Category: Uncategorized

I’ll be at REI Berkeley this weekend with my jewelry and prints on Saturday April 15th, all day! Stop by and say hi.

REI Berkeley is at 1338 San Pablo Ave.

Today’s super cute baby animal ready to take you into the weekend is: baby skunk!

(found here)

This Friday presents to you: Baby Warthog! Have a great weekend.

I grew up in northern California and in my 20’s, moved to southern California for work. I lived there for 5 years, and absolutely fell in love with Joshua Tree. My husband and I would go out there once or twice a year. We’d usually rent a cabin, hike and just enjoy nature.

When I get out to the desert the first thing I notice is the silence. It’s quiet, so quiet you can hear the wind rustling in the leaves of small plants, and often that’s all you hear. That’s it. No garbage trucks rumbling down the road, no sprinklers, background freeway noise, or car alarms. This quiet suddenly brings a sense of peace, and you realize all these noises of urban and suburban life are happening all the time, and you simply don’t realize it.

The second thing I notice is how big the sky looks. I find it in places all throughout the West, in Utah, Arizona, Nevada. But suddenly above me is this huge expanse of blue, and I feel as if anything is possible. It makes me feel small and connected at the same time, connected to nature and society. As if the one thing we all have in common is living under this big blue sky.

A weekend in the desert heightens awareness of my daily life, but doesn’t diminish it. It simply reminds me that nature is only a few hours away. You can read more about other’s experiences here.

The Joshua Tree necklace is available in my store. Read more here!

This Friday is featuring: Baby Orangutans. While these little guys are super cute on their own, you often see them piled into a wheelbarrow. Which makes them even cuter. See for yourself.

Many of these babies are orphans and are being taught skills to live on their own in the wild by a charity in Keptang, Indonesia.

For more pictures, click here.

In Nanjing, China, a project is underway to introduce two high rise towers, covered with native trees and plants. The purpose is to be giant air filters and the towers are planned to soak up 25 tons of carbon dioxide annual. Plus they are beautiful when compared to regular high rises. More projects are planned in other cities, as China’s air pollution is becoming a health crisis. The trees also block sound and keep the building cool. These building give city dwellers an opportunity to enjoy nature too!

The drone of bees remind me of lazy, sunny, summer afternoons spent reading or just relaxing with friends. When I was a kid, we had family friends that had bee hives and I remember these tiny insects whipping tirelessly back and forth from hive to flower. Even people that don’t care for insects have a special liking for bees, which in American culture are probably viewed as the most beneficial of all insects.

What we know as honey bees are a bee species from Europe. In the past few years, their sudden decline has been well reported, and now known as Colony Collapse Disorder. This decline is largely due to pesticide use, and not just one pesticide, but a cocktail of pesticides used in modern agriculture. But in a new report out by the Center for Biological Diversity, many native species are now in great danger. Native species are usually ground dwelling, so they are not the bees we think of living in hives and making honey. They are however responsible for pollinating most of wild plant species. 35% of global food crops are pollinated by bees, and a significant number being pollinated by native species. So you can see our very lives would be greatly affected if bees did not support our food supply the way they do today. The report states 50% are declining while 24% are in serious peril and in danger of extinction. The reasons are pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change.

What can you do to help? Educating yourself is the first step, but it’s also important to feel as if you can take action too.

1. Buy organic produce when possible. By buying organic you can reduce the use of pesticides. I don’t always buy organic, and I know it can be expensive. Even better shop at a local farmers market, so you’re support local farmers too!
2. If you have a garden, never use pesticides. Research natural ways to eliminate unwanted pests.
3. Buy honey from local bee keepers. Being a bee keeper can be tough financially, so supporting your neighbors with their hobby can be a great way to help your community. You can also find local beekeepers here. I found a local bee keeper at my city’s farmers market, and I’m also fortunate that one of the stores in my neighborhood carries local honey.
4. Call your government representatives, to let them know you support passing laws to reduce pesticide use. You can call your federal government representatives, but each state in the U.S. has an Environment Protection agency. It may be more effective to start at the local level by calling your local state representatives.
5. If you have a back yard or even a balcony, plant flowers bees love. Or even start your own hive!
6. Donate to the Pollinator Partnership, who works to work to support pollinators, insects and birds, globally.

10% of the revenue from all my products, including the Bee Necklace, go to the NRDC, which in February sued the Trump administration for suspending the rule to put the Rusty Patched bumble bee on the endangered species list. The Rusty Patched bumble bee has lost 90% of it’s range in the last 20 years.

I love trees. One of my favorite images is a tree lined path: it makes me imagine what is around the next bend, and drives me to explore. The inspiration for this necklace comes from the more cultivated variety of tree-lined roads, also called allee. I wanted to represent the rhythmic and even spacing of trees creating a pattern in nature. The trunks are purposefully evenly spaced in the allee, but the branches create their own wildness, growing uncultivated and providing the cover. I also chose to picture the allee in winter, white background and leaf-free branches, to expose the shape and pattern of the branches. The Tree Line Large Round necklace is available in my store!

Here is an example of an allee from Gustav Klimt:

And Vincent Van Gogh:

And in nature:

 

 

After a long week, there’s nothing better than looking at cute baby animals. With that, I bring you Cute Fridays! Just in time to have a little joy before the weekend.

This week brings you: Baby Sloths. For more, visit this link.