Mom's Birthday

One nice thing about being back east in May for Surtex is getting to celebrate Mom's birthday in person afterwards. We had a cookout and birthday cake in my sister Nancy's backyard.



Here's Nancy in her sunroom/music room, where she gives piano lessons.

Here's a nice shot of Nancy's husband John and his gorgeous daughter, my step niece Katlyn.

We took a drive with Mom up to Farnham's in Essex.

There's a beautiful view of the salt marsh from the restaurant. We saw an Eastern Kingbird and a Snowy Egret from the window.

After lunch we took a dive around Rocky Neck, Gloucester. We felt compelled to turn around and take a drive-by photo of the "No Photographing" sign here.

Mom enjoyed her little outing.

Not getting anything done

I am getting nothing done this week, except if you count opening cans of Purina One Ocean Fish and Tuna Kitten. Ace has some on his little nose.

We also play tickle tummy.

Looking out the window at the big outdoors is ok, but somewhat overwhelming.

Looking cute for the camera is good.

It's all so tiring...think it's time for a nap again.

Meet the new Boss

We picked out a new kitten from the SPCA yesterday. He's SO tiny, only weighs one pound. He purrs right away when you pick him up. He's just too cute for words.

Marblehead May

Marblehead in late May is a pretty gorgeous place to be. Azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs and wisteria are all in bloom. Steve took this really pretty shot in a small alley in old town on Memorial Day. I love the rough hewn granite steps, the cascade of white azaleas and the crisp American flag flying on the well-kept colonial house.

They have a contest for Best Windowbox during the 4th of July Arts Festival. I think people were getting warmed up for it already.



Although the harbor was not yet full, people are starting to get their boats in the water for the summer.

Steve & I had lunch at the Barnacle, my favorite little seafood shack, right on the water near Fort Sewall. No waves were crashing over the windows on this quiet afternoon like they were when Karin Rhodes & I ate lunch there during a high tide winter storm a few years back.

It was a warm still day, and we spent some time sitting in the shade on the benches at Fort Sewall, looking out the mouth of the harbor towards Children's Island.

My old pals George & Jean drove down from Vermont for a visit. We spent a perfect early summer day downtown with them.



This day there was a bit more of a breeze, and a lot more activity in the harbor. Here's a nice shot of the Corinthian Yacht Club with someone sailing by.

We met up with Jim Davenport and Karin Rhodes at "the Bench" and shared some laughs and memories. There's nothing like hanging out with old friends.

Post Surtex

Here's our agent, Sharon Morris, in our booth at Surtex '09. We had banners printed to fit within the booth panels, which made our setup and take down SO much easier this year. Also, the booth had a more pulled-together look, since we designed the panels to compliment each other. I like how the little striped awning at top makes it look like a shop. "Hello! We're open for business."

The 10' x 10' booth looks a little cozy here in this shot with the Deb Melmon, me and Sharon Morris behind the counter. We found the attendance to be better than some feared, a little bit slower perhaps than the past couple of years. Surtex started charging non-buyers $150 to get in, so I think that cut down on the numbers of people just looking.

These are my two panels, well, the top portion of my two panels.

Marjaleena and Greg did not come from Australia this year, so the booth next to us was empty and covered over. At the last moment we found out that we could use one of the aisle panels for extra signage. Deb & I nipped over to Kinko's at Bryant Park and muddled our way through using one of their PC's to create a last minute sign with my White Roses image that I had brought on a flash drive.

Here's the "view" from my room at the Hotel Wolcott. It's an older hotel near Herald Square. The lobby is magnificent, all gilded and crystal chandelliered. The bathrooms are narrow and feature "attack" shower curtains that kept billowing and clinging to me. But it was clean and quiet and the cheapest hotel on Travel Planners list. Beware the numerous sales and room taxes and charges they tack on in NYC...ouch!

Carol Eldridge and The Captain were our gracious hosts at the Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead.

Steve flew out to join me in Marblehead after the show. I took Amtrak's Acela Express train to Boston, which was really relaxing compared to flying. I saw swans with cygnets and osprey flying and on their nests from the train.

My brother's cat Coco was there to welcome us for our stay at Mom's house in Marblehead. The rest of the photos are on Steve's camera. He's coming home tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Workin' Hard

Hey, here's my latest design. A set of the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments. I am working away like a fiend getting myself ready for Surtex.

Even More Bouquets to Art

I took a lot of pictures, as you are probably getting by now. There were hundreds of arrangements, so these are only the ones that I really liked and the photos turned out not blurry. This framed one was with the Hartnett trompe l'oeil still lifes. It's a painting of books in a window, not in this photo.

I liked the lush colors and the branches bursting into leaf at the top of this one. It sort of screams out, "SPRING!"

This oddball piece has a large seashell as a base, and barnacles and these pitcher plants hanging down. I think it was to go with a glass sculpture. I like how the green plants look like coral.

These dark curly ferny things at top were very popular this year. I'm not sure which work of art this went with, but it's cool.

Pretty soft salmon color flowers again. This piece went along with the portrait of a boy in the background.

You can see the scale of this one with these ladies in behind it. The bottom fuzzy part was all composed of proteas.

I love this exotic combo of plant materials. This piece was in the pre-Colombian art section.

This modern art one is a little bit too literal, but fun.

This piece was hung in the entrance way of the museum. It's huge. The flowers around it are anthuriums, so it give you some idea of the scale.

This was another of my favorites. The way this arrangement of spiky greens mimics the green glass sculpture is exciting.

This flower-encrusted dress form was not the only one in the show, but this is the photo that came out. They did a good job with picking up the colors from the painting.

I could not resist this cute doggie made out of pussy willow tips. Nice. Like the floats in the Rose Bowl Parade.

I marvel at how well this design goes with the steamboat painting. They even got in the smokestack and the smoke with some green vines.

The designer wrapped different colored strap-like leaves around to evoke the flat shapes of color in this abstract painting. Very creative.

You can thank my mom, who bought me a museum membership, for these posts. Thanks, Mom!