Tag: houston

Thursday night

What a great venue Houston’s Té House of Tea is for an artist. Paintings by our friend Lindsey are hanging there throughout the month of August. If you’re in Houston, go by and check them out (corner of Woodhead and Fairview in Montrose). Also, check out Té’s web site for information about this aesthetically pleasing, environmentally conscious tea house. I’ve been Tweeting back and forth with them, and now that they’ve assured me they have free wifi, I can’t think of a more tranquil spot to take my laptop and get some writing done.

I’ve always enjoyed writing in public places with good energy. Back in the day, the wonderful bookstore Crossroads was my chosen location–many scenes from It Had to Be You were written there. I’ve never really found a permanent home since Crossroads closed, so I’m looking forward to seeing if Té may be it.

If you’d like to see some shots of Lindsey’s work (I wish I could buy ALL of those paintings!) and the eighty-plus art lovers who were there Thursday night, check out my flickr set. It was nice to reconnect with some friends (Hey, Kathy!), plus Lindsey introduced Tim and me to a couple of TJB readers, always a pleasant experience.

A Quick Capture

Oops, looks like I forgot to post on Monday. Seems like many of you are seeing fabulous places (David in P-town, Charles at the water wall, Marika in her park, Rob all over St. Louis, Mark G. Harris bringing us beauty from across the Internet, The Brides enjoying gorgeous art and nature in Dallas). I wasn’t sure I had anything to offer. Then I remembered a recent journey to the suburbs, when something caught my eye, causing me to make a quick stop with my camera.

Here it is, for Rhonda and anyone else who needs it.

Click here for completely work-safe photos.

Trash to treasure

Saturday I was running errands when, for some reason, I found myself at a resale shop in the Heights. I was shooting pictures for another web site and found a few stocking stuffers (be afraid; you know who you are). A couple of little boys digging through some bins of toys were having such a noisy great time that I started watching them. And that’s when I realized that tossed into those bins were all kinds of goodies for me.

Of course I’m not planning to share them all today. Today you get my latest Mystery Barbie. I’ve put her in my Mystery Doll set on Flickr, where other doll collectors have been enormously helpful identifying dolls I don’t recognize.

Someone had been chopping at her hair. She was dirty and naked. I gave her a bath and shampoo. I dried her hair, cut a few random wisps, and added some product. This afternoon I made her a Little Black Dress of her very own. One thing I like about Barbies is that unlike the Top Models, they can wear the original Barbie shoes. I think when a doll has some bite marks on her ankles, that’s the least she deserves.

So here she is:
Model by Mattel
Fashion by Becks
Art by Timothy J. Lambert


From $1.50 to a million bucks.

Random Roundup

Lynne has gone back to the Old Country for a few days (i.e., the Deep South), so we get to enjoy the company of the Green Acres dogs:


Little Blind Sparky and Minute the Great Armadillo Hunter.

Tom obligingly went through bins in the attic and garage looking for Barbie stuff OTHER than dolls. I’ll be posting about some of that later, but in the meantime, I found this scrap of honest-to-goodness 1970s fabric. I don’t know what I’ll use it for–it’s not much material–but I’m sure you’ll eventually see it on one of the Mattel Top Models.

Last week–or maybe two weeks ago–Tim and I were running errands, and I unexpectedly discovered a trove of fabrics for WAY cheap. (In fact, when the associate checked me out, she was exclaiming over one of the remnants that she’d missed when she was going through them. She and some others use them in quilts they make for the children at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Since I always run into the kindest people when I shop, it seems like I’d enjoy shopping, but I don’t.)

The picture below doesn’t feature the fabric she liked, but is one I bought that night. I decided to use it for a Barbie dress from a pattern circa early 1960s. The price is vintage, too: I made this dress for less than fifty cents. Doesn’t Tamala wear it like a million bucks?


Last party of the summer.

Let’s get some shoes…


“Black and White Buck,” a sculpture by Ken Little

Actually, I’m guessing at the title and artist of this piece I saw at the Art Car Museum’s exhibit, “The Great Texas Sculpture Roundup.” I figure if I’m wrong, that’s when the real artist will hunt me down and make me correct it. ‘Cause that’s how the Internet rolls.

I dedicate this photo to Meesh and her ninety pairs of shoes.