A RARE SNOW EVENT!

We hardly ever have snow here, but it came today with HUGE snowflakes and is just beautiful! The neighbors and I have been out taking pictures and enjoying the excitement of snow in our area--after 70+ temperatures just two days ago.

The neighbor's house across the street with the huge snowflakes coming down heavily.

Our house with snow sticking to the roof and grass.

Our pond with snow around it.

Jasmine (with spring flowers) and holly covered with snow.

A neighbor snapped this picture of me in the snow.

And he got out his sled--just in case!

IN COWTOWN

I came to Fort Worth with my husband and I am enjoying the city while he goes to meetings. We are staying in a newly renovated hotel with incredible, huge photographs that are the artwork in the lobby, the hallways and in our room. Below is a photograph of spurs that is over the toilet in the bathroom. I would love to paint those spurs with all of that wonderful scroll work on them!

This morning I went to the Kimbell Museum and spent several long hours with my nose up close to the beautiful paintings studying the intricacies of their brushstrokes. I especially enjoy the artists of the 1500s and 1600s. Some of those paintings have detail that is just amazing!

My brother and I have been interested in sharing photographs of cloud formations for more than a year now. I was delighted to find several paintings of cloud formations by a Fort Worth artist and thought that I could paint several pictures like this one below!

I am also taking pictures and notes about how I DO NOT want my bathroom to be renovated. The lighting in this dark brown bathroom is so poor that I am not sure where my makeup went when I put it on this morning! There is one can light over the mirror and two very dull lighting fixtures on each side. There is even a lighted magnifying mirror, but none of them cast enough light in the stylish, but poorly lighted, dark brown bathroom. And the toilet paper holder requires a great deal of flexibility in reaching almost behind my back to grab the paper. I have two pages of notes for our builder on ways that I do not want my bathroom remodeled!

Tonight we went to the Museum of Modern Art for a dinner and had a tour of the art with a docent. It was very informative and the food was wonderful! I am so glad I had this respite from packing up our house and have learned so much about art on this trip.

BUSY TIMES!

Last weekend I was having a multitude of things going on. First of all, I had Jury Duty on Friday but squeaked out of that in a relatively short time.

The large focus of the weekend was on the Story Circle Network national conference held here Friday through Sunday. It was a wonderful time of seeing friends, fellow writers, and learning new things.

A member of my writing group.
We presented a workshop on videotaping lifestories.

Son # 2 and his wife, Kara, came with their three children for the weekend. I gave a presentation at the conference on videotaping lifestories Saturday morning and Kara was on a panel discussing on-line writing on Sunday morning.

Kara is the panel member standing on the far right.

Son #2 and my husband had a great time entertaining the children while Kara and I attended the conference.

Em, Little One, and Soph playing in our backyard despite cold, damp weather!

AND my brother and his wife came to town to visit their #1 Son and #1 granddaughter and for an early celebration of his Valentine birthday. We did manage to have dinner with them Sunday evening, but I was a bit short-changed on all my family visiting time.

Soph, Em, Niece Bela, and Little One waiting to ride the train in nearby park.
Yum! Bar-B-Q tastes so good on a cold, damp night!
And then the girls and I had some time for painting before bedtime.

This week? Back to packing!

TAKING A BREAK

I am taking a break from all my packing to attend the Stories from the Heart National Conference. I belong to Story Circle Network...for Women with Stories to Tell and every two years they have a national conference that is one of the best conferences I have ever attended. I am so excited to go to this conference and meet up with friends that I have made from all over the country. Some of these women have blogs that I follow on a regular basis, some I have met at past conferences and some will be new to me. I am looking forward to the new friends I will meet this year.

I am also excited because Son #2, his wife, Kara and their three girls are coming because Kara will also attend the conference and will be a presenter on an on-line-writing panel Sunday morning. I will be the one sitting in the audience beaming with pride as I listen to what she has to say. Also, my good friend, Gwen, from down near the coast will be driving in tomorrow afternoon. It will be a busy time and I am really looking forward to all the new writing tips I will learn.

PACKING, PACKING

I have been busy all week packing up things that I think we can live without the next 5-6 months. I am amazed at how many things that includes. Seems like I am cleaning out a LOT of stuff, but I am also packing a lot of stuff too. Maybe, when I UNpack all those boxes I will again discard some of the things that we are storing now.

Earlier in the week I was overwhelmed with boxes, but my dear husband carted a whole load of boxes off to be stored today. While he was gone I began building up my stack of packed boxes again. One thing I am sure of is that our house will look much larger as we move things out.

All of this is a bit unsettling as I dismantle this house that we have lived in for so long.

REMODELING FRENZY!

We got our first set of plans from the architect yesterday and that made things seem more real. I think I am entering a state of shock--or maybe it is just the cedar pollen that is getting to me??

I spent the morning with the builder looking at other houses and my head is swimming! A minute ago he was back here sat the house trying out the treatment that he wants to use on our brick. Every time I look out he is here measuring, just looking or trying something. He is really enthusiastic!

I am packing, making trips to Goodwill, looking at plans, packing, visiting houses, gathering ideas, packing, throwing things out, cleaning up. Whew! This remodeling is beginning to feel like real work! Gotta pick up speed on the packing because I am not making very much progress on that task.

SWITCHING GEARS

We have decided to remodel our 1950s style house that we have lived in for almost 40 years. Our plans began because nothing in our house is very accessible for the handicapped. My mother had trouble going up the two steps at every entry to the house. When I had both hip replacements I could not shower for a week because I could not climb into our tub-showers. We had friends over for dinner one night and it was very difficult getting his wheelchair up onto our front porch with the two steps even though she brought a folding ramp. And maneuvering the wheelchair down our hall into our bathroom was almost impossible.

About a month ago we began talking to a builder and decided to update one bathroom and take out the wall between the living room and den. The more we talked to the builder the more the project developed what our son says his company calls "scope creep." The scope of the project keeps creeping bigger and bigger. Yesterday my husband said our project has developed "scope leap" and now includes almost a whole house renovation.

The real crunch came when the builder said that we would have to move out of our house for the 4 months or so of remodeling. That sent me into a dither when I looked around at our accumulations over the years. We plan to pull a travel trailer into our backyard for the time we have to be out of the house, but I stayed awake all night trying to figure out how I was going to accomplish packing and storing all of our stuff. What would I need for the 4 months? Clothes for two seasons, a few dishes, my painting stuff (or would I have time or a place to paint??), bathroom items, computer (and how would I connect it to the Internet?). Would they disconnect our cable and my washer and dryer (probably)? So many questions and no organization forming in my mind. First of all, I did not know how much time I would have--today the builder said at least a month--WHEW! Yikes! Only a month??

A friend who does not live here suggested that I share some before and after pictures and keep a running report on my blog so that those who live away will know what is happening to us the next few months. An exciting adventure, but a bit overwhelming right now! Below are a few of the BEFORE pictures.

Our tiny den that is part of the den/kitchen area. We will take out the wall between den and living room (seen through the doorway).

My kitchen and kitchen table (which is now disguised as my art studio) and will need to be cleaned up before I serve supper. I will continue to post pictures as we progress through this project!