Bright and sunny Tacoma

 Welcome to Tacoma!

My hotel room had a great view of all kinds of fun stuff, mostly Mt. Rainier.

I flew on Thursday and the flight was delayed by an hour but otherwise everything went smoothly in terms of getting there.

The whole hotel's theme is glass and it's so well done. I loved every last detail and was a huge fan of the glass lamp that had a setting where only the base is on for a low purple light.

I didn't sleep well the first night (as usual) but had to present for the first three hours of Friday morning. I left my computer at home (amazing how much weight that removes, as well as erasing the stress of working remotely all the time) so my typefaces didn't transfer over to this computer, but hopefully no one cared that everything was in Helvetica. GREAT group, super engaged, what a rare treat. Thank you thank you thank you to the Guild of Book Workers.

[Chihuly glass bridge] I was so happy to see SO many friends and colleagues and make new ones. I don't know why I forgot that going to a meeting of book folks meant that I'd get to see so many familiar faces. Going first is the best because then I was able to relax. I loved Suzanne Moore's presentation and afterwards was elated when Jessica invited me to a Korean spa to relax that evening.

I slept SO WELL the second night! Soaking and sweating with other fantastic ladies was the highlight of my trip. I treated myself to museum visits (like the glass museum here) and shopping and lots of delicious food so I could take in the glorious weather. Totally clear skies! Blinding sun!

Finnish glass sculpture of birds! Yes, there were ducks, but it's hard to shoot everything in glass cases.

At the Michael Taylor show, I liked the wood maquettes best.

More artifacts from his show. It was fun to see the hot shop as well.

If I hadn't been so tired from being in boots (and if I had more room to fit another pair of shoes! I was intent on fitting as many ducks and hanji pieces into my carry on that I could barely fit my clothes), I would have walked more. I did final shopping with Chandler and Jessica and got their beautiful new-ish book, Dead Feminists.

This hunk of meat was all gone by the end of the banquet on the final night. I got a Melody bag at the auction!

A printer, binder, and papermaker. We met in Chicago (well, I met Jessica in Tacoma, but we share an alma mater) and are still busy doing what we were doing there. I'm back in Michigan, where I was informed by my housemate that there are snow flurries. Reality returns as fall points decidedly to cold and dark. Two weeks left of precious studio time!