Thursday, October 25, 2012

Hearts are Everywhere!

In August of 2011, I attended my second Bob Burridge workshop at Wenmohs Ranch. I was quite in love and missed being around my sweetheart during the week but I would sit on the porch talking on the phone with him and one afternoon I kept looking at this tree. Do you see it? Do you see what I saw? It's a heart. It struck me so much I had to take a picture of it so I would always remember it. I think it was a sign.

Here, I'll help you find it. 


And, yes! Still quite in love over a year later. I wish I was going to Bob's Workshop in the Bahamas in January!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Butterflies


Nature is so awesome. And inspiring.

Not long after Pastor John preached about letting go of your plans (your plans are like catching a moth) so that God can work His plans for you, I saw these pink bushes on the trail at Bob Eden park and the bushes were covered with butterflies like this one.

It was amazing.

I wished I had a really nice camera to snap up a hundred pictures that did the moment justice.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Turtle Creek Blvd

I was walking back the office from my lunchtime stroll on Katy Trail when I saw this:

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Holding Hands



I took this photo of the couple walking in front of me one lunch while walking on the Katy Trail.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Poem of the Day: Emily Dickinson

My Garden -- like the Beach by Emily Dickinson
My Garden -- like the Beach --
Denotes there be -- a Sea --
That's Summer --
Such as These -- the Pearls
She fetches -- such as Me

Thursday, April 5, 2012

10 Childhood Memories

1. I love the memories I have of my grandparents little house. It sat near the train tracks and would vibrate a little as the train went by. It had one bathroom, 3 bedrooms, window ac units, old fans, a slamming screen door, yellow kitchen cabinets, peach trees, a garden, pecan trees, a swing, and lots of love.

2. When I was about 12 or 13, my mom took us to visit my aunt and uncle in Rockport. When it came time to leave, I didn't want to go and they let me stay. One morning we got up early and went out on the boat and went crabbing. We caught ice chests full of crabs by just scooping them up in our nets. When we got home, an older teenage girl and I killed and cleaned most of them. My only regret- I was a picky eater at that time and I didn't even eat any of it! I love crab now!

3. In high school, in between classes or after school, I would sit under a tree in a little gully area. My friends would sometimes gather in this same spot.

4. Our street was a gathering place for my brother and sister and all of the other teenagers that lived on our street. I looked forward to the day that my friends would gather on my street but none of the kids my age lived on my street so this was not to be. But, we did have a lot of parties at my house when my mom would go out of town.

5. At lunch time recess one day in elementary school, our music teacher started a song (I wish I could remember what it) and we all formed a line holding hands. The line marched around and around while singing the song until we were wound tight into a ball. Recess ran long that day. I remember feeling happy.

6. My grandparents parked their camper on Goose Island every year and we would go visit them. My mom would buy the water color sets for me and I would paint the sea shells.

7. Every year we got a condo on the beach in Port Aransas. We would spend the day walking on the beach, swimming at the pool, tanning on the sundeck, riding the elevator up and down, running around the condo tower. We played cards, Scrabble and dominoes.

8. I used to be able to recite the whole Eddie Murphy Raw routine. I got some ice cream. I got some ice cream. Wanna lick? Psyche! We had recorded it off on VHS from HBO and we watched it over and over again. And then he kicked him in the ding-ding!


9. My best friend lived in an old Victorian home and I spent a lot of time over there. It was also next to the train track. Their mom drove one of those station wagons. They had a basset hound and I can't remember his name. We would make pallets on the floor in the front room where it was cool. In the winter the house would get cold and we would gather in the kitchen near the gas stove, surrounding the butcher block table laughing and talking.

10. I learned to ride my bike when I was about 9 years old after I got mad at my sister for something. We had ridden it together over somewhere and when I got mad, I walked it home. Some kind of determination was set in my that day. It was red and had a glittery banana seat.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Poem of the Day - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sonnet 43 - How do I love thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning


How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death. 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Standing in your painting.

From the movie Pollock.
I don't necessarily want to paint like Pollock but this looks like a lot of fun. I can just see moving all the furniture from my living room and rolling out a large canvas and painting it up. If the boys roll one of their 100 bouncy balls through then so be it. If dust gets in it then so be it. Someday, I want to stand in my painting like this.

10 things I wish I was doing right now.

1) drinking coffee on a warm, sunny porch with a gentle breeze
2) holding hands with the man i love
3) listening to my boys laugh together
4) enjoying a warm morning bun from Starbucks
5) painting the landscape painting that is in my head
6) floating on a big float in the middle of my pool
7) sitting under a full harvest moon
8) enjoying a big pink fresh fluffy cloud of sweet cotton candy
9) browsing around my hometown county fair
10) holding hands with the man i love

Thursday, March 15, 2012

10 things I know to be true right now.

1. I love watching kids and catching them in sweet funny moments like the boy on the airplane coming home. He was next in line to go to the bathroom. He was standing with his big brother. He started doing to the pee pee dance bouncing up and down. I quietly sent up a prayer that whoever was in there would hurry up.

2. Being in love is making me gain weight. Okay, maybe it isn't the actual being in love part but the eating with my love that is making me gain weight. And, less motivation to work out for some reason.

3. I love cute cocktail napkins. I love all their cute holiday designs or snarky quotes and so on. I love them. I must have them.

4. I can't wait to go to church on Sunday and listen to Pastor John. Yay God!

5. I need new siding on my house and I want a pergola as well... I'm worried about how much it will cost and finding a good contractor to actually do it. The pergola may have to wait until next year.

6. I have 3 paintings floating around my head, sketched on paper and waiting to be painted. I'm going shopping on Saturday instead of painting.

7. I have the cutest pedicure right now. My toenails are coated in white and the big toes have a red heart on them. I love pedicures.

8. I haven't seen my homeless man, Robert, in quite a while now. I'm praying he is okay and hoping it is a good thing that I don't see him.

9. I could eat a whole can of the salt and pepper cashews by Emerald. They are so tasty and addicting.

10. I'm looking forward to having a cocktail with my work friends tonight and then scooting home to hang out with the love of my life.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Poem of the Day - Pablo Neruda

Love Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda
I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Haiku for You - Mexico by Cheryl E. Wilson

the day has begun
sleepy beach, ocean and sun
sweet mexico fun


cew

Friday, February 24, 2012

Poem of the day: William Wordsworth

Travelling- by Williams Wordsworth

This is the spot:—how mildly does the sun
Shine in between the fading leaves! the air
In the habitual silence of this wood
Is more than silent: and this bed of heath,
Where shall we find so sweet a resting-place?
Come!—let me see thee sink into a dream
Of quiet thoughts,—protracted till thine eye
Be calm as water when the winds are gone
And no one can tell whither.—my sweet friend!
We two have had such happy hours together
That my heart melts in me to think of it.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Poem of the Day: JB O'Pry

I can't help but share the poem that my son JB brought home last night. It is a wonderful perspective of love from a humorous ten year old boy.

Love is by JB O'Pry

Love is gross. Love is awful.
Although it is very thoughtful.

Love is cool. Love is sweet.
Love stinks like smelly feet.

Love is always in the air
But love is not everywhere.

Love is also very nice
But love is like rolling dice.



spelling corrections offered by mom.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Poem of the Day: Walt Whitman

A child said, What is the grass?
by Walt Whitman

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
 hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
 is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
 green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we
 may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
 of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
 zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the 
same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
 from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps,
And here you are the mother's laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old
 mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths
 for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men
 and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring
 taken soon out of their laps.

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and
 children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
 at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
 luckier.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

10 things I Love about Valentine's Day

1. Flowers
2. Hugs
3. Kisses
4. Heart shaped candies
5. Sweet messages of love
6. Large expressions of love
7. The smiles you create by sharing your love
8. heart shaped decorations
9. Holding hands
10. Knowing you are loved

10 things I think about St. Valentine's Day:

1. I think Valentine's Day is more special to girls than it is to boys.

2. A girl doesn't want to have to tell the boy she loves what to do for Valentine's Day.

3. I think she wants him to pay attention, use his imagination and read her mind if necessary as unrealistic as that is.

4. Valentine's Day can really suck if you don't have anyone to share it with but I've learned with age that if you don't have anyone to share the day with you should just love yourself. Buy yourself a gift of love.

5. Conversation Hearts are a wonderful thing: Kiss Me. I love you. Cutie Pie.

6. Restaurants are crazy crowded on Valentine's Day- be sure to get a reservation. Or cook a candlelit dinner for two. Or have a family dinner.

7. Roses are the flower representing Valentine's Day but I like all the flowers.

8. Cupid has sharp arrows but sometimes he misses.

9. Most men think Valentine's Day is a conspiracy by Hallmark and all the retail shops but I think there should be a monthly holiday to express our love.

10. 1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Monday, January 30, 2012

10 things I know about babies:

1. Newborn babies are the best babies to hold because they don't care who holds them.

2. Babies are soft and sweet and are nice to snuggle.

3. Babies can be very, very loud and they don't care who hears or if it is time to be quiet.

4. Babies are a lot of hard work to take care of and they require your commitment.

5. Babies grow more in the first year than in any other time of their life.

6. Babies are partial to their parents when the reach a certain age- usually within the first year - which is why number one is true.

7. You can not spoil a baby.

8. Babies smell. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good.

9. Babies don't care if you're tired.

10. Babies grow up very fast.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

I had a dream about painting last night.

It was a red, pink, and white painting with hearts and lace and love. I kind of remember a person in the painting but I'm not 100% sure. It was kind of abstract. I think a heart formed a torso of a woman.


Except now I see I doodled it backwards. The torso heart should be red and the skirt black with a black background.

I dreamed about painting last night.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

10 things I wonder about are:

1. I wonder what my boys are doing when I'm not around.

2. Why is it easier to criticize and find the negative than it is be complimentary and positive?

3. Why do people assume you want a white Christmas? I don't!

4. What does the face of God look like?

5. What will it feel like when I die?

6. I wonder who will remember me 100 years after my death?

7. How many souls are there?

8. Is Heaven crowded?

9. Why do we have to have cellulite and stretch marks?

10. What should I paint today?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I Love Ralph Marston Daily Motivators

I'm not sure how I found Ralph Marston's Daily Motivator site but I love it! And you will, too! Check it out.

Here's what Ralph says today:

Keep going

When you have a long way to go, keep going. When you’ve almost reached the goal, keep going.
Success is achieved by those who simply do whatever it takes to keep going. All it ever takes, is taking the next step. 
When you’re frustrated, make note of your frustration and keep going. When you’re tired and weary, take time out for a little rest, and then keep going. 
The real joy is in the journey, so give yourself the joy of making that journey. Pick yourself up, again and again, and keep going. 
You know full well that you can do it, so do it. Remind yourself why you’ve chosen to get there, and keep going. 
You are a bundle of beautiful and unique possibilities. Keep going, and bring the best of them to life.
— Ralph Marston


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Poem of the Day: Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for death by Emily Dickinson


Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Poem of the Day: Edgar Allan Poe

A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe


Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Monday, January 16, 2012

10 things I should have learned by now:

1. I should have learned how to use comma's by now but I'm dreadful at putting them in the proper place.

2. How to cook.

3. I can not change anyone else. I can only change me.

4. Geography.

5. To be soft spoken in times of frustration.

6. I should have learned how to control my emotions by now.

7. Spanish.

8. Spend wisely. Save money.

9. To play the piano. I took so many lessons. But, sadly, I stink at it!

10. To always send a thank you note.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Poem of the Day: Maya Angelou

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou


Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman


Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Poem of the Day: e e cummings

may i feel said he 
by E. E. Cummings


may i feel said he
(i'll squeal said she
just once said he)
it's fun said she
  
(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she 
  
(let's go said he
not too far said she
what's too far said he
where you are said she)  

may i stay said he
which way said she
like this said he
if you kiss said she

may i move said he
is it love said she)
if you're willing said he
(but you're killing said she

but it's life said he
but your wife said she
now said he)
ow said she

(tiptop said he
don't stop said she
oh no said he)
go slow said she 
  
(cccome?said he
ummm said she)
you're divine!said he
(you are Mine said she)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Poem of the Day: William Butler Yeats

Brown Penny by William Butler Yeats
I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Poem of the Day: e e cummings

i carry your heart with me
By e e cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

10 places i have lived:

1. Refugio, Texas

2. Lubbock, Texas

3. Corpus Christi, Texas

4. Austin, Texas

5. Fort Worth, Texas

6. Bedford, Texas

7. Park City, Utah

8. Grapevine, Texas

9. Euless, Texas

oops.

10. to be determined at a later date

Monday, January 9, 2012

2012 - Year of Poetry

I'm a long time member and contributor to House of Shine. One of the rituals we have is naming our year. It started in 2009. In 2009, it was the Year of Art for me. I promptly jumped into my company fitness competition and art was pushed aside. The one thing I did do for art in 2009 was sign up to attend a workshop in February, 2010.

So, when 2010 rolled around- it was the Year of Art, Take 2. I attended the Robert Burridge Workshop and that helped educate and inspire painting in 2010.

And, this little blog of mine.

2011- Year of Love. What a great year! Amazing! Seriously. Wow.

After such a great year, it was hard to think of what else I could even want in my life. I pondered several things and finally settled on the Year of Poetry being inspired by Sarah Kay's Ted Speech and I have heard that poetry is the language of love so it just seems natural. Hopefully, it will inspire some painting as well.

What does the Year of Poetry mean? It means I will read poetry, write poetry, think poetry, speak poetry, hear poetry! I will even taste poetry somehow! I'm going to study the classic poets like Whitman, Frost, Cummings and Poe. I'm going to look to women poets like Plath, Angelou, and Dickinson. And, I'm going to revisit one of my favorite, fun writers, Shel Silverstein.

I'm going to revisit styles of poetry- the haiku, free verse, prose and more. I cannot say how many poems I will write or even if the ones I do write will be any good. I don't have a goal or a plan other than believing that something good will come from my Year of Poetry.

10 things I know about snow:

1. Snow sparkles in the light like a million tiny diamonds.

2. Snow is wet which would be could if you were dying of thirst but bad if you just wanted to be dry.

3. Snow is cold. Freezing cold to be exact. At first, it might be refreshing but after a while it's out and out numbing.

4. Snow is ugly when it mixes with mud. It's grey and dirty. And not sparkly.

5. Snow falls down light and fluffy sometimes in tiny flakes and sometimes in big, fat flakes.

6. When flakes group together, a few things can happen. If you gather them together in blocks, you can build a fort. Then you can gather them together in balls and have a snowball fight. And sometimes they crush together on their own and they're like a mean gang set on destroying everything they can weigh down.

7. Snow melts and creates ice. Ice is slippery to walk on. And, especially if you live in Texas, to drive on.

8. A lot of people like to ski on snow cutting through the air speeding down the side of a steep mountain creating that whooshing sound as they go. I am not one of those people.

9. Snow makes me want to crawl in bed with a big fuzzy blanket, a warm man, a hot cup of tea (or is it a hot man and a warm of cup of tea?), watch movies and snuggle all day.

10. Snow cones on a clear, sunny day are a beautiful thing.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

10 things I wish for 2012.

1. Love

2. Peace

3. Health

4. Creativity

5. Music

6. Laughter

7. Wisdom

8. Kindness

9. Wealth

10. Love

I know! Love is on there twice but you can never have too much love- receiving and giving.