Home again....

Me and Katie and my new dolls....

Katie's Dolls...

Terry's house...

Two Julie's houses

Pam and Joanne hooking their hearts..

Me and sweet Gail...

Betsey and Gail....

The vivacious Huskamp Girls.....Marilyn and Tracie

Katie and D.J. Pettit

The ever-charming Michael de Meng posing in his kimono

Lovely ladies Carla and Judy with Michael...and martinis

Lisa and Shari, artists and teachers...

Had to go meet Angela Cartright at vendor night....and picked up her new Zine.

Got home from a wonderful trip to Portland where I got to teach and take classes at the Art & Soul Retreat at the Embassy and Sheraton hotels. Glenny and Cindy did a great job organizing everything and were right there to answer questions all day long. There was a fun shop set up right in the lobby full of art supplies of all sorts and of course, I found some things that I don't think we have here in Santa Barbara.

Lovely students in every class....we had fun with the rug hooking and the felt bead class went so fast that we hardly got to the embellishing part, much less any needle felting...I think I need a whole day to get to everything that I want to share.

One of the highlights for me was taking Katie Kendrick's Whimsical Folk Art Doll class. We got to paint our own faces or use one of hers...I did both. I made one small doll and one huge one...I didn't mean it to be so big, but that's how it turned out. Every one was so unique and creative. She even gave us a special Dilletante chocolate. And I had the most delicious Portobello mushroom sandwich at the Sheraton that ended up being my lunch and dinner.

I loved being greeted by the amazing duo of Tracie and Marilyn Huskamp! They taught some wonderful classes and even spent the evening with Katie in the felted bead class after teaching all day.
I'm so glad that I got to spend a little time and share hugs with Gail and Betsey from Bellingham...two of the sweetest artists on the planet who came down on the train. Hope to spend more time next week at ArtFiberFest with them....I'm only teaching one class and taking two..hoping to be less sleep deprived this time around.

We had a fun Happy Hour celebrating Katie's birthday. She gave us all silk kimonos!The amazingly talented and always smiling Judy Wise painted a lovely box that opened to a Madonna and child ....and I finally got to buy some of her incredible prints and some of Katie's art too...So nice to actually meet and visit with two of my favorite artists.