It All Started with a Green Teapot

"Why do you put the red pillows on the red sofa, and the blue pillows on the blue sofa?"
he says "Because that's how it's SUPPOSED to be?" So I asked "Who says? The Catalogs at the store? The people on T.v?" and he replies, "No, when you Buy it, that's how it comes!"

To me this is perfect in describing how most people follow most people. They decorate, they act, they buy what they're supposed to by. Why would you put the blue pillow on the red sofa, and the yellow chaise lounge pillow on the blue sofa, and why wouldn't the red pillow look good ON the yellow chaise lounge? So with No hesitation at all, I marched my 5'2 self over to the red couch and put one of it's brilliant red pillows, on the blue couch, and took the blue pillow and put it on the bright yellow chaise lounge, and took the bright yellow from the chaise lounge and put it on the red sofa, and YEAH my eyes are now free....as before they were locked on each piece of furniture, no 'flow' no 'traveling' for my visual bliss, no Movement in the house...NOW there is movement.
The next 2 hours were spent with hubbie and I moving from place to place in the main rooms, and re arranging the plants, and all of it with the art, talking art, drawing pictures on the thick textured paper that I sprawl out all over our dining room table....
The paper was that 'impulse OMG I NEED ART" type thing that randomly happens...planning on spending a few bucks turns into a bit more once I hit that art store...just a few things.
Then it was the 'regular shopping'..this is where things get dangerous....Now I try to be good when I'm in stores, but I get sooooooooooooooooo distracted by ALL those colors everywhere, everything screams LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME!!!!!!!!
Hubbie grabs this giant Green tea pot...because he is determined to find a way for me to get rid of my very cute, very small, NON WHISTLE blowin Thrift store tea pot. I LOVE that teapot, was only .50 cents and it worked fine..it boiled water...just didn't whistle.
And being the Big tea drinker that I am...OooOooo Yeah! He holds it up, and looks at me..."We should get one."...well who am I to say no?
Now...
in my world, this means....WOOO we can do a lil Impulse buying? Of Course....I didn't say this out loud, I just figured it's better I let it slide, and just kind of let it happen from there...ya know? once in awhile just 'throw something in the cart'..lil things, things he might not notice right away. So he says "I'll be right back, gonna go check out the Movies'...this is his Favorite part..so he goes and leaves me in the OMG I NEED it all isle....
Towels, thanks giving is coming...my Whole family will be here, and we should really get some new towels, and what about dishcloths, i NEVER do dishes, I have a dishwasher, and IT does the dishes...but Thanksgiving time, well...mom LOVES the kitchen, that's where people end up 70% of the time in my house or my mothers or my sisters....we cook our senses in each other, sip coffee, drink great red wines, laugh, and do our silly things..while the DUdES seem to gather round that dining room table and talk Sports or whatever it is guys talk about....So I'll need dishcloths and towels in the kitchen, and of course that great blue kitchen rug, cuz it just POPS with the other colors in the kitchen, ... like that awesome Green Teapot!
And....and...and UT OH
hubbie comes back and my cart is jammed high with blue and green towels, rugs, and I forget what the hell else I had in that cart, but the moment I turned my head as some brilliant color Screamed at me from one of the shelves...it was gone. I still had the great lil rug (hell it was 5.00 and Beautious!) and the oven mits..which i also do not have, because i take everything out of the oven with the cuffs of my shirts, they are always a bit long, and make perfect pot grabbers for hot dishes in the oven...but my mom doesn't necessarily wear super long sleeves like I do, haaa...so I had to have those too.
We spent a bit out of the budget, and of course, put things back as we went along, laughing as we found something else that 'fit'.
Then it was time for a the home department, plants, plant holders, ettc..some of our Summer plants have taken residence inside now, for the winter. St. Johns Wort, lemoney herbs that Bulge out of the tops of their planters and we found this great tropical plant, a "Corn Palm" i think, looks like a lil palm tree..tipped over in the dirt, about 70% off it's regular price...I walked by it and said "I can revive this one'' so we rescued it and took it home, repotted and put in this brilliant blue planter....
The teapot has it's place on the stove, the Corn Palm has a new home, and we drew a picture that a 5 yr old would be PROUd to hang on the fridge!

1993 Suzen Kay

Back in 1993 I was in the peak of my 'so called music career' opening up for entertainment that came rolling through Minneapolis, playing all the local venues from lil cafe's to large venues with big stages. For awhile I had a band, but mostly I was solo.
I went under the name Suzen Kay.
When my 'Papa Jule' passed away,
I changed my name to Suzen JueL, to honor him.
This is the man that gave me the gift of music.
My whole family was pretty creative and crazy,
always singing something,
Papa would bring out his harmonica,
my dad would slap on the Spoons,
my gramma would grab the old Washboard,
my lil sister and I would get papas black combs with wax paper over them and we would blow and hum into it and make a funny kazoo type sound.
We would sing and dance and laugh for hours.
My papa
passed away of Alzheimer's about 10plus years ago, and since then I have been known as Suzen JueL.
My family was supportive and my grandma was thrilled when I told her this...
after all, my Papa Jule gave me my first guitar,
one he had handmade the year I was born...although it was by pure curiosity that it ever ended up in my hands.
I was all over in things as a child,
always going into Papa's attic and digging around,
looking at all the cool stuff they had in there.
WAY on the bottom of a pile of books and suitcases was this old black case....I pulled it out a bit further and once I saw what my little hands had come upon...I yanked it out, opened it up and saw this very small Classical Guitar with a wide neck and nylon strings.
I ran downstairs "PAPAAAAAAAAAAAA" and showed him the guitar,
as if it had dropped from the heavens.
My eyes Wide and Wild, my Papa smiling, he knew what was coming and without hesitation gave it to me.
I was about 11 or 12, and decided to take lessons. That didn't last very long at all, I was a terribly shy kid and my guitar instructor wanted me to sing "Delta Dawn" while I played it on my guitar.
I stopped. I looked at her..and asked "Are you serious? You want me to Sing?"...and as if it was just like making toast, she said "well, yes''.
I stood up,
I put my guitar in it's case,
and I walked home.
No Way!!!
SING? haaaaaa!!!!
I couldn't even SPEAK in front of people, now you want me to SING? nope.
I bought some books with guitar chords in them and spent hours in my room, learning the chords, singing and writing songs.
That was the greatest gift I could have ever had.
It gave me strength, it gave me courage, to know I could actually Create Music!
So, that is the story of Suzen Kay/JueL...that is why I am what I am, because it's not just me that makes me who I am, it's those that influenced me, it's those that had so much faith in me, it's those that encouraged me to actually Pursue what they knew was my Desire, my Need in life.
Coming across this old poster, from the days when I performed all over the Twin Cities, brought back SO many memories, so many good ones.
I was fortunate to have been able to perform with such talent in the Twin Cities, and Attempt to get over the 'stage fright' to be able to Express what is in me and make sense of it, through words, through music, through expressing, that's what it's ALL about to me, Expressing what is inside...
and sometimes, people relate, and sometimes they don't.
It doesn't really matter to me who understands or doesn't...it matters to me, that I Expressed something that was in me, got it out of me and shared it....that's what my Papa Jule did.
With his hands, his creativeness he made a guitar, he passed it to me...along with SO many other things.
He was also an artist, he painted, he drew, and he made things, great things.
My Mother (my papa Jule's daughter) also paints, she writes, she plays the keyboard, the banjo, the guitar, and the accordion...
Gifts get passed, and each generation takes it in a new direction.
My fathers side of the family (French) also has quite a few amazing talents in it...artists, performers.
Gratitude for these people in my life, all of them...is magnificent and unforgettable.

PackRat n Love Songs

My husband did the best thing he could have done...he cleaned the house over the weekend, while I was away, and FINALLY I was motivated to do my own cleaning. I have BOXES still unpacked from our Big Move SEVEN years ago. So finally I began sorting through some of them, trying desperately to get RID OF THINGS THAT I NO LONGER USE...not sure why I save things I never use, like old folders from back when I worked at Time Warner, or magazine clippings, or Ralph Lauren catalogs. I don't need this, but that lil Pack Rat in me saves Everything!
There was this great box full of old scrap papers with various patterns on them, lil plastic bags of red flower clippings, music sheets that I never used, since I'm quite uncertain on how to read or write music...the Proper way...I just write my songs, draw pictures of the chords, so I remember what I was doing.
Tucked in between those folders of magazine clippings and torn out pages of perfume samples, and under countless books I filled with poetry and doodles, odd drawings and bizarre dreams, is this little piece of paper...kinda stopped me dead in my tracks...with little notes penciled in and a scratchy written title "My Name is Susie!!!' yes THREE exclamation points..because apparently at that age, I was VERY DETERMINED to let people Know My Name. I think I was about 7 or 8, not sure.
Even funnier
on the backside I wrote my babysitters name and her boyfriends -Cindy + Ron FOREVER...Susie+___ FOREVER and my sisters name and her 'boyfriend' FOREVER...because FOREVER is a serious thing when you're Seven!
This was probably the funniest thing I've seen in years, perhaps being a Packrat Paid off :)