What are you Doing This Weekend - July 1-4? - Forum

Jeanne Steck July 2, 2011 at 3:49pm

Family weekend! visiting friends (who are more like family than real family) in PA for their annual party. My daughter took 2 days off from work to join us!

And squeezing in time before we leave to create more designs before next week's show.

Connie Mettler > Jeanne Steck July 2, 2011 at 4:47pm

Loving being with the friends, Jeanne... hope you have a great time and fabulous that your daughter is joining you. My children live on the West Coast so any time with them is golden.

Art on the Lawn: Barbara Berney July 2, 2011 at 12:02am

In Joplin, MO, with my brother and his wife. Until you have seen the devastation with your own eyes, it's impossible to imagine the fury of the storm that leveled one third of the city five weeks ago. The news photos were overwhelming, but the actual sight is far worse than what any photo can portray, bearing a great resemblance to to a bombed-out war zone.

Connie Mettler > Art on the Lawn: Barbara Berney July 2, 2011 at 4:46pm

See, this is precisely why I put this discussion in the "everything else" this week...did your brother and wife sustain damage, Barbara?

We were in S. Florida shortly after Hurricane Andrew for the CG show and did an artist in residence program in a devastated neighborhood. One of the good things (I almost hate to say this) is that the insurance checks were flowing everywhere, all the tradesmen had cash and were spending it at the show and so were the people who had lost goods. Our best Grove ever. Hope this kind of resurgence happens in Joplin.
- Art on the Lawn: Barbara Berney > Connie Mettler July 2, 2011 at 6:43pm
  
  Fortunately, they live two miles from the path of the tornado, Connie, and their damage was minimal. The people here are amazing, though, everyone helping one another and doing amazing things.

Ruth Finkenbiner July 1, 2011 at 8:50pm

Mini Vacation!! Fun in the sun on Lake Chelan in Washington's North Cascades. No good art shows in the Pacific NW this time of year. So we have this one last weekend to relax and take it easy before 7 back to back shows across Washington and Idaho!! Winery visits, sailing on the lake, might even get a bike ride in this weekend before we head home Tuesday to go back to work.

Connie Mettler > Ruth Finkenbiner July 2, 2011 at 4:43pm

Ruth, you deserve this... your show schedule sounds so exotic to me here in the Midwest. Denver is as far west as I've ever been for a show. It is encouraging to hear that there is money to made in your part of the country. A friend of mine from Maryland moved to the Oregon coast a few years back and she can't find any shows of quality for her price point.
- Ruth Finkenbiner > Connie Mettler July 6, 2011 at 12:42am
  
  High end shows in this part of the country are limited compared to the East Coast, however, I do not miss the crowds and really enjoy the lifestyle we have here. That being said, more and more travel is in our future as we continue to look for the bigger and better shows, although I don't seriously ever see us getting too far east of the Rockies. The Oregon Coast would be a difficult place to find very many shows, although one of our favorite Oregon shows is in Astoria in April for the Wine festival! Most Oregon based artists that we know spend a lot of time on I-5, either heading to Seattle or California.

Bert Herrera July 1, 2011 at 7:10pm

Cherry Creek booth 103 on 2nd between St Paul and Steele. Setting up in about an hour.

Munks July 1, 2011 at 2:34pm

Well funny you should ask.

My plans for this weekend went a bit off track this week. Bill and I were going to attend the wedding of Prince Albert of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock this Saturday. Bill misread the invitation and told me it was on Saturday, but the actual wedding was held on Friday. Nanna explained the error in somewhat profane terms while we stood in the middle of the concourse at LaGuardia yesterday. She said she heard people talking about the wedding and she would never forgive Prince Albert’s father so long as she lived for something or other - and then added something about that “sissy-ass bobsledder candy-ass kid of a jerk prince who never worked a day in his life". She was just getting back from Greece along with some irritated State Department people that kept blaming her for the riots in Athens.

I explained to her that I just did the fairgrounds show in Des Moines last weekend. She said she heard there were at least 200,000 people at the downtown show every hour all weekend.

I kept my mouth shut.

She said she could have used that crowd in Athens, then she said that Ron White was in Des Moines last weekend as well for a concert. (She gets his tweets on her I-phone.) It all made sense to me as soon as she said it! That’s why they counted 200,000 people for the weekend - they counted the 125,000 that went to Ron White downtown on Saturday night!

Bill was tugging at my pant leg . . . .

“So we missed Ron White last weekend, huh?” I said to the cat.

Bill hissed and handed me his Android dialed up to tatersalad.com. We could still get tickets and go see him in Nevada. If only I or Bill could afford it. Bill tossed the royal couple's wedding gift under the TSA conveyer as we walked out of the concourse.

Nanna stepped up without even asking.

“I haven’t seen Ronnie White in a couple of years, such a nice young man.”

“I’m tapped Nanna. I don’t have a show until Sugar Creek in a week.”

“What about Bill?”

“He’s got a monkey on his back Nanna. That’s why I was bringing him to Monaco.”

Nanna stopped and sniffed Bill’s nose and front paws. “Wasabi” she sneered.

“I know Nanna, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

She stood up straight and fixed her glasses. “It’s a Southern thing. Common with photographers.” She stared at me as I looked around uncomfortably.

Soooo, after a little more haggling and discussion and fighting and cursing and wailing - we all boarded the flight this morning from LaGuardia to Salt Lake City where we will hopefully rent a car and head to West Wendover, NV before checking into the Peppermill Hotel Casino. Bill has history there, and we hope the manager is someone different - but we shall see.

I've never seen a cat get TSA'd before. It's not something a person can "un-see" at all.

There you have it. We’ll enjoy my hero Ron White tonight at the casino - gamble all night, hit the breakfast buffet and Mass in the morning - and then maybe Bill and I will run out to Elko to take notes on the brothels’ room decor to give a few jewelers I know some ideas next week and I will be back at my easel Monday morning. Things did get a little sidetracked, but all’s well that ends well.

Have a great weekend!

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