So...I'm going to start this issue ofSTARlight
with photos done by our STAR...Please note that  1) This ECO-All-Star lives in  Texas near Austin 2) She is interested in New Urbanism & Sustainable Development , and

3)She is the Membership Director of The Heart of Texas Morgan Horse Club...

Here's your chance to get to know her and to look into articles that offer practical remedies from which we all can benefit.  This feature shines the light on useful value-added factors real estate professionals can add to their toolbox when involved in eco-friendly transactions.

STARQuote: "We all have our stories.  Our lives are a story, and are made up of stories.  Blogging gives us a chance to share them.  Some of us are more proficient at telling them, but we all have them, and every single one is valuable.  They all serve to make up the crazy quilt of our community - and crazy quilts are beautiful just because of all the unique pieces that go into making them.  So, hey, share your stories - it DOES get easier with time, and our community won't be as beautiful without your pieces. "

 HER PHOTOS  

Roses in the Snow

We hope that this post brings into focus the contribution of one of our AR members in terms of sustainability and how that relates to your real estate practice... today... and into the future. We hope  that it  will brighten our (already bright) AR community. 

                                After the Rain

Today, the STAR light's on..... Tricia Jumonville  for her-article on the importance of BALANCE in our lives.

Says Tricia, "When I ...realized how many people missed something so beautiful, something that people pay hundreds of dollars just for the opportunity to experience, it really made me take a long, hard look at how easy it is to lose touch with priorities and just WHY we're rushing around like crazy."

ABOUT TRICIA:

"My blood is Scots enough that when we attend RenFests, and I disappear,
my companions just listen for the pipes and know that's where they'll find me.
  And enough to make me a little fey, " she smiles. She's married (to a man of French and American Indian persuasion, with some Irish thrown in for luck), with two children, a son 34 (currently living in NYC striving to break into publishing) and a daughter, 23 (currently living up the road in Austin and attending the University of Texas taking courses that make Tricia's head spin).  She's a preacher's daughter who grew up on a church camp in East Texas.  She remembers dinners at her family home where the dinner guests were the local Baptist minister (we were Methodist), the local rabbi, the local Catholic priest, and a religious leader of one or another of the religious sects in India, all sitting around the table talking shop.  

Tricia got into real estate after all the kids (the ones she bore and the ones that were just sort of there to be raised) grew up.  She'd been helping friends relocate to the country for some time, finding them places, and took some real estate classes thinking that we'd be investing down the road and being an educated investor wouldn't be a bad thing.  Found out she really thought it was fun.  Once she started doing it for a living, she discovered that she  really enjoyed  the matchmaking part of it, putting the right people and the right houses together so both are happy.

Pet Peeve.  My father grew up in the country on a farm; my mother was a city girl.  My father thought it was fine to throw things out in the city (the street sweepers will clean it up), but not in the country; my mother thought it was okay to throw edible items out the car window in the country (the animals will clean it up).  I learned from that not to throw trash out, period.  People who treat the rest of the world like their trash can, who never think "what if everyone did it" (the reason I was given for not picking wildflowers by the road - wouldn't hurt if I picked a couple, but if everyone did it, there would be no more flowers) or who think the rules apply to everyone else but them, irritate the heck out of me.

Likewise, people who never volunteer to do the work but have plenty of energy for complaining about how it's done by someone else who DID volunteer to do it. 

Favorite home.  My dream home would be a Craftsman style house (Greene and Greene by preference) built in the country.  (I love people but need my solitude with just the animals for its restorative virtues.)  I watch NUMBERS on Friday nights partially because I have a serious case of house-lust for the house on that show.  Either that or a house-barn (not a barn converted into a house but a house and barn together). 

Food:For a girl who grew up as a notorious picky eater, my tastes have expanded enormously, thanks to my husband Phil who, when we met, got me addicted to both Mexican food and BBQ and then took me up to Seattle where there was no BBQ and where they put soy sauce on the enchiladas (this was long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away).  I promptly decided that I was going to be able to eat and enjoy all kinds of foods wherever I might be just so I wouldn't be stuck in withdrawal thousands of miles away from what I liked to eat.  My favorites, though, tend to be Southern and, in particular, Louisiana in origin (I make an absolutely killer turkey and andouille gumbo, for example).  Just before getting into real estate, I was a personal chef, and still keep my hand in with one set of clients whose daughter-in-law told me, "If you stop cooking for them, they'll stop eating!"  It helps keep me sane to have that change of pace every couple of weeks.  I also discovered, at a ceili in Edinburgh, that I absolutely adore haggis - everyone else was afraid to eat it so I somehow ended up having ten servings!  Danced it off, though, so that's okay.

TV: As I said, I'm a well-known brain groupie.  Give me a man with a respectable IQ and my genes (and my jeans) sit up and take notice. Thus, shows that highlight this aspect of the human condition or with actors that, even if they're jerks in real life, have more than a few brain cells to rub together tend to appeal to me.  Favorite shows in the past (why do they always cancel the ones I like?) include Dead Like Me (well, Mandy Patinkin, what can I say?) and Firefly (though we didn't discover it until AFTER it was cancelled and the movie came out), among others. 

Favorite movies:  Phil and I frequently bring home "a tender love story with bullets", as we tend to call them.  We're also inordinately fond of the Poirot series (originally on TV, now available on DVD) starring David Suchet.  Mystery, architecture, and brains - what more could we ask?  Really, again, eclectic - since childhood I've been annoyed at the fact that there's only so much time and you can only stuff so many different lives into the time you have.

Vacations : Eclectic.  New Mexico mountains in August (the only thing to do in Texas in August is to leave), Colorado, ditto.  England and Scotland - I'd love to go to Wales someday.  One real pleasure when we travel (which is rare - my husband owns his own business so it's hard for him to get away, and we have horses, which makes it hard for both of us to get away at once) is to stop a person on the street and ask, "If you could eat at any restaurant within six blocks of here, which one would it be?"  If they instantly have an answer, especially if its enthusiastic, that's where we'll go.  (We once drove all the way up the California coast because of one ecstatic reaction, only to find the place closed for the season.)  If it's several suggestions, we'll ask the next person we see. 

Hobbies: Reading - anything and everything.  Collecting quilts - Amish by preference, any with skilled use of colors.  Used to be breeding, now is simply owning, Morgan horses (we're down to 3, including my 29-year-old foundation mare Lydia, sister of my heart).  Volunteering.  Cooking.  Bellydancing.

Congratulations, TRICIA!  You're an ECO-STAR!
janeAnne, Moderator...AKA Green-o-Lina