Kindred Spirits

I met Shari a few years ago at ArtFiberFest and we have remained friends ever since. (One of the best things about art camps are the friends you make). I don't get nearly enough opportunities to see her. She was in town this past weekend so we had breakfast at Crepevine, a favorite spot for both of us, and a trip to Flax Art Store.

I have to admit that I was so happy and excited to see her that I spit some of my food! Sorry Shari! If you don't know her artwork, go see it on her blog here. Shari always impresses me with her artistic abilities and the ability to put herself out there in a straightforward, serious way. I admire her inner strength and the courage to follow her own path!

By The Way...

I forgot to mention that Rice is one of my all time favorite teachers. She is fun, yet low key, and extremely generous with her time, information and supplies. She threaded every needle for me when I just couldn't see the eye. Just know that she believes on sewing on each and every bead... no glue for her!

The Month in Review!

Jeez, its been two monts since I last posted! Hmm, I have been busy... but thats a bit ridiculous!

FRIENDS!


Guess who came to visit me? Rice and Earl! (Sorry, Rice, I don't know how to put the two dots over your e) Its been waaaay too long and it was great hanging out for lunch and a short trip to Flax Art Store. I would have played all afternoon, but it one of my all time favorite bosses was retiring.

We've had DJ for six months now! Were all accustomed to each other. In fact, yesterday we took him to the off leash dog park by the bay, and we were able to let him off leash because he now has recall! It was an exciting moment for us. He's such a good boy and we love having him!



I have been doing some art. I made this journal with some scraps of my favorite paper. The picture isnt that great, but I am really pleased with how it came out.


Lastly, were on staycation! Taking some time for work, but staying home. Its lovely! So none of this for awhile:

The Week In Review

I have been gardening at mom's house to thank her for watching DJ one day a week. Here's a picture of DJ gardening... he helps by eating the grass:

I have also been working on a quilt. The pattern is from Nine Patch Pizzazz... its fun but a bit challenging. Sorry, not the best picture.


And, lucky me, I had breakfast with my dear friend Cindi who I never see often enough:

Its been a good week! Hope yours has been too. Here's wishing us all a good next week.

TED

I have just recently found TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks and have been watching a lot of them. They are short amazing talks under 20 minutes on all kinds of subjects. I just watched this:

Goodbye Sweet Maxie Max

My brother Ryan and SIL Brooke had to help their sweet 8 year old rescue greyhound Max cross over so that he can chase rabbits. We always remind whoever has to do this very hard and painful job that all of our other cats and dogs will greet this one on the other side.

I am crying while typing this... Max was such a GREAT dog and we will all miss him!

Lucky Me!

Look what I received in the mail painted by my very own beautifully talented nephews!

An Easter Egg! Its the first (of many I hope) mail I received from them. It made me very happy! Thank you Colton and Graybug. I love you!

May everyone have a day filled with treats from loved ones. Happy Easter!

Come Tweet with Me

Ok, when I first heard about Twitter I thought it sounded dumb and did I really want to join another social network when I am already on Facebook. But, my SIL sent me an invite. With two little ones she and I dont get as much time to chat so I signed up. Imagine my surprise that I love it. Its quick and easy: a great way to stay in touch and find out whats going on. I am loving it. You can follow stars like the Obamas... but they twitter so much that I miss seeing the tweets from my SIL. So I opted out of those.

So come tweet with me! I'd be happy to send you an invite and you can see for yourself. (I dont like Facebook as much, but am also happy to send you an invite to Facebook too.)

DJ isnt....

spoiled is he? (gasp)

This made me soooooo happy.....

This morning in a family conference call with my Nevada City brother Michael and my Boulder family, my sister in law Brooke told me that she has an application on her IPhone that allows her to push a button and go right to my blog! WOW... who knew???! I just had to blog today so that they would have a something new to read!

My three year old nephew wanted to know what I was doing today so I told him that I was on vacation and going to a very pretty place where there are wild turkeys, hawks, and crows. (Of course I made the appropriate bird noises when naming each bird). I spent two very lovely days doing meditation and yoga at Spirit Rock. The grounds are so stunningly peaceful and beautiful. Here are a few pictures from my day (I tried to get the birds... but that just wasn't to be).

Learning Curve

I am having fun playing with my new Mac, but theres definitely a learning curve... especially with photoshop elements.

Speaking of learning curves I wanted to post a picture of my bird quilt from Jane LaFazio's class. It came out just ok... I really struggled with it. I cant wait for her to offer another class though.


The last project I am doing for her class is a shrine. I need to do a lot of handwork on it... so it may take me awhile to finish it, but here it is as a WIP:

Yooohoooo!!!

I have a new Mac computer and I am loving life!! More to come soon! (I am on vacation this week so have time to play!)

In Auntie Heaven

Guess who came for a very, way to short, visit? Yep... my sweet boys! I haven't seen them in far too long! I thought I would go in January, but what with getting DJ, I haven't been able to visit. I had a great time with them. Colton (who's 3yrs old) showed me how to work his mommy's IPhone. Gray, is a bit shyer, but had definitely warmed up to me by the end of the evening. All in all, we had so much fun playing together. Here are a few pics... I have more to download.

Art Quilt Class

I am three weeks into a six week art quilt class taught by Jane LaFazio on joggles.com. Its really been a great class. The lessons are wonderfully presented: clear and easy yet very inspiring. The first week was to make a landscape quilt. They are all very small about 8x10". This isnt the best picture, but here's my first quilt. I used hand painted cottons, commercial batiks and silk. It was really fun to put together.


Week two was to use felt, but I ended up using cotton batting that I hand dyed using RIT dyes. I had a great time and ended up making two quilt tops! She suggested using mola or the quilts of Gee's Bend for our inspiration.




This week's lesson is to make a pet potrait... can you guess who my muse will be?

My Valentines

After a delicious breakfast we took DJ out for a wonderful walk. We had a great day and hope you did too!

Our New Hearthrob...

DJ our wonder dog! He is so silly, sweet and still such a pup. We are loving having him! I will post more pictures of him so you can see his complete handsome self.