OH HEAVENLY DAY!

It dropped down to 59F last night, and this is the coolest our house has felt in over a week! Of course, it will probably be back up into the nineties in just a few hours but, for now, it feels absolutely delicious! We finally got an estimate from the A.C. guy. It would cost almost a thousand dollars to replace the part that he "thinks" is causing our problem. Since we spent almost that much on this unit just a few months ago when something else went wrong, and since it's probably 16 or 17 years old now, we've decided it's probably time to just bite the bullet and replace the unit altogether.  They say they "might" be able to get to that by the end of this week but, then again, it could be the early part of next week. Sheeeeeeesh!

Speaking of heavenly days, what fun we had yesterday with our Discovery Station play day!

We had one station set up for creating monoprints on my Gelli plate...

and one for trying your hand at a bit of stamp-carving.

There was the Spray & Play station, for experimenting with Dylusions ink sprays, stencils, and Dyan Reaveley's ghosting technique.

Plus we had stations for playing with rubber stamps and Gelatos (the paint sticks, not the ice cream), and for doing a bit of kitchen parchment collage work. I was blown away by the amount of art that a mere four women could create in just a couple of hours...

Love, love, love our Spirit Woman's labyrinth stamp!

but not the least bit surprised by the size of our mess.

Nor am I surprised that the mess is still there, 24 hours later. When we came back from our taco lunch at Mima's, my sister and I found ourselves being drawn back to the table, to do a bit more puttering. The same thing happened after dinner, and we were still there at bedtime. Will everything get cleaned up and put away today? I guess that remains to be seen.

Outdoor Woman has volunteered to host next month's Artsy Play Day and, knowing my friend, I'm guessing it will take place out of doors!

WE'RE OBLIGATED

Can you believe it? My sister Kathy told us yesterday that she'd never been to Salt Lick! Well, we took care of that problem lickety split!

Know what else she told us? She's never been to Trattoria Lisina either. Woohoo!

SURVIVAL

I used to wonder how people in places like Texas and Australia ever survived before air conditioning. After a week with ours on the blink, I'm beginning to understand. They managed by working with nature, rather than against it, and by building houses a lot like this one which we live in now.

They had light colored metal roofs, to reflect the sun overhead, and deep porches and eaves, to protect from the sun's slanting rays each morning and afternoon.  They had large, screened windows on all sides, which can be thrown open to catch those cross breezes, and ceiling fans in every room.

They had thick, well insulated walls, and sometimes even half-buried their homes in the earth. Our lower level backs up to solid earth, which gives it a cave-like feel and a fairly steady temperature year-round.

But, most importantly, they took siestas in the afternoon!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER: PLAN B

 
My original plan for sister Gus' welcoming dinner tonight was to prepare these lovely beef cheeks that I got from The Bountiful Sprout. They are quite delicious when allowed to braise slowly in a splash of good wine. However, it just occurred to me that having my oven on all afternoon is probably not the brightest idea, unless, of course, I want my sister to step through the door, and decide that agreeing to visit someone whose AC is on the blink is the worst decision she ever made in her life!

Fortunately, whilst digging around in the freezer, I came across not only some leftovers of a yummy Black Bean Tortilla Casserole that I made, but also a package of Bountiful Sprout's tamales -- both microwaveable!

Best of all, I remembered this little jewel of a leftover container, brought home from The Leaning Pear last night...

containing a bit of Goat Cheese Queso Fundido. I think that will be Ab Fab drizzled over the tamales, don't you? Now all we need is a bit of bright green guacamole for our plates, and we're good to go!

THE LONG CENTER: KEEPING AUSTIN WEIRD

We had quite the evening last night! One day last week my Hubby, a man of many surprises, walked up to me saying "Hope you don't have any plans for next Friday", and handed me tickets to this:

Believe you me, they were every bit as hilarious live as they were on Drew Carey's Whose Line Is It, if not more so. I thought poor Hubby was gonna bust a gusset!

But wait, there's more! We somehow managed to get to the theater almost an hour early, so we got a drink, then moseyed out onto the balcony to enjoy the view. That's when we noticed this interesting group of people gathering on the terrace below.

Judging from their attire, and all the stretching they were doing, I assumed it was a yoga or pilates group, with a rather unusual classroom. But then a girl walked over to one of the decorative banners hanging around the terrace perimeter, unknotted it, and started doing this.

Once she had climbed about halfway up, she started doing stuff like this...

and this!

Soon there were people hanging from every banner. We were having so much fun watching them, we almost hated to go in!

Believe it or not, they were still at it when we came out of the show around 9:30, only it was dark then, and they had added eerie mists and exotic lighting. Well, as it turns out, they were rehearsing for this:

Hmmmm. That just might be worth going back for, no?

AN ARTSY GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRS: MUSES GO BACK TO THEIR ROOTS

The Muses and I got to talking this week -- about how we've sorta drifted away from our original intent, and how much we miss all that. You see, when we first came together, we were part of another, larger group. It only met about once a month, but when we did get together, we always did something arty and fun. Somehow that segued into weekly gab fests at the coffee shop, with attendance being sporadic at best. I think we were reminded of all that we miss when I started talking about my play-date with H.S. Debbie last week, and my upcoming sleep-away art camp in October. Anywho, it got me to thinkin'... thinking that maybe I should organize something similar for the Muses, and try to get the ball rolling again. Who knows? If it turned out to be uber fun, maybe I could even convince each Muse to sign up for a different month, and be in charge of arranging other arty events for us all! But what could I do to make it extra fun?

At first I thought about teaching them all to carve stamps! But then I remembered that I only have one carving tool.

Same problem with teaching them to do monoprints with my Gelli plate. I knew they'd get too bored, waiting for it to be their turn.

Then I thought about just piling all my art supplies out in the middle of the table, and letting them have a free-for-all. But, sometimes, having too many choices is just as bad as too few. You end up getting overwhelmed, and don't know where to start. Know what I mean?

And then it came to me -- the memory of pre-schools and kindergartens that were set up with play stations, or "discovery" stations. What if I were to set up four or five different stations, each with a different kind of equipment, and basic instructions for how to use it? You sit down at once of the stations, and play with the equipment and supplies for about 45 minutes. When the timer goes off, you stop what you are doing, autograph your piece, hang it on the clothesline to dry, then move on to the next station. By Jove! That just might work!

A DATE WITH DAUGHTER

 
Once in a blue moon, when daughter Lex has a bit of time off from work, we manage to get together for an artist's play date -- one where we explore new-to-us shops as well as a few old favorites. She is usually on the look out for design inspiration, while I get my jollies from color and great merchandising. One shop where we both always manage to get our fix is this one.

Can you guess which one it is? There's probably one in a city near you!

Unfortunately, stores like this aren't usually too keen on people snapping photographs. They are a bit proprietary about their merchandising ideas, and I can't say that I blame them. Which is why all these shots were taken rather surreptitiously. My daughter, however, claimed it looked more like I was about to steal something and that, if anything, my stealth was actually calling attention to us! Okay, just one more shot. I'm crazy in love with these little cafe' au lait bowls. Did you know that the French often sip their coffee from bowls, rather than cups? That came as quite a surprise to me, when I first read about it in Robert Arbor's book Joie de Vivre.

Can you imagine getting paid to sit and doodle all day, coming up with sweet designs like those above? I know a few art bloggers who have made that happen!

Speaking of the French, guess where we had lunch yesterday?

Le Cafe' Crepe, in downtown Austin. What a fun little place!

Check out the jars of Nutella sitting atop this cooler:

Each one was as big as my daughter's head, I kid you not!

The Eiffel, with asparagus, chicken, provolone and Mornay sauce.

The Chloe, with Nutella, strawberries, bananas, powdered sugar and whipped cream.

Ooh la la! What a day we had!