A little look at camp

Here's a little look at camp - where Mike & I lived for 12 days, and worked with some great kids. Some shots of our cabin & the surroundings.

Some shots of the tops of various rehearsal sheds - since they had kids in them, I didn't take pics of any rehearsals.



Another interesting project I found myself in, was to find letters in and around camp - I'll post about the "letters" I found another day.

Until then!

Where have you been?

So for the past two weeks (12 days to be exact) Mike and I were teaching at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, a summer school of the arts about an hour and 15 minutes south of where we live. It's a wonerful gathering of artistic types, and for two weeks each summer, for the past many years (this was year 21 for me!) we converge on the camp, along with lots (this year nearly 1500) of high school age students to study music, art, drama, and dance. Mike & I each teach a concert band, this year they were 125 kids strong! Yesterday we presented our final concert for families before they picked up the kids and took them home. Come Wednesday morning, the camp will start all over again, with 1500 more kids - this time middle school aged! They do 4 different 2 week sessions.
During final Sunday, I took a walk through the art exhibit, and it was wonderful! There were linoleum block prints, pottery, painting, sketching, fiber arts, textile design, and even some mixed media! I had a student of mine from home who was in the art studio during this past session, so I looked for her art work ~ it was very good! Artistic kids!
I have lots of pictures of camp, and now that I'm back where there is internet availability - I'll share with you some pictures from around camp. For those of you who follow this blog, I know several of you went there as students ~ hope this brings back memories. For those of you who don't know anything about the place, well, imagine a place where creativity flows freely, in an idyllic setting in the northern Michigan woods. (and sand, LOTS and LOTS of sand.....and a few bugs, but hey, it's camp!).
More later!

My new *pink* binding machine

Isn't it pretty?

Yes, I have the *blue* binding machine. And yes, the coil binder, too. What's a girl to do? I mean, it's PINK!!!! (Reminder to anyone who knows me that I bought my *pink* camera case a full year before I had a camera that would fit it. It was so darned cute & I knew my old digital camera would give out soon....)

Okay, really, it's not for the color (not completely, anyway), it's because I've got this box of cool vintage Reader's Digest Condensed books - the ones with the cool patterned covers -- that someone was throwing out and I protested - "Give them to ME!" and they did.

Well, turns out the old blue binder's opening was too small to fit the book covers, so I would have had to have used my screw punch to punch holes, which would then only fit the coil binder. Not a biggie, but I wanted to use the O-Wires of the Zutter. (insert whine here)

So.... I finally got on ebay and found one at a price I would pay. Now, it's here, along with the bag and tool kit (yes, I got all three) and now I'm going to start playing. I'm figuring on taking it to camp & binding several of a new style journal that I'm going to start making. Plus, I have a BUNCH of journals whose signatures & covers are all ready to be bound together (finally) just waiting for me to haul them down to camp. (Yup, could have done this here, and wouldn't be dragging them an hour down the road to do a simple binding job one each one of them. But, hey, why not drag more STUFF with me, eh?)

As for the brick courtyard, as Mike puts it, One Thousand, Six Hundred, Sixty Two Bricks and counting. Yup, once again, out of hand. But.... I think it's going to make for some magnificent gatherings! Anyone in?

Swaps are sent

(FYI - there are pictures in the post, pictures of artwork I did! But... you have to earn your way to them, by reading through my entire diatribe!! Pictures at the bottom. Don't cheat! Read it all!)

"It sounded like a good idea at the time." What a mouthful.

Anyway, right now that could describe many things in my life, how about yours? Okay, we'll start with the courtyard. Mike keeps reminding me that "I'd be done right now, if the courtyard was the size I envisioned (Mike envisioned, not Cindy). But nooooooo, it has to be the biggest courtyard outside of New Orleans." Umm, what's wrong with that, I ask?

Well, what's wrong with that, is that it requires much more in the way of alignment (I wanted the little bricks that look like cobblestones, so there are many, many more lines to keep straight), and much, much more sand. Mike's already made one trip back to the brick place to buy more sand. It came, on the big truck with the hoist, etc, etc. You guessed it, we're almost out of sand. No grouting has been done - need more sand.

The size of the courtyard seemed like a good idea at the time. (It still does.)

Then there was the whole swap thingy for Art Unraveled. It'll be summer, I said. It'll be easier to fit into my schedule, I said. I have lots of ideas, I said.

It was a good idea at the time.

But...finally, the inchies and the fatbook pages are done, and both are sent. See below.

The inchies are done on my milking machine filters, giving them a gauzy appearance and texture that's hard to capture on a camera. Lots of layers of paint and spray & whatever I grabbed. I liked them just like that, but then I went on line and looked up "inchies" and saw that most inchies also have a focal image. Argghhh.... It seemed like a good idea at the time.

So, what to do? I looked and looked and looked, and finally came up with the idea of a dragonfly brad in the same color as the main "swoosh" of color (copper) in the inchies. And with that, I said "voila." And promptly stuck 'em in an envelope & mailed them. Too late now if I come up with another idea.

Then there are the fatbook pages. Went to Mike & Rita Duvall's on the Art Snake, and Rita does these amazing abstracts that are very linear and geometric, so you know I loved 'em. That got me going on the fatbook pages I had done - they already had the background and the words on them. (This year's Art Unraveled theme is: Moments).

Many hours later, many thoughts on how to integrate everything I had hoped to integrate, and voila, yesterday, I put them together and mailed 'em off. Too late now if I come up with another idea.


And there you have it. 21 inchies, 28 fatbook pages, all done individually. Geesshh. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

Have a great day!

The bottom of the bag

Arrgghh... it's always so sad when I get to the bottom of the bag of caramel corn from the "Caramel Corn Wagon" in Manistee -- it's only here from about June 25 until about July 5. It's funny how many people you see at the wagon each summer - the stuff is outrageous good, and we all come & indulge once a year.

As a side note, the wagon parks on the parade route. For 28 years, I have marched by the caramel corn wagon, many years two times, thinking - I really would like to just stop and buy a bag to eat for the rest of the parade. Sometimes, during the parade, as I've marched by, they've been making the stuff.... oh my, the smell is deeeelicious. Makes me nearly come unglued.

I think my plans are made for the final 4th of July parade in which I march with a Manistee band!! LOL!! So, I guess if you read this, be warned, if you're near the end of the parade, and you see me a munchin' away on my bag of caramel corn, you probably know that my plans for the following September have been made!! LOL!!!

Pictures from the project!

My courtyard in progress. First the paver bricks arrived.



The work on leveling the ground, and placing and leveling the sand.


The side yard. Complete with neighborhood teenage help (aka. The Cavalry!!)


Chain Saw Cindy - I have now learned a new marketable skill!



Have a great day!

What a great project!

I love New Orleans. I live about as far away from New Orleans in every sense of the word, as is humanly possible. However, that doesn't dampen my feelings for that wonderful place.

One of the things that I adore about New Orleans, especially in the French Quarter, but all over the areas that I have visited, is the way that they have found a good use for every single space. I *adore* the courtyards, often hidden behind a wall or a fence or a gate. The hotel we've stayed at each time we've gone to New Orleans has a wonderful courtyard to just sit and relax. I love the courtyard lifestyle.

Well, when we remodeled our garage, a few years back (and by remodeling, I mean tearing down everything except 1 small section of 1 wall.....), the idea that I'd floated a few years ago, about putting a courtyard between the house & the garage came back with a vengeance. So..... last weekend, right after the 4th festivities, I started whining (yes, I was whining) about the fact that this entire summer was going to go by and I wouldn't be able to sit on my courtyard and sip iced tea (or anything else).

You see, we were going to go to Chicago, eat at a restaurant we found when we were there at Thanksgiving, and take our Neighborhood Tour that we won in the VanderCook Silent Auction. That, and not a lot else - maybe do a bicycle tour or a Segway tour like we've talked about doing for years.

Mike, ever the wise one, said when my whining ensued anew last weekend, "well, we can go to
Chicago, and no, you won't have your courtyard this summer, either. Or, we could stay here, and I could put in the courtyard."

Chicago or Courtyard became the question. And while I *love* Chicago, I *LOVE* New Orleans, and the idea of finally having my courtyard won out. So, we are here in Manistee, and Mike is busily working on the courtyard, putting in 10 - 12 hour work days. He's happy as a clam, even if he is a little achey.

And me? Well, I got up this morning and noticed that the weather prediction was for it to only get up to about 67 degrees today (that is an entirely different blog post, I fear...) and so it would be a good day for me to clean out the old, overgrown flower beds in our yard, and clear out some of the brush between out house and the house next door (where my art studio is located).

Geesh, what a good idea that was (tongue squarely in my cheek...), and now I'm wondering if my 50 year old body was up to the task. I called a couple of the neighbor kids who are in the band, and asked if they'd like a little spending money in exchange for hauling, bagging, and pulling to the curb.

But... I got to learn how to use a chain saw (and there's more that Chain Saw Cindy will be cuttin' down in the future, now that I know how to tame that machine!), and I must admit, I'm on a roll here, and I think the backyard will look pretty good by the end of August!!

I'll post pictures of the progress soon - Hope everything is well with you, where ever you are!

July 4th in Small Town America

It's been a wonderful National Forest Festival here in Manistee - lots going on, like the 4th of July Parade, the fireworks, the carnival, the food vendors, lots of music, and today it's the Arts & Crafts Show, the Onekama Art Snake (artists around the Onekama area open their studios- our friends, the Duvalls have their studio open, along with several others who we know & some who we don't!), the Plein Air Exhibit at the Ramsdell Theatre's Exhibit Hall (it's a Victorian Era Opera House with attached ballrooms, where the exhibits are held), the WWII Bomber on exhibit at the airport, the car show & cruise night last night, oh I could go on and on. Community festivals like this are one of the very, very best reasons to live in a small town, and especially a small town in the Midwest (yes, I'm biased!).

So, I took my yellow car to cruise night last night - it was fun. Look at me with my cruise car!

I've also put in a couple of pictures of the bands in the parade - since this is what I "do," I figured that everyone might like to see me workin' on the holiday!



Today it's off to the Arts & Crafts Show, the Art Snake, and if there's time, the Plein Air exhibit. What fun - I hope your 4th of July holiday has been wonderful, where ever you are!