Let's Go Arting!

I think everyone else who has a blog and who is going to ArtFest has already posted about how excited they are about it. I'm every bit as excited, believe me - I'm just being slow these days! I really did have a post all typed up a couple of weeks ago, but Blogger ate it somehow, honest! Actually, I think what really happened is I fell asleep after I wrote the post, but before I could save it. Then I woke up and turned off my laptop without saving anything. Sheesh! That was kinda dumb...now I have to see if I can remember what I wrote.

So - anyway, I am going to ArtFest in March, and I'm getting more jazzed by the day about it. It's going to be a fun extended weekend of making art and meeting all kinds of mixed-media artists. I'm feeling a bit intimidated, since I'm pretty new at all this. But when Heather came to Seattle for ArtFiberFest and I went to meet her there, it all looked like so much fun. So when she told me ArtFest was coming and that we should go, I decided to jump right in. When I got my confirmation packet and saw that I got all three of my first choices for workshops, I was just so ecstatic!

Let's see...I'm taking a class on making paper transparent with resin, a class where we'll be making metal charms for a bracelet, and a wonderful journaling class in which we'll be turning a vintage ledger into a journal with all kinds of altered pages.

The best part is, Heather and I will be roomies in the dorm there, and we ended up taking all the same classes. I think we're in trouble here sleepwise. The last time we got together at a beading retreat, we did far more laughing and beading than sleeping! Everyone said that I looked really rested when I got back, so it must be true what they say about laughter...

In the meantime between now and March, I'm working on putting together the supplies I'll need for classes. Thank goodness we'll be driving, because there's going to be a lot of things I'll need to take. Heather and I will be going up together, and you know how much stuff an artist can haul around, let alone two!

Swapping Beaded Faces

Swaps are just the best thing ever! This is the beaded face pin I did for the Second Annual Beaded Face Pin Swap that Mamarox' hosted. We could make as many face pins as we wanted to swap, but this year I only got one finished in time. It's actually the first beaded embroidery project I've done. Most of the other beading I have been doing is beadweaving or stringing. Anyway - I had so much fun doing this pin, I'm already working on another one. Sewing on ultrasuede is the best! In exchange for my pin, I got this darling pin from Lora K. I just love it!

Next year, I'm going to start early on my pins and make a bunch of them. They sure are addictive!

PS - My friend Heather made the face cabachon for me. It's one of several she sent me to bead.

...So Is It Tomorrow Already?

'cuz it seems to me I promised something about tickets...

Oh yeah - I got tickets! To "So You Think You Can Dance!" I never thought I would though - I kept checking Ticketmaster and the scalper sites, but Ticketmaster never had any, and I wasn't about to pay any scalper three times the ticket face value. But, I remember what Rebecca said about them sometimes having tickets available the day of the show. The day of the show I checked Ticketmaster again, and lo and behold they actually had some! Well, since I was working just around the corner from the theatre, my friend and I ran right down there on our lunch break. Sure enough - they had tickets! Not only that, but they were three - yes three rows back on the left side inside aisle.

The seats were great; the show absolutely wonderful. We were about thirty feet from the speakers, and we could see the sweat fly on that stage. The thing I loved was Seattle was the first city on the tour, so the dancers were all fresh, the show lively and new. I suspect that by the time they get to the tour's end, they will have cut some of the dances and polished things up a bit...but to get to see the dancers when they were fresh off the TV show was the best ever!

There are some amazing talents in that group, and I hope that we see more of each one of the dancers in the future as they each pursue their dreams... They have a lot to offer the world of dance.

Oh and PS - Benji and Travis? Twice as cute in person! All those screaming teens at the show sure thought so too!