i have a friend...a special friend....her name is bonny. she and i have our own "ba-ba" dictionary (bonny/alice-bonny/alice) and we understand life (or don't understand life) from sympathetic points of view. she has a bracelet. a beautiful and very hard to find victorian button bracelet. she wears it always, and always i say how beautiful the bracelet is and how very perfect it looks on her wrist. i wear almost no jewelry...but have always said i would wear that bracelet if i had one. over the course of the last two years i have had the opportunity to be a little helpful to bonny in encouraging an important business deal to move along. on our shared vacation in florida this year, as a thank you, i was presented with a "sister" victorian button bracelet. i was amazed, speechless and beyond delighted. it was more than a piece of jewelry. being so difficult to find, this bracelet was like our friendship...rare, comfortable, satisfying and "vintage". it was one of the most perfect gifts i have ever received. i will skip to another trip later in the season. i hesitantly took my bracelet along. hesitantly because i still needed to add a safety catch. i was aware of it each moment it rested on my wrist. when it was time to come home, i decided not to wear it for fear of losing it somewhere in the swaddling of winter clothing. it was packed carefully and the decision was made that it would not be worn again until the safety catch was in place. we arrived home "plane delayed" and exhausted, but i wanted to make certain my bracelet was where i packed it. it wasn't. it wasn't anywhere....and i mean anywhere. panicked i tore apart everything that was even remotely connected to having been with us on the trip. we did notice that, upon claiming our luggage, the zippers had been opened and our belongings were disturbed. my mourning began for the theft of my never to be replaced bracelet. and, i had to tell bonny. AND, even worse, i had to tell her husband mel! all bad news delivered, the search began for a replacement for the non-replaceable. by the way, after the initial shock, both bonny and mel were saint-like in understanding. i was, martyr-like in my guilt. "why did i have to wear it before i had a safety catch? blah blah blah". between then and now, as only bonny could or would, another bracelet was found on ebay. you thought i felt guilty before? try giving me another version of a rare bracelet and see if it will EVER leave the jewelry box! humbled, yet again, i wore the bracelet briefly and then put it safely away. today, on my way to the warehouse i realized i had forgotten my cell phone and turned around to go back to the house. something shiny caught my eye. my heart stopped. it was my original bracelet. sitting in the still frozen dirt of what should be a spring garden was the miracle of my returned bracelet. who says i don't have a green thumb? i grew an antique cherished bracelet right here in cooks falls...in the dirt....out my back door! here's the mystery...where did it come from? i have walked that same path for six full weeks...back and forth to and from the warehouse. how is it possible that i could not have seen it before? ron refers to me as "sherlock holmes"...i don't miss much. and more importantly, how did it get there in the first place? a mystery. here it is passover and easter...the world's religious homages to miracles...and for little me, right here in my own backyard....a miracle. elated and confused, i called bonny. we are still elated, and still confused. i have my bracelet and not one of us can figure out why. the journey of the bracelet is complete. not only is it rare, comfortable satisfying and vintage....it is capable of a miracle....just like my friend, bonny.
P.S. the second bracelet will be returned to bonny. it will have to create it's own story.


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we are finally home from the unspringy spring show at the pier in manhattan. 500 loyal and hearty antique and vintage clothing dealers loaded in during the worst winter storm of the season. snow would have been greeted with "welcome, snow, come on in"....but what fell from the heavens was ice, sleet, hail and maybe a few cats and dogs. barely arriving in time for the opening bell due to an ice drama in the parking lot of our hotel, our expectations of customers psyched to buy spring fashion was, well, somewhat dappened. BUT, the loyal followers skated in through slush, ice and even the st. patricks day parade! (lucky irish got to march for hours in the delightful weather). and lo and behold, our red-headed torando of energy and love, our very own miriam, made it from the ends of brooklyn. now, miriam is a unique, talented, courageous, ethical whirlwind of a woman who ron and i have known since she was a "girl". she is, to me, the epitome of a vintage "muse". since her first steps into our lives, when we met her at barnard, (she was a freshman, we sold on campus) miriam has always had her own style, her own opinion and enough leaping power to try anything. her entrance into our temporary boutique at any given show is eagerly anticipated. partly because of her infectious spirit, but also for the fashion masterpiece assembled effortlessly on her person. she is her own sculpture. miriam can put together more "how did she do that" looks than the fat fall issue of vogue. so, you would think "well, she's in the industry, it's her job"...WRONG! you need a really great high end apartment? how about a personal castle in an unusual cutting edge 'just about to emerge' neighborhood? that, miriam can arrange. she is a senior vice president for corcoran real estate, manhattan. what i love most about our miriam, is that she always is who she is....and that either works for you or it does not. i have to say, i have never met anyone for whom it did not. she is no longer a "girl", but most decidedly a "woman"....who will never ever be old, dull or predictable. and isn't that why we love vintage? it is never "old, dull or predictable". so, we salute our miriam, vintage icon and "mishbucha"

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so what if no one shocked us with an outrageous outfit appropriate only for the comedy channel? too many "handlers: and stylists intervening for any of THOSE faux pas'. oscar night, although endless, is irrisistable. cozily situated at an oscar party at our friends jill and rich's home, we all began the evening filled with energy and the stamina needed to make it through to the end of the endless event. the food was beyond delicious, the decor splendidly unique and popo the family dog ready for best actress begging. all eyes were on the red carpet adorned with the most coifed and styled humans on earth....and what a feast our eyes received. the favorite of all was the cosmetically unaltered helen mirren in her glorious creation of a gown. she looked just perfect. she looked like, well, helen mirren. and what a fresh take on 61 that was. her face actually moved, her expressions were discernable, and yes, she has a few wrinkles....thank you! she walked up to accept her top honor and we were rewarded by seeing an extraordinary actress who still seemed human. not perfect beyond reach, not styled so meticulously to appear digitally created, and dressed glamourously as someone who didn't fret over not being 20. thank you thank you thank you. granted she has "people" who help her out, but in all the interviews i have seen with her, she remains remarkably down to earth. so, a toast to our human heroine....a woman who gives us all the hope that just being who you are is still possible in this airbrushed world of imagined perfection. and that being who you are can be quite outstanding indeed!

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although i woke up to 8 degrees of chilly temps this morning, this phenomenon was unusual for the winter of 2006/2007 (so far, that is). everyone is moaning and groaning about the warm temps and lack of snow. these are, i am certain, the very same folk who whine about cold and ice and blizzards and shoveling. the weather is one of those subjects that jokingly is a universal chit chat forum when all else fails. my brother-in-law, recently became alarmed when my 84 year old father neglected to discuss the balmy weather of florida as opposed to the somewhat wintery weather of the northeast. he was certain that dad was not well...and he was right! dad is better, the northeast is once again cold and florida remains balmy. however this late blooming winter is a problem for those of us who will be setting up at the manhattan vintage clothing show the first week-end in february. this has always been an opportunity to move out the final vestiges of the soon to be passe fall/winter fashion "must-haves". since this is the winter that never was, i don't think there will be much interest in bolstering an already hefty reserve of cold weather finery. so, even with the trusty themometer shivering below 20, i am preparing a transitional springtime offering for the show. layered beyond reason and begging the space heater to work harder, my gloved hands are blending in skimpy and colorful summer dresses to tempt the loyal and discerning manhattan vintage shoppers. need colorful embroidered leather flats to match your sundress? yep, we'll have those too. even though winter has been a big "nevermind" here in the northeast (i hasten to add,"so far")....think spring....it is (perhaps) right around the corner.

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usually december to january inspires the notion to flee south in search of warmer days and breezy nights. even here in cooks falls the days and nights have been, well, warm and breezy. nevertheless to florida we fled. it was more or less a mission of visitation to my folks who do the snow bird thing, but we never ever come home empty handed....vintage clothing wise that is. we have been buying the pink flamingo inspired finery for years, and one of our steady suppliers had a house call for us. off we went to an already emptied house south of miami that one could see was a gem in it's time. all that remained was a selection of clothing. two women had enjoyed their lives in this lovely home for as many years as the 60's to 80's fashions revealed. although ladylike in their style, there was nothing boring about this selection. very jackie-o in flavor, the closets were filled with immaculately constructed garments. but alas! florida is damp, florida is hot, florida is hell on clothing. when a gorgeous galanos silk cumbled in my hands i nearly cried. but stoic as we are in this business we plowed through to extract what we could salvage from the generously jammed closets. there are some lovely lovely treasures....but they need the magic of our gifted dry cleaner. age stains gone or not, do come to the manhattan vintage show in feb. to grab a fabulous norman norell cream and black 60's coat, or any number of bill blass emsembles, or a fluffy selection of true vintage cashmere. yummm!!!!! tip of the iceberg....16 boxes shipped out from the sunny south to the unseasonably balmy catskills. see you in NY!

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