Back Porch Style

I met Conni at last year's Stitch craft show in Austin, where she purchased a book from me and enthusiastically told me about her new shop in Dripping Springs. We've been keeping in touch online through the winter and her shop is finally open. I stopped by the other day and was so charmed by the bright and juicy atmosphere she and her partner Valli had created there in the old stone house on the highway. The store's called Consuela. In it are warm wood floors, a couple of large well-stocked work spaces filled with fabrics, ribbons and buttons (which they use to create oil cloth pillows and bags and other decorative things for the home), and in the back a room filled with their sunny, stylish, artsy merchandise. My favorite thing about the shop is that every turn reveals something different. They also carry work by a smattering of independent artists and designers (me included). You can't find two things alike in there -- proof of these Texas ladies' creativity and passion for enlivening a shopper's experience. You can tell that they have a lot of fun and want to share it. Prices are reasonable; you'd expect to pay a lot more for most of the delightful handmade and vintage goodies they have. I just love this place and will definitely purchase gifts and stop for a chat whenever I'm in Dripping Springs. If you can't make it check out the website Conseulastyle. It definitely captures the flavor of this delicious new shop. The grand opening is Friday, March 28. Margaritas from 5-7!

New Sketchbook Covers

Just playing with fabrics and decided to make a few of these sketchbook and journal covers. I like how they look before the flaps are stitched down (like the green one at top). They're like mini quilts. One of these days I'll go ahead and make a quilt just to look at, but until then they're book covers. I've covered all my books (date books, address books, journals, sketchbooks).

What does it say about me that I have to make something functional all the time? I think it's a result of my effort to simplify/get rid of stuff I don't need/ clear out the superfluous decorative stuff around here to calm my head. I figure if we just make the stuff we use pretty then we won't need to fill up the house with all the extra stuff. If it's just hanging on the wall or sitting on my window sill then I'm breaking the rules. That doesn't sound like an artist talking, does it?

You should see my studio, full of dolls, doll parts, and all kinds of funny little arty things. My kids are all super creative and their toys and artwork are everywhere. My husband also has hobbies galore, music, electronics, etc. His studio is as full as mine (but no color -- all black and gray and chrome. I keep trying to sneak some art in).

I still maintain that I could live in a simple one room space with a bed, a desk, a window. I really don't need all this decoration and chaos and activity. I could very well be wrong about that, my little fantasy about being a contemplative nun somewhere. But I hope to find a happy medium. I'm watching my parents and older (on the verge of retiring) friends all starting to fret about their possessions and how to get rid of them. This downsizing of theirs has resulted in more than a few boxes of useless stuff pitched in my direction. We recently received an assortment of about 20 videotapes of children's movies from an aunt in another state. Very well-meaning, of course, but in these days of Netflix and DVDs I'm happy to say I don't mind the job of taking them to Goodwill for her. Sometimes you just have to make gifts of things to purge them.

Here's a little blessing to all my future grown kids and extended family -- you may toss this ratty little covered journal right into the river where it can decompose and feed the fish. May someone thousands of years from now find the treasure of green glass beads embedded in sand. I don't care. It's my gift to you.

Birds in Flight -- Lots of them!

Winged Migration:
This film has been in my Netflix queue for awhile now and I finally saw it tonight. It's wonderful -- an hour and a half of birds in flight! The filmmakers must have attached tiny cameras to the birds because most of it is shot from the point of view of the airborne bird. It's really amazing to see the landscape below while among migrating geese. One time as my plane was nearing the ground I saw the shadow of a bird flying along with the plane's shadow, speeding over the land. It was weirdly breathtaking, unnatural and beautiful. I suppose I always look at birds flying and imagine being free from all the constraints of the world, our small duties and tedious days. Yet, in this film the narrator begins by saying "This is a story about a promise. A promise to return." And of course these animals repeat their flight patterns down to the smallest landmark, year after year, flying thousands of miles to mate or eat, with no lamentation that their days and years are all the same. My three children fell asleep while watching, of course. I convinced them it would be as cool as Microcosmos (a favorite nature film) but the Enya(?) music and beating wings must have done them in after a long Saturday. I loved it.