Colorful fall in North Louisiana

Those of us who live in the South feel like we get short changed when it comes to leaves changing in the fall.  My son was based in Groton, Conn. and I flew up to see him and his family one gorgeous October.  It was truly beautiful.  Our fall here depends on the weather and whether we have had enough rain to hold the leaves on the trees for a while.  This autumn has been glorious.  We love to just ride around and take in all of God's beauty.  I am blessed to have 14 acres where I have planted many trees that really put on a show.  This year the Bittersweet vine, Dogwood, Bradford Pears, and Chinese Tallow trees have been particularly colorful.  My heart sings!

I Love Antique Auctions....How About You?

I remember the first auction I went to.  I was twenty and had very limited funds for extras.  I went to an antique auction with my Uncle Jimmie D. and Aunt Lodi.  My uncle was a cattle buyer and well acquainted with how auctions go.  I bid $1.00 for a stack of twelve green plates (thinking that they were all selling for one dollar) and I was the high bid.  When my uncle told me that I now owed $12.00 I ask if I could just walk out of the auction and not get them.  He laughed and said that they frowned on that and he would pay for half of them.  I still have those plates today.  It was a valuable lesson and came in useful when I attended auctions while I lived in England and in Holland.

I did it for JOY and I am glad I did

This summer I saw some very colorful Adirondack chairs at my local lumber yard.  They made me smile.  Wouldn't they be wonderful on the other side of the pond?  I had to go to Monroe and on the way back an argument was going on within me.  One little voice said, "You do not need to spend that $100 on chairs you will probably seldom sit in."  Then up would pipe the other little voice saying "You know if you don't stop and buy them they will be gone and you will be sorry".  When I got to the first exit off of the interstate the negative voice was winning.  When I got to the second exit the go buy them voice was winning.  I turned my truck around and back I went and bought a chair in each color, took them home and placed them on the other side of the pond.  It was a great choice!  I have enjoyed them every day.  Every time I look across the pond and see them and their reflection it makes me joyful.  When friends and strangers come to the door they always comment on them.  I think it turned out to be a great way to spend $100.

Painting Pots.

My painting on Bruce's pots

Bruce Odell is a wonderful friend and fabulous potter.  He has Odell Pottery in Lafayette, Louisiana.  If you are ever down that way and want to purchase some beautiful pottery be sure and look him up at Odell Pottery Studio, 625 B. Garfield St., Lafayette, Louisiana.

Over the years Bruce has allowed a group of my fellow artist to purchase his unfinished pots for us to paint our own designs on.  Then we take them back to him to do the raku firing.  If you can be there during the firing it is a terrific experience to see your pots come to life!

On My Bucket List....The Rose Bowl Parade

My Bucket List is not very long because just about anything I have made up my mind to do...I've done.  But one thing still on it was decorating a float for the Rose Bowl Parade.  When my dear friend Loretta called and ask if I wanted to go with her to work on the Cal Poly float....I jumped at the chance.  Being women who love to share we invited along four other friends.  What a wonderful time we had!  Loretta and I have had our florist license so we had some experience.  But there is so much to do on a float; willing hands are all you need.  Everything has to be covered in natural products.  For example, onion seeds were used to cover the spokes on the bicycle wheels.  So if you ever get the chance...go for it.  The Cal Poly folks take volunteers.

Loretta and I told the woman, who has been in charge of that float for many years',..."we are here as willing hands...it is your show...just tell us what you want us to do".  She was lovely to us.  It was so much fun being able to use all of the flowers we wanted to and not worry about the cost. We had seats reserved for us at the stand where HGTV was filming the parade.  You can imagine the joy and pride we felt when our float came by.  Yea!  

A view from my kitchen window

Thomas, my painter, has just called.  It is 6:30 in the morning.  I ask him how did he know I would be awake this early.  He laughed and said he thought I would be up on the computer.  Then I laughed and ask him if he was standing at my kitchen door watching me (you can see my office through the glass door).  When he laughed and said, "No"....I said, "You know me too well".

Thomas and his crew of wonderful men are one of my great blessings.  They are excellent painters and at the same time will go along with me when I have another one of my "bright ideas".  They are the ones who really help make my houses "sing". 

Thoughts about being a lady builder

I feel like the most blessed woman....I have a job, of my choosing, that has been my passion for the past fifteen years.  I call my business Homes by Windsong.  I love building houses.  I never lay in bed late at night worrying about something I cannot change for there is always some new thought, some new solutions to seek, some new ideas to try.

But the one thing I do not need to do is get out of bed and go to the computer at 3am.  It is so easy for me to get lost in the wonder of it all.  I look up and it is 6am and I have not had my 8 hours of sleep needed to keep me pleasant and cheerful with all of the trades who work on my houses.  It is one of those things I have learned only after (what I call) hitting the wall at about one o'clock in the afternoon.  Not a good thing to do for that is exactly when "up jumps the devil" and everyone needs you and they need an answer now.

Creativity

                                                                       
 Dream Bowl...one of my stained and emblished gourds                                                                                                                                          I can never remember a time when I was not creative. I came into this world that way. It is both a blessing and a curse as I find possibilities in everything I see. When I was ten years old my mother let me paint my bedroom "Pepto-Bismol" pink. We did not have a lot of money so repainting it wasn't a choice. I learned a lot about saturated color from that pink! She also let me paint our kitchen table that summer.  I painted it green with pears on the corners. I thought I could do anything! Wasn't that a great gift to give a child?

My all time favorite poem....

Like many of you my life has made some turns I did not expect. When you come to a fork in the road you have to take it. One cannot go two ways at the same time. My all time favorite poem is: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth:

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as far that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

There have been so many times in my life that I felt like I was standing looking down two roads....and I took the one less traveled by ....and that has made all the difference. Looking back, on the whole, I am glad about my choices. It certainly has made for an interesting life!