The best laid plans …

I had it all planned. Finish up the Christmas post, do a farewell to 2012 and take a short break … my customary holiday break.

Graphic credit

No such luck for me.

On Christmas morning I woke to a black screen. No, the computer was not off and waiting to be turned on. My computer was dead … road kill … an electronic cadaver … dead as the proverbial door nail.

That was December 25th … twenty-three long days ago. And in the three years I have been blogging, this is the longest break, the longest imposed silence I have yet experienced.

Not to worry … most of my documents will be retrieved from the old hard drive, or when I can read the instructions of how to decompress the files on my external hard drive.

An update …

• As if that wasn’t bad enough … my three year association with RWA and their Women’s Fiction Chapter also came to a dead stop during the Holiday break. More news on that later.
• I have not been able to thank Sheri Degrom and my dear friend from across the pond Vikki Thompson for giving me two special Holiday gifts … two awards that warrant post of their own. Alas, I will not be able to do that until …  well maybe on Valentine’s Day?
• And what of my first mystery?

Graphic credit

• During the dark days of my computer black-out, I received the second of three edits from my BETA reader. The original drafts of Framed in Black and White are somewhere in my old hard drive, the last draft was the only copy I had to work with and I am finally doing the last edits this week … a full month off schedule.

Averting Mayan disaster and all manner of other disasters … and since the sun has graced us with an untold number of days and the moon continues to wax and wane … I too shall rise again …

Like the Phoenix I will rise from the ashes of destruction to a New Blogging Year.

They’ll be some changes made to the blog of it all this new year.

Of course, I’ll continue my Wednesday posts, doing more features from City Scapes and more snippets from the gang in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

When everything old is new again …

Only four months ago I moved into my beautiful little cottage. I needed the Certificate of Occupancy to have them construct my car port and screened patio and the best of all … my new storage shed.

This would be almost as big as the storage unit I had been renting. Attempting to be frugal, I moved the entire storage unit into my new dinette. After all … it would only be for four to six weeks.

Sixteen weeks later the entire contents of my storage unit still sits in my dinette.

It has given me time and inspiration and a way to recycle my old life. I am so over dragging my wares to flea markets and craft fairs and decided to open an on-line shop at Etsy.com.

Etsy Promo 

Not to fret. All those old things will find new homes. Old hat boxes will be restored and covered, cartons of fine china and glassware will cheer new owners, and fifty-year old vintage table linens will grace new tables.

There are boxes of yarn and fabric remnants, twenty-odd crocheted scarves, evening bags and baby sweaters. Though I was too late for this Holiday … next Christmas my villages, table top trees and collectible decorations will light up new homes.

My Other Life …

And my other passion will be featured here each Friday and link to my new page … Finds of the City.

You’ll find out not only what I have kept locked in my storage unit for almost twenty years, but what skeletons I’ve been hiding in a half-dozen closets.

Each Friday I will post the stories of how I became a compulsive collector, crazed crafter, how on earth I survived three years as a street vendor and prospered at street fairs in and around The City.

Sunset photograph by Jen G

It’s the sunset of a new day and my way of sharing my life-long love affair with taking old things and making them new again … taking random materials and creating something beautiful with them.

Each Friday I’ll share the stories of how it all got started … how this pigeon-toed-left-handed accident waiting to happen learned to do all manner of crafts.

I’ll tell the tales of the strange collection of family members who inspired me in both my crafts and fired my companion passions. I’ll tell you more about my mom’s best friend and my angel, Beatrice Napoli. And naturally, I will tell you more about the big guy … my older brother … and how he set an example for what nervous energy can become.

Ah, I have a great deal more to learn of this writerly life and many more things to play with, to fashion … and in this new year I will bring my two greatest passions together for your weekly enjoyment.

When the hands are moving … the mind is at rest.

Tell me …

what do you do with those nervous hands

when they are not caressing a keyboard?

What other passions fill you with awe and delight?

fOIS In The City