Tina's Birthday, MIABA meeting, EDM

I've had a very full weekend with lots of little girls and lots of running and spending time with wonderful arty friends. On Friday, I had Miss 8 and Miss 3 and we went to a huge neighborhood garage sale in the morning and then back to my house for a rest, then we went to the post office to mail the Inktense pencils to Tracy, then to the library, and then to another garage sale we happened upon on the way back to my house. I don't remember being that tired at the end of the day when my kids were little. Of course, that was almost 30 years ago so I guess I had more stamina in those days. At the end of the day, I drove to Marshall to help Tina celebrate her birthday and saw a few friends and made more friends. The party was at a lovely home with lots of friendly people. I didn't stay very long and I hope it didn't seem rude of me to leave so early, but I was pooped from my running earlier in the day.


On Saturday, MIABA had a meeting at Small But Mighty Arts in Haslett. What a fun day that was. I saw some familiar faces and met some new ones. I must admit I am horrible with names so I went to the MIABA group page to check the database so I could mention everyone and not just the ones I remember, but the database isn't there any longer. So with apologies to those whose names I don't remember, I will say it was nice to see Barb, Linda, Ingrid, Nancy, and Dusty again and it was such fun to meet Kip and Rhea. Also there was a lovely woman who drove down from somewhere just south of Charlevoix who had some wonderful altered books whose name either I can't remember or I didn't catch. I could kick myself for forgetting my camera (and then forgetting the books I took for show and tell), but promise to take pix the next time I am in that wonderful art space.


And as a result of that wonderful meeting in a lovely new venue, I am planning to teach a class on repurposed books on August 13, and once I have the flyer ready and to Kip, I will tell you more. At this point, I am planning to provide the books, paper, linen thread, glue and decorative paper for the endpapers. Each class member will leave with a lovely, finished blank journal in a repurposed cover. I am nervous, but very excited to get this chance to share what I love doing. More info to come.


On Sunday, the hubster's brother came out for coffee in the morning and then we had Zoë for the late afternoon and evening. I swear that child just gets cuter and cuter; and, oh does she love Papa. He is always able to get a big grin just by getting her attention. I have to beg a little. While I wasn't able to get a smiling photo without lots of blur, I was able to get some rattle action and a nice shot of those great eyes of hers.

I did get a bit of work done (I mostly enjoyed watching others work on altering books with their wonderful collages and talking) at the MIABA meeting. Here is what I got done in between the watching and talking (and eating).

I am looking forward to adding a bit of color to this one.

This morning I am watching some of the early matches at Wimbledon and doing a bit of house cleaning. I'm just about to shut up the house as it is going to be a very hot and humid day. I hope to get a book repurposed so that I can take some pictures for the flyer for my class.

MIABA June 19 Meeting

On Saturday, a group of us met at The Stamp Shoppe in Portage. The project was an acrylic book and the team of Linda, Puff, Tina and Teri were very well prepared for us. They had a ton of stamps, images to do packing tape or contact paper transfer, alcohol inks, stamp pads, stamps, a Xyron machine and a Zutter Bind-It-All. I've probably missed something, but it was a wonderful arty day and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

This was the first meeting at which I actually got the project done. I may add a bit of bling from home, but basically, I have a completed book and even the hubster was impressed.

Here are some pix of the event:

I'm not sure how I missed getting a picture of Linda and Teri; I guess it was because they were perpetually going around helping. 

Did I mention the food was delicious and that the owner, Beth, was a sweetie?!

I believe there were 17 of us and it was just about the perfect size. Lots of room, lots of sharing and conversation.

In the afternoon Lorrie Abdo stopped in and visited. She couldn't come for the day because her son is in a soccer tournament. It was great to meet her.

Can't wait for the next meeting - I believe it is September 11 in the clubhouse in Grand Rapids - I haven't been to that one, but I've heard good things about it.

xoxo

Ides of March

It's 3 am and I am working at the computer and trying to figure out why I am not tired. It must be this time change. I don't have anything going on tomorrow later today, so I guess it doesn't matter if I get day and night mixed up. I wanted to tell you about the MIABA Spring meeting.

On Friday night I drove to Tina's house in Marshall and met up with Tina, Linda, Puff, and Teri. We were thinking we would be on the road around 7 pm for our drive to Newaygo where Teri had reserved two rooms for us so that we could attend the MIABA Spring meeting in Fremont on Saturday. Unfortunately, Puff and Teri got stuck in a traffic situation that was so bad they didn't move for more than an hour on US-23 near Ann Arbor. We actually left for Newaygo around 9:30 pm and arrived around midnight.

The next morning we began our day at the restaurant next door. The coffee was very good and breakfast was fairly quick and delicious. Our waitress was a hoot besides.

The NCCA Arts Place in Fremont was a beautiful and welcoming site to hold our get together. The facility was large and well equipped and the people were very friendly.

There were about 15 of us and we had a lovely instructor who showed us Lazertran transfers, silk transfers, packing tape transfers, and transfers using a stripping medium (sorry I can't remember the name of it).

We also spent time at Haveman's Hardware, a lovely store with a large section of scrapbooking and stamping goodies. They had given us a 10% off coupon for the day.

I do have a recipe to share with you. It was a dish made and brought by the lovely Barb Johnson. She didn't put the name on the instructions, so I will make one up. I am going to call it Smoked Sausage Stew.

You will need the following:

5 to 6 good sized potatoes

2 rings of smoked sausage cut in chunks

Several carrots cut into bite sized pieces

2 cans cream style corn

1 can green beans

Mix and bake 45 to 60 minutes in a crock pot.

This is the second MIABA get together I've attended that was across the state and I've gotta say, I am so glad I was able to go. A big thank you to Linda, Puff, Tina and Teri for including me in your fun!

xoxo

MIABA November Meeting at Kelly's

Yesterday we met at Kelly's house (a gorgeous one, by the way) in Olivet to play and share. It was a fun get together even though there were only seven of us. I took pictures of the artists working/playing and the altered puzzle pieces we did for trading. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of our hostess. I guess I was having too much fun to make sure I had everyone. Here are the pix:

 

After trading puzzle pieces and eating, we drove into Charlotte to The Hen House. They had 5 projects to make for $20. It looked like fun, but I was a party pooper; I had a date with my son to work on more Algebra. And as a matter of fact he is coming out today to finish up.

Altogether a fun day. As usual I had as much fun visiting as I did playing with art!