Hello, June and HELLO SUMMER BREAK!

So far summer break is great and I am LOVING every second.  I told my husband I wanted to turn in my keys on the last day of school, jump in the car and go on a road trip- so we did!

Our first stop was Asheville to see our friend, Frank.  He and John have known each other since elementary school and have stayed friends.

Dear Summer- I LOVE YOU! (and this CAT wallpaper, too!)

Scenes from Asheville...we visited a TON of breweries, at the BEST food (seriously, the chicken wings at Sierra Nevada was legendary and Biscuit Head biscuits are THE BEST!) andI met a new dog friend. Also, not pictured, I re-started my rock collection, kinda a childhood obsession...ummmm, maybe I am the only one excited about that...

We also got a chance to see his Aunt Belle, she lives in the area.

She had champagne, chips and guac waiting when we arrived.  I think she may be the best host ever and her home is beautiful, we really loved seeing it. 

We love you, Aunt Belle!

The fellas were deep in conversation- I was deep in my art and puppy snuggles. (Topper kept bringing me John's sock!)

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I claimed a spot at Frank's table to be my 'studio' space for the duration of the trip.  At the time, I felt like I knew what I wanted to do for June- a series of my 'big eyed gals' (perhaps a version of my 'Butterfly Bellas') using white colored pencil on black paper.  I had found a pad of black paper before we left for our trip, everything was packed.  I was pretty sure that this is what I wanted to do for the month...until I wasn't.  More on that in a bit, or maybe the next post...

We decided to actually stop in Savannah and go 'into town' instead of just passing through.

​On the way home we made a pit stop in Savannah.  I'll actually be going back later this month for a week-long workshop and I can't wait! One highlight of the night (besides pizza at Vinnie Van Go-Go's!) was stopping by the Arts and Crafts Emporium.  I feel like the name has changed (?) but years ago I actually used to sell my angel paintings there.  I rented a small space and would re-stock my work there when I could, but it spanned the time that we lived in NC and even CA so it was a little tough.  To me, if I made enough in sales to cover my monthly rental it was worth it- and I did that every month (!) and even had some months where I made above that, too.  My biggest success there was when the owner of an event company from Boston purchased one of my angels, and then contacted me to create a HUGE order for an upcoming event she was hosting.  It was definitely worth my time.  Who knows, maybe I will try it again.

And THAT is how I started my summer- a fun road trip to the mountains with my man.  We were originally going to head to Key West but I think the cooler mountain temperatures were just what we needed.

And I worked on my art BUT, I decided to switch it up after day four- gonna put that in the next blog post.

I am hoping that for summer I can do a better job updating my blog and get my final art pieces updated faster.  Figure if I put it out there then maybe that will happen.