Vibrant Gray - Winter At Home In East Tennessee

Winter is on the way and the wind is crisp and cool. The holiday season is fast approaching with all of the hustle and bustle that comes with it. Thanksgiving with all the trimmings is in the planning along with Christmas lists beginning to be penned. The holidays are a wonderful part of the winter season, the part that brings us vivid and bright colors, warm rememberances of family and friends and opportunities to share with those we love and cherish. We don't have snow here in East Tennesse very often any more and the winter's landscape can appear to be gray and colorless. I happen to be one who enjoys the colors of winter. The stark contrast of leafless trees reaching up into a deep blue sky speaks to me of hope and courage, strength and endurance.

Every time we drive away from our home we must travel over a small old bridge that crosses over a lake surrounded by hills and trees. This little bridge is ordinary to most around here in this neck of the woods. Bridges like this one can be found all around East Tennesse and rarely get mentioned and get even less notice. The little bridge that we cross each day says a lot more to me than it does to others I guess. The little bridge says "you are almost home" to me. This little bridge has always been dependable, strong, welcoming and has always led me safely in the right direction no matter how stormy life has been.

I seem to appreciate the little bridge more during the winter months. After all the colorful leaves of fall have fallen and the landscape's stark cold grays have taken their place I continue to cross over the little bridge. It is a place where the deep blue sky with feathery white clouds reflects from the glistening water surrounding it and the shadowed reflection of the trees around the lake's shore reach out across the water's surface as if to lovingly embrace all who pass by. A vivid reminder that home is where your family and friends are, no matter where that may be. A place where you are always welcomed with outreached arms to embrace you, no matter what circumstances may be passing through your life. Home is the place where warmth, hope, strength and endurance abide. The place to share warm rememberances of family and friends and a place that gives us opportunities to share with those we love and cherish. The cold gray landscapes of winter in East Tennessee are merely doors that open into the bright and vibrant warmth and celebration of family and friends and the celebration of where home truly exists.

Carnelian Focal Pendant Neclaces

This week has been a productive one and I have enjoyed it so much. I finally got my web site going and have it linked to my blog and my Etsy shop. I am really happy with it so far and I am really looking forward to expanding it as time goes on, along with my blog. My new web page address is www.happyplacesjewelry.com

Then; after the web site building, I got to some fun business...working with stones and beads. My brother, Thom Tapp, gave me these stones a while back. The carnelians are natural stones that he hand cut in free form to compliment the stones bands and color and then tumble polished them to a beautiful sheen. I drilled the pendant holes and created necklaces with them using garnets, amethysts and tiger eye beads along with sterling silver, Hill Tribe silver and tiny seed beads. I have to say that I think these necklaces are beautiful and they are truly unique, original one of a kind necklaces. I am going to list them in my Etsy shop for this weekend. When they are gone there will never be one exactly like them and I think I will miss them, a real sacrifice :)

My Cat Is So Funny!!

I couldn't not take pictures while we were enjoying a pretty day and I couldn't believe the cat (Minka) could sleep so high up on the deck rail, the deck is over eight feet high. She did it though and wasn't really happy about waking up!! Every time I watch this slide show I can't hardly keep from laughing...I hope you enjoy it too.


Create Your Own

Bears In The Trees! Oh My!!

This past week we visited the Great Smoky Mountains. The day was overcast and cloudy with scattered showers. The mountains are beautiful on cloudy days. As we traveled around the winding road that led to the top of the mountains we viewed drifts of clouds that gently kisssed the evergreens on the mountain peaks. Wild life was evident and we spotted two large owls that were taking advantage of a cloudy day. It was rather funny that we had just been talking about how we had seen bears more often when we were children visiting the mountains than we had since we had... matured... Not long after that conversation we were moving along at a rather quick pace for sightseers when I spotted something at the top of the trees near a mountain viewing stop. I yelled out "Hey! I think that was a bear in that tree!!!". We quickly made a U turn (on a narrow mountain road...) and went back to see if indeed there was a bear. Sure enough, IT WAS A BEAR!!! We jumped out of the car with our cameras and started clicking away. The sun was beginning to set and the day was cloudy but I managed to get a couple of shots of that bear who was munching away on the branches of the tree he had climbed. He seemed to be a young bear but he was still large, after all he was a bear. He was so agile moving around in that tree as he climbed higher looking for more scrumptious treats to devour.

The day in the mountains on a cloudy and rainy day was a success and we enjoyed our trip. A cloudy rainy day had transformed itself into an adventure in nature. I guess the highlight of our day was getting to see that bear. Even better, that the bear didn't even notice we had stopped to watch him have his supper so he didn't decide to make a change in his menu and have us for supper.

Etsy Shops are the Best

I have listed in my blog a number of links to wonderful shops from Etsy.com. Within those shops can be found some of the most beautiful high quality and unique hand crafted, handmade with love items of all kinds. Visiting these shops will take you away to a wonderful place within yourself, that place where creativity longs to be freed! You will find yarn arts of all kinds there. Toys for babies, warm soft booties, capes, afgans, and more. There are artists of every flavor. Find soaps, lotions, scented oils, floral arrangments, wedding items of all kinds, paintings, photography, specialty cards, even oragami. I make jewelry and have a shop that I really enjoy. ( http//www.happyplaces.etsy.com/ ). There are all kinds of jewlry artists, silver smiths, metal works of all kinds. I found a shop by a couple who make gorgeous lamps with coffee mugs and pretty tea cups. If you like stained glass you will find talent on Etsy that will blow you away! The list could go on and on and on...

Home made is the way to go for well made unique items for your personal pampering and for your home, family and friends and it can easily be found all in one place ... Etsy.com.

Hand Made In The USA

Industry made the USA great, is mass production destroying it? It seems that creativity is a dying commodity in our country. I can't think of anything that isn't mass produced to the outer limits. I would love to visit new places and experience diverse cultures and lifestyles but traveling within the USA seems to have become monotonous and; I feel I must say it, boring. It seems that no matter where one goes things look exactly the same. Shopping malls are all designed with the same architecture and with the same major retail shops. When shopping inside the shops everything is the same in every size and color. It seems that people want to go to the same places on vacations, eat at the same restaurants, wear the same jewelry, and drive the same type of cars as their neighbors, regardless of whether those places and things are of true personal interest to them. What happened to being unique? Where is creativity and individuality? Do people have to be the same to be or feel accepted in our culture today? Is acceptance of peers mandatory for acquiring self approval and self acceptance in our culture today?

The wonderful thing about hand designed and hand crafted items is the attention to details that crafters give to their creations. It is their love of their craft that gives them a winning edge on quality and beauty. No one creates without care for the outcome of their creation. There is a growing movement toward hand made and designed products today. Everything from children's toys; due to safety concerns within the mass produced debacles, to hand made hand bags, jewelry, clothing and home decor. There is a thirst to be individuals with freedom to think, choose, and explore our own ideas and personalities. There seems to b e a rising of the beautiful spirit that made the USA great, with all of its diversity.

The internet has opened up a wonderful new venue for such unique and creative expressions. Hundreds of thousands of craftsmen/women of unique, one of a kind, hand crafted, high quality items are beautifully displayed in wonderfully creative formats. Perfect for those who love to think for themselves and enjoy expressing those qualities about themselves that make them wonderfully and beautifully made.

I see a turn back to our roots, back to what once made the USA great; in fact made the word great, on the horizon. Beautiful works of art from every culture are becoming more and more available and are in higher demand than in previous decades. Thank goodness there is hope for our future still. The beauty of individuality and creativity will not die; in fact, it is in the process of being reborn!

Beauty Is In The Eyes Of The Beholder!

I have said that beauty can always be found; no matter what life throws at us, if we only look for it. I must say now that the old saying "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" is so very true. I was recently viewing my daughter's pictures on her "my space" and found this picture she had taken and posted. I couldn't help but laugh. She never fails to amaze me, and I love to try to see things from her perspective when I share things with her. Seeing things from her point of view was really funny to me when I saw this picture. A photo of a dumpster in down town Knoxville, Tennessee adorned with graffiti.