Artfest Vendor Night: Controlled Chaos

Friday night at Artfest is Vendor Night. a fabulous opportunity for teachers to sell their art and for a few outside vendors to peddle their vintage treasures. Tory, who was teaching at Artfest, had reserved a table and invited Steph and myself to join her. We jumped at the opportunity to be on the other side of the table. Here's how the evening evolved . . . .

Hooking up our flamin' trailer to haul our Artfest vendor night goodies to the airplane hanger:


Minor glitch with the hook-up:


Setting up our table:



All ready to rock 'n roll:




I am always amazed by the number of shoppers. There is an electric, frenzied feel -- wanting to look, touch, buy, and get on to the next booth before all the good stuff is scooped up!





We all had fun . . . and made a little pocket money. Thank you to everyone who bought my journals, nicho kits, Fearless Faces, and Funky Junkyard Birds. I am honored you chose my stuff in light of your many choices. (You can see what I was selling by clicking here.)

Be Daring: Fanciful Dream Houses

I offered my always popular Fanciful Dream House class on Saturday afternoon at Stampin' Cat Studio. The class is one of my favorites and the eight ladies who spent the day with me were creative, fun, and inspiring. Here's some photos of them in the process of creating their houses.








And here are their beautiful finished houses (well, almost finished - a couple of the women planned to add some finishing touches at home).

It Was a Splendid Day!

On Sunday, we met up with Sam Hart, proprietess of the always fabulous vintage shop, Lil' Gypsy, to celebrate her birthday. Before we hooked up, Howard and I stopped in for a mocha at the delectable Sweet Masterpiece on NW Davis in the Pearl District.

We met up with Sam in the lobby of the Portland Center Stage Gerding Theatre at the Armory, where we were all to see Grey Gardens. Here is Sam opening her birthday gift from me, a custom Fanciful Dream House!

No photos allowed inside the theatre, but why not a shot of Sam's gift with a program from the show.

Part of Sam's birthday posse:

After we all parted ways, Howard and I dashed down the street to one of our favorite places to eat in Portland: Blossoming Lotus, located in Yoga Pearl.

I always get the Monk Bowl with tempeh . . oh so delicious!

Post Script. My gift for Sam was a Fanciful Dream House with Lil' Gypsy's logo.

A Song to Spring, Teach to Learn

What a great way to spend a gray, spring Saturday afternoon: creating Fanciful Dream Houses at Stampin' Cat Studio. Eight women came together with bright and hopeful spirits to do some artful play. They were so eager and motivated, they began creating before I had even finished telling them how to begin!

At the end of the afternoon, the women shared their creations with each other in a casual Show 'n Tell.

The women were generous with their closing comments about the class:

I liked having so many choices to personalize our projects. You were very organized and generous with the materials.

I liked having enough time to complete art and I liked having a lot of instruction.

I liked the open creativity. Dayna, thank you for all the items you provide – so many choices – so fun. Your instruction and support is wonderful, so is your encouragement. I also like the show and tell at the end.

I liked the wide variety of materials. I loved instruction being ‘as needed.” I liked the support of fellow art students. And, I liked finding something inside of myself.

Every frickin’ wonderful thing. And the water.

Dayna you shine! You made something that seemed intimidating and made it simple and so much fun. I’ll be proud to hang this where I can share it with others.

I liked the instructor’s enthusiasm, the variety of materials, and the group show and tell.