Do you really want to know this?

It's been so long since I have blogged, I almost wonder whether to blog and why? Does anyone need to know what I'm doing? Does anyone care?

I originally thought I'd blog to promote my work. As an artist, it's difficult to mix in marketing and promotion. In my perfect world, I'd retreat into my garage and not come out until I had created the perfect faux ocelot masterpiece on a shabby little piece of furniture someone had sold at a garage sale -- and then watch as my transformed masterpiece magically sold itself so I could buy some new shoes. When I work, I bust my hump, mostly to suit myself (which is a really hard job). Somehow the client almost always loves it. When it seems like I'm just doing a job for money, and not personally doing my part at beautifying the world, it's no fun. Maybe blogging is self-analyzing. Hmmm.

After that fascinating peek into my twisted personality, here's a gallery of sorts of what I did last year. Depending on how many images make my cut, it will be my Top 6 or 5. (six or five is just funner to say than five or six). These are in no particular order, because it's just a hassle to move the pictures around.

Patty's powder room. It's just pretty and you want to be in Patty's house because of Patty. Base color is SW Nomadic Desert.

My shower wall. This has everything but the kitchen sink on it, but includes Fauxstone Pull-off and a couple of colors of Lusterstone over SW Blonde. It makes me happy everyday.

Who doesn't love lime green bar stools? The antiquing stain makes them a little edgy.

The client wanted leopard. I procrastinated and couldn't find a stencil locally. I didn't know how to do leopard. So maybe two days before the install, I sat down with a printout of leopard skin and made it happen with a cheapy paint brush from my daughters' watercolors. I was quite pleased. God was with me that day, for sure, because I had no idea what I was doing.

Gwynne's powder room. It was so hard and it looks so good. This is Topaz Venetian Gem & wax, and that's all I'm going to tell you. When you walk into the room, you just have to reach out and touch the wall to see what it is.

Though I wasn't in love with this tile, the paint color on these cabinets was such a rich red. The only problem was the painters had cut it so thin everytime you brushed past them they'd scuff. So I antiqued and sealed them and they were awesome. The growling, teeth-baring, massive barking dog on this job that the client told me was just "all bark" and would "eventually leave me alone" made me really glad to get the hell out of that house.

I really worked on my skins last year. This looks like yummy dark brown leather.

Anything I did in a powder bath with this fabulous light fixture is going on my top list. I just love it. And I love the client with the balls to pick it out. When I am a few years older, I want to be like her. Tough and confident and rich so I can be philanthropic.

And then there was my favorite blog, I mean rant, of the year. If you are curious, just click here.

Fabulous Addictions & blogs I love

Wow! The love just keeps pouring in! This time, Lavenderchick nominated me for this most fabulous "Your Blog is Fabulous" award. Again, my heart is so big. Oh, did I tell anyone that over Thanksgiving my mother, Teeni, got the "my heart is so big" inside joke all wrong and asked me: "is your heart large?" She kind of drawled it out, Laaaarge???? If you knew Teeni, you would be falling on the floor laughing right now.

OK, back to my award. It apparently has nosy questions that come with it. Since I myself have been called some variation of nosy a time or two, I will play along:

Here are the rules: Copy and paste the rules and instructions in your post. When posting on receiving the award, make sure you include who gave you the award and link it back to them. Post five winners and link it back to them as well. Post five of your addictions. Add the award image. Let your winners know you gave them an award by leaving them a comment on their blog.

5 Addictions (no particular order):

1. Coffee. Alright, it probably has something to do with my whirling freakishness, but I'm sorry. I cannot be perfect. I gave up smoking and wild living. This is the best I can do.

2. Red wine. See excuses above and add in that I have three children, all girls and one is almost 14. I love almost all red wine, but my favorite is La Crema Pinot Noir, which little old me discovered on my first trip to Sedona. I also must send a shout out to my good friend St. Genevieve for all those lean times when she was there for me.

Me, drinking red wine on Lavenderchick's sofa: (note need for Botox, which I hope to become addicted to in 2009)

3. Fixing. This is my most obsessive compulsion. And don't start emailing me with suggested pharmaceuticals. God made me this way and the rest of you will just have to cope. No matter what I see, I want to fix. If it is a house, I analyze it and try to figure out what would make it look better, new paint colors that would transform it, a better landscape design. If it is a marketing piece written by my darling husband, I edit it. My fixing obsession is a curse. And I do realize it's annoying. I just can't help it. However, I will say that I do apply this fixative curse to myself and I have seen improvement in the last few years. Part of my personal improvement has been learning that I cannot fix people. So I try not to try.


4. West Texas and Mountains. I love mountains and the desert, so I love West Texas. I think about it all the time. And one day, when I'm an old lady, you'll be able to find me sitting on my porch, staring at the mountains, thinking about something I need to fix. I used to say I'd be smoking a cigarette, but I really think I've kicked that addiction for good.

See me trying to grow a plant in the desert. Most people will see this and think 'how pitiful.' But I'm here to tell you this mini century plant is thriving in its little rock circle! Note the nice dry dirt and not a hint of mud. When you are from West Texas, mud is a problem.

5. Learning. I love to learn stuff. I love my smart friends who also like to learn stuff and are therefore smart. I like people who are not smart only if they are interesting and I can therefore marvel at their flawed nature or twisted upbringing. Being from West Texas, I can say I know a lot of smart people and probably just as many who are flawed, twisted and interesting. I pledge never to reveal who is who.

Here's me and three of my smart friends in West Texas, at the Gage. It doesn't get better than this. Oh yeah, and we drank some red wine. See, we are all smiling.

And here's a pic of me and my two best friends, who just happen to be smart and are from West Texas!
In this photo, I now notice I must have been having a hot flash. Compared to everyone else in this photo, I appear quite exposed.

That's it for me and My Fabulous Blog Award. To share the love, I'm nominating the following super cool bloggers I follow. Some of them may already have received this award and I just don't know it.

1.Joni at Cote de Texas. Since I am addicted to learning, I love Joni's blog because I learn about design and see beautiful things. And, I have a sneaking suspicion that she's more addicted to coffee than me. She is way too famous and cool to respond to this chain letter award, but I love her and am nominating her all the same.

2. Lucchese to Louis Vuitton. I just discovered this West Texas girl so go check her out. Her blog right now is serenading me with "Silver Wings." Must be a girl I need to get to know.

3. Design-Block. I just love Design Block when she blogs, but she's busy and not as prolific as I'd like. But when she does say something, it's good.

4. Laura U. A darling young designer in Houston. She's got a great shop on Westheimer, Laura U Collection, and is creating some beautiful interiors that recently won some ASID awards. I love her website as well, www.laurau.com

5. Cheap Chic and Lizzy Webb. Another new blog discovery for me. I already love her. One of my favorite things is clicking on to blogs that my favorite bloggers follow. Lizzy appears to be Joni's daughter and although I am old enough to be her mother, she is darling and I love her fashion sense and the way she writes. Again, I don't care who I learn from, as long as I'm learning. If I lose my mind, I think I'll refer my daughter Mary over to her blog.

Life's a .......

Back in the day, we used to say, "life's a bitch. Then you die." I'm not quite so negative these days. I've matured, thank goodness.

These days, we have so much to be thankful for. We're well. We have electricity. My husband and I are putting some distance between ourselves and work and other looming obligations to rest and recharge this weekend. West Texas is calling me.

See what I mean? I'll be looking at this tomorrow night. A nice, neighborly goat may happen by to visit while I sit on my porch.

While life is so good for me, I just can't get thoughts of those less fortunate out of my mind. My best friend's Uncle Bo died this week in a plane crash in West Texas while surveying flooding on the Rio Grande from the air. The Texas Gulf Coast is in serious distress. My brother and his kids can't go home to Beaumont. The markets are a mess. Two very important people in my past life have really scary cancer. I wonder whether that beautiful Galveston beach house that Joni of Cote de Texas blogged about earlier this summer even exits anymore.

I can really see myself sitting in this chaise, reading a book. You know, in another life.

The really simple and realistic girl in me loved this house from the Joni's post. I could see myself lurking on this porch, incognito, watching tourists meander by. I wonder how it fared when Ike attacked?

We don't get to pick the trials that make us stronger and form us into really tough old ladies who retain their good manners, snazzy good looks and charm. I guess if there' s any lesson to learn, that's it.

Girl talk, kolaches, antiques & a wedding

One of my cousins got married in Houston a few weeks ago and my Mom and I decided to make it a mom-and-daughter quality time trip so we could finish a few conversations we had been trying to have for the last three and a half years. We got so much talking accomplished in such record time that by Schulenburg we ran out of things to talk about so we stopped for a kolache. It was almost as fun as stopping for a "cup of coffee and a piece of pie" like my Mama always liked to do.


We struck out early Saturday morning, armed with a list of must-see shops recommended by Joni on her Cote de Texas blog. We were inside Loop 610 and on Dunlavy by the time shops were opening at 10 a.m. First thing, I fell in love with these lamps at Boxwood. They would be perfect in our bedroom because the ceilings are so high and everything always seems so out of scale when anywhere else it would be fine. Actually, I fell in love with quite a bit in that store.



See what I mean? I love it when I find something as clever as this fabulous chair. If I was to buy this chair, it would make me happy every time I walked by it. It's hell having La Crema taste on a St. Genevieve budget.

In the same shopping strip is The Country Gentleman (3829 Dunlavy), where I spied this yummy little green chest. The owner there, Larry Bahn, is delightful and the store is crammed full with fabulous antiques from all over the world. If you love religious artifacts and statues and crucifixes like my little old Catholic self, you will love his shop.

This corner piece was so fabulous. I think someone I know needs to buy this for her new house.

Back at Boxwood, I loved these glass apothecary jars and this rustic brown cocktail table. If anyone is interested, I know a crusty old Kingsbury craftsman who could make this for you, so strong you could dance on it.

As luck would have it, my camera battery crapped out and I had to run next door to the Fiesta Food Mart to buy a disposable camera before I could venture on to Antiques and Interiors on Dunlavy. So you'll just have to wait until I get the pictures back like we did in the old days. As a consolation, just take a look at these two little cuties:

Our spiral staircase freaks out a lot of people. We installed a baby gate at the top, but once C&C got reasonably steady on their feet we figured it was safer to teach them to maneuver it. So far the only ones to almost break their necks have been much older (say for instance me).

Disturbingly visible

My brain is really cooking today. I can't do anything but paint, and think. While I wait for my last coat to dry on a triptych I am painting, I decided to bounce around my fave blogs. I just had to write that. A triptych: did I even spell it right?

I realize this is confusing so try to follow along. Lavenderchick turned me on to the Hill Country House blog, which I love and will now visit every single day. In her latest post, Hill Country House Girl laments that the homes featured in the latest issue of Veranda haven't blown her skirt up as usual because they seem to lack personality. They're beautifully designed, but does anyone actually live there? She mentions Habitually Chic's post about Rose Tarlow, a designer and author of "The Private House." I haven't read it yet but I'm going to order it as soon as possible.

In that book, Rose writes: "There are those who spend lifetimes in houses that have nothing to do with who they really are. They may be perfectly designed, yet if they fail to reflect the personalities of the people who live in them, the very essence of intimacy is missing, and this absence is disturbingly visible."

I could not agree with that more. But I say the lack of intimacy that is missing in the house is missing in the person. In fact, maybe the house does reflect who they are. It's obvious in beautifully designed homes in fancy magazines and it's obvious among normal people that you and I know. A very smart friend and I were talking about this same thing just yesterday.

The flashy McMansion looks good, every square inch is decorated from some dumb store, with some design element: the last sale at Hobby Lobby, a stop by Kirkland's, that trip to Laredo, a late night of shopping online. It doesn't matter how bad, how cheap, or how expensive and well thought out, you can spot the lack of imagination, lack of personality and yes, a lack of intimacy that is disturbingly obvious. These houses have that model home or Parade of Homes feel and you wonder how do real people live here?

Other homes have such great energy and it's because of the people who live there. Their homes reflect their passions, their tastes, their travels, even, shockingly, their kids.

And here's where my theory gets really interesting. When these smart women mention an absence of intimacy, I agree, but I would add we're also seeing an absence of God that is disturbingly visible both in the home and in the person. It's all connected.

The home lacks soul and the person lacks God.

Ultimately the McMansion and everything we fill it with doesn't satisfy. The husband (or wife) can't make us happy and meet all our needs. Nothing we search for fills the empty hole. There's really only one thing that can fill it and if it's disturbingly absent, it's disturbingly visible.

And that's my witnessing for today.

The P Words

Painting presents such a lesson in patience. I get these awesome gifted visions, and then I am forced to wait for one coat to dry before I can apply the next color or an additional technique. Like the table I wanted to get finished for the husband's big meeting tomorrow. It's not going to make it, so I'm blogging between coats. It's just maddening.

All the therapy I've needed but not enjoyed has enlightened me enough to know why I'm obsessed with transformation, renewal and creating silk purses from sow's ears, but I'm not sure why patience is such a never-ending theme for my life. It's annoying, to say the least.

For example, I probably painted what started as these ho-hum little tables over the course of the last month. It's not like I was procrastinating. I worked them in between two other jobs, painting a coat here and another coat there. Paint has to dry, and if the humidity's not right, I either have to wait or move them out of my sanctuarious garage/studio and into the house where there's air conditioning and/or heat. Here in Texas we use both in the same day. I'm telling you, while I was painting these tables, I experienced way too much humidity and other days when it was too cold to paint.

Poor little thing. It was a rather boring table with some potential. Today after much time and attention, my little tables got delivered to their newly transformed home. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't "install" the room and rearrange the furniture. I'll take another picture when the room is "done." For now here's a few pictures meant to explain the color choices. I love fun, colorful people. In this case, I've never met them, but I'm sure I'll love them when and if I do.

OK, I'm in love with these carpet tiles from Flor, which you can find at http://www.flor.com. The possibilities are endless. In this case, this space designed for some very fortunate grandkids at pool level, just above the lake, so the fact that it's indoor/outdoor is a major plus.

I had to use some black to "ground" all this color.

Even this table didn't look "finished" until I added the black dots. Black is such a meaningful color. It is so not blah. The green looks a bit "minty" in this photo, but it's Sherwin Williams Parakeet and it is not minty.

Let me end by saying clients who love color, and interior designers who hire me who are fun and who like color make life so much more fun to live. I'll leave you with one of my favorite sayings from back in the 80s: "Don't Be Scared."

In this case don't be scared to use color.