Mt. Rainier

I'm cultivating chrysanthemums

Here is a mum I'm  growing.

I have other mums too..

If you're interested, write to me

jerez598atgmaildot.com

You must think I live on a ferry...,-)

White Wisteria in Mukilteo

Today's trip to Leavenworth via Stevens Pass

And a river stop.

Harem, The Harvard Exit Theatre, The Deluxe Bar and Grill, Kobo Gallery, Adventure Travel, Quest Books, and Roy Street Coffee and Tea.

Opening tonight at Harem in Seattle on Capitol Hill.

If you need a cool special gift for Christmas, be sure to go to Harem.

Victoria knows 'just what I like!" hint hint..

If you do, I promise I'll be a good girl next year! '-)

I promise!




That cut work bedspread with mirrors from India.. I love love!!

And some Moroccan lamps and Tagines are great too..I want the tagine designed for soups,, it;s very rounded.

Dar Salam has some stuff on consignment here. He closed up, was at Pike Place!

Sylvia Beach Hotel

Just back from Oregon, Newport, and kickin around Nye Beach..
My Favorite place to go and write and be inspired is the Sylvia Beach Hotel, each of 20 rooms designed to fit a famous author to a T.. with so much charm it oozes inspiration all over the Pacific Coast..

I ran out of charge on my phone, so only got two rooms, here's a preview.. I hope to go back asap to write for a few weeks, Universe willing..

This is Colettes Room, She wrote Gigi, there are rooms for Twain, and Thoreau, and Shakespeare, and so many wonderful authors..Colette is 193.00 a night. I only need 2 weeks..:)

Collection continued....

The beautiful bowl from Morocco. I just have to go to Morocco..isn't this bowl just beautiful?

And it's huge!

Peony's, my garden

Stained Glass, Jim Wittstruck, shells from Gulf Coast..

Bier Horn, Finland

Tablecloth, Goodwill..

My collections include buttons, not just these in jars, but I have a case of them, and a display case as well.

These others jars are called , A Walk down so and so Beach,

Here I have; a walk down the Sea Of Japan, Half Moon Bay, Gulf Of Mexico, Rialto Beach, Ruby Beach, 1 St Beach, etc etc.

I have half a purple spaceman from the sea of Japan mixed with it's black sand and some sea shells...I love the space man, a real find. Halfmoon Bay has a Mattel car in it.

Kim gave that to me when I visited her in San Francisco, eons back.

I'm the one who insisted she go interview for that job in SF. I remember she didn't want to move again, but now, she has a great career here in Washington, and lives one town away.

The B&W bowl was made by my friend Martha, (Minnesota) and the plate is Mexican Folk art.

The other two are shells. I do have a small rare shell collection.

A Mexican doll, and a couch from Goodwill for her to sit upon..

Gold Lotus Pods in a beautiful Japanese bowl from Yumiko.

This folklore Angel is by an American artist, I'd have to look up his name, well, it's on her boot I think.

I just love it.. Dorothy gave this to me.

See her cowboy boots? She has a stringer of fish.

Collections,, and more,,, more collections...

I hope you have some collection to share, because I enjoy treasures of others so much, blogging gives is a glimpse inside each others homes, and hearts.

This plate and bowl are Mexican pottery with the calla Lily, one of my most favorite flowers, and as a matter of fact, my neighbor Jeanie, gave me a bouquet of them just last night, and I'll post them as soon as I upload them.

It's the most beautiful bouquet I think I ever received.. Wow! Thanks Jeanie!

bowl is filled with, yes, peony petals!

A Mexican folk art dog. These new styles have been made palatable for us, but in Mexico, the old ones are bright oranges, day glow blues, and purples, and are kinda scary, especially if you're staying in someone home in Mexico alone for the first time, and the house is full of them!

This is more Mexican folkart, the yarn piece is Huichol Indian, and references the ceremony of the Peyote button. The other object is a candle.

Little is known about the exact origin of the Huichol, but we do know they refer to themselves as Warrarika, meaning healer or prophets. Their dialect comes from Uto'Aztecan family of dialects. Due to geographic isolation it was not known until 1722, 200 years after the conquest of Mexico.

These masks are from GUERERRO MX.

I have collected MX folkarts for many many years, ( since the 70s)

but I think I need to make a new trip to Mexico and spruce up my collection..

These masks were unusual for Guererrro masks, which are usually in color.

Notice the details..

Funny, one day many years ago, before Internet Explorer, I at a friends,

Bernard Aboba, who was then working on Explorer. He asked me to look

for something I was interested in. ( This was BC Before computers, for me)

It was probably 1995.

I had no idea what I was doing, but I typed in Mexican Folkart.. no response..

then, Museum Of Anthropology, Mexico City,, no response.

Bernard said, how's it going? I said, I dunno, can't get anything,

told him what I had done, and he said, "well, that won't work, and threw

a disk in the trash. Now of course, we have Explorer, and Mexican Folkart is

all over the Internet.

This chicken is Japanese, and the book behind it is all about chickens. This was a gift from Dorothy, one of my very best friends. She lives in Seattle, but is from NY!

Some of my best collectables are from Dorothy!

On this shelf I have a fish from Guererro, I love it, it has a rabbit on it, and the movement is spectacular.

Also some N Mexico art, a very old boat, maybe by Lucy Martinez as a child, it has initials, and several pots that are Acima, from friends, one from Marylou, (MD) and one from John (Seattle) very good friends as well.

The folkart piece in the corner, the lady holding fish is from Dorothy, too, was a Christmas gift this year.

There is a raku piece from VanCouver BC ( Canada) it was a gift, and the tiny vase is Wiinblad.

Also The lidded container.

The Eskimo is from Alaska, and so is the small bone container with picto graphs.

This T Shirt I designed for my Friend, Ella, a few months ago. Ella is nearly 94.

These dishes are Japanese and Vietnamese and are actually from Costplus.. so when all fails for travel aboard,, don't let that stop you from appreciating what is made in another culture.

PLease comment on your collections and link to your blogs.

Collections,, what do you collect? ....The Bohemian Life

Below (post) I started writing about expressing yourself freely by furnishing your abode with whatever is dear to your heart, and started in on some of what I've collected over the years, here's more, but please,

tell me what you collect,ok?

How do you express yourself?

Please leave a comment about what you like, collect, and suggestions, too. I'm always open..

These cups are from an artist on VanCouver Island, and were a gift to me.

Much of what I have are gifts, from others artists, friends, and loved ones.

This is a lantern, an oil lamp, it's from Vietnam, it was a birthday gift this year.

I love oil lamps, and this one is unusual..

This small plate is from Vietnam as well, and the bunnies, well the beginning of a collection,, when you have three, I guess it is a collection.

The bunnies were also a birthday gift.

Lomonosov is a china made in Russia, I have some tea cups and a teapot.

This double teapot is actually a china samovar.

I'm hoping I'll run into a nice real samovar I can heat water in soon.

The lamp is from Denmark.

The runner was a gift from a my best friend Kathy.

These sweet cups are Bjorn Wiinblad. I have had them for years.

Recently, the Bohemian lifestyle is being made in a an interior design by those who are finally catching up with a way of life many of us have always lived.

But the Bohemian life has always been lived just fine without designers and magazines telling people what Bohemian is or isn't, which I find silly.

A Bohemian lifestyle is the lifestyle of a gypsy, one who defies convention, who is in fact, an artist.

ONe who chooses a different path to walk, who doesn't look next door to learn what's in or isn't in, because it's an inside job.

Marketing isn't an essential for a Bohemian, inspiration, love, and attraction from the inside out , are.

Bohemians are followed, because they are living a real life, they think, write, make art, and could care less what anyone else has or hasn't. The Bohemian artist's life is about a madness for life.

So don't bother reading how to be.. just be, who you are... and the whole world will beat a path to your door.

Unfortunately, Artists, writers, etc are followed for their proclivity to be vibrant, and create life, and community, then those who follow them, try to make it into something permanent. Life, in the flow, is anything but permanent, and those who refuse to flow always miss the point.

This is why some artists poets, etc actually go under ground, don't want to be known, live private lives. To avoid the inevitable pretenders who follow to exploit their lifestyle for financial gain, and who inevitably turn the lifestyle into a high priced community where only those who have a lot of money can afford to live.

This type of community is opposed to any artistic lifestyle.