Notes from ArtFest 2006

Almost a month later, i'm finally posting notes on ArtFest. Got in on tues-met up w/joan-and hit a few favorite stores. Daniel Smith (www.danielsmith.com) paper zone, archie mcphee, 1/2 price books-food-(Halibut). Wed we got up and packed up cars and headed to the ferry. Got to Port Townsend and walked around town after eating. Went to the fort around 3:30 to check in...
Got to my room after getting my key and packet. This is what i opened the door to..
yes-this was the view out my dorm window-fabulous! on sat it was so clear i could see land across the way i've never seen before. My classes this yr were 1)Albie Smith (book) Jane Wynn-shrine/box and Anahata Katkin. (www.papayalicious.com)

Here is a picture of the book i did in Albie's class. we made color gesso color washed pages/paste images over that. My friend Jill was in there with me~

Fri was the jane wynn class. LOVED it. We measured, cut (power tools-yea) nailed, painted, patina'ed our own boxes. I loved the whole process. Since i didn't know i was going to AF this yr-it was really last minute, i didn't have a "special thing" to enshrine, so i improvised. will post a picture of what i did as soon as my stinking patina's that i ordered APR 6th arrive-they assure me they are now on the way...anyway, have already built (started) 2 more boxes since i've been home. This has so many possibilities-maybe i'll find a niche for now!
Day 3-this was more a "process/thinking" class. we went to the beach-others built shrines on the beach that had meaning-i gathered cool stuff to use in boxes like i made in jane wynn class! all i could do was gather. I'm the one who didn't "get it" for sure. anyway, we did a piece of art based on the beach stuff. mine were eggs. will post picture later. we gessoed, walnut inked, sumi inked, drew, oil pasteled, learned to draw things out or make them recede...
anyway, not my normal kind of class, but i found fun stuff-and like my end result. Really meant alot to get to go this yr-since we did the ins work, i didn't get to do any art and felt so deprived and blah...so it was good to just go and create again. have many ideas of things to make-AFTER i finish the projects around the house that aren't done yet... and here we head back to seattle...beautiful day!

Day Three on the road

We were heading home today, but decided to stop in Alice and Orange Grove. I went to 1/2 of 7th grade in OG-and 7-1st semester of 9th in Alice. Have happy memories of the town. Gary wanted to see where i lived back then. What a nostalgic blast from the past. Alice has changed-but not nearly as fast as a big city. They are just now getting a Chili's-the only big place other than pizza hut. The space where my mom managed World of Fabrics is now a rental place. There is now a 4-theater movie theater at the edge of town-when i was there we had Rialto downtown and a 2 screen newer place-We drove out to Lake Alice, our old house, the jr high and middle school-the church, and the airport where my dad worked. My old street seemed so much shorter than i remember. The house is the same white brick w/brown trim, but the big tree is gone-Will save the rest for family-who this all has meaning for~we stopped in orange grove too-it has new HS and elem-but the old bldg's are still all there and used. our old street is paved-and the mobile homes that were there are gone and houses built where we lived. Rest of day was spent driving home-ate late lunch and made few stops for nala breaks. Time flew but it felt like we spent most of it driving. Time to go somewhere and just 'veg'
Gas prices were lower in the south-2.83 pictures are of spoiled nala, alice and orange grove. Oh yea, alice now has a walmart!

Road Trip Day 2

Today we hit Denny's (excellent service-had great service everywhere down south) then headed out of town towards Corpus Christi on 35. We passed through Angleton-some of you know of this city-i see why my friend MD gets SO much done-there is NOTHING there-we even passed her road~hi mel! We got into Corpus-checked into the hotel-which DID take pets with no sneaking-she was happy not to be snuck in! We then headed to Padre Island. Gary had never been and i used to go when we lived in Alice. Nala's first visit to the ocean-she was leary, but seemed to take to it finally-
Pictures here chronicle our beach visit-The beach was quiet-only a few people there-we walked around quite awhile-back to hotel to clean up-then dinner at olive garden.
and if anyone knows how to move pictures around on blogs so they aren't all at the top-let me know!

Road Trip Notes...

Got a late start (there's a shock) but finally got on the road after a trip to walmart and gary packing. Decided to take Nala-those eyes were just begging us to take her.

here she is in the back seat. We got into houston around 2:30 and hit Auntie Chang's. THE place that got me to eat chinese (if you want to call what i eat chinese!) then on to Texas Art. Picked up a few things and headed south. We took Nala to a park so she could walk alot. I dropped them off at Clear Lake park. I went to check into the hotel. They supposedly took pets-but found out it was 10# and under in a carrier. (that's not a pet, it's a rat) so we had to sneak her in later when we went in for the night. We went to have dinner at Tookies (burgers-somewhere we go everytime we're in houston-gary used to eat there alot when he lived in the area) I had a brush w/infamy while there.

The tables have benches-the benches butt up against each other-i was facing the door when a man, woman and child came in-i immediately realised who he was-Rusty Yates (as in Andrea Yates) They sat right behind us-his back brushed mine. (twice) i told gary someone "famous" was behind me-wrote down who. I couldn't see them but he could observe-and i could hear some conversation. Anyway, we looked up the recent wedding picture of him online and gary said he had the same sunglasses sitting on the table as he had in the picture.

On to the hotel after dinner~had to sneak nala in the window-3 times since she decided to go to the bathroom several times-i got a bit stressed over that-just knew they would throw us out~but all was well-she finally did her business and slept. (as did we)

Quick Note

Getting ready to hit the hay-Gary and i are heading to Houston and Corpus for a few days
just to get away...
we got most of the yard stuff done yesterday that we started. (picture later) yea-that's my quota for the yr now-no more yard work til fall or winter :)
Got to hang w/some art friends today at our bander meeting~always a nice thing. won't post what i did cause it wasn't good. like SOME people's. well that's it, as i said, quick note. when i return, will have to post musing of Arfest-better late than never...

Short Friday news

OK-so news isn't exactly what it is, just info. worked in the yard again~(this is big for me-hate yard work) anyway, i have 2 pictures here-one is the 'done' side of the planter area in back and the other is what i have left to do tomorrow. oh boy. no more weeds or monkey grass.

Rain, Art and yard work...

here i am troweling... and over here we have the before wall-it's now white.


First we had record heat early this week (99) then thurs EARLY am (like around midnight)
we had massive rain and 77 mph winds. Woke up thurs to much cooler weather and clouds. But that didn't stop gary and i from heading out to the Ft Worth Main St Art Festival. Saw lots of cool art as usual-ran into Traci H and Carol. Had mini cakes w/them at Corner Bakery, browsed a bit with them-than after almost 4 hrs, headed back home. Since the ground was wet, it was time to get out in the yard and actually pull some weeds and monkey grass i've been putting off. only did a bit before it began to rain.

Around 9pm, i decided it would be a good time to finish layer one of joint compound in the dining room-got 1/2 wall done in 20 min. then had to sand layer of bumps off the sponges/stenciled wall. so finished around 11.

as you can see-i still don't know how to get the pictures where i want them-so for now, bear with me~

Art Room and other

Been working in the art room-this is the 'before'. don't worry, it looks MUCH better than this now. put in alot of hrs getting it ready for a guest next wkend.
We took Nala to the lake yesterday-she has never been around water like that and wanted to
see how she liked it. She liked wading and would have swam off if we had let her. Next time we
will bring a long rope to let her try.
Waiting to see if it rains. It was sprinkling when we took nala for her walk tonight.

Easter

Gary and i went to Panera for sm breakfast~then did stuff around the house before time
to go to mom's. Mom, dad, us, suzanne, ty, travis, patrick and "dwayne" joe were all there for
lunch. we held off on the egg hunt until keith and sandra could arrive (they were at her mom's)
by that time, dad had left for Indianapolis for work~yep-more storms.
anyway, DW just watched while the "Moody" kids and spouses battled it out for the money eggs.
Gary, still rusty from just sitting at work all day, only found 3 eggs-too slow. but $7+ was to be had. I found 11 for $9.21. won't mention what the others got, but it was more than our haul...
will post a picture as soon as i can figure out how to get it on here. duh, not too comp. savvy yet. at least not w/this stuff~
dj

Easter

World of Joy

Easter Eve

It's Easter Eve...anticipation for the upcoming easter egg hunt at mom's.
the adult hunt that is. the one w/money in the eggs that we push and shove
for. I'm thinking of spiked wristbands this yr-
will post tomorrow how it went-and add pictures as soon as i figure that
feature out~till then...

Second Post

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

First Post

Hello out there-thought i would give blogging a try.
This way i can keep in touch w/friends and family in
one fell swoop. (fancy words huh) been trying to catch
up on stuff around the house this week. Did get my window
treatments for the kitchen started (need 2 more panels)
and started to re-texture the dining room-and to clean
the art room. Having someone here at end of month
and she'll need a place to sleep-good way to get cleaned
and organized...more later as i get this set up~