THE BIGGEST BLIZZARD IN THE LAST 20 YEARS...con't...

  It was time to go.  We had decided to make an early start of it, so at 7 am, the doorbell rang and the boy was with his father waiting out in the car.       I hugged daddy hard.  He was crying.  I had never in my life seen him cry.   And here he was.  A man who had raised three children.  A man who was a bomber in World War II and completed 22 successful missons over war torn Europe in a B17 Flying Fortress.  A man who was never sick a day in his life and worked hard at his job without ever complaining, and I saw him standing there in tears begging me not to go.

    My mother was still locked away in her room.  I had not seen her in three days.   She stopped talking to me.      She refused to listen to me.   She locked herself away and I never did have a chance to kiss her, hug her, tell her I loved her , say goodbye to her and  try to make her understand that this is what I must do... what  I had to do.        She knew oh so well how I had suffered.  How lonely I was.     I was suffocating.   There was no hope for me here, no future for me here and no chance for me here.  I never fit in.  And I never would.   Now  I was in survival mode and there  was no turning back for me.  I had to get out...       I had to be free.

    I got in the boys father's car.  He drove us to the brand new interstate that now cut through the frozen farm fields and by passed the little towns that once had thriving motor court motels and where now only ghostly shadows remained.   He dropped us off  on the on  ramp at the outskirts of town.  The snow was swirling, whirling, spinning and stinging.  The boy held me close and wrapped his green woolen  Army coat around me.    I had on the old thrift store fur that I had worn that whole winter but nothing could keep me from shivering and crying and dying inside as I thought of my parents and what I was doing to them.  Then the cars started to go by..first one.. then another...speeding by...not looking...not paying any attention to the kids along side the road.  And then one stopped.......we ran...we got in...The boy in the front seat, I in the back.  A older man was driving.  Probably in his thirties.  A business man on his way to Chicago.  He could give us a ride all the way to Chicago he said.   Two hundred miles.  Two thousand two hundred and fifty more miles to go.

INSANE WISTARIA

 We took a little Sunday trip to the quaint little foothill village of Sierra Madre to go to the annual Wistaria
Festival.  Once a year this beautiful town celebrates a Wistaria bush that is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the worlds largest known flowering plant.  It is now 116 years old, weighs 250 tons (how the heck did they weigh it )? and has branches that extend to over 500 feet.   Pictures alone cannot show the scope of this ginormous plant.  This was planted from a single plant.   I have tried, but if you are ever in Southern California on March fourteeth, go to see this wonder of nature.    Also the village closes off the main streets where there are some great vendors, several bands, and the usual food, freaks colorful people, and firetrucks that go with events like this.  
                                                                
                                          THE DRIVE TO SIERRA MADRE.

  

KEEP IN MIND, THIS IS ONE BUSH.

 A view from the top

The view from the bottom

 The vine covers two properties on over one acre
                                                              

  This is for you Gina.  Gina is a new blog friend that is from Sierra Madre and is now an expat 

that is living in PARIS..Her blog is well written with beautiful photos of daily life there.  You end up being kinda jealous but she seems such a lovely  person that it doesn't last for long.  She gets a little homesick for her family back here in Sierra Madre so I thought  I'd visit it for her and pass it along to who ever reads this.     As you can see, I sort of got the pictures and captions together, but no kidding it took me forever and I got the sweats doing it.  There has got to be an easier way!!

                                                        

                                                                    

                                                          MY WISTARIA..

 Just beginning to bud....

 

 AND NOW...THIS!!!

Six years of training and pruning..

For one week of pure floral heaven..

AND NOW THAT I KNOW HOW TO DO THIS!!!

I JUST DON'T WANT TO STOP.......

                                

BEAUTIFUL BLOGGER AWARD

Debrashewhoseeks was so kind  to award me the BBAward..I want to thank her for this..What a kind gesture..I have only been blogging since Feb.13 and to receive an award is amazing to me.  I am to list 7 things about me:  #l   I don't know how to use that list thingy up there  #2 I just learned how to do Links!  #3 I am suppose to give this award to 15 bloggers but I don't really know 15 well enough so I'm only  going to do eight.  #4 I sometimes don't obey all the rules  #5 I can be naughty at times  #6 I love to eat, drink and be merry #7 I really, really love doing this blog....
  OK...and now for the people I have selected who I think are awesome:
#1  JoAnnathefiftyfactor
#2 Janetjustmeandmyart
#3 maurakeithlilaclanecottage
#4 Pennypkstudios
#5 PJ seensfromthebackofmyeyelids
#6 Jeanetteevertonterrace
#7firebyrd
#8 talesofInglewood
  The Rules of the Award:  #1thank the person who gave you the award (that's me!)
#2 share 7 things about yourself..
#3 pass the award along to 15 others.
#4 Contact the bloggers you picked and let them know about the award...
                I HOPE I GOT THE LINKS RIGHT. THANK YOU ALL..YOU ARE AWESOME!!
  Cynthia       P.S.  well it looks like I didn't get the links right after all..I don't want to go back in there

 and lose the whole thing, so you'll just have to take the long way to get to see these wonderful blogs..So Sorry everyone..someday I will laugh at my inabilities on the computer..Right now however not so funny.

'

KINDA LIKE DALLAS....

   When I sat down yesterday, I had no idea of what I was going to write.  "My Story" just flew out of my fingertips.  I didn't know the momentum it would release...  That being said, an antique dealers work week is on the weekends, with Friday being the big Estate Sale/garage sale days...So I'm leaving you with a cliff hanger.       I'm off to make a living...treasures await!!

THE BIGGEST BLIZZARD IN THE LAST 20 YEARS...

      Chapter one:          

     March 11 will always be a memorable day for me.   It was on that day in 1971 that I ran away from home.
    All through high school, I was a lonely girl.  I was chubby, acne faced,painfully shy and never had a date. I went to the prom with my big brother.  I didn't have a future.  College was not an option as I hated school and didn't want any more of it.  Living in Wisconsin in the 60's, a girl's choice (at least for me) were slim.  Marriage or factory work...  Then I met a boy...He actually liked me...He saw something in me no one else had.   He was a nice boy, a decent boy from a nice loving family. He had been in the Army, didn't go to Vietnam but was stationed in the States..He had just been released.  He was a hippie.  I fell head over heels for this boy.  He had lots of friends.  Because of him I was finally in a group and they were the cool people that I had always seen in the teen bars, wearing plaid shirts, jeans, hiking boots, long hair, nodding to the music by the front of the stage, going into the parking lot during breaks..I finally belonged.  I was in love.  It was wonderful.
      Then one day he told me that he was going to see his brother in  California.  Did I want to go along?Well without thinking or planning or wondering what would happen once I got there, or where we were going to live and what we would we live on, I said yes.  I told my parents.. they were not happy.. I said I was going... " how do I plan on getting to California"  my father asked?  Why, we're hitchhiking!! I replied..

  And so, many years ago, in a time that now seems so innocent..I left home.  I was 19 years old.  In the biggest snowstorm in years, with my mother locked in her room and my own father in tears, I walked out that front door with one suitcase and a guitar.  With no plan.  Terrified but excited. And on a snowy interstate with the boy I loved, I began a new life.  On my way to Venice, California.....A place I never heard of and knew nothing about.

MARTHA MY DEAR....

   Yesterday, I went into Santa Monica to do my weekly run to spend a day in my mall space to tidy up and add new stock...A big piece had sold so I had my work cut out for me, so I decided just to do an overhaul and change the look... One of the sales people in the store came to see me and asked me if I had any hooks...I always stock them because I love them and they sell well...So I gave him a basket of them to show a customer.  I was dusting the cobwebs out of the corners on my hands and knees when I looked up as he was coming back with them and low and behold I see that the customer was Martha Stewart...Well... whether  you like her or not, when you see her standing there in yourlittleshopIt is quite
a shock to the system...after all she is the one who almost single handedly started this whole collecting thing and walls of pottery and mossy green and the whole thing... When she showed McCoy Pottery in her magazine I couldn't keep it  in stock...she was that influential...And now she was standing in my stall...
  I didn't say anything just bowed and curtsied...    She seemed gracious and not stand offish..
  You know, I use to think she was a snobby control freak..Now, I see her differently...Maybe her little
"time inside" has given her some street cred...I admire her now..She went through hell and came out on the otherside..looking rather hot I might add...Didn't see any tats though.......

PS...To answer some questions:  she bought those hooks from me..She was in my space for about 6 seconds....From other spaces she got blue and white plates...thats all I was able to see without being too dang obvious.  She looked great. No lines. No wrinkles. Tight black jeans. Little black flats. Black long sweater. No I can't take photos of "the celebs".  We get lots of them in the store and its a big no, no, for us to take pics of them.  Hooks were metal ones like in a grade school locker rooms.. I buy lots of them when on buying trips to Wisconsin.

THE APPLE OF MY EYE IS MY APPLE...

It all began January 12, 2010.  That is the day the Fios man came to our house and hooked up our brand new computer to the internet..Until that time, we dug in our heels and refused to have anything to do with computers..We are old fashioned..I don't like modern houses, clothes, shoes..I like old stuff... period...My husband is an artist who makes his own chain,boxes..he'd make his own paint if he could get the ancient toxic stuff it takes to do that..we both thought getting a computer would be selling out..
    I also was green before green was cool..I never owned a car, used a bicycle to get around(in LA!! unheard of !!) people laughed at me..I was always being ridiculed.. We wanted to read real books, look things up in a dictionary..we still had a set of encyceopedias (thank you Jimminy Cricket!)..
   The big turning point was when we received a notice from the state of California that our tax form would no longer come in paper form..we had to fill in out"online"!!!  Horror set in...I told English Husband, you know pretty soon everything will be online..we won't know how to  do anything, maybe its time..
       It was the end of the year..We could use the deduction..We went to the computer shop..We told the kid we needed a computer..He talked real fast..we didn't know what he was saying..When we told him we
never had a computer he stopped talking..He was speechless..dumbfounded..mute..I don't think he ever ran
across people like us..We were from another planet.  How could it be that we never had a computer?  It was as if we had never seen a car or used a telephone..Freaks!!  After he got ahold of himself, he started to show us various models.  They all seemed nice enough.  How do you buy something when you don't know what it is that you are looking for?  How many rams do you want? What's a ram??  I'm  telling you we didn't know squat.. Husband said" My gallery owner uses an Apple computer..what about one of those"..His eyes lit up..glazed over..come this way he said..We entered into a seperate portal in the store..There they were...sleek, sexy,  simple yet complex..downright beautiful looking...I knew it was the one..Garage Band...photobooth...itunes..magic mouse..no wires...gorgeous.." we want one of those" we cried...And so it happened..we bought it home..

                                                     

  And now..Things are different...my world is larger..colorful..more expressive...A world has opened up that I didn't even know exsisted...stay tuned...

INTERNATIONAL WOMANS DAY !!!!

To honor this woman in particular, one of my best new blogging buddies, Debra She Who Seeks, asked me to use my song for her blog..I had only been blogging about a week, and I just couldn't believe that someone would want to do this...Cool beyond measure..
  I wrote this song about a year ago..I woke up at around 4AM with the first line and the melody very clear in my head..I got up to write it down and the whole thing just flowed out effortlessly..I wish they were all that easy to write..  I am now going to attempt to do my first link!?!  If this doesn't work just go on over to SHEWHOSEEKS the long way... You Can't Keep A Good Girl Down