John F. Kennedy 50th Year Anniversary Event

On Friday, November 22, 2013, people gathered before a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy at Dealey Plaza in Dallas and I was thrilled to have my artwork prominently displayed on the banner at the center of the event. It was such a great honor for me to have been asked to have my artwork featured at such an event.
Showcall USA, the company who was responsible for planning the event along with The 50th Committee, came across my black and white drawing of the late president John F. Kennedy from my earlier blog post and contacted me to use the artwork for the event.  The portrait was commissioned to be used on the large banner and for a cover design for a DVD box to house a video recording of the event, which will be given to the Library of Congress and distributed to a very small group comprised of Committee members and donors. I was also surprised to learn that the banner will be permanently housed in the Dallas City archives(***Watch the video "Behind the Scenes of the 50th Commemoration Banner" below).
Below are some pictures of the event that featured the banner with my artwork of the president JFK.


This artwork of JFK was created in Photoshop using Wacom Tablet; 2010





The Dallas Police Honor Guard takes a position on Main Street after the event at the "The 50th: Honoring the Memory of President John F. Kennedy" event in Dallas (courtesy of Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison)

U.S. Naval Academy Men’s Glee Club


Behind the Scenes of the JFK 50th Commemoration Banner from City of Dallas on Vimeo.

Hang a Froebel Star Upon the Highest Bough...

Christmas is coming soon, which means it's time to start folding Froebel Stars again. I discovered Frobel, or Germanic, Stars last year and spent many hours happily folding as a result. I followed the Youtube tutorials found here and here, which may seem confusing at first, but are actually pretty easy to follow if you pause the video often to avoid getting left behind. The slowest part is cutting the paper into the strips. I used 1/2 inch strips and I would like to experiment with a paper shredder so see if it could be set to that width. However a guillotine for paper would probably work quite nicely as well.

In other news, I am in the process of listing Christmas items in my shop:
Birds of a Feather Gift Tags.
Shining Star Christmas Card, with a Froebel Star to keep it company.
Hand Lettered Christmas Card.


There will be lots more items coming over the next few weeks. For those in the Ottawa/Gatineau area Butterbean Design will be at two upcoming artisan fairs: Idle Hands Art, Craft and Vintage Sale: Holiday Edition On Sunday, December 1, from 10:00 - 5:00 at St Anthony's Banquet Hall, 523 St Anthony Street in Ottawa, and also at the Urban Craft Christmas Fair, on Saturday, December 14 from 10:00 -3:00 at the Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Ave, also in Ottawa. Both shows are juried and have great vendors with a wide variety of items for sale, so it is definitely worth a trip out. 

First Ride With Clipless Pedals

The Shimano 105 clipless pedals I ordered arrived in the mail yesterday and I was able to mount them onto my bike and tested it out. Before riding the bike with the new pedals, I put on my cycling shoes and while standing still over the bike and the pedal tension at the lowest, I engaged the pedals and dismounted several times with both shoes. I wanted to make sure that I was able to click on and off with ease before I went on any rides. Once I felt comfortable mounting and dismounting the pedals, I went for a short ride around the block just to get a feel for the new pedal system before I went on a longer ride.

This morning, for the very first time, I went on a nice long ride using the clipless pedals and my new pair of cycling shoes.  The Sidi Laser cycling shoes felt somewhat stiff because it still needed to be broken in but it felt nice and tight and was fairly comfortable. I was surprised how easy it was to click on and off the pedals as I had to stop a few times along the way and click back on to resume the ride.  I took a familiar ride along the Los Gatos Creek Trail near where I live; the trail is mostly leveled, covered in asphalt so the ride was nice and smooth except that there were many runners along the same trail so you kind of have to slow down and dodge them every once in a while.  It was about a 20 mile ride and the new pedals and the cycling shoes definitely improved the quality of the ride.

Los Gatos, CA Aug. 18, 2013


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