Lucy's Buzz : August 2016

Friday, August 26, 2016

The Fresh New Look!

Lake County

I thought I should create a new blog since I’m now living in California instead of Sri Lanka. It was a struggle to think of a new name - the list started out simply enough and then got downright silly - Lucy’s Letters, Lucy’s Lake and Latte, What Next, Lucy in the Sky, Nap Time!

Choosing the name for a new blog made me want to STOP!

The name drove me crazy until one of my faithful followers wrote to me, “The reason the blog helped the wedding business was it was interesting. Not all your blogs were wedding related...you wrote about a lot of things and it helped draw attention to the wedding business...directly and indirectly. I think it would still work that way. And you could still write about weddings or about your life, alternating.”

That felt right. So I chucked the new blog and gave Lucy’s Buzz a fresh new look. After all, that was the fun part of making a new blog - designing it. It took me two days and a major headache to get it how I wanted. The fun had quickly turned mean on me - too many variables! Font type, size, background colors, how to let people make comments, a new photo for my profile updating my google account. The list went on. And on. And on.

I will still write about the weddings that Lipton Jayawickrama, my partner-in-crime, is doing and I’ll write about living in the land of drought and sunshine - the Great California!

Clear Lake, California

Love getting your comments!

I put up a new FaceBook page as soon as I landed in California. It’s https://www.facebook.com/Pets-People-Portraits-by-Lucy-Llewellyn-Byard-1596010617391039/?fref=ts Not much has been done to it, but look at it and like it. It will transform along with me transforming into this next chapter of my life.

Continue to check out our Sri Lankan wedding photography and videography, travel photography, portrait photography, female photographers, commercial photography on our FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/ShadeTreeProductions/

Our website at: http://www.shadetreeSL.com

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Two Sexy Girls - Decades Later!

Disneyland 1983

Now!

How can it be that my dear friend Penny Bracken and I hadn't seen each other in at least 25 years?

Thank goodness for Facebook, we connected through our good friend Ray Gorman. Ray, Penny and I were a force to be reckoned back in the 1980s. Through a serendipitous turn of events we were brought together to do business and design and sell jewelry. Ray was the brilliance behind the Gorman Design Group and Penny was the driving force. I just went out and sold the hell out of a wonderful product.

The three of us would meet and laugh like crazy, for Ray was on the level of Robin-William-funny. We also bantered back and forth ideas for a new line of jewelry to add to the others. We did this over the years and made memories that we will never forget.

Ray and me at the

San Francisco Gift show 1983

Penny and Ray (left, center)

While I was in Sri Lanka, I connected to Ray through Facebook and he told Penny about my overseas adventures. A month later Penny wrote me with the sad news that Ray had died. How could that be? I had just chatted with him the week before. Penny and I were both devastated. The planet had just lost one of its best humans.

Now that I’m back on California terra firma, Penny came from her now home in Minnesota for a three-day visit. WOWO! Our first hours together were filled with histories, laughter and Toby wondering why the hell we were making all that noise! I talked so much my voice got hoarse. I listened so much that I got excited from all the freshness of my friend. We had shared a lot of history! History that took us both on different paths. History that was inexplicably linked.

We’ll need another rash of visits to really catch up. Of course during this first visit Penny offered me help for anything here at my new little abode. She owns three successful resale businesses (and the buildings!) in Rochester, WN, so when I showed her the garage full of stuff, she knew exactly what to do. We ended up taking a car load of goods to the Lucerne thrift shop and then drove around Clearlake just to inhale the views, the communities and the bus routes that I could explore once she’d gone.

View from Konacti

After the jam-packed day, we sat watching (actually talking during) the Olympics when the earth rocked! Jolted! Two hard ones. Penny and I looked at each other and blurted “Earthquake!” As Penny bolted for the door, I said, “Put your shoes on.” She did. Then she said, “Get Toby’s leash!” I did.

Outside, the neighbors gathered and waited for an aftershock. Toby, excited with his leash on, thought he was going for a walk. We calmed down in the ensuing minutes, somewhat confident that was all we were going to get. Penny called a friend, and I took Toby for a walk just up to the corner where we talked to the neighbor and his dog. “The epicenter was over the hill. It was a 5.1,” he told me. I looked online and sure enough the epicenter was only 22Km away. Gulp.

So we not only had a fun adventure with Penny here, she rocked our world!

Toby loved Penny as I knew he would. I think he’s sad now that she’s gone. I am! But I know she’ll be back and the adventures of the two sexy 60yo+ chicks will continue!