I stayed at a wonderful old Victorian hotel in downtown Port Townsend. One of its best features was its close proximity to the Tyler Street Coffee House, which, in addition to making fantastic coffee and dangerously tasty baked goods, also happens to serve deeeeelicious soup (thanks for the recommendation, Dawn!). The hotel also boasted an unadvertised amenity known as Nature’s Alarm Clock, aka the symphony of gulls that began squawking en masse at 6:30 every morning across the street on the waterfront.

The most wonderful surprise of Artfest 2008 was catching up with old friends (especially Lisa and Renee) and meeting new friends (especially Dawn, Heather, Taylor, and Jill).

The classes were amazing. Nina Bagley’s Wee Book class was an absolute blast. A workshop with Nina is always a treat. I was lucky enough to share a table with my old Artwerx friend Renee–what a bonus! I hope Renee will post photos of her wee book on her blog because it was beautiful. Here are a few shots of my book, which is still in need of a few finishing touches.

Front cover:

Spine (adorned with a beautiful bead that a generous soul gave me at the bonfire journaling party, even though I had nothing to trade except wine):

A few of the pages (some of which are unfinished, but you get the idea):

Judy Wise’s Waxy Layers workshop was the highlight of Artfest 2008 for me. I loved this class! I think I need to buy some encaustic supplies because this is a technique I could seriously get into. I hope I’ll be lucky enough to take other workshops with the wonderful Judy someday. One of the best parts of this class was getting to know my table-mate Dawn. She’s an awesome person, and a super-talented artist to boot. I can’t wait to see pictures of her finished piece from Judy’s class. Here’s my finished piece:

Well, mostly finished. I still need to hand-buff some of the milkiness out of the beeswax. It will be glossier and clearer in a few weeks.

On Saturday, I took Karen O’Brien’s Creative Characters workshop. This class was a bit frustrating for me because I’m not a natural drawer or painter, and I have trouble just letting go and being willing to make crappy mistakes in the name of learning. Karen was a fabulous teacher though, and she was encouraging and inspiring. Her work is so very, very cool. I didn’t even come close to finishing a piece in this class, but here’s a shot of one of my unfinished pieces:

I will definitely continue to work on my creative characters, and I promise to post pictures later. I think I need to drink some wine before I continue my drawing and painting practice; that should help me let go.

I’m kicking myself for not taking more pictures while I was there. I was so caught up in the experience that I didn’t even think about capturing it for posterity, even though I had my camera with me every moment.

Here are a few more highlights.

Pulling away from the Seattle ferry terminal on Wednesday afternoon:

A gorgeous flower:

Thursday evening’s bonfire journaling party:

The best speed-limit enforcers ever:

Tomorrow it’s back to work. <sigh> Big thanks again to Holly for allowing me to live out her intended Artfest experience. I had a fantabulous time, and I can’t wait until Artfest 2009.

I’m sitting here watching the Oscars. My secret boyfriend Jon Stewart is doing a great job so far. Regis Philbin referred to Javier Bardem as “Xavier Bardem.” Jennifer Garner’s dress is beautifully goth-tastic. My secret best friend J Harvey is kicking all kinds of live-blogging butt. Diablo Cody ended up not wearing those million-dollar shoes. In short, I’m in Oscar heaven.

I’m also in Artfest heaven! It’s a travesty that Holly is not able to attend Artfest next month, and I hope I’ll get a chance to meet her in person at a future Artfest. But I am so happy that, thanks to Holly, I was able to sneak in at the last minute and satisfy my Artfest jones. My most recent Artfest was in 2006, so I’m long overdue. I did, however, go to Artfiberfest in 2007. I wish I could do both every year. How great would that be?

I’m off to make some popcorn. What are the Oscars without popcorn (and perhaps a cocktail)?

P.S. Yes, I know I need to get some images on this blog; all-text is B-O-R-I-N-G. This week, I promise!

After a few abandoned experiments with other tools, I decided to settle on WordPress to manage my blog. The setup and integration with my existing domain host were surprisingly easy; I hope that bodes well for ongoing maintenance.

Now comes the fun part: Playing around with themes and design! Expect to see a lot of design schizophrenia until I decide on a look and feel.

Stay tuned for a post about the fun Valentine’s Day recipe-card swap I just participated in.