My CraigsList Chronicles Part 2...wall of roses freebie... and a beautiful Giveaway.....

First before I share this lil Craigs list story with you, I want to thank everyone that has visited my lil blog and left me such lovely comments and become new followers...I am truly humbled that you like my lil blog...everytime I see I have a new follower....I think....They like me, they really like me...I know, my own Sally Field moment :) I know....I'm a goober...I am the first to admit it!.....Ask anyone that knows me lol But, my dear amores....I have tried to get to visit each of you, but if I have missed you, please know that I will soon be there to visit your beautiful blogs too...but just incase I still missed you....I'm sorry, I am trying, there are just so many beautiful blogs that I love and only so many hours in the day to visit.... darn life, family, carpools, taking care of my home for getting in the way :)

Did I ever mention that I LOVE Craigs List??? Well....I do...not just for the treasures that I have found, both to buy and as freebies...but for the lovely people that I have come across.....I have made many a new friend through Craigs List :)


A few months back, I shared my first Craigs List story with you here, about my dad and that beautiful cabinet full of lil drawers that I got right before he passed away and I promised to share some more of my Craigs List stories with you...hence...The Craigs List Chronicles were born....This is where Part 2 comes in...

The Wall of Roses...
A bit ago, while searching through the Craigs list Freebies section...this title caught my eye.....Free Wall of Roses....Soooo of course I had to see what this was all about lol ...I LOVE roses...I really do, I clicked on it and this is what I saw...well actually it was a very close up picture of the wall of roses, but roses and flowers no less :)

The add said, "Free... Large piece of wall from a Marc Jacobs show"...I called the number, and the guy, lets say Ian...to protect the innocent :) was a sweet heart and said Many had called him for it, he asked me why I wanted it, I said, I like to do art projects and decorate with flowers around my house and I will also pass them on to friends who can use them for their own projects or just to decorate with, long story short we talked a few times on the phone for awhile lol (those of you that know me, I can absolutely hear laughing at this point... Cut it out, your interrupting my story... YOU know who you are!!! LOL See I have a habit of making friends everywhere I go...I can't just see something, buy it and leave, nooooo....I just can't help it, I like making new friends : ) He said...Rose come on over....the wall is yours....my mr wonderful being the amor that he is was game for taking me to go pick it up... Ian, was the sweetest guy, when he saw me, he actually came over and gave me huge hug lifting me off the ground and spun me around, and said I have a big personality for such a tiny lil person...he meant because I'm short...not thin :) lol did I mention he was about 6'4, if not taller! I am 5'4 but, anyone would seem tiny to him right lol He shook hands with my husband and told us that the piece of wall came from a Marc Jacobs show that they had just done, this one one of about 10 pieces of it...the wall for the show was huge and there was a pink car that was displayed in front of the wall of roses and he hugged me once more and said he was glad the flowers were going to a nice person, that wouldn't throw them away but that they would be reused and appreciated....Honestly the whole time we were talking with him, I couldn't stop smiling or laughing with him....his personality was completely infectious! My amor, was sweet enough to take all of these pictures for me below including the wall above :)

To be fair...as you can see...there are ALOT of flowers...some roses, a few lovely cream peonies, but mostly pretty little and some large magnolias :) but I still love them all :)

After we took all the flowers off the large piece of drywall, which was about 4ft x 4 1/2 ft....I had enough flowers to fill this huge pretty metal container that was another freebie story for another time :) btw, the container is large enough to bathe a bebe in...I haven't tried yet...but it is big, and the bench is large enough for 2-3 people to sit on :)

Dawn amor, I took the 2 bench pictures below!!! Aren't you proud! See I am tryin :)

Thank you Ian!!!!!! Every time I see these pretty flowers, I smile and think of him and his great personality!

Thank you for indulging me in my telling of one of my little stories...but now I want to share this beautiful Giveaway with you!

The lovely Shellagh of the beautiful blog Ticking and Toile did a lovely 2 part interview with Christina Strutt, author of the beautiful book below called "At Home With Country" and to add to the fun, she is having a lovely Giveaway featuring the Beautiful book below for one lucky winner!!!

Click here to enter....

Giveaway ends...Wednesday morning, April 14th...Good Luck!!

Well amores, sleep is coming to me quickly...Thank you Tylenol Simply Sleep!
(I'm not paid to say this...just thankful for it :)

Until next time dear friends,

Craigslist finds...Meant to be? That is the question...What is your answer?

Before, I start this new post...I have to tell you how thankful I am to have found and made so many new friends here in Blogland...Your inspiration, love and friendship mean soo much to me, with each comment that you leave me and each visit that I make to your blogs...Well it just proves to me...that no matter how ugly, sad or blue things sometimes get and feel...that there is so much goodness out there...you just have to be open...to receive it....accept it and embrace it!

And Kelly....Thank you for another wonderful Kreative Blogger Award! Is it cheating if I go ahead and accept it and use what I already wrote in my last post here ? :) The only thing I would love to change is this...I love what Lorraine of Paper Bird said when I awarded it to her...she went Rogue :)!! and gave the award to all the wonderful, inspiring blogs...and THAT is exactly what I wanted to do..but I was afraid of breaking the rules....but....you know...sometimes you just have to bite it... and do what feel right! :) So ladies congrats to all your wonderful blogs... for being so beautiful and inspiring!

Now to my new post :) thank you for indulging me that lil moment...

Have you ever come across something that you just loved and knew it was meant to be yours? I seem to do that ALOT lol Sadly my house isn't big enough to cater to these strong whims...err feelings!

I LOVE CraigsList...I can't tell you how many amazing things I have found on it...that I have not only bought... but even gotten for free....but as much as I love these things...it has been the wonderful people that I have come in contact with and made wonderful friendships that I know will last...That has made me such a fan of it! Each time Mr wonderful has taken me to go pick up a new "treasure" he knows that it will be a few hours...even if it is 20 min away :) because we end up talking for hours and even getting together to visit again with many of these neat people :) So it is because of these amazing experiences that I have decided to write my Craigslist Chronicles....small random...out of order stories of my found treasures there....the wonderful people I met and how I have used my treasures...Every now and then I will add one to not only entertain you....but to make a permanent record of it...so that I will hopefully never forget these wonderful people that sometimes came into my life for what might seem a moment...but left such an amazing footprint in my heart....

My Craigslist Chronicles Part 1 :
Sonny's lil cabinet...



See that beautiful cabinet above??? I saw it on Craigslist just this past February and Fell in love with it...is it possible to fall in love with an object??? I think so...All I know is that I wanted it....I felt it MUST be mine...almost to the point of tears did I beg Mr wonderful that as tired as he was after work...that he just HAD to take me to go look at it (BUY IT) but knowing me...he already knew that :) On our way to look at the cabinet my mom called me...If you are familiar with So Calif...I live near Long Beach....the cabinet was in the Valley...we went on a Friday evening in rush hour traffic, took us over 2 hours just to get there.

As I was saying on the way there my mom called me...she said and I will never forget...."Sonny wants to go to the hospital...can you come take us?" I remember feeling sooo sick..like a bucket of cold water was dumped on me, I was suddenly sweating and with the chills... and trying not to cry...or vomit...sitting in the front seat of my husbands truck between him and my youngest daughter...I especially didn't want to scare her, she was only 12 years old. I was trying hard to keep it together. The last time I remember feeling that way was when I was told my dad Bob died...I was 10...and when my Ita (grandma) got sick and we lost her...just a couple of years ago...although it feels like yesterday...I hate that feeling and hope to never feel it again...wishful thinking I know...but it makes me feel better to say it to myself....



I explained to my mom where I was and that it would take me a few hours to get back home in Friday nite traffic! I asked her to call my sister and that I would meet them at the hospital...you see my dad Sonny....has NEVER asked to be taken to the hospital...not even when he had a massive coronary heart attack!...He was after all...a Marine...it just wasn't his style. BTW he had 3 of those and survived! I think that is why I was so scared...we were 1 block from where we were to look at the cabinet, my husband trying to calm me said " we're here....they are waiting, lets just look at it, and if you want it...lets take it home now" I agreed...When I saw it...I didn't even open the drawers...I wouldn't touch it and hardly looked at it, I asked its history I was told the original owner of their home had made it for his garage to hold his nuts and bolts back in the 50's from what the original owners wife had told them...I smiled because it reminded me of my dad and all his neato things in his garage...we paid and we left...from there straight to the ER, all I remember is that it was the longest drive... like we were driving through a few states....





At the ER that night we found out my dad had pneumonia, but then even worse...after 3 am we were told he had cancer...in his lungs...It wasn't good the Dr said...I am sorry but when the hell is cancer good??? The next 2 weeks my dad was in the hospital....we were all there with him everyday...trying to find out what exactly we were looking at, what Stage, what were his chances? We knew nothing....till I finally felt beyond over whelmed and I yelled and threatened the Doctors and was finally told "he has 4th stage lung cancer" and I was the lucky one that had to go and tell that information to my mom, my sister and brothers....hmmmm now I understand the story of Pandora's Box....a little too well...don't know if I will ever push for answers like that again....

During all this time this lil cabinet sat on our porch...I would walk by it...NEVER touching it...almost hating it...because I wasn't where I should have been the nite we got it...and I wasn't about to forgive that stupid cabinet for that lil tragedy...much less myself. Funny thing is that during those long days in the hospital...I told my dad all about it and I promised to show it to him when he got home...the idea of all those lil drawers intrigued him too :) We never got that chance....and still the cabinet sat on my porch. My husband finally said "we need to clean it and bring it inside, it is going to get ruined outside"...to be honest after we buried my dad...I could have truly cared less about that stupid cabinet...all those great ideas that I had for it...seemed ludicris to me now...I just wanted to give it back and have that nite we got it never happen....

I forgot to tell you...my dad Sonny was one of the few people that always supported my art work, my creativity...my quirkiness...he said it made me special..made me stand out...he always looked at what I created and made my head and heart swell with his praise...he also would listen to my ideas and add his 2 cents when he wanted too :) He thought the cabinet was great for my supplies and doo dads and said that when I didn't want it...he would take it from me anytime...and still I wanted nothing to do with the stupid cabinet....

Mr wonderful bought it in for me to clean...I had decided to do that and sell it...it actually made me sick to even look at it...so you can imagine how I felt cleaning out over 70 lil drawers! late at night as I took each lil drawer out to clean, I suddenly realized that at the bottom of the drawers there was writting....I figured it was the company that made the metal studs ( I know this, because hubby is in construction so I learned some lingo :)...that is what all the lil drawers were made of with lil blocks of wood as drawer fronts with tiny handmade knobs....I didn't pay attention to what the writing said...It was late, I was tired and I didn't feel like hunting down my reading glasses....but if you look closely there are a few drawers that are double the size of the medium size drawers....when I held it to the light....this is what I saw...

ALCOA....Now this is where my heart stopped...see my dad worked for over 4o years for his company...It started as another company called Voi Shan...where he met and fell in love with my mami and I like to think with my sister and I :) from there it was taken over or merged with other companies, I think that is what happened... anyways because the last I knew it was Fairchild...but I had forgotten that it had changed names one more time... in the end and even now... it is named.....Ready for this??????? ALCOA

All I remember is sitting on my couch with the rag and hugging the drawer and crying... I truly believe with all my heart that it was his way of telling me it was ok...that it wasn't my fault and to be happy and let creativity back into my heart and life... Or as he would lovingly say to me..."Go play...Artsy Girl"

As you can see from this last picture...we kept it...it is one of my most favorite possessions...That and the fact that everyone in our family has told me that when I am tired of it...they want it...even my mama when I told her the story...well she walked out of the room, I thought from her reactions that she was angry at me for telling her about my cabinet...but she left because it made her cry for a moment and being so soon after we lost him...she needed a moment that was just theirs...she went to their room to shed her tears...away from us all..but she did say if I still was intent on selling it...that she had to be the one to buy it....In this picture you see all the craziness that is my bebe studio...it is almost done...and when it is, you will see it in its new home and you know what? when I look at that stupid lil cabinet...it always makes me smile....so you tell me....Meant to be??.....what is your answer???

P.S. I love you Sonny...

So for those of you that have read this LONG post to the end...I thank you from my heart for indulging me in my story telling or as my best friend used to say....long ass stories that make her cry :)

***Just incase your intrested...it is craigslist.org and you just clik on your state and cities you are intrested in...also I always look at the Freebies section first...I know I just gave myself a ton of competition...but hey with friends, you share and do what you have to do right?....Good Luck treasure hunting :)

Today I get to visit everyone....feels like I have missed so much in just 2-3 days :)

Until next time dear friends,



Besos,



Rose ~