Hi again!

Well, now that we are back home, I have plenty of Gigs to work with!  So now I can post more pictures of items I have made and tell you more about our time in Mesa.

Monday thru Friday, the park has "Happy Hour".  There is live music by the pools and beer is $1.00/glass.  There is also a water Volley Ball game going on and people are dancing to the music of the live groups.  It is a party every afternoon!  The weather was exceptional this year.  Temps stayed around 10-15* above normal which translates into 70's and 80's most of the time and a few 90's too.  It is amazing to have 90* weather in February and March when we are used to 20's and 30's.  I think I have found a new life style!!!

You know those commercials for the 55+ Active Adult Communities?  Well, they are pretty accurate!  If you can't find something to do from knitting to shooting pool, bocci ball to water volley ball, then this is not the kind of place you want to be.  I spent the majority of my time in the Lapidary Shop and Silver Smith Shop.  I also held several classes on the patio for beginning wire wrapping.  I have already had several people ask if I will be teaching again next year.  My answer???  You Bet!!!  So I will be working up projects for beginning wire and intermediate wire.  There is also a great class for stained glass that I really want to take next year.  They made some really cool glass tables with southwest motif.  So since I already know how to use a soldering gun/iron and I know how to cut and shape glass, I think I will totally enjoy the class.  The really neat thing about the different groups is that in their shops, they have great tools for you to use.  I really got spoiled in the Silver Shop.  I had rolling mills, large shears, lots of gas and tools for me to use.  Now I have to figure out how I'm going to do some of my projects without these tools.  I may have to go up to Draper and visit my friend Melissa Muir who is a fantastic metal smith.  She has some great tools to play with.

So some of my projects included cutting out designs on the backs of my mountings.  I love to put something different in my work.

As you can see from these two pieces, I am tired of the same ole bales so I did something different.  I quite like both of these pieces.

This is a beautiful piece of Pietersite that I have been trying to figure out what to do with.  I finally decided to do a simple front and make the back the art work.  I love doing Coyotes and this is one of the new bales I learned to do this year.  This is one of my favorite pieces.

It's been a while since I've tackled a ring.  This is a simple Cigar Band ring made from a piece of Sterling Silver that was run through a rolling mill to put a pattern on it.  These are great little rings for everyday ware!  I will most certainly be making more of these!!!

OK, enough for today.  Hope you are all well and happy and if you have any questions about RV life, or even comments, I would love to hear from you!

Holy Cow - how did this happen?

All of my good intentions went straight out the window when we started eating up GB of data in no time at all. It seems that Apple in their infinite wisdom turned on a switch with the last update that kept our phones and i pads updating constantly and it just burned through the data in no time at all.  Well, thanks to tech savvy friends, we were finally able to find the problem and turned off the background update switch and now have some extra data left this month!  YAY - I love a happy ending!

So - can I just tell you how much I have enjoyed being in Arizona for the past couple of months!  It has been 40 years since we have spent winter in the warm sunny climes of California.  Arizona even has that beat!  We have been in the 70's, 80's, even 90's this past few weeks and it has been wonderful!  No frozen toes, no shoveling snow, no cold cars, lots of ice cubes in our drinks, sunshine on our faces, walks in the evenings with the citrus trees in bloom.  It has smelled like heaven around here for over two weeks.  There are orange, grapefruit, and lemon trees all through the park and the blossoms have just out done themselves with fragrance.

The warmer climate has been wonderful for me and my muse.  Yes, my muse decided to come along this time.  I have thoroughly enjoyed being in the Lapidary Shop and the Silversmith Shop here.  I have learned a few "down and dirty" tricks and have revisited some best practices as well.  And they have finally decided I have some information they needed too.  So it has been a win-win.  I have been polishing some beautiful Rhodachrosite while I've been here.  It is a lovely pink stone with white ribbons and even some cool bubbles in it.  I have set the cabochons in fancy bezel wire and made pendants out of them.  I have learned to make some really cool bale carriers from a gentleman who is 90 years young.  He does great silver work and is always willing to share new ideas and even show you how to execute it.  I love learning from Roger.

It seems like our best way to learn is by trial and error.  Whenever hubby and I go somewhere new, it is best to get lost before finding our way to where we are going.  We are now very well acquainted with the streets of Mesa, Arizona!  Yes - we do have Google Maps on our phones - yes we DO know how to use it!  But what's the fun in that???  Besides - we've never been lost in the same place twice!!!

I will be doing a download of pictures and in a separate post I will share some of the items I have made.  I will be sharing and selling much of my jewelry on March 19th at the Arts and Crafts Fair here at Mesa Regal.  So hopefully I will make some money so I can go shopping at the local Jewelry Supply Shop before I go home and can stock up on new bezel wires and plate so I can continue creating when we get home.

This is Rhodachrosite.  The left hand picture is of the rough stone and is marked for shaping.  The middle stones are shaped and ready to be polished and the right hand pic shows the stones all polished and shiny!  I love taking a stone from start to finish and seeing all the transformations in between.

This is a piece of Chrisocola I purchased over 10 years ago.  I finally found out what I wanted to do to it to show it off.  I love this piece as it has the first "Carrier" I made on it.  And of course, there had to be some decoration on the back, too.  So as you can see, the juices are flowing and I am loving it!!!

Quartzsite, AZ and other things

We left last Thursday to go the Quartzsite gathering in the desert of Arizona.  It began several years ago as a group of rock hounds getting together to share and swap rocks.  Now it is just a giant swap meet.  There was a huge showing ov RV's and RV-ing equipment which thrilled hubby no end but as for rocks...well, what can I say...hmmmmm.  I was less than impressed!  Yes, I am spoiled as I have a good collection of cabling and slabing material and what I don't have, my sister does!  So I guess I could have my own rock show! Lol

At any rate, it was really nice to camp out in the desert again.  We were with our good friends and had fun watching movies, playing cards and just having a good time.

Back in Mesa once again, we were back to the grind of daily life...laundry, grocery shopping, and going to Home Depot!  Hubby has several small projects he's working on and he has need of supplies from the local HD.

I have been working on a couple of ring designs and am pretty excited about one in particular.  I should be able to finish it up tomorrow so I hope to have a picture to show in a day or two.

Found out where the on site glass studio is and am looking forward to learning to do a stained glass piece.

What? It's Wednesday???

It's Wednesday already!!!  Gee - we sure must have had a fun weekend!  We watched the football game on Monday night and have just been putzing around most of the time.  

I have been busy between the Silver shop and the Lapidary shop!  For the life of me I cannot get the pictures I have taken to come up here. I am still working on it and I promise I will be putting up pictures but for right now you're just going to have to read what I had to say.

Happy Friday~

Well, it finally quit raining!  Yesterday I wasn't too sure we weren't going to have  to buy a boat!  There was flooding all over Mesa and even in Phoenix.  It rained extremely hard and the drainage system couldn't quite handle all of the water.  In the north country, they had a 20" base of snow and they got more today.

This morning we did laundry and I went into the Lapidary Shop.  It was really nice meeting many of the people in there.  Everyone in there is eager to help, even though, I have several years experience on all but one of them.  There is a really nice man who is about 85 years young who is the guru.  And he was very helpful!  I really enjoyed today with the Lapidary people.  Can't wait until next week when I can go back and pick some more brains.

There are no shops open or classes on weekends so we are going to have to find something to get into.  There is a Gem and Mineral show at the Mesa Community College and there is always Quartzite.  We are going to have to make time to go down to Quartzite while we are here.  It is one of the largest collections of gem and mineral people in the world.

This is the entrance to the Silver Shop where I plan on spending loads of time.

The Hot Tub - it holds a TON of people!

There are 2 pools here and one more on the other end of the facility!  

This is where hubby plans on spending most of his time.  It a fully equipped wood shop!

I have cut and made ready bezels they are now waiting for morning when I will solder each one and start the design process or each of these stones.

We finally made it!

We finally made it to the park!  Backed into our spot and got all set up.  It rained all the way from Utah to Ariz.  We even had snow up by Kingman.  We are going to have rain off and on most of the week.  It sure was pleasant to go to sleep last night with the rain hitting the roof.  I guess it rained all night - I only woke up once, so I wouldn't know. :)

Got up this morning and started checking out different items of interest.  Went to the Silver shop first.  They have room for about 8 people to work in there at one time.  It will be interesting to see what these people know.  They do different styles from me so I will be interested in their techniques.  It's all gonna start bright and early tomorrow morning just after I go in and check out the Lapidary shop!

We had to find a Home Depot to get some electrical outlets to change as well as a glue gun. Then we went to the market!  That was an experience!!!  We didn't know until we got to the check out stand that Wednesday is Senior Day.  Which means that if you are 55+ you get an extra 10% off your groceries.  That's why half of Mesa was there!!!

I think the rest of the afternoon will be a bit more laid back.  Unless of course we go back to the orange orchards and get a case of nice fresh oranges.

Here is where we are staying http://www.cal-am.com/resorts/mesa-regal/   

Be sure to look at all the amenities they have listed. Now you can see how/why people come to these places in the winter.

From Kingman to Mesa, AZ

Good morning!

Got up and on the road by 7:15 AM.  Breakfast was courtesy of Dunkin Donuts.  We don't do this often so it was a real treat.  There are some perks to traveling!

We made a side trip to the Escapee Park at Congress, AZ.  They have a big rig scale so we could check the weight on each tire of our rig to be sure we have even weight distribution on all tires.  Safety First!

Finally arrived in Mesa AZ!  Yay!!!  Got settled in and went to dinner with family and friends.  There is a German restaurant here called Zur Kate.  It's on Main and 48th st.  Very good food!

It has been raining off and on all day and is expected to continue most of the week.  That's OK because we intend to explore what this new residence has to offer.  There are so many different types of classes and activities offered, it's hard to know where to start!  So I choose to go to the Silver Shop and the Lapidary Shop for starters.  Hubby is all excited to check out the Wood Shop.  So that is on our agenda for tomorrow.  We'll let you know how it goes!

St. George to Kingman

After spending the afternoon with some good friends, we settled down for the night and the first episode of Downton Abby.

We didn't get into too much of a hurry today...left Utah around 11:30 and hopes there wouldn't be too much traffic in the Virgin River Gorge.  Traffic wasn't the issue.  The road was narrowed down so that we barely fit through the barricades.  And there were a couple of places where there wasn't any shoulder on the right side...needless to say, I was holding my breath a biT more than usual!

The rest of the way was nice and uneventful!  We arrived at our destination safe and sound.

Blake Ranch RV Park was a nice little place to spend the night.  There was some road noise because it is located just off the highway.  Other than that, they have a nice area for pets and an area for horses.

Lake Mead, Nevada

Blake Ranch RV Park 

and Horse Hotel

Headed to St. George

We stored our coach in Washington, Utah just after Thanksgiving.  I'm very thankful we did.  The whole purpose was to not have to drive a 39ft. Coach in the ice and snow.

We had reservations at the Temple View RV Resort.  It is a nice facility with 50 amp hook-ups.  We didn't do much tonight as we spent all afternoon putting supplies and food away.  We couldn't get another thing in our freezer even if  we wanted to!  Boy, did I plan that right!

I am still trying to figure out how to add photos to this blog via tablet...so as soon as I get a handle on that, I'll post some pictures.