HELLO EVERYONE.... THANKS FOR VISITING!

I've gotten so many wonderful emails from everyone! I am glad you are enjoying the blogging about our retreat!

Well, I got an email today that my iPad will be shipped on the 5th!! Woo HOO!!! Can't wait to get my new toy! Do I NEED an iPad considering I have every other gadget in the world? Of course not! But NEED has nothing - absolutely nothing - to do with it! I WANT it!!! Anyway, I'm hoping it lives up to the hype!! I love anything Apple so I expect that it will.

Where were we regarding the retreat? Oh yea, Day 3.

Well I'm going to give you a very condensed version of day 3 (Friday) and 4 (Saturday) because if I were to tell you all that we did, all the wonderful experiences we had, everything we learned from each other you would get sick of reading it! So here goes.

Friday we all got up early (not as early as Eileen and Val!!!!). Jacquie brought us TONS of wonderful Cuban pastries from Miami (guava, cheese, guava and cheese, coconut, meat) tons of "croquetas"and "papa rellenas" and we STUFFED OUR FACES with them all morning! The sugar from the pastries and the caffeine from both the pots of American and Cuban coffee circulating all day had us bouncing off walls!





Jennifer Rogers-Daniels who makes these gorgeous faces I ADORE gave a class in drawing these faces. I HAVE to practice!!! Jen was just amazing and I am so glad I got to meet her personally!

This is a painting that Jen brought for me as a gift!!! I LOVE it!



Then we did a class with polymer clay... LOVE THE STUFF!!! Picked up some cool tricks I didn't know and some tips that will make for some wonderful polymer projects. Sue Young - a beautiful person inside and out - brought us each this beautiful polymer clay tile that says Sisters of the HeART that she made with the polymer clay that is wonderful.

Here it is. Isn't it beautiful?



We ordered Cubanito sandwich platters which were wonderful and between that, the pastries and the exciting day, we decided not to go out that night. Too darned tired!!! Jen and Juliet did go with my daughter in law to a party that we were all invited to and got thrown in the pool! I WARNED THEM!!! Parties in the Keys are... well.... parties in the Keys!

So we all went to bed relatively early Friday night (about 11!!) as everyone was really REALLY exhausted! We woke up Saturday morning to... you guessed it!..... more coffee!!! Cuban ... American.... caffeine was the important thing! Had some bagels and fruit and started cranking again on our projects. The girls wanted to learn a very easy VERY easy technique to bind journals. Because I had bought enough rosin paper to wall paper the city we decided to make them out of rosin paper. That way we can use these journals to play with Eileen's technique. Everyone made a journal and were really excited at the results and how easy they are to put together.

Now it was time to take a break from the art and play. Lillian, Patty and Linda decided to stay in the house to continue with what they were doing; Jacquie was back in Miami because it was her birthday on Sunday and she wanted to spend time with her baby and her husband (don't you hate it when life gets in the way of art????). The rest of us all wore our beautiful t-shirts with the Keys 4 Art logo (looked like a strange elderly girl scout troop!!!) and went back to Marlin's for a "snack". We also took one of Manny's (the owner) key lime pies home for later!!!!



My husband grills baby back ribs at the Marlin on Saturdays and the girls all enjoyed a "snack"!!!




Manny (owner of the Marlin), my husband Bernie and I.



Gina, yours truly and Jen.




Our "SNACK".



Juliet and Sue.




Gina got to dancing cumbia at Marlins' with the waitress!! You go girl!

From there we went to a local outside bar called MARLEY'S and had a few drinks while we were there. Marley's is always busy, has live music and a great view!
















We spent a little time at Marley's and from there went to the Big Chill. A restaurant on the water with a very cool outside bar. We spent a while there having our MANGO MOJITOS (which are AMAZING), conch fritters, calamari and dip and just talking and relaxing after a very busy few days. My husband joined us later in the evening and we just sat around and chatted. Eileen picked up the tab for us!!! THANK YOU EILEEN!!!

These are some pictures taken at The Big Chill:

Relaxing and drinking our Mango Mojitos!



My husband and I exhausted at the end of the evening.



I wanted everyone to see our beautiful sunset but the weather would not cooperate!



Lounging and feeling relaxed.... Gina, Jen and I.



A "Miss America" wave from Juliet!



Just relaxing!



Marita and Sue




As the sun went down in Key Largo, I think everyone was a little sad to see it end. Yes we were tired (exhausted actually), yes, we all had real lives to go home to... but the friendships that had already existed were solidified and strengthened by our time together and I for one will miss all my new BFFs!








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LONG LONG DAY TODAY!

TOO TIRED TO POST ANYTHING, BUT EILEEN - ONE OF THE LADIES I ABSOLUTELY ADORE - HAS A VERY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF DAY 2 ON HER BLOG.

DON'T MISS IT!!! SHE'S A HOOT!!! LOVE YOU EILEEN!!!

KEYS 4 ART DAY TWO!! (Thursday)

Sorry about missing a day yesterday.... it was Lillian's last day here (she stayed an extra 2 days) and there was lots of shopping and playing to do!

So where was I.... oh yea... after that wonderful meal on Wednesday night, we came to my house here in Key Largo. There was alot of hugging and talk and laughter. Everyone was given a place to sleep and the house finally quieted down about 1:30 or so. The next morning everyone was up early! Can you believe it???? I am soooooo not a morning person but I was so excited I jumped out of bed at 8:00 am and everyone was already having coffee and bagels and waiting to start the day.



This is proof that everything was nice and neat when my buddies got here!

The morning began with our prepping paper for Eileen's class that afternoon. Eileen taught us a technique she learned from Lynn Perella and is my favorite technique at the moment!!! I will show you our pictures in a minute.....

Once our papers were prepped we began with the project Val Brincheck brought for us. A beautiful little memento journal with our retreat logo. We spent the morning doing this and it was so much fun. Val is unbelievably talented and showed us some really awesome techniques which I will figure out how to link to later!

In the afternoon we all did our Lynn Perella project with Eileen. It was so much fun! The painting is done on rosin paper (the paper that is used for construction! Who knew?!) and everyone really got psyched.







The artwork that came from this project was phenomenal!







THESE ARE FIVE OF THE 11 WONDERFUL ARTISTS I HAD THE HONOR OF HOSTING IN MY HOME:

VALERIE BRINCHECK (Michigan)



LILLIAN MEDERAK (Canada)



JACQUIE VALDESPINO (Coral Gables, Florida)




MARITA KOVALIK (Oregon)




EILEEN BELLOMO (New York)




We were pretty exhausted by dinner time and went to Marlin's Restaurant (a wonderful Cuban restaurant about a mile from my house) for dinner. Manny, the owner and a friend, treated everyone to dinner and brought out platter after platter of all types of Cuban food for everyone to try. (I have already warned them ALL that they can not call and blame me if their clothes shrink!!!).






I can't even START to tell you how much Cuban coffee everyone drank!!!!

We ended the night with Marlin's Key Lime Pie (hands down the best Key Lime Pie I've ever had) and everyone raved about it!!! Now we have a full stomach of heavy Cuban food, a sugar fix with the Key Lime Pie and gasoline with the Cuban coffee!!! We came back to the house and the night ended at around 2:00 am for the last of us up!

STAY TUNED FOR FRIDAY: DAY 3!!!

KEYS 4 ART DAY ONE!!!

Gina posed for Vogue on Miami Beach!!



We had a wonderful meal at Versailles Restaurant, a five start Cuban restaurant in Miami thanks to Jacquie!!!




We were serenaded by Spanish musicians before heading down to Key Largo!



VERSAILLES WAS SO MUCH FUN! THANK YOU JACQUIE!!! I LOVE YOU GIRLFRIEND!

KEYS 4 ART

WOW!!! What a wonderful WONDERFUL event we had! I have been so looking forward to this for so long! You know how it is, you look so forward to something and sometimes it just doesn't live up to your expectations but this lived up to and BEYOND my expectations!!! Everyone had their own beach bag with goodies inside and they all came bearing gifts!! So much to talk about!

I had contacted Mario to invite him and Tim to stop by and visit us but it was a long shot!!! Those two are not only way too famous for Key Largo but way too BUSY!! Mario did send some goodies for everyone though and all the girls appreciated it so very much! He is such a wonderful, generous man that it's a pleasure to call him a friend. Anyway I will see Mario in October on our cruise so it's all good!

From left to right on the balcony picture we have: Jacquie Valdespino, Sue Young, Marita Kovalik, Linda Davis, Juliet Arrighi, Eileen Bellomo, Jennifer Daniels, Patty Hogan, Valerie Brincheck, Elena Vigil-Farinas, Gina Goodling and Lillian Mederak!!!

We had an incredible time! It started with Val coming in a day early (Tuesday) which was amazing because I got her all to myself for a night!!! Then on Wednesday morning, Jacquie picked up Lillian (Canada), Gina and Marita (Oregon) who flew in early morning. She took them to her apartment on the beach and gave them a beach tour! I picked up the afternoon arrivals, Sue (Illinois), Jen (California) and Eileen (New York).

From the airport we went to dinner at Versailles Restaurant (a five star Cuban Restaurant in Miami) where Jacquie treated us all to a wonderful WONDERFUL dinner! We had the spanish equivalent of Mariachis singing to us and it was just wonderful. From there we came to the Keys (about an hour and half away) and everyone found their "nests" and got ready for the rest of the weekend!

I have TONS of wonderful pictures of that first day that I hope you will all enjoy! I will post them later when Blogger is in a better mood since it's not letting me upload right now!

MY NEW STUDIO and other STUFF!

My new studio is up and running!!! Woo HOO!!! Took me two weeks to put everything away. TWO WEEKS!! I will admit to you - though NEVER to my husband - that I really had no idea I had so much of, well, EVERYTHING. I mean, hell, I'm not blind... I saw that i had a lot of art supplies but I never really realized the EXTENT of my addiction until I had to take it all out and put it all back together again! I only have to put up the curtains now and I will be done. I will post pictures so you guys can see how awesome it looks!

THE KEYS FOR ART 2010!! Next week!! I am so excited about having all these wonderful ladies in my house for 3 days! I foresee a lot of fun, laughter and art! There are SO many things we all want to do that I am not sure there will be time to bathe, eat or sleep but we will figure that out as we go along! Val Brincheck flies in on Tuesday and the rest of the ladies on Wednesday. We are going for a tour of South Beach on Wednesday evening and then dinner at Versailles, one of MIami's best Cuban restaurants. From there it's down to the Keys!! Friday night my brother is hosting a pool party for us. So much to do ..... so little time! Of course I will post pictures and i am sure that the others will post pictures on their blogs as well!

Back tomorrow with some pictures!