Wine Tasting and Artistic Insurrections

Wine tasting at Chateau St. Jean today. It was good! The weather was gorgeous! I brought a bottle of Fume Blanc home. Lunch on the grounds, which are really beautiful/peaceful. For dessert, had this great chocolate, milk with almonds and grey sea salt. (Vosges Chocolate, Barcelona Bar.) If you have a chance to try chocolate with salt, do it!!! Yummy!

I broke my favorite flip-flops and had to walk barefoot thru the grounds and thru a couple of stores until I found a very neon graphic pair of Airwalks that look like Vans. That was quite comical, walking barefoot, and I guess the kid print Airwalks too. It was pretty breezy and since we had a good rain and then beautifully sunny weather, I think things are confusedly blooming. It doesn't help that I'm allergic to every grass and tree pollen in the greater Bay Area so I'm having an allergy attack or caught a cold. I pounded some allergy meds and a ton of cranberry juice (VITAMIN C!) and I hope this blows over (haha, get it?) by tomorrow! really, I'm not whining, really...I'm not!!!

On the art front...Linda Woods and Karen Dinino of Visual Chronicles: The No-Fear Guide to Creating Art Journals, Creative Manifestos and Altered Books fame, wrote a new book called Journal Revolution: Rise Up and Create! Art Journals, Personal Manifestos, and Other Artistic Insurrections. I was inspired to start yet another art journal...

This is the cover made with a Tim Holtz stamp, painted Thickers and cammo quilt fabric. I stamped on acetate and attached the acetate and fabric to the cover with brads.

The first page...I can't seem to get away from the heart/red/turquoise, black combination. I suppose I should try to bust out of this box. Especially since the book challenges you to not limit your expression and to create your own "artist insurrection!" I did use a technique on page 83 (I guess this means you'll have to buy the book if you're interested in knowing what the technique is : .)