Ventura, California

I have been in Ventura for a bit more than a week now. Gaia is enjoying her visit with Lucy and Coco (this one is Coco). The weather has been delicious. We had a gorgeous full moon to gaze at: I was happy to see that Gaylene is doing has well as possible and even better at times. Then there are really hard times when it is difficult to be so powerless in front of pain. Paul came to pick me up at the airport with Windy his girlfriend. Emily stayed for a week (check her blog for the culinary part of her visit). We had time to do few fun things. Like the movies (The Other Boylen Girl http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1809772229&cf=pstills&intl=us , and Atonement, again.... still very good a second time around). We had lunch at a southern restaurant that specializes in Gumbo and we ate at the terrace...

Another lunch in a wine bar . We went to the Farmer's Market:Young musicians serenading the passer by, orchids, artichokes (huge and purple...) the bookstores and boutiques on main street. Oh and a visit to the thrift shop where Emily found some bargain dishes and I got a very cute purse. It seems that the treatment is working well for Gaylene. Then Radiation is hurting other things as it is trying to shrink and isolate the Cancer. I am happy though to be spending time with her. Those were taken in Gaylene's yard. So beautiful and peaceful. That is when the dogs are behaving!!!!!! Also a mockingbird came by and boy oh boy did he have a fun way to entertain me. Love that bird.

The rest of the AFF Photos

Just go to the link and press on Slide Show and I think you will have the show at your finger tips. http://www.flickr.com/photos/roxanestoner/?saved=1

It's over for now!

A big group of us (Patty, Lorraine, Terry, Diana, Della, Linda, Debbie) went to have diner at the Greek Corner on Fireweed before going to the Alaska Fiber Festival Fashion Show. The Alaska Wildberry Theater has a strange way to welcome visitors........???? Jack Dalton and a lady from Texas were the Fashion Show MC's and they gave us a great show . I am not going to comment much on the details. That will be on a different entry, but... there were wine served by Dickand desserts.all eaten by Lorraine and Terry at that moment.... Then you can see Janie with her really nice hair doo . Anyway everyone looked like they were having fun. Of course I have jumped ahead of the story because I should start this entry with the set up of the Show at the Conocophillips Atrium. It took from 5pm til 1am on Friday night. What a nice display though. Judge by yourself with those pictures. The dolls were my favorite this time. Made me want to make one. I wish I had taken more pictures of them but ran out of time. Senator Ted Stevens graced us to his presence on Saturday morning and even bought a doll. Not your typical one but one that looks like an old elf. Josetta, a self taught doll maker herself is holding it. The fish is from a grouping of mermaids. The doll under a tree is stunning. Those were made by Josetta. The next one was part of the Hoffman Challenge. It is a commercial fabric makercompany that selects a fabric each year for doll makers and quilters to get creative. They have to use a certain percentage of the fabric and can add the rest with their own selection. http://www.hoffmanchallenge.com/2008challenge/2008main.htm This link is taking you to this year's new fabric challenge if you are interested.

Jeanie is working hard with her favorite tool.... the heat gun.I liked the serene look of this one. Then you had the kitchen area where the auction items were really cooking. Notice the first garment on the left. An original Nancy Dobson's apron and Kitchen Diary. Isn't it a cute way to have a silent auction? Then you had another challenge but this time it was the Australian to Challenge the Alaskans with this wild fabric. They ended up being a lot more crazy then us and came up with 60 quilts we had less than 15... The next picture is of Ruth. She is part of the NoNaMee Fiber Artists She does everything: weaving, quilting, doll making, shoe making, wool felting, wool spinning. and more. She had I have a passion for green. Especially chartreuse.

Going back to the Fashion show this outfit was created by our amazing Anchorage Artist Mary Hertert, owner of Color Creek Studio. I have to show you more of this spectacular piece. Just wild with about twenty more yardage of fabric for one dress. It was like a Pompadour's Dress. . This one could be a beautiful wedding dress. Here is a close up of the work . There were so many other fantastic outfits. I will have to make another post with the rest of the show and photos of some of the outfit. Here is a very bad movie of the last part of the show.

Sariette

That is the title of my Alaska Fiber Festival outfit. La Sariette is an herb used in France. Not sure that there is a translation for it in English. Might be the same name for all I know. Anyway since the design is a little bit like an Indian Sari and that something is is smaller takes ette at the end.... It is Sariette! Especially because the theme of the AFF this year is Half Baked Alaska. That is only natural that it should have the name of a spice. So now take a look? It is only constructed out of linen vintage kitchen towels called Torchons in French. These torchons have never been washed or used and the long part is still uncut. Everything is put together with safety pins. I particularly like the hat. I might embellish the whole thing a bit. In the meantime I had fun tweaking the pictures and making them quite scary...... Never boring around here even when I am alone....ahhahaha. I am not even sure that I can still enter it but it was fun to do this morning. I had to do it. I will keep you posted.... literally. If you are bored....come over I'll take some pictures of you..ahahah

Snow. Yeap!

After few days of Spring we are back to the white decor that we are so used to in Alaska. I must say even after 12 years of living here I still like snow. Call me crazy, that would be ok since it is also a side effect of living in this part of the world. It is a mixed feeling as I do miss what is happening right now in the South of France but I do enjoy the sweet smell of fresh snow on a spring day. I believe that a little sunshine on the landscape with add to my well being but that would ask a bit too much. Anyway those few days were busy with the Alaska Fiber Festival. We had a nice Quilt Walk Downtown Anchorage. The galleries and few other stores were hosting Fiber Artists and Vintage Quilts, some as old as the Civil War. Virtu is carrying some of my quilts. They have done an exceptional job at hanging the show. The walls are chocolate color and it sets the pieces so well. Made me very proud to see them displayed that way. Anyway KC Lowe's wool artwearables are also on the spotlight as well as a gorgeous silk painted quilt by Wendy Wood-Smith and quilted by my friend Ruth Simpson. They also have as a regular Mary Hertert who has a solo show at Snow City Cafe this month with gorgeous installments representing "the" elements. Artique of course has "champion fiber artists" with Lucy Zerker's wool beauties, Nelda Warkentin and others that you can check looking online. Nancy Dobson and Deb Hardman are both at Sevigny Gallery. Their quilt colors are just perfect for the watercolors of Kathy Sevigny. How fun to be part of it all.
On the other hand the "Studio Project" is still going on with lots of frustration because I started painting cabinets and it is smelly and I will have to wait for the summer to do that outside. So now I have to hurry and finish before I take off for California, Arizona and Colorado. I will be gone 6 weeks starting this coming Tuesday. I am bringing some wool fabric to play with and hand dyed of course. Few books. Thinking of books I just finished "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. It was a very good book. I had to warm up to it as the first few pages were quite hard for me to like the characters. Things do build up so well and the story is grabbing you. Compassion comes and surprises come to get you interested in going on til the end. I had to pace myself in order to make the pleasure last. I could have read it in two days. So I do recommend this great read. Now on to another style with a Fred Vargas Mystery book "Have Mercy on us all" So far so good. I wish I could have gotten a copy in French as the translation is a bit heavy on the English words. Not flowing as well as I would like. It is translated by David Bellos... he is British. That might explain the style a bit stiffer and the idioms a bit off from what I am used to. I will try to stock on original Fred Vargas in my next trip to France. In the meantime I will learn a lot in this reading. Something new to me came in the mail yesterday. Something that I have bought from Japan. A Gocco PG5 printing machine. I am pretty happy about that. I might be able to do my own printed cards from now on. I will take my instructions with me on my trip and see what it is all about. I have seen lots of artists use it on Etsy, the online shop that I visit often. There is also good pod casts showing how to do it. So it is going to be good. Oh I can also print on fabric with a special ink and pad which I got too. ahha.
This weekend is promising with the Fiber Art Show at the Conoco Phillips building and the Fashion show at the Alaska Berry Company Theater.
No pictures this time. Let see if anyone is still interested in reading instead of just looking at pictures....ahhahhaha. Thhhhat is it for now! Oh... Lance Mackey won the Iditarod 2008. He is such a nice guy. His two leads dogs just adore him. So great. He won $69 000 plus a brand new Dodge Truck. Ole!

Evidence of Spring and other important events!

This was taken about a week ago in my yard.. Pussy Willows! Just love those. Even if it doesn't mean that we are getting warmer it means that things are on the move. The sap is coming up and so is the long days ahead. Fur Rendezvous finished this year with the Running of the Reindeer in downtown Anchorage. People had a blasts running in the streets along the caribous... a bit tricky when you can imagine the amount of ice in the streets. No one got hurt apparently.

Also ma Petite Gaia has turned a year old yesterday. Then there was the Iditarod send off on Saturday: http://www.iditarod.com/.A big event in Anchorage. Some interesting outfit always show up in this venue with wolf hats, hand sewed parkas, bear coats and more. Then I have few pictures of the hard workers of the Alaska Fiber Festival 2008 crew. They are avidly building a half baked kitchen......, ...., ........., This salmon is trying to escape from its fate....Australian Challenge Fabric Didgeridoos.... , Dolls posts....., Quilt Walk street signs.... . The real question is: Will it all be ready by Friday? Of course! Have no Fear! , , We are speeding out the process................ to be continued.