Scarey Mr. Garbageman

The stories you are about to read are true. The names have not been changed, but maybe they should have been. When I was a child, I was deathly afraid of the garbageman. Ok, you can stop laughing now. If I was playing outside and would hear the far off sound of that crunching, munching machine, I would drop what I was doing and run into the house. As I look back, maybe it was the truck, and not the man, I was afraid of. As a child, I spent a lot of time at the Chavez's house. The Chavez's were more family than friends. Their kids ranged in age from older than my mom, to the same age as my younger brother. I loved to spend time at their house and practically worshiped Bobby and Barbara, the twins that were five years older than me. One day, the three of us were playing outside and you guessed it, the distant sound of the garbage truck was in the air. I ran inside the house to one of the back bedrooms. Suddenly I hear Barbara screaming, she was yelling that the garbage man had her! I bravely ran out the front door nearly taking the screen off it's hinges in the process. I continued down the street as fast as my little legs would carry me, after the big white munching truck, yelling, "Let her go, let her go!" The twins come after me laughing their heads off. They had been hiding behind the couch, while I was running to their rescue. They treated me just like a younger sister. They could torment me to no end, but had my back if somebody else was picking on me. Well, with the exception of this one time. We were trick or treating a few houses down the block from their house. After innocently knocking on the door and saying, "Trick or treat?", a full-fledged scary witch appeared before us. Of course, I was the closest to the door, and therefore, the witch. As soon as I started backing up, she grabbed my arm and started pulling me into the house. While she was pulling on my arm, B and B were pushing me from behind. I started screaming and threw my bag of candy in the air. My mom, who was standing nearby, came running. She told me later that anytime she sees candy corn, she is reminded of this incident, because there was candy all over the witch's doorstep by the time I calmed down. The witch felt really bad and tried to replace the dropped candy, but I wasn't having it.  I eventually forgave Bobby and Barbara, and went back to worshiping them. I once was electrocuted with these two, but I've rambled on much too long. Let me know if you want to hear that story. It's very shocking!

Messy House Full Heart

This is Monday morning after Open Studio Encore weekend. I'm sitting here in my jammies writing this post and feeling so thankful for the great studio tour this year. I have at least a million other things I could and should be doing, but I first wanted to thank everyone that stopped by my studio this year. I really want to thank those that came by a second time and brought a friend(s) back with you. I really feel like I met some people that I'm going to be life-long friends with. I'm also looking forward to teaching my workshops, and getting to know you all better. Last night, I counted 96 names on my sign up list for classes. We'll have a lot of fun and all learn new things from each other. Well, I need to get up and at least make the bed, or maybe just get back into it. I can get started putting the house back together tomorrow. Today, I might just kick my feet up and take it easy. For those of you that know me, know this is just nice talk. I have way to many things bumping around in my head to just take it easy. But whatever I do today, I do it with a full heart, because I have the greatest job in the world! I also would like to thank Artsobispo, my business would not be what it is without the Open Studio Tour.

My Love Bucket Is Full

I'm feeling a bit rusty, and it's not from our recent rain. It's been so long since my last blog, I'm not sure what to say, except a big fat juicy thank you to all my visitors during "Open Studio Tour" last weekend. It was a raving mad crazy time, and I had a blast.  I hope you did too. Those of you that were crazy enough to enter the world of creation that I call my life, understand why I haven't blogged in a few weeks. I was busy transforming my home into a complete retail space. I know it looks like a lot of work, but I really enjoy doing this. My family on the other hand, are not to crazy about it. They haven't been able to eat from a table top in over a week. I also put blue painters tape across the guest bathroom after cleaning it to keep them out. They never seem to remember that there are two other bathrooms in the house they can use. Thanks again to you that came to my studio, for your kind words, love, and support. Thanks also to Sharon for your thoughtful letter and to Mark and Karen for the angel pictures. My love bucket is full. It's people like you, that keep people like me, going. I'm still in "open studio" mode. We are open for encore weekend the 23rd and 24th, if you feel like dropping by. I might even pull the blue tape off the bathroom door for you.

PS:   Congratulations to "onlyincambodia" for winning the comment drawing on my last post.

We Have A Winner!

Congrats to Tuscan Road Designs, you are the winner of the September drawing. Yay for Holly! Annie is holding your artwork, hope you like it.It is a 10x10 inch canvas with handmade polymer clay tiles. The tiles are hand sewn onto the canvas with loving care, just for you. For those of you that didn't win, I'll be having another drawing soon. It was probably more fun for me, than it was for you. I've been wondering all month who was going to win. Now we know. Thanks to all the people that read my posts. I enjoy blogging more then I thought I would. To tell you the truth, I thought it would be close to torture, but it's not. I guess it's good to jump out of the box and try something new. I used the word "jump" because I never walk into something new. I always go both feet at once, and at full speed. I'm not sure why I do it that way, I just do. It would make more sense, to take things slower at times. But that's just not the way I roll. People that are jumpers have more skinned knees than those that walk. But when a jumper sticks their landing, nothing feels better. Tell me what new thing you have jumped into, and did you end up face first or on your feet? Just for your info, I've landed on my face more often than my feet. The more I jump, the more I increase my odds on a good landing. Everyone that posts a comment on this blog, will go into a second drawing for another prize.