FLASHBACK FRIDAY: SIMPLIFY

The next book in our year of reading dangerously was a tiny little book with a great big message -- Simplify Your Life. Looking at my life now, compared to the one I had when I first read it, I feel quite proud of all I accomplished over the years. Well, in all but one rather important area -- getting my hubby on board with the program. That boy sure does love his "stuff"! 

FLASHBACK

GELLI FUN WITH FLORA AND FAUNA

Well, it seems I may have fallen down yet another artsy wormhole -- one involving the gelli plate, a tool for making monoprints without a press. This particular wormhole was created by Lucy Brydon, an artist whose work I have long admired from afar. She and several other talented artists are teaching a class on-line about their favorite ways to make art using a gelli plate, as well as different ways to use up all those stacks of prints you inevitably end up with.

The first lesson, from Lucy herself, had me outside gathering all kinds of plant matter from my yard, pressing it between the pages of my giant old dictionary...

then using it to create layer upon layer of see-through texture and color, making both negative prints...

and positive prints.

Our favorite print will then be turned into a finished piece of art by adding a focal point of some sort and by inking in a few fun details. I'm still trying to decide where to go with mine.

The rest will be used in other projects yet to be discovered.  Well, if I ever make it as far as the next lesson. Right now I feel compelled to try the first one over again a few more times, in order to try out all the other ideas that keep popping into my head. Thank goodness you usually get access to these on-line classes for at least a year. At the rate I'm going, it may well take me that long to complete it!

DATE DAY: HEROINES + WARRIORS + GODDESSES

Friday is Date Day for Hubby and me. That usually means lunch and a movie in Kyle or San Marcos, the two nearest theater locations. Lately, however, we seem to be having more and more trouble finding movies we both want to see. I guess we are no longer of an age to be included in movie-makers' target audiences. Kind of funny, though, when you consider that we now have more leisure time and money to spend than we ever did before! Anywho, Friday before last was one of those days, so Hubby decided to plan a mystery adventure in old east Austin -- one of the last bastions of Austin's former funkiness. Our adventure began here, at a Chinese bar/restaurant called Old Thousand. The food was okay, but the decor was way fun!

Coming out of the restaurant was kind of depressing, however. If you looked to the left you could see wonderful remnants of Old Austin...

but glance to your right, towards the highway, and you see nothing but the march of massive condo developments, eating up everything in their path.

Our next stop was a tiny little gallery called Link & Pin, with a really big-to-me art show going on -- one called Heroines + Warriors + Goddesses, featuring the work of three artists, Helen Rose Buck, Rhea Pettit, and Neena Buxoni.

Hubby loved it too -- especially the portraits of Pink and Ann Richards, two of his idols!

Unfortunately, the show ended the very next day, so I'm afraid y'all missed it. I know my Muses would have LOVED it!

The H.E. Building, Where Most Of My UT Classes Took Place

The Dorm Where I Lived My First Two Years In College

The rest of the date was spent wandering around the UT campus, including my old dorm, where we met and fell in love while both working part-time in the dorm's cafeteria. There were also trips to the Student Union and the University Co-Op, which has a super great art supply addition now.

It was a very good date day!
 

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: YOU ARE CREATIVE, WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT

The next book in my Year of Reading Dangerously was Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way -- a real life-changer for me. It's the one that made me realize one doesn't have to be born with a pen or paint brush in one's hand, creating masterpieces by the time one is in grammar school, in order to be creative. All you really need to learn is how to shush your internal (and sometimes external) critics, and open yourself up to the creativity that flows through all of us. Julia Cameron knows just how to do that. Trust me. If I can do it, anyone can!

 FLASHBACK

 

FORTLANDIA!

As soon as I spotted the blurb online about the newest exhibition at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center -- one called Fortlandia -- I just knew we had to take our little Goober Bear there.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...

First Stop: The Make-Your-Own Twig Banner Station

Second Stop: The Nature-Bracelet-Making-Station

  I'm fairly certain he had to have been the happiest kid on earth that day!
 

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: MY FIRST FOODIE MYSTERY TRAVEL GUIDE

Who out there has never read anything by Peter Mayle? If not, why not?

His most famous book, A Year in Provence -- based on his and his wife's real life experiences -- was the 2/1/09 giveaway in my Year of Reading Dangerously, and had much to do with my determination to live a life imbued with "seasonality". It also made a trip to Provence the #1 item on my bucket list, which finally got crossed off in June of 2011, when we took our Viking River Cruise there.

 

The best part of the trip, however, happened after we disembarked from the cruise, and headed off on our own to spend a few days in Marseilles. You see, I had just finished reading one of Mayles' mystery novels called The Vintage Caper, which took place in Marseilles. And, using that as our only guidebook, we had one of the best adventures, and ate one of the greatest meals, of our lives!

Ever since, I have made a point to seek out and read at least one novel (preferably one written by a foodie) before heading off to a new country.

P.S. For any of you who are considering a trip to Cuba, I highly recommend the novel I just finished reading, Next Year In Havana, by Chanel Cleeton. It's one of Reese Witherspoon's book club picks, and one that I sincerely hope she ends up making a movie out of!
 

LOOK THROUGH MY WINDOW: HELLO LITTLE BUCKAROO!

Well, it's been a crazy fun extended weekend, with a visiting sister and niece, and a double birthday celebration with the kids. But, par for the course, when having a little too much fun, I forget all about taking any photos! So, instead, I will leave you with this.

Once again I find myself asking, how will I ever be able to give up the constant source of entertainment which this bedroom window and our balcony porch provide me with, and go back to living in town, looking out on the house next door or a parking lot?