Gypsy Froggie

I am on adventure! Life is so good! Embracing the thought that things that can brake you can make you strong!

I guess I am hoping I can use this blog to document the ramblings of my mind and find some common themes running through it all. A sounding board to my own mind...and a place to vent! We all need a place to vent!

Although I can't really complain about my life, I have nothing to complain about! Life is pretty good even on a bad day. That is what happens when you take charge of your own life, and don't let anyone else influence you as to what decisions to make and what you should be doing.

For years (literally YEARS) I allowed other people and what I thought "society" thought - to dictate to me, and to influence my decisions. Not anymore! I knew as the year 2000 approached that my life was going to take on a different direction, not so popular with my family, but very supported by my friends! So I knew I was on the right track! LOL

Now I am not a crisis junkie, I have NO drama in my life...and it is so good! But the only draw back to all this good vibe...is that my artistic side has suffered a lot. Now that is really sick! On some primal level I was more creative with all the crisis and drama in my life. I think mainly because I was trying to escape my life and I was able to do that in making some thing beautiful in the midst of all of life's ugliness.

Ah, but if I think about it, I have been LIVING life more...getting out of my house and actually living!

100 Meaningless Factoids about the Gypsy:
1. I was born in California.
2. I have lived in California all of my life.
3. I love the beach, and our woods.
4. I am short but I look tall when I am sitting down.
5. I have a tattoo of a mouse laughing and crying at the same time.
Ah, revised! I covered the mouse with a beautiful Gypsy reading a crystal ball...lots of meaning for me.
6. I have 3 earrings in each ear, and I did that in 1975 when NO ONE had that, I was told I was weird!
7. I have considered a nose piercing.
8. I had purple hair before it was popular back in the 70s.
9. I am owned by a Double Yellow Napped Amazon Parrot.
10. I have never been to Europe but I have been to Hawaii.
11. I am a Crazy Quilt artist.
12. I taught myself how to embroider when I was 17 years old.
13. I also do Silk Ribbon embroidery.
14. I have won a First place award for one of my embroidery pieces, and one for a crazy quilt piece I created.
15. I was a featured artist in 2001 for the Marin Needle Arts Guild. My items were on display and I had to do a presentation on stage in front of over 200 people. (www.mnag.org)
16. I am into multi-media, ATCs and altered books and art journaling.
17. I did not finish high school, but did get a G.E.D.
18. I did not go to college. Except for a certificate program.
19. I love to write real letters by hand and mail them to people I know.
20. I’ve won an award for a program that I founded at work and has been successful for over 12 years.
21. I worked for the same company for 32 years and retired in 2016.
22. I have done many speaking presentations.
23. I have won awards for my graphic design work.
24. I hate to fly or take elevators.
25. I often have re-occurring dreams.
26. Strangers talk to me like they have known me for years.
27. I had a 1/2 breed Morgan horse when I was a child for a short time.
28. I'm in love with someone who was my best friend for 16 years before we ever dated.
29. I am not friends with anyone I went to school with, except my best friend in High School.
30. I drink tequila, and I love the cheap stuff.
31. I can only count to 10 and cuss you out in Spanish.
32. My parents were divorced before I was born. I am their only child.
33. I have half siblings, I only talk to two of them.
34. I was raised by my grandmother and uncle for the first 12 years of my life.
35. My Uncle, who raised me, always told me I was born old and that he wanted me to be a playboy bunny!
36. My biological mother is a demented woman who wanted me to be a radical feminists, but she herself was always (and still) “taken” care of by men.
37. I no longer speak to her.
38. I was an hour and 1/2 late to my wedding. A Clue?!
39. Speaking of feminists, I was the sole provider in a 20 year marriage, and when the kids were 18 I divorced him. He got alimony (for a short time), half my retirement, more than half my IRA, my Torino and everything else I wasn’t able to get out of the house before I left. Can you say Thank You Gloria Steinem? Equal pay? No way! But yes, we did get Equal divorce status!
40. I consider myself lucky…I am finally free! It was worth the cost!
41. I love my 1969 Ford Gran Torino! LOVE that car! (I have a great story about getting that car back from my ex! )
42. I am still restoring my Torino!
43. My biggest fear is being a bag woman yelling at people when I am old, because of my retirement being ravished and not having access to a bathroom.
44. I collect many things…teacups, dolls, frogs, angels, mermaids, Victoriana, hats, gloves, vintage clothes, scarves, nudes, etc.
45. I love old movies.
46. I know why Ferrets eat their young.
47. I used to play the flute. I wanted to sound like Jethro Tull, I didn’t!
48. I love to sing, but I am not talented!
49. I hate to clean, except when I am upset, I clean a lot! It is a nervous habit.
50. I love to cook with my boyfriend, we work really well together.
51. I love my sewing machines and thread.
52. I own more than 300 CD’s.
53. I own over 200 DVD’s.
54. My best friend took me to Disney World when I left my husband, because he thought it would be funny to tell people what I did after I finally left!
55. I love Disneyland and didn’t care much for Disney World in the summer.
56. I've had several unexplained paranormal experiences through out my life, including recently.
57. My favorite male music artist is David Bowie…I have loved him since I was 12 years old and heard Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars! I loved him when he was not popular, in fact, I took a lot of shit growing up because I loved him.
58. I have only seen him 6 times in my life…but have cried every time!
59. My favorite female music artist is Stevie Nicks.
60. I have seen her over 20 times and the first time I saw her, what endeared me to her was that she forgot her lines and started to cry on stage, Mick Fleetwood told the crowd that she was new and we all had to pay our dues, and to give her a hand for encouragement! We all did! She sang it perfectly the second time!
61. The only music I can’t handle is Opera, Rap and Hip Hop.
62. The first concert I saw was when I was 5 years old in San Francisco, The Grateful Dead, and it was free.
63. My favorite author is Mark Twain.
64. I love FROGS.
65. I love the stories of Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.
66. I collect Tinker Bell items.
67. I love things that swim and fly.
68. I am a clotheshorse…I love clothes!
69. I love shoes that hurt my feet but look good!
70. I hate panty hose and refuse to wear them anymore!
71. I love to giggle.
72. I am neurotic and insecure!
73. I am filled with contradictions.
74. I love whimsical things.
75. I want to own a Victorian house.
76. I love antiques and own a few.
77. I love corsets.
78. If I don’t feel good there are two movies I watch, Some Where in Time and Out of Africa.
79. I love silver jewelry. My favorite silver jewelry artist is Marty Magic. (www.martymagic.com/)
80. I dislike narrow minded people.
81. I don’t like people who are so open minded their brains are falling out! There is a balance!
82. I love Vampires there is something sexy about them.
83. I believe in freedom of religion, any religion.
84. I don’t like the frozen chosen…those that just dust a pew and call it religion!
85. I don’t like religious guilt.
86. I don’t like religious fanatics.
87. I am a hopeless romantic.
88. I love the absurd!
89. Halloween is my favorite holiday.
90. I collect Halloween things.
91. I don’t believe in regrets.
92. Constant battle is finances!
93. I love to go to Art & Wine Festivals, I have favorite artists I buy from.
94. I choose great friends.
95. I don’t like spiders and I am afraid to kill them.
96. I love the color purple.
97. I love Christmas Ornaments.
98. I love to send bazaar cards to friends.
99. I love the books that I read in my childhood and am trying to replace them.
100. I am a bitch and I am ok with that!
-Completed on June 19, 2004 -Updated 2020

100 Books that I have Read!
1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2. A Conecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
3. A Midsummer Night's Dream
4. A pilgrims progress
5. A Spell for Chameleon
6. Alice In Wonderland
7. Bearing an Hourglass (Incarnations of Immortality bk 2)
8. Beloved
9. Black Beauty
10. Blue Adept
11. Bridges of Madison County
12. Carmen
13. Castle Roogna
14. Catch-22
15. Centaur Aisle
16. Co-dependency no more
17. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister : A Novel
18. Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn
19. Dancing in Red Fuzzy Slippers (current book)
20. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
21. Dragon on a Pedestal
22. Dragonflight
23. Dragonquest
24. Dune
25. Edgar Allan Poe – All of his tales
26. Faeries: 25th Anniversary Edition
27. Fall of the House of Usher
28. Farenheit 451
29. Golem in the Gears
30. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries: 2 Books in 1
31. Great Expectations
32. Harry Potter (all 5 books)
33. Heaven Cent
34. Huckleberry Finn
35. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
36. In the Mean Time
37. Juxtaposition
38. Lady Cottington's Fairy Album
39. Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book
40. Legends
41. Little Alters Everywhere
42. Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 1)
43. Lost
44. Mirror Mirror: A Novel
45. My Utmost for His Highest
46. Nancy Drew
47. Night Mare
48. Nine Princes in Amber (the whole series)
49. Ogre, Ogre
50. On a Pale Horse (Incarnations of Immortality, Bk. 1)
51. Out of Africa
52. Out of Phaze
53. Paradise
54. Rebecca
55. Robot Adept
56. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
57. Something wicked this way comes
58. Song of Solomon
59. Source of Magic
60. Split Infinity
61. Talon and the Dragons of Crinnelia
62. The Age of Innocence
63. The Art of Faery
64. The Badge of Courage
65. The Bible
66. The Borrowers
67. The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
68. The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
69. The Exorcist
70. The Geisha
71. The Great Gatsby
72. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (all the books)
73. The Illearth War (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever book 2)
74. The Importance of Being Earnest
75. The Last Unicorn
76. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
77. The Martian Chronicles
78. The Mists of Avalon
79. The Notebook
80. The Once and Future King
81. The One Tree (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 2)
82. The Pink Motel
83. The Power That Preserves (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 3)
84. The Princess Bride
85. The Promise
86. The tale of two cities
87. The White Dragon
88. The Wind Done Gone
89. The Wind in the Willows
90. The Wounded Land (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1)
91. Through the Looking Glass
92. Thumbilina
93. Tom Sawyer
94. Vale of the Vole
95. Venus on a half shell
96. White Gold Wielder (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 3)
97. Wicked
98. With a Tangled Skein (Incarnations of Immortality bk 3)
99. Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
100. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
-Completed June 19, 2004

Some favorite Movies -
An Affair to Remember
Alien (all of them)
Arsenic and old lace
Barbarella
Bringing Up Baby
Buckaroo Bonsai and His Adventures Across the universe
Camelot
Casablanca
Clockwork Orange
Dangerous Liaisons
Desk Set
Easy Rider
First Knight
Harry Potter (all of them)
Hocus Pocus
Hook
I was a Male Order Bride
Julia
Kentucky Fried Movie
Laura
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
Mists of Avalon
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
My Fair Lady
Out of Africa
Peter Pan 2003
Peter Pan Disney Version
Practical Magic
Rebecca
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Some Where in Time
Sword in the Stone
Taxi Driver
The 6th Sense
The Age of Innocence
The Princess Bride
The Witches of Eastwick
The Wizard of Oz
This is Spinal Tap
To Kill A Mockingbird
Up In Smoke
When Harry Met Sally
Working Girl
Young Frankenstein
-Completed June 19, 2004