Wish I Were Here

News has it we're heading for the 60's. Not the decade, the temperatures! That always makes the Northwest Heart beat a little faster. Looks like we need to head out to the beach real soon.

I had a little indoor fun last week at the Bead Expo at the Oregon Convention Center. Lots of great vendors at this show. According to receipts (ahem), my faves included Wynwoods Gallery. Lois had a nice variety of things for me to bring home; from fibers to vintage beads to abalone pendants. You will find Wynwoods Gallery in Port Townsend, Washington, making it an excellent place to visit when heading up to Artfest. I dropped a few dollars at the Beaducation booth. Loads of tools and other goodies for wire and PMC jewelry enthusiasts. I found this and this, along with a few other essentials. Beaducation is the place to go for online jewelry making classes as well as supplies. They had many gorgeous samples at the booth. Drool, drool.

I ran into one of my PAC buddies, Carrie, so we took a break from shopping and visited for a while. Carrie was taking a couple of classes at the bead expo.

I wanted to share some photos of pirate booty from the show but my camera is hiding somewhere. Hopefully it's just hiding and not lost. Not a good thought.

Anyway, I'm off to catch some rays.

On My Street

This Sue Hoffman must have been someone important in Westport, Washington. It's very strange to come across a street with your name on it, in this case a maiden name.

Anyway...


February was one of those months where nothing held still for a moment. Illness came and left our household. Home improvement projects begun and finished. A new floor laid down and paint for the laundry room. Now the contents of the den have been moved into the living room and wallpaper is being removed in preparation for some new color. I guess we hoped that we wouldn't be here when that wallpaper started looking like, well, the 90's. That room needed a major purge, anyway. It's amazing how much dust accumulates on two bookshelves.

Not much time for making things these days. Except for crochet that gets done in the time between all those other things that fill the day. Like, looking at wedding dresses with your future DIL and daughter. David and Jenn have set their wedding for September 27.

I have ideas for fabric painting and making new jewelry; and will begin an online class next week. That should give me a much needed jump start.

Comfort Crochet

The Portland weather finally broke it's streak of dreary days and we were brightened by cloudless skies today. A sunny day with bitterly cold wind, that is. A good day to be inside and sitting by a window and catching up with ones blog, and thinking about what to fix for dinner. I noticed that the Foodnetwork channel has moved past the light and healthy recipes they always feature at the beginning of January and are now doing "comfort foods". In my book, all food that's made with good, fresh ingredients and tastes wonderful is comforting. And can be healthy. Or not. I made hearty and healthy Mexican Chicken Soup last night, a favorite around here, which simply must be accompanied by a piece of this naughty cornbread. Yum.

There is also something very comforting about crocheting, I think. Craving some new Amigurumi projects. I headed over to the Kinokuniya bookstore last week and found a new book with charts that are easy to follow. Good healthy fun.



First Amigurumi project out of the new book. I finally ordered some stuffed animal eyes with locking washers which are easier than sewing on buttons, and definitely cute.


Crocheted and felted balls like the ones I sold at the PAC holiday show. Just for fun.

Happy New Year

The last couple of months have been insanely busy, as it seems to be for most people during the holidays. I don't want to get any further into 2008 without sharing a few images from the PAC "Open Doors" show and sale, held on December 7th and 8th at the Multnomah Arts
Center in Portland. My photography is as spotty as my blogging and I didn't manage to take any pictures of my own table, but as you can see, there was a fabulous display of art from our participants. The show was a great success and wonderful experience.

27

My son David celebrated his birthday on November 4th. It's hard to believe that he is 27--and now engaged to Jenn. We have a wedding to look forward to in 2008.

More Art and Soul

More photos of class projects. I'm having a little struggle getting the pictures and words arranged here in a cohesive manner but think you'll get the idea. The "heart" piece is from Beryl Taylor's "Making Paper Fabric" class. You can take a look at her book here. I'm in love with Beryl's exquisite artwork.

Another fun class was "Twentyfirst Crazy Quilt" with Janet Cooper. Janet brought a huge amount of vintage bits for us to use. You can see that she combined our pieces into a wall quilt display.

The two-day workshop painting faces with DJ Pettit was awesome. DJ is a generous and patient teacher, and one of my very favorite artists.

I always have such a great experience at Portland Art and Soul and so lucky to have it right in my own backyard. Next year, I'll allow more time and energy for socializing. It's too much fun seeing old friends and making new ones!

Catching Up

It's been a while. I have so much admiration for my blogging pals who manage to post on a regular basis come rain or shine. My daughter has been nudging me along, asking when am I going to put up some new pictures.

Where to begin, again? Well, the bracelet here was made in a class taught by the super-talented Jan Harris at the Art and Soul Retreat in Portland. Jan did an amazing job of putting together a kit for her students and patiently took us through the process of drilling and riveting the adorable silver house charms. As usual, I needed a little extra time at home to get the job done, adding all those sparkly flower and leaf beads. I love this bracelet!

I have other things to share from additional classes at Art&Soul
and will post those soon, I hope. Meanwhile, I need to get cracking on artwork for the PAC Holiday Show. More about that later...