Amy Butler...Cake!

This is fun. An Amy Butler fabric inspired this cake. This very talented person makes some gorgeous cakes. I loved the comment by another flickr user, " shame to waste it on a wedding..."

Trick Horses, BBQ and Mexican weaving

My friend Mary fell in love with a horse a few years ago. She had taken her son out to Red Horse Ranch to take some riding lessons and ended up on a horse called Monet. True love. She invited the kids and me out to the ranch for dinner, music, and a short program featuring two amazing horses and their owners Alan and Sue. I'd never seen horses perform in such a way at close range. Their beauty, intelligence and sensitivity was tempered with a wildness I don't see every day. Now I know why Mary loves it out there. Meanwhile, there was a gentleman there selling imported Mexican woven goods which captured my son Willie's attention. All the other kids were playing in the dirt and petting the horses while Willie looked through rugs and pillowcases on the porch -- truly his mother's son.

Brightness on a rainy day

The basket of checkbook covers look like little soldiers here. I enjoyed working on these smaller-scaled pieces.


Well, off to the farmer's market this morning. Gray skies and wet ground. I hope the weather's not too bad today. Spent most of yesterday in the emergency waiting room with Henry, who got his first seven stitches in his little noggin. I heard the old thing about "boys being boys" a few too many times yesterday. Yeah, I think it's sinking in by now.

"Beauty and folly are old companions"

A quote by Ben Franklin, discovered when I uploaded these photos from fdsflickrstoys. I love this quote and find it appropriate for this set of pictures. As I was photographing my stack of pink ribbon spools from yesterday's post my eye was caught by the many vignettes featuring pink and green in my house. So I stayed on the first floor (don't even get me started in my daughter's room upstairs) and snapped pictures of pink and green. If the pink and green objects were moveable and small I took them outside and snapped them on my white board. These are those shots. In all cases these objects were indeed side by side somewhere in my house. Pink green pink green pink green; or choose ANY combination of colors and open your eyes. You will see them see them see them. Beauty and Folly.

Crafting for a Cure

I know there is some pink ribbon around here somewhere....I got so lucky last week when my friend forwarded the information to participate in this fundraising event. Patty Mayes, a Round Rock resident, will be walking in Dallas in the 3 Day Susan G. Komen walk for Breast Cancer. I'm delighted to be one of 25 vendors there donating a portion of my proceeds to Patty for the walk this October. Let's hope there will be lots of folks out at the Teravista Golf Course this weekend in support. Go Patty!!!

Two Hearts

We stopped by Bee Creek today to have a swim and I found this almost-perfect heart-shaped rock. I'm always on the look-out for those. I also spotted this lovely heart-shaped pool. It was a good day for discoveries. The kids were thrilled to splash around again in the water. Everyone is exhausted from the sun and water followed by Rosie's Tamale Hut's take-out. I managed to squeeze in a little sewing today in spite of all the activity. I've cut a lot of the checkbook covers because they're so much fun to patchwork together. Now my machine's getting a workout sewing them together! Maybe one more day of sewing and I'll rest awhile.

We found our frontman.

It's been a great day, as you can see by the heap of scraps on my sewing room floor. I made up a bunch of checkbook covers (does anyone even use checks anymore?) Regardless, you still need a place to keep cash and credit cards and ID, so I made up a bunch of thingies to keep all that in. I'll take them out to the farmer's market next weekend.

That's my star, Henry, above. He loves to sing the Killers' "Somebody told me, that you had a girlfriend, who looks like the boyfriend, that I had in February of last year..." He learned it from the Playstation game Songstar. It's his absolute favorite song and he sings it with gusto. I think he's got it... you know: "IT" . I believe he's reached "rising star" rank -- not bad for a four-year-old. Anyway, that boy sure loves to sing.

Some new little curvy purses

I made these over the weekend. I've been wanting to embellish the flaps on this purse pattern, and finally got around to making up a couple of them. While I think they look fine plain, I tend to be a "more is more" kind of gal, and I like the foofy details. Can't help myself.

Our creek belongs to Lake Travis now

Our little corner of Texas floods. Bee creek runs behind our house and trickles into a large creekbed where we play in the summer. It normally flows into a good swimming hole and then tapers down to a small creek again and moves down to Lake Travis beneath Bee Creek Road. For the last three years we've crossed this stretch of road and looked at the dry rocks on either side, lamenting the fact that we couldn't swim, fish, splash in the creek, etc. due to the draught. Lo and behold in one week, the creek more than filled up! Seven feet over the road now, the frogs and mosquitos have already made their homes in this new lake. We went last evening to take a look. Now we wonder when there will ever be a day without rainfall.

Yummy Flickr Swaps

Flickr.com always delights. For a good time, browse the various swaps among the crafty types. I've participated in a couple, and now after seeing Jenny Holiday's Bits & Pieces Collage Swap photostream I am newly inspired to get into another swap. I'm not much of a paper artist, but every so often I check up on "HeatherSB" on Flickr, a true paper artist and a participant in this swap, who also happens to be a friend I met at an art retreat last summer. She is the most wonderful person with a beautiful mind and eye, as you can see by her collage above. By the way, she also publishes an art zine called Portals. I just may have to wiggle into one of her projects again one of these days. Her art and photos make my head feel a little fluffy around the edges -- not that there's anything wrong with that!

Ann Wood's Ghostships

I happened upon the ship picture (above) last night in a book and kept it handy for inspiration. Something about it seemed other-worldly, mainly because I imagine a lot of noise on an open ship like this and yet the painting is so quiet and serene. Wouldn't you know today I stumbled upon this gorgeous creation made by Ann Wood, which she calls a "ghostship", titled "The Antonia", which strikes another chord, as I spent 9 years in Nebraska in my twenties. Everyone who lives in Nebraska reads (should read) Willa Cather's books about the place. They are romantic, descriptive and evocative of the prairie's ubiquitous and detailed beauty. Coincidentally my sister Liz, who lives with her family in MN now, is re-reading Cather's My Antonia. I remember the midwest's prairie grass is sweeping and untamed as the ocean. I wonder if Wood was thinking of that when she titled her ghostship Antonia.