swallowfield :: jennifer judd-mcgee

late august wrap up

last weekend i went down to portland for the 4th annual picnic music and arts festival. i love doing this show. i think everyone was a little worried that hurricane irene was going to come calling in the middle of it, but she very nicely held off for a bit. (more on that in a minute.) 

i was silly and only took one iphone photo all day. of only a part of my booth. bad blogger. but the day really seemed to go by pretty much in a flash. thank you to everyone who stopped by the booth i shared with my good pal aprill of lulubeans - i know i speak for both of us when i say thanks for supporting our art and craft, saying hello, and buying handmade. i think this was my favorite year of vendors - it seemed like the quality of craftsmanship and items were truly excellent this year. i was trying to be super careful not to spend too much money, but believe me, i could have dropped a bundle. my kids both spent a decent chunk of their hardearned allowance though. they pretty much live for picnic each year. it was also nice to see mimi kirschner - one of my favorite artists - in person.  she was in maine for the day and stopped by picnic for fun.  love her work. and she took some great photos of the day if you're interested.

i wanted to share a recently completed commissioned papercut - this was started in the beginning of the summer and finally wrapped up earlier this month. i only got a few iphone photos of it, but i'm glad i took them.

as for irene - we were braced for a pretty bad storm here in maine, but it was not nearly as messy as predicted. we loved watching the wind whip the ocean on sunday night. for my friends south of here and especially in vermont, i am so sorry for the losses you have suffered.

ps: we're moving in two weeks. can't come soon enough. pictures soon!

hermit island weekend

last weekend we met a bunch of our old portland friends for a camping trip at hermit island in midcoast maine. i had never been there, though i've loved visiting nearby popham beach and morse mountain over the years. when i venture away from mount desert island it always strikes me how many incredibly gorgeous pockets of maine there are that i've never seen, and that idea both inspires me and overwhelms me a little. i want to see them all! but it never seems like we have enough time. plus, my local digs are pretty nice as is.

hermit island is gorgeous. six different beaches, nice campsites, a store with everything you forgot, showers. there is a snack bar too, but we never visited it so i can't say much about that. the whole place has the feel of something out of the 1950s. we did not bring bikes, but i wish we had. people bike everywhere, and it would have come in handy because our site was a bit far from the bathroom. we reserved our site in early march - i hear it can be fierce trying to get the site you really want. i have my eye on some of the true oceanfront sites for next time - they were pretty spectacular.

 

interesting aside: earlier in the summer,  the kids and i had the opportunity to participate in a book talk with author gary d. schmidt on his new book okay for now, through the awesome local  island readers and writers program. we loved him, and have gone on to read several more of his books, most notably lizzie bright and the buckminster boy, which coincidentally takes place in phippsburg, me - right where we were last weekend. we took a little detour to see some of the places in the book, and the kids were very excited. it was an inspiring read for us and i recommend it.

on the way home we stopped in to my friend erika soule's store, rock paper scissors, in wiscasset. she recently merged two stores into one, and it was gorgeous and well curated as always. i am always blown away by her sense of color and design. (i wrote about it here way back when.) if you are ever in wiscasset, do yourself a favor and stop in. you will not be disappointed. i have never seen anything in her store that i haven't wanted. it can be a dangerous way to feel about a place.

all in all, a super nice 42nd birthday weekend.

have a great week everyone!

mid august already, really?

just a few quick photos for you today - life is feeling full and busy for me these days with work and an impending move. i feel a little sheepish to admit that i am starting to look forward to school starting up again in a few weeks. i think i am craving a settled routine, and i think the kids are starting to feel excited to get back to school, too.  and i am so looking forward to unpacking after a full year of having most of my life in storage.

a happy accident photo of a beautiful sunrise the other morning.

and loving these saturated  colors.  i feel like i am drinking it all in for winter.

okay, back to work. hope you are having a wonderful august!

 

a little of what i've been up to lately

this is a little peek at one of many things i've been working on this summer - these six original papercuts on acrylic are for the upcoming enormous tiny art show 10 at nahcotta next month.  each one is 6x6" unframed, and  10x10" framed. i know it's a long shot, but boy would i love to see these stay together on someone's wall!  i love the way they look as a grouping. you can see them larger here. i expect they will be up on their tiny art website by the end of august. they were a lot of fun to make.