THE BIGGEST BLIZZARD IN THE LAST 20 YEARS...part three

    I pulled off my mittens, crusty and frozen solid from all my tears.  I settled in tentatively.  I thought of all of the years of the nuns telling us not to get in a car with strangers.  Of my parents repeating this to make sure it hit home.  And here I was.  In a car with a man I knew nothing about who was driving us supposivley to Chicago, The Big City, a city I have been only a few times.  There was nothing to do but try and relax and enjoy the warmth that now enveloped me. My decision had already been made and now this was the consequence.  Jim and the man talked easily.   About the weather, serving in the army, the state of the country.   Their chattering helped me to settle in as the fear I had subsided.   This was it...I was on my way to California and there was really no turning back now.   I shut my eyes and thought of my parents...of the state I left them in..no, no..I couldn't think of them now.  I had to block that from my mind and not allow myself to think of that...I was leaving a home of much sorrow and sadness...a home that didn't always nurture a young girl.   A home that had its share of fighting and anger and grief and pain..A home that more times than not had left me with a burning, empty, hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach as I tried to shove down what was going on in it...     The truth was I couldn't handle it anymore.      I had done my best.  But now I finally realized that the problems in my  home were not my problems but my parents problem...I couldn't save them anymore..I couldn't be the little clown that made them laugh and distracted them from the truth of what was going on in that home.  I could have spent the rest of my life trying to save them, but now it was my turn to try and save myself, whatever part of myself that was left worth saving..because truth be told I didn't have a single, solitary idea of who I was, what I was worth or if I was even worth saving.  Because all I ever learned was how to pretend..how to lie...how to cheat...and how to act as if everything was ok when it was not.   You see, this wasn't leaving home.  It was an escape.

A LITTLE BIT OF SHADE....

   

This is the silk floss tree that grows in our front garden..

We said that we

 needed some shade...

It started its life in a wee plastic pot....

and now we've created a monster!!

     

  .

 what were we thinking?

you might be saying...

I thought that this looked like a little bird... 

                                                                            

emerging from its glossy green bark...

 But in spite of its gargantuan proportions,

and those ginormous thorns....

it has a poetic beauty...

 a seasonal splendor that contiually changes.

and does indeed provide us with shade...

And also a heck of alot of comments..

MY INSPIRATION...

      The best way for me to start working on new jewelry is to buy new stuff.  There is nothing like a new chain, and new batch of bead caps or a new strand of crystal beads to get my creative juices flowing..

 My work bench never gets cleaned.

It always ends up looking like this....

I like the idea of a treasure hunt.

  But thats how I roll... I like having everything there in front of me...it inspires and motivates me... I need to  look at and play with all of the bits and bobs... There is no way to be neat about this....

                                                             I have tried...

                                                             And I have failed....

My Poor kitchen table...Once a place to socialize..

I need to see everything in order to create something.....I 

love the bits and pieces around me..

                                             Out of the chaos comes some kind of order...

                                                                          A love token...
  

  My husband is an extremly talented metal artist...He makes me things...He presents them to me...I don't
ask for them..  He does them for me because he loves me...He encourages me..  He believes in me.
 He puts up with me... He inspires me.. 

SOME THINGS FOR MY SHOP...SUNDAYS TREASURES

A  Vintage French wall sconce for a single candle... Bought in Lille, France on my birthday..

A metal picture frame for a photo of your sweetie.   

     

A French rusty, painted metal frame shown without glass...

Bought in Lille, France l999..

 A French Holy Water Font with scene of Lourdes.

French childrens tiny little fingers dipped in this in their bedroom at night. 

                                                
  

A sterling flower pin signed Birgminham, England.

A love token to a special sweetheart? 

Sterling Silver pin signed A& Z...a morning glory?  lovely intricate detail.....

A group of religious medals...I have had a weak spot for these since I was a Catholic schoolgirl..and that has not changed...

         I have used this opportunity to show some of the items I have bought and use it as a chance for me to practice my "layout skills?"    These skills, I am afraid, are a crapshot at best with no  rhyme nor reason where the words will go or where the pictures end up..  I am sure there is a method to all of this!!

    These pieces will be going into my space at Wertz Brothers Antique Mall in Santa Monica within the next few weeks.   I have been going through boxes in my workroom and am starting to sell items that I have had stashed since 1997 when I took my first buying trip to Europe...

   I guess the time has come.....Things come and they go.. Somethings I can't bear to part with, so I keep them for awhile, boxed up and taken out on occasion to admire them...Often times, I keep things in my home or wear things for awhile and then I move them on.  Most of the things I buy have stories to go along with them. I remember the day, the dealer, the excitement of finding it and the knowing that someone will love it.
    I feel the urge for another buying trip and so now is the time to sell some of my treasures in order to buy more.. I love what I do and I do what I love .. how blessed I feel to be able to do that.. Have a wonderful first Spring Sunday...

JUST WHAT I NEEDED

  The day was going well.  I had been to my mall space in Santa Monica to tidy and replenish my stock.  Things were not in too bad of a disaray, so my work was light.   I had hours to spare before I picked up my husband at his studio, and feeling a bit peckish, I thought I get some lunch at a nearby Mexican Restaurant.
  I was just finishing my food when someone came into the restaurant saying "does anyone own a black Volvo station wagon?".  I turned to him and said "yes, I do."  He said "well someone just hit your car and drove off!"  Following him out to the carpark I looked at the state of my car and oh boy yes indeed someone certainly had hit my car..  The entire passenger side had a long hideous white scrape and gouge in it..

               oh no.... 

 NOT A PRETTY SITE.....

                                

     Three men were standing near it, one of which was the one that came into the restaurant.  They had seen it happen.  A man that had gotten a to -go order came hastily out and backed out of his space, knew that he hit me and then pulled out quickly and made a hasty retreat out of the place.  They had gotten three of the numbers on the license plate and the make of the car.   Then out of nowhere a woman came up to me, talking on the phone, saying she was speaking to the police and that she had gotten the entire license plate number, type of car, and description of the guy!!  She then gave me her phone number and so did the men that saw it happen.


This whole thing was made a lot better for me because of the kindness of strangers and the willingness to participate in the apprehension of this man.  So much was handled for me by the time I got to the scene that I didn't have to do anything.  Because someone got a license plate number,  when the police arrived, he was able to look up this  plate number and find the man that did it.

    When something like this happens, it eases the pain when you know that the person who did it did not get away with it.    
   So...take the time if you can to help someone in need.  Strangers that are going through someting like this need a helping hand.  Thank you "JD" and the two men who helped me..

.

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.

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