A Southwestern White Christmas

We got to have a bit of an unexpected white Christmas here in the Southwest.

It's a bit lonely some Christmases here so far from our family and friends so when we got an invite to our friends' place in nearby New Mexico we jumped at the chance

It was an eventful ride with a close call on the highway with a two wheel drive car spinning out directly in front of us and getting stuck in the slush. Our experienced Alaskan driver maneuvered past safely with quick reflexes and saved us from the crash. We did our Alaskan duty and pushed the car out while  crazy drivers were nearly ignoring our pleas to slow down.

Then we took the snowy slushy side road to get away from the inexperienced drivers that are unaccustomed to driving thru snow.

Our friends have a traditional adobe home that had two fires going so it was so cozy.

A wonderful table setting

a Mata Ortiz pot and angel

massive wooden beams overhead

A comfy bed waiting for us

destined to become a pie

Our illustrious driver and Mr. Cory

they said half the snow had already melted.

This will be my last post for 2011.

It's hard to say whether I'll get the chance to blog from India but I promise to share when I can.

See you in February...

Happy New Year you all!

Nails... and tough as

Was just going through my photos and thought I'd post a few from the archives that I never got around to posting last year. These are dated railroad nails on the old railway near our property in the Southeast corner of Arizona. The railroad was used during the height of the copper mining days here and has been since abandoned. I even found some china pieces on the railroad bed that were discarded from the dining car apparently. I'm ever on the lookout for good tidbits.

Sweet 16

This is a remnant of someone's inappropriate footwear on the migrant trail near our house.

I hope she had better shoes to make the trek. An unknown story here.

Tough as nails Cory, I get to live with this guy!

"Milagros"

And these were tough as nails to finish off for some reason.

I was trying some new things that branched off from my bangles process.

I swear they took me all afternoon to make...must be because I'm trying something new.

We had the most rainy day I have ever seen here in the high desert yesterday.

It was kind of nice to hunker down and be cozy, watch movies and eat popcorn

packing up parcels to send out for the holidays.

The countdown is on for our India trip, just a mere 17 days!

Bangles

I had a bit of fun making bangles with more than a bit of inspiration from fanciful devices

She's very free with the sharing of her techniques and ideas.

In fact she welcomes you to try to make anything that she shows on her blog, she's got plenty more ideas.

I used beads from my stash that I wouldn't normally use... like the big bag of beads someone thought I might be able to use. I didn't think so at the time because they don't necessarily go with my lampwork and designs but it was a fun exercise in freeing up my ideas of what can work.

Especially  the randomness, that helped make the funky beads look even funkier.

I used sari silk, mexican woven fabric and even some fabric scraps that I picked up on the migrant trail near our house. 

I made bright ones, brighter ones and some neutral ones

The hard part for me is sizing them. I have skinny wrists and tend to design for my size and then I wonder if I made some too big. We'll see.

Other news is that our apartment in Tucson is painted, tiled and carpeted now. it was too late in the evening for photos so I guess that will have to wait until next trip to the city.

meanwhile the Mr. is decorating the house and propping up our new tree and I'm being beckoned for assistance.

Ciao! xoxo Kim

Mystery Item's Function Revealed

It seems no one was able to guess the function of this piece that I picked up at the antique store in St. David. Now if I tell you that in St. David Arizona there are several pecan orchards you perhaps could deduce that this has something to do with nuts... and you would be right.

It is a nut picker upper! Used for nuts that have fallen already

I think the spring has slightly sprung on it  but I assume that the coils spread with pressure and spring back to grip the nut. I don't know if I would have ever guessed either.

Pre-made collection on Etsy

I've been getting on the Etsy stick so to speak and trying to fill up my shop after my season of paleo dial-up in Alaska. As you may have noticed I have amped up my online presence as of late.

Thinning out some of my collections

Lotto Pieces in my Numinosity shop

And  these in my other shop NuminosityBeads

These sold immediately I'm happy to say...Thanks facebook! These went to Alaska.

 I was awfully proud of how these headpins came out so please forgive me for showing them off when they're unavailable. I'll try to make some more.

Super duper macro shot because this is my blog.

Find them Etsy here

Here's an addendum to this post. check out these beads

They're in my Etsy supplies shop here because I didn't make them myself

They're Tibetan Buddhist mala beads

And since you were good sports about the guessing game send me your address if you'd like a postcard from me as a thank you and holiday end of the year bonus.

Happy December all of you nuts!

More Postcards

So I've kind of been on a postcard kick this week. Well, postcards, photographing, blogging and Etsy. Husband has gone to attend to the tiling of our new place so I've had more time to myself to go about my business... which besides studio time means catching up on a marathon of "In Treatment" in the evening and eating foods that he won't touch like eggplant and tempeh and nursing the cold I had.

(For those of you who may be confused...you see we now have a new apartment in Tucson two hours away which was too good of a deal to pass up so now we have a third place besides Alaska and Bisbee. When I say too good a deal to pass up I mean a one bedroom apt with access to a park and downtown and a swimming pool for less than the price of a new Subaru)

Gesso, pastels and scraps

Some more of my intuitive painting paper

 Boy, how I love using vintage diagrams in my collages!

Some more tequila decals. Credit for these stickers goes to artist Dr. Lakra

Time Life books at the thrift store are rife with images

For my own personal use of course... me and my potty mind

Why do group pictures of Chinese and Japanese women keep showing up in my pieces?

I think I need to dig deep into my collective Asian unconscious...err.. I mean subconcious for that answer.

Oh, you know by now how I am about head swapping and vintage lady bodies.

It's a delicious formula, try it sometime!

Uh oh, bad studio practices.. smudging...and not the purification kind.

I am such a hasty worker that everything gets all over everything else.

I know the rest of you artists are orderly and neat in every way...of course you are!

Neighborhood Watch

Feeling better now so I took a little walk around the neighborhood.

This place is a rustafarian's dream. Lot's of distress and rusty collections and rockwork, that's why I love the place.

We're starting with my street side patio which is called a "portale" in Spanish. My road is actually called a trail named after a famous Indian warrior which I also love.

Reminds me of Alaska, the frontier, the trail part that is.

Can you guess what this is? It only cost me $2 at an antique store.

I'll send you a little something if you guess it right!

Here's the handle

The lot next door just waiting for a photo op.

See,  I like it better when decorations and structure go awry with nature.

It pleases me. That's why I couldn't live in Scottsdale.

We're kind of in a different country down here in Bisbee, the border of the border I guess.

Stucco Art

Creative abodes. That mountain in the background is in Mexico.

I hear that a famous comedian lives here. Dave has it in his mind that a clown lives here so it's the clown house. They have lively parties that we can hear. We haven't met them yet.

They painted the rocks in the yard

The place looks like a fun party even without the folks

My neighbor thinks Italian Cypress are ridiculous worthless trees.

I think they're kind of exotic "graveyard trees" 

And look, they are a birdhouse to many.

This is one of those shots that I prefer the manmade phone lines rather than just nature.

Makes the composition more exciting to me and it looks as if the bird is sitting on the line, which it's not.

I haven't seen this particular strain of cacti before or should I call it fracti?

Just beautiful.

Meet the meters

the back side of the clown house, They party on the roof there.

A different perspective of my studio

Lower part of the blue house on the right.

I've never looked at our house from this vantage point before from the street below us.

Do you see a face? I do.  Shades of Easter Island in the wash on Black Knob

parumpapum pum I spy a drum.

OK it's a tank but that's not quite so poetic or Christmasy.

I could make a reference to Tanksgiving  but that would be too corny.

Now if I could just get into this window... treats inside!

patterns everywhere

Old style concrete garages

You can see the imprint of "Drink Coca Cola" on this concrete wall.

How cool is that!

Desert Birch

'Nother garage 

I thought this looked like a crane in this empty garage

Rusty loveliness

And this was just a couple of streets nearby. 

Thanks for joining me on my walk today.

XOXO Kim