Eureka!

Meaning "I have found it!" I've found my home, ready and waiting to be turned into the funky little cottage I've been dreaming of. It's got everything I wanted, all the quirky little things like a studio space with painted concrete floor so I can be as messy as I want and a private backyard so I can drink margaritas in my pjs.

I thought about this for a long time, wavering really. Did I really want to take on the maintenance of a house and yard? Would I qualify for a mortgage in today's tighter market? Could I afford something that I would be happy with?

Then, one day a few months ago, it suddenly all felt right. It was time. I applied for pre-approval of a mortgage the same day.

I've been looking at houses for a couple of weeks, but nothing was quite right. This house popped up on the market Thursday and my excellent realtor Celia took me to see it Friday at lunch. We made an offer that night and it was accepted yesterday. I still have to get through inspection and all the other closing details, but I am feeling remarkably calm about the whole thing. Everything has just fallen into place so far.

There's a little bit of work to be done. The fresh peach paint is ok, but not what I want and the whole point of having a house is to have it the way I want it, right?

Farm Chicks!

I went to the Farm Chicks show with my friend Korri on Sunday. Ohmigosh, it was beyond yummy! 3 big halls at the fairgrounds filled to the brim with wonderful vintagey, crafty, arty beautiful stuff! And that was on Sunday after it had been picked over by 4300 people on Saturday.

Honestly, Farm Chicks can be a teensy bit overwhelming if you try to look at the big picture. You have to just dive in and enjoy the gorgeous little details that call to you. I LOVE the blackboard in the ornate picture frame!

And that green picnic basket!

The thing that really sets Farm Chicks apart is the amazing creativity of the vendors. Each booth is a delicious little world, inviting you in to view its delights.

Korri and I found a few treasures and a TON of inspiration. We are wanting to start our own little creative business. The vendors we talked with were so encouraging, we are really feeling the possibilities.

Excellent Seattle Weekend!

When I was a little kid, my dad used to take me to Mariners baseball games at the Kingdome. That's the story I told my dad as we walked in to Safeco Field Friday night, our first Mariner's game together in a long time. The Mariners lost, but we had fun anyway, remembering those old games and talking about how we don 't know very many of the current players.

Saturday we went to a sports memorabilia show, another thing we used to do back in the day. There were lots of cool things to see and yummy grilled burgers to eat for lunch. Dad found quite a few things to add to his collection and I found a couple of things as well. Yep, I collect sports memorabilia. Artist and sports freak: a rare combination.

In the afternoon I wandered up to Bothell for the Eastside Miniatures Show. My Artfest buddy Lisa was there lecturing and selling copies of Mixed Media Dollhouses. Lisa is a major contributor to the book, written by my Artfest buddy Tally

and Julie Molina.

After the shows, we headed to Golden Oldies, an awesome record (yes, vinyl!) shop. The neighborhood featured some cool graffiti. Love the doodly patterns on this one.

Here's Dad engaged in one of his favorite pastimes: searching for cool records. He found some good stuff and I did too.

An excellent trip. The next day we hurried home so I could round out the weekend with a trip to the Farm Chicks show. Pics from that up next!

doodling around

I loved my Artfest doodling class with Traci Bautista so much that I decided to take her online Creative Doodling class. Tons of inspiration and fun!

Doodling around is pretty much the only creative activity going on around here these days. This has been a horrible allergy season and I'm spending a lot of my free time with my head on a pillow next to the humidifier...

I heart Hipstamatic!

I really, really love my iphone, but I have to say I'm not a big fan of the camera feature. I only use it if it's the only camera I have handy. That may change. I downloaded the Hipstamatic app the other day and ohmigosh it is sooooo fun! Here's a couple of quick shots from this morning. Yummy!

Here's another 8.5 by 11" painting that I finished today. Yes, there's a theme going on. There will be more. I tried out the Krylon Webbing Spray on this one. Love!

Also love this girl. Is she cute or what?

It's the paint silly!

I painted this little 8.5 x 11 piece this weekend. Just moving around the gesso and the molding paste and the colors I don't normally use. Micaceous iron oxide. Payne's grey, anthraquinone blue. Painting for the sake of painting, not as a means to some other end, not simply to add color to some other project. Exploring my beloved color and texture. Soaking in the joy of pushing paint around with my fingers.

It seems I am a painter. Artfest has been trying to tell me this for a couple of years now. Not that I have some kind of talent or skill for painting, but that I have a passion for it. It is always in the painting classes, the classes where I am plunked down and expected to paint for several hours, it's in those classes that I lose myself. I get so absorbed in what I'm doing that I lose track, even of the passing of time. I'm completely in the zone. It's a glorious and joyful place. A place where I work spontaneously and confidently, just laying down color and texture and then responding to it with more color and texture. Expressing myself.

My heart is firmly and happily placed in the mixed media world and this little painting is no exception, incorporating rubber stamps and graphite pencil. There are more bits and pieces in the studio waiting for more layers, some of which will undoubtedly include collage and stencils and even stitching, but I am ready to focus on the paint and see where it takes me.

lots of making over here

Dirty Martini, 24" by 29"
Here's a quilt I whipped up with some fabric I hand-dyed and surface designed with stamps and Shiva Paintsticks. If you're in the area, you can see this quilt April 10-11 at the Imagination Unleashed 2010 show at the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center, 405 William Street, Post Falls, ID. There's always interesting contemporary work at this show.

ArtFest!! Just got home from ArtFest and it was AMAZING as usual. Below is one of the pieces I made in Creative Doodling with Traci Bautista. I LOVED this class! I'm not a natural doodler, but I really fell into the zone with this - that completely awesome place where everything else falls away and I am totally focused on what I'm doing. Love, love, love!

This is the piece I made in Lynne Perrella's Going for Baroque class. This piece is actually pretty big - 18" by 35". This class was really fun too, although I worked like a demon to cover that huge canvas with layers and layers of pattern and texture in a short 6 hours.