I went to the Crarft Rave this year exited to craft since past years I participated and never had time to play. I brought my kit with all the things to persoanlize my crafts. It was so nice to be on the other side of the table! The best craft of all was CC’s, of course. Her Message in a Bottle craft was quick, easy and fun. I made a half dozen gifts to give for Christmas in under an hour. These Jars contain all the love and goodness for the people I will give them to.

Coming up is Crafteria, December 7th. Be sure to come and walk about in the chilly air, sip hot tea and peruse the best handmade crafts Phoenix has to offer. The event really ramps up the Christmas spirit. I can’t wait!

Boo!

Our 2 weeks in Italy was inspiring in surprising ways. Since this was my second trip to the Eternal Country, I chose to do the opposite as I had done before, which is to say I consciously planned nothing. All we planned for was a place to stay and a rental car for our second week in Tuscany. I was most interested in seeing where each day would lead.

Our itinerary went like this: 5 night in Rome, 2 nights each in Montepulciano, Sienna, Vernazza and Florence.

I brought with me a stash of 4×6 cards in various colors and water color pencils. Every moment we sat to eat or rest I sketched. (above, watercolor and pen on watercolor paper)

This is an interpretation of the Trevi Fountain. I couldn’t help including my lunch since eating was all we seemed to do. Yum! (on blue paper)

Serenade, Italy style (on blue paper)

Antipasto (on green paper)

A brick fell on our car in Montepulciano in the middle of the night. It smashed the back window out of our car. The next day we had to drive to another town to trade out the rental. Moral of the story, if you park next to an old building in Italy and a brick falls on your car, don’t admit it to the rental company because—in Italy—insurance won’t cover it. You’re just supposed to know not to park next to old stuff. It might fall on you. Our official story is, “We don’t know how that brick got in there.” (on dark blue paper)

Osteria Spaghetti Roma, best meal in the city. (on light blue paper)

Osteria Spaghetti Roma. Now, that’s how to eat a meal!

Every day, everywhere. Love the fizzy water. (on blue paper)

Drinks in Piazzale Giuseppe Garibaldi. Sunny day overlooking Roma. Ahhh….

Don’t worry, be Gabs. I bought three… www.gabs.it

What’s a trip to Italy without pencil rubbing a building. (on blue-gray paper)

So there you have it. Next time we are staying for a year. The plans have begun…

I created an art piece: “your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”

This painting reflects on a Buddha quote and the symbol of abundance, the pomegranate.
5×7 acrylic on canvas

It is one of 16 that are pulled together into a painting  titled “Common thread.” See below:

I can’t tell you why, but my best friend CC loves skulls. Not real ones, pink ones. So when trying out a new pattern for a tote, I embellished the front with a orange embroidered pink skull-and-crossbones. I kind of like it!

After getting a hold of a small kiln and spending almost a month playing around with clay and glaze, I have acquired the proper perspective to no longer think that anything made from ceramic is too expensive. We had fun experimenting, but boy was it a lot of work!

Bisque fired clay in the kiln.

Close-up of bisque fired clay in the kiln.

Sanding and glazing. It seemed like it took forever!

Final piece. Price: $18 million dollars.

Next stop: Welding!

These necklaces are a pretty place to hold my treasures: “Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck.” I don’t know why I say it whenever I find a penny because it is admittedly dorky. The other day, though, I had the time to stop myself to think about it and that’s when it hit me: The act of picking something up that is as insignificant as a penny shows your gratitude for the littlest things in life. Isn’t gratitude the secret to good luck? I think it is! So now I never pass up the opportunity to get one penny richer!

The necklaces are made from seed beads, vintage buttons, felted sweaters, and decorated with embroidery and needle felting. In addition to that penny I find, these pendants are a pretty place to put a treasured photo. Here are other ones I have made: click here.

xoxSarah

Four years in the making, our Italy trip is on the horizon. I am most excited about visiting Vernazza (pictured above) in Cinque Terre, since our plans looked dashed last October after rains and mudslides devastated this and other towns in the region. Most restaurants and shops are open according to the website Save Vernazza. The finishing touches to my packing list are building pages to journal on (see below).

CC and I scoured thrift shops for coffee table books with beautiful images of Italy and the countryside/seaside. I found a 50 year old book on Rome with gorgeous black and white images of Roman life, and another book about sea-side living that offered colorful plates of delicate flora and fauna living in the harsh environment. A third book gave me sweeping views of the country. These pages will follow us and be filled with our experiences in Rome, Tuscany, Cinque Terre and Florence.

My kit includes:
• prepared pages
• blunt scissors that I can put in my carry on
• watercolor pencils and small paintbrush
• white pencils to write on uncoated paper
• paint pens to write on glossy paper, and offer contrast in the darker areas on the pages
• glue stick
• poloroid pogo for adding of-the-moment pics to the layouts

Of course, I will be blogging along the way so tune back in September.

xoxSarah

Every year The HOW conference attracts several people from my department as well as several hundred other creatives from around the world. This time it was in Boston and I couldn’t wait to get back and see how Boston has changed since I last lived there fifteen years ago. I took extra days off from work and brought my husband along to show him around.

Even though I used to live in Boston, I have never given much thought to eating oysters. My husband was anxious to try them so the first night we were directed to B&G Oysters in the South End. The menu was extensive so we asked our waiter to order for the uninitiated and she brought ten oysters (2 each of 5) from the waters off New York all the way to Nova Scotia. Our favorite were the Wellfleet Oysters from Massachusetts. We ordered these every might we were in Boston. Yum!

This menu was the best way to be introduced to the subtitles of oysters. We were amazed at the flavor differences!

Most of our time was spent in the South End, but one day we hiked it up to Cambridge to check out Harvard. We spent some time in the Yard watching the summer students check in, then we walked around town to see what we could find. The image of this book store (above) has inspired a painting that I am working on, and the pic below is where we got lunch.

Clover Food Lab is a great place to eat if you are ever in Cambridge, Ma. Here is what it’s all about, as excerpted from the website:

“We’re here to make food you love, the kind you talk about and look forward to eating. The Clover Food Lab is serving up a new type of fast food. This food is local, it’s just-cut, when we can it is organic.

Once in a while the creative team will break to do a fun group project. Last week we took list of words near and dear to philosophy (miracle, hope and grace) and photographed representative images. Our little team — my friends Randy and Rachel and I — decided to marvel in the beauty just outside our office doors. These images I see everyday going to and leaving from work. I am a lucky girl, indeed.

I hope your days are filled with miracles, hope and grace.

xoxSarah