Earrings that I’m making.

I’ve got a new jones.   Making earrings.

I have struggled with necklaces...and hassled

with bracelets.   But making earrings?  

Easy.  Fast.  Quick gratification.

I made these modern day Mourning Jewelry ones

the day Amy Winehouse died.  A tribute to her.

I used jet Victorian buttons on these.

Old Amethyst beads, vintage rhinestone spacers,

old Art Deco connectors.

Citron colored crystal beads saved from a decayed

Art Deco necklace found in a shop in England.

These blue beads are Czech Picasso Saturn's.

Love, luv, love these.

These purple ones were harvested off of a 1920s Art Deco

necklace that I found in a dusty old box at the  Newark Antique Market

In Northern England.

I have never worn swinging, dangling earrings.

I always went the modest route with studs and silver hoops. But these feel so cool to wear and

  they feel great swinging under my hair.  I’m hooked on them now.   

I am not a bragger...  or a very good self promoter.  People

often say to me.."Gee, I never knew you could do that!"

I dislike blowing my own horn.  In la, la, la “L.A.Land"

everybody is always bragging about something that they do.

Heck I’m from the Midwest...we don’t do that kind of stuff.

So I quietly made these earrings at my kitchen table.

They are for sale in my etsy  shop.

Southern California in the winter.

Southern California in the winter..

some random pictures...

on a beautiful sunny clear day.

When it rains down here...

It snows up there.

If the air quality is good this is what we

get to see.  A day trip to some antique stores

near Riverside and these are the views we got

78 degrees...hot and sunny.

This is why we put up with traffic, crowds and crime.

You can’t beat this weather and that is a fact...

and that is why a zillion people have flocked to live

here.  

This is my kind of winter.  Hope you are enjoying yours.

Tonight...a annual post thanksgiving dinner at an old friends house.

They have been doing it for 21 years.

rock on Murph and Paul.

Happy Thanksgiving

A very fine stained glass window at The American Club, Kohler, Wisconsin.

Gratitude is what keeps us going in the midst of

pain and sorrow.  It’s what makes us realize how good

we have it.   Without giving thanks for what we have

we are nothing but takers.  And when you are nothing

but a taker you are nothing.

Today and everyday I give thanks for my warm, cozy home.

My husband.  My pets.  My friends.  My neighbors.

My creativity.  My music.  My health.  Yoga.  My business.

My self.  

Gratitude is part of my daily life.  Not just today but everyday.

I give thanks to all you for your kindness, warmth and friendship.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Building a Website...and a hair slide

My man is building a website with his

best friend in England.  He is learning

as he is going along.  New stuff...

new frustrations...


HOWEVER...

I can’t get on the computer!

He is learning Photoshop (I can hear the cussing

all over the house) and it’s causing him alot of grief.
But some of the stuff he is learning...wow.
And the site is looking awesome.  Good times.
The atmosphere is crackling with anticipation and
excitement on his new venture.  This is something
he has been talking about for along time.  He didn’t
know how or who or what.   But his equally
genius friend came to his aid...

but i still can’t get on the computer!

 To appease me he found time to make me a present.

Guess I’ll have to let him slide...

Remembrance Day

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day

of the eleventh month

we stop to remember the fallen.

Remember all the brave men and women both past and present

who have fought and died for our freedom.

A Lalique Femme de Mer fountain now graces my bedroom window.

This  beautiful cast glass masque was just floating

around in our back garden.  I asked English husband,

“could you make me a water feature outside our rather

dark and dreary second bedroom window?"

and of course before I knew it, he was

busily at work doing just that.

and a miracle occured.

Lovliness...tranquilty...gently trinkling water.

The sound is all throughout the house.

Now I sit and meditate and stare at her pretty face.

The tv doesn’t even go on.  

Talk about a transformation.

The Feng Shui has changed.

The bad mojo banished.

The yin and the yang are in harmony.

The whole room  is now a retreat of serenity.

Sometimes it’s a gentle breeze...

I have been feeling my mama...

sometimes standing right next to me.

I was in the garage and I smelled her perfume...

I snapped my head around but she wasn’t there.

I was hoping she was.

Standing there...  All young and pretty

and healthy and happy...and living

a life different than the one she had.

one door shuts and another one opens

or so they say.

I know that she’s in a better place.

and her tears are dried gently with

a loving hand 

as i wish mine were right now.

There is nothing in the world that prepares you

for losing your  mama.  Even when you know

it’s the right thing and the natural thing...

and something we all must go through.

I’m waiting for things  to get better...I can’t seem

to make it through a day without crying...and I’m

grouchy and short tempered...and I miss her so.

And I don’t know what normal is anymore...

when a gentle breeze blows I feel her and I

feel her soft mama hand stroke my cheek and

dry my tears and make it all better.

And I long for childhood days of carefree flight and fancy free

happiness.  And running swiftly across the sand of Lake Michigan

chasing gulls and laughing and yelling at the top of my lungs

while breathing that briny air and then hearing mama calling us in to a supper

of her extraordinary fried chicken and hearing dad’s change jingle  in his

pockets while coming up the drive after a long day at the plant.  

We grow up when our parents die and the childhood days

are a faded memory that will never return and I can’t go back

and I really wish I could.

she was there with me from my first heartbeat

miss you mom.your baby.

The Crazy LA River

We had one heck of a storm the other day.

It rained buckets in the early morning...

so unusual for us at this time of the year.

 I live about 5 blocks from the L.A. River,

which is kind of a river but basically they

have turned it into a big concrete ditch.

Normally it flows very gently,

but when it rains a lot it gets pretty crazy.

We get every cigarette butt, Styrofoam cup,

and baby diaper that all the not so nice

people throw away in not so polite places

floating down this river which leads into

the Pacific Ocean.  

No wonder they have that giant mess in the

ocean near Japan.  

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

yikes.

Two times the size of Texas.

90% plastic.

In some areas over 90 feet deep!

scary.

You can see from this picture that the water doesn’t

have too far to go before it reaches the top. 

This is from only an hour or so of rain.

Thank you all for your kind messages, emails, phone calls,

cards, flowers and presents after my mom’s passing.

I am coming around.   It’s easier because I know my

mom needed to go...she was suffering and now she is finally

at rest.

Your friendship and caring has meant so much to me.  xxc