Friday, February 12, 2010

Art Supplies and Eating in St. Paul/Minneapolis


“Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.
~Al Hirschfeld"

There's nothing better than taking a road trip to the Twin Cities.  What do I like to do when I get there, you ask?  I like to explore, but I also have a few favorite must-travel-to stores.  For art supply stores my favorite is Wet Paint, located in St.  Paul.  I walked away with two items in the picture above:  A Caran d'Ache gouache watercolor set and a spiral-bound multi-journal book of watercolor/multi-media paper.  As of right now, I don't have any experience using gouache watercolors, but I'm going to learn, and I have a great new journal to experiment in.  I also just liked the colors and thought they'd be useful for other mixed media projects. 

If you're an artist spending some time in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area, I definitely recommend you visit this charming little art store.  And I dare you to walk away empty handed.  You can find anything and everything here, and if you have any questions the staff are friendly and quick to help.  Wet Paint has been independently owned and open since 1976 and has a special place in my heart.  (My grand-parents and parents once owned an independent art supplies store.)

On this trip, I also set out to visit a Dick Blick store in Edina.  I walked away with a few fun items: two Pearlescent Liquid Acrylics (Dutch Blue and Hot Mama Red...haha), pens, a bamboo pen and Hake brush.  There was also one other fun item that I found at Dick Blick...my very mini sushi magnets. 


Aren't they adorable? I already had the mini scottie dogs shown above, so when I saw the tiny little pices of sushi, I had to have them. They even have the rice on the bottom of each magnet. (You can't see that in this picture.) I put them over the little cardboard packet they came in because it's so cute with the chopsticks, wasabi and ginger at the bottom. Mmm...the thought of sushi is making me hungry just typing about it.

I also did get my sushi fix that night.  After my boyfriend finished working, we went to a great Sushi/Chinese buffet called 98 Pounds in Bloomington.  There were quite a few people there at 7:30 PM and the sushi chefs kept the sushi bar fully stocked as people walked away with sushi.  They had a decent selection of different roles as well as your regular sushi with rice.  We had a few good hits of wasabi along the way and definitely did not leave hungry.

For lunch that day, I went to a favorite spot on France Avenue called Q. Cumbers. It's a huge salad bar buffet that has every veggie and add-on you can think of to put ontop of lettuce. They also have a mouth-watering selection soups and other hot items. I had a bowl of Tomato Artichoke soup that was very good! Oh, and don't forget the homemade bread with rosemary butter. I remember visiting Q. Cumbers when I was much younger with my family (probably about 8 or 9 years-old).  With that said, Q. Cumbers has been around for awhile. This reasonably priced buffet is a great healthy alternative to eating fast food.

Now I'm home and exhausted from shopping (and eating, obviously...haha), but I'm inspired to sit down and create with my new goodies this weekend!  Happy creating!


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Other posts about Wet Paint: 
My Trip to the Twin Cities & the Saga of the Pentel Pocket Brush

4 comments:

Dana S. Whitney said...

You'll love gouache, I think. More forgiving than transparent watercolors... though oils are even MORE workable longer.
Thanks for your comment about carnivore cat. I'm trying to come up with more ideas.

Jenifleur-de-lis said...

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be checking your blog to see if you post more. :) I'll let you know how the gouache comes along too.

Rita said...

I am following your blog now. I thought I already was, but I see I missed your new posts for this grand new year. :) New toys are always fun! I haven't done much with gouache, either. You'll have to tell us what you think of it.

You had quite the year last year. I bet this year will be even better! :)

Jenifleur-de-lis said...

Hi Rita! Thanks for adding me! I plan on keeping it up now. I've really missed not only keeping up my own blog but also keeping up with the blogs of my other friends! Such inspiration can be found on the internet! :)