Door Change!

Okay, I changed the flowers on the front door. This one is based on Heather Bullard's . I made it before the storm and had to take it down, so today I added the bird and put it back out...the mosquitoes almost carried me off. Maybe I'll keep adding to it...or not. This is the autumn banner I made from the pennants I got in the swap on Christian Paper Artists. Click on it and you can see it larger!!!

Goin to Round Top!!

This is where I'm going next Thursday! Round Top and to Warrenton. I'm going with two friends and we'll be staying in a hotel in Brenham on Thursday night.

Theresa Cano of Garden Antqs Vintage will be in Warrenton. They are all in the same area!!! Can't wait!

These gals will be there, too!!!!!

If you'll be there...please let me know!

Art Among the Mosquitoes

I risked my health going outside to take these pictures a little while ago. The mosquitoes have always been big in Texas - but these that are here now after Hurricane Ike are MONSTERS! Even OFF! doesn't really work.

So above is my bird canvas.... I think it's completed. The nest is made of a page out of a little New Testament that I have had most of my life and just never used it....so I tore a page out and spread ink on it - now it will be read!!! I plan to use that little New Testament a lot for art in the future!

And here is the little holly leaf hanging. I do love the utee sign. So easy and does so much! As you can tell the stamp said Joy to You..... I kept getting the top of the to in there...but that's okay. I am NOT a perfectionist. And I wanted to show you these skeletons. I was about to be eaten alive so I threw them down quickly. I saw garlands of them at Michael's weeks ago for about $5. I got these at the dollar store...Dollar Tree, I think, for $1 for 4 on a string of twine!!! I've seen them online where people have dressed them. I simply MUST do something with them. You should go get some!

Exposure

Do you love tree frogs like I love tree frogs? I love how they look, I love the noise they make and mostly I love how they cling to my window and look in with their whole underside exposed. I mean ya gotta love that!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't write the following, but it's a favorite forward in these days of recovery from Hurricane Ike. It is all so very true... thought someone might enjoy it. I mean..... the part about getting in a line that you don't know what it's for ..... very, very true! Ike Survival Guide or Lessons Learned During and After the Storm The hurricane grouch quotient can be calculated by adding the number of children and pets in a home without power, multiplied by the number of days quoted on the CenterPoint telephone recording, divided by the number of fans or portable air conditioners powered by your home generator, (however if you were last in line at Home Depot and have no generator then multiply by the daily high for that day reported by Frank Billingsley), then add the number of trips to the washateria and the days left until school opens. Discount by the percentage of time spent at neighbors who have power. Recalculate daily. No matter how many times you flick the switch, lights don't work without electricity. Vienna sausages only appear on the food pyramid during hurricane season. Gas mileage is recalculated based on miles per fume. Everyone, but everyone will decide tonight is a great night to eat out at the same restaurant you do. And amazingly they just keep coming. Lovebugs do not disappear in 110 mph wind gusts and bullet like rain. Disasters can cancel one Texans football game but there will be even bigger casualties if we cancel two. If 66% of the people don't have power, why are you the only one at work who doesn't? Despite protests, kids can re-live their parents youth when there were only 3 TV channels! Cats are even more irritating without power. Dogs are still your best friend. How is it that no matter when you visit the grocery store they just ran out of ice. Houston without traffic lights resembles Mexico City, Rome, Los Angeles and New York City all rolled into a single snarl. Isn't it interesting that the Red Light Camera stop lights were the first ones repaired. A 7 lb bag of ice will chill 6-12 oz sodas to a drinkable temperature in 11 minutes, and still keep a 14 lb. turkey frozen for 8 more hours. There were a lot of really big trees around here! It may actually be possible to survive without a microwave. It has been done before. Just because you're 18 doesn't mean you can stay out as late as you want. Mayor White meant business when he said curfew. That tiny 1% deductible on your home owners insurance all of the sudden seems really huge. People will get into a line that has already formed without having any idea what the line is for. Calories consumed during a hurricane or power outage do not count. Telemarketers function no matter what the weather is doing. New Delhi does not check the weather report in Houston. Most popular text message after September 13: do u hve pwr. Twenty-seven of your neighbors are fed from a different transformer than you, and they are quick to point that out! Crickets and cicadas can increase their volume to overcome the sound of 14 generators. Dirty clothes in an unsupervised hamper multiply at an exponential rate. Soup, spaghetti and frozen pizzas can be made on a grill. He who has the biggest generator wins. Tree service companies are under-appreciated, except after hurricanes.If the quote for tree removal is 5 figures, just say nooooo!!! Water will fill freeway underpasses, even sometimes when it is not raining. There are a lot more stars in the sky than most people thought. If you owned a store that sold only ice, chain saws, gas and generators, you would be rich. If the blessed cool front doesn't make you a believer, than nothing will!! With only a small amount of guilt Houston can collectively pray a second hurricane to landfall in another state or country. And so to our friends and families, some who are still without power and others who have endured great personal loss, you are in our prayers. Hang in there, we are making progress. Thank you to all our first responders, healthcare professionals, service technicians, understanding employers, teachers, police officers, small business owners, and more who join with the thousands of individuals sharing their time and talent to help restore our community to wholeness. The most important lesson of all learned from Ike in the last week is that the human spirit has an amazing resilience that even a hurricane cannot bend. Through God's love and His grace we can endure all things.

Going back upstairs...

I know you don't want to see any more of my hurricane pictures, so I decided to upload these. I often take pictures of things I'm working on while I'm doing them as it helps me REALLY see them. These were done a few days before Ike hit. I need to go back upstairs and work on them - maybe today!!! The top one is done on a small stretched canvas. I put rice paper on it and then I think I used chalk....can't remember it's been so long...ha!!! Then did my "bird in a scripture nest" on it. I hammered fancy upholstery nails on the side and I did put wire around those and make a hanger! Also added my "trademark" green ivy ribbon. I'll get another photo of it today and upload later. The second one is on a little flat piece of wood and is from a Somerset Studio Nov-Dec issue from the past. The leaves are made from nice shiney magazine pages. I bought oval wood pieces and then I used copper UTEE and stamped JOY into it. And red beads in the center. It looks better now. I will take some new pictures later today...but just had to share something creative!!

yIKE!

We have electricity! There isn't anything better after a storm than having the lights come back on. They came on at my house Wednesday night at 7:15. People on my street were ECSTATIC. None of my friends have power yet. Nor does my sister .... who lives about 10 minutes from me.

The above photo was taken towards the end of the storm looking out a front window. While I was standing there a gust came along and blew that branch far away!

The house across the street is on a corner and at the end of that driveway you see a tree with branches down - they are covering a car. Here is my back patio. Obviously we removed all the furniture and pots, etc. before the storm. This photo was taken while it was still raining. If you don't know.... I do live in Houston. We were so blessed in my family.... everyone was safe and no one has any home damage... just lots of limbs down. It was pretty frightening... especially around 3 - 4 a.m. last Saturday! See that skinny tree right behind the fence...the bark has been peeled off and the top is off. Okay...it's stopped raining and we've ventured outside!

Those greenbelts (bike and hike trails) behind my house.

Since I have power, I'm cooking and having a lot of friends over tonight to eat and watch TELEVISION. They all miss cable news!!!! The local channels here are showing storm stuff 24 hours a day (almost). So even if you have one of those battery operated tv's....you don't know what else is happening in the world. Gotta run back to the store. Off to Aggieland for football tomorrow...that should take our mind off the storm.

Thank you for all the sweet comments and the prayers that were being lifted up for us. I was glad my daughter could update my blog, too! I'll be back here soon.

If you want to see something so SWEET and GLITTERY.... go here:Inspired Ideas!

Survived Ike!

Hi everyone. This is Linda's daughter, Debbie. Mom still doesn't have power, so she wanted me to let you all know that she is fine. The storm was rough, but luckily our house and family are all fine! Hopefully Mom and Dad will get power soon, but a cool front came through the other day and that has made life much more comfortable. The schools around here are closed all week- many have damage. If Mom doesn't have power soon, I'm sure she'll be down here at mine or my brother's place... I mean she can only stay away from the computer for so long! ;-)

Hurricane Glitter

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I had to hold this as it's not glued together - it's for a flat glitter house swap on CPA List. We mail it flat and then the recipient glues it together. I LOVE glitter houses. Thought I'd show you SOMETHING I've been making art-wise before I disappear into the post-hurricane world!

I Don't Like Ike!

Keep us in your prayers. I will surely loose power for a few days.

September Mail

I'm hosting a "Autumnal Banner Swap" over on Christian Paper Artists. The above represent the banners or pennants that I have received - they are all due to me next Monday! I love banners....did you know that? And these are ATCs I received in a Going Green ATC Swap hosted by Anna on Christian Paper Artists. Aren't they wonderful!!! I should go in and identify each of them....maybe later...

And these!!! Oh my goodness! The little book on the left I got today - it's a RAK from Chris McNeal, of the wonderful Christian Paper Artists List! Don't you love that she put birds on it!!! And the one on the right is what I won on Shannon's blog! (Shannon is also on the CPA list...but I actually did win this!!!) They are both such treasures. (the gals and the books)

I've been very preoccupied the last few days. We had a party Saturday night for our Sunday School Class. Then Sunday we started new curriculum in the Young Couples Sunday School Class that DH and I facilitate - so that was something I had to read. And I'm also dealing with "what if we have to open our Red Cross Shelter" next week!!!! This software stuff used to come to me so quickly... now I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it when it doesn't work - I spent the day making phone calls to tech support about the photo ID and also the bar code scanner people. I think I have it all fixed now..... new patches you can download are indeed wonderful. Well.... pray that Ike will fall apart and be a non-event!

Texans Lost...

The Houston Texans lost their first game of the season on Sunday. Yes, Charley was disappointed. But the Aggies won! So that made for a good Saturday. We had a party at our house Saturday night with some of our favorite people, the humidity is low and there was no storm within 48 hours of us. What more could one want? Saw both our children this weekend. Life is good. It was also a great mail day on Saturday!!!!!

More about that in the next post.

Front Doors...what's hanging there?

It's that time.......actually it is almost past that time - but it is definitely appropriate to change the door decor!!! Above is what is hanging there now. It's been there since July and I think it's time for FALL!!! I haven't dug out last year's fall door decor.... I keep thinking I'll do something different. Look at what I found on Heather Bullard's blog! And she gives a tutorial. I think I may give that a try. The hardest part is I have to get some chicken wire.... I can do that. What's on your door? Please...don't judge me by my door.....the painters and door refinishers will arrive soon!