Well…apparently my site host had some power issues at their main data storage site which caused my home website to be down for a good part of yesterday. It also means that it will be another day at least until I can edit or add things to it. Because I just cannot wait to show off some of the pretty new things I worked on over the last few days, I am going to take advantage of having this blog and give you all a preview here! I have been working diligently on twisted wire filigree designs and am able to work smaller and smaller every time! These three new pendants will be a part of my Wire Hearts Collection. I will be adding more as these really are fun and satisfying to make!

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The larger of the three is a mere 1.5″ (32mm) across…the other two measure 1″ (23mm) across!
The dainty heart on the right is a birthday gift for my daughter. The others will be made available for purchase on my site as soon as I have access to editing features again. (should be Wednesday morning at the latest).

I have finally been blessed with the time I’ve been yearning for to begin work on my new line of 9 pointed star pendants! Each one features a glass cabochon or bead made in my glass studio.
Thanks to the wonderful and talented tutelage of Jeanne Rhodes-Moen and inspiration by Victoria Lansford, I was able to embark on this amazing journey into silver filigree. I am hoping to expand my designs beyond 9 pointed stars as I gain a stronger foothold on the techniques involved in filigree work, but for now am certainly happy and content to focus on my 9-stars again!

This is my latest and is available for purchase
on my website ( http://rosesofonegarden.com/bahai.html )

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GENEVA, 18 February (BWNS)-

The European Union yesterday issued a statement
expressing its “deep concern” over Iran’s plans to bring seven imprisoned
Baha’i leaders to trial for espionage and other charges. The Baha’i
International Community has called for their immediate release, maintaining
their innocence and characterizing the regime’s claims as an “escalation of
its systematic crackdown on the Baha’is.”

The EU statement coincided with increasingly sharp anti-Baha’i rhetoric from
Iranian officials, who said a trial for the seven might come within a week.

The seven Baha’i leaders have been imprisoned in Tehran for more than eight
months, during which no formal evidence has been brought against them and
they have not been given access to their legal counsel, Nobel laureate
Shirin Ebadi. Another 30 Baha’is are imprisoned in Iran, while 80 other
prisoners have been released on collateral.

The European Union said it was concerned that, “after being held for so long
without due process, the Baha’i leaders may not receive a fair trial.

“The EU therefore requests the Islamic Republic of Iran to allow independent
observation of the judicial proceedings and to reconsider the charges
brought against these individuals.”

The document was endorsed by the entire 27-nation membership of the EU,
along with Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Iceland,
Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine, and Moldova.

Separately, in Brazil yesterday, the president of the Human Rights
Commission of the Federal Chamber of Deputies sent an open letter to Iran,
asking for the release of the Baha’i prisoners.

The Brazilian statement was issued by Pompeo de Mattos, president of the
national legislature’s Human Rights Commission.

“The peace-loving, humanistic principles and practices for which the Baha’is
are known in Brazil have earned this community respect and credibility among
the country’s human rights supporters,” said Deputy de Mattos. “There is
therefore no reason to doubt the credibility of their claims.”

Other such strong statements of support have been issued over the past
several days from governments and parliamentarians in a number of countries,
including Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Meanwhile, an official Iranian news agency report yesterday quoted a
judiciary department spokesman as saying the seven Baha’is “would attend
their hearing sessions within one week.”

According to an Islamic Republic News Agency story, Judiciary spokesman
Ali-Reza Jamshidi told reporters at his weekly press conference yesterday
that the “seven committed criminal acts including spying for foreigners.”

Mr. Jamshidi stated that the Baha’is would “definitely be allowed to use
legal counsel,” though they have had no access to their lawyer to date.

His statement followed a harsh report on Sunday that quoted Iran’s
prosecutor general as saying the government plans the “complete destruction”
of Baha’i administration in Iran.

“The administration of the misguided Baha’i sect at all levels is unlawful
and banned, and their ties to Israel and their opposition to Islam and the
Islamic regime are clear,” said Iranian Prosecutor General Ayatollah
Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi, according to a report in Fars News.

“The danger they pose to national security is documented and proven and
therefore it is necessary that any substitute administration that acts as a
replacement for the original be confronted through the law,” said Ayatollah
Najafabadi.

Diane Ala’i of the Baha’i International Community said the activities of the
Baha’i leaders had to do with meeting the minimum spiritual and
administrative needs of the 300,000-member Baha’i community of Iran. She
said Ayatollah Najafabadi’s attempt to portray their actions as “dangerous”
was baseless and that the government is well aware that there is no truth to
such allegations.

“How can the chief prosecutor equate something so harmless as a group of
individuals who get together to give spiritual guidance and administer such
things as marriages and burials and children’s moral classes with something
that threatens Iran’s national security?” said Ms. Ala’i, the Baha’i
International Community’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

“After they banned Baha’i administration in Iran in 1983, the government has
always been aware of and informed of the activities of these ad hoc groups.

“In the eyes of the government, the only real ‘crime’ of the seven currently
in Evin prison – along with the some 30 other Baha’i prisoners currently
held in Iran – is that they hold a religious belief that is different from
the majority in Iran, and that is something that the current regime finds
intolerable,” she said.

Ms. Ala’i also discussed remarks made yesterday by Mr. Jamshidi in response
to a question about Ayatollah Najafabadi’s statements. Mr. Jamshidi was
quoted as saying: “Any acts which could be taken as propaganda against
Islam, Iran and its Islamic establishment is definitely considered a crime
and its perpetrators would be legally encountered.”

“The fact is that the Baha’i Faith is the only independent world religion
other than Islam that accepts the divinity of Muhammad and reveres the
Qur’an – along with the holy books of all the world’s great religions,” Ms.
Ala’i said. “There is nothing anti-Islamic or anti-Iran about the Baha’i
Faith, its teachings, or the practices of its followers. The government
cannot impose its own interpretation of Islam on the Baha’i Faith and
conclude that the Baha’i Faith is anti-Islam.”

The arrest of the Baha’i leadership takes place in the context of a severely
and rapidly escalating campaign of attacks against the Baha’i community that
has included the creation and circulation of lists of Baha’is with
instructions that the activities of the members of the community be secretly
monitored; dawn raids on Baha’i homes and the confiscation of personal
property; a dramatic increase over the past two months in the number of
Baha’is arrested; daily incitement to hatred of the Baha’is in all forms of
government-sponsored mass media; the holding of anti-Baha’i symposia and
seminars organized by clerics followed by orchestrated attacks on Baha’i
homes and properties in the cities and towns where such events are held;
destruction of Baha’i cemeteries throughout the country; demolition of
Baha’i holy places and shrines; acts of arson against Baha’i homes and
properties; denying Baha’is access to higher education and, increasingly,
vilification of Baha’i children in their classrooms by their teachers; the
designation of numerous occupations and businesses from which Baha’is are
debarred; refusal to extend bank loans to Baha’is; the sealing of Baha’i
shops; refusal to issue or renew business licenses to Baha’is; harassment of
landlords of Baha’i business tenants to force their eviction; and threats
against Muslims who associate with Baha’is.

“Indeed, the lives of the seven leaders currently in prison reflect lifelong
efforts to promote the best development of Iranian society as a whole,
through the promotion of education, social and economic development, and
adherence to moral principle,” Ms. Ala’i said.

Earlier this week, the British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell issued a
statement saying the Iranian government “appears to be increasingly using
vaguely worded charges to target human rights defenders and religious
minorities.”

“It is hard,” said Minister Rammel on Monday, “not to conclude that these
people are being held solely on account of their religious beliefs or their
peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association.”

To read this article and see photographs of the seven imprisoned Baha’is, go
to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/699

To see the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

——————————————————————-
Copyright 2009 by the Baha’i World News Service. All stories and photographs
produced by the Baha’i World News Service may be freely reprinted,
re-emailed, re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by any
individual or organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha’i
World News Service. For more information, visit http://news.bahai.org.

But knowledge of the need of this power is not sufficient.

Realizing that wealth is desirable is not becoming wealthy.

The admission that scientific attainment is praiseworthy does not confer scientific knowledge.

Acknowledgment of the excellence of honor does not make a man honorable.

Knowledge of human conditions and the needed remedy for them is not the cause of their betterment.

To admit that health is good does not constitute health.

A skilled physician is needed to remedy existing human conditions. As a physician is required to have complete knowledge of pathology, diagnosis, therapeutics and treatment, so this World Physician must be wise, skillful and capable before health will result. His mere knowledge is not health; it must be applied and the remedy carried out.

Abdu’l-Baha,
The Promulgation of Universal Peace
p. 157

I have just finished listing a bunch of lampwork glass cabochons in my etsy store!!  http://rosesofonegarden.etsy.com

Do not be fooled…these took a period of several weeks to make and I only just now found the time to make them available to you!
I will be working on expanding this series over the next few months and hope to find myself working on even more creative designs by summertime.   For now… my line of Galaxy Cabs is what I have to offer!

Make it so…number one!

Lori B.

Just a quick moment to brag/shout/celebrate….lol…
In the last two weeks, I managed to officially become…

• A graduate with a Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting, Summa Cum Laude
• an NNA certified and background checked Notary Signing Agent
• and an Enrolled Agent,  federally authorized  to represent taxpayers before the IRS

whew…if you think that’s a mouthful…try doing it! lol.

With that said…time to celebrate is short.  The intense marketing and work of getting my tax business off the ground has already begun!
(I am of course already looking forward to being able to crank up the torch and melt some glass again!)

Till I find another moment to write more…
Have a great one…and BE great!
Lori B.

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.”

– T. E. Lawrence

I know…. I have not been posting as often as I would like…. I have been one busy lady….
Good news…. I passed the final part of the SEE exam! I now just have to wait for the IRS to approve my application…which means passing a suitability/background check. Of course that shouldn’t be any more difficult than the FBI fingerprint and background check I had to pass to become an e-filer right? Well….just a bit…but I should do fine! Once my application is approved, I just have to wait for my card to arrive and I am then officially an Enrolled Agent!
Better news… I am almost finished with school!!!! After 4.5 very long years, I will be graduating summa cum laude with my Bachelor’s degree in accounting in early January!
And then…let the real fun begin! Tax time and building my tax business!
What about the art you say? No worries… after tax season I have plans for some exciting new things…new jewelry lines that Ive been working on….. some intricate cabs will take center place and I will also be offering the cabochons for sale to other jewelry designers and collectors!!
So back to the books for me ….for now…. and very soon I shall be back to the “real world” and able to keep in touch here.

Have a great one…and BE great!
Lori B.

The First Annual Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) Holiday Bazaar is this Saturday, November 1, 2008 from 1-5pm at the Charles N. Enes Community Center in South Windsor (Directions are below).  AHC is a rare neurological disorder that causes paralysis during attacks and may cause long term mental and/or physical damage.  The cause and cure for AHC is unknown.  AHC is a degenerative disorder.  All proceeds will benefit AHC research.