And a Special Ballon Tribute to YOU

As always, you are the best of friends. Thank you for your kindness, and may it be returned to you as well. Love you. :)

The Ballon as Art

<<<--------If you are gonna dress your kid like this.

You better have one of these (LOL)--------->>>>

Why I Love Me Some Rob Brezsny April 18, 2007

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You could grow moonflowers in a toxic waste dump, Libra. You could lift the spirits of a child who has been raised in grievous poverty. That's how much regenerative power you possess right now. You might even be able to locate underground water in a desert, or resurrect a dead dream, or alleviate half of your deepest suffering. I'm not absolutely sure you could transform lead into gold, but I do know that now is one of your best chances ever to pull it off.

My horoscope for this week. I guess I best figure out how to do this :)

Is This Any Way to Treat the President Deux

He-He-He. Another Blue Q product. I always wonder when I see things like this if the company is audited shortly after introduction of this kind of thing. In any case, I am gonna save this sticker sheet for truly memorable letter writing experiences. Thanks Wade :)
Busy getting bracelets finished this week for the Seattle Art Museum's new expansion opening. I will be the featured artist in the Gift Gallery during the big Gala Public Reception, and it promises to be very glamorous. Of course I won't be attending, but my bracelets will.(LOL) All this and a three pound potato within the last thirty days. I guess I can't say my life isn't unusual.
Funny thing is, when I was designing jewelry early on in my career the Seattle Art Museum never bought any of it. Of course they were great customers when I did the candles and other products, so I have no complaints. Figures that these one of a kind bracelets I didn't really make with the idea of selling would be what they want to buy and focus on. Now to find more vintage beads and get to it.

A Little Alter Update

In Galveston this weekend I found one of those great old "Penny Masher" machines that stretches a real penny you insert in the machine mechanism and stamps it with a design of the resort. I made this little penny for my alter, to remind me of a blustery day with my sister bundled up in resort chairs watching the stormy waves. Feeling at peace and a sense of closure.

No Road Trip is Complete...

...without Bizarre Trip Art. At least no trip I've ever taken. (Judy will vouch for this, I am sure.) So this weekend Wade made us close our eyes as he drove through a warehouse district in Houston so he could surprise us with these. GIANT Presidential heads, the whole area looking like a movie set for the "Attack of the 30 Foot Tall Dead Presidents". (LOL) This is actually the studio parking lot of the sculptor David Adickes, his most famous piece being the Stephen F. Austin Monument viewed driving into Houston. It was a surreal experience, all these disembodied heads, as these photos can attest, but cool.

(OK, maybe this is where his brian is stored.)

Still on my quest to bring the you the very best bizarre art for entertainment and amusement :)

Texas to Get Prez Heads and Titanic Cowboy - Roadside America

Mama Comes Home to Texas

This Easter weekend was the time we chose to fulfill my mother's last wish. Being the quirky iconoclast she was, she wanted to be cremated and her remains make the trip home and be sprinkled over the Texas bluebonnets in the Springtime. This seems like a pretty easy task, but the first Spring after her death (last year) Texas was in a serious draught and no bluebonnets arrived. Who knew weeds (and that is basically what Bluebonnets are) actually needed water to grow? So my sister Patty and I made the decision to wait until this year, and I am so glad we did.
I cried and cried when picking my sister up from the airport, because this year bluebonnets were everywhere. Every overpass, every small patch of ground in East Texas was covered in massive, huge bluebonnets. It had been a long time since they had grown so fully, and I cried every time I saw them because it really was like the Universe made it perfect just from Mama this year.
Our first stop was to bring a little of Mama home to her parents. The picture we used to represent her on her last trip home was one of my favorites, an Easter picture of her and two sisters in 1954. We were shocked when we realized we were spreading these ashes 30 years to the day of my grandfather's death, and it all felt so right to do. Since Mom didn't want any type of gravestone or marker,we were happy to take her to her parents, knowing we could always visit her there. The next day it was on to find the perfect bluebonnets. We found a national Bluebonnet Park close to Ennis, Texas with great sloping hills into a little pond that would be a perfect view and very peaceful for her. So up the hill we walked, and the beauty of the place was overwhelming. We sat in the field and talked and talked, both to Mom and remembering her between ourselves and laughing. It all felt so happy, and when my sister said she felt her dancing in heaven, I had to agree. This is the field we found, and part of her eternal view. Because it is a park set aside for bluebonnets, she will have them every year they grow here forever.
Then it was on to Galveston, Texas to send the last of her remains to the sea. We drove down as the big cold front hit Texas, and it was actually sleeting in Galveston when we arrived. But by Easter morning the rains subsided, and even though it was bitter cold it didn't rain as we sprinkled to last of her on the beach we played on as children.

As much as we miss and loved our Mom, it was a wonderful experience I would not have missed. There is indeed a closure that doing the right thing for the deceased brings, and a peace that comes from knowing how happy she would have been (and is) that we did this for her. I am so grateful for a sister to share this with, Thank you Patty for everything.