April '09 additions

additions to Etsy & 1000 Markets

Once upon a time i was 20...a short story of regret & karma

it's hard to believe that i was once 20...but's true. in an earlier entry i mentioned i was asked to remember an era & a young man. it got me wondering about the aftermath of that era. right at that time, i was presented with 2 young men, both with the same name, both young & handsome, both saying they cared for me...and without much thought i chose the man who was closer to my age, who seemed"perfect" on paper as well as in my eyes.

after making the choice, the war tore us apart...but in hindsight, if it weren't for the war, it would have been something else...i think karma was involved, god, if you will....i needed to learn a lesson...i needed to learn that you can't make someone love you if they don't.



this version of a bonnie raitt song is from melissa polinar & passion...i chose it because it is more intimate & she sort of looks like i did at 20 :)

Remembering...harder than you may think

I love this modern world we live in even though I’m not as high tech as I wish I was. A few days ago I was asked to remember someone in an email. “hi there”…had I gone to “so & so” high school and did I know “so & so” (let’s call him Tim)?

A slight shiver ran through my body…”of course I knew Tim…yes we went to “so & so” high school together”… then I paused and REALLY remembered Tim as my first high school boyfriend, who I treated very badly at the “end”.

I think we all think we were nice people in high school…BUT how can that be!!? We’re all self-absorbed, we thought the world revolved around our schedules, and we expected everyone to be able to read our minds & know exactly what we meant, NOT what we said or did !

The most memorable things I remember about Tim: he was the first boy I ever French kissed, in fact he taught me how to :D …he was handsome & well built …and our makeout sessions under the bleachers during our lunch breaks were well worth the hunger pains later. He’s the only man who has ever played with my ear and neck that made me feel the “earth move”

Though we never made love, I always wondered “what if we had…would our lives have been different?”….then I remember what I was like back then. It took me a long while to grow out of my awkward stage…I didn’t show promise until my junior year. But along with that “change”, came a very immature attitude about the “power” I now possessed…I would flirt and instead of being laughed at, I got flirts back…with this power, do I use it for good or evil?

I tried to be good, but instead I was blind to my growing lack of compassion to other people…Tim being one of them. Tim was a freshman & I was a senior and I knew that we were going to breakup when I went off to college…it didn’t even dawn on me what he could be feeling.

When years later I got his email…I just blurted-out , how bad I had felt over the years of how I treated him even when he offered the sweet innocent love he had. I told him of all the bad things that had happened to me when I left, thinking he might feel better knowing he had “dodged the bullet” with me. But instead he was gracious & kind and said we’ll have to meet some day, just to talk and catch up.

I don’t know if we will ever have that “catch-up talk”, but it reminded me of a conversation my husband & I had before we got married…we asked each other the same question…if we had met when we were younger, would we have married back then? The resounding answer from both of us was NO WAY IN HELL! …we both knew we were too selfish, we wanted to travel, do some “vital work”, meet a lot of people and party while our bodies could take the damage : )

So I guess i will always have to feel a little nostalgic about Tim, will always feel guilty for my cruelty, yet grateful for where we both landed.
p.s. Thank you Tim for all those good memories and play the song below that always reminds me of you.

Lately...have been asked to remember...

wearable art market @ 1000markets.com

Watchmen, a Dream, & Looney Tunes

It all started on Tuesday, March 10th…very innocently, sudden…what I would like to call a “golden moment”.

Both my husband & I had nothing in particular planned, so we made a date to see a matinee movie…”the watchmen”.

Though the movie was not going to win an oscar, I thought it very successful in staging a “graphic novel” of a by-gone era…cutting thru historic touchstones…combining a lustful crime-drama with pure sci-fi.

A memorable character for me was “silk spectra”…a raven hair beauty in the most remarkable spandex costume & “kick-ass” high-heel boots. At the end of the movie I was so energized & transported…I had become “silk spectra”…and as I started walking down the long ramp to the theatre doors, to my poor husband’s dismay, he says I started to RUN down the rampage in wild abandon.

There is no video (thank god!) …but in my defense, I have been feeling rather “rakish” ever since joining a particular market which shall remain nameless at 1000markets.com…you know who you are. The rest of the week I laid in bed with a pulled back muscle. In between the spasms of pain, I tried to think that it could have been worse…there might have been headlines in the town paper of a rather rotund asian woman mowing down 5 children on her way out of the movie theatre.

To continue my week of heartache…on March 15th, I found out I didn’t win the HGTV Dream House!!!!!

And as the week couldn’t get any better, I prepared for the ultimate humiliation…a colonoscopy (not sure how to spell it). The preparation was more painful than the procedure itself because they put you asleep BUT I had the pleasure of waking for just a few seconds when I saw my doctor…(a young, handsome, diminutive man) trying to move me about on the table to get the scope thru a difficult turn…as I was put back into “la-la-land”, all I could do was dream a “looney tune” type dream where the operation room instruments & nurses start to sing a silly song as the diminutive doctor in an oversized lab coat is using fantastical conveyor belt system to move my body in all sorts of twists and turns while he is taking polaroids of my “woohoo”.

"tha-tha-that's all folks !"

New selections from Streetnoodles: March '09

OMG DEB...i'm a belated Eva Cassidy fan

A Tribute to "Silk Road Jewelry"

"nepalese nilo fur chank"...handmade in kathmandu, nepal by nilofur (a female tibetian artisan)

"asia meets africa #14...moroccan Tuareg silver pendant

When browsing the many great shops at the new "peace & Love" market, http://www.1000markets.com/groups/peacelove ...i found "silk road jewelry"...WOW...OMG!! was my initial impression...i think i started to salivate. http://www.1000markets.com/users/silkroadjewelry

about a year ago i bought this rather expensive "coffee table art book " called the "world of necklaces"..it showed museum jewelry pieces depicting the craftsmanship from africa, asia, europe, far east & the islands...the jewelry from this shop are so similar, the components of the jewelry probably made by ancestors of the artisans whose work is shown in my book...it's amazing.

Silk Road Jewelry gathers hand-crafted pendants from Tibet, Nepal, Morocco, Afghanistan and other Asian and African countries to incorporate in unique one-of-a-kind necklaces. Purchases support Tibetan refugees living in Nepal as well as women and families struggling to make a better life throughout Africa, the Middle East, and southeastern Asia.
Be sure to visit http://peacelovefanclub.com

Tia Bailey..."1000 Beautiful Things"

tia is a very talented artisan at the new venue "1000 markets". her specialty is photography BUT her collages & small trinkets will also leave you wanting more.

i was privileged to receive one of her collages...there is so much more passion & detail that a picture could not capture from her canvas.

visit tia as well as the other talented artisans of "1000 markets".

In Celebration of "peace & Love at "1000 Markets"

animoto video

Another page from my Inspiration Book...Terhi Tolvanen

terhi tolvanen is a finnish designer...i'm not sure if the artist is male or female...but by her work i'm guessing she is female...i base this purely on intuition & the choices she makes in materials...common and at times kitschy items used in elegant interpretations of jewelry design.

as you can see with her nail polish bottom rings, there is a wit & whimsey about her work.

then you see these "deconstructed turquoise" stones made into exquisite earrings...

or real wood branch part with amethyst pieces purposely bolted down into place :)

please visit her site... i know you will enjoy yourself.

"tuscan sun" revisited...

with the impending 2nd eye procedure, i thought it best to get a few more entries in my "insect series" at etsy...


beetles & lady bugs in particular are good omens in many cultures, but to tell you the truth i was inspired by a movie i saw on cable...i think it was called "under the tuscan sun"...it made the point that relationships of any kind take time & patience & when you find a peace from within & stop searching...a funny thing happens, what you sought comes to you in abundance.

may we all have lady bugs in our lives :)

BOY DID IT HURT!

the laser procedure on my eye was so painful...it felt like a person poking your eye, leaving their finger there & telling me to look to the right...look to the left...look down...look up...and each time hearing an electrical sound like one of those electric insect zapper-lights....ughhhhh!

the good news is that i can still see....but it's taking me a few days for the blurriness to fade.
the bad news...is that i have to go back in 2 weeks to continue the treatment...apparently the damage was so big that they have to try to correct it in stages.

but thank god...my vision is still with me...i'll try to put in a few up-beat entries before i have to go back for treatment in 2 weeks.

i'm a little scared...correction, A LOT SCARED

yesterday, i went to a new eye doctor...i thought it was only going to be an introduction and a quick review of my glaucoma (pressure in my eyes) , but apparently it is more serious than that.

in 1976, i was diagnosised with diabetes & a resulting glaucoma being a direct link to it. for years i knew my sight was at risk, but that it would be a long slow process in the lose. the doctor who i was seeing (for years) always checked my eye pressure. it was high but tolerable and he never indicated anything serious, until he passed me off to his colleague who is a specialist & than immediately stated i had severe damage and some laser surgery is necessary to control the bleeding.

tomorrow i'll be going in... if all goes well, my vision in the left eye will improve, if not...well i'll still have my right eye...thank god they come in twos...the scary part is that she says the right eye is also showing signs of damage & i'll have to have laser procedure on it as well in the future.

as my defensive mechanism steps in ...denial of anything bad happening is in high gear... BUT BOY AM I SCARED.

"strange dolls"...an amazing art doll website

i've had this website under my "favorites" for years...i keep on going back to check what other images she comes up with...they are all "dark & moody"...a little "goth" or other worldly, BUT i'm always fascinated by them.
you know how you look at things and for some reason something just clicks. you're not influence by trends or styles & what's "cool" this week...i think it "clicks" when you finally meet up with a visual artist who knows how to tell a story...doesn't matter the genre, but just tells a good story.
this artist is an excellent storyteller !!!

my favorite website for "jewelry inspiration"

velvet da vinci gallery is named after an old "perry mason" tv episode. located in the business district of 'russian hill', san francisco.
it opened in 1991. it's a gallery of contemporary art jewelry & metalworks. it represents artists from US, Europe, Latin America & Japan.
it's always so inspiring to see different views of art jewelry...checkout their website & enjoy their archives of all their past & present shows.

i had a death dream last night...

it seemed to be a pleasant dream...a high school reunion...people milling about that looked familiar but yet i just couldn't place them...than out of the blue i saw him, frank corona. he was of european spanish decent, handsome & likeable features, always with a smile. i rushed to him, amazed that he still looked so young. i tried to find my husband to introduce him, but he wasn't there. frank then introduced me to his grown son who i swear looked older than him.

i remember when frank and i were in high school he had befriended my brother who was in the varsity "B" team (that's for the boys too short & slight for the "VARSITY 'A' TEAM") with him. frank would drop in unannounced sometimes...and me being the shy akward child would run into my bedroom & hide from him. later in our junior year i started to breakout of my shell once i talked my mom into contacts and my chubby body started to charge into a more "girly" one.

i guess because frank had been a regular visitor to our house & now hung around both me & my brother, he figured it would be okay to walk me home from a football game...we stopped for a soda at the "foster's freeze" and then walked slowly (in the dark) back home...his hand at the small of my back...first time i ever got flip-flops in my tummy and my knees buckled...we didn't kiss, but he held my hand.

when i got home, my mom questioned me where i had been...it was still early and i wondered why she seemed upset. later on frank told me that my mom had come over to his house & talked to his parents and said it was best for frank not to see me anymore except at school, as friends.

my brother asked me what i did...because mom was pissed and told him not to invite frank over again. omg!...talk about not knowing what to think...but on that day i found out how much of a racist my parents were...i was so ashamed.

frank & i did as our parents wished and stayed away from each other...but it must have seemed strange to him as it did for me, but i would sneak around on dates with non-japanese boys all the time after that perfect evening with him...indirect rebellion i guess. in our senior year,

i was dating secretly a fresnman boy who i knew i would gladly leave behind for college...frank was in a serious steady relationship with a beautiful mexican girl that his parents liked very much. by a funny coincidence, we had both stopped in at the "foster's freeze" for a snack...and danced about the subject of "what if.." we continued to see each other after that football game long ago? ....at the end of this dance we realized our different paths were okay...but as he left to see his girlfriend, and turned back to wave good-bye...i answered the question posed under my breathe...i would be that loving yet scared girlfriend, pregnant with his child, knowing he would be gone in less than 72 hrs. to a war, he felt honor-bound to fight in.

(back to my dream)...frank & i made some small talk...his older-looking son seemed distracted & didn't turn to face me much & i never did see my husband nearby which seemed odd at a reunion....when i woke up, i was super groggy and remembered the dream... i remembered that frank died in 1969 in one of the first conflicts when nixon oked the expansion of the war into cambodia. i believe he was in charge of the machine gun in a helicoper that was shot down.

his beautiful girlfriend, crying, holding her newborn in church... i never found out if it was a "boy" or "girl"...i never made it to the funeral...never been able to forget frank and only accepted his death when i saw his name on the "wall"....30 years later.

OMG! another Etsy Favorite

barbara has a lovely shop at etsy called, "a luscious thing"... and it is just that and more. you can immediately see her love of vintage components & antique beads combined with her fondness for all things botanical. her creations caught me as what a "lady" of the turn of the century might entertain herself doing...and combining that with the modern edge of of her love to deconstruct & reconstruct using her well developed skills in drilling, riveting, wraping, buffing & patina-ing.
please checkout her shop at etsy... "a luscious thing".