Art & Soul

I wish I could say my trip to Art & Soul was fabulous but it wasn't it was though very memorable I will say that! LOL After being up since 1:30 am the night before we flew to Portland and had no problems in the airport or with security whatsoever which was very nice, of course we spent longer in the airport waiting around then in flight because the flight is so quick from California to Oregon! We even landed both ways ahead of schedule. We arrived at the hotel and checked in, took the shuttle over to the other hotel and registered for A&S and dropped our altered berets off. I met other artist whom I've admired their art or who I'm friends with and then we spied a vendor table with some new products we quickly tried to contain our drooling since we were in public and ogled over the mixed media paints from Stewart Gill from Scotland. I heard someone refer to these paints as Lumieres on steroids and I'd have to agree they truly are! Next we went to our evening class eager to learn the Viking weave bracelet with sterling silver wire. HA! this is not a class you take after being up for 17+ hours LOL it was a very complicated class and very intricate and the instructor hadn't taught it enough or perhaps at all to fine tune it for easy teaching. I invented my own weave pattern I was told LOL trust me it was not pretty LOL. Drinks after with friends and then off to our hotel. The next day was my Precious Metal Class (PMC) with Sherri Haab and Wendy they were both friendly and knowledgeable and I enjoyed creating with the PMC, we made charms for a bracelet (for those that don't know PMC is a silver clay and when fired in a kiln the clay binder burns off and your left with just the silver metal). We also were able to use polyclay or resin to fill some of our pieces but I opted to just antique my charms for the time being (see picture below).



Okay so this was a long day but the class seemed good I took the shuttle back over to my hotel and waited to meet up with my sister but by the time I got over there I started feeling sick to my stomach and before I knew it I spent the next 12 hours vomiting I can't remember the last time I was ever that sick! So Friday and Saturday I was sicker then a dog and wished I was home! I missed my class I was most excited about on Saturday with Sherilyn Miller and vendor night *sniff* by Sunday I was able to keep liquids down but It had now moved to my lower intestines the flight home was not fun to say the least and it seemed to take forever It wasn't' until Tuesday that I didn't hurt all over and feel like something the cat dragged in. I thought my family had been spared getting sick since they kept their distance and pretty much acted like I was a leper but by late Wenesday night Spencer had woke up sick and it hit him just as hard as it did me and by Thursday Morgan was sick and then hubby not quite as bad thankfully but enough for him to miss two days of work first time he has in the 18 years I've known him! What ever this stuff is its one nasty bug that I wouldn't wish on anyone!

So I hate to say it but just the thought of A&S and Portland, Oregon makes me sick at this point....hopefully that association will wear off and I can experience A&S on a more healthy note!