Introducing some NEW pieces!

I have just posted 4 totally new pieces of beadwork to my CindyCaraway shop on Etsy. Here they are (trumpets, please...)

MAHOGANY DREAMS

PINK ZINNIA

RIVENDELL

TANGERINE

TED Conference

I know lots of people like to watch Hulu and such while they work. My site of choice is TED.com. What is TED? I'm so glad you asked!! I have collected a few snippets from the TED website to help illustrate who they are:

"TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design."

"The TED Conference, held annually in Long Beach, is still the heart of TED. More than a thousand people now attend -- indeed, the event sells out a year in advance -- and the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience. It shouldn't work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole."

Their mission is to spread ideas. Here's what it states on the TED website:

"We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other."

Anyway, I love this site! I have spent many, many hours watching presentations from some of the world's greatest thinkers and innovators. Some are funny, some are intriguing, some are frightening but all will change how you look at the world around you. It's free and it's inspiring - what more could you want? Here's one of my favorites:

Many Thanks and Much Ado

Last night I made a treasury collection to say a little "Thank you" to those who have included my work in a treasury. I spent an hour putting it together and when I hit the "SAVE" button, I got an error message. "Oh, crap..." was my fist reaction and, since it was late, I went to bed saying "I'll give it another try tomorrow..." So, imagine my surprise when I found a convo from thelogchateau letting me know she had seen my treausry!! It seems it went through, after all - YAY! The collection is called "Many Thanks and Much Ado" with the message saying:

Here is a treasury to thank all those

who have included me in one in the past few weeks.

It was much appreciated and I hope this little collection brings lots of visits

and much ado (in the way of SALES) to your lovely shops! :)

I hope you will go to the treasury page, make a visit to the featured shops and leave a comment. You might notice that I've included 4 items from trinitydj. Please be sure to see her shop! She is a fantastic artist and a lovely person to boot - selfless and always ready to do her best for other artists.

Here's a full list of the items and shops included in "Many Thanks and Much Ado"

I AM LOVE-26x26cm,signed print by bewonder 

Ancient Treasure by Mocahete 

Heart Deco Brooch by beadn4fun

Flower Expose by trinitydj 

Walk Like An Egyptian by BrooklynQuiltExchang

Delicious in Gold by trinitydj 

2 Vintage Geisha Girl Fans from thelogchateau 

MUERTE, DIA DE LOS MEURTOS ORIGINAL PAINTING

by AmyLouiseLauriano

Carnival by BaubleBangleButton

Altered Spring Time Card by carolforsythca

Cherry on Top by trinitydj

1952 MAGAZINE AD from AdvertisingArt 

PEACOCK by trinitydj

MAGICAL MUSHROOM by VintageCandyDesigns

Luscious Peach by classyandsassycharms 

Recycled Glass and Stoneware Cabochons by blackbirdclaystudio

A Butterfly in my Garden

Last year Dan & I got a Butterfly Bush from his mom. It was doing quite well until one day, during a wind storm, a large branch fell from our tree and squashed it flat! I sadly figured it was the last of the butterfly bush.

Much to our amazement, it sprouted out of the broken remnants this Spring and has flourished - it's over 6 feet tall and loaded with flower heads!! We have had several winged visitors - butterflies, bees and the odd hummingbird - and I finally got some photos of one today. This little pretty was such a good model and didn't seem to mind me snapping away so close.

Morning Coffee - Quotes to start your week

"The slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge obtained of lesser things."
- St. Thomas Aquinas

"Comparisons of one's lot with others' teaches us nothing and enfeebles the will."
- Thornton Wilder

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."
- Sun Tzu

"If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path."
- Buddhist Proverb

"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed."
- Sean O'Casey

"Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain."
- Helen Keller

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
- Vince Lombardi

"Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make."
- Stephen R. Covey

"I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note--torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one."
- Henry Ward Beecher

"It takes time to save time."
- Joe Taylor

"It is a barren kind of criticism which tells you what a thing is not."
- Alfred Whitney Griswold

"Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure."
- George Gordon Noel Byron (Lord Byron)

"The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!"
- Marvin Phillips

"Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow is too lazy to form an opinion."
- Will Rogers

"A lot of what passes for depression these days is nothing more than a body saying that it needs work."
- Geoffrey Norman

"Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change."
- Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others."
- Audrey Hepburn

"An idealist believes the short run doesn't count.
A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter.
A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run."
- Sidney J. Harris

"Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become."
- Jim Rohn

Morning Coffee - This is Where We Live

I found this video on a blog I just started following - annekata. She really has a beautiful blog and I hope you will stop by to check it out.

Anyway, I found this video in one of her posts and I thought it was so cool. Here's the explanation she had on her blog:

"This incredible movie was made for the 25th anniversary of the British Publishing House "4thEstate", produced by Apt Studio and Asylum Films in stop-motion over 3 weeks. Each scene was shot on a home-made dolly. If you are interested how the movie is prepared and shot, you can see time-lapse films of the different scenes here. I'm fascinated by the way these stop-motion movies are done, and I love that the concept is simple and the result very complex."

In it I hope you will find inspiration, as I did! Enjoy :)

Cindy singing "Lucky One"

Every once in a while I do a Google search for myself just to see where my online self turns up. Today I found a little surprise! Dan & I performed with some friends of ours at a Bluegrass Jam that takes place every Fall at Eden Valley Park by Baldwin, IA. I guess I knew that someone was videotaping the thing but I didn't expect to find it on a guitar tab website!! Ha!! Anyway, here it is, if you're interested in hearing my hubby and me perform the song "Lucky One" -


Lucky One

Derriere | MySpace Video