READY AS I'LL EVER BE

 
Here we go! Sure hope I'm not forgetting anything. What I want to know is, how on earth do the people who are coming in by plane manage to fit it all into one suitcase and one carry-on?

GROWN UP LADY CAMP & COMPUTERS

I have never been one to go out and buy some gizmo just because it's new and exciting. In fact, I'd probably still be using my pink Princess phone that I got for my 13th birthday, a TV with no remotes, and a Hi-Fi with a turntable, if it were up to me. Nope, I'm usually the very last one to jump on board with new technology, waiting for everyone else to test it first, work out the bugs, and prove to me beyond a doubt that it will actually make my life better. Which is why I don't have a tablet, an e-reader, an i-pod, or even a laptop.

When I first became obsessed with writing, my sister kept saying "I can't believe John hasn't bought you a laptop yet, so you can hang out in coffee shops while you write." Well, believe you me, he'd be on it like white on rice, if I gave him the least bit of encouragement. However, 1) I prefer blogging at home in my jammies, and 2) I don't even like coffee. That being said, my desktop computer is starting to bug me a bit.

The first time I questioned its position as the center of my universe was when we took that river cruise in southern France, and it refused to go with me. Two whole weeks sans blogging, email, or facebook was much tougher than I expected. I was dying to share things with y'all as they happened, but couldn't! I'm afraid it made me just a wee bit crazy. I tried using my hubby's tablet gizmo to check email a few times, but I was utterly hopeless with that touch-screen keyboard.

Now it's my computer that's gone a tad insane. Hubby has been nudging me to replace it for some time, as he considers things to be obsolete after two or three years, and I've had this since back when I still lived in Houston -- before I had around 2,500 blog posts and a bazillion photos saved on it. He thinks it's giving me all this trouble because it only has one meg of doohickies , and he can't add anymore to it. He says I really need a computer with double that amount.

The nifty "origami" bag that sister Gus made for me last Christmas, with all those little pockets, should be perfect for carrying my art supplies to class at camp this week.

The whole time we were in San Antonio last week, I kept thinking how wonderful it would be if I could access my photos right away, and type blog posts while everything was fresh in my mind -- from that bagel shop where I had to kill a couple of hours each morning while waiting for Hubby to wake up. I'm sure it will be the same at Lucky Star Art Camp this week, when I'm up and at 'em hours before they start serving breakfast, and just bubbling over with things to tell you!

She even made a nifty zipper pouch to hold all my brushes, pens, and markers.

Plus, the stamp carving class I signed up for didn't make, so at the last minute I switched to Vivienne McMasters' self-portraiture photography class. Though it's not mandatory, she said it would be helpful if you had a laptop for downloading your photos. Otherwise, I guess you just have to wait until you get home to see how they turned out.

All these supplies are for my one, all-day, Happy Painting class with Juliette Crane.

In a weak moment, after it had frozen up for the fifth or sixth time in a row, I told my husband "Well, if they would just invent a portable computer that would let me access my photos wherever I happen to be, but which still had a regular keyboard, maybe I'd let you replace this freakin' dinosaur!" I knew I was in trouble when that wicked grin appeared on his face. "Guess you are unaware" he replied, "that most businesses these days use laptops that can be placed in a docking station on your desk, and used with a regular keyboard and monitor if desired." Er, no. I didn't know that.

Too bad I didn't find out in time to take care of it, before leaving for my "grown up lady camp" TOMORROW!

ANOTHER VERY GOOD DAY

Guess where we were yesterday? Here's a hint:

We were at the Bass Music Hall in Austin with our kiddos, their honeys, and a couple of our Sundays-at-Driftwood-Vineyard buddies, to see Book of Mormon! Sadly, our son's honey had to drop out at the last minute. It seems grad-school has her a bit overwhelmed right now. However, she sent her young cousin, an engineering student at UT, in her place, and he was an absolute delight to have along.

The theater is actually on the UT campus, directly across from the football stadium.

It's a pretty cool place. I especially liked this:

I saw pictures of a woman's art studio in a magazine once. She had filled the walls with a variety of frames which she had drawn with permanent black marker, and was gradually filling them with her own and her children's works of art. I thought it was an awesome idea at the time, but certainly never expected to find something similar in a fancy-schmancy public venue like this. If only I'd had some paints or markers with me!

It's been a couple of years since John and I saw this play in New York, so we'd forgotten many of the great lines.

The rest of our group were B.O.M. virgins, so we got the added joy of seeing their first-timer reactions. I think they liked it!

It was another very good day, and two very good days in a row make for a very, very good weekend!
 

THE MOMENTS YOU NEVER FORGET

There are some moments you never forget. There's holding your baby in your arms for the first time. Letting her ride the bus to school for the first time, and following behind the bus in your car. There's sending her off to college, then watching her load a rental truck to move across the country. And then there is seeing her find the perfect wedding dress, knowing that she has also found the perfect guy -- the one who finally gets her, and realizes just what a unique gem she is.

 

The wedding is still a year away, and it's a bit early to be shopping for dresses, but when Unbridaled has their annual sample sale, it's an opportunity not to be missed! I mean, how often to you get the chance to snag a $1,700 dress for just $200?!!

Her friend Joelle came along to help. She was very excited!

This is going to be a very casual wedding, at a very casual venue -- sort of a weekend-long slumber party where everyone in the wedding party can stay on-site and enjoy sitting around the fire pit down by the river together.  She and Nate met swing-dancing, and Nate is a DJ in his spare time, so there will be lots of music and lots of dancing. The venue has a beautiful outdoor space overlooking the river, but also a nice indoor space in case the weather turns bad, and a great little bar they can all adjourn to after the wedding, which reminded them of an old speakeasy. So, they decided their wedding would have a "Speakeasy" theme!

Lex was hoping to find a tea-length (mid-calf) dress that would be easy to dance in, with a vintage feel, but there were very few to choose from, and only one that she liked.

Unfortunately, it had those very rigid Madonna-esque cups that stuck out a couple of inches beyond my daughter's not-exactly-flat chest, and we saw no way to fix that.

We did, however, figure out that there were many full-length dresses that could be shortened easily enough, so we expanded our parameters.

I'm not going to tell you which one she chose, or if it's even among these pictures, as I think it should be a surprise. However, we all knew it was "the one" when we saw it, and the look on her face when she turned towards the mirror? Well, I get choked up every time I think about it.

It was a very good day.

CIRCLE JOURNAL #4

Circle Journal #4 has arrived! This one came from Merri in Spokane, Washington.

 

 

Instead of "altering" an old book she found, she made her journal completely from scratch! You can tell from the hand stitched binding.

This is the sign-in page for each of the artists in our "circle", who will each be contributing a work of art to this journal.

She prepared a tiny manilla folder for each of us, left her own business card for us to take, then asked that we glue our picture to the front, and tell a bit about our self and our art journey inside.

Merri's Cover Page

These Circle Journals just blow me away, each one more beautiful than the last. Hopefully, I will return from Art Camp in a week with a head just bursting with ideas for what I might add to this oh-so-precious book!

SAN ANTONIO WRAP UP

Guess it's time to get the rest of our S.A. trip out of the way. There's just way too much exciting stuff coming up this week! First of all, I get to go wedding dress shopping with my daughter tomorrow. SQUEEEEE! Sunday we're taking the kids to see The Book of Mormon, and Wednesday I leave for Lucky Star Art Camp in Hunt, Texas. Woohoo! Meanwhile I've got one Circle Journal to pack up and mail off, another that arrived just before we left for S.A., all my packing to do, and a house and garden to whip into shape, since we have out of town guests coming the day I get back from camp! Soooo, back to day 3 in San Antonio (I told you it was a doozie of a day, didn't I?)...

From the Botanical Gardens we headed over to the Witte Museum, which wasn't too far away. I guess it's sort of a natural history museum. They had a great display about the native americans in the Pecos area of Texas, plus this awesome collection of "magic lanterns!"

Loved this weeping tree with the fern-fountain top!

Heading over to the tree house.

We had planned to head from there to the McNay museum, which was also in the area, but we were running out of steam by then. Too bad, since it turns out they have a fabulous display right now of props and gizmos used in the filming of The Nightmare Before Christmas! Maybe the Muses and I can make one of our day-trip gallery runs before the exhibit ends.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to stop in at "World Famous" Paris Hatters, family owned and operated since 1917. I was determined to spend part of my gift card on my sweet hubby, so this is what he got:

He said he could grow quite accustomed to having a Sugar Mama! Dinner that evening was at Boudro's, one of the few riverwalk establishments that has something more than tourist-grade food.

They do a mighty fine guacamole, prepared tableside! We ended the day with drinks at an outdoor cafe down on the riverwalk, the best place in the world to people-watch!

The next morning I was up before dawn as usual, headed for my bagel joint -- my favorite time of day to be wandering the streets of any city.

We had pretty much run out of energy by then, so we decided to take it easy and do some shopping at Rivercenter Mall, then go to see the movie Rush (very good!). I remember when Rivercenter was the hot new thing. Hard to believe that was about 20 years ago! It has obviously seen better days. I was also brokenhearted to see that the lovely old downtown Joskes/Dillards had closed. On the upside, there were signs all over the place about the new, improved Rivercenter that is in the works, one that will incorporate both the old Dillards and the mall.  It started raining pretty hard during our siesta, so we changed our dinner plans and just popped over to Acenar, a really nice Mexican restaurant that was right next to our hotel.

I guess Hubby was getting tired of never getting to take a bite until I had finished taking my pictures. I took the hint and put my camera away.

On our last morning I thought we'd just check out of the hotel and grab some breakfast on the way home, but Hubby had one last adventure up his sleeve...

breakfast at the St. Anthony Hotel, overlooking Travis Park.

Is there anything better than a proper pot of tea? It's just so, well, civilized. The perfect ending to a perfect trip!

SAN ANTONIO BOTANICAL GARDENS

As soon as we finished up with breakfast at Guenther House we headed over to the Botanical Gardens, hoping to get there while it was still halfway cool. Why yes, we DID have free passes to that as well. However, it's definitely worth whatever they charge to get in! It's located in the Brackenridge Park area, near the fabulous Japanese sunken garden that I told you about here.

Not only did they have a great display of "savage plants", complete with a few ginormous sculpture replicas...

they also had a pretty good collection of native plants from each part of Texas, as well as some mighty fine scarecrows. I liked this one best.

We spent all morning there, and barely covered half the property.

 

Guess we'll just have to go back again to see the rest, huh?