How Romantic...

Being serenaded by mariachi's. These guys were good. They sang a lot of songs I didn't know mariachi's would sing. What was the name of that Beatles song where every chorus ends, "and I love her..."? It was in Spanish, but I recognized the tune.

Down and Up the Mountain

I don't want you to get the idea that everything is sleek and modern. This is our house on the left and the gay hotel on the right. They have balconies, but we get to climb on the roof to our own patio. You can just see the top of Jun Kaneko's sculpture in the garden below.

This is the roof patio where I do my yoga every morning. It's exhilerating because I feel like part of the sky. I know it looks peaceful, but it's also kind of crazy.

All the buildings are close together, and all the Mexican neighbors have roof gardens and open houses. So you hear everything -- dogs barking, roosters crowing, telephones ringing, kids yelling, parties, and lots of music. Right now there's some really loud Mexican showtune music coming from the gay hotel.

Every night there have been different party noises in the street -- drums, children dancing in cermonial costumes, and fireworks. After three nights in a row, we've decided it is some sort of neighborhood festival.

It's a long way down the mountain and there are dozens of secret stairways between houses to get down to where the tourists walk along the seashore. Sometimes the streets are so narrow, there's room for only one car. Yesterday we were in a line of cars being blocked by a pickup truck coming the other way who refused to back up.

Here we are at the best fish taco stand in the city where they make fresh tortillas before your eyes. This is part of Russ's ISC board. They're artists, collectors, and staff here for meetings. Luckily I don't have to go to any meetings. Really I was planning on doing a lot of drawing, but so far all I've done is eat, drink, swim, shop, and wander around in the streets.

I saw these kids playing with their puppy yesterday.

And this made me laugh, but it didn't make me want to go into the restaurant.

Down by the ocean there's an art walk with lots of whimsical sculptures by Mexican artists.

It's a long walk back up the mountain. Here's a little restaurant on the way. It doesn't look like much, but we've already had a lunch and dinner here. It's cute inside and the food is very good -- Spanish tapas and fresh fish -- yumm!

Ultra-Cool Artist's Residence

Russ and Jun Kaneko are discussing Hawaiian shirts. While Russ only has a few, Jun is rumored to have hundreds of them. Jun is a Japanese ceramic artist who is based in Omaha, Nebraska.

This building was once an Alcoholics Anonymous house. It's been bought by our friends as an investment. After some thought, they decided to invest in artists (yeah!) and asked Jun to design the remodel to make a studio and residence for visiting artists. It's ultra-modern -- check out the kitchen cabinets, all cool perforated metal.

I always photo bathrooms, expecially when it's this nice.

I've always liked modern furniture mixed with rustic stuff. Hey, there's my candy wrapper purse on the table. It was the hit fashion accessory of the party.

All the furnishing are easily portable, because different artists have different work flows. Both stories of the building opened towards a courtyard that would be good for doing sculpture or ceramics.

Most disconcerting to me were the second-story glass walkways. Covered with etched lettering, they were still clear enough to see through to the lower levels.

Especially when the stairs to the third floor roof were also glass. Yikes! but then it wasn't so scary after the second margarita.

Here's Karen and Robert Duncan, the owners of the new studio up on the roof patio. Nice view up here. It would be a great place for yoga. I hope the Duncans are smiling because they just bought one of my quilts!

One of the light fixtures had not arrived yet, so Jun made this lamp out of paper and paint for the magenta-colored foyer.

Jun and his wife Ree were so generous to host the party AND give us each this big fat book of Jun's work. Since I love pattern, I'm looking forward to studing all the photos inside.

Jun is known for very large ceramic sculptures, but the artist's house doesn't have a kiln yet. For a month this winter, he's staying here in PV to do a series of drawings that he'll sell in galleries. You can read more about Jun here.

Crazy Stuff I've Already Bought

Since we've been here several times, I've already bought the usual Mexican stuff. But I couldn't resist this crazy cat mask made from a coconut shell.

Take a look at this purse made out of folded candy wrappers. It's got great handles and a lucious pink lining.

But don't look at these other candy wrapper purses if you're on my Christmas list...You're not looking, right?

Couldn't resist these cheap watches. One for every outfit.

Or these crazy patchwork pants, I going to wear them to an art party tonight, with a black poncho, the yellow/fusia purse, and lime green flower watch. I'm trying for more color in my wardrobe. Do you think that will do?

And of course for next year's Christmas tree, who could resist a fat Elvis angel. They had skinny Elvises, but the fat one was funnier.

We're in Mexico!

This is me doing my "Folded Umbrella" yoga pose. We're staying at a friend's house in the old historic part of Puerta Vallarta, and in the mornings I climb up a little spiral staircase to the rooftop and do my yoga watching the ocean, ships and birds sail by -- it's like being on top of the world!

Puerta Vallarta is set against a mountain, so although it gets light early, the sun doesn't actually rise over the mountain until about 9 a.m. So I can sleep late and STILL do yoga to a rising sun. Does it get any better than this?

Here's our friend's house which is called Casa Mina. Three stories of common living spaces are open to the ocean (no need for doors, except for the bedrooms and that's only for privacy.) I've pasted two photos together so you can see the little sculpture garden below.

We're in the house across the street called Casa Picaro which means "The Rogue." It's all stucco and tile, and right next to a private gay (all male) hotel. I heard the guys over there swim in the nude, but I've been peeking over the wall and haven't seen anything yet.

Here's our cute little bathroom. Notice, no glass in the window. Everything is open and breezy.

I have more photos to post, but that will have to come later. It's six o'clock now, and time to go across the street for cocktails and to watch the sun set.

Spy Phone

I kept telling Russ that I wanted a spy camera. I'm not sure when my fixation with being a spy started, probably back when I read Harriet The Spy for the first time.

Being a loving husband who also loves gadgets, he got a Trio phone for my birthday last November. But as usual it took me so long to figure out how to use it that it's probably no longer cutting edge technology.

Oh sure, I used the spy camera to document things during the holidays, like this cute snowman on a cup while shopping. Didn't have to BUY the cup, because I had my spy camera.

And this funky retro menu at the High Life Bar in Des Moines, didn't have to think about how to STEAL the menu because I had my handy spy camera!

But here's the real beauty of it. The Trio is a phone with a Palm Pilot built in. Yesterday I put photos of my quilts on it. Should be handy when I'm traveling, and someone asks me what kind of art I do? A picture is worth a thousand words, and now I have a mini-portfolio in my pocket!

Oh, did I mention traveling?? Check back Thursday to see where we are...

Illustration Friday: Cell Cats

Illustration Friday's theme this week is "Cats" so I had to post this drawing from last year. I used it to make this quilt.

Life Imitates Art

I wore cat-eye glasses in the fourth grade. Boy, does this photo bring back memories. My glasses were so thick that other kids made fun of me -- they said they looked like the bottoms of coke bottles (I guess that's when coke came in bottles).

Notice my early preference for turtlenecks, and the mole on my forehead that I later had removed. Also the fact I was always a late bloomer. I lost my front teeth long after everyone else had grown their permanent ones.

Before that I wore blue cat-eye glasses in the second grade, but you can't tell since this photo was taken back when most photos were black and white. That's me with my younger brother Andy...and there's that mole again. How it haunts me.

Since high school, I've worn contacts. But I'll always think of myself as the girl with cat-eye glasses, so when I needed a new glasses, I decided to return to my roots.

I found these wonderful Lulu Guinness glasses with rhinestones in the corners. I love them, and now they can make lenses so thin, that I might actually wear them in public. Actually, I think they look pretty good on me, but Madelaine is more glamorous than me, so I asked her to model.

And here's me today -- modeling my Lulu Guinness sunglasses in the parking lot. Typical turtleneck, sans mole. Oh yeah, and I had my ears pierced when I was 35 -- late bloomer again...

Mitered Facing Mini Workshop

Okay, say that five times really fast...ha ha! I'm not sure that's really the name, but Kathy Kansier gave a little demo at the end of the Uncommon Threads meeting. She taught us to make a mitered facing...

to sew around the edges of an art quilt, then flip over and tack down on the back to form a clean edge. We're practicing on Merrilee Tieche's quilt she made using an Esterita Austin pattern. Why does everyone look so worried? I really think it turned out all right.

This finishing technique looks much nicer than the one I did to my Metropolis quilt. Oh, and Merrilee, I forgot to take a photo of your wonderful 3-d quilted pyramid with the mini-Buddha inside!

What's a Bobbin?

Ha ha, Clyde, very funny! Uncommon Threads meet yesterday, and we are probably one of the few groups who has a male member! He must know what a bobbin is because he sews very well -- check this out.

Diana Callahan wowed us with a new series of charcoal images using a charcoal that is fixed to the fabric by ironing. She got it at Jerry's Art-a-Rama.

Not only is the overall image striking, but there are subtle details of interest. Check out the clothing labels sewn throughout the background!

Susan Leslie Lumsden showed lots of new work, but I like this detail of crazy bold prints contrasted with the dark greens. Nevermind that she stole those Kaffe Fassett stripes from me in our Christmas party gift swap game...

Remember Donna Fairbanks' lady and the moon last fall? This gypsy she just finished will go very well with that. A little more spooky though, and yes that is a frog AND a snake on her shoulder.

This is Emmie Seaman's quilt that she showed last month, but since I didn't post that meeting, I really wanted to squeeze it in here. Isn't it fun? She calls it "Sweeping Beauty."

Since Robert Frost never wrote about lime green trees, Lettie Blackburn has been reading another poet to create these. I can't help myself though, that blue polka-dotty background fabric makes me drool.

Look at it up close, it's covered with lots of delicious swirls in yellow and metallic threads.

It's Just Like Drawing!

Here's my new frame. Since I've never worked with a frame before, I rolled the fabrics on the wrong way about six times. After I finally got it right, the top, backing, and batting are all on separate rollers.

Once it was set up right, it was a lot of fun to doodle away, it fact I used a whole spool of thread before I realized it. The machine just glides on the carriage! I can move it with one finger - and it's just like drawing! I'm looking forward to developing a bunch of new quilting patterns.

Next I found something in the quilt-top graveyard and practiced on that. This one was already glued together, so I tried putting it on just two rollers and worked back and forth over the whole thing with different colors. This method worked well also. Lucky this photo is small that you can't see how poorly it's constructed!

Color Studies

Last night I couldn't sleep, so I worked on these little color studies. They're actually not little, they are really full size drawings 42" by 70", but I found that if I had four open at once in my drawing program and use the tile horizontally command, they popped into a little pattern like you see here.

It's handy for trying to decide on a color palatte. After narrowing it down to red, orange, and blue, there are still many choices. I like looking at the abstract composition, but also how color communicates on the representational level too.

Right now I am leaning towards this one because the blue background seems to recede and the blue interior of PaMdora's convertible sets her off. I wanted to make the cell towers more prominent, but could do that with fabric and quilting.

I actually spend a lot of time drawing and planning: have to make sure I have big enough fabrics for the background, and since there's going to be lots of activity in this one, have to think through the construction.

Actually I'm tempted to go even bigger, BECAUSE.... my new Inspira Frame came in this weekend. Although today was an exhausting day rearranging half of my studio and putting it together, I'm so psyched! It looks great, now to learn to use it.

Ugly House Guest

Here it is already mid January, and we still haven't gotten rid of an ugly holiday guest. You might remember him from last year... It's been over two weeks, and I'm just now getting rid of the head congestion that has left no room for creative thoughts.

Other than that, it's been a glorious 60-70 degree weekend, hence the inspiration for drawings of penquins moving south. This weekend, I've also caught up on all my show entries, and finished up Blue Christmas, which I confess wasn't really done in time for Christmas. I had to put the little sprinkles on the earmuffs and mittens.

Actually it's really hand embroidery, and I have to remind myself to wait until it's completely done, because when I start, I panic and think it looks all wrong. But I'm pleased with how fuzzy the earmuffs look and PaMdora's blue face. The swirling snow too, but that might not show in the photo. The mittens could have used a lighter floss, but I'm not redoing that!

So I got my entries off to Visions and Crafts National, my first entry to a multi-media show. Now to just sit around biting my fingernails until February!