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

Inspiration

For months I've been itching to get back to my blog and everything that falls under that creative umbrella that is missing in my life right now. (i.e. mixed media art, water coloring, journaling/writing, scrapbooking, & etc.) After all, I'm a firm believer that creative people need an outlet, a way to express themselves. For someone who has kept a steady journal since the age of 5, I've found over the years that I need to express myself. When I stop creating, I feel it; I yearn for it, and eventually I become blocked and wish for it to happen. Silly? Yes, it is!

2009 was a very busy year for me, a year where I rediscovered myself, and I grew up quite a bit on the road and in the air with my job as a Junior Business Analyst. Spending a total of 184 nights in a hotel since October of 2008 in larger cities such as Oklahoma City and Little Rock will do that to a girl from a much smaller city. During this time I'm continuing to hone my Technical Writing skills, but there's nothing like leaving the methods behind and being spontaneous. This is what I've missed while becoming a grown-up with a career, and now that I've had a break from the constant travel and insane workloads (for now), I realize that I need to create. I need to write for fun. And the yearning and need for me to share this with others is still present. So, one of my New Year's resolutions is to work on expressing myself. I'm hoping that 2010 will see me get back to writing (for the fun of it), creating, and sharing things about myself as a writer/blogger/artist/traveler!

With that said, starting today there are no more excuses for leaving my watercolors untouched, my blog un-updated, and my journal blank. It's time to pick up my paint brush, to get to my keyboard, and to have a pen handy at all times.

For all those artists/writers/bloggers out there that feel blocked. Just get down to business and be creative! Don't worry about what others might think. Don't worry if you mess up. Just have fun! And if you're like me, it will just make you feel much better!

"Over-preparation is the foe of inspiration."
~Napoleon Bonaparte