"Theatre of Dreams"

Some people would call it timing. I call it a lifetime journey. One that began so long ago and has continuously been there with me through the good and the bad in my life. Always prodding me along, the little voice whispering so softly your time will come....you will get there.

There is no rhyme or reason as to how or why I finally "arrived". My heart feels it as it skips a beat every time I look at the pictures from my very first photo shoot lovingly named "Fair Belle Maidens". The beauty of the color makes me want to sing and play as I reach to touch it. The slips as they dance on the clothesline beckoning me into them. I can feel the electricity as the wind blows and mother nature frolics all around. I hear the Maidens giggle.

All the collected treasures, (objects that made no sense to anyone but me) broken doll pieces, fragments of vintage jewelry, fabrics, slips and dresses that are torn and tattered long discarded by others..... they have arrived as well. I tried describing to my friend Cindy the other day that it is as if the treasures and I have flown around the country for many lifetimes. Not knowing where we would land but having faith that we would. As I was trying to get ready for this photo shoot I remember a particular moment. I had dug a mannequin out of the garage and was hauling it up the stairs. All of sudden I sat down and a tear came to my eye as I thought "this is it" this is the moment it all makes sense. This is what it has been about all this time and now I have landed. I looked around my living room (aka as my studio until the barn on the water comes) and saw bits and pieces of everything imaginable. Lace, fabric, ribbons, pictures and sewing machines and thought I am here. I am in my very own "Theatre of Dreams". A place where the machine dances as it hums and the scent of the solder on soldering iron means something beautiful. I have finally found me in this theatre. This magical place that only four months ago did not exist. I had just moved and it was all packed away but as an artist (it took a very special friend to call me that for me to believe it) I felt an emptiness. So for what felt like the hundredth time out it all came again only now it felt different. This time I felt focus and an unstoppable vision. I prayed to have strength and the rest is history. My "Fair Belle Maidens" were born. I cannot take credit alone in this venture. So many people in such a few short months have played a huge part. They have so willingly shared with me bits of magic for my theatre and have helped me bring this play to life. You know who you are and to you I am eternally grateful. I cannot express the excitement I feel to be able to present to you my line of saloon slips and jewelry. All altered one of a kind originals brought together with "bits and pieces" of my dreams. I hope you enjoy and watch my story unfold as a lifetime of vision continues to come alive.

My product line will be available for purchase over the next few weeks locally at Glitz and Glam Emporium in Lakeland, Florida, Uptown Cottage @ Forty Three Oh 3 in Tampa, Florida and here through my blog. If you see anything you would like to inquire about please contact me at geaniefinley@aol.com. Wholesale orders are also welcomed. I am currently working on a website and  facebook page with Lori McGee from Chasing Claire DeLune. Thank you Lori, your talent is amazing. If you my friends would please share this post I would be so very grateful. Stay tuned this week for a wonderful give-a-way you will not want to miss.

xoxoxo
Juju

Fair Belle Maidens aka my friends.....

I just wanted to speak this morning about friendship and business. As I have been posting I am working on a project which finally will come to fruition this Sunday. This project is an accumulation of many things I love. Most of all my friends..... I have been an artist for many years in one way or another. Trying many forms of art but never quite finding "my thing".  My mother was a very talented seamstress and so many many years ago when I was in the middle of my first divorce I had to take a forced road trip and found my way to her house in Maryland. I had not seen my mother for a very long time and when I got there I discovered magic. My mother had this teeny little workshop behind her house and there she had set up a sewing machine. On that trip we spent many hours in her "studio". Now my mom being old school, would laugh at the word studio but that is what it was. It was filled with bits and pieces of her and the things that she loved. Fabrics, trims and ribbon..... things that had such beauty just as they were but when she combined them it was true magic. I learned then that in times of trouble I could get lost and forget everything around me except for what I was creating and the friendship it brought between people. The bond that would last a lifetime..... Fast forward many years and one day when my now x-husband (yes I am sad to say I have several of them) was in Iraq I found myself wondering the book store. As usual I was in the art section and picked up a book by Sally Jean Alexander called "Pretty Little Things". The only word I can think of was mesmerized. I sat in the book store and studied this book for a couple of hours. I was hooked. The whole year and a half my husband was gone I spent many many long hours into the night learning to solder. I adored it. Making something form from a liquid seemed impossible but there it was..... unlimited. Oh yeah you bet I cussed many a night, burnt my legs up when I would drop the solder as I would try to hold the object I was working on oh so perfectly. But boy was the finished piece worth it. I would polish it up and somehow when I would look at it I forgot for the moment that the man I loved was gone and how I missed him so. Fast forward again to now. I have finally put the love of my two passions together. And to me it is time.... timing means a lot. The past few years has been a time of healing and as hurtful and uncomfortable as it as been it has brought me to the now. The NOW my friends is amazing not just for the art I create but the friends I have made and the bond that I truly believe will never be broken with some of them. So many doors have opened and I see so many ahead. Is it scary? Hell yeah its scary but even scarier is not to walk through them. I can sew and solder and hope that I will continue to grow but within this growth process I will always remember my friends. The friends that have come to support me in my craziness and have the courage to tell me when I have gone to far.

I hope you will join me and my friends as I fly by the seat of pants this Sunday at a photo shoot for my new line of saloon slips and jewelry "Fair Belle Maidens". As always I will keep moving forward a true gyspy girl at heart.

xoxoxo Juju