or Hoarder History Secrets!
My Cloud 9 Native American Bracelet, coincidentally made by Tahe!
This is a series of stories all wrapped up and entwined for a final finale!
Some Hoarder History Secrets! This was so long ago, I'd have to dig through calendars, old journals, letters and such to find out the mysteries to what was happening in my life at the time, but it must have been stress on top of stress that dragged on for 3-4 years.
Anyways, back to my hoarder history and hoarded secret! Don't ask me how I did this all on a miniscule teacher's salary, but I did and I still managed to save a little each month, pay a mortgage and buy myself a daily gift!
I do remember it was after one of my many hoard purges! Yes, I had cleaned out and either gave away or donated almost everything and I missed my clutter! I can sooo relate to Elettra
from elettrarossa in the post of Clutter as Visual Noise. I was going to start out fresh and new... or so I thought, but instead I just got more "old" new stuff, which they used to call antique, but now call vintage. So basically I bought old things that were new to me.
It's like going on a crash diet and looking good from losing so much weight, but it happens so fast that new eating habits don't set in or it's an impossible diet to sustain, so it's not a realistic life style change and before I know it, something pulls me over the edge of stress and I return to my old eating habits and gain twice the weight!
Same with the hoard purge, like a bad diet I gained twice the hoard on top of hoard!
It's like going on a crash diet and looking good from losing so much weight, but it happens so fast that new eating habits don't set in or it's an impossible diet to sustain, so it's not a realistic life style change and before I know it, something pulls me over the edge of stress and I return to my old eating habits and gain twice the weight!
Same with the hoard purge, like a bad diet I gained twice the hoard on top of hoard!
I had a set limit dollar amount that included shipping (that I followed most of the time) and made sure I had at least one gift for myself on the door step when I returned from work daily and even two on Saturday to tide me over til Monday! There I said it! That's my dirty little hoarded hoarding secret! That wasn't so bad, but I still have my stomach ache!
Did I mention I did this for three or four years! That's a lot! I just tallyed that in my head and rounded up. I could have bought a new car! I rounded up because after work, I'd go thrifting almost daily too! Another hidden secret!
Okay, back tracking, where was I? Oh yeah, the original story about my Cloud 9 bracelet. I had bought a bracelet just like the one above, but had so stuff coming my way, I didn't noticed it never came until this beautiful heavy coiled cuff arrived!
I'm surprised I didn't save the letter that came along with it. I probably did, but as the years pass my purges get more harsh, but then so does the recollecting! Talk about repeating history over and over!
I wrote this story in both bracelet listings in June or July of 2012. The letter's story goes like this:
Eons ago, I had bought a single plain Native American Cloud bracelet on
ebay and never received it and quite honestly had forgotten about it. (Now I know why I had forgotten about it! My hoard was growing by amounts so vast and fast I wasn't even keeping track of it!)
Two
or more months later this bracelet arrived with a note from a man thanking me
for not leaving bad feedback and asked if I would accept this larger bracelet,
instead of the one intended. He explained that his delay was due to his hospital stay and recovery from a
heart attack from smoking. He went on to say, the cloud bracelet I had purchased was his first Pow Wow
bracelet and he wanted it as a reminder of his renewed health and for all his future Pow Wows.
Years later I refound this one like his/my cloud pow wow bracelet
at the now defunct sister store of the Folk Tree in Pasadena,
California. (I wore it often with the listed "dot to dot" bracelet for
the comforting jingly sounds). My hope is cloud bracelet brings
good health and a cloud 9 feeling to all believers of serendipity and
connections without connecting!
This is another "destiny of things" in which someone read the descriptions and bought them both! The other stories that I can remember--where someone read and liked the descriptions enough to follow it's destiny are "Twin Cross" and "For the Love of Square". I hope my emotions are in check because that brought another tear to my eye! There may be more of these types of stories like this one, you think?
I didn't know it at the time, until writing this post that both bracelets are made by Tahe, which is a family of Navajo Indian jewelry artists of Northern Arizona. Talk about all believers of serendity and connections without connecting! Another little tidbit brings tears to my eyes!
Also, when we went to the Autry, I thought it was an exhibit on the importance of corn to Native Americans, but it was "Kastina in Hopi Life". It is in this exhibit that I saw some jewelry symbolizing corn and realized that the Tahe coil cuff most likely symbolizes corn on the cob or corn kernels from heaven because it has clouds, the sun or rainbows stamped on it's sides! I can't even write down all the connections I made at the Autry, although I already tried in my notes and journal.
Note to self: Write a review about trying the gf corn recipes from the Kastina in Hopi Live exhibit!
WARNING: Way OFF TOPIC here!
Side Note: I wanted to add this Michael
Jackson in the original Autry post, but ran out of time. Click and scroll down towards the bottom
to see MJ's cowboy dance from back in the day and keep in mind they have this outfit there to see! It's so worth watching the MJ's cowboy dance!
Calling Kennedy back to earth! Hey, Kennedy there's a call from earth for you about some bracelets!
December 4 2012 12:30pm EDT
I will purchase the heavier three coiled bracelet
next week so please set that aside for me... I will need to wait on
other bracelets for now and have bookmarked your site. You have really got me into this look... your
photos of the bracelets together are amazing! I may have just started a
new "hunt."
So there it is, "my omega to your alpha" story!
Saying Good-bye: I rarely wore this coiled corn cuff because it's so heavy, it's like getting a work out! but when I wore it, I did with a simple one color outfit, usually black stacked with other bracelets.
My other favorite ones to wear with it are/were the turquoise sandcast and coral ones, which one fav is still lost in my hoard or I've lost it!
The turquoise and especially the coral, added the simple pop of color, which I thought was a more subtle look! It sounds silly funny now to me!
And that's when I thought I was dressing up! Now, I just wear jeans and tees. That's "if" I go outside!
What I Learned:
1. My new old stress food is SPAM!!!!!
I didn't buy anything yesterday because I was too busy doo-dahing around you tube and then had to rush and finish my two posts yesterday. The oldie songs threw me for such a loop that the thought of SPAM was the only comfort!
I know it's not organic, but is it healthier than french fries? It doesn't have any gluten. I can keep it on hand and it's cooks faster than going out to get french fries, so I consider that instant enough! (I tried to find an organic SPAM and find it so oxy mornonic funny, that I don't care! until I have a reaction) It surprisingly has less ingredients than most processed foods. Okay, so I caved! Anyways, I can't eat too much of it because it gave me overnight eye gunk this am.
For the Japanese SPAM has an interesting history from Hawaii because back in the day, when the Japanese immigrated from Japan, many first stopped in Hawaii and saved til they could hop to Cali.
SPAM has been another childhood fav. It's right up there with teriyaki hot dog and top ramen and sleepovers with Granma! I gave up SPAM over 10-20 years ago, but have hung on to the empty cans as comforting reminders of many camping trips of SPAM and eggs, crunchy spam fry snacks with my brother and Loco Moco but with SPAM!
I had/have a case of SPAM in my truck, but that's another story pertaining to my hoard! A few years ago, I have replaced all my vintage McCoy, Bauer, Anchor Hocking and Fire King planters that I used as pencil holders with SPAM cans! See my SPAM Cat avatar!
Each room has a SPAM can holding something, like scrap papers, pencils, pens, a ruler, solar calculator, maybe a timer, post it notes, scissors and who knows what else!
Note to self: Explore the idea that SPAM and ff are cravings for oil and salt? Reminder: I use salt as an afternoon pick me up sometimes for my lbp.
2. I've begun to notice that people who do leave me their stories through email have commented on the card I send with it. I distinctly remember using my last handmade Love card with this order, which was around the end of November right before I kicked in high gear to post all my backdrafts:
I remember it because I wondered if I should even send it because this LP storage box was shipped to a famous painter.
Now that I have found crafting as a good source of stress release, although making washi tape cards doesn't work as well as mending or free hand embroidery. I have relisted all my washi tape cards for Valentine or anti-Valentiners. I do hope to at least return to sending homemade cards, after my stash of "bought" cards has run out and/or things slow down around here!
3. Extreme stress causes me to jump from topic to topic until I'm completely off topic!
4. I am so happy that my end is someone's beginning! And it's more likely more than three! There are so many serprenditpioius coincidental connections in this story it's starting to boggle my mind and I can't keep them all in order! I'll add them later if I've already forgotten them.
Thanks to the buyer who bought Cloud 9 and bought it with the dot to dot to keep them sounding jingly together. Thanks to the buyer of Coiled Corn Cuff and the start of her new stacking bracelet collection!
Thank you readers from USA, Serbia, UK, Australia, Germany, Israel, South Korea maybe of Kallery Gallery, Trinidad and Tobago for keeping me company and keeping me going on my last load of backdrafts to start the New Year with a clean slate!
Happy New Year's Eve again to your and yours!
