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.

Countdown to ArTfEsT

Can't believe i leave a wk from this coming mon! Had this week off so i've been working on trades (as well as things around the house that had to be done) The excitement is building~This is Dorm 225 where i have stayed everytime i've gone-love it there. Love the people, the area, the atmosphere. It's something you can't begin to describe to those who haven't been. It's magic. Can't wait to see old friends and meet new ones. 10 days and counting!

Catching Up

Last sat i went to the Cattle Barn in Ft Worth w/my friends April & Carol. We spent a few hrs perusing the booths and finding treasures. I came home with mostly bling-yea! just what i'd been hoping for.
Here is one final picture of gary in the snow-it didn't last long but it sure was pretty.

REAL Texas Snow

ok, so here is the real thing-first we had the 'tease' on mon night then this afternoon got the real thing...the puppies loved it-their first snow.

Texas Snow

OK-anyone up north reading this-don't laugh. We had 75 degree weather this wkend, then snow mon night. This snow. Today is clear and pleasant out, while snow is predicted again thurs night. They did get more out west of here, but hey, snow is snow.

Picture finally

Here is one of the wooden hearts i made for our last art meeting. I drew it, cut it out of wood, sanded it down and painted/added paper

Life In Joyland

Had intentions of putting photos up-but can't til gary shows me the "new" way. My dad called me sun and said my grandmother fell down the deck stairs sat. She hit her skull by her good eye. Bled of course and she couldn't see. bruised too-gramp took her to springfield to the hospital-they said it might be a skull fracture, but since she was a "walk-in" they wouldn't keep her for observation (something to do w/medicare in Missouri or something) what a crock of shit. He drove her back to their city, she's in their nursing home until MON when the Dr will actually be there. Still waiting to hear what is going on.
NOTE: heard that she can't see because she is bandaged up-dad left that part out. nursing home because she was still a bit out of it-better on mon-)
I'm going to get something to eat-now that the numbness has worn off from today's dental visit. (be glad i don't post pictures of that!) then it's time to work on ATC's for artfest~

A Blog to Check Out

You know how you get on the computer, decide to check out a blog (or two) then you start perusing their links, then THOSE links and so on and next thing you know it's the next day?
I think that is how i found this one...
Fabric Bliss
Be sure to check it out if you like/love fabric and all that goes with it. What timing since i've
started my fabric book cover this week.

Time Flies

So it's been 2 wks-guess time got away from me and posting.
Had a fun start to the wk-after working on fatbook pages for artfest, a little puppy decided to
try to eat a few-13 actually. ripped out the eyelet/ribbon on them before i caught him. Got them re-done and mailed and will post a picture this wkend.
Mon i had to go to the dentist for an unexpected root canal. Actually i should have expected it-broke a tooth a while back and since there was no pain, put it off-until pain hit and i found a new dentist on our plan...nothing like penicillin and vicodin to start your wk right!
Went for dinner mon night w/gary's family for he and his brothers' b-days. Lunch w/his mom and son on tues and dinner w/my parents tues night-got in all the bday celebrating for Gary-
happy birthday hon~
will try to get some pictures up this wkend on what i'm working on.

And the Winner Is...

I had 113 comments, so i numbered 1-113 put them all in a bowl and drew a number...
Number 57- "DEELIGHT" is the recipient of my give-a-way, so if you see this, you can email me your address!
and thanks to all who stopped by my blog-come back any time!

Giveaway

Since i'll be leaving the house by 6 am thurs, i'll draw the name when i get home in the afternoon and post the winner here~good luck and thanks for stopping by. I plan to really look at some of the many new blogs i've discovered from this~

The NEst

Just realized i never added the picture of the nest(s) i did for our art swap in january.
Made 5 of them-4 for the swap and one to keep-they were all actually different sizes-i made the others taller so i could "smoosh" them down, but they didn't smoosh too easily. i like this
size/shaped one the best.

Artfest Shoes

I've had some canvas shoes sitting around forever. painted them once and hated them so painted them black and there they sat.
Now they are pink and black and ready for me to wear at least once while at Artfest this yr~

Blogs and life

What fun it's been entering drawings and checking out lots of new blogs-next wk i hope to be able to really peruse these-this week has been too busy.
here is nathan's sprained ankle from soccer-that's what happens when you haven't played in a few yrs AND you smoke...not in shape :) he is going to try to play on it tonight-i'm not going to the game-have to work this wkend and i'm just too tired. At least it's indoor-i'll go next wk. hopefully i'll do some art on mon and have something new to post.

One World ONE Heart Give-a-way Event

What IS ONE World-ONE Heart?

It is a blog-wide giveaway event. The original idea behind this was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. Last years event had nearly 100 participants and many connections were made because of it......friendships that are still going strong.
Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing-
and check out all the other drawings here.

Drawing for my offering will be on Feb 14th~a random drawing from those who leave a comment.

If you would like to participate and have a giveaway in this event PLEASE click HERE and read all about it! It's NOT too late to come aboard and in the process meet new bloggers from all over the world!! AND there is a full list of all the participants there so even if you don't have a giveaway you can still enter all of them!
LET THE FUN BEGIN AND GO SPREAD THE LOVE AND JOY THROUGH BLOGLANDIA!!!

78 degrees in Feb...must be TX

Can't get the camera to upload again-will have to re-install the program so for now, just a post.
Made some artfest shoes this wkend. Had a pr of canvas tennies that i painted black and never did anything with-so now they are decorated with pink-they say "art fest" in front and " '08" in back.
Went to see Addison fri-she is smiling and holding her head up-will smile and stick her tongue out if you stick yours out. such a cutie.
Went to watch Nathan play indoor soccer sat night-first time he's played in a few yrs. (now he knows what no exercise and smoking will do) He went into the boards w/another player and twisted his ankle pretty bad-
pictures will follow-but that is the latest around here.

Fabric: Before and After

Here is some fabric i bought for my project for our swap on sun.
The bottom is the original, the top is the tea dyed-still wet look.
the next photo shows how it looked once it dried. (along w/riley's foot) Our swap theme is "nest"...here is a sneak at mine. I will post a picture sun of the finished project as i don't want any of the girls to see it before hand.

Sadness

Nathan found out yesterday afternoon that a friend of his died in the morning. He hit a disabled car on the highway-roads were wet yesterday. Unfortunately, he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the truck. WHY won't people wear their seatbelts? He was only 21-

Yikes

Been awhile since i've posted. Been sick with the "crud" going around-then back to work to a busy week-will post pictures of what i have done soon...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Gary & i went to a movie yesterday~can't remember the last one we saw together.
We saw Mr Depp in Sweeney Todd

The cinemetography was fabulous-
I've heard a rumor that they want to make a movie of Dark Shadows with Johnny playing barnabas collins. Guess i better check that out.
I've been trying to work on the artroom-I've gone through 10 yrs! of somerset mags to keep the articles i'm interested in and purge the rest-never thought i would be able to bring myself to do so, but i did. The saved parts are in sheet protectors and will go into notebooks. More later~

Check out my Slide Show!

Merry Christmas!

Tried to post yesterday, but had problems, so i'm a day late.

here are a few pictures from our celebration-Went to mom's Christmas Eve for

dinner and gifts. Will post addison's picture when i figure how to get rid of the red eyes!

Today's Faux Pas

Gary drove me to walmart-i had been their earlier and when i got home a bag of canned
goods were missing. He dropped me off front so i could just go it. I got my business taken
care of and came outside to leave. I walked up to the car-yanked on the door and looked in the window since it was locked-THAT was when i saw some stranager pointing across the way to MY car...
yes, i felt stupid all right. Can't imagine what that other guy thought...

Houston Bound

On mon Dec 10 Gary and I headed to Houston. He had some "mystery shopping" to do-and I wanted to visit Texas Art. It was foggy on the way down-cold here but when we got into houston, it was warm. I killed time while he did his shopping-we went to check into the Bates Motel. I mean Baymont. Rm 128-this room had no power on one side-which meant no lights in the bathroom so we called the office and they were sending maintenance. We left to go eat at Auntie Chang's chinese. love the lemon chicken! Did some running around and when we got back to hotel at 10 pm-no one had fixed the room. We were then moved to room 228. Got all our stuff in when we heard it. Chirp. 30 sec later, chirp. the smoke detector was going off (usually due to low battery) We then got room 229. I noticed not much hot water when i washed my face, but was too tired to care. I did have to get a picture of this "sign" on the bathroom wall-if only they had one of these when i was in Cleveland!

Then came morning. Gary took his shower-the one that started lukewarm and got colder. I didn't bother. (gross i know.) I spent about 2 hrs at Tx Art. love that store. picked up some things i'll take to artfest~and some things to play with when i do art again~ he did his shopping, i killed time and got a few Christmas presents too-We rode the shortest ferry i've ever been on and went to see(long enought to take a picture) the battleship Texas then the San Jacinto monument. We almost got locked in the park area as it was closing time. We ate dinner in the Woodlands and headed home-got in after midnight and had to be up for work around 5am...i was very braindead on wed

Happy December

no picture to post today, but thought i would at least change the colors on here to look
a bit Christmas-y. Can't seem to get into the mood this yr, but when we get the tree up,
will post a few pictures~

A Week Late

Couldn't get the camera to upload for some reason~so belated Happy Thanksgiving.

We ate at my moms as usual. Lots of great food. All the usual turkey day fare.

Here gary and i are-every picture i took today has red eyes-od'nt know why but oh well. We had a bit of snow too~here is patrick trying to catch a flake on his tongue.

Finally here is gary, riley, jack and nala-after they finally realized they were not getting any

of his pie... :)

I'm an AUNT! (again)

But this time, it's a girl! yea-the first girl in the family~won't she be spoiled? :)

No name yet, entered the world sat night at 10:08 weighing 7 lbs, 9 oz and 20" long. she is beautiful...Got to hold her tonight when Gary and I went to see her.

Didn't get a great picture yet, but she is pretty if i say so myself...

Creativity

Finally-after what feels like months, i did a little bit of "art" so to speak. I bought this painting-frame and all at a garage sale last yr for $5. After my micheal deMeng class thought i would do something "caulky" with it and started this: layers of caulk and bits of paper. Decided i didn't like where it was going-ie, no creativity these days-i'm sure i could have done something-so last night i changed direction, ripped the canvas out, bought some masonite and started my new chalkboard. I've been wanting to make one for the house and so i did. I still have to chop out the wood glue that is stuck in the grooves so my board will lay flat-i've glazed the frame w/a bronze glaze and when it's hung, i will post that.

I also painted a spread in my journal for future use and started a canvas~more later!

Crazy Life

Finally getting on here to update. Last thurs night/fri am gary woke me up to tell me "not to worry" but he was going to the ER-didn't want me to go-and he went..i was 1/2 alseep 1/2 awake after that and went in to work before my usual time-had to be there since the boss was off-anyway, long story short, He was admitted to the hospital then placed in ICU as a precaution. Ended up having colonoscopy on sat to rule out any problems-given a clean bill of health-other than the low blood pressure from losing so much blood. He came home on sun-dr said good thing he did come in or he could have bled to death.

Mon i managed to start painting the pink in my future niece's room (still no name) fri my sis nixed any black paint for the time being-such a chicken... :) For some reason she thought i was doing a black wall-i planned to do a "chair rail" height black diamond stencil around the room. oh well. So that is life in the Joy household-will post more later-some pages i've started in my journal.

Halloween

Here are some pictures of some of what we created at work for the guys' halloween dining "pleasure"...Here is the "poop" we made for the kitty litter cassarole.

Here is the finished product. Next are some of the bleeding jello hearts i made for their dinner-didn't get pictures of that since i wasn't there, but heard they really enjoyed the dinner-said it looked bad but tasted great...