A Little Desert Humor. . .

I was born in Arizona. My family moved to far west Texas, on the Mexican border when I was eight years old. I went to college southern New Mexico. I never lived (and rarely visited) outside the desert until I was twenty years old, when John and I got married and moved to Kentucky for medical school. Then we went back to Arizona for his medical residency, and stayed for another 8 years.

I was blog reading one day, and over at Bella Dia ( http://www.belladia.typepad.com ,) Cassi had picked up the most incredible piece of vintage fabric at a thrift store. It was screen printed with cholla cactus and roadrunners and signed "Harwood Steiger," and I was overcome with covetousness. Of course the best place to take care of cravings for unusual vintage goodies is eBay, so I headed right over there. Harwood Steiger ran a studio in Tubac, Arizona for a number of years, and has some really beautiful work, with clean, bold graphics--mostly desert themed, but with an occasional floral or geometric thrown in. I've picked up several pieces, though so far not the Holy Grail of my Harwood-Steiger-eBaying: enough cholla and roadrunner fabric to make curtains for my kitchen. A lot of the pieces that turn up on eBay were apparently bought as souveniers of Arizona by winter visitors who took them home, because I've gotten pieces from as far away as Canada. They get listed on eBay by people who just don't understand them. Here are a couple of pieces that made me giggle when I saw the listings on eBay. Behold. . .PINEAPPLES:

And (hee, hee) A PEACOCK: