San Antonio Part 2

We also visited The Market while we were in San Antonio. It is an indoor marketplace made up of all kinds of little shops selling imports mainly from Mexico and South America. The girls had $ burning a whole in their pockets, so Adriana bought a little coin purse and a little wooden box full of worry dolls from Guatemala. Isabella bought a stuffed Armadillo with a little purple bow on it's head. I picked up a couple of hand painted soap dishes, and my dad and husband both bought these woven hats. Arturo looks like Poncho Villa in his, and my dad looks like Panama Jack! I'm kicking myself now for not getting a picture of them wearing them!

The above pictures were part of a killer display at one of the shops. Mexicans use a lot of skulls and skeletons in their art as a remembrance to their ancestors.





There was a building in down town that had all of these poor miserable looking people built into it. The faces are just eerie, and the people look absolutely miserable, like they are responsible for holding up the weight of the building, and have been doing it for an eternity. I wish I knew more about the history of the architecture of the building. It was really interesting...

Between shopping in San Antonio, and in Fredricksburg, I saw a lot of hand crafted jewelry. It is interesting to step outside of the Etsy bubble and see what the rest of the world is doing jewelry wise. I've only ever sold my jewelry on-line, and have only done one art show. I've not even contemplated taking my jewelry to boutiques, or other places locally that may take consignments.

There were a couple of things that struck me while checking out retail jewelry. One, the prices were so high!!! One boutique had quite a few silver cuffs with stones and detail work that on Etsy would have sold for around $ 200 listed for $ 450. The other thing I noticed, and it could be just because I am used to the jewelry artists on Etsy, Etsy has so much more to offer. I saw store after store filled with jewelry that all had the same look. A lot of American South West designs. I grew up seeing these designs, to me they are not fresh. They are not updated, they aren't modern.

When I discovered Etsy just over a year ago, it really opened up a whole new world for me. Joining such a large marketplace, with so much to offer showed me things being done that I had never thought possible. Selling on Etsy really makes a person step up their game, create beyond their limits, do things they never thought possible. The way we all influence each other can be both good and bad. Influenced to the point of copying? Clearly not acceptable... but being pushed to create to the utmost of your abilities because you want to be at the top of the heap? I've seen amazing things because of this.....

Anyway, this post took a turn somewhere ;) So back to the prices of retail jewelry...are they out of line, or are we??????

San Antonio Texas Y'all!!!!

xxx
The girls at the Alamo.

Really, I grew up in Nevada, and I don't say "y'all" at all...but, this post is so Texas that I really have to say y'all to keep with the whole theme. :)

On May 30th, my oldest daughter had her First Holy Communion. My parents came from Nevada especially for the occasion. They were staying for the next week, so we made plans to go for a mini vacation in the Texas Hill Country. We stayed at a really cool place, Roddy Tree Ranch. The best part about it was that it is situated in a spot where you can hit a lot of tourist attractions within an hour or so..

The first day we went to San Antonio. Oh, how I love San Antonio...there are a few places that you have to go see. We hit them all! We started at the Alamo.

I could tell that my Mom wasn't really impressed, but my Dad seemed to enjoy it. I mean, how can you go to San Antonio and not go to the Alamo?

Here is a picture of the stereotypical cactus that you would expect to find in Texas. Which is weird because I only see cactus every once in a while.

Here's a picture of the girls in front of a cool mosaic. I wish I had written down who made it, and what the history was behind it, but I didn't. Also, forgive any of my pics that are blurry. (I'm shaky)
A super cool glass sculpture.
Cool bust outside of the Aztec Theatre on the Riverwalk.

After the Alamo, we headed down to the river level and had lunch on the Riverwalk. San Antonio has this river that runs through the middle of down town. There are walkways on either side of the river, and all kinds of little restaurants and bars, hotels, a mall, shops, all kinds of things all up and down the "Riverwalk".
The view from on the river. There are these river tour boats that you buy a ticket for about $8 and you get a little tour down the river walk. The following pictures are ones I took while on our river boat tour.

Musicians from Lima, Peru performing on the steps outside the Riverwalk mall. I love their music, especially the pan flutes (I don't know if that's what they are really called. They look like they are made out of some kind of round reed pipes in all different sizes).
Some theatre and stage that is supposed to be in several movies, and where national morning shows have filmed from.

This post is getting monstrously long. I'll save the rest of it for the next post. I have a couple of ear wire orders to fill, yay! and, a couple of custom orders from my mom to fill. She's into peace signs for some reason. On a thumb ring of all things... she's getting wild in her old age! ;)