Off to Artfest...

Tomorrow, bright and very early I am heading to
Artfest in Washington state.
You can check it out Here.
I have heard so many good things about this event and
am excited that I finally was able to attend. Also excited
to be meeting up with my roommate from the Tim Holtz
cruise last October.
Looking forward to making art and making new friends.
Will be back with a report next week :)

Spring Break re-cap...

Well I am almost recovered now although spending time in Las Vegas for Spring Break and having to endure walking through smoke filled casino's did not help. We spent a few days there just to see what it was all about, apart from gambling of course :)

We did a lot of walking and walking along the strip is hard
work due to the masses of people there, mind you driving
along the strip is even worse !

You can have fun in Las Vegas without drinking and
gambling, yes it is true. We went to a couple of shows,
one of them was a Murder Mystery Dinner theatre that
had a lot of audience participation and was really funny.
The boys really had a great time. The hotel it was in was
in the Fremont St district which is where the picture
above was taken after the show was over.

We also saw the Lance Burton show which was at
the hotel we were staying at, that was very awe inspiring
and entertaining, even my husband who did not want to
go to it really enjoyed it.

One of the fun things we did was to go to the Coke store
where for a mere $7 you get the international soda sampler :

As you can see it is quite a lot, 16 different drinks from
different countries to taste. They give you an index sheet
so you know what each drink is and we had so much fun
rating all the drinks. There was one that was really

awful that you just wanted to spit it straight out,
it was a drink from Italy called Beverly which I have
never heard of but was unanimously the worst thing
we have ever tasted. Another couple were trying them
out and came over to ask us if we had tried the one
from Italy yet and we all started laughing.
The best part though was when my husband arrived
to try them and we all knew it was really bad, I wish
I had my camera ready to take a photo of the
expression on his face after tasting it, it was so funny!

We also visited some of the other resorts and everyone
but me rode the roller coaster at New York, New York.
We visited the Shark Reef exhibit at Mandalay Bay,
which was our favourite hotel of all the ones we visited.

Watching the fountains at the Bellagio was on our list and
that was also a really beautiful hotel.

Well now it is back home and on with the real world,
laundry, grocery shopping, catching up on everything
and hopefully finally getting better !

Recovering slowly...

Urghh ! I do not get sick a lot and so this time I think it is payback time.
I finally caught the terrible hacking cough that started with my youngest, moved to my oldest, then my husband and now me. I have been sick for a week now and really, really sick of all the coughing.
My husband has been dosing me up at night with an old
prescription of his from last year. Well I finally looked at
the label and saw it said 1 tsp every 6 hours, he has been
giving me 2 tsp's !!
No wonder I have been feeling so exhausted the last few
days, he is double dosing me with this heavy duty
medicine. I still feel exhausted but I am not coughing
as much so am hoping it is going away.

On to other things. I finally decided after seeing someone else's blog, (and I think you may figure out who you are :) ), that I should sign up for Shimelle Laine"s newest class about using up all your stash.

The class actually started yesterday so I cannot get too

far behind, well hopefully not. One of the pre-class tasks
was to look at your stash and even photograph it to put
on your blog. Shimelle also asked the question why have
you not used the stuff you have bought ?

One of her suggestions was the one I think is my reason,

Are you saving your good supplies for your best photos?

That is definitely partly true for me. I buy things I really,
really like then have a hard time using them on what
seems just an ordinary layout, always thinking that
there will be a better layout to use them on.
Well I have not actually started the class yet so I hope
it will cure me of this. If you are interested in joining
me on this journey, go here , then let me know
what your reasons are for not using your supplies.

A Plethora of Pots ...

This was today's crop brought home by our oldest son, he
is taking ceramics in high school this year. The more pots
they make the more points they get, well they also get
graded on trying new things, different glazing, different
types of pots etc.

Today's pots are all fabulous in different ways but
unfortunately this was the only way I could take a
picture where they all fit in.

There are some unusual glazing techniques, a spiral going
all the way around one pot and some beautiful vases.
This though is the tip of the iceberg as we already
have 41 pots adorning our kitchen counter, and yes
we have a looong counter :)

We really have to figure out what to do with all of them
and he still has until the end of May to make more !!

More metal...

I have just finished taking my first online class from
My Creative Classroom, here is my finished piece.
It was a metal sampler so we got to try out 9

techniques and then we could display them on a canvas
if we wanted to. It was fun trying out all the new
techniques and seeing other people's take on them too.
Not sure whether or not to take the Advanced Class.

I do like all the metal out there now and have really
enjoyed watching the weekly Taco Tuesday videos from
Ten Seconds Studio. If you are at all interested in metal
and have a great sense of humour you should check

these out. I am not sure what is better seeing new
techniques or hearing them argue with each other.