Notes From The Road: International Peace Garden Sept. 11, 2011

It is the 10th Anniversary of  9/11. There is a service in the garden today, where they have laid i-beams from one of the Twin Towers. The flowers are blooming, the day is hot for this time of year so far north. Both Americans and Canadians are present. The RCMP look impressive in their red dress uniforms.

The Peace Garden lies at the northern edge of North Dakota and Manitoba. At times you are in Canada, and other times you are in US.

I will never forget Sept. 11, 2001: We were in Wichita, Kansas, on the 10th we celebrated my birthday. The next day on Good Morning America we watched a plane hit one of the Towers. Later we got caught up in a gas panic and had to wait in a long line to fill up, all they had left was premium at a premium price.

It was a long day. I refused to stop until we heard from President Bush. Then we could eat dinner and find a hotel and decide whether we should head home or go on to Colorado.

Cathy 9 / 11 / 2011

Notes From The Road: Minnesota

Actually, we are still in Wisconsin, in Superior, our hotel is the last one before you cross to Minnesota. We go over the bridge to Minnesota every night so we can go down to the harbor in Duluth for dinner at Grandma's Saloon. The building right next to the Aerial Lift Bridge in the harbor is where the saloon is located. The bridge goes up when a Freighter needs to go back out to Lake Superior.

Tonight I walked down to the canal into Lake Superior and a big lake Freighter was coming through. It was a nice bonus, I was actually down there to get the two lighthouses on each side at sunset. Due to road work we had to give up going to Split Rock Lighthouse and did the Wisconsin Point instead.

Driving through Wisconsin and Minnesota going west is a wonderful trip for photographers. The weather is still unusually warm for this time of year. Unfortunately, for me, my 7D is having a battery problem. Time to switch to my back up camera body.

We hope it will continue with good weather and no snags in our trip.

Cathy 9 / 20 / 2011

Notes From The Road: Michigan

 I am on the road again. It has been a year since my last trip. Travel is fun and exciting, I love going to new places and seeing and photographing wonderful things.


My one problem with a trip is getting going. I have trouble getting out the door that first morning. I worry about my house, my cats and a million small things. We have a very competent house/cat sitter. So I really don't have anything to worry about.

We are taking I-75 up to the UP,  there we will pick up Hwy. 2 and head for Manistique. It was raining when we left home, it is a beautiful summer day now. I have spent many a gloomy day up here at this time of year.

Everything is picture perfect, warm and sunny.


I hope the rest of our trip is as nice.


Cathy 9/ 12 / 2011

The Fun Part Of Summer Art Shows

This is our last year to do out door summer Art Shows. Both my partner and I are tired of putting up a display tent. It was 100+ on Friday night when we set up. The heat didn't bring this change for us, we discussed it earlier in the year and decided to only do spring and autumn shows. Inside, with no wind storms, rain, or heat.

This weekend at Algonac Michigan on the St. Clair River, we had rain on Saturday about 5 PM. I went to get the van, and was just driving back when it started to rain, then it went to a full summer storm, a driving rain with wind blowing into our tent. You know it is a bad storm when the photos are blown off the peg boards. Couples shopping helped us. Also to hold us down at the height of the storm.

The next morning driving to Algonac we discovered that there were more and more trees down along Highway 29. Trees down, lines down, a mess on the highway and yards along the way. We didn't get much further, the road was closed. We had to go around the long way, get away from the water, go inland and come around.

I could imagine what we would find when we finally made it to the Art Show. Would our tent be smashed against the railing along the river, in the river or would it be in the post office parking lot across the way.

Fortunately for the many artists, Algonac had been spared, The park along the river was fine.

Everything went well. Unfortunately, it rained again at 4 PM. So the show was over!

I won't miss summer Art Shows. I will miss talking to people who visit our mobile shop.



Cathy 9 / 4 / 2011

Card Maker of the Month Kat Wauters of H20Works

I’m Kat Wauters. Mom, Wife, Graphic Designer (in no particular order, lol). In past lives I have been, a waitress, a bartender, a telemarketer (for only a day, I was not cut out for this job at all), a waitress again, a pizza chef, a Home Interiors saleslady (home parties), a “real” Interior Designer (went back to school, got a degree), and I owned my own faux-finishing business. Then I got my first computer (went back to school again), discovered Photoshop, and it’s been graphics, advertising and marketing ever since. I worked for Lamar Advertising, the national “Outdoor Advertising” company for 5 years, designing billboard art. It was a hoot, going down the road, seeing my larger than life works of art, screaming out, “I did that one! I did that one!” I think this is what I was meant to do all along. I remember watching Bewitched as a girl and thinking I would like Darren’s job. :)

 I have two shops on Etsy. My first is H20works.etsy.com . It has evolved thru the past 3 years (as much as 10 categories would allow me) into a few different things, but my steadfast product has always been Mini-Notecards. Yep, this is me, I go from designing 30 ft billboards to designing 2 inch Mini-Notecards! I just love coming up with cool designs for them. I am kind of an amateur-professional photographer, so I have a lot of prints in my shops that you can get as ACEOs, greeting cards or larger prints too.

My Other Shop:  H20worksDesigns.etsy.com 

I love Cone Flowers

My side garden by the driveway gets hot. So hot that many flowers won't grow by the brick wall that gets even hotter.  I have a nice stand of Black Eyed Susans and a few Cone Flowers, white and purple.They are fairly easy to grow.

Three summers ago I decided to get some of the more exotic  Cone Flowers: Green Wizard, with no petals. It didn't grow at all. Two summers ago I bought a light orange. It didn't come back the next spring.

Last summer I bought a green, a true orange and a light pink. I gave them a nice spot in the garden, watered them in.

They came back this spring.

Unfortunately, we had a very hot and dry summer. My new flowers struggled to grow. Most of them won't bloom this summer. I tried to keep them watered, but it was too hot. We had one of the hottest July's on record. Hopefully they will do better next year.

This year I bought a red,  above,  when it first blooms it is more orange than red with a frilly head, in stead of the usual cone.

I love the more colorful Cone Flowers, but I finally realized that they need too much care. With several venues online and doing art shows I need plants that I can water and they will thrive.





Cathy August 3, 2011

Greeting Card Maker Of The Month

I would like to introduce Judi FitzPatrick,  the featured card maker for July, from Arlington, MA.

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers. This lovely shade of vibrant rose makes stunning cards.

This lovely card reminds me of Venice. It is actually in Boston: The Christian Science Church as seen from across the reflecting pool.



Check out Judi's  Etsy shop.

Judi FitzPatrick:

"I love taking photographs, making note cards, knitting, crocheting, sewing, and many other crafts; right now I'm 'Phocusing on Photography'. "