Iwill be away for ten days in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. Can't wait to tell you all about it and share the experience with you all when I return. 

,

at last plenty of time to play.  the whole week spent walking with friends in tow through the streets of santiago, observing the cultures and sub-cultures of the barrios, riding on the metro, the bus, walking some more and stopping for a thirst quencher only when on the verge of fainting.  in santiago you walk, i mean really walk, alot, which i love because you see people's faces, you feel the energies of those people, you get to perceive the many different worlds surrounding us. i have always loved walking the streets of santiago. there are still plenty of cobblestone streets and now that it is autumn, the maple trees have begun to shed their leaves and all the avenues are filled with them.  sometimes raindropped filled ones.  believe me, it's been pretty cold here, lots of rain and tons of snow up in the mountains, but we just dress in layers, wrap scarves around our necks, put gloves on and off we go, no excuses.  and how fun to actually use the umbrella, walk in the rain, smell the clean air, get you feet  wet in the puddles.  walking by day and by night under the antique street lights singing in the rain.

half way through the week i ventured into the meiggs district of santiago, hundreds of importers with anything and everything from kitsch to tacky.  ofcourse i fell for the kitsch.

it was right before chile's match in the world cup so the streets were filled with vendors selling flags and whistles, cars honking their horns in expectation.°º¤øº¤ø Chile„¸¸„ø¤º°¨Chile¸„ø¤º°¨ ¨°º¤øº¤øChile „¸¸„ø¤º°¨¨°º¤øº¤øChile„¸¸„ø¤º°¨Chile¸„ø¤º°¨¨°º¤øSiguel a ola!º¤ø„¸¸„ø¤º°°º¤øº¤ø Chile„¸¸„ø¤º°¨Chile¸„ø¤º°¨ ¨°º¤øº¤øChile „¸¸„ø¤º°¨¨°º¤øº¤øChile„¸¸„ø¤º°¨Chile¸„ø¤º°¨¨°º¤øSigue la ola!º¤ø„¸¸„ø¤º°, they call it la OLA, the wave. now you might understand why i love this country so much.  there are millions of mini sub-cultures at every turn of the way.
i stopped to take pictures of the carrousel at the central train station.

but the highlight was meeting cecilia 

who collects antique french enamelware

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-French-Enamelware-Coffee-Pot-Cherries-/380173960316?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588422447c

for the first time.  we had met through our mutual blogs and realized we were both chileans.  after weeks of commenting, we decided it was time to meet.  she picked the most darling tea shop near where i live called "mozart" and we ordered double cappuccinos and strudel.  outside it poured.  so romantic.  ofcourse i instantly loved her.  natural, spontaneous, and with so much "flo" as chilean youths call joie de vivre.  i'm sure she'll be showing off all her finds soon on her blog. she is one of those "aware" souls who was there or appeared when i most needed someone, never asking indiscreet questions, not asking but GIVING, GIVING, GIVING, making me so happy just being there with her ethereal essence. an angel?  that's an understatement!  Cecilia is the real deal. what i live for, what i look for in life, a transparent, pure, clean, light radiating person. i loved her unconditionally in in instant.

and both being veteran antiquers and searchers of all things vintage, we immediately set an appointment for a full day at the flea market the following sunday.  since she's lived here most of her life and i've been away for so long, she was my guide.  she knows literally all the best sellers.  the flea market is huge, specializing mostly in restored furniture but we managed to find tons and tons of knick knacks.  oh how i wish i could just fill up a container and take all that furniture home with me.  for now i had to just buy things that won't take up too much space in my suitcases when i go home to cali in july.  i did, however, buy a calypso stained chair to keep my environment happy, calypso has always been my favorite color.

my find of the day, a brass door knocker

brass findings

old tin

vintage postcards

i love what the sender wrote on this postcard

" what disgrace is darker and sadder? to see the light and embrace the flame?

or with soul, passion and life

see the sky and feel without wings?

more religious finds for my ever-growing

wall

lots of scrubbing and cleaning required

more blue bottles

&

now to pack my bags for i leave for Buenos Aires on Thursday

a song came back to me during the day, yes one of the sad ones


Brothers in Arms
These mist covered mountains

Are a home now for me

But my home is the lowlands

And always will be

Some day you'll return to

Your valleys and your farms

And you'll no longer burn

To be brothers in arms



Through these fields of destruction

Baptisms of fire

I've witnessed your suffering

As the battles raged higher

And though they hurt me so bad

In the fear and alarm

You did not desert me

My brothers in arms



There's so many different worlds

So many different suns

And we have just one world

But we live in different ones



Now the sun's gone to hell

And the moon's riding high

Let me bid you farewell

Every man has to die

But it's written in the starlight

And every line on your palm

We're fools to make war

On our brothers in arms

yo y la cachuleca en VACO

i believe i was one of the lucky first to begin using flickr back in the day. i can't even remember when it all started really but i do remember it was all tied to my beginnings on ebay and then my switch to etsy.  there, on flickr, friends gradually began to flock around me.  i remember one of my first was jo from australia and through her i met firuzan from turkey.  these two women are kindred spirits, part of the yaya sisterhood as jo would say.  jo is playful and funny, an inventor of stories around her backyard pond, and a true kitchen aficionado.  ofcourse she dresses up

and plays house, serving fairy cakes and lemonade to all who enter her vintage laden home.

  jo is the funny one. 

firuzan, on the other hand, is the lady, feminine to the hilt, soft, gentle and never out of place. 

she, too weaves stories around her rose filled garden, making the most amazing papier mache dolls ever.

and her mother makes rose jam, can you believe? these friends i share with you today, enjoy.

the most beautiful thing about these friends is that i have never met tem in person yet they always remember me, always write to me, always fill me.

more about my chilean friends to come and the many others all over the world thanks to this incredible tool called the inter-net.

mucho punto crochet ultimamente completando una orden especial para una clienta en estados unidos. aun me falta un panel de cortina completo pero la cenefa ya la termine, phew

y como no me gusta hacer lo mismo mucho rato, cambie a lana angora y algodon para estos gauntes calientitos.

Mike Myers: And he used to say that the two greatest things in collaboration are “yes” and “and,” to agree and to add. And this is the process, you know we all throw down, we all put into this collective pot, but we say yes, and then we and it. “Yes and, yes and.” And that’s how it all kind of gets into the same, where we’re all going in the same direction.

instead of no, but or no, i would do it that way, is to always say yes first and then add wich is where the and comes in

MIXED MEDIA DIGITAL COLLAGE BY ME ON A LAZY SATURDAY HEADACHEY AFTERNOON

yesterday was a good day. i spent most of the day with my darling neighbor Paty, her husband Miguel and her mother in law Nini lunching, teaing and in between learning new tricks on the crochet and knitting needles. Nini made homemade scones to accompany her also homemade apricot preserves. 

the surpise at tea, though, was that i had been talking away about my memory o the best streudel i hav ever eaten which happened to be in the zocalo in oaxaca few years bak and lo and behold she escapes to the kitchen and re-appears with a slice,coincidence of the gifts of life?

Paty added her know-how by teaching me how to make these little winter booties/slippers, and easy pattern easily stitched in an average of 4 hours.  i can now make a lot of my wee friends happy.

every once in a while i turn to you Jacqueline Du Pre, i would give the world to have known you

el arco de tu cello dibujó cejas en el aire
suspendido: antes de la caída del aspa guacha

de aquel molino solitario.

la escena lenta, sin oxígeno, bella astronauta
transpirada en agua incrédula; percutiendo en sus ojos
el tambor entusiasta de una niñez obligada.

vestida de amarillo empapada de mala suerte:
te avisan en el teatro que ese color es agüero
umbrío para el allegro en floración de tus tendones.

formas anudan a tu voz el encordado lento

de una muchacha que arrastra el caracol

en su estuche de nácar con cuerpo de ataúd.

Carmen Iriondo

ECHO CHALLENGE 15 "Rouge"

ECHO challenges us to refine our digital photography skills by giving us a word to go by.  this week the challenge is "rouge" which immediately took me home to california where i am missing out on the strawberry season. as a matter of fact camarillo, california a japanese family grows THE BEST stawberries. i remember only last year making special trips after lunch to pick up a few baskets to make strawberry shortcake dribbled in cream, fresh, real cream.

although i don't participate weekly, every once in a while the title of the challenge captures me and i just go for it.  i think this is the fourth time i participate. i am lucky to have this little netbook along with me and although precarious i was able to download photoscape, an easy photo manipulation program, much easier than photoshop for the time being, so i could spell the word srawberry in digital color. that's the first thing that came to mind with rouge.

thnk you susan & chrysti for your unending art spirits

always slipping from my hands Cori Kindred i love to randomly discover other blogs and delve into how other women think, feel and problem solve. case in point, cori kindred's blog, so refreshing and all softness.

El Arrayan on Saturday

chile's social life is unending. not a weekend without invitations to barbecues, get togethers that last into the early morning, lots of conversations, mixed drinks and vistas.  friendships re-affirmed by common life experiences and love.  yesterday dagna invited a group of us to her house up in the hill.  during daylight we all gathered on the huge veranda, after dark around the fireplace and the kitchen island clinking cheers glasses, vowing to repeat the event at someones elses house in pirque.

Los Hermanos