Kicking off fall and getting cleaned up

 We have made quite a bit of progress around here in our 2+ weeks back home. And that's in several different areas; general cleaning, yard work, squaring away the cars, doctor's visits, and food shopping and prep work. 

My craft room was in pretty good shape when we left for the summer but after bringing in everything from the car it's right back into the chaos zone. Very hard to tame. It usually helps if I can find a box full of things to donate, just to feel a small psychological lifting of heaviness. Does that make sense?

I've got a fairly heavy schedule of shows for the next month, which is good, as I have a bunch of sparkly inventory. 😉 The first is MystiCon, an indoors show which is somewhat "woowoo" with tinctures, potions, crystals, tarot and other assorted stuff. I'll be bringing a few dragon-laced pieces. Ever since reading the Anne McCafferty Pern series all those years ago I've been a dragon lover.

 So I'm going through my setup supplies to make sure my ducks are in a row. There are a lot of moving parts, and after using a simplified system to good affect this summer while out west, I'm wanting to lighten the load to make load-in/out easier. My back has issues so anything I can do will surely help.

Let's do a bit of a rewind:

There were a few shots I wanted to include from out west that I forgot on the last post so here there are. It'll give you a taste, and remind me all winter of our "happy place". When the sun first comes up enough to start the warm-up (it's usually in the mid to high 40's), and there is virtually no breeze, we like to get some stretching in and have a small stroll before breakfast.

Out for an early morning stroll around the park.
The sun on the sides of the canyon is so peaceful.
Don't mind the cars, this is an overflow parking area
by the bathhouse and playground.

The river got very low this summer. I was
able to collect a few round rocks to paint this fall.

Heading home It's always so soothing to see the vastness of Wyoming.

While driving through Georgia, I loved not only the endless swaths of cotton fields but also the rows upon rows of pecan and peach trees. Beautiful country.

Zinging by so quickly I could barely get a shot. Very majestic though.

Thanks for dropping by and see you next time.

Good "button-up", nice safe trip home and HIT IT!

 This post has been a long time coming. I got very obsessed over the summer with the making of Dazzlers and the subsequent occasions for re-homing them. 😀 Not only to visitors, friends and their relatives around the park but also at 3 craft fairs in the local region. It was fun and I sure met some super nice people. 

My set-up was quite simple as I didn't bring anything more than my PVC rack & grid display. It breaks down readily. Put that together with a table and I was all set. Here's a couple of shots from 2 different shows.

This was for "Fire Days" at the Red Feather Lakes Firehouse
on Labor Day weekend. I was all the way at the end but had
a great day!! The couple next to me selling jams/jellies were well
known in the area and sold a bunch as well. YAY!

I was a bit of an outlier here as well. Another Firehouse setup
just west of us up the canyon. Not as many visitors but a lot of 
cool artisans and goodies.

In between shows I was rebuilding stock, (I sold 60+ across the summer shows).  I have 2 large fall craft fair commitments here in FL. That's in addition to my 2 regular Sat shows/month heading into the busy fall/Christmas season. A lot of fun designing new pieces, honing my skills and enjoying the *bling* factor.

One of the big highlights of the summer was a short, surprise visit from our oldest daughter Michelle. It was so wonderful to have time to sit together and have lengthy visits with this beautiful woman. What a special soul! 💕 We did some hiking, some thrifting, some auto-touring and some eating. Tons of fun. 

She stayed in the covered wagon, which sounds rustic but is really glamping with full bath and HVAC/Heat.

We hiked just a ways up the Big South Trail, (some of us have bad feet), alongside the Poudre River. Really nice leg-stretcher, and a few shots to boot.

What a wonderful visit - so glad you came!!

We were being smiled upon from up high for sure, here's a heart shot from our hike, and during our auto-touring, up the dirt road to Red Feather Lakes, Michelle spotted another God Wink nod in the sky, a cross cloud and a heart cloud right next to each other. Another really cool moment.

I think all our hearts were full. 💗

As far as the summer went, all in all, the weather was beautiful, my flowers were so large & colorful by the end of the season we hated to leave, but high 30's at night made it pretty obvious it was time to go.

We are well-schooled in buttoning-up Rocky and had a week to work up to the final steps. After an overnight in Cheyenne, Wy. as usual, we headed out onto I-80, asking the Lord for safe travels back home. He answered by sending His angel to keep an eye out. 🙏💗

I mean, REALLY! How cool was that?!

Mostly the usual stops of Cheyenne, Wy., Chillicothe, Mo., Jackson, Tn., and Perry, Ga. before a mid-day arrival back in Orange Park.

So, after the unloading, laundry and cleaning chores it's all about the shopping-up and cooking. Love getting all my ducks in a row with my short-cut freezer tricks and getting some savory stews and sauces frozen and ready for those easy suppers when a busy day calls for one.

I made a beautiful pork stew with lots of smoky chipotle spice & cumin flavors plus tomatoes, pintos, black beans, carrots, celery, bell peppers, onions/garlic and hominy for a real taste of Tex/Mex food. Served with rice and a piece of fresh-out-of-the-oven cornbread - to die for and YUM.

Anyway, it's been soggy here, there are still some pretty tall weeds that need pulling, and more cooking to be done, so for now, I'll leave it with you until next time.

Thanks for visiting and sorry you had such a long wait!

Our neighborhood on the Poudre River

 It's great to be back here at Glen Echo in Rustic, CO. After coming out for the summer for the past 7 years these people are like family. The river looks great, although with very little snow over the winter it is running lower than in past years. The reservoir up near Cameron Pass (continental divide) provides enough flow for the local agricultural needs and for river rafting, a big tourism draw. Here's a couple of shots of the river where we are @7200'.

The Cache la Poudre River

Here's a shot of the side-shoot branch that passes around the island,  smaller volume but still pretty. The island is used for tent camping.

Looking back west towards the main river.
The bridge is used for foot traffic over to
the campsites on the island.

I have mentioned in the past just how well things grow out here, so I always plant some flowers in my corner garden and in pots to brighten things up. Here's what I've got going so far.

The pink dianthus on either side winter over and give me some
early growth. I just clean out the weeds and fill in with annuals.

This is a little side garden along the fence line, one
in the ground and the rest in pots.

This is right at the driveway leading into our site, and
makes for pleasant viewing for passersby (with their dogs, lol.)

Here is a collage of some of the pretty flowers around the park. It's a joy to walk the "neighborhood" and admire people's efforts.

Our new next door neighbor put out some bird feeders and we've been seeing various bird species that I've never seen before. Of course, getting shots of them is difficult, but so far we've seen Baltimore Orioles, Eastern Bluebirds, red-headed house finches to name a few. Plus the "hummers" of course. Very cool! There haven't been any bear spotted around, so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Well, other than doing a small amount of socializing and making some dazzlers, that's about it so far. Thanks for stopping by! 

One guess where we are, yep, Colorado

 It's that time again, time to escape the summertime heat of Florida and hit the high country of Colorado. Love to be here but the trip is pretty long, about 1800+ miles. Also, the logistics of preparing to leave our house tend to be quite a large pain. Oh well, it's worth it.

We head out and catch 75N up through Georgia. Long swaths of the highway had these bright yellow flowers growing thick beside it. I love to see an effort being made to make our pollinators happy.

Our next fun (for me 😁) stop was in Perry, GA at Stripling's General Store. He wanted to fuel-up and I wanted to browse. What a store!! A little bit of everything, yes everything. There must have been 50 different napkin patterns, all perfectly gorgeous, bunches of shirts, kitchenware, decorative household goods plus a full grocery with butcher shop. 

So much to see, and if I was local I'd definitely try their sausage. Here's their mascot out front.

First night spent at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge in Alabama. It's our usual stop, up near the top of the state and a beautiful property. The views of the lake are wonderful, the rooms great, and they have a buffet-style restaurant onsite.

We did a bit of a tour around the area before dark and stopped down at the lake for a leg-stretcher.

Large parking lot area with a nice long dock
to fish from plus a boat ramp.

Some nice overlook areas along the bluff.

 As usual, I was mesmerized by the lovely mimosa trees in bloom.

Sunset was a pretty affair, and as darkness fell the fireflies came out to play. 

Parting shots of a mural and a cornhole base depicting the AL state parks.

After crossing the Mississippi at Dyersburg, much preferred over Memphis!, we spent the night in Jackson, MO and headed out the next day to make our planned "end run" around the St. Louis/Kansas City area on Sunday morning. The destination for the evening was the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, NE, another usual stop with restaurant onsite. Beautiful ambiance with stately wooden beams and old world charm.

After dinner, we finished up the last of the delicious blueberry cobbler with homemade whipped cream. It was a parting gift from our wonderful neighbors with whom we had shared a great meal and visit right before we left.

It's nice to have good friends that can cook!

The next bit of scenery is always one I enjoy seeing, the bread belt of the midwest spread out in front of us - vast agricultural plots, large farm equipment, silos and hay stacking up for the lean winter months. 

The next thing you know we are getting our first peek of the Rockies and seeing the end in sight. 

They're wa-ay back there.

Thanks for riding along out with us and we'll have a report of how things are here @Rocky soon.

Lots of wrap-up work as we prep for our summer.

 Wow, time's a-flying and soon we'll be on the road for parts west. I've been busy with craft shows and having fun restocking my dazzler's. 

I've been doing 2 regular shows a month with an occasional extra thrown in just for the fun of it. Here's a shot of a larger one near downtown that was well organized and well attended. I plan on doing this one again in the fall.

I've thoroughly enjoyed mingling with other crafters and have make quite a few friends. I'll use the summer to replenish my stock in anticipation of the fall/winter season.

Meanwhile the Boss has been enjoying his early morning soaks in the hot tub, firepit creating some nice ambiance and the morning sky reflecting on the lake. How can you miss with a cup of coffee and wireless earbuds piping in some smooth ambient music. What a great way to start the day, we are truly blessed!

Cozy little hide-away spot .

You may remember my "rock" project back in Dec '23 on the side yard cleaning out dirt and debris and generally tidying things up. Well this year I've been tackling the front yard, and man, did it need it. It's a slow process but I'm getting there. Luckily I have my tent canopy I can pop part way up to give me some shade while I work.

Look how nasty - sad to see and not "Bristol" at all.

Ahhh, much better. OCD much? It's worth it!

Another project we decided to do was a makeover on the north wall of our Florida Room. The Florida Room was added onto the house at some point after the original construction. We adore having this room, it runs the full width of the house with 2 sets of French doors leading out to it. We eat many of our meals out there, plus the Boss has a special seating area out there he enjoys which gets him away from the noise of the main house (mainly me making a racket out in the kitchen, 😊). However, we thought there could be some changes made to improve insulation and aesthetics. The wall needed to be opened up, examined and freshened-up, then converted into a beautiful focal point by adding stone veneer.

Our local contractor did a fantastic job with each and every part of the project, and it sure looks beautiful!!

After the old paneling was removed, the old insulation and debris
removed and replaced, and the Hardie backer board up.

Here it is underway, and we can already see how much we are going to love it.

Here's the completed wall - so pretty! It adds a ton of character to the room, now we'll just need to upgrade our furnishings to match. That will give us something to do in the fall/winter season.

Not put back together all the way as we are having a sealer 
applied to prevent dirt/dust from infiltrating the rock's crevices.
We have decided we need a new couch though, lol.

My creative juices were flowing one day and I had my 3D printer friend, Nick, print up some tiny pots for me to turn into mini refrigerator magnet forever plants. They are so stinkin' cute! And fun to make to boot. I also made some new "smalls" that combine the forever plant aspects with the wire-beaded look. Also cute, and a nice smaller offering for a teacher, mentor or friends/family. 

Nick printed these in purple, green, orange and robin's egg 
blue but for the next batch he's swapping out the orange out
for yellow. I want some to take out west with me.

I love the charm dangling off the bottom.

And a collage to finish with which show off a few new designs.

I like the combination of tiger's eye/citrine with amber accents
but I also always like the looks of the multi-colored dazzlers.

Well, thanks for dropping by and our next post will be from Colorado. Have a great summer folks. 😊

Plying my crafts, winter's almost over

Winter is almost out of here with spring's warm sun brightening things up and popping out new growth on the trees and bushes. We had a few days of hard freeze here about a month ago which nipped hard at some of our tropical plantings here in northeast FL. We got some medium-bad browning of branches on our new pygmy date palm, but the heads of each trunk are green and soon we can trim all that brown mess off. Nature, right? Just as the azalea's began their full blooming we get a hard torrent of rain and winds whipping madly - whoops, there go all the pretty blooms. 😒

Anyway, much like the last post, I've been cooking, (pot pies & various pasta dishes) and baking, (chocolate chip & pecan macaroons, plus cowboy cookies). And we've been gorging ourselves on mandarins & fresh strawberries - it's the height of strawberry season.  I don't make jam anymore so I've no need to buy a flat, but those big clamshells full will last us several days. I cut a bag full up for our fruit bowls then put the rest in a glass jar in the fridge. They hold up pretty well that way.

Italian sausage pot pie

Fresh berries!

In addition to all the great food, I've also spent a few hours making new trivets. It's so funny - I was going to make one but it's so addictive that I made 3 instead. I've always said I'm easily amused, haha.

 I'm regularly doing 2 craft shows a month, to good affect, but I added a special one called "Mystic Faire", held in a local hotel, which featured all things mystical such as creepy skull lamps & trinkets, crystals, swords & knives, candles, tarot etc. Very interesting show, my first indoor show so setup was a bit of a challenge. I did well, and had a good time doing it.

I'm scheduled for another month or so for shows, then it will be time to get busy with last minute projects around the house before heading out west for the summer.

I've been making a lot of dazzlers using semi-precious stone chip beads such as striped agate, lapis lazuli, cherry quartz, tiger's eye, amethyst and aventurine. Also, combining the stone with the bark gives a very organic and natural feel to the piece. 

Striped agate, peach aventurine
Tree-of-Life 

A small, simple dazzler,
closeup below.

 The chicken wire/wood pieces are also popular, I finally finished up one I had started last summer featuring a honeycomb with bees.

I wish the light was better in this shot :(

 Also, the fun bracelet bangles have been flying off the rack. I made some with football team color combo's, plus the chakra colors, (basically a rainbow - so pretty).

So that's my story for the last couple of months. I hope this finds you happy and healthy and staying busy doing things you love! 😊🥳