Come See Me at the Art Shows in September!!!

Why?
Well, there are two (main) reasons.
1. Some amazing talent shows up for these things, and
2. I will be selling some stuff that I don't sell in the shop!

For example, these really cool leaf pendants will be making an appearance:

The leaves in these babies were made by Mother Nature herself, so no two are alike. They are coated with some kind of wonderful silvery/gold metallic substance that looks really rad with the silver wire, if I do say so myself. I love how delicate they remain, though. You can still see all the veins and beautiful intricacies that Nature puts into her work. I carefully cut and grind the glass to reflect each leaf and its unique shape. I'm proud of these pendants, if you can't tell, and they are even better in person.

So! If you live in North Alabama, or near(ish), you should mark your calendars for the second and third Saturdays in September and come experience these art shows. I made a full post about the shows, here, and that post includes links to the websites which offer more details. I'll be sure to mention the shows at least one more time before I hit the road for Alabama, as well. You know, just in case anyone misses these posts.

Happy Hump Day! Have a lovely rest of the week! My parents are in town this weekend so you probably won't hear from me until next week!

"Immortalized" APC Concert Experience

I just wanted to share this video I found last night, when searching YouTube for footage of the APC Tabernacle show to help me relive my awesome memories. No one was "supposed" to record anything, so I don't know how long this will be up (I hope forever) but I got such a kick out of finding this.

The song is "The Noose", one of my personal favorites. At 0:20 you can hear me scream like a fangirl. The guy recording must have been right next to me, cause the view through his phone is exactly the one I had from where I stood, and you can even hear me singing at the beginning. I wasn't totally sure it was me at first, but my friends Nia and Steve confirmed it has to be. So enjoy! But don't listen to me, listen to Maynard : )

September Art Shows!

Art on the Square
Sept. 10, 2011
Downtown Athens, AL.
(click the link for more details)

The Monte Sano Art Show
Sept. 17, 2011 (yes I noticed the typo on their banner)
Monte Sano Mountain in Huntsville, AL.
(click the link above for more information)

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I hope you can come to at least one of these awesome shows to stop by and see me! Both of these shows are juried, and have an amazing amount of talent on display. I am so proud to be part of them again this year!

A Perfect Circle Recap (my reason for lack of posting)

My apologies for the lack of posting lately.

I spent the whole of last week distracted by the A Perfect Circle concert that we attended in Atlanta on Wednesday. The first half of the week was in anticipation of the event, and the latter half was spent recovering from the trip.

Atlanta is supposed to be a 4 hour trip for us, but lets just say the traffic gods had other plans. The trip was well worth it over all, but exhausting nonetheless.

Daniel and I met one of our very best friends and her boyfriend in Atlanta for the show. A Perfect Circle performed at The Tabernacle, which is an old church turned music venue. It is, by far, the best venue I have ever been to! There is not a bad seat in the house. I highly recommend anyone within a days drive to Atlanta see a show there. You won't regret it.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn downtown, which is literally right around the corner from the Tabernacle. I was expecting to have to walk a few blocks based on the map of downtown that we had, but I could literally see the Tabernacle from our hotel window. I took some photos with my phone, but wouldn't you know that they won't upload properly to my computer! Drat. I can highly recommend the hotel as well. It's pricey, but on the reasonable end of anything you can find downtown. The staff was super friendly, the other hotel guests were happy, and they have a continental breakfast that includes a waffle maker! That waffle was as big as my plate...I could only eat half! So yeah.

Ok, back to the concert. The performance was amazing. I am a huge Maynard fan, as anyone who knows me at all will tell you. I've seen Tool in concert twice, and was thrilled to see APC. My only complaint (as are the complaints of many who saw them tour this time around) was that the set list included all of eMotive, which is my least favorite album by them. I could get into the reasons why I am not a huge fan of eMotive, but I'll spare you the details. I'm not here to write a full concert review anyway. Overall, I am happy with the experience, and they DID play some other songs off their other albums, and one brand spankin' new song debuted on this tour, called By and Down. A recording of it can be found here, if you are interested in hearing it. I can't wait for a studio version of it to come out!

I hope everyone's week is off to an awesome start. Expect more posts from me on a more regular basis, as I've some things to share with you!

Juxtapositions

I wandered down to the water this morning. I couldn't help but try and catch a photo of a sight I found to be very amusing: ducks hanging out on an old inner tube that has been tied to the dock and forgotten about:

Of course, they fled as soon as I approached. Little did they know I came bearing gifts of bread. I managed to snap this shot before they were all off of the raft though, which I came to find out is actually called Big Mable. I find it nice, in a way, to realize how nature will appropriate things when she pleases. That raft had obviously been there long enough to be incorporated into the ducks' environment and no longer deemed a human "threat".

While I realize this appropriation can be a good thing, I also realize it can be dangerous. In the same way our feathered friends might make use of the things careless humans leave behind, they can also become entangled in things like fishing wire. We live an existence of opposites. Juxtapositions.

Once I was down to the deck, a little lady came up to say hi. She wasn't with the other ducks and was actually quite friendly. She got the bread all to herself (well, except for a few pesky fishes who attempted to snatch it away from her). I really enjoy how quirky ducks are. It was peaceful on the lake with just her this morning.

More Randomness

I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! I know I did! We made another trip down to Alabama to visit family and had way too much fun, as usual. Sadly I left my camera at home so there are no photos to share, but I'll leave you with a painting I finished last week instead.

I love the succulent from this post so much that I decided to paint it. Our walls are pretty bare, esp. for an artist living here, so I'm working on fixing that. However, most of my paintings will end up being for sale at the Monte Sano Art Show and Art on the Square in September (my thinking is that I can always make more, right? AND buy other peoples' art with my potential earnings). I kind of like the idea of art rotating out...

I'm having trouble getting back into the swing of things here at home. I blame the visit to Bama. I spent a whole weekend with people I love, visiting and chatting and catching up; and now find myself alone for most of the day. Sometimes it is a hard routine to fall back into. I'm working on getting through it (spent all day yesterday "deep cleaning" the kitchen to make it feel more like a place I want to cook in)...cleaning generates creativity, sometimes, if I'm in the right mood. It's funny what can trigger the creative spark...seemingly mundane household activities really do it for me. Haha.

Well, the week is halfway over. I hope you all are feeling much more productive than I am!

Laurel Falls Hike

Downstream

Upstream

Daniel and I went hiking out near Laurel Falls, TN. on Sunday. It was really beautiful out there. I am sad to report that we didn't make it all the way out to the falls (next time!) due to mud and improper shoes on our part, but the scenery we did see was still amazing. I snapped a few photos of the creek as it ran along a rock face out in the woods. We hiked a total of 2 miles so I still feel pretty good about the exercise we did get.

If you click the Laurel Falls link above, it will take you to a website with info. on how to get there/what to expect out of the hike, etc. The path is part of the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia all the way to Maine. I feel so lucky to live in such a vibrant hiking community. I'll be sure to share more trails with you as we check them out.