Category: lifestyle

Fun at the Main Street Arts Festival in Fort Worth!

                   

 

The Main Street Arts Festival is a yearly event in Fort Worth, TX.  It is a juried art festival, and they are judged on their work.   Most of their work is very expensive, but occasionally I find something that speaks to my quirky mind.  Every year, I like to add to my collection.

I always like to find the shops that have heads or weird things.  I have quite a collection of weird things.  (Yes, I know…you’re thinking “who IS this weird person!” )  This year, my favorite booths were not there.  The head lady wasn’t there. The guy who paints the big green olives wasn’t there.  But there were other artists that were new.  I particularly liked the booth with ceramic pieces, such as this white piece.  Another booth had big metal pieces that moved around.  I thought the one in the middle looked like a treble clef.  I don’t know how the artist made it all work, but it was very classy.  When I win the lottery, I may buy one of his pieces.

Due to rain on Saturday, the crowd on Sunday was really large.  If you were walking against the flow of the crowd, you were lucky to be able to move.  So I made a few circles around to get to one booth.     There were fun things to look at on the way, like the Monkey picture, hanging on the side of this booth.

     I finally settled on my art piece of the year.  It is a wall hanging, about one yard long, and about six inches wide.  It has a music theme, which I love.  I am a piano teacher and have several students who sing, play piano and dance.  I think they will like it.  Nope, it’s not weird, but it’s COOL!  It was nice to find out these artists were from Kansas, my home state.  They are Greg & Mindy Rhoads, from Marquette, KS., and their work is called Mindful Mosaics.  They work with clay and other mixed media.

I hope you’ve had a chance to go to an Arts festival.  I know that so much work goes into these different pieces.

What kind of art do you like?  If you won the lottery, what would you buy?   Let me know in the comments below.

Thoughts on Barbara Bush

I was so sad to hear that Barbara Bush had died. She was quite the lady! Even though I’m usually a Democrat, I loved George and Barbara. ( Of course, deep as I am, sometimes I vote for the cute ones.)

When I told my daughter, who’s in her 30’s, that I was sad that Barbara had passed away, she looked at me weird and said “What’s to be sad? She was in her 90’s, she had a good, long life. That is a generational difference. She didn’t know how refreshing Barbara was as First Lady!

I immediately loved Barbara. She was not super skinny. Her hair was gray. Oh my gosh!!! Remember how many people asked George if that was his mother? Didn’t bother them. And I liked the way she spoke her mind. Barbara could be stern, but she was also frank and funny. She stood behind her man and family. I always felt like she and George could come to one of our family dinners and fit right in. George and my Uncle Gary Ledford were two of a kind.

Barbara Bush was quite a legacy. It’s going to be hard for that family. I can’t imagine George will last long without her. Such a great love.

I think I’ll wear my pearls to church on Sunday as my tribute to Barbara.

What about you? Have your pearls out? How did you feel about Barbara Bush? Leave me a note in the comments…in the sidebar.

Oh no…I failed! Oh, thank you Lord…I fixed it!

 

For three weeks, I had an invitation to a friend’s birthday party posted on my refrigerator.  I really was planning on going to her party.  But Grandkids arrived, with their parents and it was a busy day.  Actually, I was thinking it was going to be the next weekend.  I blew it.  It was a Fail for me.  I felt really bad.

Luckily, I was hosting Bunco at my house the following Monday.  My friend was attending.  As hostess, it was my job to provide dinner for all of the players.  So I decided to make a dessert in my friend’s honor.  Her name is Betty, so i decided to make Apple Brown Betty.  I looked for recipes for Apple Brown Betty and found a ton of them.  I never realized that the old recipes called for whole wheat bread crumbs.  My recipe ended up more like an Apple Crisp.  It was good and it filled the bill!  As a tribute to my friend, Betty, here is the recipe.  I tend to adjust things if I don’t have the items or I think something else will taste better.

 APPLE BROWN BETTY

Ingredients:

  • 6 Granny Smith apples
  • 1/4 c. lemon or orange juice
  • 1 stick of butter or margarine
  • 1/2 c. of brown sugar
  • 3/4 c. of white sugar
  • 3/4 c. of flour
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • 1 t. nutmeg
  • 1/2 t. salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375* F.  Spray 9 X 13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Peel and slice apples and layer in bottom of pan.  Sprinkle lemon or orange juice on top of apples.  Top apples with brown sugar.  In a medium bowl, mix together white sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Cut butter into flour mixture until the size of peas.  Spread flour mixture over apples.  Bake at 375 for 30 – 40 minutes.

This tastes delicious with ice cream!  And it makes your friends more tolerant of your mistakes.

 

Things I Love Right Now!

  • Enjoying a true Spring day
  • Having a complete day and night to myself
  • Planting flowers and seeing new growth
  • Planning for overnight guests
  • Seeing Joanna Gaines baby bump
  • Participating in Bright Sunday at my church
  • Playing Mexican Bingo with friends
  • Laughing and laughing with friends
  • Enjoying a flannel shirt hug from my hubby
  • Watching the dog and my grandchild play together

Upcoming Event in Ft. Worth, TX

The Main Street Arts Festival is coming up in Ft. Worth!

April 19th – 22nd.

Downtown, Ft. Worth

This is a juried Arts Festival, with wonderful creations of many types. There will also be a big food court area, and four stages for musical artists to perform.

I’ll be looking for a new head for my collection. What will you be looking for?