Calligraphy, 'Famous' Calligrapher, Kentucky Wedding

My good friend Donna Hacker and I recently attended Scribehaven, a calligraphy retreat put on by the Nashville Calligraphy Guild at Lake Barkley Lodge in Kentucky. The setting was beautiful. The company was excellent.

Views from my room:

There is nothing like 'retreating' to the woods or some other peaceful place to study and play at the art we love. In this case it was calligraphy. Most people worked on their own projects. Donna presented breathtaking slides from her recent trip to Italy. There was no formal instruction. Indeed, the closest we came to that was when Janie Cravens, former president of Iampeth, did an impromptu 'sharing' of tips and tricks. When I sat down she made me laugh by saying, "But I can't teach you anything; you're famous!" Janie had us all laughing later as she imparted her seemingly never-ending stream of ideas with great humor. One involved lettering on mats, something I have done before. Her method was faster than mine with a more light-hearted effect. She had small mats for all of us. I lettered Dr. Seuss titles on mine and gave it to my niece as part of her baby shower gift. Dr. Seuss books were among her favorites and were part of her gift registry, so I knew she'd like it, but I have also done poems and song lyrics on photo mats for wedding and anniversary gifts, and baby names and statistics for baby gifts.

Two of Janie's tips and tricks involved making portable lightboards for travel. The first was a clear plexiglass clipboard with a line guide clipped to it and a tiny but bright flashlight as the light source. You simply support one end on a book or what have you, slip the flashlight underneath and Voila! It takes up practically no room in your luggage, and also could be kept in your car for last minute placecard changes. I suggested adding a small piece of rubber shelf liner to slip under it to help prevent slippage. The other was even more genius, and ultra-modern. Use your iPad as a lightboard! Just place a line guide on the turned-on iPad and, once again, Voila! Of course, you would also need to keep pen, nibs and ink in a travel package.

At one point on Saturday we witnessed a wedding photo session. The beautiful bride and handsome groom posed right outside of our lodge conference room for some of their photos. Weddings to calligraphers are natural voyeuristic events! Here is a photo I took, purposely not too close-up to give the happy couple a modicum of privacy. You can still clearly tell how lovely the bride is in her gorgeous gown and veil. We all wanted to have done her wedding calligraphy.

The iPad also comes in handy to use as a portfolio of your work. I plan to copy many of my calligraphy and art photos to my iPad to be able to show prospective clients and others. No more bulky portfolios!

Below is a photo of the ruling pen lettered name tags we all received, compliments of Vicki Brandt. Sheryl Bracey had recently taught a ruling pen class to the guild, and Vicki made good use of her practice. (My photo was taken in the dark and does not adequately show the beautiful watercolor marks that made up the backgrounds.)

I met some wonderful people at Scribehaven and had a good time. I spent so much time talking and looking that I didn't get any calligraphy done, but I will be prepared to show and share and work more next year! Thanks, Nashville Calligraphy Guild! Thanks, Janie, Donna, Ann (great brownies!) and all others who shared so much. P.S. Lake Barkley Lodge dining hall - please do not ever change your banana pudding recipe. It is the best I have ever had - served warm! Yum!

Miscellaneous Snapshots from France

I had some photos from my wonderful trip last summer that didn't fit into any specific category. Here is the olio.

On our last day we went to a nearby town and learned that we had missed an annual festival by one day. These old tractors were being moved out as we walked around.

This sundial was in the same town, in a store window.

I was astonished by the array of cigarettes in a small shop.

Along with the cigarettes, games of chance, naturally. Should have bought one as a souvenir for my husband.

Here are a few images from Auch. There was a nice shopping district there and some beautiful cathedrals. When we bought ice cream cones we sat at the outdoor table. We were told we had to pay to sit there. We walked instead. As I recall, that was our least favorite ice cream cone. Some were excellent, but this one was only so-so and not worth the price...definitely not worth paying to sit.

A beautiful window in one of the cathedrals. We saw fantastic stained glass windows and architecture everywhere we went. I'd love to take this tour again.

A statue of St. Germaine.

Wedding banns were posted outside of many of the churches. These were in Auch, I think.

We didn't go into this store in Auch. I don't think the bottles inside the shop were this big.

And here is a wine goddess.

I had asked my friend to take a snapshot of the city as we were leaving (I was driving.) She took so long she missed the shot, so I quickly snapped this in the rear view mirror. (I'm not a perfectionist.) Goodbye, Auch.

At one country cemetery we saw stones on crypts.

I'd heard of them, but I'd never seen them...stand up potties with holes for the 'business'. This one is at a church. It's the only one we saw like this.

I can't remember the city where we saw this beautiful swan fountain. I think it may have been the castle town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Niaux, but my notation on the photo file says Auch. I clearly remember that it was a very hot day (over 105F) and I wanted to walk right into it.

Jace in the Park

About 60 degrees on the 5th of February. Sandy and I took Jace to a new little park in my neighborhood.

Jace loved the sliding boards, loved the swings, and loved the big climb-on-me dinosaur.

Here he is getting down when I told him to 'shake his booty'. My little guy is Mr. Personality. We had fun.

Jace will be two years old next month. Unfortunately he still tests things by putting them into his mouth. I wish people wouldn't throw their cigarette butts all over the kids' park.

Markets in Southern France

From the small villages to the big cities, Market Days are big events in the south of France. We didn't get to many, but the offerings were diverse - from produce to poultry, from old books to organ meats and cheeses, from frilly tutus to sweet-smelling soaps and macaroons, from sausages of every description to octopus and other delicacies from the sea to panties, dresses and everything in between, you could probably find it at one market or another. Some markets were indoors, some out. Some were expensive and some were bargain basement. After purchasing peaches at a drive-by market on a highway, I later learned that the flat variety was the sweetest - like sugar in your mouth.
The sight of fish piled high and looking at me with dead eyes was at first startling, but I soon got over that after seeing whole hogs and chickens with heads poking out from under their breasts. These were, after all, things we don't see in the typical sanitized grocery stores in the US. Flies lighting on sausages and otherwise delicious looking pastries were off-putting. It was good for the diet. We only bought washable produce from that market. If it hadn't been for flies, I might have bought some of those colorful macaroons that France is known for. The only place I saw them was at an outdoor market near Narbonne.

Here are some photos.