A Good Time Retreat

The exciting news for this month - well, not the only exciting news, but one of the pieces of good news. I will be teaching at Journalfest 2010! I love it when I develop an art class and have a great experience teaching it, and keep tweaking it with the help of amazing students, then I send in a teaching proposal to an art journaling retreat that is held at an old fort in the charming town of Port Townsend, Washington in October, and it gets accepted, and my sister Katherine will be teaching there as well, and don't you just love it when that happens?
If you have never been to an art retreat, or a writer's retreat, or whatever kind of retreat for what you love or want to learn, I can tell you it can be a great experience. If you have been to a retreat, and you had a fantastic time, then you know. For the last few years my sisters, sister-in-law, my mom and I have met up in Seattle and from there gone up to Port Townsend for Artfest, the mixed-media artist retreat that takes place in March. We all share a house and have a great time going to classes, sharing supplies, enjoying each other's artwork, cooking tempting food and being creative together. We trade artwork and ideas and encouragement. No matter what we are each dealing with in our lives, this reinforces us for the challenges, and enhances the joys. Now another generation is becoming a part of it. My daughter and niece joined us last time and it was great to see them developing and sharing their artistic journey. If there is a way to make this happen for you, I highly recommend it.
Now for the shameless commerce part of the show. Teesha Moore and her family are the creators of Artfest and Journalfest. The Website for Journalfest will be up on March 5. Go to teeshamoore.com and follow the link to the Journalfest site for details. My website jodyenglandhansen.com has a few more details as well on the Places to Go page. I hope to see you there. I promise you will love it.
Now for the shameless affection part of the show. Dear Michael, this is for you - Happy Valentine's Day. When Dr. Suess wrote this, he must have had us in mind.
"You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." Theodor Geisel (Dr. Suess).