My gypsy jewelry and the magic in us

Necklaces and pendants, bracelets, anklets, rings, earrings and birthstone jewelry...  

I love them all!

I call this amalgamation of trinkets and charms my “gypsy jewelry”, simply because they’re cheap and because they possess no other value than the value my own body and personality bequeath them every time I wear them.

If they jingle the way they jingle, or if they move or dance or change color this way or that other way, it is totally because of me, and the magic that flows from me, and not because of the jewel in itself; it is because of how I embody my femininity or how I move and take and conduct my life… so they’re like a magical bunch only I could give it life… and so is with you, and you and everyone of us.  Nobody is like us, everyone is unique and we all posses our own king of magic...

Each individual is unique because there is nobody else like him. Comparison would have been right if we all were alike; but we’re not.  Even twins are not absolutely alike; it is impossible to find another soul who is exactly like you.  Thus, no jewel no pair of shoes no dress or skirt or hair style are always going to look the same on everyone; not even the food we make taste the same, even when everything is the same.  Isn’t that such an amazing thought!

Do you like shiny, sparkly, glittery things?   I do! I love all sorts of girly blings and sparkly things...  but jewelry isn't just good for dressing up an outfit, you know... it can also serve for dressing up a bedroom, or a bathroom, like I do around my house!

I like to display my gypsy jewelry in unusual and unconventional creative ways. Like stacked on a broken old lamp found in a dumpster!

Or placed together on a vintage plate, or hanging from a tarnished teapot or an old vintage cup...

Add some lace and silk roses to your vignette and in an instant you'd had created a lovely spot that will bring much happiness to your heart.  Little things, small things, unimportant and inexpensive things are always the best to me!

Be happy, be cheerful, be you!  Nobody is exactly like you, so go out into the world and bewitch them all with your uniqueness and own special magic!

Hasta pronto!

Winter at this old house in the roses

Is anyone here? Anyone at all? Lately, it seems to me, as if I’m the only living single soul floating above this lonely planet called “That old house in the roses”. You all know how it feels. It is like walking in the air all alone, or like floating in the moonlit sky while seeing the people far below sleeping as I fly… far, far across the world the villages go by like trees, the rivers and the hills, the forests and the streams… and I’m still the only one floating on this sky… yes, just like the old song says. But really, is anyone here? Do people read blogs anymore?

I’m sleeping more than I should and waking up much later than I want.  I’m reading three or four books at the same time and really not reading any; I’m baking what's suppose to be heart-shaped puff pastries, and instead getting something more like mushy stuffed flounder. I feel inadequate, and lacking; I’m lighting up candles and hibernating—like a she-bear without her cubs, like a wolf deprived of her instincts and a rose without her soul; one-part water and one-part dust. And how impermanent we all are, our bodies made of remnants of stars, massive explosions in the galaxies and dreams.

My green thumb has turned black too, so it seems… blame that to winter too, for some of my plants had to finally be discarded.  Overwatering was probably the reason why they weren’t thriving, and of course all those tropical ones--indoor heating, lower humidity in the air, the struggle to find a proper window, not enough light and so on.  Still…

 
...Still, the ones remaining look so pretty, and I so love each and everyone of them!

By the window in the gypsy room one of the geranium has started to flower...

This little tree here was a Mandeville tree this summer filled with beautiful crimson flowers, but now it is my all year around little Christmas tree. 

The Mandeville didn’t survive, but it gave me the perfect platform to turn it into a kind of a natural little Christmas tree.  I added some baubles and fairy lights, and then covered the soil with pinecones.  I love it so much, it will continue to sit here all year!

Now tell me... how do you fight the winter blues?

My gypsy room

Saturday morning—the first Saturday of the year.  It is cold and gloomy, and I’m sitting by the fire dreaming about those Saturdays of years past in the south—those warm sunny winter Saturdays; and the mid-winter flowers.  How precious were those flowers of mid-winter!  Not the hot-house things, nor even the forced geranium clumps birthed by the warmth of the tall windows, but the genuine toughs that for some strange reasons elected to display themselves out of doors at this time of year. 

But here is finally winter… winter with its biting, whining wind, and all the land mantled with snow.  People ask me what I do in winter when there's no roses to tend.  I'll tell you what I do. I hide in my gypsy room, and wait for spring there.

 

 

I simply love this room. It has elements of Shabby Chic and eclecticism, mixed with an artistic and theatrical flamboyance that has nothing to do with trends.  It is a bit crowded, a bit colorful, a bit feistier than any of the other rooms in the house, and I just love it! It is my most personal space and the place where, as some may say, you can always let your hair down and your imagination loose!

Last month when we were visiting Puerto Rico I discovered the most amazing bohemian store in Old San Juan.  I couldn't resist bringing home with me one or two of their beautiful and some of my favorite keepsakes ever Frida pillows!

 

There are so many different ways to take a plain wall and fill it to the brim!

And what else is one to do if you keep stumbling upon the sweetest paintings ever!  Like this one here in absolute harmony with my pillows!

Love my lamp all decorated with beads and gypsy jewelry!

Today at Barnes and Nobles I was reading The New Bohemians Handbook by Justina Blakeney where she offers some wonderful insights on how to create a bohemian home.  Blakeney shares that her spirit animal is the panda bear. As a kid, she filled her room with panda bear posters, and their distinct markings and love of bamboo inspire her to fill her interior with a similar vibe.  Now, I don't know whatsoever the 'animal spirit' thing is, or means, but if it has something to do with loving a particular creature from the animal kingdom more than the rest of them is, then mine would have to be definitely the owl!

Another of my favorite paintings on my gallery wall is this curly haired girl with glasses here, which, it is actually not a painting, but just a plastic bag I got from a store in Italy.  I like it so much, I framed it!

Boho is witty, whimsical and highly reflective of the mind and lifestyle of the person who embraces it. In its way it is an antistyle, but at its heart is a love of art, color, contrasts, creativity, travel, adventure, the past and, above all, freedom from convention. 

Are you a boho girl too?

A new year!

New year, new beginnings, new stories to weave on the pages of this magical book called “Life”—page after page filled with dreams, and hopes for a better future, reveries and daydreams; stories of good and evil, of love, of memories spread-out in the wings of a thought; a time for celebrations and reminiscences; a time to love and laugh to repeat to weep to pray to plant to harvest to nurture to forgive and forget; a time to remember the good times, to consider and reconsider, and a time to live. 

Oscar Wilde once said that to live is the rarest thing in the world, because most people only exist, and that is all.  Dear Lord I want to live… live in the moments you gift, and in the now you bestow.  I want to really live; live the moments of my daily life deeply, for happiness is not in another place but this place, and not for another hour, but this hour… and you have given me so much, oh Lord… you have always provided, protected, encouraged, guided, and shown me your love in so many unimaginable ways!  And who am I without you?  Who am I oh Lord and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me this far?

A large flock of robins came by on Christmas day and stayed around for a long while.  I first knew they had arrived by the clumps of swift shadows they made across my kitchen windows as they flew from tree to tree under the brilliant sun of December. And I felt happy and giddily like a little girl fully gratified by the small things of life—by the great things I should say, because the small things of life are often so much bigger than the great things...

Some very especially dear people—our youngest son and his fiancée, came from the other side of the country to celebrate with us, in our togetherness, the end of another year.  We walked on the snow, and droved on icy road to the tallest mountains and ski towns, we cooked and ate, we drank lattes and watch movies past midnight, we played silly games and told stories of now and then, we laughed and danced with the Beatles in an old Egyptian theater and at the end of their stay we embraced once more again and again...

As love nurtured and strengthened every fiber of what’s good in us—affection, friendship, tenderness, fondness were the sentiments which soon let us realized that we had fully adopted ‘a new daughter’ into our family with opened arms and hearts.  How very lucky we are!   

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal, and there’s not a single day I don’t think of mom, and miss her terribly, but life takes away and in return bestows new unexpected ways for us to extend that love and let us continue on loving…

A blessed an happy New Year to you my dear friends!