Fruit Trays and Oklahoma City

What? you ask. Sat I had to go into work for several hrs to help get things ready for a reception on sun. These are pictures of what i got done. The big tray eventually had two 1/2 circles of fruit added to it on the sides, a second lg tray and a small one were done before i could leave. (nelly helped too) :)
Then i met gary for lunch and headed to Oklahoma City.
Why you ask-for an art festival of course! I heard about "Festival of the Arts"
last yr through Carla Sonheim's blog. I knew she would be there again this year and kept thinking all week about going. "yes, no, yes" So at 1:15 i was on my way. Checked into my hotel a bit before 4 and headed downtown. Found great parking across from the festival and wandered into the grounds. I really enjoyed the art here-all different artists than what we see here at Main St. Alot of vibrant colors. I did buy a print and original from Carla Sonheim.
I love her art-it just makes me smile. The festival takes place near a park-like area (forget the name) but it's pretty-they have a stage down by the water for some of the musical entertainment and another one near all the food vendors. I highly recommend this one to others. A few of the artists that i enjoyed were: Janet O'Neal
really like the vibrant colors she used in her work. Gianna Marino also had interesting art. She did her main body of collage with torn papers then drew on them (much cooler in person than in my description) Flinn Designs fun mixed media work and she runs an animal shelter.
Scot Schmidt has some interesting sculpture work done in limestone-at least that is the easiest way to describe (says he)
I decided to go see the Oklahoma Memorial while there. I had been there once before with my sister, but wanted to see it again. It is worth the time if you are ever in the area. By this time i was ready to head back to my hotel. I was too tired to even go find food, so i just ordered pizza and watched tv. Woke up to cold temps, packed up, ate and headed home to reality.

Caught UP

I think i've finally caught up on posting from the trip. The bluebonnets have been out for awhile so i'll post a picture-you know it's spring in TX when you see these!
I recently picked up the magazine that cloth paper scissors put out on studios. Between reading that and the fire that Joan had in her artroom before artfest made me think i need to get into my room and CLEAN and PURGE! I want to re-think my space-paint the walls and even re-arrange. I'll post progress as that happens.

Day 7: Seattle and Home

Got ready, ate in the hotel-got the car packed up and went to UPS to mail my box-much heavier than it was before! Took my rent car back-was dumped at airport on the lower level, so had to lug everything up-get checked in-really nice guy from dallas was working there. Went through security, THEN had to take a train to my gate-farthest gate from the train. Was concerned w/making it, but they had not started boarding yet. Another full flight. Smooth, uneventful-i would fly Alaska again. Got home around 5, gary picked me up and we went to Babe's for dinner. Very disappointed. No pot roast, no pecan pie (only making it at thanksgiving now) how stupid is that? Got home-exhausted. went to bed early since i have to go back to work tomorrow for 6 days. i'll unpack tomorrow...

Day 6: Fort Worden, Poulsbo and Seattle

April 6, 2008
Got packed up, loaded car and went to eat. The photo above is a lonely one! empty rooms...
I drove around town and took some pictures.
Went to check on Joan's progress-Went to take pictures of the armory. Joan came up for pix too. We went to the beach for "findings" and photo's. Got some great one's of the other armory area. Cool rust and peeling paint. Found rusted ship metal-even a hinge on the beach.
We headed out of town to meet up with carol, april and peggy in Poulsbo.
will finish later-tornado sirens are going off here...
OK-we missed the worst of the storm-just got the rain.
In Poulsbo, we went to the bead store, stamp store, antique store then had lunch at Magnolia Cafe. I had a wonderful cheese pizza. We hit the bakery-good thing they don't have one like this at home-i would weigh a ton! Joan and i missed the 3 pm ferry and took the 4-whatever one. Stopped at paper zone for bigger box, then met joan at daniel smith
for a bit of last minute shopping. We got to the hotel and got checked in-Holiday Inn Express is quite nice. Went to have dinner at Newport Bay again. My last taste of Halibut for awhile.
Went to bed fairly early for us-

Day 6: Fort Worden (April 5, 2008)

I was soooo tired today! Did the McD's thing-today's class was Karen O'Brien:Creative Characters. This was a fun day-we learned her techniques, her colors and a simple drawing lesson. I was very quiet today-hard to stay awake. Ate lunch with Amy today-nice to visit with her. Had to run to town for pr of scissors. (left mine at home-dummy) Enjoyed class today-really liked what we did-and her fast techniques. I had to take a bit of a nap after class. Met up with April and Joan for dinner. Ate mexican food at El Sarape. It was actually much like home-tex mex. We were stuffed. Got back to the fort for the show and tell. Always a bittersweet time. Such cool art to see-yet knowing it's almost time to go home.
The S & T wrapped up fairly quick-we headed over to Dorm 202 again for the "after party." Didn't stay as late as last night-went back to shower and pack up for tomorrow.

Day 5: Fort Worden (April 4, 2008)

Did my morning McD's. (funny i never eat there when i am at home) The guy working there recognized me already-guess when you're in a small town...-drove around again-as many times as i've been here, i've never looked at some areas of town. Pretty little place. Went back to the fort for my supplies and headed to the schoolhouse. Today's class was with Tiphoni: Color Theory.
I loved this class. We took 6 colors of paint and white and learned to mix all colors. We practiced just mixing, used a mag page to find a color to copy. How cool it was to look at a color and finally "get it" when it comes to cool, warm, red, blue or yellow. You learn to identify the color you see most. Usual lunch fare in the commons. I think i had bread and stew gravy today :)
After lunch we did a little painting w/2 colors and mixing them to get many shades-really got alot out of this class-as much as i love playing with paint, it was a good thing.
April and I ate dinner at Waterfront pizza. Love their pizza-it's a tradition. We got back in time to get in line for vendor night. I bought a few things-print from Kelly Rae Roberts, findings from Bird (scavanged from dead bodies of course) tie dye socks too. Got a little piece from Karen OBrien and Urban Bird Girl. (my buddies girlfriend) We hung out in dorm 202 tonight-green wristbands and all. Had alot of fun-stayed up late-showered and bed.

Day 4: Fort Worden (April 3)

I went to town for breakfast-McD's sausage biscuit and tea~Drove around a bit, then back to the fort. Found my classroom. Today was Ultimate Journal with Thomas Ashman. We got to cut, torch, hammer, patina, bolt and hole punch our metal covers. My table mate was a "first timer" who was not one that did art-his girlfriend was coming to artfest and asked him if he wanted to so he agreed. I thought that was cool-and commendable that he would be open to it. Lunch was at the fort-too froo-froo for me. My journal was almost done in class except for some wire cutting which i plan to finish at home. (and i did)
Met up with Joan and went into town. Had to go to the bead store-Winwoods-love their charms.
Ran into Carol, Peggy and April. April came to dinner with Joan and i-Bayview. Halibut and yummy pecan pie. We went to the fort and got our journal stuff and headed to the beach/bonfire/journal party-a tradition for me. We went for a walk on the beach after securing a table. I found "walter" the starfish-biggest starfish i have ever seen. (i'll post a better picture later of the whole thing) We hung out at the party until it was over-went back to my room to chill and shower and journal. Got stuff ready for tomorrow's class.

Day 3: Seattle and Port Townsend (April 2, 2008)

Got packed up after eating, loaded the cars and headed to the ferry-with plenty of time. Beautiful day! We met a few artfesters on the ferry-amy lee, heather and candy-all new to artfest-they will love it! We stopped in Winslow to go to Esther's fabrics (i got some buttons) then headed on to PT~Parked and hit the ground running. Did a bit of shopping before a late lunch and into the Fort to check in and get moved into our rooms. I just love the atmosphere at the fort when we are all gathered there~comraderie amongst strangers-all with a like
mind of creativity-too bad we all can't just live there and create forever! Tonight was the Opening Night Get-Together. We all meet up in the hanger and meet the teachers after a talk from Teesha~this year they all got to answer a question-"what do you do to help w/creative block" "what would you do if you weren't creating art" etc... it was interesting. We headed to the Art Asylum after that-picked up a few things-went back to my room to unwind, shower and get my supplies ready for class in the morning.

Day 2 in Seattle (April 1, 2008)

Joan and i got a bit more sleep than originally planned, but it was much needed!
We got ready and went to IHOP (french toast and hash browns for me) Buckwheat pancakes for her-then we hit the road and went up to Snohomish for antiquing. We only made it to one mall and about 5 shops (and a small lunch) before the shops closed up for the day-that town closes down at 5! If we do it again, we'll know to start on the main road and start earlier. We did discover that the mall was the one place we could have skipped as their prices are higher than the shops. (i did however, score w/a box full of jello molds for 9.95 (34 in all)) my other purchases were pretty much photo's. We headed back to seattle and stopped at paper zone for a quick spree and back to target. Had a quick meal at Burger King-then back to the hotel to get packed for tomorrow and sleep! the only pictures i got today were one of some lovely flowers and a quick shot of town as we were leaving-had to have *some* pratice with the camera.

A Few Pictures and a bit more on Artfest

Yes, it's taking me forever-for the first time in all the yrs of going to artfest, i had to come home and work the next day-so 6 days of work, artfest and 6 more days of work left me worn out!
I plan to get the rest of this up by end of week.
this is a bit out of order-but this is joan and i on the ferry on wed. It was a fabulous day as you can see. Tomorrow i will write about what we did on tues-then our drive/arrival in port townsend~

Home From Artfest (day one in seattle)

After a close call making my flight (squeaked on-barely) i got into seattle around 9:15 mon morning march 31-partly cloudy and nicely cooler! Got my rent car settled, grabbed the luggage, hit the shuttle and finally got to our hotel in my stylin' hundai elantra. Dragged my luggage to the room with joan's help then we hit our usual day one lunch haunt-Dave's Diner before our shopping.
We went to Uwajimaya groc store and the book store-i wanted japanese pens and joan wanted some japanese packaging. From there, we headed to Daiso-the japanese 1.50 store. it was nothing more than a $ store but we got a few things-had a snack in the food court of the mall-then on to Archie McPhee-while we were inside the mall-it had rained and hailed from what we heard later. Guess we brought some texas weather up there. Both found things at archie-then headed paper zone and daniel smith-we needed a few things for classes-closed both stores. Had to stop at Target for fort munchies and a new camera-mine had "disappeared" at home (probably sitting in some pawn shop) and i couldn't be w/out one on this trip. Finally got that done and we ate late dinner at Newport seafood-halibut of course. On to the hotel to get some much needed sleep after a bit of visiting...installment 2 and photo's tomorrow.