Hearts a Bloom

 I'm having so much fun re-purposing broken china and flatware! As I continue to get ready for Chief Joseph Days, which is this week, eeeeK! I have windchimes and jewelry bits and pieces all over my dining room and laundry room.

Luckily Nature Guy has been visiting his sons so I have been free to create away. If you happen to live in the NE corner of Oregon, come on over to Wallowa County for the happenings this week. You won't be dissapointed! LEt me know if you are a visitor to my blog and I will give you a 25% discount on any purchase.
This necklace, created using copper elements and pearls to complement the colors of the pendant, will be available at my booth, unless someone let's me know they are interested otherwise. I hope you have a happy and creative Monday!

It's Chief Joseph Days again...the wild horse stampede

Such a gorgeous day! Sandy and I went to lunch at La Laguna's, which in my opinion is the best Mexican food restaurant in the valley. The salsa is fresh, and has just enough bite to it to make it worth asking for more. After lunch we came up to the corner of First and Main here in Joseph so we could have a good view of the horses as they stampeded down the main drag. Love the scenery, don't you???

More of the gorgeous mountains we get to see every day. The girl in the blue dress, holding her hat is actually a bronze sculpture. There are bronzes on just about every corner of the 3 main blocks here in Joseph. We have 3 foundries here where beautiful pieces are created for buyers around the world.

Here's a view of the main street that the horses will come down. way up at the other end, is what we used to call Brennan's Hill because the actor Walter Brennan had a home at the top of it. It was our favorite hill to sled down at night as it was well lit and just steep enough to get to the bottom of the hill without ending up on the main street.

Here they come! All the way down from Mount Joseph ranch, the horses for the rodeo are herded down to the rodeo grounds.

Ummmm, we couldn't decide if the horses were thinking the pavement was too hot, or they were looking for something, but all of a sudden they just stopped. The stampede ended up being more like a stroll down Main Street...:-)

They decided it was okay to proceed, so off they go, at a saunter, heading down through town.

This is it! The end of the stampede, which we waited almost an hour for because someone had posted the time wrong...Oh well, the stores were teeming with customers afterward so for local shop owners, this is a great way to kick off Chief Joseph Days. Always the last full weekend in July, Chief Joseph Days is worth the wait!