Dreaming

I was in Iowa last week at the amazingly fabulous Eastern Iowa Heirloom Quilters' show. Before the festivities started I spent half a day in the Amana Colonies. 

Historic buildings, lovely gardens, lots of Iowa corn fields and beautiful never-ending skies.

Something happened at Fern Hill, a shop that combines architectural antiques and quilt stuff.

Can you say heaven!?

I fell in love. 

I know, I know. Most people don't automatically start having heart palpitations when they walk into a basement full of crumbling bits of old buildings,

but I do.

Oh YES I do.

I would put this entire arrangement on my wall. Little bits of gates. Hmm.

Wouldn't it be amazingly cool to fill up a whole garden fence with a collage of iron fence bits?

And then... this amazing bank of drawers shot a comet sized, rare earth magnet straight to my heart.

Look at all those drawers... and I have stuff to go in every last one of them. Every. Last. One!

Measuring to see if it will fit in my suitcase. Or in my front door. 

Realizing, as the marvel is built all in one piece, that even if I get it into the house, I can't get it around the corner and up the stairs to my studio's new home. Help. The owner said her son, with a truck, is driving to Raleigh in October. I've had three dreams about this hardware store chest in the past week. Somebody help me. Please. I think I might waste away for the longing of it.

Artist Spotlight: Kelli Nina Perkins

Kelli Nina Perkins is a mixed media artist and librarian living on the shores of Lake Michigan. She has a master's degree in information from the University of Michigan. For over a decade, Kelli has been making art that prizes the everyday ephemera of our lives, incorporating the common flotsam of discarded life into art that speaks to the heart. 

She's a fantastic teacher and will be teaching at Art Camp for Women in October. You WANT to be there. I do. It's in the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains (oh how I miss them!) and you'll be playing to your hearts content with some of the funnest supplies, and funnest people there are. Really. Even if you can't go - spread the word and tell your friends.

Kelli's  SPOON  POETRY tutorial is one of my all time favorites.

I have the spoons, I have the ink and the words and a place to hang a spoon poetry garland. It's only a matter of time.

Now head over to her blog and read her review of BEAD IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT.

Leave a comment there for a chance to win the DVD!