#$&@ I Forgot The Camera!

Okay, so I forgot my camera when Jeff and I went to Louisiana for the Tales Along the Bayou program last Friday night. Gosh dang it all!

Well, even though I have no photos to prove it, the night was a BLAST! I love the people in Louisiana. I really, really do. Everyone is so friendly & super nice. They truly appreciate the art of storytelling. There were over 1,000 families at this event. (Actually I think I heard 1,200, but that number is too high for me to wrap my mind around.) The setting was perfect for outdoor tale telling with a large grassy area behind the plantation house that was surrounded by various historical buildings, a well lit stage, great sound system, and perfect weather with no bugs. DELIGHTFUL!

Johnette Downing and Sylvia Davis performed during the first hour. WOW are they good! Johnette Downing is a children's author/recording artist with lots of awards. Check out her website http://www.johnettedowning.com/ Sylvia Davis performed at this years National Storytelling Festival on the Exchange Place stage and is just DIVINE! Oh my, she such a sweet person. Lord, I love the folks I meet in Louisiana. I would move there if it weren't for those blasted hurricanes.

Following their highly entertaining program, and after a 30 minute intermission (this was for the families with little ones to leave and others to arrive for the spooky tales), it was my turn to scare the $%&@ out of everyone with really scary stories. HAH! When I saw the crowds growing in number, their eager faces looking up at me, many coming up to me and telling me they were there to hear scary stories, I gotta tell ya, I about freaked there for a moment. BUT, I am at home with spooky stories, I love them! I have spent years, YEARS hungrily reading scary stories. So, I got up there and gave them my best by golly. I think they liked it.

Jeff, my super supportive husband who came with me began running a fever during the event. I did not know this, but when we got back to the suite (yes, they got me a suite for this job - sweet!) he obviously had a temperature. It was high! When Jeff gets a temperature, BOY does he. For the next several hours I put cold compresses on his head every 15 minutes or so. Thank God we had a refrigerator in the room so that we could ice the washcloths. It was several hours before the fever broke. He had a sinus infection poor guy. Today he went on antibiotics. He is a trouper and I so appreciate that he came with me. I drove all the way back by myself and let him sleep.

It is a fear of mine that one day I will have a gig while I am ill. Luckily, I very rarely get sick. Thank goodness.

Ugh

Off to Louisiana! Again.

Jeff and I head out to Alexandria, LA tomorrow morning. I will be doing an evening program of ghostly, spooky tales at Kent Plantation House (circa 1796) Friday Night. Should be a right eerie place for some Halloween tale telling! I am bringing my camera and hope to have pictures up soon from the trip. I also created a painting for the program. I am doing a Night Gallery type tale. If I get to felling better about the painting, I might just post it. The painting is a landscape scene of a swamp. Landscapes are NOT a speciality of mine, it was created purely to enhance the tale. It'll work fine in dim lighting without too much scrutiny. Hah!

What Happened!?!

There my family and I were merrily marching down the road of life when WHAM! We got blindsided.

Ten days ago, our family learned that a close family member has a serious illness. We have been getting near daily updates regarding the status of this illness as the medical tests have been coming in. What a shock this has all been - most especially for the sick family member. As we cope with the changes that treating this illness will have on all our lives, we get the added pleasure of coping with the current daily news in our country. The United States is in a gut-wrenching economic crisis, and the political rhetoric between the two men running for President has sunk to an all new, low-down mean & ugly level.

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry, so you just do both.

On the upside, gas was $2.37 a gallon today. Yeah, lower the gas prices that'll fix everything.

We're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy.

I'm On An Artsy-Craftsy Bender - Yeah Baby!

I have been working on many projects this last week. Many, many items are "in progress" and get rotated around depending on where & how the inspiration comes to me. Here's my current list of projects:

1. A couple of purses from the thrift store that are being creatively enhanced.

2. Several old softballs & baseballs that are being painted into "art balls".

3. Another computer memory board project. (Pictured above) Yes it is weird, nontraditional & very much something I would come up with. It's a study on contrasts & color.

4. A mixed-media tree picture.

5. A sculptural piece made from old silverware.

6. Two quilted totebags that are getting lots of embroidery embellishments, quotes, buttons...

7. A lampshade using recycled phonebook pages.

I found a big bag of fake money at the thrift store yesterday and now I want to make a sculptural piece with that. An idea came to me while I was in the shower this morning.

So many ideas, so little time...

Peace Festival

Jeff, Lily and I went to the Bishop Arts District in Dallas for the Peace Festival. Sept 21 is the International Day of Peace. Friday night, I had met Karen Blessen, the Pulitzer Prize winning Dallas artist who illustrated the book "Peace One Day" which is about the struggle to create an international day of peace. She said I would love the Bishop Arts District where it was held. That same night after talking with her, I came home to find an email from my friend Jyoti Subramanian. She and her daughter Meena were going to be telling stories there too. When Sunday arrived we had beautiful weather & some free time, so off we went for an adventure.

What a FUN afternoon! Also there to tell stories & emcee was Traphene Hickman, a delightful storyteller and Gene & Peggy Helmick-Richardson, a married couple who often do tandem tales together, but instead on this day each told one wonderful story. I was invited to share one of Traphenes' favorite stories about the "walk-off people". I enjoyed every single story, it is very hard to single one out as a favorite, for they all had a specialness to them. Meena is (i think) in the sixth grade this year and she has really developed into a gifted, wonderful storyteller over the last three years. When she and her mom tell a tandem tale from India together - it's magic!

The art galleries & funky shops at the Bishop Arts District are top-notch! It is a bit of a drive from Plano, so weekends are best for driving down there - lot less traffic then. I definitely plan on visiting the area again.

Plano Balloon Festival

Look what floated over my house last Saturday. We live less than one mile from the site where the annual Plano Balloon Festival is held.