Indulge Your Shelf

I enjoyed myself at the Modern Stitching class I took last month; it was the only one I got to attend at the Colorado Springs Art & Soul Retreat.  Taught by Ruth Chandler, it followed her book on the same subject. There were only four of us in the class, which went on for two nights, 3 hours each evening.  We were working on a book of stitches, which I've always wanted to do, and we went stitch by stitch through a whole bunch of them.  I already knew many, but it had been a while since I'd done them. We weren't able to complete the entire book in class, and I am looking forward to finishing it on my own.  It was so relaxing to learn from Ruth... and I got a lot of inspiration for using some of the stitches in the future on my fabric collages!  I never know how to go about with "free style"-ing stitches, but Ruth had tons of examples for us to admire: She had some beautiful, high quality threads and fibers for us to try; I fell in love wi...

Precious time is flying away, here we are almost at mid-May!  Lots of happenings: Ben has graduated from college and is getting ready to move once more to a new apartment (his fifth move in as many years!) This graduation was more enjoyable for me than his high school graduation, but less comfortable as it was out in the blaring hot sun!  We were all happy when it was over, and had sunburns to go with our smiles! Dennis and I spent a couple of days in Ben's college town and had a few meals and visits with him, which were a delight!  The campus is very pretty. Above, I'm making fun of his stiff photo stance .  Just teasing him -- he gave us lots of "real" smiles during this visit. In other news... My friend Wendy and I have gone in together on a booth in a section of an antique store called, Citywide Garage Sale; we are sharing a table to sell off odds-and-ends, random antiques and vintage stuff we've collected that doesn't really go on ...

So, here I am at my new job.  I work inside the back area of a library, and it's a really sunny, spacious office.  As you can see, they told me to "make the space my own" so I brought in some of my art and a family photo (behind me.)  I'll probably decorate more later, too. I think I'm going to be happy there.  I work every morning and get to leave at noon.  At my last job at the call center, I didn't go in to work until mid-afternoon and I really liked that schedule.  The last couple of weeks I find I'm having a hard time adjusting back to early morning wakings.  Especially since just this week, there was snow on Pikes Peak and, after Labor Day, a chill in the air in the mornings which makes me very sad; it also make me want to roll over and hide under the blankets when my alarm goes off. But --  once I'm at work I do enjoy how quickly the morning goes and then I'm off the rest of the day!  Look at this friendly group of ladies I work...

This past Saturday, Rebecca and I got to go to Wendy Brightbill's painting class, Playing Big!  We had been looking forward to it for months! It was held at Jeanne Oliver's home in nearby Castle Rock.  First, let me say, Jeanne's new studio space is the perfect place to be for relaxation, creativity, and beautiful, comfortable surroundings that inspire you in your art. Look at this little cart full of wallpaper -- she is after my own heart! In class, which was all day, Wendy taught us how to create a work of abstract art using her own method. We began by painting neutral colors using watercolor and acrylic paints, and then went on to add more color, contrast, and details.  Wendy is an attentive, generous teacher! We created as many pieces as we wanted to/had time for.  There were artists from all over the country in class, and I met some wonderful people!  We had a lot of fun -- and learned so much. Here are the thre...