Lucy's Buzz : September 2016

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

What’s a Girl to Do?

I knew when I came back to the US from Sri Lanka that I wouldn’t have a job waiting. My photo partner in Sri Lanka wasn’t coming with me, so I had to find a different way to make an income with my photography, writing and design skills.

Since I moved to a very rural area, where the internet is slower than in Sri Lanka, and without a car, my chance of finding a job using my skills is very limited.

Until…

My daughter brought up a truck load of my goods; goods that I haven’t seen since I migrated to Sri Lanka in 2002. My little beauties; perfume bottle collection, blown glass paperweight collection, antique mirrors, a ‘signed in pencil’ lithograph by Gordon Grant that I had been carting around since 1967, which my parents had had for decades before that. Beauties that I can sell online.

Thanks to my daughter, I now have a job; researching the collections and putting them online for sale. Oh, and photographing them first (using my photography) and writing about their provenance (using my writing) and using my sales abilities (that’s in my DNA).

My friends knew I would come up with something, even when I couldn’t see the forest for the tress, or is it the trees for the forest?

Watch this space for the ‘for sale’ announcement!!

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

If you want a portrait of your pet, yourself, or your family, please email me at: llbyard@me.com.

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

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

A Poem by ME! - Oh, Go Ahead and Read It!

Some of you have asked me to publish my poetry online.
Here is one from Rattle Magazine.

--The poem was up for one day. Here is the permanent link
http://www.rattle.com/the-whistle-blew-at-the-usual-time-by-lucy-llewellyn-byard/

Please click and read. And share!
Cheers,
Lucy

Monday, September 12, 2016

What You Store Will Come Back to Bite You!

Two weeks ago, my son-in-law delivered a truck load of my things that had been stored at his and my daughter’s house while I was in Sri Lanka for 14 years. Oh yippee.

My daughter warned me that there were 28 boxes. What she didn’t warn me about is that in those boxes were memorabilia from my childhood onward. In the first box I opened I found my ponytail that I had chopped off in 6th grade. Back when my hair was dark brown with red highlights. There were small notes that my stepfather had written to my brother Mark and me when we were just 4 and 6 years old. Letters from my father that made me sad for three days. A letter from my mother writing about Mark several decades after he died. I couldn’t talk after reading that one. There were copies of wills of my dead relatives. Letters from old beaus, ex-husbands, my granddaughter at the age of 6 and my grandson at the age of 5. And ashes of my dogs…and my mother…and my mother's aged cousin that I took care of for 13 years. My mother told me (before she turned to ash) that I should put all the ashes into my garden and call it ‘The Family Garden.’ But I didn’t. I wasn't ready. Besides I sold my house, with the garden. Couldn’t leave the family behind.

This room used to be empty!

Wallet-sized photos of high school classmates that I had lugged around for 50 years!

I actually sent them to this year's reunion and reunion-goers pinned the 50yo photo on to themselves so people could remember who they were/are.

I can't believe I still have this. I won first place at the

4th of July races when I was 5yo. I was the only kid in the race -

I was the only kid who could swim the width of the pool!

Who still has these?

Wedding videos? Poetry readings?

A small version of the mess each box made!

Two boxes were full of old income tax returns. Stuff to shred. Lots of stuff to shred. I put the shreddable into the super clean, empty garage. Oh yippee.

Several boxes were full of framed photos - some dating back 150+ years.

Each time I finished a box, I had to go lie down and take a nap. The stress of all the emotions was like the time I tried to clear my mother’s things from my garage in Whittier California. She had died 5 days before my birthday and I found her birthday present to me among her things. Crying, I closed up the garage and eventually cleared it two years later.

No wonder people never tackle the things we store in closets, attics and garages. No wonder my daughter sent my stuff with my son-in-law. I’ve sorted all but eight of the boxes and had to buy a shedder for the taxes and other items with my data on them. I’ll continue until I’ve culled out all the unnecessaries and photos I don’t remember taking. I’ve thrown out probably 1,000+ photos. The ‘good’ stuff will go into the second bedroom’s closet. And guess what? My daughter will eventually get them back when I croak! And then she can add my ashes to the bunch!

This is the best I could do. It's down to 10 (so far).

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

If you want a portrait of your pet, yourself, or your family, please email me at: llbyard@me.com.

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

Friday, September 9, 2016

Trash Talk!

Upon coming to California, I lived briefly in San Francisco at a friend’s house. Shortly after that Toby (you all know Toby) and I moved to Northern California, to a friend’s house that had been vacant for two years. In the four months that Toby and I have been here, I’ve cleaned up the front and back yards, dragged a gigantic pile of junk to the driveway and tried every which way to get it hauled to the dump. Three people promised to haul it. No one showed up. The junk sat in the driveway for 3 weeks until I found someone to do a dump run. I was so relieved, even though he gouged me on the hauling price.

The second bedroom in my ‘new’ house was crowded with three mattresses, which (with permission) I gave to a neighbor. Under the mattresses I found a darling wood-framed futon. Perfect! Bring on the visitors!

My first visitor, Penny, a friend of many decades came to visit for three days. During that time we checked out the garage. It was stacked high with MORE junk. Dust. Carpet samples, construction goods and on and on. Penny owns three resale shops in Minnesota and knows what thrift stores around here would take or reject. She made it all so easy. We piled her rental car full of things for the local thrift shop and I managed to salvage a few things for my kitchen; an old blender, glass pie plates, wonderful mixing bowls, and a garden claw rake. The rest was bound for the dump!

I also found a neighbor who would do a dump run for a reasonable price.

After two trailers full, the garage was miraculously empty! Okay, so there are some paint cans, but that’s about all. When I sent Penny the photos of the empty garage, she about crapped her pants!

How have you dealt with a similar situation? Send me your comments - I love them!

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

If you want a portrait of your pet, yourself, or your family, please email me at: llbyard@me.com.

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