Class-y ME

I take two suitcases when I go to a scrap workshop or art retreat (whatever you want to call it). One for clothes and one for supplies and stuff I bought. That one is still stuffed, lying open on the chair waiting to be unburdened. I haven't taken pictures of what I bought either... I don't always get around to that timely, do I, Megan? I can do commentary, though, if you'd like. The Chase Park Plaza has everything you would expect from a grand dame hotel. I had breakfast in the cafe in the morning but it was fairly empty - only Kaari Meng and a few others. There was an upscale grocery next door with a fine deli for lunch. My first class was with Kaari of French General to make a Charmant Bracelet. I'm not a jewelry wearer or a jewelry maker but I enjoyed the class and learning the proper way to open the ring-things and thread the pin-things. I added a Mary medal from my religious medal collection. There were two choices of color - sea foam and pink. Here's a picture of Pam's blue rendition. Its funny to look at other photos of Mary's studio and seeing things for the first time. There was just SO MUCH TO SEE and take in. There was also some incredible talent in the joint. I mean raw, palpable talent like Debbie Dusenberry of Curious Sofa. I saw two of her projects and they were jaw dropping. It is not - oh lets think of something nice to say about someones project - its eye blinking - lets take it all in stuff.

The four classes were 3 hours in length and in between the two classes on Friday were 3 lectures of an hour each. You could attend two and have lunch during the off-hour. I went to a legal one about copyright and trademark given by Mary's former lawyer, Emmett. It was interesting and alot of people had questions - people who are starting businesses. The second lecture was given by a young art student, "Event Coordinator" for Renegade Fairs which is a big event in Chicago. I don't know anything about them but he was funny, in a comical kind of way but not being mean spirited. He was twenty something and said "like" about eight thousand times. Renegade Fairs seem like the Renaissance Festival meets Art Car Parade or something like that. Okay, now, don't anybody come back and say ... YOU DON"T KNOW RENEGADE? No. I don't. But its coming to Austin in a couple of weeks if you want to get to know it.

My second class of the day was Matthew Mead of the magazine, Flea Market Style, along with his wife, Jen. It was a cool idea for a class. He brought a bevy of props from his stash and we got to choose about 5 or so and set them up for camera shots. He then photoshopped them a bit (using mostly watercolor filter) and printed them and we placed them in a small jewelry boxes that you could attach in any kind of configuration.
I had two favorite props from this class. One is a vintage dachshund flower frog that I had seen in his magazine and fell in love and began feverishly googling "dachshund flower frog" to try to find one. Ha. No such luck. I offered my first born child for it and he said no, which is probably a good thing since there is no such beast. He did say that he may have some made... which would be cool. I also loved the little girl vase. Sweet.














There was a 20-something cutie in our class who made this... I liked the style of the set up and the newsprint. It was "out of the box", so to speak.









And then there was D Dusenberry's rendition of Printer Art. Do you see the difference? Its art, people, lets face it.













This is Lainey from Missouri, she works at Hallmark and she's kooky and fun and was in two of my classes. She kept calling me Mary's sister LOUDLY so that other people would hear and then later ask me, are you really Mary's sister? I do see a resemblence and actually later two other people asked me the same question. I need to email Lainey.











It was nice because you weren't whipped at the end of the day - with just two classes. It was relaxed, nobody was rushing around. There were 130 people at the event (or rather 130 students), which was nice. Some classes were almost filled but not packed. That evening we met up for dinner with my sweet friend, Barb R from St. Louis who attended Scrap Etc. with us a few years back and also Scrap St. Louis for the past two years. She is a good egg, as my Mother would say. Easy to be around, interesting to talk to and just downright nice. We walked to dinner at an Italian place with Carolyn from Atlanta and Debe from the Woodlands and enjoyed a relaxing evening, first with some wine in their room and this fabulous cheese from St. Louis called palermo or something... What was it called, Carolyn? We ended the evening, running through the rain from the Cupcakery, drenched but smiling. Justine and her sister in law, Claudia knocked on my door and we visited for an hour or so - delivering her set of Year of Tags from the swap, since she missed us the night before. It was better that way though - visiting with both of them and getting to know them better. I met some really great people at this event. I'm closing up shop for the night. Suitcase still needing to be unpacked and desk covered with junk. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get the photos taken. Oh and so, tomorrow, remind me to tell you about Dee Foust. Yes, THAT Dee Foust. There really is a person named Dee Foust. I didn't know there was a person named Mackenzie Childs!