This guy posed quite nicely for me, even with all of Sedona's barking and jumping around; he even waited while I went back into the house to get the camera. I think it is a Eurasian dove, which is quite a bit larger than a Mourning Dove. I haven't seen him since; I guess Sedona wasn't a very nice hostess!
Journaling on my tray table on the plane- yes, it can be done! I checked one bag, and carried one onto the plane- I worked really hard to stuff everything I might want into my laptop bag (since I also had to carry on a purse). It was difficult, but I did it! I had two gallon zip-top bags: one with paper, and one with gluestick, pens, markers, scissors, and watercolor crayons). The people near me on the plane might have thought it was strange, but it really did make the flight go quicker. (For more journal pages made during the flight back, go to my Flickr page.) The minute the door of the plane opened, I knew I was back in the Midwest- it was warm, and humid!
Encaustic/Mixed media piece by Daniella Wolfe Saturday, we headed down to Kansas City for a day of sightseeing- we started at the Blue Gallery, to see an exhibition of encaustic/mixed media work by Daniella Wolfe (I found this place thru Suze Weinberg's blog), and fiber/printmaking work by Theresa Cole. (more of these pictures on my Flickr page)
After the Blue Gallery, to get out of the rain, we headed to the Hallmark headquarters to their Visitor's Center, which has exhibits of the company's history, along with other interesting things. (did you know that Winston Churchill paintings have been on Hallmark cards? neither did I!) The photo above shows a few of the Christmas trees that Hallmark employees made every year as a gift to JC Hall, the founder of the company. There were four or five more, decorated with everything from handmade angels and wooden folk art ornaments, to a crazy-quilted fabric tree. My sister Jackie used to work for Hallmark; she said it was kind of strange to walk thru the exhibits. There were a couple videos playing with employee interviews- she recognized a number of people in them from when she worked there, and she found a couple of her ornaments on the Christmas trees.
The cute appliqued quilt above was made by Hallmark employees to raise money for the local children's hospital... (Jackie sewed the crayon square!) There were also exhibits with some of their collectable Christmas ornaments, and even an exhibit showing Hallmark cards from countries around the world. There were even a couple people showing how the die-cutting process for cards works, and a bow-making machine that makes those cute little gift bows for the tops of packages! (mine is in my bag somewhere- it will eventually go in my journal, of course!)
We did more shopping later, after the rain cleared up, including a really fun home decor store, Curious Sofa (click on the store name to check out their blog), an antique mall where I picked up some toile wallpaper, Anthropologie, and the Paper Source, where I did just a bit of damage. I got some of the new papers from their India line, and couldn't pass up some of the handmade Japanese papers with really cute bunny and fish designs. (Jackie, the paper made it just fine in my luggage wrapped in the corrugated cardboard- and bonus, I can use the cardboard, too!) After, we were going to have KC-style barbecue, but when we saw the wait was 30 minutes, we headed to Jackie's favorite Indian restaurant instead... it was very good, and another bonus- I can combine the menu and paper placemat (yes, I brought them home- artists can use anything!) with some of my new India papers.
Sunday we were going to hit Urban Arts and Crafts, but it was closed due to Father's Day- bummer- it looks like a really fun store! After finding that out, we headed back into Kansas City to another antique mall; I had to take a picture of this toaster, which was like nothing I've ever seen before. It is a "Toast-O-Lator;" apparently, the bread was put into the toaster on the left side of the toaster, traveled thru it, and came out the right side as toast... ?? I haven't been to a big antique mall in years- there was so much stuff to look at that I think I'm good for another couple years! The flight back on Monday meant more journaling to pass the time, and then I was back to the wonderfully dry heat (yes, it really does make a difference!) of the Arizona desert- tired, but it was a really fun weekend at the little pink house-- Thanks, Jackie!! (and thank Mary Ruth very much for me, for the loan of the inflatable mattress-- it was really comfortable!)
Little Pink Houses for You and Me
Originally uploaded by BR527
heading out tomorrow morning for a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip to visit my sister Jackie in Missouri. --back Monday! (photo courtesy of her flickr page...)
I haven't made ATCs in quite a long time, but the link below might just inspire me to start a new series... this squidoo page has lists of themes, colors, and techniques for each letter of the alphabet... ATCs, postcards, journal pages, you could do anything with these lists as a jumping point of inspiration--
Trish Bee's Artful Alphabet- squidoo page
A: alcohol inks or acetate?
B: beeswax or bubble wrap??
C: crayon resist or chipboard?
D: dry embossing, or doodling??
E-Z... just as many great ideas!
...so many ideas... so little space in my art studio!! lol!!
it's pretty fun to drive, with that "engine full of 1.5 liters of fury" as the brochure said- LOL!! and it does get lots better gas mileage than my CRV did- it's kinda sad, though... it had 18 miles on the odometer when we picked it up, and it already has over 600 miles on it, just a week and a half later!
