Happy Valentines Day

I had a sweet valentines day with my honey... I made a Paella and tapas for him, and homemade chocolate truffles. Of course I forgot to photograph them... He bought me lots of Chocolate... In Catalonia they celebrate a sweethearts day in April where the women buy the men books and the men buy the women a red rose... We usually attend a Catalan party celebrating this holiday in the city with our Spanish friends. Pascual is getting more accustomed to American traditions... He says ours are Hallmark holidays and Spanish holidays are religious... and the Spanish have many more holidays that we do. No wonder they are so relaxed over there, they get a long weekend every month just about.

Here is a photo of the heart box I got in the Diva Swap from Jeri. I LOVED everything in it... So many cool things, and some I have never seen before. She altered a chocloates box and filled it with all kinds of artful goodies. Thanks so much Jeri... it was PERFECT!

Art at the Alameda Antiques Show

Wow is all I can say... a beautiful day spent by the bay with my very oldest and dearest friend Kellie... we celebrated 30 years together as friends last year... We have been together longer than any of my husbands. She has been through it all with me over the years, marriage, divorce, childbirth, deaths in the family, sports, sleepovers, drunken teenagers... We live a 5 minute drive away, and yet are both so busy, we never see one another... We made a promise to make time to hang out and do crafty things together....

I was walking the show snapping away like a tourist, and she would hightail it away from me when I started snapping. I usually ask first when taking photos. but one lady kind of got mad, and asked me to ask first... I told her it was to post on my blog, so people could see all the awesome things at the show, and then she said OK and was really nice about it...

I was so inspired by all I saw out there today... If you need some ideas, or are feeling creatively stuck... take a stroll to a local art or antiques show... Just being around different stuff can be inspiring... I was looking everywhere for the german doll man... This guy has a friend that sends him dolls he digs up from an old doll factory in Germany... He had a ton of them last time I was out there... If anyone knows where I can get some of those dolls, please send me a link or email me with some contact info.... I bought some sari's for $5 each, and some little bottles for $1 each... and a photo of a WWII Japanese American Soldier in uniform at one of the camps... oh and a bag of jewelry for $10....

If you have any favorite flea markets and would like to share them with me, I am compiling a list, and will be posting a directory on my blog soon... so please email me with your tips for the best places to find cool vintage art junk... We will post it on the Art Junk Gypsy resource list... I will travel FAR for good art junk...

SO I am sharing some photos of all the COOL things I was inspired by at the show... I saw more and more vendors making things with old objects and turning them into art...