Photocrawl with the Unusual Suspects

I had the best time today on a photocrawl of the Fremont Sunday Market with Gwen Delmore, Louie Shellenberger and her sister-in-law Suze Stewart. We shopped, took photos, laughed, ate, printed some of our photos and journaled in these cute little journals you see here. Gwen made a journal for each of us and they are just the perfect size to document a very pleasant Sunday. We even got lucky with the weather!

We had lunch at a great spot called the Blue Moon Burger and I would like to publicly thank them for allowing us to plug in our Pogo printers and take over two tables for several hours while we printed, ate and journaled. The food was goooooooooooood, by the way.

I don't usually journal in such a style, so this was a fun way to do something out of the box. I love my little journal and will treasure it as a reminder of a happy day.





This gentleman had been "dressed" for a birthday. He's very festive, don't you think?

And these shoes....ah....they give a whole new meaning to Toe Shoes, don't you think?

Friday Portrait of My New Reality

Here I am, with my newest best tool---my glucose meter. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in late November and by following my doctor's orders I am getting it under control. I am eating right, getting daily exercise, I take my medications and do as I'm told. I guess you can say I'm (finally) being an adult! Well, sort of....Diabetes is not something you fool around with, it is something you have to take very, very seriously. And I am. And it is paying off.

Educate yourself about Diabetes. Exercise daily, watch your diet, lose weight (the bain of my existence) if you need to or keep the excess poundage off and don't smoke. Diabetes is rampant but you can do something about it.

I plan to be here a long, long time yet and I want you, Dear Reader, to be here too, healthy and happy.

Okay, stepping down off my soap box now and returning control of your computer. Have a wonderful weekend!

Packing for ArtFest

Let me ask you, Dear Reader, if you know how to spell "mess." You do? Do you spell it ARTFEST? Well, I do, at least right now. My house is a total, absolute, complete mess. I have milk carton-like crates sitting about where I have stuffed this and that. Things I want to take with me, things I have to have, things I think I need but won't touch the entire time I am there. (Past experience tells me this is, alas, a truth.) Each class requires different art supplies. I print out the supply list and try to be organized in amassing the piles of things required. I try. I try but I fail.

Many experienced, long-time ArtFest attendees have written helpful hints on the Yahoo group page to share their packing tips. One of the best suggestions is to put all your supplies, including the supply list, into a ziplock plastic bag. This is very useful and I do it for my classes....those that will have a supply list that will fit into a ziplock plastic bag, that is! I am taking a class from the amazing Lynne Perrella a week from Saturday that is requiring a whole crate. I am hoping that all the things I need for her class will fit into one crate. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please

How do the people who come to ArtFest by plane manage? I have a CRV and I'm wondering if my stuff, my sister-in-law's stuff and Bee's stuff (including boxes of her new book that she will be selling at Vendor Night!) will fit into my vehicle. Each year we swear we are not going to take so much. Each year we take more.

The images above are toner copies of images I need for Ms. Perrella's class, Go For Baroque.

Will it all fit? Will I gather all my supplies in time? Will I be able to find room for Nonie & Bee's things? Stay tuned.....

Self Portrait Friday

I was reading Nina Bagley's blog, Ornamental, this morning and her latest post was Self Portrait Friday. It occured to me that I don't have any photos from my birthday of myself, the big Six O (as people always seem to put it for some obscure reason), and I decided to play long. So, here is my Saturday Self Portrait, for what it's worth---and it isn't much!. Here is the sixty year old face that is very grateful to be here, in good health, lucky and blessed beyond belief and happy.

Life is good.

New Travel Journal

I am going on a dream trip in late April to Tunisia and Morocco so lately I've been working on putting together the journal in which to record my experiences. Sometimes I honestly think that the best part of a trip is coming home and having my travel journal to remind me of all my experiences.
I've done my interpretation of a minaret for the front and back cover, one in the day and the other at night. I used paper for the minaret and the moon/sun, acrylic paint and gel medium for the rest of the covers. I like the texture I achieved with a small roller with the gel medium. I am a messy journal-keeper and am likely to put my journal down in a puddle of something at a restaurant or coffee shop, so water-proofing the covers is a real requirement.

I love this quote from Proust and decided it would be a good reminder while I was traveling, so I put it opposite the first page of the journal.

I like the effect I achieved on the inside of the covers using walnut ink, glimmer mists and kosher salt. I will definitely use that technique again.

The other big news is that I turned 60 earlier in the week. My family gathered last weekend to celebrate the beginning of my 7th decade (!!!) and that was the very best gift I received. I must say that never have I had so many birthday wishes, phone calls (from as far away as Norway and Nepal), flowers and gifts. I feel so very loved with this out pouring of well wishes and love, and rather humbled by it all. I've been taken to dinner, to lunch, to coffee and I've been emailed and hugged, spoiled and cosseted and it's been going on now for over a week. I guess I can honestly claim to be having a birthday season rather than just a birth day! I like it---it's fun! And there will be more celebrating when my dear friend Bee arrives as we celebrate our mutual birthdays together. The birthday season continues.

There are so many flowers in the house from all these lovely friends that it looks like there has been a death---and then I realized that there has been.....my "youth!"

My New Neighbors

My DH and I have been seeing a lot of a little Rufus Hummingbird in our back yard. The other morning, DH called me into the bedroom and, pointing out the window, showed me why we have been seeing so much of this beautiful little birdie. Lo and behold, right outside the window, in very plain view, not five feet from the window glass was a nest, with two very perky and healthy occupants. I feel rather dull not to have noticed this before now, but in my defense, on that very window ledge sit six gorgeous blooming phalenopsis orchids. I get distracted easily with big, flashy orchid blooms.

Now, of course, I can't stay away from the window and keep popping back into the bedroom to see what's happening with the new neighbors. Having these precious birds right outside my window seems to me to be the most precious gift I can imagine.