Mold Remediation in Willow, TX

The Collaborative Arts of Plano in partnership with The Shops of Willow Bend presents the North Texas Carnival of the Arts on Saturday, September 28 at The Shops of Willow Bend in Plano. The largest North Texas indoor arts festival, this free family friendly arts festival will run from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in and near the Grand Court of The Shops of Willow Bend.

The festival will feature free, hands on fun visual and performing arts opportunities both on and off the stage as well as opportunities to shop local artists for a perfect gift!

Plano Comedy Festival Magician Gregg Ka-zam performs at 10 a.m. Get artsy with hands on visual art activities, exhibits, performances, art demonstrations, gymnastics floor routines, yoga, facepainting, stage combat, Flash Mob, contests, and Disney Singalong workshops.

The first five hundred families to register for the free event will receive a special promo bag and be entered into a special drawing for gift certificates from The Shops of Willow Bend merchants and gift certificates from Plano arts organizations. To register for the event, go to: bit.ly/carnivalofthearts.

Yoga

Start off your day with Yoga with Nruthya Skakti Dance Academy in the Grand Court. Bring your yoga mat! Let us know you are coming: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080849AEA929A1F85-51515091-yoga.

Flash Mob

Garage Arts Project is leading a flash mob which will perform at 12:20 p.m. in the Grand Court. To register for the flash mob, please register at Signup Genius - https://tinyurl.com/FlashMobGAP. The YouTube link for rehearsal is: https://youtu.be/xC1c5yoe2Bc. All who register for the flash mob will have an opportunity for a rehearsal with the artists on Wednesday, Sept 25th at 8:00 PM on ZOOM. On Saturday, September 28, Flash Mob dancers should arrive at the Grand Court of The Shops at Willow Bend at noon with a 12:20 performance.

Free Workshops –

Stage Combat presented by Rover Dramawerks

Saturday, September 28, 11 a.m. to Noon: Rover Dramawerks presents a Stage Compact Class with fight choreographer Michael McMillan. Location: Impact Room at Shops at Willow Bend. Demo on main stage following. Sign up here: https://ntpa.thundertix.com/events/234433

Disney Sing Along presented by Children’s Chorus of Collin County

Saturday, September 28, 1 - 1:55 p.m. Children's Chorus Collin County presents Disney Sing Along - sing along with the members of the Children's Chorus of Collin County and perform on stage at 1:55. Music provided. Workshop in Impact Room at the Shops at Willow Bend.

Sign up here:

https://ntpa.thundertix.com/events/234433

The first 500 people to register will receive exclusive opportunities

Listen to this article 00:02:36

The Collaborative Arts of Plano, in partnership with The Shops of Willow Bend, will present the North Texas Carnival of the Arts on Sept. 28, at The Shops of Willow Bend in Plano.

This free, family-friendly arts festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in and around the Grand Court of The Shops of Willow Bend. Enjoy a day of hands-on visual and performing arts experiences, both on and off the stage, and take the opportunity to shop for unique gifts from local artists.

The first 500 people to register for the free event will receive an exclusive promo bag and will be entered into a special drawing for gift certificates from The Shops of Willow Bend merchants as well as from Plano arts organizations.

The carnival will host a wide array of hands-on visual art activities, captivating exhibits and performances from talented groups and individuals. Experience the artistic offerings of the Plano Art Association, North Texas Performing Arts, Chamberlain Ballet, ArtCentre of Plano, Plano Metropolitan Ballet, Plano International Arts Festival, Children’s Chorus of Collin County, Plano African Art Museum, Plano Community Band, Collin College and so much more. North Texas Performing Arts will chair the event.

“I am thrilled to partner with Collaborative Arts of Plano to present the North Texas Carnival of the Arts,” said The Shops of Willow Bend Marketing Director Krista Medlock in an official statement. “By bringing together such a diverse array of local artists and performers, we aim to create an inspiring and inclusive environment where families and individuals of all ages can experience the transformative power of the arts. We believe this event will not only celebrate the incredible talent within our community but also strengthen the bonds that make Plano a unique and thriving destination.”

Additionally, North Texas Performing Arts announced the inaugural North Texas' Got Talent contest, offering local performers a chance to compete for $1,000 in cash prizes! Participants can submit their audition videos online, and the contest will culminate in a live performance during the North Texas Carnival of the Arts on September 28 at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas.

Performers are invited to go to ntpa.org/got-talent for program details, contest rules and a link to upload their audition submission. Entry fees of $20 may be waived upon need-based application.

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Here’s an up-to-date list of all NFL Players from Willowridge High School, Houston, Texas.

The list includes only those players who have played in an NFL game.

See where it ranks among other schools in the state here.

NFL Players from Willowridge HS

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com

Free spirits flock to West Texas to stargaze and see the Chisos Mountains

Photos by E. Dan Klepper

If the desert is a play, then Willow House owner Lauren Werner is its set designer. Every detail of her singular Terlingua hotel, comprised of small concrete boxes located 6 miles from Big Bend National Park, has been arranged for visitors to bear witness to the wild pageant of nature. The porch of each casita is a front-row seat to the Chisos Mountains and their ever-shifting drama of color, shadows, and light. Werner designed the hotel with the goal of making sure no one misses the show.

Willow House23112 FM 170,Terlingua.Rates begin at $630 per two-night stay.432-213-2270; willowhouse.co

Take what I call the “star bed.” Near the ravine that edges the arid 287-acre property of rocks and creosote brush, Werner has installed a padded platform that dangles from a steel frame, suspended in midair. It’s the place to be at night, when the cosmos reveals itself. As stars overtook the Dark Sky territory, I settled in and would not leave until I saw a shooting star. The golden blaze finally came, and when it did, I whooped from the thrill of it.

Willow House, which opened in September 2019, is Werner’s first hotel. The 29-year-old began planning it when she was in her early 20s. Although she has no formal education in architecture—Werner studied pre-law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas—she designed and served as the main contractor for the project. Her parents are developers, so she grew up with blueprints and knows her way around a construction site.

Many have assumed Willow House was inspired by Donald Judd, the artist whose installation piece of concrete boxes in a field in Marfa could be the cousin of Willow House. “That’s not a bad thing at all,” Werner says about the comparison to Judd. But Werner’s muse was painter Georgia O’Keeffe’s home in Abiquiu, New Mexico. “I love how her windows frame the land,” Werner says. “Every window and every patio at Willow House are a perfect frame of either the Chisos or Santa Elena Canyon without any sort of obstruction in between.”

The layout of Willow House is modeled after a Texas ranch property with a balance of private and communal spaces. Guests stay in one of 12 private casitas, which vary in size from roughly 300 to 700 square feet and are decked out with decadent touches: alpaca throw blankets, Aesop bath products, fluffy robes. The spacious main house is the hub of communal action, as are the many outdoor dining areas, fire pits, and patios. Guests can cook their own meals using the outdoor grill or gourmet kitchen. No guests under the age of 12 are allowed, unless you rent the entire property.

The main house is streamlined luxury, with smooth concrete walls and a built-in, sunken lounge pit. Even the kitchen shelving feels like art, with rows of pottery and silver wine glasses. I find myself lifting up the earth-toned coffee mugs and soft Turkish towels—available to take on your trip to Boquillas Hot Springs—to see who makes them. It takes time to find so many gorgeous things, and to gather it all here out on the edge of nowhere seems like a feat worth bowing down to.

When I walked into the main house for an early morning coffee, no one was there, but music from an iPad made the space welcoming in the darkness just before sunrise. I took note of the music, and Dan Auerbach and Khruangbin are now also on my playlists. I’d planned to sit by the big glass doors overlooking the Chisos to watch the sunrise alone, but it was so startling—a fiery swatch of pink and orange—that I had to run back to the casita to make sure my husband was awake to see it, too.

Guests are encouraged to mingle with one another even in the relative solitude of the environs. The people we met, mostly couples, were excited by the beauty around us. “I grew up in Africa, so I saw the Milky Way every time we went on safari,” a dental hygienist who had just moved to Texas from Washington, D.C., told my husband by the fire pit. “This is my first time to see it in the U.S.” Another guest chimed in: “I’m from Boston, where I guess we only have about two stars. So, this is nuts.”

Not until we were tucked away on our casita’s front porch did we realize just how much voices carry in the desert. Eavesdropping was inevitable, part of the desert play. A guy in his early 30s walked nearby, talking on his cell phone. “Dude. I’m in Terlingua. It’s near Marfa. You should see the sunset.” Or the newly engaged couple by the fire pit: “What’s that bright one? A planet? I don’t know. Well, don’t you have your star app thingy?”

The setting is so spectacular, it’s hard not to constantly snap photos. We were a small band of sky watchers, phones in hand, stumbling over desert rocks because our eyes were turned upward, smiling as we passed each other.

Harmony between space and nature underscores every detail of Willow House. Werner lived on-site for much of the year it took to build the hotel, so her relationship with the land informed the design. The hues of rocks around the property inspired all of her choices, from furniture to art to dishware. Werner decided to leave the casitas in their natural brown concrete color because the brown blended into the topography. She and three friends handpicked red rocks from the volcanic fault line that runs through a remote section of the property to build the gabions (wire cages filled with rocks) that edge the main house. “We hauled up 45 truckloads of these rocks, and you still can’t notice a dent in the land,” Werner says.

Ocotillo, a long and spindly succulent whose tips bloom red in the spring, also plays a role in the aesthetic. Werner transplanted a few dozen of them to line the drive to the main house, and the roof over the outdoor dining area is built from dried ocotillo branches. If you’re lucky enough to be there when it rains, you’ll see their lanky grey limbs burst with green leaves. “People are mesmerized by these ocotillos,” Werner says. “I think it’s because they just stand out so much in comparison to this stark landscape.”

Listening to Werner talk about rocks, ocotillo, and the way the light at dusk hits the craggy face of Willow Mountain, it’s hard to imagine her in law school. That had been the plan, but then a family friend encouraged her otherwise. “He said, ‘You’re creative and also extremely impatient,’” Werner explains. “‘I know you’re going to want to start your own thing, so you shouldn’t spend five years of your life figuring that out.’”

Werner took his advice. After a yearlong stint working in commercial real estate development, she bought this patch of rough land in Terlingua. She drew construction plans using basic architectural design software. Once a roof was on, she slept on a mattress in whatever room wasn’t being worked on so she could be on-site. There wasn’t electricity, but sleeping there was the only way she could keep the project moving. “I was here morning until night for the framers.”

After a day in Big Bend, my husband and I are on our casita porch looking back at the Chisos, where we had just hiked. The furry tarantula that darted across our trail, the red-headed woodpeckers that made the piney woods sound like a carpenter’s studio, the mama bear and two cubs that some fellow hikers spotted but we missed—they are all there in those distant purple mountains we’d just explored. The golden light across the landscape crests, plateaus, and descends, highlighting first one mesa and then another, as if it’s saying, “Look at this! Now, look at this!” And we look because we don’t want to miss the best show in town.

Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, on either side of Willow House, are International Dark Sky Parks, marking this area as ideal for stellar observations.

Highly rated phone apps like Stellarium and Google Star Walk let you know what you’re seeing, and they have red-light night mode to preserve your eyes’ adaptation to darkness.

Easy-to-spot constellations include Pleiades, for about four months in autumn and winter, and Orion in late spring. Many other constellations are also viewable.

Bring binoculars. When the moon is full, you can get a good look at its surface.

From the April 2021 issue