Barb's Weblog

Studio Tour time! I think if I wasn't on this tour every year, the workshop would never get truely cleaned!

Everything is vacuumed (well, almost everything) and all the rubbish filed away to make room for glass cases and displays. Today we hook up the lights and cases, set out the jewelry and get ready to greet our visitors! Oh, and go buy the chocolate!

Once again, you can email me or call Island Arts Council at 360-221-6422 to get all the info. Basically you go to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley, pick up your map/ticket brochure and take yourself to any of about 40 locations on the south end and see the (about 55) artists and crafters and look at the workshops where we make our stuff! Its simple, fun and you see lots of beautiful views, gardens, homes and yards as well as take the opportunity to shop. The driveways and studios will be marked with bright yellow signs stating STUDIO TOUR. Our driveway is a bit confusing, so we'll add banners and flags to get you down the right path.

At the Shadowfax workshop, we will be offering a 20% discount on all purchases, thats every single item in my stock, which is prodigious right now! You can pick out holiday presents early and at a discount, before the last fall shows. I will also have a selection of polished fossilized sand dollars from the California desert, estimated to be 4 to 7 million years old. They are very beautiful and interesting, good specimen gifts and good in case you want to save them for custom jewelry setting in the future.

Our yard will be open to walk in, so bring your camera, our view is spectacular, one of the best on the island! There is a big but friendly furry dog, but I'll try to anchor him somewhere else, like Mom's house up thru the woods so hes not a butthead and pushy for attention. Hes a bit spoiled, thinks hes the dog thats most adored, and will pat you down for dog cookies otherwise. Your good dogs are also welcome. Did I mention the workshop is upstairs? Be prepared to climb a flight up above the garage! The stairs are outside on the ocean side of the building. There'll be signs.

On a more regular note, the new-old hot tub is in, hooked up, full of water and doesn't work...grrr. After all that back breaking work Haole did to make it happen! All the new wiring and insulation! All the crawling under the house with the spiders and rat bodies! Ick! Country life has is nasty parts, too...

We will be calling a hot tub repair guy today to get right to it so we can spend the day working on the yard and shop for the weekend's show.

Next weekend, Oct 4 and 5 we will be at Salmon Days in Issaquah. Our booth is on the main drag (Sunset?) in front of the old Hardware store, down the road from the Hatchery. We expect rain, but then most Salmon Days are rainy at least one day. I recall standing calf deep in flowing water one horrible year...now I have a drier location, but long johns and polar tec are usually in order, and rubber boots or clogs as well! Its like, tradition or something! Lowie will be along to handle the hairwrap sales. She designed new sets and collections of colors and metals, and they were wildly popular in Boise (sold 690 of them!) at the Art Museum Show, and there will be more at Salmon Days, so if you haven't gotten them for the kids in the family yet, nows a good time! There are several new colors and sizes!

OK I am off to package an order for Territorial Seed in Cottage Grove Oregon, and then to town to ship and get the day's Coffee from Whidbey's Coffee, and then home to begin carrying the heavy stuff up the stairs to the workshop. Hope to see you out here at the show!
Barbara

9:49 AM — e-mail me your comments

Nice weekend out here on the island. Haole has been home a couple days, so its been good to get caught up. Today he moved the new-old hot tub on to the slab he poured before we left for Boise, and so at last its in place. Maybe this week there will be time to get electricity over to it. It has a view across the inlet to the west and southwest. This was the view tonite as a ship went by. It'll be great to lay in the tub and watch this sort of show!


I can't wait!

Today we visited Craig and Lauren, and took Boots to the dog park for a run in the woods. Mocha and home to relax. I have decided to start relaxing more. I mean, why live out here if we're too busy to enjoy it? Gonna pour that glass of wine and sit in the tub...or on the deck more often! We still haven't got the boat in the water! Its nuts! It'll be so good to slow down after the summer on the run all over the place! The garden needs it, too. And all the custom orders are all I have to do now, got plenty of regular stock all made for Issaquah.

Boots had a nice hot bath after we got rested up from doing nothing, and now he is all soft and happy. He needed to get bathed since the studio Tour is next week and we are on it! The shop needs dusting and tidying up, then I'll be ready. Jaelith is still at the mechanic's...hoping for my wheels home soon! Its too aggravating to ask for a ride everywhere!

Haole got to go on a boat trip with his favorite cousin up the Snake River in Hell's Canyon while he was gone the last couple weeks. All the pictures were amazing, but heres one he chose for you:
He said it was so impressive and interesting. They saw big horn sheep, but they were too tiny to show you in pictures, too far away.

Next weekend's Studio Tour is featuring 55 island workshops and a few collaborative shops displays. It will be our 3rd year on it, its very fun and neat to have people out in the shop. I set up cases and have a sale as well as demoing all the sorts of work we do. Grapes, chocolate, tea...very nice. If you are interested, there is a phone number on the front page of our website. Island Arts Council produces it and the tour starts at WICA in Langley. More info? E me from the website and I'll answer your questions!

Later!
B

8:35 PM — e-mail me your comments