#021 in Portrait and Blogged Again.

It's a little over a week after vacation, and I've managed to get the kids back to school and have nailed down some semblance of normalcy.  Which is good.  After a long and tiring summer of swim lessons, multiple trips across the continent to see Grandma/Grandpa/Grannie, daily kid wrangling and fight monitoring, I am (very nearly) sane again.  Or at least as close as I can be to sane (obviously).

Which means I can get back to Pebbles and making music.  Which is what keeps me sane in the first place.

And, I've been thinking, "Gee!  I really need to post something lovely on the blog..." but haven't done much in the way of Pebbles since I came home, blah blah blah, when BOOM! the lovely Alicia over at Posie Gets Cozy posts another set of lovely photographs.  One of which features one of my Pebbles. 

Miss Alicia takes the most gorgeous still-life pictures of her world and home. If you haven't visited, I suggest you do, and hurry. Because your eyes will thank you.

Alicia had ordered one of the original "Japan" Tsunami Relief Pebbles that I offered last year, and it has found it's way into her pictures ever since.  Every time I see that little Pebble in one of her achingly beautiful photos my heart does a little happy dance.  People have occasionally commented--- "What IS that?", etc, and she very recently linked to this blog and my etsy shop so that people could see where they came from.

And just like that.... my etsy shop, which hadn't made a sale in over a month, had a bunch of new orders. 

And so, today, I welcome some new friends and want publicly thank Alicia for helping new faces to find me.  She's a good soul, she is.  Once upon a time, hobos had a set of symbols/code they would chalk or paint on a fence or building to note what sort of help another might find (or not).  When I think of Alicia, "Kindhearted Woman" comes to mind.  Because I'm pretty sure she is.  And if this were pre-1940's America, there would be a sweet 'lil kitty drawn in chalk on her back door.  Go see her. 

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The other thing that made me smile from ear to ear was the picture you see today. 

Look familiar? 

It's Pebble Number 021 from my last post -- made in for the Do Art Daily Show in February, and left very recently on the the beach in the Sunset Beach neighborhood of Treasure Island, Florida.  Sterling picked it up and signed the guestbook before I even got the photos posted. 

Yesterday, I received an unexpected email from Sterling with the above Pebble Portrait attached. 

REALLY?  How awesome is THAT???  I never imagined one of them would sit for a portrait....

Hi,

It's us again (the people who found no. 21). We love love love your pebble and everyone who comes to visit is intrigued and 'curious' about it. So we just wanted to send you a little thank you... a pebble portrait.

(You are free to put the picture on your blog or wherever if you so desire.)

THANKS A MILLION (again)!

-Sterling

There is so much good in the world.  Keep your eyes open.

Ah! Italia!

I imagine that not everyone continually keeps tabs on the guestbook, but this latest comment warrants posting for all to see...

"Lorenzo said...
Hi there!!
I found the original blue one of your home page in Laguna beach just a few days ago before return back to Florence! (Italy)
A really nice and curious idea and surprice!
Now it's in good hands...I'll take care of it! ;-)
Good luck for your project!
Ciao"

Not only am I thrilled that another pebble has been found and logged in, but DOUBLY so, because the finder is from my motherland, and it's the first pebble that has made it's way there. Such.Happiness.

Lorenzo, you really made my day, Paisano. :)

/Julianna

Pebbles for Jane...

Remember the amazing thing where a very nice woman sent me her vintage thread collection? 

And she asked for nothing in return, but a few pebbles made for her to remember her relatives by.

I'm hideously embarrassed that it has taken me so long to complete this task, but at loooong last... I've finally done it.  Jane, I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long. 

In the original shipment, Jane had set aside a grouping of a few of her favorite threads, and requested that I use those, if possible, in her collection.  It WAS possible, and I did, with one small problem:

While I was photographing this essay, the above happened.  Old thread.... very thin thread... and while breakage happened several times as I was *making* them, I didn't expect that the addition of a camera would be the final straw for sweet little blue.  So, drat.  I really liked that one.  Boo-Hiss.  :(

But! There are survivors!  And, I'm actually posting this as the pebbles go into the Mail, so Jane hasn't even seen them yet... here's a preview, Miss Jane! I hope Hope HOPE you like them!

I DID have to take a few liberties with the thread choices, as a few of Jane's set-aside threads were too brittle.  I solved this by combining some of the thinner threads and making new colors in the same spectrum.  You can see this in the Green/Teal/Blue pebbles above.

I ended up using the entire spool of the blue/white/yellow thread (top, middle pebble), so that wasn't available to pose for pictures....

But I DO love that little spring green one in the background - and even though it wasn't specifically one that Jane had asked for, I thought it went nicely with the batch as a whole... so it's all hers as well.

And what ISN'T shown here is a small collection of un-covered pebbles that are included in the package. 

Jane had seen some of my arrangements with both covered and un-covered stones, and liked the way it looked.  So, I'm sending both kinds of stones as apparently ocean-smoothed pebbles aren't so much available in Kansas. :)

And I still have all of this loveliness to play with.... YAY!

So, a huge THANK YOU to my friend for both the thoughtfulness and the patience.  I'm not sure I deserve either of those things these days, which makes it all the more special.

/Julianna

The World According to Pia

Photo by Pia from The World According To Pia

Last night, as I was performing my evening ritual of catching up on my favorite blogs, I was stunned and amazed to see one of my absolute favoritest blogs ever blogging about MOI!

Wow!

The backstory on this is that I found the darling Miss Pia by chance, when she was featured on "Blogs of Note" awhile back. I don't always check those out, but I'm so glad I did in this case... I immediately fell in love with her photo essays about life in Sweden, her little "loaf dog", an obsession for the types of shoes I wish I had more of, all things baked and delectable, a penchant for castles and meadows and other assorted bits of loveliness.

In short, the one blog I look forward to reading every evening, even if only a picture of the loaf dog sunning in the backyard or a photo of whatever adorable pair of shoes she wore today.

A few weeks ago, she had a sweet little giveaway, and somehow or other, my name was pulled. As a little thank you, I sent a few pebbles her way.

Well. Gee. Didn't expect such a gorgeous write up about it, but here it is.

The World According to Pia- it's a pretty sweet ol' world after all, and it just gets smaller and smaller by the minute. I love that.

peonyandbee

One of the buyers in last week's "Etsy Shop Goes Bananas" fest has posted this to her Exceedingly Lovely tumblr blog....


From peonyandbee:

Are you familiar with the Curious Pebble Project?
I love what this woman is doing.
She hand picks gorgeous tumbled rocks from the beach, whips up little tatted covers for them in a variety of different colored threads, and then returns them to the beach for random strangers to...

So!  Another Pebble has found a home...  and I'm so glad that I looked her up, because, peonyandbee is chock full of handmade loveliness. 

Thank you, Kate!

Hmmmm... Where Do People Put Their Curious Pebbles?

I've always wondered what happens to a Curious Pebble once it leaves my hands (hence the whole point of this blog and it's Guestbook), so I was particularly happy to find that a friend had posted a picture of her pebble in it's new home... as part of the desktop Zen Garden! 

This is The One For Frances!

SO!  If you've found/purchased/been gifted a Curious Pebble and would like to share a picture of it in it's new home, I'd be ever so happy to hear from you.... you can send pics to curiouspebble(at)cox.net and I'll post 'em as I get them!