Artfest 2011

thinking of going to Artfest this year? Artfest will be celebrating there 12th year as an art retreat and i'm excited to share that i will be there teaching one of my jewelry classes. we will be taking vintage china pieces, doing some soldering and creating very unique necklaces. you can take a peek at the class here. feel free to email me with any questions about my class or about Artfest in general. i'm happy to answer your questions.

---------------------------------------------

in other news, i want to wish my mom a wonderful birthday!

Artfest 2010

Well, another successful and extremely fun art event under my belt. lots of laughs, shopping, eating good food, art, margarita's, antiquing, beauty, beach combing, photography and lastly, much friendship.

off to artfest tomorrow

tomorrow i head to West Chester, Pa to spend the night with my girlfriend, Leslie Marsh. her studio was recently in one of the studio mags (sorry, can't remember which one!) but i've been told it is gorgeous and can't wait to see it for myself! then tuesday morning, we are flying out together (that'll be fun!) to Seattle where we will meet up with friends keli and jen. (although, sadly, jen's beloved gram just passed away, so she might not be coming). We plan to take a little drive from Seattle to Sumner, Washington before hitting the town of Port Townsend. We check in for classes on Wednesday and classes begin on Thursday.

the necklace above was my attempt to bring some mosaic into my jewelry. i loved how it turned out. and since i have plenty of vintage china about - it'll be fun to experiment more after i return.

heading into Port Townsend

oh my gosh, i have been going through my pictures all day trying to get them blog ready. i only took about 400 or so photos! good grief. my eyes are buggy right now! this collage is pictures from us taking the ferry from Seattle over to Bainbridge Island.
we got up early in the morning, showering, packing and then off the breakfast to a cute little bakery right across the street. i gave keli and jennifer a matching pair of sunglasses that i found for myself recently. i thought they'd be fun to wear around Journalfest.

we hit the road and headed to the ferry terminal. the ferry ride takes about 25-30 minutes. it was a very foggy day over the Puget Sound. it had been rainy quite hard right before we got on the ferry. as we got closer to Bainbridge Island, it started to clear up. we were delighted to see several bald eagles perched on some pilings as we drew closer to shore. (check out the 2nd row, 7th picture in the collage above to see them!) after disembarking, it took us about an hour to get to Port Townsend. the ride was lovely with all the fall colors and the weather cleared up beautifully. We hit the town running with our first stop being an antique store. from there it was a casual walk about town, a lovely lunch in a charming little cafe, new shoes for me and then off to Fort Worden to register ourselves and to get Keli settled into her house.

heading to artfest on tues.

thank you all for your nice supportive comments to me about the approaching date of Tucker's injury. I'm sure i will be so busy in Seattle on the 1st hanging with Andrew, http://www.urbanpaperarts.blogspot.com/ and my new BFF from Artnest, Jennifer that i won't have time be sad! unfortunately i do not think i will be taking my laptop with me on this trip as i just don't have the room. so you'll have to wait patiently for my return to hear all about Artfest!

Andrew is renting a car, so jenn and i are hitching a ride with him for day one and two in Seattle and then heading over to Port Townsend the next day. We have a great little schedule planned, thanks to the ever organized, Andrew. Upon arrival and finding our car, we are heading to a Target to buy a few necessities. This will be a quick in and out visit and there are more important things to see! Next we are heading to a store called "Impress rubber stamps" to do a little shopping. our next stop takes us over to Fremont Street so that Jen and I can grab a photo op with the Fremont Troll - a huge cement statue of a troll who lives under the bridge there. Then it's off to PPC (it's like a Whole Food Store) to pick up groceries. Then we will make our way over to the Archie McPhee store and maybe a few other stores if there's any time left. After that we head to our hotel to check in. we are staying at The Sixth Avenue Hotel, which is in walking distance of Pike's Place Market (my favorite place!). After checking in, we will rest, get cleaned up - whatever until we grabbed dinner at Pike's Chowder Place.

Day two gets us up early to head over for breakfast at Pike's Place Market at Le Panier bakery. we want to get there early to watch the vendors start setting up - putting out their flowers, the fish. maybe will get to see some fish tossing! After breakfast we head over to catch our ferry to Bainbridge Island. it will take us about35 minutes to get there. we will be making a stop after arriving to visit Poulobus - a rubber soul stamp store and art gallery that Andrew knows of. Next we head over to the town of Port Townsend to walk around and check it out. there is an art supply store, more galleries, a thrift store to go see and lunch to be eaten! Then we will drop off Andrew's luggage at his B&B before heading over to Fort Worden (as seen in the movie "An officier and a gentleman") to register. Jen and i will head to our house (5) and unpack. We will see Andrew later in the evening, i'm sure. We go to dinner between 5:30-7 and then the big trading frenzy starts! there is a kickoff meeting in the pavilion between 7-8. Sometime in there, i will be looking to meet my roommate, Sara, who will be driving in from Seattle.

Day 3 for me has me eating breakfast at my house (i didn't buy the breakfast plan) before heading off to my first workshop with Nina Bagley, called "gatherings". the workshop runs from 9-4 with an hour for lunch. dinner is at 5:30 and then from 7-10 there is a beach bonfire with hots dogs and s'mores. everyone brings their journal down to the beach. i'm bringing some warm clothes for that, as i heard last year it got quite cold! somewhere in there, maybe from 6:00-7:00, i will be doing chair massage in the Art Asylum room.

Day 4 i have another workship with Nina Bagley, called, "A wee book". it follows the same schedule as the other classes, so will be done at 4:00. Again, at some point, maybe at vendor night, i will be doing some chair massage.

Day 5, last day at Artfest, i take "Wallpaper people" with Anahata Katkin. i 've seen the work from this class and it is incredible. and i love Anahata since meeting her and taking her icons workship at Artnest. she's such a sweet person and a great teacher. we will be working on 6ft panels of wallpaper, so it should be really cool. i know a lot of people who are in this class, so i think it is going to be really fun. after dinner there is a worshop show and tell for everyone to see each other's work.

Day 6 - sunday, we leave the fort - :( . i will be hitching a ride with fellow charmsters, Michelle and Maya. We are dropping Maya off in Seattle and then Michelle and i are heading to Portland, where i will stay with Michelle. We hope to meet up with our friend, another charmster, Allegra before i leave early on wednesday morning.