Ghosts, Miners, and Mandolins
Okay I don't exactly know if the land is haunted, but there is a palpable history to the place. The building in the above photographs, for example, was built by a miner in the 1850s. The mandolin hanging there is symbolic of Mariee's father's love of the instrument. A love that you can actually hear come through on the tracks he contributed to on her album Faces In The Rocks .
There is literally no end to the amazing backgrounds we found to take photographs in front of around their place, and we didn't even get around to all of it! Here are some shots of the new pieces that will be listed in the shop this week:
These jeans (and the three shirts above) will be listed on Etsy Tuesday or Wednesday (we have had a couple inquiries since posting this blog this morning! I am out of town for the night, but FYI they are XS/S...):
Mycie had tons of fun out there. There was so much to explore and such a magical feeling permeating the whole place. She spent a good amount of time out there the summer she was just about to turn one when we tended a garden plot in their large hillside garden, but she was much more capable of interacting with her lovely surroundings this time! Here she is with Sasha and Tanner on an old Native American grinding rock (See? I told you there was history to this place!):
The grinding rock, of course, wasn't nearly as captivating to her as the trampoline:
Same goes for Sasha :-)
Here they are again. We have devised a number of clever tricks for getting Mycie out of our Etsy shots! Luckily the nearby trampoline was all we needed this time.
This photo was the day's fave. After dinner we all sat down to review the pictures and this one just struck us as so funny:
And dude, check out the name brand of these shoes! Yes, Sioux:
Here is the front of the miner's cabin. This is probably my favorite picture ever of Mycie:
Beer, high-heeled boots, and lovely dress I will be blogging about someday:
Some random spots of beauty:
Miss Mariee herself chose to keep her precious face in the kitchen and out of these photographs, but her mama Felicia (yes, the vein braider thousand year bone burner), who has recently gone through a process of inner and outer transformation, was thrilled to have us take some pictures of her!
She is such a beautiful woman and taking pictures of her was fun for everyone, especially when she started really showing herself with these poses. We all loved how the lines of her body played against the lines of the trellis behind:
I just love how Felicia seems like not only Mariee (and Paul)'s mama in these pictures but also like divine mother and tender of this very special piece of land. I mean, if you've ever listened to Mariee's music you can understand how the land she grew up on influenced the sounds she produces.
These haunted hills, with thousands of years of Native American habitation, a short but intense period of gold mining frenzy, and now generations of artistically prolific folks settling in and sending their creations out into the world, continue to touch and inspire us as much as they have all those who went before...