Author: Becky

Some celebrating on September 10


September 10 is the birthday of my friend Denece. My father taught me the value of having a Virgo in my life, and Denece and Jim have upheld that tradition. Every year when I think of Denece on her birthday (and send a card that will always get there late, because I have a bad habit of doing that), there are a ton of special things to connect to her. One of the biggest is that she brought yet another Virgo into my life: our dog Margot. Denece is the one who saw Margot’s photo on Twyla’s Friends and told us about her. Since Margot was about a year old when we adopted her in September of 2000, we gave her my father’s birthday (September 16). But I figure she’s special enough to celebrate on Denece’s birthday, too.


In this photo, Denece is squatting between Timmy and me at a signing for I’m Your Man. The photo, taken by my mother’s good friend (and professional photographer) Amber Ratisseau in 2005, is one of a group of photos that are some of my all-time favorites. That was a great signing at Borders with all the TJB writing partners, my mother, and some of our closest friends there.

Happy birthday, Denece, and thanks for all the terrific things you’ve brought to my life.

As y’all know, Friday night is usually Craft Night at The Compound, when sewing, painting, knitting, sketching, and who knows what else may happen. This week, our Friday was even better because a couple of real babes dropped by.


Lila and Hanley. They colored…


…watched a little TV…


and tried to decide who had the better toys.

I had a blast watching them and hanging out with Lynne, Lindsey, Rhonda, Tim, Tom, and the usual dog suspects. Thanks, all, for a great night.

Miscellaneous Art

It was just announced that Bravo’s Work of Art will have a second season. I’m looking forward to it and hope that some of what I perceived as flaws in the first season will have vanished.

Meanwhile, portions of final collections (including mine) are appearing on the Work of Art blog that Lindsey created and I participated in. The completed collections are due in a couple of weeks, but I know mine won’t be ready by then, because it’s part of another semi-secret project I’m working on that won’t be finished for probably a month beyond that. When it’s done, I plan to try to find a gallery that will show it. Of course I’ll talk about all that here when it’s more appropriate.

One of Work of Art’s producers is Sarah Jessica Parker’s company Pretty Matches. Sort of on that topic, I recently started watching DVDs of Sex and the City from the first season. I noticed a coffee table book on my favorite artist in SJP’s character Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment:

Over the Labor Day weekend, I also watched a favorite old movie, Trading Places with Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis plays Ophelia, and when we go inside her apartment, I spotted a Rothko poster hanging on the wall. I like watching movies and shows on my computer because I see little things I never noticed before.

Canine Labor Day Weekend

The dogs told me I’m past due for an update on them. They’re having a good long weekend. Tim isn’t here, so Rex and Pixie have been staying with us. They want everyone to know they’ve been perfect angels.


Pixie and Rex in the Land of Conquered Rope Toys.

The Brides are off doing whatever Ninja Brides do on Labor Day. Something about keeping the beaches safe from oil spills. While they’re away, Sugar is staying with us. At home, Sugar is forced to do hard labor, including keeping her blanket securely attached to the sofa, patrolling the garage for palmetto bugs, and letting her moms know when it’s four a.m. So while she’s here, we allow her to watch countless hours of television.


Rex and Sugar watching Rex-TV.

Because there can never be enough canine happiness at The Compound, I got to have a slumber party in Tim’s apartment with his first foster dog, EZ, whose forever dad was away for a night. I offered to paint her nails, but she said she’d rather watch a movie. So we watched The Birdcage, and EZ laughed in all the right places. When it was over, I picked up my Nook to read, but she seemed to be trying to tell me something. So I took her outside, where I could sense she was just humoring me. Once we went back inside, she did this:


EZ settling inside Pixie’s crate to let me know it’s time for bed.

I gave in and went to bed. We both slept soundly until this morning, when Tom came over to let her out and feed her. Then she took up her perch on the window seat in the bedroom so she could watch the world. In the year she lived with Tim, one of my favorite things was glancing up at that window whenever I was outside to see EZ’s happy face looking back at me. After she was adopted, other foster dogs would visit her perch, but no one ever took up residence there until Pixie came. Pixie is so curious that she has to know everything that’s going on outside, especially the bad behavior of squirrels and Guinness’s hunt and murder of cicadas.

As for Guinness and Margot, here they are displaying their perfect hostess skills:

Happy Labor Day from The Compound!

LJ Runway Monday: You Can Totally Wear That Again (PR 8:6)

Heidi: On the most recent episode of–okay, wait a minute. I know we’re supposed to talk about Project Runway and introduce whatever Becks has created this week, but I have to ask: What the HELL are we wearing? She’s dressed me before in a peachy-orangey color combo and I warned her then never to do it again. And this–what IS this look?

Summer: I don’t know what you’re complaining about. At least you don’t look like a governess.

Barbie: Has anyone seen my shawl? I fear I’ve mislaid it and may catch a chill.

Heidi: Zip it, Barbie. We’re not in a Jane Austen film.

Summer: Wrong period. These dresses are the result of Becks reading Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Villette within weeks of each other.

Barbie: You left out Little Women. Who do you think I look like? Meg? Amy?

Heidi: In that frock? You look like the meadow in Twilight threw up on you. We may have to ban books from the work room if this is what happens.

Summer: Could be worse. She also read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Barbie: Brainzzzzzz.

Heidi: Eep! I guess these dresses aren’t so bad. Speaking of bad dresses, that’s what the most recent episode of Lifetime’s Project Runway was about: Bad Bridesmaid Dresses. The designers met their new models, former bridesmaids who were wearing the fashion abominations inflicted on them by cruel brides.

Summer: Using those dresses and two yards of fabric they were allowed to buy, the designers were told to create more flattering looks for their models.

Barbie: I picked Dinah as the model for this challenge. Let’s see how Dinah’s dress looked originally.

Summer: Suddenly I’m all right with the governess drag.

Heidi: When we asked Dinah if there was any part of the dress she liked, she told us the color was okay. But she felt the dress made her look like a shapeless blob.

Barbie: She also hated the one-shoulder ruffle.

Tim Gunn: Once the dress was deconstructed, thanks to the bottom ruffle, there was more fabric than one might expect. However, as I warned the designers on the show, the goal isn’t to make clothes. It’s to make fashion. Can Becks do it?

Please click here to see.

A bit of art and link love

Tim posted a photo the other day of a little work of art that Lindsey and Rhonda brought back from their trip to Columbus, Ohio. I thought some of you might like to see my gift from them, too.


Actual size 4×6 inches.

Ah, how things have changed since the era of Glorious Technicolor. The artist of these whimsical works is Paul Volker, and I highly recommend a visit to his site, volkerworld. com. Just a little bit of exploring will take you to classics like “Loch Ness Bacon.”

Tim also placed an order at Maine Days Designs, and Kate, the artisan and proprietor, included this pendant for me when she sent his merchandise:


Actual size 1×1 inch.

Seriously, GO TO HER ETSY SITE (linked above) and check out her jewelry, which I love. As for map pendants, Kate will design and make custom orders. Wouldn’t that be a great gift for sharing the memory of a place you’ve been with a friend or loved one? Or maybe remind someone of a place you’ve dreamed of going together?

Earlier this year, I became acquainted with the work of Houston artist Gilbert Ruiz through his Draw 365 Group on his Flickr site. As I once told him, when I want to relax, I like to launch a slide show of that set and listen to whatever my iTunes randomly plays while I watch. There was one sketch I kept going back to, and finally I begged him to let me buy it. I’ve had it quite a while and still haven’t framed it–I need to take care of that. Meanwhile, I’m glad to share it with you:


Actual size is 12×12 inches.

Something interesting that I didn’t realize until I took out the sketch to shoot it was the date Gilbert drew it: March 4. That’s my mother’s birthday–one of those funny coincidences that makes me feel close to her. I think she’d have enjoyed Gilbert’s art, especially the darkly humorous vein running through many of the sketches.

Saturday night I visited a new place (to me): H Gallery on 19th Street in the Houston Heights. I went because a couple of Gilbert’s paintings are hanging there, and I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the other work, too. I will definitely be keeping up with their installations and going back to visit.

Please click here for Images from H Gallery.

Dear Everyone on LiveJournal:

Just in case it needs to be said: I don’t even understand the whole cross-posting to Facebook or Twitter thing, but I can assure you I will never intentionally cross-post one of my comments to any of your posts, whether your entry is friends-only or public.

My own LJ feeds to my FB account because I have people who read me there but not here. Only my posts feed there–none of the comments made via LJ. However, almost all of my posts are public, so if you comment here, and someone comes to my LJ, they can read your comments. But they can’t read them via FB.

For the past few days, I disabled comments on several of my posts because I was ill and wouldn’t have had the energy to respond to comments. Normally, anyone is welcome to comment any time–anonymously or otherwise–with the understanding that I reserve the right to delete or hide comments that might be either hurtful or not for some of the young eyes who read here.

Also, in my comments, if you ever use the “c” word to insult any woman or the “other ‘f’ ” word about any gay person, that’s an automatic delete from my LJ and pretty much from my esteem.