A SMALL, SMALL WORLD

Several years ago a young woman named Shelley Massey wandered into Java Johnny's, where my S-I-L meets with her knitting group each week. And, since Priscilla can never resist striking up conversations with total strangers, the two ended up becoming good buddies. The younger woman happened to be an artist, blogger and art journalist, who occasionally invited groups of friends over for artsy play-dates in her home studio.  A while later, when Pris heard that I was doing some art journaling myself, she sent me a link to Shelley's blog, a wee bit warped. And over time, as it so often happens on the internet, we began to discover we had several mutual friends amongst our various art tribes. I finally got to meet her in person a couple of years ago, on our last visit to Ohio, when Pris invited her over to lunch and she brought us both beautiful handmade-by-her art journals and her favorite Sharpie paint pens. It never ceases to amaze me, just how generous and sharing the women in my art tribes can be!

Just recently, Shelley moved out of her home-studio and into an outstanding space here in the Front Street buildings in Dayton, and we were lucky enough to get the grand tour last week!

I can't even imagine having a space like this in which to create. Plus there are two smaller rooms on either end -- one for storage and one for her office. GAH!!

Speaking of small worlds, turns out Shelley is also buddies with my new friend/instructor Glenda Miles, from the Ancestor Art workshop. In fact, Shelley made this gorgeous apron in another of her workshops.

When we had finished drooling over her studio, she took us around to meet all the other artists in her building, so we could drool over theirs. Then we had a delicious lunch at a place called Wheat Penny. If you are ever in Dayton, I highly recommend it!

On Saturday we had another art-tastic day. Unbeknownst to me, something called Stampaway was being held at nearby Sharonville Convention Center. You can come early and take workshops with various well-known instructors, but we just went for the morning to see famous people like Tim Holtz, Dyan Reaveley, and Mary Beth Shaw demonstrating all their latest artsy products!

Dylusions' own Dyan Reaveley

When we got to the Stencil Girl booth, guess who was there helping out while Mary Beth did her demos?

My new friend Glenda Miles, of course. I dropped a pretty penny in that booth! I discovered Stencil Girl my very first year at Lucky Star Art Camp -- their inaugural year -- when Mary Beth generously donated a star stencil to everyone who attended. I'm guessing she and Lucky Star founder Lisa must be friends as well.

But wait, there's more. You'll never guess who else was there attending Stampaway, in OHIO, but totally unbeknownst to me until she posted a picture of herself taking a class with Tim Holtz!  My friend LaNell, from Wimberley! Whom I met in one of my online classes years ago, when she lived in another state, and who then started following my blog because she and her hubby were about to retire to Wimberley, and who I later introduced to Lucky Star and who is going to be Lexi's and my roomie there this fall. What are the odds?

It really is a small, small world!