Turns out we have internet at our place afterall. I’m not sure I would’ve survived an entire week without it. Maybe I need to get counseling for my addiction. I’ve been thrilled with the fantastic posts and projects that have been shared! They’re all wonderful.

Remember I told you about the artwork I made for Kirtsy’s Voices of the Year Gala? Well, it’s now up for auction. It’s been up for a while, but I didn’t know about it. Now there’s 1 more day left to snatch it up! The bidding starts at $25, a steal of a deal if you ask me. Also, all proceeds go to The Nature Conservancy to help clean up the Gulf.

CLICK HERE TO SEE & BID ON MY ART
(the photos on the listing are so unfortunate, aren’t they?)

The first two days were spent being crazy, crazy; prepping for the SocialLuxe party. We all worked so hard to get everything perfect for the big event. Can you believe these swag bags?! They were completely stuffed with the most amazing things. Chris was pretty happy to find out that I was coming home with another pair of skull candy headphones.

{Survival kit photos courtesy of She Posts}

The Avery survival kits were a big hit at the party. I had the privilege to work with Avery & design the labels for the kit. I can’t tell you how handy these kits were & how wonderful Avery is. The bandaids, hand sanitizer & Starbucks gift card definitely saved me!

Friday I spent half the day touring private designer showrooms with 31 other bloggers with Shop At Home. Thanks to them, I went home with some fabulous shoes & a yummy scarf that’s getting me all excited for fall(I’ll share pics later). After my little shopping spree I got pampered yet again at the Getting Gorgeous party & met up with some really fantastic bloggers & sweet brands.

Friday evening I helped out with the Kirtsy Gala by painting inspiring words on people. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of what I did. If anyone has any, would you send them my way? Pretty Please? I’d like that. In addition to the body art, I participated in the art gala by donating a piece to the show. I’ve been dying to share it with you & now that the party is over, I can! I was assigned to read & create something in reaction to this epic post. You better believe I was sobbing after reading it.

I wasn’t quite sure how I could do any justice to this post. It was a pretty tough assignment. I finally took inspiration from an ad on the sidebar & made a little piece about that. I’m not sure I’ve done any justice to the author or her story, but it was an honor to work on this project & so great to have an excuse to break out my watercolors.

This trip was exhausting, but absolutely worth it. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to survive the big apple without my friends & family looking out for me!! My mother-in-law drove 11 hours up to SLC to spend time with Penelope & Chris. My mom met me in New York & helped me survive by making sure I had enough food!! Moms are the best.

Did you go to BlogHer? I’m not sure where to find all the BlogHer recap posts, so if you’ve written one, please include the link in the comments! I’d love to read all about your experience.

That’s gotta change. I’m working on a couple of artsy fartsy projects that will give me the kick in the pants I need to clean the dust off my art supplies. This is what I did yesterday. Penelope colored the pages and I embellished them with a little fish motif. Did you know that I like fish? Koi especially. They’re beautiful.

Did you have a good weekend? What did you do?

Here we all are having a serious moment. Andy (middle) taught the silkscreening classes which I so stupidly missed. He’s really cool.

Being able to participate in Nicole’s Art weekend was so much fun! The last bookbinding class I taught was nearly a year ago, so it was great to get back into sharing the addiction. In two classes we bound nearly 30 books! I was so impressed with how well all everyone did. Sadly I didn’t get a photo of a single one of their books. Oops.

Alma, one of cool art weekend teachers (and one of my dear friends) gave me a super rad flower brooch. She teaches fabulous illustrator classes, designs beautiful repeat patterns and sews these fabulous felt pins (among other things). Check out her etsy shop here. Her husband taught the photoshop & workflow classes (which I heard were great) and their baby. Oh. Their baby taught the how to melt everyone’s heart class. He’s very cute. very.

I had the pleasure to Audit Nicole Hill Gerulat’s Tabletop photography class. I learned all sorts of cool tips and tricks to get better photos. Nicole convinced me that I need to start shooting manual and focusing manual. I learned a lot more about photography that way.

We were in such a dark room for this, but look at how the coke can was lit! Nicole is very impressive with her lighting abilities. She’s also very nice and one of my favorite photographers. You should take her classes.

These photos I took with my lensbaby because my regular zoom lens is an embarrassing piece of j-u-n-k that stopped focusing that afternoon. Now I’m getting a new zoom lens, can’t wait to get it in the mail!

I had a great weekend, it was so packed with creative time I just crashed on Sunday. I’m still trying to catch up on my sleep. It was a pleasure to meet and hang out with everyone at art weekend. I surely hope it’s not my last!

Gajin Fujita

Robert Longo (who inspired THIS cool music video) & Chuck Close

Cornelia Parker

Alexander Calder & Josiah McElheny

Medieval Fashion Exhibit (my personal favorite)

We went to the Phoenix Art Museum last week with some hip new friends, Angela & Clint, who we met through blog “lurking”. Our social life owes a lot to the internet, seriously! We had a great time getting to know each other and I loved seeing new artists and some that I’d only experienced through text books. It truly was remarkable to see a Chuck Close in person. I also let out a huge squeal when I saw Deborah Butterfield’s and Josiah McElheny’s work on display.

From left: Inside Out and I Miss the Idea of You

I’ve been doing a lot of yoga and I miss San Francisco terribly, so naturally the above two prints are my favorite. You should check out the Weather Girl shop, you’ll likely find something you can’t live without!!

Be the first to comment! Add to delicious ]]> http://melissaesplin.com/home/2009/06/welcome-welcome-weather-girl/feed/ 0 http://melissaesplin.com/home/2009/05/earth-day-winner-5-lets-picnic/ http://melissaesplin.com/home/2009/05/earth-day-winner-5-lets-picnic/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 21:21:08 +0000 Melissa http://melissaesplin.com/home/?p=1297 Here’s a little info about our fifth winner, Brooke:

Favorite colors: yellow, but I also like green, orange and blue

Interests: I like doing things outdoors, especially if they involve the water. I also enjoy traveling, cooking, and sunshine.

Something that makes me, me: Hm. I love to laugh and to make others laugh, even if its poking fun at myself. :D

It’s funny, I had such a hard time coming up with something for Brooke, and we have so much in common! It was so good to spend so much time brainstorming ideas, though. I’m a little embarrassed it took me until this morning to figure out something that I could do that could be unique and fun and easy to ship. I have this huge pile of small paintings next to our computer, and I thought that it would be great to reuse them somehow, and here they are, as napkin rings.

I just took a couple of old paintings, ripped them in half (2.5″ x 7″) and added a snap! This way the rings can be shipped (or stored) flat and securly fastened together when in use. Perfect for a casual picnic in the park or at the pool (but maybe not too close to the water ;) ).

Here are the two paintings that gave their lives all for the sake of picnicking. I think I’m going to do this napkin ring thing again. Seriously. This idea would have come in handy for Penelope’s party. Too bad it took me this long to think it up!

I’ve been on a pen & ink fix right now. I’ve been hand lettering and drawing every chance I get thanks to the inspiration from my friend and this talented lady. My brother-in-law thinks this looks like a squid of some sort, I agree. It does remind me of being under water. I’m really happy how it turned out. I also wanted to do something a little different, and started drawing leaves. I like how it turned out, I’m going to leave the drawing as-is and turn it into a pattern. I’m also on a pattern kick right now, too.