Welcome to my cottage near the sea

I am an artist, I create one of a kind necklaces and earrings using beads, gemstones, sterling silver and other findings. I also have done collage art and assemblage. But my favorite art is when I make Retablos, or shrines, using recycled materials I have collected. I have made shrines of Buddha, The Virgin of Guadalupe and of my favorite artist, Frida Kahlo.

I have been collecting for ten years at least, long before I even knew what I was going to do with these things: broken auto reflectors, small kitchen drawers and small wooden boxes, paper, rusted metal gathered in the desert, dried twigs, flowers, beads, ribbons, magazine photos, enough odds and ends to fill at least ten giant rubber storage bins. All organized in smaller drawers, and bins, and labeled for easy finding.

An extended visit to the American Southwest and a class in assemblage helped me to decide how and what to make with all this stuff.

Two and a half years ago I moved back near the water. I found a small cottage, built in 1939, a Key West style cottage, barely 850 feet square.

I designed gardens all around the cottage, planting every flower, tree, shrub by myself. It's a little wild and a little organized. I have a chiminea in the middle where at night friends and I sit by the fire and and drink a little wine and laugh a lot.

I love to decorate my cottage and create new spaces out of old spaces. I created a dining room from a bedroom, a bedroom from a Florida room.

I love to cook for my family and friends. I love to have parties. I love sitting with a roomful of friends and just eat and talk and laugh.

This will be a blog about lots of things. Things that please me and I hope they please you. Random thought and random rants sometimes may happen. Photos of foods I have eaten and foods I have made. Flowers and my two dogs and my 12 year old cat. When I feel creative I will post my art, jewelry, and my garden when it blooms.

So, please feel free to come in and visit with me and I welcome comments. Ideas. Photos of what you have created. But please, be kind.