Lubbock here we come!

Art Festivals, Jewelry, Lampworking, Lyn Foley Go Anyway Blog, Lyn Foley Jewelry Blog, Parkinson's disease, sailing around the world 1 Response »

Apr 052011

Lyn Foley at the Lubbock Arts Festival April 8-10, 2011

The Lubbock Art Festival is this weekend, and I’m photographing and pricing new jewelry today. I’m also hoping to finish our taxes before we leave, take a few pieces of new jewelry over to the Gallery at Round Top, and work on my display. I also need to get together with my sister Mary. I planted my vegetable garden, and since Mary takes care of Chica and the house while we are away, I need to show her what is planted where so that she can water it. Nothing like a lot to do today, is there? Somehow all the last minute things always get taken care of, so, I’m off to work.

Oh, I almost forgot: Go Anyway did launch last week. The e-mail I sent about the book signing may have been a little confusing. If you didn’t understand how to buy a copy from me follow this link, http://www.GoAnyway.net to purchase my book. If you want me to sign it,write a note in the shipping instructions. ( Shipping is generally media mail.) If you live near Round Top and want to pick up your copy, just leave off the shipping, and send me an e-mail seperately. I’m working on the digital formatting (in between making jewelry, can’t forget that), so the book will be available on all the popular sites for e-book downloads in about two weeks. I’ll keep you posted.

Go to http://www.GoAnyway.net to buy a copy of my book

A Week to Remember

Lyn Foley Go Anyway Blog, Parkinson's disease, sailing around the world No Responses »

Mar 242011

Boy, this past week has been something. My book, Go Anyway: Sailing Around the World Despite Parkinson’s Disease was published! E-mail announcements went out, and it has been steadily selling. Thanks to all who bought a copy.

Meanwhile, over the weekend we were in Dallas for Artscape, a fine art show in the Dallas Arboretum. The gardens were in full beautiful bloom, and the weather was perfect. We opened the gate of 2011 with many new designs, and they looked beautiful as well on the people who walked home wearing them. Jim had a few medication issues, but hung in there, and managed to join me in the booth for a lot of the show. If you missed seeing him, he is recovering and doing well. Thanks also to the show staff who helped us make our way through the challenges Parkinson’s Disease presented during the weekend.

And speaking of glitches, oh, my gosh, my website has been full of them. Jerry and Adrienne, my behind the scenes website gurus, have been groaning (I know) over all my frantic e-mails. Something really crazy went on and there were days when even we couldn’t find www.LynFoley.com. Thank whatever little gremlins control the web that all is okay now. LynFoley.com is back up and all links are working. If you are inclined, go on over to www.GoAnyway.net to learn about my book, or even buy a copy.

I’ll have my first sale and book signing tomorrow here in Round Top, Texas, that tiny little city that goes nationwide twice a year. I set up my table today at Sterling McCalls Antique Venue and the flags of the 39 countries that we sailed to will fly behind me on the wall. Ah, memories. I’m kinda scared actually. Writing a book is very different than creating jewelry. Not that my heart and soul isn’t in my jewelry, it is. But somehow putting my life into words is much more personal. So, join me in welcoming my new creation to the world, and if you are anywhere nearby, come on over and meet me. I’ll be at Sterlings selling and signing my book tomorrow, Friday March 25th from 3-7, Saturday, March 26th, 9-6, and Sunday March 27th, 9-6.

Blessings.

P.S. That cover photo of our boat, Sanctuary, was taken in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during our 24 day crossing from Florida to the Azore Islands. It was shot by folks on White Trillium, who were sailing back to the United Kingdom via the Azores. Thanks, guys – remember when?

Click on the cover to go over to www.GoAnyway.net and buy my book

Go Anyway is at the printers!

Art Festivals, Beads, Jewelry, Lyn Foley Go Anyway Blog, Lyn Foley Jewelry Blog, Parkinson's disease, art, sailing around the world No Responses »

Mar 092011

Lot’s going on behind the scenes here. Finally, after years of searching for an agent or large press I am publishing my book, Go Anyway; Sailing Around the World Despite Parkinson’s Disease. I’ve already gotten a proof, and the finished book will be here soon – before the end of March! The book’s web site is almost complete, and as soon as the books arrive, I’ll go “live” and you can buy it. I’m assuming that if you read my blog you know what the heck I’m talking about. If you don’t , read this post, and this one . They will give you a hint about the 12 years my husband and I lived aboard a sailboat and sailed around the world.

I’m still hopping around to the posts of the participants in the Bead Soup Party. I will get to visit you all.

And I am also making jewelry for the upcoming show in Dallas: Artscape, A Fine Art Fair in the Garden. I’m out of here and back to my torch, and later my beading bench.

Sneak Preview of Why I Haven’t Blogged Since November

Parkinson's disease, Uncategorized, sailing around the world 2 Responses »

Jan 182011

Okay, excuses, excuses. After the November show in Albuquerque, I did one last show of the year at The Gallery at Round Top in December. (2010 seems so long ago to me now.) After that early December show I put my head down and finished the book I have been working on for the last six years or so. Well, not really working on it, more like sending it out to agents and/or publishers, getting rejections, or in some cases encouragement, however, no book deals. I’ve decided to publish it myself. It will be out within the next two months. It’s too early to order a copy, however, add your name to my mailing list, and I’ll let you know the minute it is ready to ship – probably mid-March!

Commitment Rules!

Jewelry, Lyn Foley Jewelry Blog, Parkinson's disease, art, sailing around the world 10 Responses »

Jun 282010

Commitment: 3. The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons: a deep commitment to liberal policies; a profound commitment to the family.

Commitment rules my life.

I made a commitment in 1974 to Jim Foley. We married in 1977, and my commitment to him and our life together still rules today, 33 years later. Little did I know when I made the pledge “in sickness and in health” that Parkinson’s disease would crop its ugly head and test my vow time, and time and time again. Jim was diagnosed with PD in 1991, shortly after we moved aboard a 40 foot sailboat to sail around the world. (Parkinson’s disease is a progressive, degenerative neuorological disorder. More info here). PD challenged us then and each day PD continues to challenge us to keep and meet our commitment to live full, active, meaningful, and useful lives.

As we set sail, and Jim’s physical abilities began to deteriorate and sometimes fail, we were tempted to despair, yet rose above the easy way out, the out that could have said “I quit.” If I handed him a cup and he couldn’t grip it because of PD, and it dropped and broke, we swept up the pieces and started over. If his balance was unreliable, and he couldn’t go out on the deck of the boat without falling, we gave him a job in the cockpit, and I learned how to reef the sails as he would have done had he been physically able. The circumnavigation took us 10 years. We did make it around the world, and were both the better for fulfilling our commitment. We are enlivened by another vow, our declaration to “Accommodate without surrender.” We will not let PD stop us from realizing our dreams.

Back on land in 2002 after our circumnavigation we decided to re-create the lives we’d led as artists and jewelers before we set sail. In the midst of that process, I unexpectedly fell in love with glass. We shifted gears, and made a new commitment, that of making me a star in the glass jewelry world. We needed to accommodate the limitations that PD put on Jim’s jewelry making techniques anyway. When his hands shake, and he can’t solder because of it, then he picks up the pieces and starts over again. Since I’m making the glass beads, he doesn’t have to set gemstones anymore if PD won’t let him. If the beads I make don’t seem good enough to me, I keep making more until I’m satisfied with my creations. When PD imbalance and freezing knocks Jim to the floor, he picks himself up and starts over. If because of PD Jim can’t do much at all physically, I take up the slack. Together we realize our dreams. We accommodate, we do not surrender.

Commitment rules: a commitment to each other, a commitment to continuing creativity, a commitment to self-expression, a commitment to love.

Thanks to Art Bead Scene for providing the challenge to write a post on the topic of commitment.

Follow the link, and see what other bead artists have written on this topic.

”Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the live you have imagined.” Henry David Thoreau