Magic.

Almost time for the Halloween party...... the end of October, whether you're hosting (or going to) a Halloween party, always seems to have a little bit of magic in the air. Up north, where the leaves are glowing and bursting and screaming with color-changes, here in this part of Texas, some of the leaves are just quietly turning into a subtle gold, but most are steadfastly staying green.

Our young Miss C will be here tomorrow..... she and a friend are driving up for the weekend..... Miss C is staying here with us, her friend M is working in town for the weekend but joining us for the party. I have no idea what costume C will have for the party... she has changed her mind at least three times over the past couple of weeks. I can still remember the Halloween party when she came as a bag of jelly beans..... a long dry-cleaning bag over her head and tied at the bottom, then she blew up balloons of different colors and put them into the clear plastic bag..... she couldn't sit down all night long, and by the end of the party, she was losing 'jelly beans' all over the living room.

I've decided to go with my City Witch outfit.... I just couldn't find a pretty red top with white polka-dots at any of the stores here...... and you just can't do Minnie Mouse with those white dots on red........ so the City Witch it will be. As I looked through the closet for my black skirts, I had forgotten just how many black skirts I have. All of them bought with my Aunt Dolly's advice ringing in my ears: "You can go just about anywhere with a classic black skirt and a pretty top."


My friend V in Maryland..... we've been in touch via eMail and phone calls since we 'found' one another again. Isn't it funny/wonderful/perfect how you can pick up where you left off when the friendship that was interrupted was very real in the first place? With V and I, we each accepted one another just as we were.... no questions, no explanations, no compromises. We knew one another inside and out 'back in the day,' and after re-connecting this year, and realizing that we had been looking for one another from time to time over the years.... the bond we had back then is still there now, only older and wiser.

I'd been wanting to send something to V.... a 'one for you, one for me gift,' as we used to do so many years ago. We'd go shopping along The Avenue back then, and find something we both loved, and we'd each get one..... and just love the fact that we would have the same exact thing, to either wear when we were together or wear when we were apart. I searched the Internet sites, and the stores, the little shops.... looking for something special... something I knew we would both like.... something identical and special. Couldn't find anything that wasn't off-the-charts in cost or just-the-right-thing in sentiment.

And then I remembered something one of the antique dealers told me a good while back when I first started working in the antique co-op---- she would give gifts to her family and friends "from my jewelry box to yours," as she would say. Over the years, she collected so much vintage jewelry that from time to time, she would give some of her things to special people in her life. So with that in mind, I went shopping in my own jewelry box.

And there it was..... it took just moments to realize that I had the perfect gift for V all along, right here. V always loved turquoise-- the color, the jewelry, the mystique. V also believed that turquoise would keep 'the evil eye' away--- an old Greek (and Italian) superstition. There in my jewelry box was a one-of-a-kind gold and turquoise necklace. I had bought it at the jeweler's in Clear Lake..... it was made in Italy, with swirls of gold links and beads of Persian turquoise. The designer had made just one.... the jeweler got it for a song.... and I bought it for a song after many months of it sitting in her showcase. Why it sat there for so long, I have no idea... it's beautiful and delicate and so very unique.

I took that necklace to the local jeweler in town here...... I had him split the necklace into two bracelets.... one for V, one for me. I sent hers out at the beginning of the week and V got the package yesterday. Not only did she love it, but it brought her to tears........ she told me that she had bought herself a turquoise bracelet a bunch of years back, lost it a few years ago and never replaced it because she never found 'the right one.'

V didn't know what to expect when I told her that a package was on its way to her, and she said when she opened the box and found the gold and turquoise bracelet, she just burst into tears. It was the perfect gift..... and it was here all along as I searched for something to keep us together in spirit even though we're so far apart. That one-of-a-kind necklace has been transformed into two one-of-a-kind bracelets....... magic.