2014 Road Trip - Sierra Blanca, Texas

This is the first Texas town to make a stop in.  It's a dying town.  Met a woman who talked about the town's business was hurt by building I-20.  The Highway was the Main Street but since the I-20 was built no one stops in the town.  

Main Street 

Abandon cafe

The woman owned a shop on Main Street.  It was a shop full of all kinds of stuff, rocks, gems, jewelry, art supplies, party supplies, second hand items, thrift store buys.  She explained how people drop off their junk and she doesn't turn anything away.  Also, no one ever steals anything.  She talked about being very happy living in her town and was gracious for the chat time. 

bottle tree

crate of blue glass

crate of purple glass

I regret not buying up some of her colorful glass!

She said to check out the old church...so here it is.  Mass is no longer held in the church.

2014 Road Trip

I took a month long road trip and traveled 4000 miles through ten states.  In the next few weeks I'm posting some of the coolest things I experienced and saw on my trip.

This post is about a house I found along side US Highway 83 in the middle of Kansas!  I drove pass this beautiful aqua colored abandoned house! 

It was so cool I had to go in.  So I made a U-turn!  It was full of beautiful original wooden floors, wood doors with original knobs, light fixtures, walls of wallpaper, and even a creepy basement…didn’t go down into the basement…shit I’ve watch my share of scary movies!  

basement stairway!

Anyways I really wanted to take the door knobs, the light fixtures, wall paper off the walls!!!!   But all I could think of was karma.  Honestly, if I had had a screw driver and wire cutters I would of ignored karma!  But I would of left $20 bill on the floor just to even out the karma thing. ha ha Okay, okay, okay, I did take some wallpaper, it was peeling off the walls and some newspapers used as padding under the linoleum  floor.  The pages of newspaper were dated 1936.  The upstairs was pretty cool, all original looking wallpapers, small size rooms and neat bathroom fixtures.  You could tell this home was one sweet home sweet home.  Sad to see a house like this get neglected.

yellow kitchen!

front porch!

Owner/designer of GuruHoney

ANDREA WATKINS
GuruHoney:  2701 N 48th Street, Ste 2  Lincoln Nebraska
www.facebook.com/guruhoney.design

Here's some back story... on a previous trip to Lincoln I stopped in the GuruHoney shop on a random day at a random time but not at a random place.  While in college I lived up the street and was familiar with the neighborhood, University Place, along north 48th Street.  I used to walked pass these buildings all the time.  I loved her shop and even bought the coolest purse/bag there!   I got good vibes and thought someday I'd like to ask about putting my jewelry in her shop.  The clerk was very friendly and we exchanged Facebook information and she gave me a little information about the owner and the shop.  I didn't have my jewelry with me and it just didn't feel right at the time, plus I knew I would be back. 

On my most recent road trip I contacted Andrea Watkins to talk about my jewelry.  The minute I walked in and met her I got the goosebumps!  I set down my jewelry pieces and she loved them and again... I got goosebumps!  I have seven pieces for sale in her shop!

Here's some tidbits about Ms. Andrea Watkins and GuruHoney....

She went to college and graduated with a psych major, she was offered a job at a hospice and a marketing type job.  She took the marketing job because of the hours.  She worked her way up in the marketing field.   But she found she clicked with graphic design.  She is self-taught in graphic design,  she bought a big book on graphic design, studying all she could.  Keep in mind this was before the internet and Google.  She then took a "leap of faith" and left her stable job and went with a start up company.  She became creative director of a team of designers and the company became very successful. 

Three years ago, her dad got sick and he was dying of cancer.  She spent time with him and he was placed in Hospice the last six months of his life.  She recalls how full circle life was … being offered a job with Hospice when she graduated college.

Upon his death she was trustee of his estate and inherited set of buildings along North 48^th Street in the University Place neighborhood.  He did a lot for the area.  It was a huge project for Lincoln, trying to revitalizing the neighborhood.  The building GuruHoney is located  in is one of the buildings that belonged to her dad.  She once again took a "leap of faith", quit her job and became a landlord & a property manager.  It wasn't easy and she really struggled her first year.  With another "leap of faith", she figured since she had the building space why not open her own shop.  Along with a partner she opened GuruHoney.  She traveled to India with her previous job and lived there for six months.  She loved the culture and the name is a result of brainstorming and the thought of merging the culture of the east with the west.  Guru = high thinking   Bee = symbolic of hard work.  Creative & creating something good.  She began to design tshirts and was quite successful and told a story about one of her tshirt designs was worn by Mylie Cyrus in a photo shoot with People magazine.  She continues to revitalize the area in the spirit of father’s legacy and his vision for the area.  By the way the buildings are beautiful and the area is awesome.  It has a great vibe, a boho vibe.

I asked her how she refuels her soul.  She does Kosama – type of boot camp workouts, she loves to ride her bicycle, Lincoln has a great series of bike trails and yoga is another way she has found to refuel her soul.  She used to teach yoga and recently is finding herself being asked to teach yoga, again. 

She described herself as someone who has never been one that is not up for a challenge.  She talked about how tough it is because it’s a combination of what you know is in you and what you can do but it’s really hard because you feel you need a formal title, like artist, painter, designer, etc.  Creative people need to quit telling themselves “I’m not that”.  People wait around to be told they are “that” when they already are “that”.

I really enjoyed meeting Andrea Watkins!   She is a creative soul with so much ambition, nothing can stop her. 

Road trip in Mini Lula....

Hello from the road.....

Mini Lula and I have been on the road for nearly three weeks.  We began in Arizona, traveled through New Mexico, Texas (huge state), Oklahoma (the tiny part), Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota (for a minute), Iowa and we'll still travel through Colorado, New Mexico (again) before we end up back in Arizona.

I can't even begin to tell  you all the things we've done and who we've met and all the blessings along the way.  I'm taking notes and organizing photos so I can share our adventure on my blog.  Please be patient with me and I promise you, you're gonna want to read about this trip!

Monday thoughts

I've been busy with taking care of myself.  Which is kinda a new thing to me.  I'm one to give my time, my energy, my creative talents, my ideas, my photo skills, my card making and paper crafts to the point I'm left with nothing for myself.  Don't get me wrong I love giving and I'm honored when asked.  What I've found is I put others in front of me and I end up tired, not sleeping, not eating right, not walking, not not not.  I also  know the creative process is time consuming.  So my challenge these past few months is to focus on me.  The challenge of not breaking my personal commitments.  Sleeping has been my biggest challenge.  I've never been one for sleep and I love the when the sun sets and the stars shine.  But in order for me to have a healthier day I need to get more sleep but believe me I fight it on a nightly basis!  I really do feel better when I get the right amount of sleep, so I'm learning.  As a result of my personal journey, I've set aside my blog, my Facebook  site, my business, my jewelry, my studio time, and I found a few new things .... sitting in my courtyard on my swing listening to the wind chimes and baby birds, I found drinking tea is a nice relaxing thing to do anytime of the day or night,  I found walking clears my mind, I found I love fruit smoothies, I found sewing is still my first love, I found I still can get fun things completed and I found I need to put my personal commitments first and in turn I found I'm better at all the other things that come along.  

Monday thoughts on Sunday afternoon

I was on Skype with my sister and she mentioned how I haven't been posting on this here blog.  She's right and no question about it, I'm struggling.  I have lots of things going on and posting is on the bottom of my list these days.  As I've explained there are steps in blogging for me and I just can't seem to fit time in to do all the steps.   My sister gave me a great suggestion, which I'm going to try out this week.  She said to leave my house and go somewhere to write my articles and edit the photos.  This way there are none of the distractions I have going on in the office, studio and house. 

One thing I've been wondering about is lack of comments.  I don't know if anyone has tried to leave a comment and hasn't been able to or I have readers who are not comment leaver types. One reason I ask is I would like to do some giveaways and without knowing the problem I'm hesitant to offer the giveaway. Can you take a moment and give me some feedback?  I'm on Facebook if you find you can't comment due to a setting issue here.  Facebook.com/the.brokenwing.  Thanks so much!

Blog, I'm sorry I've been ignoring you....

Honestly, I have at least 18 pending blog posts I'm working on.  I always strive to post often for my friends and readers of my blog.  I like having a photo(s) to be included in each post and that's the time consuming part.  I sort, edit, size and watermark photos all the time and then write the articles.  Then there are the other times I wing it.  I'm also lagging on my Facebook JOBI page, I have to sort through my jewelry inventory and get more photos on my FB page.  You would think I have plenty of time for all this fun stuff, but there's all this other fun stuff getting in my way...ha ha.  I finally got a big desk calendar like the one I used when I had my job and that's been a great organizational tool to add to my never ending search to stay on top of things.

In the meantime, let's dance!

Okay, so not ready for this

The weather around here has been beautiful in the 70's & sunny, sunny and more sunny.  But, wait a minute...

Do you see this?  No, no, no it's only February and not even Valentine's Day, yet!!!  All my chocolate treats that I'm sure to get will melt!  Summer did you forget about Spring?  (I'm sorry all my friends who are stuck in the cold, icy and snowy weather).

Sewing, that's some of what's going on around here.

I walked into a great deal....   A good friend called me to meet her at her storage unit because she had more fabric and goodies to get rid of.  Boy, did she.  Fabric, soldering stuff, and more fabric!  As she was packing up her vehicle she mentioned how this person cancelled meeting about buying her sewing machine.  I asked what kind she had...well it was a Bernina quilt edition.  I have been considering a Bernina the past several years and then I would talk myself out of it... don't sew that much anymore, rather buy a new this or that, etc.  She's like go ahead take it home and test it out.  Well, she had me!  I read the manual that night and was sold.  It's an amazing machine.  I have a machine that is old old, it's basic and some of the stitches don't work, but like I said I haven't sewn sewn in years.  I got some fabric and made a baby blanket.  I was hooked...the machine is mine and she was so happy to have sold it so quickly.  As you can see it's right at home in my studio!

Like I said before my friend also gave me fabric.  In the pile was some red flannel and I had already made a flannel baby blanket, simple simple design to make.  I was out doing my regular shopping and came across some red design flannel for $.86 per yard!!!  I bought the bolt, about 8 1/2 yards.  I was able to get 8 baby blankets cut.  Here's the pile of fabric all cut and ready to pin together.

Isn't she lovely?

Lots of sewing but this machine is so smooth and fun to use.  I'm telling ya, it's giving me the sewing bug, I mean I'm sewing crazy crazy....I'm looking at patterns and planning projects.  Wait...I have jewelry on the other side of the studio waiting for me, I have a wedding invitation order sitting on my printer, I have senior photos to sort, and oh did I tell ya I'm taking an art e-course!

Monday thoughts...posted on Tuesday late night.

My recent thoughts about planning/organizing time.   Well not really organized, I'm pretty organized with my projects and most of my things have a place.  I think what I'm doing is fine tuning things.  As I write this I can't even find the words to explain what I'm doing, ha ha.  Since I've retired I don't have a schedule like I did when I was working.  I find I can do whatever I need to do or want to do any day of the week.  This is almost too flexible, yet, I'm not willing to commit to anything in particular.  So, what I'm doing is setting space in my time to work on photos, to write, to research, to work on inspiration board, project time/deadlines, etc.  Right now it seems like I'm all over the place.  So I'm working on a planner where Mondays will be take care of business day, Tuesday will be all about photos, Wednesdays can be in the studio only days, Thursday can be blog article writing day, Friday will be free day to do what needs to be done.   Now, doesn't all this sound so easy to master..... well not on "jobi time" .  Because I'm so flexible = change my mind of what I want to do on a Monday!  So then that falls into that lack of commitment thing I got going on....see my problem?  With a job, job I was committed to getting my job, job done.  Here in my world it's not like that.  Plus I also now have this other part of my daily routine called "housework".... a bad word in my vocabulary.  Oh yeah, add the great weather we have going on around here...who wants to be inside???  Then there's friends to visit with and places to go.   What's the point to a having a day planner if I'm not gonna follow it? 

This would probably explain why my blog has been neglected.  It's not for the lack of things going on around here.  Have been doing lots of fun projects one after another and I have photos to prove it...but then when am I schedule to deal with photos?   Tuesdays, oh dang didn't get to it today, now it's Wednesday, which means I need to be in the studio.  Actually, I need to get to shut down the laptop and go to bed.... Thanks for listening....

Funny when that happens.....

The other day I was not feeling so so so, you know when you can't find anything to wear because nothing fits right, when your makeup looks like war paint, you smudge your nail polish because you're in a hurry, can't find your keys & eyeglasses and they're in you other hand & on top of your head, and you have no gas in Miss MINI Lula.  You take a deep breathe and head to the gas station.  Of course gas station was busy and I finally find an open pump.  I decided it was best to pay attention getting my gas, didn't want to make my day more complicated.  Back in Miss Lula and I check my mirror to make sure the gas nozzle is not in my car.  At this point a man at the opposite pump asks me if I'm enjoying the beautiful day...btw it was sunny and 70 degrees out.  I said yeah I guess it was a nice day out.  He continued to ask me a variety of questions and at the end of the conversation he said something about me looking great and I look like a woman who knows that.  I drove away but really wanted to go back and let him know how much his words meant to me at that moment.  All the doubt I had of myself that morning disappeared.  Just so weird how this happened so randomly, but then again, in my world random is never really random.

Taking an E-course!

The name of the class is "Studying Under The Masters, (becoming an apprentice)".  The class is offered by Jeanne Oliver.  I was intrigue by it since one of my favorite artist, Stephanie Lee was part of the class.  It's a nine week class with a different artist each week.  The artists choose a master artist to study under.  I really wasn't sure what that meant.  It's been the first week and I love it.  I've never taken an art class thus I know nothing about art in the since of theory or the history of art.  What Jeanne says in her introduction to the class was exactly what I needed to hear.  It's about becoming an apprentice, practicing, copying, learning and finally, finding my own way in my art.  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!  I love feeding my creative soul!

 jeanneoliverdesigns.com

Cupcakes, that's what's going on around here

I'm co-hosting a baby shower and one of my duties is to make the cupcakes.  I know I could of just bought a couple of box cake mixes but I really don't like box cakes and I've used them in the past and added stuff to make them taste homemade.  This time I decided to make them from scratch.  But to keep is simple, I'm doing chocolate and  vanilla cupcakes.  I'm using a cake recipe I've used for years and it's moist and not over chocolate.  I haven't ever used it for cupcakes, though.  I think the thing is baking time, so while I write this blog post I'm also watching the time they're in the oven.  Cross your fingers they come out nice.  Otherwise, I told Tom he'll be eating cupcakes all weekend.  I wanted to make a simple vanilla cupcake and searched the internet to find a recipe.  Boy are there ton's of them.  I'm impressed with all the baking bloggers who do such a great job sharing recipes and photos.  I picked a recipe from www.bakehappy.net, it's called Perfectly Moist Vanilla Cupcake.  I'll let you know how the cupcakes turn out.  My plan is to top them off with the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream...simple flavors is the theme.

I have to make some crescent moons out of white chocolate to top them off ....  the timer is going off..brb.  Oh my, they came out perfect looking.  I'll be posting photos once I get them all finished... wish me luck.  I will also be posting about all the cute "love you to the moon and back" stuff made for the shower.  I'm not big on baby showers and this is the first one I've been involved with but all I can say it's a lot of things to think about and do starting from the invite to the food, from the mailing list to the decorations, from number of table & chairs to the theme, from table cloths to paper products, etc.  All & all I think it's going to be adorable and fun for the new momma, Kerry.  By the way, it's a boy!

2014 is here!

Goodbye to 2013

Saying goodbye to 2013, what all did I do?

First thing I did in 2013 was walk a 5K and finished last

Walked several more 5K’s and didn’t finish last

Treadmill did not become my best friend!

Got an iPhone and iPad – staying connected

Enjoying Facebook

Travelled to Chicago

Got my picture taken at the “bean”

Stood on a glass floor 113 stories high

Went to the Mexican American art museum in Chicago

Visited Washington DC 

Lincoln memorial and stood at the same spot Martin Luther King stood.

Was moved by the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon

Traveled to Boston

Sightseeing all of Boston.  The Freedom Trail was awesome.

Went to Salem and learned about witches.

Gathered rocks along the beach in Marshfield

Had fun at the Buckley family reunion and took a photo of everyone who attended.

Fenway and Red Sox game….world series champs, again.

Attended  a wedding in  Lubbock with the Arens family

Went to Abilene Texas and walked  wello’s lot on Bois D’arc with my Alvarez family

Sold my jewelry on every  trip!

Traveled to Nebraska & Colorado, twice.

Found the neatest flag backdrop in McCook, Nebraska

Watched and enjoyed a lot of football

Learned how to paint a house.

Went my second Kansas football game

Enjoyed my visit to the Little Monastery of the Lamb in Kansas City, KS

Didn’t see some friends as much as I wanted

Checked out Guru Honey shop in Lincoln, Nebraska…very cool stuff

Swam in my pool daily…but never jumped in

Met new creative friends

Used my camera a lot and I mean a lot I probably have a photo for each of these things

Learned to knit!

Soldered, sewed, painted

Bedtime is way after midnight

Killed most of my plants over the summer! Only two survived.

Didn’t dance enough

Continued to get great advice from Cathy

My Wednesdays with my brother turned into any weekday with my brother

Watched cooking shows and learned me some new skills

Still have a long to-do list

Love my time with family and friends this year

Feeling great and ready to swag my way into 2014