Pink Saturday and Paper Cowgirl Yahoo!

This Pink Saturday will find me and about 70 other paper artists in Waxahachie. Texas for the third annual Paper Cowgirl Altered Art Retreat…I pulled out my Pink Doll Suitcase and started loading…Last week I introduced you to Frida Kahgirl, my set of paper dolls for a big beginning day swap, and before that I showed my Scrap Fabric Flowers inspired by Rebecca Sowers. That swap is also set for beginning evening…Wine and Roses!!!

I finished putting together my class kits…Recycled materials from start to finish…

The bags are recycled plastic mesh sunflower seed bags sewed with handles and a gusseted bottom. Inside will be books for altering along with sheets of vintage music and pages from an old dictionary. The supplies and a second bonus book are also included. The second book uses  sheets of tissue paper…Look at all that Pink!!!

Don’t you know those books will be cute and colorful? Everything is packed in paper lunch bags

along with a sweet treat…white chocolate pretzels with M&M’s and peanuts…my boys used to call it “White Trash” and the name just stuck…I’m sure we’ll work up an appetite creating our books…

 

Wish you could join us…maybe next year? We’re going to have a ball! And we’re going to be learning lots on new techniques…Say “Howdy” to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound and check out Paper Cowgirl when  you get a chance…Happy Trails until next week…

Pink Saturday Attitude Adjustment Needed…no, not for me…

Frida Kahlo must have suffered from too little Pink in her lifetime…she probably needed more girlfriends and good times…I recently invited her to a party…a paper doll party…hosted by Nancy to be held at next week’s Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat. Frida was certainly happy to be invited…though she balked at being photo-copied into ten dolls…I convinced her she was being honored and flattered and so her ruffled feathers were soothed…but only temporarily…we had a serious parting of the ways when I covered her neck with a gold necklace…

I had to…she had painted a crown of thorns necklace and there was all this blood running down her collarbone! I mean, this isn’t some pain of the artist exhibit in NYC…it’s Paper Cowgirls Art Retreat in Waxahachie, Texas! We’ll be laughing and hugging, we’ll be drinking wine and relishing cupcakes…I couldn’t take her with that bloody neck!  Well, you can see by her frown that she was peeved!

She likes the skirt fabrics and loves the shawl. She always is wearing one in her self-portraits…She likes the flowers…she loved to paint herself with them in her hair. So I pulled out all the Pink I could find hoping that would cheer her and put a smile over that big ol’ frown , but when I made those big petal sleeves and that cute petal peplum shirt…

“It” hit the fan…she accused me of dressing her like a “ @#*#ing Flower Fairy”! I lined all ten of those foul-mouthed Fridas up…

I told them her we don’t talk like that at parties and she needed an attitude adjustment if she expected to meet the ten X ten  other dolls… I’m a little worried that she might put a damper on the gathering…90 happy Paper Dolls with their 90 happy Paper Doll smiles…and my 10 with their brooding suffering artist attitude…Nancy says Frida gives her the “creeps”. Well, now I see why…she has those painting eyes that follow you…every time I looked over, there she was…watching me with that bloody neck and that hint of a moustache, and that uni-brow.

So I packed them up in my pretty Pink doll suitcase. I’ll be holding my breath  and keeping my fingers crossed during the big Paper Doll Swap Party…next time I want a swap celebrity, you can bet it’ll be Dale Evans or Doris Day or Dolly Parton…someone happy and sweet and kind…someone PINK!!! 

I just hope my Fridas behave and that next Saturday doesn’t find me writing apology notes to the Paper Cowgirl Mothers of the other 90 Paper Dolls…Until then visit Beverly How Sweet the Sound for the list of lovely Pink blogs…You know they know how to play well with others and they will bring a smile to your Saturday Blog travels. Have a Pink Week.

Pink Saturday A Gift From the Flood

Well, we in central Texas, and especially those of us here in New Braunfels got a jolting wake-up call Wednesday morning as a terrific thunderstorm parked right over us for several hours…some areas of the county got more than 12 inches of rain!!! And all that water has to go somewhere…within hours the Guadalupe River was way out of its banks with predictions of a 25’ crest!!!

We love living on the river and in spite of a couple of serious floods within the last few years, we have never had water in our home…surrounding our home, yes, but never inside…after the ‘98 flood, my friend, Barbara, made me a little shrine of thanksgiving to Our Lady of Guadalupe, for whom the Guadalupe River is named.

…my Ya-Ya’s, Nancy ( MyCraftyLittlePage ), Judy, and Patty held a candlelight ceremony honoring the River spirits for sparing our home…it was all in good fun and included a glass of wine or maybe two, but the spirit of homage to Our Lady and our thankfulness was sincere. We were in the middle of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood summer…I set the little altar up where I can read the lovely version of the Novena that Barbara painted on it…

I have always said that one day I would build a real shrine looking toward our house…fast forward to June 9, 2010.

When the waters were at their crest, I saw a white plastic shape bobbing in the trees. After the waters were returning to normal, I ventured down to the high water mark to check out the mystery object…and nestled there in the muck and mud…

That’s right!!! Can you believe it? I dragged her out and propped her up to drain and dry…look at her sweet, calm face in spite of what must have been a harrowing experience. Even covered with silt, she remains prayerful.

Her pink gown is a little faded but not her beautiful calm…and look at this sweet cherub at her feet…How PINK is that?

I promise I’ll clean the treasure and build a proper grotto setting. It may be cheap plastic, but you have no idea what she means to me. She will remind me to be thankful and prayerful and calm and faithful and to live with a pink outlook no matter what!!! Now stop by Beverly’s How Sweet the Sound to see who is joining the fun today.

New Braunfels is cleaning up after this week’s flood…

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning it rained cats and dogs in Central Texas and we had a whopper of a flash flood…But the clean-up started immediately and Schlitterbahn is already back in business! I walked down to the river after supper tonight to check out the flood damage now that the water has receded  and look at what I found when I was walking back...This is the coral snake! Luckily I had a pointed weeder with me and I killed him in a few strokes…Here he lies minus his/her head...

here’s a better shot with the head... It’s really a beautiful snake and if it weren’t for its deadly poison, I’d be happy to let it live…It’s pretty big for a coral snake.

This is the second coral snake I’ve killed this week! The first one was smaller, but it was up by the house and so it posed an even greater threat. I had just read about using hornet spray for self-defense and there was a big can nearby. I finished him off with a heavy dose of wasp and hornet spray. He/She slithered/writhed into a crevice by the stone sidewalk where I hope it died….That one was a “Probable Kill”...this one is listed as a “Confirmed Kill”. When I severed its head, I could count it in the dead-for-sure category…I went up to the house for my camera to record the event!

The morale of this tale is to watch out where you step in Texas in the spring...Can you believe it?   I’ve heard about the dangers of snakes after a flood…well, here’s proof. Hope your week is less eventful in the deadly floods and dangerous snakes department.  I need a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate to calm myself…I need a girl’s weekend away from all this drama…Hurry Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat!!!

Pretty in Pink flowers ready for leaves!

Last week I posted my plans to make 17 scrap fabric roses using a pattern and instructions I picked up from Rebecca Sowers’s Etsy shop. Well, they’re finished…well, I still have to sew the leaves on, but check them our so far…

I sewed the strips and glued them in the circular pattern during the Indy 500…we had three favorites…Dario, Heilo, and Tony K. and were so excited to watch Dario take the checkered flag!

I piled these half-finished posies in a tea tray and had them smile for a group picture before they are wrapped and readied for exchanging at Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat.

I have picked one with lots of pink…

And as soon as I stitch those leaves on and add the backing, it will be ready to send out. This one will go to Stephanie http://angelicaccents.blogspot.com/ another Texas girl who stopped in during the Pink Saturday Second Birthday Party.  I had never visited her blog before, but she has a lovely bridal theme going this June. You should check it out and tell her I said “Hi”…then don’t forget our Hostess with the Mostest, Beverly at How Sweet the Sound .

When I catch my breath, I’ll start sending out Bluebonnet seeds…I’ll print out some planting instructions even though I don’t have much luck when I try to tell wildflowers where to grow and bloom. The best plants with the most blooms just seem to re-seed themselves where they want to grow…

Well, I’m off to Wimberley Trade Day…We’ll have iced tea and the ceiling fan will stir the breeze…the day is supposed to be HOT so think of me while you are Pink Saturday post-hopping in your cool surroundings. Or better yet, stop by Booth 375 to say “Hello”. Sit a spell, have some sweet tea, and enjoy the shade.