HUBBY'S ART, AND THE PASSING OF A GENERATION

I'm heading up to Dallas today for an uncle's funeral, so you won't be hearing from me for a few days. Uncle Jay was the last of my mom's siblings to pass away, even though he was the oldest of the four. He was a postman back in the days when they actually walked their routes. Just goes to show what fresh air and plenty of exercise can do for you. Sadly, both parents and all of their siblings are now gone. Know what that means? It means my siblings and I have officially become "the old folks." Kinda freaks you out, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share some of Hubby's art for a change. He has always loved photography, and has a great eye for composition, but what he loves even more is the "mechanics" of photography, and all of the related equipment. When he moved to Singapore right after college, he went on a bit of a shopping spree, buying all kinds of camera and stereo equipment. After we got married and moved to a little beach bungalow in Indonesia, he proceeded to take a billion sunset photos, then bought all of the equipment to develop and print the photos himself. He set up his darkroom on a board over the bathtub!

He had actual darkrooms in our first couple of houses, but then came babies, and our first video camera. After that, the digital age. Lucky for him, he discovered that he enjoys manipulating his pictures in Photoshop just as much, if not more than, he every enjoyed printing and developing them. Here is one of his latest projects, using a photo he took in the Latin Quarter of Paris a few years back.

I made him frame this one, and hang it in our dining room.

THE HONEYMOON

Well, Lex and Nate made it back from Hawaii yesterday, and the first thing they did was come steal their puppy dog back from us, even though they'd led us to believe they wouldn't be fetching her until this afternoon. I think they missed her! In exchange, they were kind enough to share a few photos with us.

First half of the honeymoon was spent in a tree house...

while the second half was spent in this vintage trailer.

In between they went zipping around the Big Island in this snazzy convertible...

 trying everything from zip-lining and hiking through lava flow tunnels...

to exploring a botanical garden filled with exotic blooms.

And, because she's her momma's daughter, they sought out some sweet treats...

and a local tea house.

She loved it that they had to remove their shoes to enter, and got to sit on the floor at a low table.

All in all, I'd say they had a fairly amazing adventure, wouldn't you?
 

FAVORABLE CONDITIONS

Despite all predictions of dire weather conditions, we managed to make it through an entire fun-filled weekend, spent mostly outside, without ever getting wet.

Saturday, after a somewhat hilarious brunch (which I will tell you about in a minute) we headed into town for the annual Wimberley Arts Fest, down at Blue Hole Park.

First stop is always the classic car gathering, near the entrance to the park.

Then there is the live music to relax and enjoy, a food truck or two, and booth after booth filled with all sorts of hand-made goodness. I was standing in one booth, looking at all the wonderful mixed-media paintings that had all kinds of fibers and little goodies added in for a 3-D effect, when it suddenly occurred to me that I recognized this art. "Hey! I know you!", I said to the darling young woman with the strawberry-blonde hair and freckles. "This is The Freckled Army!"

I first came across Elissa Brown's work in one of my Stampington art magazines several years ago, and it was love at first sight. Even better to see them up close and personal!

Then, of course, there were the new six-foot tall, hand painted boots that were being unveiled as part of the Bootiful Wimberley program. This one is my new, color-mad favorite.

Guess who sponsored it?

Mima's! Which means I get to visit it every time I stop in for a chicken fajita taco...which, as you know, is fairly often. Maybe this is why they've been busy painting all their patio tables and chairs in bright fiesta colors over the last month or two! 

This booth is going to provide great inspiration for an upcoming project in Junelle's Art of Spring class, which involves sketching a little barn or farmhouse.

Or maybe I should just sketch that little old church house that I see every time I look out my dining room window?

I got separated from Hubby after a while. No problem. I knew just where to find him!

Thanks to our local W.A.G. Rescue, there are always puppies at any local event, and Hubby always makes a beeline for them!  It was a very fun day.

OK, back to our breakfast story.

Friday evening we took the kids to dinner at Hays City Cafe, which I told you about a month or two ago, when they first opened. While there we noticed that, at some point, they had added breakfast into the line-up. We decided to give it a try the next morning, since Wimberley Cafe is always so dang crowded, especially on a festival or Market Days weekend.

The waitress came over to hand us our menus, saying "Just want you to know, before you get your hopes up, that we are all out of biscuits." Hmmm. Okay, well, I wanted to try their Migas anyway, and most everyone else wanted pancakes or breakfast tacos, so, no problem.

A few minutes later she was back. "I really, really hate to tell you this, but we just ran out of pancakes too. We just weren't expecting quite this many people, and everything is made from scratch." I told her we realized it was hard to know what to expect the first few weeks, before word gets out, then asked how long they had been serving breakfast. "Umm, a couple of hours? Today is our first day." Ahhhh, no wonder.

A short time later she was back at our table, tail between her legs. "I'm so, so sorry, but we just ran out of the pico de gallo that goes on one of those tacos you ordered." "That's fine, just give me two of the other one."

A few minutes later she was headed back to our table. "OMG! What now?" "Good news this time. They made more pancakes!"

Know what? Those were, without a doubt, some of the best Migas and pancakes we've ever had, and I wouldn't hesitate to go back, now that they know how many people to expect!