Houston, TX-Sometimes, it's a good thing.

Waaaaaaaay back during Spring Break in March, the kids and I went to Houston to visit my parents. One day I had to go downtown for some things...oh, like "High Fashion Fabrics", the absolutely most gigantic fabric store EVAH! So big, in fact, that they actually had to seperate it into two different buildings a few years ago! I decided to take Ethan with me: one, because we rarely get to do things one on one with each other and two, because I decided I wanted to take him on a little tour...I wanted to show him where Steven and I met and had gotten married. Steven and I met each other in a math class at the University of Houston in 1989. When we were making plans to get married, we decided to get married at the chapel on campus...the A. D. Bruce Religion Center. It really is very different from churches I had been used to, and it has a way of bringing the outdoors in. I had my camera with me, so I decided to "take a few pictures". Well...it turned into so many that I'm going to have to break this tour up into two different posts; one of all of the flowers outside, and one of some of the architecture inside. THIS post I am going to dedicate to Imelda over at GreenishLady because I think she might enjoy all of these flowers.

But first, here is a shot of the outside of the A. D. Bruce Religion Center:


This is the chapel inside. I have no idea who designed the building, but they packed as many windows in as possible. You're surrounded by windows. So, when you are standing down at the altar-because of all of the windows, and the fact that the altar itself is not against the back wall (there are several feet between the altar and the wall)you actually feel like you are outside. Only with air-conditioning!


Ethan was discovering and poking around at some things outside...


So I started taking pictures of the flowers. I don't know what kinds of flowers these two photos are of, but they were really pretty; especially this first one. I wish I could have gotten closer to it.




Of course, what's a great flower bed without your random hubcap??? (This is so totally NOT staged...it was there to begin with and I didn't touch it. What you see is what you get.) What I really want to know is how it ended up in the middle of a University campus where you can't drive....



I had forgotten however, how absolutely gigantic the ant beds are there! Normally, I like to just stir 'em up a little...not destroy it; just enough to get the ants really moving, but these actually scared me, so I left them alone. lol!




This, hands down, has to be one of the very best things about Houston: the Azaleas in the Spring! They are all beautiful but, this batch in particular are some of the best I've ever seen. Big, huge plants packed full of blooms ranging in colors from white to a very dark pink...all on the same bush! Or the same flower even! They were absolutely gorgeous and I took about a hundred pictures of them. I've posted just a few here, and I'll leave you all to take a tour, quietly and on your own...
















There was a bee flying around, flower to flower, gathering up or distributing the pollin...whatever it is that bees do. I tried so hard to get a good shot of it, and these two were the best of the bunch.





On the way back to the car, Ethan discovered the tree that is growing along the ground. Kinda cool that you can climb a tree horizontally rather than vertically. lol! I love the trees on a college campus. They are always so old and big, and somehow more majestic than the trees across the street or down the road.


That wraps up this first little tour of the A. D. Bruce Religion Center at The University of Houston. I'll be back later with some photos of the inside. It really is a pretty cool building. But, of course, I have to leave you with at least one shot of something I am working on...
Yes,I know I have problems taking pictures sometimes. This time it was with the shadows...know matter what I did, I ended up leaving a shadow on part of what I was photographing, but, oh well...I never said I was a professional photographer, did I? Anyway, here is one little thing I'm working on. Redwork for a class I want to teach this summer. Actually, I want to teach a lot of classes for kids (or adults...just very easy, beginning type stuff) this summer. A little embroidery, a little hand sewing and a little machine sewing. I figured the easiest way to begin with embroidery is with very simple redwork. This is an 'Aunt Martha's Hot Iron Transfer'. Now, however, I'm left with a huge decision! Do I finish it as a pillow or as a little wall hanging, or what? If I decide to do a wall-hanging, should I do three or four of them and join them together into a bigger, quilted wall-hanging? These are the decisions I need help making. I hate making a final, long-term committment decision. It sounds stupid, and it's such a small thing but, I really obsess over these things, and I don't know why. I have no problems with the really big committments like marriage and children, but, if it has anything to do with interior design...I just can't commit! lol! But here is my unfinished little redwork...I'm thinking pillow or single wall-hanging. *DING!* **Lightbulb moment!** Maybe I'll do TWO...one single wall-hanging and one pillow, and let them make their own final decision! I actually feel better now.