KEYS 4 ART DAY 4: GIRLS GONE WILD IN KEY WEST!

After two very intense days with Lynne Perrella, we were all ready for a little "down" time. We had never gone to Key West during Keys 4 Art because there was always so much to do that this year I really wanted there to be a field trip. So it was off to Key West on Thursday morning.

Everyone went except for Kathy and Lil, Linda and Jacquie . Kathy stayed behind to wait for the chipboard which had not arrived yet for her class the following day. Lil took the day off I think to just get away from everyone!! She lives - almost literally - in the North Pole and is not used to having so many people/noise all the time! Linda lives here in the Keys and was totally exhausted so stayed home to rest. My BFF Jacquie went to spend the day with her little boy Luca, who was on Spring Break and missing his mom. The remaining 13 of us piled into 3 cars and headed for Key West.

There is a little beach on the way to Key West called Anne's Beach. I love it there and wanted the girls to enjoy it so that was our first stop. Also a pitt stop for those of us who drink too much coffee!!!

Anne's Beach is a quiet getaway for the locals mostly.

Sue Young, Teri Flemal, Gina Goodling and Jennifer Rogers-Daniels

Jennifer Rogers-Daniels, Gina and Teri Flemal

Teri Flemal

The Gang!

We arrived at Key West at around 1:00 pm and everyone was starving!!! We went to Margaritaville on Duval Street and had their Cheeseburger in Paradise which is always delicious! Their Margaritas are pretty damned amazing too!

Gina found the LOST SHAKER OF SALT!!

Once our bellies were full and the Margarita's had relaxed us all, we took the trolley to see the sights of Key West.

These are some random pictures taken on our day in Key West.

There are so many great pictures of Key West that I really need to share a few more!

On the way home to Key Largo we stopped at a great restaurant in Islamorada called Lazy Days for their wonderful lobster sandwiches!! They only serve the lobster sandwich for lunch but the chef was nice enough to make us all one for dinner and everyone loved it!

If I had an award for best picture of the year, THIS one would be it!!! As we were leaving the restaurant Eileen was making fun of someone that was leaving - can't remember who or why - and I got her right in the midst of it!!! I have looked at his picture 20 times and still laugh out loud every time I see it!!! Eileen, you should really make this your blog picture!!! It is so YOU!!!! LOL!!!

FRIDAY!! The final day of Keys 4 Art 2012. A phenomenal day with my pal KATHY ORTA (FILES) from Paper Phenomenon. Kathy created a project for Keys4Art which would be the centerpiece of our Letter Love project!!! More on that tomorrow!

KEYS 4 ART DAY 2 AND 3 AND THE WONDERFUL LYNNE PERRELLA!!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful artists come teach at our little retreat! Last year we had Ingrid Dijkers whose art is just amazing and Julie Nutting who is not only a fabulous artist but a good friend of our group. This year????? Well....... READY FOR THIS?????? LYNNE PERRELLA!!!! WOO HOO!!! Yep!!! This wonderful artist agreed to come teach a two day workshop for Keys4Art 2012. Not only did she come teach, she actually stayed with us for the three nights that she was here. Not only is Lynne a fabulous artist, but she is the nicest - well COOLEST person I have met in a LONG time!! I had seen pictures of her and for some reason I had this image of a very serious... very, well... okay, I will admit it. I thought she would be stuffy and arrogant!! Boy was I surprised!!! She had just sat down in my car after arriving in Miami when she came out with a cuss word!!! GOTTA LOVE HER!!! She is fun and funny and just a pleasure to be around. She sat there talking to us about her vision of what art is or should be... about her life as an artist and her amazing work. She is articulate and intelligent and I could have sat there for hours just listening to her speak!! Every time we pulled out an image, she would not only recognize it, but give us the history on the image in order to put it into perspective for the art piece! This was my first class with Lynne and I hope to take many more. If you ever get a chance to take her class - jump on it. It will not only be a class - it will be an experience. I truly believe my art will change immensely after spending time with this amazing woman/artist! Lynne, Teri and I made it back from the airport just in time to eat Jacquie's wonderful paella!!! Welcome to So. Florida Lynne!!

Lynne is very hands on. She walked around the room constantly looking at everyone's work, giving advice and sitting down with us to show us different ideas and techniques. It is amazing how she was able to make such an impact. I know I will never do art quite the same again.

Everyone was so very excited to experiment with these wonderful new techniques!

Here is some of the amazing art work created! I should probably give each person the credit for their work but I do not have the patience to figure out whose is whose!!! You can also visit Val's Blog and Eileen's Blog. They have fabulous accounts of our retreat and are much more organized that I am!!! LOL!!! OOPS!!! Published too early!!! Here are the pictures!

These last two are mine and I have to admit I am very proud of them!!!

THANK YOU LYNNE!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!

THE KEYS4ART CREW!!! Now, I will end this post with some more smiling faces from Keys4Art 2012:

Linda Davis - Key Largo, Florida

Gina Goodling - Portland, Oregon

Marita Kovalik - Portland, Oregon

Jennifer Rogers-Daniels - California

Daisy Cooper - Cypress Hill, Florida

Sue Young - Ohio

Yours Truly - Key Largo, Florida COME BACK TOMORROW FOR OUR NEXT INSTALLMENT: KEYS4ART GIRLS GONE WILD IN KEY WEST!!!

KEYS 4 ART 2012!!!

I got home and had to decide between organizing this house after the hurricane which was KEYS 4 ART 2012 or blogging about it. The fact that you are reading this sort of indicates which direction THAT decision took!!!

So, on Sunday, March 11, 2012 commenced our THIRD annual Keys 4 Art retreat! This year we had two wonderful instructors, the fabulous LYNNE PERELLA and the amazing and lovable KATHY FILES of Paper Phenomenon who created an AMAZING project just for us!!! (The kit is now on sale on her blog!)

The ladies arrived on Saturday at the 11th starting at 11:30 am at Miami International Airport. We met at Chilis at MIA to wait for the others. They straggled in until 5:00 pm so needless to say, we ate, drank and laughed for hours at the airport!

I sent the ladies off in a transport van to Key Largo that afternoon and waited for Val (Brincheck) and Jen (Rogers- Daniels) to arrive and we were OFF!!!

Let the retreat BEGIN!!!

We had a late dinner and just got organized. The ladies that stayed in my house slept on air mattresses; 3 slept in the motor coach and the rest went with Jacquie (Valdespino) to a "beach house" lent to us by a very sweet man who is a good friend of Jacquie's and who has lent us his home two years in a row! We absolutely LOVE him! LOL!!!

Everyone received a beautiful tote bag with KEYS 4 ART engraved on it. These were purchased by Jacquie and are just fantastic. I decided that since this has become an annual event, I would make patches for each year with our logo for that year to attach to the bag. Everyone really loved their bags!!! Everyone received a 2012 patch and I will be sending out the 2010 and 2011 patches to those who attended that year! (Are we like the Girl Scouts or WHAT???).

This is a picture of our tote bag:

Inside each of the tote bags were tons and tons of goodies! I am not going to list everything that came in the tote bags but believe me when I tell you that everyone was quite happy! I will show things throughout the week and give credit where credit is due!


MONDAY 3/12/2012

This was our setup at my house:

I was a little concerned as this year was our biggest group (17)! Next year will be a little smaller and I am going to try to keep it to 15 or less every year from now on! Too much!!! LOL!

On Monday we just worked on our postcard project. This is a picture of my postcard book:

Eileen (Bellomo) had this wonderful idea about doing this project. We usually give each other handmade gifts when we meet for Keys4Art but Eileen suggested that this year, instead of going through that stress, we each make a postcard depicting where we are from with a picture of ourselves on the postcard. I had just returned from Cuba and took advantage of the trip to take a wonderful picture in Viñales which I attached to my post card. Everyone did some really great postcards!

These are a couple of the postcards in our books:

The mermaids are from Daisy Cooper (Spring Hill, Florida); the flour delis is from Karen Trabor from Louisiana and the most creative postcard was from Val from Michigan!

That evening Jacquie invited us all to eat her unbelievable paella!!!

Does this not make you want to jump through the screen? And YES it tasted as delicious as it looked!!! Everyone helped Jacquie cut up the ingredients to put into this MASSIVE paella pot while I went to the airport with Teri to pick up the ultra-fabulous LYNNE PERRELLA!!!!

Even my husband Bernie got into the groove of things and helped Jacquie with the condiments!

Thank you my sweet friend Jacquie for your wonderful paella!!!

TOMORROW!! Our first day of class with the uber-fabulous Lynne Perrella!!!

Meanwhile, enjoy the smiling faces of some of the Keys4Art crew!!!

Teri Flemal, Eileen Bellomo and Pat Tillery - better known as the New York Tri-Fecta!!! These are the greatest ladies you could ever meet!

Jacquie Valdespino - Coral Gables, Florida. My BFF and my Keys 4 Art cohort!!!

Lillian Mederak - from Way-the-hell-up-there Canada!!! She comes every year to thaw out!!!

Hello everyone!!!

Wow!!! It has been NUTS!!! I returned from Cuba on Sunday, March 4th, 2011 was in Court the entire following week and Keys 4 Art started on Sunday, March 11th!!!

Have tons of picture to share!!! Will be back to report on all the events of the past month!