Celebration

I haven't been in the studio lately but have been busy with a different kind of creating. We spent the  post 4th of July week getting ready for a special weekend. Despite recent hail & continuing heat & drought we were outside Sat. evening to  celebrate Elliott & Celeste's marriage. It was truly a celebration of their love with their friend Brady offering beautiful words of wisdom, strength, love, and joy.We have considered them a family for 2 years but now they are officially Mr. & Mrs. Elliott Akers. I pray they have many years together of love & happiness.  

It gives me a  wonderful feeling to have both our children & friends choose our home as a place to celebrate their marriages. This was the 4th and final wedding here for us; Ashley & Frank; friends Susan & Matt Rouser &amp Shari Turner. I wish the new owners of this house much luck in making future happy memories and hope our new home will also be a place for celebrations as well. 

It is pretty amazing that you can bring a party together in a short time. Everyone was busy, busy, busy but I think we all had fun too.  Elliott & his dad were out and about all day Friday.  Celeste, Karlie Ashley, & I ran after flowers and supplies Friday morning and then Friday afternoon  Celeste watched Karlie & Patton taking a break from the heat.

Ashley, Shari & I were codesigners in flower arranging. This is always one of my favorite parts of events like this. Frank joined Ashley Sat. morning as assistant chef doing kitchen magic. Overall I was remiss in getting pictures but attendees will attest to the scrumptiousness of the  charobeans, guacamole, salsa, and Mexican Wedding cookies.  I hope some will come forward to share their pictures of the event as I want to make an album for the newlyweds.

Karlie really enjoyed herself and reminded me of her father as a child. Here she is with  Mommy welcoming the guest who traveled the farthest, Gwendolyn who came from California with her mommy Sarah. She also enjoyed showing off her dancing skills; playing with children & puppies and doing "Marilyn" in front of the fan.

Finally, the cakes were lovely & yummy.  Like the margaritas, they had to stay inside out of the heat until served but that didn't seem to lessen their enjoyment.

Good intentions and black clouds.

If any one is still reading here, I apologize for my absence of 2 months.  I had the best of intentions when I started my blog nearly 3 years ago but intentions also require action. 
1. Blogging was going to help me focus on my art and creative practices and be an encouragement to  others.
2. Blogging was to be a way to keep friends & family informed about my life and make new friends and connections.
3. I would keep it positive and upbeat (most of the time) and learn from it just as I learn from students when I teach.
I think I did pretty well for a good part of the time.  I stayed with it pretty regularly and started 2011 choosing the word, "Harmony" as my theme. I was going merrily along until March when a brick wall jumped in front of me. My resolve has been greatly tested.  It's been a lesson; one I didn't necessarily want. In the end I'll probably be stronger for it.  Life does get in the way when you're making other plans. Be flexible.  Much of the last few months I have felt like the Charlie Brown character under a black cloud or Alice falling in to a deep, dark hole. It wasn't just feeling sorry for myself but also the tragedies in Japan; around the country; and the world. Feeling sorry does not help anyone so I am getting busy to do what I can in each situation.

Summer is here and while not my favorite season, I am determined to mark the change with resolve. I am working on attitude AND action.  I will do what I can and let God take care of the rest. I WILL get back to my art.
Today I'm working on digging out of the funk as I work on cleaning up from the plummeting hail storm we got Tuesday morning. I can be Thankful for the much needed rain; that Karl got a crew to do the major yard cleaning; and we are safe. A new roof will happen in due time and I will replant a few annuals in the ground and pots for color. I will hope someone comes to buy the house as I work each day to keep it in presentable condition. Tomorrow I will celebrate a good friend's 60th birthday and next week I will escape to camp to visit a good friend I haven't seen in ages. I will come home on the 4th and get ready for a PARTY.
Elliott & Celeste are getting married. They have chosen to go to the courthouse. We will celebrate here with family & friends.  We don't have a lot of time (we worked on prep for Ashley's wedding for most of a year) but it will be fun & festive.
I tried 3 times to upload a video to make you smile but you'll have to go to my facebook page to see Karlie's joyous abandonment.  Be inspired.

What spring brings.

I started this on my iphone on Thursday but couldn't figure out how to get pictures into it; now it's Sunday night & I'm still having techno issues. I'm sure it's mostly my brain and the need to rest.  

 We've been down south, Austin & Wimberley.  Today we celebrated Easter with family. Karlie got the hang of candy in eggs pretty quickly and she & the cousins gave us cause for lots of smiles. Thanks Mitra, Marcus, & Mary Chess for hosting a wonderful fun day.  The food was great too.

Spring took a while to get here but then in rather typical Texas fashion lasted a few minutes before jumping into HOT.  If time had allowed we would have gone swimming this weekend. Sadly this change of seasons has been accompanied by violent weather and fires. Much of west Texas is abaze. A  good portion of the state really, really, really needs rain.  Thankfully we got a bit of the wet stuff here this evening. I hope there were no tornadoes or damaging hale with this line of storms. We had tornadoes where we were in Arkansas last weekend and that was scary.I guess there is always a bit of drama associated with change and it's no less so with our efforts toward moving.  It's been a while coming but a big step happened last week.

It feels rather strange and I have lots of mixed emotions but it's time to move forward.  Our house is officially on the market.  Life as we've known it for 24 years is about to change. Now I hope it happens fast so if you know anyone who would like a well loved (I mean that in the best sense) house in north Texas, please send them this way.  In the meantime, hope all your changes are good ones.