Remembering Red Clay

I'm a small town girl.  Really, I'm a Texas farm girl.  I grew up on a farm in Knox County, where cotton was king.  My daddy started out to be a farmer but found that it was hard to support a family doing that, so he went to work for the Soil Conservation Service and eventually settled into a 35 year career as an engineer with the Texas Highway Department (now TXDOT).  But those farm years were pretty amazing for me.  

Now, if you asking yourself "where the heck is Knox County?", I'll give you the answer:  75 miles due north of Abilene.  Yep, look on the map - there's not much there.  But it is God's country (well, isn't all of Texas, really?).  And there's a powerful beauty to the landscape that eludes many, but I find it calming and invigorating at the same time.  It is home.

Like I said before, Knox County is a place where cotton is king, wheat is a crown prince and the cantaloupes and watermelons are tastier than any you can find anywhere else.  Lots of farms and ranches; lots of cattle.  Some oil, for those lucky enough to have picked the right plot of land to settle.  We drilled several times and never really had much left to show for it.  I'm still waiting for my gusher to come in.  Always been windy in that part of the world, and now it's starting to pay off with wind energy coming from those huge white windmills.

Red clay.  That's what the land is made of.  Strangest stuff.  It's very sandy when it's dry (which makes it good for growing cotton - and grapes too!), but when it rains, it turns into the slickest, gloppiest, thickest clay mud you ever saw.  Step in it like that and when you finally do pull your foot out, your shoe or boot will still be in there.  

I'm an only child, and my days on the farm were spent roaming the pasture and/or fields with my dog, Chipper.  Seriously, my mother would just let me go wherever (on 320 acres of land) by myself (and by myself, I mean just me and Chipper).  I would be gone all morning and then again all afternoon, just exploring.  And occasionally, I would have a bit of a falling out with my mother over something or other.  I am an only child.  One of these times, I decided it would just be best for all involved if I ran away from home.  

So I packed up my teddy bear and a couple of things in my little suitcase and got on my tricycle.  (I was probably 4 - 5 years old at the time.)  I rode all the way to the end of the sidewalk and began to make my way past the gate into the driveway.  Did I mention that it rained the night before?  No?  Well, it did.  So when I hit the driveway, which was made of the aforementioned clay, the front wheel of the tricycle sunk into the clay, throwing me over the handlebars face-first into the river of mud.  I had red clay mud from head to toe.  My mother just hosed me off in the front yard.  But I never tried to run away again.

Me, the tricycle and the sidewalk - in front of the house my parents built with their own hands.

So what brought on these memories of a childhood long gone but not forgotten?  I decided to wear a spiffy new pair of colored jeans this morning.  While I was ironing them (I iron everything), I was considering what color I would call them and it hit me that they were the color of red clay.  And I smiled. 

Here's hoping a memory triggers a smile for you today.

deb

Great Expectations

Expectations.  They're a lot like potential.  You know the phrase, "you have great potential"; but if you never attempt things beyond your reach, you never tap into your potential.  I feel the same way about expectations.  I'm a firm believer in expecting the best and hoping to be surprised when I realize I couldn't even fathom the best.  

Don't get me wrong; I'm not a pie-in-the-sky kind of person (where did that phrase even come from? - I really need to look that up).  In most everyday things, I'm a realist and fairly practical person.  But when it comes to dreams and possibilities, well, the sky's the limit for me.

All that's to say, this weekend is pretty big for Meschill and me.  Our first real "event" - the Sami Show in the Belton Expo.  We're excited, nervous and tired!  But, I have great expectations.  We love what we do and I know that our reaching out farther will be rewarded. 

I could go all philosophical here, but I'll refrain (for today anyway); instead, I'll just leave you with two quotes from personal favorites.  These more than adequately express my mixture of emotions for this new adventure and the weekend ahead:

"Do we really have to go through [Mirkwod]?" groaned the hobbit. "Yes, you do!" said the wizard, "if you want to get to the other side. You must either go through or give up your quest. There are no safe paths in this part of the world." 
(The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien) 

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things." 

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." 
(Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll) 


deb

PS - did a Google on "pie in the sky"; seems it has a very interesting beginning.  According to this, maybe I really AM a pie in the sky kind of person - at least in the original meaning.  

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/282700.html

Happy Fall, Y'all

Ahhh, October in Central Texas.  Some days 90 degrees, some days 60 degrees.  But that just means that we are heading for more days in the 60s and I can't wait!  We moved from the High Plains (Lubbock) to Central Texas 28 years ago (!) and I still miss Fall.  Cool, crisp days and even cooler, crisper nights.  Leaves that turn colors.  And chrysanthemums.  Lubbock once claimed the title of Chrysanthemum Capital and the streets and the Tech campus were lined with spectacular mums - the kind that football homecoming mums are made of, not those little ones like we buy at the store now.

Anyway, feeling it was a bit lacking in Fall around here, I worked on adding some to my home.  I wanted to incorporate a bit of "spooky" for a little Halloween feel, but mostly just get some of that luscious fall color going.

I love the way the mantel looks.  The fall arrangement against the turquoise is really something special, don't you think?  The cobweb in the open frame is an old rusty corner architectural piece I bought years ago.  The raven is perched on a recent acquisition from an estate sale.  While looking through some fabric at the sale, I laid it down so I could dig with both hands and another lady picked it up and said "Look! It's the genie's bottle!"  There is definitely a Moroccan or Mediterranean feel to the shape.  I love it.  In the bottom right corner, you can see just a bit of the persimmon branches - another great fall staple from my childhood.

A bit of whimsy with the jack o' lantern made from a gourd.  Found that at an Art Fair quite a while back.  The typewriter was my dad's - he took it to college in 1940 and then to WWII and back.

Got these great ceramic white pumpkins at Hobby Lobby - so many different things can be done with them, but I just went for traditional with a fall garland.  The silver pitcher has a Greek key motif and is another estate sale purchase.

I made the Nest collage this year - covered a 12x12 canvas with burlap, then painted and decoupaged the artwork.  It needed something else and Meschill suggested a twig frame. Brilliant!  I immediately went out in the yard and found just the right branches - complete with lichens and an acorn still attached!  I'd be happy to make another one for anyone who might be interested!

So that's how it's looking around here.  What are you doing for fall color and decor?  What are your favorite fall memories?  I'd love to see and hear!

deb

Where do I begin?

Here, apparently.  Begin, that is.  I started setting up this blog quite a while ago, but never really knew what to say for the inaugural post.  I had lots of ideas for things I wanted to say and show you once we'd finally made contact, but I could never figure out how to say Hi.  Then I realized I just needed to start.  I didn't need a reason or a topic; just beginning would be enough.

So, HI.  This is going to be the place where I talk to you about what I've been doing and what I am doing and what I plan to do (the latter always seems to encompass way more than the first two).  I'll empty my brain here so I can get it to leave me alone at night and get some sleep.  I'll probably spend a lot of early mornings pushing out all the thoughts that wake me up.  See, I like to ramble.  Figuratively and literally.  But, my goal is to share some things I've learned along the way and hopefully provide a little direction to someone in need, and not to take up too much of your time doing it.

Here's the first thing you need to know about me -- the reason I like to ramble is because so many different things interest me.  Some would call that being easily distracted (which would most likely be accurate), but it's just the way my brain works.  Tomorrow I may be in photography mode; the day after that could be about decor and organization; and somewhere in between might have glimpses of fashion or food or folly. 

Here's the second thing to know -- I may be a complete newbie to the blog scene, but I'm far from new to this planet. My only child is twenty-five years old and my husband and I just celebrated 30 years of marriage.   I've lived a lot of life, asked and answered a lot of questions, and feel like I've picked up a lot of  valuable lessons along the way.  

And that leads to the third (and for today, final) thing -- I'm starting out on a new (ad)venture.  I love the trend of vintage vibe that is happening right now; burlap, old clocks and cameras, tarnished silver, rusty things.  I also love to make things, and take photographs of people and things, and decorate and move things around in my house.  And I'm lucky enough to have a best friend (Meschill) who shares most of those same interests.  So she and I have decided to make a go at being Vintage Vagabonds.  We hit estate sales, garage sales, flea markets and thrift shops looking for lonely and forgotten items into which we can breathe new life.  We also love mixed media and altered art, so there'll be a bit of that too.  Being a natural rambler, (aka easily distracted), I find that I also enjoy putting together gift items, from wedding/hostess/housewarming gifts to simple girlfriend gifts, as well as making jewelry and pillows.  And Meschill has fabulous Christmas ornaments and makes the cutest pin cushions ever!  We're starting small with local fairs and festivals, but we'd love to open an etsy store and grow into our own shop one of these days.

I'll leave you with a small sample of some things we've put together for an upcoming Sami Show in Belton, Texas this weekend (October 27-28, Bell County Expo).  Hope you can come by and introduce yourself.  We're looking forward to meeting you - in person or just in the blogosphere!

Thanks for stopping by! 
deb