So, yesterday, 9/29, was my birthday. I have a hard time with my birthday-it doesn't matter the year. Although, next year may be a tough one. You know, one of those milestone birthdays...cough, choke...60. For now and through next year, I am 59. Anyway, husb and I went to Quail Gardens to do a little sketching and watercolor, then out to lunch and errands. I had chocolate ice cream for dinner.
This is the gorgeous California Center for Creative Renewal in Encinitas, CA. (It's a private garden.) I taught my workshop "Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style" here yesterday, and will teach it again, same fabulous location, on Saturday, December 5. Even if you've taken from me before, in a group or private lesson, this location is stupendous for succulents and flowers and trees......
here's Ellen. She lives in this garden (okay, in the house in front) and created and maintains the garden and California Center for Creative Renewal.
Just call it the LaFazio issue! This pic is on page 4, my Zen Eucalyptus quilt is on page 58 (it will also be on display at the Houston Quilt Festival next month) and my article on Quiltlets starts page 72.
We took a jaunting car ride (a horse drawn carriage) to Ross Castle one day and the next took a lovely hike through a small park of beautiful Kilarney National Park. 
The last night in Ireland, we took a taxi to Durty Nelly's (established in 1620!). I told the driver that I'd been a flight attendant 32 years ago, and often come to Durty Nelly's. I was told at the time, the local boys came to meet flight attendants who frequented the bar. (I had great memories of those times...huge sing-alongs in the pub and meeting fun Irish chaps.) Anyway, the taxi driver looks in the rear view mirror at me and says, his his charming brogue "Ah, your a fine lookin' woman now, you must a been a cracker thirty two years ago!"
Thirty two years later, same pub, same beer, same woman. Durty Nelly's is a wonderful place. Full of ambience and music (especially later in the evening.)
Bunratty Castle, built in 1425, was another spot I went to when I was a flight attendant, so Don and I had to go. It was quite fun, with good food and very good entertainment. Somehow, I feel right at home in a castle!
Interrupting this Ireland travelogue, to say that I taught another one-on-one "Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style" class at the Bernardo Winery yesterday. Two lovely students, Kate & Ruth.
At the winery, we all drew this old rusty lantern. The glass was actually broken, and in it an old bird's nest! But, I used my artist prerogative to leave that part out.
Do you sense a theme here?
Oh my gosh what a gorgeous place! We got out of the (insert swear word) bus to kiss the blarney stone. Frankly, I had no idea that Blarney Castle is on many many acres of gorgeous park, and the castle itself is fabulous. I could have spend a day here. I also was reminded that I LOVE castles! Note to self: next trip to Ireland: CASTLES!
Husb and me after we'd kissed the blarney stone. Can't ya just tell we now have the 'gift of eloquence' as the kiss promises. 
On saturday night we went on the Musical Pub Crawl in Dublin. Totally fun. Great music and we learned a lot about the traditional Irish pub music.
We totally lucked out with the beautiful weather on our trip to Ireland! Sunday we spent some time in St. Stephens Green sketching and people watching. The park was full of people enjoying the sunshine. Fact: St. Stephen's Green was enclosed in 1664. The 22 acre park was laid out in its present form in 1880. Landscaped with flowerbeds, trees, a fountain and a lake.
St Patricks is a gorgeous cathedral. I would have loved to spend a few hours there, sketching and painting. I'm going to make sure we plan time for something like that on our Italian Orvieto trip.
Kilmaninham Gaol (jail) was built in 1792 and closed in 1924. The tour was excellent, and we learned much about Ireland's history, specifically the 1916 uprising and the great hunger of the mid 1800s.
We're back! Here's a pic from one of our first stops in Dublin, the Guinness Brewery tour. We had a lovely time--with NO rain at all! Gorgeous days and fabulous sites, though we really didn't get to sketch and paint as much as I'd hoped. We took a tour (too much time on the bus, I'm afraid) and added two extra days on our own to spend in Dublin. Then we toured the south east cities, ending up in Limerick and flying out of Shannon. I'll post more photos and pages tomorrow.
Husb and I are off to Ireland September 10-19. We start in Dublin and tour through the southeast, ending in Limerick and flying out of Shannon. Lots of photos and drawings when I return!
This is a layered, sheer piece I started in a workshop with Chris Cozen. It's still a work in progress.
Another sheer layered, unfinished piece. I'm going to play some more with this process: 1) so I can finish these 2) so I can teach it to my Atheneaum Mixed Media with Paper & Cloth that starts on October 5 in San Diego.
This one is not finished either. The fish are fish prints from that I made, the aloe is a from my journal and the cat is a stencil of Buddy.
Here's the other drawing I did at the winery one-on-one class I taught on Sunday. My student, Diane, and I discussed mixing greens. The very first watercolor class I took, one of our first assigments was a green plant. I think back on what a good exercise that was! Nature's greens come in soooo many shades.
