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Next weekend my husband Les, and I are taking a short trip to Dallas, Texas.  We have family there, and one of Les’ Great Nephews is having a Bar Mitzvah.  Neither Les, or myself have ever been to Texas, and I’m wondering just what kind of galleries and attractions the city may hold for us?  After booking a flight mid morning on Friday with  American Airlines….. yikes, I hope our seats don’t come unbolted!  We will have a little time in between family activities  to explore!.

When we were sitting at the travel agents desk, we were told the airlines would allow us to each take a carry on, and a backpack on the plane with us, so off we went to Costco to find a backpack!  They always have the most reasonable, sturdy backpacks, and  after looking through all the colors, and prints, we each carefully chose Black!  Boy that’s creative, and bold too!  Why, yes it was – I have a plan!  Since Les is a Trumpet player, and I an artist, our backpacks will be decorated just as our luggage is!  There are always musical notes on Les’ luggage, and although my luggage has dragonflies,  and fern on it, this time since I’m in my “Dia de los muertos,” or Day of the Dead phase, my backpack will have a skull on it!  You can’t be saying, “OH NO, not a skull,”  can you?  I won’t apologise for my quirky personality, or off balanced, crazy ideas, but I will tell you this……. ” Life is way too short to hold back?   If it isn’t hurting anyone, go for it!  That’s my motto!”

Michael’s offers a selection of iron on fabric with bling, that will look fabulously creative once it’s cut out, and ironed into place.  Yesterday was the day I experiment with musical notes, and skulls all to be carefully placed, and ironed onto the simple black backpacks.   Everything goes with black, and a little bling never hurt anyone, in fact a girl can never have too much bling! Right?

My backpacks are finished, and I must say  they are pretty cool!  Mine came out just the way it was supposed to, the initials being great!  I felt particularly proud of myself for writing backwards initials, and being able to cut them out without cutting them into shreds.  Les’, well the initials turned out really good, but can you spot what I did wrong?  Some of you will spot it right away, and some it may take a little longer.  But as I always say, “There aren’t any mistakes in art, just opportunities to be more creative!”  This is a great time to live by my own rule!  Without realizing it, and very late at night, I managed to heat set the musical notes on backwards.  Crap!  This is definitely an opportunity to be more creative!   If I’m lucky I’ll be able to steam them off.  If not, I’ll be figuring out how to create musicians with big feet.

After searching through the tour book we were given at the Auto Club, we are now looking forward to the many galleries, museums, shopping, and whatever else we can find that looks interesting and artsy.  Like any new place, it’s fun to nose around looking for treasures all in the name of tourism.  I’m not sure what clothes I’ll take, who knows what the weather will be like.  Here it is October already, and it seems to be cooling down.  One thing I am sure about is, if I don’t have any expectations, whatever happens, or whatever we find, I’ll  be pleasantly surprised, and we both will have a fabulous trip!