Trunkt $500 Shopping Spree

When I was little, my brother and I would make up Christmas Lists every Dec. and put them in our stockings for St. Nick to deliver to Santa Claus (being German, St. Nick filled our stockings on Dec. 6th and Santa delivered presents on Dec. 24th - 2 separate guys). The "funnest" way to do this, was to get out the Sears Wishbook [aka catalog] and cut the pictures of the toys we wanted out. I put the handcrank snow cone maker on every year, but didn't get one until I was 25 when my brother took pity on me.

Trunkt.org - The Buyer's Guide to Independent Art + Design is running a $500 Shopping Spree Sweepstakes - how fun would that be, to have $500 to spend on really cool art, clothing, housewares,... stuff that you won't find at your average dept. store!

Anyway, all you have to do is sign-up for a "Wishlist" and add 21 products to it. It's totally free and fun to do (all you have to do is cruise around and look at different artist's portfolios, then click on the "add to wishlist" link under the picture of the item you like) - it's like getting out the Sears catalog (only 100 times better).

And - as an added bonus - ArtByNorm has a portfolio on Trunkt that you can pick from too!

Here is the link to the Wishlist Shopping Spree

BLOG Action Day

What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices. Today, Oct. 15th is Blog Action Day. Here's the link...

The issue is upcycling and/or recycling. Kind of hard to apply this to original painting, but here goes my [almost] funny story:

A friend [who is a painter] used a scrap of gessoed canvas from one of his finished paintings to wrap a Birthday present for another friend [also a painter].

She in turned saved the scrap thinking one day it may be useful. The day came when I said I wanted to experiment with different types of canvas for my paintings.

And thus, meet Norm in "Desert" - you can still see the folds from the "gift wrap" days - I didn't bother to iron 'em out because I thought it added character.

First Thurs. Artwalk in Pioneer Square! Nov. 1, 2007

The Seattle Etsy Street Team (from here on out known as EtsyRain) is having an Art Sale during the First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square.


For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Pioneer Square Artwalk, the first Thursday of every month galleries in the hip & artsy Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle stay open late, the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has free admission, and many artists hold their show openings on that night.


It's a lot of fun, a lot of walking, and a lot of checking out great art!

We'll be there until about 10-ish, right around the corner from Al Boccalino and the Pioneer Square Saloon, just under the viaduct!

http://www.stirboutique.com/kick_off_the_holidays.html

Stop by and say Hi!

the Fall Thing Art & Craft Show

'tis the season for art & craft fairs. I will be selling in at least 3 before Thanksgiving - come check it out if you have the chance! (Sat. 10/20, Phinney Ridge Community Center in Seattle)

Vanuatu (not to be confused with Xanadu)

This ain't your favorite Olivia Newton John song (picutre headband and legwarmers). I'm talking about an archipelago of islands in the South Pacific that grows cacao.

Last year, I had a single plantation sampler of chocolates from Pralus. It was great tasting each one side by side to see how environment changes the flavor of the cacao (since everything else in the recipe was kept constant, the only thing that was different was the plantation where the cacao was grown).

Vanuata had the oddest smokey, tobacco, gasoline taste. Although I had my favorites from the others (10 different plantations from Asia, Africa and S. America) - this was the only one that I wouldn't buy again (but then again, I ate Berty Bots - every flavor - so maybe there's a chance for Vanuatu).