Alphabe Thursday - X is for

Thursday, my favorite class of the week, Alphabe-Thursday! Mrs. Matlock is a great teacher, and it's not too late to join in the fun. She has assigned the letter X this week. And I bet that after my V post, you all thought I was going to write about Xylophones. Wrong! This week, X stands for eXcited! I know, I know, but grant me some poetic license here :)



As you are reading this, we are making our last minute preparations for the Rockport Art Festival. This is a huge event, and more importantly, the first show we will be doing as business owners. DH has done art festivals for years, but always in the role of an employee.
Hopefully Alex won't put too much of a damper on things. If you are of a mind to do so, would you say a prayer for us?

When the company DH worked for closed in March, there were still some art festival and show commitments on the board. When we made the decision to start our own business, we agreed to honor those commitments that we could.



The Rockport Art Festival is an amazing show. It is a 2 day show held on the shores of Little Bay in Rockport, next to the Rockport Art Center. There are more than 120 exhibitors, showcasing everything from jewelry to photography, art glass to pottery, original paintings to woodcraft.




As we were accepted into the show under the old company, we will not be able to showcase as much of our original work as we would like, but we can display some. And it's a foot in the door for the future.

The best part of doing a show in Rockport? Getting to do this after being on your feet all day in 100+ degree heat.... hang out at Moondog's with a refreshing cold drink....


And then retiring back to the condo to do some major relaxing!


Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I will be late visiting your posts this week, as internet service where we are staying is hit or miss. And hopefully, we'll be too busy to do any computer surfing :) Don't forget to stop by Jenny's and see what everyone is coming up with for X. This should be an interesting class!

Saturday Centus - Friends

It's the weekend! Time to exercise your writing chops and join Jenny Matlock for Saturday Centus. It's such a fun idea. Mr. Jenny provides us with a prompt, and we write a short story around it. 100 words or less, not counting the prompt. You have to use the prompt in it's original form, then let your imagination run free. My contribution for this week is below, the prompt words are in bold font. Oh, and this week our prompt was written by Jeff Campbell, one of our weekly contributors! Thanks Jeff, this was a fun one!

Just when I thought I had made it through another day without drawing Sister Ignacia's unwanted attention, I felt the dreaded tap on my shoulder.
"Did you notice Elizabeth in class this morning and how forlorn she seemed?" Perhaps I will write her a comforting note, I thought. Maybe Sister would get off my back.

Why did Sister think that Elizabeth and I could ever be friends? Polar opposites, her biggest concerns were hair, makeup and clothes. Me? No makeup, long straight hair. Clothes? Whatever I threw on after rolling out of bed. Favorite accessories? Books.

" I'm sorry you're having a bad week. If you want to talk, call ." Duty done. And that little note led to the longest friendship of my life.

Alphabe Thursday - W is for ...

It's Thursday already! Time for my favorite class, Alphabe-Thursday. Mrs. Matlock has assigned the letter W this week. Don't be late for class, Mrs. Matlock is a stickler for punctuality!


It's summertime. It's hot. To borrow a phrase from Neil Simon, "it's Africa hot!". So naturally, the first W word I thought of was my favorite summer treat - Watermelon!

image courtesy of Google images commons

Oh, the delights of a cold slice of watermelon on a sultry summer day. My daddy was the watermelon king. That man could find the best melon in a stack 5 feet tall. One year we had a family gathering at St. George Island Florida. We asked dad to bring the watermelon. He pulled up with the entire back of his pickup truck full of melons! There were alot of us, and we all love watermelon, but there was no way we were going to be able to eat all of them in a week. We had already eaten the majority of the melons. We made watermelon ice. We made watermelon salsa. We had watermelon seed spitting contests. We were out of ideas! So my brother and DH decided to have a watermelon basketball game. They placed the garbage can under the second story balcony, and, well, you probably get the picture. Did you know that a splatting watermelon can travel a LONG way? I think it's one of those physics things that I forgot to pay attention to :)

image courtesy of Google images commons

Here's a hint. Don't park a white truck anywhere near the site of a watermelon drop! And someday I'll tell you the peach story. Oh, and the time we asked dad to bring the beer!

Hope you enjoyed my choice for W this week. Stop by and visit the links, this should be an interesting week. Now I'm going to go have some watermelon! Did I mention that it's really, really hot?

Saturday Centus - a little voice

I'm participating in Saturday Centus again this week. This is such a fun way to stretch your creative muscles! I was really hesitant to join, but after a few weeks of reading all the great short stories I decided to give it a whirl. Although now it's become a bit of an obsession :)

Such a simple, yet brilliant premise. Jenny graciously hosts each week, and Mr. Jenny provides us with a writing prompt. The challenge is to write a story of 100 words or less (not including the prompt). No photos, just the pictures that you conjure up with your writing! Fun, huh?

This is my contribution for this week. The prompt is in bold font.




The day started with such promise. A trip to the old home place, seeing where Daddy grew up, the places that shaped him. Sky that heartbreaking blue that only a southern summer can give. Trees draped with Spanish moss like the veils of devout women at Mass. Whirring cicadas, those mad jazz percussionists of summer.

It was Fathers Day, 1984, when I heard that voice in the hallway... followed it down old cellar stairs that screeched like jays protecting a nest. Darkness hiding rotten wood, which gave way, pitching me to the cool dirt floor. Raising my head, I came face to face with a story that Daddy never intended me to know.

Alphabe Thursday - V is for Vibraphone!

Thursday, time for my favorite class of the week, Alphabe-Thursday. Mrs. Matlock is such a great teacher, we have flown through the alphabet. I can't believe that we are up to V already!

If you have read my blog for long, you know that I love music, and I really love jazz. So for me, V was easy - vibraphone!








Many people confuse the vibraphone (or vibes) with a xylophone or marimba. The difference is that vibes have metal tubes instead of wood, giving a very distinctive sound.

Lionel Hampton is probably the best known vibes player. He almost single handedly brought this instrument to popular jazz music prominence. A drummer, he supposedly started playing around with a set of vibes at the NBC studios. Yep, the very same vibes used to play the famous NBC "Chimes". He started experimenting and playing with the instrument and became so enamored of it that he soon concentrated on this instrument alone.



This is part of Cait's recital at UNT last year. The vibes player is one of her very best friends. They have been in band together since she was in the 6th grade, and recently graduated from the College of Music together. Warning, this is an extremely long video, but I could not for the life of me figure out our editing software! So I just uploaded from you tube :)

Hope you enjoyed my choice for V this week. Make sure to stop by Mrs. Matlock's class and read everyone's essays. This should be an interesting week.

Saturday Centus - Dreaming of Summer

It's Saturday! After a long, exhausting week I'm ready to unwind by participating in Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus. Mr. Jenny provides us with a prompt (in bold font) and we let our imaginations run wild and come up with a story of 100 words or less. Take the time to stop by and read the links. It's amazing how much talent is out there.


Gazing at the street, seeing the mountains of snow, icicles hanging from the eaves of houses. She couldn't believe that her family had moved to this frozen wasteland. Hundreds of houses crammed into less space than her grandfather's pasture. Oh, it had it's charms she supposed. The Amish community up the road was a beautiful escape from the dreary suburbs. But this bone chilling, soul deadening cold! She would never get used to it.

Smiling, she opened the glass bottle from the perfume shop. Felt the humid air, heard the cows lowing. Saw grandma hanging the wash.

It’s true, the smell of freshly mowed grass can stay with you for years, for decades, forever.

Alphabe Thursday - U is for ...

It's time once again for my favorite class, Alphabe-Thursday. Mrs. Matlock has assigned the letter U for our essays this week. Watching the events in the gulf unfold, I knew right away what I was going to post.

U is for

Unconscionable

Unforgivable

Unbelievable

Unfathomable

Untrustworthy

Unemployed

Unrecoverable? I pray not....

My heart breaks for the innocent creatures killed by this disaster. And for the people of the Gulf Coast, who were just beginning to recover from the devastation of the last 5 years. Please keep these good, strong and faithful people in your prayers.

Saturday Centus - Escape

I'm joining Jenny Matlock for Saturday Centus. This is such a fun event, it really makes you stretch and use your imagination! Every week we are given a prompt and are to write a story of 100 words or less using the prompt in it's original form. Many thanks to Mr. Jenny for some fun ideas. Make sure to visit Jenny's blog to read some great examples of short story writing. Here is my contribution for week 5. The prompt is in blue.


Rounding the corner of Main Street, a quick glance over my shoulder. The hulking man who had been shadowing me for blocks was nowhere in sight. Spying a funky little vintage boutique, I darted in and grabbed a large felt hat and muddy brown poncho, ditching my bright orange T-shirt in the dressing room. Throwing a fifty on the counter, I slipped out the rear exit. I needed a place to lay low, let the heat die down. Creeping out of the alley, I spotted the perfect sanctuary.

I settled into the comfortable movie theater seat with awkward 3D glasses perched on my nose, a small tub of popcorn on my lap, and a bottle of water lodged into the seat holder, hoping to escape this nightmare for a few hours.

Alphabe Thursday - T is for ...

Yippee! It's time for my favorite class of the week, Alphabe-Thursday. Mrs. Matlock is our teacher, make sure to stop by and help her read this week's essays. Our assignment this week is on the letter T. I had so much fun last week playing with obscure words that I thought I'd try some more. Honestly, these are real words. I had several comments wondering if I had made them up! I promise, my imagination is not that good!

taphephobia

tallith

termagant

thurible

triskaidekaphobia

Have fun with these. If you get a chance, google obscure words dictionary. It's loads of fun!