Sunshine, Inspiration, and Good Finds

Ah. What a fantabulous day it's been. I had the day off from work and decided to take a nice day-jaunt over to Port Townsend, which is about 45 mins. from where I live (and about 3 or so hours away from Seattle). I *love* that town. You know how some towns for some unknown reason seem to have stumbled upon a time warp and you swear it's 1964? Yeah, this is one of those. So slow, old, vintagey, and inspirational. Whenever I need a boost of creativity, I head over there.

So, that's what I did today.

Spent about 45 mins at the PT Goodwill (by far one of my favorites, I always find something there) and snagged 2 old hardcover novels with wonderfully aged canvas covers that I hope to paint on sometime, one softcover novel to read once I'm done with my current book, and 2 large cuts of nice eclectic fabric. One is just a nice navy cotton while the other is some ultra strange nautical print cotton (and it's super thin--the best kind!). I see a cool layered skirt coming this summer...

After the shopping outing, I went to the local grocer, bought a banana and a most delicious turkey/cheese/pesto panini (by far the best I've had--and I've been to Italy) and spent another 40 mins at the beach by myself. Eating, reading, and feeding the cute seagull that hung out with me nearby. All-in-all an absolutely terrific day.

Also finished some paintings this week. After a long struggle, I'm quite taken with the deep sea tube worms. I had some serious doubts about that one, but I feel much better now that I see it all finished and aged and glazed.

I'm doing a bunch of miniature paintings for the series as well to spruce it up a bit (I'm goin' for a kind of sweetshop-meets-strange-nature sort of vibe). So here's three so far.

Yea for chocolates! So sorry about the insanely blurry image (this is what happens when you're too lazy to break out the tripod...). Each one is extremely small, measuring just a little over 2" high. I think I'll also do some jellybean ones and some peppermint birds...

Well, I'm off to enjoy the sunshine in the backyard. I have a few more goodies for ye ol' shop, but just need to work up the motivation to varnish and photograph them. It appears that my brain seems to be stuck in painting-mode, thus the current lack of listed items for sale. But fear not! More are a'comin...