travel to Taos

This morning I left Amarillo, Texas and made my way to Taos, New Mexico. It was a very pleasant drive with beautiful skies and fluffy white clouds. I stopped many times along the way to take photos. I even stopped at an abandoned, crumbling and decaying little town in Cuervo, New Mexico.There are many roadside shrines along the way, which I have a fascination with. Here in New Mexico, the sites are tributes to their loved ones.

 

visiting with Pam Carriker

 My drive from Tennessee was a little gloomy. The weather was rainy and dark. It really affected my mood as I don't enjoy driving in that sort of weather.

Had a lovely visit with Pam. She was the hostess with the mostess! There was fresh flowers in my room,  presents (some of her new products to try, yipee!). She cooked me some delicious meals (chicken tortilla soup, eggs benedict with mimosas for breakfast and then took me out for a yummy dinner at The Texas Roadhouse).

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Yesterday she taught me how to do a lino cut using one of my images. It was really fun. I 'd never tried carving before and I am so glad she shared this with me. I love the idea of furthering my art by taking drawings and having another way to use them.

  

 

  

 

 this is how my cut looked in the end; so fun! Pam will be teaching this class at Create in Irving, CA in May and then a different version of this at Art Unraveled in Phoenix in August.

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 then we did a little swap; paintings for jewelry. i love acquiring art this way!

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this is Pam's fur baby, Relay. I really had to work hard to earn his love; but in the end, we were good friends!

 

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  Left Pam this morning, making my way to Amarillo. Stopped a few times to grab some fun, unexpected roadside shots:

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After arriving in Amarillo, I made dinner plans to go to the world famous "Big Texan Steakhouse", where the shuttle from the restaurant comes to the hotel to pick you up. the shuttle turns out to be an old limo with some good old bull horns on the front of it!

 

 

Tomorrow I head to Taos, New Mexico to stay with friends, Leighanna Light and Thomas Ashman.

Last stop on hop!

So our blog hop is coming to an end. Thank you for participating and I want to wish you luck. I know I'd love to win a gift certificate to Jerry's!

Final Destination Blog Visit!


Our last and final blog destination belongs to and this is the final location where you'll find the last TWO words left in our secret word collection.


Pick up the last two words here.
Bring ALL your secret words here.

All Entries will Close May 5

Winners will be Announced May 7 at : ArtfulGathering.com

Winners will be drawn at random through random.org. One winner will be chosen to win the $200 e-card gift certificate to Jerry's Artarama, and two winners will be chosen at random to win a $25 e-gift card to Jerry's Artarama.

Please leave all the necessary contact info with your secret words in the moderated comment section of Artful Gathering's Hop Page.

Thank you so much for hopping with us and we look forward to seeing you at Artful Gathering 2012. Special thanks to Jerry's Artarama, Artful Gathering's prize sponsor of the blog hop event.

Good Luck, and thank you for playing!

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I'm still on the road! i've spent the last few days in Dallas with friend, Pam Carikker. tomorrow i'll blog about my visit here. I leave in the morning for Amarillo, Texas, where I'll stay another night in a hotel. From there, I head on over to Taos, New Mexico.

Day on the road: Tennesse to Arkansas

Today I left Tennessee making my way to Little Rock, where I am spending the night in a hotel. When I realized that I would be driving through Memphis, I decided that I must stop by Graceland. So I hung out with Elvis for a little bit. It was fascinating to see the house (you don't get to go upstairs; only the main level and downstairs). It's like being in a time warp, with it's '70's decor. Elvis paid $100,000 for Graceland, which has 13 acres.

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this is Elvis's living room, where he spent quite a lot of time.

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The formal dining room. I fell in love with that chandelier. Such a pretty set up.

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the stairs to Elvis's private lair. The tour doesn't go up there as we were told, it was a private area in during his life and remains private in his death.

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Elvis's tv room. Supposedly he wanted 3 tv's after hearing that President Lyndon Johnson had three sets to keep up with all the major network newscasts at the same time. There were other cool rooms such as the billiard room and the jungle room. you can read more about Elvis's interesting decorating style here.

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this is Elvis's trophy room and it was huge! it housed all his gold records, awards, movie costumes, show costumes and all kinds of cool memorabilia.

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Elvis was originally buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis but after someone attempted to steal his remains, his father, Vernon, petitioned to have his body moved to Graceland. He was reburied in one of his most beloved areas on the property called, The Mediation Garden, along side his mother, his grandmother and then eventually his father. (Elvis died in 1977 and his father died in 1979). Read everything you didn't know about Elvis here!

The statue of Jesus was a Christmas gift to Elvis from friends. it stands nearby, overlooking his grave.

Greetings from Tennessee!

had a beautiful day in Tennessee today. Brenda and I started the day off by going to breakfast in a nearby town, Franklin; where i had the most delicious biscuits and gravy ever! Then we did a little walk about the town and check out a few stores. She took me to a great store called Philanthropy, which I just loved. It was such a beautiful day for walking around.

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then we met up with another art friend, Bernie Berlin at the American Pickers store. (it has it's own name, but can't think of it right now). my husband LOVES that show, so it was fun to go there and see all their cool pickings............

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Next we headed to a really fun store called, Two Old Hippies. They had some really cool and unusual things. it was hard to be so restrained in there. I did leave with a great pair of earrings though. Love the vintage VW van parked inside the store.

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After saying goodbye to Bernie, Brenda and I went to lunch where we decided to order a lobster pizza. I know it sounds gross, but it actually was quite tasty!

finally, we headed back towards her area and stopped by a really old, historical cemetery. There are 4 soldiers of the Revolutionary war buried there. I love to visit old cemeteries. so much history there. the earliest age of someone born, that is buried in that cemetery, was 1776!

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After getting back to Brenda's, I decided to change into my jammies and then Brenda treated me to a glass of moonshine. what a way to end a great day!



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tomorrow i hit the road again and will probably spend the night in Little Rock, Arkansas. I don't know anyone there, so I'll be in a hotel tomorrow night. From there, I make my way over to Dallas, Texas to visit with Pam Carriker.