Birthday Treasures

We still have about 1/3 of this lucious and oh-so chocolately chocolate cake left. It is SPECTACULAR with a hot cup of coffee, and DEEEEVINE with raspberry sauce!!! I will definately be using this recipe again- perhaps for Matthew's upcoming Graduation Celebration. If you are interested in the recipe, just give me a holler!! Perhaps the best part of this cake was creating it with Becca. She is becoming quite the dessert specialist!!
I had a wonderful birthday that extended from May 19th with the start of my advnetures at Art and Soul and culminated yesterday with a surprise in the mail from my dear friend Robin! It is a wonderful gift to have a family who is supportive of my artistic journey and takes joy from my love of this special retreat that I so enjoy.
After all, if Momma's not happy, NO ONE is happy!!!!! Right??!?!?!This wonderful piece was created by Julie Haymaker, the wonderful artist who I met at Art and Soul and who taught the first class taht I attended. You can see more of her art here. As we were all setting up for Vendor Night at Art and Soul, I cruised by Julie's table and this piece literally lept inot my hands. (Ok, a bit of artistic license taken!) But I could not take my eyes off of this piece. Brown is not usually a color that I often consider at all, yet this piece was screamng at me!! My Mom had given me a bit of 'Mad Money '
for an early birthday gift, hoping that I would find something specail at the retreat. Well, this was the piece. It occured to me as I looked at this piece that it was speaking of the changes that are fast approaching in the life of our family. We are all growing and coming and going and taking flight and hopefully returning home for visits. With Matthew's upcoming graduation, we are going to embatking on a new journey, so this piece was the perfect momento of this years Art Retreat.

I had spotted this glorious sterling and turquoise cuff bracelet at an Antique store in Fredericksburg, back in April. I came home and drop one or two, maybe ten, rather heavy hints about the location and availability of this glorious piece. Along comes Mother's Day and there it was!!! I was shocked and delighted. Apparently, my hints ahd been noted and acted upon and the kid's ahd gotten quite impatient. So I was gifted with this wonderful bauble for Mother's Day, so I could wear it at Art and Soul. After recieving such a gift I made them all promise that this would also count as a Birthday gift!

Look at this glorious card!! This arrived in the mail yesterday!! What an amazing work of Stamp art, I am going to frame it!!! Robin has outdone herself. Robin and her daughter Laurel attended a Rubber Stamp Convention in California several weekends ago. I have always wanted to see what such a gathering was like and they seem to still be going strong in California. They sent me these two wonderful stamps by involk Arts- one of my favorite stamp companies and Robin didn't know that. She knows me pretty well though!! Robin is a very talented graphic artist who always puts all of her creative energy and attention to every detail into everything that she does. She introduced me to Rubber Stamps when she discovered the Inka -Dink-A- Doo rubber stamp store near South Station in downtown Boston, when we were living in Boston back in the early 80's. SOOOO, Robin is partly responsible for the rubber stamp collection that lives in my studio!!!! Thank you so very much for thinking of me Robin and Laurel!!!!!!

All of my relationships and adventures have played a huge part in my artistic journey and I would not have it any other way!!!!

Art and Soul Project #1

May I introduce Steam Punk Lily.

I started off my Art and Soul experience for 2010 with a class taught by the amazingly talented and super nice Julie Haymaker Thompson. Originally, when I was planning out my 2010, I had not penciled in a trip to art and Soul. Then I wnet to visit Julie's blog and read her post about joining the Hampton Schedule for teaching. Well, that announcement changed my plans completely!! That very day, I scheduled my trip with Julie's Steam Punk Lily being my first choice of classes! Isn't she wonderful!! We ahd sooo much fun and there were only three of us in the class. This will be the first and LAST time that Julie's classes will be so lightly attended!!! When i walked inot the dining area carrying my LiLy, I was swamped with eager questions and many hands trying to touch. Lily was freshly glued so I had to beat people back and ask them PLease,Please to look with their eyes not their hands!!! I am not sure just how man times I explained the process or how many times I raved about Julie and her talents and teaching abilities, but no one should plan on getting into her classes with ease. She is going to become an extrememly sought after teacher!!!!

For those of you who are not exactly sure just what the Term STEAMPUNK refers to, here is a definition from Wikipedia click here. I was not at all sure of the exact definition but I knew what the style looked like and once I saw Julie's class sample of Lily, I was hooked.

Lily was created by wrapping sheet pewter around a craft store bird form and then embellished with all sorts of bits and pieces and perched on a collaged wooden egg. Julie taught us how to use all sorts of metal based paints and oxodozing agents to achieve that authentic steampunk grunge look. We each added our own touched by varying the trims and stitching patterns that we used. We also had a chance to play with Paper Clay containing volcanic ash. We used the clay to create various hat styles .

As I was thoroughly enjoying the class with Julie I realized just who she reminded me of. I felt like I ahd known Julie for along time and then I realized that she closely resembled my good friend Trina of the Paper Flea Market. As nit happened the super talented Trina would be attending Art and Soul begining on Saturday, to take a class and to be a vendor at the Bazaar on Saturday night. As it happened Trina's table at the Bazaar was immediately behind Julie's table. I was so right- they do look like long lost twins!!! The resemblance was really uncanny and the two quickly became fast friends. Here you can see for yourself with Trina on the left and Julie on the right!! After we had all broken down our booths from the vendor sale, we met up at the Hotel Bar and had a good visit and debrief. It was all very necessary after a very hectic and noisey three hour sale.
The ART and Soul Retreats are so much more than art classes ! Theya re amazing gatherings of like minded artists and creative people who all speak similar art languages and are driven by the same desires to create. I have decided that these trips are my versions of a week at a Spa. This is my place to recharge my enthusiasm and regain my excitement about the creative journey that I am traveling. I will be forever grateful to all of the wonderful people that I have met and the teachers who have shared their time and talents. The amount of validation that I recieved as an artist is truely empowering!!!!
Stay tuned for the next several blog posts in which I will reveal the rest of the classes and projects created at Art and Soul 2010.!