A few weeks ago I fell into crazy love with a chair. Like, I actually gasped when I saw the picture of it on Craigslist. Gasped. And then I drove across Texas with my mom to find it, buy it ($15!), and cart it home. Things seize me like that. In fact, that’s how I […]
I’m taking a little time off from writing. Not a lot of time off: just a couple of months. I just need to be creative in different ways for a little bit. Like sewing kinda creative. And re-covering old chairs kinda creative. And cleaning up our house creative. To the extent that you can call […]
Yesterday, after 11 days home with a sick 4-year-old, I went to the school I went to for Kindergarten through 12th grade to give a chapel talk. It’s book fair week at my old school, and this year, I am the featured author. They asked me to address the question “Why read books?” And I […]
So I inherited some lamps from my grandfather’s office last week. Or, actually, I just claimed them out of my mother’s garage. They came from this awesome building: my grandfather’s building materials company. My mom found the lamps in a storage room there a few years back, and she gave them a home in her […]
So last week I fell into a crazy infatuated love. With a chair. A chair I found for 15 dollars on Craigslist. But not Craigslist in Houston, where I live. Craigslist in Austin, which is 3 hours away. What was I even doing looking at the Austin Craigslist? But somehow it happened. And you know […]
Dear Kelly Rae Roberts, Thank you for setting me on fire. I’ve made another collage, and now I’m walking around today with an excited kind of tickle in my body. It’s that same feeling I get when I’m in the groove with a story–a feeling of creation, of expression, of doing something that only I […]
The furnishings in our house have been going downhill for a while. Kid life has been hard on my decorating skills. We have a great time here and laugh a lot. But let’s just say, decor-wise, my house is not even in the neighborhood of its potential. And so, one by one, I’m going to […]
This morning, I did a radio interview with Christopher Gabriel on his program for AM 970 WDAY in Fargo, ND, and it was SO MUCH FUN. Click here to listen to the AM 970 WDAY interview with Christopher Gabriel
I’d love to have a body poems booth. Maybe just sit out on the front lawn on nice days with a sign like a lemonade stand that says, Body Poems: $1. And anybody who needed to tell herself something could just stop by and get painted. The first time I ever painted words on someone‘s […]
One day, in Oregon, we made collages. It was all because of Kelly Rae, who shared both her artistic process and her giant suitcase of cool collage stuff (like vintage letters, postcards, ledgers, envelopes, stamps, sheet music) with us. When I saw the paints and canvases come out, and when I realized what we were […]
Last spring, I got invited to go with a group of women artists to the Oregon coast for a retreat called Lovebomb. And of course I said yes. Even though Oregon is a long way from Texas. And even though I’ve done more than enough traveling lately. And even though I only knew four of […]
Today, when my daughter saw I’d bought some heavy cream at the grocery, she asked if we could make butter. So we did! We learned how to do it when she was in pre-school, and it’s super-easy! Here’s how: Pour some room-temperature heavy whipping cream into a small glass jar (like a baby food jar). […]
The AREs for Get Lucky are all printed up — and just arrived in the mail at my house. It’s still a 6-month wait for the actual book, but it’s always a thrill to see the AREs. It’s amazing how different the words look on the pages of the book. The new layout seems to […]
I try not to forget to count my blessings. And one of them–two years in a row, now–has been getting to go out to the Texas Hill Country to stay in the gorgeous country house of one of my mom’s dear friends. I got to go last year when I was finishing up my […]
I apologize for the Blair Witch quality of the kitten photos. But they do illuminate some true things: 1. My camera spends too much time at the bottom of my enormous purse–down with the pretzel crumbs and dessicated granola bars. 2. A small person in my house (and I’m not naming any names) threw the […]