It all lines up

The beach at Santa Monica... there's miles and miles and miles of sand... and hardly anyone on it.

Palm tree at Santa Monica... they are SO tall and there's loads of them.

We spent the day at the John Paul Getty Centre... or Center as they spell it here. What a fabulous place.

This is in the central plaza. I did an architecture tour while we were at the centre and the guide explained that everything is based on a 30 inch square. So each of those blocks of stone on the building is 30 inches, and the aluminium squares around the windows are 30 inches and the windows are 60 inches. And what makes it so attractive to me is that it all lines up. You can see how the lines between the windows line up exactly with the lines between the aluminium squares and where the aluminium meets the stone in the corner, it lines up, and where the stone meets the floor, the lines between the stones line up with the lines between the blocks on the floor. Very pleasing to the eye.
One of the eateries. We had lunch here and it was excellent - and great value. The whole centre is great value... it's free to get in (my favourite price) - just ten dollars to park the car.

This was one of my favourite piece of art at the Getty. It's Delusions of Grandeur by Rene Magritte. I loved the fact that none of the collection was behind ropes, you can go right up to it and examine it closely... even Van Gogh's Irises, the Monets, Gainsboroughs, Cezannes... you can get close enough to see every brush stroke. And you can photograph it... such an alien concept... so alien that I couldn't bring myself to do it!
I just loved these - located in the central garden. The structures are metal and the bourganvillea grows up through the core and spills out in a froth of flowers at the top.

This is the cactus garden at the south end of the centre and it represents Southern California.

And this is the north end, representing Northern California. You can land your helicopter on the circle at the end. And over to the right is the San Diego Freeway. The only thing I've not liked about LA is driving on the freeway - scary!!! We switched the Sat Nav to take us on the shortest route rather than the quickest and that's kept us off the freeways and finding much more interesting parts of town.

But for us, that's it for LA. Today (Friday) we head for the bright lights of Las Vegas!

Take care, All.

Much love,

xx

What a difference a day makes...

a day and a two hour flight to California! Our hotel is a snowball's throw from Venice Beach:

We discarded our layers and went down to the beach, stopping off on the way for Brian to enjoy his first ever pint of beer with an orange garnish!!

We walked for a long, long way along the beach, enjoying the sunshine, warmth and the fantastic architecture of the beachfront houses:

Then we walked back to the hotel along the canals that give Venice its name. More stunning houses:

Then yesterday, Wednesday, was our movie day. We started with a tour of Warner Brothers Studios, which was just amazing.

They're in the process of taking down all the sets they have used for ER for the last 15 years... it was really sad.

If you know The Gilmore Girls, you'll recognise Lorelai's house.

And unless you've been on another planet for the last decade, you'll recognise Central Perk from Friend's. Although the series has finished, they have preserved the set as it's one of their most successful shows.

We saw SO much cool stuff that we weren't allowed to photograph... like the museum where they have the costumes from The Matrix, Willy Wonka (although we didn't see Johnny Depp's costume as he has it written into his contract that he keeps all his costumes) and a whole floor of bits from Harry Potter. This includes the Sorting Hat from the first film... and we could be sorted. I'm a Huffelpuff...

It was an amazing tour and we had a super guide called Wes, who was a veritable mine of information.

From the studios we went to investigate the Walk of Fame, stopping off for some lunch in this shopping mall from where you can see the Hollywood sign. All the people on the bridge are taking their photos. I liked it better from here:

Onto the stars. These go on for miles. We saw most of them, but I missed Katherine Hepburn which was the one I really wanted to see. Ah well, next time...

Sam is an excellent second choice.

Near one end of the Walk of Fame is the Chinese Theatre with all the hand and footprints. Martha and I made a bee-line for Johnny Depp. He has very small hands!

From there we went over to Carroll Avenue which you won't have heard of, I'm sure, but it has amazing houses, including this one, which was used as the house where the witches from Charmed lived. This is Martha's favourite programme. It was supposed to be set in San Francisco but was actually filmed in LA.

An amazing day.

We're off to investigate museums today.

Hope you're all behaving!

Much love to all.

xx

Pictures of the Rockies

Jim and Becky's lovely house. This was taken on Saturday when the weather was not at its best.
The snow was so fine, it was really difficult to make the snowman, but we managed this rather strange looking one.

Jim and Tom about to set off down the mountain. This is Sunday when the weather was improving... Then there was Monday...

All of us taken at Sapphire point. This is a remarkable spot - and apparently is often used for weddings. Left to right: Brian, Becky, Tom, Martha, Me and Jim.

Becky and Martha flopping over backwards to do snow angels.

This is WAY high up in the mountains. There were loads of skiers and snowboarders who were going down the mountain sides - not on runs more like wild skiing. We all got sunburned waiting for two skiers to go down a really steep bit... and had to leave before they plucked up the courage...

One of the wonderful views from Sapphire Point. All the peaks have names, but I can't remember which ones these were.

And lastly, this magazine... the name of which just cracked me up. Only in America...

Will be back with the next installment really soon.

Much love to y'all.
xx

Greetings from the Rocky Mountains...

Well we made it! Here we are in Dillon, Colorado high in the Rockies. The scenery here is just astounding. Will upload some pictures soon to show you. Huge mountains covered in snow and pine trees. Today the sky is beyond blue and the sun is shining. Yesterday it snowed and snowed and was bitter... but that didn't stop us making a snowman and Martha and I making snow angels.
Today the boys are off skiing and we girls are off to the movies.
Jim and Becky are perfect hosts, they have a gorgeous house - warm and very comfortable - and they are feeding us at every opportunity. I'm sure if I eat one more thing I'm going to explode... not that it will stop me, I suspect...
We're all just about on Mountain time although yesterday we were all a little spaced out. The altitude (we're about 2 miles above sea level here) makes it quite hard to breathe at times.
OK, that's it for now. Hope to be back with photos soon.

Y'all take care now, d'you hear!

Much love to all.
xx

We're off!

Just grabbing a few minutes, while I drink my coffee, to say hello and goodbye!

We're off on our American adventure tomorrow. First to Dillon, near Denver, to see friends, Jim and Becky. It's FREEZING there at the moment -14 Centigrade as I type!!! BRRRRRR. Admittedly it is the middle of the night, but still... The forecast it that it might go as high as 4 degrees C while we're there. Still sounds jolly cold to me. But Jim and Becky are super people and we know we're going to have a great time with them.

Then we'll be off to California and some sunshine.

My hope is that I'll be able to update the blog with details of the trip and some photos as we go along, so check back and see how we're doing.

On the jewellery front, it's been very hectic since my last posting. Visits to all our offices, a few parties and we had a stall at the new Nailsea Craft Market.

The craft market is running on the same Saturday (3rd in the month) as the Farmers' Market and if the first one is anything to go by, it will be a great addition. We had a fantastic time - sold LOADS and met some lovely people. The next one is on 18th April - the day we get back from hols, so Sarah is doing that one with her daughter.

A few pictures to show you:

The first one uses glass beads which I'd had for a while, then once I found the fire polished faceted ones, I knew just what to put with them. I've named it Rust and Scribble. This one is sold.

The next two features beads by Tania Grey of Tan, of course. I love Tan's little Fritett beads, as she calls them.
This one, I've named Violet Lawn. Tan's beads are a fab mixture of green and purple which I've echoed with freshwater pearls and peridot.
And this one - the necklace sold, but the earrings are still available - is a lovely mix of pinks, khaki and browns. I have used Unakite to bring out the colours.

Once I get back from holiday, it will be nose to the grindstone for me as it will only be two weeks until North Somerset Arts Week... which is actually 10 days.

So, look out for updates about our holidays and take care of yourselves.

Much love to all.
xx