Sunset in Hollywood on Saturday eve

No work for me this weekend. Zip, zero, zilch! But I had a very good time, in the midst of a few grouchy spells (no idea what about?! maybe I just missed my daily painting)

Bright and early on a Saturday morning, I attended my friend Ericka’s graduation from the Interior Design program at UCLA . 5 years of, (was it 5 or 6 Ericka?) grueling work, and I’m not exaggerating here ~ she’s finally free again and ready to start the next chapter of her life as an interior designer. Having attended 2 years of interior design school myself, all I can say is, the UCLA program is impressive and super intense!
Following the ceremony, which had a very good keynote speaker (more on that later) we all headed over to the The Red Lion for some good German beer, and some good German food, for the good German girls.

Now this is a happy, happy lady, Ericka and her lovely cousin Claudia from Canada

Congratulations Ericka ~ Alles Gute Fraulein! You rock Lady!
And so, wonderful to meet you Claudia

Then, I headed over to Hollywood for an opening at the new LA gallery, Tinlark. After following the work of the multi-talented Ann Wood, for the last few months over at her blog, it was great to get a chance to meet her and see her wonderful work in person.
While I was there, I also met another lovely lady, the owner of Tinlark, Cris. As we all know, certain galleries can be, shall we say, a bit "snooty" and sometimes even intimidating to simply walk into (not so appealing to some of us artists and art buyers). I am so happy to report that Tinlark does not fall into that category at all. Located in the middle of Hollywood, in a delightful space, Cris has created a gallery that has such a warm and welcome feeling and of course the best part - she’s got a great eye for emerging artists and inspiring art. If you’re in LA, I highly recommend stopping by this show, Modern Day Fables, featuring Ann and two other talented ladies, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, and Laura Normandin. It’s going on now, through August 11.

All the pretty horses ~ Ann Wood’s "100 horses" installation

Of course I had to buy a horse! (Mine is the one directly above with the light blue flowers on the neck, and gold painted front leg)

And her ships ~ gorgeous!

And yesterday, after a morning of errands including the usual Farmer’s Market ~ a spontaneous, and my first ever, trip to the Japanese Market in downtown LA, with my other Erika friend, you know her as "my oh so kind neighbor" :) I’m making a Japanese dinner later for Seanie. YUM!!! And should you get the chance to visit a Japanese Market, I highly, highly recommend the Hello Kittie jelly filled marshmallows. DIVINE!!!

And to top off the weekend, an evening of birthday celebrations with Sean’s family and a delicious cake from Porto’s Cuban bakery.

Well, that about covers it. Hope you all had a good weekend too! and if you’ve missed the daily paintings, well just hang in because a new one is coming in an hour or so...Back to work for me ~ especially since I just spent the last 2 hours obsessing over this blog post. Oh, how I love my work though!