All photos Slim Paley
.Well, the beautiful Indian Summer we’ve been enjoying here in Santa Barbara has finally packed it’s bags and gone to Australia. Darkness is settling in earlier each day and suddenly I’m addressing the Winter Hit List; chimneys need cleaning, furnaces, heating ducts and rain gutters inspected, flannel sheets aired and fluffed-Oh, it’s all very Martha!
So yes, it’s time for change, and that includes the look of my blog.
I’ve been having some issues with my original template lately, including it’s completely arbitrary decision to shrink the size of all my photos. Hellooo, WordPress-I liked my photos nice & big, thank you very much. That’s why I chose that template. Now that it’s secretly attending Jenny Craig meetings behind my back I’m going to retaliate by dating other template designs. Please bear with me these next few weeks. The dating process, as we all know, can be fraught with awkward moments.
But thats a whole other post, isn’t it?!
Let’s get back to “Indian Summer” which reminds me that I never posted about my first time visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico in August.
I naturally expected to appreciate the unique architecture the region is so famous for
loved the gorgeous thick, straw filled adobe walls.
I was warned the shopping would be great, which of course was true
Our favourite shop was “Nathalie” a mix of vintage and new clothing, jewelry, textiles, a little bit of everything wonderful.
The amazing Nathalie (elle est Francaise!)
and her charming husband. (and her sister is the editor of Cote Sud magazine-love)
We visited the Millicent Rogers Museum which I wished was a store…
Sorry, no flash in the museum
We walked across the Rio Grande.
Ya we did! It was very “One Eyed Jacks”
(One of my favourite movies)
Don’t look down
We watched a real iron monger doing his business the old fashioned way
Not an easy profession. I couldn’t stay in the room for more than 30 seconds the smoke was so acrid.
(Ps. not to toot my own horn, but doesn’t this kinda have a Norman Rockwell look to it?!)
Our friends, who have a home in Santa Fe, invited us to come in August for “Indian Market”, a yearly gathering of talented Native artists and craftspeople from all over the country and Canada.
The downtown area is filled with hundreds of booths of fabulous hand-made textiles, paintings, silver, jewelry and of course, plenty of turquoise-in every colour.
And no, you haven’t really seen turquoise until you’ve visited New Mexico.
The gorgeous, pure silver belt below was made entirely by hand
Each plate, crafted painstakingly layer by layer, tells the story of one village, the depth and level of detail just stunning. The belt took almost an entire year to craft and is worn here by the daughter of Tchin, the artist who made it.
As I said, not your average craft fair, People!!
One of the highlights of “Indian Market” for me was definitely attending the Traditional Native Clothing contest.
We were there bright and early to secure front row seats.
As the contestants range from age 1 or 2, up to adults, it promised to be a fun show
And didn’t disappoint !
I won!
Some contestants were just born to it
others weren’t quite so sure
Look at that face!
This young man, I believe a previous winner over the years, was just fantastic.
Even the audience was colourful! This is Tziporah Salamon from NY. Her ensemble was so much fun the contest commentator asked her to come up and talk a little about her style. You must read more about Tziporah here!
Oh, you know I did.
The Barktorialist was also in town 
Even the leather man was right out of central casting.
Its easy to see why our friends love New Mexico so much
xox
For more information about Indian Market click HERE
PS. Let me know how you like this new format, but remember it’s my first foray. You might notice I also have a new “Travel” tab at the top. Don’t read it yet, it’s not finished.
PPS. To leave a comment click on the comment bubble in the top right corner of the post!
Lastly, I didn’t include Tziporah’s own website; Here
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