One of Life's Special Gifts

Sometimes life sends you a special little gift, a present just for you. This morning I was downloading pictures from the digital camera, looking for something suitable for the Christmas cards. And right there was video I didn't even know I shot, of one of the most exciting events ever to take place in our little Catherine's life. To view the video, click on the arrow below. You may want to take some Dramamine.

So there you go. That was my special little gift. Somehow, our sweet little angel Catherine was captured making what may be her first and only real-life, made-in-Texas snow angel. You'll also catch a few peeks of me and what appears to be a double chin or bagging neck skin (yikes), along with the husband, daughters number 1 and 3, and the beautiful West Texas blue sky.

Here's some pictures I took around Marathon Sunday morning.

Isn't that a cute little dumpster?

Our neighbors love color, too. This blue looks really pretty with the snow I think.

The snow on Iron Mountain, and the snow clouds hanging over the top.

Why My Neck Hurts

We're moving the groove west and going to Marathon for Thanksgiving tomorrow, but I wanted to post a few pictures of the job that is to blame for my neck "condition." This is why I can't turn my head to the right, and why, apparently, my arm falls asleep several times a day. I suppose I wasn't exactly "in shape" when I agreed to climb scaffolding two stories in the air and paint a ceiling off and on for two weeks.

Pretty wild, huh? The ceiling is actually above the second floor, but the only way to get to it was to climb from the first floor on scaffolding. The client originally wanted to differentiate each section of the octagonal design of the ceiling with black pinstriping, which I'm quite sure would have killed me.

Here's a photo of the ceiling above the entry. It also added to my neck and shoulder situation.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. My neck needs a vacation.

Moving the groove west

While my good friend Lavenderchick is planning to serve her Thanksgiving feast in her completed dining room and bathroom, due to ongoing construction projects on the farm, we're moving the groove west.

The familia is heading to Marathon, right in the middle of God's country, near Big Bend National Park. We'll be staying in a little house we have been renovating for the last few years. One day, I envision this home as a retreat house both for me, our friends and family, artists looking for sanctuary while exploring the Big Bend, and small groups looking for peace and spiritual reflection under the big sky of the Chihuahuan desert. As one of my favorite people, Art, told me, "this house has a good vibe."

So we're heading west to capture some of that good vibe for ourselves and we may or may not get some renovating done on this trip. Here's a "before"picture of our sanctuary:

Did I mention it was a diamond in the rough? So far, most of the renovation has been done on the inside: boring stuff like plumbing and electrical. Now we're getting to the good stuff, the jobs I like, such as painting and decorating. I'll be sure to show you more photos as it comes along. All the doors in the house are different, because the house was built in stages, starting in the early 1920s, when Marathon was still the wild west.

That's another "before" photo. You can tell by the ashtray.

Glamorous it ain't

But fabulous it is. Living in my painted groove is dirty and sweaty but fabulous nonetheless. In my oversized Sherwin Williams tshirt, I am transforming the world, all the while imagining that all this sweating is cleansing my pores and keeping my skin fresh and supple.



Whereas I once had a window office on the seventh floor overlooking Carswell Air Force Base, headquarters for my painted groove is this beautiful workspace below:

Remember my little table from last week? It now has some groovy stripes going on and it's waiting for some pink and green paint. I love this garage/studio. It is my sanctuary. Pink, Tracy Chapman, Robert Earl and I have had some great times down here in the middle of the night. They're waiting for me right now to get in there and get to work.

Here's one of my most recent fabulous treasures. It's an old cabinet of some sort. Lizeth and I heaved it out of a junk pile on the east side of San Antonio one rainy day. There was another piece that matched it but it was buried under some wet carpet and a rocking chair. I imagined rats or a snake being in there too, and I did have my kids in the car, so we let it go. After first seeing the pile of discarded treasures, I did drive past at first. But the argument that ensued in my head made me turn back around. Lizeth didn't even ask if I needed help. With her beautiful fake fingernails, she jumped out and helped me load it up. It's a little flaky, but look at this natural crackle. Unbelievable:

The color is also magical. I cannot put it off any longer, my furniture and Third Day are calling me....

After much fanfare and build-up, here's a few photos of the chairs I was raving about. I especially like the photo of the chair under the Conviction photo. When the husband first mentioned he'd like to find some prints with subjects like "Conviction," "Perseverance" and "Success," my initial thought was those type prints were way cliche. And most of the ones I had seen featured pictures of golf courses, with words like "Conviction" and "Perseverance" and "Success" written under them, as if golf courses have anything to do with conviction and success. Yuck. Thankfully, the husband wasn't crazy about the golf prints either. One of the best things about him is he isn't in love with golf. Once we discovered some that didn't feature pictures of golf courses, I relented. After all, conviction, success and perseverance are all good messages to have your husband reminded of on a daily basis, aren't they? These prints we found feature pretty trees and mountains. I can fully support pretty trees and mountains any time.

OK, back to the chairs. I can't figure out why my fancy camera doesn't fully capture the rich toffee and black color of these chairs. The pictures look a little washed out, like my flash is too strong. The lighting is hideous fluorescent, so maybe that's it. The chairs turned out really better than I ever imagined when I got them for $12 apiece. I don't say this to brag. I truly get so excited when something shabby finds new life as something transformed and beautiful. Like I said, it's amazing what a little Venetian Gem, black Setcoat and Briwax can do. By the way, Briwax is my new favorite trick of the trade. It makes any wood or any painted surface look rich, aged and more interesting. Kind of like how I pray my face looks as I age.

So the chair groove is over, and I've moved on to some little tables that are getting a makeover for a home on Lake McQueeney. The client is certainly not afraid of color. The colors in the room are a light lime green, pink, orange. If I could figure out how to transfer Sherwin Williams paint chips to my blog, I would show you. If you'd like to go look for yourself, go to http://www.sherwinwilliams.com/, find their Color Visualizer and do the paint color lookup feature for Parakeet, Begonia and Knockout Orange.

This poor little brown table will never be the same.

I'm in a groove & I can't stop to blog

I know it's been too long since I posted something but I am gloriously involved in one of my painted grooves. It kills me to stop, but someone has to pick up Mary at school, take Catherine and Caroline to dance, convince Caroline tap shoes are critical to ones success at tap dancing, and throw some dinner together after that.

Here's what I'm grooving on today: I bought four ladderback chairs about a month ago at an auction for $12 apiece. I told my husband once they're fabulous they would be perfect for the office, around a little table for lunch breaks, or meeting with someone informally. He didn't see my vision, as is usually the case, but he has developed the ability to humor me wonderfully. He gave me a shrug that I prefer to think of as a shrug of confidence.

I bought some little cushions for the seat because ladderback chairs like these are notoriously not comfortable for a long sit.

Tune in tomorrow for the finished product. I am so jazzed. It's amazing what a little Venetian Gem, black Setcoat and Briwax can do.

Who do you say that you are?

About a month ago, one of my Kelly friends discovered I had "dropped my basket," fired myself from most of my responsibilities at our mortgage company, and had rededicated myself to all things creative. I have not a few Kelly friends, so when this particular Kelly, a charitable fundraising organizer extraordinaire, learned I had embarked on my painted groove, she immediately asked me to be a participant in her organization's Art Walk. "We're featuring eight artists. We have seven artists already and you would be our eighth artist," she said.

OK, if there's one thing you should know about me, I do not and have not ever called myself an artist. Her invitation filled me with panic all the way down to my toes. I learned to call myself a writer, an editor, a gardener, a Texas Certified Nursery Professional even, a Mom, a wife, all that. But I never called myself an artist, even during all the years I made a living faux painting from Pleasanton to Kerrville and all the Stone Oak McMansions in between.

What's funny is at the very time Kelly the fundraiser asked me to participate, I was reading a book by Beth Moore called "Believing God." It's a pretty heavy book, and not an easy, beach read, that's for sure. One of the key themes in the book is to believe "I am who God says I am." Not what anyone else says you are. Not what that negative voice in your head formed by all the baggage you've accumulated says you are. Not what your evil ex-boyfriend said you were. Who that really positive and uplifting Guy Upstairs says you are.

I knew instantly that I would have to force myself to go be an Artist for Kelly's Art Walk. I couldn't take huge pieces of furniture for my 8-foot display table so I revved up my portfolio with pictures of past jobs and took some smaller things like a table and a chair and some samples I had created on wood moulding.

Here's a picture of a little table I named "Go Bucks." Anyone from Alpine will recognize the hints of purple and gold. As I painted it, my mind kept recalling "Go Bucks! Beat Marfa!!. I know, I'm a little touched in the head. This table, with its faux ostrich top, is a perfect home for your cup of coffee or tea or wine glass when you're curled up in a chair. And it's for sale, incidentally.

And here's a picture of "Mary's Chair," so named because it is my daughter Mary's chair. She was real happy when I didn't sell it.

I met some really neat people at the Art Walk. None of the other, real artists laughed at me, at least that I saw. One of Seguin's famous artists, Kitty Keller, was quite complimentary and gracious to little old me. A fabulous artist who creates beautiful mixed media works with vintage papers, Laura Dodson, was particularly wonderful and I've become a big fan of her work. So I'd say a good time was had by all.