Southwest Arts Festival, Indio, CA

We've had quite the adventure this last week - escaping the snow at home and driving to Indio, CA for the Southwest Arts Festival. It was an experience being at sea level and seeing the beautiful snow capped 10,000' mountains ringing the valley. The show itself had some of the most talented artists in the US. There were lots of fine jewelry artists too - amazing work. Once again we were blessed with great neighbors and made some new friends.

Our morning commute to the show. Surreal. Dessert, palm trees and snow.

Our one neighbor Jack Charney. Jack's not only a ceramic artist but also a writer. His pottery is vibrant, colorful and free-spirited just like him. Please check out his website for more info and his show schedule. www.jackcharney.com

Jack's Acrobats are really cool!

I was really drawn to Melissa Graves Brown's paintings of trees and groves. Colorful Aspen trees reminded me of home in the fall. I hope we cross paths again in the future, I would love to purchase one of her pieces. Please check out her website www.melissagravesbrown.com

Kent Kraus and his partner Susan were directly across from us. New friends from Santa Fe, NM. :) Kent's ceramic sculptures and fountains are flowing, organic, abstract floral designs. I was coveting his bronze finish Calla Lilly Candlesticks. Please check out his website at www.kentkrausstudio.com

It felt so good to get back to Mark's Sister's home after the show. Sam was really happy too because he could play again with his new friend Riley. All three of us are relaxing and enjoying being here - not looking forward to going back to our snowy frozen home.

Gifts of Grapefruit, Tangelos, Tangerines and lemons from Kath's yard. Taking them back to our neighbors that have been looking out for us while we've been gone. I'm used to picking tomatoes and other veggies, growing up in NJ but it's really cool to go into the back yard and pick buckets of citrus fruit off the trees. They're so sweet and delicious too!

So that's it. Don't want to leave but can't wait to get back home and work in the studio again. It was a great trip and an experience from the snow storm before we left, to the show and the relaxing times with Family in Phoenix.

Alpine, AZ January 2010 Blizzard - What An Experience!

Constant shoveling. Our truck is about 7-8'. You can see how high the snow is where we shoveled it. Over the week we had about 6 feet or more of snow fall. I'm interested to find out exactly what we had when I get home!!

We've had quite the week in Alpine, AZ! The waves of storms from the Pacific started dropping snow last Monday with the worst Thursday and Friday. We lost our power 9pm Thursday night and it wasn't restored until 11pm last night. We didn't know when it would be back on so decided to leave yesterday morning - also before any more storms rolled in. We are all so lucky to live in this country. We learned first hand what it's like to live without electricity or water supply. We have a great wood burning stove but it's small and you need to stoke it every 1/2 hour to keep it going. So our pipes or we wouldn't freeze, we had it going 24/7 until we left. I wanted Mark to be in good shoveling shape (since we were doing it every 2 hours to keep our driveway clear to get out to our upcoming show - I helped but he was the real muscle moving tons) so I manned the fire. For three nights I set a kitchen timer for every 30 minutes so I would wake up to stoke it then he'd take over at 4am. Also interesting to get on the schedule of do everything you can while there's daylight - then we only had candlelight. It was a very serious storm and luckily rare. There were some really nice moments of quiet and I did make some killer baked potatoes,beanie weenies and grilled cheese sandwiches on our wood burning stove :) but mostly hard WET work! I'm so glad we were able to get customer's orders in the mail before this immobilized us!

We got plowed the first couple storms but had to wait until the end of Saturday for our road to be cleared. You can see the road - that's over 2 ft there - impassable even with our 4 wheel drive and high clearance. We were truly cut off and on our own - even emergency respose vehicles couldn't get through it.

One of our local birds laughing at us, sitting on the broom we've destroyed by brushing off the truck.

Sam got REALLY tired of it too.

We initially planned on keeping our U-Shaped driveway clear - lofty ambition. We settled for just one side of the driveway. That was enough.

That snow pile from shoveling is OVER Mark's head!

Our road before plowing.

Our home as we left it. Those are actual snow boulders out front from the plowing. Some were the size of a small car.

Driving out our road yesterday. As soon as we got around the corner to connect to the main road which leads to the highway we were driving through 2-3 foot drifts. We were worried we'd even make it to the highway without getting stuck. Too scared, as Mark plowed through it to get pictures. :(

Yay! We made it to the highway - this is our powdered sugar meadow behind our house.

Another meadow picture. Soooo beautiful when you're driving by but unpleasant to be stuck in!

At the Alpine Divide - 8550' - looked like it was going to snow on us again as we were trying to leave.

Pretty cabin on the way out of town near Tal Wi Wi lodge.

FINALLY out of the snow line. In the dessert before getting to Phoenix. Before this went through two more dicey driving conditions - 50m of iced over highway from Springerville to Show Low then about 20m of an only one lane plowed road from Heber to Payson. The plowed snow was piled 12' on each side of the road and pretty scary when tractor trailers were coming at you head on!! (No pictures of that one either - too busy freaking out!)

Right before Phoenix - Four Peaks. The snow is such an amazing site in the dessert.

So here the three of us are - feeling like refugees at Mark's Sister's beautiful home in Phoenix, AZ. It's so wonderful to be warm, be dry, have power, phone, Internet, and get a break before leaving for our show in Indio on Wed. We were going to leave this Wed, spend one night then leave for the show on Thu but this works out so great. We feel like we're at a resort for a couple days!!

The Blizzard of 2010!

We're getting a lot of snow in Alpine right now - possible 3-7 ft more by Saturday morning!! All we can do is ride it out and get ready to leave for our show in Indio, CA 1/29-31. Thank you Mother Nature for hitting us with the storm this week instead of next!

Feeding the birds - yep over my knees in this spot!

Our road yesterday. We DON'T have a road today until the plow truck comes!

Valentine's Day Sale at Black Mountain Jewelry Co!

Happy New Year! Hope this year is getting off to a great start for you and that it's filled with health, happiness and prosperity!!

Hard to think of Valentine's Day already but it's on it's way! We have two holiday sales going right now that we'd like to tell you about.

All semi-custom Tree of Life Jewelry and Sonora Star "Casual Jewelry" 15% off - please use code # VL01. All in stock gold Art Jewelry 25% off - please use code # VD02. This offer lasts until 2/5/10. Just enter the offer code on your web order. http://www.blackmountainjewelry.com/

We can take your order over the phone if you'd prefer to call us - 928-245-9642. Orders placed by 1/29/10 are guaranteed delivery by 2/13/10! (After the 29th we'll contact you to confirm if we can make the deadline and if not give you the option to keep your item on order or cancel.)

We'd also like to offer you Free Shipping if you place your order by 1/27/10. Our website won't apply two discounts when you enter your order - we will manually remove your shipping charges before we process it. If you are thinking about a one of a kind gold piece please place your order by the 27th - that way we can pull your item as "sold" before our show in Indio, CA 1/29-31.

Thank you so much! We appreciate your business and hope 2010 is a fantastic year for you!

January 18-22nd - we are expecting to receive 3 - 7 feet of snow!!! We may have some power outages - up to 15 hours long. If you place an order and you don't receive an automatic order update from us, that is what's going on. As soon as power is restored we'll be in touch and confirm your order. Thanks!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year - belated! Time goes by so quickly - can't believe I haven't posted since December! I hope you had a great holiday and that this new year is fantastic for you.

I've gone right from our holiday orders into getting organized for 2010. Trying new things this year! At the end of the month we'll be attending a show in California for the first time - we're very excited to go to a warmer climate for a week. The snow that started in Alpine around Thanksgiving is still on the ground! This August we're making a big trek back east. The entire month we will be in the Adirondacks doing a show every weekend. This will be the first time I've been back east in 8 years!! Can't wait to see family and gorge on NY pizza! That's about all that is new right now.

Hope this year is getting off to a great start for you too and that it's filled with health, happiness and prosperity!!

Thank You

I'd like to thank all our new and existing customers for choosing us for their holiday gifts! We appreciate every order we've received!! We hope everyone is happy with their purchase and that our handcrafted jewelry becomes a cherished gift.

Have a safe and Happy Holiday and a Happy 2010! It's going to be a great New Year for all of us!

Black Mountain Jewelry Co. Holiday Sale - 3 Days Left!

We are having a holiday sale. We'd like to offer you 15% off your order of $50 or more until 12/15/09. Just enter HS09 on your web order or mention this code if you would prefer to call us at 602-526-6318.

Don't forget our Tree of Life Jewelry - a meaningful gift for Mom, Grandma, Your Child, Best Friend - any woman in your life. These pieces are totally customized and handmade by just the two of us, but we are on top of our Holiday orders! Can we custom make one for someone special in your life? We can also ship directly to them enclosing a gift card - just notate on your web order any special wording

http://www.blackmountainjewelry.com/JewelryCollections_Tree.html