I love this

This will be me next year at the girls of 66 get together....

bad day good day

This is Earl in front of Mattei's Tavern in Los Olivos where we had a great dinner. The wisteria smelled so good as we walked in.
The 26th was Earl 's and my 38th anniversary....and we woke up to the neighbors letting us know all our tires had been slashed. The police did not come for 4 hours!!!! It was quite upsetting to say the least! I just don't get vandalism. Also ...very "mysteryiously"....one house was spared....the one with young "adults" that are causing problems on a regular basis. Nothing we can do.....so I am venting here with my early morning photos.







But today I recieived my ATC house. Way cool with Elvis windows from Dot and a "home sweet home" door from Edina. Tracie Lynn you rock big time! You did a great job of organizing and making our roofs to match etc. Cute wrap too!

Susan's and Barbara's birthday party minus Barbara...

It was a beautiful day in Solvang and we had a great lunch and party at Susan's except we were missing one of the birthday girls to strep throat and Cindy, to the need to be home for workmen.
I made Susan a little neighborhood of her family and Pepa got her this great crow. The doll is for Barbara.
I unwrapped it to share with the other guests and Colleen shared her beautiful handspun that was a Barbara gift too.
We ate until we popped, chatted, gifts and visited her newborn kittens...7 of them....so cute! Perfect day.


I met Jill at the ART CLINIC and we did a little painting. We have a Mother Daughter show at the Solvang Bakery Gallery in a couple weeks..... yeeks! This one is not done but you can get the idea...

Anne Bagby would be so happy

I did what she said and I used what I learned in her class. These are my spin on what I learned. Thanks Anne!

April 17...Jill's birthday at Firestone

My youngest is 33...How can that be? But isn't she a beauty?

Art Prima Vera

This was really great for a first event. All the artists did really well. I think if the rain would have stayed away we would have done even better today. So Cheri plans to repeat this in Nov. This is Colleen's space next to mine. I sold the middle picture of a beach in Santa Barbara. Here are some of the other artist's work.
Mike

Joel

Cindy

Mike

Sue

Cheri

Jane

Janet

time for more ATCs

This is from out gathering in Santa Barbara. This group is planning a show in fall at Art from Scrap. It will be really cool I think. I will have more info soon.

These are the ones I made to trade. For those ArtFesters, you will notice my Anahata influence.

These ATC are what I got as trades at ArtFest.

More pics from the beach

This my good buddy Gerry and I ...he looked just as good when we traded hair.
This is where I wish I was now.....

sold this one

This was another of my paintings over a painting. It had been a plate with sushi on it and it just wasn't working so I painted over it and as I did the couple dancing in the light of the moon came out. Thanks Judy for appreciating my painting.

Happy Easter everyone

Hope you have not eaten too many chocolate eggs and are enjoying this Spring day and you are in the pink....
We are lucky enough to have gotten these delish cookies from our neighbor...there were more...

I'm back......

What an amazing 2 weeks I have just had! Colleen and I took off the 25th loaded to the tippy top. Had a beautiful drive with some rain. After a stop at Paco's in Woodland for great Mexican food, we made it to Yreka Motel 6 next and the best coleslaw at the Black Bear. Next day we made it to the amazing Morning Glory Restaurant in Ashland for beakfast and did some major shopping damage in that town.
Only bummer was The Prize is closed on Mon...note to self...We stopped at my high school buddy Roberta's, Broadway Bookstore in Portland and drove on to a motel at the base of Mt. St. Helen for the night. Tues we made it to Seattle with a stop in Issaquah for a great lunch at Koho's and some more fabric shopping.
Got to LE's and made a beeline to Maxine's...that place never disappoints....LE and Jon joined us for our Snappy Dragon fix...Thank you Jon again. Next day off to Port Townsend. We got a great view from the ferry and found a great place with drive thru coffee behind a gas station....just what we needed. So we hit a few shops...my favs: Summer House and Edge to Edge...before meeting up with Susan and her college buddy with family in tow for a great lunch at Finn's....We strapped Susan to the roof with her suitcases, made one more stop at the art store/health food market, that we LOVED and made it to the fort to check in and start our long awaited and beloevd ArtFest.....OK take a breath.
I really can't explain how wonderful ArtFest is to anyone who has not gone. I first went 4 years ago and I remember thinking I had found my "tribe"....If you see someone with blue paint all over them, multi painted shoes, a hat with an antenea and an apron of many fabrics you just think..."cool".
I had 3 great classes. I worked with resin, collage and new favorite tool a pizza cutter.

The other great thing out this retreat is I get to be with LE. It is so fun for me to get to have her with me for those fast paced 4 days. She is also a great help on vendor night! But now of course I miss her like mad....So I think LE and I both liked the camp fire the best this year. I have missed it every year, but this one was amazing because the 1000 journals project founder was there! We actually did work in a couple of the journals! Another thing that is hard to explain....but I never thought I would see one let alone work in one!

So I will fast forward to the end. We did a canon ball run home stopping in Redding the first night. We stopped in Walnut Creek for really good Vietnamese food and got home about 6.

This is why I dragged Colleen home so fast....I dumped my bags, had tacos with Jill and Earl and headed for the beach!. 3 high school buddies and I rented a beach house on the Rincon for the week. We had a really good time eating junk food mostly and laughing alot. We had visits from various school mates with a get together of about 20 on Fri. We definately want to repeat this next year. It was a great way to recharge our "batteries". I saw classmate I had not seen since graduation.

Now it is back to "work"...Carol and I have lots a new plans for the ART CLINIC and shows to prepare for....but I am all pumped up now to throw myself into it all.