Princes, Peacocks and Portable Art...

This morning I am in Spokane for the second day of a four day visit with my children. My son turns twenty today, that is a milepost for both of us. We decided to celebrate by attending the renaissance festival that is held here every summer, but the day started out with a downpour. Not to worry, one thing about Western Washington weather, if you don't like it, just wait a minute...sure enough, by noon the sun was shining and we were taking our coats off.
As I posted before, I am a fan of these fairs, I usually have a blast, and wanted to share that experience with my grown son. This is a pretty small event, very low budget and run down. The participants are obviously amateurs, but bless their hearts, they worked very hard to entertain the small handful of attendees. My son was chosen to play the roll of the prince, in the Mud Players version of "Rumpelstiltskin" and was approached latter in the day by a curly haired little boy that remembered him from the skit. He got quite a chuckle when the little guy ran up to him and said in awe, "Hey, you are the Prince!"

We were most impressed with the flock of peacocks they have living on the site, I had no ideas they were quite so BIG up close!

I snapped some pictures to use in my art, but they were not very cooperative and kept turning away...

We stayed a couple hours, then decided to head back into town and hit a few yard sales, another pastime my son and I both love. We wrapped up the evening having dinner with our cousins and telling childhood stories.
His birthday is today, but he has to work, and that is, of course, a priority. But it all comes together nicely because there is a water color class being offered at the local art supply store, and I have always wanted to learn more about using them properly. That is my gift to me today. My daughter lives here too, and she has today off work, so we will spend the afternoon shopping together. Or as she used to say when she was tiny and tired of being surrounded by boys, " Mommy, lets be two girls together!" I see a visit to Hobby Lobby and Michael's in my future, and perhaps a little splurge at the clothing store, though I would much rather buy tools or art supplies...

I brought along my new mini watercolor kit that I assembled, for a trial run, and so far it seems to have most of what I want. I was trying for very tiny, and this is still a bit larger than I wanted, but perfect for ATCs.

It was originally a Tootsie Roll tin, and I used pill sorters for the paints. I cut the handles down on a couple of brushes, and the tin's lid is painted white to double as a palette. The next one will be even smaller, and be set up for doing inchies! Until next time...enjoy!

Today's inchie theme is "feather" and here is mine, made using my new kit...