Day 4 Grand Luxe Rail Journey – "Lost Wages"

HOT! Holy Cow it’s hot in Las Vegas this time of year. This evening we’re trying to recover from the heat as we head to Cedarville, Utah, and Bryce Canyon National Park. After sitting in the 115 degree heat all afternoon, our train car is still pretty hot, but the air conditioner is finally recovering as we do anything creative we can, like creating a swamp cooler out of the baby personal fans we have been given and a bucket of ice in our sink. Voila not so much cooler, but we’re working on it.

Our day started out to a tour of Hoover Dam. I’ve always wanted to see it, and this was finally the opportunity. That hunk of concrete is truly awe inspiring, and is a testament to the creative process. If we can imagine it, then it can be done might be the tenet of the day. You can look at films all day long of how massive the structure is, but until you actually see it, you just can’t get it. I was struck by how artistic the design is. The clean lines of the intake towers, the delicate arch of the dam itself, and the Art Deco bronze statues and the design of the visitor’s center are complimented by the turquoise waters of Lake Mead.

The level of Lake Mead is really low right now. The area has only had like an inch and a half of rain in the last year. The lake provides water to 4 states, which has some concerned it is being drained faster than it can recover. Time will tell.

Okay, I have both vertigo and claustrophobia, but I actually walked across the dam and went down into the turbine room. My husband has learned to be patient with me and offers a steady arm until I adjust, if I ever do. There wasn’t any leaning over the railing on my part I’ll assure you.

Now we snake through the darkness toward Utah. Dolly Parton is playing in the club car, and because there is no Internet, I write these notes in word, ready to post when I can.—Ruth Mitchell

Day 3 Grand Luxe Rail Journey - Grand Canyon

It's been a wonderful day. We drove right up the edge of the Grand Canyon in the train, and took a tour with Wayne Ranney, a geologist who had been traveling with us and lecturing since we left Albuquerque. He is very knowledgeable, so it was a real treat to tour some of the highlights of the South Rim with him. We purchased his book, Carving Grand Canyon, and I look forward to reading it as he was such a delightful tour guide.

Mitch and I reminisced about our previous trip with our kids, and how our two-year old daughter had given us such a fright because she was at that age where all she wanted to do was be free and explore. Translation: leaping off the rim. We ran into a mother that was experiencing our same dilemma of the past.

The Grand Canyon is one the few places I have ever been that just defies the camera, and even more so written description, but Mitch managed to capture a few really good photos despite the smoke that was blowing in from California wildfires. We toured two different trails, first going down into the canyon briefly. We walked through a blasted hole in a butte to where we could view some cave drawings that were about 400 years old according to Wayne. An added bonus was seeing a number of California Condors. Back up into the numbers of over 200, the magnificent birds with a 10-foot wingspan were down to 23 left on the face of the earth. It is my understanding that the experts took into their own hands to bring the less-than- two dozen into captivity to get them to breed-- pretty risky venture at the least.

Okay, I admit to having a bit of vertigo, and Mitch held onto me, but then the dizziness faded and I was keeping up with our group better. We backtracked and walked out on the rim with Wayne as he pointed out fossils that had once been on the ocean floor. We were treated to several spectacular lookouts. But by the time we were led back to Kolb's Cabin where we purchased several books including Wayne's, we were ready for some cold ice cream. We toured the lobby of the El TovarHotel and then it was time to go.

Riding back down to Williams, Arizona, we enjoyed the sites of the desert in the club car, where passengers have use of the train's Internet network.

As we ate dinner, we said goodbye to Arizona. Friendly conversation and too much desert were our activities in the club car after an amazing dinner of Elk cooked to perfection. I haven't had a bad meal on this train yet.

After saying our good nights, we climbed into the bunk by our window and watched the desert sky filled with stars pass by as the rocking motion of the train rocked us to sleep.--Ruth Mitchell

Day 2 Grand Luxe Rail Adventure - Williams, AZ

This is rail day. Our first all day trip on the train. We left Albuquerque this morning at 4 a.m and Mitch has been up ever since. Are you kidding, he's not going to miss a second of this first "roll." I did sleep in a little but, am not caught up yet. It was glorious sleeping while the train rocked down the track. We enjoyed some wonderful landscape scenery, and a talk by geologist Wayne Ranney in the club car. Then headed to the dining car for another superb meal.

Once we arrived in Williams, we've spent a lot of time servicing the train, and getting the crew of the Grand Canyon Railroad onboard for our journey tomorrow to the Grand Canyon. I've seen it once before many years ago, but was more concerned with keeping my active two year old from jumping of the edge, than taking in the incredible view. It truly is a place on earth where no pictures can portray the beauty of it.

Mitch has enjoyed keeping up with the operations of the train this afternoon and I have, count 'em, five bars of reception for my air card. I've given up trying to take a nap, and hopefully tonight I'll get to catch up a little more. More tomorrow--Ruth Mitchell

Day 1 Grand Luxe Rail Adventure - Santa Fe

Our first morning to rise aboard our sleeper car the Savannah, we have a light breakfast in the New York club car, and have adjusted somewhat to our quarters that are elegant but compact. I've never been to Santa Fe before and I am anticipating all the wonderful art. Logistics require that we take a bus to this artistic Mecca, but we will board the train later in the afternoon at Lamy, New Mexico, and ride back to Albuquerque.

Santa Fe is everything I expect and maybe a little bit more. I am blown away by the beautiful Navajo rugs, intricate silver belt buckles, hand stitched clothing and amazing jewelry. While prices are high in Santa Fe for a collector of modest means, it was a pleasure to walk the sidewalk in front of the Governor's Palace on the square and see authentic Native American turquoise jewelry. With the influx of imitation imports available throughout the pricey boutiques we were advised the best places to shop are at the museum stores where they don't charge sales tax and of course the Native American market. This market has been going on since 1929. A lottery for position on the sidewalk is fair to all, and all gemstones are authenticated as well as verification that the work is truly made by local artisans.

Guess what? I found the most amazing turquoise necklace by artist Nina Garcia of the Santo Domingo Pueblo. She was very busy with cash customers, but I gave her my card. She said she is not currently selling on the Internet, but will look into it. Her smile melted my heart. I purchased with some cash my husband had. He asked me what he had bought me, and I glowed as I showed it to him. Everyone was happy.

After a wonderful "zesty" enchilada luncheon, at La Casa Sena we got the opportunity to visit the studio of artist Christine Montano Carey Santera who specializes in the art of Early Spanish Colonial art, Retablos and tin art. She gave our group a demonstration hammering tin. We talked briefly, she busy for the next couple of weeks, but then we're going to talk about the possibility of her becoming a BOTB artist.

Needless to say, I wore my beautiful new necklace to dinner that night. Every night is a five course dinner of exceptional quality, served on gilt china with a full table service in a magnificently appointed dinning car featuring inlaid wood birds on the walls. I'll have to take a picture of the Pileated woodpeckers to show you. There is an amazing black and white photograph in one of the water closets that I think is a Winston Link. I'll have to verify that though. Which reminds me I've never written about that amazing train photographer. Look for that in the future.

The highlight of the day for me was visiting the Georgia O'Keeffe/Ansel Adams Museum. I've been a big fan of both for years. I think this was the first time in my personal history that I had seen an original O'Keeffe in person. I'll write more in depth about that at another date.--Ruth Mitchell

Prelude to the Train Trip

Okay, I'm sitting in the train at the Albuquerque depot. And the air card for my laptop I purchased just in time for the trip is working great. I am so tickled. While we may get into some remote areas where I can't get service, I'm going to try to share a blow by blow experience of this fabulous trip.

Starting with the journey of getting to our journey. The night before we left, we set the alarm for 3 a.m. Luckyman was pretty calm despite all the luggage scattered everywhere, but Chili Pepper, because I put his little harness on him for Delinda the dog sitter, was freaked. I think he thought the harness meant he was supposed to be on duty all night. And even rubbing his tummy didn't calm him down. Truthfully I was wired too, and the two of us didn't get much sleep. Mitch on the other hand, can sleep through a conversation he initiated, if he's tired.

For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, we are spending the next nine days on the very posh Grand Rail Luxe train. Our journey takes in the National Parks of the West beginning in Albuquerque and ending in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We will experience such fabulous destinations as Santa Fe, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Yellowstone, Bryce and Grand Teton National Parks.

So after a surprisingly smooth flight with connections in Dallas, we made our way to Albuquerque, were we were met with a warm greeting and a fabulous light lunch at the Hotel Albuquerque, in the heart of the historic downtown. After lunch we had about 30 minutes to walk around the Old Town and we killed two birds in one stone. We found a jewelry store filled with beautiful turquoise jewelry and Mitch got his watchband fixed, that he had broken earlier in the morning at the airport. There was a lot of "What time is it now?" q's, and I was thrilled when we found the store. Back at the Hotel, after a brief debriefing, we set out by motor coach to our train.

Okay guys, this is where I want you to get out your little violins for me and play a tune. Our vintage rail car, the Savannah, is a beautifully refurbished sleeper car that has been custom designed. Amenities include mahogany paneling and a decent sized shower. Things are compact, but efficient. We managed to find placed to stow all our gear that we had to pack for 2 weeks away from home. We'll be spending a couple of days in San Francisco after the train.

This morning we ate a Continental style breakfast in the New York Club car, a truly elegant period club car president Eisenhower once dedicated. Our porter brought us a copy of the New York Times and we perused the headlines while outside the light rail commuter system the New Mexico Rail Runner was having a media event, rewarding their one millionth rider a year's free travel. The fledgling commuter system had expected to have 1,000 riders a day, and within two years they are having 3,000 riders a day. They are so successful, they are extending the light rail system 82 miles, all the way to Santa Fe. (I think there is a song in there somewhere.)Four dollar a gallon gas is getting us all thinking about conserving our resources.

But we haven't moved an inch on the train yet. We spent the night in the depot, and this morning we will board another motor coach to travel to Santa Fe. We will be picked up in Lamy, New Mexico, where we will ride the train back to Albuquerque and once again spend the night stationary in the depot there.

Am I excited about going to Santa Fe this morning? Yes, I am. I can't wait to go into the galleries, meet fabulous artists, and of course share with them what we do at buyoutsidethe box.--Ruth Mitchell

Building Traffic to your site

Building Traffic to Your Site

When we set out on this adventure to build a quality retail website that would sell art and fine, handmade things, we were just naive enough to do that. Since 2003, when the project was started there have been nearly 20 million websites added to the world wide web. That statistic is enough to blow your mind, much less get you up in the morning. And yet we still persevere. We do so, not so much as to make a profit, albeit, it would be nice to be able to afford the light bill, but out of altruism. But when it comes to business, there really is no other purpose than to be a "for profit" establishment, otherwise we probably should apply for 501 (c) 3 status. Anyway, I digress.

What it boils down to when you are hawking wares on the Internet, whether your are Target, Wal-Mart or a very little guy like us, is traffic. If you build it they will come is a nice platitude for a movie, but really that saying doesn't have much to do with reality. Reality is, "if you have traffic to your site, they might buy."

Competing with Wal-mart and Target for Internet surfers with expendable income is a challenge, when you consider their advertising budgets and ours. Constantly fishing for strategies to get the word out about our site organically, I came across a little book by Dave Balter called "The Word of Mouth Manual II. " Balter is founder and CEO of Bzz-Agent, Inc. one of the worlds' first word of mouth media companies. I found this little gem on the Word of Mouth Marketing Association site. Balter asks the question would you like to be like the Grateful Dead who had an intensely loyal following, or would you like to be a "One Time Wonder" rock star like the guy that brought us "Rock Me Amadeus," released in 1985. (See you don't even know his name.)

Balter makes the point that the Grateful Dead did not experience instant overnight success, but aside from being musical geniuses, they were very open about their personal struggles, and their creative direction. They allowed the public into their lives. They shared creatively with other artists.

What brings this to mind, is when I review this site's statistics on Google Analytics, one article in particular continues to bring a great deal of traffic to our site. It is about my daughter's wedding over a year ago in San Francisco. It was one of the most beautiful, and very non traditional weddings I've ever been to, and I've been to quite a few.

It seems the search strings: (nontraditional, non traditional, and non-traditional) weddings is quite a popular search. What an oxymoron, marriage, steeped in tradition from time immemorial, is more interesting to the Internet public if it is labeled "non" traditional. So our experience seems to validate Balter's theories on building "Word of Mouth" strategies to bring traffic to our site.

People are so funny. Go figure. Anyway, we have what we think is a pretty distinctive site, with fabulous art by artists all over the world. Try visiting a few of our pages. You'll of course be building traffic. Traffic begets traffic in the world of Google logic. We thank you for your perusal and in return, perhaps we can return the favor by introducing you to your next favorite personal possession. It is our mission, and our desire to get people to embark into Creative Consumerism™.

While you're at it, take a look at this lovely giclee print by George Wittenberg.--Ruth Mitchell

Alcazaba of Alhambra, Granada, Spain - Giclee print

Get Human

I don't have to ask. I know you've experienced being on the telephone with some automated system, you punch, 10, then 5, then 16, then 2, then you accidentally punch the Spanish button, and you have to start all over again because you didn't do so well in the subject back when boys were on your brain.

Guess what, there is a solution. Next time you have to call one of those huge companies use gethuman.com. This message brought to you by the website that doesn't have an automated system.--Ruth Mitchell.

Lucky 7

Want to know what buyoutsidethebox.com viewers are looking at this week?

Our most popular pages this week:

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Welcome Sharon Lewis

Hand painted silks ...nothing makes you feel more luxurious. Now buyoutsidethebox.com offers beautiful hand painted silk pillows by artist Sharon Lewis, to brighten up any room.

"I am a self-taught silk painter and fiber artist," says Lewis. "I have been working with silk for around 8 years. My work has been sold at local galleries, art fairs, and online. I create silk scarves, sarongs, pillows, and wraps in brilliant colors. My color schemes and influences come from the natural world and I enjoy creating unique wearable silk art."

Firefox is Fast

I can't believe it took me so long to convert to Firefox. I love it. It is fast, efficient, streamlined and customizable. I recommend it to anyone using the Internet. Several people have said I should try it, but having to cope with adopting a new software is about as much fun as going to the dentist to me, which I hate, sorry dental profession.

For the past several years Mozilla's Firefox has steadily been growing its presence in the market. For instance in October 2004 Internet Explorer had 92 percent of the market; in September 2005 that dropped to 86 percent; and as of September 2006 Internet Explorer's market share dropped to 82 percent, with Firefox's rising to 12.5 percent. Our statistics show 13% of our customers are currently using Firefox.

By early 2008, Firefox had around 15% worldwide usage share of web browsers. Recent studies have shown an average of 28% market share in Europe with chilly Finland at 45% market share for Firefox.

For me it boils down to ease of use, and above all speed. It literally took me just a few minutes to convert including importing my bookmarks from IE. I can tell you from personal experience, Firefox is much, much faster, but one test in particular found Firefox to be 5.42 times faster than IE. To read more detail about the a comparative study click here.

Mozilla is bringing out Firefox 3 in just two days. There will also be a participatory Guiness Book of World record day on June 18. For downloading the latest version click on the logo.

Travel Adventures

Sometimes we get the opportunity to share with readers a bit more personal side of ourselves than we do when we are blogging about the latest art work to be added to the site, or the newest artist to join our ranks. Our summer adventures are about to begin. We will be heading out west to see some of the National Parks via Grand Luxe Rail, the most luxurious train in America. During the last week of June and the first week of July we'll begin a journey that will take us from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Santa Fe, on to the the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Bryce Canyon National Park, Salt Lake City, Yellowstone National Park, and finally to the Grand Teton National Park and Jackson, Wyoming. It is a trip of a lifetime, and we've already begun packing and arranging dog sitters.

Obviously we will be contacting as many artists as we can along the way. Undoubtedly Santa Fe will prove to have a wealth of artistic talent we can share with you. This trip will be documented daily so please join us in this adventure.

My younger brother it turns out has a blogging bent as well. He has already begun documenting his sailing trip to Lake Superior. We sailed with him a few summers ago to the North Channel in Canada and it was quite an experience. This summer's trip is a little bit more of high adventure it sounds like. If you have a sailor's interest check out his blog here.

Thinking About Dad?

Craig, Bill and I have been extremely busy working on new designs at Kentucky Cutting Boards. For the Derby this year, we crafted a “Limited Edition Horse and Jockey” cutting board – only 18 made – each one has nine pieces and took about twice the time most of our boards take to create. This is the second year we’ve created an exclusive design for the Derby.

For each new design, the longest process is from point “A” (me conceptualizing my design) to “B” (figuring out how to make it work with a router and wood). It takes Craig and I sometimes weeks to finalize a design that will work as an inlay. Then Bill and I study the wood we have available which is very dependent on whatever wood he has ordered to complete the flooring inlay design jobs that come in – it is very important to me to utilize the “scrap” woods for our inlays. This is why sometimes our Ladybugs have a shell made of African Padouk and sometimes Brazilian Cherry (both red shades). We always like to try new design ideas – our new Pineapple has been a big hit. Summer is usually a time to gather in excess inventory and get ourselves prepared for the upcoming holiday season.

Kentucky Cutting Boards are hand crafted from Appalachian Maple. The species of wood used for the Horse & Jockey inlay includes Purple Heart, African Wenge and American Walnut. This board is unusual in that although we used the same three different woods in all eighteen boards, we mixed up HOW we used the wood in the design. In other words, on one board the jockey’s pants might be Wenge, in another they are Walnut. So even within the eighteen, the individual boards vary.

The price for a Limited Edition 2008 Horse and Jockey board is $120. Out of the eighteen made I have three available to sell as of today. --Jennifer Adams

Editor's note: I have one of Jennifer's cutting boards and I use it several times a day. It is not only functional and beautiful, but very durable. I expect my grandchildren will enjoy using it after I am gone. If you'd like to purchase one of these "Special Edition Horse and Jockey" boards, email me today:rmitchell@buyoutsidethebox.com, or to purchase one of Jennifer's other beautiful boards click here.

Something Whimsical

I love this handthrown pottery piece, "Organic Cap Jar," and just wanted to share it with you. It's just in from artist Gina Skillings.