Enjoy
*** FREE SHIPPING ***
(First Class Ground Advantage - U.S. Only)
Blog entry
Earthy Browns Abound - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Despite the grass in our back yard staying an amazing green so far into the year, I can see the slide of winter colors beginning to show up. Pretty soon our back yard, the arroyo behind the house and the desert over all will be clothed in the many varied shades of warm earthy browns with tinges of other subtle colors. Waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . . . for the brilliance of spring.
“Earthy Browns Abound” is the theme of this week’s “Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade. I hope you enjoy the beautifully earthy artisan creations featured here. And, please, support handmade artisan this holiday season.
The Autumn Wind is a Pirate - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Since I live in the Desert Southwest, autumn comes creeping slowly in with cooler temperatures. Most of the trees here are evergreen so there isn’t much color change. This time of the year, I always think about the forest we lived in for 10 years in Northern Virginia. Oh, the glorious colors as the leaves on the trees changed.!!! Sometimes almost blinding color combinations. Then sometimes, the wind would hit and the leaves became a carpet of color on the forest floor. I ran across this great quote about autumn wind from Steve Sabol: “The autumn wind is a pirate. Blustering in from sea with a rollicking song he sweeps along swaggering boisterously. His face is weather beaten, he wears a hooded sash with a silver hat about his head . . . The autumn wind is a raider, pillaging just for fun.” A pillaging wind playing with and swirling the colorful leaves!
Unique New Handmade Jewelry from Shadow Dog Designs
The past several weeks have been very busy with a huge (and very profitable) show on Labor Day weekend and then a week long trip to beautiful Couer d'Alene, Idaho and Spokane, Washington. But unique new handmade jewelry, mostly necklaces and earrings, have been listed in my Indiemade shop. All of the jewelry is one of a kind, except the very last pair of earrings, the snowmen earrings. Even though I make them in several different colored collars, the red ones are the most popular.
The Lucky Number 3 - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
I am not by nature a superstitious person, but I have a real affinity for the number 3 (even more for 33). For centuries, it has been revered as a lucky number. I also knew it had many, many religious connotations, such as the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in the Christian faith - St. Patrick used a shamrock to teach about the Holy Trinity. It also describes the three attributes of God: omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. In Hinduism, the number 3 represents the three gods: Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver; and Shiva, the destroyer. The number 3 is very important in Buddhism and represents: the Buddha, the historical Buddha Shakyamuni; the Dharma, the Buddhist body of teachings; and, the Sangha, the people who follow the teaching of the Buddha.
Great Blue Dome - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
My husband, Seamus (our sweet, goofus Moose of a dog) and I are fortunate to live in the Desert Southwest, a part of the country where the sky is immense and an ever changing blue most of the year. In fact, a cloudy day (like today!) is actually a treat! I was gazing out the window in my studio the other day when a Thomas Carlyle quote came to me: "The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better." And I have to agree! Even though I love visiting old cathedrals with a sense of wonderment, spirituality and awe - Canterbury Cathedral, Koln Cathedral, Notre Dame, National Cathedral, St, Paul's to name a few - I absolutely revel in the everchanging "great blue dome" that is above my head almost every day. The colors can range from the palest blue to a deep, mystical, velvety blue that occurs 45 minutes or so after the sun has dipped below the horizon and the sunset has faded.
Fun and Funky - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
In the Urban Dictionary, I found this fascinating description of the word "funky" as it comes to style:
"Funky can be a mixture of thrift store and name brand, lace and leather, a simple gold bracelet and a huge plastic pink one, matching or unmatching, a ton of jewelry or none, classy and trashy. Being funky is about taking risks, and not being afraid to get a stare or two from people who wish they could be as funky as you . . . funky is never about boring."
Autumn Oranges and Browns - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Even though the temperatures are still getting in the upper-80's to mid-90's here in the Borderlands region, the nights are dropping down into the mid-60's at night. Autumn is definitely in the air! I have noticed some of the leaves on some of the bushy sumac trees are beginning to turn. Due to lack of rain or the shorter days? Probably both. But it is nice to see the slide into my favorite time of the year.
HOT, HOT, HOT!!! - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
If you have been keeping up with the weather lately, you know that a huge section of the United States has been dealing with unusually high heat. Here in the Desert Southwest, we are used to triple digit numbers (but it’s a dry heat!). People who are live in other parts of the U.S. are not used to the high heat and may not even have air conditioning to remediate. Let’s hope the high that had stalled above the U.S. moves on out and normal temperatures return . . . and our monsoon rains start here in the Borderlands.
Breathtaking Blues and Greens - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Maybe it’s because I spent a good part of the week before last in a much greener part of the state, but blues and greens have been much on my mind lately. In the Desert Southwest, the color blue is extremely well represented with our huge, ever changing blue skies. But since the monsoon rains have been virtually nonexistent so far, the desert is still a toasty brown. I long for the rains and the land to green up like it normally does this time of the year and be a perfect complement to the blue skies.
