A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

what i did on my summer vacation

I can't show you pictures of all the movies we've watched or the naps I've taken, but here's a few other things keeping me busy this summer.

Quick trips to the bookstore for vacation knitting projects...

 

And then over to the yarn shop for his and her yarns. Oh, look! It's right next to the new favorite cafe, might as well stop in...

 

Decadent lunch dates with freshly made macaroons and vanilla lemonade...

 

 

New wrap bracelets made from this fabulous tutorial...

 

 

School supplies popping up here and there = new notebooks & journals to fill with summer memories and dreams...

 

Throw in late night games of bananagrams, having my sweetie at home instead of at work, late afternoon rain showers, a little gardening and a lot of journaling and you have one amazing summer vacation.

happy friday = art night

Happy Friday! Today is especially happy because it's a 3-day holiday weekend with cook outs, early morning fishing trips, conversations with friends over good food and good wine, something new we're calling 'wine slushies', watering the new grass and walking over its dewy softness in our bare feet.... ah, so many things to make the heart glad. (Speaking of happiness, I just picked up The Happiness Project and predict that it'll be a life changer; I've only read the first chapter but I'm hooked. More on that later.)

Tonight it will be grilled steak, charro beans, yummy guacamole and wine slushies but every other Friday we're still enjoying the most fabulous art nights. I wanted to give you a little update and a peek into the fun we've been having to inspire your weekend plans.

 

Meet cousins Melissa & Ashley. On this night--Melissa's first--they decided on a collaborative painting. So many beautiful things to gaze upon.

 

 

On art night, you will find plenty of...lovely blended backgrounds,

 

...happy landscapes,

 

...striking florals,

 

...and mysterious visitors.

 

Lydia and I met at our favorite local brew pub. She wowed us with 2 amazing canvases and a stack of spray painted papers all in the same night!

 

 

 

 

 

I showed her a few things with stencils and spray cans and she took off on her own. I hope she framed some of these--so gorgeous!

 

 

 

Whatever plans you have for this holiday weekend, I hope it includes lots of art, good friends, and big belly laughter. If you're now dying to make your own spray painted masterpieces, its not to late to join me in Playing With Pattern over at 21 Secrets. You can have your very own art night adventure too so, check it out here and I guarantee you a whirlwind artful weekend!

happy birthday to me

 

   

Yep, tomorrow is my, um...37th...?...birthday. I had to think about that one a bit. After 21 they just all kind of run  together. I'm so very excited because 1.) I'm planning on painting all day tomorrow (no school on birthdays!), 2.) I already spent a  fabulous weekend in Colorado Springs with dear friends from out of town, 3.) I have the best family in the world who bought me just what I wanted for my birthday: the Zumi Digital Camera 2.0.

 

Did I mention they surprised me? Well, sort of. I found the receipt a week ago, but I was shocked when I found it! And they gave it to me a few days early so I had the whole weekend to get to know my new best friend. 

 

 

 

 

We even took it to go look at houses. This is my favorite house so far, peeling paint and everything. Oh, how I looooove this house. I can feel myself living in it. It reminds me of something from my childhood, but I can't remember what.

 

 

 

 

 

My Zumi makes a great picture even better. Happy birthday to me!

 

   
   

keeping up

I never planned on staying away so long, but there's something funny about this Mountain Time...it seems so much shorter than the Texas Central Time I'm used to. The days fly by and I haven't been able to find a way to fit in all my daily chores let alone the things I want to do for fun. Add to the kooky time zone that we have no dishwasher so I hand wash at least 2 sinks worth of dishes daily (and I'm getting pretty fast, I have to admit) plus our very old house replenishes an inch worth of dust bi-weekly and I'm tired and behind on almost everything.

 

I did manage to make it to Target and pick up a Liberty scarf before they were all snatched up. But when I wear it, my husband says it looks like I have a table cloth wrapped around my neck. He may be right. But it's probably the only Liberty of London thing I'll ever own so I'm keeping it.

   

I also finished up an old apron I started a year ago to wear when I paint. But I'm not sure I should have bothered since I just saw a $40 pair of jeans at a local department store with fake paint splotches all over them. Who knew all this time I could have been letting the paint fly freely and still be in style?

Mostly, I'm dreaming of finding time to paint. Hopefully, tomorrow. Or this weekend. Maybe on my birthday.

 

   

san miguel, love at first sight

 

Back to the vacation slide show--well, hopefully, a little more inspiring than that.

San Miguel de Allende--sigh. I fell in love with the idea of San Miguel when I first discovered Mary Ann's blog a couple of years ago after she spent the summer there learning Spanish. Having only experienced border towns, I never imagined Mexico could be so beautiful. From the first moment I stepped foot there myself, I fell in love with the city for real.  How could you not?

 

Like Guanajuato, San Miguel is a colonial city. Richly ornate architecture, jewel-toned buildings, grand entrance ways, and dreamlike courtyards. Guanajuato is a university town, but San Miguel has the thriving arts community and is considered the safest city in Mexico. Both are clean, bustling with life, and have a very European feel to them, yet at the same time, retaining the unique culture and beauty of Mexico.

 

Beauty, culture, art, history...sounds like home.

twilight in guanajuato

Friday night, our friends drove us to Guanajuato for tacos and a peek into the city night life. First a view of the city from above; it's jewel encrusted valley left us breathless.

Then we braved the narrow winding roads through tunnels both inviting and forbidden to emerge on the heart of the city below. The sun was setting but I tried to capture as much as I could before the golden twilight disappeared on us.

Glorious color, colonial architecture. Too much beauty to take in at once.

When at last the sun began to set, I thought my chances of capturing the beauty and wonder of the city were lost. But I was wrong.

The perfect night. The perfect light. Pure magic.

new art journals and paper scrap packs

I must be crazy with all the things I still have to do to get us back in the swing of things, but I just listed some new art journals and scrap paper packs in my Etsy shop. Just before we went out of town I got a new toy and many new journals quickly emerged from my  playtime. I foresee many more on the horizon. Click over to my shop to see more. I tried to make these even more affordable than my hand stitched journals. Now back to the laundry!

this is mexico, people

We're barely back from our whirlwind trip down south to the intoxicatingly beautiful...Mexico. Yes, you heard me. For those of you who, like me, have only seen the border towns and news reports, there is so much more to this amazing country. And I'm not just talking beaches.

No doubt you've heard about the poverty, the violence, the drug wars, the corruption, the swine flu--but don't let the the news reports scare you! We have all these things in abundance in our own country and they are so prevalent that we've grown cynical about them. There is beauty and culture and art and glorious nature and God to be found in Mexico. And I haven't even mentioned the food yet.

Please forgive my momentary ranting, but this is something I feel so strongly about. There is a prejudice in the U.S.--dare I say racism?--against Mexico that is absurd. We've lived for the past 8 years on the Mexico border which is no doubt the most actually dangerous area and I know the violence is real, but it's just as real in Detroit, Houston, Memphis, Miami, Las Vegas...and on and on. Please, if I could persuade you of any one thing, don't let fear stop you from experiencing this beautiful culture. You will fall in love, I just know it!

I need a day or two to get some laundry done and get us settled in back at home, but I have so much to show you and I couldn't wait to just give you just a little taste. Be back soon with more beauty and inspiration than you'll know what to do with!

possibilities

 

There's nothing like breaking in a new journal. So full of possibilities, like starting a new year. Just think of the hours of pure creative bliss, soul searching, working through, reliving fresh and dusty memories that me and these pages will put in together. 

 

I was up late one night visiting blogs that I usually hit only occasionally just because my daily list is so insanely long and the hours in a day are getting shorter all the time when I stopped by Rebecca Sower's beautiful blog only to find her Etsy shop freshly stocked with gorgeous handmade linen journals. Score!! I swear I never win anything and I'm always the last one to find out about any good deals, way after everything's gone, so when I realized that it wasn't a cruel hallucination played on me by my overly tired psyche, I snatched one up quicker than my husband could say PayPal and I am soooo glad I did!

This journal is so beautifully stitched. It is the perfect size and feels so good in my hands. At first I was a little worried about how such a messy girl as myself was going to keep from totally destroying the soft linen cover the first time I took my pen out, but then I realized I could just take the cover off--sweet!--and away we went.

We'll be leaving for Mexico in a few days, happy to leave this dusty border town behind and see what the rest of the country really looks like. Mountains! Green grasses! Fallish weather! I can hardly wait. Plus, we'll be staying with friends that we only get to see about once a year so you can bet my new journal will be getting a work out soon. Lots of wonderful memories will find their home here, I can tell. I better get the place ready for them.

 

distractions

Still working on the journals, but it's slowed down. I just get distracted so easily...by online fabric sales...

 

 

 

 

 

...luscious sari ribbon...

 

...painting brick (more pictures to come)...

  

...packing and shipping...

 

 

...and trips to the beach with friends. Be back soon with more details.