Today was the grand opening of this long-aniticpated venture, brought to you by the Adoption Foundation of TN. In their words, "The Empty Cup is a new kind of coffee shop that will be a gathering space with excellent coffee, local food, a market place, and live music. But it goes beyond that. The goal is to rethink how adoption fundraising is done. The Empty Cup will become a sustainable source for adoption fundraising. As people pour into The Empty Cup, they will pour back out to local families in the form of adoption grants.
Why is it called The Empty Cup?
As the community pours into The Empty Cup by purchasing coffee, donating time, or visiting the marketplace, the coffeehouse will pour its net profits back out in the form of adoption grants. That’s why the cup stays empty."
This is my kind of place! I first learned of it nearly 2 years ago, so it's taken a while for everything to fall into place, but TODAY was THE DAY! And I was so excited to be there with my two teens at 7am when they opened the doors for their first day of business.
My daughter and I got our coffee drinks (a cappuccino and a caramel latte; my son doesn't do caffeine in the morning . . . he even turned down a hot chocolate when I suggested he order one!) and we had to head out quickly to get to school, so I went back later in the day to enjoy a more relaxed cup of coffee in the cozy, eclectic environment of The Empty Cup. Before I left home for my second visit, though, I started a tile with a rubber stamp, some copper pigment ink, and copper embossing power. Not only did I emboss the image (which has very fine striations; the photo does not show it well), but I also sponged the ink around the edges of the tan Renaissance tile, and dipped it in embossing powder to create a ragged, copper, heat-embossed edging. I rather liked how it turned out! I don't love how the scan turned out . . . it is shiny, not dull, of course.
At home I used a fine-tipped black Permapaque (by Sakura) to tangle inside the star, and I gave it an aura with a Faber-Castell pen in sanguine. The rest of the tangling was completed as I sipped my coffee at the coffeehouse. So relaxing! The bottom right corner looks different not because I forgot to add step 3 of the tangle fassett, but because I rather liked the way that section looked before I competed the final step of the tangle. It's okay that it doesn't match everything else . . . it has a cool look of its own.
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| The star stamp is an Alesa Baker Design from Impression Obsession (D9436). The tangles are Zentangle®'s auraknot and fassett by Lynn Mead. |
Once I had added the white perfs at the perimeter of the star, I wasn't quite ready to leave, so I took out a Bijou tile and scattered some dots on it with a copper Permapaque pen. The dots didnt look great (old pen?), but I decided to use them any way. They looked better after I outlined them, and I just kept going. There isn't much that is metallic in this one except the rings drawn with my gold Uniball Sigma pen. The gold is a bit brassy, and I don't love it on this tile, I still enjoyed drawing sez with a variety of black and brown pens. I finished it off with tipple.
Whoah! It is dangerously close to midnight. Time to post!
Leave me a message if you have any questions or comments! See you tomorrow!
