Aerial Acrobatics on So You Think You Can Dance!

I am soooo excited!  So You Think You Can Dance is back on TV and today was the 2nd night of picking through all the potential dancers.  I was so psyched to see aerial silks, aerial hoop (lyra), pole acrobatics, as well as the cyr wheel, which is like a giant circus hoop.  A 27 year old circus performer David Matz on the cyr wheel was just AMAZING!  I'm in LOVE!  I am sure that by tomorrow he'll be all over the internet and so I'll add a link to the video of his dance.

I have been taking classes at CirqueFit in Dallas (although lately I must admit that I have been bad and have not gone in a while... need to fix that,) and have even been in a theatre production of Kazoo-la-la on the aerial hammock, which was so much fun... and I have to say that if I were to ever get anywhere in the neighborhood of what that guy did, I would be the happiest chick on this planet.  WOW!  So impressed!

Hoops: photo manipulation

Unlike drawing something in pencil and then manipulating it, I took a really bad photograph I took at a Middle Eastern restaurant and transformed it into this "painting."

I made her hair longer, made her taller, and put a flower in her hair... hope you like her.

Below is the original photo.

red Butterfly

I don't know about you, but I love to doodle!  This is one of my little doodles.  I snapped a photo of it on with my phone and uploaded it to my computer.  At that point it's fun to just do what ever looks good on top of the pencil drawing.  I love photo manipulation:)

The perfect pair: Picking your interior designer

Chandelier Beverly and I designed for
one of her last clients.

"Someone once asked me what my style was, and I said I have no style" [Beverly Travis.]  Such a wonderful quote, as Beverly's style happens to be what ever her client's style is.

Interior designer, Beverly Travis, has got to be one of the most caring designers out there.  She is extremely in tune with her client's needs.  She listens to what her client wants and gives them exactly what they have asked for, with proper and careful guiding of course.

I have recently put together a design for one of her client's fireplace screens, pictured below, and we set up a meeting to iron out the wrinkles.

Beverly made sure that her client understood the entire process of custom metalwork, showed her all the different possibilities in our showroom, and made sure that she was as clear as possible about the entire design.   I really like and respect that.  A few things were added to the design at that point, a few were taken away, and we perfected the overall look and feel of what her client wanted right there at the showroom table.

There are different types of designers out there, and different types of client personalities.  It makes me very happy when the two are very compatible.  Before picking a designer, always make sure to interview several and pick the one that works for you.  Some designers have a very distinct style, so if you love their style, they're the ones for you.  Some designers, like Beverly, can work in any style and each one looks fabulous, so they can work with your distinct style.  Beverly interviews her clients before she takes on a job, and I have to say that so far, every single pair was a total pleasure to work with.

The fireplace screen design we started with.

Final version of the fireplace screen for
Beverly's client.

DHome Blog turns ONE at the Nest

DHome Blog is turning ONE!

So, what should ONE do about it? I celebrated the day with Dallas’ top tastemakers, designers, and lifestyle bloggers!

The event took place at Nest, a swanky little place off McKinney.

I ran into Brynn Bagot, the most awesome PR girl in town!

I also met the lovely Jan Strimple, who is super passionate about fighting AIDS; we chatted about the very worthy cause as well as a few other topics. She's so cute:) For those of you immersed in the world of fashion, yes, it is that Jan! She's walked the world's most glamorous fashion shows and is a real supermodel indeed. These days she produces the hottest of the hottest fashion events in town and beyond, including New York's Fashion Week. Pretty cool, ey?

stelladallas Grand Opening

Oh yes, stelladallas knows how to groove! You get a burst of happiness as soon as you walk through the door! Talk about a modern and colorful twist on home furnishings and accessories. If you love color, this is the place for you! Interior decorator Lisa Lowe felt like she was in candy land... as soon as she walked into one of the back rooms she knew it was a clear vision of her dream sunroom.

Top left: Lisa and Richard Potter

Top right: I snagged the owner of stelladallas, Amber Frazee, for a little photo

Bottom Middle: DJ Lucy Wrubel in the house! I keep running into her, she's great!

Thanks for the invite Shanan! You little Luxe cutie, you! —

Portait of a stranger

I was checking up on my facebook today and a photo on one of the posts caught my eye.  I really liked the composition, so I decided to do my own rendition of the stranger...
The entire thing is drawn on the computer, no pencil or paper for this one!  It is not a manipulated photo.  Photoshop is perfect for something like this...Kind of a fun exercise.

Living Art

Thank you everyone for sharing a night of Living Art with me. I hope you have enjoyed yourselves as much as I did;). It feels so good to have shared my paintings and sculpture with all of you. It was so nice having you there.

For those of you who were not at the show, HERE is a little bit about the Living Art.
The second show of the night felt so much different then the first, I bet it was because the aerialists became familiar with the space. I remember the Christmas show I was in... It definitely helps to do it once; the first time you run around trying to figure out your place and the second time you can actually step back, take in where you are and enjoy the experience. I did the aerial hammock spinning in that Christmas show, and I have to say that I had a huge desire to get in there with everyone else's performances last night... Too bad I was wearing a dress and heels! Hehe

I'm also very happy that my painting entitled Metamorphosis and Freedom is going to a very good home, I will be casting one of the sculptures called Mother Holding Baby and it is also going to a good home, plus I'm going to make a few prints on canvas of Angel over Water, Despair and Strength Bound.

I met some really great people last night, including composer and violinist Mark Landson whose music I am now officially in love with! I'm not sure what I was expecting, but 400 guests was quite a crowd:) Loved it! And afterwords we all went out to the Mettlesome Moth! It was a blast. The girls still had their makeup on, which was so cool!, and of course everyone else there was really interested as to what all the makeup was about, and so I met a few more people who wished they had known about the show because they would have wanted to be there:)

Something I had no idea about:
Duc actually choreographed the last routine of the night! He's soo good! It's amazing how far everyone has come along since the last time we had a show! Corean is out of this world in her fantastic lines now, Shannon's strength and being able to tell a story with her body is just ridiculous, and Karl is off the charts with how strong he has gotten; my jaw dropped! His James Bond routine was fantastic! And that's just some of the "old crew"... I can't believe how far the new girls have come... Mother Holding Baby had my saying "Wow, beautiful!"... I could just keep going and going, so I'll stop before this becomes a 5 page long essay:) ‎Kimberly and Dylan! You guys rock!!!!! Blew me away again! Thanks so much for he experience:)  (Since I didn't really take any photos (other then what I posted)... I don't really have pics of the aerial show... but as soon as I make my rounds to see who has what, I'll post them promptly!)

Thanks again to everyone who came to the show for making this night fabulous and oh so special for me. And a big thank you to Brian Grobleski for making the gallery even more dramatic with his beautiful photographs of gorgeous eagles in Alaska.  Brian does not use any software to enhance his works of art, which just about dropped my jaw to the floor... there is this one photo of a young eagle (bottom left on the photo above, a really bad one at that and does not do any justice to the actual piece... you just have to see it live) which was caught at the perfect moment in a perfect setting... it's so rich and yummy!  The sun caught the eagle just in the perfect light, and the rest simply fades to black.  Spectacular!

UPDATE!
I've started getting a few photos in, HERE is the album.