~ Sister Act ~

I cannot tell a lie ... I have been gone.
For ten (count 'em 10) days.
I left the beach and travelled to the woods.

I spent a week in Sisters, Oregon.
Think of it as a little bit of heaven.

My purpose in going there was to hang out with a bunch of fabulous friends and to attend a weeklong class taught by Gloria Loughman.  She is a purely delightful Aussie who has talent up the wazoo.
Her work can be seen on her wall o'samples above.
And here.

I worked hard every day and then laughed myself silly every night.

I tried to encorporate some of her techniques ... like "tiling" my sky and ... inserting a picture within a picture.

Here is a sampling of some of the "skies" from around the classroom.  I was in awe of all the artistic flair  and pretty much considered myself the new kid in class.

While the week was spent in class it was sandwiched in between two weekends with these splendid ... Sisters.

Once again I cannot lie ... the bread was my favorite part of the trip. 

~ What I did on my Summer Vacation ~

My arrival in the Big Apple.
I was here to visit my one and only son, Sonny Boy, and his wife Mrs. Boy.
It was my third trip here.
If you have been here you know that every new trip here ... is new.

On our first morning, SB and I took a stroll around Brooklyn, which is absolutely oozing with charm.
You can see that charm spilling over this window box.

On the ferry on our way to see the Big Statue.

One World Trade. On the rise.

Sailboats.  Sigh.

Seeing her from the boat.

And through the trees ... and the chain link fence.

The next day Mrs. Boy and I went down to the memorial at Ground Zero.
It was stunning and heartbreaking all at once.

I did my best to capture the sparkle of these falls.  Amazing.

SB (an architect) explained that the outer perimeter of the fountain is the footprint of the building. The inner opening is a footprint of the core of the building, the elevator tower.
You might already know that.

The next day was a 'trip withing a trip' to see the landscape of Connecticut and a visit to Yale.
I'm pretty certain I felt smarter there.

They don't call it the Ivy League for nothing.

The architecture was stunning.

The foliage, amazing.

The water droplets on the lily pads ... freakishly large.

Thanks you SB for being my bestest boy.
Thanks Mrs. Boy for taking a precious day off to hang with your MIL. Who does that??

And thank you NYC for being so Grand.

~ Inspiration ~

I went to the beach over the weekend.

I walked on the Sand.

I inhaled the Surf.

I gazed at the Sky.

Then I came home and gathered together this pile of nautical goodness.

I'm sewing my brains out while still high on that ocean inspiration.

How about you?  What inspired you this weekend?

~ Water Colors ~

 I spent my Saturday late afternoon/evening in search of ... a project.  

I had not been to the beach in a while, so ... the beach it was. 

After a few stops along the way, it was already sunset by the time I got there, so I took lots of pictures as the sun was going down. I scrolled back over my work and was happy, but not thrilled.  By this point it was starting to get dark and that caught me by surprise.  I was quickly putting away my camera when I looked up and saw ... this ... in the sky.

It was dim enough that I was struggling a bit to even see what was in the view finder.  But I clearly knew where to point the camera.  Yesterday morning when I downloaded the pictures I was actually ... stunned. 

Today I remembered about some very very simple (read: cheap) frames I had purchased before I moved.  I have ink in my printer and I am good to go.  I am really enjoying the inexpensive nature of this new art for my home.

Free for the taking ... every ... single ... day.

Linked to:
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Tuesday's Treasures
White Wednesdays