Mabel Dodge Luhan House

Entrance to the grounds of the Mabel Dodge Luhan House

During our trip to New Mexico in January, we drove over the mountains to Taos, as we do every visit.  After visiting our favorite places, Scott took me to a "lodge" that he and our son found last Summer.  We only stayed long enough to shoot a few pictures, but I could tell it was extra special and I KNEW I wanted to return and stay for a while.



The Sitting Room

This wasn't just a lodge, this is the Mabel Dodge Luhan House.  We grabbed some information on the way out and it turns out this house was written about by D.H. Lawrence himself!  Others who were guests of Mabel and her full-blooded Taos Pueblo husband, Tony,  include, Georgia O'Keefe, Ansel Adams, and John Collier, to name a few.



Dining Room

While we were there, we were allowed to wonder around and were even offered tea and cookies.  I was struck by the absolutely beautiful ceilings.  And once we made it back to the kitchen, I was completely in love with the place.



Isn't it charming?  I can't wait to go back.  I'm thinking maybe this summer, when Texas gets SO hot I'm ready to move away.  That usually happens around late August, early September.

Bird Houses



Aren't these fantastic?  They're giant and they're in the courtyard.

Go here to visit their informative website.  And go here to read a post from their blog that features an essay written by a guest (who happens to be a photographer) that captures the feeling of this beautiful place.



Found in the courtyard.

What a beautiful place.....

It's Girly Time

Ali and Lynne.

 It's not very often that I have the chance to get together with my girlfriends. Most of my time is spent at home with our three male dogs, one male cat, my husband and son. The other girl in the house besides me is my 16 year old kitty (Lucy) who sleeps in my closet most of the time. Needless to say, I LOVE spending time with my girlfriends. It brings me back to myself and reminds me how much I LOVE being a girl.

This time we got together for the day and did a little vintage shopping at one of our favorite places, Ahab Bowen Vintage, in Dallas. Having first discovered this place in the 80's, I was sweetly surprised that it is still the same - no, it's better! Reasonably priced, clean, and fun: that's how I would describe their collection of vintage clothing, shoes and accessories. My favorite room is in the back - the men's section. Hats, coats, suits, ties and shoes! I never walk away without a treasure or two.  This time I walked in with some treasures:  Lynne, Ali and Nikki.  Love love LOVE those girls!!

Every girl needs something sparkley.



I want them aaallll!



One fantastic pair after another!



Different discounts for different tag colors = FUN!

 

The perfect hat for Ali.



Hello!

I'm so happy they are still around!

Scat

The neon beckoned us down the long alley and
into an elevator that took us down to heaven.

  This weekend, a dear friend of mine came to visit and we decided to stay up past our bedtimes, but we didn't want to be the oldest people in the room.  Just our luck, we stumbled upon the coolest place I've been to in AGES.  I'd heard about Scat Lounge in downtown Fort Worth, and was curious to see if it lived up to it's image.  After all, it has a tough act to follow.  In high school, my fellow band buddies and I would sneak our way into a tiny jazz club in Dallas called the 6051 Club on Forrest Lane, because it made us feel like grown-ups but mostly because the music was so fantastic.  I don't remember the names of any of the musicians we saw, but there were many.  Scat reminds me of this place.  The clientele is low key, great music is the focus and the drinks are de-lish.  My friend, Lynne, and I spent the night gabbing, and trying to nail a good shot of Joel Cross, the performer that night.  You can see her shots here and here.  I think I learned something that night, dirty martini's and all.  I need to stay up past my bedtime more often.

One Hot Day in December

It was on December 21st that my husband, son and I decided to head over to Fort Worth, finish up a little Christmas shopping and hang out at the Botanic Gardens.  We ended up a the Japanese Gardens on that day.  I had to take my shoes off because the temp had reached an really strange 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  After I wondered around barefoot for a while with my film camera, shooting up the last of my Kodachrome film, I found this guy!

We were laughing at him because he looked like he was eyeing the giant Koi in the pond, like he was going to have one of those mega fish for lunch!  Then, suddenly... he speared a smaller fish.  And we got to see the entire thing unfold before our eyes!

Taken just before he speared his lunch.

Had I not been so surprised, I might have gotten all his beautiful wings in the shot.

Down the hatch!

I'll never laugh at a Great Blue Heron again!  I wonder if he's ever gotten one of those Koi....

New Year: Clean Slate

Happy New Year!  Have you made any resolutions?  Not me!  Not a single one.  But I did make a firm decision to start this year off with a clean slate.  Inspired by the video of Lotta Jansdotter's Open Studio Tour with Etsy, my first plan was to simply clean off my bulletin boards.  But then when I took a good look at my mess of a studio, I decided a bigger re-do was in order.  I spent half a day planning and choosing furniture and accessories at Ikea with a $500 budget and several days after that putting the stuff together and figuring out what to do with all my clutter.  My arm almost fell off from screwing everything together and my recycling/trash heap was pretty darn big, but I think it was worth it.

Here are some Before and After pics.



The piece of Victorian architecture was a gift from my husband for my first mother's day.  The two glassed in shelves are from Ikea (Billy bookshelves with Kiaby doors), so's the lamp (Tral).  The work desk is actually two desks from Pier One that I pushed together (I need a big space to work on).  The cat is Frank!



That big fat black chair was not very comfortable, so I replaced it with a very comfy red one (Ikea Klemens).  I got the desk (Micke), printer cart (also Miche), desk lamp (Mil), file holder (Spontan) and three magnetic bulletin boards (also Spontan) from Ikea.  The hubcap clock was a gift from my husband for Christmas this year.  It's from a 1960's era AMC Rambler (and from Etsy seller 8MileCreekDesigns).  Cool, huh?!  Oh, and there's Frank again, in the window.



Most of the clutter went into the shelves.  I covered the bottom six panes of glass with some mulberry paper so I could hide the ugly stuff down there.



The before picture makes me look like a hoarder, doesn't it?!  Most of that stuff is sewing supplies, which I inherited from my husband's grandmother who just recently passed away.  I've stored most of that under the work desk, to be pulled out when I finally learn how to sew.  And that bulletin board - what a mess!  I decided to just stick to one place to put up things I want to see every day - inspiration.  Some of that stuff had been up there on that bulletin board for at least 3 years.



Look at all that junk everywhere!  Boy, did I ever need me some drawers.  And now my computer is up off the floor, too.  This Ikea desk had a little space to hide all the cables from my printer and computer.  There is a very messy cable party going on that nobody can see now.  Yay!



Now there are only a few "dust catchers" out.  All my little horses and cars went behind glass.  But I had to display the beautiful 1950's Singer sewing machine that I inherited from my husband's grandmother.  He still raves about the ninja costumes she made for him on that machine when he was a little boy.  She took very good care of her first and only Singer.  It's still in perfect working order.

 What about you?  What are you doing to mark the beginning of a new year?

I'm Dreaming of a Round Christmas.... Tree

Every Christmas I am plagued with the grand idea of replicating the Christmas trees of my early childhood. Every dang Christmas, I dig up old photos, turn house upside down for a very un-informative drawing, trying to figure out how my mother managed to create the coolest Christmas tree - ever.  I even asked her how to make it once.




Isn't it cool?  That's my dad handing out
 presents and me next to him.  Those other
kids are cousins, and the woman on the left
is my mom.
1965

  This is what she told me years ago:  You just go to the hardware store and get some chicken wire and some pliers, then go to the tree seller and ask for the limbs they cut off the trees that they'll be throwing away.  After that, go home and form the chicken wire into the shape of a ball.  Then you attach the limbs to the ball-shaped chicken wire with some other florist wire, one by one, until *poof*, you got yourself a round Christmas tree!  Of course, it must be hung on the ceiling, strung with lights and decorated with glass balls and a long pretty ribbon that hangs gracefully off the bottom.  And when you're feeling really fancy, you go have it flocked!





Viola!
1968

  



Keeps the kiddos away from the glass ornaments!
That's me (one the left) and my sister.
1968

  Every year, I get the ambitious notion that I will just whip up one of these doozies and hang it in all it's strange glory in our big front window for all our neighbors to admire.  And every year, I get busy and put it off until I don't have the time, this year being no exception.  Next year, though.  Maybe I'll blog about it, too!

Oh My Getty

Today, I am doing a little happy dance in my head.  Atleast a year ago, I submitted some photos to Getty Images.  Didn't hear a peep out of them.  I just figured that I wasn't "there" yet.  But, still, it is a little goal I've set for myself.  Some of my favorite Flickr photogs have that cute little "g" down by their licensing info. 

Okay, so today I got a request from Getty.  They liked these images:

Yaaaayyy!!!  Happy dance, happy dance!

For the Love of the Lake

White Rock Lake in Dallas has been a lifelong friend of mine.  My mom and dad brought me there as a child.  We'd pick up a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and have a little picnic by the water.  It became the permanent home of my childhood pet duck, Herman P. Duck, when he got too big for the bathtub (much to my dismay, I might add).  In the early eighties, it went through a rough period, seemingly forgotten by everyone except for motorcycle gangs and druggies.  Then in the early nineties it had its renaissance.  People began taking an interest in it again and recognized it for the jewel it is.  When I worked in Dallas through the nineties, I'd ride my bike around it several times a week - which soothed the artist in me that I was trying to force into a "real job".  And it was a place for healing when my world fell apart over ten years ago.  There is a bench there that I would sit in for hours at a time to watch the sailboats race and the sun move across the sky.  What I wouldn't give now to sit in one place for that long! After my father died (only a month before my son was born), my brother and I planted a tree there in his honor.  He loved that lake too.  The tree overlooks the playground, giving shade to the kiddos on the hot days we have here.  Each time I visit White Rock Lake, I notice new improvements they've made to the lake.  Right now they are building a new spillway - complete with an observation deck!  It is such a beautiful and well loved place.  Thank you,  For the Love of the Lake, for taking such good care of my lifelong friend.  Thank you!

I visited the lake last week when I had some time to myself.  The whole time I was there I kept wondering why I hadn't come there to take photos yet!  I guess there's a time for everything, right?

I remember this day at White Rock Lake.  That's my dad's Impala.  He took this picture.  I'm 3 1/2.

I loved my soldier dress.  And I LOVED my dad's car.  We went fishing in it together and
I spilled a milkshake in it.  He didn't even get angry.  I just had to sit in the milkshake until we got to the lake!

Sweet Rosie

Last week I needed to take a trip to Dallas to deliver a couple of my prints, and I had some time to tool around my hometown, alone, with my camera.  The first place I stopped off was the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority garage.  Before I actually got into the garage, I ran into this sweet little lady.

This is Rosie. She's 100 years old!

The moment I stepped into this streetcar, I could feel a sense of her, like I
feel when meeting a person for the first time.

I don't know what this does, but it's pretty, isn't it?

All rides are free, but please make a donation so Rosie can stay as beatiful as she is now.

Later, when I finally made it into the garage, I found out that Rosie may love her passengers, but she is a cantakerous old woman.  The head mechanic told me that she has a reputation among the streetcar mechanics of MATA.  "She'll hurt you if you let her," he told me.  I'd be a little fiesty, too, if I were 100 years old!

Find out a little about Rosie's history, here.  And here's a little movie I found of the streetcars that were in operation around Fair Park in Dallas in the 1950's, before the took them all off the road and replaced them with busses.  Legend has it that the day after they took them off the road, a huge blizzard hit Dallas.  Not a single bus could make it out.  That would not have been a problem for these lovely streetcars.  I'm so glad we have them back.



I Love to Drive

Aztec Mill in Cimarron, NM



View from a Rest Stop in Texas




Bison in New Mexico



Cotton Harvest near Memphis, TX

New Mexico Barbed Wire Fence

Roadside Telephone Poles

For the Thanksgiving holiday, my family and I drove up to the house in Angel Fire, New Mexico.  I ended up driving the whole way back, which is about an 11 hour drive, but I LOVED it!  Mostly because I went through all of "The Photography Show" podcasts that I saved on my iPod.  If you haven't listened to this show, it is a MUST for anyone who is into photography.  I love it because it's not too techie and the hosts, Wade Griffith and Ted Forbes, are so generous and down to earth with their experiences as photographers.  There's no photo-snobbery going on here (except for Ted's disdain for William Wegman and wedding photography - which I totally get).  At the end of each show they share their "Picks".  Sometimes they pick books, sometimes documentaries about famous photographers, sometimes blogs.  It's SO educational and pretty darn entertaining, too.  Hey - it would HAVE to be for me to listen to almost every podcast back-to-back!  Go here to find "The Photography Show" podcast on iTunes.  Go here to see the show notes (links and picks) and to learn more about Wade and Ted (uh, Ted and Wade).  Ted also has a podcast called "The Art of Photography" that I plan to subscribe to as well; find that here.  Both have Flickr accounts(Wade's here, Ted's here) and there is also a Flickr account for "The Art of Photography" - here.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.