Feeling the Love

I was recently FEATURED (that's right) on one of my favorite blogs. Well, really the only blog I read every day. Usually more than once a day because the author is a posting fool and I don't want to miss anything. TileMeBeautiful is an odyssey of self-discovery, courage, pain and loss, pee-your-pants humor, creativity, the occasional bedtime sprinkling of Ambien-induced loopiness, remaking yourself, laughing at yourself and, of course, Tile. (Go check it out, and be sure and start at the beginning!) I stumbled across Michelle (in an alley, no less) one day and I've been looking forward to connecting with her online every day since. Just kidding about the alley. Actually, she submitted an article to Artfire, a website dedicated to the sale of handmade items (where she sells her glass tile creations and I sell my jewelry), and her story about the recent painful changes in her life and a sudden, unexpected obsession with glass tile really touched me (I know how bad it hurts to have your heart broken, and I too have an inexplicable, visceral, acquisitive reaction to glass tile, in spite of not being a homeowner). Anyway, I wanted to send a little moral support her way (sometimes it helps to hear that someone else knows you're going to be OK, even if you think it's looking iffy), I was fascinated by the creative metamorphosis she was going through, and loved her sense of humor (kindred spirit), so I sent her a note. A girl just needs a break, you know? And if she didn't turn out to be even cooler than I thought. She's only 25 (a baby!) but an old soul, seems to me, with lots of scrappy courage. She's putting herself back together piece by piece with a fierce determination, and a whole lot of grout.

These are some of my favorites of hers--go check her out at http://TileMeBeautiful.artfire.com and http://TileMeBeautiful.etsy.com:
A Serving Tray in my favorite colors (I don't know what it means that my favorite color is taupe right now)

A Vanity Mirror in ocean blues (and I'm all about vanity)

A Decorative Cross in sunset colors (this would look AWESOME in a mission style home)

It never occurred to me to do this kind of thing with glass tiles. I would just watch HGTV Kitchen Rennovations or Color Splash or Divine Desgin or whatever and I'd see them put those glass tiles on a fireplace or on a kitchen wall and I'd sigh and think, will David Bromstad NEVER take his shirt off? And then I'd think, maybe someday I'll have a fireplace and I can put glass tiles on it...But glass tile has been taken to a whole new level. People are even making pendants with it. And here I thought I was all imaginative.

So my plan is, when my massive jewelry empire is off the ground and Tom and I have moved into an obscenely large house, or a house with a third bedroom where I can put a workbench with longer legs and a chair (I'm finding the on-the-floor Studio Seating from Pottery Barn in the Kilim pattern is not very functional), I will commission Michelle to make me a new tile top coffee table. And end tables. And console table. And probably a couple of plant stands and a mirror and a couple picture frames. And a hanging coat rack for the wall. My house will be very reflective. Like me and Michelle.