Yo!

I had my last cake decorating class tonight.

I made some roses, sweet peas and rose buds... so much harder than you would think. I learned a lot in my class, and I'm certified now. It was worth it, but I wonder if (1) I will ever look at cakes the same, and (2) if I will ever buy one again. Mine taste just the same as my favorite bakeries, but I am pretty sick of icing and cake.

Beauty:

I went to my friends house today for a walk and some leftover turkey dinner.

It was delicious! Thanks my friend, this takes the cake, and is one of the best dinners yet!


My Lucha Libre T-shirt, a gift from Buenos Aires.

yay!

Pink

I apologize for the picture quality...

Vicious Pink opened at CentralTrak this past weekend, and I made the cupcakes!

Skirt 25 and my PINK SOX ~ hi team!

Installation by Jesse Meraz.

Speaking of pink, I just bought some pinking shears to make stockings for my kiddos. They are Fiskars Soft Touch Pinking Shears. They operate on a spring release, and are much better than their standard pinking shears. That pair always leaves my hands bruised.

It was time to go back to school today, and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I turned the radio to the all Christmas station and pulled out the safety scissors, glue and glitter.

For some of my kids, this was their first time to cut with scissors. It was so cute and interesting for me to watch their little fingers try to operate this strange tool. They managed to cut out lots of pieces of paper, but I cut out shapes for them to paste their pieces on. Some learned to recognize a triangle! I was so proud! (Can you tell how much I missed them?)

I talked to my friend Stephanie and we were comparing pre-schools. Her little one attends a pre-school in CT, and she had a great observation for me. She told me that it looked like I did a lot of the work for the kids. HELLO! Reality check, she's absolutely right. I don't want to rob them of their experience to play with materials, so I'm trying to change things up a bit for them. We have three weeks of school, which doesn't leave us a lot of time to make stuff. They had fun today, they told me so.

Do you know what day it is?

Buy Nothing Day
Happy Black Friday!

Thankful

When I went to Thanksgiving Square last week, I wrote on a small blue piece of paper what I was thankful for: friends, family and skirts.
I'm house sitting right now for friends and four very soft kitties. My reward for unconditional love x4 is 7 skirts, one for every day! I am so blessed with such amazing friends and opportunities. ~Mil gracias

Thanksgiving was spent with family in Oklahoma. It was wonderful...
My new skirt:

It is made from a burgundy and black floral print with bright purple centers. There is a sweet ruffle and pleats at the bottom.
Here's a close up of the print.

My niece and I drew with charcoal sticks that we found in the fire pit.

Handmade holiday decorations:

Something beautiful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Who's ready to eat?

I love to eat, and I especially love to eat BBQ. I tried a new place with my friends today, Mike Anderson's BBQ.

By the looks of it, one would think it was named www.mikeandersonsbbq.com. I should mention that the BBQ was excellent, especially the brisket

Hello! FREE soft serve ice cream. SUPER TREAT! SUPER SWEET!

Those cake decorating classes really come in handy.

And, the women's restroom is appropriately labeled.

Speaking of...

This one is not numbered. I need to go through them soon...
P.S. Mike Anderson's is right across from Parkland. Lots of cute doctors there!


Finally, a craft/art with food waste.
One of my favorite websites Apartment Therapy posted pics of this cute apartment in Madrid. I loved this collage made from food packaging.

What a great idea and excellent way to create from all the waste that will be made tomorrow. This would also be a cute idea to commemorate a child's favorite foods. It's so bright and colorful.
Yumm!

My Stephanies

I am lucky to have two. One of them celebrated her birthday yesterday, and I made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing (a first for me!) in her honor. It was very tasty!

This cake looks like it can't make up it's mind, like me! Actually it was our technique cake.

We learn how to write and make flowers on the nail next week, hoo-ray!

I also talked to my Stephanie in Connecticut, who is busy being an awesome mom. She told me she was making fake food out of felt for her three year old. How awesome is that? I want to make make felt food too! Send pics soon Steph!

Good Morning Wordle

i made a wordle this morning for my post.

I wish it were larger, but it's still so much fun.
Try it!

Making the most of it

I made a faux fire and fireplace today. I had to go to school to decorate my room for Christmas. I think the kids should do the decorating, but I had to provide some inspiration. That, and I hate pre-fabricated educational teaching materials for the most part. I get one idea in my mind and I have to go with it, but I love the way it turned out! I figure the kids can make stockings and mantel decorations: garlands, lights, etc. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
*Incidentally, my mom asked why there was a turkey in the fireplace. That's not a turkey, that's faux fire.

Skirt 45

To learn more, click here.

I recently bought a book by Keri Smith, How to be an Explorer of the World ~ Portable Art/Life Museum. I love it. If you have not had a chance to explore the work of Keri Smith, I encourage you to do so. I've found this book so delightful and fun. It has instructions. (I secretly like being told what to do.)

One of the exercises encourages travel; get lost in your city. I set out to do that yesterday. I didn't think it was the best day to take pictures, but it was one of the best days to be inspi-RED. Red tights make it easy. I took way too many pictures. :)

Public art?

Nope, it's private property and you can't take pictures of it.



I wonder what kind of records they have here. LPs? 45s? One day soon, I'll go in and find out.


In front of the old Texas School Book Depository at the corner of Elm and Houston...


Juxtaposition & so many patterns. Makes me want to draw again...




Thanksgiving Square

Designed by Philip Johnson



Stained glass designed by French artist Gabriel Loire

My city:

It's so ugly, it's beautiful.

Neiman's downtown: kind of reminds me of the Eliasson exhibition.

Glacier

by Douglas Cartmel

I also made another cake yesterday; it's pink.

Which skirt today?

Today is the 45th anniversary of the death of President John F. Kennedy. It is also, just another Saturday for me filled with cake decorating, writing, cleaning, art and meeting up with friends. So, the question is which skirt do I wear today? I could wear Skirt 45 to commemorate the anniversary. I could wear a green skirt, since I will be going to the Grassy Knoll today. Or, I could wear a gray skirt since that's what the sky looks like this morning. Finally, I could not wear a skirt at all and wear jeans or pants. I just don't know...
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
I suppose I should count my blessings - too many choices can be a good thing.