HOMEward bound. . . .

{photo by shannonpix}

This is it! i won't have much in the way of time to sit down and chat for more than a minute after this point, so here's my last update to say a quick adiós before we hit the road. i'm so EXCITED to finish the packing, loading, and get the anipals situated in the car, and be OFF!!! our relocube arrives tuesday and we should have it packed and ready to get picked up hopefully by wednesday afternoon and then we are off bright and early thursday morning. 

ROAD TRIPS are always an awesome adventure! in the year before i moved to Buffalo, Gregg and i trekked across the country 4 times, and believe it or not we are still looking forward to doing it again. even with the constraints of carrying the critters...though most of that excitement, no doubt, has to do with just finally moving on and getting HOME. ♡ 

Wish me a safe trip, and i'll be back in touch soon! 

xo, LoRi

this is like a "mini" PROGRESS REPORT.

This will be my last JEWELRY update before i get HOME to pdx and get a moment to settle in and unpack. with only 2 weeks left before i leave Buffalo, i need to start packing up my supplies and all of the jewelry pieces i've been building and hoarding to peddle around town when i get back!

With that said, i haven't really been keeping up with taking many pictures of my work in the meantime, but i did just snap a couple this morning to post before i pack up...

ENJOY!

{my new favorite!}

{all images © 2009 Lori Olds}

the little love NEST.

We're moving back HOME, to Portland! this is our new house. she's a little barren and sad looking, no? a little parched? in need of some love? i would say yes on all fronts, but i look at her and see PURE POTENTIAL. i'm posting the outdoor pictures because it's the part i'm most excited about. a yard for the dog, a yard for gardening and growing food, a patio for outdoor lounging with coffee or cocktails and grilling, a little shed to house our garden tools and bicycles. it's just PERFECT.

Do you know what i see when i look at the front of this house? those metal pillars become trellises...with big containers in front of each one planted full of vining veggies, like beans or something - climbing UP!, UP!, UP! i see more pots clustered around those with more food, herbs, and flowers staggered at different heights & sizes, bursting with fabulous textures and colors! i see a big blooming basket of flowers hanging from under the awning. or maybe tomatoes or strawberries from a Topsy Turvy? 

( i'd also like a bamboo wind chime, too. ♡ )

These pictures look like a blank canvas to me, and i can't wait to get started building, painting, and growing! much of the gardening may have to wait until Spring, but there are so many things we can prepare and start in the meantime. we can start composting and prepare rainwater collection! we can build planters and garden beds! we can.........build Larry an outdoor cat park!?

But seriously? (actually, i wasn't kidding about Larry) this house has everything we want and need until we decide to buy a home. it's 3 bedrooms, we have laundry, it's a great location. on top of the fact that we have a yard and all that comes with it. and the rent - for Portland - is amazing. we feel CRAZY LUCKY and super blessed. life is good. we head out of Buffalo the 18th of August.........

Garden of Urban Delights

See? was i not just saying in my last post that all this awesomeness seems to be popping up everywhere i look?! very cool. i love this, especially in Buffalo, where after a laundry list of phone calls made last week to locate someplace to recycle our collected 3-7 plastics, we discovered it just doesn't exist ANYWHERE in this city. sadly.

in other news...a recent update in my FB news feed through friend and fellow artist Michael Fields, brought to my attention the art of Tom Keating. which is fantabulous! and for some reason his character guys make me think of crab fisherman, which is making me crave a plate full of crab legs 'n hot butter. that might sound weird, but if you knew the degree to which i not only think crab fisherman are sexy mutherf#!kers, but also that crab legs are on my short list of meals to choose from if i had to choose but one meal before my death, you would realize it's just an extra fancy compliment. and now it probably doesn't seem that weird. right?! so anyway, to make things even better (or like the equivalent of cheesecake for desert), he did this fancy pants rendition of a pair of scissors that *make my heart skip a beat*. it's so stupid that they were SOLD, cause they were so obviously made for me! 

i love them.   

and these too...

 { all photos & art by Tom Keating }

*sigh* ♡

i was walking through the park the other day all la-la-la like and i found myself falling into my feet. you know what i mean? that feeling of being fully and completely in your body? where you can feel your own weight...like you can sense every muscle, every cell practically? i get that when i feel good, when i relax, when i surrender beyond my head. anyway. i had that, and it was no doubt triggered by the reflection and realization that my life was changed due to an innocent trip to the bookstore back in April.

I had gone to pick up my favorite art magazine of all time, HI-FRUCTOSE. but had ended up sitting down reading an article that had landed open when i made a quick flip through ReadyMade (which i also think is awesome). it was about the Green Truck. a lunch truck run on biodiesel and serving up local organic deliciousness to people in the LA area. i was inspired, and handed it to Gregg (who is a fabulous cook - i would live off of canned, boxed, and frozen food without him. though i'm working on changing that!). i was ready to sell everything and buy a truck! and get the fuck out of Buffalo. But aaanyway, that led me like a magnet to a neighboring copy of a magazine called Mother Earth News, and also an issue of their Wiser Living series Guide To Growing Your Own Food. i sat down and couldn't stop reading. and i still haven't stopped.

the more i learn, the more i want it. i would trade in everything to be a full time farmer. seriously. i've really thought long and hard considering that lately. particularly in relation to my creative life and art making. but the thing is, for me, is that i don't look at it as being much different. meaning, it doesn't matter if i'm cutting paper, making jewelry, or nesting up my house...or building a farm/homestead. they are all their own canvases. it's all just different ways of building beautiful compositions and constructions. put anything in front of me, allow me to get my hands in it and play, and i'm happy. i believe it's the happiest i could possibly be. having a creative outlet that affects not only my emotional/interior life, but also my physical health and also the health of our planet. i don't want or need anything more than that. 

I feel like it's been forever that i've been pointed in this direction. there was a number of years growing up that i lived in the country. and what was sheer hell to my brother at a young age (the crazy boy would bike 30 miles or more to get out of it), was total bliss to me. i would wander from one end of the valley to the other, climb hills, and sit in my neighbors pastures pulling up handfuls of grass to feed to their horses. and talk to myself. which btw, i never thought was strange until recently when i was telling Gregg about it. about how i would carry full-on two-way conversations with myself, like regularly. he thought that sounded a little coo-coo for cocoa puffs. i say it's awesome how much i love my own company! btw, i still do it. anyway, so there's that. and then there was a summer i spent living on a horse farm. and then there was my organic farming job i had a number of years later in my early 20's that just served to validate and remind me of what has always made sense to me...and continues to make even more sense with our overall global state of affairs politically, socially and environmentally.

Life is so crazy magical. i love how almost as soon as i plugged into all of it, now it seems to be around me everywhere - the support and inspiration for this broader, more open shift in thinking. i feel like there's a goodness aligning out there that was just waiting patiently for me to catch up, and join in. and it makes me feel so much more at home. i feel comforted, excited, and hopeFULL. and while i've always wanted to, and still would in a heartbeat, live in the country. i also see now that there is way more to it than city dwellers and country folk. there is a beautiful gray area, and the quality of life that i want to live is available to me anywhere i choose to create it.

these are tough times, Mr. Beautiful Turkey.

In happiness or unhappiness, living is a duty, and must be done thoroughly.

-Ellis Peters

I love getting my Daily Peace Quotes. 

this was from today, and i love the tone of it. if you didn't know, i'm a Leo. RAWR! born in the Week of Authority. so when someone says something clear and wise and you can practically hear the emphatic bang of a fist on a table to boot, lol, you've totally got my attention. i saw it after i spent half the morning (ok fine, afternoon) trying to get lost. looking for something to pull me out of my head. to escape. but everything i found made me feel like i have no choice but to surrender. and by surrender i mean trust. trust that everything is in it's proper order. to remember that everything - all the things, people, and events of my life when thoughtfully reflected upon have made nothing but perfectly progressive, logical sense. even if it sometimes looks and feels like hell to go through.

It's good advice, no? to live thoroughly. all the good and all the bad. to remember that the occasional howling, screaming, sobbing pains that need to have their voice be heard doesn't equate to craziness. ha. actually, if such emotions DID in fact equate to craziness, i'd proudly profess my insanity. . .

which btw, makes me think of a movie i saw not too long ago called Rabbit Proof Fence. it's the true story of an Australian aboriginal family that got separated when a bunch of mentally and spiritually retarded white people wanted to basically erase them off the planet. and the girls that were stolen walked like 1500 miles, while being tracked, to get back to their mother and family. anyway, my point is that there were many times that these women did exactly what i'm talking about. they laid down and rolled on the ground and howled and sobbed straight into their pain (and also, their joy). when i was watching it i was in total awe and struck by how beautiful and healthy and (no doubt) cathartic it was to do. emotions being felt to their fullest instead of being stuffed or quieted or buried to look and act like an appropriate "civilized" person. 

So thanks for the tough (permission giving) love, Ellis Peters. whoever you are. ♡

evolution.

{all images © 2009 Lori Olds}

my very first jewelry piece that is 100% RECYCLED! REPURPOSED! UPCYCLED! (choose whatever fancy eco-friendly bit of terminology you'd like to use, i'm not picky i love them all). and it's all i want to do anymore in terms of making jewelry. i've scrapped the idea of working paper pieces into them all together. so that said, i'm going to be using up the materials that i already have. the resin and any newly manufactured beads, etc that i have from before i had realized where this was all going to be headed...and then that will be that, for that. 

The "new" materials i've ordered or bought in the last few months have all been used, thrifted, vintage, estate sale finds...and will continue to be, solely. i'm completely inspired and so happy to be working an aspect of my life in complete accordance with my BIG PICTURE/life values. ♡ you know what they say about walking the talk? or walking the walk? or however that goes?! anyway, it just FEELS GOOD. and i've also come to appreciate keeping the paperCUTting as it's own separate medium. there's a super great flow in the process from one to the other and i really like how they affect each other without having to literally, physically merge. 

PS:

with the evolution of things, i also made a few graphic simplifications. i took the "collage works" out of my blog header and out of my Etsy shop banner. that way, i have the freedom to describe evolution, ideas, or change. unconfined by being too narrowly defined! don't box me in, yo.