a new view

The Window Project is pretty much finished. There's still some painting on the outside to be done, and Varathane on the inside, but the noisy bits are done, and the overall outlook is really, truly beautiful. We won't be covering them up with anything right away. I like how the outside comes in now. And I figure if anyone wants to look in our house, they deserve what they get.

So here's the BEFORE...


And now, the AFTER... even the weather improved!


Here's Peter and Rick with their power tools. Thanks boys! You do good work!

shop new orleans

I didn't realize until yesterday, that it's been two years since Hurricane Katrina. Wow. Really??? Looks like things are still quite a mess. What's up with that, here in the grand old USA? Well, they need our money down there, and since a Gulf Coast vacation is not in my immediate future, I decided to do what I'm already good at - shop! Of course I want you to buy my beads for all your gift-giving needs, but when the bead just doesn't fit, try some of the fun and unusual websites on Shop New Orleans. I promise it'll be fun.
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And speaking of fun, Anne sent me this link to the Glidden Color Test. Try it! It'll tell you about YOU!
I've also been exploring the Pantone website... the color experts there predict our color palette each season. It's interesting, but I'm not sure it applies to beads, or the people who wear them. We seem to be better at thinking for ourselves as far as what we wear and how we paint our walls. Still... it might be interesting to try some of the hottest fall/winter colors and see what happens. They are rather nice this year. None of the Dead Leaf colors usually associated with fall... What do you think?

look out!

The window project is coming along nicely. I didn't know that replacing the old two-part windows with big, single ones would be so much more open. It's beautiful. We think we'll leave them "naked". We don't need no stinking curtains...

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The eclipse got a lot of well deserved attention, but last night the moon was still full, and just as beautiful as in the wee-morning eclipse hours, peeking out above the clouds just as she came up over the mountains. It's not easy to take a picture of the moon. I thought she'd be better at holding still...

la luna

Did you see it? The lunar eclipse early this morning? I didn't plan to... I like to sleep... but I popped awake at 4:00, so Lucy and I went outside to have a look. We sat there watching the sky for an hour. Amazing... just beautiful. The moon was a reddish color as predicted, and for a full moon night, there were a ton of stars. The milky way was splashed across the sky above our house, and there must have been a little bit of a meteor shower going on too. I saw at least a dozen shooting stars, all dancing around the moon. Quite a show. More pictures on Joe Willie's site.

This morning I opened my daily email from Ideal Bite, and was directed to a gorgeous perfume website... Strange Invisible Perfumes... I'm not usually big on perfume. None of them ever seem to be "me" for very long, so I save them for special occasions. Come to find out, most of the fancy department store stuff is packed with toxic chemicals. (check your faves out at Skin Deep) Maybe I instinctively stay away from them. But I like the idea of perfume, and I like the pretty bottles lined up on my dresser, so after enjoying a long visit at the SIP website, I ordered three samples - Moon Garden (of course!), Aramaic (it has blue lotus in it), and Trapeze (just for the name). If you try any of them, let us know what you think. I'll report back soon. I think I can smell them already...

new windows

This is going to be a busy week. That's not unusual around here, but we have something extra going on today. The old windows in the kitchen and dining room are finally going to be replaced. I'm thrilled and terrified. I do not like living in a construction zone, but these old windows are falling apart. The wood is rotted, and the seal between the double panes is broken, so all the dirt and condensation is on the inside, between the two slabs of glass, and can't be cleaned. It looks terrible, and has looked that way since we bought the house, over six years ago. Now, as we prep to sell the place, we have to do all those things we've been putting off. When, oh when will we learn to fix a house up for ourselves, and not for the next owners???

The good news is, our friend Peter is coming to help Rick with this project. He's great. He helped with the windows in the living room a couple of years ago, and they came out so beautiful... and fast! I guess I'll be the cook for the crew here today. Good thing it's a computer day, and not a studio day. Do I still know how to make food?...

Here are the "before" shots...






And this ties in... loosely...
With all these windows, the birds are often confused, and bump into them. We hung some ribbon streamers on some of them yesterday, after this little guy knocked himself out. Rick is good at rescuing them. He just holds them until they feel like flying. He's like Snow White with his little birdies.




OK - gotta fly!

too much fun...

How many things can we do in one weekend? I worked all day yesterday, and then we dashed off to the Glam Trash Fashion Show at the Stables Gallery. A pretty fabulous fashion experience...





Our friend, Katy George, made a hat embellished with a real live dead mouse, and also a bat - gifts from her cats. I tried to take a video, but alas... no luck.. Quite a crowd though. Taos is all about unusual entertainment.

On our way to the car, we realized we were missing Music From Angelfire at the TCA. but were lucky to catch one of the violinists practicing in the parking lot. Asphalt Culture at it's finest...



We were headed for the benefit for the Lost Boys of Sudan, at Taos Country Club. Not a great turnout, since the stupid Taos News didn't mention a word about it. But it was a good, supportive group, and I think they managed to raise some money for Project Education Sudan. These guys are a true inspiration. They even humored us with a bit of dancing. They hadn't brought drums with them from Denver, and when they asked if anyone here has a drum, we all laughed and said everyone in Taos has a drum, but none of us brought them either! Someone dashed home, grabbed a drum, and we got a little taste of traditional songs from Sudan. I was going to post another video here, but it's not very good, and Blogger takes forever to load a video. So here's a not-very-good picture...



After this, we went to dinner at Bravo with Deborah and Thomas. Nice to sit in a quiet place and catch up. These guys are as "too busy" as we are.

While we were doing all this, Lauren was working at the Russian Night auction at the Fechin Inn. The necklace I donated was sold in the silent auction for a mere $250. a steal for someone. I'm really kind of insulted and grumpy about it. I'm promising myself to never ever donate a piece to a silent auction again. Never..... but at least Lauren looked cute as a little Russian Chick.




Today... I want to sit still, in the shade, and I want everyone around me to whisper if they must speak... I'm tired...

not just another party

A while back I donated a necklace to the Taos Art Museum's annual fundraiser, A Russian Night In Taos. The big event is tonight, and we're not going to that, but we did go to the party for the artists and sponsors last night. It was at the home of Taos artist, Max Hulse. Beautiful grounds and house. Beautiful food and tasty beverages. Beautiful people. I had no idea how to mingle in that crowd. Thankfully, Rick and Lauren were with me, so we were our own little sub-party. Soon Lauren ran into another glass artist, Derek, who was kind enough to say something like, "Kim Miles is your mom??? I want to meet her". Later we spotted our neighbors Kathleen and Kat, and they brought in others they knew, and so the mingling came to us. What a relief.

The necklace that I donated is very similar to the one Lauren wore to the party. It's in the silent auction, and I was told that you'd be able to place bids online, but I just checked, and there are no photos of the silent auction items - only the live auction stuff.... you know, the "real" art. I usually find silent auctions pretty insulting to the artists, but I'll wait and see how this goes tonight. Lauren is working at the event, so she'll keep an eye on the bidding for me. It's a wealthy crowd, so maybe someone will cough up some real cash!



So, a few more pictures for you, and then I'm off to work for a while, before cleaning up for a third night, to go to a fundraiser at the country club for the Lost Boys of Sudan. Several of the now young men will be here from Denver. I'm looking forward to it. Full report tomorrow, of course!

Weeeee!!!

The theme of the week is Control, or more accurately, the absolute lack of it we actually have. Sometimes life feels like such a roller coaster. We can hold on tight, bracing ourselves against the curves and screaming in terror, or we can throw our hands in the air, yell Weeeee!, and enjoy the ride.

Our buddy Karena celebrated her 50th birthday yesterday. Lots of us are joining Club Five-Oh! this year. We met her at El Monte Sagrado for Happy Hour, which of course turned into several happy hours. The place, which was once very snooty and exclusive, is now under new ownership, and has become a welcoming place for locals to hang out, while still keeping it's appeal to the celebrity crowd. Karena met Fran Drescher yesterday at the spa, and then bumped into Deepak Chopra outside the restaurant, where he wished her a happy birthday. We heard Kevin Costner was there too, but he didn't join us at the bar... ah well... his loss!

We had a good party. The Weeeee!!! theme carried over, and I made this card to go along with a few carefully chosen gifts...



Here's the Birthday Girl with her tambourine and other goodies, all arranged as a Birthday Altar. Yes, that's a Heart Bead on her neck. A birthday without a bead is just... wrong!



And here we are, all dressed up, with somewhere to go...



These guys took good care of us. Thank you Dexter and Rushan!



And here it is, Friday already. Lauren is coming come today, and we have parties to go to all weekend. There's at least one thing to dress up for every day through Sunday. I'm tired already, but all I really have to say is Weeeee!!! Here we go!

thank you Kate

I'm avoiding work today, and wandered over to Kate McKinnon's journal page, which is always interesting, enlightening, and entertaining. Her comments about crappy telephones reminded me of my own personal mission to uncomplicate my life, and my own nostalgia for the time when phones came with the house and were built to last. The silly cordless, digital things I keep buying and replacing are worthless and annoying to the point where I just never bother to answer the thing anymore. It rings, and I know it's someplace in the house, but because it's a free-spirited cordless marvel, it hides from me like a two year old kid in a department store.

I want a phone that knows it's job and it's place in the house. I want to always know where it is, and I want to know that if I knock it off the table, it will just dust itself off and keep going. I want a comfy chair to sit in, in case I should ever decide to answer it, and a long, curly cord to get wrapped up in when I get bored with the conversation and decide to do twirls in the kitchen. I think I have found my Perfect Dream Phone. It's waiting for me at Crosley...

I'll wait until we move to the Yurt in Oregon, and then I'll give this beauty a good home. We'll give it a name, like Henry maybe, or Oscar. And it will never get grumpy if we ask it to double as a door stop now and then...

And now I feel so much better, knowing this one little piece of the puzzle is in place, I think I'll go make a bead. Thanks Kate. I hope you find your Perfect Dream Phone too.