Silver and Turquoise Love Affair

Among my many visual loves, silver turquoise jewelry ranks high on the list.

I have always loved the way the turquoise complements the silver. 

Most of these are the work of American Indian artists, and I also love the symbols and designs on the silver that many times frame the stone(s).

 

This love affair with turquoise jewelry isn't something new.......when I was a teenager silver was "in" and that was my jewelry of choice.  In a trendy town near where I grew up there was this beautiful artsy store that sold silver jewelry......some plain, some with different stones, but most of it with turquoise.  I can remember many birthdays asking for something from the store, and I still have some of the pieces that I wore in high school that came from there.......still fashionable today.

Although my mom rasied me in the crafty era of bangle bracelets and 60's fashion, even she had some silver bracelets and rings from her past.  This sterling bracelet is one of my favorites, it was a wedding gift to the bridesmaids in my Aunt's wedding, just a simple etched bangle with their name and the wedding date  inscribed on the inside. It has become one of my standard favorites to wear.

And there were other pieces from her past, I never actually saw her wear them but she had told me they were bought during trips out west before she got married to my dad.  After she passed away I had a custom bracelet made with some pictures of her, past and present.  I wore it quite often for awhile, it brought me comfort

At some point I put my silver jewelry away in favor of gold, at the time it seemed more "mature" and more popular..........My engagement and wedding rings are gold, and I have a good sized collection of costume jewelry in gold tones.  There were the occasional better pieces, but I didn't have the budget for a lot of really good stuff.  Besides this was about the time I was raising babies and toddlers, and much of the bling took a back seat.  For a long time I only got as far as earrings everyday.  As much as I admire pretty jewelry, I never really desired diamonds or fancy necklace gifts from my husband, it just wasn't my lifestyle. I always loved my silver turquoise,though......it was so much more personal to me.  Eventually I started to wear it more, especially in the summer months.

Enter my cowgirl era, or mid-life crises, or whatever I can pin it on, one day the silver came out of hiding and the gold was banished to the closet.  Around this time there was no stopping my obsession, I fell head over heels ga ga for the look.  Of course, that didn't actually mean I went out of the house wearing it.  I was still not ready to go all out and flaunt the mega-bracelet look and heavy necklaces.......I had had instances of bracelets getting caught and bent doing barnwork (what was i thinking?) and not only that, in my mind  I was  stuck on the fact that the mom's around here didn't really flaunt a lot of jewelry, especially the stuff that I wanted to wear............

 

Then I hit the big 5 0, and I guess ever since I've been more likely to go out with my beloved sterling on me.........one of these days i'll go all out and wear everything with my good cowboy boots, and maybe, just maybe I'll even throw my cowboy hat on.  Not to the high school football games, mind you.......but a lot more often then I used to.  My teenage daughter has assured me I don't look like an old lady who's trying to look hip, thank goodness for 50 being the new 30, or whatever it is being said about the surge of us baby boomers addressing the aging issue.

You're as young as you (let yourself) feel.....................Yee Haw!!!  Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for catching up with me!!!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Coloring the Easter eggs is something I actually have to seek out my children to do these days, with one away at college and the other two distracted with their own agendas.  I was able to pull my 14 year old daughter off the webcam to join in, she still loves doing stuff like this.  I had hard boiled the eggs yesterday and brought out the usual cargo that goes along with the dyeing process

White eggs

Good old Paas dyeing kit

White Vinegar and bowls for the colors

Following the directions, we mixed up 6 bright colors with the tablets

Now for the creative part!





When it was done we had 18 beautiful colored Easter eggs.......a little "older" looking than the eggs of years past.....no stickers or wax drawings....but she and I thought they turned out pretty good.  It's always rewarding to do little things like this with your kids regardless of their age!!

Here's wishing everyone a blessed and joyous Easter............now I can eat chocolate again, lol!!!

Ready, Set...........Bloom!!!

I hope everyone had a nice week.....I think spring is probably descending on most of the country about now; There are lots of posts about the beautiful flowers beginning to bloom, and this is just such a wonderful time of year- it's like nature's celebrating the end of winter with a spectacular extravaganza of blooms everywhere! I'm a back-yard gardener too, and one of the first things to signal the beginning of warm weather are my roses. I have to admit I don't really baby my roses, and it's a wonder they come back every year as well as they do. When we first moved into this house 15 years ago I planted two climbing rosebushes to frame part of the picket fence that surrounds my little side garden. I guess they really like that spot, because today they are HUGE.......and watching them get ready to open is a show in itself

Initially it looks like one big green hedge once the weather starts to warm up; Then, after about a week, the little buds start to form

Then, about 10 days after the first sign of buds, it just kind of "explodes" with hundreds of little pink roses

There is a fence under there, but barely........I think after the garden is done for the season I'm going to cut them back (which i usually end up doing two or three times anyway) and replace the fence- the weight of the bushes is probably very heavy

This is a view looking at the backside of the roses, from the porch

Of course, it always looks a little wild when things first start getting going, like it needs a "haircut", but I won't be doing anything until the beautiful show is over.......for now;  These particular rosebushes gear up and do this about once a month throughout the summer and into fall.  The next showing, however, is going to look a little more......orderly........just for the sake of the poor fence!!

                                                 


 

Happy weekend everyone! 

And Happy Easter too............tomorrow is egg dye-ing day at our house, even big kids love to do that around here!

Sprucing up the Porch

We've been having some of the most beautiful spring weather the last few days here in Georgia; The tons of (visible) pine pollen has left, and it's a good time to start getting the screen porch in order. It gets pretty dirty after a winter of neglect and exposure to the elements, but I got lucky this year, my husband cleaned it up while I was out of town this past weekend. All I had to do was arrange things!

I have some of my favorite flea market finds that stay out there, like the red glider (which wasn't red when i got it) and the little boy and girl wooden cutouts

I also have a real shabby set of old porch furniture that I found when I was up in North Georgia a couple of years ago

Isn't it great? You can't make a finish like that, ha ha

This is what it looks like looking out from the kitchen

And here is what it looked like last year, things were arranged a little differently

So that's one project down, next is getting the little garden cleaned up and ready

It really needs it!!

Thanks for checking in, enjoy your day!!

Bedroom Shelf

I recently got the urge to do something, anything, to my bedroom that I thought would switch things up........I'm not about to go rearranging furniture, yet.............but I had spent the morning looking at some of my favorite books on decorating with white, and I thought "I can do that too."   I had a shelf that I had bought at an antique store a few years ago, and I thought it deserved to have center stage across from my bed where I could admire it.  The hard part, for me, is always figuring out how to make things look GOOD......I have always had a hard time decorating, even though I love it........it seems to take me forever of trying and retrying my efforts.  But anyway, this is what I ended up with.......

I have a rather large, er, ample supply of ironstone all around my house, so

I went around to the different collections and borrowed some things to put

on the shelf

The shelf sits over my very favorite piece of furniture, a pine (what else?) dresser

that my mother had told me was the first piece of furniture she ever bought when

she was a working girl back in the 40's. 

My mom's been gone for 12 years now, but I can remember loving this chest

even back when I was little......and her telling me how she bought it out of an

antique shop in Richmond, where she lived and worked at the time.

I also remember growing up with a small, unassuming ironstone platter at the dinner table most nights........

But I'll save that for another post,

the platter that started it all......

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!

Thanks for stopping by!