The Creative Color Challenge, with artist Louise Gale

my friend Ann and I met Louise Gale
at AN ARTFUL JOURNEY this February, where she participated in the same wonderful workshop that we were in ... taught by Kelly Rae Roberts and Mati Rose McDonough.  

Louise is putting together a CREATIVE COLOR CHALLENGE for August ... just the thing to keep your creative juices flowing in a colorful way.

Yes, I have too many things on my plate (heck, it's a full blown platter by now), but this sounds so fun and so pressure-less.   I mean, really - what could happen if I miss a week - will the Color Challenge militia come after me?  I doubt it.

So THANK YOU, Louise, for creating this fun experience.

You can join in, too -- here's a link to the details.
http://louisegale.blogspot.com/2010/07/join-me-in-creative-color-challenge.html 

-- Princess Magpie
(yours, as ever ... Davielle)

Artful Gatherings - Let's Plan Some !!!

Summer is in mid-swing, and it's time for so many of us to have our vacation getaways {as well as our stay-cations}.

I myself am heading to Big Sky Country - to the Flathead Lake area of Montana - soon.  Mark's parents have a 6+acre, 400 (+/-) tree CHERRY orchard up there, and the Lake to rival all Lakes is right across the road. 

And guess what I discovered up there last summer?  A wonderful QUILTING shop - picked up some really fab cherry-print fabric there last year, brought it all home, and I'm in the process of laying out aprons.  Just don't tell my in-laws - they're meant to be Christmas gifts :-) !!!   You, too, can visit this amazing quilter's paradise:   http://www.bigforkbaycottonco.com/ {and as it turned out, Mark's cousin's wife works there ... who knew?}.


This year, this trip, there will be a whole lotta Huffmans' up there at the same time.   I made a schedule - it ended up looking like an air-traffic controller's schedule - it's going to be just that crazy up there!

Before I leave, I am tending to cleaning and clearing up my ... office.  

Holy Cow, it's become a messy, land-mine filled space lately ... how does that keep happening? :-)

{an image of my desk circa 2009, but it looks like this now ...}

And I will sneak in a bit of art here and there, because I know that the art studio that I so take for granted when I am home full-time ...

will call out to me when I am away, making me question why I am not down there for a bit EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

So I hope some of you, my artful, mixed media (or single-media, it really doesn't matter) friends will want to come over and play after I get home.   We'll have most all of August and then September.  Let's get busy doing what makes us happy !!!

Wouldn't it be fun to plan / schedule {I'm a big 'scheduler' kind of person} some ART PLAY TIME together?  If you'd like to come play, get messy, make art, experiment with supplies -- with me -- then let's make and take the time. 

If you live out of town, you could plan to stay over a night or two, even.  Summer is for Fun, and we deserve to have all the FUN, and make all the ART - that we can, while we can.

LET'S GET MESSY.  Call, text, e-mail, or comment on this post so we can make a plan to have some ARTful fun together.

Happy Summer !!!

-- Davielle
aka, your PRINCESS MAGPIE

P.S.  you've just got to laugh when you're on holiday, the car needs some gas, and you happen upon a sign like this one:

I mean, really ... who wants hucks {huckleberries} or cherries WITH ethanol ???

it's KC's birthday and SHE's giving away the love !!!

oooh, I love a good special.  and this one IS special.

colorado artist KC willis is offering one of her on-line workshops, COLLAGE CAMP, at the special price of just $54 -- in honor of her very own 54th (shhhhhh) birthday !!!

hop on over to her blog for the details:

http://www.kcwillis.blogspot.com/

And here's the link to her Collage Camp online workshop:  http://collagecamp.ning.com/ 

Happy Birthday to you, KC.  thanks for sharing the love.

-- Princess Magpie

The Sketchbook Project: 2011 ... I'm In !!!

Local artist extraordinaire SUZI BLU  {http://www.alovelydream.com} posted a link today on FaceBook about this cool project:  THE SKETCHBOOK PROJECT: 2011


 I just had to look into that ...

Wow.  What a wonderful thing !!!

If you choose to participate, you have the option of choosing from one of many interesting "themes" {'in flight', 'sleepless', 'figuring you out', 'revenge', 'face in the crowd' - and plenty more} ... or you can have the organizers randomly assign one to you. 

If you know me at all, you know that I'm just not the "random" kind of girl, so I opted for "This Is Not a Sketchbook" - because I prefer mixed media / collage to pure sketching.  Besides, I rather suck at pure sketching.  Doodling, rough depictions of simple things, I can do that.  But real sketching?  Umm, that's a challenge for me.

Want more info on The Sketchbook Project: 2011 ???  Link up right here:  http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject 

So I'm pretty sure my recent creative slump is just about over now.  I spent time in the studio yesterday .. about an hour .. playing with a canvas that one of the granddaughters began a week ago.  OMG, was it wonderful to just get in their and play around a bit. 

I think I'm back ... and I thank you, friends, for all your kind encouragement last week.

-- Princess Magpie