Sunday, April 17, 2011

Some Fresh Air...



The hubby and I had such a nice breath of fresh air the day before yesterday when we hopped over to our neighboring town of Panama City. We had a little bit of cabin fever so we decided to be tourists for the afternoon. We stopped by the cutest little amusement park right on the gulf and it made for quite a charming afternoon...



I fell in love with this pretty topiary horse! Could it possibly be a future project for the front yard????
(Not if the hubby has anything to do with it!)(lol)
...the topiary monkey in the background is quite cute too!




...and of course I just had to ride the ferris wheel...




The amazing view at the top...


 That's the beautiful Gulf of Mexico in the far distance on the one year anniversary of that disastrous gulf oil spill from last year. When I look at the water and see how clear it is today, I am so thankful that it wasn't far worse than it was. We were some of the lucky ones down here on our shores. Thank you Lord!

Check out this crazy building just a little ways down from the amusement park...
I had to do a double-take on that one!


Also, I wanted to show you jewelry lovers out there in blogville this interesting old necklace I bought at the auction yesterday. I'm not really sure what it is, but I do know it is old, hand strung with some type of a seed as the main beads. I think it might be chinese early 1900's, but not quite sure. Does anyone out there know???? Any of you blogger friends out there seen anything like it before? It has me stumped....

The handcarved beads and the beautiful brass tassel made from the most interesting chain reeled me in on this piece. Then, the more I studied it, I realized this wasn't an everyday piece of jewelry. Please feel free to leave a comment if you can help me out on this one, because I have never really seen anything quite like it!



7 comments:

Glenda/MidSouth said...

I have seen pictures of the upside down building before and loved seeing it again. :-D Wish I could help you on the necklace, but don't know anything about it at all. Great piece!
Have a great week!
Glenda

Christine H. said...

What a wonderful time that must have been. I understand completely why you were enchanted by the topiary horse.

As for the necklace, no words of wisdom from me, but I'd love to know what you find out.

thefrenchcircus said...

Looks like you and your hubby had a fabulous day! The carousel reminds me of the one in Paris! Sorry I can't help you with the necklace either - perhaps it's Hawaiian? Let us know what you find out. :)

lorraine said...

What beautiful clarity in your pictures....the topiary horse was awesome,,topiaries being one of my favorite things....Tibetan prayer beads on the necklace, maybe?...I have no clue...just know i love your work!

lorraine said...

Christine....just googled "Tibetan Prayer Beads"..and actually think that might be it..the tassel fits and is quite common in finishing the beads...also they used different kinds of seeds and wood to carve the beads..the most popular being the seed of the bodhi tree..The Buddha sat under this tree when he received 'Enlightenment"......Anyway..count the beads..if there are 108 beads, or the amount of beads is divisible by 9..then that is most likely what the necklace is....hope this helps...Lorraine

Christine Wallace said...

Lorraine,
Thank you so much, you are so clever to know to research that. Great to know this, I'm going to count them right now. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Christine Wallace said...

Hello Everyone!
I think Ms. Lorraine is correct. There are 18 seed beads on this necklace and it does look rather, a bit Tibetan. Thank you Lorraine for your research! Finding this out, makes me want to keep this necklace in tact. What a special piece from a very special part of the world!!!!