Category: People, Places & Inspiration

  • The coolest toilets and other things we saw on our last day in New Zealand

    The coolest toilets and other things we saw on our last day in New Zealand

    Before I start this post, I want to acknowledge what a tough couple of weeks it has been, on the heels of 3 difficult years. I’m so proud of everyone who has taken a stand day after day, during a pandemic no less, demanding long overdue change. It’s been painful to witness so much police…

  • Sailing, takes me away…

    Sailing, takes me away…

    Our breathtaking view from our bedroom at Kerry’s house in One Tree Point. We arrived at Kerry Glen’s house in time for a glass of wine and a nibble, then headed to the local marina where we hopped on a boat with Kerrie’s husband Bob, and 2 of his sailing buddies. Believe it or not,…

  • Another gorgeous stretch of coastline in the Northland

    Another gorgeous stretch of coastline in the Northland

    After our lunch in Kaiwaka, at Eutopia Cafe, we drove out to the coast to take a more scenic drive to our destination of One Tree Point, and stopped at Mangawhai Heads beach. As soon as we parked the car, I could not wait to take off my sandals and sink my feet into that…

  • Finding Eutopia in kiwi paradise

    Finding Eutopia in kiwi paradise

    On our drive north from Matakana towards Whangarei, Phil and I stopped in the small town of Kaiwaka for lunch at Eutopia Cafe on recommendation by Alysn. Wow, wow, wow, my mind was blown away by the creativity and artistry that went into this structure, and the food was excellent too, so it was kind…

  • A day of art, hiking and a late night trek to see glow worms

    A day of art, hiking and a late night trek to see glow worms

    While in Matakana, Alysn brought us for a studio visit with her friend Helen Carpenter who is a painter, printmaker and collage artist and runs the Takatu studio space where she hosts classes and rents workspace to other artists. I love seeing artists workspaces and learning about their process. Helen creates beautiful, etherial landscapes using…

  • Remembering a day at the beach with friends before the world shut down.

    Remembering a day at the beach with friends before the world shut down.

    I’m running a bit behind schedule, this week. I’m occasionally, surprised how busy I’ve been. I think somedays I’m not all that productive, spending too much time on social media, or zoom chats as a way to fill the social deficit while staying home. It still feels strange to go to the store and see…

  • A 5 day break with friends in the Northland

    A 5 day break with friends in the Northland

    After my workshop finished in Ngaruawahia, Phil and I packed up the car and drove a little over an hour north to Auckland where we met up with our friends Barney and Pat who just arrived from San Francisco that morning and were waiting for us at the BNB we rented in the Ponsonby neighborhood…

  • Teaching at the foot of Mount Taranaki

    Teaching at the foot of Mount Taranaki

    After our two restful days at Lake Rotoiti, we hit the road on a drizzling Wednesday morning to drive 5 hours to the Taranaki peninsula on the west coast of New Zealand. We drove on narrow twisty turning roads over steeply rolling hills and farmland, best suited for grazing animals that can climb steep hills.…

  • Recharging my batteries at Lake Rotoiti

    Recharging my batteries at Lake Rotoiti

    After my class finished in Whakatane we drove an hour west to Lake Rotoiti, where Caroline Stewart lent us her lakefront bach (cabin) that nestled up to steep hills shrouded in low clouds. Just down the road from the cabin was a fabulous hiking trail through the bush between Lake Rotoiti and neighboring Lake Rotoma.…

  • Meeting up with Phil in Auckland

    Meeting up with Phil in Auckland

    At the crack of dawn on a Monday morning, I jumped on a plane in Palmerston North and flew an hour and a half north to Auckland where I met up with Phil, who had just arrived from the states an hour earlier. We took a city bus from the airport to my friend Kerry’s…

  • Teaching while visiting my furry, and feathery friends in Palmerston North

    Teaching while visiting my furry, and feathery friends in Palmerston North

    To get to my next teaching location, I booked a ride on a bus from Napier to Palmerston North. The busses in New Zealand are reasonably priced, comfortable, convenient, and they give you lots of opportunities to appreciate the beautiful views. Also, at this point on the trip I was still traveling by myself and…

  • Next stop Napier

    Next stop Napier

    On the 4th of February, I flew north from Christchurch to Napier, where I had a wonderful stay with a newer guild member named Maggie, who has an airbnb in the lovely town of Havelock North about a 20 minute drive south of Napier. It was much warmer there than it had been in Christchurch,…

  • Time to engage in the slow life movement

    Time to engage in the slow life movement

    So here we are, experiencing a pandemic. Life as we know it is going to be a bit different for a while, and we will all need to make adjustments and learn what sheltering in place means and how to do it well. I think we should look to those who have a lot of…

  • My shop is now open!

    My shop is now open!

    Over the last several months I’ve been slowly building out a storefront to sell my books, thermofax screens and a variety of items I sell in my workshops. You can find the link to my shop in the upper right corner on the main page of my website here or you can click on the…

  • New Zealand 2020!

    New Zealand 2020!

    Kia ora! No place speaks to my heart so clearly, and fills me with as much inspiration as New Zealand, and with the help of Kerry Glen of Tulis Textiles, I’m planning a teaching there for February 2020. New Zealand’s pristine rocky beaches and rolling green hills remind me of Sonoma county, Northern California where…

  • The Gigahertz Awards

    The Gigahertz Awards

    On Thursday, Phil and I took a bus to Karlsruhe where we would spend the next several days of or trip. The reason me and Phil went back to Germany was so he, along with his fellow Hub band mates, could receive the prestigious Gigahertz Lifetime Achievement Award for their work in experimental electronic music at…

  • A visit to a Roman Villa, an art store and the city of Luxembourg all in one day, pinch me!

    A visit to a Roman Villa, an art store and the city of Luxembourg all in one day, pinch me!

    Day 2 ‎⁨On our second day in Germany, Birgit and Thilo brought us to Villa Borg which is a reconstructed Roman Villa in ⁨Perl⁩, ⁨Germany⁩ close to the Luxembourg border. The present structures stand on the original foundation walls dating to the 2nd or 3rd century. During excavation they also found iron age and neolithic…

  • Our second trip to Germany in 2018 began in the Saarland

    Our second trip to Germany in 2018 began in the Saarland

    I was planning on writing up one blog post for our trip to Germany, but when I started to narrow down photos to share I realized I  have way too many to share at once, so it’s going to be spread out in 3 or 4 separate posts over the next week instead, while I…