It's amazing, how quickly one can collect too many things to fit into one closet. It's also amazing how, years after living with my parents, I am still a victim of my mother's need to never allow anyone to see the remnants of a real life going on in our home. My mother was morbidly afraid that someone would "drop by" and see that we didn't always live in a perfectly clean, uncluttered and sweet-smelling house.
The last person who ever "dropped by" was my then-neighbor, Donna Zingarelli, when I was scrubbing my bathtub forty three years ago. I wasn't totally unprepared for that one. I had a premonition that she would be ringing my bell any minute so I used the name-brand cleanser instead of the cheap store-brand. If you don't believe I am capable of such premonitions, just ask the two people who know me best in the world, Joe and my pal Jay and they'll tell you, without even rolling their eyes, that I'm "spooky" that way. Nobody "drops by" nowadays do they?
Having to be a clean-neat-freak was really cramping my style. Add that to the fact that we live in an apartment (don't feel sorry for us......we don't mow lawns or shovel snow) by choice and we love it. The only big problem I have with that is the fact that we can't really do too much creative decorating. A little bit goes a long way here but I have so much more to give in that department.
At the very start of the summer we actually considered...wait for it.....buying a house. Yikes! Why do that when we actually have a house here on the Cape. There's an occupant in it and despite the fact that he is almost 93, we doubt he's leaving any time soon.....Let's re-think all of this, we re-thought. We don't want a whole house. We just want a place that I can mess up, leave messy, create stuff in and paint the walls. Periwinkle. Fortunately, my plea for this "space" did not fall on deaf ears but on the lovely, sweet, sympathetic and wide-open ears of my gorgeous friend Nina who said
"Why don't you rent a room here?"
So, I moved it all out of the closet, boxes and boxes of it....... "Here" is where she and her equally gorgeous friend, Jane, have established one very yummy business known as "Gatherings by the Sea", a short ride from my home. And, that is exactly what I did. I rented a room, a "studio" an "atelier" a "get-away" and my loving, understanding and capable husband made it all happen. And now, I can make art, MY art, the kind that spreads itself out, waits patiently to be finished, added to, embellished. I don't have to clean up. I need not explain anything to anybody. It is, as Joe puts it "total" me and I'm loving it and am loving Nina and Jane and Joe, of course but most of all, I'm loving the fact that friends can, and do, "drop by" and share my joy. Just knock on the door, any time I'm there and come on it. It's air-conditioned and it's lovely. And I'm not cleaning up my mess.  |
| Apologies for the blurred photo.......love the color, the air-conditioner and the man who made both happen, his head in lower right corner..... |
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| And art is, once again, happening......YES, collage is ART!!! |
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| Downstairs.....my shell bowl on top of my favorite-ever piece of furniture |
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| Down the hall view |
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