WOW, is the only way to describe the last three months.  They have passed so quickly with no time to do a newsletter as we have been so busy. Hopefully I can bring you up to date without having a journal that is too long.

CREATIVE PAINTING CONFERENCE, LAS VEGAS
The last week in February we were in Vegas for the Creative Painting Conference.  Of course you know that as we sent out daily newsletters, complete with photos, and kept you up to date on the happenings there.       
  
The response to the daily newsletters was tremendous.  Many of you said you felt as though you were there sharing in the fun. An amazing number of you said you will be there and experience it up close and personal next year if at all possible.  We had hundreds, yes hundreds, of emails with feedback in the days following the newsletter and even after the show had ended the emails kept coming.  Many were pleased to hear the show would once again return to the Tropicana and that the rooms will be updated.

The catalogue with the class selections for the 2011 Vegas Creative Painting Conference will be out soon. I will be teaching this newly designed fruit tray.

Creative Painting - Las Vegas

SDP CONFERENCE – WICHITA, KANSAS – May 18, 2010
The second painting conference of the year is in a couple of weeks. It is really, really, really important that you support this organization as it put decorative painting on the map and SDP has nurtured us through the years.

Bill and I drove through Wichita on the way to Utah for the seminar in April.   It is a smaller town than we are accustomed to for our annual convention.  Last year in Peoria we had a similar venue and it was great.  You could get around to restaurants, shopping or where ever we wanted to go without traffic issues or traveling long distances.  

You can still register on site for classes.  If you cannot come for classes, do come for the trade show for a couple of days. 

In Wichita you will find our booth filled with newly designed tin, new ornaments, and painted samples new since last year. Maxine Thomas will have several new pieces.  A Santa Tray, a Santa Table Top Toy and several new ornaments. The tray will be available at Wichita, but the tin for the pull toy and a new Santa ornament will not arrive until mid to late June. All of the other ornaments will be on sale at Wichita.
                         

Lynne Andrews will have a new design on our antique hooded doll cradle.   No photo of it yet.  Absolutely nothing replaces the excitement of attending and seeing all the new products, new designs, taking classes and renewing or creating new friendships.    Please tell me I will see you there.

Newsletters will be sent, hopefully daily, from Wichita to keep you posted on the events and news from the conference.  Expect more photos of your favorite “big brushes”.
Society of Decorative Painters website.

SEMINARS
We have traveled to three seminars so far in 2010; Salt Lake City area, Albuquerque and Colorado Springs.  A new seminar project, Fruit on Antique Lunch Pail, was taught for two days at each of these.    In Utah I taught a three day seminar.  So in addition to the lunch pail I taught a one day project Black Bird and Cherries, also a new seminar piece, on a new slant top box.  

We pulled our small trailer and had a large “trunk showing” at each seminar.  The painters loved it!    Many of them have never attended a painting conference or trade show.  The trunk show became a private mini trade show.    Drawings were held though out the seminar for both small and large prizes and it was great fun.  All three groups were special painters and we enjoyed the seminar as much as they did.
 
Photos of the Albuquerque and the Colorado Spring Seminars are on the web along with miscellaneous chapter photos.  Photos from the Salt Lake seminar will be up soon. Visit the Photos - Fun Stuff index page to view these photos.

We will be driving to most of our seminars in the future as flying is such a hassle.  I will still fly to some seminars.  As often as possible I would like to teach two seminars on the way to a trade show.   If the location is on the way the chapter will not be charged much, if any, travel fee.  Traveling by car also allows us to set up a “trunk showing” of samples and merchandise.

If your chapter is interested in a seminar with little or no travel fee, contact me for more information.  Della@DellaandCompany.com   

2010 Seminar Open Dates
June 12 – 13    
July 31 – August 1 (on the way to HOOT)     
September 11 – 12 and 25 - 26
October 2 – 3 (on the way to NET)

Seminars in 2011 
A 2010 seminar in the Salinas, California area is being rescheduled for 2011.  The date has not yet been decided.   I would like to schedule more than one seminar on the way to and from the Salinas area in California.   Chapters in Arizona or Nevada would be good as we travel to California. As mentioned we will be pulling our small trailer and hold a “trunk showing” at the seminars.  

NEW PRODUCTS
We add new products almost weekly.  If you have not been to our home page recently you might not have seen these new products.

Trudy Beard has a new CD, Trudy’s Roses, teaching her method of painting roses.   It is a companion piece to her new Time for Roses clock pattern.  The two hour CD has great instructions including how to design on any shape or size surface.  It is an excellent learning tool and will make a great addition to your collection of CD’s.

Three other new patterns by Trudy are in the cart and ready for you to order now. An Easter Basket with adorable bunnies painted on our rectangle tin Sending Basket with a wire bail and wooden handle. An adorable collection of Easter Egg Ornaments are painted on our ovals.  Especially fun are pastel Easter House Ornaments painted on our very popular house ornaments with an Easter theme and sprinkled with sugary glitter.
"Lil' Lambs" Easter Basket
"Easter Dozen" Ornaments
"Spring Village" Ornaments

Shara Reiner has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a shipment of new Cake Stands. They arrived this week! Available in small, medium and large, they are primed and ready to paint. I checked with Shara and her samples are painted and the pattern will be available on our web site in a couple of weeks.    Watch our home page for their arrival.

Cake Stands FT-2262

NEW BOOKS
The DAC is publishing a new ornament book, "Ornament Extravaganza", with ornaments for all seasons.   It will be out at the SDP Conference in Wichita.   Artists include some of the best painters in our industry, Mary Jo Leisure, Helen Barrick, Bobbie Takashima, Heidi England, Debbie Cotton, and Sharon McNamara Black.   In all there are twenty six artists. You will find a number of tin ornaments made by Folk Art Tin® included in the book.  Several ornaments featured on the cover of the book are painted on our tin.   How lucky are we?   As you would expect the ornaments are terrific.   The book will be available for sale on our website soon. Decorative Arts Collection

Shara Reiner and Laurie Speltz's new book was released at the Vegas Painting Conference and is selling very, very well. 

Maxine Thomas will have her new book released in Wichita, KS at the SDP Conference in May.  We will have the book for sale in our booth and online at the time of the books release.   Designs on some of our tin are included in the book.  The painted pieces that I saw before they were photographed for the book are lovely.  This will be one of the most popular books we have seen in a very long time.

Lynne Andrews will have a book released at HOOT.  One of our new arks will be in the book.   These new arks will probably be the best selling tin pieces we have ever produced.  I have not seen any of the painted projects for the book, but I know it will be spectacular.   Assuredly, this book will be a winner too.

NOT NEW… but back in stock again (in are all four shapes) are our Miniature Tray’s we make into pins. They arrived last week.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Many, many new designs painted on our tin by some of the best designers in our industry will be appearing in painting magazines throughout the rest of the year.   

The following artist will have projects in PaintWorks.  Jane Allen will have a Sea Shell Lamp and a Halloween project by Kim Christmas painted on our large Witch Hat are scheduled to be in upcoming issues.   Lynne Andrews has a second ark that is new (not the same one as in her book) and it will be in a Christmas issue. Rosemary West is painting a Christmas design on our new slant top box with a set of ornaments to match the designs on the outside of the box.   And for the first time in a very long time, Della Wetterman will have the time to paint a project for a Christmas issue. 

Others, whose names escape me right now, will have projects painted on our tin in upcoming articles of several magazines.  I will continue to update you magazines articles in later Journals.

BARGAIN BOX SALE
What a success story. Thank you for your response. We will continue to offer great bargains from time to time in the Bargain Box located at the top of our home page. Have you checked the sale lately? You might want to do that today. We put a sale up from time to time and it does not stay up long. I am planning some one day sales to add. You will not want to miss them… check regularly.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!!!
Painting Conferences we will attend in 2010
May 18               SDP Painting Conference – Wichita, KS
July 20              Artist Expo – Houston, TX
August 10           HOOT – Columbus, OH
October 6           NET – Providence, RI (I will have two classes.  Their class catalogue is available now.)

Only the engine will be taught in class.

Painting Conferences Catalogs for 2011
February 27 – March 4   Creative Painting – Las Vegas
Their online class selections, catalogues and registration will begin soon.  
Check our Seminar and Conference for contact information.
Seminar and Show Page

And in closing…  Due to family illnesses I have been unable to paint for several years.  Since the first of the year three new samples for seminars and magazines have been completed.   What a joy this has been for me to once again take a brush in hand and PAINT!  I am currently working on several projects and my heart sings to be painting again.

Continue to check the web regularly to see new tin, new patterns and new samples.   This allows you to see and know about new merchandise between Journals.  

DOWN ON THE FARM
It has been a long time since I have updated any photos or news from the farm and Melinda is hard at work making that happen before she sends out this newsletter.   Our warehouse is located on our farm.  I grew up in a small country town, but I am not a “down on the farm” girl, we live in the city.    Our son, Gregg, his wife Jennie and their two children moved there several years ago.  Jennie helps Bill in the warehouse. 

For the first time in a very long time Gregg feels well enough to be out and about on the farm.  He recently took great photos of the farm and his menagerie.  I thought you would enjoy seeing them so they were added to the web.

Names are given to most of their barnyard friends.  One is a very tame rooster,   “Willie, the Red Headed Stranger”.  He is red and is named for a celebrity whose name you have probably guessed.  Before Gregg had his accident he had contact with a many celebrities when he lived in Dallas.  So, many of the animals are named for people he actually met in his business.  He recently told me he was naming his hogs after politicians.  That is the sense of humor you can expect from our middle son.  He definitely marches to the beat of a different drum.
New Wetterman Farm page

FAMILY SECTION
This is a new section and from time to time I will add photos of our family. 

Melissa Anne, a great granddaughter, is the latest addition to the Wetterman clan.  I call her Lissa (not to be confused with Lisa) as it seems to fit her best.  So be prepared, you will find photos added of her as we track her growth.  She is the happiest little girl I have ever been around.

You will find photos of another love of my life, Arden, our only granddaughter.  And my guys, what can I say about those three grandsons?   Ross, Trey and Christopher… I would never leave them out!  Photos of them are not yet up, but will be soon. 

In our next visit…
There will be photos of spring in Texas and the two tin treasures I found recently on a fun, fun antiquing trip.   A good friend and I had a wonderful time antiquing for tin and other treasures in a Texas size antique show that lasts for two weeks.  We drove from one small town to another with streets and fields lined with tents filled with fine antiques and country collectibles.  

Driving the back roads in search of treasures you encounter Longhorns grazing in rolling pastures, fields of beautiful wild flowers and a blue sky that seems to stretch forever. Homemade “down home cooking” that is beyond belief is offered up in each little community usually in a “hall” that has been there for a over a hundred years.  Vendors come from across the US with their wares and the local ladies bring their “very best” to be severed to the shoppers for lunch. 

   
Think with your heart and be sure to take care of you!

Sending warm hugs, Della

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DellaAndCompany.com
Email: Della@DellaAndCompany.com
5208 Lake Charles
Waco, Texas 76710
Phone: 254-772-6927

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