Point Reyes

We spent a couple of days at the coast last weekend, and I thought I'd share some pictures, since it's a gorgeous part of the coast. This is at Point Reyes, which is above San Francisco a little ways.  We got so lucky with the weather - the last time we tried to go by the time we got there the fog was so bad we couldn't  see the ocean at all.

These are the stairs we had to go down (and more importantly, back up) to get to the lighthouse. There were over 300 steps, it seemed a whole lot longer coming back up!  It was worth it though, there's just something about lighthouses...

This is a car we saw at a tiny little town we stopped at on the way, I just loved it. And also, because I know everyone is just dying to see pictures of my dogs (indulge me, I don't have kids), here they are at the beach later that day.  They had a blast...

Somerset Excitement

I made this late last summer, and since one of my goals has been to get published in Somerset Studio magazine, I decided it was time I actually sent something in, and they were having a call for submissions of artwork that included a quote.  So I never heard anything, then a couple of weeks ago I get my Somerset Studio magazine in the mail, and I'm looking through it and lo and behold there's my piece!  Printed so small you couldn't read the quote, and listed as the wrong size, but hey, at least it was in there!  This was a fun piece to make, a little tricky, since it's 3D and covered in wax, but not too bad, and I think the 4 separate pieces are fun.  I finally got it back in the mail last week...

Birthday Assemblage

I started picking up old "G" print blocks when I saw them, to make something for my Mom's birthday (her name is Gloria). I wasn't sure what I was going to make, but her birthday is this week so I was forced into action. After quite a bit of playing around and rooting through my boxes of miscellaneous rusty hardware this is what I came up with.  She loves birds, as I do, so it seemed like the perfect thing to perch on top for a Spring birthday. 

CRUSADE No. 61 ~ Restraining Order

Michelle Ward's last Green Pepper Press Street Team challenge (only for a little while, we hope!), is about using restraint, not feeling the need to cover every inch of a journal page - that it takes bravery sometimes to leave blank areas.  I found this to be so true after I'd read her post when working in my journal.

This page I had sketched out a couple of weeks ago and made a little bit of a start on.  I started on it again, and was planning little fish cut out of an old dictionary, and I was going to put things in the boat, things she carried with her on her journy, and birds in the sky etc, but then I realized that this was exactly what Michelle was talking about.  Why not stop, and let the focal image just speak for itself, why clutter it up? So, it wasn't easy, but I used restraint, and am happy that I did....

Confession

I must confess, when my man takes off on a weekend morning to go golfing, I do not sit around pining for his return.  As soon as he's out the door I throw clothes on, throw the dogs out, grab one of my journals and usually an Anthropologie catalog and head to my favorite local cafe, Old Soul.  There I settle down with a delicious latte and do some journaling and some people watching. Then I find a picture I like in Anthropologie (the women usually have very interesting faces, with different kinds of lighting).

This is as far as I got today before I got tired of sitting, and feeling guilty about the dogs, who I'd promised a trip to the park. Much more work to do, but a decent start. This has been a very dry winter (I miss rainy days at home), but it does mean weekends have been good for golfing...