Piece de resistance from my New Mexico/Las Vegas trip

I have always wanted a beautiful, huge, sterling silver, turquoise cuff. One that is special, one of a kind, Navajo made by hand. And the turquoise has to be just the right color - not too green, not too blue, with a little bit of veining.

Well, I found it. I had to have it shipped here from out West and it arrived last week. I love it! I am so glad I went ahead and bought it. I was kind of hesitant because of the cost, but I will wear this the rest of my life. And you just don't find pieces like this in local stores. This cuff is huge. The turquoise stone is 1.5 inches by 2 inches by itself.

It is signed by B. Chavez and here is some information a about Bernyse Chavez.

What's up with the cartoons?

I went to turn on the Cartoon network and Nickelodeon, and they had some "Go out and play" thing going on to encourage kids to not watch cartoons and to play! There was only the message and no shows. Now this is good for kids, but what about us adults with no kids that watch Spongebob?????

Crusade No: 12 - Crush on You - Osa Johnson

Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team Crusade for this month is Crush on You!

My current crush, among many, is Osa Johnson.

Story: I kept seeing this book in the decorating magazines and was curious... So I found a copy on Ebay. I guess I just like the cover to start with.

When I got the book, I got on line and started reading about Osa and her husband Martin. It was cool that we have the same last name (Johnson is my maiden name) and they were from Kansas. My mother's side lived in Kansas after coming here from Germany and my relatives are buried in the Stull, Kansas cemetery - one of the alleged Gateways to Hell... but that is a different story. (see link here, here, and here - my grandmother was born in Stull and my great-grandparents are buried in this cemetery - isn't that just great!)

Anywho....the Johnsons were adventurers in the early 1900s and wrote about it and made films about it. They went on all kinds of safaris and just seemed to have had a wonderful, adventure filled life. They have a website: Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum and they are also opening a bunch of stores called Martin and Osa all over the place. The stores are named after them and have that safari feel to the clothes.

Here are some cool pictures of Osa and Martin that you can order from the website:

This is such a cute picture! If I have a safari room in my new house, this will be in it - to be sure!

And I love this one with the gun.

And my fav of all - Osa on a zebra that has been tamed to ride! Now this and the book cover got my all hooked on the zebra look.

I found this great large tote at Nordstroms and it's on sale now - here!

and this clutch there also! It is zebra and black patent leather - what a match.

And these cool Bandolino sandals!

Art Work Submissions

I am finally finished putting together the art work I have been working on for months. The first piece is called Too Blue... I am not the best photographer, but the colors in this one turned out great. I used real turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty mine. This is a tribute to my trip out West, even though I started it months earlier.

And my Ode to Poe. The angle of the photo make her look kind of mad, but she is actually sad and has a tear. The sheet music is called The Dying Poet and when I went to frame it with an old paper frame, it was too small and showed on Poe, so I left it. I don't think you can read the words, so they are the first 8 sections of The Raven (of course).

What I bought in Vegas

I have been a little sick the last couple days, but I am back at work now. I am trying to finish up with my state fair art entries by this weekend.


So this is what I got in Las Vegas...

Some red dice from the Las Vegas casino, a gaggle of Caesar head stir sticks from the coffee stand at Caesar's, packs of used cards from the game tables from Caesars, Sahara, Flamingo, Paris, and Tropicana hotels.

Some more Eiffel towers from the Paris hotel gift shop...

A classic pearl necklace and brooch from the Chanel store...

And two pendants from the Christian Lacroix boutique (of Absolutely Fabulous fame and Edina's favorite) ...

And now the Tiffany story. I am constantly on the look out for things that can make my husband's life easier. When I saw this Tiffany ad recently, I loved this charm bracelet. And always with my husbands sanity in mind, I told him how I would love to get this bracelet. Then, for every special occasion (anniversary, birthday, Christmas, Valentine's day), he would always know at least one gift that I would truly love - a pretty blue Tiffany box with a charm for the bracelet! From now on, he could shop knowing that I will love this gift. I was really doing this to help him...

And how convenient that right after I saw the ad, we went to Vegas and there were two Tiffany stores, including one in our hotel!


So my sweetheart bought me the charm bracelet on the second night we were there. I was very happy and satisfied by just getting this to start with.


Then, when he came home from the third day of seminars, he had gone by Tiffanys and had another Tiffany box for me with a special Las Vegas charm and my name engraved on the back. So cool!


I also picked up a couple more Juicy charms for my bracelet and a black Juicy purse.

It was a very good trip!

Caesars Palace

It's Sunday and I am still recovering from my wonderful week in Las Vegas. My husband was so sweet to take me along with him on his conference (especially when he found out that there is a mall inside the hotel with 160 stores - but more about that later). His conference was at Caesars Palace, so that is where we HAD to stay. Sometimes the postcard pictures are better than what I could take with a camera. Here is the hotel and casino. Our room was in the center tower. The rooms were awesome...



The rooms...
huge bed with big screen TV...

and in the bathroom, marble everywhere and double sink with swing around TV...

Jacuzzi tub with a shower on the other side of room...


and a phone in the bathroom...

After checking in Sunday night, we took a little walk around the hotel. The next morning, when my husband went to the conference, I took a Jacuzzi bath and watched some cartoons...

I was really impressed with the hotel. I have a degree in history and religion with a focus on the Roman empire, so all this had special meaning for me. There are Roman statues everywhere in the hotel. There must be thousands. And from what I could tell, they are marble or very well made plaster like. And very true to the real items too. And everywhere they could, they made an extra effort. Like the elevators...

This was the marble hallway to the six elevators that take guests to the 17th thru 30th floors. There was a separate 6 elevators for the 1st thru 16th floors.

and each elevator door was a golden god/goddess with the story of each.

Monday morning, I headed out to shop. The postcard below shows the Forum, which is connected to the casino. See what I mean about the extra steps they took when they designed this. Those goddesses are three stories tall! And winding escalators, and marble everywhere.


Next blog will be about all the cool stuff I bought...

Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon

After landing in Las Vegas on Saturday, we rented a car and made the 4 hour trip to the Grand Canyon. Visiting the canyon was something my husband has always wanted to do. We had to cross the Hoover Dam and after hours of desert, we made it to the Grand Canyon. I had already been, but it was great to see it again (plus to get some turquoise too!).

We had lunch at the El Tovar lodge in the Grand Canyon park. It overlooks the south rim and we had a great view of the canyon.We made stops all over the park for different views.
As we left the park, we decided to stop at the Native American Art Show tents. We had heard this was the place to buy real Navajo jewelry directly from the artists (my kind of place). It was great and I got some fabulous pieces.

There was an old guy in the middle playing music and leading these little children in dances.

And here is what I bought...

Ok - this was from the gift shop in the Canyon. I still liked the penny earrings. Plus, one is dated 1963 (really good year) and one was dated 1979 (the year my dear brother died at 13 years old). I felt it was a sign since they were already together with those two years. The other is a dream box with my name on it. For the longest time, I hardly ever found things with my name on them, so when I see it, I usually buy it.



Next, I got this great Old Pawn Kachina bracelet - I really like this vintage piece. The thing I love about Native American jewelry is that everything has a meaning. The figure itself stand for something, the stone has meaning and the metal material (silver in my case mostly). And everything is positive too.







These two Navajo pieces were made by Holyan Tsosie. The footprint of the bear symbolized strength and courage. It is also used for guidance, protection and curing. As the old man in the center of the tents said over the loud speaker - "Don't wear this and go into a bar and pick a fight. It will not give you extra strength and you will get your teeth knocked out!"



I especially love this turquoise bear fetish carved by Elouise Lee. I think almost everything I bought was Navajo. Each of the stones that tie the arrow head to the top of the bear has meaning. I have been wanting a turquoise carved fetish and I am so glad we stopped at these tents so that I could buy directly from the artists.


I believe this is my only Zuni piece. It is a raven carved from black marble, with a turquoise eye. Ravens symbolize far-seeing prophecy, clairvoyant vision and strong magical powers; tricksters. But I especially like ravens for other reasons...







Another piece that I had to get was this bone carved Kachina fetish necklace. It is similar to my turquoise one that I bought at bike week, but again, this was directly from the Navajos, so it is special. This deserves to be framed to show off all the beautiful carving.






These are just some miscellaneous pieces I bought. The black piece is Navajo dated 1991 and signed "B" and something too small for me to read without a magnifying glass. It is a pin, but came with a converter so that I can wear it as a pendant too. The earrings are Navajo signed "LJ". The bracelet is signed "RLC". And the Kachina charm will go on my silver charm bracelet.




And this last piece was made by Thomasina Stago. I still have one more piece (major turquoise) that is coming next week. I had to have it shipped. It is awesome.

Did I mention I like to shop and love turquoise???

Home again

I am back in South Carolina and trying to unpack and organize. We picked up the dogs from the kennels and now it is time to get back to normal.

Here are some pictures of the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. This Eiffel tower is awesome. You can ride the elevator to the top for a great view of the city.





More Las Vegas adventures to come...

Las Vegas...

What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas... until I get home and get the credit card bill!

I can't believe all the great things here! It is so different from when I live here in the late 1980's. They have great stores and super cool stuff to do. I can't post pictures now, but I will as soon as I can.

Hello from the Grand Canyon

Yes, I made it on the flights! I had to take some medicine so that I could handle the flight, since I hate to fly. And when we tried to land in Houston, the fog was so bad, we had to land at a temporary airport and stay in the plane. This stupid lady behind me used her cell phone during the actual landing, even though they tell you over and over not to. It is amazing how some people think the whole world revolves around them and that if their ride has to wait a few extra minutes at the airport, the world will end and it was worth the safety of the whole flight to make that call...

Anyway, we finally got into Houston, but had already missed our connecting flight to Las Vegas. So we had to standby for another flight. Luckily, Continental had it all worked out and we were on our way again. Then we rented a car and drove over the Hoover dam and then on to the Grand Canyon. I used to live in Las Vegas in the late 1980s, so I have already seen most of this, but my husband wants to see everything! Plus Las Vegas has so built up since I lived here!

We passed a bunch of turquoise and Native American stores that I can't wait to shop at. I have to get some more turquoise!

I continued ready the second novel in the Stephanie Meyer triology, which I decided to go ahead and buy all three in hardback. This one is New Moon and continues to be a good read.

Today, we are spending the day at the Grand Canyon and then head to Las Vegas to check into hotel.

Twilight...

I am in love with this book - Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It is meant for high school readers, but I enjoyed it so much. What happened is that while reading the online news (I am addicted), the title of an article caught my eye. It was something to do with another sequel book eagerly awaited just like the new Harry Potter was. So I read a little about the new book - Eclipse and decided to give it a try. Eclipse was the third book, so I checked the first book out from the library. Twilight was excellent. I felt the story was so good, you don't realize that there is no cussing in the book or any actual sex. Of course, there is a lot of undertones of sexuality since it deals with vampires and all, but it is a part of the story.

So, now I can't wait to get the other two books in the series - New Moon and Eclipse. There is a waiting list at the library, so I may break down and buy the hardbacks of all 3 at Sam's Club. It is funny how something can totally pass you by (the first book was published in 2005) and I had never heard of it. And a chance article turned me onto something this good.

Anyway, today I found this cool skull candle at Old Navy of all places. They have some neat Halloween stuff there. And the orange lanterns with the electrical stuff included, that has skeletons on them.
And here is a picture of Caption Jack Sparrow:

And Edgar Allan Poe:
You would think it would be easy to get pictures of the puppies, but here is my husband trying to get them to sit still for a photo.


And here is me running after Edgar when he took off after a cute little poodle. The picture is not upside down, I guess my camera was...
I'll keep trying for some better pictures...

Halloween's coming...

I am recovering from the Carolina game today. My husband loves to tailgate and go to games. So every home game, I am out at the stadium 5 hours before the game in our Gamecock tailgate tent with deviled eggs and cokes and chicken. Luckily, it was only in the 80s yesterday and it was a night game.

Anyway, when I got home - this was in the mail. Mary Engelbriet's Home Companion.
And it got me thinking about how cool Halloween is to decorate the house. I can't wait. I usually start about October 1st, since it is still in the 100's here!

Anyway, here is some super cool stuff from Martha Stewart at Michaels.
It is in her Halloween section - she loves Halloween and sometimes even has special Halloween issues of her magazine. Anyway, I bought some bones and skulls, tissue paper will skulls and orange and blacks, a Happy Halloween garland, plastic warning take that says "Beware" with a skull and crossbones, a set of invitations that have microscope slides fit it (I will use these for something else), food toppers (sticks with skull/crossbone labels, and a scary font in rubber stamps. The orange and black laterns were not MS and were only $1 each. Now , this is how I decorate for Halloween.

And thanks to a couple posts from Michelle Ward, I had to do a little internet shopping! Here are some great soaps from Gianna Rose from Michelle's post back in October 2006 about the egg rubber stamps - Painted Ladies from Greenpepper Press. I remembered she had a post about how to use the series of egg stamps to get a certain effect. And she mentioned these soaps. I went to the site and look what I got! I love the heart in hand soap. The hand is soap too, but looks too good to use!

And then from her post about ETSY, I had to pick up these from Digital Paperie.

Which led me to search Etsy for skulls and I found these from Bella Bella. I had the tiaras personalized with my name and the "M" on the skull cards. How cool!!!
Thanks Michelle!!!!