The Curiosity Shop ( My Closet)

About 4 years ago as I was getting the house ready for our Christmas party, when something told me to clean my closet! Wayne said "Rena with all the stuff that needs to be done, you're cleaning your closet"?? Well yes I was, you know how you just have to do something, there's no stopping you! Fast forward to the party, and one of our best friends, now wait for it, asked if THEY COULD SEE MY CLOSET!! For real, now I have had many things happen in my life that was odd, but this question absolutely floored me! You want to see my closet, why yes you can, so her and the Mr. followed me to my closet, and when I opened the door she gasped "Rena this is like a Curiosity Shop, I love it"!! And we just ooo'd and ahh'd over all the fun things I have in there, She goes out to the party and is telling all the girls about my closet and is taking them back to see it!!! Wayne said "They're doing tours of your closet"! I said I know, can you believe it.
Honestly we broke out laughing. Now in my whole life I have never asked to see anyone's closet nor have I ever heard such a request from anyone before. But to this day, girls want to show my closet to the guest they bring to the party.  They say the Lord works in mysterious ways, and I am a firm believer! Cuz he surly told me to CLEAN!
You know how you always hear of people checking out medicine cabinets at other peoples homes, well I have a tiny table in my bathroom with one little drawer that I keep those hair sticks we used to put in the top of our French twists back in the early 60's, you know with pearls or rhinestones on the end, well a guest at the party said to me "I just love the way you have things displayed in your home, and I especially love the hair sticks in your table". That is when it hit me that people really do check out your stuff, so from that time forward I have always emptied the medicine cabinets of things I don't want strangers to see and I clean the drawers in my vanity. Maybe this is what started me thinking of my closet that faithful day.
I have a quirky way about me, I have to have everything set up in vignettes or like a little store front, I don't know where this comes from. But when I work I have to arrange my area like a small room, I like my desk to have a table ,wall, or credenza in back of it,  I'll pull out the two side drawers to my desk, thus making only one entrance into my work space. It's kinda like a fort.

Back to my Curiosity Shop, I have a collection of handbags from the 50's and I also have a collection of jewelry boxes too, and I like to incorporate these into my spaces. I like to have my faves on display, and I enjoy seeing them on a daily basis. Even when I put away my Christmas in the closet in my guest room, I arrange it in a way that when I open the door it's more like a Christmas Stoppe, even in July I can open the door and get my Christmas Fix! My personal closet is sooo small, 3.6 feet x 5.6 feet, but it is packed with some pretty cool items, I'm not a clothes horse, so I have very few things, I found a small dresser for $19.00 at Goodwill. and it is just the perfect fit on one side, while my few things hang on the other
In the picture you can see the right side of my closet and one of my jewel boxes, given to me when I was 19yrs old, My Moms High Heels in Mustard with a gold tip at the toe, a picture of  Me and my Sister-in-law, and in the little red frame the only picture I have of  My Dad and Wayne, taken the day of our Wedding 30 years ago.

This is the extent of my clothes on the left  side of my closet along with my shoes.

This is the top middle shelf showing some of my handbag collection. The one on the left is a Gold Lizard Pantera, the Green Lucite is a Patricia of Miami, the brown oval with a tortoise shell trim is a Bienen-Davis, the Gold Leather is by Murray Kruger and the Gold and Black Beaded bag is a Mary Frances of which is sitting on an oval Black suede. In the top picture you can see a picture of  Me and Mr. LaRose, shoe designer extraodinaire , I modeled shoes for him for 2 1/2 years at the age of 19. Don't you just love my Polynesian Ceramic Face from the 50's. And I just love the Green trendy Wire Girl with her flower handbag!

On the left side of my closet, another jewel box, a Girlfriend Doll, pottery made by my Daughter in middle school, her big graduation picture, an old picture of my Grandmom Vera with her broad White Collar and big White Pearls, my Mom is just a teen standing in back of her. Tiles stacked that I brought back from Greece and Croatia.

A Rare Picture of the Grandkids hugging each
other LOL, Royal Secret the perfume I have worn since I was 18, it was the signature fragrance of Germain Montiel (no longer) now I have to order online. I love my Valentino Jar with the Bakelite Lid. Another Black Patent Box Bag from the 50's.

My Black Hat at the top that I made for one of those Mystery Dinners, I was Mama Rosa, an Italian Widow and I made this hat for my character. Have you ever been to one of those dinners, so much Fun!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing my tiny Curiosity Shop, it is really a treat in person, hard to get the personality of it all to show in pictures, but I think you got the gist of it.

Happy New Year! 2013! Good Grief!

Can you believe we have made it to the year 2013?? Wowzer, I am totally amazed! Is it the way you pictured 2013 to be when you were young? I used to get Popular Mechanic Magazine, and one issue had a cover showing cars zooming through the sky on laser beams. The cars had clear dome ceilings, and inside you could see the people, with their seats turned toward the middle with a table in-between, playing cards!! You could see other cars zooming right along, programed for their own destinations! Just like the Jetson's! And this was their prediction for the 1980's, what the hell happened?? It's like we have advanced... but not.. Seems like the more we go forward, the more things stay the same! I mean basically things are the same as when I was little, the homes haven't changed that much, furniture and clothes are basically the same too. I mean we did get polyester, microwaves, computers, skinny TV's but we have to pay to see them! and the list goes on and on, but really my life kinda runs the same way as my Mom's. I do wish we would have kept the different styles of cars, now they all look the same, you have to look at the hood or trunk for the logo to see what it is! Oh man you used to know when a Corvette or XKE went flying by, and eyes would pop over a Cadillac, but now nothing..unless a tricked out car pulls up with Spinners on their tires, Ooo excitement..I'm thinking we really did have the best of times, I know we had the best of music! Right through the 90's, then now...not too many songs that you will remember, Nothing will be burned into our brains, Like Del Shannon singing "Runaway", or the Stones "Satisfaction" or Smoky Robinson "Ooo Baby Baby". How lucky we were! But now, we at least have Bruno Mars, Adele, and even Taylor Swift, trying to bring some songs to the front that we will remember..I often wonder what songs my Grandkids will request when they want to hear an "Oldie"! "Shake'n that Ass"? Eminem? poopoo!
Well the total wonder of the future is ahead of us, and I have a feeling 2013 just might be "The Year"! Wouldn't that be great! Everyone says "Make Everyday Count", well I say "Try and get as many good ones in there as you can"! Come on 2013, BRING IT ON!!