Pages

Monday, April 20, 2009

Spring Planting

The weather has finally cooperated in our part of Washington State and I have started my annual spring planting frenzy. I was being tough and not buying any plants before I knew for sure the frost was over, but as always, the sight of all those gorgeous petunia's, dianthus and herbs at the nursery's wore me down and I proceeded to fork over the cash. Sunday we made a trip to the home improvement store, dropped our wad of moolah and came home with a bunch of bedding and container plants, a new hose reel, AND a portable gas heater to put on the patio table so we can comfortably sit around it in the evening and stay warm. Whew! We are off to a good start and let the BBQ's begin! I had planned to work in the studio on Sunday and do art, but the lure of those little green babies just waiting to be put in their respective pots was just to much and I spent the whole day tucking them away. They started in a big pile on the potting bench like so.....













After much toting of large, heavy bags of potting soil, filling of pots and extended angst over the proper distribution of plants among pots I was able to get most of them done. I love to put my herbs and vegetables into galvanized aluminum feed troughs and containers as the soak up the heat and keeps the roots nice and toasty. Here is my dill in its container, it will be harvested at the end of the season and go into my brine for the pickled beans I can ever year.

















It is wonderful to see the young plants in their new homes, fussing over them all summer is one of my favorite things to do. And of course, talking to them, as all you gardeners out there know, makes all the difference in the world.

Finally, when the day was done I was totally exhausted, but not nearly as tired as studio cat #1, Dana, all that supervising and offering of feline opinions had completely wiped her out.


Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Back from ArtFest

Another great year at ArtFest! I returned Sunday afternoon totally exhausted but with my creative battery re-charged. Every single class was fantastic and there are so many great techniques to add to my art tool box. Thursday was Judy Wise, we created a layered collage piece, scumbled paint (yes, that is actually a word!) onto that and than applied wax medium over top to soften the piece. Here is my first attempt, being the shoe addict that I am this was a fun theme for me.

This next one was inspired by my annual trip to the renaissance faire, the dragon is from a Dover book of clip art.

Saturday was Karen Michel's class, we worked with wood blocks, creating mini-collages and attaching them to a larger wood piece. The whole piece was given a patina with a wash of India Ink and then embellished with tiny nails, carpet tacks and white pen. Very fun, now I will be off to the hardware store to track down more supplies!


Trading was a blast the first night this year, I opted for the blitz method and went to almost every table in the dining hall and asked to trade. I was out of trades within the first hour and considering I went with almost 80 shrink plastic pieces to trade that was pretty amazing! Here is just a sample of the multitude of fantastic trades I received this year.


A big shout out to my House 15 girls, the best Art Posse I could ever have. Can't wait to see you next year!