It’s been a very busy week. I’ll break it down for you before I get to some poetry.
Jewelry Decisions – If you read my recent post, you’ll know that I’ve been up in the air about what to do with my hobby of making handcrafted jewelry.
A couple of things steered me in one direction over another this week. First, I heard from several people who read me on Medium. Surprisingly, they had deep insight into what I might consider.
Secondly, I reached back out to the gallery in Iowa where my handiwork has been on consignment for the last twelve years. The manager thought she had responded to me, but didn’t, and was so grateful I reached back out to her after nine days of not hearing from her. They do want fresh stock from me!
The lesson here (or rather, a reminder) is to never assume! I was assuming I didn’t hear from them because they didn’t want my creations anymore. I was wrong!
This put a much more optimistic spin on things related to my jewelry hobby. I can now take some time to fully consider what to do. And since my nature jewelry really best reflects who I am, I will keep most of those pieces in my Etsy shop, while sending other pieces to Iowa. I know what sells well there, so I am considering that as I ship my inventory.
Getting the inventory ready to go has taken 14 hours so far over the last two days. It involves tagging with numbers and prices, adding the pieces to inventory sheets, photographing the pieces (so they can put the pieces in their online shop as well as the physical gallery), and packing them to ship securely. It takes a lot of time.
Meanwhile…
I’ve been working on a picture book. It’s my first experience in writing this genre, and I have taken two online courses to help with it. But it’s time to edit my story. I need to tighten it up and decide what I want to include and what I don’t. My initial length was right in the range of what a picture book should be, but according to the publisher’s website, there needs to be back matter as well, so that makes it a little longer (but not too long, I’m still in range).
Here’s the thing, though, I need to retain my voice in the story. It’s hard when you consider opinions from those you love and respect. And, as a pleaser, I always have trouble sticking to my authentic self, giving way to the opinions of others. Wednesday night, I cut my story from 550 words to 329 words! Now it is too short!
Right now, it’s a picture book that rhymes, and I’ve read conflicting things about whether this is saleable or not. It’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is. I’d love some opinions on that if you’d be willing to leave them. Thanks.
I guess you just trust yourself, consider others’ opinions, write authentically, and hope for the best when turning something in. You can only do so much.
Two days ago, I thought I was close to a submission. Now, I know I’m not. But I have very much enjoyed working on this project, so that is the most important thing right now, because I have not been enjoying poetry.
And then, strangely enough, I’ve received some poetic inspiration – at least to keep writing it for myself. The Spring ephemerals are up in our yard! Today, while I was working to put in some Native Green Lobelia, I almost squashed a Jack in the Pulpit that had sprung up!
Last year, I planted seeds, and I was thrilled to see this native plant in our woods. There are anemone, ferns, and anemone flowers showing right now. Our perennial beds look great with prior years’ plantings popping up.
Gallery photos by author, 2026.
spring ephemerals
survived another winter
waited for sunshine
dotting our woods with color
here today, gone tomorrow
Hooded Teenager
Living in our dark, wet woods
Jack in the pulpit
The tanka and haiku were inspired by my work in the woods yesterday.
Two final things: 1) you can sign up on my author website at https://caroljlabuzzetta.com/ for any writing news.
And here is a Medium article from this week, shared with a friend link:
Patricia Franz has the round-up this week at her blog, Reverie. Thanks for hosting, Patricia.
Take care and be well. See you next week, here, for the round-up.
ooh! Hooded Teenager! Such a great image for that ephemeral, Carol! Sounds like you have lots of projects underway… and the juggling that comes with them. Glad to see (and read) of these spots of joy!
Thanks! I do and I continue to have joy with creating – on many levels.
I too love the perennial garden’s unfurling! Learning to trust ourselves as poets is a lifelong process. Keep going with the picture book. How exciting!
Thanks, Irene! I appreciate your encouragement. It is a process that I’m learning – trusting oneself with putting thoughts to words. I can imagine it never ends. And, that’s probably a good thing! Happy Spring!
So fun to see what’s just now popping up in your northern garden/woods as we end iris season and get ready for peonies!
I love seeing the new growth in the woods and my gardens. You are far ahead of us! I love iris but only have a few and they haven’t even popped up yet. Happy Spring!
Yay! I finally got here after changing to three different browsers. I don’t know why Safari and Firefox are being problematic. I thought I had solved this issue before, but it seems not. Chrome seems to be the only way I can access your blog. Anyway, thanks for sharing the pics of all the ephemerals popping up in your yard. That’s exciting. Love how you compared Jack in the Pulpit with a Hooded Teenager. Perfect! And good luck with your picture pook project!
Jama, I am so sorry you had difficulty reaching my blog last week but so happy you persisted and were eventually sucessful. I have looked into what might be causing the problem, done a scan, and unfortunately haven’t come up with the root cause. You are not the only one that had a problem; I am sad to say. Thank you for your kind wished about my projects!
The error message I get when trying to access your blog is that no secure connection could be established, so maybe it’s a server issue? It’s odd since your blog is with WordPress, right?
That opening photo of a fiddlehead fern is stunning! I’m so glad things are looking up for you, Carol. Spring looks good on you.
Thanks so much, Linda. The ferns have opened this week and there are more “hooded teenagers” in the forest – started to work on a poem about that. I hope you are well.
Carol, I agree with Irene. You should definitely continue working on your new book. i would love it if you would place your photo gallery and poems on my Spring Seeds Grace April Padlet at padlet.com/cvarsalona/spring-seeds-grace-april-iqgitngvyfqwch7b. It is also exciting that your jewelry is loved. I would love to see some. It would be fun to have one of your pieces on the Padlet with a haiku or tanka (just another idea for people to see your artistic touches for spring).
Thanks, Carol. I will try to add my input to your Padlet. I am traveling so just treading water trying to keep up. Hopefully, I can get to it. As always, I appreciate your support and kindness.
Carol, the padlet is open. Finding time is an issue I always have lately, so I understand.