Wish Y'all Were Here to Help Me!

It's time to choose a new journal. As I've said before, I haven't been doing much with a journal in a while. I'm not an art journaler, although I love other people's, and I have no deep dark secrets to write down--hell, I tell everything right here, for crying out loud. No:  I just like to have a notebook to carry around and think in it, you know?


And I was way, way inspired by a couple things on this journey. One was listening to Roz talk about journals and sketchbooks when we did the discussion at Wet Paint in Minneapolis, and another was the night we sat around in the lobby at the Embassy Suites at Art and Soul in Hampton, Virginia, and I got everybody to haul out their journals and pass them around. Man, that was cool! I had nothing to share, so I was just sitting there looking at them all and thinking, "Wow. I know some really cool people."


And then the final thing was the panel discussion about journals that we did in New York City (I'll show photos of that later, I promise), where Melanie Testa and Wendy Hale Davis showed their journals, which are very different but equally inspiring and just way, way cool.


Wendy, like Roz--and Melanie, I'm pretty sure--carries her journal with her everywhere. So we'd be eating, and she'd pull out her journal and sketch something she could see out the window. Or we'd be at a bar, and she'd tuck a napkin in between the pages to write about later--The View, the bar on the 43rd floor of the Marriott at Times Square, had napkins with little diagrams on them, showing what you were seeing as the bar rotated. Really cool. I snagged a couple napkins, too.


So anyway, all along the trip I found myself collecting blank books. Almost every one of them was on clearance, and so how could I pass them up? The EGE's no help, because whenever I'm wondering if I should buy something, he says, "If you decide you don't want it, you can always give it away." That's true, but it's not a lot of help in the self-control-while-shopping department.


Wanna see what I bought? Hang on:

Remember:  on clearance! Almost all!


Except, ummm, the orange fabric-covered book from Kate's Paperie, for instance (the one still in the protective wrapper, of course). But I can justify that! Don't believe me? OK:  I interviewed them for a story for Rubberstampmadness years and years ago. Back when, I think, there was just the one store (now they are legion. Or at least mildly multiple). And I had no idea I'd ever actually *go* there, never mind that there's surely no one working there who was probably even BORN back then. Never mind that! It's still my excuse.


How's that? Good enough reason to buy a cool book there? I thought so, too.


Anyway: so now I'm trying to decide what kind of book I want to carry around for the next little while, which one of these in this stack. Spiral? Bound? Hardcover? Soft? Big? Small? 


I have no clue. So that's why I wish y'all were here. We'd open all the books up and debate their various qualities, and we'd discuss the finer points of notebook-keeping, or journaling, or whatever-the-hell we wanted to call it, this carrying-around-of-books.


Alas, I am on my own. I have no idea which one I'm going to use next (it might even end up being one of the ones I had here in the house already--and you *know* there was more than one or two of those, don't you?), but I'm determined that, by tomorrow, I will have chosen one of them.


I hope. If you don't hear from me for a while, imagine me sitting forlornly in the floor, surrounded by notebooks, picking up first one, then another, then that one, then that one over there, unable to decide, wasting away, pleading weakly for help. . . .

Persimmons Cottage in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

After we left Minneapolis, we spent a wonderful few days at Valley Ridge Art Studio, but that's another story for another day (and another book), so never mind that now.


Then we zipped across Wisconsin to Manitowoc, where the fabulous Kim Geiser hosted a book signing/art night at her home studio, a way-cool building that has her studio and shop on the first floor and, upstairs, the home she shares with her husband and daughter Molly.

When we arrived, this fabulous welcome awaited us. Yummy local treats, cool linens, glasses for the drinks. Let me say, this is the most thoughtful greeting ever, and there's nothing like getting a taste of local goodies. Kim is the best--thanks, sweetie!


(But it had me thinking and thinking:  what in the world would I put in a basket for someone visiting Midland? Suzie's South-40 Chocolate = duh: everyone thinks that's The Midland Treat. But what else? Huh. If I were visiting, I'd want like a case of Jumburrito Red Sauce, but I'm guessing most people would find that a little overwhelming.Plus they'd be put off by the little plastic containers--kind of cheap-ish, you know.)


The next day Kim met us and showed us around town. It's a lovely place, indeed, and the people were really, really friendly--when The EGE and I walked along the lakeshore, everyone we passed said "hi," just like at home. The lake rocks on the beach are fabulous, too--smooth as silk and perfect for holding in your hand.


It was really cold to me--in the 50's and raining the day we explored the town--but they had a great coffee shop and wonderful people, so we really enjoyed it. 


The art night was lots of fun--Kim had food and wine and lots of art supplies and really cool friends:

Molly does art, too, of course:

You can see more of Kim's studio--and Molly--in the current issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studios.

A Belated--But Sincere~--Thank You

Thank you, thank you--thanks to all of y'all who kept in touch on The Big-Ass Eastern Road Trip. Thanks for posting comments and sending notes, for cheering me on when I whined (and I whined a lot there toward the end) and for laughing when I hoped to be amusing. Thanks for coming out to visit and meet up and schmooze. Thanks especially to Kathy, without whom we wouldn't have been able to find the La Quinta in Manhattan:  it's very small and doesn't have much of a sign, and Kathy checked it out and took photos of the street and the front of the building and then sent me notes about what everything looked like, so that when we drove in, all snarled in traffic and wondering how in the hell we were going to negotiate the whole parking-and-checking-in thing, we didn't have to worry about whether or not we would recognize the building. There were the photos, and there was a description of the neighborhood, known as K-Town. I felt like I had my own guide, right there next to me. It felt, in fact, like arriving at a place I'd been before. Thanks so much for that, Kathy!


So now I'm trying to show you some of what we saw. I'm starting off with the book signings, because those involved other people who might like to see some photos. Then, after that, I'll show you some of my personal favorite photos. The EGE took thousands, and it took most of a day to get those into iPhoto and organized--for some reason, a couple of the camera cards persist in insisting it's 2006, no matter how many times he reminds them it's not. So I have to go in and do batch changes to get the dates right so the photos will show up in the right place. Otherwise I lose them and have to scroll forever to find them, hiding back there in the past. 


Slowly, slowly, though, things are getting back to normal. Well, except that it's rained every single day since we got home and it's so cool we had to turn the AC off days ago. That's an amazing thing, right there. But I'm getting stuff sorted and put away, and I'm thinking of all the people I hope will do podcasts with me--I'm starting a notebook just for that, because there's a bunch of stuff I'd like to do.


And then I'm starting, slowly, to work on the book. Kind of scary, at this stage, when I'm feeling my way along. I much prefer the middle part. At least I prefer the middle part when I'm at the beginning part. When I actually reach the middle part, then I start to think reallyreallyreally fondly of the end part. You know?


So thank you. Thanks for everything--and, yeah, it's good to be home.


XO

In Minneapolis at Wet Paint with Roz Stendahl

Like an exercise in prepositions, isn't it? 


So after we were in Raleigh and Asheville, we went to Minneapolis to do a signing with Roz, who is, of course, in Creative Time and Space. We'd never been to Minneapolis--hell, we'd never been east of anywhere, unless you count the Gulf Coast. 


Minneapolis was beautiful. Roz and Dick (snort) live just a few blocks from the Mississippi River (and who knew it ran right through the middle of the city? Not I, for sure. I seem to suck a lot worse at geography than I thought I did).


We spent the day walking around in the beautiful green wonderfulness of summer. I loved it, but my realization of the truth of Minnesota Winter was always lurking in the back of my brain in a "don't get too attached; this isn't the whole story" kind of way.

Can you imagine being able to walk out your door and go a couple blocks and be here, right in the middle of a big city? Amazing.


Then we went to Wet Paint, a fabulous art store where they've made Roz a button that says "Docent," since she teaches there and knows everything about everything. 

All the employees are artists, so you've got painters and a cartoonist, etc. Really nice people.

Lots of Roz's friends and students came to listen to her talk. If you've never met Roz in person, or talked to her on the phone, you don't really realize how hilariously funny she is. Hysterically funny, in fact--the first time I interviewed her, many, many years ago, I had to lie down in the floor, and tears really DID run back into my ears. It was one of those interviews that doesn't go very far in the direction of convincing someone you've chosen the right career path, but it sure was a lot of fun for *me*. So if you ever get a chance to take a workshop with Roz, do it. She's funny, yeah, but she's also brilliant, with a wide-ranging intelligence and penetrating curiosity, so that if you ask her something she doesn't know, that will spark her interest, and she'll go do research. 

It's why I don't have to look up stuff myself. Between Wendy and Roz, one of them is going to know way, way more about whatever-it-is than I could find out in a month. Lucky me!

And then we went for a really good dinner with Roz's favorite, Chocolate Chocolate Cake. She always points out that that is not a typo; it really is Chocolate Chocolate Cake. It's what I think of as "the base cake" because it's also available with coconut and pecans, as a German Chocolate Chocolate Cake, which The EGE had and loved, and with pecans and caramel and something else fabulous as a Turtle Chocolate Chocolate Cake (I think was the name of it), that was the BEST cake I've ever had, at least in memory. To Roz, our versions were just overkill. To us, hers was just the base, kind of like vanilla ice cream that's just waiting for you to get started with the toppings.

Anyway, it was fabulous. Roz's friends are marvelous, and Minneapolis is lovely, at least for those few months when you can go outside without having to wait for someone to come shovel you out.

I Love These Markers!

(Right here imagine you see a set of cheap-ass markers. I have the photo. I've been trying since Jesus left Chicago to upload the damn thing, and it--meaning The God That is Blogger--keeps refusing. I give up. Use your imagination, please, and I'll post it when blogger deigns to allow it. Feel free to scoff at a post that should have a photo but does not. I'm scoffing right now.)


NOTE: Finally let me upload the photo. Huh.


These are the cheapest of the cheap--I got my original set 40% off of $19.99. For 100 markers, that's CHEAP. Really cheap. I figured, when I got them, that there would be like, maybe, a dozen colors, and all the rest would just be duplicates. Meaning:  I was fully prepared to be ripped off. But you know me:  if something comes in one color, eh. Two colors? Still eh. But if it comes in dozens and dozens of colors, well, hey! I want them all, even if it's something like, oh, I don't know. Combs. Which I don't use. Or toothbrushes, never mind that you can use only a couple of those at a time. I told The EGE that if SmartCars came in fabulous colors, I'd be in deep trouble.


So I bought the markers, and I used them, and whoa:  there really are 100 colors. Of COURSE I tested them--what do you mean? And I re-shuffled them and put them in a better order. Yeah, yeah, I made a fucking chart, OK? So what of it?


Anyway. So tonight I was looking around Hobby Lobby, and they had this set on clearance. There are a couple colors missing, and so the whole set was $5.39. Now, anyone else might have passed it by, since it was faulty and all, but me? No way. Although there are two colors missing (I could tell you which ones those are, but these are not in order and so don't conform to my chart--and, yes, I know EXACTLY how pathetic that is), I don't know which ones they are. But whichever ones they are, I have them already, from the first set.


Anyway, I like these. They're very water-color-y, and I like to color letters with them--I do lettering in my notebook and then, when I'm sitting around doing nothing (meaning here:  "not very fucking often"), I color them in. It's very soothing, and the idea is that coloring will help me relax. And it does! Yes, indeed. 


When I actually sit down and do it, it does. 


Now, if you're a serious artist and all, and if you like Finer High-Quality Artist Materials, then skip these. But if you're like me and just like lots of colors to play with (raise your hand if you have the really BIG box of Crayolas!), go find that coupon and get yourself 100 different colors of markers. More fun than Play-Doh, I swear.


XO

And Then on to Asheville, North Carolina

The next day we drove on to Asheville, where we had a signing at Malaprop's, a local independent bookstore that hosts tons of events. 

It was a little weird, because the person with whom I'd set this up wasn't there that day, and there was nothing about me on the calendar or their signs--they had information about all the other events, but not mine. I wasn't even sure they were still planning on having it, in fact--there were a couple of signings like this, and it was quite unsettling. I much prefer being in regular contact with the organizers for these--that way you're sure everyone is on the same page. But it all worked out, so everything was cool.

Asheville has a kind of Santa Fe vibe, and we liked it.

We stayed at the Hotel Idigo, just because it looked cool:

I liked the cement floors--no carpet to catch stray hairs: yay!

We walked around town and looked at things for a couple hours, and that was fun. It was lots of fun, too, when a couple of people recognized me and stopped to introduce themselves. Then it was time to head back to Malaprop's.

I find someone and introduce myself and ask what they need me to do, and she tells me they want me to do a talk and then a signing. There's a podium and a microphone and everything. Lucky for me, I can talk to almost anyone about almost anything, and if the "anything" is something I know and love, it's all OK. As long as they don't expect me to be formal, since I don't have a prepared speech or notes and really much of anything in the way of preparation:  I just stand up and talk.

The introduction was nice:

And then I talked~~

and signed books:

I loved seeing ones that had been used a lot:

And then we went out and found food--we went to a cool place that had wine and cheese and tapas, sort of, and the guy there fixed up plates just for us, which was really nice of him and really delicious. 

And then we walked back to our room

 for the perfect way to end a day in such a glamourous life:

Tomorrow:  photos of the signing in Minneapolis!

And Then On to North Carolina: First, Raleigh

~~where we had two signings, one in Raleigh and one in Asheville. 


In Raleigh, our hostess was Penny Arrowood, 

and she is just fabulous. She picked us up in the morning and showed us around her hometown, taking us to the new art museum, which is gorgeous. 

She's part of the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild, and they are wonderful, wonderful people, indeed. Creative and funny and just really nice.


The book signing was at Jerry's Artarama, and, man! do they know how to do events! 

They had everything set up with signage

and food and a place for everyone to sit and visit. Plus wine! I think it's the only signing that has ever had wine, and let me just tell you:  if you're hosting an event and want people to have fun, you can't go wrong with 1) cheese, 2), strawberries, and 3) wine. Yowza.

The coolest thing was that they'd gone through their inventory and picked out supplies and made up grab bags, one for everyone who signed up to attend. And every single person won something really cool--either a blank journal (me) or a bag filled with things like paint brushes and Golden mediums or markers or sets of watercolors~~I mean, some nice stuff, indeed.

It was the most generous and thoughtful preparation, and I was just blown away. We kind of fell in love with Raleigh just a little bit. 

So we signed books~~

And admired each other's artwear:

and talked

and laughed

and had a great time

And, oh, yeah--we saw God's Lexus. Just in case you were wondering what kind of car The Almighty chooses for cruising around town:

Good to know, huh? I'd have given money, however, if this car had been pulled over for, oh, a U-turn. Failing to yield. You know.


Snort. I crack myself up.


Anyway--so:  if you ever get a chance to participate in an event at Jerry's Artarama in Raleigh, esp. if it involves the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild, jump. You'll be so glad you did~~


Thanks, y'all--you're FABULOUS!