Pendants

I've learned a new technique in making cages for pendants which will soon be displayed on my Etsy Shop.  It took me five pendants to finally get one that I really like.

Front: Carnelian in a gold cage with fancy wiring on the top.

Back shot. As you can see, I got better

lighting on the backside. I still need to

work on those camera shots.

What do you think?

Sunlit Sunday Lily Pond

A glorious sunny day in Monterey where I thought I'd get a lovely photo of the flower in the lily pond but to my amazement, another reflection appeared.  Accidental delights happen often when I try to capture life.

Bless this Sabbath Day to keep it Holy.


Linking to My Little Home and Garden's Sunlit Sunday and Seasonal Sunday at the Tablescaper.

Poor Little Bicycle

Blazin red was left behind on purpose. He was hanging on the wall in the garage with the training wheels still attached and he is still in the same position having not moved for well over two years. Perhaps, he will come off the wall this year because his family is coming home.

I had reached 10 years of age before I ever had a chance to learn to ride a bicycle.  We were too poor for me to ever have my own bicycle.   My brother, however, was the recipient of a used boy's bicycle and that was the bike I used to learn to ride.  Even though it was a boy's bike, I still rode it on a gravel road.  

I remember having dreams about riding that bicycle only they became nightmarish. There was a round hole in the road covered with a lid.  I started to ride by the hole when all of a sudden, the lid flipped off and a ghoulish witch popped out and grabbed at my foot. She kept trying to eat my foot and I kept pulling it away. Then I woke up!

I am linking up with My Town Shoot out.

Kelton in It's Hayday

I always thought that Kelton was in Idaho but looking at the map, it was just right across the boarder in Utah. Kelton was a thriving community from 1870 to 1942.  It was in '42 that the railroad left and that a 6.6 earthquake hit killing two people. It was about 1960 when the highway was changed making it a true ghost village.

Kelton Hotel

My great Uncle Louis wrote the following:

When father would go to Kelton, I’d beg him to take me with him.  If he wouldn’t, I’d follow him down the road bawling till he’d stop and take me with him. My mother used to put me up to it all the time.  I’d cry when he’d leave so she would say “just go follow your father and beg him to take you with him.”  So that is what I’d do.  There was a two-story hotel in Kelton called the Crandle where we would stay.  I thought that was funny that this man and woman had the same name as my brother and I asked him if he was our boy.  Mrs. Crandle was the cook and Mr. Crandle ran the hotel.  There would be a big room downstairs with a long table where everybody would set to eat.  They would only serve meals at a certain time and if you weren’t there, you didn’t get to eat.  He had a big long shed out back for your horses and hay already in the mangers.  They would have to ship the hay in by train from Brigham City, Utah.  

Kelton had several saloons and other buildings.  It was a town on the Southern Pacific Railroad where the railroad skirted the northern end of the Great Salt Lake, and was a freight terminal for goods and supplies and for people heading for Boise or the Northwest by stagecoach.  It was a booming town until the Oregon Short Line (now the Union Pacific Railroad) was built across southern Idaho in 1883.  The road to Kelton was along the Raft River and down through the “Narrows” where a stagecoach station was located.  Then it went up along the foothills past Naf and Clear Creek to Kelton Pass or Strevell Pass or Cedar Creek to Kelton.  

Kelton Cemetery

These are not mine

Michelle Williams in a shameful dress.  If I were her mother, I would scoot her home and sew the sides of that dress to a reasonable side split.  Shame on those hollywood starlets for going overboard!

On the other hand, there is a very clever artist on Etsy who took a pair of studded pearl earrings, added happy faces and cute little listening-to-my-music ear phones.

Sunlit Sunday February 17

Waitin for the train.

Bless the little children and keep them safe.

Linking up with My Little Home and Garden and Seasonal Sundays.

Kelton Hotel

Friday's link up is with My Town Shoot Out and 5 Minute Friday. 

The Kelton Hotel is now a historic shamble.  When the new highway by passed Kelton, Idaho, it turned the small town into a ghost town.

Here in the western part of the United States, we still have acres and acres of open spaces and land. There are few roads and when the State decides to change a main highway, many of the smaller towns that depended on traffic to keep their town alive are now dead. Kelton was one of those places that used to have dances in the granary on a Saturday night and people drove from other small towns 10 to 30 miles kick up their heels at the dance which always had live rip roaring band. 

Frivolous Fans - Daughters of the Utah Pioneers

This victorian fan with peacock feathers was very stylish in 1880.  Fans had many purposes both being decorative and practical (non existant air conditioning) While being cinched up in a corset that made your middle two sizes smaller so that you could not breath, fans were used to help get some air and to hid your face if you blushed. Heaven forbid if you blushed and what about those poor women who had robust color in their cheeks naturally.  Perhaps, they had white makeup that made them look pale.

Not only were feathers used for fans but so called "chicken skin" (skin from unborn lambs) animal skin, paper, lace and silk were all  used to make folding fans.  Now that I've grossed everyone out, I did learn that there were specific signals that everyone knew back in the Victorian age.

When a lady was flirting with a man, she would let her fan rest on her right cheek, meaning "yes". If the fan was on her left cheek, it was a definite "no".  Twirling it in her right hand meant that "I am in love with another". While touching the lips with her fan, meant "kiss me."

The size of the fan matched the size of the dress so when the bouffant skirted dresses were in style, you needed a giant size ostrich plume fan.  When dress styles were slender, dainty little fans were used.

Who would think that fans would have survived the pioneer treks. If a women weighed less than 100 pounds, she could ride in the wagon but the rest of the women had to walk across the plains.

Elizabeth Hill Jones was born in Devonshire, England in 1797.  She married George Cutcliffe and they had 10 children, among them was three sets of twins who did not survive. They did raise three daughters and one son. They joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and their oldest daughter sailed to America and was supposed to get a job and send money back home so that the rest of the family could immigrate.  That did not happen, Elizabeth did not realize that jobs were not there and her daughter was married to survive. When Elizabeth's son was called on a mission to the States, she could not bear to have her only son leave so asked that her husband go in his stead.  Her husband left for the mission and while in Iowa, he suffered sunstroke and died in 1858. 

Elizabeth and her two daughters were finally able to leave England in 1865 from Liverpool.  Her son John never came to America but married a wealthy woman. He contracted pneumonia and died young. Elizabeth and her daughters joined the Willis handcart company and they walked across the plains - Elizabeth was 68. Each of her daughters married in 1866 and Elizabeth found a room to rent in downtown Salt Lake where she became a cook at the Townsend Hotel. At age 88 she had become head chef and supervisor over several cooks.  In 1897 she was the oldest woman in Utah and celebrated her 100th birthday. Four months later she became ill and told her daughter that Father and John have come for me.  She folded her arms across her chest and went to sleep dying in October of 1897.

Black Silk Cockade Fan

She brought a cockade style silk fan and black silk dress from England. Her fan has a black handle and is at the DUP Museum in Salt Lake City.

Below is a photo of the Hand Washing Machine. It even has a wringer with a handle. It can be found at the Silver Star Camp Museum in Lincoln, Wyoming.

Snow Quilts

Snow quilts created by Simon Beck. That seems like lot of work just to take a photo.

Sunlit Sunday February 10

Being an avid folk dancer for 40 years, I have a little collection from going to folk dance festivals.  The first one is from our widely successful greek festival held in September in Salt Lake City. The wooden musical instrument is from a country in South America. Joining My Little Home and Garden.

Let us sing joyful praises to our God.

On Etsy

I just couldn't resist borrowing this photo from another Etsy shop. Does she look divine or is she just bearing the weight of that gorgeous peacock headdress? If you are interested and are burdened with too much cash, you can find it at Posh Fairytale Couture.

New Treatment for Migraines

Every other day I am supposed to use the body massage with about five different attachments to help relax the areas that get sore and tight while having a migraine.  

Attachment 1 goes under my chin and I put the vibrator on slow (actually it feels a whole lot better on my sore thigh muscle).

Attachment 2 goes in my mouth and vibrates the insides of my cheeks trying to get them to relax. I am supposed to hum like a monk too. Is this weird or what?

Attachment 3 and 4 I use to vibrate the sinus areas and my right temple.  There is a spot close to my ear that I skip because I am too sensitive to noises.  The base of the neck and shoulders are the next areas. What do you think?

Droopy

I tried to find out who took a photo of this gorgeous rose but there was a dozen names attached so I have no idea but this is how I feel today, droopy!

Sun on the Tummy - Sunlit Sunday

Abby sunning.

God loves even the smallest bird. He created a balance

between his creatures.

Linking up with Sunlit Sunday on My Little Home and Garden.