It's Not A Macaron Or A Macaroon

Yesterday I was browsing through Pinterest, as I am known to do, when I stumbled upon this:












Adorable, right? It is a macaron coin purse designed to look like the oh-so-popular-right-now macaron cookies which look like this:

Not to be confused with a macaroon which looks like this:



and is usually made with coconut.

Are we clear?




I went to the website with the macaron coin purse instructions and confirmed that it is indeed adorable. It is also tiny which makes it virtually useless. I'm not sure you could stack 2 quarters in that sucker.

The instructions were very clear with lots of pictures but I could tell that trying to hand sew on something that small would put me back in wrist braces.

It still looked a little bit useless to me and I just couldn't justify spending that much time on something that would serve no purpose. I often spend a great deal of time on things that others might see as serving no purpose, but even if an item is decorative and just sits on my shelf looking pretty, that's its purpose. I couldn't see how a tiny coin purse would fit with my home decor and it certainly wouldn't fit all the loose change I need to carry around so I decided I didn't need a macaron coin purse.

But it sure is cute. I love how round and puffy it is which made me think it might make a good pincushion. I have pincushions on the brain lately because my sister makes them out of vintage porcelain pieces and sells them at antique stores and online.

The only problem was that I couldn't figure out what to do with the zippered part, which is the best part about it. Then I thought if it was a little bigger it could be used to hold needles. Yeah. Pins on the outside and needles on the inside. And wouldn't it be great if somehow the inside was magnetic so that the needles wouldn't roll around in there and would be easier to pick up? Yeah, I thought it would be great too so I went about trying to figure out how to make that happen.

Altoid tin pincushion/needle holder.

24 hours later here is what I ended up with:

It's cute, it's functional and even though it's definitely not the same as the macaron coin purse it was inspired by it.

I've decided to sell it at cost which would be $479.00. That's just labor and materials: $0 for materials and $479.00 for labor.

Needle compartment.

Hidden magnets hold the needles.

Cute as it is I won't be making another one like it until I can figure out an easier way to do it. That shouldn't be a problem since I now have a long list of what not to do.

There was both sewing and gluing involved but I ended up sewing what I should have glued and gluing what I should have sewed. That was made even harder by the fact that I didn't have the proper glue on hand and I couldn't just drop everything to go buy some. That's like asking a shark to go take out the trash during a feeding frenzy. You're wasting your breath cuz he's just not going to do it.

If you would like to make a similar pincushion/needle holder, start with an Altoid tin shaped like this:

Then cover it with fabric, put some magnets in the bottom, a puff on top, a zipper in the middle and you're done.

And for Pete's sake, put a piece of fabric on the inside to act as a hinge and to cover the ugliness of the zipper. I can't believe I forgot to do that. What a rookie mistake.

Almost any girl will take a baked ham...

Yesterday I went to the little antique store up the road from me and picked up a few things I couldn't live without including several vintage postcards. Apparently I was in a flowery/Valentine mood because these are the ones I chose:

Embossed postcard circa 1910

Back of 1910 postcard. Love that address.

Embossed postcard printed in Germany.

Embossed postcard with gold detail printed in Saxony.

Embossed postcard printed in Germany. It actually has a metallic gold moire finish.

Embossed postcard.

This last one is my favorite. Check out the tart with her sugar daddy.

Linen finish postcard from 1945.

Back of Baked Ham postcard.

As awesome as the front of that card is, the message on the back is even better. It's hard to read so I'll translate as best I can:

Dear Bud & all,

Had a wonderful time only too short. Thanks for everything.

Will talk to Mr. Smith tomorrow & more than likely find out something I hope.

Worked from 5:30 until 5:45 this p.m. & am I tired.

Spent the night with Bob & [Trish?] last night. Will write more later.

Love, Irene

Bless her heart. Irene worked 15 minutes last night and wore herself out. She and I could have been best friends, I just know it.

A year in the life of an overachieving slacker.

Yesterday I worked on some calendaring for the coming year. That's something we used to do periodically back when I had one of those job type things and it is a very beneficial planning tool.

However, I have discovered that I'm going to be awfully busy this year and I'm not sure how I'm going to manage this grueling schedule. All of those corporate executives are a bunch of slackers compared to me. Navy Seals are relieved that they're not under the same amount of stress that I am. It's frightening, really.

Yesterday I listed 30+ galleries and museums that I would like to visit in the coming year if I can squeeze them in. That will be challenging considering the state of my datebook. Let's take a look.

I am pretty much all booked up every Saturday for the foreseeable future with these fun events:

First Saturday Arts Market in the Heights

Second Saturday Open Studios at Winter Street and Spring Street Studios

Discovery Green Flea every third Saturday

Re-Market is the fourth Saturday of every month

So this Saturday I will be attending First Saturday Arts Market *and* I will be checking out a new market called the Houston Outdoor Market. It's a brand new one that will be open every weekend.

I hope to feel a connection to one of these places so that I can eventually become a vendor and get rid of some of this crap I keep making.

Next Saturday I will be checking out the open studios at Winter and Spring Street Studios to see what that's like. I don't plan to be renting studio space from them any time soon since it starts in the $300/month range. That's more for serious artists and there is very little in this life that I am serious enough about to pay $300/month for it.

The day after the open studios (Sunday, February 12) is the Urban Market Antique Show at The Bayou City Event Center.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo starts on February 28 and runs through March 18. Jayson will be hosting the company suite at Reliant Stadium on March 8 when ZZ Top will be performing. That should be fun :) Oh, I'm also getting my roots done that day.

On March 23 the Bayou City Art Festival will be happening in Memorial Park. Then two weeks later I will be heading to the Round Top area for the spring edition of the Texas Antique Weekend. I had intended to go last fall but it didn't work out so I'm making it a priority to check it out in the spring.

Are you exhausted yet?? I know, me too. The very next weekend following the antique show is the International Gem and Jewelry Show at Reliant. I went to this years ago and can remember being very overwhelmed but in a good way. There's just so much to choose from that it's almost too much.

April 23 will be mine and Jayson's 24th anniversary. We will probably celebrate by going out to eat at some place that doesn't have a drive-through. He just loves to spoil me like that.

The Urban Market Antique Show will be happening again on May 20. Then the weekend of June 23-24 is the Round Top Summer Antique Show and also the Gem and Jewelry Show will be back. I like it when things happen 2 or 3 times a year. That way I can choose which date is most convenient for my nightmare of a schedule.

Nothing much happens over the next couple of months because this is Texas and it's too dang hot. We use this important down time to put off our holiday preparations until the last possible minute.

October 4-7 is the Fall edition of the Round Top antique thing and hopefully by this time I will have already been to at least one.

The Urban Market will show up again on October 28 and then it will be time for the International Quilt Festival on November 1-4.  The Nutcracker Market will be November 8-11 so I can go stare at a bunch of pretty stuff that I can't afford to buy. I actually sort of enjoy those things because I can look at something really pricey then figure out how to make the same thing for cheap.

Artcrawl 2012 should be happening some time during November but I'm not sure when. And then it's Christmas.

Whew! Now can you see why I might not be able to squeeze in all those museum visits? Just thinking about it has worn me out so I should probably rest from now until Saturday. I'm going to need my strength for the year ahead.

Arting Around Houston

A friend from Lafayette was in town visiting last week so we did some Houston stuff that I thought I'd write about. Actually I'm only writing about it because I need to make list of museums and galleries that I want to visit and putting it here is the only way I am guaranteed not to lose my list.

Orion MPCV

We had very limited time and really crappy weather so we didn't get to do and see everything that I would have liked but we still had a great time. My friend had never been to NASA so we spent one day there. I didn't realize that so many people are under the impression that NASA has closed down. It seems to be a common misconception, however the only thing that has closed down is the shuttle program. NASA is alive and well and working on the Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle which is expected to make its maiden voyage in 2015. In the mean time we'll be hitching a ride to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz to the tune of $60 million per seat. Russia isn't exactly mourning the loss of our shuttle program.

Later that evening we drove over to Humble to meet my friend's friends for dinner. I'd never been to Humble before, it was bigger than I thought it would be. If you're in Southeast Texas and want to blend with the natives make sure you pronounce Humble correctly. It is Umble. The "H" is silent. I don't know why. Similarly, if you are in South Louisiana and want to blend you should learn how to pronounce Atchafalaya correctly. You will have to have someone pronounce it for you because there is no way you could ever accidentally say it correctly. Cajuns have a thing about putting emphasis on syllables that you would never expect to be emphasized, yeah? <---that was a Cajun thing too.

Ever since we moved to Houston I've been encouraging people to stay with us when they're in the area because we have plenty of space for guests. It just so happened that Jayson was out of the country when my friend came to visit so he couldn't stay with us since it really wouldn't be appropriate to have a man in the house without Jayson here. He is a dear friend who is like a son/brother to me but it still wouldn't be right. Fortunately we have some mutual friends in The Woodlands who where happy to have him stay with them.

This provided a good opportunity to troll The Woodlands which I highly recommend if you've not done it before. It was one of the first "master planned communities" in the United States...which is just another way to say that most of us can't afford to live there and even if we could we wouldn't want to because of all the rules. I don't know exactly what all the rules are but just the few that I do know of are enough to keep me out. Don't get me wrong, the area is beautiful and if you don't mind all the restrictions then you might love it.

Some of these restrictions include a cap on how large your house can be, a requirement to maintain a certain percentage of wooded area on your lot, a cap on how much concrete area can be on your lot, design and color restrictions based on your neighborhood, etc. This is in addition to other basic neighborhood association rules such as not allowing you to have a Chevy up on blocks in your front yard. I can dig that. 

When you're driving through the Woodlands you might be asking yourself where all the houses and stores are. They are not visible from the roads but are hidden by tall forest-like trees. There are restrictions on how tall commercial signage can be which must be around 4' tall since I never saw a sign taller than that. There are no billboards which makes for a very pleasant driving experience but the short signs hidden by tall trees make for a frustrating experience when you're trying to find the stinkin' McDonald's.

Market Street, The Woodlands, TX

I would like to go back one day and visit Market Street in The Woodlands so that I can criticize that too. Okay fine, maybe I'm just jealous. I honestly would not like to live there but I do have to admit that from a design perspective it is well planned, executed, maintained and simply beautiful. A little pretentious, yes, but that's what happens when you live in an area whose population is over 90% white with an average family income of over $100,000 per year. This community was designed to be exclusive and it has succeeded. I tend to rebel against that kind of exclusivity.

On the last day of my friend's visit we had hoped to see the King Tut exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts but we were delayed because of rain and didn't make it over there in time. Instead we went to see the Menil Collection which consists of a museum, 2 chapels, 2 galleries and a bookstore with no admission fee for any of it.

We saw the Rothko Chapel and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel which are both architecturally stunning but we missed out on some of the awesomeness because it was a cloudy day and the chapels are both designed to incorporate natural light as a design element.

Byzantine Fresco Chapel

Rothko Chapel

Because of time we missed the Cy Twombly Gallery and the Dan Flavin installation at Richmond Hall but I will definitely keep those on my long list of Houston artsy stuff to do.

The Menil Collection Museum was a pleasant surprise. From what I understand, Mr. Menil was a french banker who married a Schlumberger gal so they really didn't have any financial trouble. They started collecting art in the 1940s and ended up with over 16,000 pieces of it. They also supported the growth of art and architecture as well as the civil rights movement in the Houston area. Mrs. Menil built the museum after her husband's death to display not only their vast collection but to host exhibits from other artists as well.

I really didn't have high expectations since I knew that most of what we'd see came from a private collection but let me tell you...the Menils chose well. I was expecting to see mostly generic artists but there were lots of name brands. There were dozens of Rene Magritte paintings in their large surrealism section but I guess he saved his most recognizable one, The Son of Man, for his own museum. There were a couple of Picasso paintings and sketches as well as 2 Mondrians that I was not impressed with because really, if you've seen one...

Andy Warhol's "Ten-Foot Flowers"

Andy Warhol's "Ten-Foot Flowers" makes for an impressive piece of wall art. However, I am forever traumatized by Robert Gober's chunk of hairy cheese which I did not understand nor appreciate as art. It's a beeswax chunk of cheese with human hair in it. Why??

Robert Gober's hairy cheese

"Grey Alphabets" by Jasper Johns

Actually, I asked myself "WHY??" more than once which I think most people do when browsing through a modern art exhibit.

If I had to pick a favorite I think it would be the "Grey Alphabets" by Jasper Johns made from beeswax and oil paint on newspaper and canvas. I love the color, the repetition, the medium, everything about it.

I didn't realize there were so many museums in Houston until after we moved here. Maybe this is typical for a big city, I really wouldn't know, but I'm surprised I hadn't heard about more of them before.

As far a big cities go, Houston seems to be one of the more humble...with a hhhh sound. Dallas is loud and unapologetically in-your-face about how awesome it is. And it is awesome. Austin is more quietly pretentious however you do get the message loud and clear that if you're not young and hip you're not welcome. I think Houston is confused about itself. It can't help but be Texas proud but its efforts to embrace diversity make it impossible for Houston to be as Austintatious as it could be with such a large art scene.

This is a list of other arty stuff to do and see around Houston and it is mainly for my own benefit since I am a prolific list maker and a proficient list loser. Here are the ones I haven't seen or previously mentioned:

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Peel Gallery

The Heritage Society Museum

Project Row Houses

The Museum of Printing History

The Houston Arts Alliance Gallery

Czech Center Museum Houston

Barbara Davis Gallery

The Health Museum

Rienzi Center for European Decorative Arts

Holocaust Museum Houston

18 Hands Gallery - where I just learned about the International Texas Teapot Tournament!!

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

Houston Center for Photography

Houston Museum of Natural Science

McMurtrey Gallery

The Weather Museum

Winter Street Studios - an old furniture factory that now houses over 75 artist studios

Spring Street Studios - a former moving & storage building that's now home to 80 artist studios

Off The Wall Gallery

The Jung Center of Houston

Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum

Lawndale Art Center

Rice University Art Gallery

Art at The Airport - I would like to spend a day driving around to all the terminals to see each different installation

The 1940 Air Terminal Museum - okay, that one is more for Jayson than me

Art League Houston

The Architecture Center Houston - and some of the walking tours available there

Blaffer Art Museum at U of H

Wade Wilson Art

Elaine Bradford's commission at the Vinson Neighborhood Library

John Ross Palmer Fine Art Gallery

George Ranch Historical Park

Station Museum of Contemporary Art

Moody Gallery

Sicardi Gallery

There are dozens more galleries that I haven't checked out yet so I'm sure this list will grow, as if it isn't long enough already. On the upside, it could be much longer but I've already knocked out about a dozen places. And I didn't include my list of offbeat funky destinations such as The Beer Can House and other similar world's-largest-ball-of-string or freak show type things that I'm unnaturally drawn to. Or maybe it's a natural attraction. Those are my peeps.

Dangling Doggie Eyeballs

It normally takes me a while to get fully alert in the mornings, but today my sister snapped me into instant alertness. Here is our phone conversation:

ME: Helllooo? (all slurred and groggy)

MAYN: Okay, I am trying to remain calm.

Shamayn had just opened her Etsy shop to sell these adorable pincushions she makes so my first thought was that she had sold all of them in 10 minutes and I was so excited for her. Then she said:

MAYN: I'm on my way to the vet with Sissy. She pissed off Dutch and he went after her and now she has one eyeball hanging out.

Sissy is a 4 pound tiny teacup toy miniature Chihuahua and Dutch is a freakishly large 100 pound Labrador. I can't believe he hasn't swallowed Sissy whole before now.

ME: Oh my gosh how awful!

MAYN: I know. It was all I could do to get her into the kennel. I tried to tell myself that I see dangling eyeballs all the time so it's no big deal but it is! It's hanging out of the socket!

ME: Is she messing with it?

MAYN: No, she's just curled up in a ball shivering.

ME: Oh, she's probably in shock.

MAYN: That makes two of us! I'm going to tell the vet that she might need a little something to calm her nerves and she prefers Klonopin...1mg twice a day, just to take the edge off.

ME: Let me know what he says.

A few minutes later Mayn called back and said the vet thought he might actually be able to save the eye. He took Sissy into surgery so he can pop the eye back in then sew the lid shut to let it heal for a while.

Chihuahuas are already so bug-eyed, I'm surprised she hasn't popped one out before now. Most dogs might learn their lesson and would leave the big dog alone from now on but not Sissy. I'm sure as soon as she's back on her feet she will be picking on Dutch again and next time she might lose more than an eyeball.

Now that I'm unusually alert you might think I would be extra productive and get a head start on my day. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. I'm just hyper aware that I really want to go back to bed.