Everything is A-OK

Just in case any friends are wondering if we're OK here in Houston after the flooding, I wanted to post something to let everyone know that everything is fine here on the north side of the city limits. It did rain pretty hard, but other than the power flickering, it didn't even mess up my plants. I can see from news footage that it looked pretty bad on the highways and heading downtown, earlier today, though. Any plans I had to head in that direction were immediately postponed, and it's business as usual here  -- for us, at least. Not everyone has been that fortunate, but there are some ways to help out in the communities that have been affected:

Red Cross - Gulf Coast Chapter (Houston)

Red Cross - Central Texas Chapter (Austin)

One of my favorite local charities is:
Houston Food Bank

And in Austin:
Hays Food Bank


While  we've been staying in to avoid the bad weather, I've been working on some medieval illumination-inspired art this week. This first piece already sold but a couple more have already come along in the meantime.

I can't promise I'll make it through the whole alphabet any time soon but I thought these little 3 x 3 inch canvases would be perfect for illuminated letters! The first is A is for armadillo, which I don't think any medieval monks would have seen, but if they did, they might draw them something like this:

And another colorful dragon, this time being battled by one of those rabbits with a sword you sometimes see in these drawings...

These are a lot of fun, so more are coming soon!