A Little Peace, A Trip to the Cove

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Starving for a little peace,  the mountains seemed to call my name.  We took a little trip up to a campsite on a little cove that we frequent on Rimrock Lake,  up near White Pass in the Central Washington Cascades,  southwest of Naches. 

The air was kissed with pine and sweet lake water with a hint of woodsmoke. 

The glacier hued water in the cove was smoothe like green bottle glass,  jumping fish and swimming families of geese creating subtle ripples. 

Geese traveled across the water followed by their goslings and came to roost in a shallow area bounded by tall mountain grasses.




A light rain began to fall and a delicate double rainbow appeared over the lush green forest to the east of us. 

As the sun returned and broke through the inky clouds,  it shone brightly on the great monolith that stood proudly above the trees.

We sat in the afternoon sunlight,  basking in the warmth,  enjoying the perfection of our campsite,  and we were visited by a tiny chipmunk.  He was very timid and pretty cheeky coming to within a foot of us as we sat around the dormant fire pit.  He stared at us with bright onyx eyes and entertained us with his adorable antics,  delivering the bits of cookie we gave him to stores in different areas around us.

This little trip was just what I needed.  I was rejuvenated,  relaxed,  and inspired by the natural beauty that surrounded us.  But then journeys to the mountains always seem to cure what ails me.

Some New Bracelets

Jewelry creation has been slow these days.  But I did create several new charm bracelets over the past couple of months.  They're a little different.

'Natural' features a host of neutral colors.  I'm not sure what material the focal is,  but it's a really interesting stone.  There are seed beads,  opaque glass beads,  crystal rondelles,  sweet little millefiore rounds,  and lots of carnelian.  I used copper as the foundation for this bracelet,  with antiqued copper flowers,  discs,  and a simple copper toggle clasp.  The asymmetrical style of this bracelet is different than what I usually do.

'Party' is another copper-based bracelet,  but is entirely different than 'Natural'.  This bracelet starts out with polymer clay beads that I made,  and is finished with a glacier green chalcedony,  spring green seed beads,  interesting glass beads in shades of green and lavender,  and millefiore beads that add a little pop of red to the equation.

                                  'Girlie Girl' is an old school charm bracelet with all the sparkle and the dazzle of my usual style.  It's all about femininity and girlishness.  Pink tourmaline,  pink crackle glass,  rose quartz,  freshwater pearls,  glass beads,  and moonstone are complimented by silver stardust beads and a tiny silver-filled spiral.  This bracelet is wire wrapped with silver-filled wire and finished off with a Tibetan silver toggle clasp. 

The Urge to Etsy

I've been fighting it for who knows how long?  At least a couple of years.  I had this incredible fear of Etsy.  I've done everything I could to avoid becoming a seller on Etsy.  I've joined myriad other sites,  including but not limited to:  ArtFire, Amazon, ThreeSistersMarketplace (chose not to go any further with them),  yardsellr,  blah blah blah.

ArtFire was working for me for a couple of months there,  and the price is right.  I just don't think enough people know about ArtFire,  therefore there's not enough traffic to keep my little business afloat. 

Oh,  and I fought the Ebay urge too.  I love shopping for supplies on Ebay,  but I just wasn't having any of the selling.

Now,  my two main sales forces are Ebay and ETSY...and I am LOVING IT!!!!!

I've only been with Etsy for two or three days now.  Wish me luck,  and think happy thoughts!!!!!!

Rock Hunting on the Little Naches

We went rock hunting yesterday in the Little Naches River about 40 miles from Yakima up the Chinook Pass.  This winter and spring had brought a ton of flooding to our area.  For rock hunters,  flooding can actually have a positive outcome:  new material to search through!!  I had high hopes that we would find some beautiful agates,  perhaps some jasper,  definitely some gorgeous green stones.

Oh,  boy!  The water was COLD!  My sandy beach was obliterated by torrents of water that tore through new channels cut through the immense gravel bar!  In order to find stones,  we had to make our ways knee deep in frigid run off to the dry gravel bed in the middle of the river.  It's difficult to look for agates in dry gravel.  Agates (at least these agates) have a naturally milky appearance that looks icy blue underwater,  but are difficult to see amongst other white and grey stones on dry ground.  At least that's what I thought until Tony came to me with a gorgeous palm-sized agate,  replete with a couple of well-placed veins.  It was the most extraordinary find of the day!!!  This was Tony's first real rock hunting trip with me - it seems as though the beginners have all the luck!!!

I found a nice piece of agatized would though,  a couple piddly little agates compared to Tony's.  I promise to get back into the river later on this summer.  It was just too cold and too deep!!!!  I know there are hundreds of beautiful stones under that ice cold water!!!

All was not lost.  We came back to town with several gorgeous slabs of shale,  a newfound calmness that I haven't felt since my last spelunking expedition...and some beautiful pictures of the Nile Valley.  I maintain,  there is nothing like the natural beauty of Washington state.  I sure do love it here.

Spicing Up the Container Candles

One of my very favorite things to do is to go yardselling or antique shop hopping for interesting and unusual containers for my soy wax candles!!!!

There are so many deliciously fragranced candles out there these days.  I needed a way to set mine apart from all the others.  The most obvious way is by tailoring their appearance!






Anything heat safe will do.  I use goblets,  wine glasses,  champage flutes,  interestingly etched glasses,  finger bowls,  dessert bowls,  sugar and creamers,  shot glasses,  candy dishes,  vintage tea cups with matching saucers,  even deep saucers themselves!!!


 There's really nothing more elegant than a soft pink candle smelling of delicious fresh cut sweet peas set into a lovely cream-colored dessert bowl shaped like a flower,  is there?

Amazing Amazon.com Webstore Finally!!

 I am totally excited!!!  I finally launched my Amazon.com webstore!!!  It looks pretty good.  Still have a lot of stuff to add.  Gotta take care of packaging and then taking some pictures,  then I wil post,  post,  post!!!!
Check it out?

http://cinnamon-lotus-originals.hostedbyamazon.com

Designing my Amazon.com Webstore

Holy Mackerel!!!  It started out quite simply,  not I have photos that are "unavailable"!  I wanted to launch my Amazon.com webstore today,  but until I have a few issues fixed,  I just don't want to.

It's like this for me with every site design.  I don't know whether I am not keen enough to figure out what it is they are asking for,  or I'm just impatient.  Doesn't really matter,  because it all ends up the same way...with me frustrated.

But I am excited!!!  We chose Amazon over Etsy and Ebay,  and may end up letting go of my Artfire account if this all pans out.  I am hoping that with the millions of shoppers Amazon has annually,  I might be able to tap into some of their business.  At least on Amazon,  I think I will have the best chance of getting some interest.  I can't wait to see what happens!!!!!

Okay,  back to the drawing board...I've got to go deal with tweaking and trimming my site.  Wish me luck!!!!  And in a day or two,  perhaps you can visit me at Cinnamon Lotus' Amazon.com webstore!!!!!!