll drink a bit of coffee and exercise to get my heart a' talking. Harumph.

I need a hug: Schmilly is coming home soon and boy oh boy is he ever the best hugger. 

There were good things that happened: I wrapped up some designs I had begun on Tuesday morning:

One Champagne Toast Moctezuma Agate Necklace and a labradorite teardrop necklace with my little danglies!

Two leather leaves of love...

A pair of surprisingly light hammered hoops that have such a lovely hanging angle: kind of like suspended scythes... gorgeous!

Everything will be in its respective shop tomorrow and my head will be in a much better place, I am super certain.

The sun'll come out tomorrow - bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be Sunny :)

Two for You, One for Me!

Two sprout trees, one in peridot for eternal spring, one in garnet as a valentine to the Japanese Maple in the yard of my childhood home.

Both will be in the Metal shop later this morning!!!

This Agua Nueva is most assuredly an Alien landscape and I paired it with silver that would look like a symbol from an alien language, one that I could look at and understand  -

surely it means 'courage'.

I made it yesterday and when I look down at my hand I am instantly calm, instantly strong: such is the power of stones, ladies and gentleman (Dave).

I am off to San Francisco today to refill my stock at The Museum of Craft and Folk Art as it has mysteriously been depleted again: I need more hands!!

Lots of love and courage to you all this overcast November Monday!

Because of You

I made it through to the top 8 in Sonoma County Idol.

James was holding my hand and the whole lot of your comments were my backup singers-

I just know it!

Thank you

:)

On Stage Fright

For the last few days I have been a shaky, focused, heart-palpitate-y mess of a woman, singing "Redneck Woman" into every mirror I pass, air-mic in hand.

Yes, I am a performer by trade: it's one of the trinity of activities that puts food in my stomach and a rented roof over my head, but that's something completely different: performance for me entails sitting at a piano, telling stories through song and baring a bit of myself, something I have become more comfortable with through the years.

Tonight will be about bravado, about a nervous sort of tipsy karaoke showmanship that I find so far outside my comfort zone that it's dizzying!

This evening's performance will last less than two minutes and yet it has consumed me, as I knew it would. In fact, I was counting on this, banking on it in a way I cannot describe very well, except to say that in the overcoming lies the joy.

I think we all have a comfy box we live in by whose dimensions, texture and temperature we define our lives. When we do anything to push one side out or put a skylight in our previously demure and quiet comfort zone becomes a vocal fear factory, convincing us via logical thoughts that our worst nightmares may very well come true if we are so foolish to poke at the tear we've made above our heads.

"The sky will come crashing IN to this box - do you want that?"

"They're all going to laugh at you - you will fail!!"

"Since when do you think you'll be any good at this, huh?"

"You'll die!!!"

The creative license our comfort zone (or ego to some) takes in formulating these ideas is actual quite amazing and inspiring - it just reaches inward instead of out and because of that it is stultifying and deadly.

It breeds boredom, 'shoulda-woulda-coulda'-ing and regretful sighs.

From the very beginning of my decision to call in to Froggy 92.9 I knew that the nervous energy I'd experience would make me feel really halved, really challenged, but I knew I had to exercise this muscle in order to absolutely make that skylight a reality.

 Because this scares me I know I must allow myself to rise to its challenge

even if the sky falls in

even if I botch the words and fall over in my cowboy boots

even if I don't sound good

even if I die

because to turn back now

would mean that something that wants me to shrink away from vibrant, terrifying 

life

would win

and I would be one inch shorter than I was yesterday.

Simply Set Wonders

Heartfelt creations using some of my favorite stones. One of them is the contest winner's necklace, the others are for the shop.

The contest winner's necklace, agua nueva simply set with a heart and a lovely heart chain:

 it says 'love' on the back. I don't really feel at liberty to say what she struggles with, but it is huge and awful and apparently the timing is perfect for her to receive a bauble.

Oh my camera could not do justice to this piece of agua nueva: it is a rose, trapped in black molasses and framed in milky white. The settling is simply a valentine to the stone: its folds and curves mimic the curves within the stone.

This is most assuredly a collector's stone.

A little snip of a necklace!! Vintage Japanese cabochon of cherry blossoms.... sweet, indeed!

Morrisonite with tree patterns and a really nice chain - this makes me think of endless summer, my very favorite season.

The necklaces will be in the Metal Shop today!

Dear Agua Nueva Agate,

Where do I begin? Not since my handsome husband has anyone beguiled me quite as much as you. I am referring to you as a sentient being because, somehow..... you are.

Your bands of color are hundreds of thousands and millions of years old and yet they are as fresh and immediate as a newly peeled nectarine or a ripe Japanese eggplant. 

I think I began collecting a few years ago, unwittingly finding my first Agua Nueva (new water) agate online and wondering if there were more to BE found, so new was I to the lapidary world - ha!! My latest problem seems to be stopping! I've found enough.

I wanted to share these pictures with you, dear readers, because I was struck today by how varied and special each piece is: some are from the very same nodule (you can tell by the colors) but they all express a complete idea, which is partly due to the skilled hands that cabbed them and found the sentence or paragraph inside the rock.

Some are suns.

Some are Opera sets.

Other still are trees, or curtains opening to an alien landscape...

each one has captured my imagination in some very big way and I find myself staring at them for hours, dreaming up designs for some and simply coveting others with the knowledge that they will never be set for anyone other than me.

It's taken me a while to realize that's ok: not every stone I own will be shared: I am allowed to cling a bit, just not so much that I forget them biggest lesson: they are not 'mine' - they belong to the earth as she created them with the sweat of her seismic changes and the slow drip of her weather systems.

I've made the pictures rather large for your viewing pleasure: I wanted you to see the details as I do every time I open my cabochon boxes - click on the picture and it will expand to a magnificent detailed size.

Enjoy my collection!

Meanwhile, Here on Earth...

My head is in the clouds above today with bizarre news aplenty - I am updating the Leather Shop today with a few fins and feathers - skip or jog over at your Leisure!

I promise this is the last post, yeesh!!

;)

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!

I am one of the 16 finalists for Sonoma County Idol!!!!!!!!! :)))))))))

I am dancing around the room and trying to think of which song to sing accapella on Friday night at Kodiak Jack's!!!!

Oh, deary me :)

The Same

First Song at The Loft, October 28th!!

Did I seriously just spoil myself rotten????

THIS is on its way to me. Swooooooooonerooni!!!!

xo,

Sunny Oney

Lessons in Momentum

I have owned my business for nearly three years: nearly three years of trial, error, tears and triumph and boy oh boy, what a gorgeous ride it has been.

The lessons I have learned have been many and varied, but one of the most important things I've learned is to keep steady momentum: make only as much as heart and mind will allow and make room for play and other pursuits to maintain a life balance that makes you pink-cheeked and excited about the morning alarm.

In this spirit, I started several projects before I left, incrementally working out little details over the course of a few weeks so as not to overwhelm myself (as I documented with my bag adventure, sometimes I can swamp myself with a bit too much work!) and yesterday I worked.

I worked with fervor, with adoration, loving every re-lighting of the torch, every little seam of solder that flowed into a smile for me: this was a homecoming that thrilled me and moved me.

The designs were still just as powerful and meaningful as they were when I conceived them a few weeks back, and I was able to add some more ideas and get right back in the saddle, keeping the momentum going and refilling the Metal Shop!!

Without further adieu, here are my new loved ones:

An incredibly huuuuuuge mexican fire opal ring with fire that is purple, green blue and red, featuring a little satellite opal with a gentle red and green flicker inside: size 7, quite possible already snatched up!

A gentle little opal blossom sprout necklace!

Lord have Mercy!!!

The yellow stone you see in the above photo is an eclipse stone: it is incredibly rare and even more beautiful with its sunshine yellow - it reminds me of those moments where you kind of pause and remind yourself to breathe when the day is long and the tasks are many -

You just look into the bright blue sky, wonder at the feeling of expanse and breathe.

Something kind of blooms inside of you and the load lightens.

This ring is a size 10 and one of the very last eclipse stones I have  - I have not been able to find more, so yellow and so positive.

An Agua Nueva rainbow necklace with the word 'seek' written on a pot of gold and a swirling cloud on the other side. The chain used on this necklace thrills me to no end: substantial and pretty darn amazing in its design!

Can you feel the joy radiating off of this design????

These pieces will be in the Metal Shop later this afternoon with glad tidings of homecoming and the sweet reverberating thought-poem that I get to do this for my life's work.

My goodness it makes me cry even just writing it down.

Halloween in Petaluma

I returned early to Petaluma - may I confess the reason? I missed my husband, our kitties and our home. The look on his face when he walked in to see me there for the first time in over a week was priceless and purely joyful for me.

Anthony is the best of the best of everything and he's my husband - don't know who wouldn't rush home to a love like this as soon as a body could.

This year for Halloween we decided to carve pumpkins and buy candy for the neighborhood kids, who would surely come through in droves (can you catch the foreshadowing of the opposite here?)

we had so much fun carving and scooping out the seeds, which made a rather tasty treat when drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and 21 Season Salute and toasted until the looked like sunshine!

Mmmmmm...

We all watched carefully for nightfall and waited in anticipation for the children:

Can't you see the hope in his blue eyes??

Alas, it was never to be: at around 8:00 P.M. two un-costumed pre-teenagers came to the door and I gave them nearly all of our three bags of candy - they thought they won the lottery and I chuckled at the irony of it all:

I had lived in apartments since I was out of my parents' home at 18, and so I was soooo excited to be in a house in a little sleepy town that would have tons of little ghouls and goblins seeking candy...

instead I fed a few delightfully thrilled boys whose voices had already begun to change!!

Still, what a lovely day of rest, fun and homecoming kisses!

iFun Featuring Friends, Kitties, Babies and Puppies!!!!

Royal the Great

The Spot - Dear Moe featuring extra savory sauce!!

Katherine, my sweetest girlfriend and the skilled pastor who married us!

Bowie Pup!!!! It's love, real love.

Seamus being serenaded over his oatmeal by his Mama Liane, Auntie Allu (me!) and his Irish Dada Jimmy.

This trip has been flawless: the shows have been amazing, the cd sales wonderful, the friendships strengthened, the sterling silver chain purchased, leather hides in the trunk of my car, the food divine, the animals adorable and the weather perfect.

I have missed you and just wanted to share a bit of an update with you and keep you abreast of the adorable-ness that abounds.

I have designs spilling out of my jean pockets and I cannot wait to get home and give you love translated into the language of silver and leather.

I adore you all!!

Biiiig Pause

Hi sweet lovely friends!!!!

I just wanted to let you know that I will be away from the computer for most -if not all- of the week and some change that I am gone...

I think it's important for me to leave the computer at home, and I realllllly am nervous about it because: 

What if there's an emergency?

(logical answer: I have my iPhone with me and have the capability to respond if needed)

What if I need to bid on an auction for an awesome stone?

(answer: tough cookies, stone junkie.)

What if I am just hopelessly addicted to this silver lap box and I experience withdrawal?

(answer: there must be a 12 step for that by now...)

All in all, I think this is a good idea: I get to refresh my very soul by unplugging.

There are jewelry designs in process that are bubbling up from my soul and a myriad of koi to be painted upon my return.

I will be rich in ideas until we meet again

and 

I will miss you all something fierce.

I'll still be peeking at your blogs from my little iPhone, too!!

Love and love and more love to you all!

O.M.Goodness.

Oh dear, Y'all.....

I just did something really silly for which I may either be really happy or really embarrassed:

I called in and auditioned for my local country station's version of American Idol:

Sonoma County Idol!

Pardon me, I was giggling so hard I had to pause: I don't know what possessed me, as I normally dismiss that kind of thing, but the grand prize was $1,000.00 and mama needs to get to Tucson this spring, so I figured it would be the perfect thing to try....

The only thing: if you make it past the phone audition you have to sing onstage at a country/western bar here called Kodiak Jack's.

They have a mechanical bull, guys.....

Needless to say, I'll be having a bit of whiskey before I make my Sonoma County debut - IF I get past the phone audition.

Yikes!!!

Wish me luck, and please share with me the silliest contest YOU'VE ever entered!!!