Fun in the Dirt!

Oh, Hiddenite was FUN! Digging around in the dirt looking for pretty rocks, what could be better than that? I'm definitely going back next year when I swing back down!

Sorry, no pictures right now; since I'm using someone else's computer and my phone isn't that sophisticated... I didn't find any emeralds but, I did find a sapphire; a dark purple one. Also found some garnets, a black tourmaline, tiny green tourmaline, amazonite, tree agate, green moss agate, red banded jasper, rose quartz, smoky quartz, amethyst, orange calcite, bloodstone, peach moonstone, flourite, blue aventurine, green aventurine, red aventurine, some really great 'just river rocks' and some other stuff I don't know what it is yet, and probably some I just forgot to tell ya.

I sifted through one bucket (where I found the sapphire) and then tooled around the creek a bit. Well, moved big flat rocks into the creek to retrieve a lot of them actually. Found the garnets and moonstone in the creek. Well, the moonstone IN the creek, the garnets next to the creek actually. If I'd had more time, I would have stayed there all day looking through dirt and water!

Even still, in just a couple hours I found a pretty good haul. Which is to say, I have a fairly heavy bag of rocks to take home and clean up and look at and wrap up into pretty jewelry for all ya'll. Looking forward to it in a big way!

Also really looking forward to the reason I came down to GA this week: tomorrow's Jewelry Party at The Next Chapter Bookstore in Griffin, GA (see last entry and the link on the where I'm at in the side bar for details and map). Going to be a beautiful warm, sunny day and a good day for one of a kind bargains in Griffin! Maybe we'll see you there?

So that's going until 7pm and after a good night's sleep, I'm off to Franklin the next morning to sift through dirt once again. Looking for sapphires, rubies, and emeralds ostly. Maybe this time I'll find rubies and emeralds in the dirt? More sapphires would be cool too.

I'll have pictures next week. Probably look like a pile of rocks, but I'll try to get some good close ups of the best finds.

So, hope to see you tomorrow, or in the next week at another event or somewhere on the road... or maybe I'll run into you while looking for pretty rocks?

Hope everyone had a lot to be thankful today!

Blah Blah Blogging... In Utah

Well, we made it to Utah.

Tomorrow is the first Park Silly Market for me. I'll be on Main just below 7th on the left side heading toward 9th (orange row, number 9) under the umbrella.

No Arkansas diamonds revealed themselves to us, unfortunately. Lots of Arkansas Jasper did though. We found some nice Rhodonite, Mica Schist and Agates in the Rocky Mountain National Park too. Stayed in the Manor House at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (not really haunted where we were at least, but a bit run down and very squeaky doors for effect - we assumed) and got up to 12,000 plus feet above sea level. Beautiful Alpine Meadows and a little sleet and wind burn. Very nice.

Oh, and we ran into some almost tornado clouds in Kansas. There was a warning where we were going to stay, so we drove up a little further and the skies cleared. Phil took a bunch of pics with his new iPhone. So, here are some of the pictures from our trip so far:

This is at the Precious Moments Chapel in Missouri just north of Arkansas (we had to get Bethany a wedding gift there. You can ask her about it:). It was kind of like a big eyed children smurf place. Kinda creepy and kind of inspirational all at once.

Lots of people were hoping to dig up some diamonds. No one did while we were there:

The storm clouds over Kansas. They were really beautiful! Didn't manage to get any pictures of the lightening though.

Oh yah. They had the Shining channel at the Stanley. There was a Stanley Steamer one too. They just played the same thing over and over. Obviously, this is from the Shining channel.

The beautiful Rocky Mountains. We got sick on the first day of hiking. Not sure if it was altitude or heat. We went from 8100 feet straight up to 9500 in less than 3 miles of hiking. Strenuous, high altitude, bright sunshine heat hiking. Man, we're out of shape!

The next day we drove out through the park and stopped a lot and did the views and short hikes. This is wayyyyy up there, but not quite the top.

Oh, yah. We stopped at the Dinosaur National Monument when we got over the Utah border. The Visitors Center was closed for repairs, but we got to take a short walk and see about three fossils in the mountains next to it. This is one of them.

So, today we're hanging with my sis and taking a walk around the wonders of Park City. Hiking wonders. The rain is coming so maybe we'll find a few Quartz Crystals washed down the trails. Been a while since I was able to walk around here and find any, but I have a lot of them from back then.

And, that's the trip up to now.

Oh. There is an update on show dates... if you're in the Salt Lake area...

Cousin Matt hooked me up for another independent craft show on Sunday, August 2nd. It's called the Craft Sabbath and runs from Noon till 4pm at Nobrow Coffee and Tea, 315 E 300 S in Salt Lake City. So cool, they were voted best of the Beehive for 2009 by Salt Lake Magazine! I'm really honored to be included and I'll have mostly $50 and under goods with me and probably a lot of new stuff that I'll be making next week (since I plan to sell most of what I have at that level tomorrow;).