Reveling in the Holiday Spirit

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hubby and I took a little trip after Thanksgiving and headed down South to New Orleans to take a couple of cruises out of their port. I think I was more impressed with New Orleans than the cruises but we had a great time even though it took away from my holiday creating and planning. 

Here we are on Grand Cayman which was our second stop on Royal Caribbean.

We loved the Royal Caribbean ship. It had a central promenade with windows from upper cabins that looked down over it. Reminded us of a little city.

You can see a little bit better here how there were shops and pubs throughout the central core of the ship.

We were able to take one excursion at Costa Maya (our first stop on the Norwegian cruise) and visited the Chacchoben Mayan ruins there. They were amazing.

Here we are nice, hot and tired in Roatan, Honduras on the West side.

An Iguana Farm where there were hundreds just walking around.

Another local wild life park in Roatan where we saw Capuchin monkeys and exotic birds.

In New Orleans we took time out for a cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking. We learned to make Gumbo, Jumbalaya and Pralines.

Another highlight was eating the beignets at Cafe de Monde.

I think one of the hardest parts of the trip was seeing all the houses that still need renovating in the part of New Orleans that flooded. I just love the history and the architecture of the buildings from the French side to the American side. Amazing old buildings that they have kept and preserved.

The holiday with family was of course the best it could be and we hope to see all of them again next year. 

Coming up for me is more art and jewelry designs along with classes that will be new for 2013. I'll be teaching my Hammered Pendant along with my other two jewelry type classes (Simply Findings and Falling Leaves) at Shipwreck this coming year and I may sneak a new gem tree design in.... who knows.

Have a great New Year.

A Few More Wineries

As promised, I will share with you our wine and food tourings from the Napa and Sonoma Valley today. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day and so we decided to head out to Sonoma. We walked around town and visited a couple of our favorite shops and had lunch at Murphy's Irish Pub. We ate lunch there last September when we were in town and it was really good so had to go back. As we ventured around the square we also found a shop that had all kinds of Fair Trade items so I purchased a few of their hand made wrapping paper from India. The kitchen shop is a lot of fun to walk through also.

For our wine venture we decided to hit up one of our favorites which is Imagery. They have a wonderful art gallery of original pieces that have been featured on their wine labels. All of the art pieces must have the Parthenon located somewhere on it. It is always fun to see if you can find the images in each piece of art. Here is DH in the Gallery, and yes that is a glass of wine he is holding.

Our surprising stop was on the way home but just a couple of miles from Imagery and that was the BR Cohn Winery. It was there, so I had to stop... didn't know anything about it. We were very surprised to find out that Bruce Cohn, the Manager of the Doobie Brothers Band is the owner. Who knew? There are so many famous people spread out all over the valley here that you just never know who you will run into. The wine was pretty good but the find of the day was their small olive oil and vinegar tasting room next door. They had the best 25 year old Balsamic vinegar... wow is all I can say.

Photo courtesy of http://brcohn.com

As you can tell some of the photos are not very good and I'm sure you guessed it that I am still using my phone camera. DH has the Nikon and hasn't downloaded all the photos yet for me to swipe a few and post out here.

The weather today was a bit iffy but we had a tasting and tour planned with Jarvis Winery. It was recommended to us as they have a nifty wine cave with mineral specimens. This tour is not for the budget conscious as it does cost a pretty penny. It is worth it but you know the saying, if you have to ask then you can't afford it.

Photo courtesy of http://www.jarviswines.com

All their production of wine is done in the caves. The above photo is just a small portion of the cave and barrels they have stored there.

Here we are next to a natural spring that flows through the cave.

It was a wonderful tour and the wines were out of this world. So smooth and drinkable. If you ever have the chance to taste these wines, do so, it will be worth it.

After that lovely experience it was time for lunch. I had already decided that I wanted to go back into Yountville to pick up another bottle of port so we decided to have lunch at Bottega. Bottega is owned by the famous Food Network Chef Michael Chiarello. Yes, I am throwing names around now but I did actually get to see him. He was in the restaurant visiting with some of the diners in his cute little chef's apron.  I'm pretty sure he wasn't cooking but the food was pretty darn good. We split the Caramelized Brussels Sprout Salad and DH had the Halibut over risotto as his entree and I had the Butternut Squash pasta something. All I know is that it was very good. Here is a picture of it.

As you can see, I had already started eating when I decided to take this photo. Oh so yummy. We didn't have a reservation but since it was before noon we were able to get a table. I do recommend making a reservation if you plan to visit just to be on the safe side.

Next stop was to taste a little more wine at Hope and Grace winery. I just love their Chardonnay and can't help myself from buying a bottle whenever we are in town. Since we just happened to be near we stopped to get some dessert for tonight from Bouchon bakery. I'm still trying to hold myself back from digging into that Chocolate Eclair.

Well tomorrow is another day and one to look forward to. I'm not entirely sure what exciting things we will find but I'll be sure to let you know.

Wine, Olives and Olive Oil

I don't know, can you guess where we are? Yep, Napa, CA. Here we headed South for some warmer weather and a bit of sunshine and what did we find but rain and overcast days. I do have to admit that the days are about 10 degrees warmer but still no sun. On the trip down we stopped in Corning at the Olive Pit to try some of their tasty olives. Lots of good choices there plus they have all kinds of other food items as well. I found a Fig Balsamic Vinegar that was to die for.... so yummy I just want to drink it straight out of the bottle.

The last time we came to Napa, I posted several reviews on the winery's we visited, my plan is to do the same thing just in case you are ever in the area. We visited Rutherford Ranch on Sunday and Jessup Cellars on Monday, both were extremely good this time as well as in previous visits. Today we tried an Olive Oil Tasting at Round Pond.

This was very different than what I expected. You get 4 little shot type glasses with about a tablespoon of olive oil in each one, then you are to pour one in your mouth, swish it around and then let it slide down your throat while you cough. Yes, cough. They did bring out fresh veggies to try along with the oils which was a good thing. They also let us try the vinegars and simple syrups. By far the vinegars were our favorite. They are considered a Boutique Olive Oil producer, so they make in small quantities right on the farm with their own mill. Interesting tour but once we had swigged oil, we really needed some wine, so off to Peju we went.

So this is the outside of the winery. They have wonderful grounds with lots of sculptures. I snapped a few photos with my cell phone while DH went around with the big camera.

We haven't quite decided what we are doing tomorrow but if it is interesting, I'll be sure to let you know.

Cheers

Holiday Swaps

For the past week I've been having fun working on some art charm swaps first my Autumn Quick swap and now the Christmas Ornament swap. For the Autumn swap I made some wire leaves and some tree of life charms.

I had a hard time coming up with any ideas for a small ornament charm so I made three different styles. Then since this is beginning of the holiday season I painted some holiday tags to go with them. I love the tags so I'll probably make more to put on my packages this season.

The small tag charms are wood that I covered with holiday scrapbook paper, painted the edges, glued a metal sentiment on the front and sealed the whole thing with Glamour Glaze. The round balls are scrapbook paper rounds that I folded in half and then glued to shape a ball, then inserted a head pin with a small pearl and then sealed it. The third charms are swirls of gold tone wire with a large amber crystal in the middle. Now to put these all together and get them mailed to the swap hostess.

Hopefully everyone is having a great week so far. Today I had to take the little monster Leo to the vet to get his annual shots. He was such a good boy and now is crashed out on the pillow on the couch. He wasn't about to look at me so that I could take his picture...humm I think he might still be a little mad.

I'll leave you tonight with this great shot from our vacation of the locks at the Panama Canal. Hubby has really gotten into HDR photography and this is one of my favorites that he has altered.

New on Kindle

Now you can buy my book "Gem Tree Sculptures" on the Kindle. I went out today and purchased one... now isn't that sad that I have to purchase my own book. If you have a Kindle and have been wanting to get a copy of my book this is the perfect way and it is only $9.99 vs. $17.99 for the paper copy. The book's photos and graphics are in B&W so they look just as good on the Kindle as the book. Here is the link to the Kindle edition.

Okay enough blatant advertising. How about a few more pictures from our trip through the Panama Canal. We took a 19 day cruise on Holland America from Vancouver, BC to Fort Lauderdale. So the last pictures I shared were of our stop in San Diego and next we went to Puerto Vallarta. We did a city highlights tour and I think the highlight for my hubby was when he took this picture. I really just wanted to pet the iguana and next thing I knew it was on my shoulder and a gecko was on my head.

We did go to the city center and see Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. There were so many visitors but the church was definitely at the heart. The pictures we took of the church didn't turn out as well as we would have liked due to the sun being in the wrong position.

There was lots of shopping to be expected and I would say aggressive vendors but not as bad as other places. We just had to learn to walk away if it wasn't the price we were willing to pay.

Here is one of the vendor shops located right at the port.

Lots of colorful wares but we held back and didn't buy anything..... at least not at this port.

Stay tuned .... more vacation photos coming.

Back from Vacation

I'm sure most of you didn't even miss me but we went on a 19 day cruise through the Panama Canal. It was fantastic. If you ever get the chance you really don't want to miss it. Along with stopping in San Diego we stopped in several ports in Mexico then Guatemala and Columbia. We were not able to stop in Panama City to get off the boat but cruising the locks was the highlight of the trip.

I think we took almost 2,000 pictures and we are now just trying to process all of them, get them edited and then will be able to post a few to share with others.

I'm sure I will be referencing this trip here for quite awhile. We invited my mother along for the ride so she shared the room with us. We have done this for our other cruises and it works out great for her but she does have to sleep on the couch. We were able to upgrade to a Deluxe Suite which makes it easier to have more than 2 in a room and boy are we spoiled. Huge balcony, laundry done for us as well as our own lounge with espresso coffee, lunch with the captain and so many other perks. Here is what our room looked like before we messed it all up.

This is the large balcony that had a table with 4 chairs and 2 lounge chairs. They did come in handy for a little private sunning. If you can't tell, this is my mother and I.

Our our first stop on the cruise was in San Diego (we got on in Vancouver, B.C.). We took a tour of the city as I had never been to San Diego before and now I really want to go back. So many things to do and see. We went into the Old Town and I fell in love with the gourd art. Here is one picture of some ornaments made of gourds. We didn't have room to purchase a lot of stuff or I would have bought several. Really works of art.

One of the other highlights of San Diego was Balboa Park. This place is absolutely amazing. All kinds of attractions including museums and performing arts, parks, gardens and more. You could spend a week there and still not see it all. The park has 1200 acres and was started in 1892 with Kate Sessions donating and planting 100 trees a year. Can you imagine! The architecture alone is worth seeing.

Okay, enough for today. There is so much more to share. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'm off to finish up putting away all the laundry I did today.

What a Fun Day

If you are looking for the Bead Soup Party post, click HERE.

Well I had a wonderful visit with a friend of mine from Chicago. She flew in to teach at the Art & Soul retreat in Portland this week. Since I won't be around for it, I was able to pick her up at the airport, have lunch and visit with her for a few hours.

I think we are getting closer to being ready to go on our trip but do you ever feel you are completely ready and packed? I still have to check my kindle and make sure I have enough reading material, some games are packed such as the farkle dice and playing cards so I think the relaxing times are covered. Hubby did try to lift one bag tonight and I think it will weigh out over 50 lbs.... cr@p. Okay, so now that plan is to redistribute the weight between the two bags. Maybe I'll move all the shoes to the lighter bag. Good thing we are taking two big bags versus our usual one large and one medium.

Our leave you tonight with a picture of Buddy our spaniel mix dog. He tends to guard toys, bones and in this case a pig ear.

Where has Summer Gone?

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. It has been a busy end of Summer for us. We did make it back from our vacation in Napa and it was so wonderful as always. Bought way too much wine, did a little shopping, relaxed a lot and even had a few interesting day trips out in the wine country. But boy did all the stuff hit us when we got home. I had a jewelry show two days after we returned so I frantically got organized and everything priced before the show. The Puyallup Fair started just a couple days later and we volunteered to work 3 shifts at our Gem and Mineral Club's booth so we have worked two shifts so far, one on Saturday and one on Monday ...more to follow on this. I taught a gem tree class at Shipwreck Beads on Sunday, then I realized that all the Art and Mixed Media Retreat proposals were due this week ....ugg. So, I quickly made some additional trees, took photos, wrote tutorials and got the proposals completed and e-mailed yesterday. I'm feeling a little less stress now... just a little through.

So a little bit more about the Fair. It is a standing joke with our family that we always purchase something at the Fair so this year was no different. Each year it seems we find something expensive to purchase, a few years ago it was a Gas Fireplace then 2 years ago it was a Sleep Number bed, last year was a Silk Comforter, which we loved so much we purchased another one this year for the motor home. We always purchase some smaller items such as aroma fans,dog brush (helps with shedding), those rubber clogs that were and still are popular, sheet set, faucet sprayers and shower heads, wham shammies, squishy pillows, dehydrated ice packets where you soak them in water and freeze then you can use them in coolers, pepper jelly, pickled garlic, honey and kettle corn. All that plus food that we ate there such as krusty pups (corn dogs), scones, Earthquake burgers, scones, Perogies, hot dogs, curly fries, scones, BBQ ribs and sandwiches, scones, ice cream cones and oh did I mention the scones. It is so much fun going to the fair and as much as I hate to admit it, the vendors hawking all their wares is some of my favorites as well as the artwork that has been entered for competition.

We do complain every year that the scones get smaller and the price seems to get larger but we buy them and eat them anyway. Hubby said that this scone booth was the first one at the fair and he should know as he has been going since the 50's. It is always fun to go early in the morning, sit down with coffee and a couple of hot scones with raspberry jam....yum. So glad we have one more volunteer day at the fair.

Here is one of my new trees. It is called Painted Leaves. Yes, I know the name is a little simple but I couldn't think of anything more appropriate. Definitely a mixed media tree vs. a gem tree.

A few new bracelets that I still need to get listed on ArtFire. These were inspired by some that I saw on vacation. Stretchy with sterling silver and gemstones or crystals with dangles. A little bit out of the norm for me but oh so much fun.

Don't forget about the Bead Soup Party Blog Hop. We will be hopping all over the blogosphere on Saturday visiting blogs and seeing all the beautiful creations people made from their Bead Soup. So don't forget to come back on Saturday as I will be revealing the jewelry pieces made from my soup.

Catching Up

It feels so good to get things caught up and accomplished. I"m not sure why I don't do this all the time...lazy I guess.

We made it back from our Alaskan cruise on Sunday and it was great. Talk about scenic cruising, this was the one for that. It was a little chilly but being from WA State we are used to that. One of my favorite parts of this cruise was watching for wildlife such as these Orcas.

Then there was Glacier Bay. What a fantastic site. That large snowy thing behind my mom and I is the glacier.

We even had time for a little shopping...okay a lot of shopping.

So, now we are back, the vacation is over and time to get down to business. I had gem trees to ship to Pacific NW Gem and Art Gallery on Monday and for the past couple of days I've just been getting caught up on all my art charm swaps that are coming due, oh and unpacking and laundry. Why is it that if you have all your laundry done before you go on vacation, when you come home you have more than if you didn't go at all. Usually, I only have two loads per week but this time I had three. How does that happen?

Today we had a rainy cold day and I noticed that my lilacs were blooming. Now lilacs are my favorite flower so as soon as the rain stopped I ran out and cut some to have here in the house. You never know if the rain and wind keeps up, I might not have any blossoms left to enjoy outside.

Hope you are having a wonderful day.

Off to Portland

I decided to take a few days off and head to Portland to visit a friend. Hubby and the dogs are staying home this trip so this will be a girly weekend and I'm so looking forward to it. I'm taking my camera so I hope to get some great shots of the surroundings and other wonderful things. The one thing I want to do that I haven't done in a long time is visit the Rose Garden. They have the most amazing collection of roses I've ever seen. Maybe I'll get some new pictures that I can use as inspiration for painting.

I did want to try to find a store I read about but can't find the name now. It has lots of bits and pieces for the collage and mixed media artist, so I'm not sure if it is an antique store or how it is categorized so that I can find it since I can't remember the name or even where I read about it. Oh, well an excuse to make another trip once I find out. It's not like my shed in the back doesn't have a ton of vintage and antique stuff in it...(closed our antique mall space in December). I could just go shopping out there, but that wouldn't have the adventure in it that I'm longing for. I just want to find inspiration in odd places, so we shall see what we find this weekend.

I haven't gotten my July tutorial finished....humm not sure what to do this month anyway. Maybe this is a good time to get away.

Time to Travel

With the remodel and all the noise and dust, we are feeling the need to get out of the house. Since we have been eating out of the motor home there really isn't much else we need to do to get it ready to roll. Even just a couple days away from the mess will be a welcome relief.

While reading through some of my creative blogger friends blogs, I came across Valerie of Additions Style. She mentions in her blog 7 ways to take time for art on vacation. Some of these I do now but I will definitely will have to take some of her advise with me as I do get so bored when I don't have all my beads and sewing projects with me. One of the things I do when traveling is take a notebook with me. I tend to come up with all kinds of ideas when I'm experiencing new things. If you want to find out what all the 7 things are, check out her blog.

Speaking of journals, I started my art journal this past week. So far I have 6 pages with a base coat of watercolor and now the fun starts with layering paint and more paper. This is something new for me and an idea that has been growing slowly as I want to get back into my art. What pushed me over was the Cloth  Paper Scissors site and the challenges they run. This is a mixed-media magazine site. I haven't subscribed yet, but most likely will since I really like their site.

I wish I had some things finished that I could show you....oh but I do, but I can't show you the whole thing. I joined a Bead Soup party and I received all these cool beads from my swap partner. See this post. Here is a sneak peak of my finished piece. I'll show all of it during the party. Click the upper picture to that links to the party to find out more about it.

Napa Style

Well my creativity break involved hubby and I taking a road trip to the Napa Valley. Yes, we are still drinking wine and enjoying the sunshine. It was a nice break but we are missing the dogs now after being gone for a week. We will be home in a couple of days and back to the daily grind so we will enjoy our remaining days. This trip we invited my brother and his girlfriend along and we rented a two bedroom condo vs. the 1 bed we usually get. It's been a fun trip having others along to enjoy it with you. If you have never been to Napa, California, then it is worth a trip, rolling green hills and tons of grape vines. We usually come in March for our anniversary so the vines aren't leafed out yet, but we love it anyway. It doesn't hurt that there is an abundance of wineries to visit.

Here are a few pics from our trip to enjoy and I hope you have a great weekend.

Lavender and grape vines at Frances Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville.

Barrel room at Sterling Winery.

Elaine and I shopping in Yountville.

My Legs Hurt

Why? We are in Vegas and walking everywhere, hence the feet, shins, legs all hurt and it is only day two. I think tomorrow we are staying closer to our hotel and not venturing out so far, but Vegas is amazing. The people, buildings, lights, it is a lot to take in. The hubby is flat on his back and watching TV...I had Project Runway on and he isn't even complaining, he must be really tired. I've gotten a few good looks at some of the jewelry in the high end stores here and some of it is just amazing. There was this Ruby necklace at one of the stores in the Bellagio that was to die for, hubby said I could have that or a new house....Yea, hard choice. LOL. This is one of my favorite night time shots we took last night. It's hard to get good night time shots with a little point and shoot camera.

For those interested my arm has ceased to hurt. It is either the fact that my legs hurt so bad that the arm can't compete... ha ha or the Copper is working. I know what some of you will say.  Have a great day.

What Have I Been Doing?

Yes, for the past few days I have been at a Gem and Mineral Show demonstrating gem trees and selling my book. Now I have to concentrate on getting everything together for our trip to Montana and the NFMS/AFMS annual show. This is the show where I will be competing with my gem trees for "Master" and teaching some gem tree workshops. If you haven't checked out my GemTree blog, you can find it HERE.

In all the commotion of getting ready for the show this weekend, I haven't had a lot of time to make new jewelry items, but this is one I did make this week. It is leather with leather fringe and a mix of gemstone beads. Something fun and funky. My husband thinks it is odd, but I tell you what, every time I wear it, I get more compliments then anything else I've made. Amazing. I'll write a tutorial about it when I get back from Montana.

I will still be posting some blogs while I'm gone, but will put my website on VACATION so that no sells will come through and just sit there. I hate to miss out on sales since they just started picking up with the book and tutorials, but I don't have a choice at this point and I don't want customers waiting around for me to get back to mail their purchase.

I'll post some pics of Montana and all the trouble we get into this coming week along with my competition case.