CONVERSION OF A POETRY-HATER

I have always despised poetry. Abhorred it, in fact. So many people seem to write in their own private language, understood by only a few. I read their lines over and over until my head aches, and still I have no clue what it is they are trying to say.

There is one poet, however, who is a bit different. It's almost as if she speaks a universal language. Over and over again, in the past few years, lines of poetry have jumped out at me from something I was reading -- a blog post, facebook, someone's art journal, a magazine -- and stopped me in my tracks. Each time it was lines from the same author, Mary Oliver...lines guaranteed to reach out and slap you awake, if you have been sleepwalking through life...lines like:

 "Tell me. What will you do with your one wild precious life?"

So much said with so few words. Anyhoo, I'm not quite sure how she managed it, but she has me seriously considering the very last thing I ever thought I would do -- buying a poetry book!

Speaking of my one wild precious life...

I'm having tons of fun with the new on-line class I mentioned a few days ago, Draw Your Awesome Life. After completing those first two cover pages, we moved on to doing little daily vignettes in a sort of diary or calendar style. Next came sketching our "To-Do" lists, which, as you may know, is something I have great affection for. Coming up next? Sketching our grocery lists!

BOOK SNUGGLES

Looking for a good book to snuggle up with on this frigid winter's day? Might I suggest Lost Lake, by Sarah Addison Allen?

I have read, and loved, every one of Allen's books, beginning with her first, Garden Spells. Each one involves a family of "unique" women, a main character who has grown up feeling a bit of a misfit, and of course, there always a soupcon of magic thrown in! It doesn't hurt that Allen is a bit of a foodie and a sensuist, making her descriptions of food and settings especially vivid.

I was devastated when, in 2011, and at such a young age, Allen was diagnosed with advanced stages of breast cancer. but am happy to report that she has been in remission now for about two years, and that Lost Lake was well worth waiting for. (Plus, it takes place in a steamy swamp, so it's sure to warm you up!)
 

IF YOU'VE EVER WISHED YOU COULD DRAW...

One of the first on-line classes I ever took was one called Color Love, taught by Joanne Sharpe. I was drawn to it because the woman was so obviously color-mad, with projects such as this...

and this...

and this.

After two consecutive classes with Joanne, I branched off in different directions, sampling lots of different "flavors." Just recently, however, I started noticing some exciting stuff being posted by my fellow art journalists -- stuff that just screamed Joanne Sharpe. So I decided to pop over to her website, Whimspirations, to see what I'd been missing. Within minutes I was signed up for her class "Draw Your Awesome Life", which I'm convinced could make anyone more conscious of all those amazing little things that are scattered throughout our days, but which can be easily missed if you aren't paying attention. I'm hoping it will also help make daily sketching so much a part of my routine that it's almost like brushing my teeth! Here are the two projects I've completed so far.

So here's what I'm thinking. If you've ever wanted to take an art class, but were afraid to do it because you "can barely draw stick figures", well, I'm thinkin' this is the class for you! Joanne is so good at breaking it down into manageable little steps that anyone can follow. For instance, when she told us to draw a teacup in that first project, which is the cover page in the little art diary we are creating, she said "Draw a 'U', now add an almond shape at the top of it." Believe me, you can do this!

I'm already having so much fun with this, it's pretty much a given that I will be signing up for the follow-up class which just opened a couple of weeks ago -- "2014: Draw Your Awesome Year." And who knows? I may even look into that "Whimsical Women Art Retreat" in Costa Rica!

PERFECT PLACE FOR A UNIQUE WEDDING

Long, long ago, around the time I was born in the early 50s, there was a lodge built on the shores of Cypress Creek, in Wimberley, Texas. It was surrounded by little "casitas", and people came from far and wide to stay there and soak up a bit of that famous Hill Country atmosphere.

Western movie star Slim Pickens stayed there too, and made a commercial for the lodge. By the time we moved here, however, the place had undergone a period of absentee ownership, fallen into disrepair, and eventually shut down. We had driven by a few times, to eat at a little burger place that sat on the banks of the creek behind it, and from the outside it had looked a bit like an old nursing home where everyone had just, well, passed away.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I got a call from Lex saying she and Nate would be coming to tour Cypress Falls Event Center, as a possible venue for their wedding. I was downright flabbergasted when they returned from the tour positively giddy with delight, convinced that they had found the perfect place!

You see, what I didn't realize was that the burger place we used to go to down by the creek? Well, that was being run by the family who had just bought the place. It was their first little business adventure while they set about the work of making their BIG dream come true  -- that of bringing Cypress Falls back to life.

Ceremony Site, Weather Permitting

Rear entry to the lodge, where wedding party will return from the creekside ceremony site.

Yesterday Hubby and I got to meet up there with Lex, Nate, and Nate's folks, Holly and Sandy. Finally, I get it. I know why they were so giddy!

For one thing, our family has a thing for twinkle lights. And paper lanterns. And mason jars. Most places Lex visited charged a good bit extra to hang those things from their trees. Or, if they were already there, they charged extra just to turn them on! Here, it was all part of the very reasonable package.

Outdoor Bar Area

Another problem was that most of the venues they had visited had gorgeous outdoor settings, but their back-up plan for inclement weather was to put up a tent. Uhhhh...No. This place has a huge indoor room that would be perfect, plus a little something extra that pretty much clenched the deal -- a secret door!

If you are heading back from the lobby area, you will find an old fashioned glass phone booth. If, however, you were to push on the back wall of that phone booth, it would slide away, allowing entry to this cozy little indoor bar, with a stone fireplace at either end. It reminded the kids of one of those prohibition era "speakeasies"...

which is how they ended up with a speakeasy-themed wedding. Truth be told, I think Lex is half-hoping for bad weather, so they can just spend all of their time in here!

Basically, the kids just weren't looking for a traditional/formal wedding site. What they wanted was a casual/funky place where the whole wedding party could stay on site, and they could all just hang out together for the entire weekend.

So, in the process of making their own dreams come true, the family who brought this place back to life will make this special couple's dreams come true as well!

MY FRIEND HEATHER

We were in The Leaning Pear this week when I spotted some new artwork peeking up over the top of the fireplace wall.

All those mismatched letters reminded me of an installation my friend Heather Carter once did, called Life Boats. Heather prefers to use found materials in her artwork, so for months she had everyone she knows saving any boxes or packaging with large letters they came across. I walked over to take a closer look.

That's when I realized the final line was a favorite quote from the only poet I have ever loved, Mary Oliver. It says "Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild precious life?" How odd! Heather's installation had included that very same quote, only hers had been one long, single line of words that wrapped all the way around a huge gallery hall over at Texas State. Could this possibly be her's as well?

It wasn't until I turned around to head back to my table that I happened to glance up and see these "boats" floating through the air.

Oh yeah! Most definitely the work of local artist Heather Carter, who also happens to be co-founder and past president of The Bountiful Sprout. Way to go, Heather!
  

WINTER SURVIVAL

What is the most critical component in a winter survival kit?

Why, seed catalogs, of course!

IN ANSWER TO THE PROVERBIAL QUESTION...

While painting that first little woodland girl with antlers recently, I got to thinking about this facebook clip I saw not long ago, of friend High School Debbie's darling granddaughter dancing around in a funny animal hat, to her very favorite song --  this crazy/wonderful music video by a Norse brother-duo called Ylvis, which went viral a while back. The song is based on a children's book which asks the proverbial question, "What does the fox say?" And, well, believe it or not, I actually know the answer to that question.

You see, we live on a piece of property which the original owners dubbed "Fox Hill." This spring I was delighted to find Mama Fox trotting past my window each morning as I sat at the computer, occasionally followed by her kits.

Over the past several years we have sometimes heard a strange noise in the night -- a cross between a bark and a cough, almost like someone was trying to clear their throat. One night Lex and I had the windows in the house open, and we spotted something perched on our big retaining wall, making that strange coughing sound. We couldn't see it clearly, but could make out pointy ears and a fluffy tail. It was too big to be a house cat, so we wondered if perhaps it was a small bobcat or mountain lion. Then one evening when John was coming up the outdoor staircase, he reported seeing a fox making a strange cough-like sound, and we finally put two and two together. That was Mama Fox calling to her kits, or warning us away whenever we got too close!

So there, now you know.