Sketchbookery Begins

Got around to working on a few things for the class.  I cannot believe that in all the years I have done art of some kind, this is the very first time I ever made a color wheel. I kept dropping my brush, hence the smears here and there!

 

 First blind contour drawing, done in an old calendar book over gesso, so it's pretty pale, hard to draw over gesso.  Of course I did that because I was afraid to start out on my w.c. paper.  Duh!  And the background is so messy, but decided to show anyhow since it is the first time attempt.

 

 

Other blind contours. On the one of the husband I think I may have glanced back at the paper once.  Got a good laugh out of these.

Summer Hibernation and Taking a Class

Welcome to Summer and my annual "hibernation" period.  I am making ready to stay inside as much as possible during July and August.  So here's the routine.  Out in the early a.m. to run errands and maybe sit in the garden for awhile.  By the time it is getting really hot, I'm inside, puttering around in the art room or doing some stitching.  Maybe some reading.  Anyhow...after sunset I may creep outside again, to visit with the neighbors or go hear some music someplace. Yes, that is how I plan my summers, here in Texas...where we say "yes we really do live on the face of the Sun". 

Artfully, I have not done a lot the past few months.  So I took the opportunity to sign up for a new class from Mary Ann Moss.  SKETCHBOOKERY   The class starts on Tuesday July 1st.  I have been reorganizing my work space so I have room to leave everything out and really concentrate on this.

More From Anthropologie

My last two store visits.  One in Boise, Idaho, the other in Austin, TX.  Both sometime in May.  Not necessarily in order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Botany Lesson

And the name of that plant is....drum roll.... ACANTHUS MOLLIS . The reason I mentioned it was a serendipitous moment, is the very evening I came home from seeing this plant in San Antonio, I checked in with one of my favorite local blogs, and saw a link on their site that sounded good... I'd never been to the site before. Vive Verde  so I clicked on it and there the plant was! It was on a list of strange plants.  Definitely going to put this one on a list of things I'd like to try somewhere. I appears it can be invasive in some climates. so would have to keep an eye on it. I don't think it would do well in Idaho, at least over the winter, so will have to plant it in Texas.

Road Trip to San Antonio

Wow, long time no stopping by, huh?  This had become my place to post Anthropologie photos for quite some time. I have still been going to Anthropologie, just not posting here.  I have  been putting them in my Flickr and the group I love Anthropologie.

Anyhow, took a road trip to San Antonio over the week-end for a wedding.  On Sunday before heading back to Austin, we went to the La Cantera mall for a visit to the Antropologie store there.

Entrance to the store

Balloon display from inside looking out towards mall.

 

We saw this gorgeous plant when we first came  in, there were several used as part of their display.  We asked an employee if she knew the name of it.  She sent over Chelsea, who offered to see if she could find out what it was.  She came back with several names of what it could be, but not quite.

Beautiful huge leaves

 

close-up of blooms



The lovely and helpful Chelsea. 
 



We had a very nice visit with Chelsea. I noticed her pear necklace right away. She collects them, as do I, so we talked about that, along with mine and hubbys' admiration for all things Anthropologie, and our travels and visits to all the Anthro stores.

 

 

A few shots of displays.  Notice how I am always drawn to the green and blue?

bamboo and reeds/cattails?

Giant clock display behind one of the desks

A few green ceramics

Mirrors hung from bamboo rod supported with metal hardware

The mirror I have

Lamp with rope base

 

Patient hubby

Check back for my next post regarding the Serendipity of my finding out the name of the mysterious plant above.  Since it has taken me all week to get this post done, I need to save the plant story for another post.

Little White Houses

Well, here are the last of the little white houses, the ones inspired by the Isle of Santorini.  This very small Anthropologie store in Boise, Idaho is fast becoming one of my favorite Anthropologies.   Boise is my old home town, and will hopefully, sooner than later, become my once again, where I live town.

From across the street.  This is in an old building in downtown Boise.

 

Some up, some down. With me, and other things, reflected.

 

 

Side view from inside the store.


A couple other shots from this store.

Rabbit and Deer ceramics.  I really liked both, but did not buy.  Just took a photo.

Me and the rearranged alphabet cups.

Remember the wall of mirrors from the last post, the store in St.Charles?  Well, Hubby bought me this one, with the braided rope strap, for my birthday.  He wants us to try and repeat this installation at home. Hopefully on a smaller scale.  Most of the mirrors I already have are square or rectangle, but I do have a couple of round ones, now this one.   I suppose this will start a quest to obtain a few more round ones.  I really like those hooks they have them hanging from as well.

That's it for Anthropologie for awhile. I suppose their next window displays will be for the Holidays.  Hopefully, I will get the call to come and help build the elements.

The Windows of Anthropologie

These may all look the same to some people, but I can tell the variations, using the same supplies, and I am always intrigued by it.

This store is just a few miles from the hotel we have stayed at the past few years, in St. Charles. We have been to this store before.  It is a big square building, rather plain looking from outside, but has a huge skylight in the middle of the store so the lighting is fantastic.  It's one of my favorite locations to visit.

Here they did not stack them, just kind of marched them across the expanse of the windows, all white, no blue roofs, and some white outlines on the blue backdrop.

A few displays from inside. Bedframe made of paperback books.

I'd seen this wall of canvas alphabets before, but not where they had extended the scene onto the actual wall.  It looked really great.

 We usually buy one drawer pull when we travel, but these were on sale so we chose 4. I could have gotten at least 10!

I find this appealing where they stacked and hung these mirrors.  Probably would just look junky if one tried it at home.  Besides, I don't have nearly that many mirrors.

 

 

 

Downtown Chicago. Store on State Street. Front window.  It was hard to get a good photo of the houses because of the constant foot traffic, and the reflection from traffic and across the street.  I like that the flags on the building across the street are reflected, plus look at the entrance to the subway right in the center of the photo.

Looking across the street at the building that houses Anthropologie, you can see the second story windows.

 From the second floor looking back across the street. In the bottom left is the restaurant we had lunch at.  Every single item on the menu had "eggs" and none of it sounded too appealing to me.  I settled on a poached egg in a nest...which was spinach and it had a really nice dressing, and some very good croutons. Hubby had some kind of "Texas" hash with cornbread, and poached egg.  The waiter seemed thrilled that he liked it, since we were from Texas.  Both our meals were good, but we remarked later that we enjoyed the décor and watching the people more than the food. Always good to try new places though.

 

 

Inside this store, I didn't see anything that was much different than the other stores. The displays were nice , and the employees were extremely sweet to us.  They did not have a bed with books around it, but had these suspended shelves full of books, and sculptural books hanging from the ceiling. and a quote painted on an open book.

 

 

 

These were Reader's Digest Condensed books cut into alphabet shapes. I resisted the urge to buy a few.

 

Since this is such a long post, I will stop now, and show the last store in a day or two.  If you are not already totally bored with Anthropologie displays, please come back.  I may toss a few Lincoln Park Zoo shots in just for variety...or the Art Displays we saw in the parks.