Spring forward, fall back

Phew! Now that I've had a chance to catch my breath, I realized it's been two months since I last posted! Not that I've been lounging around. I've been to the emergency room (twice in one day!), helped host the Episcopal House of Bishops (including a trip to Mexico), staffed our annual Diocesan Convention, had a flu-like illness, AND gave myself a concussion!

In between all that I have managed to sneak in a few craft projects....

First of all, I created this Betsy Ray bracelet while thinking about my favorite kidlit author, Maud Hart Lovelace. While I don't know if she ever play mah jongg, the tiny green print on this set makes me think of her and the old-fashioned wallpaper that might have adorned the rooms of her or her friends. And it's green which was her favorite color! So I chose her birthdate, 4/25/92 and added a green dragon since 1892 was the year of the dragon. The beads I chose are 10mm jade since Maud mentions jade so often in her Betsy-Tacy books. It's available in my Etsy shop.

I made this Golden Anniversary bracelet in honor of my parents' upcoming 50th anniversary. We love the colorful gold confetti mah jongg tiles and Mom paired it with the 10mm blue fiber optic rounds since it picks up one of the many colors in the tiles. Personalized versions of this are available in my Etsy shop.

I got two lots of blank mah jong tiles which I thought would be fun for jewelry - and they are! The first is a blue-striped Mah Jongg bracelet with 10mm powder blue fiber optic rounds, although white would work well, too. It's available in my Etsy shop.

I also got these lavender mah jongg tiles and paired them with cracked blue and lavender resin beads of slightly differing sizes. It's fun and makes me smile. It's available in my Etsy shop.

Finally, two necklaces. The first is a set I've admired for awhile so I was delighted when one appeared in a mixed lot I bought. It features two traditionally dressed Chinese children in a colorful print. I plan to keep this one, but if I get enough requests I can buy a set and make more. It's on a 20 inch steel cable necklace with a magnetic clasp.

I also made an elegant necklace from a single gold and black glitter tile on a 20 inch black steel cable necklace with a magnetic clasp. There's another that's black with a faint glittering in it like stars but I'll have to shoot that another day.

I need to make up some new bracelets on 9 inch steel cables which will match the necklaces. Look for those soon! (Seven inch cables are also available but I personally think they'll be too small for anyone to wear after stringing a tile on it.)

I also intend to make more Christmas items, such as my Gingerbread bracelets.

My friend Jennifer taught me to crochet this fall, thanks Jen! Once I get the hang of it I can't wait to try some felting.

Click on any photo to see it larger.

Do you lilac these?

Just a couple more to show you tonight. First I drilled white Mah Jongg tiles and strung them with 10mm rainbow-and-white-striped roller beads and 10mm white fiber optics rounds. Adding the rounds helps the roller beads lay better so I'll attempt to do the same with yesterday's black bracelet as soon as I get more black beads.

I then drilled these lilac and white Mah Jongg tiles and after much looking decided I liked them best with the 10mm white fiber optic rounds.

I need to get into some fall type bracelets but they'll have to wait a bit since I've got a major work commitment Sept. 13-21. The bishops are coming! That's right, The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona is hosting The Episcopal Church's House of Bishops. More than 200 bishops and their spouses and partners will be here.

It's a good thing I love the color purple, right?

I'm bead, flat, worn out, tired....

I haven't been able to do any drilling since last Thursday due to two emergency room adventures, but I'm slowly getting back up to speed and thought I'd share two of the items I've worked on.

First of all is a custom Trinity Cathedral bracelet I did last Thursday as a prospectus for the Dean after he showed interest in the Diocesan one I did a few weeks ago. I had white Mah Jongg tiles engraved with the Cathedral's crest and strung it with amethyst beads. (Purple is the cathedral's color since it's the Bishop's see, or seat, and the Bishop's ring is traditionally made of amethyst. It's also why bishops wear purple shirts and vestments.)

He liked it and showed it to the Cathedral Shoppe manager. After some discussion we're going to try stocking a few things such as bracelets, necklaces, key chains, and a bolo tie and see how they do.

Tonight was the first time I felt up for using my drill press so I drilled some black Mah Jongg tiles with primary engraving and strung them with 10mm rainbow roller beads. I'm delighted with the colors but the roller beads don't lay as smoothly as I'd like, so I'll be experimenting with them. I plan something similar with white tiles and rainbow roller beads with white spacing between the stripes. Both black and white versions will be available in my Etsy shop with personalization available.

I also tried to drill some chopsticks for my lovely noodle hat but both broke so I'll have to experiment with that when I have both the time and energy.

Just for the drill of it

I had a such a lovely weekend being creative!

Friday night I made a personalized bracelet representing my daughter's birth. It's on pink-backed tiles since she's a girl. The numbers represent the date of her birth. (I used Jokers as "0" since there are no zeros in Mah Jongg.) May's birthstone is Emerald so I chose tiles with green in them and strung it with green 10mm fiber optic rounds. I love how it turned out and even my mom, who loathes pink, liked it!

More of my custom tiles arrived on Saturday and oh! I had fun creating jewelry!

First I made a bracelet featuring the logo for The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona where I work. I told the engraver to use her best judgment on what would look best after I told her the color palette we use. Wow, did she deliver! The ivory-colored tile nearly matches our stationary and the logo is engraved with a slightly pearlescent aqua. I strung my bracelet with alternating bands of dark brown and aqua 10mm fiber optic beads.

I then made a bracelet with milky white mah jongg tiles I had engraved with a midnight blue Chinese "Good Fortune" symbol. The symbol is the logo for my daughter's school and I thought they might be able to use it for appreciation awards and school fund-raisers. (Navy and light blue with white are the school colors.) I strung the bracelet with matching midnight blue 10mm fiber optic rounds to wear and show the principal.

I proceeded on to a black bracelet featuring my Rexphiles and Rextiles logos! Engraved in red and green on identical black tiles, I alternated them with black 10mm fiber optic rounds since I wanted the red and green to pop. I think it's simply stunning and totally me. (People have been teasing me about all the purple in my wardrobe. I foresee a lot of black in my future!)

I saved the best for last - and the hardest! My chop, or Chinese seal, was engraved in red on both black (above) and white tiles. I strung the white tiles with red 10mm South Sea China pearls. The reconstituted (!) pearls had the gorgeous color I wanted but the hole was small so I had to carefully ream each and every bead. Some broke and it took me more time to create that bracelet then all the other projects that night!

Tonight I wanted to continue with an idea I had Saturday night. A couple of weeks ago I had picked up an inexpensive 18 inch green cable choker with barrel clasp. It fits me and is surprisingly comfortable, although I do want to get some in a 20 inch length.

The green didn't work with the piece I was thinking of but on Saturday inspiration struck and I drilled a single hole through one of my Rexphiles tiles and threaded the green cable through it. It's not normally something that would appeal to me but I love it with the funky Mah Jongg tile.

So today I bought more cables and tonight I made more. Lots more. I made one for my daughter's principal on a blue cable. I made one for work on a dark brown cable. I made some for fun, and I made a bunch for my Etsy shop.

I also got out my heat gun and embossed some gift tags and boxes.

Can you tell I'm having fun?

Click on any photo to see it larger.

Blog, take 3

Sadly, I seem to have killed both of my previous blogs, Ooh-la-long, and Episcayune, when I deleted what I thought was an unused e-mail. Oops. So I have created yet another spot for me to post my random musings.

What will appear here?

Heaven only knows.

Episco-what?

As a cradle Episcopalian, I grew up with almost everyone saying “Episco-what?” when I told them what religion I was. Imagine my surprise and delight when I was in seventh or eighth grade to discover in the school’s library a series of books featuring a girl my age who was an Episcopalian, too!

These delightful books by Maud Hart Lovelace have been in and out of print since their publication began in 1940. Betsy, her family and her friends live an idyllic life in fictional Deep Valley, Minnesota about 1900. It starts with Betsy’s fifth birthday and goes through her first few years of marriage. But while it’s an idyllic life, it also shares some of life’s hardships: disappointment, heartbreak, and death.

In the first four Betsy-Tacy (1940), Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941), Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942), and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943) Betsy attends the Baptist church while her friend Tib goes to the Episcopal church. These four books have usually been in print since their initial publication.

However, in the harder to find Heaven to Betsy (1945) Betsy and her older sister decide to become Episcopalians! In some of the wisest writing I’ve ever read Betsy’s father says of their decision,

“The important thing isn’t what church you want to join but whether you want to join a church at all.”

After more discussion he says,

“And we support the church. You have to think of that. Churches need the income just as a family does; and it is your duty to support your church if you join one. With more than money, too. A church needs members who take an active part in the church work. Mother and I don’t do as much as some, and some folks overdo it, in my opinion, but we try to carry our load. My point is that if you’re going to join a church, you want to be prepared to support it, both with money and time.

“But that’s just the beginning,” Mr. Ray went on, and sat straight in his chair. “It isn’t enough to go to church, and to support the church. The most important part of religion isn’t in any church. It’s down in your own heart. Religion is in your thoughts, and in the way you act from day to day, in the way you treat other people. It’s honesty, and unselfishness, and kindness. Especially kindness.”

I can pretty much say that everything I learned as a kid about faith, religion and the Episcopal church, I learned from Betsy Ray and her father, thanks to fellow Episcopalian Maud Hart Lovelace. (The change of religion was so controversial when it was released in 1945 that some libraries, such as the New York Public Library, banned it!)

On Sept. 29, 2009 HarperCollins in reissuing six of these out-of-print books in three volumes as part of their Harper Perennial Modern Classics:

• Heaven to Betsy (1945) and Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946) with a forward by Laura Lippman
• Betsy Was a Junior (1947) and Betsy and Joe (1948) with a forward by Meg Cabot
• Betsy and the Great World (1952) and Betsy's Wedding (1955) with a forward by Anna Quindlen

And finally, three very hard to find books set in Deep Valley (including my first-read and absolute favorite, Emily of Deep Valley) will be reissued Oct. 12, 2010 as Harper Perennial Modern Classics:

• Carney's House Party (1949) and Winona's Pony Cart (1953)
• Emily of Deep Valley (1950)

I hope that you find these books as delightful as I have over the past 30 years. I have worn out library copies, paperbacks, and hardbacks reading and rereading this series, and am delighted to have the chance to buy more copies to share with my friends and family, especially my church family.

Freedom of the Press?

God was willing and Mom is now the Rev. Mom. Woo hoo! A more tired or blissful deacon you have probably never seen. The service Saturday was beautiful (the rain waited until Sunday - phew!) and packed.

I got to do double duty as one of my mom's presenters and as the Diocesan communications officer. Once my duties to her were done I was to wander and take photos of the service and the seven new deacons as they participated in said service.

Imagine my surprise when a woman (lightly) whacked me with her rolled-up order of service and told me not to take photos! I have been taking photos for the diocese since I was in high school and have worked as a professional journalist since 1989. I never dreamed that my first "assault" as a member of the press would happen within church!

I told her that I had the bishop's permission (he is my boss, after all) and she nodded and said "Sorry," but it was still about all I could do not to fall on the cathedral's floor and die laughing.

As I said, I've been doing this since high school and I know the dos and don'ts of church photography; walk softly and carry a quiet camera. I wear rubber-soled shoes and do not use the flash during the service. I'm the first to grind my teeth when I see flashes going off in services, especially important services when the flashes get to look like strobe lights. But the note in the order of service asked people to please refrain from the use of flash photography.

Next time I guess I'll have to ask the cathedral to print in the program:

Please refrain from both the use of flash photography and whacking the bishop's communications officer with your order of service.

What's the big deal?

Currently, it's homosexuality. But as a cradle Episcopalian I've seen controversies in the last 43 years about ordained women (1976), the new Book of Common Prayer (1979), and the new Hymnal (1982). I wasn't around then but I've heard such controversies also happened with the 1928 BCP and the King James Bible, published in 1611. (And by the way, King James was rumored to be a Queen, so we can combine those controversies!)

My response? Get over it. Change happens.

Jesus was Jewish, not a Christian. What happened? The faith/church changed. (And he did not speak King James' English as I have actually heard some claim!)

What inspired me to write this? God willing, the Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith will ordain my mom on Sat., Jan. 26, 2008 to the Sacred Order of Deacons. Go Mom! This is something she has wanted for nearly 20 years. My dad's a deacon, too. Am I next? I sincerely doubt it.

Who cares if Mom become the Rev. Mom? Oh, I'm sure some do. The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (Texas) is one of three Episcopal dioceses which doesn't ordain women to the priesthood. Thankfully, Mom, Dad, and I live within the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. We have gay and female clergy here. But that's not the point! We are members of the worldwide Anglican communion, something we're all proud of. And we're saddened by the continuing divisiveness some people want.

A friend of mine used to be adamantly opposed to the ordination of women. He went to seminary and God (whom I believe has a wicked sense of humor) assigned him a female priest as his advisor. Oh, Mom and I laughed when we heard that! He quickly changed his mind and then adamantly denied he'd ever been against the ordination of women! He was ordained as an Episcopal priest but left the church when the homosexuality debate raised its ugly head. I only hope God reveals His sense of humor to him again.

I once heard a vestry member literally say that she would rather have "a fornicating heterosexual priest instead of a celibate homosexual." Guess what? She got both.

I guess all I'm trying to say here is why do we continue to tear ourselves apart with hatred and labels? Do unto others as we'd have done unto us.