On the way to Artfest..

Colleen and I headed off early Sunday morning on our way to Artfest. First stop, Fourth Street in Berkeley, CA. We checked out several shops and then had fun shopping and looking for new things at the "Castle in the Air". We were so lucky to have Shari as our guide. We got to meet at Artfiberfest when she and her friend, Caron were in my hooking and nuno felt classes. Shari took us upstairs where a wonderful beeswax collage class was going on and helped us with the wonderful felt cording that I wanted for an upcoming class at Artfiberfest in June. We also got to see the needle felted creations of Caron Dunn, who teaches at the Castle...just wonderful...the best needle felting I have ever seen. I'd love to take a class from her! The picture above shows some of the fun things I found at the Castle.
After shopping we were hungry and so we went next door to Bette's Oceanview Diner. We had a delicious lunch there from their great menu and after a quick stop at The Paper Source we were on our way.
We slept in Redding and headed off to Ashland for breakfast-lunch at one of our favorite stops~ the Morning Glory. I had to take a photo of the wonderful tree house that had been built in the neighborhood where we parked our car and walked to the restaurant. I've always loved tree houses, my brothers built one with a trap door in our big old oak tree when I was growing up.
Best breakfast spot in town!
Once fed, we were ready to visit "Websters" one of the best yarn, roving, and wearable art places on our trip. We spent at least an hour looking at all the beautiful yarns and wool. I bought a new crochet hook and a bag of colorful yarn to play with and use at Artfiberfest.
The top skeins of yarn had beads in the wool so you could make a sparkly scarf with them....
Just some of the many buttons available...
Noro yarns from Japan...some of my favs.....
Colleen doing a little damage at Websters....
After Websters we walked on down the street to Mix to get a mocha and cookie for the road...they had these cute tissue flowers in the window.....
and look how sweet my mocha arrived!
Next stop was to Arch Cape near Cannon Beach in Oregon where my brother built a beach house. We drove over to Hwy. 101 and finally got there by 10 pm, a little late for dinner. We got to visit with my brother, Larry until midnight and then got up and took a walk on the foggy coast before a nice breakfast in Cannon Beach. Larry led us back towards Portland where we had some nice visits to Fibers In Motion, Northwest Wools and Switch, a cool shoe store in Multnomah Village.
Our beach walk...
My brother built his house in the forest a few years ago and he and his sons go down to surf and relax whenever possible.
The forest behind his house.
Heart shaped stepping stone near the beach.
After Portland we decided to drive all the way to PortTownsend and get there a day before the festivities. We found a nice place to stay for the night and went into town to check out some of our favorite places. We were sad to see that "Edge to Edge" was gone but still had fun visiting all the cool stores and restaurants in Port Townsend.

Artfest 2009!

Artfest, created by Teesha and Tracy Moore, is one of the highlights of my year. Over five hundred artists converge in Port Townsend, WA at Fort Worden for a 4 day art retreat. You meet the most wonderful, creative, generous, and spirited fellow artists. There is a gallery where you can sell 2 pieces of your work, a kick off meeting, 3 days of workshops, bonfire art journaling, vendor night, and show and tell of all the projects from the workshops. The town of Port Townsend welcomes us and we always have fun shopping and trying out new restaurants. Our group from the Central coast of California stayed in an officier's house where we gathered after class to work on our art, snack, drink tea and stay up late sharing our days' events. We all had a wonderful time and it was fun to see all the fun things created by everyone.
We are all so grateful to Teesha and Tracy and their families for putting on this incredible event every year. The teachers are amazing and there are always new and exciting processes to try out. The best part of it all is the wonderful friends you make and then see again like a big family reunion. I have a few more posts to make on ARtfest and then back to my regular posting of "stuff I like to make"....
Tracy Moore's books on display in the gallery....

Walking to our house at Fort Worden
Tracie Huskamp at vendor night...always smiling!
Two of my favorite artists and teachers...Katie Kendrick and Judy Wise....sweet souls!
Checking in at the Fort...Sukey, Syd and Sue.

Kick off meeting...the teachers lined up in front and gave a quick intro. and words of wisdom.
Glenny of Art and Soul fame, and Linda O'brien in our Dada Diaries class....
Me and Linda after class....

My bird book that I made in Linda and Opie's class
Pam's book....
Glenny's book....
Francine at work in Syd's Trophey Wife class.
Susan Halme's piece in Sy'd's class
My Junk mail book in Carla Sondheim's class
Syd working on her papers for Carla's class
Painted junk mail with gesso and water color wash for our books...
my little owl from a left handed drawing exercise in Carla's class
ARt car...
Syd and Nanci Drew in Carla's class....and Nanci's car below!

Artfest Show and Tell...

These are just a few of the many wonderful creations from Artfest. I plan to put a set of photos on my "flickr" site soon.

The Way Back Home from Artfest....

Our first stop on the way home from Artfest was in Portland, Oregon where we saw these pretty flowers on the way to Cool Cottons on Hawthorne St. and later the Yarn Garden.
Lunch was a quick sandwich on delicious fresh baked bread at Grand Central Baking Co. near by.
We got as far as Eugene, Or the first night and then on to Ashland for breakfast at a new stop for us...dragonfly restaurant.....DElicious!!! It was recommended by several Artfesters, so we had to try it...
Outside the restaurant were a couple of fun ART Cars....
the Dragonfly and.....
the Camera Van...totally covered in camera of all types!!!! After a visit to the fabric store we headed on down to California, making it to San Rafael for the night. The next morning we had breakfast in Mill Valley, visited the street where Colleen had lived years ago.....
and then found 2 very cool stores in Sausalito......
The Pine Street Papery.....so many wonderful things to look at....(and buy!)...
Paper cut curtain.....and easter goodies.....
beautiful tissue in so many colors.....
and then on Bluebird Yarn and Fiber store....a new place for us to explore. Shari and Caron from Castle in the Air told us about this store and the sweet owner, Sophie. She makes wonderful needle felted creations and sells yarns and wool roving.
Her fun felted sign....
From Sausalito we headed home from our wonderful art adventure and back to our families who had tales of their own to tell.