Georgia On My Mind

Hey Y'all!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this post up, there's something about editing a ton of family photos, then picking through them to see what goes here on the blog, what goes on Flickr or Facebook, who gets tagged, etc. that I find daunting, so I freely admit... I've been dragging my feet. We're all guilty, right? 

So! We went to Georgia last week  a couple of weeks ago, it was a quick trip to visit family and get a peek at the deep south. We visited Augusta (where our family lives and where my niece is stationed at Ft. Gordon), and Savannah. Since we were only going to be there for 3 days, and mainly to see family, I knew we'd barely get to skim the surface, but as per our usual style, we crammed it in. 

It was so good to see my nieces again! Alex has been serving in the US Army for the last three years, and almost 2 years ago, Ana moved to Georgia to be near her. I love & miss these two. Our first day in Augusta, Ana played tour guide and we visited the downtown area, along the river (she tells me those houses back there are in South Carolina, not Georgia) an old cemetery (love those!) and cruised around some of the older, beautiful neighborhoods of Augusta. It's hard to get good photos from the backseat of a moving vehicle though, so instead I just soaked it in.

I really liked the look of this little old house and tried to get a good shot, but again... moving vehicle. Bah. 

Now, that's what I call four wheel drive! Living in the breadbasket of California, I'm pretty used to seeing all sorts of large farm equipment, but generally, not on the highway. Something that struck me about Georgia, was how green & lush everything is, and from what I understand - year-round  It's so pretty, there are so many trees, so much open space. Very unlike California. Not that there's not a lot of open space in CA, there's tons, but unless it's landscaped, or irrigated, the wide open spaces of my beloved home state aren't green, or if they are, it only lasts from March to mid-May when things heat up and everything turns brown. 

Savannah! We only had one afternoon, so we did the best we could and walked everywhere downtown and along the River Walk.

A cookie bigger than his head. Yes, my husband was in heaven.

Alex was in heaven too, this kid loves candy! We found some great stuff at Savannah Candy Kitchen. 

Alex & Ana goofing with my camera.

My first glimpse of Spanish moss,

What an eerie and beautiful plant. 

Commemorating the 250 year anniversary of the founding of the colony of Georgia and those Georgians of Irish ancestry for their contributions. It was not lost on me that Jaime & Claire made their first landfall in the United States in Georgia at the end of Voyager, I kept daydreaming about them as we passed along some of the older parts of the city. Such a nerd.

The gaslights along this stretch of buildings was very pretty.

Sean and I... and a rouge photobomber.

The Savannah Cotton Exchange

I love this kid. 

Another stumble upon that we encountered was The Lady & Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant! We weren't hungry for a full meal, and we didn't have reservations anyway, but I thought maybe we could grab a bit of desert, and seeing as how we were in the peach state, I wanted something like that. I got a piece of peach cobbler, and Ana got a bit of the Gooey Butter Cake to go. I had high hopes, I mean, Paula Deen! Unforch... is wasn't very good. Bummer. 

But girls, I ate alligator!! And ya know... it wasn't half bad, but I don't care what anyone says, it does not taste like chicken.

The River Walk in the evening was lovely, and this guy, wow, he could sing!

We took a ghost tour! Most of my pictures are rubbish, but I managed a few, like this one of our (hunky) tour guide, Don.

And this one of Sean getting the jeebers! All the lights on the EMF detector lit up. Hehehe... It's silly.

Speaking of silly fun, the last place we visited in Savannah was the Moon River Brewery. What's so special about that? Well, lemme tell ya... Ghost Adventurers! We love that show, those guys can be so corny and scare the pants off of themselves, they filmed an episode at this location. Although... sometimes I admit, that show gives me the creeps, but it's all in good fun.

All in all, it was a fast blast, we wished we could have stayed for longer, but we had to get back home to our little critter family. The only things I didn't get to do that I had hoped to was have tea somewhere poshy and visit a historical plantation. Ah well, next time! 

Hope you enjoyed a few little vacation pictures! Now back to crafts n' tea & stuff!

oxo,

Lisa

The Big Show!

Hi All!

Ready for some great art! This is just a small sampling of the wonderful offerings at Hello World, I had to narrow it down a lot, also I'm terrible and didn't note all of the artists when I took photos, but nearly everything in the show is for sale at a web store the gallery has set up, here, if you see something you simply must own. 

Oh! I never did say what I was submitting to the show, did I? Here are the finished pieces just before I packed them up and sent them off...

Home Is Where The Bra Comes Off

 Finished size 8" x 10"

Super Butch!

Finished size 8" x  8". 

I finished the piece only hours before I mailed it out, I think when you last saw it, it looked like this. I stitched the words on bright yellow fabric, trimmed it down to a strip and blanket stitched the strip to the existing piece. Then I did some piecing around the embroidery, much like a quilt square. 

After everything was squared up, I mounted on the piece on a gallery matte that I first padded with cotton batting so the stitches weren't sitting so "hard" on the matte, does that make any sense? I just like to have a little padding for the stitches to sink in to. Then I learned something new, how to make perfect gallery corners! 

Ok, let's go!

The show was held at The Service Station, this place is really cool. An old service station repurposed as an art gallery, event space, Hello World was it's opening event, but they've got some very neat things coming down the pipes, like open air movie screenings, they did Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure last weekend, how fun, no?

Yarn for bombing, bombs away!

 Thanks Lion Brand!!

My pal, Ellen. Ellen Schinderman that is. She and I bombed that fence, we cross stitched "hello world" for the day of the event. Cross stitching a chain link fence isn't as easy as it might seem (and it's dirty, nail breaking work). But it was worth it :)

After bombing and helping with site setup, Ellen and I took off to get gussied up for the show. Back at the event we met up with our stitchy friends who were all contributing artists in this show. It was so exciting to meet these folks in person. Most of my stitchy friends are "online" but fortunately highly concentrated in California. Hi guys!!

From left to right, is Mark Bieraugel, yours truly, Ellen Schinderman, Amy Goldsmith Sheridan and Mo Powers. 

The show was a blast, there was live mural painting, a DJ, art everywhere you turned, drinks, a pizza truck and happy people, it was a wonderful amalgam.

This is the live mural painting, this was an amazing process, I watched it develop online the week leading up to the show, then the guys went gangbusters on it on Saturday. Dave MacDowell is a very talented painter, and a pretty chill dude. Meeting him in person was rad, he had a great vibe.

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Meex One's tribute to Keith Haring.

The Fiber Room! 

Yu Cotton-well, what a sweet lady and an amazing artist.

Amy's piece was the first sold at Hello World, and to a pretty high roller, to boot! Congratulations, Amy!! Amy is a creative wonder, and prolific! Mad skills, and quick! I don't think I know anyone else who produces more embroidery than Amy. You should really check out her Photostream. I'm lucky to have one of Amy's pieces hanging in my craft room. I snagged it from her Etsy shop the day she listed it. I loves it. 

This piece by Tod Hensley is astounding, I mean wowza! Previous to the show, I'd never seen Tod's work in person and like many embroidered things, it's hard to grasp the scale of the thing looking at it on a computer screen. This piece is SO small, the stitches comprising this amazingly dense piece are minuscule! The finished size of this piece is 16" x 16" but it's matted on raised, black velvet, I'd say the embroidered portion is no bigger than 4" x 4"! I was honestly blown away, and stood gawping at this piece for quite a long time. Click the photo for a bigger view, you will be amazed, too. 

Strange Charm by Mark Bieraugel, science meets embroidery = awesome.

These two embroideries by Mo Powers are my favorite of the show, oh, how I'd love to own them. They are so graceful and somewhat haunting. Just gorgeous. Let's take a closer look...

Primrose by Mo Powers

Fallow by Mo Powers

The trio of pieces on the left are by artist Alaina Varrone, they are wonderful and weird and I really dig them. Alaina's stitching is incredible, her use of teensy, tiny satin stitch blows my mind. I actually own a very small piece by Alaina, it's one of my favorite things in the world.

The piece on the right is by Katharine Lawrie, the stitching is delicate and interesting, but what's more interesting (to me) is that Katharine made the fabric and the frame. She made the fabric, people. That's dedication.

Speaking of dedication, this piece by Ellen Schinderman is incredible. It's a portrait of her mother, which in itself is pretty great, but as I mentioned earlier, seeing things online makes it difficult to get an idea of the scale of a piece. This piece is large. LARGE. Two FOOT by three FOOT. 

Over sized cross stitch, pixelated portrait. 

Here is a snapshot I took of two people looking closely at the work in portrait. I wanted to give you a true idea of how big this is. I enjoyed seeing people go in close for a good look and kind of shake their heads, unbelieving at first, "whoa" and then they lean a little closer and see that this huge portrait is actually made of thousands of stitches, not ink, and utter another, breathy "whoa!" and then turn to their friends and say "whoa, this is crazy, come check this out!" It makes me proud for my friend. I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Wait until you see what else Ellen is cooking up! I'll have to think of a better phrase than mind blowing, but let's just say it will make this gorgeous portrait look rather small.

My friends came to the show, too! 

Hi Lokens!

These are some other pieces I thought were great...

 Yarn bombed.

I did that, heehee! I think wrapping those fence posts in small, knitted squares is as close to actually knitting as I'll ever get.

Oh, hai guys! Hey look, it's that thing I made.

It was a great night, but it went by so fast! I got to meet some online artist friends in person, I got to see fabulous art, I got to see my best friend, and I got to be a part of something I never imagined I would. I think it's fair to say I might have been floating on air that night. What a lucky girl I am!

This was short trip to LA, just an over nighter (thanks for the lodgings, Ellen!). Next morning, I had breakfast with Mel then hopped on another plane and flew home. The day after that I hopped on two more planes and flew to Georgia to see family, but that's another post ♥

Whoa, that was a lot of links, I hope I didn't miss anything. Did you make it through? 

Is anyone still here? 

Hellolol...?

What'd ya think? Pretty neat, aye?

oxo,

Lisa