OK, here goes...

Well, it's taken me almost a week to regroup after all the activity of Art Unraveled. Vendor day was very fun. It was a learning experience, for sure. I didn't sell a lot of artwork but made most of my money selling the odd little things I find and sell in my VOP shop on Etsy. It was fun to see others recognize the potential in these little odd findings! I've already started collecting things for vendor day next year!

The night before Vendor day, I had a wonderful dinner with several friends, some new, some not... Fran and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary of our meeting!!!! It was a special treat to have some girl time with some of the best!

Vending went from 10-4 that Saturday and a bunch of us girls grabbed a quick salad and headed back to the hotel for the film screening of the documentary of the 1000 journals project. Someguy was there to answer questions about the project and also had several of the journals there, available to be worked in. It was a very interesting film and I enjoyed the question/answer time. However, I was dead on my feet when it ended and way too tired to add to a journal. I just wanted my bed! When I got up Sunday, I felt completely exhausted and ended up having to take a long nap in spite of the million things I still had to prep for my class! Being an introvert does have draw backs some times. Crowds completely over-stimulate and exhaust me, no matter how much fun I'm having!

Monday was the first day of school, which, I found out, started 10 minutes earlier this year and also lets out 10 minutes earlier! My kids start school at 7:30 sharp! Eek! After getting them to their classes, I spent the day in peace and quiet getting everything ready and organized for my class. I had two more sign ups at AU taking my class number to 15!!!! I was so pleased! Tuesday morning, I could not wait to get to the hotel to teach. I was not nervous AT ALL and was jumping with excitement. I had waited for that opportunity to teach for years and waited an entire year to teach this particular class. All the waiting was worth it. The class was fantastic! I had great students, everything went really well even with a few little glitches along the way. We all had fun, learned from each other, and had a very successful day. It flew by! I remember standing there watching everyone working, at one point, and said to myself, "THIS is what I am meant to do!" There is no greater peace and joy than knowing deep in your soul that you are on the path of your destiny. I LOVE teaching! And after it was over, I had the "after Christmas" kind of let down feeling. It saddens me to think that it might be a while before I can be back in those shoes again at that capacity. There are many art retreats now where I could propose classes but proposals have to be sent in months in advance so I'm just learning the schedules. I also have to realize that I cannot go jetting around the country full time because I'm a mom of young ones!
Here's a snap shot of some of my students hard at work sewing their books together! What a joy they all were!


Since I no longer have a camera after my robbery, I didn't really get many pictures. My dear friend, Lynn, came and assisted me in class for a while and snapped a few pictures for me. These are me in concentration mode! One of the biggest problems of the day was trying to figure out why measurements weren't adding up only on poor Sherri's piece... finally, after 3 attempts at re-cutting her fabric and fusing it, I realized the fabric was shrinking when the iron heated it!!! So, I learned a lesson that day... no synthetic fabrics! Once we figure out that was the problem, we re-routed and got back on track. Sherri was so carefree about the whole thing. She was so sweet!

I really didn't spend all my time bent over a mat with a rotary cutter in hand! These just happen to be the pictures!

Anyway, AU is over for this year and it was wonderful. I've already got several ideas for class proposals for 2010, which are due by Sept. 15th. I've also started sending some proposals off for a weekend retreat being held outside of Austin, TX in April. I'm trying to work something out to teach in Denver as well. But, have to get time to make the samples and write the proposals!

On Sept. 8th, I start my once a week job teaching art to home school kids so I need to get my class lessons written up and get ready for that as well. AND, I was called about the possibility of doing hair at a retirement village between November and April for all the 'snow birds' that come here during the winter months!! I'll be going to visit the facility in the next week or so.

So, as you can tell, I am staying really busy and it doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon!
Today, I took the boys to get new shoes and a few things they needed for school. This week, homework will really start kicking in so afternoons will be an adjustment. The boys like their teachers though and enjoyed their first week of school.

Gotta' run now...