a late evening truth

from the archives, february 2009 . puget sound

trust this truth:

you can walk tall on the path that feels most like home.

shop news

a few necklaces that i will be phasing out from the shop to make room for new designs

For the last few weeks, as visits to my Etsy shop increased quite a bit in an unexpected but oh my goodness delightful (thank you) way, I have been relisting several popular designs. This means that most of the designs in the shop have become "made when ordered" necklaces with a waiting period from time of order to shipment. This has been working quite well, but it has meant I had moved away from the more "one of a kind" pieces that have mostly filled the shop in the past. It has also meant that the ideas for new designs have stayed in my idea journal or my head and not made it to the shop.

So after thinking about this quite a bit, I have decided to change things up a bit.

I am naming the above necklaces the "winter collection" as several of these are the designs I have been relisting often over the last few weeks. On Friday, I will remove all the necklaces pictured above from the shop to make room for a new collection of whispered soul mantra lockets that I am working on this week. I will do this every other month or so, adding new designs here and there. These will be "made when ordered" necklaces with a wait time of about 2-3 weeks. I love that this means I will be thinking of the customer who bought each necklace as I create each necklace. Note that this doesn't mean you will never see these phrases or beads in the shop again, but these combinations of specific locket styles + specific beads + phrases will not be appearing again.

Several of the most popular simple locket designs will stay in the shop and are now part of a section called "Simple Mantra Lockets." Additionally, there is a new section of "ready to ship" lockets and soul mantra necklaces that includes one-of-a-kind selections and items that are already made and ready to be shipped right away (my hope is to add to this section a few times a month). Also, the new Heart.Full Collection is an ongoing limited edition collection of necklaces with 15% of the profits of sales from the collection being donated to Mary Bridge and Seattle Children's Hospitals. (And I am so so happy to report that the Heart.Full "i am enough" and "yes" necklaces have been such great sellers already. Oh how I love this! Jon and I are so thrilled to be able to donate to the people at these hospitals who have literally saved our daughter's life. Thank you (yes you) for helping us to do this.)

January brought quite a few custom orders, and how I loved pounding so many powerful words into lockets for my customers. However, there were so many custom orders that I have had to take a bit of a break from them to keep up. My hope is to open the shop for custom orders from time to time but this probably won't happen until after the next two Be Present Retreats.

To just be honest, things are super busy around here for several reasons and though I am so honored to be hammering these custom stories into necklaces for people, I have to make sure I am taking care of all the areas of my creative business and getting a bit of time to play with those I love and rest and recharge. Right now, almost every waking hour feels a bit like a race of taking care of Ellie all day long to working while she naps to working when she goes to bed (or when Jon can watch her for a bit). I want to infuse all that I am doing with deep breaths and joy as much as possible instead of giving everything the energy of a frazzled new mom who is drinking too much coffee. (Insert photo of me smiling sheepishly here.) So putting these new ideas for the shop into practice feels like a good step for this time in my life. This way, when I do have time for custom orders, I can give people the individual attention they need. Please note though that I am taking custom simple soul mantra one word orders on an ongoing basis.

And I am just going to say this truth that has been bubbling up as I write this post:

I am so blessed. I am so blessed that people come to my little spot on the web and connect with these stories of truth and hope and love that I am putting out into the world in the form of these lockets and necklaces and other things in the shop. And the blessings just continue as people reach out to let me know how much the necklaces and stories mean to them. They tell me how the whispered soul mantras gently push them to own the truths they already know: that they are enough, that they can choose hope, that they can stand tall in the light, that they can trust their wisdom. The stories of love and hope that are coming my way simply push me to know that I am not alone...we are not alone as we walk on our paths hoping and wishing and living, really living while trying to be our very best selves.

Yes.

Thank you. Big.

xoxo,

Liz

the letting go

a sweet with a friend . february 12 (processed with hipstamatic app)

a few lines from a post i wrote in 2005 that tumbled across my mind tonight. if you were here, and we were perhaps sharing a cupcake, i would tell you this:

A line from the last few pages of the book Five Quarters of the Orange by Joann Harris:

"It took a little time, you know," said Paul, "but I got over it. I let go. It's like swimming against the current. It exhausts you. After a while, whoever you are, you just have to let go, and the river brings you home."

Deep breath.

Don't work so hard at the letting go though. It isn't about how hard you work. It is about the breath, the life. Take a breath. When you let go, let it be easier than you thought it would be. Let the river bring you home.

Live.

dispatch from the studio annex

click the photo to head to flickr and read a whole lot of notes about what you see here

sunday evening dispatch:
listening to the weepies station on pandora
watching ellie jane grow more each day
putting big (BIG!) dreams out into the universe
deciding to just let it go (and choose laughter)
pretending i know what i am doing
believing it will all unfold as it should
seeking elves or other magical creatures to help in the studio
counting down the days until pen & paper  
sincerely working on the midwest inner excavation retreat (hope to post info tomorrow) 
owning the this truth: there are only so many hours in the day
feeling grateful for new friendships
loving my new iphone and the quick, easy, fantastic camera option it gives me
giving myself the space to feel the joy and the fear and the bravery and the love

how are things in your corner of the world?

the path.

soul mantra lockets in progress . loving my new iphone

pay attention.

this is the path.

(and you know it, so let go of that doubt and just keep going.)

one step, one breath, repeat.

what would happen

where i stand . early july 2010

as afternoon began to fade toward evening, the thoughts tumbled a bit after two conversations with friends. because ellie was still napping, i came to my laptop and clicked to my email and read the nicest words about me and my work from someone who doesn't even really know me and then i felt tears tap the back of my eyeballs. 

because this is what i know: even when life is full of the "oh my goodness things are crazy around here" kind of stuff, it is full of so much beauty. 

but the only way i can see the beauty is if i give myself the space to see myself.

and then some words began to rush together in my mind, so i turned on the microphone to catch them (for you...for me).

(just click "what would happen" below to hear this audio post)

what would happen

scenes from an evening

*****

last evening, i closed the laptop and didn't open it again until this morning. the to do list is long and varied over here, but if i don't give myself permission to take a break, the truth is, the joy simply gets lost and seems to hang out with the dog fur under the couch.

this path is hard at times. this taking care of ellie and working from home each day. yesterday was a day when her health "stuff" was more front and center, and this adds a layer of emotion that is hard to explain. i keep trying to come up with a metaphor to help the people in my life understand, and all i can come up with is that having a child with specific health issues causes a family to feel a bit fractured...disjointed. the days are unpredictable. we get into the groove similar to what i imagine most parents of an eight-month old are in, and then i suddenly notice her heart beating faster than it should. i push myself not to panic but out comes the stethoscope and i listen, hoping. our days revolve around three doses of medication that must be refrigerated. i carry certain things in her diaper bag that other mamas probably don't because i know what it is like to be told that you have to go to the ICU. right. now. 

so when she finally fell asleep yesterday afternoon, and i was in a place where i was trusting she is going to be okay until i can talk to the cardiologist today, i decided to play with fabric for a change. pushing all my beads and lockets and list of custom orders to one side of the kitchen table, i began to sew something just for me. i probably should have napped (as the days and nights have been intense this week with a tooth finally popping through), but i just needed the rhythm of that sewing machine and the joy of patchworked colors side by side.

when jon got home, i closed the laptop and tried to just be right here in the moment with my little family. my heart felt bigger and more like it was at home as i simply took it all in...

i love that snapping just a few photos from this evening will always remind me of these truths.

heart.full

She wasn’t one for a month all about love or stringing hearts up about the house. She rolled her eyes at the idea of one day when someone you call sweetheart is supposed to buy you roses. She had spent so many days alone that even when she found herself in love and loved in return, she still tried to ignore this need others had to make one day about something that never quite felt real. She was quiet about it but mostly tolerated seeing everyone in red, and then she bought the chocolates when they went on sale.

Years passed with this story on repeat.

Then, on a day in July, she found herself holding the pieces of her own heart together as she watched a doctor try to heal the tiny heart of her five-week old daughter. That day gave her a new sense of what a heart could be, could do, could mean.

In the days that followed, even as life shifted and pushed her in ways she never expected, she found herself saying yes:

to hearts about the house
to seeing the light shine through the cracks
to wearing red
to letting herself be loved
to opening herself to healing

As the light returns a bit more each day and the calendar moves closer to that day of love, she stands in this moment and says yes to all that is to come.

*****

I felt moved to write the above words today and then I made myself a necklace. A red necklace. Valentine's Day, a holiday I have secretly never liked, is approaching, and this year I have found myself (for the first time) drawn to hearts (everywhere) and talk of love. I still don't like how this holiday invites people who don't have a sweetheart to feel (I was that person every year until I met Jon in my mid-20s). But I really LOVE the idea of putting a new spin on this holiday and making it about saying yes to me and what my heart needs in this moment and about how grateful I am for the love I have in my life.

Putting these words to paper and making this necklace made me see that this is the perfect time to launch a new collection that has been sitting inside my idea journal for a few weeks now.

The Heart.Full Collection is a new category over in my etsy shop where I gather up Stories from The Little Room. This collection will be made up of limited edition jewelry and fabric items (I will create new mini-collections from time to time), and it will continue what I began in December as 15% of the profits from this collection will be donated to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital where Ellie Jane spent five days in July of 2010 and Seattle Children's Hospital where she had open-heart surgery in October.

The first four items in this collection are the "yes" all dressed up necklace, the "yes" heart locket, the "seek peace" simple soul mantra necklace, and the "i am enough" all dressed up locket. You can find all of them here.