Art Buddies

Yesterday was our last day for this session of Art Buddies. Art Buddies is an after school program for 4th and 5th graders at Whittier International School in south Minneapolis. Each student is paired with a creative adult art buddy over the course of 6 weeks. Each session has a theme and this time it was to create an animal costume that represents your childs good qualities.

I've been volunteering since college and this was the 4th time I've done it. Aminata was my buddy this time and together we made a wolf costume. This is a picture of her working it in front of the professional photographer. I always have such a fun time and this was no exception. I can't wait for the next session to start in the fall.

It's Christmas...well sort of.

When my parents came out, they brought a bunch of stuff that we couldn't take with us over Christmas. We got our diplomas that were framed and put them up on the shelf in the blue room.

And we got our pottery gifts that Steve made and a couple of my photos that we had Steve and Deb put in frames. They're looking pretty good above the buffet.

Geary and Fillmore

Saturday, Josh and I went to San Francisco. First, we bummed around the city, went to some favorite shops and ate at Escape From New York. It's pizza and I had a slice of potato and garlic (yum!) and Josh had a slice of pesto and a slice of ultimate veggie (yum too!). Then we headed out to Point Lobos and Sutro Heights Park on the very northwest part of the peninsula. 

This fall during another trip to Frisco, we walked through an art fair and fell in love with some prints made by Hilary Williams. We took one of her cards and vowed to get a print eventually. So after getting some cash for Christmas, we decided a print would be a great gift to ourselves. We chose Creating Sounds of John's Past and Future because of the location near Geary and Fillmore.

We couldn't wait to get it up in the apartment.

Heath Ceramics

Saturday, Janelle and I drove to Sausalito (just north of the Golden Gate Bridge) to Heath Ceramics. They offer a tour of their facilities every weekend. It was a great tour that walked us from making the clay through firing.

This is a picture of the pitcher we bought. They had a lot of interesting pieces as well as custom tile.

One of Heath's kilns. Dad...just think how many Rendezvous mugs you could fit in there!

After the tour we went across the Golden Gate Bridge to the beach in San Francisco. It was a beautiful day, upper 60's, sunny and huge waves!

Art and Rain

Sunday, Josh and I went to the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. I have been wanting to since we got here and on Sunday's they don't charge admission, so it was the perfect time to go. The current exhibition is American Pop Art and they had some Andy Warhol pieces which I was excited to see.

The mansion was beautiful. It was a donation in 1880s along with the collection art to the city of Sacramento.

We also have an update on the weather. We FINALLY got our first rain (since we moved here!) on Friday/Saturday. Not much, but it was kind of refreshing having overcast skies. Other than that big news, it's starting to get really nice. The highs have been between 75-80 and at night it gets really cool and crisp.