beach times at New Smyrna

Spring break lead us to go to Josh's brothers delightful home in Florida. We stayed with his folks in a condo right on the beach and we all were crazy pumped to be there. 

Josh's other brother Joel came down with his daughter from Ohio. Our cold winter bodies were all happy faces the day we got there for some beachy breezes and WARMTH.  A vacation get away that was well needed for our family.

(a bit chilly that afternoon we got there!)

Not quite all the gang. It was Josh's dad's 81st birthday, so we all celebrated that night.

The girls. Give them sun, sand, and water and...

Life. Is. Complete.

Josh was like a lil' boy, he was SO excited to do some ocean fishing.

No luck though.

...and yes, the girls....excited and content with sun, sand, water.

Very cool that you get to DRIVE on some parts of the beach! Josh and I took off in Wes/Lara's convertible. Too fun.

Black Eye coffee shop

I'm sure you have heard of downtown shops that have amateur canvas painting classes all around the country. They are kind of a big thing these days I think. Which is a good thing in my book!

Well, I was invited to one from a sweet friend in Denver. It was at a trendy, urban coffee shop and WAS SUCH A BLAST! I love the many, many hot spots downtown and this one was a hit.

Here is Becky's old high school friend teaching it. He was fabulous. 

Look at our cutie birdies! Just up my alley.

There were about 15 of us of all ages and they all turned out so great. Every one was different. A peek of springtime for sure with these flying friends we painted with acrylics.

Oh how spring can't come soon enough here!!

Art Gypsy girlies

Adorable, right? We had so much fun dressing up these doll forms!

....we started with a paper mache doll mannequin and covered it with delicate sewing form paper

...added a bunch of fun embellishments to her cutie dress

...we painted her wooden block, embellished it however our heart guided us and glued her lil' tiny mary jane shoes on it (I was crazy about these cutie patootie shoes!)

....used pencils for her legs, wings, ribbons, bows, buttons--you name it (too fun!)

ta da! they all had their own style and personality goin' on... standing proud....like a lady should!

more birthday pictures

Our baby is THIRTEEN!

The THIRTEEN things we adore about Hannah:

1. her laughter fills up a room (she still has that adorable giggle!)

2. overall good, likeable girl all around

3. family/friends are important to her and she loves with her whole heart

4. she can "let things roll off" and go with the flow

5. confident

6. loves to be pampered

7. a hugger, many times over

8. she loves to "bling up" her outfits a bit

9. oh, what a sweet tooth this girl has!

10. a nice balance between sweet, sassy, shy, sensitive and social

11. she still can "play" like a little girl

12. brave, funny, witty, obedient, school comes easy for her

(okay, that's more than 13, oh well!)

13. this beautiful little lady is so soooo very loved....

(ps. I can't write much more, tears will flow. These old pictures I put on here are welling me up as it is!)

brave and intuitive paintings

There are spirited, creative and inspiring women everywhere. I love that I get to surround myself with these delightful souls and play with at least once a month. Within the realm of "the creative's" there are fabulous and successful girls that inspire me daily online and on Etsy. I follow a few and have just been inspired by Flora Bowley. I got into one of her fabulous workshops last year in Boulder, but couldn't make it. Sad face. I love her style (great video) and the way she paints "intuitively" and gets in touch with the soul of what she dives into. I know I certainly don't do that enough (and so desire too) so I sent out an invite to my girls and they all wanted to participate with me! Whoo hoo! One problem: not enough space for these huge canvases. We needed space to be free. And time. Oh, where is the time?? It ended up to be 3 other sweet artsy friends and it was a blast. 

The one of many "intuitive" times to come.

We started with Becky's big, fabulous basement studio and our tools.

Layers, splattering, dripping, rubbing on...rubbing off. Color in all its glory!

We all got into our own "style" and went with it in a playful and fun time.

Got out the book for Flora's prompts at times.

After the layers and layers--we look for certain shapes that "pop" out on the piece and "pop" them out with some boldness.

Got Becky's daughter into the playtime.

Here are some of the results.... Rachel's two 16x20's

mine.

Becky's playtime after we were done.

Kim's (you brave and courageous girlie, you!)

Beck's in progress--

Brave. Enlightening. Inspiring. Fun. Frustrating at times (ha!). 

...overall, a delightful first try!