|| new gems in the shop ||

 Spent the day filling up the esty shop with a bunch of new jewelry and a few vintage pieces. 

Among a 1970s woven Native American belt and a 1960s grey floral frock dress, I listed raw Ametrine earrings and a Lapis Lazuli bracelet set.

 

A mid century design by Navajo artist Terry Martinez with sterling silver and dark turquoise gem stone. Size 5 1/2. Makes a wonderful pinky ring or a midi ring!

Click here or at the top to take a peek at the shop!

|| knit-nerd ||

50.50 wool/acrylic blend - "Oatmeal"

 

My mother taught me to knit when I was in fourth grade. I was terrible at it but continued to do it anyway. By the time I got to high school I'd gotten a little better. One day I brought my knitting to school with me at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences here in Tulsa. A friend saw me and asked me to teach her. I agreed and without knowing, laid the foundations for a knitting club that is still going strong at my high school today.

 

Finished scarf, with buffalo bone pin

 

It has a lot of different meanings to me. It always marks the beginning of fall and winter because who wants to hold new wool in their hands in the heat and mugginess of Oklahoma summers? Its a pleasant past time with infinite uses and a glorious palate of dyed yarns and specialty needles. My favorite things to make are cowls, scarves, infinity scarves, and beanies, but I also enjoy making hair bows and ear warmers. Things I'd like to make but haven't gotten around to it yet include fingerless gloves, leg warmers, and a blanket.

 

Making a huge chunky knitted blanket is a dream of mine - only you have to have the bones for a shopping cart full of skeins!   

 

A couple great places to look for yarn locally is Loops and surprisingly Michaels has a good selection of quality yarns as well.

|| mw logo ||

 

 

With a very big thank you to my father in law, Keith Whitfield, I now have a beautiful logo! I doodled it one day with a crummy ball point pen at work. He cleaned it up, gave it better shape and made it a solid logo. I love the way my initials look like old Norse runes.  

I also finally got to spend the time putting together proper tags for my jewelry inventory!

 

 

You can find a handful of my jewelry designs for sale at the "Made: Indie Emporium" in downtown Tulsa on 5th and Boston. It is a store of amazing local artists and designers with everything from t-shirts to home décor. Currently, that is the only location that I have jewelry at. Hopefully, I will have some inventory at their Pearl District location soon.   

 

Support local, Shop local!

|| family stories ||



Great Grandmother Myrle Orga (Wier) Cooley and Great Grandfather Dana Cooley.

 

When the Irish born Cooleys landed on the East coast of America, their name underwent a significant change. Due to the amount of illiteracy and the phonetic challenges of Gaelic dialects, surnames began to be spelled the way they sounded to the individual documenting it. Whither it was for immigration papers, birth certificates, licensing and the like, names slowly underwent small changes at a time. Although those changes are unknown to me, at one time Cooley (Koo-lee) in it's original Irish origin is spelled Kaulie (Kau-lee). You can see the differences in the representation of the vowels is likely to do with its pronunciation.  

 

Cooley kids, 1930s

 

Although I didn't have the pleasure of meeting either of my paternal great grand fathers, I knew both my paternal great grand mothers: Myrle Cooley and Sylvia Gillam. The picture above is of the Cooley children and several friends (my Grandmother Susan was the little girl standing on the bumper of the car). In the background of the photograph you can see Dana's sport plane that he built himself for fun.