Saturday, April 16, 2011: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, April 17, 2011: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: Indiana State Fairgrounds, Exposition Hall
Based upon the very successful Kentucky Crafted Market mentioned above, the Indiana Marketplace will be hosting a similar premiere event in April of 2011. Join us for the incredible collection of artists, food artisans, and musicians at the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds Expo Hall.
…it’s interesting what artists think is fun….it usually involves the creative process, a few mistries, a little swearing, and finally – and hopefully! - a sense of accomplishment and completion!
We went through this recently, as I finished frames for one of my favorite stores, the Artisan Center in Denver, CO. They love color, so making frames for them is always both a challenge and a delight, in that I can really let loose! Here’s their latest order, which I have to say are some of my favorite frames of our recent work:
No lack of color there!
And Don – who is a real visionary when it come to re-using and “upcycling” items, came up with a great Monopoly frame, all made from an old game missing pieces!
I really love this one - so creative, in that we all know folks who love Monopoly, and what a great way to avoid throwing out perfectly good pieces of a game!
It even incorporates a hotel, and the car marker, and yes, the paper on the frame itself really is made of bank notes from the game! So fun and rewarding! 
Saturday, March 19, 2011: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 20, 2011: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, KY
Consistently named one of the best art fairs in the country, we will be joining over 800 other artisans, speciality food-makers, and musicians in Louisville, KY for the Kentucky Crafted art show. The show is in its 35th year, and has perfected the showing of the best artists and food-makers in Kentucky, Indiana, and other surrounding states – all have been juried into a program that designates their work as the best in their state of origin.
To see more, check out the 2011 Market program at: http://kycraft.ky.gov/Market2011Program.pdf
My son loves science. Because of that, we have begun watching NOVA on our local PBS station, and have really enjoyed it.
One particular episode I found fascinating dealt with the issue of how smart animals really are. The conclusion was varied, but with certain breeds of dogs it is clear that there exists a certain type of “social intelligence” that is significant. ”Social intelligence” occurs with dogs when they want so much to please their owners, their “pack mates” and “pack leaders” that they learn behaviors that many other animals simply have no interest in pursuing.
Above is Chaser, a border collie who was featured on the program, and can differentiate between 1,022 stuffed animals. You heard me.
His owner, a scientist, decided to see if he could teach Chaser more than your average dog tricks. Over time, he has trained her to identify over 1,000 toys by name.
For instance, on the show, he laid out ten of her stuffed animals in the yard while she was inside. As she returned outside, he told her to ”Find ‘Love Bug’”. She trotted happily off looking through the variety there until she found the right toy, and brought it right back to him.
What’s even more impressive is that the host (shown far left in the above photo with Chaser’s owner and trainer) added a NEW stuffed animal, one Chaser had never seen before. This time, the grouping was made up of nine toys that Chaser knew already – and the one that Chaser did not know. After one false start, Chaser quite correctly deduced that even though she’d never before been told to “Find Darwin” – “Darwin” had to be the one toy she had never seen before. Thus, she brought it back.
You should look for this episode in re-runs on your local PBS station, as it’s fascinating. Here is the link to additional info from a “New York Times” article about Chaser:
Chaser \”New York Times\” article
And if you’re not 100% convinced that this dog really understands…just watch the video in the link to realize that she not only knows 1,002 nouns – she knows her verbs too!
…hilarious humor for a Wednesday morning. Definitely worth checking out, and watching until the very end…
…one of our wonderful stores was profiled on this morning’s “Indy Style” show on WISH-TV in Indianapolis. Since the emphasis was on great gifts for Valentine’s Day, which just happen to be one of our specialities , Sleeping Dogs Studio cards were featured.
Was it our 15 minutes of fame? Maybe not so much, given our HGTV experience a couple of years ago, and the fact that you can really only see our cards highlighted from 3:05 to 3:16 on the attached video (so it was more like our eleven seconds of fame!)…but still a fun thing to discover!
Click on the link below, push “Play” and “Expand” to see our nice little surprise! Don’t forget to forward to 3:05 to see the cards – but information about the Indianapolis Art Center, a terrific organization, takes up the rest of the time, and is also worth watching.
