SallyJean

Dreaming of Italy...

I have just been going through my treasure boxes of treats to take to Italy and dreaming about the treasures I will find there. It's funny...the simplest of things...that can make you happy. During our stay in 2006 for my Reliquary in Sterling Workshop, we were lucky enough to be there for the little Cortona flea market...tables set up under the trees with boxes of religious objects, stacks of antique books (I especially loved the ones with the torn covers), piles of lines, and dishes, and metal trinkets. There was a hanging lamp made of tiny hand-blown glass bubbles. I found it right away and carried it all morning. Had to set it down for a moment...and someone tried to buy it! (Don't set anything down at the flea market)l.

Cortona was just the little one...we had a field trip to Arezzo (not far away) where the streets were lined with booths (some with tents, some without) and where you could spend days and a zillion dollars. Lucky me! There was everything from hand-painted antique dressers to bicycles (that were falling apart) to old paintings and tattered trims and broken crystals. It was a dream-come-true type of flea market. Whatever I bought, I had to take back in a suitcase...although, for a few moments I considered a "container"! Ha!

Between the Tuscan countryside, the food, the wine, the festivals and the flea markets, I knew it wouldn't be long before I went back again.

In a few months I will be returning to Cortona, Italy for my new workshop Candelabra di Cortona - A Chandelier of Scavenged Fragments! The first day of this workshop is what my dreams were made of...a trip back to the Arezzo Flea Market to find our own treasures which we will incorporate into our chandelier. I just can't wait! And then we will be using a myriad of techniques to create a chandelier of our very own with the treasures we've found in Italy (and perhaps some special momentos we've brought from home).

Just in case you are wondering...we have room for a couple more flea-market-loving chandelier-making girls (ok...boys are invited too) to come and play! For all the details, visit Arcangelo Productions. Ciao!

Where Have All The Flowers Gone

a.k.a. Where Has Sally Jean Been?

I always know summer is here by the Peony offerings at the local farmers market. But it wasn't until just this past weekend that I was able to go (and am enjoying the bouquet as I write ~ the pink ones are my favorite). Not necessarily because Portland hasn't experienced "summer" until this weekend and I didn't "notice" it was summer! It's just that from time to time as you go through life...life happens.

I have so much to share from my fabulous workshop in Asilomar where I spent 15 minutes sitting on the beach in Carmel to a week later...a great week in Hampton for the Art & Soul Retreat where I was able to escape between checkout and the airport and spend 15 minutes sitting on the beach at Virginia Beach. It was like a landmark vacation...the kind where you touch the Eiffel Tower just to say you did. There on Virginia Beach I sat...watching the waves crash on the shore. There is really a difference between the way the ocean moves against the shore on the Atlantic and the Pacific. I know which I like the most...but I would take either in a heartbeat! So 15 minutes of solitude, watching the waves crashing, wondering how one could rent a white chaise lounge when the chaise lounge renter guy isn't around and guessing how many photographs Brad was taking of Neptune at that very same moment. There you have it...15 minutes of important thoughts.

Back to Portland where life happened (some to be shared later). And a most amazing Tiara Workshop in my studio. I could go on and on...which is why I suppose it is good to post more often!

For now, let me just say that I know I've missed Celebrate May...AND...Celebrate June. I hope you were able to celebrate anyway! And I promise you that on July 1st there WILL be a Celebrate July! It is summer, after all.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Today I celebrate my father (that's him in the picture above)...a man whom I admire and love deeply. Not so much for what he has accomplished in life. But because he is a good, decent man...an encouraging father...and a loving grandfather. Beyond the evening walks around the neighborhood when I was growing up, the annual celebration of the first snowfall where we would watch together no matter the time of day or night, the little league practice (I forgive you for the baseball in the face), the driving lessons, the furniture building in my first apartment, the daily Pizza Hut lunch runs during my accident recovery, the jubilant welcoming of my husband into the family, the cat-sitting (all 6 of them), the hidden $20 bills, the grammar lessons, the technical Q & A's, the...

Beyond that and more...my "dad" is the one I know I can turn to no matter what. He does not judge (although sometimes he shakes his head in disappointment). He'll listen, offer advice only when it is requested, and be there in full support. He's the technical type, and I think it pleases him that I now have a MAC (he was an Apple aficionado from the beginning) and know what HTML stands for. Not an outwardly emotional man, I know that he loves me even if he doesn't say it. I can see that he is proud...by the twinkle in his eye. After he read my book PRETTY LITTLE THINGS he called me to tell me his favorite page was 89. Mine, too.

I love the type of relationship we have. There's a silly bantering from time to time. Like when he told me I was a mutt...made from many different European heritages...and that my butt came from the Polish side. Or when he moved our entire family from Nashua, New Hampshire to Portland, Oregon because he read that Portland was "one of the safest places to live" according to some book. Years later, Money Magazine came out with a list of the best places to live in the U.S and Nashua, New Hampshire was #1. Well, I bought that magazine, circled #1 in red, and wrapped it up to give to him. He chuckled.

That's what my dad does. Chuckles. And hums while he eats. And eats all his dinner before he has one sip of a tall glass of milk to wash it down. And reads stories to my children as they sit on his lap. And collects hats (especially those in Dobbs hat boxes). And watches the news endlessly. And golf. I never quite got the news-watching until now...as I must have inherited that gene along with the Polish butt gene from my dad.

So today I celebrate my dad. For all the things he is...especially the little things! And it is the little things that mean the most. Dad...I love you...today and every day.

XOXO

I also want to celebrate another father (and son). Tim Russert of Meet the Press passed away Friday. I'm not a big political follower, so what I know of Tim Russert mostly is that he celebrated the relationship between fathers and their children. Last year, on Father's Day, I gave my father a special hard-bound autographed copy of his book WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS. This year, it is Tim Russert's first book BIG RUSS & ME. As I watch the coverage of this man, I come to see what a good, decent man he was. An honorable American. A respected journalist. A loving husband, father, son. He has always reminded me of my dad...the constant smile and rosy cheeks and general happy disposition. In my family, when we try to explain something that is going awry, we just say "Florida Florida Florida" (after the 2000 election coverage by Tim Russert). I am heartbroken for his family and friends that it is on Father's Day weekend that he passes away but know that he has left a legacy that inspires me and many, many others.