Keys4Art 2014, Part IV, This and That

In addition to the projects that took a day, most of a day, or more than a day, we did several "quickies," which were just as much fun and certainly added to our arsenal of techniques. We also took the time to leave the premises for a wonderful dinner complete with a view of the stunning Key Largo sunset. Here we go!

Karen showed us how to decorate silk scarves with Sharpies, stencils, and rubbing alcohol. Would you believe that this:

Turned into this:

My caption for this photo is, "Wake up! We're showing off our scarves!"

(sleepyhead me, Pat, Jen)

We traced stencils onto the silk with metallic Sharpies, then filled in and made random marks with regular old Sharpies. Wad it all up and spray with the alcohol. Pretty amazing, and oh so easy.

I showed the crew how to make felted soap, another easy project and a great gift. Here we are, getting soapy and having a good old time. So nice to be able to do wet and/or messy projects outdoors.

(Jacquie, Teri, me, Sue,  Jen, Elena)

I didn't get a shot of everyone's finished soaps, but here is the one I did as a sample.

In case you haven't seen them before, felted soaps are often sold in pricey shops for $15 and up....each! The idea behind them is that you get a soap and washcloth in one. The wool shrinks as the soap does. It's really kind of cool.

Pat did a quick tutorial on a gesso resist using gelatoes. Great fun.

Daisy shared with us two pages from her book of class samples. She has a loyal following back home that just loves to take classes with her.

I mentioned going out for dinner. Well, we ate pretty well at home too. Pat and I made salads, Elena did enchiladas, Karen cooked gumbo, and Jacquie did some awesome meatballs in homemade marinara, as well as her famous paella:

On a lovely evening we went here for drinks and dinner:

It's right on the water, and we stayed for hours, enjoying the company and the views.

 (Teri, DJ, me)

 (Teri, Pat)

 (Luca {Jacquie's son}, Jacquie)

 (Jen, Sue, Karen, Jacquie, DJ, Teri)

(Elena and Jacquie, our two fearless leaders, movers and shakers, organizers extraordinaire!)

I ordered one of the specials, hogfish. Never had it before, never even heard of it. It was delicious!

Besides the food, this is why people come to Snook's:

And every night, as the sun disappears, a bell is rung. They take their sunsets very seriously in the Keys.

One of the gifts Pat made for each of us was a little book. 

Coincidentally it contains as many pages as we had participants, which gave Jen the brilliant idea that we each write a word on a page in everyone's book to describe that person. We did that after dinner on our last night, and it was a sweet activity. Modesty prevents me from sharing with you what was said about me. Just kidding! No one had a bad word for anyone, which is why we continue to look forward to this week every year. Keys4Art......5 years and counting!

I know that Elena and Jacquie are already plotting next year's retreat, and I admit to have started thinking about what to make as gifts, what to teach, how to better pack.....Remember, it's the journey (or in this case, the anticipation) more than the destination. Okay, it's also the destination. Thanks for coming along with me!