As a child I always had an attraction to palm leaves and seashells and would look for ways to use them in my art creations & projects never knowing why until this later stage of my life. (Never did I even see a real beach until my 20's). My Father had me only on weekends and we always ended up at a flea market and in those days we could find a different one every 10 miles or so. I grew up in the Highlands of Louisville, Ky. and Cherokee Park was my stomping grounds whereby I was surrounded by artisans with cool shops & cafes, basket weavers and street vendors of all kinds. (Anyone remember Elizabeth from Africa, selling her gigantic choc chip cookies on the streets walking endlessly for years to every store and restaurant in the entire Highland areas..? Smile, she finally made it big time, she's an Icon now!)

 

As it happened years later, I opened MY 1st shop "Junker's Paradise" in Santa Rosa Beach, Fl, (on the Choctawhatchee Sound), with my furniture rehab projects and antiques on consignment, along with tons of cool artisan's materials & vintage wares.  Actual shop owners & artisans from the beach shops used to come in and buy my shabby furniture to decorate their outdoor kiosks with but at this time I still hadn't fully realized that I too was born an artist myself! (Meaning in all aspects I have a deep creative approach, and to all things I bring beauty or a new purpose, it is an innate drive...) And after moving back to Florida 14 years ago, I watched from my birds-eye-view, thousands of land-lots get destroyed by construction crews on a daily basis, which still to this very day, never seems to end!

 

It would especially hurt my heart to see the saw-palmetto plants and other palm trees being burned down to the ground. Then one day the idea came to sort of "rescue" the saw-palmetto as they were of a size that I could reach and save!  This is how it began. I started harvesting as much as one girl could, stuffing it in the back of my car and when the next area would get "flagged"  for destruction, I'd rush in and get as much as I could again, repeating the process until finally, I realized I needed an outlet to share this amazing dried specimen with everyone. 

  

Then I went on a second mission & searched for ways to properly clean, dry, & preserve them, deactivate the allergens for home interiors, and after a certain period of time had passed I could work them into an array of arrangements. My experimentation period lasted 2 years before I learned how to use them properly and thus giving them a "second life"! It seemed like the least that I could do for Mother Earth. And Palmetto Patty was born! Then low & behold the Planned-Demic hit the world and all business plans were forced onto the back burner.

 

That was exactly 3 years ago, now I'm back and nothing is going to stop me this time around. I am very passionate about every single, beautiful frond! As well as all of my other artistic creations, cool shop inventory for other's shops & boutiques and my deep love of Sky photography showcasing the New Energies of our world.

Enjoy!