You’ll have to click on the picture to get the full effect of this–it’s a real gas!
An Award!
Christine from Chris’s Coop sent me this award, The Van Gogh’s Ear Award. This award was created by Roger at Idaho Photo. Here is what Christine said about me on her blog when she gave me this award:
Being a grandma as an art form
Fab Grandma Karen– not only is she a grandma, she can sew and make jewelery!
Thanks Christine! I love that someone thinks I’m worthy of an award.
So now that I have been duly awarded, I am paying it forward and giving The Van Gogh’s Ear Award to:
Becca at How Will It End. She is a knitter, a painter, and maker of pirate maps.
PG at Annoyingly Boring. He is a very talented photographer, and inspired me to try harder to capture the moment.
Gaelyn at Geogypsy. She can spin a good story about all the places she has been in her NPS career.
Kelley at Magneto Bold Too . Just because she is so awesome.
Homecoming
Remember this? I thought I would never see or hear from them again. But, they came home yesterday. And it looks like they are happy to be here. I don’t know what happened, I have not talked to her, yet. I may never know, and to honest, I don’t think I want to know. I am just happy they are back. My heart is exploding with joy.
The Gem And Mineral Show In Quartzsite
If you ever get a chance to go to a gem and mineral show, you need to go. I have heard about them from my in-laws, because they are both jewelry crafters. My father-in-love even went to a school to learn silver smithing. They both make some really nice jewelry, and they are the ones who inspired me to give it a try. They used to go to Quartzsite in the winter and go to the gem shows to buy supplies for their craft.
Last week I got my chance to go to my first gem show. There was everything imaginable: rocks, gems, pearls, wire, jewelry findings. There were also other crafts such as quilters, metal work, leather handbags, and stuff like that, but we were there for the jewelry stuff.
On Thursday, my friend Gaelyn from Geogypsy called to ask if I was planning to go to the show. I said I was, so she came and spent the night on my sofa so we could head out early and get a good parking spot. We met Gaelyn at the North Rim this summer, where she worked as an Interpretive Ranger and lived across the road from us in the employee campground. Our paths didn’t cross much because she had a weird schedule and our days off weren’t the same. But about a week or so before we left, she came over for dinner one night and we really enjoyed her company. We were delighted to have her as a guest.
On Friday morning, Gaelyn, Lynda, Charlie, and I got up before dawn, and took off for “Q”. We got a primo parking spot and started looking at all the stuff. This show is huge. As in blocks and blocks of vendors, on both sides of the road.
One vendor had these awesome fossils.
Another had gigantic crystals. These are quartz. I love these but really have no where to put them so I only took pictures.
This is called desert rose. It is gorgeous!
The show was out in the desert at Tyson Wells. Look at that big ol saguaro cactus:
Oh My God! Look at all those beads! How do you chose just a few????
Then of course you have to have wire to make things with. We got silver and copper.
Another bead store. I got some nice Swarovsky crystals here, and some copper beads.
We walked around that show in the desert for 6 hours! We were all tired and dusty, and hungry. Here we are at lunch: Me in the pink sweatshirt, Lynda next to me, Charlie across the table, and Gaelyn beside Charlie. FabGrandpa had a cold and didn’t feel good, so he stayed at home. (better for me, to be able to buy what I wanted, hahahaha.)
And I was so excited when I got home that I made this necklace first. Yes, I got the idea from a magazine, but I did intrepret in a different way.
It was a great day. I had a lot of fun with my friends, and bought a lot of supplies to be able to make some pretty things. And we are going to another one next week. I can hardly wait!
I’m Getting Ahead Of Myself But I Gotta Show You This!
I want to tell you about my visit from Gaelyn from Geogypsy, and how we went to the gem and mineral show in Quartzsite, but I am just too excited about the stuff we Lynda and I have been making that I am jumping ahead to show you:
I love pink things, and this here necklace is pink. It is made with rose quartz and glass and crystal beads. It turned out really good, better than I thought it would.
(click on the pictures to see them better)
This one is made with Chinese turquoise nuggets. I like to take old things apart and use the parts in new pieces, so the chain used in this necklace came from a junkstore find. It looks really good, too.
A few years ago, my mother-in-love, Nana, gave me some lessons in wire wrapping, (Thank you, Nana!) but I have not done much of it until now. I made the bracelet below with the green beads, then Lynda made the one with the purple beads. Mine turned out pretty good, except that the beads I used were too big so it made the overall bracelet too big. We are going to a wire wrapping class next week to learn how to do some other things, and we can hardly wait to go!
I bought these 18mm turquoise beads at the show, because I had an idea for a necklace in my head (yeah, that happens too much). I spent today making all those little curly links for a chain, then Lynda showed me how to make jump links, which is a pretty handy thing to know. I have been making each one separate, which is a major pain in the arse! But look how easy it is here:
And here you can see a little bit of the chain and how the beads look with it. And I put that tape measure in there so you see how big the beads are. It is going to be awesome!
The Fab Spencer Is A Superboy!
My FabGrandson, Spencer, asked for “a new real dog, not a toy” for Christmas. His Mommy, my daughter, Emily, told him that Santa sent her a note and told her where to go to find a good dog, because he couldn’t put a puppy in his sleigh. So, they went to the animal shelter in their town, and found a golden lab mixed puppy. They named her Sophie.
Sophie had contracted the parvo virus somewhere along the line, and was very sick the week after Christmas, and spent several days in a doggie hospital, but she survived, and is now back home. Sophie, the Superdog and her boy, Spencer. Aren’t they both just the cutest?
Sunset In The Desert
A Drive To Wickenburg
We had to drive over to Wickenburg the other day to pick up a prescription for FabGrandpa’s thyroid meds. It is about a 75 mile drive with some fantastic scenery along the way.
I loved this sign, out in the middle of nowhere, for a now defunct business:
In one of the tiny towns on the way, Aguila, Arizona, there was a flea market on the side of the road. We stopped to take a look. There was a produce vendor there with these great peppers:
Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers. All the peppers on a plate, one dollar:
Habaneros
Dried chilis:
More dried chilis:
And MORE dried chilis:
No wonder that southwestern food is so hot!
