...the joy of seeing friends, sharing meals, and visiting new places.

We've had a crazy, busy past 4 weeks here at Terra Cottage. Michael is the co-director of the LowerTown Arts and Music Festival that happens in our neighborhood. This year we had a booth on the street. I walked around and took lots of video footage and forgot to take pictures. Actually my time was really limited because Michael's co-directorship is very demanding and I barely had time to leave our booth. So watch out for the video that I'm going to put together.
The LowerTown show was the first in a run of 4-in-a-row for us. I don't recommend it. We did it. We got through it but lots of bits of our life got left in the breakdown lane. Just like that lone shoe or chair that you see as you're driving on your way to some fun vacation. That was a piece of our life that you saw there sitting lonely and forlorn.
The next show was Cuneo Gardens and that was in Vernon Hills, IL. Great location and potentially a good show but Michael (who was flying solo) got rained out. That show was rained upon, hailed upon, lighteninged upon, and the thunder was so close it shook the tents. I'll blog about that as soon as I get Michael's pictures downloaded onto my computer.
So that brings us to the Edina Art Fair in Edina, MN. Long haul for us (13 hours of driving) but last year it was our best show so we figured we'd better suck it up and go. All in all it was a terrifically fun weekend full of staying and visiting with our good 'clay' friend Martha Enzler:

This is the type of ceramic artwork that Martha does:

She draws a picture, then carves it, then makes a mold of it and then she casts tiles. She does really lovely work!
These are some pictures that I took around Martha's house. When I think of Martha's home I think 'Zen'. When I think of our home I think 'Chaos'. Her place is so tranquil and serene.

This last picture is of these white sort of coconut looking things that she made. She was thinking about Buddhism and being all alike yet one-of-a-kind and unique. I love them! I think of Martha and I think of altars in honor of nature and life.

Martha and her boyfriend Erik (he shoots these amazing pictures of dancers) were both in the art show as well. You can see one of Erik's photographs in one of the pictures above. His is the one on the table that is leaning against the wall. And "NO" it's not the hula girls. It's the one with the dancer with (what looks like) smoke behind him. Click here to see Erik's work. Martha unfortunately doesn't have a website. She only displays and sells her work at shows.
We all had an okay show. Not great, not horrible either. We decided that we were all going to go out for dinner at a place near Martha's house.

We walked over to the Holy Land to have the buffet and to our delight we discovered that because it was the end of the day they only charged us $5 each. Michael and I ate there two nights in a row. We love those fabulous 'cheap eats'! Holy Land is a Middle Eastern grocery as well and Michael & I went shopping. We bought olives and halvah. Yummy, yum, yum! All day long at the art show I get to tell people that I was going to the Holy Land. It was just so much fun to say.

We do so many art shows throughout the year that we've learned that one does not make tons of money at every single art show that you participate in. For us it all works because this is what we do for a living and with all the shows added up it all works. So when we don't do terribly well at show we know to relax and not fret because there is always another show to be had. We live for the good moments and the joy of seeing friends, sharing meals, and visiting new places.