It's Good To Be Mean~Ooops, I Mean Queen...

I'm bad. I had promised Nene and Heidi I would help stage a new listing of Heidi's with them today in Pasadena. Then the snow. Remember the previous entry, "If God wanted Texans to ski...", ya', I don't "do" snow. To the corner, maybe~but Pasadena~I'll pass, Dena (oh that's just too easy). So when Nene let me off the hook it was time to re-group so I started out taking photos of myself (it is not casual Friday), above, standing next to my giant book and flowering tree. Then I decided it would be an eBay day. So, left here is one of my many auctions I put up today. Mostly antique dog figurines but these Boston Terrier salt and pepper shakers are da bomb (do you think salt is gonna go for what pepper has in mind?). I don't think my click link works to get you to my auctions but, again, you can go to advance search and search by seller and type in doojies. There's lot to see. I spent, literally, the whole day listing. It takes a while but I've really gotten into the photography and text. Then I get a little carried away and get a little scary and start seeing dog figurines that look like Spencer Tracy (he really does, though)! Even after spending all day on the computer yesterday hence, see the red border, title, etc. Who knew that the computer would be sooooooo creative? Not me but Hope and Mellie did...

Lay down, close eyes, finish cross word, better go...have a blessed, creative day.

It's Good To Be From Texas

I got a comment the other day on one of my posts from a woman from Texas. She lives in Maryland now too but she said she's from Brehnam~ooooooooooooooooo! Brehnam is soooooo beautiful and, if I'm too far off, I believe it's near mecca~Round Top. And Brehnam is a mecca in it's own right being beautiful but also because it is home to the Best Little Creamery In Texas~~~~ Blue Bell Ice Cream!!!!!!!!!!! Ohmygosh. Now my husband is from NYC as I have mentioned so growing up he never had homemade ice cream. However, I did. And Blue Bell Ice Cream is as good as the best homemade I ever ate. It's fabulous. How much of this do you want to hear? Sorry, I didn't get that... Pictured to the left is one of the buckets of BB~my fave Dutch Chocolate~I ate the last time I went to visit my dad. Oh, he loved it, too. One of the things he missed when he and my mom lived in California. Of course I had to bring it home and "doojie" it by planting silk flowers and moss in it and placing it on our bookcase in the family room. What, did you think I would (shudder to think) put it in a closet, a drawer, not the... trash? See, this is why I'm such a happy, perky, peppy #*&%$###**@#$ because I receive such pleasure from gazing at these special things and thinking back to...and they bring me comfort. Thank you, Shelleyo.

Please remember to decorate your world with the simple things that can give you these kinds of warm fuzzies. If something has meaning to you pull it out of the drawer and call Doojies @ No.5 Interiors and for a small fee we will run over and place it in such a way that you can enjoy it and give that memory-filled item the attention it deserves. This ad was paid for by the non-profit Anna Nicole Foundation for the Decoratively Insane. No penises were cut off in the making of this ad.

And speaking of Texas, I got this photo the other day from my friend-since-junior-high, Julia who lives on the planet Houston. She's been creative all her life. The notes she passed in class were live-long keepsakes soooo...Are these not the cutest clip boards you've ever seen? She says they are all the rage down there. They still have neat areas of town where there are blocks and blocks of totally cool shops where people shop without flatbed carts. Okay, let's pack out moving vans and go... Can you just see yourself keeping up with the batting line up at your son's baseball game? You would so be the envy of all the other moms!

The Great Old Days

Last Tuesday I spent six hours with my and my dad's favorite cousin, Carol, in Westminster going through family photos, scrapbooks, and memorablilia. What fun we had! My head was swimming on the way home. So many great stories and photos to go with them. This photo is one of many from my dad and Carol's Aunt Sidney who was in the theater and started out at Texas Tech. She took groups to theaters for many years and this is one of those groups ready to go get cultured. I would have loved this picture even if I didn't know who any of these folks were. These are the kind of photos I've been adopting for years. But how cool is it to have one like this and it has personal, sentimental meaning? Very. I love looking at these pictures and imagining how their lives were simpler, cleaner, more decent, innocent in a relative way. And, to me, they are like the butterfly flapping its wings in the Rain Forest~Aunt Sidney could not have imagined that some ditz three generations away would get such a thrill out of having this piece of her history. But thrilled I am! As inspired by our Hope Wallace at lunch last week, I came home and immediately made this my computer screen wallpaper. Not quite as cool as hers with the great border and such but I'm getting there. Stop and take some time to look at some old pictures today.

If God wanted Texans to ski He would have made bullshit white...

Raise your hand if you've got cabin fever. Not you in North Dakota, you others. Because I stole Janine's Suburban while she was in the hospital, Paul and I got to go dig her daughter, Heidi, out of the snow today. Well, that's not why we had to dig her out, our consciences made us but it was kind of fun being the macho rescuers for once. The truck, us, and the kitty litter saved the day (Paul said I just gave orders, but I'm so good at it). Paul calls Janine's Suburban the "Global Warmer". He thinks I'm a hypocrit because I love it so. He's emailing his senator right now-wants to pass a bill making it illegal for liberals to purchase American made trucks. I can't help it, it's the Texun in me.

So, coming home from such manly doings I had to take some party pics of some of the girly things I ponder on and enjoy while I'm sequestered and not out saving lives. I still don't have this stupid picture thing down so I'll just describe in general. The chandelier pic is of my dining room ceiling where we just installed the trompe loi sky light from the nursery we decorated for Longwood Show House year before last. We had taken it to the DC Big Flea, Janine had it in our spot in Frederick then we took it to Fredericksburg and we still hadn't found anyone with enough taste to realize what a fabulous opportunity they were passing up. I could no longer be benevolent and keep this beauty in public circulation so I put it as the medallion for my chandelier in the dining room. I love it! I had offered it to Janine many times, but she changes houses more often than underwear she couldn't commit.

This bowl is one my sis sent me before moving to Oregon. It was made by a friend of hers (her ex-non husband shared a studio in Carmel with him), Duncan Todd, a pretty famous potter who passed away a few years ago. If you notice in old issues of Country Living and Country Home, Home Companion, you see his work here and there. Anyway, I always loved this piece (I have one of his tea pots as well) and my sis gave it to me when downsizing to Oregon. It's filled with one of my collage pieces, a bird's nest that Mellie gave me (that she got at the cottage in Leesburg), and one of Janine's world famous moss balls. Bet you did know moss had balls and so big...

On the other table sits one of Janine's world famous bird houses. She collaged it in architectural book pages then roofed it with said book. Also on the table is a fab antique, robin's egg blue, toy cash register that Janine gave me from one of her world famous garage sale outings and I made it into a lamp.

The other picture is just of a standing lamp I put together in the last couple of days. I got the antique base at PJ's and had to rig it with lamping thingings. Because the cord was exposed it needed a slip which I fashioned from cream and salmon checked linen. I added a beautiful flower assemblage with a ribbon made of the same check to the lamp shade and, ta-da, I thought it looks pretty darn cute.

Okay back to finishing the unfinished...until the next blah, blah, blogging, can you say loopy? Have a blessed life!

Mira, mira! Look at me!!

Here's the cover and art work I did for Somerset Studio Gallery winter 2007 issue. The call for art was "home". I have a better photo of this on a previous post but I've been meaning to have the art and cover posted on here for a while. Snow makes for good follow-up.

Okay, it's bragging time. Forgive me for doing a little mira, mira (look at me! in Texish). Left is the cover of the issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors that my art work, below, was in. It was a challenge piece meaning that they provided the

sketch and the artist was to "Do With Me What You May". I copied the image onto several different fab papers then cut and and reassembled onto a piece of round wood and made it into a clock. She's even got the

requisite Bingo earrings!

Stay tuned, I've been submitting to publications like crazy, I hope to be boring you further in the near future.