Colors

I love green and purple! A special category of vacation photos...




That's about the end of the vacation photos. We do have two more quick trips before school starts. It's a busy, exciting summer.

Baby Shower

I went to a baby shower last weekend. It was so delightful! The party was thrown by some artist friends for another artist friend, Connie, who will be a first-time Grandmother -- and for the mother-to-be, of course!

Hostesses Michelle and Lu did a lovely job decorating with butterflies! They were everywhere.

My very favorite gift to give is books! I don't even bother looking at the registry. I know lots of other folks will buy all those necessary items. And others love buying cute little girly clothes (I do too, in fact). But mostly, I love picking out books! I usually choose ones that I enjoyed reading with my kids.

I chose On the Day You Were Born, Jamberry, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? and Good Night Gorilla. I made this little tote for them.
I hope Baby and her Grandma will enjoy lots of special times reading together!

Exhilarating!

We had an amazing adventure in the Antigua Rainforest.
Our tour included 9 zip lines through the rainforest. We got all our gear and hiked over bridges, up stairs and through various trails to the first platform. The rangers reminded us all the safety stuff and sent us off...

Can you tell I was a bit anxious? This is the second picture. In the first picture, my eye brows were all crinkled up in worry. Claire was very anxious. She was in tears on the platform. She was getting all kinds of fear signals from her brain -- understandably. One of the rangers went with her on the first two zip lines and after that she was fine.Benjamin was not anxious for one second. He loved it!
Jeff even flipped upside down on one of the later zip lines. It was so beautiful, green, dense and wild. We heard birds and bugs and enjoyed it so very much. Even Claire was upset when we realized we were about to take in the last zip line.

Cameras are not allowed on the zip line tour. You really must have two hands to help with balance and breaking. The owner said that even if you have a camera in your pocket, their insurance just can't take the risk. I guess I can understand that. But... they are happy to sell you digital images that they take for you. (Of course, they are.) We thought that picture of Benjamin was so awesome we had to buy it. Then if you get one of Benjamin you have to get one of Claire... and if you're buying pix of the kids then...

After the zipline tour, we visited the Antigua Human Society Donkey Sanctuary. We read about this in the tour magazine we found in our hotel room. I am so glad we discovered it. Claire enjoyed it so much.

She loves animals and it's very interesting to hear about how people help animals in different situations and in different parts of the world. Antigua was full of sugar cane plantations years ago. When these plantations became inactive, the donkeys that worked the farms were left to run wild. There are hundreds of donkeys running wild on the island. The sanctuary boards more than 80 donkeys. When we were there, we saw baby donkey that had just been introduced to the main pen. She had been found on the side of the road with her mother no where to be found.

We made a donation and got to "adopt" a donkey named Dante.

Moving On

I got two rejections last week. I entered this piece in the World of Beauty show at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.

Refuge Radiant
size

It was based on this piece that I created as part of my Lent series. See the resemblance?

Radiant
size

By the way, the smaller version is currently in the VAST 125 Mile show. We had a blast at the opening last week. Here is the piece hanging... and Benjamin peeking.

I am pleased with Refuge Radiant. It was a really enjoyable and enlightening process to go from small to large. I'll enter it in some other shows, I suppose. I really enjoy going to the Houston show, and I'm just not sure it's going to happen this year. Especially, since I won't have any art on display.


You can enter two pieces in the Houston show, so I also entered The Fourth Day from the 12x12 Art Quilt Collaborative. I still love this piece. It was thrilling to have it published in Quilting Arts for my Illuminated Art Quilts article.

I also received a rejection for the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists show which will also be in Houston. I had planned to enter another largish piece based on one of my Lent pieces, but I just couldn't finish it in time. Then, I thought I wouldn't enter anything. I just didn't feel I had any fresh work that seemed significant, particularly in size. (I couldn't enter Refuge Radiant because the deadlines conflicted.)

My art friends insisted I enter some of my Lent pieces... even though they are small, they represent a development of style and a simplicity of form. One of my friends even suggested I enter all forty small pieces as one entry. Maybe I should have. That could make an impact.

I did enter this.

Here He Stayed
14x8

And this...

Any One Of You
10x8

And also Radiant, the smaller piece from above.

So, what does this all mean? Well, everyone gets rejections. I'll be moving on...

But, I am wishing I had spent my time differently. I really want to put my Lent pieces together into a self-published book with meditations and thoughts on creating art. That project was put aside to work on entering these shows. Also, I much prefer to make small art. So why did I work so hard on Refuge Radiant? And why is the other large piece folded up in the closet unfinished?

So, I must get to work on the 12x12 passion quilt. And then I need to continue to further clarify what success means to me and put my energy there. (Duh.)

Out and About in Antigua

We ventured out to Nelson's Dockyard on the one day that it wasn't too sunny. It was a good day for hiking and going to the museum.The kids had tons of fun exploring the beach, dock and the old fort.
We also had a great time connecting with some of the locals in St. John's.

We spotted some mancala boards in one of the shops and the owner explained that they use it for a local game called "warri." We watched these two gentlemen play, but they were going so fast it was hard to discern how the game is different from the version we play.

We also had excellent pizza at a local joint. They happened to be hosting a party for kids in the side alley. Claire and Benjamin enjoyed jumping rope, hula hooping, tug-of-war...
... and face painting.

After hiking at the Dockyard, we happened upon a fabulous restaurant called Johnny Coconuts.
It was a beautiful setting and a fabulous meal.
I asked the waiter if I could keep the fancy water bottle. He said, "yes!"

I had mango and ricotta salad.
And pineapple gazpacho.
Yum... I just might have to recreate that mango salad! Isn't it funny what kind of inspirations you can bring home from vacation?

Sneak Peeks

I submitted a few projects to be considered for publication in a couple of magazines. Here's a sneak peek.

Isn't that a great quote? I adore Anne Lamott. (And the green and the purple!)

More Vacation Pix

Arriving in Antigua...
We had to walk from the airplane to the terminal where we were greeted by a reggae singer and a cup of passion fruit juice.
Here is our sweet little cottage. The grounds were filled with lush tropical plants. Beautiful.

The bathroom was decorated with fresh flowers...We rented a car for the whole time we were there. Some tourists just take a van to their resort and never leave. We like to get out an explore.
One of our first stops was St. John's Cathedral in the city of St. John's.
It's a beautiful old building. We considered going to church on Sunday morning. The bulletin we picked up said they have nearly 300 people at their 6:15 am service and another 300 at the 8 am service.

Other adventures included a boat tour, zip line and lots of time on the beach. More pix soon.

Vacation

We've been at the beach.

We had an amazing adventure in Antigua. More later.

Art Opening

Tomorrow night is the VAST-125 Art Exhibit Opening!

My small fiber collage, Radiant, will be in the show.

Visual Arts Society of Texas - 125 Mile Show
Friday, July 10 from 5:30 to 7:30
Meadows Gallery in the Center for Visual Arts
400 East Hickory St, Denton, TX

(Regular Gallery Hours - Tuesday through Saturday 1 to 5 pm)

I am thrilled to have a piece in this show for the third year in a row. It's a lovely local show. I'll be bringing my famous peanut butter cup cookies. Please come!