weekend on the sunshine coast

What a wonderful time I had last weekend. Janice and I travelled over to the Sunshine Coast and spent a couple of days playing and learning with Nadine. We took the ferry over in the morning and drove up to Half Moon Bay. We spent all day in Nadine's studio catching up and working on trades for Artfest. While we played, Nadine's hubby, Owen, prepared a delicious dinner for us. Thank you for being such gracious hosts. (If you are interested in finding out more about Nadine's studio and available classes, here is the link: Art Escape Studio)

The next day, we took part in the "Memory Charms" soldering class, taught by Lorraine Stobie. Talk about a fabulous instructor! Lorraine provided me with that "Ah ha" moment--I finally got it. Once I started it was hard to stop for lunch; I just wanted to keep going.

As a side note, talk about a small world...Nadine mentioned that one of the ladies who would be attending the class was originally from Nanaimo (my home town) and was about my age. Well, it turns out that this other lady, Deb, graduated the same year as my hubby (two years before me). She looked very familiar, but it wasn't until later in the afternoon that I finally put two and two together and asked if she had a brother named Stacey. She said yes. I told her that I had gone to school with him and asked if he had gone on a school trip to Italy. She said, "No. But I did." WOW!! Then it all came flooding back! She and I were on the same trip to Italy in the late '70s! How cool was that! It was probably a good thing that we didn't clue in until later in the day, as it could have been very disruptive to the class. As it was, we started reminiscing right away. An added bonus indeed!

These are the charms I made during class. Not bad for a beginner, eh?

So, needless to say, I am working on some soldered charms to go along with the others I prepared during our play day. I'm not going to show you what I have been making though; I want them to be a surprise for Artfest. ;u)