diamonds in the rough...

Sometimes there are diamonds in your life. Like this web that caught the morning dew and wouldn't let go...This is kind of like my family...a web of diamonds in the rough, coming together and celebrating this past week...Celebrating what? My parents surprise 61st Anniversary party.

They were surprised alright...and the party was a load of fun with friends from the past gathering together on a warm summers night to celebrate with us.
Becca and brother Chris congratulate themselves on their appetizers

Jesse snaps some pics when the banner with their wedding picture is unfolded...
everyone signed it to commemorate the evening.

the clan

But that was not all, the adventure continued...
the next day we headed to the Bowers Museum.
We came here to see what is sometimes called the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World - The Terra Cotta Warriors - Guardians of China's First Emperor.

Aunt Mary, Veronica, Chris, Dad and Mom
How great we could all be together...



The warriors were really amazing. My parents were not able to see them when they had visited China several years ago, so here was their chance to fulfill that wish. So much intrigue and mystery tied up in these amazing statues. The Emperor had 7,000 statues made to watch over him in his afterlife. Can you imagine? A selection of them made the journey to Los Angeles. Here we are standing by photographs of them because you can't take pictures inside.


I like this cool primitive animal statue...


After our visit with the warriors we headed to one of our favorite haunts,
We hit Balboa Island for lunch and a walkabout...
then we topped off the weekend with a real diamond in the rough...
meet Dodger Brit...my parents new pup...
He's a a Yorkie-ton... a Coton de Tulear/ Yorkshire Terrier Hybrid.
We call him Dodger Dog...
He's so darling...we are sure Dodger Dog will keep my parents on their toes and youthful as ever and bring them tons of joy for years to come...don't you think?

my o' my

from this...

to this...

in 23 years today...my o' my...how my Jesse has grown...

uprisefilms.com

in our house...

I'm back from my trip to Colorado. After running to three different gates to catch my flight (United could not make up there mind where they wanted the plane to leave from)...It's a good thing I left plenty of time for such shananagins...
After driving from Denver to Fort Collins, my
whirlwind began of booksignings, teaching, visiting, shopping and fun.

Here I am when I arrived at my art pal and co-author Sarah Fishburn's living room...

and here are the lovely peony sitting in my room from Sarah's own peony bush. Talk about glorious color and fragrance.

The book signings begin...at Barnes & Noble,

We loved our visit with the oh so talented Tiffini Elektra X who was a contributing artist to our book "In This House".

We made some new friends at Borders Books who took good care of us and gave us the best cup of iced coffee ever...

and then to Timeless Creations...where the original house art was on display for all to see.

The classes Sarah and I taught took place at "Creative Underground at Timeless Creations" and we had a blast with our lovely artistic students who soaked up our techniques and demonstrations and thenput their own spin on things. Hats off to you ladies for some impressive creative work.

Christi, the Creative Underground Maven, made all of us fantastic lunch...
thanks Christi for all you did...
More about Sarah and my play days around Fort Collins in my next post.

fathers are very special people...

I am off on my Colorado journey to sign some books and make some art. I will miss Father's Day at home this year. So I did not want to leave without a nod to my Dad who is a very special human being to all that know him.
So happy Father's Day to my special Dad,
to Steve the awesome father of my kids,
and to dedicated Dad's everywhere...

so do you think you can dance?

I found these old pictures of me in an envelope and it reminded me of the years I took dancing.That's my teacher Ernest Belcher, the father of Marge Champion who was a famous ballerina and dance teacher.

But it's the dancers on "So You Think You Can Dance" that I'm talking about...How amazing are they? This show is a must see to celebrate the pure joy of dance.

go lakers...

lakers

drawing day is drawing close...

late to bed...early to rise

It was frightening this morning...to arise to the news that Universal Studios was on fire. It turns out they got the fire contained...but not before the New York Street set was destroyed...and some reports said King Kong was involved too...The element of fire...with it's unpredictable ways, can be so destructive.... I have great admiration for our firefighters...and if the reports are correct, over 400 of them were on the move this morning...

Thanks for all the well wishes for Jesse...he is off his crutches and back to his old self. He had jumped over a fence (not in an escape mind you, but because he locked his keys inside and he was outside - with no shoes on his feet!) and landed on the side of his heel. They make it look so effortless in the movies...but real life can be painful.
Which brings me to the discovery I made of a group called "Society for Barefoot Living" Did you know there was such a thing? Now I love the feel of dewy grass under my feet...or walking in warm sand on a moonlit beach...but what about walking on pavement when it's so hot you can fry an egg on it...or trudging through snow without warm wooly socks or forging a rocky stream...ouch. And there is something so unattractive about dirty feet...don't you think? You learn something everyday...

I have posted a new series of unruly tableaux on my Etsy site...including the ones I have posted on my blog. They will be up there until I am outta here and I'm taking the tableaux posted on the site with me... so no shipping will be done between June 10th through June 18th. I also made a new page on my website with my complete tableaux collection if you wanna take a look...
Enjoy the beginnings of June....