Gettin' all Celtic on your Festival

I love this time of year in my neighborhood. It makes me freak out with love for Austin. First we have the Dia de Los Muertos parada right down E. 6th St.... then we have Celtic Festival down at Fiesta Gardens (a stone's throw, quite seriously, from my house... or perhaps we should say, more accurately, a frisbee's throw from my house), and then the East Austin Studio Tour, which has expanded to TWO weekends this year! Yippee! Nov. 14th through Nov. 22nd. That's good because I always go out on Sunday it seems and then have so much fun that I'm kicking myself for not having been out since Saturday in the a.m. seeing all the awesome art and cool cool spaces for making art and rubbing noses with some really awesome people. This time I plan on taking full advantage. But back to the Celtic Festival.

First let me assure you that I am not a Fest kind of gal. I'm kind of claustrophobic and not really as social as you might think and I do have three rather young, unpredictable children who could be enjoying themselves perfectly well one moment and then on the ground in a foamy-mouthed rabid rage the next.... so we have to kind of exercise caution as far as attending events goes. But ever since I stumbled upon Celtic Festival whilst on a walk when Jack was but one years old and we had just moved into the 'hood... and I observed from behind the chain link fence the sheep herding demonstration and the Strong Men in Kilts chucking huge tree trunks and all sorts of lads and lasses all Medieval-ed out... well, I was hooked. So now we go every year and it's really quite perfect for, uh, how shall I put this... I don't quite want to label my boys as 'aggro'... but for the discerning young chap who enjoys some crashing and banging of metal objects and weapons... it's pretty darn exciting. We watched some sort of wonderful Viking group battle each other and afterwards we got to get up close and personal... talk to them and try on their helmets and hold their shields. There was also this great archery set-up where you could shoot ten arrows for three dollars... hellz yeah! Jack was all about it. We ran into our friend Max (in the red shirt) who shared his cotton candy with us... I do believe that was Bruno's favorite part of the experience. Max bought that tiny cross bow there, that shoots a little nerf arrow... I want to think how to build one of those... would be a great project to do with kids, potentially.

Anyway, Celtic Festival! Also going on tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 8th (my birthday!) Happy birthday to me, and check it out....

Austin Creative Reuse... our first event!

This was so exciting... putting our idea out to the good people of Austin, turning people on to this awesome vision and igniting this little spark of excitement that's going to keep this project blazing on towards completion!

This meeting was to kind of to explain more to people what this reuse resource center is going to be like, how it's going to operate... and telling people more about how this model is very well established in places like Oakland, Chicago, New York City.... there's at least twenty of them in the U.S. Austin is so ripe and ready for a place like this.... it's pretty much a no-brainer.
Our event was really well attended and people were excited! My assignment was to lay out a simple reuse project. I decided to do this marble labyrinth game.... I can't even tell you how excited I became seeing what people came up with. So excited that it's a little bit ridiculous. But there it was, what I have been dreaming of this whole time... people creating, having fun, and using all these scraps and odds and ends to boot... well, there just ain't one thing wrong about that. Austin Creative Reuse in action.

Sometimes I just love people so goddamn much

Submissions to a Where the Wild Things Are fort building contest, at http://www.booooooom.com/ (in collaboration with http://www.weloveyouso.com/). More forts can be found here and here.

Austin Creative Reuse!!!

What the What?!?! Is it possible that my dreams could really become a reality? Those of you that have followed my rantings and ravings may remember me frothing at the mouth about my idea for a business named Mungo. Wow, my God... that was only 8 months ago or so, I now realize. The universe was working fast on my behalf, thanks a bunch, Universe!! So anyways.... I started this blog all fulla reuse ideas also named Mungo.... And then got matched up with a wonderful bunch of people who had a similar idea to me (thanks Bernadette!!!) , to create this wonderful reuse resource center similar to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse.... and now we've got a groovy logo and a name and are about to invite all of Austin to find out what we are all about! And that means YOU.... if you're out there reading this and this lights your fire in any way, come on down to the AAMP warehouse at 411 W. Monroe on Thursday November 5th at 7 pm to find out all about it. More here at www.austincreativereuse.org

Dollhouses...

Here is my dollhouse that I've been working on on Tuesday nights with my friend Kiera. I'm doing a kind of bare bones, modern style, because it's the best my feeble carpentry skills can muster. If anyone wants to come build a dollhouse with us, the club is an open one! Kiera is doing a total remodel on a huge dollhouse she found at Blue Hanger. I think I'm going to do mine all with reused objects.... kind of set myself a challenge, and then it will fit in with this project, and then I can kind of justify to myself the time spent futzing around on this fun little project that, well, when you think about it, really should take a back seat to some other, more pressing tasks. But I'm staving off that logical brain, trying to just allow myself a little play time. I need it, I need it, indeed I really do.....

Turkey Creek

We are in paradise... the drought really really did end after all this rain... and it coincided perfectly with some crystalline, warm fall days, still warm enough to splash around and swim IN THESE CREEKS THAT HAVE BEEN DRY FOR TWO YEARS NOW!!!! This is so miraculous. I thought even if we got enough rain we might have to wait until spring. But praise be. And get thee down to the Greenbelt or Turkey Creek or Bull Creek or choose one from this fine assortment of creeks that Austin has to offer.... Truly Glorious.

"Flores! Flores! Flores por los muertos!"

I'm sorry, I can never get that line from Streetcar Named Desire out of my head. Chilling.

OH we had so much fun at our little party and then the parada on E. 6th street was fantastic as usual. Matt was correct in stating that kids seemed a little more intent on actually eating the sugar skulls this year (for some strange reason it was completely a non-issue, last year) and we also filmed a very short and incoherent zombie movie and we actually did a tad more actual talking about the dead who we are actually supposedly honoring so that was cool. For the record the top photo shows a picture of me and Auggie Doggie... our dearly beloved dachschund who is hands down most beloved pet of mine of all time so it is very fun to be inspired to tell the boys Auggie stories, which they love, of course.
I also called my mom yesterday and asked her for a little inspiration about how to represent my grandma and grandpa on the altar. She reminded me about how my Grandma lived in Wichita Falls, TX during the depression, a hot dry land that she hated. She read the book, The Girl of the Limberlost, over and over, and when she moved to Oregon she was in paradise. That was very fun to remember and imagine. I remember that she loved that book... I read it at some point in my childhood, too. And I remember her talking about how blisteringly hot Texas was. She said in the summer they'd just start getting up earlier and earlier each morning... trying to catch a breath before the sun came up. I also remember her always saying that How Green Was My Valley was her favorite film. I've never seen it...

My Grandpa was actually super cool. I'm sad to say I had no idea how cool until recently. Now I realize I must have inherited my tinkering proclivity from this man... who built a homemade roller coaster in my Mom and Aunt's backyard when they were little, along with a playhouse and a miniature golf course. These are just my Mom's parents of course... I'll have to get to my Dad's parents next year. Can't overload the little ones, who only have so much patience for hearing tales about their ancestors before they start gnawing on sugar skulls and going into sugar shock. Though I did hear one fascinating little tidbit from my mom yesterday... My Grandpa Bill on my Dad's side was badly narcoleptic, which is really interesting because my Dad is like that too... in the evening or at movies, and once in high school I even heard him snoring out in the audience of Bye Bye Birdie, in which I had a starring role... but my Mom said, "No, he was way worse than your Dad... when we went over there for dinner he would always fall asleep at the table after supper.... just sitting there and smoking his cigar... and everyone was so used to it they wouldn't even say anything... and he had all these holes in his shirt where he'd dropped his cigar whilst nodding off." So keep an eye on me folks... am I really listening to you with rapt attention, or have I just inherited my grandfather's condition but one-upped him by learning to snooze with my eyes wide open...

Anyway, all that bla bla bla just to say, I really love this holiday, and I love honoring all these dear good people who have passed on to the other side, sharing stories and believing that they're watching over us... all these grinning, dancing, jolly skeletons... really makes you feel safe and cozy. It really does!