Montana MADE fair recap

Phew. Another week zipping by! And tomorrow is JULY. Can you believe it?! I’m nearly caught up with all the odds and ends I’ve been neglecting the last few weeks — just in time for a holiday weekend.

The MADE fair this last weekend was a lot of fun and completely exhausting — I’m not sure I’m cut out for making a living by doing craft shows, but it pushed me to work on some pieces I may not have otherwise done, it was REALLY informative to see who was attracted to my work, and it was such a fun event to be a part of — really, really perfect for my first show.

My booth (sorry about all the glare!):

AND I got interviewed for the local news! Clicking on this link will take you to the clip of the event: Montana MADE fair.

I’m spending the next week photographing all the new work I did for the show and getting it in my Etsy shop — I’m really excited to finally be sharing prints and originals of my work, so if you’re looking for summer birthday gifts, wedding presents or just some new art for your own walls, I’ll be posting updates here as I list things — if you see something you like, keep checking back.

Monday Morning Joy : Alice Dufay

It is late Sunday night as I write this. We are just home from Missoula and the MADE fair (hello! and thanks for coming! to all the new friends I met today). It was lovely and exhausting and I have so much to show and tell from it. One recurring comment I received was how much patience it must take to do the work I do. My reply was that it is more like meditation — the repetition and focus of cutting paper. I get the same soothing feeling of meditation looking at the patterns and texture in Ms. Dufay’s work:

Have a lovely Monday!

And the Winner is…

Using the magic random number generator at random.org, the winner for the giveaway is … Katie M. Congratulations!

If you send me an email (paperroutedesigns{AT}gmail{DOT}com) with your address, I’ll get that in the mail on Monday.

For everyone else interested in the print, it will be in my shop next week — I’ll let you know when I post it.

Thank you for all your great stories! I can’t wait for the next trip.

Have a lovely weekend, and if you’re in the Missoula area, come say hi at Caras Park tomorrow!

Friday Flashback : Dreaming of… Caravans

The last few weeks have totally gotten away from me in a frenzy of creating and packaging and organization… I’m looking forward to resuming my normal pace after this weekend. My boxes are packed and I have just a few last minute preparations to make before we take off. I am leaving the giveaway open until 6:00 Mountain Time this evening, so if you’d like to enter there are a few hours left. Thanks again for being patient  – I can’t wait to share pictures of the show next week and to post all the new work I’ve been making in my Etsy shop!

I am seeing more and more tiny caravans around town this year and no matter how many I see, they still delight me. I love making my house a home and I like the tethers that keep me here, but someday I’m going to become a gypsy– whittle down my belongings and make my home along the road. This was originally posted on July 15, 2010.

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Ever since I was tiny, Thursday has been my favorite day of the week. Good things just seem to happen on Thursdays. Maybe it’s because I’m more willing to let myself play hooky on Thursdays … Maybe it’s because I give into my daydreams as the weekend looms near …

All week one of these little guys has been parked down the street from my house. Add a red geranium in the window and pack up my dogs, my ukulele, my fella and me. I’m ready to be a gypsy.

scamp photo from : www.scamptrailers.com

Happy Summer Giveaway

Happy First Day of SUMMER!

It actually feels like summer FINALLY, with sunshine and blue skies as far as the eye can see. We are celebrating the change of seasons with a spontaneous camping trip along a river — the first camping trip of the year!

I LOVE camping: the preparation and anticipation, the drive, setting up camp, and maybe most of all, being in a beautiful spot without any obligations or time limits.

In honor of the change of season and all the fun, color and light that summer brings, I’d like to give away one of my brand new prints:

It is hand cut out of black paper with tissue paper behind to create a stained-glass effect. The image measures just under 8×10 inches, printed on cold-pressed 90# watercolor paper. It will fit as-is into an 8×10 frame or can be matted to fit an 11×14 frame. It is signed, dated and numbered.

To enter, leave a comment on your favorite part of camping — a favorite meal, game, or the account of a memorable trip. I will choose a winner using a random number generator on Friday afternoon before I head out to Missoula.

I can’t wait to hear your stories!

Monday Morning Joy : Grant Haffner

Good Morning! I am up to my eyeballs in show preparation…I think I may be slightly overambitious with what I’m trying to accomplish for my first show, but it has motivated me to work on some really fun original pieces that I can’t wait to share with you. It has also caused me to become completely myopic and I’ve neglected a few things that are important to me: this blog for one…

I have one more week of steady work and then I’m excited for July and sun (hopefully) and a shift in focus.

In the meantime, Grant Haffner:

The vastness and perspective in these paintings make me want to leap into them and start walking…

Happy Monday!

{found via Note to Self}

Little Reminders

This spring has been amazingly wet and cool in Montana — every day hung with low gray clouds.  It’s been good incentive to work hard in preparation of my upcoming show, but I’m really looking forward to sitting in the morning sun with my coffee…maybe in July.

Anyway, last Sunday was genuinely sunny and I took a break from office work to lie in the sun under our apple tree.

Our apple tree fruits every other year and judging from the blossoms, this year is going to be a bumper crop. As I relaxed into the grass, feeling the sun permeate through me, it sounded like the whole world was vibrating — amongst the blossoms the bees were taking advantage of the burst of sun too, buzzing industriously.

It’s a sound that can easily go unnoticed if you’re busy doing something else. But lying there, the sound and sight of the bees at work increased my relaxation, keeping me fully in the moment, keeping my mind off the never-ending list of things to get done in the next two weeks.

Like the bees did for me, I can only hope that the work I’m doing will, in turn,  increase the well being of someone else…it seems like that’s the point, after all.

Monday Morning Joy : Keira Rathbone

Get ready to be AMAZED!

Keira Rathbone uses an old typewriter to create her art :

“I use letters, numbers and symbols to build up a picture rather than words.”

To see more of her work visit her facebook page or website

{Found via: My Love For You is a Stampede of Horses}

Happy Monday!

Friday Flashback : To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee…

It’s going to be another amazing year for wildflowers this year with all the rain we’re getting this spring. I love looking back at the flower photos I’ve taken in previous summers — thinking about what is to come. Have a wonderful weekend, filled with color! This was originally posted July 19, 2010.

{FYI : Things may be buggy and interrupted this weekend as I’m hoping to do some major site transformations before Monday…}

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To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,

One clover, and a bee,

And revery.

The revery alone will do,

If bees are few.

~Emily Dickinson

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by green. The lushness was an enchanting backdrop for my imaginary worlds, but to be honest, I didn’t really notice individual plants.

It was when I moved to Montana that I fell in love with plants. The growing season here is so short, plants grow with a ferocity not seen in milder climates. The spring is so intense, you can feel the air vibrate as each plant pushes up, claiming it’s space, it’s view to the sky.

The wildflowers are amazing. Come in late June and find yourself a nice open meadow. Ever color, shape and size imaginable is represented.

Walk up the meadow to the trees and find an entirely different collection: the showy, boisterous flowers of the meadow are replaced by delicate, fairy-like blooms. Even their names are enchanting: Trillium, Meadowrue, Clematis, Fairy Slippers.

And then in a blink, it’s over. The colors fade, the grass grows taller, the forest bushes fill in all the spaces. The valleys become green, then brown, then back to white.

Everything is temporary

Hello! Things probably look a little different around here….

I’ve jumped head first into a site overhaul without really knowing what I am doing. FUN!

Appropriately, this new look I’ve adopted is called “Minimalist”, which is how it’s going to stay while I work on the REAL redesign behind the scenes over the next few days.

If there is anything you find that you really miss from the old site or any tools that you’ve been wishing I would add, please let me know and I’ll do my best to add them in.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!