Wow, Spring sure has rolled around quickly this year!  Okay, I guess it actually happens pretty quickly every year, but, you KNOW....

So, There are a couple of needle felting workshops coming up soon, the first one is coming up next week at the Forum at the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville.  It will be on April 25th at 6pm.  More information on my Home page, with links and all.  
The next one which is in the process of review is at the annual Summer Fiber Retreat at the Friends and Fiberworks in Asheville.  The retreat is three whole days of fantastic fiber workshops, of which I will hopefully be a part.  OOoh!  Workshops are so exciting!  

In other news, no, I have not entered a single piece of information on my blog here...but I HAVE been thinking about it.  Ha!   

However, In the beginning of November, my children and myself rather suddenly became a family of three, due to the uncovering of previously unbeknownst to me horrifying information of the secret life of the man who had been our fourth for the past 8 years.  While this has shaken our souls down to the roots, and forced me to look at humans in an entirely new way, ourselves included, we are beginning life anew.   What does not kill you only makes you stronger; we are getting stronger every single day!  I am, from the deepest part of my heart, thankful every single day for the safety, health and well-being of my children, for the generous love, help and support of my family and friends, and for the local APD and Pisgah Legal Services. Thank you, you know who you are:)  

On another note, I have been slowly creating art, inspired this year by the fascinating beauty of looking up into the sky...there is a definite cloud theme in this spring's new pieces!  Wool lends itself so well to being cloud forms, does it not?  New photos soon! Exciting! 

I hope every one of you have the chance to enjoy the pleasant days outdoors, before the mosquitos and real heat hit us!  Viva las montanas!!! 

Wow!!  What a wonderful day!  My lovely friend Marissa Aaron came with me this Saturday to help and be always amazing company, we had lots of fun, and there was a great crowd out in Waynesville.  
Not having been to many shows this summer has certainly made me miss them, as I truly enjoy some of the conversations I get into with people (despite my wishes to only be in the mountains, with the trees- all of the time).  There was a fellow who used to work in the wool fiber industry here in North Carolina.  The company made most of the woven wool fabric for our country then (back when We used to make things...).  He told me about the US Government orders for millions and millions of yards of cloth... an amount I cant even imagine, and of orders from high-fashion suit-makers.  There is a pride and quality in these products that we used to make in our country that just cannot be found in buying things from overseas.  How many items do we buy on a regular basis say 'Made in the USA' on the tag?  I would like to think that the people making things by hand today, and the people who relish in buying these things, are special people.  

I want to THANK EVERYONE who made a purchase in my booth this Saturday, and everyone who purchases my pieces in galleries!!  Thank all of you so very much, I really truly appreciate you!  Also a thank you to those who appreciate my work, but have not yet added a piece to your collection:) 

You can see just how huge this project was!  I only created the art, and helped with a lot of the painting.  My part was a lot of fun!  Other parents and staff accomplished the hard work.... coming up with funding, planning, and building.  The people here are an amazing lot, I am honored to be amongst them:)

When your kids are in school, you are asked to volunteer your time for many things. Many, many, many things. That's how I got into drawing and eventually take part in painting a HUGE 18x36 foot climbing wall in the gym. Other parents volunteered over the past few months making the actual climbing wall.  It is AWESOME!  It isn't one of those hokey little 6' high flat, imaginationless, no-challenge regular school climbing walls, this thing is an actual challenge! It is three-dimensional in all angles, and 18' is really high! While I will not be paid in cash for my part in this big project, I know that my child, and many others will enjoy the wall immensely.  I will post photos when the project is finished.  

Spring Daze, Cary NC
Since we have a smaller vehicle now, I couldnt bring the whole family along this year. So my good friend Marissa Aaron came along to help with the show, keep me company, and for a bit of fun.  


I made her wake up at an inhuman time of day, we had a light breakfast, then we headed off to set up for the show.  We had a lovely day, the weather was cool and we didn't have any rain.  It was such a pleasure to see my 'regulars' again this year. The new booth design worked very well, and I am pleased with the portability and ease of set up and break down. It is also easier for everyone to navigate, since there are no tables to occupy floor space.  There was a good crowd, and a good feel over all.  I must admit, I did miss the lack of pirates at this year's festival.  (where have all the pirates gone...?)

We returned, exhausted that evening to the home of our lovely host, Sue Oury.  Her birthday coincides every year with Spring days, and I am sure my staying thwarts some of her plans, but she is gracious and doesn't seem to mind. She 'forced' us to stay up late Saturday evening to learn how to play train dominoes (I think she was banking on the fact that our brains would be as thick as refrigerated barley malt, and she would have no trouble beating us....).  It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to a replay next time;)  Thank you again Sue!!!!  
 

On Sunday we decided to have a leisurely lolligag, and took ourselves to a few places of amusement.  With the help of my new best toyl, the smart phone, we easily found our way to an amazing an exciting place of art supplies, darn near heaven, Jerry's Artorama.  Now, I know this place isn't artist Heaven, but for someone who's last visit to Pearls (NY) was over 15 years ago, this was pretty good.  I was like a little big child in a great big toy store......oooooooooh..   Needless to say, I bought some stuff. A huge watercolor pad, a tiny watercolor block (for midday forrays), more 8x10 sleeves, and some decorative handmade paper.   ...Oh, I could have come home with so much more.... 

We had an absolutely delicious lunch at The Remedy Diner (http://www.theremedydiner.com/ ). This place is hip, but pricey, even for lunch.  It was really difficult to choose just one item on the menu, everything looked so good. 


Finally, we went to the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh, and enjoyed a nice stroll until closing time. That is where the image came from at the beginning of this post. 

Art makes me want to Do Big Art.

THANK YOU EVERYONE who attended Spring Daze, shared interesting conversations with me, and especially those who are now enjoying new art in their homes!!

THANK YOU MARISSA for coming with me! It was so much fun!

THANK YOU my family, for putting up with your crazy art mom person, and all of your support! 

Yes, Okay, well.... see, I downloaded this game a couple of years ago, and since is was originally intended to run on DOS, the new PC OSs don't particularly 'do' so much of that anymore. So, it has taken a few tries to get the game to actually work (mind you, I have still not downloaded the version with the lovely voice clips *sigh*). Finally ran into a program which allows old programs to be played on different platforms (Scummvm). Well, now it works. Which is pretty cool, because it wouldn't even work with Vista's compatibility modes, which had always worked in the past for older programs.

*cough*

Yes, so, art, right.  I will make a completely different post today for the update on the last show I attended in late April.

Oh yes, to temporarily extend the geekery here, this is an entertaining link:
http://www.spamspamspamspam.co.uk/go/game/