The Big Purge

Something is in the air and it deserves some talking about. Relocation or maybe it's better called Migration. I’m wondering if it’s my imagination or if an inordinate number of people are uprooting to seek life elsewhere, even overseas. ( I realize that some citizens are fleeing our country.)

I’m not sure if it’s because Nathan and I have been through a cross country move that I am more aware of others pulling up roots and moving on. I am especially aware of young couples

Envisioning Life “Out West”

Returning from Arizona in 2016 - [See prequel Jan. 2026 blog post] - Nathan and I began to play with the fantasy of relocating to the Southwest.   Personally, I began to consider what such a move could mean for me. Would it be safe for me to leave everything and everyone behind -  at retirement age and after 30 years in a community - and move cross country?  Would my husband and I hold our tight bond regardless of any adversity we might face in a new setting? We had both failed in prior marriages so I might have been terrified at the prospect of becoming a “stranger in a stranger land” if this well intentioned adventure ruined our marriage. To my surprise and great relief, all of these thoughts were brief and fleeting. After 20 years with Nathan, my guts had "a knowing" that this marriage was indeed solid.  This wasn't the first time that my guts had delivered this message.  

Snow Canyon, Ivins, UT near St. George

Our decision to leave the nest was so easy that it had to have held a cosmic force behind it.   In 2017, we began planning for when to sell the house, what to purge, where to live, and the logistics for getting there. Getting where? Would we become nomads? Where would we visit? Were we looking for a permanent home? We studied maps. We dreamed of the life we wanted to live. We decided to wander without commitment and to head for St. George, Utah, for starters. We hoped to stay for a year and make side trips of a couple hundred miles out from there. When we were “done” there,  we planned to center ourselves in another spot and repeat the cycle until we decided to settle down.

How would we get there? We started shopping for a big comfortable car that would take everything we could pack into it for the long drive to move cross country. Everything else had to go.  We started planning for a huge purge of our possessions. Watch for next month's post about our year long effort to lessen our load!

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Getting “The Itch”

Sedona

As I shared in my December post, when I returned from my first visit to Sedona in 2015 I held a creative energy from which there was no release.  I then shared my Southwest experiences with Nathan in the hopes that he would develop an interest in visiting. I was doubtful that he would, though, because he had lived in California and had already traveled in the West.  I wanted it to be “new” to him!  It turned out that, other than a visit to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon years before, he had not explored Arizona. It also turned out that I didn't have a clue about the vastness of what is considered to be "the West". I grew up in Maine, ya know?

So, the following year, I was thrilled when we flew out to explore Sedona and beyond. Imagine my alarm when, as we drove into the outskirts of town, Nathan began to shout “Stop the car! Stop the car!” I thought he might be sick to his stomach. But when I did manage  to pull over, he jumped from the car with his camera and quickly headed for the looming reddish orange bluffs!

the aha moment

It was a whole different trip than my last. We hiked and explored Sedona shops & galleries.  We discovered nearby Payson with its Travertine bridge within Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, blindly selecting several trails - purposely unmaintained I might add - that took us four hours to complete. What were we thinking??? 

yes, that's me

waterfalling from "the bridge", but wait there's more!

We also travelled up to the South Rim for a few days. On day one we walked the Rim Trail amongst a throng of visitors. That night, my dormant brave side told me that I needed to experience those canyon walls. So on day two, with Nathan impressed by my gutsy attitude, we hiked down into the Canyon for a limited distance and then took at least twice as long to come back up. It’s steep, ya know, and we were taking pictures during breathing breaks.  LOL 

elmo, the professional stowaway

If you have ever hiked this trail can you prove it?

For me, the Canyon Rim hike just added fuel to the thought of actually living in the Southwest and having ready access to mountains that were calling to the spiritual side of me.  Besides, my body was welcoming the physical challenge of exploring those rocks. 

  

After ten days of “mountain highs” hubby and I returned to Florida and a clock in the ether began to tick - with intuition emerging at weird intervals - towards the possibility of a cross country move. “But where would we want to live?” was the question that began to haunt us throughout the next year. 

Arizona turned out to hold so much more than just gorgeous Sedona. 😎😎😎 - to be continued

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December 25, 2019

I’m remembering our first Holiday Season in the Southwest. We were living in LaVerkin, Utah, less than 20 miles from Zion National Park.   We had moved out of Florida only six months earlier.

That December 25th we decided to drive through a mostly empty, very cold Zion National Park, getting excited by snowy peaks in the distance in contrast to the roadside stream beds still flowing despite the icy temperatures. As we approached the historic Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel a soft rain began to fall.  If you have ever driven through that tunnel, then you may know that the 1.1 mile drive is pitch dark except for several large hollowed out windows that provide fleeting views of the canyon.   It makes no sense (to me) that these large viewing windows exist because of the traffic that flows through the tunnel. There are no lookout points to pull off the road and park. Maybe these openings were used during the construction process back in the early 1900’s or they were a planned "peekaboo" moment for bypassers. As it happened, there was little to no road traffic on that holiday, much less in the tunnel. So, momentarily, and a bit daringly, we stopped the car and peered out. Imagine that! One of the busiest Parks in the U.S. and that window was in our sole possession for a few precious moments.

Photo Credit: Joe Braun Photography 

Having visited Zion at other times of the year, we knew that emerging from the other end of the tunnel would be something like an IMAX experience. A bit daunting but also exciting. From experience, we knew we must resist the urge to lock our eyes on the orange sandstone cliffs bursting into view and focus on the road that was no longer a straight line.

But on this visit we did not see what we expected.   We emerged from the tunnel into a full blown blizzard!

We were so excited by the sudden snowfall that we parked the car and hopped out like a couple of gaping kids marvelling at some of the largest snowflakes either of us had ever seen.  Then… another surprise!  As we stood in all that snowy white wind we witnessed a small herd of desert bighorn sheep navigating the nearby mountainside, just across the road from us.   No traffic. No people. Just us, the swirling icy snowflakes, and those incredible sheep.  Lots of pics of that day…  including a brief video of the herd. Oh how we loved those rocks, those vistas, the snow, and those sure footed sheep.

We wish YOU a stupendous, pleasant surprise in December 2025…. regardless of how, what, or if you celebrate holidays, holy days, etc...

Tina & Nathan

Vacation 2017

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Winter 2024 from Tucson

Happy Valentine's Day
Strange as it may seem, and as in love as I am with life and my hubby, I am not a huge fan of the heart theme that plasters everything from cellophane to cereal. So when I want to express my sense of heart-ness I tend to create my own shapes, mostly free hand. I consider them such an important symbol that, for me to produce any, is a rarity. Here are a very few from those creative moments in hopes of filling your upcoming day with True Love.

Should I sell online again?
I've been hearing from a few of you that this long distance relationship isn't working well for you. As you may know, I sell through several retailers in and around Tucson. This has allowed me to focus more on my artistry than marketing. But it feels like the shift is coming back, where people I am coming to know and those who have purchased from me before are feeling left out on accessibility to my creations. If you don't travel to Arizona, there is currently no chance to purchase my works unless you contact me for a commissioned piece. SPECIAL REQUEST- If you are one of those people who misses browsing my site and discovering uniquely designed gifts for yourself and others then please let me know as I'm considering reopening my online shop at Tina's Sedona with items priced suitably for direct purchase from me. If you have not purchased from my business then I would appreciate you visiting my work to make your decision.

Settling in - at last
I cannot believe that it will be 5 years in May since we left Florida and moved to the Great Southwest. Ups and downs, ins and outs, have -at last- led us to a peaceful, non-nomadic life once again. I know that's true because we have begun to paint interior walls -at last- in colors that reflect who we have become during this phase and in this place. And it is beautiful. Terra cotta and greige stone colored walls are a nice fit for living in the Sonoran Desert. Subdued spring green has been slightly sprinkled in our kitchen adjacent to a wall where we breakfast in the shadow of terracotta sandstone. The bedroom is next! I think that lovely spring green is somehow going to filter into that space. I'm picturing purple and mustard accents making an appearance but I don't know just where. (Dark purple doors sound like fun.) Oh, but to finally have a choice of colors in which to live! This all feels so wonderful, just like the Tucson sunsets. And all of the colors are being drawn from this one piece that Nathan bought locally at an estate sale.

Tucson Gem Show Update
Congratulate me! I stayed home. I beat my addiction this time. 'Nuf said.


A Shameless Promotion
Last month I promised you a story on this but I failed to notice that I don't present to our local textile Guild until February 27th so there is a delay in reporting on my "ta-dah moment" in beads. The least I can do is provide you with a small peek... and "yes" that is tiger eye!

(You really should be following me on Instagram.)

My wish for you...
That you are staying warm and dry wherever you are this winter. It has been so cold in Tucson that I bought myself a new pair of slippers!

Tina

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Celebrating My First Gallery Exhibit

Four years ago on May 11th, Nathan and I hit the road for the Southwest. We really only look back when Facebook sends us the Memories of life in Florida. Our new life here is very different and very satisfying. At least once a week we celebrate the barely explainable freedom we feel from making a major move in our senior years. The most recent benefit is the new friendships we have found by joining clubs in our area. Before leaving Florida, we just did not consider how a cross country move (and a pandemic) would strip us from in-person contact with nourishing community interaction.

For me, joining the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild has been a life saver. The extremely talented resources there are well established in their artistry, and they are encouraging and motivational. They accept me as an artist which helps me see myself as an Artist.

As a result of my growing confidence in that role, this week I'm celebrating having been...

Making Our Move

What you may not know about Nathan and I is that we left Florida in May 2019 to live in St. George, Utah, population 61,096, for four months, and then adventure on to a new location. Our vacation rental is ending soon and we will be moving to La Verkin, about 20 miles away. There will be much less traffic and much fewer people (population 4,398). What does all this have to do with my making artistic-crafted and southwestern-inspired jewelry?

Well, my artistic jewelry studio is preparing to move again. This has caused me to reflect on the studio I had in Florida and how challenging it was then to shed beads I would never use and take only what I had to have "for the road". That decision is serving me well right now as I am truly a mobile jewelry artist. This is going to be easy! I thought you might enjoy seeing my studio of past and present. The next studio is going to have fabulous mountainous views in La Verkin. Stay tuned! #tinassedona #southwesterninspiredjewelry #mobilejewelryartist #artisticcraftedjewelry

My Florida studio preparing to move.

My Florida studio in action before I painted my Sedona colors!

My final goodbye Florida photo... boo hoo... (but yayy!)

St. George studio in the guestroom. Hey, when its temporary...

But who cares when the view from my window is so spectacular?!