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Saturday, February 17, 2007

The Northwest Flower & Garden Show!

Got my sketches in very early this morning, and since I needed to wait until they were approved before I could do any more, I took a break and attended the annual Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It is always a lovely day (even if it is nearly impossible to find parking in downtown Seattle at lunchtime).

There was a nice mix of garden and plant displays interspersed with loads of fabulous vendors selling everything vaguely garden related. (Of which I bought much too much... By virtue of consistently working for the last 14 months, I felt I could splurge a bit. More on that later). This photo was from a booth *filled* with these huge, brightly colored whirligig sculptural thingys that just made one happy to look at.

As per what has become our annual ritual, I met up with a couple of members of my critique group (see the POBL links on the sidebar for some of their websites) who do botanical demo painting every year at the show. On the completion of their shift, we trotted down the street amidst drizzle and fiddle-playing buskers to a lovely little Italian place for lunch.


Then onto a marathon session of browsing, viewing and shopping - complete with chatting with various vendors about who they use for their giclee printing or their jewelry-making techniques, etc... There are a lot of lovely, creative, helpful, chatty folks out there. It makes shopping doubly fun.


I took this picture for my french-horn playing daughter. This booth was filled with fountains-made-of-instruments... Go figure.

There were too many things to see - our feet gave out before we finished it all, but it was a lovely day and a terrific reprieve. If I have time tomorrow (which is once again, a studio day), I will post the incredibly cool stuff I purchased! It's probably good I don't get out much right now!

8 comments:

weirdbunny said...

The bonsai tree is amazing!! I wonder how old it was.

Soozcat said...

Beautiful stuff, and I'm a certified black thumb!

dinahmow said...

What a good thing I wandered in here so early on a grey Sunday morning.Much as I dislike crowded places, I could amble through this fair.(And don't you think the whirligig one is a little like a Pratt picture?)

Daisy Lupin said...

What incredibly beautiful bonsai trees, they look so old gnarled and ancient. I can imagine teeny tiny faes flitting about them. Those colourful sculptural things are sensational, a real focal point in the garden. yummy!

Cuckoo said...

What beautiful bonsai trees. The first one.. can you tell me which tree it is ? It has fruits in it.

I am into bonsai but it takes ages to make one.

One more thing.. your quotes are lovely. :)

tlawwife said...

Just so you know I am dutifully jealous. How I would have loved that day. And to have friends to go through it with would be great. Glad you got a break.

tlchang said...

Weirdbunny - I think the trees were over 40 years old (can you imagine?)

Dinahmow - Yes! A Pratt painting indeed! It also felt like a Dr. Seuss amusement park.

Cuckoo - I think that first bonsai is a cotoneaster.

Monique said...

Amazing!