And Another!

More fun with ColorSplash:

On the Road Again

Hello, my little chickadees! I'm riding and stitching and playing with my new favorite app for the iPhone and thought I'd see if BlogPress will let me upload photos--


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Walkin’ Through My ‘Hood

Since we’re on our way out on a Road Trip this morning, I didn’t get to take my usual walk. I love walking—no matter how I feel, walking makes me feel better. I like to walk fast (yeah, yeah:  I hear you screaming, “Give us an adverb, dammit!” so:  rapidly), and I like to walk slow (slowly). I like to amble and mosey, stroll and hike, stride out into the day.

I like to walk.

And I love walking through our neighborhood, with its wide streets, friendly animals, and animal-friendly people. Almost any time of the day or night, you’ll find someone out walking, usually with at least one dog.

When we leave the house, we feed Humphrey and Angel, who live in our block. Then, catty-cornered, Duchess

and The Little Yellow Boy wait for us by the stop sign. Sometimes he comes out into the street, if I’m late, and this terrifies me.

This is my walking partner, who didn’t want her photo taken.

She started walking with us last spring, as a part of Weight Watchers, and has lost every bit of the weight she wanted to lose and then some—she’s actually under where she’s supposed to be.

This is what her roof looked like right before the metal roof went on.

Then Freddie.

And Bella.

And their people, Marta and Janet.

Here are Rambo and Nitro and their person.

Here’s the little prince—his grandmother is walking the stroller like this so the morning sun doesn’t shine in his eyes, never mind that he’s wearing the coolest Baby Elvis-ish shades.

Yikes!  There’s more, but it’s time to leave (meaning:  The EGE is out of the shower and ready to hit the road.) The cat sitter is ready, too—that leaves only me.

I’ll try to upload photos here along the way, but if BlogPress won’t work, they’ll just be at Twitter and Facebook. Pitiful, I know. But what can I do? Technology rules, and I just do what I can.

XO

WooHoo Revisited

Good grief. I was trying to post a photo via the iPhone from Barnes and Noble, where I walked in today to get Audrey Niffeneger’s new book, Her Fearful Symmetry, and saw this:

Only BlogWriter, which was a fabulous app when I first got it and used it in New Orleans, is now fucked unto the lord, verily. And it’s not just me:  the recent reviews all report the same problem: every time you tap the keyboard to type a letter, the keyboard vanishes. Grrrrr. So now I’m trying to find and download a blog app that will work without taxing my very, very meager patience. No luck so far. But still! The B&N trip was such a thrill:  Joyce, the Community Relations Rep, is such a sweetie. Lots of copies in more than one location.

And The Fabulous Becky Boone, manager of the cafe there, put a display right across from the bar:

I just grinned and grinned. It never gets old, you know? And, boy:  people are so terrific!

Woohoo!

Woohoo!

Ooooh! Eye Candy!

Scott Radke just posted some new work on his livejournal page, and he also had a link to Melissa Sue Stanley’s site—ooooh! Gonna be spending some time there—LOVE those teeth!

My favorites.

You Laugh, But Then You Go, “Scary!”

Thanks to Rob at 2Dolphins  (@robodaniel)  for tweeting this one and giving me my first Laugh of the Day:

A Fabulous Way to Carry Embroidery Floss

Target had some more of those $1 cheaters I love so much, so of course I had to stock up.

I was taking them out of the packages and putting them in the drawer where I keep them (until I take them out and put them on the top of my head for a while and then take them off and lay them down somewhere and lose them. Of course. Isn’t that the whole purpose of buying them: store them, wear them on your head, lose them, buy more?), and I noticed that the size of the little plastic pouch (with a little zipper-ish thing, even!) was familiar. What was it about that size?

And then I realized:  they’re exactly the size of embroidery floss.

No wonder it seemed familiar—I use floss every single day. How completely perfect!

So if you’re in need of some cheapo glasses, head out to Target and stock up and then make sure you save the little cases--

Don’t you just love it when that happens?

New Blog

For a while now, I’ve been feeling scattered, as if things are out of control and spiraling off into the unknown. So I spent some time the last couple days getting things organized, and I feel much, much better.

One thing I did was to start a new blog. You’re going, “Whaaaa?!” Like, “Geez, that’s just what you need when you’re feeling scattered:  more to do!” But the truth is that I love this blog, and I didn’t like the idea of it becoming a marketing tool. It has to be what it is or I’m not going to have any fun with it. But I need to get posts in various places, so I started another just-work-related blog for that. You can check it out here. It’s where I’ll post stuff about publications, signings, book tour stuff—you know. It’s linked to the author pages at amazon.com and goodreads.com and the Fan Page on Facebook. Because, honeys, I was SO not keeping up with all that on my own. I just couldn’t do it. I’d think, “Oh, yeah, today I’m going to update XYZ,” and then something else would come along, and at the end of the day, I hadn’t gotten to any of it.

I’m still working on organization, and it’s going to take some time, but it’s starting to feel better. And I finally updated my website—poor neglected thang. I hate to admit that I hardly ever even think about it. I’m going to have to do something about that, but what? Eeeeeeek.

And as I go and check these various places, I’m not seeing the posts show up everywhere. The RSS feed stuff is in place, so I’m not sure what’s going on. But here’s the deal: I’ve spent all the time I have to spare on it this morning, so it’s going to have to wait.  You know?

 

Meet Danny Jordan

Danny was one of The Ever-Gorgeous Earl’s student athletes way, way back when. He played baseball in high school and got a baseball scholarship to Texas Tech, where he surprised a bunch of people by majoring in—omigod—art.

 

Danny has always been good at art, but he was also good at baseball, and that’s what people focused on. For Danny, though, art wasn’t going to go away, no matter how well he did on the field.

 

When we talked to him at SeptemberFest, he said that he’s always like sports and hunting and fishing. You know:  Guy Stuff. But, he added, he also likes beauty.

 

 

So Danny taught art at Midland High School for years, and then he went out to the oil fields. The most recent boom was attractive to a lot of male teachers, esp. those like Danny who have a family to support. The oil business, when it’s good, is a good way to work toward a future for your kids.

Then, about a year ago, the oil business changed again, just like it always does, and Danny—along with lots of other people—was laid off. He thought about what he was going to do, and he and his wife decided he should go for it:  paint and show his work and see where it would take him. She has a good job, so they’ll be OK until he knows what’s going to happen. He’s doing the shows, where you pack up your work and hit the road, set up your booth, talk to the people, hope someone falls in love with a piece and takes it home.

It was wonderful listening to him talk about all this. He was excited—he’d spent the weeks before the show painting like a crazy person, all day,every day, day after day—and people were responding well.

He didn’t have any prints yet, but that’s next. He’s going to do some of the painting of the Rodeo Clown, which I’m going to buy for The EGE, who’s a fan. Rodeo Clowns—there’s a whole nother post.

So if you get a chance to see Danny’s work in person, do it. Talk to him—his enthusiasm is contagious!

Meet Miss Bunny

Miss Bunny sells bread and cookies at the Midland Downtown Farmers’ Market. Every week that she’s there, I buy a packet of four of her coconut cookies. My god, they’re fabulous!

Farmer Matt, who runs the market, started his garden at Bunny’s family’s house. When he began the market, Bunny said she’d help out—back when there weren’t very many vendors at all—by making bread.  She thought she’d just make a couple loaves and that would be it, but it turns out, of course, that people love her bread. And cookies—don’t forget the cookies!

 

If you don’t get there early, this is what you’ll find.

When we took her photo, this was what was left on the table:

While we were there, these were snatched up, too.

All the profit she makes after paying for her supplies goes to charity. The Saturday we were there, she was supporting Midland Fair Havens.

If you get there early enough, you can buy a loaf of bread or a brownie or some cookies and be a part of something that’s good all the way around.

Check Out This Fabulous ATC

ATC’s are Artist Trading Cards. Go here to read more about them, or just google “artist trading card” to get more info and see tons of examples that will have your brain buzzing.

[Here’s a cool book I have and love; if you want to see more, this is fun to look at.]

I’ve never made an ATC, but I love seeing what other people do. My friend Terry Garrett—you’ve seen his way cool postcards here—sent me one he made this week. It was one of those things that, when you open it, just makes you grin automatically. You know: when you just can’t help it. In case you don’t remember, Terry is an art teacher up in the Frozen North, aka Minnesota. I want to go and be in his class.

Here’s the front:

The back:

And—so cool!—the inside, which is a pop-up made with a 1950’s paper doll and Terry’s own face:

Now remember:  this card is 2.5” x 3.5”, so we’re talking some TINY detail here. I love this! It makes me want to play. How about you?

 

My Furry Little Paper Shredder

Imagine:  no electricity! Just cat food. Rather a LOT of cat food, as you can tell. . . .

They Live!

They’re not extinct quite yet, thankyoujesus.

I love these guys~~The EGE rescued this one from the street this afternoon and put him out under the woodpile in the alley.

Nope, that piece of grass isn’t actually in his eye.

Phrynosoma coronatum, [“Phrynosoma is derived from Greek -- phrynos, meaning "toad," and soma, meaning "body." Coronatus is Latin for ‘crowned.’"]

Unless you’re from Texas, of course; then it’s just a horny toad, and you dare anyone to try to call them anything else. “Horned lizard” is just weenie.