Is She Ever Going to Talk About Design Again???

Yes, Virginia, she really is a designer, but she is also a gardener, and SPRING has come to Texas...luring her outdoors. First, she will take down the lights wrapped around the pecan trees (actually, would like to leave them, and light them at night, ala Tavern on The Green in New York City....but, I don't think my neighbors across the street will understand - even though they leave all the outside lights on every night). Then, she will cut back the dead Muley (pronouched "mooly") grass...pull the unwanted things and put in new mulch.

I am switching back to first person now. I am very excited, as my neighbor, Sandy and I have become friends. They started to put in an enclosed, stone garden area..(photos to follow), but ran out of money and ideas as to how to keep the deer out...
So, she and I are going to pool our money and ideas and get a garden going.....soon.
Gardening in Texas is a whole lot different that Wisconsin..(see the photos above)..I would post them with this paragraph, but am still wrestling with issues as to this %&)#@$* computer....

So, I am being called by birdsong, sweet breezes, and my little, yellow gardening wagon. Slapping on the garden hat, gloves, sunscreen, and going outside to play.

I do have some projects planned for the interior of my house, and I have a couple of clients, that are considering some projects...so, we are coming out of our houses, saying goodbye to winter, and moving forward...such fun!

It's 4:35 in the Morning....

I looked at the clock at 2 am, after waking from a very strange dream. Gussie raised her head (she sleeps next to mine), giving me a quizzical look...I rearranged the pillows, and accidentally knocked Raisenette off the bed...Figured I'd read for awhile-couldn't concentrate...I kept thinking about the "lecture" I gave to a group of high school students earlier in the day, at the request of their art teacher. The subject, "Why I became a photographer"...She and I were in my favorite bookstore (The Dog-Eared Bookstore), in the Art and Photography Section....It's a used bookstore..which I love. We struck up a conversation, and I shared that for twenty years, I was a photographer....anyway, I ended up speaking to seven students (it's a small, Christian Academy). I lay there for an hour or so, thinking about how it went, and decided I may as well get up and write about it....(now, it's 4:42 am).

I took samples of my work..some of my very early work, along with my hand-colored, black-and-white Civil War Reinactment photos (long story), some of my portraits of children (also hand-colored), and some of my more recent, digital work...My digital
camera is dying, and I have a new one..(that's another story)...So there I was, all ready with my "Do what you love" lecture..but, what came out was this:

"During the Viet Nam War, I worked as a volunteer in the amputee ward of an army hospital in Denver. I was a single mom, with a two-year-old little boy, and I lived with my grandparents. I tended bar at nights, went to school part time, and I was at the Veteran's hospital because the only person I knew in Denver was a fellow I had known in high school in Kansas...he had lost both his legs when he stepped on a land mine. In the bed next to him was a young man (I was only in my early twenties, as well), who had lost his legs, and the use of one of his arms. On his bedside table was a Nikon 35mm camera that he had bought on R&R in the Phillipines..not long after that, he was so badly injured. We talked, and he said that I should try shooting some film, as in his condition, it was useless to him.

I bought some film, took my son to the park, and took some photos of him (I still have them). After I put him down for his nap back at my grandparents, I just started wandering about the city, shooting things that caught my attention...All the worries of the world fell away, and I was in my world; a world seen through a lens...There was no more war, no more worries about how I was going to support my son, no pain from a painful divorce..just me and this camera....and so my journey and love affair with photography began.....

I had other "careers" - visual merchandising for twelve years, and then, I started the Civil War photography, then, portraits of mostly children.
I eventually went into interior design, but have always loved photography, and now, with my shiny-new digital camera, and hopefully, a new computer, my love affair continues.

After a time, I bought my own camera and returned his to the young man.......
I found myself in tears today, these fresh faces looking at me as if I were a thousand years old. I told them to find a dream and follow it, and that I was crying because I don't even remember that young man's name...and I wonder what his life has been like. I owe him such a debt of gratitude....

Art in Bloom

While digging out my office - excavating is more like it, I have come across some photos of my "silk flower pillow phase"...I loved these pillows..actually, I found a wonderful, Ralph Lauren twin bedspread for $17.00, and cut it up to make the pillows. Then, being "she who has the most ribbon when she dies, wins", I learned to make these silk flowers. Perhaps, when I get a round tuit, I will put a tutorial on how to make them. My friend had a floral and gift shop, and they did sell quickly.....
Enjoy...