a quick visit with Carrie

On my way to Monterey, I did a quick stop over to visit with art friend, Carrie, of Hip Chick Designs. We've been facebook friends and then met up in person at Artfest.

Her store is just wonderful! It's located in Benicia, CA. Her shoppe (along with other artists) is located down by the water in what use to be naval facility buildings. She took me on a quick tour to see who the other tenants were and for our tour, we both wore tutus. (Carrie is known for putting friends and even strangers into tutus).

I bought a wonderful HUGE book from Carrie (she's wrapping it up in one of the pics). It's a bound book of the New York Times newspaper circa 1936. I can't wait to use it in collage.

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just to let you know, Carrie, is teaching a couple of classes for Art is You in Benicia. One of her classes is how to make these fabulous wings! If I was going, I would definitely take this class, because I always need another pair of wings!

Visiting with Ilene

After leaving my dads, I drove to Northern California for a few days to visit with my friend, Ilene, in Fortuna. Ilene lives just outside of Ferndale, a town that I lived in when I was in 7th, 8th and half of 9th grade.

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Ilene and I played in historic old town Eureka and had a yummy lunch in Arcata. While I Eureka, we drove by a cool art display, so we stopped for photos. I was introduced to whimsical folk artist, Roman Gabriel. I just fell in love with his garden art.









I also had a lovely dinner with one of my old friends, Mary. With all the traveling I did as a child growing up in the Navy, I don't really have that many childhood friends. I met Mary in 7th grade. We got back in touch after our 20th reunion and through facebook, so it was really fun to see her. (sadly, i totally forgot to take a picture of us together).

solar eclipse

Today for the first time in 18 years, an annular eclipse was visible in the U.S.

An annular eclipse covers only part of the sun, producing what looks like a giant ring of fire.

see some great pictures here. We had a family bbq, so it was fun to view it with other people.

It was very bright and sunny here in Nevada, so we didn't get a dark out affect. but it did get darker and the birds got quite still and quiet. And by dark, I should say it got gray/overcast looking.

we made a pin hole camera to cast a shadow onto a plate to see more accurately what things looked like in the sky. 

then we noticed that the what was happening up in the sky was casting shadows onto my dads fencing. So first we could  see the moon as a crescent. and then when it completely covered the sun, the shadows became circles. very cool.

 

 

Art is Tree

I'm up here in Reno where I taught 2 classes at friend, Nancy Nelson's shoppe, ArtisTree. Her shoppe is very cool. Love the style, decor, classroom. It just screams creativity. 

Through Nancy, I met her sweet friend, Ginny. Ginny surprised me here in Reno, by putting me up in a suite at The Eldorado hotel which is owned by her husband. She's been spoiling me left and right and I must confess, I'm enjoying it. After working hard for months to prepare for this trip and then the long drive, I'm just a little tired! So it's been lovely to be here. Sunday I head back to Fallon for 2 more days with my dad. We are having a family BBQ and i'll need to repack the car before heading onto my next destination (northern California, Ferndale, where I went to elementary and 1 year of high school).

Yesterday I had some free time before class, so Nancy sent me over to a fabulous store called, Junkee. She just knew I'd love it. Indeed!

class samples

 

my suite at The Eldorado

such a cool store- clothing exchange and antiques in one!

the dressing rooms - it's like being in a theater!

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I also made a quick trip over to say hi to someone that is very important to our family.
This is the man that work 5 long, hard years to successfully settle our malpractice lawsuit. Sitting on a shelf in his office are the champagne corks from the celebratory victory. This man means the world to me. (the lawsuit was settled in 1995. this is the first time i've seen him since we moved from the west coast to the east coast 17 years ago.)