Vermont Art Retreat

 

For years I've been wanting to attend "Meleen and Charlotte's Vermont Getaway" in Arlington, Vermont.  It's an art retreat that happens twice a year with several attendees from all over the country. Many have attended several times so sweet relationships have been built over the years.  I had a few of these ladies as Instagram friends, but we had never met in person.  I managed to make it happen this year and during October seemed the ideal time to visit Vermont.  It was a rainy week, which gave it a subtle, moody feel all it's own.  We managed to have one afternoon of sunshine, so any photos you see were during Friday afternoon.

 I flew in on Wednesday, because you can't get to Vermont by noon from Texas, just so you know.  A sweet friend picked two of us up at the airport in Albany, New York, and drove us into Vermont.  They were much obliged to stop and let me get out in the rain to take pictures of the covered bridges.

Warm Brook Barn is a lovely spot where the retreat is held. There are two houses and a new event barn. It is filled with beautiful antiques and warm hospitality. Meleen is the most generous and gracious hostess who served us delicious meals three times a day. She uses her vintage china, silver and antique serving pieces.  

We all bring a gift for each other.  Some are simple, others are extravagant. Robin brings a bouquet of flowers for EVERY participant from her abundant garden in Massachusetts. I'd love to see the garden in person. They included Dahlias, zinnias, forget me nots and cosmos.  

Delicious soup and salad for lunch.  

Breakfast was steel cut oats, fresh fruit, yogurt and cinnamon rolls.  

 Swag bags met us in the barn workroom.

I only took a picture of Becca's embroidery at it's beginning stages.  

The variety and creativity that everyone used on theirs was fun to see. 

Our Friday morning session with Rebecca Sower was acrylic painting using the flower bouquets as inspiration. Everyone struggled as almost all of us were new to painting. With Rebecca's patient help, many of us actually liked the final products. As with anything, practice makes perfect. You can see how different everyone's turned out.  I definitely have my favorites.  

 Friday afternoon we headed out for a field trip to Studio Hill Farm. 

This little building at the top of the hill was the owner's grandfather's studio. 

It still held old drawing tables and a rustic stone fireplace.

As you can tell, the sheep were highly entertaining.  

 Studio Hill has an Airbnb that is very popular in case you're interested in heading to Vermont.

I met Lauri who lives in the Kansas City area.  She and I have an unbelievable number of things in common.  It was so fun to discover the similarities. We will definitely be connecting again when I move back in the area.  

Saturday morning we went to town to visit area tag sales. We went to the Dorset Church sale which was very fun and crowded. I bought two small copper skillets for $15, and this pretty little pin for .25.

Later in the afternoon we dyed a bunch of things in the indigo dye pot.  

The sun came out and gave us quite a show with this gorgeous rainbow. It was actually a double rainbow, but you can't see it in these photos.  

  

We had another session Saturday where we drew landscapes with pastels. You'll notice that there is no picture of my piece. For good reason. We finished up on Sunday morning. There were lots of hugs and goodbyes. On the way back to Albany we stopped by Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center. Which is huge and fabulous, by the way. This is getting too long, so I'll show you next time what I made for everyone.  They loved them.  

I know you've done this.

I know you've done this.  We've done it too.  Many Japanese who live by us have never seen some of the things I've seen in this last year and a half.  I remember when we lived in Southeast Texas many, many years ago.  It was our first move away from home and we thought we'd be there about two years.  Nine months later my husband was given a promotion and we would be moving to South Dakota. We had two weeks. It was a huge wake up call.  We hadn't done a thing in the area.  We hadn't driven around to see Galveston, we hadn't driven to Houston.  We had just set up house and gone about our business.  Often it takes having company to go see interesting things around your home.  Stop that, right now!  Enjoy where you live.  Take the time to investigate all it has to offer.  Go on day trips in your local area.  Check out the parks, museums, events and even the aquarium!

My friend took me to the aquarium in Nagoya in January.  You may have seen some of the photos on Facebook or Instagram.  It's super hard to narrow it down here.  I think I almost love the people, especially children, more than the actually sea animals.  Take the little tour in no particular order. 

 This is a new one for me.

 "who are you looking at?"

 Play ball!

 "ichi, ni, san, chizu"

 You just never know what you'll see!

Lesson learned. I'm heading out Wednesday for hopefully an amazing location.  I'll keep you posted! 

"Matane"

Takayama Weekend

Since it's almost the end of August, maybe I should catch you up a little on July? What do you think? We had the wonderful privilege of being invited to Takayama by our Japanese sensei (teacher) and her husband.  He is an lead architect for his firm and the company recently restored an old style Japanese home.  They use it mainly for business groups.  It was rebuilt very modern inside and the details were stunning.  I may have to do this in two posts because we got to do some fun sightseeing as well.  

 A river runs through it.  ;-)

We got there barely in time to visit the morning market.  

This little lady mixes up the spices to your request.  I admit that I haven't tried mine yet.  

I'm pretty sure that the bright red is chili powder.  

 This sweet family was getting a custom mix.

Busy holiday shoppers.

I couldn't believe how this guy was parked.  Parking is a premium in Japan.  He evidently wanted to park close to home and hopefully had some assistance.  If you look closely you will see that he is straddling a narrow, but deep drainage canal.  

This is the front of the "villa" we stayed in. 

Most shops, restaurants, and some homes have these curtains that hang in the doorways. They are called Noren and are used sort of like screens.  Here's some information on them.

 My favorite part was the back garden.

This was our bedroom.  We had singles, but all the rooms did, so it was fine. 

It is used for company events so it makes sense.

On the other side of our beds was this desk that was the length of the room.  It was down low, but there was space for your legs.  It was a nice workspace.  Great for putting on makeup with that natural light coming in.  ;-)

One of my other favorite spots was the back of the house where you could sit and enjoy the garden view.  The floors were designed to look like faux wood grain. 

 This is the main eating/lounging area.  Fortunately under this table is an area for your feet.  That was a relief to us Westerners.  You can see on the left the cut through to the kitchen.  You make tea in the middle of the table and underneath those boxes are heating units for grilling, I believe.

More gorgeous floor details.  Faux wood surrounding real wood.

Another friend joined us for the weekend and we ate some delicious meals.

 The front entry of the home. These walls were concrete with a gorgeous wood floor.

 The detail on this piece was amazing.  The glass had been "etched" somehow with fabric from an obi.  It was hung with a hand forged piece of iron on a concrete wall.  You can see some other fiber in the glass on the right of the wall.

 Here was another hand forged shelf in a little alcove.  

The flower was a little spent, but the idea was fabulous!

 The walls on the left were new, the ones on the right were original.

Very difficult to photograph all the amazing details of this house.

Kitchen

I actually got a picture of the streets of Takayama when they were empty.  It was later in the evening and everyone was probably eating dinner or had gone home.  It's lined with traditional style houses that are mainly used as shops and restaurants now.

Night!