WHIMSICAL ART

Remember the funky outdoor shop I showed you recently -- the one selling old carnival ride seats as garden furniture? It's owned by local yodeling musician Jill Jones, who used to have a similar shop called By The Bridge, until it got swept away in one of our epic floods. We are so glad to have her back in business, because you just never know what you will find there. It was Hubby who stopped dead in his tracks when we walked past this time, and this is what caught his eye.

Why was he so fascinated with this stuff? Well, turns out it's all made from parts you find in gas turbines -- a subject my hubby just happens to be a bit of an expert on! Where on earth does she find this stuff?

And, while we're on the subject of whimsical art, this is what's happenin' in the bedroodio right now.

I'm doing a class on-line with one of my favorite watercolor artists, Danielle Donaldson. It's called Wild Blue Yonder!

First we practiced painting skies and clouds and rainbows...

then we tried our hand at whimsical birds -- some painted, some cut from paper, and some a combination of both.

Up next, paper airplanes! Then we will do a final masterpiece including all of the above. Normally I would get all sad and mopey when a fun class is coming to an end, but not when I have this to look forward to...

Danielle's new book that just came out, chock full of lots more fun projects just like these!

 What about you? Anything fun and whimsical going on in your neck of the woods?

BIG BUBBA

My hubby's big brother has been visiting all week, and heads back to Ohio today. Here is their week, in photos:

Hays City Ice House

Duchman Winery

Where the great majority of their time was spent, usually with both snorin' away!

At The Salt Lick

The grilling of big honkin' steaks is mandatory!

Ya think they managed to have a good time?

Hard to believe that when I first met these two, they looked absolutely nothing alike, and everyone said John looked like his dad's family, while Mike looked like his mom's. Go figure.

A DATE WITH MY DAUGHTER

Last time I went for a haircut my stylist asked what Lex was up to these days, and I told her that she had circled back to her original love of jewelry-making, had opened an etsy site, and was considering doing some craft markets. She said "Oh my gosh, you have to tell her about BossBabesATX and their twice-a-year craft markets." So I shot her a text while I was under the dryer, and she came back with "Already have tickets to their April meeting, and was planning on attending their spring market as well. Wanna go with?" Heck ya!

Unfortunately, when we got there, they were already at capacity, the line snaked down the street and around the corner, and no one seemed to be leaving the building. So we decided to take off and do some splorin', then come back later to see if the situation had improved.

We were looking for something cool to sip or slurp, but instead, we discovered this little gem -- Ah Sing Den! One peek through the window, and we just had to go in.

Apparently this place was named after a famous opium den in Victorian London, where Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle found inspiration, but it reminded me of some of the wonderful little places we used to discover in Singapore, when we drifted away from the normal tourist paths and just let ourselves get lost.

According to their website, they specialize in "Tipples and Morsels", and before we knew it, we were sipping little cups of Harney & Son's amazing Soho Blend tea, and nibbling sweet potato Japanese beignets with red bean coconut cream. Oh my!

After seeing these photos, our guys can't wait to go back and sample the "tipples" on the menu, or try the Sunday brunch.

Ah Sing's Secret Garden

When we got back to the craft market the line was still long, but moving much faster, and it was only ten or fifteen minutes before we were inside, with somewhere around 125-150 vendors to shop from.

The Roller Derby Gals Do Their Best To Recruit Our Lex

Although neither one of us ended up buying anything (Hubby was very disappointed in us, and wishes he had been there!) Lex did get a ton of great ideas for setting up a booth and staging one's merchandise. Here's hoping she get's selected to be one of the vendors next time!