Dahlias and Photoshop experiment

I went to Volunteer Park last week on a sunny afternoon. I visited one of my favorite places there, the Dahlia garden and I took some pictures. When I got home and looked at them they were very pretty, but just pictures of flowers... I decided to play with blurring them and pushing the colors around in Photoshop. Here are the results of my experiments. Dahlias are my favorite flower....

Monte Cristo - Indian Summer Hike and Bike

I went on a gorgeous bike ride yesterday to the old mining town of Monte Cristo. It's off the Mountain Loop highway in the Cascades. There used to be a railroad up to Monte Cristo and 100 years ago it was a thriving town with a hotel, shops and saloons. There was gold mining in them thar hills and people flocked there to find their fortune. Now it is a ghost town and a four mile hike in. We took our mountain bikes but it was an adventure riding there. We had to cross the river via a log (dicey business when you're on a bike) and the road was very rocky in many places making it necessary to get off the bike and walk.

The payoff was worth it though. It was a beautiful, late September day, the sun was shining and the mountains were splendid. This could be the last nice weekend for a while.

I love Portland

Toys at Cargo

Oregonians

The Red Guard with pink flowers at Cargo.

Handpainted sign on Mississippi St.

Flutter on Mississippi Street. Wonderful clutter.

Colorful Frocks outside of Flutter on a sunny day.

At Cargo

Rainbow shoes at Cargo

I'm just back from an artist's date to Portland. It was just an overnight, I stayed at the youth hostel in the NW neighborhood, otherwise known as "Nob Hill". I like it because its a ten minute walk to the Pearl District downtown. Easy access to Powell's world of books and one of my favorite stores, Cargo. After spending the morning in the Pearl, buying a new book on felting by Sheila Smith and having an excellent reuben sandwich at Kenny and Zukes, I drove over to explore the Alberta Street neighorhood. From there I went to Mississippi Street which was my favorite part of the day. See a few pictures here...more to come.

Portland is inspiring!

Decorative Balls - Inspiration

I came across this website at Dollar Store Crafts and loved the ideas of decorating balls with things made from nature. Check out this post.



I've also been making felt balls, using both dry and wet felting methods. Here are some of my felt babies. They look great in glass bowl with the colors shining through.

Arts Aglow

I went to the Arts Aglow event in Burien last Saturday. It was a wonderful party filled with children, art, lanterns and light. It took place in the Interim Art Space and was filled with all manner of interesting things including a sea horse, shadow dancing, and 3D glasses. Good things are happening in Burien. Denise Hendricksen spearheaded this effort.

Figs

Yum, black mission figs are showing up at the store. I bought some and they were so pretty when I cut them open, that I had to take some pictures. A good appetizer is to cut the fig in half, place some Point Reyes blue cheese on it and wrap with a piece of prosciutto. Divine!

Collage

I've been going through my art and have found some collages I did a few years ago. I love the medium and I am a notorious paper junkie. I can't part with cool scraps of paper I've been saving for years. Here are two collages I did on cigar boxes and one that's a portrait of...see if you can guess!