Sifting The Trinkets and Treasures

January 16, 2012

I can’t understand why I am drawn to tiny trinkets. Miniature figurines, toys, beads, and buttons always fascinate me. Do they attract you? I can’t seem to throw them away, so I always just put them in a box in a drawer. No more! Now, I’m putting them out on display for my guests to [...]

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Scraps of Love

January 15, 2012

The afghan that is spread on my kitchen island in the morning sunlight is a special one. First of all, it’s for me, and I never rarely make anything for me. Second, it’s made from scraps of yarn. They call using scraps to make something new “upcycling” these days, but my grandmother would have called [...]

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Riding The Fence

November 1, 2011

Have I ever told y’all that it isn’t a good idea to drive behind me if I have the camera in the car? Folks in Salado, Texas (a tiny town north of Austin) discovered that this Sunday as I drove through that delightful hamlet. I saw the bicycles that were hung on a fence and [...]

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A Scots-Irish Lass With A Hispanic Soul

October 26, 2011

It’s true that the only word I can remember from my High School Spanish class is “albondigas.” That means “meatballs” … I think. At least I hope it’s not a dirty word. I just can’t understand why I didn’t learn an important word that was useful. Like “bacon.” Why didn’t I learn that? And, what [...]

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Faux Flagstone

October 20, 2011

Someone I know has way too much time on her hands. “She” looked down at the ugly industrial carpet in her office … the carpet she cannot afford to replace … and decided to paint it to look like flagstone. She is discovering that it is fun, but it’s a lot of work. OK, the [...]

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Something’s Afoot

July 25, 2011

I saw this sculpture of a foot at a garage sale, and it just called my name. Did I hear one of y’all ask, “Why?” Don’t you realize who is talking to you? I’m the woman who collects everything: hand sculptures and carvings, hats, carpentry tools, Art Deco anything, African masks, rocks, shells, books, records, [...]

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Hole-y Mole-y! It’s Kinetic Art!

April 25, 2011

A stroll across my yard can be hazardous to the health! It isn’t the poison ivy, the fire ants, or the occasional snake that is the problem (you can usually see those before they get you). No, the problem is in what you can’t see — a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the grass that rivals [...]

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Fear of Crayons

April 11, 2011

My palms got sweaty and my knees began to shake as I tried to color an iris with my “Colorsplash” application on my iPhone yesterday. It lets you convert a photo to black and white, then color in the details. Supposedly, that’s fun; I found the activity stressful, as a multitude of voices inside my [...]

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside

January 19, 2011

Old Man Winter is about to rear his ugly head again, but I have no room to complain. Our Texas winters are much milder than the rest of the country. I don’t know how y’all have been managing in places where you have a real winter; I’d never handle it. Though we haven’t had the [...]

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Starving Texas Artist Could Win $50,000 Huntington Art Prize

November 16, 2010

Bleary-eyed, I walked into Jupiter House Coffee. I glanced at the wall and thought, “I’ve gotta check my hair!” For a brief moment I thought I was looking in a mirror … then realized I simply hadn’t sipped enough coffee. I was looking at a painting! My next thought was, “I need to tell the [...]

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She Blew My Dress Up

October 26, 2010

I didn’t have to beg hard to get my friend, Judy, to chauffeur me to El Mercado in downtown San Antonio. I was seeking figurines to put on my altar for El Dia de los Muertos. If you are curious about that holiday, you can find out much more about it at azcentral.com. At any [...]

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If I Could Dance, Then I Could Learn To Quilt

October 19, 2010

She smiled and waltzed a few steps as she told me, “I dance when I quilt.” I wondered aloud, “Do what?” As I stood admiring the quilt she had made, she explained. Her quilting is done on a machine (instead of the “old fashioned way”) and she has to stand up while she feeds the [...]

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Original Sin

September 27, 2010

Have y’all ever driven past a car accident at the side of the road and didn’t want to look, but your eyes were riveted to it? That’s what I felt when I saw this three dimensional artwork while wandering through my favorite vintage store (Dolly Python, in Dallas). It seemed to beckon from the wall. [...]

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Enraptured By Ecstasy

August 11, 2010

“Do you want to go see the sculpture of the giant naked woman?” my son asked. Bless his heart, he knows I have nekkid mannequins all over my house. Sure, I did! So, we got on a bus (thank goodness) to traverse San Francisco to the neighborhood called Hayes Valley. There she stood in all [...]

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The Boot Centerpieces Kicked You Know What

August 7, 2010

Do y’all remember that I was gathering stinky old cowboy boots to use as centerpieces for our son’s wedding rehearsal dinner? With the painting that I did, and the decorations I added, they came out pretty well ,,, especially with some California wild flowers popped inside of them. They were definitely worth the effort. Today [...]

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I Played “Hooky”

July 27, 2010

A crochet hook and some “string” have occupied my time for the last four days. Actually, I got my fancy yarns out to make a wedding gift for the kids. You might think I’m ruining the surprise by telling you about it on the blog, but I seriously doubt the young’uns read my writing … [...]

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That I Love Lucy Lady

July 4, 2010

This Lucille Ball doll almost begged to have her picture snapped. We found her on our jaunt into east Texas yesterday, where she resides in a delightful antique store in what was once the old bank building. The place is crammed full of marvelous whimsy. Robin, at Around The Island, hosts a meme inviting us [...]

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If You Want A Long Life, Get A Hobby

June 25, 2010

“Get a hobby.” That’s what experts in aging tell us. They say that we should develop hobbies before we retire as a means of promoting longevity. Longevity? They aren’t kidding, but why don’t they tell it like it is? What they mean to say is : If you don’t have a hobby when you retire, [...]

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Dripping Doilies

June 23, 2010

My grandmothers (and their mothers before them) crocheted doilies. I must have inherited every single one of them, because two drawers are overflowing with this dainty stitchery. It was hard to appreciate the beauty of them, because they were wadded into the drawers. Most of them hadn’t been washed in half a century … and [...]

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These Boots Aren’t For Walking

June 18, 2010

I’m breathing some life into old cowboy boots, but I’m reluctant to breathe around them. At the moment, those boots are a bit “fragrant.” I can fix that, I think, with some baking soda and sunlight. It’s my project for this “only the good Friday.” I’m trying to stay optimistic about it. My kitchen is [...]

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