Barista Bear Goes Metallic

Everywhere I look I see Christmas, and it is showing up way before Thanksgiving. No surprise. Yes, last Wednesday I stepped into Starbuck's and, there it was....Christmas!! I was as excited as if it were "my" time to open Christmas presents. It's all here~the annual Starbuck's Christmas Blend coffee, red sweater clad Barista Bears, and door wreaths made out of red card stock with shiny round mirrors dotting the middle looking strangely like cranberries. They were beautiful~!!!

Christmas jewelry is on it's way to Mecca Hair Studio in San Antonio, DaVinci Artist's Gallery in Tomball; AND I am still preparing for the St.Anne's Society Fall Shopping Fair. Metallic is in BABY and I am there. The czech fire-polished crystals I bought at the gem & jewelry show turned out to be the Christmas punch I was looking for. My confirmation arrived thru the U.S. Postal Service & the Chico's catalogue. What did I see~METALLIC~everywhere...in the jackets, in the blouses, and in the jewelry.

I love it! Metallic sparkles, it glistens, and has a certain sheen about it.

It is beautiful, and it is a huge part of this year's Christmas for me......and perhaps a certain Barista Bear I know.

Ruby Red

A case of less is more.
Grade "A" Ruby Quartz requiring little additional adornment.

Just in time for Christmas.

scenes from the lease

A new (1971) jeep was my favorite toy this weekend. Actually it is His new toy.Getting Allen to pose for an addition to my Christmas card collage wasn't easy, but as always, he pacified me.

Below is a picture of my new camo crocks, bought at the Bass Pro Shop, located at The Rim, in San Antonio. You have got to go to this BPS, as the decor far outweighs the one we have in Katy. BTW...the crocs are so cool and comfortable to wear (in camp).

Saturday evening, as I sat in the High Stand, I felt an overwhelming thankfulness for the the beautiful Texas sky. I tried (again) to breath in the glory of the setting sun. I can't tell you how many times I have taken this same picture, out this same window. I keep trying. I keep coming back ~ because I love it here. It is so peaceful, so quiet, and so Texas.

silver and gold

With Christmas fast approaching, and three shows on the horizon~I am crunched. I had to go to the International Gem & Jewelry Show. It stops in Houston four times a year. The size of the show can be quite overwhelming, but I took my time, and had fun looking at all the latest jewels, gems, and of course THE findings. I like to stop and chat, finding out just where the vendors have traveled from~be it east~New York & New Jersey; to out west~Los Angeles & Las Vegas; and everywhere in between. I bought silver from Hands of the Hills, located in Mercer Island, Washington and Sunwest Silver Company in Albuquerque, N.M. Beauty & the Beads, from Pico Rivera, California, had some beautiful graduated red quartz crystals. They will be simply stunning for a Christmas bauble!

This is just a small group of the czech & swarovski crystal strands I picked up at the show from my good friends at Big Stone, located off Richmond, in the great city of Houston. These sparklers will be perfect for Christmas.

"I found I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for" Georgia O'Keefe

dreaming with my eyes wide open

My newest ah~ha moment...looking at the oh so talented and loving soul's blog of judy wise. You must visit so you can feel the love with me this beautiful halloween morning in texas....it is still crisp and cool and so unlike the weather we experience in Houston. If every morning would be like this, i would think that i had died and gone to heaven~peace to you today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quote on Bloomberg this morning:

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom"~

Bertrand Russell (philosopher)

More Scenes from Warrengton aka THE Antique Festival (as promised)

There were chandeliers galore~the crystals were beautiful. Enough to catch a jeweler's eye.

Dutch ovens that would surely please my dutch-oven cooking husband.

Art pieces made from Mexican copper~that look like ceramic (at first). The colors were magnificent!

A beautiful booth~that made me want to come inside, sit down and stay awhile.

An outhouse at the Junk Gypsy booth. The one at my grandparent's house looked nothing like this!

And a sign made out of beer bottle caps from Royer's Cafe at Zapp Hall. Barbara and I will attempt to begin ours this weekend for our Cowboy (Deer) Camp!

a gift from kansas(rose)

Look what flew in from Kansas....no not a twister, but a beautiful journal* from my friend, kansasrose. And, she is one clever farmeress~she left the other side blank for my very FIRST collaboration. How did she know that I had been preparing for such a moment, and just this past week. I stopped in Books-A-Million, and purchased three new books (i don't do anything with baby steps you realize).

~Metal Craft Discovery Workshop by Linda & Opie O'Brian (this is one great resource for me to begin creating more with metal)....plus I am hooking onto their website! These two are my new heros.

~The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery by Karen Michel (this will open up a new world on how to alter my "thousands" of photos).

~SEW Somerset~the art of creative sewing with mixed media (this is just plain BEAUTIFUL inside!).

So, now, enjoy the package I received just yesterday, as I flipped thru the pages of my beautiful Kansas-born journal. I did, and for that I am so grateful and EXCITED! Thanks Jen!

*favorite page (and it was hard to choose Jen~Harriat loves her chicken egg necklace and hen hat...pic #14 above~be sure and click on the mosaic).

A*T*QUE F*ST*V*L

What happens twice a year (only in Texas) ~ April and October~ and you should never, ever, no matter what miss? Ask Miss Emma. More pics on the way~

*p.s. I grew up 22 miles from this one-of-a-kind, find everything imaginable, antiques, youngtiques, middle-of-the-roadtiques, vintage, yard-finds, estate sale items, trash to treasures, gotta-see, gotta-have, gotta-go, dirt cheep, way too expensive & everything inbetween outdoor venue of colossal proportion!

I have been there and done that.....and yes, it is the BEST!

Harvest Red

Bought these Tribal Bone Mala Beads inlaid with Glass Chips or Textured Metal from Susanclare back in January. I loved their rustic antiqued waxy colors. Very unusual beads. Just what I like! They sat waiting for the perfect necklace. The very last piece I made before the SJV sale, was this Harvest Necklace~made with the tribal bone beads, red & salmon coral, czech crystals and adorned with a large black onyx cross. I was thrilled when it sold (bought as a Christmas gift!) ~ so I will make another similiar one this weekend. But, I have one more design in mind~keep watch~I will post it soon!

Sisters

The St. John Vianney Bazaar was a great success. This show my sister Debbie came to help (thanks Deb!). She was such a great help, & we had alot of fun laughing and talking! She gave me a great new sales pointer~hand out my cards as people walk by my booth. Perhaps they would come back, which I know some did! We saw at least 500-600 people come thru the doors that day! ....and there were alot of jewelry booths.

During the afternoon rush, some familiar faces came by. The two sisters (center and right) had visited my booth last year. And, once again this year! I remembered them, because they were so pretty, and so happy. The sister on the right bought the Czech Crystal Prairie Swings (far right pic above), as they matched the turquoise in her hat. She put them on to wear right away, so I had to take my camera out and snap a shot. The middle sister bought the Garnet Stained Glass Pendant Necklace with matching Garnet Prairie Swings. Melanie had picked the pendant up from Bead It! while in Minneapolis, at Mall of Americas, earlier in the year. I thought it was a really classy piece. And when she tried it on~it was just beautiful on her. But, how could it not be, as she was the prettiest thing......as were all three of them!

p.s. that's her husband peeking thru~

Panache and Gilda

pa·nache (p-nsh, -näsh)
n. distinctive and stylish elegance

~my constant goal~

And ~

"I base my fashion taste on what doesn't itch".

Gilda Radner

I miss her~

Whispers of Autumn

I long for the colors I see and feel in autumn. The yellows that turn to gold; browns that soak down and back into the earth; the delicate purple flowers of a purple sage; and the vibrant crimson red I see in the Cardinals at the deer lease.

I long for that first brisk breeze of a north wind. I want to wrap up in a fleece jacket. Feel air so cold it makes my eyes water. Autumn in the south is ever so slow to arrive. It is here for such a brief moment, that if you blink you will miss it. And then it is winter, cold and often wet.

But~there is promise of cool weather this weekend~and; I believe I can feel the whisper of autumn in the air. Ummmmmm~

Pre-Show Time

Getting ready for a show is hard work. The creations are the fun part. The picture taking, inventory posting and tagging are another thing. Just a preview of what I will have for sale at my show this next Sunday at St. John Vianney Catholic Church located at 625 Nottingham Oaks Trail Houston 77079. More pictures will be coming~

~and the winner is~

Kara~you are the winner of the jewelry give-a-way! Please contact me, so I can send these darling little czech crystal hoops to you!

Thanks to all who played with me; and for all the encouraging and sweet messages. I am truly blessed.

And, thank you Jen, for having me as your first Great Goods guest! You are one special and talented kindred spirit!

I hope to hear from all of you again in the future, because it can get lonely on the prairie~

Great Goods

My good friend kansasrose has begun a new blogsite called Great Goods. She so graciously has asked me to be her first guest blogger! I am humbled by the request and so excited to share my passion with her and her friends.
In honor of such occasion, I am having a (secret) jewelry giveaway. So please leave a comment on this post. I will draw a winner, out of the names posted until then, on October 4th at 6pm CST. If I draw your name, I will contact you for shipping details, and then you will receive a special piece of my jewelry in the mail.

Also, I would like to link to you if you wish and you to me~just let me know when you post.
So, be sure and check out my interview on Great Goods.

This is so much fun~thanks Jen!

have you ever caught yourself going home?

New Bremen, Texas - 1965 (or thereabouts)

Bandera, Texas - 2007

When we traveled to the hill country about a week ago, I found myself going home. The hill country of Texas, is not the rolling hills of Austin County, where I was born, and lived more than thirteen years. But, one of the properties we visited in Bandera, was a large ranch, now being broken up into 2 acre tracts. It was so beautiful, especially at sunset, when I snapped the picture above. The large sprawling pastures of bermuda grass, with a healthy sprinkling of mighty oak trees. Some of this acreage was more wooded than others; just like I remember of the ranch I grew up on during, I believe, my most formative years.

This trip has caused me to reflect on who I am, and has brought back memories of me running as fast as I could from the small New Bremen community I grew up in. I did not like living 15 miles (seemed like 100) down a dirt road, on a large tract of land, called The Double Mac Ranch. It was almost 700 acres of trees, grass, hay fields, tractors, barns, horses and cattle. But it was lonely~for me. It was not fun. I wanted friends I could play with, instead of my sisters.

Tonight though, I am happy of the life I lived on the ranch. All these things I experienced there, has brought me to the place I am today. And for that~I am most thankful. Thankful to have had parents who took good care of me.

I do not know if I will ever live in Bandera, but I am hopeful. God knows where he wants me, and tonight I rest in the promise that He will never leave or forsake me. And for that, I am blessed.

mucho mosaic and mecca

These are some of the jewelry pieces I left in at the mecca hair studio in san antonio. Thank you Shawna for believing in me and my jewelry.

Wow, lookie mary ann, I finally figured out how to make a jewelry mosiac, and post it on my blog. She so graciously gave me the scoop on how she made mosiac pictures using big huge labs. She has so many cool ones on her blog, Dispatch from LA . You have to look at them. They are beautiful.

I am meeting so many kind and helpful people in this blog world.

Gotta go now~off to Tomball for an artist's meeting at The DaVinci Artists Gallery.

Gone Dreaming

I have been AWOL for almost a week due to working on my new katy prairie designs venture in San Antonio. We also were on vacation, visiting the hill country around Kerrville, Bourne and Bandera, looking for retirement property. But that's another posting!

More than a week ago, Jenny aka kansasrose on my blog links, tagged me for a meme. This one uses the letters of your middle name.

Here's the rules:

You have to post these rules before you give the facts. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blogpost containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

So with all that said, here goes~

Diane is my middle name, (it is also the name I have always been called). I am going with it; as my first name is much too long for all that thought right now. My Mom said that my Granny Schultz (her mother) suggested Diane, as my middle name; and I am so glad she did, as I really like it so much more than my first.

D-Dance - I love to dance and have so since I was 6 years old; going to the local polka dances at the surrounding German Community Dance/Rifle Halls with my parents. In the part of Texas I grew up~dancing was all you had to do on Saturday nights. I still LOVE to dance today~give me a waltz, polka and/or two-step, and I am out there!

I-Imagination - Lets just say I have a BIG one! First, I wanted to be an actress. Guess I never got over that one!

A-Actress - There you go! I knew I missed my calling.........

N-New - Every day I wake up ~ it is new and good. I love being alive, and love my life. What more can I say?

E - Egret - Okay, I know this one is weird; but hear me out. I have the most coolest memory of a time Allen & I were sitting in the deerstand in South Texas. As we were watching the beautiful morning sun come up, and all the does and bucks were wandering around under our deer feeder, a beautiful blue egret flew past our stand. I could hear his wings flapping softly in the wind as he passed right in front of my eyes. The neat thing about this was we were on the same level as he was flying! In South Texas the deer stands are not on the ground, like a box stand; but high up off the ground, at approximately 10 feet from the ground to the bottom of the stand. So~now you know why I chose egret. I love that memory!

Jenny, that was so much fun! You really had me thinking more than I thought I could do this late~

Thanks for asking me!

xoxox ~diane~

I will tag the following busy bloggers:

dawn

deb

susan

roben-marie

ma

a taste of texas' katy prairie designs

I love these czech crystal beads I found last week. The colors are so cool that I couldn't pass them up-yellow, grape, cornflower blue, toast & turquoise; and also a great red (all are not shown on these chandeliers). This is one part of a matching set which also includes a necklace and bracelet.

Just a taste of what I'm bringing to mecca on Wednesday.

~katy prairie designs ~

~comes alive~
I have been busy preparing to bring my jewelry to mecca hair studio in San Antonio~so please forgive me if I haven't answered your e-mails, or posted to my blog....

This past week I also had to try and locate some important paperwork for my husband, so while looking thru my big ole' picture box, I found this snapshot taken of my mother, my sister Debbie, and me. This is the only baby picture I have, as my mother said they did not have a camera during that time. This was taken on the side of the little house we lived in on a ranch in Brenham, Texas. I lived there until I was 5 years old, and then we moved to another ranch closer to where my mother and father were born in nearby Austin County.

I had been struggling with an idea for my new kp line; and this picture jumped out at me. So before week~end I came up with this. I like the Adler typewriter print.

Wait till my sister sees this!

Message from Lima

As I do many times, today I sent out a little message sharing my newest blog posts with friends and family. (It's a good feeling when you receive a good comment or two~you know what I mean fellow bloggers!)

But to my surprise, halfway around the world, my dear friend, from 20 YEARS, sent me a message that I would like to share:

Thanks Diane! I hope your birthday was swell!
I have a gift for you & we'll celebrate when I get back.
I'm in Lima. It was an ordeal getting here for the first time ever...mistake to go via Miami. Avoid it. My luggage after 5 days has still not arrived & it's not like I can go out shopping for anything new. The people here are short & small. I am trying not to be stressed, but I have only the clothes on my back & they won't do for social events in the next few days. Please pray they'll call me from the airline tonight & have my 2 suitcases with all my possessions in them ;-))
Having said all that, I am very happy to be home again. It is cool & damp as always in the winter so I am borrowing Monica's alpaca cape to keep warm. In the mornings the city wakes up & you hear the horns tooting at each other like a conversation, the mourning doves cooing away, people, construction going on...life.
We've been having some fine vittles of course...you can't beat the fresh fruits & veggies here..they actually taste & smell like what they are...the maid cooked asparagus soup last night & then a chicken stew with rice & yuca strips on the side.
I wish you & Allen & John & Barbara would come down sometime so you could sample all that there is the beauty here.
I am sure for the type of ocean it is, that nothing compares to the Pacific Ocean...nice to be close to it again. There is alot of new construction since last year, new stores, apartment buildings, roads being redone, great restaurants.
I feel sure you would all love it. Last night we went on some errands & walked around alot...made me think of cities like NY where you can walk around & there's all that exciting foot traffic & cars & lights & noise & smells of foods.
We have 38 people coming. Gus & Sharon arrive at midnight. Our art works are still in customs...they were supposed to be out a week ago. Maybe they'll get out in time so we can install the show...and maybe my suitcases will also arrive at just the right time.
Take care, love, Nancy
ps You have a terrific blog.

I was excited to hear from her (and sad because of her luggage situation), knowing that she had taken off less than a week ago to go to Lima, Peru. She is the Project Manager for Redbud Gallery, bringing Texas Art to the National Museum of Peru, in an exhibit called Amistad*. It is a huge undertaking she works on throughout the year (in addition to her paying job); and is one Nancy thoroughly enjoys. She lived a large part of her childhood in Lima, and still has many friends there. I know one day she will also live there. And, yes, Nancy, I would love to visit Lima and one day mabe even visit you, when once again it is your home.

So, today, please pray that Nancy gets her luggage soon~and that the Texas Art will be released out of customs~pronto! Thank you Jesus~

*I have tried to attach the program from Amistad that Nancy sent to me, but have not been successful~if you'd like for me to send the adobe file to you~please e-mail me & I will! It is 40 pages which include pictures of the art from 69 Texas artists that will be participating in this monumental exhibit.

Mighty Bald Cypress

Being from Texas, I have always known that everything is bigger in Texas. So, as we paddled further down stream, I saw this huge cypress on one side of the bank. It's knarly roots have spread, reaching out for water in dry years. Not this year though, as (Houston) Texas has had more rain than I can EVER remember. Almost 50 inches! And the hill country of Texas has had close to the same. So we knew it was going to be a good trip, for our planned water sports; as long as there weren't any tropical depressions or hurricanes coming our way. Fortunately there weren't and we were blessed with perfect weather.

Day 2 ~ The Adventure Continues

Melanie and friend Amy, from Austin, rented a kayak for the second day trip~this time we went down river.
Making it thru the first low-water crossing caused a big hallelujah from the kayaking newbies!
Some decided to have a refreshment & watch instead~John & Barbara~
One example of what we saw that day ~ another rush for Allen & I!
We saw so much beautiful swirling water flowing freely down the Frio River this sunny August day! We have had so much rain this summer all the rivers in Texas are bursting their seams, which was good news for us! Thank you God for such wonderful fresh water!

Boudin Omelet

Allen working his magic, once again.

Saturday morning he made Boudin Omelets.

As you can see by the last picture, some of us could only eat half!

River Rush

Allen & I, his brother, John & wife, Barbara, kayaked 2 full days this year. Three other single kayaking friends also went with us.

The first day we started our trip upriver, floating back to our campsite. This particular run took us about 3-1/2 hours. We made several stops along the way; one~for refreshments, and two~access the rapids ahead. This particular time, we did both~Allen and I made it thru just fine. Making it was quite a rush for me, as one of the single friends, going before us, flipped on his way thru it. (He was okay.)

Once we got on the other side, we stopped again, so I was able to get a before and after shot~isn't the water georgeous?

Jake on the Frio

Melanie & Jake stand next to one of the largest cypress trees close to our camp.

Jake played hard and swam alot. He had a great time!

We loved playing with him. He is the best granddog and so much fun to watch, as he enjoys the Frio as much as we do.