King William Show

Another San Antonio Fiesta celebration has come and gone. This is the one day show that occurs on the last weekend of Fiesta.The King William area of San Antonio is full of wonderful old homes of all sizes, shapes and colors. One of the most memorable scandals in the area occured several years ago here when author, Sandra Cisneros, painted her house purple and the neighborhood association was not pleased. It was in the news for sometime.

The house has now faded to blue and Sandra Cisneros is movng from San Antonio. A loss, but I don't think she is moving because of any house controversy.

Back to the Art Show..

We set up our booth on the usual street across from and in front of great little houses all decorated for Fiesta.

 .The booth next to us was run by the art teacher from Brackenridge High School in San Antonio. The great colorful masks were created by her students and they sold them to raise funds to support their art program. There were a huge hit and she sold all of them!!!

Too bad art programs aren't fully funded. But, on the other hand, the students that came and helped sell in the booth got a first hand look at selling art at the ground level.

This festival is also tied to a parade which celebrates "quirkiness" and honors King El Rey Feo (the ugly king). It is full of unusual floats and hosts the down to earth, neighborhood entrants.

Carla, Julien and Sascha came down to the show, visited, watched the parade. Thanks to Dave Piper for letting us hang out in the Piper Sandal booth which is always on the parade route.

All said and done, it was a good show. Fast and furious, done in one day. Seems like we had a lot of customers who were employees of HEB and USAA, a fair amount of out of town folks who were in SAT for Fiesta, and of course, some King William residents. Thanks to the wonderful Brackenridge High School football team and their coach who keeps the whole show and fair clean all day long!!

Last shots of the Show and Fiesta Color - 2012:

Woodlands Waterway Art Show

This was a huge successful and fun show. Since it was the first show of the spring season, we had spent a great deal of time at home earlier in the week making sure everything was prepared. I even used my new killer sewing machine that we purchased to be able to work on enclosures and other items for the new boat. In this case, I repaired some of velcro fastening areas on the front of the tent and on the sign. Here I am working outside on the carport with the help of at least one of the dogs!

On Friday night there was the usual preview party where there is a raffle of sorts. Art patrons pay a nice sum to then be chosen randomly to run and pick up the donated piece of art they have previously staked out. That is provided another patron hasn't beaten them to it. Prior to the actual raffle, artists, their helpers and the art patrons have had a chance to mingle, eat and drink and preview the work. Lots of fun and good food too.


Saturday was STUPENDOUS for Windsongs. It was windy and all booths were staked down to the max, but customers came to the art show in droves. Many people who bought from us were returning customers from last year. We always are amazed at how many people living in The Woodlands are from other countries and living in the Houston area because they work in the oil and gas industry. By Saturday at 6:00 pm, we had only five bells left.
Saturday night we walked one block down the riverwalk and ate with Dave Piper (Piper Sandals) at Grimaldi's.
Sunday, the highly organized folks who put on the show, gave out the weather news and their plans for preparedness. Lots more folks came to the show and many of them ordered bells to be shipped to them. The show was closed at 4:00 rather than 6:00 and we made it out before any weather actually caused a problem.
This is the view from our hotel windw of the waterway and the condos on the other side of the water.

Family Update

So many of our customers have said over the years, how much they enjoyed keeping up with our family, I'll write a quick update for you.

Carla, the oldest daughter, and her family now live in Beaumont, TX (or as Carla calls is - the mosquito capital of Texas). Son-in-law Dave is assistant track coach for Lamar University. Carla is not teaching this year. She is staying home with the almost four year old, Julien, and Sascha, who recently turned one. She, at the moment is the sole seamtress at the sister owned Etsy shop, Blue Agave Studio.

Dave and Julien

Carla and Sascha

Now Jenny and family have had many changes this year and have finally fullfilled a long held goal. This February, they moved to Morocco. This is because of son-in-law Michael's job with the U.S. State Department. So, they are now in their permanent residence, Will is in school and Jenny is awaiting their last shipment of belongings which will include their car and sewing machine. She can then take the younger boys out on local adventures during the day and she can get back to adding creations the the afore mentione Etsy shop.

Jenny's whole family - Michael, Jenny, William, Lincoln and Donovan just before they boarded the plane to Paris and then onto Rabat.

S

The Huffines Show in Richardson

The last art show of 2011 was in Richardson. This was the Huffines Show last weekend, Oct 22 & 23rd. Now this show is notorious for having notable weather. Cold fronts blowing through, rain storms surprising everyone, you name it. This weekend was no different. Sunday morning at about 1:00 a.m. a front came through complete with wind and rain. Several tents full of artists' work blew down and some artists lost a great deal of work. This is always a sad sight to see.

For Windsongs,the show was good and of course our product is made to survive all types of weather. Philip went by himself to this show. Our friend, Dave Piper was there to sell his sandals too.

So... now it's time to get ready for Christmas selling season!!

October Art Shows

Georgtetown Art Show
We were in Georgetown on October 15 & 16. Philip did this show by himself last year. I was in Virginia helping with the birth of baby Donovan, Jenny's third. The weather was great. The show had some good quality of art/crafts. Lots of retired folks were there, lots of folks from Sun City who said "we aren't allowed to have windchimes"! But we had good sales anyway. We also ended our second day with a nice visit to the home of old friends who used to live in Boerne. Also, on Sunday morning, along came Philip's niece, Sarah and her husband Jared and their new baby, Audrey. She is a cutie!

Notice, our booth is showing its age. Philip has always taken meticulous care of it, but alas, the sticky tape on the back of our sign that hangs at the top in the front, has lost it "stickines". After the last show of the fall, we will have to repair that!

Georgetown is an interesting place. Lots of old buildings that have been updated and are quaint looking homes to businesses and personal residences.

Many of the buildings have iron staircases leading to upstairs loft apartments or businesses. Some of the staircases were very unique.

The art show was held in the streets surrounding the courthouse.

Here is the lady of justice atop the roof of that courthouse.

A Well Deserved Vacation

OK,,, all vacations are well deserved,right? And this one is a trip down memory lane as this is a place we used to come somewhat often and then skipped for a few years. Some things have changed for the better. Some things have changed and we miss them. But... all in all, it is still great diving. We always stay at Captain Don's Habitat.

The accommodations are great. We are staying in the new section overlooking the water. As former owners of an iguana for many years (not something I would do again - for the iguana's sake), we are partial to these guys. Well, they are plentiful here. About 10 of them hang out on the low sea wall that borders the open are restaurant especially every morning.

So, other than our (my) lost luggage tragedy and PD's repiratory distress (a cold) he was recovering from at the beginning of the trip, things are going great. Here, on Bonaire, "Diving Freedom" is the motto, so taking a couple of tanks and driving up the road to a dive site on your own is popular. Here is your bellmaker coming out of the water, looking like Lloyd Bridges from an episode of Sea Hunt from dive site called Margates earlier this week.

Midland Art Show

Well, this show has come and gone. Sorry there are no pictures. I wasn't there and PD was too busy all alone to take any shots. All went well though. Business was good. This show is put on by the folks who support the local museum. I can't even remember how many years Windsongs has been a presence at this show.
I do remember that years ago when the whole family went to the show, Carla caught a horned toad that ambled into the booth. Little did we know that these little creatures were a protected species. But we found that out the following Monday when Carla took her little guy to school for show and tell! We did a quick release out into the wild soon thereafter!