Next Wednesday, I’ll be flying to Albuquerque to attend my 5th IAPS convention. IAPS is the International Association of Pastel Societies and it holds a convention every two years (now always in Albuquerque). I attended my first in 2003, just as I was about to retire from the Library of Congress. After attending library conventions twice a year that took up an entire city, with shuttle buses and an enormous convention center filled with computer systems, IAPS was a true joy!  To begin with, it was all in one hotel. No problems finding the next demonstration. And the exhibitions hall–well, it was quite amazing. Filled with color and every type of pastel.  After all of the work I had done at the ALA conventions, I just wanted to enjoy and learn at IAPS.  I attended demonstrations with many leading pastelists and my paintings and the information in my book reflects a lot of what I learned. That first year, I went by myself, knowing no one. Liz Haywood-Sullivan and two friends learned that I was originally from Massachusetts and “adopted” me. We had a wonderful time and I’ve always been grateful to her. This year, I have the opportunity to give back as I will be running the “Pastel Pics” silent auction that she innaugurated 2 years ago. I’m very happy to be helping and to be more a part of things at last.  If any of you will be there, I hope to meet you!  I’ll be at the IAPS booth some of the time in the afternoons and I’ll be doing a book signing at 3:00 on Saturday. I would love to meet you!  I’ll also have two paintings in the juried show and excited about that (Gracie and Fog Study in Blue). I will be travelling with my husband afterwards, then going to Massachusetts for a workshop with Liz and a demonstration I’ll be giving at the Falmouth Art Center on Sunday June 30th.  I won’t be posting anything during this time so this will probably be my last post until July. I’m not the kind to take pictures with my phone and immediately post them to my blog, but I’d like to learn!  Thanks all for making the first months of my blog so much fun!