Little day trip

After a pretty busy and stressful week, Ryan and I were surprised that our Saturday was wide open - no plans.  This rarely happens to us unless we plan it that way, so we decided to take advantage of our free Saturday and hop over to Ojai, California.  It was totally Ryan's idea and I'm so glad he thought of it, it was a great day!

We got to Ojai just before lunch and started our time there by checking out the new Fiber Arts exhibit at the Ojai Valley Museum.  It was awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit.

This rug has some Scandinavian elements to it, don't you think? (There was no placard for this rug strangely enough so I don't know who made it/when it was made)

And one of my favorite pieces was the below work titled "Sonny and Chair". HA! I just love that kind of humor. 

"Sonny and Chair" c. 1998, mixed media, wood, fiber by Fran Bulwa (1921-2007)

And would you check out that tapestry below? Holy. Cow. I have to say, once I found out it was electronically woven, I was slightly less impressed...but it's still pretty amazing. There's no way I could ever come close to making something like that. Kudos to you, John Nava. 

John Nava, c. 2005, electronic jacquard, cottonwood viscose

There were some other incredible quilts, knits, and various other textiles and fiber arts displayed as well.  If you live in the area, it's worth checking out.

The whole exhibit was very inspiring for me.  It made me ponder the question, "what makes someone an artist?" I personally tend to steer away from ever calling myself an artist because I don't draw or paint (or have the talent to do so).  I don't have a problem calling other crafters artists, but for some reason, I feel like I have to achieve some certain level of artistic ability in the crafting realm before I can call myself a true artist.   But really, an artist is an artist, right? I love to create and design and even if I'm not the best in the world (or in my apartment complex even), I am going to try to think of myself as more of an artist. 

Wow, major sidebar there. Sorry.

Carrying on, we also did a fair amount of antiquing while we were there.  I will post our awesome finds in a separate post. The Peddler's Fair was cute to walk through.  A lot of handmade items and thrift store finds.

Ryan, being the candy fiend that he is, was very excited about Kingston's.

We took a little lavender lemonade break after the candy store.

Then we headed over to Bart's Books.  A really sweet used book shop that is outdoors! You walk around and books are just on shelves outside. It was one of the coolest book stores I had ever been "in".

I have no idea what they do when it rains though.  I'm sure they have a system...I just have no idea what it is.

A grand time was had by all. 

The end.