A slightly belated Happy New Year to you!
From the week of our U.S. Thanksgiving near the end of November until just this moment, I've been so very busy.
Holiday decorating and gift shopping, an art show, feast days, important family birthdays, Christmas itself, and then New Year's Eve were a blur of breathtaking proportions.
And then, today, my husband and I played hooky from life and took a long drive down the 'Wilderness Coast,' to where the northern Gulf of Mexico laps at our shore. We went for the seafood, some of the best in the world. We went for the drive and the time out. We went for the scenery. And we went for the weather.
We live in the 'Big Bend' area of north Florida, where peninsular Florida and panhandle Florida join. Tallahassee, our hometown, is about 40 minutes inland. It is one of the last places in Florida where the wilderness comes right down to the sea. Where condo developments have not yet intruded. And where one can find peace and wide horizons and artfulness and seafood.
We stopped in first at The Coastal, a restaurant in Panacea, Florida. A working-class restaurant where you can have your seafood platters fried, grilled or blackened. And where the side dishes are at least as good as home cooking.
Then we drove on to Alligator Point and Carrabelle and East Point and Apalachicola. In Apalach, we drove the old bayside neighborhoods and strolled the riverside village. My father's mother hails from Apalach and her father was a paddlewheel boat pilot on the Apalachicola River and supported a family of seven children. My grandmother was his only daughter. When she finished public school, she moved to Tallahassee and graduated from the university that is now Florida State.
I can still drive by her large childhood home where she and her many brothers grew up. The home remained in my family until about 20 years ago, when it was sold. It's been several things since then: a B&B and a law office, among them. Today it looks like it's again a private home, and maybe still a bit under construction.
Several years ago, there was a magic moment when it was being renovated and the construction workers allowed me to walk all through the house. I had not been in it since I was a child. And, seeing it empty allowed me to examine it in ways I never could when it was filled with Victorian furnishings.
After our spin through Apalach, we turned east toward home. After crossing the river bridge, we then crossed another long bridge out to St. George Island. We drove along the many little roads crisscrossing the island, grateful that the new bridge steers clear of the Florida Black Skimmers' nesting grounds. We toured the island and then crossed the bridge again, back to the mainland, to East Point. We were leaving town when we talked ourselves into stopping in a pretty little oyster shack next to the highway, to enjoy some of the finest oysters in the world.
And then we finally got on the road again, for home. The sun never cracked through the gloomy clouds all day, which was perfect. Colors were subdued and temperatures comfortable. It was a relaxing, healing day with no goals beyond these.
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A little bit of an update re: my online jewelry business...
First of all, I have a www.com website at this address:
http://tanamclanejewelry.com/
Please visit my website to learn more about what I do!
Left: New earrings and a Birdhouse Pendant underway in my studio... garnet, charoite, blue star sapphire, black sapphire, citrine and tourmaline!
Secondly, for more than a year I have had two shops on Etsy. CityRusticJewelry has been the one linked to this blog, and it will remain intact, in status quo.
However, my second Etsy shop, TanaMcLaneJewelry, will become dormant this week. So will its Facebook page.
All of my online sales will take place in CityRusticJewelry, a shop that takes two forms of payment: PayPal and Etsy's own 'Direct Checkout,' a system that allows direct credit card purchases.
You can find CityRusticJewelry on Etsy here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CityRusticJewelry?ref=shop_sugg or by clicking on the 'slideshow' of my work on the right side of this blog post.
When you purchase from my shop, it notifies me. It is synched to my phone and gets my attention. Within the U.S., I ship for free via USPS Priority Mail. Outside of the U.S., I split the cost of shipping with you. You can find those shipping costs in my jewelry listings.
I had strong sales throughout the winter holiday season and am busy adding to my jewelry inventory. So please stay tuned as my online shop receives new listings!
And please visit and perhaps 'like' my City Rustic Jewelry (Tana McLane) fan page on Facebook! This is where I most often post new work and other things for my 'listening audience.'
It is found here:
https://www.facebook.com/cityrustic.art
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I hope you have a great start to the new year. Here's to 2015! Peace be with you.
