Washington DC – Page 3 – Travelcraft Journal

January 5, 2016January 5, 2016

Women in the Arts and a Pop-up Makerspace

I am in Washington, D.C., down the street from the White House in a building that used to be a Masonic lodge, and I am sifting through a basket of embroidery floss, looking for just the right combination of colors. When you have been seeing/taking in, there is something especially refreshing about making/creative output.

My recent D.C. visit happened to coincide with the monthly community day of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and their second-ever pop-up makerspace. Inspired by several of the artists on exhibition, they had tables set up for crochet, drawing-machine making, and turning various odds and ends into jewelry.

I made a necklace from a couple of metal washers, some thread and wire.

The museum itself is organized into different floors for different time periods. Their current exhibition, Pathmakers, explores how women have used alternate media to create art, from midcentury to today.

Community days are the first Sunday of every month with free admission in the afternoon.

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December 8, 2015

An East Coast Winter Wedding: Figuring Out What to Pack

My cousin is getting married at the end of the year in Charlottesville, Virginia, a couple hours south of Washington DC. We’ll head out there, see Charlottesville, and spend a couple days in DC.

airfare-window
For us Arizonans, it’s gonna be cold.

So, along with researching what to see/do/eat in DC and Virginia (and making a pretty serious DC/Virginia/Maryland Pinterest board), I’ve been trying to figure out how to pack light but stay warm!

Here are a few articles I’ve found helpful:

Do you have recommendations of winter DC sights or cold-weather packing tips?

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January 22, 2014April 10, 2026

Why I look for art in libraries (and what else I’ve found)

You might not think of walking into a library when you’re traveling, and it used to be that I didn’t either. I think it was stumbling on the Biblioteca Nacional del Perú that changed it for me.

I don’t remember what it was that afternoon during our (otherwise awesome) 2005 Peru trip that had gotten us down. Just that Lima’s big city, horn-honking, rumbling-diesel, street vendors/restauranteurs/bus drivers-shouting-for-customers cacophony had suddenly overwhelmed us, when we realized we were standing in front of Peru’s National Library. It wasn’t on the agenda, but we decided to duck in.
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