Eastside Culture Crawl this weekend!

Here are a couple before snapshots from my studio at last year's Eastside Culture Crawl, just to get the ball rolling this week on the fun.
The Eastside Culture Crawl is in it's 14th year of opening the studio doors of artists on the Eastside to the public. With 300 artists participating, it's the largest open studio event in the city!  It's a FANTASTIC event, not only for the artists to have that many people coming in their studio to check out what they've been up to, but also for the public to catch the spirit and vibe of the art scene in Vancouver.  There truly is a little something for everyone at this event and it's FREE! 
Friday night is the big kick-off, starting at 5-10pm, Saturday and Sunday will be from 11-6pm.  There are lots of extra parties and bands that will be playing at events all over the city after-hours if you truly want to experience the Crawl to the fullest!

My Monkeys

For those of you who might be a bit new to my blog, I have 2 boys, ages 6 and 8.  They are a lot of fun, are loud and energetic, can be very sweet, occasionally polite, and are frequently goofy.  Above all, they love to laugh.  The little monkeys above are my two boys on either side of the newest member of my side of the family, little Oliver (my nephew).   Already there is a 'cousin bond' forming with these 3 and it is pretty hilarious to watch Oliver wanting to be part of the action!

Oh the excitement of having a slumber party with his cousins! 

Anyways, things are a bit of a juggling act around here this week.  Busy boys, busy studio and all.  This coming weekend kicks off my first show of the season and the list of things to do is pretty long. I won't be blogging as frequently, but I will post the details of the show tomorrow and I will also put a reminder out there that my online shops will be closed from thursday on through the weekend!

It's been a few days without my computer and I have to admit that I missed it. It was on a journey to Calgary with Dean because his new laptop didn't arrive in time before he left. There are usually a few things I miss about not havin' the man at home... he makes me coffee in the mornings, he compliments me on how great he thinks I look (even when I skipped the hairbrush and make-up routine) and he helps look after our boys, a real plus when I'm in the midst of my busy studio times. So I'm quite glad he's back for all those reasons and more. Single parenting would not exactly be my forte, I've decided. Kudos to all of those single parents out there who do their darndest to hold down the fort, and run a business at the same time. WOW is all I can say!

On another note, I have decided to just be at studio 350, 1000 Parker street for the Eastside Culture Crawl this year. I had thought that it might be great for people to be able to see my clay studio at the Mergatroid building, as every year I get all sorts of questions about where my wheel or kiln are hiding, but it's just too small a space for more than 2 or 3 people to check out my stuff at one time. So with the idea of 4000 people marching through the studio in 3 days, I decided I'm better off at the painting studio- lots of room there and it will be my last year in the space. Yes, that's right, I'm moving out of the building and come Dec 15th, will have 2 small spaces at the Mergatroid, one for clay and one for paint, right across the hall from each other. It's a shame, my painting space has been fabulous, but it's time to move on. My good friend Amy is also moving to another space downtown and so it wouldn't quite be the same without her there.
Well, I'm counting the days until the Crawl and am really looking forward to it! I've got one last firing and then I start setting up the studio! Will post pictures soon...