Artisan Beaders Street Team's Giveaway!

I belong to a wonderfully awesome Street Team on Etsy. We have been giving away gorgeous creations for several weeks now. This is our last one and it happens to be a pair of pearl earrings from me. They feature freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals, and sterling silver findings, and measure 1 5/8th inches long. These are so lovely because they are versatile - perfect to carry you from day to night!

How to enter to win:

All you have to do is visit my shop on Etsy, Creative Treasures by Donna, then leave a comment on our Street Team blog page with a link to your favorite item. We will be picking the winner** on Friday, January 2nd, at 5:00pm EST, so you have until then to leave a comment. The winner will be announced shortly after, so make sure you check back Friday night. Thanks for playing!

* If you don't have a Blogger account, please leave your email address or a way to contact you if you win.
** Winning name will be randomly chosen by using Random.org.

Thank you for stopping by and have a safe Happy New Year!

God Bless~

Sleeping Beauty Mountain With Snow!

This is Sleeping Beauty Mountain, the infamous turquoise mountain. This mountain is about 45 minutes from my home in the far southeast part of the Phoenix Valley. This is looking at it from the head down to the feet. You can't get the effect of the sleeping beauty which is what the mountain is known for. Isn't it beautiful with the snow on it?

What people don't realize is that it isn't a mine where you go into the side of a mountain or underground. The Sleeping Beauty Mine is just a side of the mountain that they blast part of it away and then they pull out the precious turquoise stones. The Sleeping Beauty Mountain was originally mined for copper and gold, but now the mine is closed to the public and mined solely for the turquoise. The mine was one of the largest producers in the world of turquoise. But now it only produces amounts of very small nuggets all of which need to be hardened.

Sleeping Beauty Turquoise is solid stone, no matrix and ranges in color from royal blue to a very light sky blue. To find natural Sleeping Beauty Turquoise is rare now a days. Most turquoise out there has been treated in some sort of way. So it is important that you know what you are looking at and who the seller is. Natural stone has not be changed in any way. The Stablilized stone has been saturated with a hard colorless acrylic or plastic to harden the stone and prevents it from changing colors from body oils and other chemicals. Then there are the Treated stones, they are stabilized and then color enhanced.

We also have Kingman and Bisbee Turquoise in the state. The Kingman Turquoise is still being mined, but the Bisbee Turquoise is not. So if you find any turquoise from the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, then you really do have a rare piece of turquoise. The Copper Queen Mine is for another day, it has a long histroy in world of copper and turquoise.

Hope you all have a great week, and Happy New Year!

Peace~

It's Snowing!

Good Morning!

We've got snow, well, not here exactly, but up north. The Flagstaff and Grand Canyon area have gotten over a foot of snow as well as other areas in the northern part of the state. The ski resorts, yes we have four ski resorts in the state, are opening this weekend. Down here in the valley, we've had a lot of rain and we'll take it! We need it dearly! But with this little storm system that went through, it's made it more like Christmas, unlike last year when it was very balmy! We had to turn the AC down just to have the fireplace on. LOL! So now that it's more like Christmas, I think I might get out and do some shopping. ;-) Ok.....just kidding. I've just about finished with that last weekend. This weekend I'm baking, just a little. Don't do much of that anymore either.

At any rate, I'm taking a much needed break. I won't be around much for the rest of the year. I'm going to be enjoying my family.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Peace~

Procrastinator.....Who me?

Who procratinates here? The word procratinate; to put off, to delay. Oh, hummm.....none of us here do that, right? I always have all my ducks in a row, well except for maybe one. At least I don't loose them. The best well laid plans don't always come to fruition, do they? Well, I know my plans don't always come to completion as hard as I try sometimes.

Ok, I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet. Have you? I know I'm not the only one out there, or am I? Aaaa, isn't Christmas in LESS than two weeks? Maybe I should go to the stores. I just HATE shopping, unless it's for myself of course! LOL! And then who doesn't like shopping, right? It was both my daughters birthdays last week, so I just can't seem to get in the spirit of shopping until I'm done with their birthdays. Even though they are adults, married and have children of their own, it's just out of line to think of shopping when their birthdays are upon us. Which brings up another point, why did I have two daughters in the same month, two days apart, and why on earth in December? I swear, I didn't have a thing to do with that! I did get that question for years from them also, why did they have to share their birthdays with each other. Why were their birthdays in December? Gee Mom, couldn't you plan better? They both swore they wouldn't do that to their children, but now one daughter has two children born in June, 10 days apart and the other daughter had twins the first time around. I guess they didn't plan either.

So, back to Christmas shopping...I'm going to start it tomorrow. Seriously, with the economic times that we find ourselves in, we aren't buying gifts for the family. We had a family meeting and we've all decided that we don't need anything. We've pooled our money together and are helping a family in our Church who have four children and not a penny to their names. They both have college degrees but both were laid off of their jobs. Jobs here in AZ are scarce to say the least, as I'm sure they are across this country. But the children don't need to suffer. Since we've started our plan here, we've gotten many people in the our families and friends to join in. We've ended up with a beautiful little nest egg for this family. We are really going shopping tomorrow for them. The young man told us if he gets a job soon, which he's been applying for many, he will pay us all back. We told him to pay it forward to another family in need. Lord knows there are many families in need today.

So I guess it's time to stop the procrastinating and get with the program. Really, I can't wait to go shopping tomorrow. It'll be a family thing, that will be fun. Just wish the temperatures were a bit cooler, it'll feel more like Christmas, not like living in the desert! LOL! Oh, and we will be buying for our own grandchildren, we wouldn't want them to think Grandma and Grandpa are complete looney toons! LOL!

Have a great day!

Peace~