Also part of our Lake Shasta trip was a guided tour of Shasta Caverns during which we learned the layman’s terms for several cave formations.  Lots of structures were named after foods, but my favorites were Cave Bacon and Cave Draperies.  Like stalactites, these formations grow from the ceiling. When a ridge in limestone causes water to travel along a line building up calcium deposits over time, a rippling effect will occur – Cave Bacon.  After hundreds and thousands of years, those ripples get longer and longer and eventually turn into Cave Draperies.  The visual is just too easily imagined – bacon draperies.  Here is a little cave mole with his posh interior decoration for your amusement:

It was gorgeous on the first Sunday of April so we made it out again to the Alameda Antique Fair for the outdoor museum experience.  We got a bit of a late start and ended up in a warm car in a long line listening to the oldies station and finishing the last few bites of glistening glazed doughnuts.  I love going over there, though we always seem to get lost in Chinatown on the way back – trying to find that cheshire-cat get-on to 580.  Here’s another fair montage for some afternoon eye-candy.  Above: plastic ponies

Above (left to right): bakelite bracelets, aqua Chinese bowls, globe, hand-painted plate, baseball glove, tablecloth, birdie plate, and watch faces.

This year marked Julianna and my 4th annual sisters’ Spring Break.  Admittedly, I’ve never lived in very cozy places for her to visit in March during any of those years, but that hasn’t stopped us.  This year, for our art day, we spent one afternoon on the Vandercook letterpress at Kala in Berkeley.  Here’s Jules wiping the ink from some of our set type, and some up-close glamour shots of those gorgeous lead letters.

Jules was working on a series of prints showing side by side words that are easy for a dyslexic person to confuse.  Above, you can see the beginning of LUNCH, which was paired with UNCLE.  And below, borrowing on this theme, is my “crooks and nannies” which was something Andrius once said instead of “nooks and crannies”; the former being so much more fun to say than the latter.

We miss you, Jules!

Here is what we learned on Snow Day:  Neville loves the snow.  We think it might have something to do with the fact that he is part (albeit a tiny part) Siberian Husky.  The minute he went out today, he ran to his high rock and barked and barked, as if to say to everyone in the neighborhood (who thought they might get to sleep in today), “Hey everybody, there is a bunch of white stuff out here and it is fluffy and wet and fun. Come play with me.”

Below is a photo of Neville discovering his first snow.  He’s not quite ready for the Iditarod, but he’s thinking about going into training.  It looks like he might need a little set of snow boots.

I wasn’t able to capture a photo of Neville when he made his first snow angel, but here is a quick sketch, just so you can appreciate another one of his amazing talents.  Happy Snow Day everyone and we hope you have as much fun as Neville is having!

Here’s a far-horizoned view from wine country to celebrate an end-of-fall weekend.  We hope you are all enjoying the beginnings of the holiday season!

Here is a little eye-candy montage from October’s Alameda Antique Market.  It’s amazingly close to our home, nestled on the edge of what I overheard a gentleman kindly refer to as the “Oakland Riviera” – right under the noses of the huge cargo ship cranes that look like a fleet of Trojan horses when you fly out of OAK.

We almost bought a turquoise 1950s Samsonite suitcase that I was going to reupholster with Cathy Heck Studio fabrics, but when I could not clearly state when that was going to happen, we put it off to that indefinite date when one has – if not extra time – at least a storage closet.  I kept my eyes peeled for this rainbow rack of vintage that Dena Designs spotted back in March, but I’m guessing it has dispersed since then.

Several of our favorite blogs have recently posted odes to summer 2010, making me nostalgic for lingering afternoons, lemonade slushies, and cherry-vanilla L’Oréal Kids shampoo.  Here are two of my photo-crushes on other people’s summers: a hotel pool scene from Hyena in Petticoats, and a child with balloons walking into the sunset from Valori Wells.  (I guess you can’t really go wrong with a child, balloons, and sunset!)

The balloons actually reminded me of some cute illustrations that will be part of our newest collections coming out in January (another huge part of this summer), so I can’t wait until we are allowed to reveal more of what’s to come in the new product department.

Inspired by this theme, here are seven snapshots that capture the best of this summer at Cathy Heck Studio West.  From top to bottom, left to right they are: the Oregon coastline, my sweet husband after his 27th time around the sun, a colleague drying her prints in the light of a west-facing window, etching inks and transparent base in the process of being mixed, more ink, a very proud papa seal, and the festive Santa Cruz shoreline.  Hmm, I’m noticing now that the overall coloring here is not giving off a very sunny-summer vibe with all the sea and fog…  Welcome to the Bay Area!

When I have the chance to step into Fishs Eddy, I feel as though I should get my sketch book out immediately and begin drawing repeat patterns … every item in this eye candy store is in repeat.  100 cups, 200 plates, 50 cake stands, 500 soy sauce holders. You name it, there are 100s of it … dishware of every kind in tidy rows, flowing from baskets, piled in corners and stacked to the ceiling.

One feels as though she has stumbled upon something between a restaurant supply store and a dish lover’s attic.  Aside from providing excellent sketch book fodder, the prices are great and the dishes are fun to touch … smooth and round and sturdy.

Many of the offerings are creamy white, ready to go anywhere and mix with anything.  But, there are plenty of buckets of colorful dishes to wake up your imagination.  In fact, you might find yourself planning a party just so you can say, “May I please have 100 of the tomato bisque plates … oh, and could you throw in 50 turquoise soy sauce dishes? Thank you.  We’re having a fiesta … with a japanese twist.”

“Excuse me, could you also add 5 cake plates, it’s actually a japanese fiesta … birthday party!”

On day two of our American Northwest Coast road trip 2010, we said goodbye to green and growing (and full-service gas-stationed) Oregon and drove up to Seattle, the city of waterways and coffee shops.  As it was the first visit for both of us, I don’t have many eclectic finds to share, since we diligently hit the top few tourist hot-spots suggested by all the guidebooks.  The space needle was fun, but it was a shame not to be able to see it from inside of itself – we didn’t realize how much character it gave the skyline until we saw everything else without it!  Pike Place Market, on the other hand – full of good smells and busyness – got better the farther in it we walked.  We had a perfect French breakfast at Le Panier, and wandered around the stalls of salmon on ice, berries, and desserts between the coffee houses.

From what little we now know, I would definitely recommend finding a place to stay as near to Pike Place Market as possible – especially if you are staying for several days.  It would be so decadent to be able to have breakfast there every morning in a different little place each time!

In the evening, we strolled the Pioneer Square First Thursday Art Walk, where we spent most of our time at Davidson Galleries, which was showing some of my recent print work.  (This event was the original impetus for our road trip, and it was a lot of fun.)  The gallery was filled with people and flat files full of masterworks and contemporary prints – heaven on earth – and for those few hours, it wasn’t even raining anymore!

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Not long after the Surtex extravaganza in the big city, my sweet husband and I took a four-day road trip from the Bay Area to Seattle and back.  This prophetic fortune from our favorite restaurant was discookied the day before, so we were feeling good about the adventures ahead – I don’t think we even checked the weather forecast until right before our 6am departure time.  “A SOGGY, YET ENJOYABLE VACATION IS AWAITING YOU” might have been more accurate…

Here are some pictures from the day we drove the scenic Columbia River Gorge.  It’s a segment of Historic Route US 30 that runs alongside I 84 and is dotted with waterfalls and waterspouts and water oozing from rock walls and blooming lime-green saturated sculptures of moss.  The first few are amazing, but there are so many that like watching fireworks, after awhile, we started getting picky; a brown sign would announce another approaching fall and we would crane our necks to see if this one was majestic enough to park the car.  Here is one for which we stopped to climb closer (left) and me (right), getting mist-soaked in an effort to record the moment, which lasted for about as long as it took to snap the picture.

Here are a few products that we put together for Surtex that would have come in very handy on the trip.

I guess that if you decide to live on the Northwest Coast, you need a great umbrella, impermeable shoes, and a bottle of Vitamin D.  The benefit is so much green that you feel if there were such a thing as Minpins, this is where they would live.