We Arrive, We Collapse, We Move In To Paradise...Right?

Part three of our ongoing saga about our move to living in Costa Rica...

Read Part One HERE...How Do We Live Our Lives? With Abandon and Lotsa Moxie!

Read Part Two HERE...Wecome To Living In Costa Rica ...Your Homecoming Includes A Shakedown At Customs!

Hindsight is always 20/20! Looking back now on our lives during the two years we lived there, our first few hours in Costa Rica and our experiences at the airport were warning signals of what our lives would be like and we probably should have booked a flight back to the US while we were still at the airport.
Leaving the US was for me, an opportunity to find a place where there was less government involvement and restriction in my life and a slower, more graceful way to live out my life. It was our attempt at finding a new frontier for us! Little did we know at the time that this was a huge fallacy and a total illusion created by my warped mind which has been addled over the years with too much work, too little pay back and far too many dreams of liberation. Paradise called and we were going to answer that call.

We hadn't just picked up and moved to Costa Rica sight unseen. We went to visit twice before doing the deed. We toured around, checked out houses and neighborhoods, even took a seminar about how to live and move there! Most folks there told us we should visit at least 10 times over the period of several years before making the decision to move there but who had several years? We saw houses like these and the bars were everywhere but somehow we just didn't see them in our excitement and our quest for adventure.

The contrasts are many and very wide but the bars are everywhere as is the poverty. To us at the time it was quaint. We either needed more coffee or an injection of something stronger for the wakeup call was not ringing through on the time machine. We were living the dream then and wanted it all NOW! We threw all caution and money to the wind and just jumped with nose plugs remaining still wrapped in plastic at the beach. Sometimes it really does pay to listen to those who have passed through the portals ahead of you. Sometimes you just gotta jump!

During our second visit we stayed with a nice Canadian woman who owned a B&B in the town were we wanted to live. She had been living there for many years, was fluent in Spanish...because it is easy to learn if you are first fluent in French, which she was.She knew a lota people, locals and foreign nationals and helped us to get a few things together down there while we were back in the States. That included finding us a driver who knew someone else who also had a large van and the two of them could pick us and the 27 bags, 8 cats and one dog up at the airport for a reasonable price of $100. A bit more than your usual taxi to the airport but it was two vans after all so we didn't object...until the end.

As I exited the customs conflageration I was finally allowed to go visit el banos and have never felt such relief in all my life before or since. While doing so Bryana was shouting orders to the drivers of the vans to get them loaded with our stuff and pets. I made her go on the van with the animals because I knew if I had to listen to them cry any more I would end it then and there, and I went with the luggage and the bags of jewelry which were blessedly silent.

As earlier visitors and touristas we were treated as sort-of-honored guests. We stayed in a hotel with sort-of-airconditioning and were driven around in taxis and tour busses with sort-of-airconditioning. Now that we were 'living' there all the amenities magically disappeared and driving down the highway away from the airport my tired face was assaulted by the night time air of beautiful down town Allejula, pregnant with the humidity of the rainy season and throbbing with diesel fumes. Yum! Donde esta el airconditioning?? Welcome home Dona Susan...this is it! Roll down your window and feel the breeze.

Don Pablo (not his real name) had been languishing at the air port for over six hours with his buddy Don Something-else-or-another waiting for us. Taxi drivers are used to driving folks here and there in Ticolandia (my pet name) and waiting endlessly for them so sitting there for six hours may have been a bit much, but what the heck! They were waiting for the new Gringas and that meant a new house, private school for their kids and a new wardrobe for the little woman as far as they were concerned. They coulda sat there forever.

If you don't know what Gringa means, it's the female version of Gringo, or she who is totally green around the gills, new at whatever it is, comes from America, probably the Texas oil fileds, with pockets filled with greenbacks lined with gold and stuffed in their undies. It means an opportunity and we were the ripest opportunity Don Pablo and Don Someone-or-another had seen in weeks. They were driving happily around in circles, a talent the Tico taxi drivers have perfected, with the two dumb-butt, tired gringas eventually getting us to our new home in the wee hours of the morning and adding yet another couple rooms to their new houses which they were going to purchase as soon as they had dropped us off and got paid.

Before I asked the damning question, how much?, I had them haul all our stuff inside, cats, dog, bags and jewels and put things in their right place. God bless our Canadian friend for having set up litter boxes, food and water bowls where we had requested and for making beds for us to collapse into. To this day I am in her debt. When we were finally ready to let the 'boys' leave I said it...how much? $600 Dona Susan! Whhhhhaaaaaaaattttttt! And I look back on that day and laugh about it because, after all, we WERE in Paradise, Right? Pura Vida!

We set the cats up in the 'maid's room' and closed the door. Most nicer houses in Costa Rica have a maid's room even tho' there are not many live in maids any more. We used our maid's room as our cat room and our babies were finally able to settle down peacefully and sleep it off. We tumbled into our makeshift beds and passed out cold only to be awakened the next morning at 6:00 a.m. by our neighbors who were also our landlords chattering like excited monkies in the forest who'd just found a new banana tree and getting the kids ready for school, which starts at 7:00 a.m. Since all windows must be left open because the air conditioning is non-existant there was no way to block the noise and extend our shut eye.
Still in awe of being there and not have anything to be cynical about...yet, I got up to sit on my little balcony and enjoy the early morning rooftop view from my bedroom looking over the Central Valley amidst the palm trees and the mountains. Believing then that I had found what I had been seeking all my life, I was at peace...for that moment. Yes, Virginia, we were in paradise!

End of part three...yes there is more coming.

Do You Know How Many Colored Alloys Gold Comes In?

Ever since before the beginning of recorded time gold has been considered a valuable and highly sought after substance. People the world over have lived and died and spent their entire lives immersed in one way or another in all that glitters. Whether a financier in the hallowed halls of The City in London or a South African laborer chained by the ankle to a mining site, gold has held mankind captive and captivated since our earliest memories of humanity on earth. There are stories on stone tablets written in Cuniform, the language of the Sumerians telling about the precious metal and how it was sought out and used by our ancient ancestors of prehistory. I wouldn't mind owning this 294 troy ounce Alskan gold nugget. I wouldn't even mind being chained to it by the ankle or around the neck! That's 18 pounds of pure gold!

It's often been said that one ounce of gold can buy a good man's suit and whether back in the 1930's or today, this still holds true in our world economic structure. Let's face it, gold holds its value and is the all time haven for safe investment whether through the purchase of bullion coins, mining stocks or jewelry. I'm sure you most likely already know all of this and if you do and still don't own at least a little bit of gold in your portfolio or in your jewelry box you're either watching too many hours of The Real Housewives of Atlanta or from another planet! Take the quiz to see which "Real" Atlanta Housewife you are!

But how much do you really know about how gold is made? How does it get from 24 Karat pure gold to 10 Karat and did you know there are at least six different colors of gold jewelry? It's never too late to find something you like made from gold. The prices can go from ridiculous to the sublime for jewelry, but there's nothing like it when you hold it in your hand. The magic is always present. I never tire of having gold in one form or another near by. Boullion is my favorite but I'll take it in any form, any karat and any size, large or small!


I love to touch it and wear it and it makes me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Here's a few tidbits about karat gold and gold alloys to wet your whistle and help you know more about what you are buying.

Gold is a precious metal that is very soft when pure (24 Kt.). Gold is the most malleable (hammerable) and ductile (able to be made into wire) metal. Gold can be applied to things in the form of gold leaf or bent and formed into anything you can think of! Gold is alloyed (mixed with other metals, usually silver and copper) to make it less expensive and harder, thus more durable. The purity of gold jewelry is measured in karats. Some countries hallmark gold with a three-digit number that indicates the parts per thousand of gold. This system works in the following manner:

"750" means 750/1000 gold (equal to 18K) or 18K gold contains 18 parts gold and 6 parts of another metal(s), making it 75% gold.

"575" means 575/1000 gold (equal to 12K) or 14K gold contains 14 parts gold and 10 parts of other metal, making it 58.3% gold.

"335" means 335/1000 gold (equal to 9/10K) or 10K gold contains 10 parts gold and 14 parts another metal(s), making it 41.7% gold. 10K gold is the minimum karat designation that can still be called gold in the US.

Alloyed gold comes in many colors:

• Yellow Gold = gold + 50% silver and 50% copper

• White Gold = gold + nickel, zinc, copper, tin and manganese or nowadays, the addition of palladium is added to make white gold. It's more expensive than nickle thus, white gold is usually higher priced in than the other colored golds used for jewelry.

• Pink (rose) Gold = gold + copper and silver. The more copper added the deeper and rosier the color.

• Green Gold = gold + high proportion of silver or cadmium

• Blue Gold = gold + iron

• Grey Gold = gold + 15-20% iron

Black Hills Gold Jewelry is a great example of mixed alloyed gold jewelry of different colors, usually yellow, rose and green gold all in one piece. Black Hills gold jewelry is a style of said to have first been created in the 1870's by a French goldsmith named Henri LeBeauold, who is said to have dreamed about the design after passing out from thirst and starvation. Black Hills gold jewelry depicts leaves, grape clusters and vines, and is made with a combination of green, rose, and yellow gold. The jewelry must be manufactured in the Black Hills of South Dakota in order to be called Black Hills Gold Jewelry. It's beautiful, fascinating and shows off some of the many colors.

See our website, Posh Adornment or our Posh Adornement Etsy Store for a great selection of gold and gold filled antique jewelry. We specialize in gold filled Victorian pieces, usually rose gold in color, and we often have solid gold pieces for sale to fulfill your fantasies and enrich your collection of fine jewelry.

Wecome To Living In Costa Rica ...Your Homecoming Includes A Shakedown At Customs!

Go HERE for part one of this humorous series about our move to Costa Rica:

Part Two

We were standing in the heat, about a mile from the airport, on hot sticky tarmac with half a dozen Costa Ricans, also called Ticos as they refer to themselves, unloading our ten thousand bags and cats, rattling in Spanish, which to this day I still cannot speak or understand...except for a few choice words. It was probably a good thing at this point on the hot tarmac that I didn't know how to swear in Spanish.

Ticos generally don't like cats and are terrified of them thinking of them the way Americans think of rodents...which I never really 'got' the entire time I was there. So having to handle ours, even in kennels, was something to be discussed, debated endlessly, feared, but eventually accomplished. Look at these faces! How could anyone be afraid of these oversized plush toys?

Latin American is not known for its timliness or efficiency and just because they tell you Costa Rica is not really a third world country any more, you really shouldn't believe them. At best it is a second world country with serious issues around timliness among other agonizing cultural traits that just didn't mix with my North American JAQ expectations...I know gotta learn the local fare, but at that moment I still hadn't become anywhere near local.

Getting our belongings and pets ready to head off for immigration and customs was something out of a Keystone Cops movie and I was literally terrified to let my babies go without me. Just loading everything on the truck took over an hour! And by the time we were reunited with them it was another hour at least. We were put into a van clinging to the family jewels which our hosts wanted to liberate from us and take on the truck with the rest of our luggage. Since that wasn't an option we lugged the heavy bags to the terminal and awaited the arrival of cats and luggage...and waited, and waited!

I've learned through my years of travels there are several phrases I needed to memorize in the native language of whatever country I was in and 'Where is the bathroom' was always the first and most important. Donde esta el banos? Simple right? Wrong! I could not remember how to say this little tiny sentence. When I did finally get something like it out of my mouth the guys looked at me like I was from Mars. You don't get to go potty until after you go through customs. They didn't know Tiny Bladder and that I was permanently damaged from holding it in and now about 7 hours later still praying for intervention by the pee angels. I knew it would be hopeless to beg as they were unsympathetic and my Spanish was non-existent anyway. Still probably a very good thing I was unable to swear in Spanish. So my next best move was to ask for a wheel chair because it was easier to hold it in sitting.

Once again who woulda thunk we still had hours to go before I could pee and we could leave the airport! The terminal was almost empty, a total blessing. The dog was with us on the leash and no one said a thing about it except anyone who saw him wanted to pet him and of course he ate it up! He was more interested in marking the entire airport, so unlike me, he peed his way to customs in every corner on each and every chair leg and trash can. I was hoping no one was looking and wanted to drop my pants and squat at one point on the nearest kiosk but bad luck seemed to follow at every corner. My Tico escort was glued to me with no escape possible.


Our adventure in full swing, we had the unfortunate luck of being the ONLY ones going through customs at the hour we entered the country and the agents were bored and needed something to do to justify their having jobs. So they nearly strip searched us! Everyone of our 25 bags, two knap sacks, purses, fanny packs and pockets were emptied. Ooos and Ahhhhs aside, they were convinced we were theives and smugglers and the jewelry was contraband, so they confiscated it...ALL OF IT! Well, not all of it. They didin't get the stuff in the kennels. So fearful and superstitious about cats, they backed off and wouldn't go near them even to peer into the kennels. And that was good because in those cozy kennels was all the gold.

A cacphony of hysteria broke out. I started crying and wailing because that was the only way I could get their attention, the cats were howling and mewling as only cats can do, Winston was barking non-stop and Bryana stood there stunned and silent. We spent hours and hours trying to explain that the jewelry was ours and not stolen, but the customs agents were not interested nor did they understand us. I got angry, I got funny, I got hysterical, I waved my hands around like a manic in an asylum, I started threatening, I swore...in English, I pleaded, begged and tried bribery offering them each some jewelry for their wives...to no avail. Although this is not me in the video, it sure as heck coulda been...except for the Chinese part. And I bet she can't swear in Spanish either...



Someone who spoke Spanglish finally arrived and after hours of cajoling and begging, pleading and finally greased palms for the lot we came away with our things, our jewels, our pets and no dignity...and I STILL had to pee! But HELL, we were in paradise...right?


End of part two. Stay tuned, part three coming in a couple days.

Some photos "Courtesy of CostaRicaPhotos.com"
Thanks to all other internet sites whose photos I have used. Too many to mention. These are my cats tho'!

A Golden Moment of Time...

I'm sure you've noticed the price of gold lately, flirting with $1,000 an ounce again and even tempting some analysts to say it will hit $2,000 an ounce by the end of the year! Do you follow the gold price? If you don't already and would like to, I like Kitco.com for its live streaming charts 24/7 and lots of other great information.

If you haven't already stashed some away under your mattress or in your cookie jar you still have a chance to invest in gold bullion or awesome collectible gold jewelry which is also a wonderful way to protect your hard won earnings and your grand children's inheritance. And by the way, it's also obviously fun to wear! Check out this fantastic solid 14K gold vintage Swiss watch bracelet studded with diamonds and emeralds. A heavy chunk of gold went toward the custom design and elegant craftsmanship adding up to about 1 1/2 ounces.

Vintage 14K Gold Emerald Diamond Geneva Swiss Ladies Watch Bracelet

Would you like to know more about this gorgeous piece of jewelry? Click the picture or the link and have a look at the details on our Posh Adornment website or in our Posh Adornment Etsy store. We have other solid gold items for sale...and of course you'll find lots of great antique and vintage jewelry that glitters and makes you smile and isn't solid gold.

While I'm thinking about it, do you know the difference between Gold Filled, Rolled Gold, Gold Plated, Gold Vermeil, Tombak and Pinchbeck and the other gold simulants? Interested in discovering the wealth of information on alternates to solid gold? You can read about Gold and Gold Simulants in our article on the same subject on our website.

And by the way, stay tuned for part two of our adventures in Costa Rica!

How Do We Live Our Lives? With Abandon and Lotsa Moxie!

It was pouring rain as we loaded our bags into the back of the Land Rover, our Toyota and Paul's broken-down old yellow-orange VW van with failing fenders, chunks of character and 1960s bumper stickers. That is, we loaded our bags...27 of 'em, and our eight cats, one dog, one mom, one daughter and half a ton of jewelry and headed off for the airport. Of course it was raining! What else?! The gods were crying with joy and sorrow, mixed blessings and grief for our leaving our lives and climbing into the tiny cigar with wings that would take us to a new beginning, the fulfillment of a hard won dream fantasy. We were moving to Costa Rica, the whole fam damily and doing it against all odds and when no one else had the balls to do so even though everyone seemed to want to run away too!

I'm a recovered Jewish American Princess or should I say Queen, a JAQ with a serious defect in my personality. I like taking risks and adventure and don't much give a damn about status, position or clout in the community. Not into stability, the right husband, the acceptable outfit or being politically correct. I grew up having many of my dreams bashed by circumstance or by mom and dad and learned when I became an adult that taking action and bringing into reality those dreams, fulfilling them and allowing myself to live and be me was one of the most important things I could do for myself...and for my kids. And so it was and still is. My kids might not agree with this, but I sure gave it my best along the way. We are all dream makers and in our family we do our best to live them too! So, Costa Rica became a reality instead of a moment in time where we might have been left wondering what would our lives had been like if we had not actually picked up and left.

For me and Bryana, the only 'material things' we are REALLY concerned about are our pets and our jewelry...and for Bryana, being young...of course she loves the guys...not that they are material things, but sometimes I wonder what Bryana actually thinks as she flings them aside in a steady succession of collecting. I used to love collecting them too but then I got old and the only men in my life now are the ones in men!oh-pause.. But who cares? We're not talking guys here, rather jewelry and fulfilling dreams...LOTS of jewelry. Two knap sacks full, my purse, a fanny pack, the back of all 8 cat kennels and all twenty fingers, two necks, four wrists and four ears. I'm talking a LOT of jewelry!

Yep, after years of dreaming about it, being afraid to do it, wanting it, swearing up a tree about it, threatening to leave and pulling back...FINALLY we left. She quit college, bored with the idea of a stable income and great clothes from practicing law and I quit my life bored with the idea of spending the rest of my days working 'til I was carried out in a pine box and disagreeing with whatever government was in power. So we did it. We sold everything we owned...have you ever tried to do that? It sounds easy but is not so easy. Believing we would never come back, we sold EVERYTHING in the house, in the shed, in the yard, the cars, the house and the shed...and packed what we didn't sell. We were down to basically nothing and that nothing filled the 20 foot container truck from one end to the other...with 200+ boxes and my adjustable bed and of course the 25 suitcases and two knap sacks, purses and fanny packs. What was left of our entire house was packed in a big truck and off we went! No one believed we would go, but we did it and lived to tell about it for another day.

Our trip was not originally about jewelry but very soon became a jewelry odyssey and an animal story of great proportion and humor. There was no way we could get all our pets on a commercial airliner safely, feeling confident that one or more might meet its demise in the holding section down under with the luggage. And since we figured out after hours of research it would cost many thousands of dollars anyway, we solved the problem by chartering our own Learjet airplane, a very small cigar with wings. Yes we did! We lived like the rich and famous for a few moments and it was such fun! Can you see it now? Each little party puddy cat and our corgi dog in it's own seat with a tiara or a jeweled collar holding a Martini or a Champagn cocktail and a cigar and wisking off into the clouds towards Costa Rica?

Our two handsome pilots were astounded when we appeared with our paraphernalia and through all the wet muck and the rain. Even with our menagerie, our soggy clothes and dripping hair they still found time to flirt with us. OK, OK! It perked me up for a few minutes and then I fell dormant again. After they loaded the 25 bags, eight kitties and the dog we both climbed on board clinging to our two knapsacks full of jewels, purses, fanny packs and sloshing clothing to make our great escape from American tyranny as we saw it. Winston sat cheerfully soaked in Bryana's lap, the cats slumbered peacefully under a blanket of sedatives, our jewelry slumbered peacefully wrapped in miles of bubble wrap awaiting the next adventure when we got THERE; and I tried to figure out how I was going to make a 6 hour flight without a potty except for an old 5 gallon bucket I brought along for emergencies. The thought of baring my over sized butt openly with no privacy to the two jokers in the cockpit was sobering enough to jam my pipes and help me hold it in for hours. To answer your question, our plane was so small there was no bathroom and to have one would have required a larger plane and an extra $15,000. So we flew to Costa Rica and I kept my knees jammed tightly together until we arrived. It never dawned on me that I would have to hold it in another 6 hours in the airport!

End of part one. I'll be posting this story in bit sized parts over the next few days, so be sure to come back to read the next chapter in our adventure! Thanks to the many sources for the stock photos, to numerous to mention individually. These are not our animals. It was just too difficult that day to take photos on top of everything else!

A New Twist On The Wearin' O' The Green!

I was thinking about St. Patrick's day coming up and how festive a holiday it is. Such a fun time when I was younger and could still hold my liquor! And how everyone wears green and become Irish by osmosis for the day. Of course it's so much easier to become Irish when you're rubbin' shoulders with folks and your blood is thinner from the green beer.

These days, with 'green' being the new catch phrase for all things recycled, reborn, reinvented and reclaimed, I couldn't help thinking about a new twist on the wearin' O' the green! Nowadays we can wear 'green', wear GREEN and be green all at the same time! And if you're anything like me, having one drink does the trick when it comes to being green... :-) So, start celebrating early and scroll down for our new 'green' ideas.

Once upon a time, these beautiful earrings were antique clothing buttons or antique cuff links just sitting in a drawer discarded for lack of use. Since we at Posh Adornment hate to see things go to waste, especially beautiful things that no longer have use in today's fast paced, electronic world, we were inspired to convert them into wonderful, wearable earrings that can be displayed to their fullest glory once again. How unique and absolutely one of a kind! We have been going 'green' with these beautiful old buttons and cufflinks and recycling them for some time, giving them a new lease on life and selling them at our mall space. Now we've decided to make them available in our online stores. Our expert jeweler removes the original backing and attaches wires of sterling silver, 14K gold or gold fill. We have made the wires nice an long which balances the weight of the earrings and helps them hang just right on the ear. They look absolutely fabulous!

This week we're rolling out our first offers on these beauties and wanted to share them with you. You like? Let us know please, please. You can find these earrings for sale on our website Posh Adornment or in our Posh Adornment store on Etsy.

Art Deco GF 14K Gold Engraved Earrings

Antique Cut Steel Sterling Silver Earrings France




Lg Antique GF 14K Gold Portrait Earrings Goya

Victorian Art Nouveau GF 14K Gold Engraved Earrings

And if you're a little more traditional and like to WEAR the color green for St. Patrick's Day we've paired some of our gorgeous green jewels with a few other Etsy seller's and their gorgeous green frocks for a bright, cheerful look for spring that can't go wrong. Read on!

Art Deco Green Spun Satin Glass Czech Necklace

The Queen of Spring Party Dress
from violetfolklore on Etsy


Natural Emerald Marcasite Sterling Cocktail Cluster Ring
70s green mini dress
from dustyrosevintage on Etsy


Art Nouveau Green Slag Glass Filigree Drop Earrings
60s Tropical Print Sundress
from brycehill122 on Etsy


Art Deco Green Chrysoprase Glass Necklace Czech
Bright Green Sailboat Sundress
from alleycatsvintage on Etsy

I hope you like some of our ideas for going green this St. Patrick's Day and everyday this spring! Enjoy the day and stay safe.

New House for $1! Imagine That!

What a deal! Imagine buying a house for $1! A Long Island couple did it but there was just a little hitch...read the article here. It pays to have money, good luck and good connections. And what an awesome house this is!

The remarkable house was designed by famed architect Robert Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown. I love architecture and living in Atlanta I get lots of opportunites to view amazing buildings built by some of the best architects in the world. Atlanta is known for its forward thinking designers and unique buildings. And although I best love my antique kingdom, modern has a place too and I adore the sleek clean lines and quirky creativity of these homes.

Here's a little more about Robert Venturi. Discover something new every day!

Read about the Vanna Venturi house here!

WRAP IT, I'LL TAKE IT! :-)

Cameos Are Forever, Birthdays Come Once A Year!

It was Bryana's birthday a few days ago, and I'm a little late wishing her a Happy Birthday...but then again, she missed her due date by a couple days so I guess we're even. She is the co-founder of our Posh Adornment website and our Posh Adornment store on Etsy even though you don't see her much. She is the main support staff and holds all these many things we do together with her amazingly capable ability to do anything and everything. I don't tell her often enough, but she's really incredible!

Bryana is my first daughter... my only daughter and she's been a peach from day one...actually from before day one. Before the beginning Bryana was the perfect baby in utero and the perfect shopper. After she was born she slept through the night from the beginning, awoke with a gurgle and a smile and loved pretty clothes and jewelry from the git go. Always fashion forward and having great flair, she loved hats and set trends even as a youngun'. She began life at the mall...well, she began life a little before the mall but she spent her earliest days nesting in her nice little warm, dark place in my belly AND at the mall. There was one day in particular at the mall that has sealed itself indelibly into my memory when I was about 5 months pregnant.

It was cold and I was dressed for winter. Never liking panty hose or tights I struggled to get my maternity tights on twisting in ways that my swollen body would not allow and swearing as they kept twisting back on me so I had to continually yank and pull until they went all the way up. And then when they were all the way up, they weren't really all the way up. Because my belly wasn't yet big enough to fill out the kangaroo pouch at the top of the panty hose, they kept going beyond all the way up to the very top of my head. If I had been clever I could have wrapped a rubber band around the top of my head and used them as a cocoon or used them as part of my bank robber disguise but I wasn't that smart in those days.

But I was sort of smart and thought best thing to do was to roll the waistband down to just under my bra and pin them to the bottom of my bra to help them stay up. This was a mistake!

Bryana and I were shopping that day, me in my nifty maternity corduroy jumper, high fashionable winter boots, fur coat and rolled up or down panty hose pinned precariously to my bra. With every step I took the tights were pulling and threatening mutiny and I was left wondering if the girls would tumble out from the bottom of my bra and find a new home in the top of my rolled down panty hose or burst out the top of my bra and find no home at all! And to help matters along Bryana was looking around too checking everything out and making ready for when she could shop on her own. With every twist of her head my rolled panty hose shifted and twisted in sympathy and unison.

It was fortunate for me that I was standing in front of The Gap when the crisis happened. The ripping, whirring sound, the snapping and shussing when the delicate fabric of the tights ripped through the pins and at the speed of light, kept rolling down only to stop at my knees in a morbidly tight tourniquet of elastic and terror instantly disabling me and preventing me from moving with anything like a normal gait. I was finally a mermaid with essentially a tail and two feet attached. All I could do was stand there because when I attempted to walk my feet moved in tiny little circles and the rest of me tilted, threatening to fall flat on my face. Bryana, in the meantime was sqirming and wiggling, trying to get a look at it all from the inside out! You see her face here as she clings with every breath of life to the zip line in the tree tops in Costa Rica? That is not a smile, it is the look of abject terror. That is what my face looked like that fateful day at the mall and it must have stuck permanently in Bryana's memory banks and comes out in similar mortifying situations.

Back at the mall 25 years ago, you might be wondering why I felt it was fortunate to be at The Gap rather than say, in front of Barney's Coffee or a shoe store, no? I was mortified and managed to mince-waddle my way into the store where there were only young, skinny girls were working and begged them to let me use their bathroom. "I'm sorry we don't have public restrooms. There's a public bathroom on the bottom level of the mall." It was this comment where I began to perfect my red-nailed maniacal banshee routine you can read about in my story of my son's birthday here. After explaining my plight and actually lifting my skirt to show them what happened, one scrawny young thing took sympathy on me and helped me roll myself, flipper and all into their back dressing room where I was able to rescue myself. Shoving the girls back in their holding chamber and reattaching the cursed tights in a different and much more comfortable manner, I bought a baby outfit for Bryana and happily exited the mall for the day and went home.

In my haphazard and eccentric life there was always a reward for surviving incidents like these. My then husband and father of my child had a knack of coming up with the best ever jewelry that took away much of the pain and helped me forget my travails. I received this truly astounding, huge cameo which has always been one of my favorite pieces of jewelry and one I have never seen duplicated anywhere, ever. It measures 2 1/2" tall by 2" wide and is beyond fabulicious. Incredible detail and a gilded silver frame. It's also not for sale...soooorrrry!

But if you like cameos these beauties ARE for sale and can be found at our website Posh Adornment or at our site on Etsy.com under the same name, Posh Adornment. Just click the link to read more about them and while you're there have a look around, browse and enjoy our new site!

This is a large and very fine pin or pendant Cameo Of The Goddess Flora set in 14K white gold filigree.

These beautiful earrings are made from the lava of Mt. Vesuvius and are beautifully hand carved Victorian Cameos Of The Goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom. Set in finely detailed brass engravings and for pierced ears.

This is an Art Nouveau Moon Face Lady's Head Czech Cameo Pendant set in brass with an oak leaf ornamentation. Very beautiful, rare and unusual.

And a final HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY BRYANA. Love, mom