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This article is a great way to give your friends and local charitable organizations some more information about Giveness.  So if you haven't yet, email an article, or print it out and give it to someone you know who would benefit from all that can be offered at Giveness!  We all know someone who would love to be a part of the Giveness Community.  Think about who that is in your life.

It's is time to spread the word!

I will post a couple of photos for you to see.   Take a look in my photo section.      

My Grandma Hannah is some kind of family celebrity. More than forty family members from around the country flew, drove, or ferried to the party. There was a pre-party, a sit down dinner, a cake reception and an after-party! We celebrated for more than 9 hours straight. Grandma and her little brother and little sister (both over 80 years old themselves) were the last to leave at 11:30 pm. If only I could have that kind of energy when I am 90, heck, I would love to have that kind of energy now!

I didn't check my email, the blog, or our sales for almost three days straight! I was unplugged. I don't remember the last time I have gone more than a day without being "connected." Part of me was itching to find a computer and log in. Another part of me resisted the technological temptation and relished the visiting, the party, the family time.

The photo of my grandma's childhood home was part of the celebration. It is the opening photo of an album we made to commemorate her birthday. She opened the album when we gave it to her and said, "Oh, it's our house!" She hadn't seen the photo in years. She lived there with her 6 brothers and sisters and two parents in the two bedroom wooden house in northern Wisconsin.

Her life was truly unplugged. Her childhood didn't have the noise of phones or TVs, or the hum of computers and microwaves. In fact, she and her family lived so far out of town, that in order for them to attend high school, they had to board with other families in the nearest town with a school. And they did. Life was different then.

I enjoyed my weekend away. I enjoyed my time spent with my family. I also am happy to be back. Those "old folks" wore me out! And I can sit down at the computer to plug in...

I have often been asked Why do you work with Milagros? What is your connection to Milagros?

I feel that I have a special connection to Milagros because of my mom.  I grew up in an artist’s home.  I was exposed to the arts and culture throughout my upbringing.  My mother was an artist in her own right having a BFA and MFA.  (My father also has a BFA and MFA).  While I didn’t learn my craft through osmosis, my interest built because of the love for art that I felt in my home.  My mother and I made frequent trips to California, and New Mexico.  We attended the yearly Indian Market in Denver each January.  She collected arts and crafts from the southwestern America, Mexico and Central America.  These pieces were part of my upbringing.

In fact, the first beads I worked with as Kerry and I started our venture into Milagro Jewelry came from several of my mother’s necklaces.  The very inspiration of Milagros came from a small handful of Milagro charms that my mother had given me years ago in a small Ziploc bag.  I kept that bag in my jewelry box, and when the time came, I knew that those Milagros would be the inspiration point for our designs.

The Magic of Milagros doesn’t stop there, however. A while back, Kerry and I started cleaning out my mom’s old studio in order to open a new space where we can work together.  As I was sorting through bits and baubles, papers and scraps, I came across a small paper bag.  Inside the paper bag were three pictures of saints and a small card with type-written text titled “Milagros.”  Finding this amongst the dust and clutter reinforced my feeling that Milagros are magical and somehow, this is meant to be.

While I don’t believe in the “hocus-pocus” form of magic, I do believe in each of us is something special.  I believe in art and creativity.  I believe that the each person brings to a charm or a stone or a crystal the “magic” that is within themselves.  That is why I believe that our Milagro Jewelry is special.  Each person brings their own special meaning or wish to the Milagros they choose to wear.

For me, I choose to wear the star for good luck, the breasts for the strength of women, the girl for my own two girls, a woman for my mother, a car because I am always on the go, a house for the love in my home, a hand for creativity in the arts, and a heart for the loves in my life.  I don’t wear all of them at once, but I do wear them daily.  Have they brought magic to my life?  It depends on how you define magic.  I think that the Milagros have brought me good fortune, creativity and a way to express that creativity, and a connection with friends.

My wish for you, is that you find the Milagros that have meaning to you and you let them bring you good fortune in all that you do, too.

This is the story of the art studio that I share with my friend and business partner, Kerry.  This will explain a lot about who we are and what we do.

The historic little blue building in Old Town Lafayette has lived many lives.   What was once Lafayette’s kindergarten, a storage facility and even a wash house, is a building with a history and with history comes a story.    This one involves an artist, a mother and daughter, a friendship, dreams and a pair of red cowboy boots.

Helen, a Birch and Douglas Elementary Schools art teacher and artist, started renovations on the little blue building with the dream of turning it into an art studio for herself.  New cherry wood floors, walls and electricity were added but renovations stopped with her sudden death and the little blue building sat.  In the coming years it was used as a storage facility by me, her daughter Rachel.  It sat untouched for 7 years until Rachel (that's me) and Kerry were looking for a place to expand their jewelry design business.  The perfect place was right there in front of them in what everyone called “the schoolhouse.”

 In the spring of 2005, renovations started.  It was messy, dusty and sometimes overwhelming.  But with determination and help from friends, everything was hauled out and cleaned and we began to see what a fabulous place we had.  We found many treasures while we cleaned, including a bag of Milagros that we swore kept mysteriously moving around everytime we set them down.   Each time we discovered them again we knew this was the right place for us to be.  A friendly mannequin we nicknamed Paco sat in the corner with a bandaged arm.  We still hope he is out there somewhere riding around Lafayette.  Boxes and boxes of art supplies and treasures we named collageables, were waiting for us to transform them into art.    One item we don’t have a story for but we find intriguing are the red cowboy boots that hang from the ceiling rafter.  It is the one item we never moved and probably never will.  They must be important, because everyone notices them and everyone has something nice to say about them.   We like to think of the red boots as the logo for what we now call “The Helen Parker Art Studio.”

In the fall of 2005, we moved in and found that we wanted to create more than jewelry in our little studio.  We started experimenting with our own art and world’s of ideas came to us.  We always say we are full of ideas and it seems they never stop, so we had to share.  In December we started classes for local women to come and create fine crafts with us.  The classes fill each month and we have a nice group of regulars as well as new people each time.  We love sharing our ideas and love meeting all of the fascinating, creative, bright women who join us.  We host coffee hours most Fridays from 9-11 for women to just stop by and talk, get ideas or just connect with other women.  The Studio is a second home for Kerry and I; and we hope it feels the same way for everyone else who joins us there.

Today we had studio guests in at noon.  We had to stay in.  I guess being “forced” to stay in was good for us.  It pushed us back to what we do: make jewelry. 

Sometimes finding inspiration, after not working for a while, is hard.  We are pushed back to our materials.  We look at the stones and silver that we have and see what strikes us.  Sometimes we challenge ourselves—“we haven’t made a piece using citrine for a while,” or “what can we do with this silver piece?”  I feel challenged.  We have to change our designs and colors to fit trends and style as well as stay true to our own aesthetic. 

We both made several new pieces..I like them all.  On Friday we will take photos, and hopefully you will be able to see them on Amazon soon. 

Today was good.  Good to be productive.  Good to be creative.

Don’t you sometimes just have a day that doesn’t work out?  We did.  My friend and I set out to do a little antiquing, a little junque-ing at the flea markets…and to scout out some new stores for our jewelry.  It was a Monday. 

After a half hour work in the studio, we hopped in the car and drove north, to the next town…  This particular Monday the flea market we had set out for was closed, unexpectedly.  Not only that 4 of the 5 stores we wanted to take a look at don’t have Monday hours. 

So, back in the car.  We headed for home.  We had a little lunch and thought we would check out a few thrift stores in Boulder.  We called ahead to make sure they were open…Luck!  All three stores were open. 

Our luck didn’t last long.  The stores were over priced—they didn’t have anything we found interesting—and, frankly, they stank.  No, really they smelled!  Bad!  Kerry and I almost lost our lunch at the last one.  It had the unsavory smell of cat pee and old food.

We called it a day, with little to show for our effort.

I guess some days are like that.