Making stuff, ignoring housework...

Got some more work done on this last night...I am hoping it will all come together when I get going on the border...not sure what colors to use yet....

And this little Fun Doll was fun to make! Looks pretty much like the one in the book...now to make my own patterns..like maybe a Stripey Cat?
Back side showing tail! We have BIG sandstone boulders all over our property...great for photo props!
I picked this up on my walk...and was so pretty I had to take a photo....reminds me of my childhood....loved picking Dandelions, didn't you?

Next phase...

Got a little more hooking done last night...only stayed up until midnight. Now to do some serious background work and border, too. For some odd reason I like to do my rug hooking at night. I do other crafts during the day when I get the chance to stay home. I'm back working on Saturdays at our Plumbing store in Ventura for the time being. The fun part is checking out blogs when it isn't busy and visiting the Ventura thrift stores after work...different stuff..and they have a bunch of stores on Main St.-old town- where I can find wooly wonders for hooking and softies.
And speaking of softies...I got this book in Portland and think I will try out some of the patterns.

The striped sweater in the background just might turn into a "Stripe Dog". Will post if it turns out OK.
Love this bag of fiber goodness from Edge to Edge...wool felt on top and wool recycled blanket for hooking on the bottom. Such nice ladies run the store too..and they remembered us from Artfiberfest!
Fiber finds from "The Websters" in Ashland, Or. one of our" Must-Stops" on the way to Artfest.I have plans to use some of these in my Fiber Jewelry class at ARtfiberfest.....at least that is what I told myself when I had to have them.....

Late night

I am such a night owl...once I started hooking on this new piece it was hard to stop....
I stayed up until 1:30 am which would be OK, except that I have to get up at 6:15 to get Justin off to school. I can usually get a little more sleep in before the day really starts. Looking forward to summer when I can sleep in! May make some changes as I go along but it was good to get back to my rug hooking which I love.
I picked up a few new colors of wool at "Edge to Edge" in Port Townsend and that's always fun...
Also got some nice wool felt to play with. I really want to do some dyeing with wool felt using my Magic Carpet dyes from Canada.

Back to Earth again...

Made this little Fiber ATC for April for our group last night...used the delightful kimono silk from Suzanne Lucy this time. My first "after-Artfest" project.
Today I drew up this pattern to rug hook. It is 14" square and is for our rug hooking group's challenge for May. We decided on the theme "Flora"..so I put in lots of flowers and a tiny house.
Will try and show you as I go along how I hook....
And this is just the best year ever for our Jasmine and honeysuckle! This is growing on our front railing and almost overpowers you with its fragrance.
It is hot here today! So I got #2 son and husband to take a beach walk to cool off! Folks were swimming in the 57 degree water! Just one of those very beautiful days.....
I love to be greeted by these flowers on the road up to our little community.
The winding road that goes down to the beach....once was a stagecoach road and before that a Chumash Indian trail. I've been driving up and down this winding road since my college days.
It's good to be home again....however...I'm pretty sure I left a part of my spirit up in Port Townsend....and in my dreams I am still there. When I wake up I have to remember where I am....and get centered on what I have to do....not "what class am I going to today?"
It's still not too early to be thinking of Artfiberfest....I will be teaching 3 classes and doing vendor night again, so I have things to do! Hope to see you all there!

More Artfest Images

Most of these images are from the Show and Tell event at the end of Artfest.
Wish I knew the names of the artists....but it was crowded and I just snapped photos as I walked along. Great colors and such variety...everyone did such beautiful work!

A woven book cover...
PMC bird pendant...
waxy layers class...Michelle Allen, my table partner...love her colors! the following are all from Anahata's classes..2 different ones, but they all caught my eye...







These are just a tiny peek at the incredible creations at ARtfest. the most wonderful part of Artfest is being with all the like minded souls. We were greeted with hugs by our house mates next door..Annie and her sister (with the fun hat and great outfits)...got to know Annie at Artfiberfest and found out we both were at UCSB at the same time. We had some of the same teachers but different classes this time. She made a great little shrine and a fun floor cloth and was all smiles at Show and Tell.
Got to spend a little time with Betsey and Sherri, the Bellingham girls. Loved their trades...hope we get to spend more creative time together soon...and there is always Artfiberfest coming up in October. Had a nice dinner chat with a lovely woman named Judy from Colorado. Her first time at Artfest and first time taking special art time for herself away from home. At our table was Susan Wooldridge..of course I read her book, Fool's Gold, as soon as Teesha recommended it. A fun and energetic woman and I loved meeting her. Got to see Marcia and Ty, once again...they sat behind me in Judy Wise's class...they always bring humor and keep me smiling.
Loved seeing Katie Kendrick again. She gave me the cutest softie with one of her painted faces that I love...and I just had to buy a print of her painting, "Naptime in the Forest"at vendor night. It is just the coziest soothing painting...once framed it will go in the bedroom next to Judy's work.
I am still processing all the warmth and love and creativity that is Artfest. I am so grateful to Teesha, Tracy and their families for making this happen every year. ....for gathering all of these wonderful teachers and students to share their gifts and special energy and taking chances on new teachers and techniques to further inspire our creativity in so many ways....Thank you from the bottom of my heart to one and all!!!

Artfest images.....

Sukey's beautiful Mandala from Anahata's class....Sukey was my roommate in the Officer's house and makes incredible dolls and fiber things....oops...it's sideways...sorry, Sukey...I love the soft colors....I think I need to take one of Anahata's classes now!
The delightful Nina Bagley at the end of our Stone Soup class.....I made a bunch of drilled charms and fiber embellishments to be made into a necklace some day....I think I finally "got" the "Nina knot" figured out..with Colleen's help.. ....and am not afraid to drill glass or stones!
Some of my goodies from Nina's class...coral from Bali, stones from our beaches, and fabric beads wrapped with wire...those were fun to make!
My second Waxy Layers encaustic collage made in the wonderful class taught by the amazing Judy Wise....I got to meet Judy at Art and Soul last October and looked forward to taking her class at Artfest. A generous, kind, and entertaining teacher that got us all addicted to beeswax.

My first encaustic collage from Judy's class.....learned how to do dry brushwork..somewhat...anyway...Michelle Allen my table partner was so much help...loved sharing this experience with her and her piece was wonderful.
My funny little gnome and friend made in Michael Jon Peterson's Spun Cotton Creations class on the first day...fun to learn a new technique. Got to sit next to my friend Susan B. from Santa Barbara...she made an incredible little bird and a pumpkin head creature....hope to see them finished up. Michael was lively and entertaining and shared all his tips and techniques and brought lots of fun paper and ephemera for us to play with.
I just LOVE this fairy drawing that Katherine made....Susan Halme's granddaughter~drawn in the Officer's house kitchen while we chatted and ate popcorn....and discussed our classes.
Just some of my trades from artfest......owl oriented......love them all!
More to come.....

Road trip to Atfest 2008...part one.

Castle in the Air, Berkeley,CA
Katherine with her fairy drawing at Morning Glory in Ashland, Or.
Shop in Multnomah Village, Or.
Colleen shopping..
Inside Flutter on Mississippi St. Portland, Or.
Flutter...
Flutter...
cool hooked owl pillow at Flutter...
cool store...closed
Our dinner spot...Por Que no? on Mississippi St.
Fabric store in Tumwater, Wa
window of Artisans on Taylor, PT
Colleen with funny painted glasses on in Artisans on Taylor.
cool art car at the Fort!
dInside the dining common...dinner and the trading frenzy...


Had such a great trip up to Port Townsend and an equally wonderful time at Artfest and back again! Still processing it all while taking care of the family, reading email, unpacking and settling in.
Taking a road trip with an art friend your same age and with the same interests is one of the best things in life! Colleen and I had such a good time traveling together.We shared stories and adventures all the way up and back! And we had the companionship of her sister, Susan, her daughter, Mielie, and her 2 girls, Melissa and Katherine on the road as they traveled to Seattle in another car. We managed to have a few meals together on the road and the girls gave me some awesome art which I will share here. Colleen and I made a stop at "Castle in the Air" in Berkeley and got to meet Ulla who was teaching a Sunday workshop upstairs. She is such a sweetheart! We got to peek at all the very cool alphabet books that the women were making in the 2 day workshop. Would love to gather a group together to take a workshop there some weekend. The store is so inspiring! Lots of goodies from Europe that you don't see elsewhere. More fun shops in the neighborhood too....plus some cute restaurants. We found a great place and had brunch and then we were on our way. Next fun stop: Ashland, Oregon where we had breakfast with Susan and family at the Morning Glory Restaurant. Soo Good! The girls drew with crayons while our food was prepared and I made such a fuss over Katherine's fairy drawing that she gave it to me.
After breakfast we headed into Ashland to check out some of our favorite shops. Webster's has amazing wool fleece, roving, yarns, wearables and jewelry. The Prize was closed on Monday so Colleen missed her chance once again to step inside...(also closed on the way home!) but the fabric store was open and we managed to find some fun fat quarters to add to our fabric stash and then we were on our way again.
We made it to Portland, had a nice dinner at CPK and got ready to explore a bit of Portland the next day. We had breakfast at Marcos Restaurant in Multnomah Village and found another yarn store and a great little fabric store called, Fibers In Motion. Also found cool shoe store called Switch, and ended up with a fun artsy pair of shoes from elnaturalista! We finally made it to Powell's bookstore where Colleen met up with an old friend and we browsed the books and met up with Susan and girls again. We spent a few hours there and then headed off to Alberta St. for stops at Collage, Bolt and the yarn store. Getting hungry we hopped over to Mississippi St., checked out a cool shop called Flutter (vintage and fun new stuff) and then found our dinner spot, "Por Que no"..a sweet little Mexican food place with hand made tortillas and great food. The manager was a friend of Colleen's and didn't know we were coming and wasn't supposed to be working that day but there she was! She gave us free drinks and an excellent meal served outside as the sun went down. We felt refreshed and decided to drive on until we felt tired. We made it to Tumwater , Washington for the night and the next morning found a nice little fabric store behind the Starbuck's and just had to take a peek. It is called Ruby St. Quiltworks...a fresh new store with lots of fabric and some great little felted doggies from a workshop they taught there.
On to Olympia for breakfast and our next destination: Shipwreck Beads. We gave ourselves a time limit so we wouldn't stay too long. Found some fun beads and supplies for Nina's class and on to Port Townsend!
We made a grand entrance as the Landrover's alarm system went off loudly until we were saved by a sympathetic bystander who had suffered the same problem....take the key out and unlock the doors from the outside. Whew! Then off to visit Edge to Edge and Artisans on Taylor and to look for new socks.
Registration beckoned so off to the Fort for a hug with Teesha and her mother, Darlene. Fun things in the Gallery....I put in my owl and gnome and off to our Officer's house and meet up with roommates Sukey, Susan H. and girls, and LE, Syd's daughter. We settled in, then off to dinner and the trading frenzy began until the kick off meeting.
More tomorrow!