Artful Adventures

Life is Good---

-----especially if you happen to be at Valley Ridge Art Studio for the week end, taking a class taught by Katie Kendrick! 

How's that for a road sign?  The last trip down there, I spotted it but forgot to take a picture of it on the way home.  This time around, we got it!   

The studio overlooks a valley, and if the weather is just right, you can see mist rising up, and thisa day it never stopped.  It's a view that I never get tired of, and to be able to look up from your work space, loook out the window & see this, well it just never gets old.   

You've all heard me talk about the scenery before, so on to the class!  In this class, Katie has us constructing a visual journal out of cardboard & other various papers, showing us lots of paiting tips & tricks along the way.  Can't show you mine yet, because it's not quite finished-something I hope to have done in a day or so, then I'll share it.  It was incredibly freeing to work on something that was destined to be recycled before we rescued it & repurposed it into a book.  Not having to worry about "wrecking" something that we had spent good money on, seemed to bring out the creativeness in all of us.  But I'm getting ahead of myself here, it was a smallish class size, so we each had 2 tables to work on!  So besides having tons of personal time with Katie, we each had a 4'x4' surface to work on.  And you quessed it, within a very short amount of time, we all had the actual work space reduced to about a foot square of empty space:)  Do you do that at home?  I know I do! 

Here we all are, after lunch in the Community room, and all acting a bit silly, it's the only way to go:)  There were 3 of us that went to class together this time, Amanda and I had planned on it all along, but my friend & neighbor, Trina decided to come with us at the last minute.  This was her first class at Valley Ridge, her first real art experience, and one of the first times that she'd left the family at home to do something for herself in a very long time.  And what a perfect class for her to take!  And to watch her work & see what she accomplished, you'd never know that she wasn't an old pro-she's a natural!  When all 3 of us get our books done, I'll see if we can get them all photographed & do a little show & tell here.  Amanda just flew through, she always amazes me at how fast she can work, especially since she had a cold and felt like crud.  Then there was me, poking along as usual-need to learn how to pick up the speed! 

Even though Katie & I have been online friends for a very long time, this was the first time that we'd actually met in person.  It was long overdue, but well worth the wait, I felt like I'd known her forever.  Long before class, I was told that I'd like Katie a lot, they were right!  If you have a chance to take a class from her, and there are plenty of opportunites coming up, do yourself a favor & sign up-you won't regret it!  Her class was fast paced, and we got a lot done, but she was always available for advice, help, whatever you needed, and she always had that sweet smile on her face.  You will like her, too! 

As we drove away from the studio on Sunday, we weren't very far down the road when we spotted these 3 crows sitting in a tree.  Trina quick got a picture of them, laughing that it was too wierd having the 3 of us in the car & then spotting those 3 birds in the tree.  It really was kind of wierd, made a great picture, and will likely make a great transfer-or a good image for the books we just made.  The plan was to have taken a picture of the 3 of us standing by the jeep before we unloaded it, I swear there wasn't any space left in there at all!  For once, the husbands really were pretty safe that we wouldn't be doing a lot of shopping:)  So here we are, after arriving home Monday, the jeep was already unloaded, adn teh 3 of us were so tired, we didn't know which way was up.  But here we are anyway:)  Tomorrow, after I finiah a necklace, I'll show you what Gary made over the weekend while we were gone-you won't believe your eyes!!

The Valley Ridge Road Trip

Ever since I've had this blog, I've written about the classes I've taken at Valley Ridge Art Studio, and I still will, but this time around I'm going to be showing you some of the things we saw on the roads to get there, surrounding the studio.  There's too many pictures, so this post will be about the sights and the next one will be about Misty's class.  Sound like a deal?  I thought so:)

Amanda went with me, and at the last minute we decided to go a day early and do a little exploring.  Everytime I go, I want to take pictures on the road to the studio, but am always too excited to get to class to stop, and on the way back I'm so busy thinking about the class that I forget to stop for the photos.  So this time, we took a ride up that road the day before just to get some pictures.  Just past the studio, we saw these cows.  Now I see cows everyday around here, but these crazy things were walking way up on trails on top of a rock bluff that edged the road-they were acting like goats instead of cows!  No need for a fence, they seemed to know that one wrong step and they'd be goners-crazy!

A little further down and we found a big old pine snake sunning itself in the middle of the road, haven't seen one of those since I was a kid.  I still remember in the 3rd grade, in a 1 room schoolhouse, at the end of the day when we were all let loose, there was a huge pine snake laying at the bottom of the steps so none of us would leave the building.  Then my Dad showed up & got rid of the snake for us-he was a hero that day:) 

I'm always amazed at how Andrew stops & takes notice of all of the textures surrounding us everyday, so following his lead of paying attention, I got a close up of the snakeskin-with a zoom, no way did I get THAT close!!  Andrew would have taken it a step or 2 further with some digital manipulation, but I'm still no good at that-someday.

Once again-cows!  There are a lot of creeks or streams running through the farmland there, so we kept seeing cows in the water-not something we see around here.  It was nice to see them have the freedom to do a little rock climbing or take a quick dip, compared to around here in dairy land where they seem to live most of their lives in fields that seem too small or hooked up to a stantion. 

Becasue I always stay in Fenimore when I go for class, I come in to the studio on a back road, Hwy Q-very windy, hilly, and scenic.  Off and on, the sides of the roads were banked with these rock bluffs on either side, something we also see on Hwy 18 on the way down.  Always amazes me to see plant life thriving on these rocks, not quite sure how they do it.

Well, this photo isn't nearly as cool as it really looks.  This dead tree is really quite tall, with wood vine wound tightly all the way up the trunk, with a hint of red in the leaves here & there-a sure sign that fall is closing in on us. 

Each day we got to see these horses grazing in the field, sometimes with the company of cows, sometimes not.  The little foal never seemed to stray far from it's mama, keeping right toght behind her at all times.  I love watching horses, especially out in a field, but have a nice healthy respect for any critter that size and keep my distance.  Well, that's not entirely true, there was the time I was petting bear through their cages-but that's another story for another day:)

Speaking of another story, tomorrow I'll post about the class and tell you how this mess happened-another one of my shining moments!  In the meantime, if you want to know even more about me than you already do, head on over to the MMCA Marketplace blog and read my answers to a little Q & A.  And I'll see you all tomorrow!

See you on Monday!

On the way out the door for a fabuous weekend at Valley Ridge for a class with the even more fabulous Nina!  Can you tell I'm excited?  LOL-I really am, seems like forever since I've been there.  And I can relax, knowing that the house, dogs, and plants are in teh capable hands of my friend, Trina.  Thank you, Trina-you're a life saver!  Be back blogging on Monday, hope you all have a great week end!

Alpacas & Architecture

So what did you do exciting for the holiday week end?  We didn't go far, but did take in the everyday sights of the area, visited some friends, and just chilled out.  Had Gary not retired last year, this would have been his week end to work, so he was thoroughly enjoying being able to just go & do whatever he wanted.  It was kind of funny, a little like a kid on Christmas morning:)  We drove through the little town of Kewaunee yesterday, and went down Dodge Street, which has some of the coolest old homes, all renovated, painted up in fun colors, some are Bed & Breakfasts, a few single family homes, but all fun.  So thought we'd share a few of the house in that few blocks.  Hope you enjoy! 

Too bad there wasn't a little sun shining, but you should still be able to see all the trim work, they paid attention to detail! 

Still trying to get used to the new format here on typepad, need to get my sizing figured out!  It's funny how each of these house are painted a different color, I always wondered if they held a meeting or something to make sure they were all painted different colors. You can't tell by the picture, but this one is painted a shade of pink.  I remember when they started it, thinking it was an odd color, but they did it up right!  If you look close at the shingles near the peak on the front, the different colors form flowers.  And the gardens are spectacular here!  All done up in pink, a wonderful arbor to walk under, with a matching martin house behind it in the yard.  it's called Hollyhock House and is a bed & breakfast-it would be tempting to stay there, I have a feeling that the inside is spectacular!  Blue is my least favorite color for a house, but once again they paid attention to detail & pulled it off!  These homes are huge, maybe they give tours at Christmas or something-----something to watch for! A pair of gargoyles flank each side of the driveway of the first house in the picture, a perfect fit for the house.  Are you still with me on this little tour?  I'm really hoping you enjoy seeing these homes as much as we did!  From here, we went on up Hwy 42 to go to a little antique shop that we both like.  It's run by the nicest man, and his big old black dog named "Bear", I always breath a little sigh of relief each spring when I see that the dog is still there, he's old now & has a snow white muzzle, and the man obviously adores him.  He is pretty cute-the dog, that is:)  We picked up a bunch of old books there, one is an old dictionary that had several dried flowers and a 4 leaf clover pressed between the pages.  Makes me wonder who did it, what was the significance, there had to be a story behind it!  From there we stopped in at Amanda's to drop off some extra plants we dug up, dropped off a couple of chairs to see if her husband could spot weld them to fix them, and have a cup of coffee-nice visit!  From there, we went abut a mile up the road to Kele Alpacas to get a picture of the new baby Alpaca that was born during the week, and were treated to getting to watch them shear one of the older ones.  A lot of work goes into this process to make those wonderful soft fibers that you fiber artists love to use!  A specially made table keeps the animals safe, as well as those shearing, so it's a relatively stress free situation for all.  Kieth & LeAnna were so calm, had a system worked out, that they didn't even really have to talk-they all knew just what had to be done and when.  They're a couple of the nicest people we've had the pleasure to meet out here, so it's always a treat to pop in, see the critters, & chat for a bit.  Here's "Gabby" with her new haircut:)  There's not much left to them after you remove all the "fluff" is there?  Such sweet animals-when I was grooming my dogs for show, they weren't nearly as well behaved! And here's the baby (they're called a crea" with her mama.  We took so many photos of her, it was hard to choose, but this one will do:)  Gary walked right into the field with them to take the pictures, and the baby was curious enough to walk right up close to him.  They have the longest, blackest eyelashes that you've ever seen!  No visit to Kele would be complete without a pictuer of Ajax!  He's 16 years old, and a great ambassador for the breed, always curious, friendly, and willing to pose for a picture:)  When I met him, is when I fell in love with alpacas, how could you not??  Now I want to follow this shearing thing through with LeAnna, watch how she turns the fibers into roving, uses the spinning wheel, all that fun stuff!  One of these days, I'd love to try the spinning wheel out-not sure if I'd be any good at it, but it looks like fun and would have the potential to be calming-maybe not in the learning phase, though-lol!  Today was beautiful-80 degrees & sunny-finally!  It was warm enough to actually be able to sit on the lake for awhile, first time this year, and it felt good.  When we got home I picked up a book to read that I had barely started the day before, but more about that tomorrow.  Fair warning though, you're going to want the book-it's a great one!!