QueenMarcyOriginals

HELLO.......FINALLY! Photos from The Art Retreat at The Prairie.

I gave up on the iPad working with my blog, so I am using hubby's "real" computer.  I wanted to share some of the photos from the art retreat in Round Top, Texas.

This is the Ranger Lounge, used to cook, eat, drink and take classes

The photo above is Danny, he lives on site and serves as groundskeeper, maintenance man, carpenter (building a barn now) and HE IS THE COOK......a very, very good cook!!!!

Below is a shot of the landscape outside the building

These are a couple of "staff" members, serving lots of love and attention:

This is looking out the front door of the main house (where I stayed).  It is out in the middle of NO WHERE, believe me..............

This is Rachel Ashwell's shop, she owns this place....very expensive items in the store!

This is one of the cottages, which are the living quarters.  Most of them are just a bedroom and bath for one or two persons, very roomy.  The main house where I stayed had 3 bedrooms plus a kitchen, dining room and living room.

It was absolutely wonderful and I can hardly wait to go back.  They will be doing these retreats twice a year now, this was the first one.  Tomorrow I will share the awesome items I made in the three classes I took.  I know you are burdened now with the anxiety of it all, but please don't lose sleep, I'll have them posted within hours, ok???   Bah Hah Hah....

Loves from the Queen

No Recent Brain Farts

Gee I must be getting better, no catastrophes to report. My art retreat in Round Top, Texas (population 92) was fantastic. Unfortunately I cannot share photos on this friggin blog account. At least Typepad did respond this time and I know what the problem is. Of course for a techie like me, I don't understand how to do something to fix it. I spent six hours on it yesterday with no results except a lot of very bad cuss words.....Let's drop that subject or else I'll need another drink.... Round Top, Texas is about an hour's drive from Austin and the weather was warm but a wonderful breeze. The lodging was The Prairie by Rachel Ashwell. She is the decorator who invented "shabby chic" and has written many decorating books. She bought this place a couple of years ago and has renovated it in her "shabby" but adorable style. The floors and walls may be worn out old barn wood with white Muslin triple-ruffled sheets and fabulous French chandeliers! There are five or six old cottages on the 40-acre ranch which are the guest rooms with bed and bath. A big old barn type building is the kitchen and dining room. Very rustic but in good taste and out in the middle of nowhere!! I made a necklace with old vintage jewelry pieces, a bracelet with three vintage watch faces which we gutted and put other stuff inside and the best thing of all (which I still cannot believe I actually made) was the clasp/focal for a bracelet. It began as a sheet of copper and we cut it, sawed it, textured it, patina it, made a bezel and soldered it to the base and then set a jasper stone in it! I wish I could share a photo but will email a picture to you upon request. It is awesome and now I have to string some beads to it. Everyone there except me was from Texas, but they were all very sweet and fun and talented. One gal told us the story of meeting her cowboy husband. He was a REAL cowboy who did rodeos and stuff. She was at the rodeo and saw this tall, lean cowboy with his hat and boots and tight Wrangler jeans. She said "ooooh, that there is nice looking" and told him to turn around so she could see his FACE!!! Too funny. Well I know this is boring because The Domesticately-Challenged Queen has not exploded anything this week????!!!! Oh but listen to this....I opened the door to the shower in Texas and was met face-to-face with a Scorpion!! He was about three inches long (but again, I cannot show you the picture of him smiling up at me....). Up until that point, I thought I could really live there...... Loves from The Queen

SHE'S BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK.....

We had a fantastic cruise last week with great weather, great friends, great ship, just great everything.  The theme of this particular cruise was 50-60's Rock-n-Roll.  We all dressed one night for the sock hop (I'm in the polka dotted skirt).

So, back to work, but.................

ONLY FOR 19 MORE DAYS!!!!

Look out retirement, here I come!!!

 

 

BON VOYAGE.......

Jumping on a jet plane

BAGS PACKED AND READY TO GO.................

SAILING AWAY.....

FIRST STOP:  PRINCESS CAYS, BAHAMAS

SECOND STOP:  CURACAO

SOUTHERN CARRIBEAN

LAST STOP:  ARUBA

GONNA ROCK 'N' ROLL

MAYBE HAVE A LITTLE DRINKIE POOH

AHHHH, PARADISE AWAITS.....

Let's just hope the captain is NOT Italian and looks out for rocks??????

See you in a week.............

 

 

Bye Bye

 
Heading out to Portland today for Art & Soul retreat.  I sure hope I don't burn the place down with my soldering iron???!!!!!!

I had copied tons of great "funky" photos to share this week, but they were stored in BitMap mode instead of JPeg mode, so they will not post to Typepad.  Darn.....

Have a great week.

  

 

Portland, here I come.....

 

Not yet, but I fly out on Monday afternoon.  This is an art retreat "Art and Soul" and I went last year as well.  My classes this year are mainly soldering and enameling.  Here are some samples:

 
 
 
But, I am leaving you with a week's worth of real FUNKY things to look at while I am gone.  I want to be sure no one gets bored.  If you think some of my jewelry pieces are way-out-there, wait until you see these!!!!

 

WAKE UP - WAKE UP - WAKE UP ?????

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth!!!  We spent a week in the Vancouver/Seattle area with friends and then I came back to work for three days, then spent another three days at a beading class with Laura McCabe (which was wonderful).  Hopefully, I can get some pictures up soon of my latest projects.

In the meantime, this is a typical Sunday morning at our house:

 
I think our kitties are way too stressed, don't you????

 
 

Let's go to Germany today, shall we?????

One of the blogs I read is by a gal in Germany and they just did a weekend trip around the area.  Aren't these photos adorable?  The villages we went to on our river cruise looked just like this, storybook time.

 
 
 
Our next big trip (after Seattle/Vancouver this summer) is going to be IRELAND.  The last Victoria magazine has some pictures of the Dublin area and I wanted to jump on a plane that very instant I saw them!   Gorgeous!  We loved England and Scotland, so Ireland should be similar.

Any travel plans this year for any of you?????

 

ADORN ME 2011 HERE I COME!!!!!

 
And away I go..................to Houston again for the annual Adorn Me jewelry art retreat.  An entire week of making pretty stuff and learning lots of things from some wonderful teachers!  Here are the classes I will be taking.

Soldering Basics by Sabra Sowell-Lovejoy:

 
 

Etched and Layered Cuff by Diane Cook:

 

 

Creating Hollow Forms in Color by Susan Lenart Kasmer:

 

Frames, Fiber and Metal by Susan Lenart Kazmer:

 

Junk Drawer Metalsmithing by Stephanie Lee:

 

Romancing the Cuff by Diane Cook:

 

Missing Links by Stephanie Lee:

 

I am just so excited!  I will meet up again with two gals I met last year, which will be fun too.  There are probably over 100 people at this retreat.  So no blogging until I get back on March 7 - I hope you can live without me that long????   *hehehehehehehe*

 
 

 

FROM ACROSS THE POND

    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
That is her adorable baby!   Her blog is www.home-shabby-home.blogspot.com.

She lives in Italy and just had some neat pictures I wanted to share.  It makes you want to jump on a plane to Europe, doesn't it???? 

She also had some photos of rooms that she is researching to decorate her new home.

 
 
 
 
I would love to see her house when it is done???  Yummy.

Blogs are like traveling all over the country and the world while sitting in your chair......FUN!