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Sinkhole

June 27, 2010 at 2:41 pm by Claudia

Earthquakes…yes, we’ve had 5 since I’ve been here. But this morning I woke up at 7:00 and couldn’t get any water to flow from the taps. I looked outside and saw this:

Water gushing out of a sinkhole – right on our corner. Since this corner is at the top of a hill – there was water everywhere.

The area was cordoned off – for a long time no one could get to their cars, until the police finally let them move out, one at a time.

As we stood there we watched the sinkhole get bigger.

Big machines have moved in and are moving the broken chunks of pavement out.

No one can take a shower. I need my coffee so the very first thing I did was pull on some clothing and walk several blocks to the 7 – 11 to buy some bottled water. I’ve had coffee, I’ve brushed my teeth. That’s about all I can do at the moment.

I would like to go home now, please.

Chateau De Fleurs Marketplace

June 25, 2010 at 8:08 pm by Claudia

I just finished reading the last Where Bloggers Create post! Whew! I need a nap.

You all know I am away from home and therefore away from all my creative supplies. So, even though I wanted to, I didn’t sign up for Lisa’s Outside the Box Challenge. Yesterday I said to myself, “Aw go ahead, see what you can come up with.” So I went to Target to buy the particular packaging required – this is a big Target in San Diego – and they didn’t have it! And there was no space on the shelf where it should have been. It simply didn’t exist. Darn it! I really wanted to see what I could come up with.

Then I thought I might join up with the Bloggerette Sorority (Karen’s wonderful idea) – but I can’t do the first assignment because I don’t have a printer here.

Sob.

Can you tell I need to get back home? I need my stuff.

Last week I grabbed a few hours in the morning and drove up to Christie’s place for the Chateau de Fleurs Marketplace. Christie moved to a new home this year and she andRita have started a monthly marketplace with all sorts of wonderful vendors. My schedule has been so busy here that this was the first time I was able to see either of them. I thought I’d take a couple of posts and share some photos with you. The photo at the top of the post is from one of the booths.

I absolutely went crazy for this. This fabulously creative woman, Lisa Loria, makes wonderful jewelry and also makes these – I believe they are called Bling Babies. She uses vintage lamp bases, a doll’s head and fashions these wonderful jewelry displays. She’s teaching a workshop on them this weekend that I wish I could attend. Isn’t this wonderful? Here’s another:

I must admit, the doll head without the body thing never did it for me. But now….I find myself loving them. What would Don do, I wonder, if I started amassing these? I mean, besides my Shirley Temple doll and my Tressa doll and the-one-that-I-can’t-show-you-yet-but-I-will-when-I-get-home?

Gorgeous. From Rita’s booth.

Another doll head – this time in a birdcage.

I’ll share the rest of the photos in a couple of days. I will miss all the amazingly creative vendors here. Such eye candy everywhere. If I were independently wealthy, here’s what I’d do: I’d fly out once a month, just for a few days, and drink in my fill of all my favorite sales and shops. Then I’d fly back home to my little cottage. Oh, and I’d be so wealthy that I wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of shipping big pieces. So I would buy everything I wanted. Because I was so wealthy, I would have already added an extension onto the cottage so that I had a place to put all this stuff.

Does that sound like a plan?

A Visit to the Old Homesteads

June 24, 2010 at 12:02 am by Claudia

I read through my email this morning and noticed that a photo of my sideboard turned kitchen island was featured at Houzz today. It is in a feature entitled “What to do with a Sideboard.” I was very surprised and pleased!

I’ve reached ‘S’ on the Where Bloggers Create list. Amazing studios out there in bloggerland!

Today I took a little trip in the car – a nostalgic trip – to take some photos of the apartment I lived in when I first moved here and the house Don and I lived in for 6 years.

It was good and bad.

The apartment building looks the same as ever –

This two story apartment building had 7 or 8 apartments and mine was the one you see on the ground floor.

See those steps? Don kissed me for the first time on those steps after an opening night party. Ah, memories…

Now for the house. We rented a Craftsman house in a charming neighborhood for 6 years. I planted a garden, mowed the lawn, pruned the bushes – it looked lovely. Since then it has been rented to a succession of people, including students. My garden is gone.

The grass is dead, the maple trees (rare for San Diego) have a lot of dead branches on top, the siding is dirty and hasn’t been cleaned in years.

An ugly security door has replaced the charming wooden screen door that was there before. Behind that ugliness is a gorgeous, dark wood, extra-wide door. Now it is totally hidden from view – in a neighborhood that is quite safe. Do you see all the plants that look brown in the front of the photo? Those are alliums. They surround the front and the sides of the house. In the spring they have the most beautiful pink blooms. People used to stop and ask me about them.

I guess this is what happens to a home that is neglected. My old next-door neighbors, on the other hand, have planted a beautiful xeriscape garden in their front yard, built a small natural stone fence – it is gorgeous.

Well you know the old truth, “You can’t go home again.”

On a brighter note: Happy Birthday to my husband!! I miss you, honey. I’ll be home in a week and a half and we will celebrate.

Sinkhole

Chateau De Fleurs Marketplace

A Visit to the Old Homesteads

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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