Blog entry

Artisan Handmade for a Spooky Halloween!

Halloween - the day of trick or treaters in creepy (or cute) costumes, grinning skulls, Jack O’ Lantern pumpkins, spooky ghosts and other notorious beast - will soon be here.  But even weeks before October 31, it’s fun to wear spooky accessories or decorate the home for Halloween. With that in mind, I decided to pull together some spine-tingling jewelry and other items from handmade artists, each one perfect to help celebrate that supernatural day of the year.  I hope you enjoy these choices and will visit the shops of the talented artists featured for more amazing handmade beauties, shuddersome or not!

Radiant Rainbows! - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

The monsoon season is still going on here in the Desert Southwest.  Most every afternoon, the sky clouds, the wind starts to howl, thunder can be heard and lightning seen . . . and if we are lucky, rain falls.  As happens so often here, our house can get a deluge but a friend just a few block away may only get a few sprinkles.  If the rain ends at just the right time, a magical rainbow can be seen towards the east.  Sometimes a paler secondary - or even very pale triple - rainbow forms.  A colorful, visual gift!  The photo above shows part of a double rainbow (that tried to turn into a triple rainbow).  At the end of this post is a single rainbow, both taken with my trusty camera.

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.    

What a Spooky Halloween! - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

With the last days of September rapidly approaching, Halloween and Day of the Dead festivities will arrive before we realize it.  With that in mind, I decided to browse the studios of Indiemade artist friends and pull together a variety of spookily fun handmade items:  some in oranges and black, some with skulls, one with spooky black cats and a set of ever watchful owls.  Any of these mostly one of a kind handmade beauties will be perfect for the other side of life parties.  Enjoy!