THE DRAFTING TABLE

If I had to pick one thing in my house that I love the most, it would probably be the drafting table that sits in the corner of our bedroom. When I went back to school in my late forties to study horticulture, my primary goal was just to make our own garden the best that it could be -- maybe even learn a bit about propagation and find work at a greenhouse or botanical garden somewhere. Perfect job for an introvert, right? But, somewhere along the way, I discovered that I had a knack for design. Not only that, I was pretty darn good at helping the garden owners to visualize my plans and get excited about them, and so my path veered off in a different direction. It wasn't until my hubby surprised me with this drafting table, however, that I realized just how proud and supportive he was of this new-found talent. When I segued from that into visual merchandising at a garden center, it became the perfect place to plan my displays and seasonal change-outs.

I seriously thought about getting rid of it when we moved to the Hill Country and downsized to this little house, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. So, it went up into the attic for a few years. I offered it to my daughter when she took up interior design, but she just laughed, saying "Mom, ever heard of autocad? No one designs by hand anymore!" All I can say is, thank heavens for autocad, for if she had taken me up on my offer, I might never have set up this little art studio in the (normally) sun-filled corner of my tree-top aerie bedroom. Not so sunny today, thanks to yet another foggy morning. Hence the yellow tinge of artificial lighting in my photos.

Anywho, I got a bit distracted by all of my holiday projects, but now the drawing board has been cleared off, and I'm ready to get back to working my way through the projects in this wonderful book.

The neatest thing is that, while I was being distracted by the holidays, my sister ordered this very same book for herself. Now we will be working through the projects in tandem, and can exchange info and ideas! Well, at least until The Muses have their encaustic play-day in a couple of weeks, since there's a pretty good chance that might lead me off down yet another rabbit hole.

P.S. If you live in the Wimberley area, and are curious about encaustic painting, you need to get yourself over to Linda Allen's Fine Foods to see their latest art installation. It includes quite a few encaustic paintings by local artist Rae Dollard, and they are simply amazing!