So Many things to catch up on!

At last Im grabbing some time to blog a bit-I wanted to catch up on my latest adventures-most adventures lately have been with doctors and tests-but its turning out ok-pretty serious but ok! It has certainly puts everything in perspective though and that is such a great gift. Thank you to all of you that have wished me well-I know its because of these positive vibes I have been able to get through this!
I just returned from the mountaintop retreat in Idyllwild and I will blog soon about this
but I wanted to get things up here that happened a month ago! ( Or More!)
First-Tamaras commission-I feel turned out wonderfully-Here are the finished pieces and close ups!

STILL HERE!

I PROMISE Italy photos are coming-a half hearted attempt the other day. Thanks to all that have inquired about it and sent me good wishes-those dang doctors and their tests! Dont they know Ive got alot of stuff to do? Oh well-Ive just been enjoying life and living stress free-sort of and savoring every moment and kitties and sweet peas and sunsets and good friends. please check the Flickr in a few days-hopefully there will be more to see-only 588 photos to go! Heres a pic of me at the Trajan column and Kris with gladiators and at the vatican!

LETTERS OF JOY AND SEATTLE GOODNESS!

Here are just a taste of the work that the amazing Washington Calligraphers and artists did in my classes-To experience all the work Please go to my Flickr site-you will be so inspired! The workshop was a two day affair and was the Hand Lettered Art Quilt-this was after my keynote speech at Letters of Joy entitled Acts of Hope. ( I will be repeating this lecture in Canada this fall-more info later) AND after a whirl wind day of 2 hour classes-I taught funky fill in letters and did it ever get wild in there! I wanted to sit down and draw and color-but the ideas people came up with are totally worth a visit to the Flickr site. I stayed with Sue and Jerry Gruhn who unfailingly helped me get my bags and act together and special thanks to Wendy for tech aid!!The campus was filled with little Notices all over-even the restrooms. The prompt was Notice...( fill in the blank) Some people put Notice you are here-Notice the grass-Notice the sound of the raindrops!etc.
A very good thing to think about it all-to notice it all.
OK_Italy will start to load in tonight-I have 842 pictures to go through-so it may be awhile! Im going thru a battery of medical tests too to find out why I am sick I hope-so will see how fast I can get those up
Thanks to all the Staff at Letters of Joy for making my experience very memorable!

Kalamazoo and the return from Italy!

HELLO!
I'm back from cross the pond-recovering slowly. I had a bit of bad luck health wise-but more about that adventure later! In the past month I went to Kalamazoo, Seattle for Letters of Joy-home for a day and then on to Italy-BUT I have the most wonderful pictures to show you from Kalamazoo-where I was treated like a queen-I stayed with Judy Bruzza in her lovely lovely home and went out to the best restaurants in K town every night-wow-what a job!! Thanks so very much to Susan K and Karen Vosburg for sherpa-ing me-Please go see these pictures on my flickr-link on the right-also Judy and Susan's beautiful church where art is everywhere!!

Tamara's commission-Stage Two

Well heres the next layer-I'm writing on the fabric and making some love connections with other fabrics.
I think the writing looks good-there maybe more layers coming near the bottom
I'm off to the Pendragon's Guild in Kalamazoo, MI tomoorow to teach Hand lettered Prayer Flags-yay! I hope to get back to this next week
Enjoy!

Tamara's commission-Stage One

Im into a commission right now and I thought you might see how I work-Heres the initial washes-I had the text and an idea to do a long skinny quilt. Thanks to Tamara for allowing me to share this with you all
It is really HOT in LBC now-but cooling off nicely for the evenings-this weekend I went to the Brewery ArtWalk and sold stuff at the Farmer's market with Sarah-I'll post pics and describe soon!

ARTFEST!

Ok so finally I am blogging about artfest. You know its been awhile when theyve changed the welcome page on blogspot! I had the most incredible time in Seattle-Port Townsend was where Art Fest is located-you need to travel by ferry to get to this secluded island-the only problem was my rental car stalled on the ferry! The tug had to push me off-but I managed to get back on the road. I arrived to snow in Seattle -when I had packed the cutest summer things!! ah well-gloves and hats were bought and all was well. the classes were amazing-The Tats class cranked out mad work-I expect to post more of this incredible stuff-for right now check out my flickr account-Link On the Right I've posted ALL my artfest photos and tried to label a few.
The Pocket altar class-wowwee-man -the students were all incredible and passionate and crafty with their solutions-I couldnt ask for more -( check out the altars on Flickr!) I so Love teaching at Art Fest and pretty much everywhere-i will miss it next year-but off to bigger and better things!
The show and tell night knocked me off my feet-its so above and beyond what you see anywhere else. Teesha and Tracy are magic makers and they do it every time with such skill and grace.
Afterwards, I went to Seattle for a day all to myself and checked out the Garden and Cosmos show at the Asian Art Museum. Killer detailed paintings from the Royal collection of the Jodphurs in India. The weather turned out to be perfect after all and the show was lovely-see it if you can!
Dinner was Vietnamese fusion at the Tamarind Tree with my friends Kristen, Ruben and Brook-they are so much fun-i didnt even mind the story of the rats outside!
I stayed at a pretty B and B with a clawfoot tub-and Carmelized Apple Crepes for breakfast with-dig it-homemade gingerbread! Met a nice lot of girls from Belfast-first time in the US!
Heading back to Long Beach I decided to ask at the Counter if they had a first aid station as I was having heart pains and thought it might be a good idea to check this out before I got on the plane! Welp-the gal convinced me to have the paramedics come and three very handsome ones showed and took my EKg and blood pressure! and asked me a ton of questions-it seems as though i was fine-simply stressed-my blood pressure was through the roof and I am now under doctors orders to destress or else. I am stuggling a bit with this one as I go to Michigan, Seattle and Italy in the next three weeks! Yikes-breathe breathe! I have a commission I am working on and I will post progress reports on this soon!

TRAVEL ALERT!!

You’ve probably seen it on TV or the paper-Airfares are so low right now to Europe! I have to tell you that I found a fare for my trip to Italy for $700 round trip from Los Angeles to Rome!
So now is definitely the time to join me on my trip to beautiful Orvieto Italy this May
The Euro is also at an incredibly low rate now-we are so excited!
Go right now to www.adventuresinitaly.net and check out this wonderful place!
How does this sound... a week of lettering in a fabric book in a converted convent overlooking green vineyards and gardens, learning Formal and Casual ‘Lisa” Romans and seeing the OG ( that means original) Etruscan Romans in caves beneath the city. The Cathedral in this city is so beautiful-Michaelangelo was supposedly inspired by the chapel here for his Sistine masterpiece. Rick Steve’s named this little city one of his favorite hilltop towns. We will also make pasta, shop the Farmers market and explore the city.
Sounds amazing , Huh? The itinerary for my week there is also on the web site-And please email me for any questions~
I truly trust the lovely operators of these adventures-Kristin and Bill Steiner-Krisitin is an accomplished mixed media artist, teacher and a wonderful person-many students return year after year to this magical place. Can you make it?
Ciao!
Lisa
lengelbrecht@earthlink.net

TULSA-FInally!

Well its been a whole month-that is crazy-since I have posted and more since I went to Tulsa. I enjoyed this trip so very much-we stayed at a beautiful retreat outside of town-with many deer and wildlife- right next to a lake. Our classroom had this excellent view of the lake and the weather was amazing. The rooms had flat screen TVS and I had my own room! The crazy and wonderful Leslie Wade was one of my sherpas-thanks to her I got my stuff there-I had prepared some folders for the handouts-but lo and behold the amazing Sara Hanlon and her daughter Kimberly had hand painted 22 folders on canvas for each class member. Heres a pic of mine! The class was incredible-Travis Certain, Sandy Newburg and Dianne Hogue drove from very far away-what lovely people were in the Tulsa group!! I want to write each one a huge thank you-what a joy it was to watch you work and be totally inspired. I had a bit of a bummer on coming home that my camera was lost-always put a business card in the case-just in case-haha. I am sad because the photos from tulsa were in there!c BUT! Sara has posted her incredible book on her blog and you MUST go to it right now and see this work of art-(I personally wouldn't be able to give it away)-her site is There are also pics from the class-thank you so much Sara-for everything! Linda Jolly and Sue Kinsey got me to and fro-I stayed with Linda's fun family the last night-than she took me to Tulsa proper and I HAD some great pics of the ArtDeco buildings-who would've known! Tulsa! center of the nation!

Im getting ready to go to Artfest in two weeks-vending stuff and Tats/Graff class stuff-crazy hectic as usual. More postings soon-its like a steamroller now-first Seattle then Kalamazoo-then Letters of Joy then Italy-Stop the World! But I have a new Nikon and Im ready to post post away! Spring is coming-Its beautiful here in California-

I have a watercolor flowers class planned for the patio next week-must go buy some bark nuggets for the yard! Please check out Sara's blog-Ive linked it on the right too-and I have new work on my Flickr site-link on the right too!

LETTERS CALIFORNIA STYLE! and general craziness

Yes Its been crazy! Ive been to Tulsa-who merit their own posting-thats next-I'm officially working on a book with my friend Pat-the genius graff artist-working title "Tats, Graff and Freestyle Alphabets" I've just returned from Letters California Style in Pomona-I did want to get some pics up of that-I had more of the class work-which was amazing! but somewhere they were lost-
I did also lose my Canon Sureshot coming back from Tulsa and Im super bummed if I have lost all those pics-still looking for the camera!
More info on all that coming soon-but please check out my flickr site at the right to see the artists work that I was lucky enough to watch unfold-and Oh yeah my daughter has returned from India-Crazy? No...way beyond that!