A GIVEAWAY, a Gorgeous Garden and Glorious Decay.

Hey guys, can someone please explain to me how did it get to be the middle of January 2014 already?!  I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the 1980's.  Blink and a decade or two flies by, eh?

I'd like to thank you all for your very thoughtful comments on my last post.  Your many words of kindness touched my heart.  I appreciate it more than you know.  Yes, doing just fine now, thank you.

Finally we've had a wonderful adventure!  Took a road trip to Florida to see family and friends.  Been much too long since our last visit and this one was much too short.  But it was a blast.  We ate our way through Louisiana and back.  My imaginary friend Kathy is from the Baton Rouge area and shared her hometown fav restaurants.  Seafood and Cajun cooking till we were ready to burst.  So good that even this "Can't cook- demerit winning- bad cook" was inspired to buy a couple cookbooks to give it a go.  hahahaha.  I'll let you know how that works out.  Yup, I took tons of pictures to share with you.  I've been sorting through them and picked out just the best.  So without further delay.......

 

 

 

Beautiful garden spots

Are any of you fans of the movie "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte"?

I am.  A great suspenseful old classic.

We toured the mansion where some of the movie was filmed.

I believe only exterior shots were shot here.

 Pictures of stills from the filming that they had on site.

.

How those magnificent live oaks look today.

Does this view look familiar?

You can almost see the car approaching down this tree lined

drive to pick up Bette Davis in the final scene.

The interior was equally breathtaking.

This sculpture of Abe Lincoln is PURE STERLING SILVER!

Wow!

Home medicine chest.

Notice the arsenic, opium and morphine.

Things that make you go "hmmmm".

Love this ceiling treatment.

Even the food was attractive.

A snowman to celebrate the unusually cold weather perhaps.

 

Goodies tucked into every nook and cranny.

Wedding cake details

Glorious decay

A colorful doorway from another house

randomly interspersed to liven up the 

WHITE.

Amazing detail

Louisiana was all about fantastic food and beautiful old houses.

Florida is all about people we love and these vistas.....

Spanish moss and crystal clear springs where you can see this...

A manatee mama and baby

Decay, Florida style.

beyond that far window is the Gulf of Mexico.

Filling the tank, Florida style

Up north, you've been fighting snow drifts.

Here the sand drifts were covering the roads.

It was crazy windy and cold that day.

Cold being relative.

Even though I lived in Florida for many years, I had never been to this part of the state.

Now I know why it's called the Emerald Coast.

The water is an amazing shade of green.

Beautiful against the sugar white sand and blue skies.

Keeping with the water theme, this very ornate ship was docked along the Mississippi on our way home.

You know we looked for goodies along the way.

We were hunting for megladon teeth while canoeing a Florida river.

What we found...very tiny fragments of shark teeth

and two adorable little heart stones.

How tiny are these shark teeth?

This tiny...

That's my pinky finger!

A few other treasures we found

A very BIG mother of pearl shell.

Think I might have a go at carving this thing one of these days.

 

Vintage inspiration

Sweet little goodies

The three little vessels are from France.

Enameled souvenir spoons.

I have another big score from Florida but haven't photographed it yet.

To get you guessing what it could be...

I bought it here....

Guaranteed to make you laugh.

but it will have to wait till my next post.

Here are some pics we took with our Iphones.

The biggest, coolest aquarium we've ever seen...

 at a restaurant.

The star of the show.

Meanwhile back at the ranch....

This getaway felt really really good.

Did you all hear about the ice storm that hit Texas?

Literally 3-4 inches of ice on every surface.  ugh.

After dealing with that, it was nice to get away and see those Florida sand drifts.

This looks like snow, but it was pure ice!

This poor little bird was looking for a not icy spot to warm up.

so while I was iced-in in Texas, Mr. Wonderful was trapped in

sunny, warm California.

Flights cancelled day after day.

He made the best of it and yes, he called every day to gloat...

"Today, I went to the beach"...

"Today I went to Disney"

 Under the guise of "I was thinking of you",

 but I think it was really just to rub it in, he brought me this....

some really interesting beach rocks and Tink

BWAHAHAHA

I think this captures his attitude about the situation perfectly.

In spite of all this unusual excitement as of late,

 there's been a bit of work accomplished as well.

Here's the jewelry makins since last post.

Some already listed some not

Marina shared this empty pod with me awhile back,

 after I was swooning over a necklace she made

with an eye pod .

THANK YOU, Marina!

I had a difficult time sourcing these pods,

but finally have found and ordered some.

I resined the eye into the pod...

it's tears are raw rubies

Tin beads made with Pipnmolly's tute technique and Scorced Earth's robin egg droplets and

Fold formed leaves.

Guys, making these beads is so much fun.

And if you want to make it as easy as it is fun,

grab a pair of her custom made, bead making tweezers.

I highly recommend them.

Well made and perfect for holding the tin while you solder it.

Petra spikes and up-cycled tin.

Flame painted copper discs, coin pearls, filigree.

Vintage red tin, ceramic, glass and stone beads.

Assymetrical tin

Ametrine, vintage tin.

Vintage red rose tin, hands, rhinestones, onyx drops, faceted raspberry glass and metal roses.

Tin beads, Petra spikes in fabulous croc glaze, 

vintage bobbins with text, ceramic and glass beads.

Petra mint chocolate goodies.

Vintage book chain, quartz crystal clusters, colorful Numinosity headpins.

Reversible tin beads, Bluhealer beads and Petra Drops.

Sterling, copper, brass pinwheels.

It seems to me that I already blogged these...apologies if I did.

Don't think I could have though as the pictures weren't taken until after my last post.

Vacation brain?  Brain freeze?

Anyway...

These are the coolest vintage new-old stock silver beads from the 70's or 80's,

glass eye headpins, vintage bobbins with text, ceramic and stone beads.

Reversible tin beads and Petra spikes.

Tin beads, Bluhealer beads, glass eye headpins and ceramic beads.

Roller printed and hand forged leaves with reversible tin beads.

Petra squiggles with ceramic beads.

I also made two chains with vintage clips that are easily switched out to wear with 

Pipnmolly's fantastic vessels and other unusual focals..

Here's the brass chain with mother of pearl clips.

I've since added smaller brass rings to the amphora.

These big ones overwhelmed the design.

Love how it looks with this reversible amphora too.

and here's the silver chain with vintage hand clips....

with the other side of this beautiful amphora to the front.

to oxidize or not?

hmmm....still deciding on these.

Finally listed this hair adornment....

and these...

Anticlastic copper saddles, agate and hand dyed silk.

and last but not least.....

A giveaway 

to thank you guys for all of your loyal support over the last year.

Please just leave a comment and I'll throw your name in the hat.

There's two things you'll have a chance to win.

This necklace....

Vintage Chinese coin, coral and a blue Petra bobbler adorning a beautiful young child focal.

and these earrings...

Petra's porcelain pods, Ancient Roman glass and hand dyed silk.

I'll announce the winners in my next post.

Hope you enjoyed the vacation highlights.

Enjoy yourselves till next time!

Later gator