Heading to Arizona for the winter

It's sleeting here in New Hampshire and there are little balls of ice all over the deck.  Good thing I found these at the Dollar store yesterday.  If I'm forced to put on socks with my flip-flops, they should make me happy.  I think these will work in an emergency.

The trailer is getting packed, I'm taking a workshop Saturday at the Kearsarge Indian Museum, then pack the car and hit the open road on Sunday..... if all goes as planned.

My kids are waiting for a huge snow storm on Sunday as just about every trip I start out for Arizona in the first big snow storm.

.....back to packing beads and contemplating wearing socks!

Small Town Circus

We went to look at a small local circus because I'm doing a circus themed bead crochet string-along....... Two hours to put it all up and 2 hours to take it all down..... then on to the next small town.  
4/20 - Safford, AZ
4/21 - Bisbee, AZ
4/22 - St. David, AZ
4/23 - Douglas, AZ
4/24 - Marana, AZ
4/25 - Eloy, AZ







For attractions there was a food trailer, two bouncy houses and a pony ride ......  No animals larger than a horse and I didn't see any evidence of the bird/pigeon act - The cotton candy machine wasn't working and there were no sideshows to be seen.
























If one wanted to go RV'ing with a job, then joining a small circus might be the way to go.  Four hours setup/tear down + two one-hour shows and drive to the next town......

What do you think?

Kilim - West of the Mississippi

 When I left New Hampshire, this is what the back yard looked like.  I was wearing socks with my flip-flops, yes, indeed, I was.

This is what Tombstone looked like when I drove into town.  No socks with my flip-flops when the temps are 70+ during the day.

 Texas, Ah, Texas, where it takes three days of driving to get across the state.

Too bad we had to be in Tombstone for Thanksgiving and couldn't dawdle anywhere.  Wonder what they sell in this Texas store?

3,160 miles in 12 days

The last leg took us through;

Lousiana

Texas

New Mexico

Arizona

I thoroughly enjoyed having Kilim traveling with me.  It's booklet has all sorts of notes of good wishes written in it.  

I'll be sorry to see it go on, but I want to see it visit all 50 states - 34 more to go. 

Kilim - Traveling Bracelet in NOLA

 We got into New Orleans the afternoon of Nov. 15th.















It was a very long drive across the Lake Pontchartrain causeway.

Bev Herman of No Easy Beads is one of my oldest beading friends.  We just do not get to spend the time together that we would like to.

She needed some positiveness in her life so I turned the bracelet over to her for the 4 days we were in New Orleans.

We ate good things, played with beads, giggled, talked a lot and visited another beader in Baton Rouge.  I'll let Bev tell the tale of New Orleans.

Read all about it here!!!

Kilim - Traveling Bracelet in the East

I had very good intentions... intentions of taking a photo of every new state we crossed into.  

My new camera didn't like that idea at all....... it sat there and dithered around, trying to decide if it should focus on the bracelet (up close) or what was in the background (farther away).

At highway speeds, once the camera makes up it's mind, it's too late!

See what I mean?   We got passed by the Oscar Meyer Winermobile!

... and this is all of a photo I managed to get.

Some states had welcome centers that were still open and we could stop, walk around and take a photo or two.

I don't remember the name of this town, but I'd want to live where the water towers gave both Hot & Cold water.





You can go through a lot of states in the East in four and a half days.

New Hampshire

Maine

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania

Maryland

West Virginia

Virginia

Tennessee

Georgia

Alabama

Mississippi

Kilim - a Traveling Bracelet

 Sig Wynne-Evans is the mastermind behind the traveling bracelets.... and they keep growing in number.  Please jump over to her blog and catch up on the background.   I have been graced with Kilim, or (as I call it) the flying carpet bracelet.  I'm going to see if somehow this one can visit each and every one of the 50 states.  It's going to stay with me for more than a week as I drive from my summer studio in NH to my winter abode in AZ and then get passed off to Marcia DeCoster to complete a sea-to sea journey.

It Starts.....

Hurricane Sandy left us wet, semi-functional electronically and under heavy overcast skies.  Couldn't get on-line and the house was dreary so we took off and headed for Portsmouth NH on the Atlantic ocean. Portsmouth was incorporated as a city in 1653.  I think it is about 80 miles East of where I live.  This bracelet really had to officially start at the Eastern edge of the USA for this trip.




They were moving a crane on a barge in Portsmouth harbor.  This little piece of water has some working fishing boats in it.

 We were next to Strawberry Banke Museum, just across the water from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.  all of that green grass was water and wharves back when the dark brown building was built in the 1600's.







Then my boyfriend had to get in the act and insisted that we were so close to Maine that we had to go over the bridge into Kittery.   Quickest visit I've ever made to Maine since I moved East 40 years ago!  I can see it now..... he's going to be finagling the trip route the whole way to catch small corners of states.

But.... we can add Maine to the list of States visited.  That's two; NH & Maine. I guess I need to make a check list to keep on the blog.


Now it's time to start shutting down the house and put it into cold storage for the winter.


Oh, dear..... all of the beads need to be cleaned off of the work surfaces, put away into the cases and then packed for the trip.  Then we can hit the road .... hitting the road in 9 days.

Bracelet Side Trips......

The bracelet was sent to me early to make sure I had it before I left.  While waiting for the trip to begin, it hurried up the guys putting cedar shingles on the end of the house.









It went to the BSNH Fall Bead Retreat with me.  A lot of the gals there added notes and best wishes to the booklet that goes with the bracelet.

Lots of good karma at a bead retreat.

Quick Trip - Maine

 Every once in a while one needs to go some place away from home and the many projects that keep saying, "me, work on me next.".  So we threw a change of clothing in the car and took off for the coast of Maine for a couple of days.  It was also cooler over there and I was tired of sitting in an air conditioned house in the summertime.

You can see my orange Element just behind this great delivery van restoration.  I love the colors and think my Element would look beautiful painted like this.... Chicken stuff and all.


Chainsaw roadside art -- funky and fun.  But this flamingo was totally lost alongside of all the chainsawed bears. It belongs in Florida, not here.

I have a beading friend who is known for her beaded moose.  I was thinking that a 3-D piece like this might look awesome in colored beads.

 It's hard to see, but there is an eagle up there on that nest.  Wonder how often it lost sleep when the lights went on for an event?  We sat and watched the birds for a while and then turned around and watched the big cranes (mechanical, not birds) at Bath Iron Works.  Big, big cranes and big pieces of ships being moved around.

 It was so restful sitting in the empty park, looking out  to the  Kennebec Estuary.  The shipyard was upstream and the maritime museum was downstream. Nice soft seacoast breezes were blowing.

We drove home along Rte 202 and looked at several inland towns while I finished up some crocheting for my on-line String-Along.


A change of scenery is always good.

Trip East May 2012

 When we left Arizona, the cactus were in full bloom and it was already heading towards 100 degrees.

 The beads got packed into their canvas bags, then into the trailer.  Close up the house and hit the road.  It seems to take longer each year when I keep thinking it should all be a quick system after 11 years of doing this.

Last year the little teardrop trailer got severely crunched, not once but twice and had to be replaced.  This trip a quick inspection showed that the accident had also crunched the car's hitch which meant a trip to an iron mongers for a whole new, custom made/installed hitch.  At least I got some crocheting done while sitting and waiting for the work to be finished up.  The car got more of a housecleaning than the house did before we shut down.

We were lucky to have quite beautiful weather the whole trip.  My skin said, "thank you" as we drove into Kansas, green growing things, and some humidity.  A winter in Arizona leaves me a flaky, dried out 'ol crone.  

Dodge City.... I remember reading Louis L'Amour cowboy books with my son when he was in middle school. It was fun to be able to drive through the center of Dodge City and imagine what it was like as a wide open frontier town when the Earp brothers were there.  Sort of a reverse trip as the Earps went from there to Tombstone, where I spend the winter.

I had to laugh as we followed the sign to a Scenic Overlook just outside of Dodge City.  Where else would a feed lot and beef packing plant be considered scenic.

 For once my daughter was not running off to some design show in May and we got to visit for a bit in Chicago.  This is one of the "Corncob" buildings, right downtown Chicago.  Count up 53 floors and that is where her apartment is.  It's pure 1960's inside, metal cabinets and all.  However, she did mention that living in pie slice wedges has gotten rather tiresome.  All of the apartments are triangular wedges.

 Each of those ellipses is a balcony.  If you have enough nerve to walk out and look over the railing, this is what you would see - the Chicago River.  It was rather fun to watch the series of bridges go up to let the sailboats through.  From that high up they looked like a hoard of insects moving up the river as each bridge opened.

We took a few extra days to unwind and visit the  farming family in central Illinois.  All of the planting was done for the year, as early as anyone can remember. All the away across country we kept hearing that things were 2 to 3 weeks warmer/earlier than normal.  April was the 5th warmest on record!  I love the patterns that the emerging corn makes in the fields. OOPS, the farmer in the house corrected me - it's soybeans not corn growing in that field.... tecknicalities!




Farm equipment get bigger and bigger.  Couldn't tell you what this was, but it sure was bright blue and the tool box had wrenches that were almost as long as I am tall!

I think the old wooded corn cribs are beautiful.  It's sad to know that this one is slated to be demolished.  Any one in the market for beautiful weathered barn boards... lots of them.  It was like walking into a time warp.  Inside was a huge floor scale and the central belt driven grain elevator.  Walk next door and the more modern shed was filled with 1950's & 60's tools, supplies and equipment.  Other than dusty, it looked like the farmer had just walked away

By the time we arrived in New Hampshire the yard was a total disgrace to the neighborhood. It looked more like a hay field than a lawn.  Most of the spring blooms had already passed and seed pods are all that's left.

The house is now opened up, pantry stocked, beads are put away and the lawn is partially hacked back.  Now I need to get out and deal with bushes and beach roses that need to be cut back as well as apply a liberal amount of vinegar to weeds that are growing in the drive and other places that they shouldn't.

Some of the unpacked piles on the floor will have to wait a bit to be put away as other needed errands and outside chores get done first. At least the mice didn't nest in the bed this year and it's always good to be able to sleep in a familiar bed after a diet of strange motels.

Heading East for the Summer

The beads are packed, the studio has all clean horizontal surfaces and it's time to shut up the Arizona house and head east for the summer.  We should be in New Hampshire around the 20th of May.



See you on the other side.... of the country....









I was in Tucson yesterday, celebrating birthdays with my two sisters.  For the first time I got to see the Saguaros blooming.  They are quite early this year and a beautiful sight.

Bead Fest Santa Fe & Trip Report

 I made it to Bead Fest in Santa Fe, but got so excited that I forgot to take my camera with me.  It was so much fun to immerse myself in all of the glittery beads and visit with old and new beading friends.  After all of this time I finally got to put a face with the names of Mary Tafoya and Laura Zeiner.  It was fun meeting both of them and I'm sorry that there wasn't time to sit down, have a cup of coffee and swap beading stories.

I took a workshop, "out of the Box Resin", and was a bit disappointed.  Half of the teacher's supplies were lost in the mail and she couldn't go into resin molding.  Unfortunately, that was the only reason I signed up for the workshop.  I have a page of notes from her recommendations, but didn't get to have any hands-on working with the materials.

 I want just one sheet of this copper shipment for my front yard!  Driving to Santa Fe we passed several truck loads of copper ingots.  The flat sheets are neat, but the thicker ones with handles or ears on top are what I really want.





In the motel parking lot, we wondered why someone would put a stuffed toy out on the ground . . . . then it moved!  I have friends who might dye their hair this color, but have never seen a entirely pink dog.  Wondering if it's like the old nursery rhyme of the "Purple Cow"?












On a very narrow back street, very hard to find and get to, is this adobe house that dates to 1647.  It's billed as the oldest house in the USA and I'll have to check with an archaeologist friend.  I think there is a 1616 house on the grounds of Strawberry Bank Museum in Portsmouth NH.

 I love looking at doors in the southwest.  This was a particularly nice one in a fence.











I'd eat at this Deli in a heartbeat.... what a happy looking place.

One of these days, I'm going to have to collect photos of places that have unusual combinations of things for sale.







The trip home was a nightmare.  We ended up traveling south along the huge storm front. Visibility was almost nil from blowing sand and dust.  What should have been an 8 hr trip, lasted 24 hours when we hit Interstate closings from Las Cruces to Lordsburg NM.  Then it was off & on snow whiteouts the next day driving west.

Ouch, my Element looks like it now has a matte orange bead finish