I woke up while it was still dark. I told myself not to start thinking, to just go back to sleep, but of course my wheels started turning and I was thinking all sorts of things. It’s obvious I have anxiety. I don’t have depression, but I DO have anxiety and I’m also taking medication for it. I say this, because I know my friends and family are worried about me, too – not just Eric – and I want them to know I’m doing everything I can to keep it together.
I did fall back to sleep, but then I woke up because Eric got up. He wanted to get the oil changed on the car before he left, so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. I do appreciate that he thinks of these things. I know that causes him a lot of anxiety – worrying about how I’ll get along without him – but really, the oil change place is down the block and it only takes ½ hour, so I think I could handle it, if I had to!
He’s also super-stressed about the fact that the RV isn’t sold, but I told him he’ll be able to help from afar, because I can put them on the phone with him while they’re looking at it, or if they want info before they come to see it. It would definitely help if he’s here, but I can do it without him. The good news is that it’s in MY name, so at least we won’t have a problem selling it because of him being in NY.
So, Eric went and got the oil changed and when he got back we left to go to the CITY HEIGHTS FARMER’S MARKET. It opened on June 7th and I’ve been wanting to go ever since. It’s only open on Saturdays from 9am – 1:0pm, and Eric and I have SUCH A hard time getting out the door early on a Saturday. It was after 11:00am by the time we left, but we knew we’d have almost 2 hours there, so it seemed early enough.
We drove about 5 miles and saw that it was in a very Mexican neighborhood. We got a great spot – right across the street from the entrance, but – unfortunately – it was much smaller than we anticipated. There were different vendors selling fresh organic fruits and vegetables (and giving free samples of everything) and a man selling Kettle Corn (we bought a small bag for $3), a woman selling some kind of triangle-shaped pastry with different stuff inside. I got a cream cheese and Eric got a chicken. They were $1 each and were SO delicious. I could have eaten 10 of them!
There were a bunch of young girls and guys playing instruments and singing in Spanish. They were adorable.
There was a woman selling home-made soaps, and another selling jewelry. There were a few others selling food, and then there was a booth to visit to see if you qualified for assistance for food, so I’m guessing it was a pretty poor neighborhood. We were finished with the whole market in about 15 minutes, so we decided to go to THE BIG KITCHEN in South Park for brunch.
There was no wait (which is pretty amazing for a Saturday morning, but I guess it was almost Saturday afternoon!) and we got a booth right away. As we were sitting there, I noticed – for the first time – a small stuffed Betty Boop doll on a shelf with a lot of other stuffed animals and characters.
I also saw a set of mugs I sold in my shop. They were designed by a woman (I forget her name) and were from the 1940s. Each mug in the set had a beautiful, sexy woman as the handle and on each mug she was in various stages of undress. The first she was wearing a red gown. In the next one, it was around her waist, on the next one she was pulling it over her head. In the next, she was totally naked. They were pretty fabulous bar ware and I was so surprised to see them again! Some of you may remember them from the shop!
Eric had pancakes with scrambled eggs and home fries. I had a grilled cheese with tuna and tomato on rye. I guess you’d usually call it a tuna melt, but it was a grilled cheese sandwich and they just add the tuna and tomatoes. It was the best I’ve ever had!
After brunch, we decided to drive to OCEAN BEACH. I’ve been dying to go there since we moved here, because I heard there was a street called NEWPORT AVENUE where there are tons of antique shops.
We programmed Betty to find an address on NEWPORT AVENUE and found it was 10 miles from South Park (closer to us in Clairemont). We were there in about 15 minutes and found a great spot right on the main street. We went in and out of all the stores, heading towards the beach.
The "Limo" for the OCEAN BEACH HOTEL was an old Woodie De Soto!
We stopped in STARBUCKS and got something cold to drink and then sat on a wall by the beach and watched the surfers and sunbathers. When we finished our drinks we walked back on the other side of the street, going in and out of more stores, until we found a large antique mall – 18,000 square feet with over 100 vendors! We must have been in there for over an hour. It was called the NEWPORT AVENUE ANTIQUE CENTER (how original!) and was an antique mall, which means that each little booth was owned by a different vendor and they take turns running the whole place. They’ll only give you 10% off on anything unless it’s marked otherwise in their booth.
There was SO much to look at – lots of great stuff – and I was lucky enough to find a beautiful clear rhinestone pin by KRAMER at a great price.
Eric admired some custom Harley Davidson Motorcycles!
I fell in love with one booth in the Antique Mall, because it was set up so beautifully. Tons of vintage kitchen ware (which I love)!
Here's something I found that is along the same lines as my jewelry mosaics. Someone took vintage costume jewelry and made it into a fancy Christmas Tree! Very clever!
I just thought this display of vintage threads was so colorful. If I had a sewing room...
There was a booth of vintage bakelite, which is an early form of plastic they used to make tons of FABULOUS jewelry and other items. Here are sets of colorful dominoes!
I knew Geri and Sergio would enjoy seeing this cookie jar, which was designed by someone I know -- Rex Morache -- for NJ Croce!!!
Here's another piece of Betty -- made by VANDOR -- which I absolutely adore. It looks a lot bigger than it really is -- only about 6 inches tall and hangs on the wall. I have about 6 of these ceramic hooks, which form a kick line -- but I've never paid more than $30 for one and this was priced at $80!!!!
Here was our favorite stop of the day!
Next we found a place called VIGNETTES – for the French-inspired home…garden…soul. From the moment I walked through their doors, I was in love. I took tons of photos, so I could share it with you. First of all, someone is VERY clever with seashells and you KNOW how I love that! It’s the perfect environment, since it’s right by the beach, and it was so beautifully displayed.
As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by this magnificent mannequin, decked out in seashells and rhinestones. It spells out "She sells sea shells" on her chest!
A statue bedecked, a wedding cake, and a topiary. All beautifully done! The gold coins on the table are chocolates -- which Eric and I enjoyed!
This mirror was absolutely magnificent. I asked who did all these pieces, but they were very secretive about it. Not sure what that was about! BTW -- there's me in the mirror!
I don't think this would be too comfortable to sit in, but what an artistic and clever piece! I'd love to try this with jewelry!
Another bedecked beauty!
Look familiar? I knew I wasn't the only person who ever thought to do this, but to see something so very close to my work was a little disconcerting. Still, it made me think maybe THEY'D like to have my things in their shop!
This wire mannequin was covered with their business cards, which are so pretty!
Next there was a HUGE showcase with TONS of vintage costume jewelry and the prices were TO DIE FOR! There was a man looking at some pieces and we started talking. He was explaining that all the merchandise in one particular case was from this man Erik and that his prices were great. I couldn’t believe my eyes. In a place like VIGNETTES you’d usually expect to pay top dollar, yet the prices were cheaper than the antique mall we just visited. He was a dealer and said that he would buy pieces here and turn them around and sell them, so you know the prices were great.
I decided to give him my business card, told him what I do, and asked him if he had any broken jewelry to sell. He said he did, and would be in touch!
After looking at everything in the case, I found a huge round rhinestone pin that was the brighest orange I had ever seen. It had small round, larger round and marquis-shaped stones, with matching clip-on earrings. I never wear the earrings, but it was sold as a set, so I took them. I have so many different colored rhinestone pins (and I used to only collect clear, until we started cross-country!), but I never saw anything so big, bright and orange. It’s really gorgeous! It would look so magnificent on a black jacket.
We bought that one, too, so I ended up getting two new pieces for my collection. After we paid for the pin, the woman behind the counter asked us if we had been inside for the party. Turns out it was their 13th anniversary celebration and they invited us to enjoy some champagne and dessert pastries.
Why don't I have a rhinestone bra?
Here's a display holding lots of rhinestone tiaras. All the displays were painted gold, which made it so beautiful, fancy, and elegant.
We walked around some more and ended up in the back room. Every inch of this place was decorated to the max with that shabby chic French-inspired style I so adore. There was a bar with a guy serving champage or ice-water, but we just had a few tiny cupcakes, some gourmet marshmallows, macaroons dipped in white chocolate, and some of those egg-white cookies that melt in your mouth. It was a nice treat so many hours after lunch. We weren’t really hungry, but we hadn’t had dessert, so it hit the spot!
Another fabulous piece with seashells!
As we were leaving, Eric said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to win the lottery and just walk in here and buy everything you liked?” I guess it would, but it would kind of take the fun out of it if you could have ANYTHING. It’s nice to pick and choose and feel great about having one or two pieces – at least I feel that way and I really appreciate it!
By now it was after 4:30pm and I was exhausted, so we drove back to the apartment and watched last night’s episode of MONK, which was the season finale. The season just started on July 17th, and after 2 months it’s all over until January! It’s a good thing I love this show enough to watch repeats. This episode was SO great. Monk was hypnotized and he regresses to about 9 years old. He was so cute and funny, and still able to solve crimes!
Is she fabulous or WHAT?
My eyes were closing as I watched and as soon as it was over I took a nap. Eric kept watching TV and woke me up a little before 8:00pm.
Still more seashells!
We jumped in the shower, got dressed, and drove to CONVOY STREET to go back to the Vietnamese restaurant we visited on Eric’s birthday in June. We had another delicious meal. I had a noodle soup with shrimp, tofu and tomatoes. Eric had a shrimp dish with broccoli and walnuts and we shared a Vietnamese crepe with seafood. There was so much food that we brought home most of the shrimp dish!
Next, we drove to LITTLE ITALY to visit PAPPALECCO and get some gelato for dessert. While there we ran into GILI – of GILI ANNA’S in La Jolla! It was such a pleasant surprise. She was there with her boyfriend. We had told her Eric was leaving to go back to NY and now we told her he was leaving on Tuesday. She immediately invited me to a get-together she’s having in two Thursdays. I told her I would love to come and she said she’d email me. I got to meet her boyfriend, and then we got our gelato and left.
When we got home Eric watched the Saturday night fights, and I immediately started blogging. I have SO many photos to download, resize, save and upload, so I don’t know how long this is going to take, but I’ll stay up all night if I have to!!!
We had a really great day. There were moments of tension, when we’d both think about the fact that he’s leaving, or start talking about things we need to do, but otherwise it was totally pleasant, fun, and enjoyable. Just what we needed!
I was supposed to finish uploading all the pictures after Saturday Night Live, but we both fell asleep before it was over. Sorry this is late. Hope you enjoyed!