Blog entry

Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas!

Christmas is almost here, just over a week away.  It seems to keep arriving sooner and sooner each year!  In case you are still needing to do some shopping, I’ve pulled together a wide range of beautiful items, each one handmade by a very talented artist.  When you buy handmade, you are buying a “piece” of the artist:  cool, trendy, unique, and oftentimes one-of-a kind.  I hope you enjoy the items shared below . . . and that one or more makes an appearance under your Christmas tree.  

Caribbean Blue - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

Usually when I’m working on a blog post or listing an item in my Indiemade shop, my Pandora station is palying on my computer.  My stream has a great blend (at least to me) of classic rock, some more modern rock, some folk music and a big dose of Celtic inspired music - that's the Scots-Irish coming out in me.  Yesterday, as I was finishing up another blog, the song “Caribbean Blue” by Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (better known as Enya) came on.  Even though Enya sings many Celtic folk songs, some in Gaelic, with her usually heavily synthesized backdrops and multiple layers of her own voice, she is more of a New Age musician, in my humble opinion.  "Caribbean Blue" was a mega-hit for her, and rightly so.  I find her music very relaxing and always pause and enjoy the minutes when songs of hers show up in the Pandora rotation.  Sometimes I'll even plug in one of her CDs and totally bliss out.  To see the amazingly beautiful video of the song click here: CARIBBEAN BLUE 

Second Category, Third Item - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

The Franciscan Festival of Fine Arts at the Holy Cross Retreat Center is this Labor Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday.  The Retreat Center has been operational for 60 years. However, some of the buildings in the compound are over 100 years old. It's so peaceful there and feels like you step back in time, especially when you see Father Tom walking around in his full cassock with a large, wooden rosary tied around his waist, chatting with as many people as he can. The juried festival itself has been held yearly for almost 20 years and is a “go to” festival for local people and the many who might drive from Tucson, Albuquerque or beyond to buy beautiful artisan handcrafted items.  If you are in the Las Cruces, NM or El Paso, TX area, please stop by - I will be selling my jewelry there.  For more information, here is a link:  Franciscan Festival of Fine Arts.

Summer Heat - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

With the summer solstice rapidly approaching, I decided it was time to feature hot, hot, HOT colored artisan handmade items in oranges, reds and yellow.  But before I do, (since I am a huge science geek), I thought I’d share a bit of about sunrises, sunsets and the summer solstice.  The solstice here in the Texas Borderlands will take place on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 10:24 pm MDT.  Most people think that, because the solstice signifies the longest day of the year (or the shortest, in the southern hemisphere), the earliest sunrise and the latest sunset happens on that day.  But that is not true.  The exact date of earliest sunrises and latest sunsets varies with latitude.  At mid-northern latitudes (say Philadelphia at 40 degrees north latitude), the earliest sunrises of the year happens on June 14 and the latest sunset on June 27.  The farther south you go in latitude, the earlier the earliest sunrises become and the later the latest sunset are.  For instance, the earliest sunrise here in El Paso has already passed - on June 11 - and the latest sunset isn’t until June 30.