Happy Halloween

day two, Journalfest

After dropping keli off at Fort Worden, Jennifer and i drove to our B&B, the James House, which has an incredible bay view that surrounds Port Townsend. Jen and i took the garden studio, which was a little studio in the back of the house, in its own little world. it had a queen and a twin bed and was perfect for us to crash in. After checking in, we learned that the James House was in its last few weeks as a B&B and would be converting to a residential home. even though it was not up for sale, some buyers made the owners an offer they could not refuse. So we will have to find new lodging when we return to Port Townsend in the spring for Artfest. Not much more of interest to report for this day. we just checked out our surroundings and took tons of photos while enjoying the beauty of Port Townsend.

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.

back from Seattle

Well, i am back home from Journalfest. my month and a half of traveling, doing shows, teaching and taking classes has come to an end. what a whirlwind time it was and i cannot believe how much i accomplished, how many people i met, all the art i created and taught and how many nicknames i earned along the way (Ambassador and Julie - the cruise director to name a few). i have to admit, i am a tad tired! i've spent the last few days unpacking and cleaning house. whenever i get home from retreats or traveling, i get this urge to purge and clean my house! and true to form, that's what i have been doing the last few days. lots of reorganizing as i put things away. i have family coming soon and then another friend coming right after that (I hope!) so i am also getting the house company and holiday ready.
So about my latest trip. I flew into Seattle and met my friend, Jen at the airport. Jen and i met at Artnest and were roommates again at Artfest. then it was off to pick up a car belonging to my friend, Keli, who graciously loaned it to us for the day (she was flying in later that evening). jen and i had grand expectations of all these fun things we would do in Seattle, but after eating lunch and then walking around a bit in Pioneer Square, we really didn't have much time left before meeting our friend, Sara for dinner. while walking around, we ran into my new friend, Abby. i knew it was her b-day that day, so right there on the street, very loudly, i started singing happy birthday to her. i think she was surprised that i remembered and she was quite touched with the impromptu singing. we had a lovely dinner with Sara (with Abby and her friend joining us as well). after dinner we had Sara take us over to the art co-op where she lives for a tour. what a fun place and so nice of Sara to show us around. finally, exhaustion set in and we headed back to Hotel Andra to get some shut eye. the hotel was beautiful and let me tell you, the beds were UNBELIEVABLE! while at the hotel we met this couple with the absolutely cutest dog in the world. Maggie was her name and she did tricks. i wanted to put that pup in my bag. poor Keli did not arrive til almost midnight as her flight was delayed. more stories tomorrow!

almost out of here

today i took a personal day and ran a few errands, but also did a little shopping.i was trying to find a new pair of shoes, but alas, they remained elusive. i did get a cute little satin, creamy beige jacket with this lovely frilly look in front (really have no words to describe it -so i'll take a pic of it while i am sitting at the airport) and a few shirts. i'm finishing up some last minute things and really just need to go to bed. getting up at 4am to catch the shuttle to Newark airport.

not much new to report

bags are packed. am just about ready to leave on tuesday for Seattle. today i pulled my shift at Sea and Green, in Pt. Pleasant, where i sell some of my art and jewelry. (i work there one day a week). i actually haven't been there in awhile, as Mr. Lemoncholy (aka jeff) has been working my shifts for me so that i could get things ready for Country Living Fair, Art and Soul and Art-is-you. been a busy month or so! so i decided to give him the day off today (hehe) so that he could watch football. he actually enjoys going there and he is a really good sales person. i'm the artist. i like to be in my studio, not out there hawking my wares! anyway, it was really slow today, as the weather is really gross (gray, cold, drizzly, windy). i think its going to remain pretty slow til the holiday shopping picks up. i brought some work to do, pricing some jewelry to put out, etc. and i have to update my website so bad. i'm don't know how i am suppose to do all these little extra things. i feel like teaching dillon some of the web stuff and pay him a few dollars to "handle it". one day at a time i suppose. anyway, i made a few of these cute skeleton girls, inspired by my friend, Vivian. and hung some of them up in the shop. they sure are festive! tomorrow i have a few errands to run, so i might stop and get some Halloween shots from a few of the stores downtown. i think that i would be fun to blog some of the window displays. ciao!

reflections of teaching

One day after class (soldering basics), which ended at 5pm - i was packing up as i needed to be downstairs at the vendor event going on. the event was from 5-7. i'm not one to just rush out, but on that night, i knew that other vendors and friends had already been watching my booth and making sales for me while i was teaching, so i was anxious to get down there as of course, i felt bad that they were having to be responsible for my stuff. anyway, right as i was heading out the door, a student came up to me with her piece and she just had this look of fret and dismay on her face. she handed the piece to me and the top part of it was in ruins. the last thing for us to do on our project was to add our jumprings which she did. but then she found that they were crooked and had tried to pull them off instead of soldering them off (classic mistake by the way). this ended up ripping up the soldered tape we foiled around the edges. so i sat down with her and we proceeded to do our best to salvage her project. i didn't leave the room til 6:30. i got to the event and i was a bit stressed out for being so late and no one really knew where i was. and i still had bunch of stuff on the dolly to pack up; so it was hectic and i was tired with that frazzled feeling.

in the lobby later, i ran into this student and
the look on her face was priceless. she was smiling and showing off her beautiful piece. she was happy. she gave me a big hug and we took pictures together. until that minute, i don't think i realized how you are as a teacher or how, what you do naturally (i.e. staying to help her), can really have an impact on someone. her smile made me happy. it was a great lesson on remembering that helping others is very rewarding.

goings on

well i am trying to get settled after being in Connecticut teaching at Art-is-you. i've got everything out of the van and for the most part unpacked (the worst part!). the rest of the stuff will have to wait until after i return on Sunday from Seattle. Oh, didn't know i was leaving again? well, i am - heading off to Journalfest to meet up with my friends, Jennifer and Keli. i am taking classes this time, so it will be nice to relax. i am going barebones with supplies. i am taking classes with Anahata (my favorite!), Stephanie Lee (another favorite!) and karen michel, so it'll be fun. jenn is in one of my classes and i think keli is in two of them; so that will be fun. my bags are packed and just finishing up some other things before i leave. jeff and i did some Halloween decorating today. just a few things on the front porch. it was fun. haven't decorated for Halloween in quite awhile. Dillon used to be so into it, but as he gets older, he's into other things. i think they are still going trick or treating this year though. he's going as "Wolverine". i do miss that little kid stuff though, their excitement about decorating and holidays. i have to work on Halloween at the shoppe in Pt. Pleasant, so i will be dressing up as a form of Friday, from the Adams family. i'll be wearing this red satin doll baby looking dress, black and white tights, my ghoul bride necklace and maybe i'll whiten my face a bit. so that's the skinny!

another artist is suffering

from my friend Lesley's blog:

Good Morning Everyone,

Tina Wright, a friend, fellow artist and one of the creators of Paper Cowgirl in Waxachie, Texas, recently found out she has advanced stage colon cancer.

Tina has such a beautiful spirit and her determination and bravery in fighting this disease truly inspired me to want to reach out to this blogging and online community to ask for your help. The costs of the tests, treatments and surgeries are just another stressor for family already having to deal with a diagnosis such as this so I have set up a Chip In for those that feel compelled to help.

I know that we have all been in those positions where someone has reached out and helped us and perhaps this will be seen as a time to pay that forward to Tina. Every dollar helps so please give as you are able to.

I would also like to ask that if you blog or have a website that you place the Chip In Widget there as well so that we can get the word out to as many people as possible. If you cannot get the widget on yoru blog please send your bloggers to mine so that they might also have the opportunity to help Tina.

Here is the link to Tina's Chip In Page: http://flatwoodsfolkart.chipin.com/mypages/view/id/1428447d1b777db4

You can grab the html code for the widget on that page as well.

Please go here for Tina's Blog: http://tina-wright.blogspot.com/

Go Here for Paper Cowgirl: http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/

Remember...every prayer, every bit of positive energy, every positive thought and every cent counts.

Blessings to you all,

Lesley

sent by colleen to her art friends

i found these thoughts to be quite lovely. it's a great mantra to repeat to ourselves when we are being too self critical and forgetting that what we have to offer others is just as valuable as what we might learn from them.


may today there be peace
within. may you use your gifts and
pass them on. may you be
content with yourself just the way
you are. let this knowledge settle
into your bones & allow yourself
the freedom to sing, dance, praise
and love.

Art-is-you 2009

i began my journey to Art-is-you on a very gusty and overcast day. driving in Tucker's big econoline van, packed to the gills with art supplies, class kits, display stuff for vendor night, stuff to sell on vendor night, luggage and my 2 favorite pillows. the wind was so bad, i had to death grip the steering wheel to keep the van from being whipped around. it was a little stressful to say the least. so if you were driving behind me, i apologize for going so slow!
i taught 4 classes; all of them so different from the next. i did a sewing class, a jewelry class, a soldering class and a collage class. i loved everyone of them and received so many compliments from my students after class was over. we worked very hard and all left with an almost completed project.
there were many friends to see and new ones to meet. i ended up spending a lot of time with di, taryn and jane and we bonded over silly things, interesting people and our similarities.
i found people to be extremely helpful and for the most part, everyone, although tired, wore a constant smile on their face.
i wanted to thank all the vendors who were so helpful to me with selling my stuff or watching over it while i was in class (scott, lenny, terri, linda and the bead girl). it was sad to say goodbye as that close knit, "girlfriend power" feeling of art camaraderie just does not happen enough. but i know we will get to see each other soon and i look forward to it.

(click on image to see enlarged photo)

back home from connecticut

i am home from Art-is-you. will do some blogging about it tommorrow. am quite tired right now! stay tuned.....

Fall is upon us

leaves are starting fall, birds are molting. the days are getting shorter and the weather turning chilly. i did some much needed tending to my garden today and saw that my flowers (what few are left) are starting to wither and change color. My shasta daisies have finally bloomed as my hydrangeas are slowly drying up. i love Fall but hate to see my garden leave me! we are always so excited to see our garden again in the spring, but it seems so far away right now. maybe i am just not looking forward to winter (jan, feb. march!) luckily i have some teaching gigs then, so it will make the winter fly by.

My van is packed and i am ready to leave tomorrow morning for Art-is-you. i am going a day early so that i can just relax before teaching on thursday.

home from Portland

i'm back, did you miss me? i know i've gone a few days without posting - how unlike me!

considering i left on tuesday and got home on friday, i managed to pack in a lot of things to do in 3 days. my friend, Amy Hollands, picked me up from the airport and then we quickly dropped my stuff off at the hotel and picked up my bud, Pam. i only took a few pictures since i had so very little time.

we decided to eat first since i was, as usual, starving! we had a nice lunch, just in time to work up an appetite to go shopping. our first stop, was Amy new venture, Found on Fremont (no website yet). Amy use to own Poppy & Ivy, but due to economics had to make some decisions about how to proceed with her business. she and 3 other girls, went in together on renting a building (2 floors), which is working well for all of them. they can split the costs, not work all the time; giving them more flexibility and freedom. so we stopped there first and found some fun goodies. next we hit Scrap, which is such a cool place. it is all about recycling and anyone can drop off items to be recycled there - items that can be resold that is. so we picked up a few things there. next we hit a thrift store where amy found some awesome vintage Christmas table cloths and i found a darling wool jacket for my niece that i will pimp up with a cool brooch. a quick stop into Fred Meyer for a few items i needed for class and then it was back to the hotel for happy hour.

the next day i taught my spoon class and it was fun. it was really cool to watch the students being timid with the dremel, drills and then watch them transform as they got the hang of it. all the projects turned out great and what was most rewarding was their appreciation and thanks for sharing all my knowledge with them.

for lunch that day, our limo driver, Amy, returned for us so that we could hit "Noun, a persons place for things" and have cupcakes at Saint Cupcakes. talk about the most delicious cupcakes ever! pam and i were quite annoyed with ourselves for not getting more to eat later. next time we will have to hit, Voodoo donuts. i've decided Portland is the type of place that i must go to every 6 months!

that evening, Pam and i went to visit our dear friend, Allegra and her husband, Barry. Hadn't seen Allegra since last year and she hasn't been feeling well - so it was a must on the list to do. we had a lovely visit with her, chatting, snacking, chatting, chatting, some wine, more chatting, a studio tour (unbelievable is her studio!) and then more chatting! finally exhaustion caught up to me and we had to say our goodbyes. i practically dove into my bed when we got back.

the next day was my class on taking a wood heart and turning it into a piece of jewelry. we also had a great time in that class. we got the conference room with the really big comfy chairs which we thought was quite cool for us. hit happy hour again that night and then Pam and I headed over to Powell's books (a block long!) where we saw Jesse Reno upstairs hanging about. i took a pic of him, but only on my camera phone as i was trying to be discreet. jesse reno is an artist in portland and pam is taking classes with him at Artfest next spring. we had a lovely dinner at a brewery down the street and then headed back to the hotel for me to pack and get ready to leave early in the am. boo hoo!

so now i am preparing and almost ready to leave for Connecticut, Art-is-you, on Wednesday!