Lil' Gypsy is 20 Years Old!!

Lil' Gypsy has been in business for 20 years (that's the store's logo at the top of this post) and Sam, the owner, is having a 50% off sale. Off of everything! Vintage clothing, vintage jewelry, funky shoes, crazy hats, and shelves of eclectic bric a brac, gewgaws, baubles, and gimcracks. You gotta stop in and see what you didn't know you needed.


I stopped in earlier in the week just to say hello and check out her inventory.


Sam, being my friend, always has a bag of goodies set aside for me (fondly referred to as my Bag of Crappola if you've been reading my blog for very long). Sam didn't disappoint this time around. Here are some of the treasures she handed over:

And this is what I bought:


And a bundle of ballet toe shoes for my dress form.

We Can Only Hope to Continue

Black, white, and gray. No color, none whatsoever is allowed. This was a difficult piece for me. I'm not even sure why I entered the show, perhaps as a challenge. The show is an annual event sponsored by the Keizer Art Association and from what I've heard (and saw yesterday when I dropped off my piece), a very popular one. I'm not a black and white person. I'm a fiery red person, a garish orange kind of girl, a bright turquoise spirit. The whole time I was working on my piece I kept thinking where will I add color when I get the art back -- a red ball on top? A dab of turquoise in one of the smaller circles? Maybe Nikel Azo gold in one of the grooves. But then again, maybe not. We Can Only Hope to Continue, that's the name of my piece.

The artist's reception is Saturday, November 7th from 5:00-8:00 p.m. and the show will run through the month of November.

Recovering a Sense of Strength and Compassion: The Artists Way Week 8 & 9

Tuesday night we combined two sessions into one, the current evening and a make-up class, so we added an hour to our normal 2-1/2 hour session. We started with veggie pizza and visiting, then after doing our check-ins, we had an extended amount of time to paint mandalas on record albums. I had prepared the albums in advance, so the ladies could dive right in.


I had lots of books on mandalas for reference, inspiration, and ideas. Here's a couple of the many:



In addition to the four members of the group, Destree was invited to join us for the evening. Destree will be facilitating the group for a session while I am out of town and I thought it would be nice for her to get to know the ladies and do some art with us.

We were a busy bunch on Tuesday night:

Traipsing Around Portland

Last Saturday, Howard and I set off on a mini Portland treasure hunt. First up was Multnomah Village in SW Portland (it bills itself as The Village in the Heart of Portland). I had one place in mind (to be revealed shortly), but discovered a bunch of shops that filled my desire for junk and beauty.

Our first stop was at Pagenwood Restoring, owned by Tom Pagenstecher. Tom not only does antique furniture restoration, but also has a fine little antique store. It was filled with all of the types of objects and debris that I so love. Walk with me:












Out with old and in with the new. We stumbled upon a shoe store that made my heart go pitter patter. The store, Switch Shoes, was filled with unique boots and shoes. Since it was Halloween, Jennifer (one of the owners) greeted us in full Wonder Woman attire. Gotta love that (and we did).



After much trying on, consultation with staff and strangers, I decided upon a pair of orange boots. Yep, orange (you can call them pumpkin).


Now for the reason we went to Multnomah Village in the first place: NW Wools - Natural Fibers and Yarns. It was a sensory and visual delight and I came away with the wool roving I was after (thanks, Tory, for the lead).






After all that shopping, it was time for nourishment and a little restaurant on SW 35th caught our eye: Down to Earth Cafe. The menu had lots of vegetarian options, so I was happy. I chose their Autumn Harvest Salad. Here's the description: Mixed greens tossed with maple balsamic vinaigrette; topped with pears, apples, goat cheese, and candied walnuts. Oh my, it was divine, as expected.




We heard that Multnomah Village was going to be inundated with trick or treaters from 2:00-4:00 pm, so as 2:00 rolled around we skedaddled out of the area. We headed back over the river to the east side and chose the Sellwood area to finish off our afternoon. The highlight of our meanderings in Sellwood (and we only got through one section, the rest will be for another day), was visiting Stars: Portland's Antiques Malls. This store is a Portland institution and I hadn't been in years, years I tell ya. It was fabulous to roam in and out of the stalls spying so many of the things I love. Unfortunately, the prices were on the higher side so I settled in for browsing, not buying. Until I saw it. The IT that I've been wanting. Well, not exactly this one, cause I'd never seen anything like it, but it became the dress form I wanted and must have.

For now, IT is at home (Howard wanted it at home for a while, not at the studio). He even suggested I hang a heart inside and a scarf around her neck. I'm picturing a glass heart inside and a filmy piece of sheer fabric wrapped around her shoulders. What do you think?