a wish cake

it is definitely time to celebrate! i am actually walking around spontaneously bursing into song (showtunes), grinning like a cheshire cat, and giggling to myself. well, it is the last day of school. i am still so much like a kid, to have three whole months ahead of me with no school leaves me feeling giddy and marvelously free.
of course i start out the summer with grandiose plans of adventures with the kids, art hours that last until the wee morning light, and spectacular organization projects going on throughout the house. i am a bit realistic however, by the time august rolls around i already know i will be going crazy with three teenagers sleeping in until after lunch, the revolving front door, and the fridge opening so often it wont even keep the milk cold. i won't be able to wait until we start a real schedule again. but for today, this minute, i can't contain my excitement.

i am celebrating these things:

two birthdays this week: hannah is 14! and amanda is a few years older than that tomorrow. happy days girls

marina graduating tomorrow where is that little red headed girl of mine? she's all grown up and ready to save the world.

heading to the oregon coast for a week long holiday right on the ocean. we are going whale watching and to the aquarium. its a long 16 hour drive to the coast, but the first view of the ocean always takes my breath away!

last day of school today and waiting for me in the mailbox was a fat little package from kari . . . oh i do love little unexpected surprises in the mail.

a tall glass of coke zero on pebble ice

and the art nest is only a couple of weeks away, i can hardly wait!

i'm about ready to start singing again and can't sit still at the computer another minute so i'm off to celebrate. . .
cheers, julie

mothers and daughters

me and hannah four days old.

in celebration of five generations of mothers and daughters in my family. here are my three daughters. i never imagined how much they would capture my heart. it is a bittersweet year for me as a mother. my oldest is graduating and moving on to the next place in her life. she is ready to be on her own now and her life outside the nest is pulling at her. though i don't know what we will do without her. then my youngest will be starting first grade next year and for the first time in ten years i won't have one of my own children in my class.


marina


hannah


olivia

here are three generations of women who have shaped my life. my mother joan


grandma eloise with olivia on her blessing day

elosie my grandmother
frances, my great-grandmother who i never met, but must have been a beautiful soul to have raised my grandmother to be who she is.


olivia's picture and poem, mom her hair is softer than a hens feather.
i love you all xo mom

voices

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with spring break this week it was the perfect opportunity to finish my book 'voices' i started in nina bagley's class at artfest.
i gathered together anything i had that was blue, copper, ochre, dark brown, and beige for my book and put it in a bag to take to my class. it was wonderful to have a palette picked out and ready to go.



the fabrics came from an old greyhound bus shipping box from grandma's attic that was filled with scraps of fabric from her mothers sewing projects. inside was an old dress bodice that looks 80 years old. i am loving that new stash of fabric!
i found a wonderful old hymnal titled uplifted voices at the used book store that i used for the front and back covers. i used a wide metalic blue and brown ribbon to attach the two covers together leaving just enough room to tuck in the loose pages. the little window reads ' wide thy heart's door' and has a button from great grandmas sewing kit and part of a cuff link.


the first page reads 'the morning voice' stamped in brass.


since i ran out of book covers that would fit inside my book i used this old cabinet photo frame for one of my pages.
the negative was in a packet of letters i found at my favorite antique store. the little letter is dated 1913-voices from the past





first lessons- the voice of reason is created on the back of a photo frame. i liked the little hanging ring showing. the lower left corner of the cover had broken away so i glued the spine in its place. it looks like the decaying inside of an old wall.



voices from the dust is built on an old envelope that mrs. barker received with sewing patterns inside. the letter on the front is heartbreaking, dated Aprial, 11th, 1887 and in lovely old brown ink reads 'we berried oure oldest daughter Elizabeth on the 9 day of last Nov'. the little heart on the top i sewed together and hung from a bit of rosary chain to the metal envelope tab. wish they still made such cool envelopes!




the back cover-the voice of nature holds a little nest under mica and three small stones i gathered with nina two years ago at asilomar.

i love the way the old ribbons hold all the loose pages together. wonderful! thank you nina. . .

artfest favorites. . .

so either this is going to be the longest post ever and you won't be able to scroll all the way down, or i will wear out and not post every single favorite photo i took at artfest this past weekend and have to add some later.
i am still just floating after such an amazing weekend in port townsend attending artfest with teesha and tracy moore.
it was an outstanding event and i absolutely loved it!!
everything was green and wet with rain, the trees had burst into bloom and the sea was rolling grey up on the sand. it was a feast for the senses. candice and i stayed in one of the officers houses with kecia and jenn from the last art nest. the big old house had radiators that creaked and whistled in the night. a huge built in cabinet in the dining room held all the dishes and a tiny little bathroom had a bit of a shower that dribbled out hot or cold water depending on your luck. it was charming and perfect.




candice and i took all three classes together and we were absolutely delighted to meet annie lockhart our first teacher. a kind soul filled with grace and beauty. i felt as if i had just found out i had another sister. such laughter and emotion in her class. the pieces everyone created were stunning.
i don't really like wall hangings so i created a little book that opened to a tiny porcelain doll nestled in a frame filled with the inside of an old quilt. the colors of cream and silver were especially restful to me and i enjoyed so much putting all the little pieces together.



here is the piece candice created. she used an old canvas fishing bag as the base and glued an old photo frame on top. the pod of pearls and the wrapped dried daffodils were the last things she glued on.



it was so fun to meet and sit next to liz lamoreux here with annie.



nina's class gatherings was on the second day. at my first art retreat ever i took a class with nina and have been drawn to her work ever since. the raw beauty of nature encased within the pages of her books and wrapped about with wire in her jewelry has always felt like magic to me. our class was filled with amazing artists, it was spectacular to walk around and look at what each person was doing. i got to meet cori kindred for the first time and adored her little paper clay mushroom she put in one of her little frames.



here is candice and nina with the little silver spoon that went on candices book. sort of the before and after shots of the spoon.



my cover is titled uplifted voices. here are the two pieces i finished. i have left the ribbon long to the left so i could attach the back cover when i had it designed. i am going to leave the inside pages loose and just tie them all together.


lisa and renee after making our book covers. renee used lovely old sewing pieces to go in her frames and they took my breath away.



our last day of classes we took wallpaper people with anahata. i was totally intimidated to work on a 6 foot panel of paper and almost dreaded the challenge. i kept trying to talk myself into making a mini wallpaper person. i took anahata's symbolic icons class in february at the nest so i did know i would be in good hands and i went for it!
here is anahata working on her class piece--isn't it the best!




anahata has the gift of being an incredible, intuitive artist, and a fabulous teacher able to encourage each artist to produce their best work. it is a rare and fantastic combination. here are the two wallpaper people candice and i made. her handsome man and my girl with the songbird throat and the universe inside her.


cute kecia's wallpaper person


i had such a wonderful time connecting with friends far and wide.

cassondra came over for chipolte brownines one night and after some spooky ghost stories i took her back to the dorms.



darling jenn and candice one morning just coming back from a run. michelle and i on the steps to our house sunday morning before driving home.



vendors night was shopping mayhem. fabulous original art from all over the globe. so much inspiration it was hard to take it all in. this picture is of annie lockhart and all her gorgeous things at her table. i bought a beautiful piece by katie kendrick that i am just thrilled with, i wish i knew the name of the piece. . .

and two very cool zines that theo ellsworth put together. i just knew my kids would dig his style. i was right on. . . this is the inside cover to capacity #7 titled 'a witch's bedtime story' my total favorite!!



show and tell night was overwhelming, so much art everywhere! here is a piece by michelle allen that i just adored.
i don't even know who she is, if anyone does please help me find her.


and here are tracy moores journals. i loved the four of them together, so manly!


i flew home with candice after it was all over and we talked and talked on the plane about all the wonderful experiences we had at artfest. i am doing a whole journal page titled 'you know you are a hick when. . .' just to document all the funny things we got ourselves into. (the man-kilt store in seattle for one)
today i am still bubbling over with the energy of it all, wonderous.
xo julie