Tomorrow We Sign the Papers

Mi nueva casa.

You can see we now have green shutters and door, landscaping and very thirsty grass.

Can I tell you how much I love this picture?

The colors, the lines, the contrasts, the handwriting... It's certainly not your typical house portrait, but it says a lot for me.

This is a bit of our foyer.

I hope the 300 year old grandfather clock that has been passed down for many generations in my family will go here.

In a few days, I'll post pictures of the mountains of boxes and the big truck!

Long Horn

Isn't the curve of this horn just perfection?



I wish I would have taken a thousand more shots to get just the right angle. We saw these long horn in a pasture just off the side of the road in Plano last week. Of course, there was a fence between me and the bull. I stuck the lens through the links.

This picture reminds me of what I find inspiring. It's the line. Others are moved by the beauty of flowers or beaches or animals. I'm much more interested in the shape of the leaf or the pattern of the rocks on the shore... or the curve of the horn.

Saturday Recap

My sister wrote great post with tons of pictures recently. Since I have little else to report, let's see what I can come up with from Google Images.

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time surfing.















Actually, not like that. Like this.





















Then we all went out and Jeff shopped for













And the kids and I watched




















in one of the sound rooms. Actually, Claire and I watched. Benjamin took a















Then we went out for

















As Mel says, Yummamente. Though Mel would make her own from scratch.

Then we went to more furniture stores looking for a











for our upstairs family/game/media room. We wanted something that was super comfortable. Comfort was the premeim quality we were looking for. I need only sit on a couch for half a second to know if it fails the test. The second factor to consider was price. And the third factor was style. These three factors are not often found in one piece of furniture. But we did find a great piece. Somehow we slipped on that second factor. We spent more than we intended, so you must come over and watch some movies with us so we feel like we really get our money's worth.

The kids did great shopping around. Of course we brought these with us.

















Then we went to















and we all licked and dripped while watching...

Wow! Blogger won't let me upload any more pictures? Is there a limit? I'll try a second post. To be continued...

Part Two

Yes, here we go. Anyway we ate the ice cream while watching













But of course, you must imagine this picture inside a giant mall under four floors of hoity toity shops. And imagine the skaters wearing shorts and tank tops.

Then we headed home to our apartment. On the way home both kids














And Jeff and I discussed more furniture we'd like to buy. Kitchen table is next. I think we should go to














so we can make up for the additional buckaroos we spent on the sectional.

We're moving into our house on May 2! Yippee.

Junk Drawer

Not the one in the kitchen with the extra batteries, random coupons, screw driver, pens, glue sticks and other beloved clutter... this is just the junk drawer of my mind. (See DebR for more info.)

My Own Biggest Critic
Did you see I posted a new picture to my profile? I get tired of the same picture for months and months and needed something new. I posted a different one earlier in the day. It was black and white. Were you one of the unlucky few to see it? It was not great. I have a big smile... which is fine. But it makes my chin look like a circus clown. You know how they draw extra "laugh" lines in with black face paint over that white clown skin? No need to draw lines when I'm smiling, they stand right out. I thought black and white might look arty like Sonji. Not so. I took about 20 more shots later in the day and ended up with what you see on the right. I like pictures that have a bit of action. In this one I'm brushing hair out of my face. Or showing off my new earrings. You choose.

Another Item on the To Do List
I really liked the thread and fiber vessels in the lastest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. I also have flipped through the book Threadabowls and I think they so enticing. I just might have to make one of them. Maybe more than one. I never made a fabric bowl when those were all the rage. They didn't thrill me. But the wispy, interesting, light look of these bowls and vases and boxes is irresistable. Sigh. I miss my sewing machine.

Step on a Crack, Break Your...
The My Turn essay in Newsweek magazine this week was fantastic. It was about the demise of the all-American sidewalk. The author wrote about how as a child she memorized every crack in the sidewalk on her walk to school. Knew the dogs that were friendly and the dogs that were not. And the best place to find the biggest puddle in which to jump. I remember that too. It seems like I even walked home for lunch when I was in elementary school. Through the alley. Singing or talking to myself the whole way. Now we pile our kids into minivans, turn on the radio and sit in drop-off lines swirling around school parking lots. It's just not the same world as it was when I was growing up. It's just not safe or responsible to let young kids walk to school by themselves. I hope when we move into our new home, we can find a healthy practical balance. We will live just under a mile and a half from the school. Managable, occasionally I think. Especially once Benjamin gets comfortable on a bike.

Trade Tease
I think I have finally come up with an idea for my "trade" for Art and Soul. Trade??? Apparently, in the world of mixed media workshops, it's common for attendees to bring small hand made items to trade with other attendees to celebrate and remember their experience. I've heard that many people do atcs (artist trading cards), little packets of ephemera, handmade beads or small art dolls. Kim wrote about making her trades before she attended Artfest recently.

I really wanted to do something with fabric. I'm all about the fabric, right? Aren't we all? But, we're still in this temporary apartment before we move into our house. And I don't have my sewing machine or any fabric. (What. Was. I. Thinking?) So, I had to come up with a new idea. And I wanted it to be clever but fairly simple to make. I'll need to make several. Trades are not required, of course. But I don't want to just smile and hang my head and say, "I'm not trading, sorry." Plus, I don't want to miss out on the goodies all the other artists will be sharing.

Anyway... it's not going to be fabric. I'll tell you more about it after I test it out and see if I like it. It might be something like this or this.

Maybe I'm Just Quirky...

...but this sign totally cracked me up.



Seen outside JCPenneys at the local mall. I haven't actually witnessed any of these "measures." But, I haven't really seen many birds either.

A Bunch of Easter Pictures

Not much of a "hunt" really.


The picture above is from the egg hunt that is sponsored by our subdivision. That was the 0 to 3 year old section. It got cleaned out pretty quickly! There were hundreds of kids! It was very cold. Really, even by Texas standards. I bet it was in the high 40s. That was last Saturday. It's lovely and warm today.

Our kids cleaned out the 4 to 7 year old area. Here they are before the start.


Off they go! See all the dads out in the grass facing the crowd for good pictures. Not me. I stayed behind the line as instructed.

That's "Lake Avalon" in the background. It's a lovely common park area next to the golf course. See the trees in the background. Those will be cut down for more homes, I'm sure. Sigh.

After the egg hunt, there was an egg toss. Claire and Jeff had a ball and were one of the last three teams with an intact egg. (They were not hard boiled.)










I didn't get a picture of the last toss where the egg smashed through one of her fingers and then dribbled all over the grass. She didn't get a speck on her, but she cried a bit because the impact hurt her very cold hands.

So that was all last weekend. Which was delightful. Claire was sick this weekend, so there were fewer delightful parts. But we did dye eggs on Saturday night.






The Easter Bunny hid baskets in the closet with the vacuum cleaner. Clever rabbit.


The mommy made delicious "pull apart" for breakfast. Clever mommy.


Pull apart is a classic family recipe that Jeff substitutes for his birthday cake. It calls for 18 frozen dinner rolls. Since the package comes with 36, I must make a second batch, thus the Easter morning deliciousness. I toss the frozen rolls, dry butterscotch pudding, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter in a bundt pan the night before. They thaw and rise through the night and just pop them in the oven in the morning. Yum-O!

We also visited a lovely church and sang two of the Anglican Top 40: Jesus Christ is Risen Today and Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee. The sermon was quite enjoyable and the kids did great in the pews with us. There were four communion stations and at least 12 chalice bearers. The clergy wore teeny tiny flesh-colored chin mikes. There were horns, drums, guitars, organ, pianos. And much Alleluia! Very very very very very different from any Episcopal church I have ever ever ever ever been too. But, the same message. Amen.

Triptych Update

Remember when I posted my triptych for Ricky Tims challenge a couple of weeks ago? (And got so many wonderfully generous comments! Swoon.) I got notified that I was accepted yesterday! Yippee. I'm delighted.

But... I have a confession. The triptych I posted before, is not the one I entered. I had an opportunity to sell the previous version and I decided to. I was a bit torn, but I got a bit of wise professional advice and I took it.

It was made a bit easier by the fact that I had made 6 foundations when I started the project. Two sets of landscapes. I had planned to enter one set and make another set for myself, or to break up for trades or swaps. So I just finished up the second set to enter.

And I did make one more 5x7 for a trade with an artist whose work I am just bananas about. I hope I'll be able to share that with you soon. And I did make a few ATCs. I mean, I had all that fused up fabric and I'm certainly not tired of the purple and the green. And the mustard. You'll see those later too. I promise.

So here's the second set which will be at the Tims Art Quilt Studio and Gallery in La Veta, Colorado from May 26 through June 14.


And here are the closeups which I should have cropped and straightened.

Tree of Life


Winds of Change


Fields of Gold


I hope I'll hear about some of the rest of you being included in this show too. And gosh... if anyone is in the area, I sure hope you'll go visit my quilts and take some pictures!

Artful Quilters Webring

I just adore our webring. Thank you again to Diane for starting it 16 months ago. I see we are now 143 strong including at least one man, at least five "deborahs" (or variations there of), and we come from at least four countries.

I know four ring bloggers personally (Melody, Kathy, Sarah and Joanne), meaning I've spent time with them "in person." I consider many others wonderful friends. And I'm looking forward to meeting them too.

I suppose I have readers who aren't quilters. You know, family members trolling for pictures of the kids, military friends keeping up with our lives and random people who find me when they google "bad wonder under." Site meter tells me I have an average of 149 readers a day. (!!!!) And I know most of them are quilters. I'm so thrilled that you've found me and that I've found you!

I confess I only read through the whole ring a couple of times a month. But I've been thinking about the cycles of our individuals lives and our blog life lately. Did you know that Jen had surgery this week? Gerrie sent her (loaned her, I believe) a wonderful little quiltlet with lots of healing symbols and messages. I remember when Gerrie received that quiltlet from another quilter when she was battling cancer last year. That post was so touching and I am touched again that Jen and Gerrie have connected and are continuing that amazing support.

I've also been thinking about the other commonalities we've shared on our blogs.

I think nearly all of us have expressed giddy delight over some purchase. Quite often shoes. But also fabric and other supplies and tools related to fiber art. Milk frothers. Storage containers. Dishes. Etc.

A lot of us have gotten puppies. Some of us have lost our beloved pets.

A few have even had sad endings of pregnancies.

Many of us have been sick in many different ways.

Ok, that's enough of the sad items.

We've read some good books and eatten some great meals!

We've discussed television shows with great enthusiasm.

We've created art in our studios that we are really proud of and we've had some less-than successful endeavors.

Oh my goodness, we've indulged in lots of "quizzes." So, thankfully, we all know what vacation destination we are, what coffee we are, what character from Alice in Wonderland we are, what celebrity we most resemble, what words we use most often on our blogs and what it means if purple is our favorite color.

It makes me a giggle a bit thinking of all these items. Thanks for sharing with me. I just love it!

Language?

We went to see Ice Age 2 recently. We'd really been looking forward to it since we all liked the original. It was a bit of a let down. The kids liked it, but they like anything. I won't give you a detailed review because what I really want to talk about it one teeny tiney bit of dialog.

It seems that Manny and Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifa) are the last mammonths on the face of the earth. You can imagine the direction that takes with implications of reproduction.

So, Manny is trying to charm Ellie and she is putting him off in complete Latifa style. Then there is a pause and one of the wiley possum brothers rolls his eyes and shouts out, "Pervert!" at Manny. It's not uttered under his breath or a side note in the action. It's right out there loud and clear for everyone to hear and ponder. Then Claire, who is almost 7, said to Jeff, "What's a pervert?"

I was so frustrated and disappointed and angry, really. Jeff told her a pervert is someone who does something weird. Which is a pretty good response on the spot in the middle of theater. But, of course, that's not really what a pervert is.

Here's a definition.

n. (pûrvûrt)
One who practices sexual perversion.

Ok, so what's perversion? Well, I guess that's your business in your own bedroom. But, I think we can all agree that procreation is not a perversion.

But, the point isn't even what the word means. It's that it's totally inappropriate content for children in an age where real perverts prey on children every day and our concept of sexuality is so twisted that 7 year olds are having birthday parties where they dress up as "rock stars" (or strippers...) and trot about in skimpy, glittery clothes.

Maybe that's a digression. I don't know. I'm just doing the best I can to raise my daughter to be well-rounded and informed, but "pervert?" I don't consider myself a prude and I'm certainly not a conservative, but I do wonder how the makers of this movie decided to go that direction.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought it was pretty misguided. Read this. Or this. Or this.

Numbers, Lights, Shelves

It's coming along so well.



This week we met with the builder several times including arranging for the kitchen tile to be ripped up and replaced. You don't really want to know more about that, but I'll say it's working out beautifully.

We also toured the nursery with the landscape designer. Arg. That was a bit overwhelming, but also is going to work out wonderfully, I'm confident.

And the lighting guy...

That's the foyer lantern. (Do you say foy-er? Or Foy-ay?)

We also met with the closet trim guy who was happy to put in any configuration of shelves or bars. Here's my studio closet.

Can't you just see stacks and stacks of fabric? And all my labeled Sterlite boxes? You can see there is a bar in the back. I'm not sure how efficient that will be, but it seems like a closet should have a bar, so it does.

And here is Benjamin's closet. Shelves, tall bar and two short bars.


I think it's kind of lame to post pictures of empty closets. But, I'm one of those people who could stroll the organization aisles of any department store, office supply store, hardware store. And don't even get me started about The Container Store. I know I'm not alone in this interest, so chime in if you find the closets a bit thrilling.

And speaking of Benjamin...

Peek a boo!

The floor wasn't actually wet at that time, but the sign is a bit funny, don't you think?

This and That

I don't have much to say. How's that for an enticing beginning of a post? But I did dig through our pictures and remember that I hadn't posted about our trip to the Fort Worth Zoo.

This is what happens when everyone is spending more effort trying to get Benjamin to look at the camera and smile rather than just smiling for the camera themselves and letting the photographer snap at the right moment. Every family of a four year old knows about this experience.

I guess the rhino was cooperating.

The flamingo was also agreeable.


Ready for take off.


It was a fun trip. A great zoo. We'll be back!


Have you read the article by Anne Lamott in the latest issue of Oprah magazine? Love love love Anne Lamott. This article is about aging and beauty. It's honest, insightful, clever and laugh-out-loud funny. If you're not familiar with Lamott, start with this article, then move on to Traveling Mercies and Plan B. (Steer away from the novels.)

I know I know I know several of you have said you'd like to see more pictures of the house. It's coming along really well. We are getting so eager and excited. But there is just not much exciting to share at the moment. (just lighting fixtures hanging in empty rooms) When the landscaping goes in, I'll show you how it looks.

What is a Fat Book?

After my last post, a few people asked what a fat book is. I'm sorry if you were confused. I can't say I'm really sure, since this is the first I've participated in, but...

Someone coordinates the project, usually picking a theme and size and setting other requirements. Artists sign up or are invited to participate. Everyone makes a "page" for the book and the assigned number of copies. In my case, we made 35 copies. These are color copies which I then embellished with fabric, feathers and brads. Each artists sends her pages to the coordinator who then binds the pages from all the different artists together in a "fat book." It's fat because of all the arty embellishments and stuff hanging off the pages. The books are then sent back to all the participants and everyone has an inspiring, creative, book of original art.

When I lived in Maine I got to hang out with the wonderfully creative Deb Silva a few times. She works for Artella (an amazing publication and community of learning and support for artists) and is the sister of our own Artful Quilters Webringer, Judy Coates Perez. Deb has done tons of fat books and I saw a few of hers. The altered art and collage community thrives on collaborative projects and other kinds of swaps. It really is an interesting way to share and connect with other artists.

I'm predicting more and more crossover for quilters into mixed media. (Should I run and hide for even speaking such blasphemy?)

I'll post some pictures of the completed book after the retreat.