FLASHBACK: THE BRAVEST THING I EVER DID

Right around the same time that I started my "Year of Reading Dangerously", I began something else rather brave, even epic, for me. I started drawing. And, I actually showed it to people! I know most of you think I have always been an "artsy" person, but that just isn't true, and you are about to see visual proof of that -- the very first page of what was to become my very first art journal. I just didn't know it at the time.

FLASHBACK

They say every journey starts with taking that first little step, and that post is living proof! Illustrating that one little to-do list, and being brave enough to share it here on this blog, caught the attention of high school Debbie and led her to tell me about some art journaling classes she'd been taking on line. Who knew such a thing even existed? Which then led me to Art Journaling magazine. When a whole pile of those illustrated to-do lists had mounted up, I finally realized I had created an art journal of sorts, and the positive feedback I had received from all of you, combined with the things I was learning in my year of reading dangerously, finally gave me the guts I needed to submit them to Art Journaling magazine, where one of them ended up being published. And, well, things just blossomed from there!

JUST THE THING

When you're not all that hungry come dinnertime and just want something light, but the bread you were going to make grilled cheese sandwiches with turns up moldy, then you wander into to town trying to think of something good, but it all just seems so heavy, well...

a little of this...

and a little of that, at the gorgeous new wine bar which just took over the spot formerly known as Tastebuds...

might be just the thing you didn't even know you needed!

Los Olivos Market. Check it out!

THIS OLD TRUNK

When we moved back to Dallas for a few years in the late 90s , my sisters got me hooked on "Friday Nights at the Auction House" as a new form of entertainment. The place just happened to be owned by two brothers we went to high school with, and was more of a social event than a serious shopping endeavor. I did, however, manage to snag a few treasures over the years. One of my favorites was this old trunk -- a trunk filled with mystery!

It looked like it had been made long, long ago, by someone who was heading off to a new life in a new land, with all their worldly possessions tucked inside. I was fascinated by the amazing hardware...

and the fact that it had several religious images glued inside the lid -- perhaps something their mother put there, to protect them on their journey?

At first it had pride of place in our living room, as our coffee table, but my hubby has never really shared my passion for rustic beauty. So, with each move and each addition of newer, glossier stuff, it got relegated to ever more obscure locations, until it finally ended up out on the porch, filled with Hubby's gardening stuff. So sad.

Anywho, this week I decided to start on another project from my new Folk Art Fusion book by Heather Galler. This one was to be based on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Only, her image didn't really look anything like the ones I remembered from our wonderful trips to San Miguel de Allende, so I decided to gather some images and just do my own thing.

I had just spread all of these out on my work table, to ponder over for awhile, when I spotted Hubby opening that old trunk on the porch. Some flash of color grabbed my attention and drew me out there to take a closer look, since I hadn't been inside it for 10 or 15 years. Guess what I found?

Our Lady of Guadalupe, of course!

After doing a little research on Wikipedia, I discovered that the most famous phrase relating to Our Lady of Guadalupe is, "Am I not here, I who am your mother?"

No wonder she was plastered inside this trunk!