A DELIGHTFUL DISCOVERY

The Potager of my Dreams

On our last full day at Lucky Star we hadn't signed up for any afternoon classes, so my roomies and I decided to do some exploring in town. First we had to introduce Alexis to The Hunt Store, which LaNell took me to see last time we were both there. Then we went to check out a new place we'd been hearing about, The Market @ Bridget's Basket. 

Bridget's Basket boasts a huge organic vegetable garden as well as a nice little vegetable stand, and while that alone would make it worth a looksee, there is so, so much more to tempt you! There's a little bakery/cafe with indoor and outdoor dining, and a shop that stocks artisanal items (both food and non-food) from local Texas and small U.S. producers. Plus there's a wall-o-wine! Check it out:

 

You owe it to yourself to stop in, next time you're anywhere close to Hunt, TX.

Seriously!

WHAT WE MADE

On our first day at Lucky Star I took two half-day classes, and Alexis spent the whole day in a screen-printing class with the amazing Becky Dawson of One Lane Road -- the same class I took a couple of years ago, when I made these.

I loaded Lex up with my leftover supplies, and she took my robot screens along as well, just in case she ran out of things to do. That never happened, since she was busy making these...

as well as a tote bag and some onesies with funny sayings on them.  However, since friend Jen showed up with a big pack of onesies, plus a new little niece and a friend's triplets to make gifts for, and no clear idea what design to use, she was pretty tickled when Lex offered her the use of the robot screens. But not nearly as tickled as I am, at the thought of my sweet little robots making their way out into the world!

My morning class was Ashley Henry's wired jewelry class, where I made this...

using an old perfume/poison-holding pendant I found in some of my mom's stuff. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, it being the very first time I'd ever picked up a set of jewelry-making tools. Just wish someone had told me to switch the direction of my leaf beads midpoint.

My afternoon was spent having the time of my life in Kelley Walker's marvelous marbling class. She had a bit of a struggle making us leave when our time was up.

The top row was done on paper, but the next two pieces were marbled on white denim.

My plan was to add a lot of beautiful marbled papers to my boxes of hand-painted collage papers, but it's gonna be a lot harder than I thought to tear these beauties into little bits and pieces!

The next morning Lex and I actually got to take a class together, with Austin watercolor artist Heidi Miller Lowell. It was called Let Go, And Find Your Flow. What better way to do that than by painting mandalas with watercolors?

Mine

Lexi's, not quite finished.

I love the one Lex did so, so much! You'd never know she hasn't picked up a paint brush since high school. I'm pretty sure this gave her the itch to remedy that situation, as she couldn't wait to get back to the room and keep working on it.

That afternoon Lex took a leather earring class...

while I took Jennifer Mercede's Beloved Florals and Creatures class. Remember Lulu, the tutu-wearing bulldog that we ran into at Hays City Store not long ago?

Still working on that one.

On our last morning of classes, Lex went off to take Kelley Walker's felt flower wreath-making class...

while I took another of Becky Dawson's classes -- illustration and cartooning. Basically, I just wanted to learn to loosen up in my sketching, and give up the need for perfection and realism. Becky had the perfect cure for that.

She passed around these sheets of paper that were divided into 16 sections, and we had to quickly jot down a couple of professions or styles of people before passing it on to the next person. When we ran out of the usual suspects, we got a bit loopy, and started writing down things like "jokers, tokers, and midnight smokers", and it went downhill from there. When full, she started passing them around again, and we each had to illustrate the next available square, in about 30 seconds! I came seriously close to having an accident before it was over with, we were laughing that hard.

So much fun, friendship, connection, knowledge, and inspiration to be shared and absorbed, in so very little time.

CALVIN'S FIRSTS

In the rush to head off to Lucky Star, I never had a chance to share anything about two of our grandbaby's memorable firsts. Number one was his first trip to The Blue Hole here in Wimberley.

First a walk along the water's edge...

 

then it was off to the playground!

 

 

 

A great time was had by all.  Up next, his first Halloween! Or, at least, the first he was old enough to be aware of.

We didn't actually take him trick-or-treating since he has no clue what that's about, and he doesn't eat candy, but he had a great time helping us to greet everyone who came to the door.

Nate's parents, who were there to help celebrate, and to help take care of Calvin once Lex left for Lucky Star.

Auntie Areej and Uncle Nootie came dressed like this...

 and since I couldn't recall who "David S. Pumpkin" was, they showed me the clip from SNL.

Ah yes, now I remember. The most irritating Halloween skit EVER. Of course that's what my son would choose!

Just wait until next Halloween little Goober! It's gonna be awesome.
 

WE'RE BACK!

In body, at least, although our spirits keep wandering back and forth between home and Lucky Star Art Camp. Lucky Star has always been my happy place, but when I said "It just doesn't get any better!", I was wrong. Having my daughter there to share the whole experience with me? Well, that took things to a whole new level of happy!

Lex And Roomie LaNell, In Front Of Our Cabin

I love the beautiful stucco and tilework in all of the cabins!

Color-Mad Bedding

Hubby drove us over to Hunt, TX, at the western edge of the Texas Hill Country, and dropped us off at Camp Waldemar, then he went and checked into a hotel and spent the next three days exploring Kerrville, Bandera, Medina and Lost Maples Park. You can read about my first trip to Lucky Star here, and see lots of photos of the amazing girls' camp where it is held, which is good, since I didn't take very many this year. I was just too busy having fun!

Our fearless leader Lisa dropped in on my wire jewelry class, wearing a head wreath she'd just completed in another class.

Classmates hard at work in my paper- & fabric-marbling class.

Our instructor, Kelley Walker, was actually just a student like me, and was my roommate, my first year at  Lucky Star. A couple of years later she progressed to being one of my favorite instructors, and made me fall in love with making monoprints on a Geli-plate. Can't wait to see what she comes up with next year!

A new-to-me instructor was Jennifer Mercede, who does amazing things with creatures and florals.

One of Jennifer's Notecards

Of course, in addition to my wonderful classes, which I will share more about later, there was the usual a-MAZ-ing food (possibly the true reason we all keep coming back) and the evenings spent around the campfire with Austin singer-songwriter Mandy Rowden.

Lex finally got her S'more, which made her a Happy Camper!

The best thing about having Lex there with me is that, together, we were braver than either of us would ever have been on our own. Which is probably how we ended up volunteering to be part of Mandy's Kickass Rockstar Ninja Princess Glee Club -- something new they offered this year. We almost chickened out when they decided we needed to add dance moves to our singing, but we stuck it out, and it ended up being the very best part of our whole experience.

There may, or may not, be some videos involving booty-shaking floating around the internet.