Memorial Day at the Office

Since I work for Veteran's Services, we decorated the office and did an art therapy project for Memorial Day.  We put out flags and pinwheels along our entry way:

And we got people to make a Memorial Day Garland.  I had pre-cut stars (stars are surprisingly hard for people to draw) and we invited staff, faculty, and students to write the name of someone they wanted to remember or to write a message of thanks.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

It wasnt a huge thing we did, but it was a nice way to remember those we have lost.  We are going to keep it up too!

Happiness for Beginners

I just finished reading a new book and wanted to tell you about it!  The book was Happiness for Beginners 

This book is by Katherine Center.  I met her last fall at Lucky Star Art Camp.  At camp I bought her book The Lost Husband and I loved it.  So, I wanted to read this new book too.  And let me tell you, it did not disappoint!  I stayed up late reading it two nights in a row and finished it the next day.  I got it on Sunday afternoon and finished it by Monday at lunch!  I love the way Katherine writes - you can really imagine what is happening in the book and you really connect with the characters.  This book did make me misty eyed a few times.  

So, here is a bit about the book.  The main character is Hellen, and she is 32 and recently divorced.  She decides to participate in a wilderness survival course in hopes that it will help her change her life.  While she goes looking for certain changes/has certain ideas of how this course will help her - it ends up helping her/changing her in different ways.  

I cannot recommend this book enough - if you are looking for something good to read go check it out.  Check out this link for more info/to buy the book: Happiness for Beginners

Mother's Day Weekend

Hello friends!  I am doing a bit of a catch-up since I have not posted in several weeks!  I wanted to tell you about all of the cool things we did on Mother's Day weekend!

First, mom and I took a glass on glass mosiac mandala class!

We didnt finish the entire thing during the class.  The instructor told us to let the glue dry for 24 hours before we grouted it.... here is the finished piece:

my finished piece with grout

And later that evening we went out to dinner and then saw Newsies!

It was a great show!!

The next day we went to Dallas to have afternoon tea:

my gluten free tea sandwiches

my gluten free desserts

the non-gluten free desserts

We love having tea.  This tea was good, but not not nearly as good as the tea we had at Fortnum and Mason in London; not sure if any tea will ever live up to those standards!

After leaving tea, we drove by this:

I had to get a photo of it!

It was a great weekend!  Did any of you do anything special for Mother's day?

Lone Star Antiques Show

Mom and I recently went to the Lone Star Vintage Show at Dallas Market Hall

 I got some awesome anatomy prints:

 And some vintage orange cloth napkins:

 And this awesome 1930s tin toy soldier:

The last thing I got was these two 1940s leave/pass forms:

We both enjoyed this show!  It comes around again in the fall if you are interested in attending it!

Homestead Village

A few weeks ago mom came to visit me in Waco.  We decided to go out to this cute General store that I found while driving to see my CSA farm one day.  At the general store someone told us about a homestead craft village that was about 2 miles away.  So, we went to check it out.  It was really cool.

The name of the place is Homestead Heritage ( click that link for more information).  They have a pottery building:

A mill:

Fiber arts:

A blacksmith area:

And the grounds are really pretty:

They even have an 1800s cabin:

Here I am... took a selfie while walking around:

They offer different classes too: woodworking, pottery, fiber arts, gardening/cooking, and blacksmithing.  It was a nice day.  I definitely recommend this place if you are in the Waco area.

Texas Antiques Week

Last month I went to Texas Antiques week - I had the day off from work, and I wanted to get out of the house so I decided last minute to head down there.  Here are some pictures of things I thought were picture worthy:

I need a Dr. Pepper Chandelier 

These pics were over $1000 each! Yikes.

Here are some pictures of what I go.... this pink shelf, which folds down flat when you need to store it:

The shelf currently has tons of art supplies on it!  I found some cool ephemera for art journaling:

I got those two metal birds for my Christmas tree.  I also got myself a new Selina Vaughn Bag:

Its quite large, but I got it for when I go away for a day or two and don't need an entire suitcase.  I love the orange inside!   I also got some homemade soap (I can never resist that! It always smells so good), and some cute earrings (which did not photograph well).   According to my Jawbone Up I walked about 9 miles that day!  I really had a good time though.

Book Binding Class

Last Sunday I went back to Flat Bed Press in Austin, TX for the second half of the class where I made monotype prints.  This time we did book binding!

I finally bound those large collage folios that I was making over the past few months.

The front and back covers are record jackets!  I just liked the art on them and thought it was a cool idea so I went with it!  Here is the front cover:

All of the pages:

The spine - with a Coptic stitch binding:

The back cover:

I bound all of my monotype prints into a journal too!  Here are some pictures:

I also learned how to do Japanese Stab Binding so that I could bind my handmade paper from the Peace Paper Project:

I still have more handmade paper that I need to bind into books but I ran out of time at the class.  If you are interested in making books, here is the reference that my teacher recommended:

Do you do book binding?  Do you make your own journals?  I would love to see some pictures!