Last Sunday....

On Sunday morning, we packed up some lunch and the 14' raft and Grayson's kayak, hopped in the truck (and my car, for the shuttle) and drove up to the Chama River.

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

This is Georgia O'Keefe country.

Just past Abiquiu, where she lived in the latter part of her life,

THIS is what it looks like -

wide open spaces, huge skies and red rock layered with yellow and white,

polkadotted with green pinon trees.

This is the gate that is the entrance to Ghost Ranch,

where she also had a house.

Once we turned off the hiway to the road down to the river,

Grayson took over the driver's seat.

Above, our friend Eric, Grayson and Cullen loaded the raft.

Grayson was in his kayak.

Jack, our "almost 3 year old" lab came with us

for the very first time!

He loved it....

Here was our lunch spot.

Not bad, hunh?

Can you see Grayson walking along the right side of the trunk?

This tree, above and below, was magnificent.

Somehow the branch of one grafted itself to the trunk of the other.

Cullen

These people were standing on the bridge to

watch Grayson go through

Skull Rapid

Grayson ran Gauging Station, too - wow!

Check out these swallows' nests under the overhangs.

They are made of mud and the birds swoop in and out.

(close-up below)

Eric at the "take-out"

This stand of cottonwoods is on the road to the "put-in"

Eric and I ran the shuttle to pick up Cullen's truck.

There were cows along the road as we drove trough the river valley.

It was so green.

It was a beautiful day.

I feel like I need to improve my photography - really!

These aren't very representative of what they look like in person....

But, I am back in the studio and it does feel pretty good....

Going on the Rio Chama today - part of the Memorial Day celebration, I guess....

Have a wonderful day.

t-shirt sketches

Working on a t-shirt design for Los Poblanos...

The images are based on the "loteria" cards from Mexico, though will be line drawings instead of brightly colored images.

There will be 9 images lined up "3-3-3"...and I am doing several for them to choose from

hmmmmmm, I will show more later, as the design tightens up.....

xo

Back to Basics

It has been ages since I was out in the studio working on papier-mache......so today I actually finished four things that I started quite a while ago.

front (above)

and back (below)

and a bird box with

cherry blossom-inspired branches

another little birdie heart

"understanding"

and another birdie box with tiny "cherry blossoms"

another day......

butterflies

I am teaching a "butterfly" class in a couple of weeks and one of the projects will use these black line drawings that I did. I will share the other projects as I get them done.

Mom's Studio Move

Here are a few photos of the "studio move" that I did with my mom last weekend in Austin.

It went quite smoothly, but will take some time to get all the bits and pieces she needs moved into the new space.

Still, Mom, I hope you enjoy being "downstairs" to do your creating.... xo

This was my bedroom many, many years ago. It was turned into a library when the house was redone several years ago. I think this new identity will be good for it... and for Mom.

from the living room, looking in

the sofa on the south wall, under the mirror

(note: bags and boxes of "get rid of" stuff - all of it!)

fresh look for the bookshelves - filled with calligraphy books,

books of quotations, inspiration

and other journals and sketchbooks

the BIG clock came downstairs, too

here it is

cozy, but spacious

....and upstairs......

where the desk used to be!

much more open space in what will become the guest suite

Mom's old bed will move up here and be the perfect place to chill

The shelves are empty, but there is a bunch of great paper and "stuff" in those drawers in the "island" - flat files abound! It will take some time, but also has started the whole process so each time I visit, we will do just a little bit more until it is what it needs to be.

Hope you enjoy it, Mom. We will transform the room upstairs next time I visit, okay?

Paper Flowers

Yesterday was the Paper Flowers class at Los Poblanos.

We had 6 attendees and they were so enthusiastic and extremely talented ladies (!)

The packets for the class were filled with papers of all sorts and a bag of buttons and beads.

The first flowers we made were from old phone book pages. They are simple and, honestly, the paper is great to work with - newsprint. It is a great weight and rather non-threatening.... and the yellow pages make from some mighty-fine flower petals.

Here are some of those first ones that we made.....aren't they great? They are wrapped around real twigs to help them look more realistic.

Once the first set of flowers was done, I showed several other blossom ideas and construction.

Everyone was concentrating so hard on getting the blossoms "built"

.......... I hope they were having fun at the same time.

I think that the results (below) are representative of the creative minds at work and how they were able to take the information I gave them and run with it.... just beautiful.....

Aren't these lovely?! The assortment of flowers is so fun and the whimsical styles add so much to the charm of each bouquet.

I think they look pretty elegant against the black tablecover, too.

All in all, a great day.

Despite the chilly temperature, wind and drizzle going on outside, we added some sunshine to the world with our cheerful bouquets.