The Return From Ashland :: Chapter 5 :: Results

The affects of Art In Ashland are beginning to wear off *sigh*. At least I have evidence of 3 days of pure art bliss. Here's my creation from Anahata's class
This lady started off as a "magazine girl" and became the centerpiece of my canvas.
The title of the piece "I'll Take You Home Again". No, I'm not that much of a planner! It was torn out of a music book last minute and glued on!

What is it that's she's staring at and taking home again anyway?
oh, her nest egg!

Here it is in the whole


My jewerly skills are very minimal, it took me the whole day to put this piece together!
It started off with a vintage rose pin and a fabulous old necklace links from Amy.
Then a smokey crystal flower pulled off a vintage earring.
another pin used as a closure.


Pam's class started with this new-old looking ledger.
Carving out the windows of the ledger took a lot of sweat and hard work! It was like cutting through metal!!! The windows were covered with mica (it's hard to tell in this photo).
Thanks to my neighbor Natalie she had the right color (platinum) stickles and I was able to smother the rough edges I cut out. She also provided me with the French definition card!
The binding was finished back at camp. I topped it off with a sugar coated button from Mama J.
I made the mistake by not covering the inside center binding with linen binding tape and had huge gaps in between the signatures. So, I covered it with a baby blue velvet ribbon to act as a "bookmark" . As Anahata said "happy mistakes", that holds true with this project!

Towards the end Pam gave us a huge ledger page to collage on and be free with
This is supposed to go in the journal we created, but I haven't had the heart yet to cut it up!

Oh, as promised here's the stone lithograph I received from Jen
Isn't that dress to die for? Thanks Jen!

"When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time."
-Cy Twombly

The Return From Ashland :: Chapter 4 :: Friends

As mentioned before, I met sooo many great artists and friends. Here's the hostess with the mostess Anahata!
Adorable Patrice with her fun pieces!
This is Miss Cassondra and I'm so glad to finally meet her. This talented lady needs a blog! But until then check out here Flickr.
Here's Miss Texas (AKA Dana) with her awesome paintings from Anahata's class.
Here's my partner in crime for 2 days, Kelly. I hope to see her at future adventures! She makes the most adorable figurine boxes!
Many of you know this sweet gal Kari (AKA Artsy Mama)
Here's Amy Hanna. She is too nice!
I was excited to met Hope because she is the mastermind behind PaperRelics and Hope Wallace Design Services (recently collaborated with Andrea in the redesign of One Hundred Wishes)
Last but diffinitely not least is Jennifer. She is the proprietress of gorgeous antique stone lithograhs. I was lucky enough to be able to choose one (I will take pictures and include it in the next post).
I met so many more new friends (Christina of Dollybelle, Natalie, Michelle, Sally) but was not able to photograph all of them.
It was so nice to actually meet blogger friends in person too! Stayed tuned for the last post!

"What is a friend? I will tell you...it is someone with whom you dare to be yourself."
~ Frank Crane

The Return From Ashland :: Chapter 3 :: Camping

As some of you may know, we (K, Mochi and Myself) camped out in Oregon! It was really fun and giving the choice to camp or stay in a hotel I would still camp! As long as it's "luxury camping" meaning there are hot showers and decent rest rooms. We were also able to bring Mochi and being the outdoorsy seeker that she is, she had a grand o' time!
As soon as we got to camp Mochi ran for the water and started to act like a beaver! Grabbing logs out of the water and stacking them!

This is the creek at the bottom of the hill we camped on. See the rock sculptures? They are throughout the campsite.People have always mentioned there are berries everywhere in Oregon
and it's a fact! These blackberries were all over the campsite. We picked a bunch and squished them in between our roasted marshmallows!
I felt so bad for K, every morning I was so excited to sit around the camp fire that night and just hang out. Well, almost every night I would fall asleep in my chair! I couldn't believe I was so tired! He managed to forgive me and had fun roasting the mallows!
We stayed at the Glenyan Campgrounds and it has beautiful areas throughout

While I was off creating K cruised Oregon mountains and lakes

We got together in between and had some drink and eats
This was at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant
See the clover in the beer, nice touch! By the way the fish & chips are killer!

As we were packing up...someone wasn't quite ready to leave yet
I think this was her protest (sitting on top of the tent).

One last mountain shot before the long drive aheadAshland, I miss you already!

"The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another. It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness."
-Henry David Thoreau

The Return From Ashland :: Chapter 2 :: Shopping

We had 2 lovely nights of shopping! Last Monday night Anahata invited us to have free reign of the Papaya warehouse!!!!! Yes, free reign for us to purchase Papaya items at warehouse prices. This was our transportation

A Double Decker Bus. It was awesome!
I admire my cohorts for controlling themselves because I went crazy here!
Here's Christina by the giclees.




This is the one that made it into my basket. They all have hand glittered embellishments!

Greeting card galore! A bunch of these snuck into the basket too!

Adjacent to the warehouse is Papaya's gorgeous workspace


The space is full of art work as you would imagine





We celebrated our last night together at Prize with a cupcake soiree! Yum!

Anahata greeted us with handmade medals as we walked through the door and we all signed eachothers journals that we made in Pam's class. We drank lemonade and champagne and gorged ourselves with petite cupcakes as we shopped the adorable store.
A vintage collection of Steiff dolls available for purchase.

It was such a great way to end the shabang!

"The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."
-ALAN ALDA

The Return From Ashland :: Chapter 1 :: Snippits

It's not often you get 3 whole days of full on creativity, so trying to get back to the o'grind is pretty tough! I had so much fun and met many great artist, I don't know where to begin! I guess I will start with pictures and post more about my projects later (I know those of you who didn't go want to see the projects but I have yet to photograph them). By the way, if you are new to my blog, THANK you for visiting and WELCOME! Please come visit often! The above picture is my only picture I got with Anahata, Amy and Pam (and Kathlen in the right corner) together. This was the fabulous opening night! See the adorable bags on the table? Those were all hand decorated bags for each one of us! They were filled with info about Ashland, Oregon and an Art in Ashland apron for us to adorn to our hearts content!
Here are some fabulous Ladies I met. Kari AKA ArtsyMama, Paige and Michelle #1.
Checking out Pam's awesome journals!
Michelle's #2 collection of randomness

This was one of the participants collection...amazing isn't it? We asked why she was in the class and her response "because you can always learn something more." I thought that was incredible!
Don't these look like pearl sea urchins?
This was sample 1 of 3 Anahata created in class. Did you say sample? You mustav meant masterpiece.
Kathlen's Frida masterpiece.
The sweet Sally Jean with her creation!

Don't miss Chapter 2 :: Shopping, Chapter 3 :: Camping, Chapter 4 :: Friends and Chapter 5 :: Results.

"Keep Calm and Carry On"
-From a postcard purchased at Prize