HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU KID

A couple of days ago I was in a really grumpy mood, which is unusual for me -- so unusual that it makes my hubby quite nervous when it happens. I blame it on spending too much time on-line, reading about the horrible things we humans do to one another in the righteous name of religion and patriotism. Anyhoo, like I said, it made my hubby nervous. He remembered hearing me mention that I thought the new "googley eyes on statues" trend was pretty hilarious, so while I was off running errands, he did this.

I scoured the house pretty well, and thought surely I had spotted them all, but then the next morning, as I was reheating my tea in the microwave, I spotted a pair of eyes slithering down the side of my cup -- the cup I had been drinking from all morning! Clearly I'm not nearly as observant as I thought I was. Finally I went to my hubby and said "I give up! Are there any others that I missed?" He sauntered over to the refrigerator with a smirk and a gleam, and flipped the door open with a flourish.

Yep, pretty much everything in there had eyes, and I had been in and out of there numerous times, never noticing a thing! I guess I understand now why "eye witness accounts" are not considered to be all that reliable.
  

SO HAPPY TO MEET YOU!

Did you know that there is a new kind of device which they can implant in people with chronic pain -- one that is a wee bit of a miracle? It doesn't actually cure what ails them. Instead, it somehow manages to block some of those signals the nerves are sending to the brain -- the ones telling it that it's body should be writhing in agony. It doesn't work for everyone, but when it does? Well, it can be life-changing.  

Take our friend Ricky Charles, for instance -- Fiber Woman's hubby.  We never knew him back in the day, when he was making quite the name for himself as a glass artist, with a studio/shop down on the square and a permanent booth at the Renaissance Festival near Houston. We met him much later, after the damage and progressive pain from an old injury had made it a struggle just to get through each day, forcing him to give up his passion -- the glass art that he'd been obsessed with since he was just a kid, and which defined who he was.

So, you can only imagine how astounded my hubby was when Mr. Rick called him up recently and told him to "drop by after dinner, 'cause I've got something cool to show ya", and he arrived to find Rick out in his studio, leaning over a flame, shaping a piece of glass!

John stayed there for several hours, watching the artist at work, and was so blown away with the magic of it all that he went back again this week to take photos. He was happy to report that, not only does Rick still have a gift with glass, but also his gift of gab -- the one that he was known for way back when, earning him the moniker of Storytelling Glass Guy.

You have no idea how grateful we are, to finally get to meet this guy!

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!